Page 41 of Single Teddy (Mayberry Protectors #6)

THIRTY-FIVE

TEDDY

M y heart was in my throat.

I knew my first shot had hit a target, but not to what extent.

And I knew Wesley was close. So close I could taste it. But first, I had to walk through hell and high water to get to him.

I broke cover and fired at the open boathouse window before ducking behind the SUV again. A bullet raced over my head and made the sand a few feet from me explode.

Slade took a shot before they retaliated. I turned to him and breathed in.

“How many are you counting?” I asked.

He grimaced.

“I count two, max three,” he replied.

I nodded. That was my guess too.

“Didn’t you say these people had an army?”

Slade looked around us and pressed his lips together.

“They do. They might be on the way. Or they might be packed inside waiting for us to storm in.”

“So there’s a chance he’s not here either,” I said.

Things didn’t add up. It would only make sense if Wesley and the boys weren’t anywhere close.

After the message we caught on the Android phone, we did what we set out to do. Get to work. Only for it to be derailed by chatter on GhostLink the moment we set foot outside.

The chatter in question? A message from an unknown sender with a location pin a mile away from the original one in Salisbury Beach and a simple question: “Are you coming?”

So with two locations so close by and two opposing pieces of intel, we made the best of the situation and approached both locations with caution.

“I don’t know, man,” Slade said after taking another shot. “This feels weird. If they’ve got the manpower, why aren’t they crowding us? They outnumber us.”

I nodded.

“Unless they don’t,” I said, and as I rose over the hood of the car to take a shot, I saw someone rush out the front door and duck behind the staircase that led to the boathouse.

A bullet clipped my ear before I could react or take a closer look, and I dropped to the ground behind the SUV.

“Who the fuck is that?” I asked Slade.

Slade lay on his back to look at the stranger.

“That’s—” he started and promptly stopped when a car appeared out of nowhere and swerved around the front door.

Before either of us could react, the passenger door opened and the driver’s window rolled down. Then the bullets rained down on us. If it weren’t for our cover, we’d have definitely caught strays. But they did the work they were meant for, and the stranger got away scot-free.

“Shit!” I spat. “Fuckers.”

“Alpha Team, we have a gateway car heading westbound. Black Camry. At least two occupants. Can you intercept?”

“Copy Bravo Team. We’ll attempt to intercept.” Wyatt’s voice crackled in my ear comms.

“Now what?” Slade glanced around us, at the quiet sand dunes. A quiet that was intermittently interrupted by a bullet from the window.

“Cover me. I’m going in,” I told him and readied myself.

If a hundred people were waiting inside that boathouse, they’d have come out already. At the very least, they’d have provided cover for the stranger’s gateway, but they hadn’t.

And the two enemy targets at the window were running low on ammo if the rate of their fire was any indication.

Slade crouched in position behind the car, and the moment I heard his fire, I jumped into action and advanced on the boathouse’s front door uninterrupted.

He was here.

I could feel it. I didn’t know how, but I could.

It might not feel right to Slade, or it might be suspicious that there wasn’t more backup or enemy fire, but I no longer gave two shits.

Wesley and the boys had suffered enough.

They needed out of this mess, and I couldn’t wait around any longer, twiddling my thumbs and hoping for some divine—or Ghostly—intervention.

Wesley needed me. The boys needed me. And I would not be able to live with myself if something happened to them because of indecision and uncertainty.

If this situation had taught me anything, it was that there was always uncertainty. Especially in the real world, and that was a tough pill to swallow. Out in the field, out on a mission, we relied on intel, and rarely did we go in blind.

The same couldn’t be said for the real world. We couldn’t prepare for attacks in real life. And that felt far more vicious. But I guess any situation involving loved ones was more dangerous than shooting at strangers in enemy territory.

My body was on fire as I leaped over the steps that led to the front door, and I paused, pressing my back to the side of the door to catch my breath and clear my thoughts. But not before I made a little prayer.

No.

Not a prayer.

A promise.

Once I saved Wesley and the boys, I’d make sure no harm came to them, or Bear, ever again.

I could hate Wyatt and everyone else all I wanted for dragging me here in the middle of a war when I had a child to look after.

And yeah. I didn’t know if I could forgive that.

But I’d also been a fool to think I could stay out of it.

I couldn’t. And I wasn’t going to rest until I took this enemy down, once and for all.

I took a deep breath and counted down from ten. With each number, I let go of fears, worries, stress, remorse, and guilt until there was nothing left but the mission goal.

Rescue Wesley and the boys. Eliminate the target.

“Bravo One, this is Bravo Two,” I said, pressing my ear comms and taking a deep breath. “I’m going in.”

I pushed myself off the wall, turned around, and crashed my foot through the door. It burst open with no effort. It took only a millisecond to scan the territory and locate Wesley and the boys. And no effort at all to find the two targets.

My first bullet found its home on the chest of a bald guy crouched in front of the window. The second dug deep in his throat, spraying his surroundings with blood.

Then I turned to the other one. The man of the hour. The scum of the earth. The father of the century.

Barnes.

His arm was soaked in blood, but he didn’t hesitate to fire at me. The recoil made him scream but his bullet only scraped past my chest. It barely even stung.

What did sting was the bullet I put through his forehead. He was dead before his head hit the ground, but I wasn’t done. I took another sweep at the building, just to make sure there were no nasty surprises. But there was nothing to hide behind. There was no one else there. It was over.

With a single breath, my bravado dissipated, and I turned to him .

“Wesley!” I practically jumped across the room and cupped his face, the green of his eyes making me both feel at home and breathless at the same time. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

I moved my hands from his face to his neck to his shoulders, checking every inch of him for any wounds, feeling my throat tighten with every shallow breath I took.

This didn’t feel real. It didn’t feel like he was in my arms, yet the warmth that emanated from him, from his eyes, his lips, was undeniable.

“I’m okay, Teddy. I’m okay. We’re okay,” he repeated over and over again until I finally believed it. “The boys. Can you untie them?”

I snapped out of it and turned my attention to Valentin and Niko, who were hiding behind Wesley, shaking like leaves.

Fuck.

In all my worry to save them, I didn’t even pause to think about what I was doing in front of kids. Children the same age as Bear. Kids who looked at me with big, wide eyes, quivering lips, and tears staining their cheeks.

“God,” I exhaled and glanced back at the dead bodies. “I’m…I’m sorry.”

I took a minute to scour the place, and when I found a sheet, I pulled the two bodies close to one another and covered them. Before I turned to Wesley and the twins, I glanced at Slade through the window and spoke into my comms.

“Targets eliminated.”

Slade came out of hiding, and I walked over to Wesley, Valentin and Niko and cut them loose.

“Boys! Are you okay? Did you close your eyes like I told you to?” Wesley turned to them and pulled them into his arms, and I would have expected nothing less from him.

The boys nodded, and Wesley squeezed them harder.

Slade walked in behind me, but he’d been joined by Joey and Wyatt, who were all surveying the aftermath with the same calculating expression.

“We need to get them out of here.” I pointed at the boys.

But when Slade and Wyatt stepped forward, the boys cowered away, clinging to Wesley.

“It’s okay. They’re not here to hurt you. They saved us. They’re here to help us. It’s okay.”

They turned their eyes to them, hesitantly, but even though Slade beckoned them closer, they didn’t move. Not until Joey crouched to their level and smiled at them.

“You boys were very brave today. I know you don’t know me, but I’m very proud of you. You handled this very difficult day like superheroes. Do you like superheroes?”

They both nodded.

“You’ve had an awful and confusing day. How about we all get out of here and go somewhere warm?”

One of the boys shrugged.

“There’s pie. Like lots of it,” he added, and a couple of shy smiles poked through.

Joey offered them his hands, and they checked with Wesley before they followed Joey and Slade outside, leaving just Wyatt, Wesley, and me behind.

“I can’t believe I killed their dad in front of them,” I stumbled backward and collapsed next to Wesley.

He put his arms around me in an instant and pulled me in to kiss the top of my head.

“You didn’t,” he whispered. “He wasn’t their dad.”

“What?” Wyatt frowned.

“He wasn’t their dad. Their dad died last year in one of your past missions, and he took over. No idea why. He was a stranger on a power kick,” Wesley said.

“How do you know that?” Wyatt asked as I nuzzled in closer to Wesley.

An immense weight lifted off my shoulders, and I relaxed in his embrace. My eyelids became heavy. My heart was content. It was good to have him back. To know he was safe. To know that his kind smile would continue to shine bright for years to come.

“He told me,” Wesley said. “He thought I was as good as dead, so he went on an end-of-the-movie villain rant.”

“The hell is that?” Wyatt asked.

“It’s when the bad guy reveals his plan at the end of the movie for no reason other than to tell the audience what he’s been doing behind the scenes all throughout the movie,” Wesley said.

I chuckled and squeezed his cheek.

“You’re so funny,” I said and searched for his eyes, even though they were blurry. In fact, everything was blurry.

Boy, I must be really tired.

“Teddy, why do you sound drunk?” Wesley asked. “Shit. You’re bleeding.”

“No, I’m not,” I said, and I was yanked away from Wesley’s arms as a scorching pain shot through my body.

“He’s been shot,” Wyatt huffed, and I wanted to tell him he was being dramatic, but I’d run out of air.

“Oh my god. Teddy! Fuck. Are you okay? Can you hear me?” Wesley came into focus in front of me, and I smiled.

He was so handsome. So sweet. And he was mine.

“Teddy!” he cried.

Something throbbed in my ears and my eyes were so heavy it was hard to keep them open.

“D-you mind if…nap?” I mumbled and stopped resisting.

I closed my eyes and surrendered to the exhaustion.