He heard the deliberate click of the safety, something he did himself when he meant business, and his mom jumped.
“What the fuck?” Marcus shouted. “Get that gun off my mother and my little girl! Put it on me…” He moved forward, but Luke slapped his hand over Marcus’s arm to stop him. “What the fuck, Luke? Is this about you? He knows you?” Marcus snapped.
Luke took a careful step forward, seeing everything and wondering where the other guy was—likely outside, out front, making sure no one made their way down here. That was what he would’ve done.
“I’m having a hard time figuring everything out,” he said as he stepped in front of Marcus, not looking his way. “Who’s your father?”
The man held the gun steady. It was something Luke himself had become good at from working with guns, training with them. They had become an extension of his arm, his hand. This man definitely had that skill.
“I think you know, but if you want me to say it, Stefan Schwartz. You picked him up when all he did was come forward and do the right thing, busting a company that was and is screwing innocent people. Can’t believe you would defend them. considering the slope of criminality they’re slipping down. Where did you take him to dump him, some military hole, a prison where they can torture him and bury him forever?”
What the hell was he supposed to say? He could feel his mom staring at him with all manner of horror. She had no idea of the depths of what he did. He heard Marcus swear beside him.
“I have no idea where your dad is,” Luke said. “Tell me how many of you are here—two, three, four…?” He didn’t pull his gaze from the man. “What’s your name?”
“Ben, but I’m not here to get personal.”
“Well, evidently, this is personal, because you’re in my brother’s house, and you seem to know far too much about my family. How did you find us, me?”
The man didn’t smile, and Luke was very aware the gun hadn’t moved, either. “Same way you found my father. You think you’re the only one who has access to records? One thing my dad said was that if something happened to him, if he disappeared because he was trying to do the right thing, the men who came looking for him would be military, and they would want to make sure no one got their hands on all his classified material. You probably already know that you didn’t find everything. Dad made sure of that. It’s someplace very safe, where you’ll never find it. I want my dad back. You know where he is.”
There was something about Ben. Luke knew he was serious. There would be no hesitation. It was something in his eyes, something Luke knew all too well. When you were trained to kill, you didn’t blink. You didn’t hesitate.
“Okay, so you’re military, too,” Luke said. “My other team members, you come looking for them?”
Shit, so whatever information the CIA wanted was gone, and now his family was in the line of fire.
“Let’s see. Jess, I couldn’t quite nail him down. Seems he stays on base. My brothers tracked the others down. Joel was at Sergeant First Class Matthew Newman’s place in Hickman, Nebraska. He broke in to leave a calling card. Liam followed Master Sergeant Rex Barnes. Then there’s Shaun. Haven’t been able to find him yet, sneaky bastard. But then, Martin never did do well with the whole military thing. Oh, and I think you remember my sister?”
In that second, Luke could hear his breath, long and loud, the thump of his heart. The floor beneath him was a little shaky. “Who’s your sister?” he said. He wanted to swallow but didn’t.
“She was waiting for you at the bar, Rosemary. Seems you had some fun. You kissed her, took her to her room. You know how we found you? She slipped from bed when you were fast asleep, and she broke into your phone and downloaded all your contacts.”
Luke knew he had to be full of shit, because his cell phone was encrypted. He was shaking his head, wondering how she’d found him and how he’d suddenly become hunted.
“You know how easy it was to get into your phone?” Ben said. “Rosemary works in cybersecurity, so nothing can stop her. For a special forces man, that was sloppy on your part. So yes, Sergeant First Class Luke O’Connell, we know all about your brothers and their partners and their children, and your mother, Iris. Sorry about this, ma’am.” He actually stared down at her.
Luke knew she had to be in shock, but she was handling this better than he expected.
“Seems this was the best way to get your attention,” Ben said. “So now I have it, and I have your mother. If I haven’t been clear enough, I want my father released. He’s going to be given safe passage on a private plane to Bolivia. I want ten million dollars delivered to him, as well, so he can disappear. The evidence your country so desperately wants won’t stay hidden and buried. It’ll appear in every country’s media room. Some will report it, expose it, and some will bury it. We’ll see which independent journalists are still independent. Or the Harris Group could destroy their technology. You know what I’m talking about. Fabricating crime scenes… Wonder if your sheriff brother here would be interested in knowing that his government and others have sold out and can now fabricate DNA and stage a crime scene? Maybe the guys you’re looking for aren’t who committed the crimes. Leaves you with a nice tingly feeling, doesn’t it, Sheriff?”
Luke knew his brother had to be stunned. He could see him looking his way with something resembling shock.
“Luke…” Marcus started, watching with horror, way out of his element.
Luke gave everything back to Ben, who was standing there, so controlled, with his mom. “I need to make a call,” he said. “I’m not in charge of the military. As you’ve already pointed out, I’m just a soldier, a trained one. I follow orders. There’s a lot of people above me, and I have no idea where they took your father. It doesn’t matter whether I agree with what they did or not. My opinion doesn’t count. Where they have your dad stashed, I have no idea.”
Ben slid his gaze down to his mom and then Eva, pointing the gun at one and then the other. “Then I guess,” he said, “you get to choose who lives and who dies.”
Chapter Twelve
“This isn’t going to solve anything,” Marcus said. “You have issues with some military operation my brother is a part of, and that has nothing do with my family, our mother, or my child. They’re innocent. Just let them go. Do not make this worse for them. I told you before that you can have me. I’m the sheriff. Just think of the leverage you could gain by holding a sheriff at gunpoint. That’ll have things moving much faster for you. Doors will open quickly. It’ll get your issue noticed, get those in power giving you what you need to shut this down. It will get you the public outcry you’re looking for. People pay attention when it’s a sheriff. My mom and a little girl won’t get the same attention, the same recognition.”
Luke knew what his brother was doing. He could hear the panic in his voice. Not a sound had come from Eva or his mom, who was protecting that little girl with everything she had. He could tell by her face that there was no way she’d allow Ben to hurt one hair on Eva’s head, the way she held her so close, her face pressed into her chest. She wasn’t allowing her to look their way.
“Well, that’s the thing. I can’t let them go, because this is about Luke and his choice. You had a five-man team go in and take my dad, whose only crime was telling the truth and exposing a company for crimes against the public. I’m not looking for media exposure right now or holding out hope that anyone in the public would chase the CEO of the Harris Group and all the politicians in power down the street with a pitchfork. I sure as shit don’t care anymore whether a public reckoning happens. We’re way past that. I told my dad to let it go, that doing what he was thinking of doing would end badly and he’d get screwed, because the power these billion-dollar corporations now hold over governments has made them untouchable. He was naive to think he could bring them down. So no, request denied.
“This isn’t about getting the media involved. This is about me needing a military team with the skills to get my dad out. You,
Luke, are part of that team. You’ll figure it out. After all, your team is part of the Delta Force, the army’s best of the best. You all have the kinds of skills that mean you can get in and get my dad. After all, you guys don’t really exist, do you? Every mission you do, the government can and does deny claims you were ever there. What you do tests the boundaries of legality, of human rights. Do you want to continue, or should we talk about step one and getting your team together?”
From the way Ben talked, he had a feeling he knew a lot about him and his team. This wasn’t going to be a quick fix to save his family. The way Marcus was staring at him, he knew he was doing his very best to get his head around what the hell the man was saying.
“I don’t care what you have to do or who you have to call,” Marcus said, staring at him. “Just do it.”
Luke knew the clock was ticking. Tick tock. “Let me make a call. But at the same time, I need you to get the gun off their heads, to let them up…”
Ben was shaking his head. “You’re wasting time. Make the call now.”
“I’m reaching for my phone in my back pocket,” he said as he slowly reached back, keeping his other hand raised in the air. The last thing he wanted to do was spook the man. He took in the reply from Jess, several texts and two voicemails. His ringer was off.
What the hell is going on?
He pressed the call button.
“Put it on speaker so we can all hear what you’re saying, so I know you’re not ordering in some team to take me out,” Ben said.
There was no chance of that, anyway, considering the curtains were closed.
“What the hell is going on there?” Jess said. “I still can’t find Shaun, and…”
“You’re on speaker, Jess,” Luke said. “Just listen. I’m in my brother Marcus’s house. Marcus is here listening along with my mom and little Eva. Ben, one of the sons of Stefan Schwartz, our last target, is in my brother’s house and has my mother and Eva with a gun to the head. You said Matthew had a break-in, and Rex said he was being followed. You should know it’s Stefan’s kids, and one is looking for Shaun. Ben wants his dad released from the military prison he was taken to. He wants a private plane to Bolivia and ten million dollars. He wants our team to get him out. You know what base they stashed him at?” He held the phone out in front of him and knew Jess needed a second, because there was silence on the line.
“Everyone has ears on this?” he finally asked.
Ben inclined his head. “Team leader Jess, you’re a hard man to track down,” he said. “Yes, we’re all listening in, and let me be one hundred percent clear on this so there’re no interruptions. Your team went in and grabbed my dad, a precise military operation. You were sent in as private security. The Harris Group board was horrified. No one knows where he is. All our calls and enquiries have turned up nothing, but at the same time, we expected it to happen. So this is how this is going to work: You’re getting my dad out to keep a bullet out of the head of your teammate’s mother or his little niece. The clock is ticking. I’m giving you six hours.” He lifted his left hand and took in his watch. “It’s nine twenty now, so you have three hours to secure his release, and in six hours he’ll be on a plane to Bolivia with ten million—”
“That’s impossible,” Jess said. “We can’t just walk into a heavily secured military base. They won’t turn him over. Look, what happened to your dad didn’t sit right with any of us, but let me tell you how it works in the military, in our unit, and what we signed on for.”
Ben didn’t laugh and didn’t shake his head. “You think I don’t know what your team does? Let’s see. First, you don’t really exist. Your recruits are all the best from the Green Berets, the Rangers, wherever you pilfer them from. You don’t accept less than one hundred percent accuracy, so you really are the best of the best. Your unit is sent in for rescue operations, hijackings, to serve as bodyguards in circumstances where only the best are needed. Your training grounds are similar to a house of horrors. Every one of you is a professional soldier who hates the army. Let’s not forget that you’re secretly funded from government accounts, away from the public eye. How many millions do you have stashed away for that rainy day when your own government turns on you and hunts you down for the dogs you are? You know it will happen. It’s just a matter of time. Let me remind you that your unit has more power and less accountability than any other military organization. So yes, you can do this. This should be an easy one for you.”
Marcus was staring at him, and his mom was now also seeing him in a light he didn’t want to be seen in.
“Jess, what about Shaun, Rex, Matthew?” Luke said. “Can you get them? Look, this is my family, and…”
“We’ll get him,” Jess said. “Ben, you listen to me. It may not be that easy for us to find where your father is.”
“Really? Well, maybe you need some incentive,” Ben replied, then lifted the gun and fired.
Chapter Thirteen
He was running back to where Harold was holed up behind the sheriff’s car, and he saw the moment he spotted him, the horror in his eyes. Ryan was also there now.
“What the hell, Luke? Where’s Marcus? What’s going on?” Ryan said, lifting his shades, on edge, alert, and shocked. “You’re bleeding…”
In the distance, people were watching, everyone trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Harold was in the trunk, then pulled out a bandage and pressed it to Luke’s forearm, which was dripping blood. He took the thick gauze and pressed it against the flesh wound, then took the tape Harold had ripped off and secured it in place.
“It’s a scratch, is all,” he said. “I’ve had worse.”
“What’s going on in the house? Mom and Eva are in there? How did you get out?” Ryan demanded as Harold radioed in for paramedics.
“Marcus refused to leave. He’s staying behind with Mom and Eva. There’s one guy in the house, name’s Ben, and one more out front that we know of for sure, who has good cover and a good view. If anyone approaches the house, he’ll likely shoot to kill. Don’t know who he is in relation to the guy inside. I’m the messenger.”
After Ben had shot him, he’d yelled for him to get out, and Luke was still feeling the fear from his mom, Eva, and his brother. He could hear sirens in the background and knew this could end with his family dead. At the same time, as much as he wanted to, he couldn’t share any of what he knew, because it was classified. Disclosing any of the Stefan Schwartz scenario would have him blacklisted and charged in the military. It was something that couldn’t be allowed to happen, ever.
“So what the hell do they want?” Harold said to him, still holding his radio. “And who shot you?”
“It’s about a classified military operation I was part of. That’s all I can say. The guy shot me to make a point before telling me to go and make sure he gets what he wants.”
That hadn’t been the first time Luke had had a gun pointed at him, and the bullet had skimmed his arm. He knew Ben had done it to make a point with Jess, a flesh wound, with the bullet in the wall and his mom and Eva terrified. Marcus had refused to leave, and Luke feared he’d do something really stupid to get himself killed before he could fix this. His phone was ringing again, and as he spotted unmarked cars pull up, he knew the Feds had arrived.
“So what’s the plan?” he said to Jess as soon as he answered the phone.
“I heard gunfire. You okay? Who’s hurt?”
He was shaking his head, seeing Harold walking toward one of the Feds, and he wondered who had called them. “Just a flesh wound. I’ll heal. You called in the Feds?”
“I called in everyone,” Jess said. “As soon as you texted me, I got in touch with the colonel and Sienna, too. I’m tracking down Shaun still, and I just heard from Matthew and Rex, who are on their way back here. Colonel doesn’t want to play ball. Says no one is handing over Stefan.”
Luke was shaking his head, furious. He stepped away to avoid the questions he could see in Ryan’s expression. Of cours
e, they didn’t have a clue what the hell was going on.
“So that’s it, is it?” Luke said. “You know this is my family.”
“I said the colonel doesn’t want to play ball, but that doesn’t mean we don’t. Your family is ours, and we look after our own. Rex will find out where Stefan is. We’re thinking one of two spots below the airport in Richmond, Virginia. They have a secret prison underground, operated and staffed by the military, that no one is supposed to know about. You know the kind of things they do in there. That’s where we’re thinking Stefan is. Sienna would know, but she’s not talking yet,” Jess said, though Luke knew that was something he’d rectify shortly.
“You know time is not on our side,” Luke said. “Find out about Stefan’s family, because I’m thinking there’s some military experience there. You should know, the woman I picked up at the bar in Geneva, her name is Rosemary, and apparently she’s Stefan’s daughter. She works in cybersecurity, hacked into my phone and downloaded my contacts, my family’s numbers. So this is on me. Seems they have a tail on all of us, and I have no idea how many more are involved in the situation here. There’s one shooter out front. I don’t know who it is, but I’ll get in there. And you should know the Feds are here now. So how are we playing this?”
Even though he stood away from Ryan, he could see his brother was trying to get a handle on the situation.
“All the Feds have been told is that this is a hostage situation. I said there’s a sheriff and his family inside, and the hostage taker is wanted on multiple sexual offences, from a sex trafficking ring across state lines, and he’s considered armed and dangerous.” So that was how they were building the story. No one would listen to the Schwartz family. Their credibility would be gone. He could see the news trucks pulling in and knew he had to get back over there.
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