Page 27 of Delta Mission
“I didn’t want to keep it a secret.” I glared at him over the flames.
“Don’t fucking lie to me.” The raw hurt in his expression carved a chunk off my soul.
“I never lied. Never!” I clenched my right fist so tight my nails dug into my palm. “Your brother is the liar.”
Fury darkened his expression. “Careful, Makenna.”
“Or what? You’ll choose him over me like last time. You didn’t give me a chance.”
He flicked off his gloves. “You had plenty of chances to tell me.”
“No. You’re wrong. You were grieving over Uncle Henry. I wanted to be there for you during that time. I promise, I was going to tell you after that. I begged Talon to let me tell you, but he was an asshole.”
“Hey! I told you to be careful.” His tone was bitter and cutting.
I pressed my right hand over my heart. “I swear on my sister’s life, I was going to tell you.”
His eyes softened.
Maybe I was finally getting through. He knew how much my sister meant to me.
“Channing, let me tell you everything, please. Exactly how I wanted to tell you.”
He flopped onto the dirt and flicked a few rocks away. “Go on then. Tell me how you fucked my brother.”
Heaving a heavy breath, I sat on my Kevlar on the opposite side of the fire. I picked up a stick, snapped off the end, and crumbled the bark in my fingers. “We went to Colombia on a tip-off.”
“I don’t need your fucking life story, Makenna.” Anger burned white-hot in his eyes.
I pegged the stick at him, and it bounced off his boots. “You need to knowwhyI did what I did. So please, can you just listen?”
Clamping his jaw, he stared at the fire.
I cleared my throat. “It was supposed to be a fact-finding mission, but somehow, the Colombians knew we were coming. We were ambushed. I was in a car with two other DEA agents. They both died right in front of me.”
He stared ahead like I wasn’t even there.
A tangle of emotion wedged in my throat. “A soldier yanked me from the car.”
“Talon?” He waggled his head.
“No, not Talon. The soldier’s codename was Christmas. I didn’t find out his real name was Noel Parker until his funeral.”
Channing moaned and tossed a rock across the cave. It slammed into the wall and shattered to pieces.
“Christmas dragged me into an alley, but we were chased through those rotten streets. He killed three men before he was shot in the back of his neck. I tried to save him, but I was caught.”
Channing shifted his gaze to me. His mouth was open, like he wanted to say something but couldn’t make the words release.
“They put a bag over my head and shoved me into the trunk of a car. I was taken to a building that I later found out was an abandoned school. They videoed me, tied and gagged. I thought I was going to die, Channing.” My chin quivered, but I clenchedmy jaw, fighting tears. I didn’t want his pity. I wanted his forgiveness. And I wanted him to know how sorry I was.
“Why do you think they didn’t kill you?” he asked.
“I found out later, they were waiting for Rodríguez Antonio Lopez.”
Channing nodded. Rodríguez Antonio Lopez ran one of the biggest drug cartels in Colombian history until the evil bastard vanished in a mystery that’s yet to be solved.
“Lopez wanted to use my public death to get back at the DEA. But I got lucky. A massive earthquake hit Antioquia, ruining the roads so much he couldn’t get to through to reach me.”
