Page 83 of Rescued

She looked up into his eyes. “I love it. But I knew you had my back.”

He kissed her softly. “Always.”

They made love, gently and slowly. But way too soon, it was time to go over to the deployment center to gear up.

Switch personally put Breanna’s Kevlar vest on her, under her jacket.

“I hate that you’re doing this,” he told her. “My wolf hates it even more.”

“I know. But it’s the best chance for Kimberly.” She knew that deep down he cared about Kimberly. He just cared about her more.

“Remember,” he said, “I’ll be right there with you the whole time. But if there’s any shooting, cover your head and dive for the helicopter.” She nodded.

He rested his hands on her shoulders for a moment, then turned away to put on his own gear.

Rex drove them up to the airfield in one of the Jeeps. The helicopter was prepped and ready, but Switch still insisted on doing his own preflight checks.

While she waited, Sugar drove up, parked, and got out of his Land Rover with the manila envelope. The thing that this whole mission rested on.

He handed it to her. “There’s a micro-transponder in there, in the bottom left corner of the envelope. Moreno shouldn’t be able to find it; it activates either by pressure, if you squeeze it, or if you don’t get the chance, I can activate it remotely on your signal, when you and Switch are leaving. That will allow the strike team to track him.”

She took the envelope, trying to smile bravely. She said, “You all didn’t spend your share already, did you?”

“Yes,” Boomer called, from over by the helicopter. “Bought himself a whole closet full of Jimmy Choos.”

Breanna laughed, and felt marginally better. Sugar said, “You’ll do fine.”

Which was the nicest thing she’d ever heard him say to anyone.

Before getting in the helicopter, Switch pulled Gunn aside. “I don’t care what anyone says about mission priorities,” he said. “If this goes south, get Breanna out of there, okay? If it’s a choice between her and me, pick her. Hell, if it’s a choice between her and anybody, pick her.”

Gunn clasped him on the shoulder. “I understand.”

“She’s the only human out there,” Switch said. “Besides Kimberly. She doesn’t heal like we do. You can’t let anything happen to her.”

“I know,” Gunn said. “I do. We’ll keep her safe.”

It was all he could do. Switch nodded his thanks, and went to help Bree into the helo.

After they lifted off, Breanna was so nervous waiting for Quentin to send the coordinates, she couldn’t talk. Switch wasn’t in a chatty mood either, and even Boomer, hidden in the back of the helicopter, was quiet for once.

They’d originally planned to follow Quentin’s directions and have it be only the two of them, but they’d added Boomer when Quentin refused to send the coordinates until they were en route.

Not knowing the location of the airfield ahead of time made it impossible to send an advance team for backup. They’d have to fly them in, far enough behind so Quentin wouldn’t hear them coming until he’d already made the exchange.

That meant Switch and Breanna would be on their own for too long without backup. They needed at least one extra gun that Quentin wasn’t expecting.

After what seemed like hours, but was only fifteen minutes, Breanna pulled the special phone out of its case and waited for the coordinates to come through. As soon as they did, she took a picture of them with Boomer’s phone, and then shoved the special phone back into the Faraday case so it couldn’t be tracked.

Switch immediately altered course. He hadn’t been flying a straight line from Outlaw Ridge to Connecticut, in case Quentin had some idea about putting a team along their route to track them and bring down the helicopter. Quentin had to know, from pinging the phone during his conversations with Breanna, that she was somewhere in the Adirondacks.

It was an unlikely scenario, because they were pretty sure he wanted the bonds more than he wanted Breanna dead. But they weren’t taking any chances.

As they approached the rendezvous point, flares lit up around the landing site. In the dim light, Breanna could see the dark humps of several vehicles. Enough to hold a team of security forces.

As they got closer, she could see the men’s shapes too. Ten, maybe? Quentin wasn’t taking any chances. But she didn’t see Kimberly.

Switch carefully brought them down, hovering above the helipad. He nodded at Breanna.