Page 156 of The Best of Us

“Mission objective one is to get the hostages out. Extraction by sea,” Carter said.

“The secondary mission is to kill every one of these arseholes and wipe out their bloodline once and for all. Something The League should have already done had we not been dealing with The Alliance for so long,” Sebastian added in a gruff voice, clearly taking on some of the blame for this, even though he didn’t need to.

“Guess this means your wife is letting you kill people again.”

Easton’s joke was lost on me. Not on Sean, apparently.

“Hey, that’s my sister you’re talking about.” Sean laughed, and Sebastian simply waved off Easton’s remarks, ignoring him.

“We’ll go in with a three-pronged approach,” Sebastian carried on. “Sea, land, and air. TOC will be at sea.”

“TOC will be Isabella and me, and that’s part of the plan my father got all bloody grumbly about,” Gwen said, her English accent cutting through as she rolled her eyes at her father.

I tipped my head toward Wyatt as a thank-you for being overly cautious since he’d also be protecting Juliette and Colin. “Who’s on what team? What’s the insertion strategy?” I focused back on the mission, doing my best to be objective, which was hard given the circumstances.

“Once I’m in position to hack their security cameras and get us an interior look, I’ll loop the camera feeds at their gated entrance as well as the ones pointed toward the cliffs to give both teams some cover for the approach,” Gwen explained while closing her laptop and standing alongside my son. She lifted her chin to Carter, deferring to him to continue.

“The rest of Falcon Falls is currently Stateside. No time to get here. That means we’ll be Alpha Team. You,” Carter said, “me, Hudson, and your brothers. We’ll go in on the yacht with Wyatt, swim to the rocky inlet, and scale the rock wall to infil from there.”

“You two, same team?” my son blurted out. “Who’s the team leader?”

“Carter.” My mind was made up. “This is personal for me.”

He’d know where I was going with that. And if bygones were truly going to be bygones, I could man up and be number two.

Carter kept quiet but nodded in agreement.

“My people will be Delta,” Sebastian said. “Emilia, Sean, and I will head it up.” He introduced two more League members I’d never met who’d be on Delta as well and then continued sharing the plan: “We’ll be disguising one of those Mercedes vans outside as a delivery truck. Once Gwen gives us the green light, we’ll roll up to the gate and take out the guards when they approach.”

“At the same time they do that, we’ll breach from the cliffs.” Carter gestured to Easton. “He’ll be our pilot on the Little Bird, handling things from the sky and heading up Foxtrot Team. Two gunners to take out their snipers in the overwatch towers. From what I’ve heard, Hudson is one of your best snipers, so once we’re on the property, he and I will move into the overwatch positions there.”

“And I’ll also be ready to take out any reinforcements they may call in for backup, stopping them before they can get into the compound,” Easton said.

I’d prefer Easton to be with Juliette and my son, but I supposed we had no choice if he was our only pilot.

“And what, you just pulled a helicopter out of nowhere?” Colin, with that remark, of course.

“While Carter’s been known to pull a Black Hawk from his ass on occasion, we owe this helo to Emilia,” Easton told him, a sly smile crossing his lips as Carter said something under his breath in response.

“So, we’re swimming and rock climbing today?” Alessandro griped, heading for the gear and weapons table at the center of the room. “Two of my least favorite things to do. Aside from running, of course.”

We were cut from the same cloth.

“The MCX Rattler should work just fine if it gets wet.” Alessandro picked up the rifle and examined it.

Colin eagerly stood by his uncle, checking out the artillery, and Enzo circled the table to join them.

“I suppose we’ll take a short break, then get back to it soon,” Emilia said, then pulled her husband off to the side of the room.

I focused back on my son as Enzo pointed to a box of ammo and said, “Those are armor-piercing rounds.”

“No way. That’s badass,” Colin remarked.

“And this beauty here is good for CQB. The blackout rounds are subsonic. Less noise and more stopping power.” Enzo handed Colin the .300 Blackout. Also known as the Sig MCX Rattler rifle.

I quickly maneuvered around my brother, knowing seeing our son holding a weapon of war would give Juliette a heart attack. Because no, this was notCall of Duty.“Yeah, I’ll be taking that.”

“Well, you’re no fun.” Colin rolled his eyes.

---