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)
“I’m nervous, yeah,” I conceded reluctantly. “But mostly, I’m just… I don’t know. Every guy involved has so much experience that it’s intimidating—despite you’re all so fucking old and probably can’t run five miles without dying.”
He lifted his eyebrows. “You started off so well…”
I smiled.
“For the record,” he said, scratching his eyebrow with his middle finger. Nice. “Elliott, Darius, Dante, the Tenleys, and I complete the Crucible at least once every other year.”
“Get the fuck out,” I laughed. “You do not.”
I mean, every Marine had done it, but usually at the age of not-forty-five. It was a fifty-four-hour hellride of tests that pushed you to the limit. If you didn’t make it, you didn’t graduate.
“Yeah. We do, Crew.” He folded his arms over his chest and eyed me with a pinch of mirth. “I’m not saying we perform as well as we did in our twenties, but we’re well aware of the risks. We wouldn’t set foot in the field if we didn’t have what it takes. Now, try to keep up. Am I gonna have to boost your little ego or deflate it? You can’t act like you don’t know what you’re doing one second, only to accuse a bunch of incredibly handsome and distinguished grunts of not being able to take a damn jog the next. And you don’t wanna engage in a pissing contest with me, son. I’m fucked in the head enough to agree.”
I pinched my lips together, and maybe I wasn’t warming up to him after all. I didn’t wanna be called out like that. In no fucking way was he faster or stronger than me, but with experience came a whole slew of dirty tricks.
For a quick second, I thought about my years in the service, and I’d be going against everything I’d learned if I didn’t wise up and communicate openly and honestly. Ryan wasn’t the enemy here.
“I won’t be the Chihuahua barking at the Rottweiler,” I said. “Gramps.”
His mouth twitched. “I miss the sir already.” Then he nodded at the clothes. “We gotta get going. But you let me know if there’s anything we need to discuss. That’s for both our sakes.”
I heard him. And he was right. He had to rely on me as much as I would on him.
“It wasn’t a guess,” I said. “What I said earlier, I mean—about where we’ll be with tactical gear.”
“I know.” He nodded once and began picking out clothes for himself.
It was settled. I mean, maybe we’d hide in plain sight among casinogoers too…? But if Squeezy and Darius told us to put on combat gear, it had to mean we’d be invisible. Maybe we would scout the—
“Damn.” Ryan pulled out his phone with a sense of urgency. “If Squeezy’s calling, it’s important. Remember to be quiet.” He answered the call and put her on speaker. “Yeah?”
“Okay, so I don’t think it’s safe to follow Delgado, but if you insist, he’s on the move now,” she said, sounding stressed. “Something is off. I managed to find several trips to both Myanmar and Kenya from this spring, which Elliott says lines up with Delgado’s alleged transfer to Europe—and then the guy just drops off the face of the earth. Delgado, I mean. There’s nothing on him the past two months. Until the day before yesterday, when he shows up in London and then Nice.”
Ryan and I glanced at each other as he responded. “It’s highly possible he’s been using another identity if he’s been helping Carillo plan his prison break.”
It checked out with the time frame too. Two months ago… Carillo must’ve been in the final stages of his plan by then.
“Right, that’s Darius’s guess as well,” Squeezy said. “But if that’s the case, we don’t know if he’s alone. Two days’ worth of data isn’t enough to make that call, and I don’t want to send you to this house if he’s there with twenty other dudes. And just for the record, the odd thing about his address in Monaco is that another man was listed there for the two months Delgado was off the grid. Now he’s gone—the other dude. I’m trying to find out who it is. So far, nothing.”
That didn’t change anything for me. We still had to go there and scout the area.
Ryan echoed my thought. “We’ll be careful, but we gotta get to him somehow.”
“Fine,” Squeezy responded tightly. “He just used his credit card at a gas station not too far from his house, so you’re good to go. I guess.”
Then let’s pick up the pace.
CHAPTER 2
Reese Tenley
Riv and I ducked lower in our seats as the street flooded with cop cars.
Another dead affiliate of Carillo Mesa was being carried out of an apartment building.
“Let’s go,” I said quietly. We didn’t have the cover of darkness, and we couldn’t be spotted. “Next address.”