Page 108 of Peace Under Fire

At least he’d been able to visit with Lucky in person. The few times they’d managed to connect on the phone while Squish navigated the endless delays on his way to Sao Paulo had been staticky and difficult to hear. Plus, the pulsing agony in his head had made it hard to follow the conversation. When he’d finally arrived at the base, Tex had a blister pack of Imitrex waiting for him at the base pharmacy, but he’d held off taking one until after he’d visited his buddy.

Mistake number two. It was hard to function with a migraine rattling his brain.

By the time he’d arrived at Lucky’s makeshift room, he’d been reeling from the incessant pounding. Which Lucky had noticed and questioned him about. Lucky was probably as worried about him now as he was about Ressa.

After visiting hours were over, he’d escaped to the dark room he’d been assigned and downed the Imitrex pill. Eight hours later, when he’d awoken, he had just enough time for a quick visit with Lucky before hopping on the MAC flight back to San Diego.

“You have the sexiest arms.” Grasping fingers encircled the bare flesh of his biceps beneath his short sleeve.

“You touch me again and I’ll cut off your fucking fingers.” He jerked his arm away without looking at the flirty broad. But he caught the impression of movement as she shrank away from him. Yeah—his response might have bordered on overkill.

His phone vibrated against his thigh. He lifted his ass and fished it out of his jeans, relaxing when Tex’s name showed on the screen.

“Hey—” Squish said, about to thank the dude for making his visit to Lucky possible. Then Tex started talking.

“Mandy is fine. She’s in hiding and under protection, but she’s fine.”

The opening sentence, and Tex’s emphasis on fine, fired an RPG into Squish’s gut. His stomach churned and burned. His adrenaline spiked. “What happened?”

Something had obviously happened. Something bad, or Tex wouldn’t have opened with fine and under protection.

“The Refuge is under attack. Pipe, Tiny, and the rest of the boys are engaging, along with some of the Refuge’s guests.”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

“Where’s Mandy?” He expected an enraged roar to burst out of his mouth. Instead, it was a terrified whisper.

His mind flashed to Lucky’s terrified, haunted face. He’d thought he’d known what his buddy was going through. He hadn’t even been close.

“She’s in the bunker with Brick and Alaska. The bunker has a weapons locker, so Brick’s loaded for Armageddon. Those bastards are not going to get to her.” Tex’s voice went flat. “She’s safe, Squish. They can’t get to her.”

Squish took a deep breath and fought for equilibrium. He knew about the bunkers. Brick had filled him in about them when they’d reached the Refuge. There were multiple units buried in the woods surrounding the property. They were hidden from sight and could only be accessed if someone knew where they were located and had the access codes to unlock the hatches. Nor were any of them listed on the schematics for the property.

So yeah, the bunkers would be hard to access for your normal enemy. But the cockroaches? They knew things they shouldn’t know. And they had that fucking gas.

If they located the bunker Mandy was in and got the hatch up, one can of that damn gas would knock everyone out. They could just slide down and grab her. Nobody would be able to stop them.

And that was assuming she’d made it to the bunker.

“You’re sure she got to the bunker?” His voice was stronger this time. His brain was thinking again, instead of reacting.

“She made it there before the black suits showed up.” Tex paused, before adding quietly, “She got a warning to run. That they were coming for her. That warning bought them some time.”

Giulia to the rescue. At least someone had been looking out for her.

“At this time all electrical devices need to be turned off and stowed away.” The demand came over the loudspeaker. Squish ignored it, just as he ignored the women to his right and left who were clearly eavesdropping on his conversation.

“How many tangoes are we talking about?”

And were they working with someone who knew things? Things like Mandy being curled below the window in her ratty little car. Or that she was even hiding at the Refuge. If these tangoes were working with another psychic, what was to stop them from locating the bunker Mandy was hiding in and using some psychic ability to unlock the hatch?

Operational planning had been so simple before psychics had infiltrated the game.

“They sent two teams. But like I said, Brick and his boys, and some of their patrons, are squaring off with them. Both sides are evenly matched.”

Squish snorted in disgust. Not even close. Brick and his partners had been out of the military for years. They were rusty. As for the facilities’ patrons, the Refuge catered to people with PTSD, which meant all the patrons taking part in this lopsided war were operating with a major handicap.

This could turn into a massacre.

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