Melody's POV

Seeing as he was being a good little boy, I would let him have his moment of dominance. Monte looked at me, and I nodded. I had planned to have Declan on the sea with me since he was great with hand-to-hand combat as well and we may need it, but sure, Liam could pretend he helped.
Once finished, Monte stood up quickly to get out of the negative bubble created by Liam and me.
He did not say a word, but I could see Liam’s mind racing, and I could tell he didn’t like me being here. I almost wanted to tell him to get the fuck over it, but the helicopter was tense enough. Declan and Monte were focused on the four sets of laptops between them, while Antonio and Neal both kept checking their rifles. They seemed close already since Neal threw him a pack of chewing tobacco and Antonio accepted it like it was gold.
One moment they were fighting, the next they are trading toys.
Finally, when my eyes fell back on Liam, I found him watching me. He didn’t look away like most people would when caught staring. Instead, he just stared harder, as if I were a book he was trying to read, but it was in a language he didn’t understand.
“Yes?”
He shook his head. “We’re here.”
And sure enough, the helicopter began its illegal descent on the beach.
“Sir, ma’am,” Declan said, looking between us both. “We have a problem.”
“What?” Liam and I asked at the same time.
Monte clicked away at his computer. “The Valero have just gotten the recorder and are heading further out to sea. They have a boat waiting.”
Taking a deep breath, I pushed the button overhead. “Jinx, take us . . .” I looked over at Declan and Monte for the coordinates.
“38.09, -72.50,” they both said, quickly.
Liam nodded, looking over at Antonio and Neal as the helicopter pulled up. “They’ll bring it to us. Melody and I will wait on their boat. You guys will shoot from the door.”
They nodded while Liam stood up and looked over to me. He was doing so well until he opened his mouth again. “Or you can shoot and Neal and I can go.”
Standing up, I glared right back at him. “Give me a rifle and the bullet goes in your spine,” I told him as I waited by the helicopter door. Jinx was going to have to circle around continuously. Liam stood in front of me, hand on the door handle and just stared at me, once again. Always with the staring, the creeper. For a moment, in the midst of the storm that was in his eyes, I saw worry. He was fucking worried about me, the fucker. This was not my first—nor would it be my last—jump out of an aircraft. He needed to grab his balls and take a shot of testosterone, because I wasn’t worried for shit. I just wanted this over so I could drink myself to sleep.
Monte walked over to hand us parachutes, but we both shook our heads.
They would only slow us down enough to be shot. We need to drop down quick and hard.
“Jinx, take us as low as possible,” I said.
Our stomachs dipped as we felt the helicopter drop. Somehow, knowing before Jinx even had to speak, Liam opened the door and in the darkness of the night, we could both see the yacht waiting below. He looked back at me, but I ignored him and pushed off the wall to jump. The moment the cold breeze hit my skin, I braced myself for the impact of the deck. When my body landed, I rolled as bullets came flying my way.
Grabbing onto my gun, I turned and shot one right between his eyes just as Liam dropped onto the shoulders of another. There were screams and curses in Russian as Liam dove right beside me.
“Come here often?” he said, chuckling as adrenaline clearly pumped through his veins. I supposed he was no longer seeing me as a china doll in that moment, but as another person on his side. Finally, the dipshit.
“Not really.” I tried not to smirk back as more Russians came shooting at us. “The hospitality here is fucking shit.”
“You should write a strongly worded letter.”
Rolling my eyes, I turned and shot a man on the top deck in the kneecap.
“This is more eco-friendly. Save the trees, and all that shit.”
He grinned and then shot the man now screaming in pain in the head. “I was never good at recycling.”
Two more men came forward, one right behind Liam, and another behind me. We both raised our hands as they yell at us.
“Kto vy? Vy lokhi!”9 they shouted at us.
Liam smiled at me—he truly smiled for once—obviously enjoying this.
“Ya, Liam Kallahan. Eto moy zhenikh, vy tozhe mertv.”10 Just as the man finished, bullets went into the side of their heads, courtesy of Antonio and Neal, before the helicopter spun out of view once again. A second later, Liam’s phone rang and he placed it on speaker.
“They are four miles away and will be there shortly,” Declan said. Liam said nothing before hanging up as I reached down to grab their guns.
“Yarygin or Stechkin Pistol?” I asked him, causing him to frown.
“The Russians can’t make guns for shit,” he said in disgust, and he had a point.
Smiling, we began to throw the few bodies overboard as we waited for our friends. It only took a second, and by that time, we had thrown the overweight, drunken Russians off.
The boat was silent except for another crew as they made their ways back on deck. They stumbled and laughed liked fools.
“Vse chertovski narkotiki ushli. Chert by pobral etikh vlagalishcha v ad.
Valero sobirayetsya ubit’ nas.”11 One of the men asked where their brothers where Liam was already on his feet.
“Dead.” Liam said as he shot one right in the nose and I shot the other in the eye. He screamed in pain as I walked over, patting him down for the mini-equipment. Once I had it, I shot him once more for the heck of it.
“I’ll call the guys,” I said, handing it to Liam, but once I turned around, I found myself looking down the barrel of a gun. It was the man whom Liam landed on, and he had his gun pointed right at me. Liam pulled me out of the way and shot the fucker in the face, but not before taking one in the arm.