Page 15 of Breached

I shoved Keith’s shoulder, and he bumped into John who turned around with an annoyed expression, then he looked over my shoulder.

“Heads up and stand firm, brother,” he said softly and I turned.

Paul,” Frank called from where he stood at the bottom of the stairs, “a word.” He stared me down. “That’s an order, not a request.”

Shit.

Nicole and I didn’t see each other until the next morning. She spent the night with Chase. I envied her. It was killing me that I had to say goodbye to him again, though this was only supposed to be a recon mission to find out what Sully Sanchez had to say. If it had anything to do with Bruno and we had the chance to take him out, we would. You never knew where any mission would take you, and our ultimate goal would be to get our hands on Bruno Perez alive or dead.

Nicole sat between Mike and Keith in the helicopter on our way to another airfield where we’d meet a plane. I knew she avoided me in case I’d try to talk her out of coming. I should have taken the time to tell her I understood and was proud she had stood up to make herself count. I had beaten myself up on it before I finally fell asleep in the wee hours. I knew it was wrong, but I realized I was afraid to acknowledge it in fear it would encourage her. Shit, I never thought I’d care about anyone again the way I did Talya. I guessed I was wrong, because what I had with Nicole was deeper than anything I’d felt before.

“Feels like old times, hey, brother?” John said over the radio in French. Nicole looked over and glared. I was sure she was mentally adding French to her list of languages to learn. “You want to tell me what Frank wanted? Or should I guess?” My face fell, not wanting to relive that conversation. “Yeah, okay.” He got it.

“Yellow,” I said in English, and the team all looked over at me. They knew that it meant we needed a team meeting, and for me to pull that card on a trip like this spoke volumes. I was done.

“Yellow?” Nicole asked, and Mike put his hand on hers and shook his head. She thankfully let it go.

We touched down in New Mexico on a private jet hours later. We didn’t dare fly commercial into a main airport. Bruno would have men everywhere. We loaded onto another chopper and flew to a base ten miles away from where Nicole was meeting Sully.

Once we landed, we were ready to go and dressed in our OCP gear, boots, vests, and with our rucksacks flung over our backs we arrived at the base that would be our assembly area and met up with the team Cole had in place to start recon on the compound. They gave us a quick debrief as Frank went over again with Nicole what she could and couldn’t offer Sully. It wasn’t needed. Nicole knew what she had to do, but Frank insisted on going over it one more time. She was a professional and understood rank, so she just stood and quietly listened to his warning for the third time since last night.

I was angry when I realized Frank would be coming along. He should have stayed back and communicated with us by radio. But he had insisted on coming, and it didn’t sit right with any of us. I saw Cole’s face as he listened to him warning Nicole and knew he was about done with him as well. The man was becoming more and more of a liability, but the higher ups, in their wisdom, had left him in place, and we had no choice but to follow his direction.

I had the phone we set up to forward Nicole’s calls to, and it alerted me Sully was at his location and ready to meet her.

“Time to go,” I called, and Frank held up a hand to wait, and he spoke again to Nicole. I glanced at Cole, who took a deep breath and let me know to stay cool. Frank seemed to be making an issue out of showing his authority.

Minutes later, Frank let Nicole go, and we headed out to the waiting Land Rovers.

“Hey.” Nicole stopped me as I opened the door of the vehicle for her. She was going to be driving in solo. “Why would Frank warn me that Eric Noah might show up?” I froze. “Do you guys have eyes on him too? If so, I need to be in the loop.”

What the fuck, Frank?

“We’ve got eyes on a lot of people. I’m not sure why he’s singling out Noah, but I’ll find out what he’s up to.” I shot a nasty look his way. “Focus on Sully, get what you can out of him, and keep this beating.” I poked her chest, indicating her heart. Then I double tapped her hip to get into the vehicle. “We won’t be far away. Use the code at the slightest thing that doesn’t seem right.”

“Roger.” She smiled, and I stepped back as she pulled away.

I waited for John to roll up, then I jumped in the front.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fucking Frank, fuck!” I shouted and smacked the dash.

“Talk to me.”

“Frank told her Eric Noah might be here.”

“The fuck he do that for?” John glanced at me in shock.

“The son of a bitch is setting me up.” I was furious. “I never agreed to go back under cover.”

John’s lips were in a fine line as he looked at me. “Looks like you might have no choice,” he replied, and I knew by his voice he was as angry as I was.

As we drove, I fumed about Frank. He had a one-track mind, and I knew it was focused on the one mission he needed to win before he retired. He wanted to be the general who led the team that would tear down a major chunk of the Cartel industry. And I was about to be his puppet.

“Fuck it,” I curled my lip, “he wants to use me, he can, but we’re playing by my rules now.”

I texted Frank.

FIVE