Chapter 668 Chapter 668
“You are lucky.” He opened his mouth and then closed it and sighed. “I am a hypercrit.”
She frowned. “A hypocrite?”
“Ja. That.”
“Why?”
“I say all this to you, but now I do this.” He put his hand under her chin and kissed her.
The kiss was soft, their mouths barely touching, and her breath left her lungs when he moved away.
“I had to.” His dark eyes held her own. “Is okay? I no promise it won’t happen again.”
Deva inhaled slowly and took his scent into her body. Her cat was intoxicated from it. “It’s okay.” She finally answered when she could form words again. She was rewarded with a very playful, sexy smile.
“I need to go watch mission. So I no lie to you.” He straightened up. “Come.” He tugged her hand and started walking toward the door.
Deva blew out a breath. Watching the op was a good idea, anything, but this was a good idea. She was in over her head with him. That was all she knew at this moment.
~
Deva stood by the door. There were a lot of people in this small space. She looked around. Maybe it wasn’t small as far as yacht sitting areas went—or whatever it was called, but there were so many on this vessel now that it was the only space to set up the monitors to watch. She wanted to see how the teams did, but the reason for them it was so that Journee and Calum’s mother could see.
“Sit here with me.” Calum’s mother held her hand out to Journee. “They’re telling me that we can watch another team on this.” She motioned to the screen. “It’s hard to believe.”
Journee nodded and then sat down. “I know.”
Calum paced over to the other side, behind Illias.
Deva grinned. She couldn’t imagine not knowing about technology’s advancement and then returning to it. She’d feel like life was a sci-fi movie if it were her. Calum quietly explained to his mom how it worked.
Illias stood up and did something with a cable. He pushed the comm in his ear. “How about now, Dane?” He nodded. “Okay, good. How’s your end, Torin?” He nodded again and then sat down. Glancing at Calum, he gave him a thumbs up.
Tripp and Amari came in. “Calla and Slater are keeping watch while we’re stopped for this. Do you want us on deck watching?”
Calum crossed his arms over his chest. “We’re only stopped until the ops are over. Shouldn’t be long if all goes well.”
Amari went over and sat on the arm of the chair beside the ledge the screens were on. “It will go well.”
Tripp went over and stood behind her. “Where are they hitting?”
Calum rubbed his hand over the back of his neck and then moved over to the other side of the room again. “The apartment building that Griffin lived in. As far as we know, everyone in that building is connected to Aiden Tomas.”
Deva was nervous. She wanted this to go well. If there were more space, she likely would have paced, but Calum was doing enough of that for both of them.
“Excellent.” Amari smiled. “Who is on the team?”
Calum looked at Illias.
“Uh,” Illias picked up a notepad. “Blair, Noah, Kenzo, Leyton…”
“Nice.”
“—Wynter, Gia, Deacon, and Dane is on Tech, Christian is the medic, Ender is on cleanup, oh and Rosh,” He motioned to Taggart, “one of our new international team members.”
“Rosh is very good. Cousin to your Kaid.”
“They have Noah and Wynter. That’s a game-over situation.” Amari laughed.
“It’s a lot of apartments to check. Twelve, I believe.” Calum motioned to the screen. “Do we have time to go over the other op? They’re one right after the other.”
“The second one is a house.” Illias flipped the page. “Eaton and Luka from S.O. Bear, Hadleigh, Webb, Beck—” He glanced at Calum. “Kash from Alliance Security, Torin in on tech. Madison is the medic, Vail for cleanup, and Niklaus from Taggart’s crew.” Illias stopped and stared at the screen and then nodded. “Okay, they’re ready to go into the apartments.” He stretched and tapped a button on the keyboard. “We can hear them, but they won’t hear us unless we want them to.”
“Are you ready, Griffin?” She recognized Kenzo’s voice.
“He’s right in front of the monitors.”
Illias nodded. “Okay, Fallan, get the other links set up. This is going to be a fast switch between the two teams.”
“Already done,” Fallan answered.
“Rosh and Gia are going to watch the exits.”
Deva recognized Wynter’s voice. She had been on one other op when the leader of the Incursion team had been there and knew that with her there, things would get done. She was blunt and very good at her job.
Calum had stopped moving and was focused on the screen now.
“Kenzo, you and Blair take the top floor. Leyton and Noah have the second floor. Deacon and I have the bottom floor.” Wynter’s voice was calm.
If there were only three floors, she took that to mean four apartments on each floor. There was a lot that could go wrong.
“Set at the first apartment,” Kenzo replied.
“Good to go on second.” A male replied. She knew it wasn’t Noah, so it had to be Leyton.
“Okay, let’s have some fun.”
As Wynter said that the screen split into four, and they could see what four of the team members could see. Deva straightened up and moved a little closer. The top left view showed them picking a lock. She wondered who had that skill. The door opened. It was dark inside, and hard to see anything.
“It’s empty,” Kenzo reported.
“I guess they didn’t save any of your stuff, Griffin.” She recognized Blair’s voice.
“They can burn it for all I care.” A deep male replied, and she thought it must be Griffin. She hadn’t met him yet but looked forward to it.
“Moving to the next.” Kenzo’s voice was quiet.
Deva looked at the next image, which was from Leyton and Noah. She sucked in a breath when it showed someone sleeping in their bed.
“Rise and shine.” Leyton practically sang. “Get a light on him, Noah.” The room was bright, and now she could see a very surprised, terrified man in his bed. “Good morning. I need a name, sir.” Leyton sounded like he was standing behind a reception desk instead of a trained member of the Special Ops team. She could see the man say something but couldn’t hear it. “Mark Stint,” Leyton stated. Deva saw Noah grab the man’s arm and not so gently help him out of the bed.
“He’s on Griffin’s list.” She knew Blaise’s voice. “He goes to the barn.”
“We have a barn? I like it. All these sick animals are going to an appropriately named place.” Tripp grinned.
Calum glanced at him. “It’s called the barn because it was a barn.”
“Oh.” Tripp shrugged. “It still works for these animals.”
Deva watched as Leyton bound the man’s wrists with tie straps and shoved him out into the hallway.
“Face down.” The man was assisted to lay on his face on the floor.
“No one in this one, but there’s paperwork,” Kenzo reported.
“Ender, you get up there and grab that,” Wynter said softly.
“I’ll go through them all.” A man answered.
Deva crossed her arms and focused on the next screen. The rooms were dark, and she couldn’t see anyone.