Page 47 of Keeping Lilith
Water trickleddown Julian’s face from his wet hair, but he wouldn’t take the time to swipe them away. All his attention was on the hut two hundred yards away from them. He was paired up with Irish. His presence on this mission hadn’t been received well by Deal, but Irish and Growler had vouched for him and he’d grudgingly accepted he could do nothing about it. If he was going to do more “boots on the ground” missions, he and Deal would have to have a discussion to sort everything out. But that could wait for another time. The rain was letting up, so they’d be making their move soon.
“You good, Julian?” Irish questioned, as his fingers flexed around the butt of his rifle.
“Yep.” They’d been in Columbia for four days, discussing where the women were being held, planning how they would extract them, and plotting how they’d eliminate yet another asshole who thought selling women into sex slavery was the best thing in the world.
They’d been about ready to breach the building in the middle of the jungle when a torrential rain fell. Julian had thought it would be a good cover for them. The noise of the rain on the roof of the small hut would muffle their arrival, but Growler, who wastaking the lead, had wanted to wait. Fox agreed, and so here they were—waiting.
“Jag and Deal, you take the east side. Hound and Rodgers, the west. Irish and Julian, you take the back, and I’ll be taking the front with Fox,” Growler instructed over the comms.
Rodgers had joined them from the FBI taskforce. With this operation, the FBI were letting Alliez take the lead but still wanted a presence.
“Apart from the two inside the hut with Sergio, I don’t see any other movement surrounding you from other members of Sergio’s organization.” Cass’s soft voice relayed the information. For a moment, Julian wondered if she’d reached out to Lilith or vice versa. He didn’t like the thought of Lilith being by herself the whole time he was away. He suspected that the other women would all get together and believed Cass would make sure that they included Lilith.
“They’re probably all in touch at the local brothel. Sergio’s made it clear that these five women were his,” Fox said angrily.
Whatever happened to Sergio’s business wasn’t the concern of the men surrounding the wooden structure. It was a problem for the FBI or some other government agency to monitor. The main objective was getting the women and making Sergio pay.
“We go on my count. Once in position, I’ll give the directive to breach,” Growler stated. “Three, two, one.”
Julian followed Irish, making sure he stepped where the other man did. He’d had a bit of a crash course in the last few days on how to handle his gun and remained undetected. He hadn’t had the special forces training the rest of the men had had, so he was grateful to Irish for all his guidance.
Once they were in position, he watched Irish. He would take his cues from him once Growler gave the go ahead, which happened far quicker than Julian expected. The splintering ofthe front door echoed around the forest, along with the screams of the women.
“Hold, Julian,” Irish hissed when he went to move. Julian stilled and silently cursed himself for potentially fucking things up.
Shots sounded, and the volume of the screams inside increased. There was no way he could block the sounds of what he was hearing. There was a big difference between hearing the action over a radio from the safety of his car, or a room, and being on the ground a few yards away.
Suddenly, someone burst through the trees behind him, and Julian whirled around, his gun raised. A man with a machete was coming straight for them. Julian didn’t think. He acted. He pulled the trigger, and a spray of bullets from his semi-automatic hit the man, who crumpled face-first into the mud.
“Do you see anyone else?”
Irish yelled something to Cass, but Julian’s attention was fixed on the man he’d just shot and…killed.
In the back of his mind, he’d known that something like this could happen, but the reality of it occurring was another thing. He was frozen to the spot. His finger still on the trigger, but not depressing it.
“Julian!” Finally, Irish’s voice penetrated the fog surrounding him, and he released his grip on the gun, the weapon dropping to his side, the strap pulling against Julian’s neck. Irish reached out, flicking the safety on. “You good?” he asked.
Julian shook away a bit of the shock at what he’d done, and looked at his friend. “I think so.”
“First one’s always the hardest, but if you hadn’t done what you did, he could’ve taken us both out.”
“I know.”
Shouts of “Clear!” came over the comms, along with whimpering. Had any of the women been caught in the crossfire? Were they going to be bringing some back in body bags?
Nausea churned in Julian’s stomach at the thought, but he swallowed hard to keep it down. Not a good look to lose the contents of his stomach in front of everyone. He didn’t think he’d get judged for it, but it didn’t matter. He would give no one a reason to believe he wasn’t competent enough to be included in future missions. Although he thought it might be a while before that happened.
Irish slapped him on the shoulder. “We got him, and that’s all that matters. Those women in there are now safe because of you and us.”
Julian acknowledged Irish’s words and the comfort they provided him. They had done something good that day. They’d saved the women and eradicated more scum of the earth. With one last glance at the man he’d killed, Julian followed Irish around to the front of the building. He was ready to deal with the next part of the mission—escorting the women home and back to their families.
Tiredness doggedhis heels as Julian made his way into his house. His bed was calling him, and he couldn’t wait to sleep in it. The last forty-eight hours had been intense with getting the women safely back into the United States, and sitting through the debriefing of the mission with Ox and Mac, his boss.
He had the next couple of days off, and he planned to take the time to sleep and deal with the reality that he’d taken someone’s life. The card Mac had given him of a psychologist on staff sat snugly in his pants pocket. He didn’t plan on using it, but he did want to call his therapist. Although, maybe because of the classified nature of the mission, he wouldn’t be able to talk to his regular person. Looked like he’d be using that card after all. Not today, though. Today, he just wanted to be around everything familiar and to see Lilith. He’d called her when they’d landed, and her happiness at hearing his voice had chased some of the shadows away.
He should’ve texted her to let her know he was on his way home, but he hadn’t. He’d wanted to surprise her. At least he hoped she’d be surprised to see him. It was possible Cass may have called Lilith to let her know he was done with his debrief. Either way, it didn’t matter. She would be on the other side of the door, and he couldn’t wait to see her.
Before he had a chance to insert his key into the lock, the door opened, and Lilith stood there, a big smile on her face. “You’re home!” she said, a second before she launched herself at him.