Beautiful Surrender (Pride and Honor Book 4)

by Ember-Raine Winters

  Since that tactic wasn’t working, I figured I’d try another. “I thought I could trust you Kay. Why would you let her out before I was gone?”

  She wasn’t having it. The next thing I knew the woman was yelling at me through the phone. “My kids are in danger, and I figure the more people there are trying to rescue them the better. And with the two of you going alone, who the hell is there to back you up and protect you!”

  “Kay, don’t worry about us. We’re gonna be fine. We won’t be alone. We’re meeting the SEAL team, remember?” I soothed, more than ready to hand the phone over to Griffin for him to talk her down.

  “You don’t know that,” she wailed. “What if none of you come back, Trey? Then what?”

  I hated tears and Kaylee was in the middle of a full blown sobbing fest. I handed the phone over to Griffin, who was anxiously waiting to talk to her.

  “Hey babe,” he said gently into the phone. "Shhh, it’s gonna be all right. I’ll get them back and we’ll come right back to you, I promise.”

  He paused, listening to her cry before he started whispering platitudes to her. “Yes, I will let them help if we meet up with them. But, babe? You don’t know Kenzie like we do. She can be a bit…”

  Seriously? He’d never learn, would he? I looked at him sharply and dared him to say the word crazy. She may be a little out there, but I was tired of everyone acting like she was a nut job. Even if she was a nut job, she was my nut job and no one else was going to talk shit about her in front of me. “We call her terrorist Barbie for a reason, Kay.”

  I couldn’t help it, but I hid my inner laugh because while I was pissed at my brother, he did get that part right. She was definitely obsessed with explosions.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  KENZIE

  The hardest part was sneaking out of the house without Mac seeing us. He was posted up in the living room with the laptop in his lap watching hacking videos on YouTube. He was dedicated I had to give him that. Trey gave him a job and he did it with gusto.

  “We can get to the front door from the kitchen,” I whispered as I came down the steps into the hallway that opened up to the living room.

  The couch faced the hall, so any chance we had of getting past Mac that way was zero. We crept quietly to the kitchen and snuck out the front door.

  As soon as we closed the door behind us, we took off at a sprint around the house to the barn to grab some weapons. Fifteen minutes later we were in the car on the way to where Bob was waiting at the airstrip. I felt better once we were gone. Mac was still a gimp and probably couldn’t have stopped us anyway, but I wasn’t looking forward to him outing us to Trey. There was no way we were actually going to surprise Trey because Mac was soon to realize we were gone and he’d be on the phone within minutes.

  “Mac’s gonna be super pissed at us.” I giggled when we were halfway to the airstrip.

  “He’ll get over it. He should know better than to tell me not to do something.” Marcy and I were pretty much on the same wavelength with that one, and besides, I was happy to not be the only one he’d be pissed at. But, knowing how much he hated me, I was sure he’d find a way to exclusively blame this on me as well. I couldn’t see Mac ever being in my good graces again.

  “Let’s just try not to have a repeat of last time, yeah?” I said to Marcy.

  “Oh whatever, that was a total accident and no one got hurt.” She sobered as she thought about the night we got Johnny back from the Governor’s mansion. “But, yeah, I get it. We definitely don’t want another repeat of that.”

  “So, why did we grab weapons? We can’t take them, and they could get us arrested.”

  “If we were actually flying into an airport, you’re right. But that’s not what’s happening.”

  “Bob?” I asked thoughtfully, thinking of her recent discovery of her biological father who also happened to be a senator.

  “He has some friends at the FAA that owe him favors. Customs too. He is calling in every favor he has to get us into Kenya.”

  “Why Kenya? Isn’t it dangerous to fly over Somali airspace?”

  “We won’t be flying in Somali air space, we are flying over Ethiopia. Bob says that’s the best way to get there.”

  “So, I’m guessing Bob had a plan already in place? There is no way he got this all set up in the few minutes it took to get me uncuffed and out of there.” I eyed Marcy suspiciously.

  “Let’s just say he’s really good at what he does.” She smiled.

  “You called him yesterday when we found out that the kids were in Somalia, didn’t you?” I laughed. “You knew they would never take us with them, so you came up with a plan all on your own.”

  “Of course I did. By the time they get logistics situated with the SEAL team, we will be in Mombasa headed for the Somali-Kenya border.”

  “Do we have a guide? Isn’t Somalia a Muslim country?”

  “Yeah, Bob said we will have to be careful and make sure we never go anywhere alone.”

  “At least the clothes will make it easy to hide our weapons.” I grinned at the thought.

  We reached the abandoned airstrip a few minutes later and saw there was a shiny new private jet waiting for us.

  “It’s about time you got here. I was starting to think the whole plan got foiled,” Bob said as he walked down the steps of the plane.

  “Bob? What are you doing here?” Marcy looked at him with utter confusion written all over her face.

  “Change of plans. I’m coming with you.”

  “What? Why? It’s dangerous.”

  “Exactly why my friends and I need to join you,” he replied, walking over and grabbing her shoulder, giving it a little squeeze. It was clear he was hoping for a relationship with his daughter, and I was curious how Marcy felt about that.

  I walked slowly up the steps to the plane and saw three huge men in army fatigues sitting there waiting for us.

  “Friends of yours?”

  “Hired guns, actually. They’ve been to this part of the world and have even helped in hostage situations with Pirates before.” He informed us. Damn, I was impressed. One of the men just grunted in acknowledgement. Okay, so not talkers, but we didn’t need them to chat.

  “Don’t just sit there, boys,” I ordered. “Help us unload the fire power.”

  It only took a few minutes to get everything loaded into the hull of the plane. The men kept shooting us curious glances, obviously trying to figure us out. We had some pretty heavy fire power and they were probably wondering where the hell we got it. There were more than a few appreciative glances. Bet they were jealous.

  I didn’t relax until the plane was in the air. I kept looking out the windows and over my shoulder expecting to see Mac or Trey barreling down the road even though they had no idea where to find us.

  “Chill out.” Marcy laughed and through me a bottle of water. “They have no idea where we are. Kaylee won’t rat us out.”

  “It just seems like it was too easy, ya know?”

  “You need some help getting those off?” One of the guys, I think his name was Buck, asked as he sat in the seat across from me, looking down at my hands.

  I had totally forgot the damn handcuffs were even there until he pointed at them smirking. “Yeah, thanks.”

  “That seems like a waste of perfectly good cuffs.” He eyed me.

  “Yeah, well, the guy who did this to me is going to wish like hell he’d never done this when it’s all over.” I grinned evilly.

  “I’m sure he will enjoy every minute of it.” He threw his head back and laughed.

  “Buck, stop flirting you jack ass.”

  “You’re one to talk, Bubba. You know you would be too if I hadn’t gotten here first.”

  “Down boys. I’m not on the market.” They both looked at me as if I had kicked their puppy.

  “The guy who did this?” Buck, pointing to the now removed cuffs, asked incredulously. “You’re still
with him even after he handcuffed and left you?”

  “He was trying to protect me,” I grumbled out. I had no idea why I was defending him, but I understood his reasoning… kinda. “As misguided as he might have been, it wasn’t done maliciously.”

  “Wow,” Marcy said from beside me.

  I shot her a disgruntled look. “What?”

  “You’re being waayyy more forgiving than I would have been!”

  “Oh no, don’t you worry. That man—if he is still a man by the time I’m done—will pay for what he did. He’s not off the hook. When this is all over, I will have him begging for mercy before I’m done with him.”

  Both men looked extremely uncomfortable at my words. I took pleasure in that and spent the rest of the flight thinking about what exactly I would do to make Trey pay. The men moved away from me after that. The look on my face showing exactly how much satisfaction I would take in making sure he never pulled something like that on me again.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  TREY

  I was beginning to think that we should have gone a different route. We got off the plane in Miami and headed straight for the DOD headquarters there. Tom met us at reception and took us back to a room stacked with maps and computer screens. There were five or six men in fatigues hunched over a table that had a map of the Middle East and the Horn of Africa.

  “Gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to Captain Griffin Thomas. He was a Special Forces captain and the soon to be step-father of two of the children who are being held by the pirates,” Tom said with authority and we nodded to the men. “This is his brother Trey Thomas. He built the blocker they used to steal the plane in the first place.”

  They eyed me critically and I gave them a two finger salute. Griffin nudged my arm and I looked over innocently. “What?”

  “Don’t be a child.”

  “Me? Never!” I laughed and heard a couple quiet chuckles around the room. Tension broke. Mission accomplished. “Okay, so how are we getting the kids back?” I asked rubbing my hands together with glee. Working with this team was a secret dream of mine, even if it was for the worst reason ever.

  After a few hours of hammering out details and formulating a plan, Griff argued it the whole way. “You have never skydived before. We can’t parachute into Somalia. We can go in through Mombasa”

  “It will take too long,” I groaned. “Do you even realize that we have only 36 hours left to get over there and get them before they are sold off to human traffickers? We have been in this room for eight hours hashing out a plan. Don’t worry about me, I will be fine.”

  “We have oxygen masks you can use on the way down if you feel like you’re having an attack,” the one they called Ace said and I scowled.

  “I haven’t had an attack since I was a kid, I’ll be fine.” Ace put his hands up in surrender and shook his head.

  “I meant no disrespect, man. Just giving you the option.”

  “I’m good with that,” Griffin conceded and I finally relaxed.

  “So, can we go then? I’ll wear the stupid oxygen mask if it means getting the hell out of here," I replied gruffly.

  “Yes, I believe we all have what we need. Hopefully by this time tomorrow you will be on your way back stateside with the children,” Tom said clapping both Griffin and me on the back.

  “No hopefully about it, Tom. I’m not stopping until those kids are safe,” I replied with conviction. Praying that the kids were the only ones we had to rescue.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  KENZIE

  Buck, Bubba, and Country were an interesting group of guys. When things weren’t tense they were making us laugh, telling stories about rescue missions they had been on when they were all marines. To me, they were just a bunch of teddy bears. That all changed when we got off the plane in Mpeketoni, however. They were all business. Stone cold killers that wouldn’t let anyone walk all over them. It would have been scary if I hadn’t just heard every embarrassing thing that had ever happened to them.

  “Get that hair covered Miss Kenzie,” Country said in his sweet southern drawl winking at me.

  “Yeah, yeah this antiquated bullshit.”

  “Hey now, that’s their religion and the law in this here part of the world. Always respect the people of the countries you visitin’. You may need them later.” He winked.

  I couldn’t help smiling at him. He was adorable. Big muscled white boy with big blue eyes and an accent that could melt hearts… and panties. I could tell he was the shy type and if I wasn’t so totally and completely into Trey I would let him talk dirty to me in that sexy voice of his. I could imagine the blush that would crawl up his neck. Like the one that was ringing his ears pink that very moment.

  “Barbie, quit torturing the guy,” Marcy laughed, knowing I was subtly teasing the big county boy.

  “Barbie?” Buck asked while I growled glaring at her.

  “Just some stupid nickname her man gave me because I like to blow shit up, no big deal.” I replied nonchalantly and he looked at me even more confused.

  “Terrorist Barbie,” Marcy told them. The joy in her voice was annoying.

  “So what if I like explosions?” I asked offended. Seriously who didn’t like things going Boom!

  “I don’t see a problem with that.” Buck sidled up next to me.

  “Just wait. She will strike when you least expect it, and you won’t like it so much then.”

  “Shut up, Tink,” I said smirking at her.

  “Oh man, yeah, I can totally see that one.” Buck cracked up laughing and I grinned back at her. Touché!

  “All right children, let’s stop harassing each other and get a move on,” Bubba admonished although I could see the slight grin he was trying to hide.

  I attached the scarf to my face and watched as Marcy did the same and then we walked off the plane. It was midmorning and rain was falling in steady sheets to the ground.

  There were two jeeps sitting off to the right waiting for us to leave. I was bouncing up and down in anticipation—the need to move almost getting to me. The guys had gotten the jeeps all loaded up while Marcy and I were changing our clothes.

  As soon as I stepped outside, I was blasted with heat, regardless of the rain coming down. How the hell anyone dressed like this in the humidity here was baffling. Kenya wasn’t a predominantly Muslim country, but once we crossed the border into Somalia we would need to be completely covered.

  We made great time, but it still took us about thirteen hours to get to our destination. The men kept us entertained. They joked and cajoled each other. It was just like being with Trey and the guys. I got a pang in my chest wondering what they were doing and wondering if they were okay.

  “What’s the matter, Barbie?” Buck chuckled next to me when I shot Marcy a glare saying, really? You couldn’t keep that to yourself?

  “Nothing, just anxious. Are we sure this is gonna work? How much time do we have left?”

  “It’ll be fine, darlin’ we have been over everything a hundred times, and by the time we get there we will have about twenty hours.” Country smiled through the rearview mirror at me.

  “How long until we get there? Damn, I could really use Twitch’s gut right now,” I said mostly to myself but I noticed Marcy flinch and nod to herself.

  “Twitch?” Buck asked curiously. “Shit. We are going to rescue the kids from that plane that disappeared a while back?”

  “How did you come to that conclusion?” I didn’t think Bob had told him everything, just the basics that we need a rescue.

  “I knew a guy in the service. A group of guys really. They were army but we mingled occasionally. This one they called him Twitch and no matter what happened if he had a bad feeling everyone was at attention.”

  “How is it that I don’t remember you?” Marcy asked skeptically.

  “That’s why you look familiar!” he shouted and hit himself in the forehead.

  Raisin
g a brow, I looked to Marcy and she shook her head. I kept quiet waiting for his next words.

  “You were the one always hanging around him and his cousin. They used to call you… shit. I can’t remember. It had something to do with fairies.”

  “Pixie?”

  “That’s it.” He boomed and slapped his leg.

  “I still don’t remember you,” she said through clenched teeth. “But all you marines look the same to me.”

  “Hey now, that’s not right to lump me in with this chucklehead,” Country said in offense, but I could see that panty-dropping smile. Buck reached forward and punched him in the arm.

  “Hoorah.” He chuckled before sitting back.

  The sky was an inky black when we finally made it to Kismayo, the southernmost port city in Somalia. Country explained that we would see some interesting dress but when all was said and done, we were safer if we were covered. The US Government had been warning people to stay away from Somalia for a while. If anyone saw that we were American, not only could they alert the pirates but any Islamist extremists that had still been lying low. The last thing I wanted was to come across some extremists. I could not be held responsible for what I blew up if that happened.

  “Barbie, this is the biggest city for miles; try not to blow anything up,” Buck laughed, reading my mind. I stuck my tongue out at him but he couldn’t see it through the scarf which totally ruined the effect I was going for, so I flipped him the bird instead. The damn man just winked.

  “Bob should have the plane landed in the jungle by now waiting for us, so let’s get a move on,” Country replied leading us to the jeeps.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  TREY

  It was late that night when we finally boarded a cargo plane headed for Jamaame. Griffin still wasn’t happy about me parachuting out, but at the end of the day it was my decision and I made it for myself and those kids.

  Ace, Hawk, and Gabe were strapped in near us, but it was totally silent. I was watching the steely determination and anger on Griffin’s face grow the closer we got to our target.