Page 19 of Delta Mission
At the door, I scanned the street, confirmed we were alone, and then sprinted across the road and up the alley. I grabbed the rope ladder and when I returned, Makennahadmoved.
She squatted at Lyle’s side. The second she saw me, she flicked tears from her eyes as if embarrassed by them.
That simple move launched me back nine years to her tears that had flowed at my uncle’s funeral. Her tears had nearly ruined me. But those tears weren’t over my uncle’s death; they were over what she’d done. To me, to us, and to my brother.
Slapping away those rotten memories, I strode to the trapdoor. “Let’s do this.”
I found the hooks she’d cut the ladder from and reattached the rope.
“Follow me.” I turned on my flashlight and climbed into the drug lab that Makenna had somehow found in the middle of fucking nowhere.
She’d always been good at her job, maybe too good. Her fearlessness was how she’d secured her rookie mission to Colombia. It was probably how she talked her way into Afghanistan, too.
The trick was getting home from these hellholes.
She shut the trapdoor and scrambled down the rope ladder like a nimble gymnast.
I nodded at her. “Which way?”
She frowned. Maybe she hadn’t expected me to ask her opinion. “Over there.”
She sprinted ahead, treating me to a spectacular view of her ass.
Jesus. What the hell am I doing?
This bitch broke me, and she nearly ruined my family. Aunt Betty would never forgive Makenna for what she did at Uncle Henry’s wake. Neither would I.
Makenna stopped so sudden, I slammed into her. She spun to me, glaring.
“Sorry.”Goddammit, I need to focus.
She indicated to the far corner. A tunnel emerged from the darkness. I turned off my flashlight and a faint glow filled the passage. Was that from the setting sun?
I nodded at Makenna. “Keep on my tail.”
She saluted me.
“Wiseass.”
With my gun ready, I sprinted through the drug lab and halted at the edge of the tunnel. Makenna was right on my heels.
I peered around the corner. The tunnel was a ramp, wide enough to push a dumpster through.
It was deserted.
“I’ll check it,” I said. “You stay–”
“I’m coming with you.”
“No, you stay—”
“No!” Her eyes flared. “You go. I go.”
She pulled her gun from her holster.
Christ. We don’t have time to argue. “Stay with me. Do not shoot unless I say.”
“Yes, boss.”
