Page 128 of Full Throttle

“Garner,” James said. “Alright, you’ll have me in your ear at all times, understood?”

Before the plane landed, he and Xander fitted us with earpieces.

After we landed, James Garner came onto the plane with a team of six agents, and we were each given a 9mm. We couldn’t wear any bullet proof vests, and that killed me. Nik and Mina were already going to attracted attention just because they were women. James also instructed us on what code words to use.

Monday: Tense situation.

Teal: Trafficking sighted.

Throne: Kavi.

Doctor: Send in back up.

Xander walked through the rain, his shoes pounding against the pavement of the air strip as he headed straight for my car. He opened the passenger door and folded himself inside. “Let’s go,” he muttered.

I looked over to Lee, giving him a chin lift and shifting the car into drive. Pulling forward, my eyes flicked to the rearview mirror to see Lee let Nik follow right behind me. Then, he waited for Mina and Dontell go.

“Staying the back,” he informed everyone. “Streets are slick. Keep your shit together.”

I turned left, getting onto the highway that would eventually lead us into Seattle.

“Everyone good?” I asked, gaining speed.

“All good, babe,” Nik said.

“Great,” Mina added.

I didn’t wait for Dontell or Lee to answer, I knew they were good. They’d done runs before, and they could handle the drive. “Right,” I began. “These roads curve and bend, take it slow. Especially you, Mina. Your tires weren’t made for this.”

She laughed. “Gotcha, pretty boy.”

“Pretty boy?” Xander asked, looking at me.

I glanced at him, giving him a shrug. “Fuck if I know.”

He muttered something under his breath that I couldn’t hear, and then the car was filled with a strained silence for the next twenty miles before he broke it again. “You went into Devils Den for me, didn’t you?”

My jaw tightened at the same time my fist did at the top of the steering wheel. “Told you I didn’t want to discuss this with you,” I said, my voice low.

“Too fucking bad,” he clipped, turning to me. “Answer the fucking question, Cain.”

I glanced at him again, the rain hitting the windshield. “The work I had to do there was included in paying off your debt. So yeah.” I looked back ahead, Seattle in the distance. "Went in there a second time to look for you and found Collin instead."

“What do I need to do?”

My brow furrowed. “What?”

“What do I need to do to pay you back?”

His question rocked me. “You don’t owe me a damn thing,” I muttered, shifting gears.

“I owe you my life,” my brother said. “Let me do something—anything.”

Glancing at him once more, I saw the pain in his eyes—the torture he’d had to live with since finding out the truth about me. “You want to do something?”

He nodded.

I looked back to the road. “Shit goes sideways in here and Nik is in danger, you get to her. You hear me?” I clipped. “You get to her, and you fucking protect her with everything you fucking have, Xander.”

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