Page 91 of Rescuing Erin

“Can I have the gun now, sunshine? You’re shaking pretty badly, I don’t want you drop it.”

“No. It’s Gerard’s. What if there are more? I want it.”

“Baby, there’s no one else left in this building.”

“But what if more come? I want the gun.”

Her voice was coming out more and more high-pitched. She was going to be pissed as hell, but I didn’t have a choice. I stepped toward her under the guise of hugging her and at the last second, I twisted the gun out of her hand.

“Colin!”

“You can have it back later,” I lied. “Right now, you’re shaking like a leaf and that’s a dangerous combo with a loaded gun in your hand.”

I clicked on the safety, shoved the weapon in the waistband of my cargos, and picked her up. Ignoring the pain in both my ribs and my arm, I carried her to a sofa and sat down.

“Is Gerard going to be okay?”

“I don’t know, but if anyone can patch him up, it’s Truck. Are you okay?”

“Is he dead?”

I smoothed the hair off her face and answered, “Yeah, baby, he’s dead.”

“I had to,” she cried.

“I know you did. You did good.”

Zane and my mom approached at the same time. While my mom sat on the couch next to us and took both of Erin’s hands in hers, Zane remained standing in front of us.

“He has the feather tattoo.”

Zane had snapped out of whatever funk he’d been in when we were in the basement and he was back to being the hardened warrior I knew him to be.

“Is Gold Team ready?” I asked.

“They leave tomorrow. How you holding up, Erin?”

“Okay,” she whispered.

Zane crouched down to eye level and waited until he had Erin’s full attention.

“You did what you had to do to save lives. Just like you did what you had to when you helped Colin. It takes a certain type of woman to be with men like us. There’s no doubt you’re exactly who Colin needs. It was a damn brave thing you did. Damn brave. I’m proud to have you as part of our family, Erin.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. Erin’s quick thinking and bravery was one of the numerous things I loved about her. There was no one in the world who was better equipped to be my wife, my partner, my teammate. And I’ll spend the rest of my life making sure she knows how much I treasure her.

Chapter 33

Gold Team- Bahrain

Declan

“It’s hotter than a mother,” Brooks Miller complained.

“Better than freezing balls in the arctic,” Thad Bench returned.

We’d been in country for less than a week, and acclimating to the over hundred degree, dry heat would take more than a few days. At least we weren’t in full kit. Body armor acted like an insulator, raising the temperature another ten degrees, easily. While Brooks was not wrong, I had more important things to worry about. The team was meeting with a UN Political Affairs Officer. Zane’s dossier was sparse, all I knew about the woman was her bullshit cover story. The most noteworthy notation was that her opinion was highly respected among the power players. We needed to play nice if we didn’t want to be tossed out of Bahrain before we’d gathered the intel we needed on the Omni Group.

The cool air blasted as we made our way into a UN annex building outside of the US Naval Base. The furnishings around the room were as sparse as the report I’d received on UNOCT Tatiana Jones.