Page 57 of Baby One Last Time
“What? When did you have time? Where are they?”
“About two minutes into your color commentary on your drive, I thought about what Mai said about the Uzis, that they’re loading them up here, and put that together with the weird little four-by-four room from the aerial shots of La Parisienne that have been driving Penn crazy.”
“It’s too small for that many weapons,” Derek countered.
I grinned like a cat with the canaryandthe cream. “Perfect size for a staircase, though. To a basement or an underground bunker.”
Derek pulled me into his arms and held me against him, pride and desire both evident on his face. He ducked to whisper in my ear. “After I help you clean up your mess, I’m going to fuck that smug look right off your face, pussycat.”
I twisted my fingers in his hair. “Promises, promises, loverboy,” and I pulled his head down for another gut-churning, lady-parts-pleasing kiss.
“Guys, I have my rifle.” Mai’s voice exploded in our comms and we jumped apart. “I’ll need one of those shoulder straps to climb back over the wall with it.”
“Fuck me,” I muttered.
Derek reaction was more practical. “How long have you been listening?”
Mai and Jensen spoke at the same time. “Ten seconds”—Mai, “Two minutes”—Jensen.
“While you’re deciding on a number,” Derek said as he yanked on my harness to check that it was secure, “I’ll remind you that it’s my version of tonight’s events that are going to influence what X does to all of you.”
“Definitely ten seconds, then,” Jensen amended. “But I’m totally stealing that line to use on my wife the next time she gives me a smug look. And I found a way to turn off the electricity to the wall, but I won’t do it until you’re ready to scale it, in case there’s a redundant system in place that I don’t have time to find.”
“Redundant system?” Mai asked.
“Something that alerts Beecher’s goons that perimeter security has been compromised, inspiring them to search the grounds,” Jensen said.
I yanked on Derek’s harness, returning the favor of a double-check.
“We’re ready to do this thing.” Derek nodded to me, letting me do the honors.
“Okay team, it’s go-time.”
Derekand I lay flat against the top of the brick wall. We had a perfect view of the SUV and decent visuals on the closest hostiles, who weren’t very close. Finally, something was going right.
“I don’t like it,” Jensen said from the van. “With infrared, you’re too obvious up there.”
Well, hell.
“Lee,” Derek said quietly into the comms, “we’ll set up a new position at the base of the wall on your side. Hold your position.”
“Roger that,” she replied.
Derek and I repositioned our ropes and rappelled down the inside of the wall. We landed silently on the ground behind a copse of tall, fat bushes with large flowers. We left our ropes at the ready for a hasty climb back out of enemy territory. Standing back-to-back, we surveilled our surroundings and confirmed that no one was close or, as far as we could tell, approaching.
Derek nudged my arm twice with his elbow.Ready?I nudged him back twice.Ready.
“All right Lee, go,” Derek whispered.
The back of the SUV opened slowly, quietly, first a few inches, then a foot. Through my goggles, my peripheral vision caught her movement, but not one noise from her disturbed the night air. She closed the hatch carefully so there was only the tiniest snick of it clicking into place, then shifted to the balls of her feet and silently trotted across the paved driveway, headed straight for our position.
I let out a long, slow breath. I smiled and patted her shoulder, cupping my hand to muffle the sound. It took all my self-control to keep from pulling her into a hug, which I never would have lived down. Derek silently transferred a strap for her rifle and the sack with her climbing gear to her. He stood sentry while I helped her into her harness. She secured her weapon, then threw up her grappling hook beside ours.
“Ready,” she whispered.
“Go,” Derek said.
“Tactical, hold your position,” Jensen said over the comms.
