Page 23 of Covert Obsession

Her vision blurred. She rubbed her eyes. Up close, things seemed clear enough, but when she peered through the lens, she couldn’t bring the landscape into focus.

Not good.

Grabbing the sat phone, she blinked rapidly and forced herself to breathe. A series of beeps and static buzzed in her ear but nothing happened for a long, tense moment. She wondered if she had pushed the wrong buttons.

Then something clicked and there was a humming noise. She placed her hand over her forehead, the pounding growing into a jackhammer. The humming stopped. “Jett? Is that you?”

Emit’s voice was too far away, a different noise filling her ears. “Need…help…”

“What’s wrong?” She heard him barking orders to the others. Underneath the thick pulsing in her ears, she heard the faint sound of a moving vehicle. “We have your location and are on our way. Are you hurt?”

“Affirmative.” Her tongue tasted like burnt marshmallows. Her jaws grew tight. She was going to be sick. “Hurry.”

“Put Henley on the line.”

She could barely hold the phone to her ear. “Can’t. In the mine.”

“Shit.”

He must’ve handed off the receiver. The next voice she heard was Trace’s. “Take a deep breath and tell me what happened. Stay on the line.”

He was trained for this, keeping someone who was in danger and/or injured conscious and communicating. If only she didn’t need to vomit. “Possible…con…cussion.” The word was slurred, and she wondered if he understood.

His voice seemed like it was in a vacuum. The ground rose and fell, and she dropped the handset, gritting her teeth through the drunk sensation. Crawling several feet away, she tossed up the water and pain meds, retching until her stomach was empty.

Once finished, it took all her willpower to drag herself back. She couldn’t lift the handset to her ear, so she laid down next to it. The world swam into view, and she watched a beetle crawling across the stones, seeking the shadows thrown by the cairn. She heard Trace talking to her, begging her to answer him.

“Here,” she said on an exhale. “I’m here.”

“Henley needs to stand down. Can you communicate with him?”

Had she heard that right? “No.” It was the most she could get out, closing her eyes and wishing the beetle well on his quest to find shade now that the sun beat down on the two of them. She felt too hot, yet waves of chills swept through her, making her bones ache. “Why…?” Her brain was too fuzzy to come up with any reason. Could Lydia be dead already? Had the team discovered her location somewhere else?

“Targets are after a different package,” Trace said. “The mission is compromised.”

Through the pain and vertigo, Parker’s world spun down to a single thought—Moe.

Digging deep, she thought of his face, imagining his voice in her head as clear as if he were next to her.Don’t you give up on me, luv.

Pushing to her hands and knees, she shut her eyes against the dizzying swirl of colors that assaulted her. She had to warn him, help him. How, she had no idea. If only the damn pounding in her skull would let up.

“We’re thirty minutes out.” Trace’s voice was far away again. “Tell me which entrance Henley used to access the mine.”

She managed to prop herself against the stacked stones, dragging the phone with her. The receiver felt like a ten-pound weight as she lifted it. “South side, a hundred yards from a work trailer.” Every word was a struggle to get out. “There’s a bulldozer. Watch for the guard. He’s armed.”

“Roger that. Anything else you can tell me?”

She wanted to shrink and climb under the rocks with the beetle. “Who is…package?”Please don’t let it be Moe. “One of us?”

“Affirmative.”

Her stomach churned. Good thing it was empty. She needed to rehydrate, but she knew she’d never hold it down. “Henley?” How could RING know he’d be the person to come after them?

“Negative. Not you, either. Top dog.”

She scrunched up her face. “The Queen?”

“Higher.”

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