Page 88 of Thorn

“Here,” Brigitte said. “I’ll show you.” She was quiet for a moment, and Thorn knew exactly what she was doing.

He filtered various ideas for handling this through his head and all he could think was that he was the wrong man for this mission. It should have been Honey all along. He was emotionally compromised. He couldn’t think straight. He had to put this to the side and be calculating. He could worry about Arya’s heart when he was sure he’d kept the rest of her safe.

Brigitte held up her phone. “Check the date and time stamp.” And there he was screwing around with Brigitte.

“Shit, is that what I think it is?” Nutsbe said as the moaning and sighing filled the car.

“This is FUBAR.” Thorn mouthed. “That’s enough,” he said to Brigitte. Though he couldn’t see Arya, he turned her way. “If you saw the time stamp, you’ll see that I was with Brigitte before I was assigned to this mission.”

“You love her? You’re a couple?” Arya asked.

“No.” It was as simple as that. He didn’t have any other way to talk about this – bad timing, bad company, really bad choices. “Lights,” he called.

“That’s not from the team that was heading to the clinic,” the driver said.

“What do you mean?” Brigitte asked.

“That group is heading up behind us. Those lights are on the cross roads. Two cars.”

“I have the incoming team that Deep warned you about behind you,” Nutsbe said. “I have those two cars coming in from the south. I don’t know who they are, they aren’t support.”

“Just so you’re aware,” Thorn told the driver. “Those cars aren’t associated with Iniquus.”

Brigitte and the driver switched to Hebrew.

Their car slowed as it popped over a metal plate. There was a whir beneath them. They must be going over a bridge of some kind.

The driver yelled, “Stop!” then braked the car hard.

Thorn twisted and grabbed at Arya to protect her since she was no longer buckled in.

The car behind them with Gage and Honey slammed into them and pushed them forward. They hit something in front as well. Thorn’s night vision glasses were back in his duffle. He couldn’t tell what was going on.

Arya’s door popped open, and she was clambering out, shaking off his grip.

As Thorn slid along the seat to follow her, he grabbed the shoulder harness of the driver and with a quick yank pulled it to full length, wrapped it around the back of the headrest, looping it around the guys neck and let it snap, locking it in place. It might buy him a minute. Thorn snatched the goggles from the guy’s head and jumped from the car.

Quickly he realized that move was wasted. Car headlights beamed out.

Now, he could see that they were on a single lane bridge with grating as a surface. He could hear water racing beneath their feet. The end of the bridge had been barricaded and the first car had hit the barrier. That car was crushed.

Honey and Gage were rounding out of their car, clambering over the roof, trying to get to Thorn’s side.

Thorn’s eye took all of this in, but what it didn’t take in was Arya.

Where had she gone?

His eye scanned the length of the bridge. He saw Brigitte standing by the guard rail looking up. Thorn’s eye tracked the trajectory.

There was Arya climbing up the arch.

“Good girl, Juliette. Keep climbing,” Brigitte yelled as she walked down the bridge to get under Arya. “Keep climbing. You know what you need to do. This is the time. The higher up you go the better your chances of succeeding.”

Succeeding?

Lynx was in her ear. “Thorn, she’s going to jump. Talk her down. You’re theonlyone who can.”

Thorn thought back to his buddy coming off his detox. He had been suicidal. They had to post two men on active guard around the clock. He remembered his friend had just kept repeating, “I can’t handle the pain. I just want it to stop.”

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