His throat closed off for a second, while he stood there and held them; thanking God he’d made it in time.
Hope pushed back, not one ounce of awareness or fear on her beautiful bright face. Her mother’s same chocolate brown eyes stared up at him, laughing. “Do you like my new outfit? Mom said we get to go on an adventure this morning. She said you were coming home and taking us to Disney! I made you a picture. I was going to surprise you! You want to see it?”
He couldn’t help but chuckle at Hope’s rapid-fire questions. “Of course I want to see it, and I love your new outfit, even if it’s the wrong color.” King dropped his head and brushed his nose back and forth across hers. It’d always been his way of greeting her when he got back home from deployment.
Hope’s dark eyebrows drew together. “Mommy says I’m only allowed to wear my purple cheerleader uniform when you’re home and when the Tigers play.”
King had his eyes on Trinity; he tried to put on a brave face for her daughter. “You are teaching my child to root for the wrong team, chère.” A hint of his Cajun accent slipped into his words.
Lips trembling, Trinity managed a smile, although worry still filled her eyes. “No baby, I’m teaching her what every good Southerner knows. The Hogs are the only team to root for.”
King blew out a long breath, unable to help himself for a moment longer, he lifted Trinity with his free arm and crushed a hard, intense kiss on her soft lips. “I love you.”
He’d been lucky to find this woman in the first place. He’d never had a family before, never thought he would have one. He’d been totally unprepared for Trinity to walk into his life and completely turn his world upside down. He’d married her within six months, got her pregnant right after that, cried when he held his baby girl in his arms for the first time, and thanked God every day for the gift he’d given him.
“Yuck!” Hope pushed against his chest drawing his attention. Reluctantly King broke his kiss with Trinity, both of them just a little breathless. He turned his attention to his daughter.
“What?”
“You’re not supposed to kiss Mommy in front of me!”
Pulling his arm from Trinity, he lifted Hope high in the air, so that she was almost touching the ceiling. She squealed, flailing her arms and kicking her legs. “Daddy!”
“Who’s my favorite girl?” he asked.
“Me. Me!” she said much more emphatically. He lowered her back to his hip, squeezed her one last time, and let her slide to the floor.
“Want to go on a trip? I’ve been gone so long I’ve been thinking of taking a vacation.” He squatted down in front of her.
She jumped up and down, squealing and clapping her hands. “Disneyland!”
King reached out and ruffled her dark hair. “Maybe. I’ll see what I can do.”
Amid Hope jumping up and down, King straightened and turned to seriously look at Trinity. “Help her pack, I’ll get your things. The team should be here in a couple of minutes. I’ll explain in a little bit.”
Trinity knew what he did for a living. He didn’t talk about it, never told her where or when he was going, but nothing but trust showed on her face. “I can have her packed in five minutes.”
King yanked her to him, kissed her once more, and then patted her bottom, urging her toward the door. “Hurry.”
All business now, he quickly got his duffel out of the closet, checked the spare gun, and tucked it into the back of his pants. Then he grabbed Trinity’s go bag, double checked its contents and was ready to go in less than three minutes. By the time he reached Hope’s room, Trinity was zipping up Hope’s pink and purple striped suitcase. Hope was still jumping up and down, squeezing her toy stuffed unicorn in her arms. “We’re going to Disney! We’re going to Disney! Always wanted to go to Disney! Do you think I’ll get to meet Princess Elsa?”
King shook his head ruefully at Hope’s excitement. He hadn’t planned on taking her to Disney— they’d have to go to a safe place for a while until they were able to clear the threat from Vladimir—but by God, if it was the last thing he did, he was taking her to meet Princess Elsa, whoever she was. “We may have to go somewhere else first, but after that we’re definitely going to Disney,” King confirmed.
Gesturing for Hope and Trinity to precede him out of the room, King slung his duffel over one shoulder and grabbed up Hope’s suitcase in the other hand. He stacked them next to the back door while Trinity quickly cleared the kitchen, dumped out the bowl of cheese dip and placed it in the dishwasher. “Do you know how long we’ll be gone?”
“Not yet. I’m sorry babe,” King said.
She shut the dishwasher, hit the start light, and turned to him, hands on her hips. “Don’t apologize, I understand. You wouldn’t do this unless you had to.”
Overwhelmed with gratitude for her unquestioning understanding, King shut his eyes once more and thanked God for this miracle of a woman. She never complained, never griped. She held steady and strong each time he had to leave suddenly. And she’d always been there waiting, ready, and willing when he returned. “I don’t deserve you.”
She padded across the tile kitchen floor, stood on her toes, and wrapped her arms around his neck. “You deserve me and so much more. I love you, Kingston. I always have and always will.”
Warmth spread across his chest. King dropped his forehead to hers, savoring every soft inch of her body.
She whispered, “And I know you’re doing this to keep us safe and to protect our family.”
He was lost in her gaze, lost in her embrace. Reverently, he brushed her hair back behind her ear, aching to do so much more than that. “I used to pray that God would give me a family, and he did. You and Hope are my entire world. No matter how many times I have to leave, you are who I want to come home to.”
Her arms tightened around him, his emotions reflected back in her expression. “And no matter how many times you leave, we will be right here waiting.”
He could have stayed there, just like that, forever, and died a happy man.
He heard the car pull up outside. With a sigh, he kissed her forehead and took a step back. “If you don’t stop looking at me like that, we’re going to have to make a detour to the bedroom before we leave.”
Her mouth curled mischievously. “It has been a long time.”
King growled, yanked her to him for another passionate kiss, and then set her firmly away. “Tonight, Trinity, I promise. But, the guys are outside, and while I can be fast, I’m not that fast.”
He winked at her and she burst out laughing, the sound was music to his ears. Hope popped her head around the corner of the counter, waving her stuffed unicorn like a flag. “Hello, you said you’re taking me to Disney. Let’s go, Daddy!”
There was a knock at the door. King checked the window first and then opened the door to his teammates, Rip and Owen. “Give us a heads-up next time, bro.” They shut the door behind them.
“Couldn’t.” That’s all King would say. He’d finally teased the worry out of Trinity’s gaze and he sure as hell didn’t want to put it back. “I’m going to take the girls on a little vacation and let you two finish up the job.”
A silent current of understanding passed between the men. They all had safe plans in place. And they each had set up predestined locations for hideouts in case something like this ever happened.
Rip stepped forward, kneeled down, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a Hershey bar. “Got something for my favorite girl.”
Hope squealed again and ran for the chocolate. She snatched it from his hand and threw her arms around King’s teammate. “You’re the best, Uncle Rip!”
Although Rip wasn’t really her uncle, in the teams they were tighter than family. The bond of brotherhood connected them deeper than blood. Each man looked out for his teammates and his teammates’ family. They worked as a unit. As one. And that’s how they’d survived.
Not quite as gentle as King had been, Rip tossed Hope up into the air and caught her in
his arms, tickling her sides until she was laughing and kicking and begging for release. “I missed you, princess.” Then he pulled her close and whispered loudly enough for everyone in the room to hear, “And I got a whole lot more candy bars hidden. Just don’t tell your mom and dad.”
Hope made the gesture of zipping her lips shut and dropping a key into Rip’s shirt pocket. He set her back on the ground, tussled her hair, and then turned to Trinity. “How’s it going?”
“You spoil her rotten,” was Trinity’s reply.
Not one ounce of remorse showed on Rip’s face. “Absolutely.”
Owen cleared his throat, the only one not participating in the family activities. “We brought you another car, just in case. I already grabbed your duffel out of your truck, so you’ll be good to go. We got the necessities in the SUV, plus an extra phone for contact later if you need it.”
So, Owen had already put cash, fake identification, untraceable cell phones, and more ammo in the unmarked SUV. “Thanks, brother. I’ll call you as soon as we get there to check in on the job, see how it’s progressing.” In other words, he’d have to wait till later to find out more from Vladimir. Until then, Trinity and Hope came first.
Trinity took Hope’s hand. Owen opened the door, poked his head out, did a quick scan of the yard, and then nodded all clear. They exited with Rip and Owen in front, Trinity and Hope in the middle, and King bringing up the rear with her two bags. He locked and shut the door, and followed his family to the unmarked black SUV parked in front of his truck.
Owen was already at the SUV, holding the door open. Rip held up his hand, “You got the keys to the truck? I’ll park it at the base till you get back.”
King tossed the keys across the yard as Rip made his way to his truck.
“We get a new car too! This is going to be the best vacation ever!” Hope said.
King couldn’t help but laugh at the enthusiasm of his daughter. Her childlike innocence was something he hoped to protect for as long as he could.
They were halfway to the car when the hairs on the back of King’s neck stood on end. A car pulled to a stop at the four way at the end of the block. The door opened, and a man stepped out. King dropped the bags and ran. “Trinity! Get down!”
The world slowed. His left foot hit the ground, then his right. Trinity’s brown eyes went saucer wide and she stared at him in shock, unmoving for that split second.
Owen pulled his pistol from behind him, his arms rising.
The tat-tat-tat of automatic rifle fire burst through the air. King watched in horror as Trinity’s body flew back, blood bursting across her chest.
He roared and lunged, diving for his family. An explosion blasted through the yard, pitching him through the air. His back hit the ground. He saw black, then the piercing light of the sun, the sudden glare blotted out by a flying truck door.
Pain slammed into his chest. Pressure. Heat. King put his hands beneath the frame of the door and pushed.
Agony ripped up his side, a piece of torn and ragged metal pierced his side.
Bullets whizzed overhead. He tried to block out the pain. He shoved again, groaning. Move, goddammit!
Another pop. Owen returned fire, shouting over the dull roar in King’s ears.
Another burst of gunfire.
“Daddy!” Hope screamed and dove for him. He tried to tell her no. Get back. He coughed, blood streamed from his lips, his strength sapped.
Tat. Tat. Tat.
Hope flew to the ground in front of him, her unicorn landing feet away, her dark brown eyes wide open. King reached for her, but his arms wouldn’t move. His legs wouldn’t cooperate. Searing agony burned through his chest.
He reached his arm out as far as he could and his fingers brushed hers. “Hope.”
His vision dulled as helpless, he watched as his Hope faded from the world.
Chapter 2
The blazing hot July sun beat down on King’s shoulders through the thin material of his black T-shirt. His black tactical pants were set low and even on his lean hips as he braced his feet shoulder-width apart in the packed dirt of the gun range located in the back of their compound. With quick, precise movements, he raised his arms to eye level, thumbed off the safety on his Beretta, and fired off three rounds in succession.
“Better, brother, but still hitting about two inches to the right.” Diggs, just the same, stood two feet to King’s left. He did that so he’d stay in King’s line of vision, a new habit his teammate had formed while helping King retrain to shoot leftie.
As if on cue, a sharp, migraine-like pain stabbed through his right temple, an acute reminder of the reason for his retraining in the first place. John Dawson. His own teammate had shot him at close range, taking out King’s right eye and nearly his life. Absentmindedly he reached up and adjusted his eye patch. “I’m going to kill that bastard.”
King caught Diggs’s slight wince.
“He was put through the same torture we were, hell, even worse. He died, they overdosed him on the serum.”
Last year, Team Mayhem had all volunteered to go through the secret government project of DNA enhancement, hoping to hone and sharpen their abilities to further assist the country on impossible missions. What they hadn’t signed up for was the life-altering requirement to continually take the doses or die. That and the side effects. Side effects they were still learning to cope with, but with the help of Dr. Melissa Avery, who they’d rescued from the man responsible for the secret project, they were slowly and steadily reining in control.
“We all suffered, but we all managed to keep our shit together. Dawson didn’t.” King turned his attention back to the torso-shaped target fifty meters away and blasted off three more rounds, this time purposefully shifting his aim an inch to the left.
He’d been training daily, hours upon hours, trying to teach his brain to compensate for the loss of vision in his right eye. He’d been born right hand dominant, and never bothered training with his left. The experience was a pain in the ass. Dr. Avery insisted he learn to eat with his left hand, attempt to write with his left hand, do all of his dominant tasks with his left fucking hand.
And all because his teammate had betrayed him.
Diggs turned to face him, arms crossed, squared stubborn jaw raised. “He deserves the chance to try to get back to normal. If you’ll remember, the colonel didn’t want to give us that chance, but Reaper, our team leader, fought for it because we deserved it. We learned to control our minds and our bodies. He’s one of us, King. A part of our family.”
King lowered his Beretta to his side, unconsciously clicking on the safety as he holstered his weapon and turned to face Diggs. He’d become as good a friend as King would consider anyone, which meant he actually talked to Diggs every now and then. For some reason that King couldn’t fathom, Diggs seemed to have taken him on as his own personal pet project, determined to help him overcome the newly gained disability and return to fully functional, just like he’d been before his blindness. “Dawson stopped being part of the team the minute he tried to kill me.”
Diggs’s eyes skated to the left. “I think if he really wanted to kill you, you’d be dead.”
King took a hard step forward, his black boot grinding into the packed dirt. He jerked a finger up to the black eye patch covering his right eye. “If it wasn’t for our enhanced healing capabilities thanks to the serum, I would be fucking dead.” And sometimes he wished he was. He was self-aware enough to know that his driving force for recovery was pure, unadulterated revenge.
Diggs shrugged, turning to face King once more, resignation etched in the deep grooves around his teammate’s eyes. “I understand your anger.”
“Anger?” King said softly.
Diggs continued, ignoring the warning in King’s tone. “And I get that you feel betrayed, but we were all there. We all feel betrayed.”
King shook his head, fighting the tension winding its way up his spine. “You didn’t see his eyes, Diggs. Dawson. Isn’t. I
n. There. The man that shot me is not our teammate anymore. He’s a machine, a ruthless, cold killer. And that fucking bastard, General Rainier, has unleashed him on us. And once he’s through with us, Rainier won’t hesitate to use him against anyone who stands in his way. He has to be put down like the rabid dog that he is. And I intend to be the one to put him in the ground.”
Diggs blew out a long, harsh breath, shifting his stance to face the target once more. “You might be right, Dawson might be unsalvageable, but I’m not ready to give up on him yet. He wouldn’t give up on us.” The muscles beneath Diggs’s shoulders pulled back and up, so straight that he could lay a board across. “You never give up on family,” Diggs whispered just loud enough for King to hear.
Cold, seething fury settled firmly in King. “He’s not family.”
He pivoted to the target, ripped his Beretta from his holster, kicked off the safety, and fired off three rounds. They hit their target, one in the forehead and two in the chest. He holstered his weapon and turned his back on his success.
King didn’t have a family. He had a team, and he’d be willing to lay down his life in the line of fire to protect his brothers, but they weren’t his family. A family was a liability he didn’t want or need.
* * *
King eased his truck into a parallel parking spot a couple blocks behind Diggs. He’d been careful to keep his distance as he followed his teammate, not surprised in the least when he’d turned in the direction of Dawson’s sister’s town. Diggs had left the reservation without warning after their target practice, and he’d had a hunch that he was looking for Dawson. Probably hoping to pull some John Wayne move and try to save the fucker before King could find him first. Why Diggs thought he needed to ride in on a white horse with a white hat and try to save the unsaveable, King couldn’t fathom. And why the rest of the team felt the same way was beyond his grasp.
King sat in his truck, leaning back in his seat with this visor lowered, watching as Diggs slowly walked down the sidewalk in front of a handful of mom-and-pop shops. Dawson’s sister’s little brick house sat in the middle of the street. It was definitely not the kind of place anyone would go looking for a cold-blooded killer. A population of 500, with one small school, a library, a grocery store, and a gas station making up its main employment, this was the kind of place people went to retire or they just never left.
Mayhem’s King: Operation Mayhem Page 2