Page 83 of Protecting Bree
“No one goes out alone. Stay together. And for God’s sake, keep your tracker on you at all times. The last thing I need is any ofyouguys going missing with no way to fucking track you,” Kevlar bitched.
Everyone nodded their agreement.
“Everyone takes a pack with medical supplies and extra food and water. When we do find them, we have no idea what condition they’ll be in. Stay in the shadows. We don’t want to come on the militia’s radar. We don’t need to betheir targets, along with every-fucking-thing else we have going on. Find Smiley and Bree and get the hell out. That’s our mission. Understood?”
“Hoo-ah!”
“Affirmative.”
“Hell yeah!”
Kevlar had confidence in his team, but this situation was way too fluid for his liking. They had no idea where to start looking for Smiley and Bree. The atmosphere in the streets was volatile. And the last thing they wanted was to get in the middle of a hostile takeover of the government. Tex and the women working with him could get them out of the country, but if things continued in the direction they were going, it was likely planes would be grounded and it would become more and more difficult to be extracted.
As the men got ready to head out and continue their search, Kevlar sighed. “Where are you, Smiley?” he murmured.
Smiley was frustrated. He had no clue where he was. He had a feeling he was walking in circles. No, it wasn’t a feeling. Heknewhe was going in circles, as he recognized a building he’d passed for the second time.
His team would be giving him so much shit right now. He’d never wished so hard for a compass, or to have Preacher or MacGyver at his back. Feeling as if he was letting Bree down completely—any one of his teammates would have found the motel they were staying at by now—Smiley’s responses to her infrequent questions had gotten more and more curt.
She hadn’t spoken for the last twenty minutes or so, as Smiley tried to figure out if they’d already been down the current street yet or not. Nothing looked familiar, so he had to hope that he hadn’t gotten them turned around,again.
A quiet noise to his left had him looking over at Bree. He was appalled to see tears on her cheeks. Her swollen eye had looked a little better earlier, but he imagined it was still difficult to see out of. And now she was crying?Fuck.
“Bree?” he asked, stopping in his tracks.
“I’m fine,” she told him, trying to tug him forward, to no avail.
Smiley backed her up against the wall of a building and bent his head, trying to catch her gaze. But she was staring at his chest and refused to look at him.
“Talk to me,” he ordered gruffly.
She sighed and wiped her cheek with her shoulder. “Why? You’ll just get madder.”
“Mad? I’m not mad.”
She snorted.
“Okay, I’m not mad atyou.”
“I’m sorry, Smiley. You shouldn’t be here at all. I don’t know what I could’ve done differently, but maybe if I was smarter, or stronger, orsomething…we wouldn’t be here now. Lost in the middle of some kind of uprising. You wouldn’t have had to kill those people at the port or conked those other men on the head. You wouldn’t have had to steal these clothes from someone who probably needs them more than me. Your stomach wouldn’t be growling because you made me eat that entire loaf of bread by myself.”
Smiley was distraught by what he was hearing. Looking around, he desperately searched for a place where they could sit and rest. And talk. He’d fucked this up, obviously, and he needed to fix it. Immediately.
Without a word, he picked up Bree and held her against his chest. It was unconscionable that he was wandering around fucking lost while Bree, who was weak from lack of food and water, andinjured, had to stumble around after him.
“Smiley!” she protested, even as she looped her arm around his neck.
As he walked toward what he thought was an apartment building, Smiley got an idea. He wasn’t getting anywhere walking around on the streets; the only thing he was doing was exposing both of them to the eyes of civilians who could make a call to the number on that fucking flier. Smiley wasn’t going to let anyone take Bree. No way in hell.
He needed to get off the streets, figure out where the hell they were and which direction to go, while staying under Castillo’s radar. He needed to get a lay of the land. Figure out a plan. And let Bree get some stress-free rest.
So…he was going up.
He should’ve done this hours ago. He’d get to the top of this building, where hopefully there’d be access to the roof.
“Smiley!” Bree said again. “I can walk.”
“But you aren’t going to,” he said.
