Page 60

MARA

T he flight went smoothly, which I hoped boded well for us moving forward. The Valor dropped down in the desert, and one by one, we unstrapped and exited the aircraft. Wes confirmed with the pilot that he would be waiting here for extraction, while the rest of us proceeded to our ride.

The JLTV—Joint Light Tactical Vehicle—was an armored car, similar in appearance to the Humvees I’d ridden on before.

They were small, though, intended to carry only four passengers at most, but light and faster than any other transport vehicle.

This one was painted in hues of beige and browns, blending in with the desert sand and dirt all around us—incredibly well camouflaged.

Matias opened the driver-side door and slipped into the chair.

Turning the vehicle over, the engine revved to life, and the dashboard of the vehicle featured a screen that lit up, bathing the cabin in pale hues of white and blue.

The screen flickered, now displaying a map, and I watched silently as Matias inputted our GPS coordinates for the interception point.

Javier opened the front passenger side door. “? Vas a manejar, amigo?”

Matias didn’t even look at my cousin as he typed into the screen. “ English , Latin King.”

Javier laughed, slipping into the seat and buckling up. “Are you driving?”

“I always drive.” As if to confirm it, he finished slipping into the chair and closed his door.

“Well, I guess that means I’m in the backseat,” I muttered, pulling my legs into the cabin of the vehicle, door still open.

“I’d switch with you, primita, but your boyfriend scares me.” His tone couldn’t have been less serious.

“I highly doubt that, Javi. I saw how you two were on that mat.”

He snickered.

Matias turned in his seat, shaggy swaths of brown hair falling over his brow as he looked at me. “I’d invite you to sit in my lap, but it’d make it hard to drive.” He had the audacity to waggle his brows at me, and I couldn’t help but giggle at his ridiculousness.

“If I ever hear you inviting Mara to sit in your lap,” Wes said at my side, causing me to jump at his sudden presence, “there will definitely be problems, Alvarez.”

Matias lifted his hands up in mock surrender. “Understood, boss.”

I raised a hand to my lips, trying to hide my silly grin. Matias’s face was alight with mischief as he turned around to face the front, while Wes looked like he was about to hurt someone.

“Lighten up, Senor Presidente. We’ve got a long ride. Save up all that murderous energy for Apex.” Javi’s deviant smirk told me he was enjoying goading Wes a little too much.

I stepped in. “Would you two just focus? We have a job to do, remember?”

Javier gave me a knowing smile. “Claro que sí, prima. Whatever you say.” Then he turned around and faced forward.

Wes walked around the vehicle and got in on the opposite side of me.

We all buckled up, and then we were off, driving into the twilight.

Matias wore night vision goggles as he drove, keeping the headlights off to minimize someone seeing us.

I doubted anyone was out patrolling this far from the Telvian wall, but caution was a good idea since we had this one opportunity for success. We couldn’t risk failure.

At some point, Wes reached out and took hold of my hand, interlacing our fingers as he stared out the window.

My heart fluttered at the rough warmth of his palm, and I had to resist the urge to pull him toward me for a kiss.

I peeled my gaze off of him and looked out the window, amazed by how many stars you could see when the sky wasn’t polluted by city lights. I admired them for the hour drive.

When we finally reached the hills that would be our interception point, Matias found a spot off the road that concealed our vehicle from sight in any direction.

We all got straight to work. The back end of our vehicle was loaded with our gear—everything from stunners, handguns, ammo, battery clips, and all our explosives.

We would need to wait and see what we could actually carry once we got a look at the uniforms we’d be borrowing from the maintenance crew.

What we were after at this particular moment was our electrical road strip.

It was a coiled mass, heavy as could be, that both Javier and Wes had to lift in tandem to the road.

My cousin worked on unraveling it, stretching it across the expanse of the street, all the way to the other side.

Matias worked on connecting it to the jumper box that would power the strip with an electrical charge.

When that maintenance truck drove over it, the strip would zap the vehicle, temporarily disabling all electrical functions in the car.

And since all Telvian vehicles were electric, that would bring it to a beautiful, perfect stop.

“Is it on?” I asked.

Matias eyed the jumper box, pushing buttons and flicking on a switch. The machine gave a soft purr and then buzzed, letting us know it was ready.

“I’m pretty sure that’s a yes ,” he said, giving me one of his boyish smiles .

While the rest of my team finished preparing the strip and securing it in place, I went back to the car and grabbed a stunner.

It was a non-lethal weapon, almost like a 9mm handgun with the exception of its coloring—silver and details in electric blue.

It was the weapon of choice for Dissenters, trying to kill as few Telvians as possible and wanting to incapacitate them instead.

I checked it to make sure it was in good working order, and then grabbed a battery clip and loaded the stunner.

My next weapon to prepare was the Glock—all black and just as heavy as the stunner.

I grabbed a magazine and slammed it into the butt of the gun, clicking it into place.

I laid them side-by-side, one silver and one black, light and dark.

One preserved life while the other had the capacity to steal it.

Two sides of the same goal—incapacitate the enemy and make it out alive.

I blew out a breath, feeling the weight of the task at hand.

A part of me felt good, finally back in the saddle, accomplishing the objective assigned to me by my brother as he died.

Another part was worried. Our plan sounded simple enough, but there were so many unknown variables. How many things could go wrong?

Countless.

And I had this gnawing feeling that something was going to go wrong. It was taking everything inside of me to keep from spiraling into the dark pit, from crumbling at dark thoughts that threatened to swallow me whole. I couldn’t let myself go there. I had to focus.

“Are you all right?”

I turned my head as Wes came to stand at my side.

He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the vehicle.

God, he looked so gorgeous. The hair pulled back in a tight man bun at the nape of his neck allowed every perfectly chiseled feature of his face to stand out.

His mission jumpsuit accented every detail of his well-toned body, creating a low throb deep inside me.

“Yeah, I’m just nervous.” I had no qualms with telling him the truth. Not anymore .

His eyes glittered like the stars above, slowly fading as the faintest hues of the sunrise to come tinted the sky in pinks and purples on the horizon.

He leaned in just an inch as he spoke softly to me.

“We can do this. And when we make it home alive”—he pushed off the car, taking my hips into his hands, drawing me to him as his voice dropped low—“I will love every inch of you.”

I shuddered, feeling him wrap around me. “Promise?”

He pressed his forehead to mine. “I give you my word.”

I closed my eyes, breathing in the comforting scent of him. “Please tell me we won’t die today.”

I felt the brush of his nose against mine, and then his lips caressed my mouth in the softest of touches with a whisper. “I won’t let you die today.”

“That’s not what I—”

Wes kissed me, stealing my words. And when I finally remembered what I had asked him, Javier interrupted us with the unsettling news that the truck was on its way, far earlier than expected—headlights gleaming off in the distance as the sun rose to the east. Wes cursed under his breath, letting me go as I grabbed my weapons and holstered them.

My stomach dipped as the natural rise of anxiety over what was about to happen took over, and all of my senses heightened.

With a crack of his neck, Wes loaded his own gun and pulled back the slide.

The bullet loaded into the chamber with a satisfy ting as metal hit metal.

Holding the gun in his right, he reached for my hand, capturing my attention as he pressed his lips against my knuckles.

“Whatever happens, Mara, stay with me. Okay? We stick together no matter what.”

I nodded, smiling weakly as he gave me one last kiss, and my heart raced in my chest. I didn’t need Wes to watch over me anymore, not like before.

I was perfectly capable of taking care of myself.

But the sentiment still brought a wave of emotions—love and hope and giddy glee—as I relished the thought that this was my promised.

Wes had given me my wings, and now he was going to help me fly.