Page 84 of Silver Linings
“And me being there on your first mission out since you got back will just be the last thing that verifies it. Now stop being such a whiny bitch and get your gear ready.”
“I literally cannot wait to listen to the comms tonight,” Hawk laughed as Gunner shrugged on his bullet-proof vest.
Three hours later, his body ached. They’d driven Gunner’s truck about a mile away from the surveillance van before ditching it off in the bushes on the side of the road. Stone and Gunner had hiked back through the thick trees until they were up against a wire fence.
It took a handful of quiet minutes for them to establish a safe boundary, and ever since they verified the heat signatures inside the cabin a short distance in front of them, they laid in the dirt, waiting.
It had been over two hours since the meeting was supposed to take place, and nothing. Thankfully, Stone had been relatively quiet, even with Hawk chirping in their ears every few minutes, trying to provoke Gunner.
As far as he could tell, the two people in the house they were monitoring had sat on the couch watching TV and then gone to bed. Not the most suspicious of nighttime activities.
“These fuckers aren’t going to show, Max. What do you want to do?” Gunner asked through his earpiece.
“There’s been absolutely no movement?”
“Nothing. We can see two people on the thermal imaging, but they’ve been laying in bed for an hour now. I don’t think this is going to shake out how you were thinking.”
“Fuck. I’m going to check in with my partner in Dallas.”
“I don’t like this. Something feels off about the whole thing. Max, I think we need to pack up and get out of here,” Stone said as he rolled onto his back.
“Fine. Pack up and meet back at the surveillance van. We’ll figure out what the hell happened when we’re back together.”
With their gear stowed, they started the half mile trek back to his truck.
“This is weird, right?” he asked.
“Something definitely isn’t adding up. You think the MC got wind of the FBI looking into them and switched their pickup spot?”
“Could be. That house was out in the middle of nowhere, but it still seems weird that a family home would be the drop spot. Max said it was a small compound for the MC, but did you see anything that remotely seemed like bikers went there, ever?”
“How do you know a family was there? We only had two heat signatures the whole time.”
“Kids’ bikes were on the side of the house.”
“Hmm.”
They walked in silence through the trees and tall grass for a few minutes until Gunner’s truck came back into sight.
“Do you think?—”
Gunner used his truck’s key fob to remotely start the engine. He’d done it what felt like a million times before, with no problem. Which is why his mind couldn’t comprehend why he was flying backwards as heat and debris rolled over him in waves.
His eyes moved to search for Stone, but all he could see was the bright light of his truck on fire. His body slammed into the ground and his ears rang as his vision darkened all around him.
Twenty-Seven
Fuck, that hurt.
As the dust cleared from the air around him, Gunner realized what had happened. A bomb went off. And that meant the fuckers had known exactly where the team was and what they were doing. It was a trap.
Reaching towards his back, a groan escaped from his mouth. If anyone from the Santoro organization or that fucking MC was in the trees surrounding them, there would be a bloodbath coming. Gunner pulled out his gun and rolled onto his belly, searching the treeline for potential enemies.
“Holy shit! Are you guys okay?” His team was there. Gunner breathed out a sigh of relief.
“Get down. Those fuckers are probably close by!” he yelled. Or at least he hoped he was yelling. His ears were still fucking ringing.
“Heat signatures say we’re alone right now, buddy. How’s your head?” Gage knelt down in the dirt and looked him over.