huff. “And thank fuck for that. I tried my other contacts—one’s in the wind and the other is vacationing in fuckin’ Tahoe.”
“I got this,” I muttered. “Where’s she at?”
“She dropped a fuckin’ dot on her phone. You know what that means?”
“A pin?” I asked, surprised that I could feel amused and fucking frantic at the same time.
“Yeah. That. Sent it to Cam’s phone. He’ll send it to you.”
“That works,” I said as I stripped out of my jeans and flannel.
“You got back up?” he asked. “If you don’t, I can probably scramble some boys—just none that I’d be willing to lead the pack, if you know what I mean.”
I knew exactly what he meant, and I had no interest in having shitbird dumbfucks at my back.
“I’ve got a team,” I replied.
“Figures.”
“Anything else I should know?”
“She’s gonna be trigger-happy and ridin’ the edge,” he warned. “I let her know someone’s on the way, but you better fuckin’ announce yourself so she doesn’t shoot you.” He paused before muttering, “No promises that she doesn’t shoot anyway.”
“I’ll take my chances,” I replied, silently acknowledging the truth in his words. “I’ll let you know when we’re headed that way. Should take less than an hour.”
“Hurry, but don’t hurry so much that you’re stupid,” he said.
“You forget what I do for a living?” I asked, pausing in annoyance with my pants half-buttoned.
“Didn’t forget, that’s why I called you,” he replied. “But I also know how different shit is when it’s someone you care about.”
“I’m good,” I lied. “I’ll text you when it’s done. Send that pin.”
“It’s already sent,” he said before hanging up.
I checked my messages and found the pin that Cam sent, cursing when I realized it would take forty minutes to get there. San Diego County was fucking huge and the traffic sucked.
Scrolling through my contacts, I found the number I was looking for and pressed send.
“Just cause you don’t sleep, doesn’t mean I don’t,” Forrest answered groggily.
“Need your help,” I replied grimly.
His voice was immediately alert when he spoke again. “Talk to me.”
* * *
Ten minutes later, I’d reached out to each member of my team and Forrest was knocking on my front door.
“Josiah and Ephraim just pulled up behind me,” he said as he strode in the front door.
“Wilson and Eli should be here shortly,” I replied as I repacked the duffle bag on my kitchen table. “Lu said she was going to run over, should be walking in—”
I didn’t finish my sentence before the only woman on our team, Lu, was opening the sliding glass door that led to my back yard.
“Decided to just jump the fences,” she said, swinging her backpack off her shoulder. “Boys almost here?”
“Yep,” Forrest confirmed.
Within minutes, our entire team was crowded around my kitchen table, a seven-person unit that worked like a well-oiled machine.
“I don’t know much,” I said as I looked around the group. “Old friend called me tonight and said that his daughter is in trouble. She heard gunshots and hid in a closet of some house in La Jolla. Fair warning, I have no fucking clue what we’re walking into.”
“How old is this daughter?” Wilson asked.
“My age,” I replied, meeting his eyes.
“And you know her in the biblical sense?” he asked, his head tilting a little to the side. He must have read something in my tone or body language, but I couldn’t take the time to figure out what my tell had been.
“When we were teenagers,” I said with a short nod.
“I’m takin’ point,” Forrest said firmly.
I opened my mouth to argue then closed it again. He was right. It galled me to realize that I was too close to the situation to be objective.
“Vests, paint, and night vision,” Eli ordered. “Masks at the ready for when we get close enough for the cameras.”
“You know for sure if they have eyes?” Siah asked.
“It’s a house in La Jolla,” Eli replied. “They’ve definitely got cameras. We’ll avoid them if we can, but if we miss one, I don’t want any of our mugs on the six o’clock news.”
We geared up and climbed into Forrest’s black SUV and Ephraim’s Jeep. As soon as I was sitting, anxiety hit me so hard and fast that my knee started to bounce up and down. I didn’t even recognize the emotion for a second, because it had been so long since I’d felt it. I got nervous, sure. I felt fear. You didn’t put yourself into high risk situations and never feel those things—those instincts kept