kept sprinting his way.
Josiah darted almost shoulder to shoulder with Cutter, carrying a petite brunette who looked naked except for a bath towel she clutched around her body. That must be Laila. She hurled insults at the goons on their tail.
When they’d almost reached the chopper, Zy strapped in again. Logan scrambled in and helped Cutter tumble a naked One-Mile onto the hard metal surface.
Zy got a look at him then. Holy fuck, Walker didn’t even look like the same man. Besides looking twenty pounds lighter, the sniper had been stripped bare and beaten within an inch of his life. Blood covered his face, oozing from black-and-blue lesions. A glance told him the sniper’s jaw had probably been broken. And when Cutter rolled him to one side to make more room for the others incoming, his back looked as if it had been torn to shreds with a chainsaw.
If One-Mile didn’t die before they reached safety, Zy would be shocked.
Hunter followed, perching just inside as he fired at Montilla’s henchmen, while Josiah leapt into the back with the brunette in his arms. Logan pulled them in deeper, then shouted at his brother, who slammed the door shut. He turned Zy’s way with a hand gesture that said to take the chopper up, but Zy was already on it, lifting the bird into the sky—away from the remaining enemies, who were still shooting.
It had been a hot minute since he’d flown one of these, and Zy gripped the yoke, swerving and feinting to avoid enemy bullets hitting something vital, like the fuel tank, and killing them all. Slowly, the pelting projectiles stopped pinging the side of the chopper. And thank fuck no one had come with their RPG.
As Logan radioed the colonel to bug out, Zy let out a sigh of relief, increased the altitude, and headed for the private airfield due north—and home.
Finally, something in Mexico had gone their way.
September 19
Eleven days after Tessa boarded a plane to Tennessee to see her dad and hopefully hold his hand through his recovery, she was returning to Louisiana with a few of his prized possessions and some of the most bittersweet memories of her life. She hadn’t wanted to cry in front of all the strangers on her flight. She knew if she started, she might not stop.
Every muscle of her body ached with exhaustion when she was able to rise from her cramped seat. Hallie, who had been on her lap for the last few hours, fussed when Tessa set her back in the chair, but she blocked the aisle with her body and grabbed the portable playpen from the overhead before slinging the diaper bag from the floor. Thank goodness she’d gate-checked the stroller and wouldn’t have to schlep all this gear to the baggage claim.
And once she got there, the colonel would be waiting since he’d kindly volunteered to pick her up and give her a ride home. She’d tried to call Cash to tell him that she was catching a flight, but he hadn’t bothered to answer, probably because he slept all day.
Tessa hoped her house was still standing when she got there, but she was too tired to care about it—or him—right now.
Finally, she wedged herself and all her crap toward the plane’s narrow exit, pausing to pick up the stroller from the attendant so she could set Hallie down and stash her gear.
As she crossed the mostly empty terminal, it felt like a ghost town. She’d never seen the wide-open space with virtually no one filling it. All the restaurants were closed, the shops shuttered. Then again, it was after ten p.m. Hers was the last arriving flight today, thanks to her connection from Dallas being delayed. Night had fallen long ago. Darkness pressed in through the windows, making everything in her world seem bleak.
Hallie fussed, wanting to get out of the stroller and move around. The baby was also tired and hungry, and Tessa didn’t blame her. She simply didn’t have a way to deal with her daughter’s unhappiness until they got home.
Finally, she made her way to the bag claim, scanning the expansive area for her former boss.
What she saw instead made her heart seize up in her chest.
In a line next to her carousel was the colonel—along with the entire EM Security team—waiting for her. Hunter held a bright white bouquet of flowers. He and Logan, beside him, both looked banged up. Josiah and Cutter didn’t have too many scratches. Same with Joaquin.