Page 115 of Fighting With Light

“We can’t save everyone, but we can try to save them,” Kai says.

“Alright, what’s the plan, Emmy?” I ask him.

He glares at me and points at the map. “Since we only have a grenade or two…we need to place each here and here,” he says, pointing to the entry road and where it appears they are cooking. It’s hard to tell because there are no windows, only smoke coming out of the top.

“Then we need to make it back to the tent in time to get them and get out before anyone knows what we’re doing.”

“Aelia, go with Liam to place the one by the road and cover him. I’ll go with Kai, and he can cover me.”

“You’re the better shot, brother. I’ll go,” Kai protests.

Emerson shakes his head. “And you have a family to get home to.”

They stare at each other heavily for a moment, and Kai dips his head once.

“Well, I’m sure glad I packed the ones with time delays. They will give us three minutes. Placethem and run.”

I pull one out of my bag Emerson brought from home and hand it to him. He puts it in his bag and we leave to do our jobs.

“I sure hope I’m on your good side enough to not let me get shot,” I whisper to Aelia.

She shoots me a look. “Shut up and focus.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

We get back to our lookout spot and wait to see if any guards are about to walk past as they shift again. There is a gap in their security when the guards move to a different area. It leaves about a minute of open space before another guard shows up. I unhook my rifle from the strap and hand it over to Aelia.

“Do you—” She cuts me off, mashing her fingers against my lips, and turns her head towards the guard, who stopped to pee. We stay still holding our breath until he resumes walking past us. I purse my lips and kiss her bloody fingers.

Aelia glances at her watch and we wait while she gets into position with the rifle. The shift changes and I take my moment running across the road to where it drops down off a cliff to a river below. The blast might collapse the road, which would work in our favor. I place it, pull the small pin, and run back. Aelia looks around one more time right as the new guard walks past us. We wait for him to walk a few more feet, then take off back towards the other side of the camp where the women and kids are being held.

My rifle is strapped around her shoulders. “You’re really sexy with my rifle on, princess.”

“Another time, Tarzan,” Aelia says tightly.

We get closer to the tents, and I see movement out of the corner of my eye and don’t think, pulling my pistol. My brothers pause and make the sound. I holster my gun, and they breathe heavily behind me. Reaching for the strap to my rifle, I tug it back over Aelia’s head and hook it back to my strap.

“Let’s hope this works,” Kai mutters.

“It will. It has to,” Aelia says.

I glance at my watch, we have less than sixty seconds until they go off. The mountains still as we wait in tense anticipation for the explosion about to cause chaos. I grab the back of Aelia’s neck and pull her back.

“You stay behind us until it’s time to get in the tent, do you understand me? No Jane shit, got it?”

Her eyes flare with irritation and I give her a dark look. She finally relents and rolls her eyes. I’ll take that as an agreement.

I check my watch again. “Ten seconds,” I mutter.

We all brace ourselves to run the moment they go off.

The one by the road goes off, and it booms against the mountains. Yells echo after the blast, and like clockwork, the next one explodes.

“Go, go,” Emerson says.

We take off for the tent where the women and children are being held, moving as a unit, exactly how we were trained. A man spots us, and I tap my trigger, dropping him. Emerson leads the group with Kai and me, bracketing him in with Aelia between all of us.

Shouts ring out, and it looks like one grenade made something catch fire. The chemicals used to make cocaine are highly flammable, and it wouldn’t take much. We reach the tent, and Emerson steps to the side, peeping his head in, and holds the flap open for Aelia.