Page 16 of Rescued

They definitely hadn’t just happened to pick his front yard to chill out in. And there was a big thermos on the ground between them, which meant they planned to be there awhile.

He stuffed his feet into his cowboy boots, grabbed his jacket, and went outside. “Morning,” he said. “What the hell are you two doing here?”

“Nothing,” Boomer said. “Just enjoying nature. Listen to all the fucking birdies singing. Isn’t that nice?”

“You’re adorable,” Switch snarled. He could smell their coffee and he wanted it. “Did Gunn send you?”

Boomer looked at his brother. “I don’t remember. Did Gunn send us?”

Deadpan as always, Boomer’s brother said to him, “I just followed the coffee. You had it, so…”

Boomer looked back at Switch. “We don’t remember.”

He must have. Switch wondered why Gunn felt it necessary to assign guards—even unofficial ones—to watch Breanna. Had he found out something?

He said, “Well, I have places to be, so look out for Breanna till I get back, okay? And try not to blow up the cabin.”

Boomer said, “No promises, dude. But if it makes you feel better, we won’t blow it up while she’s inside.”

Switch rolled his eyes. “Fuck you.” Moving fast, he grabbed their thermos, unscrewed the cup top, poured coffee into it, and walked away.

“Hey!” Boomer yelled after him. “That’s mine!”

“Well, if you want it, stay here until I come back. Otherwise, it’s mine.”

Switch headed to the command center and waved to the team on duty inside. The place was manned 24/7, because they usually had teams in the field on one mission or another.

Luckily, they weren’t feeling chatty, because he was in no mood. He had the feeling he was about to get some bad news.

He sat down with his coffee and put through a call to Marie, the woman who’d coordinated Breanna’s relocation, on her secure line.

She picked up, which meant that her end of the operation was safe, at least. “Switch!” she said. “We’ve been worried about you. We never got confirmation from Pennsylvania—we’ve been trying to reach them all night. There’s no answer from anyone. What happened?”

He told her about the ambush, and how close they’d come to getting shot down.

“Thank God you’re all right,” she said. “They had the signal and the password?”

“Yes to both.”

Marie said, “So either someone turned on us and gave up the passwords… or Moreno’s men captured our people and made them tell.”

“I think they might have made them tell.” Switch told her about there being no S in Ulysses S. Grant, as if someone had given an almost-right answer while still trying to warn him something was off. Which had worked. And the hesitation before the visual signal—like maybe they were trying to get it out of someone who’d been holding it back?

He said, “If that’s the case, you don’t know what else they got. You may want to lay low for a while.”

“We already are. But thank you.”

“Any sign of the other girl? Kimberly?”

“Nothing,” Marie said. “Do you think she’s the one who gave us up?”

“It’s possible.” He hated to think about what kind of person would do that to a group who was trying to help them. Never mind her best friend. Although, she might have been threatened or coerced. “I’m surprised they didn’t come after us at the pickup instead of heading to Pennsylvania.”

“Maybe they didn’t think they’d get here in time. Or they thought their odds were better in a more isolated, less defensible location.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

Marie asked, “What are you going to do with the girl? I can’t do anything right now—all our contacts might be compromised.”