Page 16 of Secret Squirrel

I rolled my eyes as Fox leaned over with the comm set and started getting me set up. I lifted my arm, allowing him to thread the wire around my outfit. Then he grabbed the bullet-proof vest and wound it around my body, tucking the wires out of the way.

“Comm check,” I said, giving the thumbs up when I read them loud and clear through the earpiece.

“Let’s get you strapped in,” Fox grinned, holding up the thigh holster.

“Yeah, Anna’s gonna love this,” I muttered under my breath, lifting my thigh as Fox practically sat in my lap.

“No worries, my kickass friend. My sweet Anna knows I would never stray from her sweet lips.”

I grimaced in disgust. “Can you not spew that crap when you’re sitting so close to me? I might have gotten that in my mouth.”

“You too will fall to the one thing no human can resist. Love,” he said whimsically. He finished strapping the holster on and sat back in his seat.

“I can resist just fine,” I said as I continued adjusting all my gear.

Dash handed me a gun over the seat and I slid it into the holster, securing it before taking the second one he held out to me.

“Yes, but how long before you find yourself sitting alone at the bar, watching all your friends go home with the one person they can’t live without? And you’ll wish you had someone—maybe Duke—to go home with.”

“Duke? Why would you assume I would want to go home with Duke?”

Dash laughed in the back and Fox stared at me for a full minute before bursting into a fit of laughter and tears. “Oh, you’re killing me, Rae. Really, I thought a bad batch of shawarma might be the thing that ended it all, but this…holy crap.”

He wiped the tears from his face, still shaking his head as he chuckled. I didn’t see what was so funny. Why did everyone assume I would end up with Duke? He was just another man I had to put in his place.

“Can we focus on the mission and not trivial things like sex?”

“Sure, sure,” he nodded, then shook his head. “Man, you kill me.”

Ignoring them, I focused on driving. We were almost at the airfield, which meant we were that much closer to getting FNG back. But dammit! Now they mentioned Duke, all I could think about was the sexy mechanic and what it would feel like to finally give in to the urges and fuck him like I really wanted.

I shook that thought from my head as we approached. I followed the other vehicles through the gates at the private airfield. Cash must have called ahead to ensure the gates would be open for us. In the distance, I could see a smaller plane getting ready for takeoff. There was still a chance to end this and get FNG back.

I screeched to a halt and got out, running toward the plane. Fox and Dash were on my six, and the other teams spread out, all of us encircling the plane.

“Does anyone have eyes on FNG?” Cash shouted over comms.

“Negative,” Thumper called out.

“I’ve got shit,” Lock answered.

I ignored the rest of them and continued circling the plane until I got to the other side—and that’s when I saw him. “Boss, I’ve got eyes! Fox, can you confirm?”

“Fuck, yes!” he shouted. “That’s—”

A violent, deep boom ripped through our victory as the plane burst into flames. The shockwave hit me with a force strong enough to lift me off my feet and catapult me backward so hard that the air was knocked from my lungs. I couldn’t move as I stared up at the darkening sky. I tried and failed desperately to suck in air, but my body wouldn’t function properly at the moment.

My head lolled to the side and I stared at the flames shooting toward the sky. I had failed FNG. He was on that plane and now he was gone. I should have found him sooner. I should have done more to get to him.

“Rae!”

I tried desperately to suck air into my lungs as a figure hovered over me, but the face blurred as everything went black.

* * *

I fucking hated hospitals. Not that I really ended up in them very often. I was usually much better at not getting injured. I’d broken my record for the longest anyone at OPS had gone without ending up in one of these beds.

I heard a slight chuckle and peeled my eyes open with a groan. Fucking Fox was sitting in a chair beside my bed eating Funyuns. He munched on them happily as he watched something on the TV. I tried to swallow, but it felt like razors in my throat.