Page 40 of Her Steadfast Hero

“Sounds good.”

They went back to the warden’s old office where everyone was gathered.

“Joaquin, what’s keeping the men we’re waiting for?”

“Their truck broke down. They’ll be here in an hour.”

“Okay, we’ll get started without them.”

David looked around the room. There were eighteen residents of Las Flores gathered along with the seven SEALs, him and Joaquin.

“Lieutenant Tyler is going to introduce his team, and then explain our plan. Joaquin and I will assign you men to different groups, paired with different Navy SEALs.” David smiled to himself when the Las Flores men perked up at the term Navy SEAL, it seemed even here in Las Flores they had heard of the elite team of soldiers.

Bernardo had also been helpful in his efforts to stop the convicts. There was now a tip line set up, so they would not be flying blind. Carmen’s daughter was coordinating the project and alerting the manhunt teams when a tip seemed to have merit.

It was agreed that Joaquin would coordinate things from the prison. Luis, the acting warden, had been disgruntled at first. David had explained to him that his job was too big to care for another monumental task.

“Luis, you’re already trying to rebuild a prison, keep riots from happening, and hire new guards. It’s too much to ask of you to do one more thing.” David’s words had pacified him.

With the seven SEALs, Riggs, Harrison, and David, they had ten teams. O’Malley got a call.

“Gray, we have a problem.”

“What?”

“That was Carys, she said that she received information that there were two kids hurt at a small farm about fifteen clicks from one of the clinics. She intends to go out and get them to the hospital.”

“Yep, that’s a problem. Do what you need to do.”

David’s skin crawled. “Let me guess, she’s not going alone.”

“Nope,” Aiden said. “Your woman is going with her.”

“Dammit! I told her to call me.”

“You’re not raising her right.” Aiden smirked. David’s palm itched. Then his phone rang.

“David, it’s me.” His world settled.

“Wait for us. I’ll be there in an hour.”

“I don’t think they have that long. Somebody got a cell phone to them. We talked to someone on site. They’re in real trouble. They need immediate triage.”

“Let Aiden go, he’s a medic.” He heard her talking to someone. He couldn’t make out what they were saying.

“It’s in the wrong direction. You’ll have to meet us there.”

“Don’t you leave without us.” He heard Aiden saying the same thing. It was stupid. The leader inside of him screamed that he and Aiden shouldn’t both leave, but fuck that. He was going, and something told him that Aiden would be going too. So be it.

Phones to their ears, they grabbed their weapons and headed outside. David pointed to his truck.

“Hang up your phone, O’Malley.” Aiden scowled but did as he was told. David did the same thing and handed his phone to the man.

“What do I do with this?” he asked as he took the phone. David started down the road as fast as he could, even though it was a rut-filled mess.

“I can track Sarah on GPS. We have that arranged on a bunch of different specific targets.” He saw the man grin.

“They’re already moving.”