Series: Lee Savino
Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 63295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 316(@200wpm)___ 253(@250wpm)___ 211(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 316(@200wpm)___ 253(@250wpm)___ 211(@300wpm)
Then Rafe gives a signal, and the back of the plane opens up. The wind howls a few feet away from me and Darius. Adrenaline pumps through me. I pull down a pair of night goggles and secure them.
Darius tightens his grip on me.
Rafe gives a thumbs up. A mechanism triggers, deploying a grayish-white parachute. It flies out first, a bright circle in a dark night. The boat follows.
Rafe and the rest of his team walk to the plane’s center. They’ve attached themselves to straps to approach the opening without getting blown out.
Teddy strolls past them and, without hesitation, leaps into the night. At first, his legs seem to fly up, and then he’s hurtling down after the boat.
Matthias tucks his glasses in a pocket, zips it shut, and saunters to the end of the plane. He lets himself fall, his limbs spread-eagled in the howling wind.
It’s Darius and my turn next. My stomach flip-flops as we approach the dark maw of freezing air.
“Let’s do this,” I shout. And then the wind steals the breath from my mouth.
Darius and I fall, hurtling towards the roiling ocean.
There’s a jerk as Darius deploys his parachute. I brace against him and blink rapidly to clear my watering eyes as we float more gently downwards. The plane roars overhead, heading toward the distant strip of sand.
Beyond the beach, Lockepoint mansion glows. Every window on every floor is illuminated. It’s beautiful and pathetically unguarded.
Thom’s hubris will be his downfall.
The plane swings low. Against the bright lights of Lockepoint, I can see four dark shapes leap out of its belly. They each hit the water with a small splash.
“They don’t have parachutes.” I suck in a breath.
“They don’t need them. They’re shifters. They can hit the water and survive,” Darius murmurs. “They’ll take the beach and clear a way for us to land the boat.”
The wind whips my hair over my face. We float closer to the water. I brace myself to hit it. Some of us don’t like swimming in November.
I glance down. “Look.” I tug Darius’ vest to get his attention.
Below us, Teddy and Matthias have gotten into the boat. Teddy’s at the controls, driving it towards us.
“Perfect timing.” Darius fiddles with some mechanism on his parachute and lets us drift slightly to the right. Teddy steers the boat under us. Matthias stands, ready to grab us. Both he and Teddy are dripping wet.
“Hang on.” Darius releases the parachute, and we fall a short distance. I grit my teeth to keep from crying out.
Darius’ feet hit the metal hull with a bang. Somehow, he keeps his balance as the boat rocks on the choppy water. That must be another perk of being a shifter.
Darius unstraps and checks me over while Teddy points the boat toward shore. My legs wobble like jelly, but I grab Darius and hold on to stay upright.
The next thing I know, Darius clutches me to him and pulls me down to the floor of the boat where he can bend over me, covering me with his body. My ears ring–there’s a crack, crack, crack in the distance and a rat-a-tat-tat of answering machine gun fire.
“They’re storming the beach.” Teddy slows the boat, and the wind dies.
“Should we help them?” I ask from my cramped position under Darius.
“Nah, they’re good. Wait for the signal.”
I slap Darius’ arm. “You can let me up.”
“She’s wearing a vest,” Matthias says. “Remember?”
“Sorry.” Darius helps me upright. His eyes are brightly lit. “Protecting you is my number one priority.”
“Here.” Matthias hands him a black matte helmet. Darius helps me put it on. I agreed to wear this headpiece because it’s bulletproof, but it must be state-of-the-art. The glass face plate gives me night vision. The world glows green, and I can see the yellow-white shapes of the team’s heat signatures in the distance. I watch with fascination as they slip up the dunes, each descending on a guard house. There are soft booms up and down the sandy strip as they set off charges and then move with whiplike speed to take out any guards that survive the guardhouse explosion.
“We need to get closer, so we’re ready,” Matthias says. Through the helmet, the sound of their voices is amplified while the crack of bullets seems muted.
“On it.” Teddy motors us closer. “Just wait for it.”
“Wait for what?” My own voice echoes in the helmet, but the twins hear me just fine. Back at the mountain, Hutch told me shifters have heightened hearing, and can see in the dark. I’m beginning to understand why special ops is a natural career choice for shifters.
“Wait for the distraction,” Teddy says.
A loud whistling sound goes up, and firecrackers burst in the sky beyond Lockepoint.
“There it is.” Matthias grins. “Courtesy of a few more of our friends from Arizona. They snuck up from the road.”