Bad Boy Christmas: Box Set by Cheyenne McCray Page B

good thing considering what they were doing.
    The jungle’s humidity caused perspiration to break out on Janie’s skin and droplets of sweat rolled down the sides of her face.
    At the last moment, she avoided stepping into a depression in the rich earth beside a banana tree and her heart bounced in her chest. Damn. She caught her breath and gritted her teeth. What the hell was the matter with her? What was she doing thinking about Brick when her focus on the mission needed to be complete? Damn, she would get herself or someone else killed if she didn’t get it together.
    She shook her head then easily brought her thoughts to where they needed to be and continued being part of the liquid machinery of the team.
    Lights winked in and out of the foliage in the distance. “Compound in sight,” came Brick’s voice.
    “In view,” Janie almost said but managed to bite her tongue. She checked the GPS enabled watch on her arm as the others reported their positions.
    Within moments Thunder, “Casper,” and “Spit” gave their coordinates. They were far enough away from the compound that she could still use the goggles. Casper would do his thing and take out the generators, enabling the team to take over the compound more easily in what would soon likely be chaos amongst every bastard in the place.
    The team had done extensive recon for the past couple of days, which would help make this op go like clockwork. The guys hadn’t even been aware that she’d followed them each day.
    When she reached the fringe of the jungle, Janie crouched behind a cover of cecropia trees. The compound’s lights became too bright and she had to push her night vision goggles up and on top of her head.
    Surrounded by twenty foot high fencing, several buildings stood in the middle of a massive clearing. Stars winked above the area devoid of jungle vegetation. One of the buildings was huge, the main house where they were sure the kid was being held.
    Janie gritted her teeth. The kid could be a needle in a haystack. While they’d watched the compound, it included determining the most likely part of the building the boy was being held in. Over the comm, she’d learned that Brick was certain he’d spotted the kid through a window on the northern side of the building. Janie had thought she caught a glimpse of blond hair through the same window one day, too.
    Around the building were the two sets of thick-linked fences with rolls of barbed wire along the inner and outer ten-foot high fencing. At each corner of fencing that formed a square around the compound were tall metal outposts, each with two armed sentries.
    “In thirty,” came Casper’s low, casual drawl. Anyone who knew him would have no idea that he was about to wreak havoc on the compound big time.
    Janie shielded her eyes with her hand and slowly counted down the seconds. At the exact moment she ticked off thirty in her mind, an explosion rocked the compound.
    The entire compound went dark.
    The roiling ball of fire shooting toward the sky as sparks jetted from the flames provided enough light to see the sudden pandemonium in the compound. Black smoke boiled from the ground along with the flames. The IED that had just taken out the compound’s main generator had obviously done its job.
    Cries and screams echoed in the jungle, coming from the direction of the compound. Men shouted out orders in Spanish while others reacted with cries of chaos.
    Another explosion blasted the night. More flames shot up to the sky, the sound so loud she wanted to put her hands to her ears. Instead, she maintained position, her heart pumping blood as if the fire had turned to liquid in her veins. She forced herself to breathe as she waited for Brick to give the order to the men to move in.
    Janie blinked in surprise when the compound’s lights flickered—and came back on. Dimmer, but they were working.
    She frowned. The second explosion should have taken out the backup generators.
    Now, in the light