Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 59119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 296(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 296(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
Mirth seeped into his gaze, and he observed me a while longer. Maybe trying to put some puzzle pieces together. I didn’t know.
“Okay, I can see that.” He nodded pensively. “You’re bossy in your own right, and you want someone who’s a step above that.”
Kinda, yeah. Actually, he was spot-on. “Preferably without the dude having arthritis.”
Not that it mattered at the moment. I wasn’t looking for a relationship.
Ryan sighed and handed me two extra mags for my handgun. “You have a bizarre stance on age. Do you think we just head for the nearest wheelchair when we turn fifty?”
“Forty,” I corrected.
And no, I was mostly fucking with him. Come on. “Listen, Gramps. I was there for the barbecue at the boss’s house. Toby, Gray, Madison, Shay, and me—we’re always called kids by youse. Does that mean we think you actually view us as children? Of course not. So get with the program.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “You remind me of someone, and I’m not sure I like it.”
Ditto!
“I’ve been thinking the exact same thing,” I said, putting on my combat helmet. “Can we get this show on the road now?”
“I’ve been waiting for you, sunshine.” He closed up and locked the car. “We should take a deep breath. It’s possible I’m hungry, and that’s when I get cranky.”
I reluctantly admitted he had a point. It’d been a while since we’d eaten.
“I really hope we get this fucker tonight,” I said. “I mean, going to Italy next—you think they have Olive Garden?”
“Unfortunately not.” He sighed and attached his own helmet. “Learned that the hard way when I took the missus to Rome. Don’t ask them either—if they know what you’re talking about, they’ll be offended as fuck.”
I furrowed my brow, and we left the driveway. What was wrong with Olive Garden? That shit was divine. They served proper portions too.
We didn’t stay on the road for long. As soon as we’d passed the property of our temporary parking spot, we ducked down into the forest and began our approach to Delgado’s house.
My eyes had adjusted to the dark, so I didn’t bother with tech. We definitely had to be careful here, though. The forest floor was covered in dry moss and shrubs, and every now and then, we had to go another direction because there was a ten-foot drop down a cliffside.
“We don’t wanna run here,” I deduced.
“Can you check your signal? I wanna see if we have updates before we reach his house,” Ryan said quietly.
I glanced back at him to see he was scowling at his phone.
I pulled mine out, and I had a couple bars. “I’ll check the chat.”
No new messages that I could see. Gray and Darius had reached their safehouse for the night, and tomorrow they’d rejoin Ramirez and Javier. Elliott and Joel were in position in Valencia too, and they’d wait till tomorrow night before they got surveillance up and running of whatever angles they could cover of the port.
I reckoned we were mostly itching to hear from River and Reese, because we had more to search on. Valencia and Marseille were so far just theoretical targets. We were trying to be where we hoped our targets would turn up.
Not sure I would get the chance to provide updates later, I figured it was best I did it now.
“Opportunity—is that spelled with an E or O in oppor…?”
“An O,” Ryan answered.
“Thanks.”
RQ and I are ready. Either we will linger and wait for an opportunity, or we will get a chance before the night is over. If we do, we’re hedding to Coach’s property in Italy after. CF
Elliott replied within seconds.
Be safe, kid. Check in when you can. You got this. You can find confidence in your persona. EJ
Man, I hoped he was right. Even if I got out of having to actually go undercover in my pursuit to find this freelancing son of a bitch, I still needed a story to fall back on. That was how people offered information, in return for knowledge. I couldn’t be a blank slate and expect quick results. But at least I’d be on the preferred side of the interrogation table, and I felt less uncertain about this whole new identity then.
Ryan and I carefully rounded the property ahead of us, and then all eyes were on Delgado’s house.
Lights were on in one of the second-story windows.
The roof was almost completely flat.
“What’s the perimeter like?” I asked quietly. I couldn’t make out the details in the darkness, but it looked like a fence. We still had some forty yards to go.
Ryan lowered the monocular on his helmet. “Wooden fence, maybe an inch or two short of nine feet—”
“How vague.”
He glanced over at me. “Don’t lie to a marksman about the size of your dick, is all I’m saying.”
I grinned. I couldn’t help it. That was funny. And of course, that made sense. Snipers spent years honing their target estimation range skills.