by Liliana Hart
“Is this really happening?” Willa asked through tears.
“Let me hang up now,” Brady said, not wanting to disconnect. “What’s the plan?” he asked Declan.
“Keep your eyes open and kill as many as you can.”
A loud crack had Brady’s neck twisting to the east. His brow furrowed. He glanced over at Archer. They both brought their weapons up to a ready position. Crack. Then there was a scream. Brady snugged his finger against the trigger. The three of them formed a triangle to cover as many different positions as possible. He knew that Archer was also aware that it was really about protecting Elena. They’d be overrun, but the objective would be to terrorize her into surrendering the data.
Brady picked up on the sound again. It wasn’t so distant, but it was closing fast. He glanced over to Archer, who shrugged. Swarms often sounded just like that—a swarm. But this attack sounded unconventional. Either way, they were going to unload and reload as often as they could, until they couldn’t.
“Ready yourselves,” Archer said as the crashes began to close in.
“Aim high,” Brady offered as he now heard hard breaths on the other side of the golf cart that moved toward them without stopping.
“They’re here,” Archer called out.
Elena collapsed between the two, as Brady and Archer lifted their barrels.
Brady sucked in a deep breath. It might be the last breath he took. His eyes swept up at the thud against the golf cart, and out of nowhere and through the morning’s hot, muggy air flew Audrey.
She was completely nude, and her body was covered in blood. She hit the ground, and Brady saw the knives she held in each hand. It was surreal.
“Follow me. Now,” she hissed like a serpent.
Brady wobbled to get up. He was so shocked and relieved by the sight that his mind and body weren’t communicating. Archer pulled at him. He pulled at Elena. Audrey never slowed down as she ran headlong off the cliff. Archer followed his wife without hesitation.
“I can’t.” Elena froze.
“You will.” Brady pulled her over with him.
Chapter Seventeen
The river’s raging waters eventually gave way to a much calmer flow. Brady pulled Elena out of the slight current and guided her toward the sandy river rock bed along a muddy beach. She coughed and spewed water. Brady kept watch while she recovered.
Both had scrapes and skin discolorations that would soon turn to deep purple and yellow bruising. Brady had a nasty gash above his left eye. It looked like he’d hit himself with his weapon when he jumped or landed.
“I need you to move into cover,” he told her.
“Why? Are we still in danger?”
Surprisingly, Brady’s compact submachine gun was still strapped around his neck. Elena marveled at that and tried to regain her composure. “I don’t want you to leave me.”
“I’ve got to find Archer and Audrey. They should’ve surfaced up here. After hitting the water, I lost track of them.”
“I’m coming.” She clung to his wrist. All he had left on were his khaki shorts.
Brady knelt in the shallow water. “I’ve got to swim back upstream. You’ll never make it with your injuries. You’ll be fine here. Give me fifteen minutes. I’ll be back—I swear.”
Reluctantly, she agreed. Brady helped conceal her in a cove less than twenty feet from the water’s edge, his knife hidden in her pants pocket, just in case.
“I can’t do this anymore,” she said, putting her hand on his arm.
He jerked against her hold, and then his face went blank.
“What are you talking about?” he asked.
“I can’t not tell you how I feel.”
He started breathing again and a smile etched his face. “And how do you feel?” he asked.
“I love you,” she told him sincerely, and then she moved into him so their bodies touched. “And I want to kiss you.”
His smile was full now, with a wink of dimples in his cheeks, and he said, “Don’t let me stop you.”
Her lips found his easily and she put everything she had into the kiss. Every bit of longing, every need, and every hope. She wanted to give him all of her.
When they pulled apart, they were both panting, and she could feel his desire for her. It didn’t scare her. It excited her, and she suddenly found herself ravenous for him.
“Feel free to tell me you love me any time you’d like. I’ll never get tired of hearing it. And I really want to be naked with you.”
“Thank God,” she said on a laugh.
He kissed her again and said good-bye, and then he slipped quietly through the wooded area and vanished into the river’s cold waters. Elena backed deeper against the hollowed-out tree. Her eyelids weighed heavier and heavier with each blink. She dozed off and dreamed of a white knight who’d come to save her.
Things were just starting to get good when his hand caressed her cheek and his lips touched hers. She sighed as he deepened the kiss.
“Wake up, sleeping beauty,” he whispered.
She jerked against him. That wasn’t Brady’s voice.
It was Toro.
“How the hell did you find me here?” She shuffled her heels into the slippery moss-covered ground and moved out of his reach.
“I want my disk. You promised me. Remember?”
“Yes, but we were going to call to set up where to meet. You tried to overrun us back at the camp, so now the flash drive is lost. You should’ve waited.”
“Waited?” he asked. The calmness in his voice terrified her.
“Who’s trying to kill me?” she asked.
“Everyone,” he said, shrugging.
“Why?”
“You have a high bounty on your head. Everyone from militias to farmers are hunting you. I hear there’s a lethal force of mercenaries in the area looking to collect on the bounty. You better be glad I found you first.”
“The data,” she panted. “It’s back at the camp. You should’ve waited, Toro. I knew you couldn’t be trusted.”
Toro’s expression waxed flat and cold. He bent over and grabbed a handful of Elena’s wet hair. He jerked her up and off her ass. She crumpled under the weight on her left ankle.
“I’m not a child to be given instructions.”
Toro jerked her hair harder, but she wouldn’t scream. She gripped his fist but he shook her head violently. His smashed his right palm into the left side of her face. The sound resonated inside her ear and made her dizzy from the concussion. She fell to all fours.
“Yes, like a dog on your knees. This is the way you were when I raped you years ago. You liked it. I know you did. Right?”
Water poured from her eyes. Her vision blurred between the drops. “Monster,” she screamed.
“You think so?” he asked, his voice saccharine sweet. “Thank you for the compliment.”
His boot sank into her side, and she cried out as the pain registered in her brain. The wind was knocked out of her, and she felt the crisp crack of a rib. She rolled onto her other side and wheezed as she struggled to catch a gasp of air.
“You always were disrespectful,” he said. “Ungrateful, puta. I came all the way here to talk to you about our trade and this is how you behave?”
“Where’s Brady?”
He bellowed, “Why would I give a shit? Why don’t we worry about the information you stole from me? Where is it?”
Toro drew his right foot back again.
Elena flinched. “Please, no. No more.”
“Give me the disk.”
“It’s at the camp. I told you,” she pleaded.
Thwack
He slammed his foot into her shoulder and neck. It glanced into her jaw and snapped her teeth shut. Elena moaned, not sure her teeth hadn’t cracked.
“I’m not going to keep asking you. There’s nothing at the camp. If I had to bet, I’d say it’s inside of you.” He sneered.
Even in her agony, his tone sickened her.
Already i
n a fetal position, she tried to block her face. His fists rained down over her head and back, but she stayed tucked tight.
“I’ve been in you many times before, so this one won’t be much different.” He panted, out of breath from the swings he had thrown.
Toro viciously tugged at her clothes. Elena begged, but couldn’t form the words to plead. She tasted the coppery tang of blood in her mouth. Her tongue darted over her teeth and lips but stopped at the unnatural feel of broken, torn flesh.
Elena resisted the best she could. She understood that once he had the flash drive, he no longer needed her or Marguerite. This was a fight for both of their lives.
In the flurry of punches and pulls, she suddenly felt the slimy cold of the ground on her bare back. Toro towered over her with the shredded shirt in his fists. He patted each pocket and hem to check for the device. Elena ran her hand down the side of her torn pant leg. Relief coursing through her at what she found.
“You bitch. Where’s that disk?” He dropped down with fists balled to strike.
Elena rolled from her right shoulder and onto her back. She then drove the razor-sharp tip of her KA-BAR knife into the soft space above Toro’s chest and below his chin. His already downward punching momentum and her desperate upward lunge caused the blade of the knife to easily enter and then efficiently slide through his throat until it felt like the tip had exited the back of his neck.
Toro clasped his throat. He danced around on the slippery shore before flailing backward into the brush. The earth was quickly painted a bubbly crimson before fading into a dark burgundy. Turning away, Elena scrambled on her hands and knees to find her scraps of a shirt. It didn’t matter though—she draped what was left over her shoulders.
She feared he had others waiting nearby. She couldn’t just sit and wait for more. Her hand was careful not to touch his body, but she jerked her knife out of his throat.
Elena thought about Brady’s words before he’d left to swim against the current. She was a strong swimmer. After all, she regularly trained with the SEALs while they visited and worked at the Surrender complex. She spied up river and wondered what might’ve actually happened to the three of them that they never returned.
She knew Toro’s body had to be hidden. She didn’t want his henchmen to pursue her too quickly. His body lurched and grabbed onto the stumps and roots that led from the water’s gentle wave to the jungle’s unforgiving canopy as she dragged it away.
Next, she returned to the sandy-bottomed river and began to wade back in the direction she’d come. Since Brady had stuck close to the bank, she’d try the same thing.
“Elena.”
She stopped before the waters rose above her chest. She spun around but saw nothing.
“Elena, it’s Brady. Stop.”
“Brady?”
A quick bob up and down in the now running river, and she caught a watery glimpse of Brady. He was on the bank she’d just left. It took mere seconds to return, thanks to the tide.
“Oh, Brady. Thank God for you.”
He helped her to her feet on the bank. She shivered from the cold. He held her. She noticed the blood on the bottom of his boots and that he had looked into the brush.
“I had to, Brady. It was either him or…”
“No, don’t say it, my love. You never have to justify yourself. You’re a survivor. You did what you had to do, and you are alive because of it.”
“How did you get here?” She looked around him.
“Archer and Audrey had almost scaled back to the top of the cliff by the time I swam to find them. They hoisted me up since the mercs were gone.”
“Mercs?”
“Mercenaries. They were here looking to collect on your bounty. There’s also a small reward for our heads, but you’re worth much more.” Brady smiled.
“That only seems fair. I am the one with the flash drive, after all.”
Brady held her hand and began to lead her away from the water.
“Come on. We’ve got a Jeep back up the hill. Unless you were really wanting to swim to the cliff?”
“I’ll go with you. Always.”
Archer covered his eyes as he pulled off his T-shirt for Elena. Audrey hugged her tighter than she was normally comfortable with, but she was past the point of caring. She welcomed the embrace and held on for dear life.
Audrey herself was severely wounded. The latest injuries mish-mashed with her poor body’s scars earned from brutal beatings and enemy tortures while serving the Israeli state. She’d come to wear them as badges of honor. Elena hoped she’d one day be able to embrace her scars as well. If not with pride, then at least with dignity.
“We’ve got a long haul. How about hitting the road?” Archer suggested.
Brady helped Elena into the rear of the new Jeep. He nestled in beside her. Audrey collapsed into the front seat and drew her hat over her eyes.
“Seven hours, but I think you can make it in five if you try.”
“You’re on.” Archer said, accepting the challenge.
“Seven hours? Guaxaca is less than a hundred miles from here. What about Marguerite?” Elena started to panic.
“Relax, we’re heading back to Cancun. We’ve still got rooms at the resort.”
Elena began to claw her way out of the Jeep over the open-top back gate.
“I’m not going anywhere without my niece. What is wrong with you, Brady Scott?”
“Relax, Elena. She’ll be waiting there for you.”
“What?” She erupted into tears.
Elena tried to fan the wetness from her eyes with her open fingers, but opted to hug Brady instead.
“How?”
“Well, seems some of Declan’s team wanted to bust in the temple, others wanted to kill all they could, and some of the others decided to sneak in and grab her.”
“Oh, baby Jesus. This is a miracle.”
“Looks like you weren’t the only strong woman today.”
“Marguerite?”
“Yes, her too. But it was Darcy, Jade, and Tess who found their way through the narrow tunnel matrix. The stealthy ladies slipped right in, grabbed Marguerite, and slipped right back out.”
“That’s incredible. What did Declan do? He’s a little bit claustrophobic. How’d he handle the tunnels?”
“The way I understood it, the guys didn’t even realize the women had left. They were still busy standing by the tunnel entrances and arguing over a plan to rescue Marguerite.” Brady put his arm around Elena. “But you won’t hear that from Declan.”
They settled back in the rear seat. She laid her head against his shoulder. They’d both been injured, but the warmth they felt soothed everything for the moment. Except one thing.
“Archer, would you mind doing me a favor?”
He tapped the brakes. “Sure thing, Elena. Anything.”
“Oh, please don’t stop. I just wanted you to turn up that rearview mirror for a moment.”
Archer winked and flipped it up.
Elena wiggled in her seat to tug her still-wet khaki pants down to her knees. And then she shot a look at Brady.
“Uhh, you can look away too,” she said. “For now.”
Brady smiled. “Sorry.”
“Thanks,” she said gratefully. This wasn’t exactly how she imagined Brady seeing her naked. She looked like something the cat had dragged in. “This thing has been driving me crazy.”
Audrey opened her eyes to look back. “What is it? Your ankle?”
“No. It’s that damn disk.”
“It’s a flash drive,” the three yelled and broke into laughter.
Brady kissed her. “We’ll call it anything you want.”
Audrey held up the ringing satellite phone. “Looks like Willa’s calling for Uncle Archer or Lieutenant Hottie. Who wants to answer it?”
“Lieutenant Hottie is occupied at the moment,” Elena said, leaning in for another kiss. “And he’s all mine.”
From the Journal of Declan MacKenzie
Never would I have imagined I’d watch my legacy unfold. I spent my life moving from mission to mission, loving the rush of adrenaline and knowing that I had to be better than my opponent if I wanted to come back home. That was the life I loved. And it’s how I thought I’d die. Especially after I thought I’d lost Sophia forever. I was hell-bent on destruction, taking chances no sane man would take. But those chances got the job done. And it built me a legendary reputation in the CIA. A reputation that allowed me to start MacKenzie Security.
But my priorities changed after I realized I hadn’t lost Sophia. There was no mission more important than she was, and I knew my place was with her. Even a hardened and cynical man such as myself realized that kind of love was rare. She and I have always been stronger together than apart. MacKenzie Security gave us the kind of life anyone would consider blessed, but with that life there was always an element of danger.
There was a time, some twenty years ago, when I decided the life of danger wouldn’t bring me back home to my children at night, so I promised my wife the mission where we saved Elena and her niece would be my last. And it’s a promise I’ve kept these twenty years. I’ve been content to work behind the scenes and to spend time with my family. I learned after my mother’s death that we only have our loved ones on this earth for a short time, and I didn’t want to miss any of those days.
The MacKenzies have always put family above all else. It’s how we were raised. And we’re blessed that family was the legacy our ancestors passed down from generation to generation. It’s a family that has withstood heartache and tragedy, but drawn closer together to heal. And though we miss our parents dearly, I know they’re proud of the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren they’ve left behind.
Dane and Charlotte have done well for themselves. Dane turned his talents as a war correspondent into writing bestselling novelist. He even had a couple of his books turned into films. It was quite an experience to haul everyone to Hollywood for the premieres. Charlotte, or Charlie as the family calls her, has always been more comfortable under the hood of a car than in the limelight. Charlie’s Automotive has always been successful in Surrender, but it took a lot of courage for her to make it a chain in three other cities. The gamble paid off well.