Page 70 of Domino
“Training. When you go through sniper training, they teach you to lay in the most uncomfortable positions for the longest times. It’s part of the job. You just learn to block out your discomfort.”
“Glad I never went through sniper training. I would have sucked at it.”
“Tell me about it.”
I watch as a lizard with a gray-green color with blue stripes down its side scurries by. It stops when it spots me, then takes off again, moving rapidly away. Not a muscle on me twitches.
“Great. Now, we’ve got the creepy crawlies out here with us,” Cosmo mutters.
“They’re probably saying the same thing about you.”
He smirks, then looks up at me. “How much have you told Ashley about the MC? About what we do?”
“Everything,” I reply.
“Everything?”
I nod. “I owe her my honesty. Didn’t you tell your wife everything?”
“I did. Took some time, but I did eventually, yeah. It’s how I knew I was serious about her.”
“I feel like you’re trying to make a point,” I say.
“Smartass. But yeah, I am. I’m sayin’ it sounds like you’re serious about this girl. You risked her running away for the sake of being transparent with her. That’s no small thing. And the fact that she didn’t run away and is sticking by you, that’s an even bigger thing. It’s a rare, good woman who doesn’t balk when she hears the kind of shit we get into.”
I make a minor adjustment on my scope as I replay the conversation with her in my head last night. Ash is scared as hell for me right now and I know she has to be sitting on a razor’s edge, waiting to hear from me. I hate that I can’t call her until this is all over with just to let her know I’m all right. But I won’t break operational security for anything. It’s the cardinal rule.
I doubt there’s anybody out here packing the kind of surveillance equipment that can detect cell phones, but when I’m in the field, I don’t take chances, and I don’t make assumptions. That’s a sure way to get your team killed and I won’t risk Cosmo’s life like that. He’s got a wife and kids to think of.
“Well, she wasn’t too thrilled with what we’re up to today,” I say.
“No?”
“Was Cathy?”
“I… uhhh… I didn’t tell her what we had planned for the day.”
“I thought you were transparent with her.”
“I am. Mostly. Dude, she would have kicked my ass and tied me to a chair to keep me from coming out here.”
“Maybe I should have called her.”
“Maybe you should make sure we both get out of here in one piece and back to those fine women we love?”
“That’s the plan.”
“Heads up,” he says, his voice suddenly firm. “I think it’s go time.”
Through my scope I follow to where he’s looking, and I see a cloud of dust rising. Vehicles moving this way. My gut tightens and I clench my jaw, doing my best to settle my nerves.
“Lay still. Completely still. I have no doubt they’ve got men scanning the area. And if they catch sight of us, we’re toast,” I say.
Cosmo says nothing but flattens himself against the ground. He raises a pair of binoculars and looks toward the vehicles headed this way. With the sun behind us, I don’t have to worry about the light glinting off the lenses of his binoculars the way it’s hitting the windshields of the inbound cars, giving away our position.
“One black SUV, two white follow vans, and three bikes. Looks like Ortega and his crew,” Cosmo says.
“To the east,” I say, catching movement from the corner of my eye.
