“Your life still has hope, Mickey.”
“What do you know? Ever watch the light in a woman’s eye die? Ever feel the light in your own fade when she walks away?”
Neil pushed the image of Gwen away. He didn’t need Mickey playing him now. Now he knew that Mickey had planned on using Gwen to get to him. Best not fall into Mickey’s trap now. “There’s other women out there,” Neil said.
“Not when your c**k isn’t good for anything other than taking a piss.” Mickey’s anger was palpable.
Neil cringed. “There’s more to life than sex.” Lord knew he didn’t know what he’d do if he couldn’t perform anymore. But killing his friends wouldn’t be the answer.
“Says the man who’s been f**king the little blonde number.” Mickey laughed again. “How’s Lady Gwen anyway?”
Neil bit his tongue until he tasted blood. He pulled his AK off his back and pushed in closer.
“This has nothing to do with her.”
Mickey laughed, and shifted his position straight toward him. He moved with methodical ease, keeping himself hidden.
“You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you?”
“He’s playing you, Neil. Don’t fall for it.” Rick’s words registered, but they didn’t manage to calm him.
Beyond Mickey, Rick moved closer to the cliff, and closed in.
“Gwen’s safe. You can’t get to her.”
Mickey laughed again. “I don’t have to get to her, Mac. That’s the beauty of this. The man at my back is better than Rick.”
Neil froze, his nose flared as his vision went red.
“Bastard,” Rick murmured as he drew in tighter.
“Stay the f**k back, Smiley.”
“Or what?” Rick finally spoke.
“Or I press this button and put in the order for Lady Gwen’s unfortunate accident.”
Neil’s hands started to shake.
“He’s bluffing,” Rick whispered.
Neil shook the rain from his head and forced his head to clear. Major Blayney?
No.
“You never were a good liar, Mickey,” Rick said.
“Is that so?”
Neil closed his eyes, the pain in his head intense. Blonde? Blondie? Who’d said that recently?
“Know who I was banging before Operation Raven? The operation that Mac and Billy f**ked up?”
Hearing that aloud hurt, even though Neil knew it was bullshit.
“Why do I care who you were with?”
Neil regrouped and opened his eyes again. Mickey stood two hundred yards away, Rick less than a hundred from him.
“The name Annie mean anything to you?”
Annie?
Blondie…Chuck’s question came back to Neil. “How did you get Blondie to come with you?”
“Told her that someone from my past was using her to get to me.”
It came back to him now. The lack of surprise on Chuck’s face, the ease with which he accepted everything. His eagerness to expedite his departure. And damn it, Gwen’s hair was brown when they arrived at Fort Carson. Fucking brown, not blonde.
“He’s not bluffing,” Neil told Rick.
“How do you know?”
“Chuck’s daughter is Annie. The major is calling the orders for our death. And he has my wife.”
“Oh, no,” Rick said.
They needed to finish this…
“Figured it out, didn’t you, Mac?”
“Hurt her, and you’re a dead man.”
“I’m half dead already.”
Let’s see if I can help you with the other half. Neil dropped to the ground and moved closer.
“Back up, Mac. My finger is inching on this switch. Let’s let Blayney know he’s clear to take your woman out.” Mickey waved something in the air. Neil couldn’t tell what it was from his angle.
“What’s he got in his hand?” he asked Rick.
“Hard to say. Looks radio controlled. Could be a signaling device. Could be a detonator.”
“What do you want, Mickey?” Time to change tactics. Let Mickey think he had their attention.
“Now that’s what I’m talking about. How about you and your sidekick here move on up to your perch. You know, the one you’ve been sitting on for three days looking for me from.”
“And then?”
“And then I call the boss and ask him what he wants me to do.”
Neil backed up a few yards and moved slowly in the direction Mickey wanted him to go.
“Feels like a trap.” Rick stated the obvious.
“Probably booby-trapped our fallback. Stay wide.”
“Why does Blayney want us dead?” Neil yelled.
“Keep moving, Mac. I don’t see your ass on that ledge yet.”
Neil stopped, looked over his head. If Mickey had been scouting them for three days, he probably could have come in closer sooner. Yet no shots had yet been fired. “Still think he needs to make this look like an accident?” Neil asked Rick.
“More than ever.”
“Move soldier.” Mickey’s voice rose above the rain hitting the leaves on the trees.
“Tell me why, Mickey.”
“How should I know? Wants you gone…wants Annie’s husband gone. Makes room for me.”
Neil cringed. Blayney was playing Mickey, too. Probably planning on killing him as soon as he and Rick were out of the picture.
“You stupid f**k,” Rick yelled. “Think Blayney’s gonna hand over his daughter to a gullible prick like you?”