Page 56 of Her Three Rangers

Now I just had to hope it was a promise I could keep.

Riding in the back of the SWAT van brought back a lot of old memories. Memories of a time when we were the ones calling the shots in operations just like this one.

Memories of a time when we had been convinced that we were absolutely on the right side of the law and that justice always won out at the end of the day.

I grunted to myself. We had all been so naive back then.

Young and idealistic and so fucking dumb.

We weren’t any of those things anymore. Older, pragmatic, and skeptical of just about everyone, it was a wonder we were even allowed to be a part of this at all.

But Sam knew our worth. He knew this case never would have made it this far if we hadn’t done the heavy lifting.

This was our reward. A few hours of observation while his guys took over.

There were no windows for me to see where we were, but from the amount of time we’d already been in the van and the sudden change from paved to dirt roads under the tires, I knew we were getting close.

I looked over at Cody and could tell he knew it, too, from our trip out here a couple of days ago. He nodded, an unspoken confirmation of my thoughts.

Damn, I loved these guys. I might never, ever say it out loud, but there was nowhere else I’d rather be right now, and no other people I’d rather be with—except Grace, of course. It would have been pretty fucking great if we would have been able to bring her, but every one of us would have been a nervous wreck trying to make sure she stayed safe.

If anything did happen, well… that was just unthinkable.

“Go time in four minutes, at fourteen hundred,” the team leader announced, looking at the other guys who were back there with us. “Rangers, you guys understand your role today?”

“Strictly observational,” Ty answered, crisply.

It had been a long time since any of us had been addressed as Rangers, and it only served as another reminder of how different our lives were now.

“That’s right,” the team leader nodded. “If anything changes on the ground, we’ll get you out of there first. Whatever you do, you are not to leave this van under any circumstances. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir,” we said in unison, our old training kicking right in as if no time at all had passed.

So much for old dogs learning new tricks. Even Rambo would have been impressed at how quickly we’d fallen in line, if he’d been here.

At least he was with Grace, though.

Safe.

Secure.

The van came to a standstill and the doors swung open, the three of us shielding our eyes against the sun as the other four men riding with us poured out of the back. I craned my neck to see if I could tell where we were on the property in relation to Garrick’s house, but I couldn’t see much of anything before the doors shut again.

After a couple of minutes passed, the team leader’s body camera feed came up on a monitor and we all huddled around to see whatever we could.

For several minutes, nothing at all happened. We watched as the men took up positions outside the house. We waited, each of us straining to hear anything that might give us some indication of what was going on out there.

In the distance I could hear a helicopter. Then a siren.

The screen came alive as the team burst into action, the camera bouncing around so much it was difficult to make any details at all.

Across from me, Ty flinched as the faint but unmistakable pop pop pop of gunshots rang out.

And then, just as quickly as it began, it was over. On the monitor, we could see bodies on the floor as the team leader moved back through the house. Thank God none of them looked like any of our guys.

I only hoped Garrick was among them.

“Now we wait,” Ty said, his voice barely above a whisper as his eyes remained glued to the monitor.

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