Page 55 of The Soldier and the Cowboy

“All right,” she forced herself to turn away and stop staring speculatively at Maggie. “Excellent. Any questions?”

Jones raised his hand. “Are you married?”

“Any questions that don’t make me lose immediate respect for you as a human and a soldier?” Bailey clarified.

“Oh, in that case no,” Jones replied, lowering his hand.

“Well, then, gentlemen. Let’s roll,” Bailey said and they loaded up and headed out.

They left in two trucks. Cam drove one and Bailey drove the other. The four SEALs and Maggie sat in the back of Cam’s truck. They would be depositing Maggie at a pre-chosen spot so she could set up her rifle.

“Are you going to take the kill shot this time, Maggie?” Jones asked. It had become something of a joke among them that, though Maggie was the best marksman any of them knew, she had never killed anyone.

“Oh, Jonesie, there are plenty of ways to disable a man without taking the kill shot, you know that,” Maggie said, ruffling his hair. The truck stopped. Cam lifted her down and kissed her goodbye.

“Man, that woman is all kinds of sexy,” Jones said, and Ethan mashed his palms over his ears.

“You gotta stop. That’s my sister-in-law. I think my ears might actually be bleeding.” He removed his hands from his ears and stared at them.

“You said the same thing the first time we met her,” Jones reminded him.

“That was two years ago and, did I mention, she’s now mysister-in-law,” Ethan said. “By the way, Amelia and I are officially engaged. Save the date because you’re all going to be in this one.”

“When are you going to tell her parents you’re already married to your fiancée?” Frog asked.

“We already did when we moved in together because theykind of freaked out,” Ethan said. “The continued sham is for the sake of their distant family and friends. Or reasons. I don’t know. At this point I’m beginning to think Amelia just wants the big wedding we didn’t get last time around.”

“Ah, young love,” Shimmer said.

“When are you going to tell your parents?” Frog asked.

“Geez, I should probably call them, give them a heads up I’m seeing someone,” Ethan mused.

Jones stared through the window at Bailey. “What is it with all the hot women in the world being near me but out of reach? What’s the deal with her and LT’s brother? Are they together, not together?”

“It doesn’t matter anyway,” Ethan said. “Don’t you know who her dad is?”

“You?” Jones guessed.

“The Colonel,” Shimmer supplied.

“What? I thought she was dating Blue.”

“Different daughter.”

“The Colonel replicated more than once? He really is like the terminator,” Jones said.

“You know to this day no one’s seen that cadet he made disappear,” Frog said.

They stopped again when they reached the rendezvous point. They would ditch the trucks and walk the rest of the way, slipping over the border into Mexico by foot. They also split into two teams. The forward team—Bailey, Cam, and Frog—would be going in to draw fire and create a distraction while the second team—Ethan, Jones, and Shimmer—would be going in second to do what they needed to do. They were doubtless better trained than the cartel, but it would be a mistake to underestimate anyone who was armed with an agenda. The cartel had a lot of firepower. This they knew fromCorrie’s intel, though they would be doing recon to confirm.

They sneaked close for a look, using the thermal imager to get a look at how many bodies were inside the house. They counted six bodies all sitting around a table. Since it was nearly the middle of the night, Bailey imagined they were playing cards or counting something.

“How good is your intel?” Cam asked.

“Three fingers worth,” Bailey replied.

“What?”

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