Burn Into Me (Into Me Series Book Two)

Chapter Twenty Six - Disenchanted

Jackson's POV

Just breathe. Everything is going to be okay. No matter what happens, everything is going to be okay. This is hard but you can do hard things. Just breathe and remember who the fuck you are.

"Phantom, this is Maverick, do you copy?" Connor's voice cracks over the communication system.
"Maverick, this is Phantom, I copy, over," I reply lazily.

Yet another case where my ass is laying on a fucking hilltop on my stomach with my sniper rifle. I hate being a sniper. I can't fucking stand it. Because when I'm a sniper, that means that I'm killing someone today. I really fucking hate killing people.

"It appears that there are not any adults in the house, only kids, on the thermal, over," Connor tells me.
"T-Bar, what do you see? Over," I ask.
"Phantom, this is T-Bar. Confirming report from Maverick, no adults, only children from what I can see, over," Riley responds.
"Avenger and Venom, are you guys in position and ready? Over," I ask.
"This is Avenger, I'm ready, over," Austin confirms.
"This is Venom, I'm ready, over," Veronica tells me.
"Bandit, Buzzard, and Nightmare, checking in. Anything from your end?" I keep my eyes trained on the house through the scope of my rifle.
"Phantom, this is Nightmare, confirming that Bandit, Buzzard, and I have no further information, over," Hayes tells me, ensuring that Jordan and Sekou are also ready to rock and roll.
"Copy that. Let's go for a gentle breach on my count, really don't want to scare these kids if we don't have to," I command. I try to not traumatize kids. I mean, it's a very low bar that I think we should attempt to hit. "Breach in three, two, one-"
"Nightmare, watch out!" Verena yells as all hell breaks loose.

Suddenly, there's gunfire, and a lot of it at that. We were set up. This is a trap.

"Fall back!" I demand, focusing on one of the gunmen that goes after Riley and sending my bullet through his head.
"Halo is down!" someone reports. I look through my scope to see Mariah on the ground, blood rushing from her body.
"Venom, get to her!" I spit. Verena's rifle fires next to me over and over, neutralizing the threat. "Ole' Faithful, do you copy?"
"This is Ole' Faithful, I copy," Mac's voice tells me.
"What the hell is going on?!" I sneer.
"Falcon is down, over," someone informs us.
"This is Avenger, coming to you, Falcon," Austin tells Killian.

I watch as Austin takes off toward Killian. Here's the thing about Austin. He's only 22. While his age brings spunk and energy to the team, it also makes him immature and inexperienced, which is why he probably didn't notice the guy running straight toward him.

"Austin, look out!" I shout, throwing all formalities out of the window. I move my scope to focus on the head of his attacker, but Verena fires first. It's too late though. Austin's leg is bleeding profusely from where he collapses on the ground. "Fuck! Someone get to the kid!"
"Last threat neutralized, the scene should be safe, but I'll keep my eye on things for you guys," Verena says from her spot next to me.

I nod and stand to my feet, sprinting down the hill toward Mariah, Killian, and Austin. What the fuck?! How the fuck did this happen?! This plan was airtight! We have to have a leak somewhere. I skid to a stop next to Mariah, who groans in pain but is ultimately okay, just a graze wound on her calf. Killian has a GSW to his left shoulder, mumbling something about Kevlar vests and six tours in Afghanistan, but is ultimately okay as well. I get to Austin just as Connor does. He grabs the bandana from his back pocket and uses it to put pressure on the GSW in Austin's leg.

"What the fuCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" I rage. "You should NEVER approach without getting the okay from your eyes above!"
"I'm sorry," Austin says, grimacing as Connor applies more pressure.
"Are you fucking stupid?!" I snap. My heart pounds rapidly in my chest as my breath remains short.
"No- I made a mistake, I'm sor-"
"Shut the fuck up! I don't want to fucking hear it!" I interject.
"That's enough, Jackson," Connor forces.
"Connor, don't even fucking start with me right now," I warn, narrowing my eyes at him.
"Uh, Hart?" a voice calls.
I turn in the direction of it and see Hayes staring back at me with an unreadable expression. "What?!" I snap.
"You're gonna wanna see this," he tells me.