Declan (Special Forces: Operation Alpha) (Gold Team Book 5)

by Riley Edwards

  Thank God. I’d take a battalion of insurgents over arguing with Declan.

  Chapter 2

  Autumn didn’t bat a single pretty eyelash, not even a crease of worry marred her face. Nothing changed when I told her we had company. The woman was both crazy and brave as fuck.

  Insanely brave—the four-inch scar across my throat a reminder she’d also saved my life.

  My time in the Marines taught me the value of teamwork. In contrast, the years I’d worked with the CIA taught me to be a loner. Zane Lewis had expended a fair amount of effort reminding me teamwork trumps solitude. Something that Autumn needed to learn. But arguing in an alley with the enemy closing in wasn’t the time or the place.

  “Come on.” I grabbed her hand and started to move back to the street.

  “This way.” Autumn gestured farther down the alley.

  “Dead end.”

  “There’s a clinic across the street with over a dozen pregnant women. We can’t go that way. The back door to the market is at the end.”

  Without waiting, Autumn took off, no discussion, no plan—yeah, she needed a lesson on teamwork.

  “You got three unfriendlies at the mouth of the alley. Move.” Brooks came over my earpiece.

  “Double-time it,” I told Autumn.

  She released my hand and sprinted the last hundred yards, reaching the door before I did. She slowly opened it and ducked in, holding it open for me. Autumn had her hand on her holster but hadn’t drawn. Not feeling as diplomatic, I pulled my Sig and followed her through the empty back room.

  “Ready?” she whispered.

  I nodded and she pushed open the curtain. We were met by the shop owner who immediately started shouting in Pashto, garnering too much attention. The market wasn’t wall-to-wall people but there were enough that we were outnumbered, by a lot.

  Autumn didn’t need to be told to move. She took off like a shot, weaving through the patrons who weren’t already scrambling to get away from the two Americans running at them. The locals understood what that meant and clamored to safety.

  “My hotel or you got someplace closer?” she asked once we exited the front door.

  “Hotel.”

  Autumn didn’t bother with the busy sidewalk. No, the crazy woman ran straight into traffic. The congestion did nothing to slow her down. She dodged between cars, narrowly missing getting hit by a motorcyclist. It wasn’t until she rounded the corner and we hit an outdoor bazaar that she finally fucking slowed. Immediately we were swallowed by the crowd milling about the stalls and carts.

  Fortunately, she’d defied death and hadn’t been run over, but now she was gaining attention.

  “Here.” I unwound my keffiyeh from around my neck and handed it to her. “At least cover your hair.”

  Christ, she was certifiably insane. A blonde woman walking around alone in Afghanistan was enough to get her killed.

  We’d be talking about that, too, when we made our way to her hotel.

  Was she trying to get killed, or just draw unneeded attention to herself? Neither answer boded well.

  Five minutes later we were at her hotel. I’d already been there, checked out the place, and broken into her room. One of the many reasons she wouldn’t be staying here. Three flights of stairs later, we stood in front of her door.

  That’s when I noticed the tremor in her hand as she tried to put her key in the shitty lock.

  “Babe?”

  “Something feels off.”

  “Step away from the door.”

  Autumn craned her neck. Her eyes came to mine, her green irises a shade darker than her sister, Emerson’s.

  “You think…” she whispered.

  I didn’t get a chance to explain that we were leaving and there was nothing of value in that room because I’d already snagged her backpack when I’d searched it. I also didn’t get to tell her she’d picked the wrong fucking hotel before the explosion.

  I barely got my arms around Autumn before the concussion of the bomb took us off our feet. I twisted, taking the brunt of the fall, then wasted no time getting us back to our feet.

  “SITREP,” Thad barked in my ear.

  “We’re hitting the back stairs.”

  “ETA three minutes.”

  “We might not be here in three minutes,” I returned and looked over at Autumn.

  Gun out, eyes active, alert, and ready.

  Jesus.

  Pure Autumn.

  I’d never met a woman like her. Not in the Marines, not in the CIA, and certainly not on the battlefield. That was saying something because I’d worked beside Jasmin Parker a time or two and she was one capable bitch. Not woman, not chick, not female—bitch. She’d proudly earned that title and the respect of every man who got to work beside her.

  But Autumn? Autumn was a lone wolf on the hunt. She didn’t have the Army training Jasmin had. She didn’t have Red Team at her back. She was truly impressive. Something I knew not only because the three-inch file I had on her told me so, but because I’d seen it firsthand. When she found her prey, she didn’t leave them breathing.

  She believed in her own brand of justice—swift and deadly.

  My kinda justice.

  “Go.” I jerked my head and surprisingly she went.

  Not something that Autumn did. she didn’t take orders kindly, which meant she rarely followed them. Good to know after the hotel room was firebombed she could be a good listener.

  Autumn got to the end of the hall, tucked her elbows close to her body. With short choppy steps, she cleared the corner. Fast, efficient, and tactically sound.

  Impressive, but not surprising she’d known not to simply run around the bend into unknown danger.

  The open stairwell was just ahead when a door opened. I quickly stepped into the doorway. The muzzle of my Sig pressed against a man’s chest. “Stay inside.”

  The man nodded and slowly backed away. A quarter of a second later, I had the door shut.

  Autumn had already disappeared down the stairs.

  Yeah, we were having a serious fucking discussion about teamwork. I rounded the first set of stairs, finally caught sight of Autumn on the second set. She was taking them two at a time while keeping her back to the wall, weapon at the ready.

  That’s when the first gunshot rang out. It was also the first time I’d ever felt a twinge of fear in an operational setting. Not once in all my years in the military had I allowed anxiety to creep in. Men died when focus was lost.

  Autumn was on her ass, knees bent, cocked open, and she was returning fire from her position. I jumped down the last four treads and landed in front of her.

  “Are you hit?”

  “No.”

  “Can you get up?”

  With a scathing look, she got to her feet.

  Another shot whizzed by, high and to the right, the bullet lodging into the wall causing plaster and debris to float above us.

  “You hear that?” Autumn asked.

  I listened, then I heard them—angry voices yelling from above us.

  Fuck.

  We were pinned down in the stairwell with backup still two minutes out. I quickly did a mental weapons check—with three full magazines I had enough ammo for five minutes tops, depending on how many tangos were down below. Alone, this would be a no-brainer. With Autumn there, I was weighing our options.

  “How many mags you got?” I asked.

  “Two full.”

  “We’re going down.”

  “Didn’t think we were headed back up, big guy.”

  Smartass.

  Then to my horror, shock, and definite anger, Autumn took off down the stairs, firing as she went. The woman had no regard for her safety, no thoughts of tactical strategy. She’d either watched too many Jason Bourne movies or she thought she was invincible. Autumn Pierce gave new meaning to guns a’ blazing.

  “Slow your roll, woman.”

  “Keep up, old man.”

  She was absolutely going to find herself bent ove
r my lap with a red ass. Something I knew she liked, something she’d asked for many times—only this time when I did, it wouldn’t be on her terms and at her demand.

  The sound of automatic gunfire rang out and echoed in the small space. Wood splintered, bullets ricocheted, dead bodies littered the dirty concrete.

  Six down, at least one more shooter guarding the exit, and more above.

  “Reload,” Autumn shouted and I stepped in front of her while she exchanged mags.

  With cautious steps, I rounded the last landing, finally on the ground floor. I calculated the risk and stepped around the corner, popping off three shots. The man at the door fell, but not before he got off a lucky shot. I clenched my jaw and waited for the burn to subside. Another day, another scar.

  My left bicep throbbed and fire radiated down my arm to my fingertips.

  Fucking hell, that hurt.

  “Let’s go.”

  No answer.

  I glanced over my shoulder and my heart seized. Fury rushed through my body. And an emotion I’d only ever felt one other time in my life started to pound in my head.

  “I wouldn’t do that,” the man said, and pressed the muzzle of his gun to Autumn’s temple until her head tilted from the pressure.

  My eyes slid from the barrel to Autumn’s eyes. Nothing. Blank. Emotionless.

  Dead and cold. A look I’d seen too many times. One that I despised.

  Even at the close distance, I didn’t have a clean shot. The man was using Autumn as a shield. Three inches of his mask-covered face was the only target I had—it was going to be messy.

  Before I could pull the trigger, Autumn elbowed the man, bent forward, and grabbed his wrist. With surprise on her side as well as the angle from the stairs, she cocked her hip, used his forward momentum rolled him over her shoulder, and he hit the stairs with a thud.

  “Move.”

  Once again, Autumn didn’t listen. She was on top of the man in a flash.

  Fucking hell. Her tiny fists rained blow after blow to his face.

  We had no time for her fury. Ignoring the pain in my arm, I hooked her around the waist, took aim, and popped off a single shot to the man’s face. Autumn jolted and I dropped her to her feet.

  “Don’t pull that shit again,” I fumed. “Last fucking warning.”

  Her body went stiff. Then she pushed away and bent to pick up the man’s gun. She straightened and looked me dead in the eyes. No words were spoken. None were needed. She was pissed way the fuck off. I didn’t know and I didn’t care one way or another if her anger stemmed from me cutting her fun short or barking orders.

  “And stay the fuck in front of me once we’re on the street.”

  I needed eyes on her at all times. She was goddamn crazy and had proven I couldn’t trust her to follow simple commands.

  “Whatever you say, Declan.”

  The woman was going to be the death of me. Literally, the death. She was impulsive and lacked the ability to keep her temper in check.

  I’d spent years avoiding any sort of emotion. Years of nothingness. Years living in a black hole where I shielded myself and others from the monster I’d become. But Autumn showed up and ruined my carefully crafted asylum. The emotions that now coursed through my body and hummed in my veins were unwanted.

  Unwelcomed.

  Yet, I was drawn to Autumn in a way that I knew would kill us both.

  Chapter 3

  Five men paced the living room like a pride of ferocious lions ready to pounce. That was unfortunate because I was their prey.

  Unfortunate for them.

  They were about to learn I was like no other woman they’d ever met. I was not a mission, an objective, nor was I a woman they needed to rescue.

  My gaze went from my brother-in-law Thad to Declan.

  Thad looked confused, Declan looked murderous.

  Oh, well. It wasn’t like I wasn’t used to Declan being in a bad mood. And pissing off men wasn’t new for me. Over the years, I’d dealt with a variety of angry males, though the anger normally came right before I put them down like the scum they were.

  Lowlife criminals from the dregs of hell. Those were my normal targets, not deadly mercenaries. Not that I planned to put down Declan’s team, just thoroughly piss them off.

  I unwound Declan’s keffiyeh that he’d demanded I use to cover my hair and tossed it on the back of the couch. Dec’s eyes dropped to the scarf then came to mine.

  “You planned that shit,” Dec seethed.

  “Yep.”

  There was no sense denying it. I had one hundred percent planned for Madeleine Strotherby and her men to know I was in Afghanistan. I wasn’t stupid nor was I wet behind the ears. If I didn’t want them to know I was close, then they would’ve never known. But I was done with the cat-and-mouse bullshit. It was time to end the game, and what better way than to announce my presence and make them come to me.

  “What the fuck!”

  “What the fuck, what, Declan?” I returned with equal sarcasm.

  “That stunt could’ve killed both of us.”

  I glanced at his left arm, his tight tan long-sleeve t-shirt covered in blood, and a tingle of remorse made the hair on the back of my neck stand. But just a tingle and just for a moment. I didn’t feel remorse or regret, those emotions had long since disappeared. But for Declan, I’d let myself feel it.

  “No. The shit you pulled could’ve got us killed. I didn’t ask for you to horn in on my action. I didn’t ask you to meet me on the street, and if it wasn’t for you, I would’ve never been in that situation to begin with.”

  “We had a plan.”

  “Again, no. You had a plan. I don’t do plans, or partners, or teams. I work alone. I told you that, you disagreed and in order not to argue, I let you believe whatever you wanted. But that didn’t mean I was going to follow along.”

  Declan’s brows pinched, his frown deepened, and extreme displeasure rolled off him. Thad’s gaze bounced from me to Declan then back to me. Great. And when his eyes narrowed, I knew he was going to ask questions I didn’t want to answer.

  “What the hell is going on?” Thad demanded.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Max glaring at me. I’d only met the man a handful of times but he struck me as someone you didn’t fuck with. But at that moment, what he didn’t look was confused like Thad, Brooks, and Kyle were.

  “What’s going on is, I had a lead on Madeleine, I followed that lead, and Declan here is fucking up my plan.”

  “Thought you didn’t do plans,” Declan returned.

  God, the man was infuriating.

  “I’m not talking about Strotherby,” Thad started. “What the actual fuck is going on with you and Declan? And how did it come to be that the two of you had occasion to discuss anything?”

  Declan flinched and Thad didn’t miss it. “Brother.” The warning in Thad’s tone was clear. That couldn’t be missed, either

  And in a rare moment of kindness, I decided I didn’t want Declan to be on the receiving end of Thad’s anger. The two of them were teammates. I was nothing to them, and when Madeleine was taken care of, I’d disappear and they’d never see me again. But they would have to work together.

  “I reached out to Declan when my source confirmed Icon was the top dog in the Omni pyramid. I mistakenly thought we could share intel.”

  Hurt flashed in my brother-in-law’s eyes and I understood why.

  “You reached out to Declan, not me.”

  There was more pain. I was a walking, talking disaster that only caused devastation and agony. The main reason I stayed away from everyone. No one needed my brand of destruction.

  “Yep, Declan,” I unnecessarily confirmed.

  “Why?”

  “Because I knew he wouldn’t try to talk me into seeing Emerson. He wouldn’t talk about the past, he wouldn’t try to fix me, heal me, or stop me. No offense, Thad, you’re a good guy. But you love my sister.”

  “Damn right I do.”

 
“And because you do, I don’t want anything to do with you. I don’t want to cause problems for you and Emmy. I don’t want her thinking about me. I want her living her life loving you. Don’t you think she’s given up enough?”

  Thad remained silent because I was right. Emerson had given up too much. And part of what she’d given up was him. When I was first taken, Emmy had walked away from her life in San Diego to go home and help our parents search for me. Then days had slid into months and months into years and she never went back to her life, or to Thad. Not until last year when they finally reconnected. He’d wrought a miracle and pulled her from a life she had no business living. One much like mine, where retribution was the only goal. But he’d gotten her clean, and I had no doubt he thought he could do the same for me. And not because he liked me or was worried about my black soul, but because my sister loved me and wanted something for me I’d never have—happiness and peace. And if Emmy wanted it, Thaddeus Bench would move heaven and hell to make sure she had it.

  That was why I didn’t want anything to do with my brother-in-law.

  “I told you we were close,” Declan rejoined. “I told you to wait and together we’d talk to my team and come up with a plan. One that didn’t involve you struttin’ your ass around Afghanistan, blonde hair waving in the wind like a fucking beacon. I fuckin’ told you, Autumn, this wasn’t a suicide mission.”

  He had droned on about not putting my life in danger. But he and I were in disagreement. Two different mindsets if you will—he called it suicide, I called it a regular day. Death didn’t scare me, I’d died more than ten years ago the first time my body was used against my will. And every time after that, more and more of me was lost until there was nothing left.

  There was no such thing as suicide, not for a woman like me. You couldn’t kill the dead.

  “Autumn,” Declan snapped and pulled me from my thoughts. “Swear to Christ, you pull that shit again, I’ll be making good on my threats.”

  “Mark this, Dec, you try that and it will be me paddling your ass.”

  “What. The. Fuck?” Thad barked and pinned Declan with a deadly look.

  “Maybe we should give the two of them time to talk without an audience,” Max suggested.