“One.”
“Two.”
“Three.”
“Four.”
A cacophony of bird-song burst through the air. They sounded angry at the man-made interruption of their sleep. Above it all, Asher heard the cry of disgruntled monkeys. Then he heard the crackle of the fire. His shoulders slumped as he closed his eyes and said a prayer in French that he’d learned at his mother’s knee. He’d been praying to the Holy Mother a lot in the last six months. Now she had two more good men to watch over. He gritted his teeth as the pain tried to suck him down. Because Asher knew. He fucking knew, the blood of one of the good men up in heaven was on his hands.
“Hold them close Sainte Mere de Dieu,” he quietly begged.
“Asher Thorne, you hearing me?” He lifted his head at Kane’s words.
“What?”
He shook his head trying to clear it and Xavier’s face floated away, just like his life’s blood had.
“Ash, I was just starting to tell the lieutenant that you and Perez were injured,” Kane explained.
“I’m fine,” Asher said as he forced himself to stand. “It’s just a bump on the head. It might or might not be a concussion, but I’ll let you know if I get nauseous or start seeing double. I’m good to hike into Caracas.” He kept his tone upbeat and turned his grimace into a smile.
“And if I wanted to hear from you, I would have asked you,” Max glowered. He turned back to look at Kane.
“You heard Thorne,” Kane said to Max, “it’s just a goose egg until he pukes and passes out, that’s when we worry. Meanwhile, Perez’s shoulder was dislocated, but Ezio popped it back in. He’s hurting, but he’ll live. We’ve already started divvying up his backpack contents to give his shoulder a rest.”
Max looked at Asher dubiously, but he nodded.
Ash looked around the small clearing, taking in the expressions on everyone’s faces. They were all either blank or somber. This was not how the mission was supposed to have started.
“Anything else?”
“I’m going to stick with Asher, and Raiden’s got Leo. We’ll be able to assist them if they have any issues making it to the rendezvous point.”
Max nodded again. “We’ll need to move fast. We’ve definitely made an entrance. Venezuelan authorities are going to be out after us.”
“The FAES, right? The president’s secret police?” Nic asked.
“That’s my take. They’re going to shoot first and never bother asking questions,” Max sighed.
“Lovely,” Cullen said sarcastically. “They’re nothing but street thugs with badges. This whole set-up in Caracas stinks.” He hiked up his rifle, so it sat flush against his body, eager to take retribution.
Another explosion sounded. Flames shot higher.
Every team member took a moment to look backwards to where the night sky burst brightly in an angry inferno. Asher saw his commander’s jaw clench. As their leader, Ash knew that Max took the loss of men on a mission as a personal failure, but every man on the Night Storm team felt the loss just as deeply. They might’ve only met the pilot and co-pilot tonight, but still for a few hours, they’d been members of their team, and they had died.
It hurt.
He could swear he heard Xavier grunting in agreement.
God, how bad had he hit his head?
After an hour of sucking down vomit, Asher heard blessed words from Max.
“Hold up. I want to have Kane give us an updated intel briefing.”
“Good, I think Asher needs to puke and suck down a mint, and Leo looks like he’s limping, so we can take care of that while we’re at it,” Raiden said wryly. That was Raiden—the king of understatement. Asher flipped him the bird. However, when Raiden handed him a tin of wintergreen Altoids, he decided that the man was back on his Christmas card list.
“Thorne and Perez, sit down before you fall down, that’s an order.” Max rumbled. “Kane, your computer tablet still intact?”
“Yep. Take a two-minute breather and I’ll have the latest info.”
Raiden, who had just finished up his advanced medic training, came over to Asher to check out the bump on his head. Ash made sure not to flinch when he probed it.
“See, I told you guys it was nothing.”
“Yeah, sure. It’s just an itty, bitty mosquito bite,” Raiden said sardonically. “For God’s sake, it looks like you’re going to hatch an egg.” He pulled an instant cold compress out of his rucksack and squeezed it, then handed it to Asher. “Hold that against your bug bite during the briefing.”
“Seems to me that you should be giving the compress to our friend Perez. He’s the one that stuffed a sock down his pants,” Asher smirked.
“Huh?” Raiden looked over his shoulder. “Dammit! How’d I miss that?”
“You were too busy playing nursemaid to me, and that dumbass was trying to hide his cantaloupe. Do you have another cold compress? Because if you don’t, I think Leo needs mine.”
“Perez!” Raiden might have whispered his shout, but it was definitely fueled with the fury of a pissed-off medic. It was clear Raiden was trying not to call Kane and Max’s attention to the matter.
Nic’s head swung sharply to take in Raiden’s face. Leo took a little longer to turn around. He knew what the problem was. He was busted.
Raiden stalked over to where Leo was sitting on a log with his injured leg stretched out in front of him. Asher ambled over a little more slowly. He didn’t want to admit it, but his head really hurt.
Leo held up his hands. “In my defense, I didn’t know how bad it was until I sat down.”
Asher snorted. “That
