Walk on the Striped Side (17 page)

CHAPTER-NINETEEN

Gage

After what felt
like an eternity, the co-pilot’s voice finally came over the intercom. “ETA is
thirty minutes.”

Gage looked over
at his unit. “Lock and load. Tyson, give me the duffle bag.” He looked over to
Davies. “Your man going to be at the air strip in time?”

Davies whipped out
his cell phone and started texting as Tyson placed the bag at his feet then
gave Elena a wary look and asked him, “You sure you want to do this?” He
pointed to the bag.

Gage snorted.
“There are worse things than giving her this.”

The lion-shifter
pride leader’s eyes bugged out of his head. “I’m not so sure of that, but it’s
your funeral, man, not mine. I’m just glad I’ll be on the other side of the
house.” With that, Tyson walked away. Gage looked over at his mate, who was
watching him with one eyebrow cocked up in curiosity.

He waited for
her to say something, perhaps ask what was in the bag, but she didn’t say a
word. Reaching into his pocket, he withdrew the key to their handcuffs and
unceremoniously unlocked them. Elena’s face was a mask of surprise, however
they didn’t have time to bullshit around about him finally taking the handcuffs
off. They had to get ready for what they were about to do.

Not ready to
give her the entire contents of the bag yet, he bent down and unzipped enough
of the bag to reach his hand in and grab the change of clothes and the pair of
combat boots that he’d had Tyson procure for her. Pulling them out, he zipped
the bag back up quickly so she couldn’t see the remaining contents, and then
thrust the clothes in her direction.

“Go to the
bathroom and change.”

Elena narrowed
her eyes at his tone, but she grabbed the clothes and disappeared into the
bathroom.

Not having a
minute to waste, he asked Tyson to pull the floor plans they had of the house
up on the television. They needed to go over it and their plan one last time
before they left the plane. The sounds of the men checking and double checking
their weapons played like a familiar song in the background as he waited for
Tyson to finish setting up their visual. Just as the simple lines of
Minna’s
drawing popped up on the screen, Elena came back
out of the bathroom.

Some men fell in
love with women who looked like sensual supermodels, were high maintenance, and
couldn’t imagine leaving their house without a purse on their arm. Other men
fell in love with women who were sedate, angelic-looking in a girl-next-door,
simple way and could care less for fashion. Most men wouldn’t give a second
glance at the woman he loved.

Elena was thin
in a way that made him want to feed her junk food for a couple months to put a
few extra pounds on her. She didn’t strut like she was sex on legs or walk
gracefully like a dancer would, instead she marched quickly and quietly as if
she had purpose. He didn’t think she’d worn a bit of make-up since the day he’d
met her and he’d only ever seen her hair down, in her Army regulation bun, or
up in a ponytail, as it was now. Plus, the day that she ever willingly wore a
dress or skirt would probably be the day that Armageddon hit, yet as he watched
his mate stride towards him in a set of Army regulation
camos
,
he couldn’t help thinking that she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
Perfect for him in every way. He could only hope that soon she would see that
they were perfect together.

She resumed her
seat next to him, remaining stiff in posture, as if she was waiting for him to
do something. Unable to stop himself from nettling her, he leaned his head into
her space and just barely stopped himself from laughing when she moved her
hands away from him, as if she were afraid he was going to handcuff her again.

He didn’t stop
leaning in until his lips were touching the shell of her ear and then he
whispered. “Seeing you dressed like that brings back a lot of memories,
Sergeant Demos. Remember that time you came off shift and I surprised you in
your apartment and used your own shirt to—”

Elena leaned
away from him then slapped a hand over his mouth before he could finish the
sentence. A blush spread over her cheeks at the same time that she scowled at
him as they heard several snickers behind them.

In an angry
hiss, she whispered, “You know damn well they all heard that. If you don’t want
me to cut your nuts off and roast them over an open fire, you won’t do that
again, cat.”

Gage smiled
under her hand, satisfied that he’d been able to rile up his mate so easily.

Tyson cleared
his throat uncomfortably, a sure sign that he was nervous because Elena had no
clue just how on point she’d been with the roasting comment without realizing
the weapon Gage was going to give her. “Ready to review the plans, Ivanov?”

Placing a gentle
kiss on Elena’s palm, he pulled away from her, knowing the time for playfulness
was over. They couldn’t afford to fuck this mission up. Too much was riding on
their group going in and completing this successfully. An Alpha’s life was on
the line and they needed to do what they could to shut this pack down. If they
didn’t at least temporarily incapacitate them, there would be no telling what
they might do next, and the subsequent scheme they pulled off might finally
alert humans about the supernatural nature of those living among them. That was
a risk they couldn’t take.

Turning to face
the group, he motioned for Minna to go back over to the television as she had
hours before.

Glancing down to
his watch, he noted the time. “ETA is now twenty minutes. All right, wolf,
let’s go through this one more time.”

Twenty-five
minutes later, they were departing the plane in the dead of night, while fifty
feet away a man with a small moving truck painted black was waiting for them.

Gage had the
duffel bag in one hand and Elena’s hand in his other. Surprisingly, she hadn’t
fought him when he’d grabbed it and threaded his fingers through her own. He
needed the contact to soothe his tiger, who was anxious about them taking their
mate into danger. His human side understood the tiger’s anxiety, however he
also knew that, if Elena didn’t stray too far away from him and kept ahold of
the weapon he was about to give her, she would be fine. His mate was a warrior
and could hold her own. He had to have faith in her and her skills if he was
going to keep his sanity.

As they drew
closer to the truck, Gage took in the features of Davies’s co-conspirator. The
vampire was leaning against the truck with his arms crossed over his chest and
one foot overlapping the other. On the surface, he seemed at ease, like he
didn’t have a care in the world and hadn’t been watching an unstable wolf pack
for the past couple of months.

As Gage stopped
feet in front of him, he noticed small laugh lines around the man’s eyes and
the dimple that appeared in his left cheek when the man smiled at the Pack
Master. The vampire looked to have been frozen in immortality around his
mid-thirties. He was slightly shorter than Gage at just under six-feet with blonde
hair. His pale skin stood out in stark contrast to his black clothes and Gage
saw the outline of a tattoo on the side of his neck that disappeared under his
shirt.

Davies held his
hand out to the man in greeting, which the vampire grabbed to pull Davies into
a one-armed hug. As they gave each other slaps on the back, the Pack Master
murmured. “It’s been too long, my old friend. You need to stop hiding out a
continent away and come home.”

They separated,
and the vampire shrugged. “Where is home? England? America? When you’ve lived
as long as we have, you become your own home. Everything around you changes,
and you learn that you are your only constant. I’ve been thinking about coming
back to America, though. Introduce me to your crew and let’s get going.”

Davies slapped a
hand down on the man’s shoulder and turned to face them. “This is Rhett Baines.
You remember my nephew, Logan, I’m sure.” Holding his other hand out in Jenna’s
direction, he motioned her to come to him. When she stepped forward, Adam was plastered
to her back like a second skin. This caused the Pack Master to snort in
amusement. “This is my niece, Jenna, and her mate, Adam McPhee, the Alpha of
North Carolina.” Davies pointed to Gage, “This is Gage Ivanov; his mate, Elena;
his brother, Alec; and the rest of the men are Gage’s unit.”

Baines tilted
his head to the side and stared at Elena. When Gage watched the man’s nostrils
flare, it took everything he had not to reach forward and rip the man’s head
off his shoulders. The tiger didn’t like the other man sniffing the air for his
mate’s scent.

“She’s human.”
Baines turned his attention to Gage. “Do you think it’s wise to bring your
human mate here? I imagine she’ll be more of a liability than a help.”

Gage heard Tyson
chuckle behind him. Ignoring that, he stared at his inquisitor. “I’ll worry
about my mate; you worry about getting us to the Corvus Compound unseen.”

Baines shrugged.
“Your loss if she dies, not mine.” With that parting shot, he walked to the
back of the truck and slid open the door for them before disappearing to get in
the front to drive.

Gage watched
Davies peel off from the group to sit in the cab of the truck with his friend
so that he could update the vampire about the things they had learned on the flight
over as the rest of the group climbed in the back of the vehicle. Once they
were all in, Gage pulled the door shut. The truck roared to life and
immediately took off towards their destination.

Feeling Elena
next to him against the wall, he set the duffle on the floor in front of him
and then pulled a flashlight out of one of his cargo pockets. Turning it on
with the beam shining on the bag, he crouched down over it and motioned for
Elena to do the same. When they were both situated comfortably, balancing on
the balls of their feet as the truck turned to the left, he got her attention
by running one of his fingers down the side of her face.

“You already
know that you’re to stay with me on the first floor of the house when we go in.
Our objective is to keep any of the Corvus Pack from going up to the second
floor while the others rescue Corvus. What’s in this bag is how you’re going to
help me do that.”

He unzipped the
bag completely and then spread it open so she could get a glimpse of the
contents. His mouth kicked up on one side when he heard her gasp.

“Is that…?”

“A M2
Flamethrower? Yes.”

The faint scent
of Elena’s arousal filled the air around him and Gage guessed that his mate had
just creamed her panties. He just wished he knew if it was because he’d pleased
her or if she was having an internal orgasm over the idea of using such a
weapon.

When she spoke,
her voice almost quivered in excitement. “I’ve always wanted to use one of
those.”

Gage snorted.
While most women liked roses or chocolates, his mate dreamed of high firepower
weapons.

Pulling out the
heavy weapon, he set the tank and firing apparatus on top of the bag. “The tank
weighs almost seventy pounds, so we’re not going to put this on you until we
get close to the house. The two large canisters hold napalm. The third, smaller
canister holds the compressed gas. This valve here is the Pressure Regulator;
you need to turn that before we go into the house. You with me so far?”

Elena nodded her
head and he knew his little Amazon was ready for action.

The truck made a
sudden right turn and Elena grabbed his thigh to keep her balance. Ignoring the
heat of her small hand so close to where he would love to feel it, he pointed
to the flamethrower’s shooting half and explained, “This is called the gun housing.
The next thing you do is flip the ignition valve here, on top, backwards. That
valve keeps the fuel from flowing out of the gun nozzle when the trigger lever
is released. When you squeeze the trigger, the fuel will be able to flow
through the nozzle, but only if that valve is open.

“There are two
handles and two triggers. The one up front is the ignition trigger. You need to
pull that first. You’ll see a small flame appear at the front of your nozzle
after you do that. The second trigger down by the stock handle is the fuel
release trigger for the napalm. Don’t waste your fuel. When you use it, pull
the trigger for five second bursts to conserve what’s in your tank. The flame
will shoot out up to sixty feet.

“Since it has an
extended reach, I’m going to face you towards the basement entrance. It won’t
take long for the enforcers down there to try to come out in force once they
know we’re in the mansion. The minute you see them coming, light ‘
em
up. I’m going to concentrate on the front entrance of
the house and the stairs leading up to the second floor. I need to keep both of
those clear of any threats. If one of the wolves happens to get too close to
you, scream for me. Nothing will keep me from getting to you, do you
understand?”

This time her
nod was somewhat somber, though it was also determined. Gage could tell her
trained soldier-mentality was clicking back into place after lying dormant over
her time as a civilian.

“How long do you
think we’ll have to hold the first floor?” she asked him.

The truck started
to jolt rapidly beneath their feet and Gage knew they were now driving over
uneven ground instead of pavement, which meant they were probably nearing their
stopping point.

He tried to take
a calming breath and shrugged at her question. “Not long, hopefully. No more
than ten or fifteen minutes, if we’re lucky. Anything longer than that and we
risk pack members in the house calling for reinforcements to come to the
compound. We have no idea how many wolves live in close proximity to their
compound, so we’ll need to be in and out as fast as possible. You ready for
this?”