KACELA
Wyatt looked at me like he was seeing me for the first time. I licked my lips and intentionally used my entire body to brush up against him as he held the car door open for me. He practically ran to the driver’s seat and drove much too fast to get us home.
I was giggling by the time he parked, tossing the keys to the warrior who met us on the drive. I was beginning to get used to the way that everyone was so open about their feelings. Wyatt strode over to my side of the door and masterfully opened it, picking me out of the front seat like I was a baby. I winked at the warrior who looked amused.
For the second time in as many days, Wyatt carried me up to our floor, opening the door to the suite and carrying me in. Instead of putting me on the bed, however, he sat on the couch with me still on his lap. I put my arms around his neck and began nuzzling him in the crook where his neck met his shoulder. I co
KACELAI was stiff after sitting on the beach all night and my clothing was still damp where I had folded it under me. The robe that Suzie had for me was thick, though, and I kept it on for the trek back through the forest. Halfway back, Jarrett had begun to carry Lia. I would have loved it if Wyatt carried me, but when he offered my pride made me say no. I was tired, but I was too proud to accept help.Nellie met us on the lawn.“I’ve spoken with the King and went ahead with plans. We will leave at noon so that gives you four hours to clean up and pack. You can sleep on the plane. It will take eight hours to get to Cambodia.” She was brisk and to the point. I risked a glance at Earl and he looked relieved that she was all business.“I’ll be ready. Where are we meeting?” He was also all business.“Circle drive out front. The
KACELA The SUV that Earl, Mouse, Tank and I were in parked next to the first hanger. I watched for a moment as Nellie and Jarrett’s SUV continued on. I grabbed my duffle bag and hopped out, slinging it over my shoulder. I reached in and pulled out my backpack that housed my laptops and other technology I thought might be useful on this trip before heading to the back of the vehicle and helping Mouse grab his boxes of toys. I had never been on a private jet before, and I think my face said how impressed I was because Earl outright laughed at me. “So much better than coach,” he teased. I sat in a luxurious leather recliner and peeked out the window to see Mouse instructing someone on how to stow his many boxes of things he thought he may need on this trip. “He doesn’t plan on using all of that, does he?” I asked Earl, mildly. He looked over my shoulder, crowding my view at the window. “Hell,
KACELA We landed in Cambodia at 8pm our time but it was 9am there. My internal clock was so messed up at this point after the all-nighter and the long nap I took today. My body said that I needed to sleep, and my brain was ready to do Soduku puzzles and solve the world’s problems. I decided to compromise and eat something more substantial than a sandwich. We decided to head out and scout out the area that we were going to be infiltrating later this evening. I followed Earl down the stairs of the plane, stepping out on to the hot tarmac. “Damn, it’s hot,” Tank said behind me. I turned to see him slipping on a pair of dark sunglasses, his ebony skin already glistening with sweat. “You’re gonna melt, Mouse.” Mouse grunted in reply, slipping on a backpack. “I don’t sweat,” he observed mildly. “I wish I didn’t,” I grumbled, putting my sunglasses on. Earl ignored us and caught a set of keys
KACELAEarl carefully did a three point turn and I hopped out of the jeep, using my phone to take pictures of the view. I posed a few times so that Earl could take my photo with the overlook as background. This gave me an opportunity to make note of where the cameras were.While I was making duck lips at Earl’s camera, the gate behind him began to open. Earl saw the look on my face, and he turned, stepping to the side. A large limousine was easing out of the gate.I ran over to it with a huge grin on my face and knocked on the window in the backseat. Like a farcical movie, the window slowly lowered, and a grinning face looked out at me. It was Atith.“Can I take your picture?” I gushed, turning to take a selfie with the man’s face in the frame. Atith grinned even bigger and obliged, moving so that I could get a good photo. I intentionally made it bad and showed it to him with a
KACELAWe got out of the jeep and began running parallel to the road, trying to put distance between us and the jeep. We left all the packages, including the lovely fruit I had purchased and Earl’s new hat. I was slightly offended he didn’t love it more.I still held my phone and Mouse was tracking our position. “There’s a river coming up,” he said. “You can follow it down. They build the northeast corner of the airport over the top of the river. You can enter it at the road and then swim through the culvert. There should be an access point in one of the hangers,” he said.“Should be?” I asked. “I’m not a fish. Make sure that there’s a place we can get out before sending us down the river.”“Checking.” Mouse said, ignoring my sarcasm. “Okay, there is. Hangar twenty. I’ll send Tank ove
KACELA The plane took off without incident. Mouse and one of the attendants pulled the stairs up and latched them just as the plane took off. No one seemed the slightest bit put off and I wondered, yet again, where Nellie had found the plane and crew. “What happened?” Tank’s deep voice broke through my thoughts. I shrugged. “We saw an opportunity. We took it.” Tank waved his hand. “Better come up with a better story. I put off the King several times already. He’s going to be calling again any minute and I know he’s going to want to hear this.” I bit my lip. I didn’t want Wyatt worrying about me and I certainly didn’t want him blaming Earl. “You had better not blame me,” Earl grumbled. “We were supposed to do intel only and next thing I knew you’re taking selfies with the target.” He tried to keep the stern look on his face but wasn’t able to. He gave up. “It was freaking brilliant,” he said, turning to Tank. “We’re up there, trying to look like some dumb tourists
KACELA“Petar is kind of a recluse,” Mouse said, poking at his keyboard and pulling up photos. “He orders everything in and rarely goes outside. He has rooftop garden but, at least according to satellite, he never goes up there.”“Seems easy enough,” Tank said. “We sabotage one of his deliveries.”“How can we be sure that Petar is the only one that is affected?” I asked. “We don’t want to take out someone innocent who decided they wanted his particular brand of breakfast cereal that morning.”Earl was silent for a moment and then he answered. “I hate to say this, but I think we use Kacela as bait.”Mouse nodded. “I thought that, too, but didn’t want to say that. Treason and all.”I snorted. “It’s not treason. And what are you both seeing that I’m missin
WYATTI was sitting in my office staring at my phone. Lia was sitting on the couch, leaning back with her eyes closed. We were waiting for updates from both teams.Nellie’s team had successfully taken out their first target. They were in and out without anyone knowing. They had slipped in while everyone was sleeping and injected a fast acting poison into his foot. The needle mark would never be found, and the death would be ruled as natural. Quite opposite of Earl’s team’s first target. That one had made national news.I knew that Kacela was busy in this exact moment, acting as bait. I was trying to be calm, cool, and collected but I also knew that I was failing miserably.“Stop that,” Lia commanded from her spot on the couch. She hadn’t opened her eyes.“Sorry,” I said. I had been clicking a pen on and off for the last five minutes.&nb