Page 277 of Unexpected Hero

Turns out, Mia found out about Lettie in much the same way I did. I should have expected it. I’m kicking myself for not picking up on it when I was deep-diving into her laptop. Not sure how I missed that.

It doesn’t matter now.

Mia knows about Lettie. And since Klein was at her house when I arrived to demand answers, he knows too. But neither of them knows why or how I know Lettie. I’m not volunteering that information. It’s irrelevant to the mission.

The only thing that matters is finding Lettie and bringing her back to me.

From the moment we arrived at HQ to prepare for the rescue op, we’ve all been so focused on our tasks that it hasn’t come up. Even if they do ask, I don’t care.

We all agreed not to tell Boss about this mission. It’s off the books. We’d rather beg for forgiveness than ask for permission.

Not only would this be the absolute worst time to reveal who she is — but we don’t have fucking time for any delays. He’d want to involve law enforcement, and I’m not risking her for another damn second longer than necessary.

While I was busy hitting roadblocks in my search for Lettie this afternoon, Mia single-handedly uncovered almost everything we needed to locate her. She found videos and pictures of Lettie being drugged and taken out of the bar from various social media accounts, including those from the bachelorette party.

Although I saw those women wearing the inflatable dicks, I never thought to be a social media detective like Mia.

Having to watch the video of the woman I love being nearly carried out of the dance club while nobody intervened filled me with unimaginable rage. I’ve seen a lot of fucked up shit in my life. My kill count in the Rangers was the highest in our unit. When I moved off the front line into intelligence, I had a hand in ensuring enemy targets were decimated on a far larger scale. I watched it all. Never had to turn away.

But when Lettie’s footing slipped at the edge of the screen, and the fucker who was holding her up had to drag her the rest of the way out of the frame, I closed my eyes and had to choke back the bile.

I couldn’t fucking watch it.

Fortunately, I’d seen what I needed to see. Mia took it from there while I attempted to quell my rage.

She had to do some additional maneuvering, but she ultimately found usable photos of the three men who have been drugging and abducting women in the area for more than a year, including my sweet Lettie.

Once we got back to HQ, Mia’s improvements to my facial recognition software enabled her to pinpoint current locations on all three of the perps. We rallied a group of operatives, splitting them into two teams.

Their task is to nab the fuckers and extract the intel we need to find Lettie.

Mia and I are running the op from HQ, watching through their body cams.

Alpha team — Jonesy, Klein, Kri, and Junior — collected two tangos from a bar and are headed to a remote location for some aggressive persuasion.

I only hope it ends with Lettie’s location, along with excessive bloodshed and two fewer heartbeats.

Bravo team — Shep and Aaron — already completed their portion of the mission, finding the third tango at a strip club. Shep had the pleasure of roughing him up. Although I wished it were me, it was enjoyable to watch. They got Lettie’s potential location out of him and left him bloody and tied up in a closet.

Unfortunately, he’s alive.

Not for long, though.

After I get Lettie, he’s the first I’ll hit.

The MFKL has a few more names on it after tonight. And I’ll keep adding to it until everyone behind this is bloody at my feet.

Shep and Aaron are en route to the location the fucker provided. We’ve directed them to start recon while they wait for Alpha team to catch up.

The waiting is killing me.

It’s taking every bit of my intestinal fortitude to avoid sprinting out of here to get her. But we need to confirm the location first, and the team is supposed to do the extraction. Not me.

However, as the minutes tick by, it’s getting harder to resist the urge. Knowing that she might be at that address makes every second I sit here torture. My chair might as well be made of nails.

My knee bobs with adrenaline as I finish wiping the history from the surveillance cameras surrounding the bar where Alpha team picked up their tangos. We need to cover our tracks.

More waiting. More torture. For me and my sugar bear.

---