Reckoning by Jo Leigh

on the premise of getting lucky. By the time they reached the truck, Rodney would already feel the effects of the drug. He might struggle, but not very strongly.
    But back here, there was nothing to do but wait. Nate checked his watch for the fifth time in as many minutes. He hadn’t wanted her here, but she knew her presence would have a calming effect on him. He’d gone berserk when he’d found out about the deaths in Chad. Not in front of his team, of course. But when he’d come back to their room, he’d thrown around a few choice items, only one of which wasn’t plastic, and it had taken her a while to find out why.
    Her heart had sunk when he told her what Eli had said. It brought home too clearly that they had to succeed, and do it damn soon.
    As for her, she’d barely made it to the bathroom before she’d gotten sick.
    After she’d cleaned up, she’d opened the bathroom door to find Nate on the bed, his head in his hands, and he was shaking. He never trembled—not that she’d seen—not even the night of the lab attack.
    She’d put aside her own troubles and gone to him. She wasn’t important now. He was. Nate was their last hope, and he couldn’t fall apart, not when there was so much to do.
    “You want some tea?”
    Tam jumped at Harper’s voice, brought back from her memories to the warehouse.
    Nate shook his head in response to Harper’s soft question. “No, thanks.”
    “Okay, then, will you stop looking at your watch? It’s making me nuts.”
    He gave Harper a grim smile, and held off. At least for awhile. When he checked again, Tam got up, moved her chair to the other side of his and held his hand.
    “Sneaky,” he said.
    “Practical. We need Harper to be sharp when they get here. She can’t be wanting to punch your lights out.”
    “I never understood the reluctance to have women in combat,” he said. “You’re all ruthless.”
    Harper snorted. And then they heard the truck.
    Nate was on his feet so fast he nearly knocked his chair over. But then Harper seemed just as anxious. Tam was, too, she just had her focus on Nate, not the mission. That, she knew would be successful. The team was too good to screw it up.
    Nate had his weapon out, pointing at the loading dock door as it screeched open. He put it down the moment he saw Boone.
    Seth drove in, and there was Rodney in the truck bed, sleeping. At least Tam hoped it was just sleep.
    Harper climbed up beside him with her medical bag. While she checked his vitals, Nate and Seth set up the lights. In the meantime Cade mixed half a tube of white Mikrosil and half a tube of hardener in a bowl. After they were given the okay, the guys lifted Rodney—who wasn’t a small man—off the truck and onto the gurney. He didn’t seem the type to have attracted a woman as gorgeous as Christie. He must have thought he’d died and gone to heaven when she suggested they leave the bar.
    Even Tam had to admit Christie had done her part well. She was in tight jeans, a low-cut blouse, and her makeup was perfect. She’d probably outclassed everyone in the joint. Not to mention making Tam feel as though she could win a grunge competition.
    She turned back to check on Nate, who seemed a lot better now that he was finally doing something. She felt as if she were in an operating room. Everyone hovering around the subject as Cade put Rodney’s elbow in a sling so that his hand was elevated.
    Cade used a wooden mixing stick to slather the putty on the man’s hand, starting several inches below the wrist. It didn’t take all that long as he didn’t want it to dry unevenly, but it felt like hours to Tam.
    Finally, it was done. Now they had to wait at least twenty minutes for the stuff to dry.
    Nate turned his attention immediately to Rodney’s wallet. There was no keycard, but there was an ID card, which he took over to the color copier they’d hooked up to a portable generator.
    He made a dozen copies. As the clock ticked, Harper used a scalpel to cut