Page 31 of Breached

John popped out of one of the doors, and then Mark appeared, followed by Cole.

“He knows!” I flew to John and clung to him. “Eric Noah just told Bruno where the safehouse is!” My eyes felt as wide as saucers as everyone's face at the house started to flicker in front of me—my friends and Chase. “We need to get everyone out!”

“Hey, hey, hey,” John bent down to my eye level, and he put his hands on my shoulders, “we know, we know. Everything’s okay.”

“What?” I sucked in a deep breath. “You know? How?” I pulled away.

“We have our intel,” Cole explained. “We heard just a few hours ago.” He gently took my arm to get my attention. “It’s all right. We’ve got eyes on everyone right now. We would have told you earlier, but we thought you were asleep.”

I huffed a long breath in an effort to get my heart rate back to normal.

“Logan,” a soldier said from behind me, “we’re going to take a run into town and grab those supplies. Given the, ahh,” he looked at me, “present company at the compound, it’s safer we go at night.”

Cole nodded then moved his attention back to me. “Try to get some sleep, Nicole. We’ll be going back home tomorrow.”

“Is Paul still with Frank?”

He looked down at his watch and said, “Yeah.”

I noticed Mark shot Keith a glance, and I wondered what in the world he and Frank could be up to in the middle of the night, but I knew these guys were machines and barely ever stopped.

I tucked my hair behind my ears, and as I turned, I saw Rafe standing outside the door. He watched me with a puzzled expression. Of course, he just witnessed my freakout. I normally handled situations better than that, but knowing Chase was involved, it had me all twisted up.

“Lopez,” Rafe called, “a word.” Mark moved toward him.

“Nicole,” Cole came up behind me, “please go try to get some rest.”

“I can’t.” I shook my head. “I’m far too wound up. Maybe I’ll go for a quick walk.”

His expression showed he wasn’t keen on that idea. “Look, as much as I’m uneasy about this, why don’t you go with Prescott for those supplies? You could help out, and it’ll be something to keep your mind busy.”

I looked over at Prescott, who had just started the engine of a truck. A few soldiers were preparing to leave with her, and they all started their truck engines.

“Yeah, I’d like that. Thanks.”

He whistled at Prescott and made a motion toward me. Then he looked at his watch again.

“Cole, is there something more going on here?”

“Cole,” Mark’s voice was sharp as glass as he interrupted, “we need to talk.”

“Shit,” he cursed and raised a finger at Mark. “We’re just trying to keep an eye on Bruno.”

“And Eric,” I blurted.

“Yes, both.” He nodded with a loud sigh then pointed toward the guys. “I need to talk to them. You’ll drive with Prescott.” He left, and I knew I’d get nothing more from him. I headed toward the truck before they left without me.

“Hey,” I waved at Prescott, “Cole says you guys might want some help? I could use a break from this place.”

She grinned. “Sure, hop in.”

“Thanks.”

We drove about twenty minutes to the location where three pick-up trucks were waiting for us just off the main road. We hopped out and started moving boxes of supplies into the vehicles we arrived in. Prescott chatted with one of the other female officers while she worked, but I was stuck in my head.

Something Cole said bothered me. Bruno sounded genuinely surprised when Eric told him he knew the location of the safehouse. I’d studied Eric Noah long enough to know he was a lone wolf. So, how did Blackstone hear that Eric knew the location of Shadows before he told Bruno? Had he been on a call before entering the compound, and that’s how they heard him? Again, Eric was smarter than that— he always seemed to cover his tracks, and less was more.

A memory from back when I was a few years into my job hit me like a tidal wave. I had sent some footage to General Bruce about my concern that Eric was working with the Canos Cartel. He shut it down fast and told me not to engage with him and to keep my focus on Bruno. At the time, I figured they had someone else on Eric Noah since he was an American jumping the border every so often, but now, after all these years, I wondered what it really was. What did they know that I didn’t? That never stopped me from gathering information about him, and it had my curiosity clawing at the door.