Team: Echo (26 page)

“
Get us in the air,” Marius said to the pilots.

“
Sir, they are telling us to shut down our engines and to
await further instructions.”

“
Get. Us. In. The. Air,” Marius repeated. “You have two
minutes and I don’t care what the fuck they say. You ignore them
and get us back to the home airstrip as fast as this thing will go.
I don’t care what you have to do, you milk it for everything it’s
got and then push it more.”

“
Yes sir,” the pilot nodded.

She settled into a seat and watched Mikhail as he stood
sentry behind the pilots, not even sitting down he stood there,
watching them. “They know. They know who helped the bastard get
free and they know he’s on his way there now. They want this to
happen.” Because Honey and Daisy were a
distraction
to the boys. Well she
just hoped that Mik and Gareth never clued in that was their
thought process because they would level the place. “I told you
that you should have let me bring explosives.”

“
Not in this fucking lifetime,” James muttered next to her.
“Mik would have shoved one up that Rear Admiral’s ass so far he’d
have been tasting it in the seconds before it exploded.” He took
her hand in his and squeezed her fingers. “We have contingency
plans in place for a reason love.” He would have said more but his
phone rang, “Mik!” he yelled as he answered.

Mikhail didn’t budge until they were roaring down the tarmac.
Once they were airborne he turned and made his way towards them
with care.

“
It’s Mark,” James explained, Mik nodded and sat across from
them. “Says his team’s been tasked to watch the farm. Said to tell
you the blue light is blinking.” The tension decreased in the plane
at those words. The system was active, Daisy had figured out
something was up. “Yeah, thanks Mark,” he said hanging
up.

“
What else did he say?” Dieter was watching him.

“
They have orders to let the doctor in and see what he does.
They also have orders to prevent us from entering the property.”
James looked around, his eyes cold. “Any means
necessary.”

Penny saw red. She closed her eyes, counted to ten and then
opened them once more. “Those fucking assholes want Daisy and
Honey. I have no fucking idea why but I’m sure that we will be able
to find out. I would hit the good doctor’s files first.” The woman
had been far too shifty and smug, and Penny was sure that bitch was
hiding something.

“
Doesn’t matter, not now. Right now we need to focus and come
up with a game plan. We only will have the weapons in the trucks,”
Marius said, moving to sit in a better spot. “That’s Mik’s rifle,
four submachine guns and various blades and handguns. We can work
with it but we’re going to need to be very careful and
precise.”

Shooting a look to Mikhail Penny then frowned. “And what
about the hidden stash that Mik and I have been piling outside of
the ranches property?” There had to be enough weaponry in there to
start their own war if they wanted to. “Haven’t you boy’s noticed
weapons missing?”

They were all staring at her, stunned. “Told you they
wouldn’t notice,” Mikhail muttered. “Even when we walked right past
them all.” Which they had done the one day. Penny had thought for
sure they’d be caught but Mik had just kept on going and not a one
of them had ever said a word.

“
Well hells bells boys we have far more than what is in the
truck. Shit, even my gun is in there because Mik bet me five bucks
that you boys wouldn’t notice that it was gone and I told him you
would.” She shook her head. “I owe you five dollars.” She grumbled.
“I think we have maybe a tenth of what was at home in that hidden
bunker? So we have just about anything you might want to get your
hands on.”

Every man pulled out their wallets and handed over money to
Mikhail. “Thank you all for playing our game,” he said, collecting
the money. A hundred from each one as far as she could tell. “I
went easy on you because you’re blood,” he said when he caught her
staring at him.

“
Fucker said he could slip anything past us. Didn’t tell us
what but he even gave us a heads up that he would be starting in
the next couple of days,” Thomas muttered. He looked fit to be
tied, but then so did the others really.

Penny laughed, she couldn’t help herself. “Oh god, that’s
freaking priceless.” She looked up at James and smiled. “I love you
honey but seriously I would have thought when you saw me humping
out five grenades, a pair of sniper rifles and the 30/30 that you
would have said something like ‘Hey babe, what the hell?’ or
something like that.”

“
If I didn’t love you,” James growled at her. Leaning over he
kissed her hard before he flopped back in his seat. “I don’t even
remember you doing that to be honest.”

“
It was the day she was in the bikini,” Mikhail
said.

“
Ahh,” Dieter and James both said and started to smile. Those
were smiles that told her that they’d only noticed the
bikini.

“
Told you dressing for the day was important,” Mik snorted out
a laugh and he smacked her arm lightly.

Penny laughed, she couldn’t help herself. Shaking her head
she licked her lips. “And that’s why you told me to put on red.”
She liked that bikini because it was a teeny tiny small red number
that was more like dental floss and hankies than anything
else.

“
It’s very distracting,” Dieter murmured with a
wink.

“
Obviously a new tactic in warfare we should have been
employing long before now,” Stefan said laughing openly.

“
I dunno bro, you don’t quite have the body to pull of that
number,” Victor said with a huge grin.

“
I don’t think you’d want to anyway,” Meirion threw in his two
cents. “The mere thought of the wedgie alone that would have
caused.” Every male flinched and shifted uncomfortably.

Penny laughed and shook her head. “Good heavens you boys are
bad. Very bad but since I adore you all I will let it slide. Now
that we know that I can distract you boys so easily I will have to
do it again when I want something. However, that’s then and this is
now. For now we will deal with the threat to our
family.”

“
And we will,” Gareth said, meeting her gaze. “The fact
there’s a stash of weapons is good, that ups our odds of surviving
this shit show. Only downside I see is getting to it without them
seeing us.”

“
They won’t see us,” Mikhail said. “It’s by the slew near the
property line in the southwest corner. Even if they were that far
out, which they won’t be since you can’t see the house from there,
we’d be able to pick them off quick enough.”

“
Alright, plan of action is this,” Marius leaned forward. “We
grab the trucks, suit up with what we can. We drop Mik off near the
Millers place and he hikes in to a spot while we use their property
to get to the slew. Once there we get out the big guns and we go in
on foot. Penny, you will need to get to a spot on the back side of
the house to provide us with cover. Gareth, you, James, Thomas,
Anton and Meirion head in from the east, the rest of us will come
in from the west. When we are close enough, Stefan you and Dillon
sweep to the front and watch out for our friend Mark and company.
Anton, when we’re in range we need to have you link up with the
system and shut down everything in the yard that can kill
us.”

“
If we can make the old shack I can do it. Thank god we put in
all those extra external links,” he muttered.

“
Sounds good. Am I to use deadly force or do you want me to
just wing them so that we can question them after the fact?” If she
needed to she could simply take whomever might try to sneak out
down and they could collect them later, but she was all for deadly
force. No one messed with her family. No one.

Marius looked to her brother who just shrugged. “I’m all for
blowing their heads off.”

“
And this is why we don’t let you out to play without
supervision,” Marius said with a grin. “Non-lethal force unless
absolutely necessary. Necessary will constitute the threat of harm
to a team member, one of Mark’s team or someone getting into the
house. Anything else, wing them and put them down for the time
being. Hit them somewhere that will hurt and ensure they can’t
shoot at us in return.”

“
Damn,” Penny grumbled. “All right. I will shoot to wing only
and not take their heads from their shoulders.” She muttered and
everyone could see that she didn’t like the idea. Nor did her big
brother. The two were far more alike than they liked to admit, even
if they didn’t grow up anywhere near each other.

“
Good,” Marius nodded and looked around the group. “All right
lads, we have approximately forty minutes until we land. Everyone
catch a power nap, grab a snack or hit your zen place. As soon as
we are boots on the ground we are in full combat mode. This is your
time to get into the right mind set. We will get there, we will
stop these fuckers and we will save our girls. Daisy and Honey are
secure but they are counting on us to clear the yard. Let’s not
disappoint.”

Penny leaned back in her seat, closing her eyes she sighed.
Having James and Dieter on each side of her helped her to focus and
reaching out she grabbed each of their hands, needing the
connection to calm and so she could focus to collect herself. “We
will get them safe and get our home back. They have really messed
with the wrong family.”

“
They will learn that hard lesson by the end of this,” Dieter
said. He lifted her hand and pressed a kiss to her fingers. James,
with her other hand, was rubbing his thumb to her skin in a
distracted manner that was soothing. “And if they don’t we will
beat it into them until they understand what it is to fuck with
those who have been grabbed enough.”

A snort sounded and James said quietly on a laugh. “While
that’s interesting I think you mean jerked around enough big
guy.”

“
Yeah, that works to,” Dieter said.

Penny smiled and lifted Dieter’s hand to her mouth, she
nibbled on his palm before letting him go. She wanted to get this
over and done with so that she could just simply be with her guys.
Maybe they could ride out to the far reaches of the property and
spend the night in one of the large tents or something. Anything.
She just wanted to be with them and feel a little more settled,
which was something she definitely wasn’t feeling now.

“
I can practically hear you thinking,” James said against her
ear. “What’s going around that devious female mind of yours?” he
asked, his tone curious and yet slightly suspicious. His lips
brushed her ear lightly, his breath warm against the shell as he
awaited her answer.

“
I’m just trying to think of how to get the three of us alone
together. I’m trying to think of just how exactly it is that I can
seduce the two of you into taking me out on the far edges of the
property. Setting us up a tent and simply being together all nice
and naked.” She was whispering, but realized that likely everyone
could hear her but didn’t give a shit to be honest.

Chuckling he nipped at her earlobe. “Babe, you don’t have to
do much to convince us. Hell, flash us a grin and we’re there ready
to do whatever you want. So if you want to go out to the edges of
the property and have a night in a tent we’re there for you. But
we’re taking some comforts of home because I, for one, have had
more than enough of roughing it for a lifetime and a
half.”

“
Amen. A bed would be nice, or at least a pad or something so
that we aren’t sleeping on the ground. I am getting too old to
sleep on the ground when we don’t have to,” she teased and closed
her eyes. “Roughing it isn’t the idea, the idea is just to have
some time to run around naked as the day we were born.”

“
Babe, we run around naked all the time at the house,” he said
with a chuckle. “But I get your meaning. We’ll load up one of the
trucks and take all we need with us so we can be comfortable. That
way we also have transportation if needed.”

“
Sounds fair enough. And yes, we do run around stark naked a
lot more often than I’m sure everyone is comfortable with.” Penny
was a hedonist since meeting her men and didn’t mind flaunting
it.

“
I think your brother has the biggest issue with it,” Dieter
said with a chuckle. “He’s always going on about how much the
therapy will cost when you push him over the edge. But Daisy has it
in hand it seems, she distracts him rather quickly.”

“
Usually with a hand,” James said, tongue in cheek with a huge
grin on his face.

“
Now see, that’s just wrong on so many levels.” Penny muttered
and shook her head. “I could have gone all my life without that
visual.” One she had seen more than once sadly. “Dammit now all I
can see is how D distracts big brother. That’s just so wrong.” She
was teasing them, her smile and the way she rubbed closer to Dieter
proved it.

Both men chuckled. Dieter wrapped an arm around her shoulders
and drew her in closer. “Try and catch a cat nap Penelope,” James
said as he moved around in his seat. Kicking his legs out he let
the back drop down and let out a sigh. “I have a feeling we’re
going to need it.”

Penny nodded and leaned her seat back as well. She curled up
on her side as close to Dieter as she could get and yawned. “Wake
me before we land?” She whispered quietly. Before she could get an
answer she had already closed her mind down and was sound
asleep.