She arrived at the back of the jet just as Rico was saying, “Neo just sent a text with the details of the address and possible target points.” He gave his phone to Malika as she sat to boot up her laptop. However, Sean wasn’t happy with the sitting arrangement. He picked her up, computer and all, sat in the seat she had just vacated, and then placed her on his lap. She frowned at him to let him know that she wasn’t amused. He simply grinned, kissed her on her lips, and then went back to reading the text Neo had sent.
Sean nodded after reading the message from Neo also sent to his phone. “This can actually workout for us.”
While he had been reading the text, Malika had busied herself on her computer. “In the normal sense, yes, this would have worked out for the best. However, O’Malley is meeting a high-profile client, and that’s not good.”
Both men frowned at her. “What? You guys know that he’s one of the most sought-after arms dealers in the world. Any of his clients would be dangerous and would employ every kind of method to ensure they get what they want.”
“Can you tell who or when they’re meeting?” Sean was all business now, and the teasing lover of a few minutes ago was long gone, replaced by this determined soldier.
“I need a few hours and access to more databases to get that kind of information without being detected.”
“We will be landing shortly,” Rico advised. “Perhaps Neo will also have more information.”
For the reminder of the flight, Sean and Rico spoke softly in the background as she typed away on her laptop, trying to find any bit of information that would aid in the now even more dangerous mission in Australia. With both O’Malleys in one place, it had increased the threat level exponentially.
Dominic had been adamant that they drop her off in Bermuda and get to Australia as soon as possible. Rico also reminded Sean about the urgency for them to get to their destination without further delay. “Sean, man, you need to think about Malika’s safety.”
“I think of nothing else. I just need to make sure the house is safe for her. I’ll be back in thirty minutes. Keep your damn panties on.”
Sean had a driver pick them up from the airport in a silver Rolls Royce. It was times like this that made her remember who he was. Despite him playing soldier and living in the shadows most of the time, Sean was an extremely wealthy and powerful businessman. He wasn’t at all shy about putting that power and wealth on display now.
Rico remained with the aircraft as Sean drove with her and her two armed guards to her home in Tucker’s Point, Hamilton. The driver took about ten minutes to get to the house.
Malika was sorry to see her house invaded by so many now. The house was her most proud possession and located in one of the most beautiful places she had ever visited in her life. She had initially chosen Bermuda as her home because it would have been the last place anyone would have thought to look for her and it was an easy commute to London and New York if the need arose.
The house sat on a hill overlooking the Mid-Ocean Gulf Course on about an acre of land. She loved the open brightness of the house with its many French doors and large triple windows. The beautiful gardens and colorful vegetation could be easily viewed from anywhere in the house, giving it a true island and tropical feel. It had only three bedrooms, but all of the bedrooms were spacious and had a panoramic view of hillside and water features around the island.
As they entered the house, Malika immediately felt at peace. The island ambience of the house always calmed her, made her happy.
Sean stepped in front of her and moved farther into the house with his gun drawn. “Check the house and make sure all entry points are secure,” he told Derek and Micah.
Malika moved farther into the house to a hidden panel on the wall in the hallway, removed the cover, and keyed in a series of codes. A panel slid open from the ceiling, and a screen descended. Views of the various rooms in the house and the grounds immediately appeared.
“Well damn,” Sean said in awe.
“This house is completely rigged with micro-cameras from all possible angles and entry points. I have access to these screens from this wall, in my bedroom, in the safe room, and on my computer. I told you that I’m super cautious.”
Once they had viewed the camera shots, Malika picked up the phone in the kitchen and called Carl, who, along with his wife, was the caretaker of the property when she was away. The older couple was happy to hear from her and promised to stop by with some groceries for her stay.
“I have to go.” Sean pulled her in his arms. “Think about what you have to explain to me when I get back.”
Malika raised an eyebrow. “Explain? Damn, it seems I should be asking you for an explanation, not the other way around.”
“I told you when we were in London that I wanted no more secrets or lies between us.”
“Yeah, well, you need to start practicing what you preach.”
“Smartass.” Sean bent his head to capture her lips in a slow probing kiss.
When he lifted his head again, she was left dazed and throbbing for him.
Sean tightened his arms around her one last time before letting her go and stepping away from her. “Take care of yourself, Duchess.
“You’d better take care and come back in one piece,” Malika whispered as he walked out the front door.
Chapter Sixteen
Three days later, Malika anxiously tapped at the keys of her laptop. Already, Dominic, Neo, and Xavier had returned from their missions. Liam and Niall O’Malley had been terminated without any government agency being able to determine who had done the deed. Now the men were back in the Miami waiting on word from Sean and Rico. Like Rico’s wife, Cherone, Malika had lost contact with the men more than twenty-four hours before. Their last contact with them had been when they had entered Ian O’Malley’s estate in Sydney, Australia. The original plan had had them eliminating Ian in Sydney and then sneaking on board a four-day cruise ship from Brisbane, Australia, to Alotau, Papua New Guinea, to eliminate Patrick O’Malley. However, with Patrick being in Sydney with Ian, their plans had to be hastily reworked.
Malika had been the technical support for all three teams, and the operations had run with military precision. Sean and Rico had easily infiltrated Ian O’Malley’s estate. Everything had been going well. Malika had had full visual on the exterior of the property and certain rooms in the house. However, quite a bit had been unknown. The men had known the risk and had dismissed the possibility of things going wrong with the few things they considered minor blind spots. They had taken out the perimeter guards, weathered a full-on assault, and had entered the castle-style mansion when Malika’s electronic link with them had suddenly terminated. Taking all precaution, Malika shutdown the Wi-Fi to the house and cut the telephone communications. If I don’t have contact with my guys, then no one is getting information or contact with anyone else either.
To make matters worse, Cherone’s last mental link with Rico had ended with him in excruciating pain. Over the years the mental connection between them had strengthened to the point that Cherone also felt what Rico felt. She had immediately collapsed in agony when Rico had suffered the unknown injury. It was fortunate that she was not alone. A doctor had immediately been called, and she was now resting comfortably in her bedroom, at least as comfortable as she could get while still worrying about Rico.
Malika didn’t know what the SEALs planned, but her plane had just landed in Australia, and she was intent on finding Sean and Rico herself. Of course, Derek and Micah insisted on coming with her. She knew that the other SEALs wouldn’t be too far behind. I don’t care who comes, as long as they help me bring Sean home safely.
Sean kept his face void of all emotion as Patrick O’Malley and his son, Ian, sat at a tiny table eating their dinner of semi-raw human body parts. He and Rico had been strapped to a wall in the room and, for the past twenty-four hours, had been tortured, starved of water, food, and sleep, and interrogated. Rico was in a bad state. He had sustaine
d a gunshot wound to his right leg. The amount of blood loss had been substantial at first, and they had thought that a major artery had been hit, but thankfully they had been wrong.
The fact that the O’Malleys had no clue who they were and the motive for Rico and Sean trying to gain access to their compound played a large part in keeping them alive. Sean knew their luck wouldn’t hold for long. Besides, the sick fucks were getting off on playing mind games with them, taunting them with the possibility that they would soon be their food. In the twenty-four hours they had been held in the room, the men taunted them twice with their demented diet of human meat. The O’Malleys apparently ate their rivals to instill absolute fear in anyone who dared to challenge them. They had been relatively passive in exacting revenge for the deaths of their men. Sean knew that, as soon as the O’Malleys learned that Liam and Niall had been killed, they wouldn’t be so lenient and would probably intensify their torture tactics.
Surprised by the identity of the men visiting the O’Malleys, they allowed themselves to be captured to gain intel. The men were Americans, and one of them was a high-ranking Republican in the United States House of Representatives. It was fortunate that Sean kept such a low profile as head of Media Corp and Broadcasting and was not easily recognized, but the Republican politician’s presence still posed a threat to someone. It was now Sean and Rico’s job to find out who was in danger.
A few hours ago, they’d gotten the answer they were looking for by simply being there. The O’Malleys and the politician hadn’t been shy about talking shop in front of two prisoners. Now it was time to get the hell out of there before Rico was rendered completely helpless.
Sean had already freed his hands but kept his hands above his head as if he was still secured by the chains. He wrapped his fingers around the shackles and held on to them. Sean patiently waited for Rico to wake from his recent bout with the O’Malley thugs two hours before. Even with the bullet wound, restrained to the wall, and weak from lack of food and water, Rico had still been beaten to a pulp a few hours ago. The O’Malleys’ men seemed to take great pleasure in their task. Rico didn’t say a word during the assault. He remained stoic through it all.
I, on the other hand, am a suicidal fuck. Every time they hit me or stab my body with various objects I thought it would be fun to tell them that they were punks, hit like little girls, laugh at their torture tactic, and then finally sing at the top of my voice the chorus of a song by Trey Songz about love hurting so bad. That shit worked too.
The men thought Sean was a psycho and gave up after not getting jack out of him other than more singing. What can I say? Duchess brings out the R&B in me.
Rico’s eye were swollen shut, but Sean knew that if he had had his eyes open that he would have be shaking his head at his antics. From the change in his breathing, Rico had obviously just regained consciousness.
“Look, bud, we gotta move,” Sean whispered, ensuring their guards didn’t hear him. He knew that Rico couldn’t take anymore beatings. He will die if we don’t get out of here. Already, that wound in his leg looks infected.
Rico’s grunt was his only response.
Sean didn’t bother taking inventory of their injuries. No matter what they were suffering, it would be ten times worse when the O’Malleys linked them to the deaths of their relatives and the real reason they allowed themselves to be captured. The plan now was simply to wait for them to finish their meal. In the time they had been chained to the wall, the O’Malleys had eaten at that table twice. Every time the meal was over, they had immediately stood from the table, approached them, and then taunted them with which body part of Rico or Sean they would include in their next meal. For that particular nasty promise, Ian always focused on their genitals.
The Americans had just left after revealing their plans and target. Sean wasn’t surprised that the men spoke so freely in front of them. As far as they all were concerned, Sean was Australian and Rico was Spanish, based on Sean’s hardcore Aussie accent and Rico’s dark Latin appearance, as Rico never spoke. With the two of them naked and secured with chains, the O’Malleys felt confident that they could kill them at any time. Certainly their lack of skill in fighting when they’d been captured had given the O’Malleys a false sense of security. The men had no way of knowing that Sean and Rico had deliberately allowed themselves to be captured in order to find out what the high-ranking US government politician was up to.
Once they got free, they would have to get word to the relevant US Agencies. A terrorist attack was imminent.
Now Ian and Patrick stood from the table and started walking toward them.
Sean braced himself for their brand of torture for the day. He heard Rico draw in a shallow breath, letting Sean know that he was ready to roll.
“Hoorah,” Sean whispered.
“Gentlemen, our men tell us that any attempt to have a conversation with you has been futile,” Ian said drolly. “Lucky for us, we didn’t expect you to talk. It doesn’t matter. We look forward to fresh meat tomorrow.”
“They are inconsequential.” Patrick O’Malley laughed. “We haven’t had Spanish meat in a while.” The older man looked longingly at Rico. Patrick’s pale grey eyes, canine-looking teeth, and alabaster complexion made him appear even more sinister.
“I don’t know, man; looks like you need to lay off meat entirely. You’re starting to look like fuckin’ Dracula,” Sean muttered.
“Ian, it appears that we have a comedian among us,” Patrick drawled.
“Don’t worry, gentlemen. There’s more where that came from.” Sean’s laughter filled the room, causing the men standing guard to stare at him in awe. “I’ll be here for at least the next hour.” Yeah, mudderfuckers, get comfortable with me.
“You seem familiar, but I can’t place you.” Ian gazed at Sean intently, moving closer to him as he spoke.
Sean waited for the younger O’Malley to reach him. Both O’Malleys were big men. At well over six feet tall and two hundred and fifty pounds, neither of the men would be easy to bring down. Further, they had about eight armed men standing guard in the room. Sean knew what he intended to do was suicidal, but they had run out of options. Rico was out of options.
“Who are you?” Ian asked him, now only inches away from him.
Sean held his gaze but didn’t utter a word. He maintained a carefree grin on his battered face.
“You are really arrogant for someone strapped naked to my wall,” Ian muttered.
Sean chuckled. “I’ve done some of my best work when I’m naked. There was this one time I had this babe on all fours—”
Ian threw his fist, intending to punch Sean in the mouth, but Sean captured the fist in the palm of his hand with a strength he was certain surprised the other man. Before Ian could utter a word of protest, Sean snapped his neck, instantly killing him.
Patrick O’Malley roared in outrage. “Kill them!”
The guards started rushing toward them, guns blazing.
Sean held Ian’s dead body against him as a shield and grabbed the gun the dead man had in his waistband. He twisted his body to provide some cover for Rico and, in quick succession, put a bullet in four of the advancing men, immediately killing them.
Patrick, who was closest to them, also started firing his gun. They riddled Ian’s body with bullets, but Sean felt the impact as a bullet pierced his shoulder. He ignored the pain and coldly took out four more men and shot the father in both hands, rendering him useless.
Patrick screamed in pain.
With no more bullets coming at them, Sean threw the bloodied, bullet-riddled body of Ian toward his father, knocking the older O’Malley to the ground under the weight. Grabbing Rico’s restraint, Sean used the tip of his diamond stud, which he had removed from his ear, to open the clasp as he had done with his own locks. During one of his beatings he had managed to rip the earring from his ear. His captors at thought it was just another of his manic behaviors especially since he had tore the flesh from the ear and drawn bloo
d. Sean knew it would distract the men to what he was really doing. They had been so disgusted by that move that no one remembered to take the earring from him.
Sean barely spared Rico a glance as his friend collapsed to the floor from the relief of his sudden freedom. Draping Rico’s left arm over his shoulders, Sean pulled him to his feet and started dragging them toward the door.
“You’re not going to live long,” Patrick growled as blood poured from the wounds in his hands. “My sons will destroy you and your family!”
Sean stopped in his tracks and turned toward the older man. “Oh yes, I forgot to tell you.” When he thought of the many attempts on Malika and the many lives this man had destroyed, Sean felt no sympathy for him. “I’m almost certain your sons are all dead, mudderfucker.”
“You’re a liar!” Patrick roared. “Who are you?”
“I’m no one,” Sean said with icy cool as he put a bullet in the middle of Patrick’s forehead.
As they exited the room, Sean heard bullets being fired in various parts of the house, but nothing was coming at them. “What the hell now?” Sean muttered as he entered the foyer and the front door came into view.
“As usual, you left nothing for the rest of us to do,” Neo drawled.
“What the fuck are y’all doing here?” Sean glared at Neo, Dominic, Xavier, Derek, and Micah, not bothering to look at the woman behind them.
“Oh my God, Sean!” Malika pushed through the male bodies blocking her and came to a standstill in front of him.
Dominic came forward and took Rico’s weight onto his shoulders.
Neo threw a pair of pants toward Sean.
Sean caught them easily. “You guys better have a damn good reason for bringing her here.” He didn’t spare Malika a glance, even though she stood inches in front of him.
“Look, you didn’t check in. What did you expect me to do?” Malika yelled.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Sean muttered, still not sparing her a glance or speaking directly to her.
Waiting For You (The Guardians: Book 3) Page 17