For Honor: A Secret Baby Military Millionaire Romance (Elite Force Protectors Book 1)

by Reagan James

  The next day I left.

  I don’t even want to say where I went. It made the Red Zone look like a five-star paradise. Blood stained streets, people dying and calling out in despair on every corner. I couldn’t even look at anyone. Not just for obvious reasons but because it was such a sad place. I almost felt sorry for these people. But…

  I was there on a mission. And now I could finally say it out loud, at least to myself. My contact wasn’t wrong. It truly was the most precious, the most micro level, and clearly, the most compromised. I was there to extract the five year old grand daughter of the US Vice President.

  Her name was Hannah and she had been kidnapped last week on a Global Nations World Peacekeeping tour. How they had managed to keep it out of the press was amazing. It was obviously the work of The Fear Division and they weren’t interested in making a scene, they weren’t politically motivated, they just wanted money. They also knew that the US doesn’t negotiate with terrorists, they will however, pay a substantial ransom for important personnel. And Hannah was a very important person.

  The Vice President had become a very rich man before he entered politics and The Fear Division clearly knew this. They had been planning this kidnapping for a long time—from the way it was executed, with perfect precision—that much was clear.

  Hannah had been taken from her bedroom in the middle of the night from a five-star hotel despite exceptional security. Clearly there were several hotel employees “in” on the job. But none of that mattered, it was my job to get Hannah back and deliver her safely to The Green Zone.

  I thought about how proud Honor would be of me to see both Hannah and I walk through those gates. Getting back to Honor and starting our life together was what kept me going.

  This mission would take no longer than a week, I thought, eight days tops. After that I was on my way back to the Green Zone, back to the woman I loved, and ready to start a new life.

  But of course that didn’t happen.

  Out of nowhere deafening noise—like a series of crashes and explosions all at once—surrounded me. I ducked for cover.

  After that, everything went black.

  All I could think about was Honor.

  Twenty-Two

  Honor

  One Week Later

  I couldn’t help but pace the cold floor of my tiny studio apartment.

  I was in my bare feet, just out of the shower.

  I brushed my hair slowly as I walked up and down the room, from one side to the other, which admittedly was about ten to twelve steps each way.

  Axe had been gone exactly seven days and seven nights and I was starting to get anxious. Surely he must be on his way back—from where I had no idea—but he must be on his way back soon. I already knew, because he had told me to be prepared, that he wasn’t going to be able to contact me. So that was okay, I guess. Still, he was always on my mind.

  We’d had such an unbelievable three days together and I was head over heels in love with him. I couldn’t believe it had actually only been three days. We connected so deeply and in between amazing love making we talked endlessly about everything and nothing. I had no doubt that Axel Walker was the love of my life.

  But now I was starting to get nervous. How long did these missions typically last? Was there anyone I could talk to in order to find out? It frustrated me that there was no one to talk to. I didn’t know who his contact was so I couldn’t very well go ask him.

  I tried to focus on work. A group of us managed to head back to the surrounding area of The Red Zone for a day trip. I took some terrific shots and interviewed some locals as well as the Doctors Without Borders chief of staff. It kept me busy. Kept my mind off things.

  But at night time, I couldn’t help it. Where was Axe? How come I hadn’t heard from him? There’s no way this mission would possibly last another week, would it? Could it?

  A thought struck me as I lay awake one night, on the eighth night after Axe left, what if I didn’t see him before my time in The Green Zone was up?

  No.

  Don’t be ridiculous.

  He’ll be back soon.

  I wished so much that Axe could at least communicate to me somehow that he was okay or that he was on his way back. No. I knew he couldn’t do that. It was too risky. But why? Where was he? I shook my head and scolded myself for going in circles like that. Axe needed me to stay calm and in control. He would be back and everything would be okay. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder if this was how my life was going to be from now on… just waiting for Axe to come back from missions. It’s not as if I was going to relocate permanently to The Green Zone. I had a life back in California. A job. A family. But… I didn’t have Axe there. Suddenly my mind flooded with questions again.

  Would Axe join me in California? Could he ever leave the Elite Force Protectors? Did he want to? I had tried to be enthusiastic when he said that after this mission there would be plenty more but the truth was, I wanted him to leave with me. Oh God that is so selfish! He loved the EFP’s, those guys were his family, and he would never leave. I had to accept that. Still, he did say he loved me. I wondered how we would work this out—I mean, could we ever have a family?

  I lay awake that night spiraling out of control with thoughts of Axe: of course I wondered how we could make a life together in “the real world” but mostly I just worried for his safety.

  I’m sure he’s fine, I said to myself as I finally drifted off to sleep.

  Little did I know…

  Twenty-Three

  Axel

  There was nothing but emptiness surrounding me. Total blackness completely devoid of sound yet deafening silence that was almost over powering. I had definitely hit my head, that much I knew. I had a painful pounding on my left temple but the rest of me felt numb. As though I couldn’t feel any part of my body. The pitch blackness made it impossible to try and get my bearings. And the sound, or lack of sound, was completely disorienting.

  Dammit, I thought.

  What the hell happened?

  Axe, I thought to myself, calm down.

  The last thing I remember was taking out three, no maybe four, members of The Fear Division. One of them stuck out to me in particular, he had only gold teeth. They were done in chop shop fashion, the furthest thing from skilled dentistry, and it looked like shards of jagged gold jutting out in every direction from his mouth. It was revolting and I almost lost focus. But I took aim and shot him in the shoulder, he didn’t move after that.

  There were shots ringing out everywhere. I easily took out the other members of the gang. Yes, I remember now. There was screaming. A little girl. Hannah was locked in a small room, thankfully no harm had been done to her, but she was terrified, and surrounded by guards.

  Right. Now I remember. There were four more members of The Fear Division: low level guards. I remember taking them out too, one, two, three, and then the last one—he had been tricky—but yes that’s right, there had been four of them and I got them all. Eight in total. Not bad. But then everything went black. The earth shook. I grabbed Hannah and ran for cover but I remember thinking, where can we run? Not only are we on the tenth floor of a heavily guarded Fear Division apartment building, we aren’t even supposed to be here. There is no team on the outside waiting to extract us, no one out there, waiting to take us to safety. The building started to rumble and shake and I remember thinking, is this an earthquake? Are we under attack? From who though? No one even knows were are here.

  No sense in trying to figure out how this happened, I just needed to focus on getting out. I tried to look around me but felt blocked in every direction. Was I in a cell? Was I in a cave? I couldn’t even tell if I was indoors or out. For some reason I felt as though I was underground. I breathed in the air around me—it didn’t feel damp or outdoorsy, it wasn’t a cave I decided. But where was I? Why couldn’t I hear or see anything? Where the hell was Hannah? I let out a sigh and blinked a couple times, maybe my eyes would adjust to whatever strange place I was i
n.

  “Axe?” a little girl’s voice called out from the not too far distance.

  The girl.

  That’s right!

  I had extracted the girl successfully and then the building we were in collapsed around us. I blinked again and shook my head as though I was trying to shake some sense into myself. Was it an earthquake? Were we attacked?

  Doesn’t matter, I told myself.

  We have to get out of here.

  We have to get back to The Green Zone.

  “It’s okay sweetie,” I said as calmly as I could while I tried to get my bearings despite being in complete darkness. “Hannah?”

  “Yes,” the little voice said.

  “I need you to be really brave, okay?”

  “Okay,” she said shakily.

  I continued, running my hands along what I guessed were huge pieces of collapsed wall, “Hannah can you reach out and grab my hand?”

  In truth I had absolutely no idea where her hand was or where I was in relation to her. But I had to try. I had to do something. As shock started to wear off and adrenaline started to kick in, I realized my right leg was wedged under a piece of fallen concrete. It wasn’t that big, I could move it.

  I had to move it.

  I had no choice.

  “Axe I’m scared,” her little voice practically broke my heart.

  “Don’t be,” I said in a soft tone as I tried to quietly push the piece of concrete off my leg. I couldn’t let Hannah know I was injured, “I’m going to get you out of here and back home to your family, okay?”

  “Okay, Axe,” Hannah’s voice was so meek and terrified.

  I had to get to her. It was up to me. No one was coming for us. That’s the way it worked. I was the only one who could rescue us. But first I needed this damn concrete off my leg.

  Twenty-Four

  Honor

  I was really starting to worry. No. That’s a lie. I was “really starting to worry” last week. Now that it had almost been two weeks, I was beside myself with fear for Axel’s safety. I didn’t even know what country he was in. Maybe he was in The Red Zone. Maybe he was hours or even days away. I had no idea where he was and that killed me. It was all I could think about—the not knowing.

  What I wanted more than anything was to see Axe come around the corner and up the steps to my apartment, safe and sound and in my arms again.

  Why had he not contacted me? Did something happen during the mission? Oh my God did something go wrong? Was he captured? Had he been… I couldn’t even think about that.

  I had run out of things to do to keep myself busy. I worked non-stop and volunteered for every outing possible. I had interviewed what felt like every single one of the two thousand people living in The Green Zone. It was getting tedious and I didn’t know how soldiers did it, day in and day out, living in this relentless fucking heat and blazing sun and god damn sand.

  Relax Honor, I thought, you’re not acting like yourself.

  But I couldn’t help it. I wanted to jump out of my own skin, to scream, to beg, to negotiate with the universe—just bring him back to me! But it was useless. All I could do was wait.

  Twenty-Five

  Axel

  Days passed, I have no idea how many. Hannah and I were barricaded amongst the rubble of what I could only imagine was a collapsed apartment building. I still couldn’t really remember exactly what had happened. I must have had a concussion. Honestly I wasn’t sure how much longer we could last. We had apparently fallen down into a deep basement (perhaps the explosion or earthquake had created the crater-like hole) but we were a least fifty feet deep.

  Hannah and I had managed to move enough concrete and other debris out of the way to find each other and we sat together, living on the rations I had in my pack. But it would only last a couple more days. Three at the most. I was acutely aware at how little time we had left. But I heard no signs of rescue personnel—no one even digging for deceased family members. I realized the apartment building must have belonged to The Fear Division, because they never claim their dead.

  Despite the horrific reality that was slowly washing over me, Hannah was a brave little Soldier Girl, that’s what I had taken to calling her. We played a game to pass the time; Hannah told me two things about herself that were true and one thing that was a lie. The game was to guess which was the lie.

  “Okay, Axe,” she giggled after I had guessed correctly that she’d never met a unicorn personally. “Your turn!”

  “Umm, okay let me think, let me think…” I said with a curious tone to pique her interest. “Got it! Okay, I once caught a fish, back home, and it was twice as big as you, Hannah, I swear. This fish was massive! Next, it’s funny you should mention unicorns because I grew up on a unicorn ranch! My family breeds them. And finally, we’re going to get out of here very, very soon, my Soldier Girl, I promise you that.”

  Hannah took a bite of her ration, a peanut butter flavored protein bar and raised her eyebrow, I could tell she was thinking hard about which of the three things I had said were true and which was a lie. She was silent for a moment and then looked at me straight in the eyes.

  “I thought you were tricking me,” she said, “but that’s actually an easy one.”

  “Oh really, smartypants,” I said as I tousled her hair and she giggled. “Then which one is the lie and which two are the truth?

  Suddenly Hannah’s lower lip started to quiver and she leapt into my lap, “the last one is the lie,” she said as she wrapped her tiny arms around my neck and started to cry, “we’re never getting out of here.”

  My stomach sank into a pit. I was heartbroken for Hannah. I gave her a big bear hug and said quietly, “no, sweetheart. Don’t ever say that. I promise you, I will get you out of here.”

  She pulled back and stared at me, blinking as little tears streamed down her cheeks, “then you can take me to your unicorn ranch?”

  I couldn’t help but well up too, I smiled and as I fought back tears of my own I said, “you bet, Soldier Girl!”

  Hannah snuggled in close to my chest and fell asleep as I kept watch that night. Through the rubble I could barely see a pinhole view of the sky, revealing the moon shinning over a world I feared had forgotten us.

  Twenty-Six

  Honor

  I was beyond trying to find things to do to keep me busy outside of work. I had less than two weeks left in the Green Zone and then that was that. I was on a plane back to California and back to my old life. Only it wasn’t my old life. It had all changed now. Axel Walker had changed everything. And I couldn’t deny that fact. I refused to let myself think the worst—he was out there, somewhere—and he would return to me, somehow, some way.

  I decided to go for a run, which is the last thing anyone from back home would expect me to do but I had already cleaned up my apartment from top to bottom, was three days ahead of scheduled in filing my latest story for my editor, and it was either get some exercise or head to the canteen. I didn’t feel like eating much anyway.

  I left my apartment and took a left, towards the direction of the medical facility. I passed a group of young military nurses, chatting excitedly about something, then I saw two soldiers, also out for a run—they barely made eye contact as they whizzed by me.

  The sun was out, like it was every damn day, and I easily worked up quite a sweat. I made my way past the dorms where most of the soldiers lived, including Axe, and tried not to look up at his window as I jogged by. It would only make me cry. Although we’d spent most of our time in my studio apartment we had ventured one night to his place, I had wanted to see what it looked like. It wasn’t “against the rules” to have a girl in your residence, especially for someone as high ranking as Axe, but it was definitely frowned upon. I had felt like a teenager sneaking into a boys’ dormitory that night. We’d made love that night in his residence, quietly and quite sneakily, I was propped up against the window, anyone could have seen our naked bodies, it was so exhilarating.

  As I p
assed by the medical building I suddenly started to feel light headed, maybe it was that thought of Axe and I together or maybe it was the sun—damn it was hot—all at once I felt nauseous and I started to spin. That’s not like me, I thought. I almost felt as though I might throw up. Odd, since I didn’t even have breakfast that day. Luckily a little café was nearby and I clumsily made my way to the covered patio. I took a seat and put my head between my knees.

  “Whoa there,” a male voice said. “Are you okay?”

  I couldn’t bear to look up, I was too dizzy. And embarrassed.

  “I think so?” I confessed to the man that I wasn’t much of a runner.

  “No one is in this heat,” he said in a friendly tone. “Here, drink this, it’s the only thing I trust in this country other than my men and my guns.”

  The kind man, an older looking soldier, handed me an Orange Fanta and I drank it gratefully.

  “Thank you so much,” I said, I felt immediately better although the dizziness hung on for a while. The man looked sweet, like an older version of Axe almost. I couldn’t help but notice he wore the same dark grey v-neck t-shirt that Axe did. Thinking of him brought a swell of tears to my eyes. I missed him so much. “I’m sorry, I am just feeling emotional for some reason.”

  “Don’t mention it,” the nice man said. “Do me a favor though, you do look a little pale, especially for a California Girl, so when you’re done with the soda, head on over the medical facility and just get a quick once over, okay?”

  Still dizzy, I agreed and finished my Orange Fanta without much thought. The older man left and as I made my way to the medical facility I wondered, how did he know I was from California?