Page 4 of Russian Rescue

“Exactly,” I said. “So, we have to start from scratch and assume nothing.”

“How the hell are we gonna find Wes without Wes?” Marcus exhaled a sigh.

“He said the guy he knows on Elite Stealth Force Delta can do it. Brooks is his name.”

“We’re not trusting Pretty Boy’s rescue to some other team. Fuck that. The only people I trust to get him out is us,” Knox growled. “Those government bastards left me behind when I needed them, and we’re not letting the same thing happen to Wes. Not to mention, if they find out the Russians have Wes, they’re just as likely to bomb his location than save him. They won’t let him fall into enemy hands, no matter what. No. We go in as a team. Us. Only us.”

“Yes,” Marcus said. “He’s our team member, and we’re the ones going to get him.”

“We will.” I agreed with their thoughts that mirrored mine that the government couldn’t find out about Wes’s capture. “We’re not sending another Elite Stealth Force team after him, and we’re not letting them know he’s been taken. But we do need someone who can find him for us. Wes says we can trust Brooks to work under the radar, so I do too. We need to find him. Wes gave me his Xbox gamertag name. I don’t game, so I have no idea what the hell that means. We need to get him a message, and we need to make it clear that no one other than him can be privy to this information.”

“I have an Xbox,” Knox cut in. “Luca and I play all the time. I know how to find someone based on their gamertag. Hold on.”

I spelled out the gamertag name as I listened to his huge feet thudding through his house. It was strange to think of big, tattoo-covered badass Knox living in a house playing Xbox with a kid, but that was his retirement life now. He’d met Lucia, the woman of his dreams, last year. She’d come complete with a kid of her own. Sweet little guy name Luca. It was like a just-add-water family, and now Knox was living in the mountains with a wife and a kid, and they were planning on another baby soon.

“You get it?” Marcus asked.

“Working on it,” Knox answered.

Marcus had also gone and started a family a couple years ago. He’d met a beautiful chemist down in the Amazon, and now they had one little girl. It was strange to picture my hardass team leader changing dirty diapers, but every time I called to catch up, he never sounded happier.

The rest of my team seemed settled into their new lives after our retirement, but I still felt restless. For me, I needed the kill. Not because I was some blood-thirsty psycho, but because everyone on this planet had a purpose, and mine just happened to be snuffing out the lives of some of the most rotten, ruthless bastards around. Nothing brought me more satisfaction than getting up close and personal and seeing the light fade from the eyes of the sickest sons of bitches alive. I lived for that moment their light clicked off, and I got justice for all the lives they’d ruined. All the people they’d hurt and killed. All the lives I knew I’d saved when theirs became forfeit. I reveled in the moment they took their last breath. For me, being part of Elite Stealth Force meant I had a license to do what I was put on this planet to do—what I was super fucking good at.

Killing some bad motherfuckers.

And now, my sights were set on the ones who had taken our Pretty Boy.

“Got him!” Knox said. “I’m sending him a coded message now.”

“As soon as you hear something, get in touch with us, stat,” Marcus responded. “And make sure he knows not to breathe a word of this to anyone. In the meantime, everyone get ready to go. As soon as we have a location, we move.”

“I’m already packed and ready. I’ve got a go-bag in my Jeep,” I answered. Even though we’d retired, I still had a go-bag with me at all times. Unlike the other two, I didn’t have a spouse or kids to part with, so all I had to do was get a location, and I was off.

“I’ll keep you guys posted,” Knox said. “We can’t leave him there long. That’s our Pretty Boy.”

I knew Knox understood better than anyone what Wes must be going through. I’d gotten in some sticky situations myself, but thanks to my team, I’d never been captured. Even though I’d been trained on how to endure torture and captivity, Wes hadn’t, so this must all be petrifying to him. And thinking of Wes hurt or scared nearly shattered me into a million pieces.

“We’ll get him,” Marcus confirmed.

It soothed me knowing that the two of them adored Wes as much as I did. He was family, and he had three of the most capable operatives in the world now lasering in on finding him. He just had to stay strong until we got there.

We’re coming, Wes.

CHAPTER TWO

Wesley

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A warm breeze blows off the ocean. It smells salty, like the rim of the margarita in my hand. I take a sip as the warm sun beats down on me. It tastes good, sour and sweet. Piper calls my name. I look up over the rim of my glass to see her jogging toward me out of the ocean, her black bikini barely covering her...

Ow! Fuck! I screamed inside my head as another jolt of electricity coursed through me.

Nope. Didn’t work. Again.

I’d never gone through the special ops training Knox, Marcus, and Piper had taken since, as the computer guy, I hadn’t needed it. But I’d heard about a lot of the techniques they’d learned, including the ones to endure torture. Shut down your mind, go somewhere else, focus on the small details, and live somewhere inside your head.

It turned out missing that training was a big mistake because that whole living inside my head thing? Epic fail. As hard as I tried, all I could focus on were the two men in the room shocking me with paddles while I dangled from the ceiling in my underwear.