BELONGING: Hope, Truth And Malice (Beauty 0f Life Book 3)

by Laura Acton

  Marty had been listening as the medics prepared to put him into the rig. He lifted the oxygen mask and his wraith-like voice rasped out, “He was tortured, just like me … but he chose the beauty of life, not suicide.” Then Marty coughed and struggled to get the next breath in.

  Jim put the oxygen mask back on his patient as his mind was reeling. Scars on chest and back, torture, the glimpse of blond hair. But what most affected him was the phrase ‘he chose the beauty of life’. Jim’s hand went to his lower pants pocket and absently patted—it was still there, still charged, still ready at a moment’s notice.

  Trey saw his partner pale, “Jim, you look like you saw a ghost. You okay, man?”

  Jim turned to ask the other medics who they were talking about, but then his patient started crashing and his whole attention refocused on saving the man’s life.

  Chapter Twelve

  July 15

  En Route to Bennie’s Gas Station – Jon and Nick – 12:00 p.m.

  Glancing over at Nick, Jon saw Nick motion for him to mute his headset as Nick proceeded to mute his own. Jon turned his off. “What?”

  “We’ve had two intense calls. Need your assessment of the team’s readiness before we arrive at the next one,” Nick responded.

  Jon thought for a moment, “Well … you, me, Bram, and Ray appear fit and good to go. Loki’s a little shaken. Based on his reaction to Dan getting hit, I think he saw something the rest of us didn’t in that last call. He had cameras at all angles. He’s good to go now, but you should talk to him about it later.”

  Halting a moment to focus on shifting lanes to go around traffic, Jon continued, “Lexa, well she’s angry with herself that Garth got off the shots that hit Dan. And she saw those dammed scars of Dan’s for the first time. That had to be upsetting. Still remember when we all saw them for the first time.”

  Jon shuddered and Nick nodded knowingly, agreeing. Jon then said, “But she’s already pulled it together and is back in professional mode. Lexa’s good to go.”

  He was quiet a moment as he considered Dan’s fitness status. “Dan, wow what a morning our rookie has had. Neutralized a subject, shared some private and horrifying memories to help someone, and got shot in the vest. All that and he can still have the presence of mind to tease Lexa, helping her through a bad moment, and have a good laugh with Loki. I will say I’m impressed with Dan’s resilience. I’d be inclined to say he is fit for duty …”

  When Jon hesitated to continue, Nick interjected, “I hear a ‘but’ there. And I concur with all you’ve said. I often worry that even strong resilient ones such as Dan can take only so much. I understand where your hesitation is coming from. We need to go cautiously here.”

  Nick checked his phone as it vibrated indicating Tia was feeding him current information then he said, “Dan’s a protector at his core, we’ve discussed that before. He copes best when he’s active. When we force downtime on him, he gets restless. I think that’s when he’s most vulnerable to emotions he hasn’t yet processed. Working helps him process those emotions and put them in the proper places.”

  Both contemplated what the other had said then Jon suggested, “For this call we put him in the truck with Loki. Have him focus on tactical analysis away from the potential for lethal action and negotiating. Dan may be a protector, but he needs protecting too. Give him a little space to breathe and process things before throwing him back into the action full force.”

  Nick approved of the idea. The two of them usually had much the same read on each of the team members. It felt good to have his assessments validated via his tactical lead’s assessments. They worked well together, effortlessly filling in each other’s shortcoming thus making a stronger leadership team.

  Jon asked quietly, “What about you, Nick?”

  Nick drew in a breath. Calls involving young kids were never his favorite thing to deal with. The night afterwards, he had trouble sleeping as dreams of finding Martin dead filled his mind. He responded, “I’m good.”

  “You sure?” Jon asked again.

  Nodding, Nick said, “Yeah, thanks for asking though.”

  Jon took a glance at Nick and nodded. “Okay, then.”

  En Route to Bennie’s Gas Station – Bram and Ray

  Bram and Ray started to have a similar conversation, but quickly it veered off track. Ray had initiated it, motioning for Bram to mute his headset and doing the same. “So, you think Dan is okay?” Ray asked smoothly.

  Bram needed no time to respond as he’d been thinking about Dan’s state since closely watching the mirrored emotion in Jason’s face as Dan talked. Bram answered, “He’s wounded beyond what any of us can even imagine.”

  That drew a quick look from Ray, but he had misinterpreted Bram’s meaning. Ray said, “But the medic cleared him. They wouldn’t do that if he was injured. Sure, he’ll be bruised. Man, he bruises so intensely it’s a bit scary. I can’t forget the first bruising I saw—scared the shit out of me. You remember? It was the day after we did all the hand-to-hand takedown drills. You had him act as the target for all of us, takedown after hard takedown for hours.”

  Bram laughed and let his true meaning pass as he followed Ray’s track. “Yeah. I remember that. Had him be the target because he was so damned good at getting out of every maneuver I could think of. We learned a lot from him that day. Dan never looked winded and barely flinched on some of the hard throws you guys landed or when we practiced using pressure points. I think we got schooled in only a portion of what he really knows.”

  Ray stated, “Yeah, I learned a bunch. Remember all the razzing we gave him the next morning when he joined workout wearing a long-sleeved shirt and sweat pants instead of the sleeveless shirts and shorts he normally wears? Dan just said he was cold, but then he sweated like a pig that morning. We all gave him more shit when he came out of the shower area fully dressed and ready.

  Bram injected, “Then we had that call where you and Dan had to climb into the huge garbage container to pull out that kid. You guys stank and the Boss ordered you back to shower and change. None of us was willing to get into a truck with either of you.”

  Ray grimaced remembering. “That was an awful smell. Something like skunk meets rotting fish with a side of vomit. Ugh. I was at my locker already half-dressed when Dan rounded the corner with just a towel around his waist using a small wash cloth to towel dry his hair.”

  Chuckling, Ray said, “I scared the crap out of Dan when I suddenly yelled, ‘Holy shit! What the hell happened to you?’ Dan jumped back about three feet and slammed into the locker behind him. He looked around to see who I was yelling at and then back at me confused when he didn’t see anyone else. I was just staring at him with my mouth hanging open.

  “It looked like his body had been used as a paintball gun target. His entire body was covered in bright red, blue, and purple hues. It finally registered with Dan what I was talking about and he said, ‘Oh, that, it’s nothing, just a little bruising from yesterday’s training’, and moved to his locker to dress.”

  Bram was laughing at the recollection. “The rest of us had just gotten back and the Boss, Loki, Jon, and I ran into the locker room to see what all the commotion was about. The four of us stopped dead in our tracks when we saw him. It looked so awful and I felt so horrible that he was so bruised.

  “Remember Jon’s reaction? He went ballistic. Didn’t believe in the slightest when Dan said it was nothing and that he wasn’t injured. Jon threatened to relegate him to the truck for a week if he didn’t let EMS check him out. That’s when Dan got pissed and said ‘Damn it Jon, I just bruise vividly, it’s nothing. Looks awful, but nothing hurts. I’m okay. If I beat you in the tactical course will you believe me and drop it?”

  Ray was laughing now, too. “I think Jon regrets agreeing to that. He was hard to live with for a while after Dan bested him in the course by fifteen seconds and broke his long-standing record for the course by five seconds.”

  They smiled at the memory and then quie
ted a bit as they were approaching Bennie’s Gas Station. They turned on their headsets and shifted into job mode.

  En Route to Bennie’s Gas Station – Lexa and Dan

  Over in the SUV Lexa and Dan shared, the headsets were not muted. As they neared the gas station, Dan was busy begging Lexa for a power bar. She was having a good time teasing him, payback for the comment earlier. Loki was having fun listening to their banter as he drove the command truck.

  Their banter had started just after they got into the truck. Dan was sitting quietly and somewhat meditative, if Lexa had to put an emotion to it. Then out of nowhere there was a loud growling sound.

  Lexa snapped her head towards Dan, “What the hell was that, Broderick?”

  “Just my stomach,” snorted Dan. “I overslept and didn’t get to eat breakfast today. Only had the coffee the guys brought us this morning.” He winked at her knowingly.

  Trying not to recall last night while she was on duty, Lexa replied, “It sounds angry, better feed it.” Then to cover her worries that someone might guess that they’d slept together last night, she asked, “Why did you wake up late?”

  “Would if I could, because I was sleeping,” replied Dan with a smirk. Did Lexa really want to have this conversation now?

  “Don’t you pack power bars? And that’s a stupid answer, I asked why you were late not what you were doing,” Lexa countered and flashed Dan a grin.

  In the past six weeks, they had started to banter like this. Anyone listening to them might get lost with the multiple threads within the same conversation, but they never did. It was like a small mental sparring session, and something they both enjoyed.

  When they had started this, both had an ulterior motive. For Lexa, she was trying to get a handle on how this man ticked. He was so different from any guy she’d known, which made him intriguing.

  For Dan, he liked saying things that got her hackles up. There was a fire in her hazel eyes and a flush to her cheeks when she was slightly pissed that made her so sexy and desirable. He couldn’t stop himself from doing it.

  However, today there was a new undertone born from giving into the attraction both had felt and denied for so long. Neither had a clue how they were going to proceed—that was a discussion to be had later. But the banter felt normal and good even with the new undertone.

  “Took care of the most important thing only before I left, and no it’s not a stupid answer it was because I was sleeping,” Dan retorted. And boy did he enjoy that sleep. Lexa’s sated, soft yet firm body held close to him after a mutual release was more effective than any sleeping pill.

  “So what’s more important than food? And yes, it’s a stupid answer, that’s what you were doing, not why you were late,” Lexa challenged with a bit of friendly fire in her eyes.

  Let’s see how he’d answer. She knew she was playing with fire, Dan might blow everything and blurt out that they were together. Maybe that was why she was doing this. Part of her needed to know if he would say anything. It was risky, but she had to know.

  “Brushing my teeth and, no, that wasn’t what I was doing. It was why I was late,” Dan countered. Sexy Lexie was testing him—he was certain of it now.

  “So you think brushing teeth is more important than food? Explain your answer. We’re going around in circles,” she said.

  “Yes, brushing my teeth is more important, because I couldn’t WOW you with my smile without my pearly whites, now could I? I was late because I fell asleep unexpectedly before setting my alarm. So the cause for me being late was that I was sleeping,” he explained. He waited for the explosion from his statement about his smile.

  Target bulls-eyes achieved by both. For Dan, the ‘wow you with my smile’ comment garnered a flashed glare from Lexa that said, ‘I can’t believe you just said that’. He gave her a lopsided grin and relished in the fire that flashed in the golden flecks of her exquisite eyes. For Lexa, his explanation for being late solidified that he would be discrete. Actually, the teasing about his smile fed right into it, too. Ray and Loki teased Dan about his smile sometimes and suggested that women would find it irresistible. Lexa bit her lip. Now what was she going to do?

  Dan’s stomach roared again and the begging commenced. He hadn’t had time to replenish his stock of power bars in his bag this morning—he’d actually forgotten them in his rush to get to work. Dan knew Lexa also kept some in her bag also so he begged her to give him one.

  Over the next few minutes Lexa found all kinds of reasons not to share her power bars as Dan begged. She should’ve just offered him some, but it was too much fun to see how he would try to wheedle them from her.

  Just before they arrived, she grabbed two from the door pocket and tossed one to him with a smile. A muffled, “Thanks,” though a mouthful of power bar, was heard just before they exited the truck.

  Lexa laughed as she noticed that he’d actually shoved the whole bar in at once. He must be really hungry. He’d used a ton of energy in the past seven hours—not to mention last night—and it didn’t look like they’d be getting a break any time soon. She’d planned to eat the second one herself, but as an afterthought said, “Hey, Soldier, think fast,” and chucked the bar to him.

  Dan’s huge smile showed off his pearly whites as he caught the bar.

  Lexa ducked her head as she headed to the command truck so Dan couldn’t see that, yes, that smile did in fact, WOW her.

  The little devil on Lexa’s shoulder just cackled.

  Chapter Thirteen

  July 15

  Outside Bennie’s Gas Station – 12:15 p.m.

  Loki parked the command truck near the rear of the gas station. The team, with the exception of Nick, converged at the command truck to determine their plan of action. Loki was already at the computer working to pull up camera footage to try and identify the subjects. They were completely blind as to who they were dealing with.

  Jon started to dole out the tactical assignments, “Due to the kids in there we need to go less lethal—also no flash bangs or CS gas. Loki’s working on eyes in to find where the hostages are located. Dan, I need you in the truck studying those blueprints and finding us options for entering undetected, if possible. Lexa, we need info about the subjects and hostages. Boss is getting status reports from the units on site. Ray and Bram, make sure the units have the perimeter secured, have them group the parents together, and get them to move the damned news crews back further. We don’t need the same media fiasco we had at Playful Minds.”

  A chorus of, “Copy that,” and all proceeded to their assigned tasks.

  Nick started feeding them information, “According to the unit on site, at least one of the subjects appears to be high on drugs, as his behavior is erratic. The second subject is behaving less erratically. They’ve been holed up in there for twenty minutes now.”

  Outside Bennie’s Gas Station – Command Truck

  Loki got access to the station’s cameras. They were fixed in place, which created several blind spots of the interior. The most concerning blind spot was the one by the back door. There was a full view at the front of the short hallway that also had the bathrooms. However, if someone was in the bathroom already, they could slip to the back door unnoticed. Loki was able to locate the hostages while Dan studied the blueprints, noting several options for entry based on where all of the hostages and subjects were located.

  “They’ve grouped the kids together near the candy case just to the left of the hall. The jittery subject is armed with a semi-automatic pistol and covering the kids. The calmer subject has a rifle and has the cashier and chaperone behind the counter on the other side of the store. Dan’s pretty sure it’s a single shot hunting rifle. Why would they separate the adults and kids?” Loki pondered aloud.

  “Good question,” intoned Nick. “Anyone have any ideas why?”

  “It’s tactically smart on their part. Separating them makes our entry options more difficult. We have to cover two areas instead of one. Also, if an adult isn’t keeping
the kids calm, they may panic and bolt into the line of fire. They might know that limits our entry options,” Dan stated.

  “Agreed. Dan, determine an entry plan based on this intel,” Jon simply said.

  Dan reviewed many options and no scenario was good enough. He wasn’t happy. There were too many variables when kids were involved.

  Outside Bennie’s Gas Station

  Nick looked at Jon who was standing near the command truck with him and said, “So we really need a talk solution.”

  Jon nodded. “Hard tactical could be bad if the kids spook.”

  “Any progress yet on identities of the subjects?” Nick asked.

  “Still running facial recognition,” Loki responded.

  Lexa had gotten the name of the cashier from the owner of the station and now approached the woman a patrol officer has identified as one of the daycare chaperones. “I’m Lexa McKenna with TRF. Can you tell me your name?”

  The chaperone was clutching a file folder in one hand as she bit the nails on her other hand and looked at the gas station with a fretful expression. She looked at the officer. “Wendy Glines. They’re just little kids. You’re gonna get them out safe, right?”

  Lexa calmly responded, “We’re working on that. Wendy, can you tell me anything about the children that are in the station?”

  Wendy shoved the folder at Lexa. “Their details are in here. We bring pictures of the kids when we go on field trips in case any of them get lost. Please, they’re so little. I knew we shouldn’t have let them go pick their treat. But Gayla said it would be a special thing—they were all so well behaved. Especially the boys. Those boys are so rambunctious—hard to get them to sit still for long—but they were so good that I agreed with Gayla. Please you have to get them out unharmed.”