Into the Mist (Falcon Mercenary Group #1)(10)

He looked back up at Mad Dog. “We let things calm down a bit. Allow Chance to relax his guard, and then you and I will take him out. I don’t want him to see us coming until he’s staring death in the face.”

“And if he does have information that can help D?” Mad Dog asked.

“Then he’ll tell us before he dies.”

Mad Dog nodded. “Good enough.” He exhaled a thin plume of smoke then stubbed the joint out in the ashtray.

Jonah turned and walked out of the game room. He trudged up the stairs feeling a hell of a lot older than he had just a few hours before. The burden of responsibility for his family, his teammates, weighed heavily. Things were fast going straight to hell, and he didn’t like the feeling of helplessness that gripped him.

As he passed D’s room, he stopped and frowned when he saw the door slightly ajar. They were careful to keep the door closed. Usually locked. A measure as much for D’s protection as their own.

He nudged the door open and peered inside. He swore softly when he saw Ty in bed with D, the two wrapped protectively around each other. It wasn’t a new sight, but in recent weeks, he’d cautioned Ty to be more careful. D was growing more unstable. He couldn’t control when and how he shifted, and he retained none of his human characteristics or understanding. He could easily hurt Ty, never meaning to, never realizing it until it was too late.

Overwhelming guilt squeezed Jonah’s chest. He hated that Ty blamed herself for D’s pain. Jonah knew whose fault it was D was in this predicament. It was Jonah’s.

D should have never gone on that mission to Ahdarji. It should have been Jonah who led the American team. He had more expertise, more experience with all things Ahdarjian. He should, it was the country of his birth. But his anger, his vow never to return, had placed D in a position he should have never been in.

It should have been Jonah. And he’d live with that for the rest of his life.

He moved quietly to the bed, and he gently disentangled D’s arms from Ty. Then he picked her up, cradling her in his arms.

He walked out of the room and down the hall to Ty’s bedroom. He laid her on the bed and pulled the covers down, lifting her again before settling her back down on the sheets. He pulled the comforter over her and tucked her in. He kissed the top of her head before leaving the room.

He backtracked to D’s room, checking on his sleeping brother one last time before retreating, locking the door securely on his way out.

Chapter Three

Tyana jogged along the beach, occasionally skirting the incoming surf. Usually she jogged a few miles as part of her daily workout, but today she pushed herself beyond her usual endurance.

She darted closer to the water then away again when the waves chased her back. Her shoes left deep imprints in the wet sand, and her legs ached from the strain of the sand sucking her feet downward.

The morning sun beat on her bare shoulders. Sweat beaded and rolled down her back, making the thin material of the muscle shirt cling to her skin.

She scrubbed her arm over her forehead and pushed herself further along the beach. Her mind centered and focused on the issue plaguing her.

Despite Jonah’s insistence that she not go after Eli, she knew she had no choice but to confront him again. Somehow she had to find out how he maintained such control over his shifting abilities. Maybe they’d gotten their hands on a cure.

D had led Eli’s hostage recovery team into Ahdarji to extract two prisoners. She knew from the file they’d compiled on Eli’s team that they were a highly specialized, highly trained former military combat unit. With their contacts, it wasn’t unreasonable that they’d been able to seek help when they all turned into unmanageable shapeshifters.

If they possessed the know-how to help D, then by God, she’d track them down. She’d sleep with the devil himself if it meant her brother would find peace.

The formula a trusted doctor friend had come up with had at first been successful in controlling D’s shifts. But as more time elapsed, D had grown resistant to the injections. The aerosol that had prevented shifting for several hours at a time had long since failed to be effective.

It hadn’t worked on Eli either, but then Eli had shifted with ease, his mastery of his body and abilities apparent in the way he’d taunted her.

The sun lifted higher in the sky as she continued to push her aching body. She rounded the eastern corner of the tiny island and headed down the southern strip of the beach.

When she raised her head to look down the sandy stretch, she saw Mad Dog step onto the beach from the rocky path leading up to the main house. He motioned her over then stood watching her, arms crossed over his chest.

She sighed and jogged toward him, irritated at the disruption to her solitude.

“Jonah’s called a meeting,” Mad Dog called out as soon as she drew within hearing distance. “We’ve got company coming.”

On cue she heard the whop whop of an approaching helicopter. Mad Dog reached out to pull her close to him, and he urged her under the cover of the trees lining the rocky path to the house.

“What’s the meeting for and who’s coming?” she asked as they started the climb to the house.

It wasn’t like Jonah to allow a meeting on their island. When they met a client, they always did so in a large international city.

“I don’t know,” he muttered. “It came through Burkett.”