Don't Look Back--An Unbroken Heroes Novel

by Dawn Ryder

  He wasn’t in the business any longer.

  No one would know if he just ignored it.

  Ricky fingered his mouse, debating the wisdom of just deleting the address from his system and never looking for it again. He had what he wanted and yet he just couldn’t seem to tap the button and kill the link.

  He knew Pullman and he knew what the nest was.

  What surprised Ricky the most was how he was thinking about Kagan instead of his buddy Pullman. His fellow hitman should have been the one Ricky was worried about pissing off. A year ago, Ricky would have tried to rip the heart out of any man who said Ricky was too much of a pussy for worrying about pissing off some badge-holding federal agents.

  The problem was, Ricky wasn’t thinking about pissing off Kagan. No, Ricky was weighing the fact that if Kagan went down, someone might just look into Kagan’s files and find where Ricky was.

  Ricky couldn’t marry little Cat if he had to worry about Pullman doing something to uncover where he was.

  Ricky sent back a response. If Pullman had pictures of the nest where the Hale brothers were dug in, Kagan would want to know.

  It wasn’t that Ricky was getting back into the business.

  No. Ricky was just making sure no one would be left around who knew how to contact him. For a moment, Ricky was tempted to feel guilty, because he’d been a “loose end” once. Tyler Martin had left him to rot in a Mexican jail, double-crossing him because Ricky was nothing more than a loose end.

  He would fucking make sure no one ever tied him off.

  * * *

  The tunnel led her out into the desert morning.

  Sedona boasted rock formations that rose into the blue skyline with majestic poise. Thais didn’t have time to enjoy it. She took a moment to consider the opening of the tunnel. Nothing stirred, giving her hope that Dunn’s man wasn’t there yet.

  She emerged and headed toward a road. It was a climb up an embankment but she popped up on the side of a winding road. A truck was headed her way. She waved at the driver, smiling as he slowed down and stopped.

  “Can I help you, ma’am?”

  The driver was wearing a polo shirt with the name of one of the local resorts embroidered on it.

  “Yeah … I thought I knew which way the trail went but … I seem to be lost.”

  She heard the door unlock. The guy leaned over and picked up a backpack that was lying in the passenger seat. He dropped it into the back as she opened the door and sat down.

  “Happens all the time,” the guy said. “Be happy to give you a lift into town. Where are you staying?”

  “The Sands,” she answered. “But you don’t need to take me up there. Just into town would be great.”

  “No problem,” the driver said. “Sedona is proud of our hospitality. Just be more careful when you venture out, the desert can be unforgiving.”

  “I will,” Thais answered as they pulled into the small town where privately owned gift shops were open for the day. People were milling around, looking at handmade pottery and handblown glass. She hopped out as the driver stopped for a crosswalk. “Thanks a million!”

  The driver likely thought her strange, but she moved away from the road too quickly for him to question her over it. The scent of breakfast was floating in the air, making her lament her quick departure from Dunn’s residence.

  She ignored her empty belly and headed toward the shops. They were mostly privately owned by artists. Sedona catered to those seeking serenity and escape from the metropolitan craze. That sentiment applied to the owners of the studios as well. A woman was sitting at a pottery wheel, her hands coated in wet mud as she worked the pedals of the wheel and used her hands to shape the mound of clay in front of her. A cat was lying across a shelf above her head, flicking its tail back and forth as the woman hummed.

  Her shop assistant was off to one side, answering questions. Thais slipped into the back room and found the phone. Pressing in a memorized number, she waited for an answer.

  Kagan didn’t disappoint her. “Report.” That was the single-word greeting she received from her section leader.

  “It’s Sinclair.”

  “About time,” Kagan replied.

  “Orders?” Thais asked. There was no point in putting it off. Chit-chat wasn’t Kagan’s style.

  “Return to Bateson.”

  Thais hesitated for a long moment. “Did I hear you correctly?”

  Her section leader made a low sound on the other end of the line. “Utilize the resource at hand. Contact again in three days.”

  The line cut off. For all that she was used to her section leader’s blunt, often unexplained orders, today she was mystified. She replaced the phone and slipped out of the shop, fairly certain only the cat noted her coming and going.

  At least until Dunn pulled up along the curb in front of her driving a Jeep that blended in really well. The side of it was painted with a sign advertising desert tours. Dunn turned his head toward her, watching her through sunglasses without a care for the fact that he was on the wrong side of the road and in a red zone.

  The lazy pace of the area made it so people looked up, curious as to what was happening. Thais let out a little huff as she went around the front of the vehicle and opened the passenger side door and climbed in.

  “Nice to know Kagan agrees with me.” Dunn only waited for the door to close before he spoke.

  Thais grabbed the seat belt and pulled it across her body. “Sure he agrees with you?”

  Dunn offered her a nod as he pulled away from the curb. “You’d be gone otherwise.”

  There was a grim certainty in his tone. It produced a surge of guilt that took her by surprise. Working cases as a Shadow Ops agent meant she did a lot of things people didn’t like. More than one witness had dealt with losing their freedom for the good of the case. She’d remained silent as personal boundaries were crossed and decency was expected to make way for safety.

  “It would be better for you if I was gone,” Thais said. “I’m a fugitive. Your money won’t save you if you get caught with me. The FBI will haul you in and lock you up, too.”

  “Good.” Dunn took a curve in the road and flashed her a grin. “Glad to hear your section leader has told you to stay with me.”

  And he didn’t care how much personal risk he was taking.

  Which made her feel that surge of caring once again. She wanted to argue against it but facts were facts. Her emotions weren’t going to fall into line.

  Not when it came to Dunn Bateson, it would appear.

  She let out a little sound of frustration as she climbed through the center of the Jeep and lay down across the backseat.

  * * *

  Thais woke with a start.

  Her body tensed, her muscles tightening as she tried to get a grasp on her surroundings. Something had woken her.

  Shit! Agents didn’t fall asleep …

  Dunn was slowing down. She realized the decrease in speed must have pulled her out of slumber. The sun was starting to set as he turned the Jeep around a corner and gave the engine enough gas to shoot them up a long private entrance.

  She didn’t expect to see a rotting shell of a mansion.

  “Disappointed?” Dunn asked.

  She looked into the rearview mirror to catch him watching her.

  “I’m a recluse … remember?”

  The bunker under the mansion came to mind. Ahead of them, what had once been a magnificent home was nothing but a burned out shell. A few of the walls had jagged pieces, blackened by a long-ago fire. The setting sun shone through them while Dunn drove around one side of the ruin and pressed a remote. A section of the wall made way, allowing them to drive smoothly inside an underground garage.

  Dunn stretched as he stepped out of the Jeep.

  “Why?” she asked after he’d rolled his shoulders and popped his neck. He turned to look at her. “Why are you a recluse, Dunn?”

  He’d been asked the question before.

  She witnesse
d the flash in his eyes and watched the way he tightened his jaw. He started to turn away but she reached out to catch his upper arm.

  “Lovers … that was your request … so tell me why, you do … this…” She opened her hand to indicate the garage they stood in. Motion-activated lights had flickered on, illuminating a rather well-maintained parking area. There was a small sedan parked off to one side and a workbench with a small selection of household tools.

  He reached out and cupped her chin. “Why do you do what you do, Thais? Why deny the passion between us in favor of being alone? Are you really sorry you indulged your passions with me instead of that stranger by the poolside?”

  It wasn’t her first encounter with his ruthless side. Dunn knew how to ensure he had enough information to undermine his opponents with. But there was something in his eyes that hinted at the situation being much more personal than even he was sure he was comfortable with. “Maybe the real question you should ask me is why I turned the guy down.”

  She shouldn’t have told him something so personal. It was a fatal slip, one of those impulses she knew so very well needed to be controlled.

  Of course, with Dunn, her poise had enough holes in it to qualify as a net.

  “I know why you turned him down,” Dunn said, sliding his hand up the side of her face. The touch awakened a thousand different points of connection between them, awakening the need they’d walked away from that morning. He was turning toward her, his body heat touching her as her lips tingled with anticipation.

  “Lovers talk, Dunn.” She was stepping away, ripping herself from the source of her obsession.

  “You don’t know a thing about lovers, Thais.”

  There was a bitterness in his tone that betrayed an understanding she’d assumed he didn’t have. A look into his emerald eyes confirmed it. She felt her breath catch, and then there was a surge of anger toward whoever had broken his trust.

  Broken his heart.

  She never would have guessed it, and that shamed her because he didn’t deserve to be thought of as shallow. Jaded maybe, but she knew that path so very well herself.

  “Let’s get some food,” he muttered.

  It was an excuse.

  Oh, she didn’t doubt he was hungry. Her body was clamoring for a few necessities as well after the long drive. But Dunn punched in a security code and opened a door for her as a means of escaping the topic.

  Jaded.

  Heartbroken.

  Which left her with one firm idea.

  He truly was the sort of man she wished she might reach out to. It was just too bad that she was so broken herself.

  But they were a pair after all. The best partner was the one who understood you.

  “Let’s find a way to contact Ricky Sullivan,” she muttered on her way inside. “He’ll likely be interested in selling us the information we want.”

  * * *

  He should have expected someone who held a badge with the elite Shadow Ops to pick apart his facades.

  “Why are you a recluse, Dunn?”

  Thais Sinclair knew how to ask questions. She’d mastered the art of interrogation. What Dunn heard ringing in his ears wasn’t the professional tone of a Shadow Ops agent.

  It was the sound of the woman beneath her shell asking him to expose his feelings.

  Maybe he should have never pursued her.

  He stripped down and stepped in the shower. It was the one place he couldn’t hide from himself. Beneath the spray of hot water, he was alone with his ghosts.

  Or maybe it was more correct to say, he was left facing the opportunity Thais had presented him with.

  He grabbed a soap bar and ripped the paper off it before applying it to his skin. His lips curved up as he contemplated just what would happen if he spilled his guts. She’d picked up his offer of being lovers, he knew she had her own scars to contend with when it came to opening up.

  Maybe that was the reason he’d been unable to shake her from his thoughts.

  Dunn turned and rinsed off. Steam was curling along the ceiling of the bathroom as he stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel.

  Should he call her on it? Drop the information in her lap and see what she offered up?

  And then what?

  It wasn’t that he’d stopped believing in happy ever afters, it was more that he’d never learned to believe in them in the first place. He was the kid without a mother, the kid the rest of the family didn’t want dumped on them because he was a male and therefore the heir. He was the reason his father lost the love of his life and he’d been stupid enough to challenge Thais Sinclair.

  Or maybe what was killing him was the fact that he’d been desperate enough to let her close enough to see how thin his skin was if she looked in the right spot.

  Peace was something he’d found in making damn sure he didn’t care about what others thought. He controlled his world and everything, absolutely everything that touched him.

  He strode through the bathroom and into the bedroom. Flipping open a laptop, he typed in a line of encrypted passcode that would have impressed even Kagan. Dunn dressed while the system went through several cycles of connections that bounced the signal around the globe before allowing him access to the web. It wasn’t foolproof, nothing was. But it would take days to decipher his signal from the ghost ones.

  Ricky Sullivan.

  He’d find him.

  And just maybe, it would be best if it happened quickly, so Thais could run back to her life. She wanted to go but there was something inside him warning him to dig in and hold on. Take the chance on her.

  Hell, she was quickly becoming an addiction.

  One he needed to cut himself off from before he ended up losing all control over his world for another taste of.

  The problem was, he was too damned hungry for another taste of her.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Vitus Hale had stopped plenty of people from doing things in his life. As an active duty SEAL, it had been his job to be the last line of defense against bad guys who would cheerfully destroy life without remorse. He’d trained hard and performed under stressful conditions.

  Today, though, he felt his belly quiver just a bit as he stepped into his mother-in-law’s path. “Miranda,” he began. “We don’t have the hitman or a clear evidence trail leading to who paid him to kill you. It would be best if you stayed out of sight.”

  Miranda Delacroix wasn’t intimidated. If anything, Vitus felt like his collar was shrinking as she looked up and locked gazes with him.

  He was suddenly about seven years old.

  “Carl Davis will not make me cower,” Miranda declared firmly. “He’s behind this, we all know it.”

  “But we haven’t proven it yet,” Vitus stressed.

  Miranda only smiled at him. “There are several sorts of deaths in this life. I’ve lived a few of them, and one thing I’ve learned is that half a life is far more of a torment than you think it will be.”

  Vitus drew in a stiff breath. The rest of his team shifted, feeling the impact of Miranda’s words.

  “If I don’t go out there,” Miranda said firmly, “I will lose the election. Unlike my late husband or Carl, I honestly want to keep my campaign promises and do my best to make this a better place to live for everyone. So…” She swept the other agents in the room. “Just as all of you will face danger when it is for the greater good … I am going out there and Carl Davis will see me doing it with a smile on my lips.”

  “I’d like to be a fly on the wall of his office when he sees you,” Saxon Hale offered.

  Vitus shot his brother a narrow-eyed look. “You’re not helping.”

  “Yes, he is,” Miranda insisted. “We need to light a fire under Carl’s tail. Force him to make another move. If I stay hidden, Carl just might consider the entire thing done because I lost the election. He wants to send a message to anyone willing to cross him. Keeping me out of office will be a powerful message, trust me on that.”

  Miranda flu
ttered her eyelashes once more, making it plain she considered the topic closed. Vitus didn’t want to let her go, but there was part of him that just admired her spunk too much to stand in her way.

  “What can I say?” He stepped aside, clearing her path toward the door. “I love a good fight.”

  Miranda surprised him by winking at him before she moved forward. It put a grin on his lips as he fell into step with her. Time might have left her looking fragile, but inside, she had all the spark and vigor her daughter had inherited from her.

  Outside the doors, the press was waiting. They’d been camped out for days, hoping to get a look at her. Miranda lifted her hand in a wave, smiling brightly as cameras began to snap pictures. Questions came at her from all sides. She moved through the crowd, making sure to answer a lot of them before she was ducking into the backseat of a sedan car.

  Saxon held Vitus back when he started to follow Miranda. “Kagan’s orders,” Saxon informed his brother softly.

  “And you’re planning on … doing exactly what?” Vitus demanded as Miranda’s car pulled smoothly away from the curb. The press settled back down as the doors of the private hospital closed, sealing Saxon and Vitus inside the now empty lobby.

  “Dare and Bram will be keeping tabs on Miranda,” Saxon informed his brother. “We need to find Thais before someone kills her to cover up this whole mess and pin it neatly on her.”

  “Thais knows a lot about staying off grid.” Vitus fell into step with his brother as they went toward the roof.

  “She also knows Carl Davis won’t drop trying to do away with us. Kagan’s hands are tied.”

  “So it’s up to us to blow the lid off this case,” Vitus finished.

  A helicopter was sitting on the landing pad, the pilot waiting for them. They flashed their badges before climbing aboard and strapping in. Carl Davis had declared war on them. It wasn’t the first time they’d faced a bloody fight, but there was a bitterness in both their mouths as they realized they were facing off against their own countryman. Still, it was the thing they’d both dedicated their lives to. The idea that justice wasn’t for sale, no matter who you were.