Page 96 of Leading Conviction
“Love… you… all.”
CHAPTERTHIRTY-TWO
Present Day
Hawk’s pulse raced as the Little Bird flew over the tree line. Because there were no doors on the MH-6 and there was little room in the cabin, Hawk sat on one of the external sideboards outside of the helicopter, hooked to the helo’s metal frame so he wouldn’t fall out. He held on to his rifle with both hands, squinting at the twilight horizon, trusting the restraint to keep him secure.
Meanwhile, his mind tormented him with nightmarish scenarios about what would happen if they didn’t get back to Hannah in time. He’d gone nearly insane by the time BlackStone’s facility finally came into view.
“Any word?” he asked Snake for the millionth time.
“No,” he grumbled, just as anxious as Hawk was. “I sent a warning as soon as I figured out Nora didn’t receive my text, but I still haven’t gotten anything from her.”
“What about your app thing on your phone? Can’t you access the cameras?” Phoenix’s voice sounded worried even through the headset, but Hawk was thankful as hell he was able to keep his head on straight enough to pilot the helo.
“Negative. Whatever is keeping me from sending a message through the normal channels must be jamming the CCTV frequencies on my app.”
“Fuck,” Draco cursed into his microphone.
“I’ve contacted Marco and told him the situation,” Snake continued. “He’s getting a team of FBI agents to come to the facility to pick up Vlad.”
Hawk’s gaze flicked to the Russian, cuffed, bound, taped, and buckled up in the center of the helicopter. Phoenix and Jaybird sat in the front, in the cockpit, and even though Hawk and Devil sat on the external sideboards outside of the helo, the small cabin was still crowded with Draco, Snake, and the big Russian. The giant had been silent ever since he dropped the bomb that MF7—or at least, Hawk’s team—hadn’t been the only team the General had in his arsenal.
As for the rest of what Vlad had said concerning the General’s crazed, sick obsession with his daughter, Hawk was afraid the psycho’s perversions had driven him to send his new team to BlackStone to kidnap her before he fled to cower away in one of his vacation homes.
The moment Hawk had voiced his concern and made the plan to go back, Snake sent out the message to Nora to be on high alert. They’d hopped into the helo shortly after and headed to the facility, but they still hadn’t heard anything from the women.
“What if he’s not at the facility at all?” Jaybird asked. “What if the women are just asleep? It’s the ass crack of dawn. He could very well have slinked off to his vacation home. Going to the facility could mean we lose him again.”
“I don’t care,” Hawk growled, glaring at the back of Jaybird’s seat. “Hannah and Tommy are at the facility and wedon’tknow where the General is. If you give me a choice, I’m choosing them every fucking time, got it?”
Jaybird’s eyes lifted to the mirror on the overhead switch panel and he held his hands up in surrender. “Listen, man. I get it. I do. Just putting it out there.”
“Yeah, well, put it right back in there because we’re going home. Snake, do you have camera feeds? Audio from Nora? Anything? Let’s not go in blind.”
Snake began to tap away at his phone. “I’ve got a drone on the roof. It’s on a totally different channel than the communication lines for the facility. Maybe I can access it.”
He unbuckled his seat belt and hooked himself to the frame of the helo before hopping out onto the external sideboard in the makeshift seat beside Hawk. Snake scooted closer to show Hawk his phone screen.
The drone’s camera played on the screen, making Hawk feel like he was walking the roof himself as it hovered out of its storage cubby and flew over the roof’s asphalt. A large man in black fatigues stood in stark relief against the sky’s brightening dawn backdrop. He turned around, but Hawk couldn’t see his face past the high-tech helmet he wore. There was no mistaking his intentions though when he raised his gun and fired. The screen went gray and fuzzy until it went black altogether.
Snake cursed. “Well… Ihada drone on the roof.”
“And wehavea fucking enemy on the roof,” Hawk growled. “Stay frosty, team.”
“Fuck,” Draco swore again.
A black notification banner popped up on Snake’s home screen. He clicked it and typed several codes before white letters in a typewriter font scrolled across the black background.
Nora: We’ve got company
“Little late, Nora,” Snake groaned.
“Dammit,” Hawk muttered.
“Did Nora text you? What’d she say?” Draco yelled without bothering to listen to Snake’s answer, “Fuck, pick up the pace, Phoenix!”
“If you think I haven’t been putting the pedal to the goddamn metal, you’re out of your damn mind. My girl is in there, too, y’know.”
