Falling with Grace - Page 169

Nodding, I tucked myself into his sheets as he crawled in behind me, his arms wrapping beneath my neck and around my chest, his other crossed over the top, his hand tucked under my breast.

He swaddled me in his arms, tightening his hold. “It will be okay.” His lips pressed against the back of my head. “You’ll see.”

My lids closed as my heart slowed over time, settling into him as though he were my centerpiece, the cornerstone I didn’t know I needed and could no longer survive without.

An ache in my belly spread throughout my chest.

Elias would never feel the same.

I settled into a rhythm, taking breaths as he did, our chests rising with one another as though we were one unit until sleep swallowed me into a new world.

37

Elias

“There’s no activity. Does that seem normal to you?” I crouched beside the white walls surrounding the compound, my heavy flak jacket weighing down my shoulders, my rifle pinned to my chest, with my finger resting on the trigger guard.

Javier leaned in as we stood under cover of darkness. “Maybe everyone is sleeping.”

“We’re ready to approach,” Ximén said through my earpiece.

I pressed the button on my chest. “It’s a go, but remember, Andrés is mine.”

Pressing my back against the wall, I signaled my men to move forward. They advanced with bent knees, walking in a crouch, hands on each other’s shoulders exactly how the Mexican Army trained them.

A surge of adrenaline spiked my blood, my pulse pounding at my temples.

This is it.

He’s in my grasp, and no one could take him from me.

“Tres. Dos. Uno.”

A thunderous explosion reverberated through the air, sending a plume of dust and debris spiraling skyward as we blasted through the fortified gates. Two men at a time slipped inside, their comrades covering them like shadows, clearing the spaces ahead.

Javier and I brought up the rear, our boots echoing on the ground, grinding through the crumbling rock. At the heart of the compound lay a grassy area, an empty pool, and the skeletons of used lounge chairs.

I kneeled by the exposed cushions, surveying the darkness surrounding us. “This doesn’t feel right.”

“I agree.”

Squinting, I focused on a rusted splotch in the empty pool. “I expected more guards.”

This is strange.

“I don’t think he’s here anymore.”

I stood, moved to the pool’s edge, and peered in. My jaw locked as my teeth ground together. “He’s not.”

At the base of the now-defiled oasis, splotches of rusty blood marred its once pristine foundation, each stain for at least half a dozen souls. The cement walls chipped away with bullet impacts, and the trail of blood puddled into the deepest portion of the pool.

An execution.

Just as she said would happen.

Ten staccato bursts of gunfire shattered the stillness of the night, and I whirled around. A subsequent volley of three-burst shots echoed in retaliation.

“Fall back, we’ll reassess from the streets.”