Page 126 of The Boss

Allie and Penny go back to Volotov’s red dot and the traffic patterns we’re trying to achieve. But I see another vehicle pull into satellite view. A garbage truck.

One unexpected truck approaching my husband, I can handle.

Two I cannot.

“Abort. It’s a trap,” my voice cracks.

Van is down there, a sitting duck. Who knows how many more armored vans or garbage trucks or whatever the hell are about to close in on him. This is all wrong. I know it. And I shouldn’t be up here watching it happen. My fingers itch for a trigger, my thighs feel naked without my knives strapped on.

“I see the garbage truck, but—” Penny starts.

“While we’re pinning down a fucking decoy, they’re pinning down Quinn! Call it! Abort!”

“This may be our only shot at Volotov’s vehicle,” Allie answers me, totally calm. “We want him, but more than that we want to see the product sample he has with him.”

“I’m telling you, Volotov is not in that Escalade and neither is the damn product! We got it wrong. Tell him and send in another team to help him!” Allie starts barking orders ateveryone to begin assessing the situation as if I’m correct. They scan, listen, watch. Someone runs a stupid algorithm to calculate probabilities.

“Allie, send in more men!”

“All the men we had on avail went to Boston to reinforce defenses,” she taps her ear, “Robbie, who do we have in Manhattan?” She listens. “Zander has a team but they’re fifty minutes out.”

No.

Van is going to get shot, again. He’s going to be outnumbered, surprised. He might die right now, today and I…I left him.

“We have us, here. How far by chopper?” I say, my feet already moving.

“We only have five soldiers here—”

“And me. How many minutes out if we take that thing?” I point to the black hawk I can see out the window.

“Twenty-five,” Penny answers.

“And the Volotov decoy is?”

“Twenty,” Allie nods once before she stalks toward the plane’s armory and begins talking into her watch as she taps on an ear piece. “L-Team, Black bird four up in three minutes. Reinforcement Team Zulu en route. Fifty minutes. L-Team you are the calvary. Go! Go! Go!” I hear the chopper start outside the fuselage.

“Can I talk to him? Can you tell him we’re coming?” I ask her, feeling more panicked by the second.I promised Van I’d have his six and he’s about to get fucking ambushed! Damn it!

“He’ll learn the minimum he needs to know at the last possible moment,” Allie says.

“Wait, you’re going to just let him get ambushed?” I ask, my vision blurring at the edges because what the actual…

“Skulls Quinn is about to be surprised, yes. There are some scenarios we have to let play out in order to maintain our cover,not just for Quinn or for us but for thousands of hidden soldiers all over the world,” She’s still way too damn calm as she hands me a holster fitted with two guns in one hand and an iPad in the other. I reach, but she doesn’t let them go. “You should stay here. This was your catch. Yoursave.Command doesn’t join the calvary, Luna. You should continue to lead, give directions, see what else you can spot from above.”

Every cell of my body repulses at the idea, “No. I should be with Van,” I take the holster and tuck the iPad under my arm, ignoring the disappointed look on her face.

I hear her say, “Luna is going with her team. I repeat, L-Team leader in bound plus five in—”

I don’t hear the rest as my feet hit the pavement at the bottom of the air stairs. With Van’s pinned vehicle in my mind and chopper doors open in my line of sight, I start to run.

•••••

“Two minutes,” the chopper pilot says. It’s been agony. Complete and total fucking torture listening to the live situation report in my headset. I was right. Four more vehicles showed up, a laundry service, two cleaning vans. Penny’s voice is robotic as she explains that shots are fired or a man is hit. Allie’s voice is calm as she redirects nearby traffic and police interference.

But it’s clearly a bloodbath.

“Okay ma’am. Keep tight behind me when we land,” a solider, L2, because I’m L1—me, the moron who didn’t catch this ambush to begin with! I’m L1, even though L2 just gave me an injection of pain reliever and caffeine and maybe adrenaline a minute ago. I’m pretty sure Command is giving him orders for me.