The Hit (Team Zulu 1)

Cam rallied fast for someone who’d gone through hell, perhaps already sensing the urgency of our situation before I explained it to her.

“We’re leaving town right now, aren’t we?” she asked, determination in her eyes. She was with me no matter what lay before us.

“It’s not safe for us here anymore. We might have a few hours lead time on them, but Franky will know what’s gone down soon and I’ll be at the top of his hit list. He won’t stop now until it’s over.”

“Over?”

“Until one of us is dead.”

She let out a whimper and gripped my forearms so hard her short nails dug in.

I held her by the shoulders and stared straight into her eyes. “Untilheis dead, Cam. I’d stay here and stand my ground, but I won’t risk you. We stick with our plan and get you out of the country as a priority. Once the wheels of your plane are up, I’m going after that son of a bitch.”

This whole situation was royally fucked. My well-laid plans had to be scrapped with new ones being made on the fly. This wasn’t how I liked to operate, especially not with Cam in tow.

Her body shook in my hands. “Shep, please, no.”

“There are no other options now.” My teeth ground together.

“Bullshit! Come with me to Australia. Forget about Franky. And we’ll get Ranger somehow when he’s recovered. Don’t stay here and risk everything.”

“I won’t turn my back on this. I know it deep in my bones. This is the right thing to do. Franky needs to be taken out. I’m not running from that asshole.”

She wouldn’t like my answer, but the images of Pauly hands around Cam’s throat and Ranger lying motionless on the riverbank were burned into my brain. My bloodstained shirt and the purple bruises on Cam’s neck were a constant reminder of what Franky had set into motion. No way would I let him get away with this shit. He needed to be stopped.

She pressed her forehead to my shoulder and sobbed.

I folded my arms around her. “Shh, don’t cry. This is a good thing. He won’t be able to hurt anyone anymore.”

Cam gripped my shirt as more tears fell, and I sensed she’d accepted there would be no changing my mind. I was the only one who could end this.

“What will happen to you?” she asked.

“Not sure. I’ll take it one step at a time, adapt as I need to, and find some way out of this mess.” I might not have my brothers backing me up, but I wasn’t useless on my own.

She kissed me hard, then rested her forehead against mine.

“Promise me you’ll be all right.Promiseme!” she demanded, clutching my face in her hands.

“I promise.”

With the hell Cam had been through, I had to lie, even though I hated it. On top of everything else she had going on in her head, I didn’t want her worrying about me. But I was in no position to make promises like that.

Franky would throw everything he had at me, and I would do the same to him because we both knew the score.

Kill or be killed.