From a bench that ran the length of the vehicle off the colonel’s right, he leaned in. “Sir, have you heard from Tessa since she went to Tennessee?”
On the far side of the van, he was aware Hunter and Logan shared a glance, but he ignored them, focusing on their father and the regret that tightened his face.
“She called this morning just before we got on the plane. Unfortunately, she lost her father overnight.”
Fuck. Tessa had to be torn up. She was in Tennessee with the stepmother who didn’t know or like her, handling all her grief without a strong arm or a supportive shoulder. Sure, she was a tough woman, but Zy wished he could be there with her, for her.
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“I’ll pass on your condolences.”
“Thank you.”
Then they fell silent. The sun began to inch toward the horizon behind them. The wind whipped a cloud of dirt around the van.
When they passed the rickety bridge over the creek running parallel to the lonely highway, Zy locked his shit down and wired it tight. If he didn’t focus now, he could fuck everything up for the whole team. Any one of them who didn’t have their head screwed on could.
Tension pinged around the van. The air smelled like adrenaline and anticipation. Everyone wanted to take Montilla down almost as much as they wanted to rescue Laila and bring Walker home in one piece. They wanted the drug lord’s blood for fucking with one of their own.
“Stop here,” he directed the colonel when he caught sight of the rock cluster he’d marked with black spray paint earlier. “This is the path to the fuel dump.”
“Once you’ve checked everything on your end and we’re in position, I’ll give you my go,” Hunter said before he reached for his weapon, then turned to the others. “The blasts will detonate west of the compound. Just to recap: while Montilla’s men are all distracted by Zy’s explosion, Logan, Joaquin, and Cutter will head in from the north. Josiah, you’ll come with me and we’ll approach from the south, where Laila says there’s one less guard. Then we’ll start a systematic search by quadrants. You know your sectors, right?”
The group nodded.
Logan went on. “Whoever finds Walker first, radio in. If he’s unable to get out on his own two feet—for whatever reason—holler. Your nearest teammate will help. Everyone else will continue the search for Laila. She promised to stay close to One-Mile, so hopefully they can be extracted together. If we need to buy more time, I’ll radio Zy to light up the next target, a…” He scowled. “What is it, Garrett?”
“Generator station. But once I hit it, everything will go dark.” And more chaos would ensue.
“So let’s try not to need it,” Logan put in. “Any questions?”
The group shook their head.
“Zy will be waiting in the chopper at the extraction point to the east. Like Dad said, he’ll have the backup position by this bridge on the side of the road. Joaquin has greased the appropriate palms and cleared our path out, so let’s do this right. And don’t get dead.”
If that was Logan’s idea of a joke, it was lousy. But no one said a word as Zy hopped out and the van sped off. Behind some brush, he approached the remote fuel station. Montilla and his boys must be pretty smug, because the only security they had out here was a chain-link fence, a padlock, and a sign in Español that told people this was private property and to keep the fuck out.
With a shrug, Zy ducked through the hole he’d cut earlier, then checked all the C4 he’d put in place. Everything was ready to go.
After squirming back through the enclosure, he clambered across the wilderness toward the power station, arcing around the compound and tucking behind the scrub, just in case some jack hole with binoculars had eagle eyes. But his clock was ticking. Caleb would be dumping everyone else in the van off in about two minutes, and he couldn’t leave them like a guy at a party with his dick dangling.
He got a little help from more winds that kicked up and allowed him to haul ass the last few hundred yards in a swirl of dust. The remote power site was even less protected, so double-checking his work here took about fifteen seconds.
Zy withdrew his radio. “I’m a go.”
“Copy that,” Logan affirmed. “We’re in position. Do it.”
Despite all the problems and all the shit, Zy pushed the button and watched the remote fuel dump explode with a grin. The sight gave him a sick pleasure that made him feel a little like a four-year-old, but the power of the blast and the resulting destruction awed him. It was a force of nature he could create and harness. And after the fire finished blazing, only ashes remained—from which something new and better could rise.