She closed her eyes. She could do better than this. She’d always done better than this. Emotions screwed up every assignment. She couldn’t afford to feel them or they’d stop her in her tracks. Make her powerless. People suffered when she was powerless.
She closed her eyes and tried, desperately tried, to relax her shoulders. It wasn’t working, but she took a deep breath in, tightened her shoulders, then let out a slow breath and relaxed her shoulders.
She felt them relax a tiny little bit.
She did it again.
Then she saw her father’s bruised face and the gun hitting him. She winced.
She heard her phone ring again and forced herself up from the floor. Going to the bedroom, Daisy grabbed her phone and turned it off, not caring who was calling. She slammed her laptop off and unplugged it.
The world can wait. The world can just fucking wait.
Something was wrong, Leo could feel it in his bones.
Could just be the fact that they’d just seen the video of Ethan Squires, but unfortunately, that was almost to be expected. Every single one of the Night Storm team was just thankful that the man was alive. They still had time to rescue him. Now it was just a matter of finding out where he was.
But that still didn’t explain why Leo was sure that something was wrong.
“Any word on our next target?” Leo turned from Kane to Max.
“We’re supposed to hear something tomorrow morning,” Max said. “The higher-ups are being cagey. They have a source they’re really trying to protect.”
“If this source is able to lead us to Squires, well then, they’re worth protecting,” Leo said.
“In the meantime, more drones are going up and looking for that jeep with the anti-aircraft gun. If they can spot that, it would give us a good indication that Squires is there.”
“They can’t have gotten too far,” Asher said.
“We’re not sure that others with trucks didn’t come in and load them up. We can’t just assume that that one truck and jeep were their only means of transportation,” Max explained.
He’s right, Leo thought.
“We’re going to get some training in. Nothing like some good one-hundred-and-twelve-degree heat to get a body moving,” Max grinned.
“My money’s on Kane falling behind first. He’s the oldest, I think the heat will do him in,” Raiden said with a grin.
“Nope, Max has me by a month, he’s going down. What’s more, he skips out on training back at Little Creek. He keeps saying he has paperwork to do. Nope, it’ll be Max for sure.” Kane closed down his laptop. He was definitely getting into the mood.
“Based on all this trash talk, and the fact that I’m the best and the youngest, all y’all are going down,” Nic was practically blowing smiles out of his ass.
“A baby like you hasn’t developed the endurance,” Ezio razzed him.
Max looked over at Leo. “What’s with you, Perez? I expected to hear from your corner of the world.”
“I’ve got a bad feeling. I’ve tried to get a hold of Daisy four times today, but nothing.”
Max gave him an intent look. “Do you think she’s skipped out of the hotel again?”
“Nope. I checked with Tom, he said that not only do they have the camera on her hotel room, they have her door tripped, so if it opens they’re alerted. It hasn’t been opened.”
“If she’s as good as you say she is, maybe she disengaged it,” Kane suggested.
“God, I hope not.” Leo pressed his fingers against the bridge of his nose.
“Shit, you’re going to be useless out there today and you’ll lose, and you’ll say it’s because you were worried about the doctor’s daughter, so we won’t even be able to rub it in,” Max sighed. “Get the hell over to Kabul and check on the woman.”
Leo brightened. “Yes, sir.” He didn’t need to be told twice.
“Don’t take the motorcycle, take something that won’t kill you.”
“What’s the fun in that?”
“Leo.” Max’s tone brooked no argument.
Daisy pushed her head under the pillow. Anything to make her head stop hurting and the ringing stop.
It didn’t stop.
God, she felt hungover. She clasped the pillow with both arms and surrounded her head with it so that her ears were covered. Finally, some relief—she couldn’t hear the ringing. She didn’t remember drinking, but her mouth felt like somebody had planted six acres of cotton in it, stinky cotton. It felt like her brain had grown three times its normal size and was trying to burst through her skull.
What in the hell had happened to me?
Now there was pounding, not ringing.
Her dad. Now she remembered. Ethan. The blood and bruises.
She squeezed her eyes shut tight and whimpered but it didn’t shut out the pounding. She thought she heard someone calling her name.
What?
Daisy lifted the pillow off her head and that actually helped. Who knew a feather pillow could be so heavy?
“Daisy, are you all right?”
Pound.
Pound.
Pound.
“Open the door, Goddammit.”
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
It was Leo. And he sure was making his presence known. She staggered out of bed. She was halfway to the door when she realized what she was wearing.
Fuck it. Like Leo hadn’t seen some woman in a man’s T-shirt before.
She opened the door and he stared at her.
“Jesus, Daisy, what happened to you?”
“You get laid with that kind of sweet talk?” she muttered as he shoved his way into her room.
“What did you just say?” he asked as he shut the door and turned her around so he could get an even better look at her. If she’d been feeling better, she would have yanked herself out of his hold, but she wasn’t, so she just stood there staring up at him.
“Honey, answer me, what happened? Has somebody hurt you?
