Hostile Ground (The Arsenal #7) - Cara Carnes Page 0,134

of that, but let’s assume he knew about the mystery woman. Let’s also assume that this is about her.”

“It has to be,” Zoey said. “He’s been careful. He even cut himself up and shot himself when y’all let him go.”

“I saw that,” Jesse said. “Not sure that was the smart play. It weakened him.”

Wow. Okay, that was upper level deep cover shit that Addy admired. Some of the concern she had about Spade sloughed off.

“But walking out unscathed when nearly everyone else was carried out in a body bag wouldn’t have been smart,” Fallon said. “My boy’s crazy, not stupid.”

My boy. Addy admired Fallon for defending Spade even though he’d supposedly gone AWOL.

“We’re at the airport,” Kristof said as Addy shut the vehicle off.

She set the keys in the driver’s side visor where they’d been when she’d gotten the vehicle. Someone from Zoey’s network would pick the vehicle up, scrub it down for prints, refuel, and reposition it for use next time anyone needed it.

“Jesse and I will run everything through HERA,” Mary said. “Call us once you’re in the air, Z.”

“Okay.” Zoey shut her laptop when the call ended. She pocketed her phone and looked over at Addy, then back at Kristof. “I’m sorry I didn’t share everything about Spade, but he’s gotten a lot of intel for us. On Mandrake. He needs us to get him out.”

“Then we will,” Kristof said. “Let’s go.”

30

Kristof sprawled belly-down on the hard, damp ground on the edge of a wooded area. The coordinates Spade provided had marked an abandoned house three hundred yards from his current position. He swept the entire area with the high-tech scope mounted to the sniper rifle he’d been provided.

“I didn’t know you were a sniper,” Addy said.

“It’s one of the skills I’ve picked up along the way,” he said. “It’s proved useful through the years. Targets are sometimes easier to take out from a distance.”

“The Collective?”

Kristof nodded. “This scope is very sophisticated.”

“Bree designed it,” Levi said. “She and Vi redid it after Kamren field tested one of the other designs and had some suggestions.”

“Kamren is Dallas’s wife?”

“And a natural shooter.” Admiration filled Addy’s words. “Once you have a target identified, a green arrow will appear for the kill shot. It’s marked with triangles. Yellow squares indicate a non-lethal shot.”

“You sure you’re up for sniper position?” Lexi asked.

“It makes sense for me to take it. I haven’t trained with the teams aside from the op we did in Russia. I’d be more of a hindrance than an asset,” Kristof admitted. He had no problem admitting he was the weakest of the makeshift team around him.

Raul and his team would arrive eventually, but Addy expected trouble before their arrival, which meant it was up to him, Addy, Levi, and Lexi to help extract Spade and whatever mysterious person he may or may not have with him.

Unease crawled beneath Kristof’s skin. Addy did this sort of op all the time. While he admired The Arsenal’s incredible teamwork and perfection-level skillsets, he couldn’t help but worry about the woman he…loved.

Kristof cleared his throat and let the word roll around in his brain a couple moments. Yeah, he’d come to the conclusion easily days earlier. He was in love with Addison Rugers and would do anything to keep her safe and happy—even if it meant he worried. The work she did with her team was important to her and those their organization helped. He wouldn’t ever stand in the way of her passion, which meant he needed to either find a way to stand on the sidelines and cheer her on or man up and work his way onto a team.

Or work for Jud.

Drones flitted back and forth within the scope’s visual field. Beeps and clicks sounded on the com in his ear, but so far no one in the Operations area at the compound had spoken. Tension filled the awkward silence around him.

“Movement in the southeast, fifty yards from the house,” Mary said. “Sending drones to intercept. Move in.”

Addy pushed a button on her wrist apparatus. She, Levi, and Lexi sprinted from their makeshift blinds beside him and made their way toward the house. Levi went left while Lexi and Addy went right. When the two women were nearer the house, Addy went farther right, which meant she’d likely intercept whoever was approaching the house first.

“Kristof, it’s Bree,” a voice sounded in his com. “I know you’re new to the tech, so I figured I’d mentioned a few things that the