The Last Man Standing: The Surgeon and The Mechanic

by Clark, T. C.

  T.C. Clark

  The Last Man Standing: The Surgeon and The Mechanic

  First published by The Invisible Writer's Press 2019

  Copyright © 2019 by T.C. Clark

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

  T.C. Clark asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  T.C. Clark has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

  Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

  First edition

  This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy

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  The Sanctuary is a refuge for the doomed.

  The Sanctuary Series

  Bad Guys Finish First (BWWM)-May 5, 2019

  Lily Denton: The Librarian

  Sandy Orlov: The Sandman

  The Last Man Standing (AMBW)-June 9, 2019

  Yuuto Tanaka The Surgeon

  Rhea Williams: The Mechanic

  Dark Times for the Wicked (BWWM)-July 12, 2019

  Willow Parker: The Hunter

  Fabian Benard: The Forecaster

  If you like these books, check out: Dmitri: The Russian’s Christmas Baby (The Wallflowers Series)

  www.tctheinvisiblewriter.com

  Contents

  Acknowledgement

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Acknowledgement

  Thank you for taking time out of your day to check out this book. I hope you enjoy the story.

  T.C. Clark

  One

  Chapter 1

  * * *

  Yuuto Tanaka was not a man who lost. That’s not how he was raised. Yet, here he was, alone with a woman who’d once loved him, trying to figure out how to break down the wall she’d built around her heart. The wall was a direct result of his idiotic actions, but it was still an annoying obstacle.

  He was lucky she was a woman who believed so strongly in justice. As much as she didn’t want to be here with him, she believed this job had to be done. It was nice to know she would do anything to protect their child. Even go after a group of assassins who were trying to sell a weapon that could kill millions of people if activated.

  His brother once said a woman scorned was as dangerous as a poisonous viper, and Rhea wasn’t your average woman. If she chose to strike, the blow would not only be painful, it would be fatal as well. Still, he couldn’t give her up.

  Rhea wasn’t giving him any encouragement. She was here because she believed in their cause. Unsurprisingly his body didn’t seem to mind the anger radiating off of her. From her signature floral scent to her smooth dark brown skin, his body recognized hers as its own.

  Yuuto knew she no longer felt the same way about him. Every time he made a move to talk, she brutally shut him down. After the fourth attempt, he’d opted for silence. There was a lot of pain in her voice, and he knew he was the one who put it there. Now he needed to rely on the infamous patience he was famous for.

  If someone had told him a few years ago that he would be in a situation like this, he would have laughed in their face. He’d never cared about anyone. So he’d never imagined he’d be in a position that would have him figuring out how to atone for his past. But Rhea was different, and what he felt for her was unique and unlike anything else he’d experienced in his life.

  At thirty-five years old, he’d never really known anything close to love. His family used strength and respect to enforce their bonds. Love was a weakness for other people, it was definitely something he couldn’t afford to have. His father had taught him that. His brutal lessons were still carved in his skin.

  He could admit that he was different from the bitter man he’d been years ago. Rhea had walked into his life and destroyed any semblance of peace it possessed. Honestly, sometimes he hated the depth of his feelings for her. When a person started to care about something other than themselves, they were vulnerable.

  Rhea was the catalyst for the changes in his life. He’d never trusted anyone before her, and now she looked at him with hatred in her eyes. He’d seen the disgust on her face their last night together. His harsh words were still hanging between them.

  Rhea wasn’t the type of woman who would forgive easily. Her past had sharpened her into a finely tuned weapon. The first time they’d worked together he’d understood quickly how her mind worked. She was a firm believer in right and wrong. If a person landed on the wrong side, their life was forfeit.

  Like him, she lived for the hunt. She trusted her instincts and had a very strong belief in justice. They’d met once before their time together in the Sanctuary. He’d heard about her reputation long before he’d met her. Even then, Rhea had a special touch when it came to mechanical weapons.

  At that time he’d been the head enforcer for the Tanaka clan and she’d been a bitter but effective CIA agent. She’d been working on an international investigation that was focused on his clan. His father sent him over to eliminate the threat to their family. Their initial meeting had not gone well, and if it wasn’t for his instincts, he’d be rotting in a Federal prison.

  He’d been stunned by his instant attraction to her. He’d always resisted the notion of love at first sight. It was a silly thing to believe in and yet here he was, heading down a dark road with a woman he would do anything to protect.

  He hadn’t seen her in almost two months. Memories threatened to surface highlighting their last visit and he forced them down. Now was not the time to think about the past. His focus needed to be on keeping her and their child safe.

  They’d been a part of the Sanctuary, a former refuge for reformed killers. Their company had been taken over by three ex-members thought to be dead. The Magician, the Linguist, and the Chemist. The three-man team had formed a competing organization called NICON and they were hosting an auction for the most dangerous weapon in existence.

  According to their files, they called it The Genesis project. It was a weapon that could target specific factors in a person’s DNA and, with the right programming, it had the ability to kill millions of people at a time.

  There were only a few active members from the Sanctuary still alive. No one else had reached out so far, and they believed the other survivors wanted to move on with their lives. He didn’t blame them. Admittedly, he didn’t know if he would be here if it wasn’t for Rhea. She’d given him a reason to fight.

  “We need to talk, Rhea. You can’t keep shutting me out.” Yuuto kept his eyes on the road. He knew this conversation wasn’t going to be easy.

  “Call me the Mechanic,” she said shortly, referring to her codename.

  “No,” Yuuto shook his head. They weren’t going to play that game.

 
“Yuuto, there is nothing to talk about. We agreed to do this together, and I’m here because of that agreement, that’s all this is,” she snapped. She was tapping her foot again. He smiled. It was the only tell she had. The tapping foot meant treacherous waters ahead for anyone close to her.

  “You know we need to talk about us. You can barely look at me. How do you think we can be an effective team with this much tension between us. I need you to give me a chance to fix this,” he said quietly.

  “Really? You weren’t saying that a few months ago What did you say again?” Rhea pretended to think and then snapped her fingers as if she’d finally remembered. “Oh yeah, call me when you figure out who your baby’s father is.”

  “Rhea…” He didn’t need to see her face. He could hear the pain in her voice. He needed to explain why he’d reacted like that. He had issues with trust; it had nothing to do with who she was or what she meant to him.

  For the first time since they’d started driving Rhea turned in her seat to look at him. She didn’t speak again until he glanced in her direction. “My real name is reserved for my friends, so stop using it and I’m not ready to talk about the past so you need to let that go.”

  Rhea’s hand smoothed over her belly in a protective way. She looked like she was barely holding it together. As much as he wanted to vent his anger at the situation, now was not the time. Yuuto took a deep breath to settle his nerves. He didn’t want to get her worked up.

  His job was to make this as easy as possible. Rhea wasn’t going to walk away from this plan, no matter how much he pushed her to do so. If anything she would do the exact opposite of whatever he suggested. The Mechanic was a stubborn woman. In order to navigate this situation, he had to remain calm and tactical. He needed her to think about something other than the mistakes he’d made.

  “Okay, Mechanic. Have it your way. Can we talk about the mission, then?” He asked the question in a soothing flat tone.

  She stayed quiet for a minute. He took that moment to examine her again. She looked as if she still wanted to fight, but she closed her mouth and leaned back in the seat. She bit her bottom lip and sighed.

  Rhea reached inside the folder the Forecaster had given them and pulled out a stack of papers. They’d gone over the plan briefly with the others just before they’d left. Each leader of NICON was uniquely qualified, and that meant this wasn’t going to be easy. To say this trip was turning into a shit fest was a real understatement.

  The Sandman and the Librarian were heading after the Magician after they collected the former Sanctuary leader’s daughter. When NICON dissolved their organization, they beheaded the founder and took his daughter.

  The Forecaster and the Hunter were put in charge of the Chemist. To be honest he was probably the toughest target in the group. But the former husband and wife team were known for doing the impossible and somehow Yuuto believed they would handle him with ease. His only concern was their ability to survive being together for a while without killing each other.

  That left Lorenzo Vellum. The former face of the Sanctuary with his good looks and charming personality, he was the betrayal no one had seen coming. Their job was to go after Lorenzo, who was formerly known as the Linguist. He had the plans for the device that could release the genetic weapon. Clearly the leaders of NICON didn’t trust each other. Their auction was in a few weeks, and they needed to have all three elements of the weapon for the sale to be successful.

  He wondered how the others would handle their tasks. Right now, all of them had jobs to do. It wouldn’t be easy. Their funds had been frozen by the government, most of their allies were dead, and, at least in his case, there were people hunting for them. How was he going to keep Rhea safe?

  Rhea was a warrior who honored her own code. There was no way he could keep her out of taking down NICON. She wouldn’t trust anyone else to do it right, and, to be honest, he needed her help.

  His mind drifted back to the past when the Benefactor had first found out about what those men had been up to. Back then Rhea and two other Sanctuary members were tasked with taking out the three-man team.

  The Linguist, the Chemist, and the Magician had betrayed one of the primary pacts assassins took when they joined the Sanctuary. The Benefactor had ten commandments in place that every member had to follow. They had broken three. They’d started a secret brotherhood within the organization. One that smuggled drugs, guns, and people for the right price. If an assassin broke any of the commandments they were forced into early retirement which in this case meant death. Somehow the three men survived their attacks and faked their deaths.

  In their time away they’d formed an international security corporation called NICON. Over the last two weeks, NICON had systematically destroyed nearly all traces of the Sanctuary. Their revenge had been swift and effective. There were only a few members still alive.

  Yuuto knew that it was Rhea’s handiwork that put those grotesque scars on the Chemist’s face. There was no way that vindictive man was going to let Rhea live. Destroying NICON quickly was the only way forward.

  She was still quiet, but she was reading through the papers the Forecaster had given them. Rhea was a beautiful woman. Even though she often tried to hide it. She had long thick curly hair that she wore in loose twists. Her rich mahogany skin glowed from unexpected motherhood. She was obviously doing well in the early stages of pregnancy. Thank God, she wasn’t anything like his ex-wife. He knew Rhea would do everything in her power to protect their baby. He couldn’t have picked a better mother for his baby. His body tightened as he remembered his better times with the Mechanic.

  “I know a couple of people that can help us,” she said. Her soft words broke through his thoughts. She was looking out the window. She was controlling her temper; he could tell by the slight change in her tone. The Mechanic was a professional to her core.

  “Are you sure we should involve other people?”

  “Yuuto, we don’t really have a choice, do we? I know we both have some money set aside for situations like this, but it’s going to take more than a few million dollars to go after a company as big as this. They are embedded in the FBI, CIA, and Congress. This is way above our pay grade. We are going to need help.”

  At least she was using the word we. That was one step in the right direction. She was right. Now that the Tanaka clan knew he was alive, they needed all the help they could get. His father would do anything to get him back to Japan. He knew the old man had an unquenchable thirst for vengeance.

  “We both know I don’t have any friends, so who do you have in mind?” He smiled when she coughed to cover a laugh.

  “I called two people before we left, one of them was my sister.”

  “I didn’t know you had a sister.” Yuuto was surprised. Now that he thought about it, she never really talked about her family.

  “Yeah. Well, we both didn’t know a lot of important things about each other, did we?”

  Yuuto didn’t know how to respond to that, so he ignored her outburst. “Why did you call your sister?”

  Rhea looked down at her phone. From her expression, he could tell she was debating whether or not she could trust him. Anger ripped through him. He’d never betrayed her, and he never would. Sure, they had ended on bad terms, but she knew she could trust him. He stopped stupid words from flying from his lips. Obviously, her feelings stemmed from how they’d broken up.

  Of course, she didn’t trust him now. She didn’t understand why he’d acted the way he did. She wasn’t the betraying type. If anything, Rhea was always brutally honest. She relaxed into her seat and then turned back to look out the window.

  “Kara is a world-renowned hacker and we can trust her. I just need to make sure I keep you two apart. She doesn’t really like you,” Rhea admitted with a smile.

  “How can she not like me, she doesn’t know me?”

  “She’s heard about you,” she said sweetly. He didn’t need her to go into detail to understand what she meant. He could o
nly imagine what her sister had heard about him. He frowned; he wasn’t in the habit of being in the wrong. He didn’t like the feeling.

  “You said there was a second person.” He focused on the road and let the guilty feeling eating at his conscious go. Guilt could not repair her wounds, only time would.

  “Yeah, Frank Mitchum. He’s my ex-partner from when I was in the CIA. He will definitely help us, and he is a good man. Once he knows why we are doing this, he will do what needs to be done to take out NICON. He has a lot of connections. We both know the Linguist is sneaky. He won’t be easy to find, and he will be even harder to get to.”

  Yuuto didn’t like hearing about another man from Rhea. He also detested the pride in her voice when she described Frank Mitchum. Whoever this Frank person was, he had definitely left an impression on Rhea.

  She was right, though. The Linguist was a master chameleon when he worked. Somehow he could blend easily into any faction and garner their respect and protection. Wherever he was right now, there was no doubt he was well protected.

  “We need to meet my sister in Miami. She is pretty sure that the Linguist is somewhere around South America. I’ll contact Frank and have him go there as well. By the time we make it to Florida, I’m sure she will have more information to go on.”

  Yuuto nodded. At least they had some semblance of a plan. “We can’t fly, and I need to stay off the main roads as much as I can.”

  Rhea pulled out a water bottle. She drank it quickly and then reached inside and handed him one. He took it and placed it on his lap. She tapped the bottle and motioned for him to drink. It was no use. She would keep pushing until he drank it. Yuuto sighed and took a sip. Afterward, Rhea handed him a protein bar.

  “You still have to make sure everyone is taken care of on a mission.”