Brazen (B-Squad 1)

Normally this was when the team gave him shit for being an anal-retentive, bossy pain in the ass. Tonight it was different. They all knew it.

“Thanks to Lexie’s hack into the resort’s closed-caption video, we know that Yasmin is holed up with Walsh, Bianca and Gidget at the biggest bungalow on the north tip of the island,” he said, clenching and unclenching his hands into fists. “It has its own dock and, according to a not-legal-but-totally-necessary sneak-peek from a government satellite, we know there’s a boat heading straight towards them. We have thirty minutes.”

“Which is no problem.” Across the room, Lash clicked the night scope onto his favorite sniper rifle. “All we need to do is draw them out into the open. Our friendly DEA agents will meet us there. They’ll focus on Yasmin, Walsh and anything pertaining to Genie’s Wish. We locate Bianca and Gidget and then get the hell out of Dodge.”

“Exactly,” Taz said. “So why the rifle?”

His answering grin was ice cold. “Because as I’m watching all of the fun from my perch, I’ll be ready just in case.”

“If anyone takes out that bitch, it’ll be me,” Taz snarled, enjoying the mental image of ending her even if he wouldn’t be able to. “But Blackfish was adamant about taking her alive.”

The timer on his phone went off. “Let’s go.”

“We haven’t gotten the signal from Blackfish,” Vivi said.

She was never exactly a team player with the DEA, but the ties were still there. He didn’t suffer from the same problem. They’d find another way in rather than a surprise knock-knock from the feds.

“I’m not waiting any longer,” he said. “We cut it any closer with that boat coming in for them and they could be in the wind.” He looked around at the assembled team, brain speeding ahead to recalibrate his plan. “Yasmin made it sound like she had briefs on the whole team. Elisa, can you throw a disguise together that will throw her off enough to get us in the door?”

Their makeover maven shook her head. “Not unless you want to wait another twenty minutes.”

“They don’t know me,” a female voice said from behind him, the know-it-all tone an unmistakable giveaway.

Everyone turned. Tamara stood in the doorway between the living room and the galley. She must have been lurking in the dimly lit space the entire time.

“I can do this.” The words sped out of her mouth. “Let me help. I owe you guys at least that much. Anyway, I’m your best option right now.”

“Fucking A.” He tried to think of another way—any other way—to make the plan work and came up with bupkis. “Fine. Let’s do this.”

Chapter 15

Taz

Indulgence Resort …

Thanks to Lexie’s mobile eye in the sky, they were able to avoid all of the resort’s closed-circuit cameras dotting the area around Yasmin’s bungalow. That didn’t ease the volcanic ulcer eating away at what was left of Taz’s stomach lining.

Worrying for someone else besides his brothers was a new thing for him. In fact, he’d never experienced it until the night he’d walked into Bisu Manor without any goal in mind other than to get laid and ended up falling in love.

Soarta—fate—had ordered his life to unfold this way, his mother would have said. Of course, when she’d been talking to him about soarta when he was a boy, it was usually when he was helping her clean up the broken glass and splattered blood after his father had taken out his frustrations with the world on her face. He’d been all of six when he’d decided fate could go screw itself, no one and nothing would ever have control over him to the point that he made stupid decisions because of some misplaced emotion that fools called love.

With tonight’s success depending on whet

her his ex-wife could fake her way into Yasmin’s bungalow so he could take out the woman who’d been six steps ahead of them for months and rescue the woman he loved, he knew that soarta was having a helluva laugh at his expense right now. He didn’t give a fuck. He just wanted Bianca safe.

“Ready?” he asked Tamara.

She nodded but didn’t stop chewing the inside of her cheek.

He double-checked his sidearm and then pressed the comm unit in his ear. “Everyone set?”

Eight voices gave the affirmative.

From their position in the shadows at the base of the bungalow next to Yasmin’s, he and Tamara had the perfect view of the target door. Marko was ready to go in on his six. Lash was set up in a sniper’s nest. The rest of the team was scattered around the perimeter far enough away not to be detected by Yasmin, ready to move on his command. Blackfish and his agents were still AWOL.

Staying in his crouch, he pivoted to face Tamara. “You remember what you need to do?”

“Play the dumb drunk girl.” She slipped off her sandals and hooked the straps around one extended finger. “Honey Bear, if you only knew how often I’ve had to act brainless in this life, you’d be a tad less worried.”