men descended the plane steps and into the night, lit only by the airport street lamps, she wondered what was myth and what was fact about each of them. Considering their team was legendary, it was hard to piece out the truth. Except what she’d seen with her own eyes, of course.
Zander strode right past her car. “Let’s go.”
The four of them were all dirty and exhausted. Badger had a smudge of blood on his cheek. She glanced between them. “You guys okay?”
Zander was already out of earshot.
Two of the guys were the jokesters and Badger was one of them. She had no idea where he got his moniker. He was blonde and California-surfer tanned. He cracked a smile while the youngest teammate, the stoic one, headed for an SUV. “Fun was had.”
“So...you got in a firefight and almost died?”
Badger lifted one finger. “Almost is the fun part.”
Bridget shook her head. “I need to get to Sasha.”
“I know.” He slung an arm across her shoulders. “We’re all coming.”
She started to object.
“You know that don’t work, darlin’.”
They were exhausted, fresh off a mission, and still rolling out to help her. “I think I’m gonna tear up.”
Badger cracked a laugh. She elbowed his side, and he hopped three steps. “Ow. Broken ribs.”
“You should’ve told me!” They all climbed into the helicopter, and she was handed a headset. “You and me both, though.”
Badger raised a brow.
“It’s been an interesting week.”
Zander called out, “Everyone ready?”
The youngest team member shut the door and sealed the five of them inside. Zander lifted off, and they were in the air.
Bridget stared out the window. “Thanks for doing this.”
“Nowhere else we’d rather be.” Badger squeezed her knee.
“I can’t believe you guys were able to get here just in time to help me.”
Zander was the one who said, “That’s what God does. You know that.”
She did. Still, there were so many more questions. She knew she was supposed to have simple faith but hadn’t been naïve and given over to blind faith for years. She’d left childish notions behind and now was far too aware of how the world worked to just allow herself to believe without question.
“Why would He dangle in front of me everything I ever wanted, and at the same time let me know there’s no way I’ll ever get it?”
Badger nudged her. “What’s going on?”
She thought of Aiden, and the soft look that had come over his face when whoever had called—or texted—him. Then she thought of the night she left town. Discovering she was pregnant two weeks later. Then, giving birth to a beautiful daughter only to have her snatched away in tragedy. Bridget visited the grave regularly. It was her only concession in a world where she had to carefully guard everything she was about so as not to risk the security of the work she did.
“Doesn’t matter.” She brushed off the thoughts and tried to smile. “Sasha is our priority right now.”
“We are going to talk later.”
She rolled her eyes at Badger. “Make me.”
He grinned, allowing her to move the conversation to a lighter place. “Challenge accepted.”
As soon as the chopper set down in the parking lot of an elementary school—thankfully it was past midnight, and a Saturday—they piled out. She hoped no one was woken up by the noise.
“Your location is half a mile west of here. Let’s go.” Zander handed her a bulletproof vest, and they jogged as a group.
Soon as they rounded the corner, a gas station came into view. Bridget checked her phone. “Behind the building.”
Two of the team members broke off and went around the north side. One headed into the gas station, and she and Zander rounded it to the south. The back alley held an overflowing trash bin and a bike against the wall.
She glanced around. Where are you? If Sasha had been attacked, then they’d find a dead body here—either Sasha’s or whoever had come after her. Someone would have died in an exchange like that. Sasha lived that kind of life.
Alternatively, Sasha could have triggered the emergency notification just before being kidnapped, and then dropped the phone so that it registered her as still being here. But Bridget didn’t see how Sasha would let herself get kidnapped. It just wasn’t in her nature to allow something like that, at least not without some bloodshed or evidence of a scuffle. There weren’t even any tire marks on the asphalt.
Bridget pinged Sasha’s phone. On a normal day, it would light up and play a tune,