God will reward you,' he said. 'You must be an angel since you care for flowers. – Victor Hugo

You’re fiancé is annoying. – Jase, after learning how Briel found him.

“Don't move,” came the whispered command, and despite his natural inclination to distrust, something familiar in the voice compelled Jase to obey. A grey light had bled slowly into the blackness of his unconsciousness, and Jase’s rage escalated as his awareness grew.

“She hasn't been harmed,” the voice consoled him, and Jase wondered if he had somehow spoken of Nessa before he had grown fully awake. “Just keep your stupid mouth shut so I can get these cuffs off of you.”

Something in the sarcastic tone brought a smile to Jase's lips, and that characteristic combined with the high pitch led Jase to realize that he had somehow heard the voice of Briel. Was he hallucinating? Had someone brought him a phone, maybe one of the women he had earlier released, and he had automatically called Briel?

Mustering his strength, he forced his eyes open. He had spent an immeasurable amount of time in utter darkness, so the weak light of dawn that now filtered into the room served as more than ample to illuminate his surroundings. Not a room, he realized. A cell. Bars on the windows, a small barred opening on the door, concrete all around. And confirming his initial impressions, he saw the mousy little face of Briel.

Bitchy little thing, he grinned, and he felt a marked relief when Briel's face lit up with her own snarky smile.

“Don't be an idiot. Just stay there until I get your hands free.”

“Nessa,” Jase croaked, this time fully aware of the sound he made.

“Adam's watching her. He's not going to interfere unless they try to hurt her. When I get back to him, we're going to take out Amélie and Drew before we capture Bill.” The handcuffs slid from his wrists.

When Jase tried to sit up, Briel pressed him back to the ground. “Stay put for a minute,” she insisted, pressing something cold to his head. Until then, he hadn't noticed the throbbing in his right temple, an artifact of his run-in with the guard.

“I'm fine,” he insisted, reaching up and taking the cold pack from her hand. “Just give me a second to wake up all the way. I've fought entire battles with worse than this.” Jase pulled the ice pack an inch away from his head as a reference to the injury.

To her credit, Briel scooted back a couple of feet and left Jase to his own devices. She had, Jase knew, a similar iron will to his own and would have insisted on self-reliance if the circumstances had been switched.

“What's the plan?” Jase probed, his last vision of Nessa pressing him to action.

“The plan is for you to get the hell out of here and leave the hero stuff to Adam and me.”

For a moment, the thought tempted Jase, despite the bitter taste of the possibility. Not because he feared failure; rather, the opportunity provided him a chance to free Nessa without the pain of seeing her again. If he planned on leaving her, as he knew he should, no better chance could present itself. Still, he couldn't do it; he couldn't walk away until he knew for sure that she had safely left the compound. He would just have to endure the pain of seeing her again.

“Not gonna happen,” Jase finally uttered, his brain accepting what his emotions had realized all along. “I have to be there.”

Tilting her head, Briel seemed to assess Jase's condition before jumping to her feet. “Fine, if you honestly believe you're up to it. But I'm on a mission. If you get in my way, I'll shoot you.” Though Briel betrayed no humor in her tone, Jase could see the twitch of her lip as she reached a hand down to him.

Himself amused, Jase smirked at the offer. “Um, I know you're strong, but with our size difference, I'm more likely to pull you down than for you to pull me up. Give me a second.”

The mindless banter with Briel felt incredibly empowering after so much lonely surveillance and fighting. Though Jase had no guarantee of success, the numbers spoke much more positively in his favor at this point than they had before. The thought brought a new question to Jase's mind.

“Any idea how long I was out?”

Briel shrugged, “My best guess is a half hour or so. The fact that Bill and Amélie are here after an encounter with you means that they felt confidence in your continued incapacitation. Otherwise, they would have fled the premises. They seem to be in the process of regrouping.”

“You said Drew earlier. Did you actually see him?” Jase had known that Drew would not remain captive long in the makeshift manacles Jase had created, but he needed to know the condition of his enemy before he engaged in attack.

“Well,” Briel smirked again. “He looked a little foggy, but he looked pissed, too. You must have interfered with something important.”

“Yeah, he wanted my job with Bill, and he wanted to use my relationship with Nessa to get it. I don't think he expected me to react with quite so much violence.”

“You really wanted that job with Bill, huh?” Briel joked, a manly slap on the shoulder communicating her good-natured jibe. “Now, enough talk. We need to get to work.”

Irritated at himself, Jase complied without another word. If his curiosity resulted in any more pain for Nessa, Jase would never forgive himself. When he and Briel crossed the roof and peered through the windows, Jase's worst fears seemed a reality.

Bill and the governor had retaken their respective seats, and Drew now stood guard over Nessa. Nessa lay stretched out and lifeless on a chaise lounge, and a trickle of blood that matched Jase's ran down from her temple and onto her cheek. Jase wanted to rip someone's arms off.

Though Bill had returned to his former position, Jase couldn't miss the change in the aged man's countenance. Besides a marked tension in his entire body, Bill's color had changed from vibrant peach to a pale grey. The sight cheered Jase momentarily, the hope erupting that Nessa had somehow effected the CEO's health in a major way.

Briel slithered over to the western wall of the room and peered down into the darkness. After a brief hiss, the almost-jet silhouette of Adam appeared over the roofline. His ebony skin and attire clothed him in near invisibility in the waning night, and he nodded a greeting to Jase. To Jase's surprise, Adam broke into a grin.

“Impressive, aren't I?” the massive man joked. Jase hadn't realized that his face must have betrayed a certain awe at the sight of Adam. Truly, the man seemed much more imposing in his current circumstances than when Jase had first encountered him in the gym.

“I'm glad you're on my team,” Jase tried to return in a light-hearted manner, though he felt little levity. To Jase, the situation below amounted to nothing less than his purpose for existence. To Adam, it was a mission, nothing more. Jase hated that it meant nothing more than business to anyone but him.

Just as the thought entered his head, a small hand landed reassuringly on his arm, and Jase looked down into Briel's anxious face. The concern in her eyes brought a measure of calm to Jase's mind. No, no one could care as much as Jase, but Briel cared more than she would for a typical mission. She would fight almost as hard to win this as Jase himself would.

“Let's move away from the edge,” Briel instructed, and for the first time in his life, Jase felt himself relaxing a little as he relied on someone else to make some decisions. He worked on a team now, not for his own selfish gain, and he welcomed some direction.

After the trio had moved toward the center, Briel began to plan her strategy. “First of all, we have to find a way into that room without being immediately detected. That will allow us a moment of surprise once we begin our attack.”

“I'm afraid,” Jase admitted, “that I have spoiled pretty much any avenue we might have for surprise. I'm sure they will have reinforced the front entrance, and Adam nearly kicked a guard in the head climbing up here. The west side is out.”

“So,” Briel agreed, “where else can we enter. You know the layout, Jase. Give us some direction.”

“Well,” Jase drew a rough map in the gravel with his finger. “This is the main entrance,” he denoted the doors in the northeast corner of the room. “They will have guards there for sure, and we will have no real cover if we approach there. We already ruled out the west end, and the east has no windows.”

“That leaves the south side of the room,” Briel stated the obvious. “So, how can we get in there.”

“In this corner,” Jase pointed to the southeast corner of his drawing, “is a small window that leads into a large outdoor atrium. We could enter there, but if they discover us, they could pick us off one at a time before we could make it through the window.”

“What about the rest of the wall?”

“That depends,” Jase allowed. “Right here,” Jase drew a small rectangle that ran most of the southern length of the room, “is a covered alleyway that runs along the south wall. It holds three entrances and could be accessed from either the western edge of the building or from the hallway just to its south. This is the hallway where you found me,” Jase explained.

“The good news is,” Briel's sigh contrasted with her words, “that we know this hall is empty. I encountered no resistance up until that point.”

“But is the alleyway empty, and if we bust into it, will whoever guards it have time to announce our presence?” Adam spoke up for the first time.

“Exactly,” agreed Jase.

“Okay,” Briel continued undeterred. “Adam, your job is to secure the alleyway. You have to avoid the guard on the western wall of the compound and make it into that alley without attracting attention. After you've neutralized the guard, I want you to signal us through the door into the hallway. That's where we'll wait.”

“And once we're in the alleyway?” Jase queried, though he had a good idea what Briel would say.

“You said there were three doors. Each of us has to enter through a different door. It will separate us, but it will also confuse the enemy. Adam, you're in the easternmost door. Your job will be to keep the guards busy until Jase and I can take out Bill's operatives. I'll take the middle door, Jase, as Amélie seems to be standing guard over Bill, and I feel my greatest chance for success is to attack her. Since my goal is to confine Bill rather than kill him, I will need to immobilize him before I fight her.” Briel smiled at Jase, “That should be no problem because, in France, I found she's not much of a fighter. More of a lover, from what I've heard.”

Jase glared at Briel in mock disgust.

“Jase,” she continued, unabashed, “this will leave Drew to you.” An unspoken look of anger passed between Briel and him, and Jase took her gaze as a sign of how badly she wanted Drew punished. Jase could easily oblige.

“You have to completely subdue Drew, and then get Nessa out of there. She doesn't look well, and I don't want her in any more danger than she has already encountered.”

“You and me, both,” Jase mumbled, and Briel smiled reassuringly at him.

“As soon as I handle Amélie, I'll make sure you have everything in hand. Just try not to kill him,” Briel added, though she seemed reluctant to do so. “Our client wanted to minimize bloodshed.”

The words distracted Jase. Our client? he wondered silently, but before he could voice his question, Briel motioned Adam into action, and Jase and Briel began a rapid retreat through the south halls of the compound into the hallway where they would await Adam's signal. Jase would have to wait for another opportunity to sate his curiosity.

“So, no guns?” Jase worried.

“Look,” Briel shrugged, “if it’s life or death, then guns. But last I saw, only two guards had weapons, and they are probably conscripted. If they don’t pull guns, I’m not pulling guns. I find it highly unlikely that the Burmese actors in this situation participate too much, and the three of us can handle Drew and Amélie in hand-to-hand.”

By the time Jase reached the hallway with Briel, Adam had already opened the door into the alleyway. When Jase stepped onto the gravel passage, he noted the unconscious form of a man in military garb, slumped over and bound in the interior corner.

“Nice work,” Jase nodded toward the shadowy figure.

“Thanks,” Adam smiled again. Jase had begun to think that he liked Adam, sensing once again the nobility of manner that Jase had noted when he first encountered the massive op. Add that to deadly strength and agility, and Jase saw someone he wanted as an ally.

Taking a deep breath, Jase turned his gaze to Briel who had adopted an intensity in her countenance that would have scared Jase had he been a regular man. The realization made him smile again – it felt good to have such a formidable comrade.

“Jase,” she looked urgently up into his face. “Take care of our girl,” she ordered, and Jase felt shock at the emotion that poured out of the eyes of the usually stone-cold op. He bonded with Briel in that moment in a way he would always remember. The fierce sentiment lifted her from the role of professional ally and placed her into the role of friend and sister.

“I'm on it,” he promised. “And you get Bill. If he escapes, then all of this has been for nothing.”

The vengeful look Briel leveled at Jase gave him more confidence in her success than any spoken response she could have given. When she turned away, Briel signaled the other two operatives into their positions, assuming her own place between them.

With a nod, the trio burst through the doors and into what Jase hoped would prove the most effective moments of his life.