The Art of You

“TOC, do you come in?” I hadn’t heard from Bella in two minutes, and I needed her voice in my ear to calm my heart rate down. Leaving her had been one of the hardest decisions I’d had to make, and I’d yet to shake the bad feeling since I’d left.

“This is TOC, that’s a good copy.” It was Keith, not Bella, and my gut twisted uncomfortably again, throwing my focus.

I nearly missed a tango playing peek-a-boo from a tree off to my nine o’clock. I dropped to my knee and swiveled in one fast movement. Head shot. He was down. Hopefully the last of the tangos out there.

“This is Three, I’ve locked on to the package,” I confirmed the moment I laid eyes on the kid heading for the back fence.

“The HVT is down,” Alessandro shared the good news. “Alive, but just barely. All tangos, aside from the kid, have been immobilized.”

“TOC, can you confirm?” Constantine asked. “Any movement from your vantage point?”

“Nothing,” Keith said. “You’re clear.”

“Bella.” Her name popped from my mouth like a reflex.

The silence was deafening, and it stopped me in place. “Something’s wrong.”

“Get down, the kid’s coming at you with his shotgun.” Bella’s words had me taking cover, narrowly missing a round to the face that would’ve ended my promise to make it back to her.

Now that I knew Bella was okay, I continued on mission. I am not shooting a kid. On my knees, I located the boy boldly advancing closer, his face partially wrapped by a bandana.

“This is Delta Two,” Alfie announced, “I’m coming up behind him. Distract him for me.”

Yeah, easy enough. Not getting taken out by a ten-year-old in the process, not so much. “Don’t shoot, and I won’t,” I yelled to him, hoping he spoke English.

The boy slowed down but didn’t lower his weapon. At least he didn’t fire again. I’d call that a win.

I shifted from low carry to rear sling, not wanting my rifle in front of me when he approached. Even a kid could ragdoll me if he grabbed hold of my weapon and went dead weight to the ground.

He stalked closer, and I slowly raised one hand to lower my mask, needing to add a little humanity for him. The skeleton face might have him thinking he was just playing a game of Fortnite or Call of Duty.

“On my count,” Alfie said over comms, and I spied him army-crawling up behind the boy.

I will not kill a kid. Please, please don’t make me hurt him. I wasn’t sure who I was sending that request to, but when he started to lower his weapon, I fell back onto the heels of my boots in relief.

Alfie pinned him down and I stood to gently disarm him. As he cuffed him, I transmitted, “He’s been detained.”

Constantine responded by requesting everyone sound off with their call signs, looking to confirm we were all safe.

No casualties or injuries on our side.

I turned toward the safe house, prepared to exfil, but Keith’s words over the radio shocked me back down to my knees.

“Kill the HVT or I kill Bella. Your choice. She’s currently incapacitated, as are your friends here.”

Without hesitation, I turned toward the safe house while yelling to Constantine over comms, “Do it. Do what he says.”

“I already did,” Constantine responded immediately as I started for the house, hoping one of the SUVs was still drivable. “If you touch my sister, if you set a hand on her⁠—”

“You don’t get it,” Keith cut him off. “You can’t hurt me. There’s only one thing you can try and steal from me now, and I won’t let you.”

“And what’s that?” I asked as my world spun upside down but my legs kept moving on autopilot.

“My revenge,” Keith answered. “Tomorrow is day 365. If you want to see Isabella again, meet me back in New York. Delta Five. Out.”

No blood in sight, but Bella’s vanilla-scented shampoo I’d inhaled while we’d made love lingered, mixing in with the smell of the bastard’s coffee.

She was really gone, and I failed her. Failed everyone.

Rage burned through me hard, hot, and fast before it took me down to my knees in front of her empty chair inside the van.

My knees slammed onto the hard floor as I bowed my head, trying to pull it together to work through the problem.

“This doesn’t make any sense. We vetted Keith when he joined in June. Army Ranger. Excellent service record.” Alfie was somewhere behind me, but I couldn’t look back to search him out. “He’s the one who tracked you to your hotel, though. I should’ve fucking asked how, he, uh . . . Christ, I’m so sorry.”

I barely heard what he said, too busy bouncing between red-hot anger and terror, struggling to think straight since I’d learned she’d been taken.

“I’ve alerted everyone I know at the airport to stop them if they show up. They’ll more than likely not leave out of Spain, though,” Roman said from behind.

“We need to get back home.” I tried to stand but my legs failed me. “He wants this thing to end there on our turf. Mission accomplished here, and now⁠—”

“I have a dozen missed calls from Adelina,” Constantine interrupted me. “She must know something.”

I lifted my head at his strained voice, catching sight of my phone on the desk alongside the Glock I’d left with Bella. This is my fault. I should’ve stayed back in the van.

“She’ll be okay. We have to believe it,” Alessandro said, his voice breaking right along with all of our hearts. “He wants us in New York to finish this, which means we have time to get to her.”

“Adelina’s not answering, but she left three messages,” Constantine said. I had no idea how he was keeping it together, but I was glad one of us was. “Come on. Get up.”

He urged me to my feet. I’d never felt so fucked in the head in all my life. On one hand, I was ready to kill anyone who stood in my way of finding Bella. The other part of me already felt dead.

Constantine helped me outside the van, and we joined the others. Well, the few who were there. The rest of Alfie’s team was back at the safe house dealing with the mess to cover our tracks. They also had to get the leader’s son to safety.

When I set my back to the side of the van for support, Constantine let go of my arm and played Adelina’s first voicemail over speaker.

“I have new information,” she rushed out. “Rose legally changed her name when she was eighteen. My guess is her husband managed to bury her real identity under a million pounds of layered encryption so we wouldn’t make the connection. It took one of the best hackers at Falcon to finally find the truth. But, um, Rose had two brothers.” Her pause screwed with my already damaged mental state. “Her older brother was the man you, um, killed, after Bianca died. Her other brother is on Alfie’s team. Keith.”

Constantine fumbled the phone and Alessandro moved fast and caught it. “What the fuck did she just say?” Alessandro asked as shock tore a hole through my already beaten-up heart.

Bella was right. She’d thought this was about Bianca, but I never imagined this was the missing piece.

“There are more messages.” Constantine cut off my thoughts, and my arms went lax even more when his composure failed. I hadn’t seen his tan skin this pale since learning Bianca had died.

“Malik and I are about to pull up to your parents’ house, but . . .” There was an unnaturally long pause before she yelled, “Something’s wrong.” The call died, and so did my heart.

Alessandro dropped the phone. “Calliope.”

I stared at Constantine as he picked up the cell, remembering we still had another message. I wasn’t sure how much more we could tolerate and keep it together.

“We were too late,” Adelina began, her voice trembling over her final voicemail. “Your family couldn’t get to the safe room in time. Your dad is being airlifted to the hospital. Your mom is okay and she’s with him. He’s alive, but he was shot twice trying to stop them from . . .” Adelina paused, then whispered, “They took Callie. They came for her.”