“What happened when it came out?”
“My father went to the police. They questioned me and the two boys, Greyson and Christian, and took the whole matter to the Assistant D.A. He said there wasn’t enough evidence to press charges. They got away scot-free.”
“That’s horrible,” Trevor said.
“I’ve had trust issues ever since then, especially with men,” she said.
“I can well imagine, and it’s totally understandable.”
“Until you,” she continued. She smiled. “I don’t know exactly what it is, but I became comfortable with you almost immediately. I’m comfortable but I’m afraid it won’t last.”
“I won’t let you down, I promise,” Trevor said.
“I know,” she said.
“What do you say we go down and join the others?”
“I’m exhausted,” she said. “I think I’ll stay and get some rest.”
“Come on down,” Trevor insisted. “You don’t have to stay long.”
She smiled and nodded.
CHAPTER 6
Honor couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a more enjoyable evening. They had gone through two bottles of wine and were feeling it. After two hours of conversation she felt as though she had known Trevor, Wolf, and Caroline for her entire life. She watched them interact. They could not keep their hands off each other; warm kisses; gentle caresses; hand holding; arms draped around each other. She so envied their relationship. The fire was keeping Honor warm and cozy on the outside; the wine was warming her on the inside, Caroline and Wolf was warming her heart and Trevor was melting her soul. It was hard to imagine how she could have felt this strongly about anyone in such a short period of time.
Her father had told her on many occasions, "You'll know it when you find it." If what her father was saying was true, she believed she might have found it. She hoped it was true. She wanted it to be true.
Trevor Saunders was everything she ever wanted in a man. He was handsome, smart, strong, gentle, and respectful. And he seemed to be into her. As much as she felt unworthy in the beginning, as the evening went on Honor was more and more coming to believe that she and Trevor were destined to be together. It was so sudden, of course, and she didn't want to set herself up for disappointment. She and her doctor had often talked about her dropping her guard and taking a risk. There were times, he said, when it was appropriate to do so. Was this one of those times, she wondered?
She and Trevor had been sitting on the floor, with their wine on the coffee table and backs to the fire. Caroline and Wolf were snuggling under a blanket on the couch.
"We'll know more in the morning when it's light and we can look around, but I sure like what I see so far," Wolf said.
"I want to spend some time exploring," Caroline added, "but yes, I agree. This seems like a wonderful place."
Trevor smiled, "It's actually nicer than I remember. I knew there would be a lot of work to do, but all in all I..."
Trevor paused mid-sentence. His attention seemed to be focused on the window.
"What’s the matter?" Wolf asked.
"I thought I saw a light outside," he said, "like from a flashlight."
"Really?" Wolf replied. "Way out here?"
Trevor walked over to the window. He slowly pulled the drapes to one side and peered out.
"See anything?" Wolf asked.
"No, I don't," he replied. "Maybe I was mistaken. I guess it could have been a reflection off the..."
He paused again.
"What?" Wolf said.
"Holy shit!" Trevor cried out. "Both of the front tires on my truck are flat."
Wolf jumped to his feet and charged to a different window with a different viewing angle.
“Our Middle Eastern friends?” Trevor asked.
“It has to be,” replied Wolf.
"See anything?" Trevor asked.
"No," Wolf said. "You stay with the ladies. I'm going out to take a look around."
"No," Trevor said. "I know the grounds better. You stay here. Do you have your piece?
“I do.”
Wolf held up his Glock 19. Trevor showed Wolf his weapon, too. He and Trevor carried the same type of firearm.
“Who are they after, you or me?” Trevor asked.
“At the moment, it doesn’t matter,” Wolf replied. “Who they originally targeted is a mystery we need to solve. Commander Hunt ran facial recognition on the pictures I sent. He got one hit and sent me the file on a man named Adnan Alfassi. He was the alpha back at the Roadhouse Grille. Do you know the name?”
Trevor shook his head, “Alfassi? No, don’t know the name.”
"How will I stay in touch with you?" Wolf asked. "There's no signal out here. Our cell phones are dead."
"I brought walkie-talkies," Trevor said. "I knew there would not be a cellular signal here. I thought they might come in handy. They're in that large duffle I brought in."
Trevor was worried that Honor would begin to come unglued, but to her credit, the level of her concern seemed normal for anyone given the situation they were in.
"Someone is out there," Trevor said. "Please remain calm. I'm going out to look around. I'll have a walkie-talkie with me. Wolf is going to stay with you. Stay low and out of sight. I'll be right back."
"Be careful," Honor pleaded.
"This is not my first rodeo," Trevor said. "Don't worry."
Trevor slipped out the front door. Honor could see his silhouette as he passed in front of the window.
Wolf handed the walkie-talkie to Caroline. “Don’t initiate a call. You might compromise his position. Just keep your ear to the monitor in case he calls us.” He looked at Honor, “Are you alright?”
Her eyes had widened and she was certainly anxious, but felt as though she was in secure hands. She nodded, “I’m okay.”
“Good,” he said, punching the display on his cell phone.
“What are doing, Matthew?” Caroline asked.
“I’m reading the file on Adnan Alfassi,” he said. “He’s behind this. I want to know what he wants and why.”
“I didn’t think you had cell service,” she said.
“I don’t,” Wolf replied. “I downloaded the information to my phone earlier.”
He began to read.
“Do you think Trevor will be okay?” Honor asked.
“He’ll be fine,” Caroline responded. “He’s been on two dozen missions against incredible odds. He grew up here. He knows this land better than anyone. Between he and Matthew, we couldn’t be in better hands.”
Caroline flashed Honor a reassuring smile. Beneath the smile, she had grave concerns of her own.
Five minutes passed, then six, then eight, then ten.
“Shouldn’t we try to contact Trevor?” Honor asked.
“No, not yet,” Wolf said. “Why don’t you try to get some rest, Honor. It could be a long night.”
“I am exhausted,” she said. “Maybe I will just lay down here on the couch.”
Wolf continued to read the file on Adnan Alfassi. Honor was fast asleep within five minutes.
“Do you believe that?” Wolf said. “She’s out cold. Just like that.”
Caroline smiled, “You boys make her feel safe, even under these circumstances. And I’m sure she’s exhausted.”
“Damn!” exclaimed Wolf.
“What is it?” Caroline asked.
“I’ve been reading the file on Adnan Alfassi,” he said. “I’ve been trying to determine the connection between him and either Trevor or I.”
“And?” Caroline said.
“He’s not after either one of us,” Wolf said.
“I don’t understand,” Caroline replied.
“It’s Honor,” Wolf whispered. “He’s after Honor.”
CHAPTER 7
“He’s after Honor? Why Honor? She never saw that man before tonight.” Caroline whispered.
“I can’t believe I didn’t see this coming. She said her father worked for Blue Ho
rizons, right?” Wolf replied, also whispering.
“Yes,” Caroline replied. “What does that have to do with terrorists?”
“We know the alpha of the group was Adnan Alfassi. The bio on him indicated he’d been loosely associated with an ISIS splinter group based in Syria.”
“I don’t understand,” Caroline said. She glanced at Honor, still sleeping soundly. “What does any of this have to do with her?”
“Bear with me,” Wolf said. “In March of 2014 the SANA News Agency announced that Syria was planning to launch its first space program. They claimed it was for scientific research. Our government was naturally worried that if they developed launch capabilities, it would only be a matter of time before they’d be planting warheads on satellites in orbit around the earth.”
“I still don’t see a connection to Honor,” Caroline said.
“I’m getting there,” Wolf said. “The announcement was made in 2014. Six months ago, intel became available that the Syrian Space Agency was running into a serious roadblock. It seems that they have been unable to engineer a propulsion system that will give them escape velocity for their largest satellites. During their internal civil war many of their scientists sought refuge in other countries.”
Caroline looked at Honor, who was still sleeping soundly, “Her father works on propulsion at Blue Horizons, correct?”
Wolf nodded.
“Go on.”
“The head of security for the Syrian Space Agency is Ahmet Orfali. He has known ISIS connections. Orfali has a half-brother living in the U.S.”
“Let me guess, Adnan Alfassi?” Caroline said.
Wolf nodded again.
“You think that the Syrian Government wants her father’s propulsion formulas and expertise to save their space program?” Caroline speculated.
“I think that’s very possible,” Wolf said. “The Syrian government has dumped billions into the start-up of their space agency, and it’s been very controversial internally. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad came under serious political fire when he announced such a costly program four years into their civil war when their economy went into a free fall. Syria couldn’t afford a costly failure.”
“So you think...” Caroline began.
“I think Adnan Alfassi and his men are here to kidnap Honor and use her as a leverage to capture or threaten her father to obtain key information from him about the propulsion technology he is developing.”
“Why not just kidnap her father, if that’s the case?” Caroline asked.
“It may be that they want to turn him, make him their spy. Leave him in place at Blue Horizons and continue to milk his technology as it develops.”
Caroline nodded, “If they kidnapped Honor, they know her father would do anything asked of him to assure she was not hurt,” Caroline added.
Wolf nodded, “It’s what I’d do. In fact, she looks like an easy target. My guess is they thought this was going to be a quick and easy extraction. Unfortunately for them, the unexpected happened.”
“Us?” Caroline said.
“Yep,” Wolf said. “When we showed up we really threw a wrench in the works. My guess is Alfassi and his men planned to kidnap Honor from the gas station.”
“How could they know Honor would stop at that particular station?”
“Not difficult to predict,” Wolf said. “They knew she was coming from Spokane to Seattle. They knew what kind of car she drove so they could estimate the time it would take for her gas tank to run low. Ritsville was the last opportunity for her to gas up for more than 45 miles. They knew she’d stop there.”
“What about the flat tire? That happened before we saw Adnan Alfassi,” Caroline noted.
“I know,” Wolf said. “I’m thinking they paid the attendant, Butch? I told you I thought he was a nervous fella. I’m betting Alfassi paid Butch a few hundred bucks to flatten the tire when she got there. When I approached him after I noticed the tire was flat, I thought he was going to shit himself. I couldn’t figure out why, but he was all too happy to fix that tire and get us on our way fast and at no charge.”
“But we would have seen them following us, wouldn’t we?” Caroline said. “When we turned off I-90 it was pitch black. We would have known if someone were behind us.”
“Two of Alfassi’s men left the diner while we were still eating dinner,” Wolf said. “They were probably planting tracking devices on Honor’s car and in Trevor’s rig.”
Wolf’s ears perked as he heard knocking at the door. Two knocks followed by two more knocks followed by one knock.
“That’s Trevor,” he said. “Let him in.”
He noted that Honor was still fast asleep.
“Bootstrap, you’ve been gone more than 20 minutes,” Wolf said. “I was beginning to think you couldn’t handle a little thing like five Middle Eastern terrorists.”
“It’s more like nine,” Trevor corrected, “maybe ten. They left tracks in the snow. They’re everywhere.”
“Ah, that’s what took them so long,” Wolf said. “They were rounding up their buddies.”
“Yeah,” Trevor said. “How long has Honor been asleep?”
“About 15 minutes,” Wolf said. “I think the excitement has her exhausted. Where are Alfassi and his boys now?”
“They are dug in at three positions,” Trevor said. “One to the northeast about thirty yards out. There are three of them there. Another group of three to four are positioned twenty yards due north and a third group of three are due south of the lodge.”
“What is access to the rear of the lodge like?” Wolf asked.
“It’s solid. I went back there when we first got here. When grandpa closed this place down he boarded it up solid, just like all the windows and the side doors. My guess is, they have men in the back in case we try to escape that way. I guessing they’re coming in right through the front, and I’m betting it won’t be long. We need to be ready.”
“The good news for us, is that Alfassi wasn’t expecting us,” Wolf said.
“What?” Trevor asked.
“He came here thinking he was going to oversee a simple kidnapping,” Wolf said. “He thought it would be easy, clean and quick.”
“Kidnapping?”
“He’s after Honor,” Wolf said. “I’ll explain it to you later. It had nothing to do with us. He came here with four other men expecting to put a bag over the head of a 120 lbs. woman and haul her away. He didn’t come here expecting a fight.”
“He’s going to be very disappointed then,” Trevor said.
“He may have more men, but he didn’t weaponize to face two trained Navy SEALS,” Wolf added.
“Sucks to be him,” Trevor replied. “So, what’s the play? Do we sit back and wait for him to come to us or do we go out and get him?”
“What do you think?” Wolf said.
“I think we’re Navy SEALS,” Trevor said.
“We are, indeed,” Wolf agreed.
“We don’t sit back and wait very well,” Trevor said.
“So true.”
“It’s settled then. What do we do with the women?”
“I have a plan.”
“Is it a good one?”
“Good ones are all I have.”
CHAPTER 8
“We have to make our move soon,” Wolf said. “We’d better wake Honor up.”
“Do we tell her what we’ve deduced?” Caroline asked.
“She been much calmer than I expected, all things considered,” Trevor said. “She can’t do anything right now. She can’t even call her dad. All she can do is worry. Let’s wait.”
“I agree,” Wolf said.
“Where’s Trevor?” Caroline asked.
“He’s in the basement,” Wolf replied. “There are maid’s quarter’s there. One has a fireplace. He’s getting a fire started and the room ready. It will be the safest place for you and Honor to stay while we handle matters outside.”
“You’re going to leave us?” Caroline asked.<
br />
“I know it doesn’t seem like it, but the best way we can protect you is to go on the offensive,” Wolf said. “We attack.”
“I understand,” she said, “but…”
“You’ll have a walkie-talkie,” Wolf said. “You can call me. We have a plan. One of us will always be within 30 seconds of you if there’s trouble. There are nine or ten of them out there. Even I can’t do it alone. You have to trust me.”
“I do,” she said, “but I’m worried.”
He drew Caroline into him, holding her tightly, planting a long passionate kiss on her lips. He stroked her hair and her face, “I know, but Trevor and I have both been up against these kinds of odds. We have an advantage here.”
“What advantage?” she wanted to know.
“These men weren’t expecting trouble,” he said. “They prepared to kidnap a shy, young girl. They weren’t prepared to go up against us.”
“I hope you’re right,” she said.
Trevor appeared, “The room’s ready. You have heat; you have water; you have food.”
Wolf pulled a pistol from underneath his pants in the small of his back, “And you are armed,” he said, handing it over to Caroline.
“Won’t you need this?” she asked.
“It’s my back up,” he said. “There’s a little kick to it, but if you aim at the center of someone’s chest it’ll drop him like a sack of flour. Anyone comes through your door that isn’t Trevor or me, you do not hesitate. You understand?”
Caroline nodded.
“What’s going on?” Honor said.
“Good, you’re awake,” Trevor said.
“Caroline and I will be downstairs,” Wolf said. “You guys come quickly.”
“We will,” Trevor replied.
Honor sat up. Trevor slid in beside her and took her in his arms. “Do you trust me?” he asked.
“Of course I do,” she said, kissing him.
“I need you to go downstairs and stay with Caroline until Wolf and I take out the trash,” he said.
Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Protecting Honor (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Trevor Saunders Series Book 1) Page 5