Page 114 of The Saint

“I know you got it and you know the drill and all that crap, but you’ve never had a stake in the game like this before.”

Tension ticked in his jaw. “I’m not the young gun who jumps first and asks questions later anymore.”

He had to get in there because Amelia was trapped and in pain. Jared could question him later.

“You’ve more than proven yourself on this job.” Jared snorted. “Didn’t expect you to find a woman along the way. But that seems par for the course lately.”

His teammates all had wives. They’d been single when Titan hired Camden. The Abu Dhabi headquarters had remained just as much fun but now with families in the mix. He’d never thought about that until recently. Hell, he’d never noticed the transition. One teammate then the next had settled down. He’d been the holdout, the guy who everyone thought wasn’t serious. He hadn’t been. Apparently, that had changed.

“All right.” Jared nodded. “Go.”

Camden jumped out and quickly found himself in the center of a gaggle of team members gearing up.

“You Titan?” a man asked and pointed at the back of a van. “Suit up, and check your comms.”

He strapped the Kevlar over his chest and placed his mic. The earpiece crackled as he fit it on. “Test, test.”

“This is Zulu team reading you crystal clear, Ace.”

Their team leader walked over and shook Camden’s hand. “Clint MacIntyre. Everyone calls me Tyre. You good to go?”

“One hundred percent.”

“I understand your girl’s in there.”

Possessiveness gripped his chest. He was grateful to be there and anxious to get a move on. What exactly had Beth said when orchestrating this operation on US soil? It wasn’t exactly unheard of for CIA case managers to sidestep the complication of laws when their own people were in a tight spot. But Amelia wasn’t CIA, and for that matter, she and her sister weren’t on their good side either.

No matter—Camden confirmed that Amelia was his. “Yeah. She is.”

“You saw the picture?” Tyre asked.

His molars clenched. He would never be able to erase the picture from his memory. It would haunt him. “Affirmative.”

“We have strict instructions to transport her to a private medical facility. They’ll get her checked out and patched up. So long as you don’t do anything stupid, this will be a simple in and out. Are we on the same page?”

Camden agreed.

Tyre gestured over Camden’s shoulder. Another person handed him an H&K MP7. Small and made to defeat body armor, the little submachine gun was exactly what he wanted with a new team working in an urban setting. Camden inspected his weapon. With the safety in place, he dropped the bolt releaseand checked the magazine. It was good to go. He slammed the magazine up and into the grip. His hand ran up and thumbed back the bolt release.

“Load up.” Tyre gestured a circle over his head. “You’re with me.”

They split into two groups. One piled into the gear van. Camden’s was an armored SUV. The heavy door shut with a thud, and they rolled out of the parking lot.

Tyre turned from the front passenger seat. “Two-story motel and two points of access to a metal walkway. We’ve had eyes in place since oh six hundred. Tangos have a standard rotation with two men stationed at her door. Zulu-One”—he pointed out the windshield at the van driving ahead—“will neutralize and close in on the farthest access point. We will take roof access and drop in.” He gestured to the three of them shoved in the back seat. “Mikey and Rogers, broadside. You and me right down the center. Engage and neutralize. Mikey and Rogers will take our six. You post left side. I’m right of the door and will breach. You getting all this, Ace?”

“Affirmative.”

Tyre checked their whereabouts as they rumbled into a pocked parking lot. “All right, boys. GTG?”

Camden had never been so good to go in his life. They moved out.

A voice crackled in Camden’s earpiece, “Zulu One in position.”

They skirted the back of the motel. A rickety metal ladder clung to the backside of the building. They climbed the rusted rungs. Their weight strained the ladder. At the top, they kept low and spread out at Tyre’s direction. With hand signals, he positioned them. The roof ledge overlooked an overhanging balcony walkway with about three feet of clearance. They couldn’t see their marks.

“Zulu Two in position.”

Static crackled. Amelia was underneath them. His heart raced to pull her out of hell.

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