All In (Sleeper SEALs Book 9)

by Lori Ryan

  Luke glanced away from Damon quickly, letting his eyes take in the equipment strapped to Naomi’s chest before moving back to Damon. He’d be willing to bet there wasn’t a damned thing that was real on that device. Was he willing to bet the lives of the three people sitting on the couch? The ones who held so much of his heart and soul in their hands?

  Shit, maybe not.

  Damon sat, tapping on the keyboard, a look of panic crossing his features. Chad took advantage of the distraction to drop from the loft as Luke launched himself at Damon. The laptop went flying as Luke hit hard, taking them both to the ground as the wooden chair splintered beneath them.

  He heard the gunshot as a bolt of fire pierced his side but he didn’t stop. The pain didn’t come close to touching him as adrenaline coursed through him.

  Raising a fist, he slammed it into the side of the man beneath him, a satisfying crack resounding through the room. He saw his gun on the wooden floorboards two feet from where he wrestled with Damon.

  He could hear Alyssa’s screams behind him and he prayed Chad was getting her out of the cabin, away from the visions that would haunt her for a long time to come. Hell, he’d never expose her to this if he could help it. He wanted to shield Lyra and the girls from everything that might hurt them or cause them any fear.

  As long as he lived, he would never get the sound of Alyssa’s screams out of his mind.

  Luke grasped Damon’s arm and slammed it hard against one of the wooden legs of the chair until the man released his hold on the gun. Luke raised up, lifting his arm for another blow, but Damon shoved a hand into the wound in Luke’s gut. Pain blinded him momentarily, searing heat plowing through his midsection.

  Damon shoved hard, but Luke kept his leg out to the side, bracing against the smaller man’s efforts. Luke shifted and rolled, grabbing for his gun to come up firing. One, two. Double tap to the body. Dead center mass.

  Another scream told him Alyssa was still on the couch and Luke looked over as Damon fell.

  Chad switched places with Luke, coming to watch over the man that bled out on the floor as Luke rushed to the three women on the couch.

  A gurgling laugh came from Damon but Luke tuned him out. He didn’t care what the man was saying. The asshole was likely going to be defiant to the end. He seemed to think the world owed him something, and Luke wondered where he’d ever gotten that idea.

  Luke saw immediately why Chad hadn’t gotten the women outside. Wires now ran from Lyra and Alyssa to Naomi, who sat stock still in the center. Tears streamed down her face.

  Luke knelt before Alyssa and cupped her face between his hands. “Shh,” he soothed, and his gaze jumped between all three of them before landing back on the littlest of them. He dropped his eyes to the bomb to double check before looking up to reassure her. “It’s not real, sweetheart. The bomb isn’t real. Superheroes know these things.”

  He didn’t tell her it was his training as a SEAL that told him it wasn’t real. Let her hold on to the idea of a superhero a little longer. Hell, she deserved it. “It’s clay, baby. Just pretend, make believe, I promise.”

  Luke heard the trembling breath tumble out of Naomi as Lyra let loose a sob that damned near cracked his heart. He worked to strip them of the wires and the ropes that bound their feet and hands.

  Alyssa leapt into his arms as he heard sirens in the distance and Naomi wrapped her arms around both of them. Luke looked up and found Lyra’s eyes locked on his, tears running freely down her face. He reached out and pulled her toward him with one arm, bringing her close. He needed to smell her, feel her. To know she was there, alive, safe.

  “You came,” Alyssa said into his shoulder.

  “Always. I will always come for you, ’Lyssa.” The promise was one he knew he would always keep. As long as he lived, he would be there for the twins.

  “Prentiss ran.” She pulled back for this part, eyes wide. “She went to get help for us.”

  “She’s safe. She got to safety and had someone call me. She’s not far from here. I’ll take you to her.” His eyes shot to Lyra’s. “That was really smart to write my number on the girls. She was able to lead us right to you.”

  Alyssa spoke up again. “I think Wonder Woman has to talk to you now. You can probably get her to come see us now, I bet.” Her mouth quivered but there was a grin splitting the girl’s face and Luke took the first free breath he’d taken since getting the picture of them hours before on Billy’s phone.

  Alyssa looked up at Naomi. “He’s a superhero.”

  “He really is, isn’t he?” Naomi said, but it was Lyra that Luke was looking at now.

  He soaked her in, needing to reassure himself she was okay as he heard the sounds of police arriving and Chad calling out that they needed an ambulance and someone to take two men into custody. His eyes stayed on Lyra’s. She was the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  Luke took two seconds to text Zach and warn him off the scene before he took the women outside. Now that Zach knew Naomi was safe, he could stay away and save his career. No one needed to know a New Haven Police Detective had knowledge of what was going down and didn’t call it in to his boss or alert local authorities once they knew the location of the cabin.

  After that, they were all taken into custody. The women were taken to the hospital, along with Prentiss and Alyssa who hadn’t let go of one another from the moment they were reunited.

  Murphy, Luke, and Chad were taken to the local sheriff’s station for questioning.

  Damon was pronounced dead at the scene.

  They didn’t mention the auction. As far as the local police were concerned, Damon and Murphy had been involved in a kidnap for ransom scheme and Luke and Chad had rescued them.

  When they were allowed to make a phone call, Luke dialed the Commander. Turned out, Samantha had already been in touch with him, though how that woman knew how to reach him was beyond Luke’s understanding. Samantha Page was like that, from what he’d heard.

  She’d been able to gather a lot of intel from the auction and she managed to get into Damon’s accounts and keep the auction live while agents from several agencies prepared to move on some of the bidders.

  Not all of the potential buyers were in the United States, and some of them couldn’t be pinned down, but two homegrown terrorist groups—one a white supremacy group and the other a group that grasped onto any religion they could simply to be able to invoke it as the catalyst for causing violence—would be taken down.

  Luke told the Commander that Damon mentioned fleeing the country by boat. How they’d track that boat or find out the details of that plan, he didn’t know, but he’d leave that to the Commander to deal with. As far as Luke was concerned, Damon had to be a little crazy to think he could bury so many bodies and get away, but maybe he’d planned to spend the rest of his days in a country without extradition to the United States.

  After that, it was surprising the speed with which things transferred from the local law enforcement to the feds. Luke and Chad were taken out of there to be interviewed two hours away at the nearest FBI facility. They were no longer being held on possible murder or manslaughter charges, but they had to be debriefed.

  Luke waited in a small room he knew was used for interrogations, his body aching. They’d done a quick patch job on the worst of his injuries. The gunshot wound to his side had turned out to be a flesh wound. The bullet had grazed the surface of his skin only, though he’d swear at the time it had taken out a chunk of his abdomen.

  What hurt the most was not knowing what was going on with Naomi, Lyra, and the girls. He had been able to see none of their injuries were life threatening before they’d left the scene, but that still didn’t make being separated from them any easier.

  He’d seen a look pass over Lyra’s face when she’d looked at him as she was bundling the girls into the ambulance. A look that said she’d remembered his betrayal. Remembered that he’d used her, gotten close to her to bring h
er brother down.

  The look had haunted him and he was beginning to think there was very little chance he was going to be seeing her again when this was over. The thought made his heart ache. He’d thought getting back into his career would give him purpose, but he was so wrong. The people in his life were what gave him purpose. And he might lose her.

  The door to the room opened and the commander walked in, looking a little stiff and worn.

  He sank into the seat across from Luke. “You sure as hell brought a lot of people into this.”

  Luke met his look with one of his own. “It was necessary.”

  The commanded nodded, but Luke couldn’t read him. “Yeah, shit got a little out of hand, huh?”

  Luke wasn’t going to defend himself. He’d done what he had to do and the auction had been stopped. It was a good outcome.

  “Listen, I don’t know if you can do anything for him, but Billy Kemp wasn’t in on the auction. He thought they were going to go to the companies with the information and sell it to them so they could patch their security leaks, not exploit them. Stupid, but the kid didn’t know. As soon as he found out about it, he worked with us to try to stop it.”

  The commander leveled him with a look. “Oh yeah? Came and confessed to you, huh? Told you everything?”

  Luke shrugged. “More or less.”

  “I’ll see what I can do for him, but he should expect to serve some time.”

  Luke nodded. “He knows that. He’s been helping Samantha and he’ll help you guys with anything you need to know about the Brain Trust.”

  “I can find more work for you, if you’re interested,” the commander said, after a beat.

  Luke supposed he must not be all that disappointed in the way Luke had handled things. The commander rubbed at the back of his neck and Luke saw the years of responsibility for the lives of thousands—hell, millions—weighing on the man.

  When the commander spoke again, his tone was heavy. “There are other threats we’re looking at right now.”

  He didn’t specify, but Luke didn’t need him to. “I think I’m going to pass. I need to see to some . . . things.” It was a lame response, but it was the truth. He didn’t know what he wanted.

  Months ago, he’d thought he wanted back in. That fighting for his country, diving back into the fight for what was right and what was wrong, was the way to bring meaning to his world.

  He had a feeling he was wrong. Meaning was sitting in a hospital room right now. And he wasn’t sure she’d forgive him.

  CHAPTER FORTY

  Luke shook Chad’s hand outside the hospital entrance. “Thank you isn’t enough.”

  “It’ll do.” The big man grinned and walked around the driver’s side door with a wave. He’d be heading back to his wife and kids, and Luke couldn’t deny the ache that banked deep in his chest.

  He was jealous. He wanted that.

  Luke raised his hand in a wave before turning to the hospital entrance. Zach greeted him in the hallway.

  “Naomi’s up on the third floor.”

  Luke nodded, feeling a little numb. “And Lyra and the girls?”

  “They’re on five. Pediatrics. Lyra wouldn’t let them check her in. Insisted on staying with the girls, so they treated her injuries up there.”

  “He didn’t . . . she wasn’t . . . ” He didn’t know how to ask if Damon had violated Naomi in other ways. If he had, Luke would crawl down into the bowels of hell and drag the man back so he could kill him more slowly.

  “No. She wasn’t. He didn’t touch her in that way.”

  Luke let out a slow breath. It looked like Damon got to stay in hell.

  Zach had already told him Naomi had needed some stitches on her abdomen and the back of her head. She’d be staying overnight so they could be sure she didn’t have any serious complications from her head wounds.

  He was sure if Lyra would let them, they would have insisted on the same for her, but she was a mama bear to the core. Her girls could come first.

  His gut pitched as he wondered if Lyra would ever forgive him for using her and her girls to get close to her brother.

  They took the elevator to the third floor. Luke wanted to kill Damon Taylor all over again when he saw his niece’s battered face. She was bruised and one eye was almost swollen shut.

  Tears sprang to her eyes and her hand went to the back of her head when she saw him. “They shaved my hair.”

  Luke walked to the bed and wrapped his arms around her. “I’m so sorry, Naomi. I never meant for this to happen.”

  Her voice broke when she spoke and he felt tears on his bicep, where she’d turned to bury her head. “I knew you’d come. I knew you’d find me.”

  “Always.” He answered with the same promise he’d given Lyra’s girls, and he meant it.

  He held her as she cried and rocked her like he had when she’d been young. The idea that he might have lost her because of some inane need to get back to a career he’d long ago left gutted him. What the hell had he been thinking?

  Naomi pulled back and wiped her eyes. Luke got a look at the back of her head, where they’d shaved off her long dark curls to stitch up her wounds. He put a hand to the side of her head, where the hair remained.

  “It’ll grow back. In the meantime, you’ll set a new fashion trend or something.”

  She gave him a disgusted grunt, the kind she reserved for times she wanted to remind him and Zach that they lacked the estrogen necessary to understand some things. He wholeheartedly agreed with her, as he had many times before.

  “Have you seen her?” Naomi didn’t have to tell him who she meant.

  “Not yet.”

  “You need to go to her.”

  Luke offered Naomi a small smile. “Yeah, I’ll go see the girls soon. Just as soon as I talk to your doctor. Make sure you’re all right.”

  They’d need to make plans for her to take some time off school while her head healed, he thought. She’d fight him on it, but he wanted her at home where he could keep an eye on her. At least for a little while.

  “No.” Naomi shook her head, then winced.

  “You okay?” He came close again. “Where does it hurt?”

  She took his hand. “I’m fine. I promise. But, listen to me. You need to go see Lyra. You need to talk to her, explain to her why you were there and—”

  He cut her off. Lyra might understand why he’d done what he had, but it didn’t mean she’d be able to get past the betrayal of it.

  “She’s going to go back to her life, and I’m going back to mine, Naomi,” he said quietly, and he’d swear a knife arched through his chest as he said the words.

  Naomi leaned toward him in her hospital bed and Luke saw Zach step forward protectively on the other side of the bed. “I know you, Uncle Luke. I saw you falling for her. I saw how happy you’ve been the last few weeks. You don’t need to give that up.”

  Luke didn’t look at Zach, even though he felt his brother’s eyes on him. “I lied to her Naomi. Everything I said and did with her was a lie. There’s no coming back from that.”

  She took his hand and her gaze was steady. He was so damned proud of the woman she’d become. “You can come back from this. You can make it work. Just talk to her. You always told me we can get through anything together if we just keep talking to each other through the good and the bad.”

  Luke nodded. “Yeah, all right, sweet girl. I’ll talk to her.” He wouldn’t, but there were times he’d realized, parents needed to lie to their kids.

  He squeezed her hands tight before releasing them. “I’ll go up and see her.” He looked to his brother. “You’ll stay here?”

  Zach nodded. “I got this.”

  Luke took the elevator to the fifth floor and walked the length of the long hallway.

  He froze when he rounded the corner.

  Lyra stood in the hallway with an older man and woman. He didn’t have to guess who they were. The girls’ grandparents. Prentiss and Alyssa came out of a nearby ro
om, catching sight of him. Squeals rang out as they ran toward him, and Luke went through the now familiar act of kneeling to catch them. His heart ached as he did it, the feel of small arms wrapping around his neck. Lyra looked down at the floor, when he tried to catch her eyes, and he knew. He just knew, she was going to say goodbye.

  He couldn’t blame her. He held the girls a little tighter and breathed deeply as they buried their heads in his shoulders.

  Alyssa was the first to pull back and the absence when Prentiss followed was palpable.

  Luke reached out and tugged on Prentiss’s pigtail. “I’m so proud of you, Pren. You were so brave to get help.”

  “Did you find my trail?” she beamed with the question.

  “I did. Couldn’t miss it.” In reality, she’d done a damned good job of leaving clues that anyone might walk right past. It was only because he’d looked for the small piled of stones and sticks that he’d seen them.

  “We’re going to Nashville with Nan and Pop!” Alyssa bounced on her toes and her resilience floored him.

  Prentiss piped in. “There are six nonstop flights a day. We get to fly.”

  Luke looked to Lyra and stood. He offered his hand to the older couple.

  “The girls have been telling us all about their personal super hero,” the woman said. “I’m Willa Hill and this is my husband, Jerome.”

  Willa Hill was tall and thin with short cropped gray hair and skin a deep rich brown. Beside her, Jerome matched her in height, but his hair held only a hint of gray at the temples.

  The man offered his hand next. “We owe you a debt of gratitude, young man.” His shake was firm and strong, but there were tears in the man’s eyes.

  Luke simply nodded. The man didn’t owe him anything.

  He cleared his throat and looked to Lyra who seemed to be looking anywhere but at him. She watches the girls as they swung from his hands.