by April Zyon
Lost Faith, The Firm 1
Gabriella Moreno was just a job, in and out to gain the objective, the death of her father. She turned out to be far more than that to Tobias Casey, however, from the moment he laid his hands on her too hot for words body.
Gabriella had just come home from a two-year stint abroad. The first night home she snuck out, never dreaming for even a moment anyone would be stupid enough to take her. Boy, was she wrong.
Faced with brutal truths, Gabbie followed her gut, and her heart, which, it seemed, all led to one place, Tobias. The heat of her homeland was nothing compared to the touch of this man. In his arms, she found something she had craved all her life, the other half of her soul.
Yet, how can she ignore the fact that the man who owns her heart is also the man who wants to take the last of her family?
Copyright © 2017 by April Zyon
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Prologue
Date: February 3, 2011
Time: 02:14:32 UTC
Location: CLASSIFIED
Operation: Down Strike
The night was quiet. No wind. Only a sliver of the moon with a few stray clouds drifting through the sky above to obscure the stars. A slight glow to the west marked where the closest civilization was. Before them sat nothing but dessert.
Tobias Casey rolled his wrist slightly to get a look at the timepiece there. According to their intel, the convoy would be coming through in fifteen minutes. They’d gotten into position sooner than could have been anticipated, everything going in their favor for a change. In other words, it was all going to go straight to hell in a handbasket.
“Talk to me, Herc. What do you see?”
“Sand, sand, and you’ll never guess, more sand. I’ve got nothing on the scope, Rogue.”
“Whip, anything on your side?”
“Negative.”
“Cherry, talk to me.”
“Movement in the distance. Can’t quite make out what it is. Over six hundred yards out behind a dune.”
“I can confirm that, Rogue,” Ripper said through the com. “Can’t make out anything specific, only movement.”
“Copy that.” Blowing out a breath, Tobias, otherwise known as Rogue, frowned at his watch. Convoy was supposedly eight minutes out now. “Keep an eye on that movement, Cherry. Ripper keep an eye on her sector for anything else. No surprises.”
He got acknowledgments from them both. Tobias expected nothing less from his highly-trained team. He’d pushed them to become the best and they were. There was no one he’d rather be out in the middle of nowhere with but these five men and women.
Herc, Aaron Heinrich, was their sniper. He was in the top five shooters currently working in the Rangers. The man also had serious hand to hand combat skills, and was rather scary good with a blade. He was two hundred-sixty pounds of pure muscle and mean as hell.
Whip, Rainer Yates, was their tech geek but could hold his own in a firefight. The man’s skills with a computer were fucking unreal. He’d ended up getting arrested at seventeen for hacking into the NSA’s mainframe. Apparently, he’d been looking for the Colonel’s secret recipe and figured if anyone had access, it was them. The judge he’d ended up with hadn’t been amused. But he had given Rainer a choice, jail, or the military. Since Rainer had been four days out from his eighteenth birthday, it was a viable option to join up and the one Rainer had taken, not wanting to get charged as an adult for his snooping.
Scout, Landon Price, was a world class tracker. His grandfather on his mother’s side had been Comanche. The summers spent out on the man’s horse ranch had given Landon a greater appreciation for Mother Nature. Not only had the man taught Landon to track, but also to survive off the land in every climate there was. All valuable things Landon had brought with him to the team.
Ripper, Winston Furlan, was their communication and language expert. The guy knew an absurd number of languages. A benefit wherever they might be in the world. He was also, oddly enough, the quietest of them all. He spoke when necessary and only what was required.
Then there was Cherry, Cherilyn Tremblay. The only female in their group. She was a tough one, small in stature but unbelievably vicious. Cherilyn could often go places they as men could not. She could also talk to women in countries where they couldn’t, often finding out information that might otherwise be missed. The woman was also a smartass. Not on the job, but every second in between. And the mouth on her. How she’d never had it washed out by soap he couldn’t begin to imagine.
Last, there was himself to round out the six-man (and woman) team. Tobias Casey, known as Rogue. He was the team commander, the guy that had to make the tough calls about when to send a teammate in or to pull back. Tobias was a decisive man, once he made a decision, nothing could change his mind. According to Cherry, he was a reject from a long dead and thankfully forgotten time in human evolution.
Individually they all had something to offer, but throw them into a team and they were practically unstoppable. It had taken Tobias a long time to get the team he wanted with military politics such as they were. But it had been worth it all in the end. He had a crew that trusted every other member with their lives and knew that if one went down they’d all be there to pick them back up.
“I have a vehicle approaching from the south. Correction, three vehicles. Hummer in the lead with a large transport vehicle in the middle and a SUV trailing. Too far out for a body count.” Herc’s words brought him fully back to the present.
Tobias turned his head and brought the binoculars to his eyes. Working the controls, he had the convoy in sight a moment later. “Copy that, I see them.” Zooming in further he could almost make out shapes in the lead vehicle. They were still a way out and until they got closer they wouldn’t be able to verify it was the convoy they were to stop.
“We have someone coming in from the west,” Ripper said.
Swinging around it took him a second to find the other vehicles. They were identical to the ones coming from the south. Son of a mother fucking bitch!
Scout was the next one to ramp up his growing headache. “Uh, boss. You’re not going to like this but we have a third set coming in from the southeast. Same vehicles.”
“It’s a shell game,” Cherry muttered. “They figure if anyone is watching that by the time they figure out which vehicle is carrying the actual cargo it’ll be too late. Plus, you have to figure they have extra men riding in the other trucks. This feels like a setup, Rogue.”
Yeah, it did to him, too. “Whip, figure out a way to identify the actual transport truck.”
“We calling this in?” Herc asked.
He should but that felt wrong to him. If this was a setup than it could well have come from the chain of command. Tobias had been hearing rumors, nothing concrete, but enough to have him concerned about his team’s safety. “No, we’re not calling in shit until we get this done. Then we’re g
oing back to base, having a drink, and talking about your future. Now get your heads in the game and find me the right truck.”
Chapter One
Date: June 5, 2016
Time: 18:20:44 UTC
Location: Bogota
Operation: Bullseye Snatch
Another day, another dollar. Only these days, Tobias and his team were getting paid a hell of a lot more than they had been in the military. Now they could set their own fees for doing the jobs that no one else wanted to do, or maybe couldn’t do, since they did on rare occasion work for their government’s shadier sectors. But there was no oversight, no backseat driving, and they paid big to get shit done.
Their current operation was one they’d been working on for nearly three weeks now with no success. The first week had been recon, getting oriented, and making sure they had their exits memorized for when they achieved their strike.
The only thing was, as they’d discovered during week two, the target they were after didn’t ever leave his super secure compound. Not that Tobias could blame the guy. Their target was a dictator, an arms dealer, a drug dealer, and a mass murderer. There were people worldwide hoping that Tobias’ team finally managed to do what no one else had to date.
Now it was week three and they were still watching the compound to figure out their way in. Or as Tobias was beginning to believe would be easier, how to get the asshole to come out. They’d tried forty different ways to infiltrate the compound. None had worked. Which actually made sense, given the target, Juan Moreno, or Senor X as they referred to him over com, had hired himself an ex-Special Forces soldier to be the head of his security. Tran Quan was American born but had ties to the Yakuza. Extra weight to be brought to bear should it be requested.
Taking a small drink from his canteen, Tobias ignored the sweat trickling down his spine. His attention was locked on a small group of vehicles approaching the compound. Binoculars up, he brought the lead car into focus and easily recognized one of Moreno’s drivers. His attention moving to the second car, he was surprised to see Quan in the front passenger seat. The man was normally glued to Moreno’s side so to see him out without Moreno… this was big.
“Ripper, we have four cars approaching the compound. I need to know who exits the second car once they stop inside. Get pictures.”
“Roger that, Rogue.”
Ripper and Cherry were up on the mountain using some seriously high-powered tools to stare down into the compound. Their position was treacherous since they were, literally, dangling off the face of that mountain. One wrong move and they’d be headed straight down toward death.
“They’re turning toward the gate now. Not stopping either, they’ve been waved right through,” Tobias reported. The gates slid shut but not before he spotted a slender leg wearing a dainty shoe at the end slipping out of the door being opened by a guard. Instantly, he felt his gut clench in need to see the body went with that limb.
A soft whistle came through the com. “Damn, she’s fucking hot. Think she’s banging senor X?” Herc asked.
“Too young for him, you oaf,” Cherry said.
“Like that would stop the old fucker. We all know he doesn’t care about age. One of the reasons why we’re here to see him shot,” Herc told her. “Personally, it’s my only reason to see his head explode under the impact of my bullet.”
“Cut the chatter. Tell me you have photos for everyone that came in those vehicles.”
“Confirmed,” Ripper said.
“Good, get your asses down from there. Scout will be here to relieve me soon, then we need to get back and review everything.” Tobias was hopeful that somewhere in those photos he might find a way to pull Moreno away from his security blanket.
* * * *
“It’s his daughter, Gabriella Moreno.” Rainer said. His words had everyone’s attention. Tobias couldn’t figure out who was more shocked. Turning in his seat Rainer shook his head. “I had to dig, and dig deep. The old man has her buried.”
“Makes sense,” Winston muttered. “She’s his Achilles.”
He was right. “We need to keep eyes on her. If we get the opportunity, she’ll be the one we grab. I have a feeling that even with all his enemies gunning for him, he’ll do anything to protect her.” All they had to do was get their hands on her and use her to bait Senor X.
Picking up the picture Rainer had printed out Tobias stared at it. It wasn’t a shot from the compound but one he’d pulled from social media. Gabriella had her head tipped back, laughing at something or someone. She looked carefree and totally at ease. Young, too.
The young woman was just over five foot three inches but those come fuck me heels made her closer to five feet seven, she was thin but not waiflike like so many of the women today. Her hair however, was a riot of auburn red curls that seemed to have a mind of their own, and she didn’t bother trying to tame them. Which said something about the woman herself. She might not have the largest breasts that he had seen in his life but hers seemed to work her body perfectly, like a perfect handful, that distracted him completely.
“We need everything on her from birth until the moment she went through those gates, Rainer. Leave no stone unturned. I think we’ve just found our hot button for daddy Moreno. We grab her and he’ll deliver himself right to us.”
“You sure you want to do that, boss?” Cherilyn asked. At his sharp look, she held up her hands. “I’m down with it, but even if she does leave the compound, you know she’ll have a taskforce worth of guards with her. No way is Moreno letting her out in this country without protection up the ass.”
“And we’ll be ready for that. Our best shot will be if she goes into the city. It’ll allow us to blend in and when the time’s right, grab her up.” At Cherilyn’s snort, Tobias turned a glare on her. “What?”
“Dude, no offense or nothing, but you do not blend.”
Rainer was shaking his head. “I have to agree with her, boss. You tend to stick out.”
“I can blend just fine, I’ll have you know.”
“You keep thinking that. In the meantime, I think I’ll update the other boys and we can add their hilarity to the vote count against you.” Cherilyn patted his chest, walked past, and promptly burst out in laughter.
“I can and will fire your ass,” Tobias called after her.
“No, you won’t,” she bellowed back.
No, he wouldn’t, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t think about it, in great detail.
Chapter Two
Gabriella Moreno had never been in the dark about what her daddy did in the world. However, he was her father and she was his one and only child. After her mother died he became her world and she was a daddy’s girl through and through and knew it. She understood that she shouldn’t condone what her father did but why should she worry about it when it didn’t affect her?
Her father, Juan Moreno, was one of the largest drug kingpins in the world but he was still the man who had raised her and protected her from everything. He had done everything for her, put her through the best schools, ensured that she was always safe, and most of all he loved her. That was one thing about her father that no one would ever deny, he loved her more than anything in the world.
Today she was coming home. She had been gone for two years overseas on vacation. She had missed him terribly but he had pretty much forced her to go on the vacation, which meant that there was something going on that he didn’t want her to know about. She had been nervous coming home, mostly because her father had been talking nonsense about her marrying again. It wasn’t going to work for her, period. She was far too young and she had too much life to live and not only that, she damn well wasn’t going to marry the man that he had picked out for her and he knew it. Which is why she was certain that he was looking for another man to pawn off on her.
She pushed her sunglasses back upon her nose and looked around. Seeing Paulo and Mario she grinned. “So, daddy sent the two of you to meet me at the door? Why didn’t he come?”
“Your father...” Mario started but was stopped when Paulo bumped his shoulder.
“There have been some changes made while you’ve been gone, Gabbie, not all good. Something spooked your father.” Paulo blurted out. Gabbie laughed when Mario punched Paulo in the shoulder.
“So, I take it that was something you weren’t supposed to tell me?”
Another of her father’s men, a newer man if she had to guess, interrupted them. “Get her inside. It’s not safe out here.”
Well, that was new, she wasn’t safe? Why wasn’t she safe? There had never been an issue with her being outside before. Heck, her father was even out with her most of the time, so for him not to meet her at the door was even more of a surprise. “What’s happening that I need to know about?”
“Your father will tell you.” The larger man said and turned so that she was blocked fully. “Inside, now. I feel like there are eyes in the hills.”
Good lord, this man was insane, the hills have eyes? Was the man hooked on some kind of horror movie thing or something? This was her family’s ranch. It had always been safe, everything in this valley had been safe for her and had been since she was two and her mother had been killed at their former residence. Her father had built this compound to ensure she was protected from his enemies and even his allies but he had never been this over the top with the protection detail.
She moved into the large home with guards tightly around her. The first thing that she noticed was the fact that the layout had changed. When they moved into the home the walls were covered in art and were fresco finished. Now, they were still covered in art but they were white, and the entry was a hell of a lot smaller than she recalled. It wasn’t the two years that she had been gone, either.
She walked along, flanked on both sides and front and back by guards, through the home. She felt ill, she didn’t know what was happening but this wasn’t her home, this was, well, she didn’t know what this was.