by Amy Gamet
“If I knew you were coming, I’d have baked a cake.”
Jax crossed to Hawk. “Is this a fucking joke to you?” he asked. “Dragging all of Alpha Squadron across the country after you were given a direct order not to pursue Steele?”
Hawk took a good look at his friend, his SEAL brother. They’d been through more together than most people could imagine. Fought for their country, for right over wrong and good versus evil. They’d gone through Ralph’s death together. Then somehow, Jax had just disappeared. Let Hawk down. Dropped the most important ball he’d ever held in his hands. Steele.
Hawk shook his head. “You’re the joke, Jax.”
Jax punched him square in the belly. Trevor doubled over but came up swinging, catching Jax’s cheek and nose with the solid uppercut they’d been begging for for years.
It felt good to hit Jax. It even felt good to be hit, knowing from this display that Jax hid some kind of emotion about Ralph down deep inside. It was Jax’s apathy that had been so hard to bear. His canned answer about good tactical decisions and bad, month after month, while their friend rotted in the ground and Hawk ached.
The punches flew, with a random kick thrown in for good measure, until the men were bloodied, sweaty, and worn.
Jax spit out blood. “You’re out of HERO Force, as of right now.”
“Tell me why you did it,” said Trevor. “Tell me what was so important to you that you sat back on your heels and let Steele get away with murdering Ralph.”
“You think that’s what I wanted? That I enjoyed letting that fucker walk this earth after what he did? Hell no! Homeland Security told me to back off. They were in the middle of an active investigation and if we interfered in any way, years of working to get Steele would be washed down the drain.”
Trevor shook his head. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”
“It was need-to-know, damn it. I couldn’t tell you.”
“And you don’t think I needed to know? You didn’t fucking trust me?”
“It wasn’t my call. My hands were tied, Hawk. There wasn’t a damn thing I could do without HERO Force getting blown out of the water, until now.”
“What’s changed?”
“When you went rogue and came out here to pursue Steel, I had to notify Homeland Security. I was told their investigation is on hold indefinitely.”
“Why?”
Jax shook his head. “Don’t know. Don’t care.” He met Trevor’s stare. “Ralph’s waited long enough for justice, don’t you think?”
Hawk put his arms in the air. “Booyah! We’re going to get that motherfucker!”
Jax shook his head. “You’re staying here.”
“What?”
“Insubordination. If I can’t trust you off the field, I sure as hell can’t trust you on it.”
Hawk covered his mouth and squeezed his cheeks.
Jax was right, that was the worst part. Classic military methodology. Hawk’s mind raced. “But you need me. I know how to stop Steele from taking the women away. I have access to a walkie-talkie that’s connected to someone right in his compound, and I know the only entryway that isn’t secured.”
“Give me what you’ve got, Hawk.”
Hawk stared at him, determined to win this battle of wills. “No way. You wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for me. I’m the one who watched Ralph die; I’m the one who wouldn’t let it go. I deserve to be there, damn it.”
Jax cursed under his breath. “Fine, but it doesn’t mean you’ve got your job back.”
“Deal.”
They went back inside.
“Leave the door open,” said Cowboy. “It’s warmer out there than it is in here.” He cocked his head and looked at Hawk. “It’s a miracle you two didn’t freeze to death. How’d y’all keep warm, anyway?” A devilish grin spread across his face.
Matteo chuckled.
“Shut up, Cowboy,” said Hawk.
Jax’s voice rose above the others. “Tell me why you can’t be seen. You’re far enough from Steele’s house you shouldn’t have a problem.”
“Steele’s goons came around, looking for a runaway from his current shipment.” He filled them in on the mysterious snowmobiler and the radio call.
“Good for the one who got away,” said Matteo.
Trevor crossed his arms. “We have to save the rest of those girls.”
Jax nodded. “Agreed. Tell us what you know about the compound, and we’ll make our plan.”
29
Olivia huddled against the cold, listening to the rise and fall of the men’s voices down the hall. Trevor’s it won’t take long had turned into more than half an hour, time she’d spent worrying about his reaction to her memory returning.
Had he forgotten she was in here, waiting for him?
The arrival of his teammates brought out another side of Trevor she hadn’t seen before, a side battered in testosterone and fried in adrenaline.
The bedroom door opened and she jumped.
“Sorry I took so long,” said Trevor. “What’s up?”
He came and sat on the bed beside her. The energy coming from him belied his casual pose, as if he could bolt into action at any moment.
She licked her lips. “I remembered something. Or someone.”
His brows came together. “Who?”
“My fiancé.”
He sat up straighter. “Oh.”
“I thought you should know, now that we…we’re lovers and everything.”
“How do you feel about him?”
“I don’t know. I’m feeling a lot of things, honestly.”
“I see.”
“No, Trevor, I don’t think you do.” She looked at her hands. “I don’t remember everything yet, but I know I was running away from my own wedding. I wasn’t going to marry him.”
“You weren’t?”
“No.”
“I don’t know why, but I almost think I was afraid of him.”
“Did he abuse you?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I wish I could explain… It’s like trying to guess the final picture of a jigsaw puzzle when you only have a few of the pieces.”
He took her hand in his. “You have time. You don’t need to remember everything this moment.”
Someone rapped three times on the bedroom door. “Wheels up in five minutes, Hawk.”
Olivia looked to the door, then back at Trevor. “What’s going on?”
“They’re going to help me go after Ralph’s killer.”
She still didn’t want to know exactly what he meant by go after, but she smiled because she knew what their support meant to him. “That’s great.”
“I want you to come with us back to the chopper. You’ll be safe there while we complete the mission.”
She thought back to the panic and fear she’d experienced the last time he’d left her alone. “I thought you’d never ask.”
30
They’d left Olivia in the chopper and traveled up the mountain on three-man ATVs, each of them equipped with the night vision goggles and com system they’d need on the journey. This was the stuff HERO Force was good at — infiltrating enemy territory — and Hawk was grateful the mission that would have been trying as a solo operation now had the full capabilities of the team.
Nearly everything Trevor lost in the crash, HERO Force had brought with them to Warsaw Mountain. The chopper was loaded with weapons, ammunition, and explosives — more than enough to take out the bridge down the other side of the mountain and trap Steele’s shipment of girls.
Trevor and Jax suited up in climbing gear, their harnesses full of C-4, and repelled down the bridge’s stone support columns to place the charges.
Trevor swung out over the frozen river below, looking at the height of the massive old structure. “Do you think the state will send us a thank you letter? We’re saving them a lot of work.”
Jax smiled begrudgingly. “I don’t expect they will.”
Cowboy repelled down th
e stone column, pockets full of detonators. “So, about Olivia…”
“Forget it, Cowboy, she’s spoken for,” said Trevor.
“Shit.” He inserted a detonator into a block of C-4 and wrapped the plastic explosive around it. “She looks a little like Brooke Barrons, you know? That woman is smoking hot.”
Jax’s head snapped up.
“She is Brooke Barrons,” said Trevor.
Cowboy punched him in the shoulder. “No way, dude! You made it with a movie star?”
Jax held up his hand in Cowboy’s face and turned to Hawk. “In all seriousness, she really is Brooke Barrons?”
Hawk shrugged his shoulders. “Yes, she really is. I told her that, but I’m not sure she actually remembers. Her memory’s a little like Swiss cheese from the accident, but it’s coming back a little at a time.”
Jax’s expression was deadly serious. “How do you know?”
Hawk grinned. “I had no idea you were a fan.”
“I’m not,” said Jax. “I repeat, how do you know she’s Brooke Barrons?”
Cowboy cocked his head. “What’s going on?”
Hawk shrugged. “She’s got a little tattoo on her ass that says Brooke. Why? What’s the big deal? Y’all never met a famous person before?”
Jax turned back to Hawk. “Yesterday afternoon, Brooke Barron’s big benefactor went on TV to ask for the public’s help in locating her. He claims the two of them are engaged.”
“It’s all right. I already know she’s engaged.”
Jax continued as if he hadn’t heard. “His name is Marco Acero.”
“Should that ring a bell?” Hawk asked.
“Oh, fuck,” said Cowboy.
Jax narrowed his eyes at Hawk. “Do you know what Acero means?”
Hawk furrowed his brow. “Means?”
“I grew up by the Mexican border,” said Cowboy. “And Acero is Spanish for Steele.”
31
The outside of HERO Force Chopper One looked like something out of a military movie, but the inside was a surprise. Divided into two sections, the forward compartment had leather seating for eight, with what seemed like two computer monitors and a shiny metal console of some sort.
Olivia had gotten to see the rear compartment when the guys unloaded some unusual vehicles from the back, but it was the arsenal of weapons on the walls that really captured her attention.
The men had been gone more than an hour — possibly two — and she was grateful for the warmth inside the chopper and the relatively luxurious accommodations. She was also grateful for the time to be alone and think.
Now that HERO Force had arrived, her time in the cabin with Trevor was at an end. She wasn’t sure what that meant for them or, even more pressing, what it meant for her now that she had nowhere to go.
You must have a home somewhere. You just need to remember where and find it.
She scoffed. Easier said than done.
She truly hoped the relationship with Trevor would continue after the snow melted and the roadways cleared. She liked him far more than she should after just a few days, and in some ways she suspected she would always feel like he was her whole world — just as she had felt before her memory began to return.
He was that kind of man.
Standing up, she walked over to the console and began looking at the different controls, words popping out from the chaos of buttons and dials.
Infrared.
Radar.
Launch sequence.
Periscope.
I thought periscopes were only for boats.
She walked back and forth down the miniature aisle, her mind floating over the moments she’d spent with Trevor. His kindness. His strength. How well matched they were in the bedroom.
They probably didn’t even live in the same town. That posed a problem. She wondered if her acting career was easily transferrable to another place, and if Trevor would think she was stalking him if she followed him to the edge of the world and back.
She laughed at her own thoughts.
Stalker-ish, indeed.
The chopper door behind her rattled, and she grinned widely as she turned around, happy the men had returned so soon.
But the door was not opening, it was simply shaking, the handle jiggling as someone on the other side tried to get in. A metallic taste took hold in Olivia’s mouth.
The taste of terror.
A man’s voice called out, “Let me in, Brooke!”
Trevor called her Olivia. Anyone else from HERO Force should be able to get inside without her help. Still she yelled back, “Who are you?”
Trevor had told her the windows and doors were bullet-proof. As if on cue, someone fired into the window she was staring at. The damage looked like a bullet-sized chip in the glass, and she screamed as several more shots were added to the collection.
She dropped to the ground in a crouch. For a moment she considered trying to fly the chopper, then quickly dismissed the idea as idiotic. She needed to get to the weapons, but if the rear compartment was connected to this one, she had no idea how.
Gunfire continued as she crawled to the wall separating the two rooms. In the dim light from the single small fixture, she ran her hands along the baseboard, searching for some kind of opening mechanism. Finding none, she moved higher.
The gunshots stopped, and Olivia wondered if that was a good sign or a bad one. Several of her fingers scraped against something sharp, slicing her skin open and making her bleed.
There has to be a way into the other compartment from here!
A loud squeaking noise rumbled through the chopper. What was he doing out there? Another round of gunfire, though this time it sounded like it was coming from a different direction.
Her hand grazed over an electric control, and she quickly pressed it down. Relief was instantaneous when the door between the seating compartment and the weapons room began to slide to one side. As soon as she could fit her body through the opening, she threw herself into the darkness.
Straight into a man’s thick, muscular arms.
“Thanks for opening the door, Brooke.” He laughed.
The smell of body odor assaulted her nose as she swung her arms violently, hitting him in the face, but he only grabbed her wrists and cursed loudly in her ear.
“Stop it! I ain’t gonna hurt you.”
She continued to fight and he tightened his hold on her until it was nearly impossible for her to breathe.
“That was real funny what you did, Brooke. Setting me up with that chick and then running away. You’re a goddamn comedian, you know that?”
“Let go of me!” she whimpered, working to get her knee between his legs so she could pop him in the groin.
“I don’t know what the fuck’s gotten into you, but we gotta go see Marco.”
Olivia stopped moving. “Marco?”
“Yeah. He’s been worried sick since your sister told him you didn’t show up at the airport.”
My sister. I have a sister!
The image of a twenty-year-old girl with curling black hair came into her mind.
“Bella?” she asked.
“Yeah. Now are you gonna stop trying to kick me in the nuts so we can get up there, or do I have to restrain you or something?”
“I want to stay here,” she said.
“Well, that ain’t an option.”
“I’m not going back to Marco.”
He smiled. “What, just because you’re banging some guy in the woods, you think you and Acero can’t live happily ever after no more? I won’t say nothing if you don’t.”
She felt sick, the metallic taste back in her mouth. “How do you know about that?”
“I been looking for you, Brooke. And I found you, too, back when I still had the snowmobile. You two’ve been doing without a fire for no good reason.” He chuckled. “And let me tell you, you two are like a couple of really loud rabbits.”
Embarrassment flooded her.
“Now come on, hot lips, it’
s time for us to go up the mountain. I took my snowmobile back after you left today, thank you very much.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“Oh, no? See, here’s what I’m thinking. Marco wants me to find you, so if I find you, we’re good. But if I can’t find you, I’m still in deep shit, so I might bring him your new boyfriend instead.”
Her eyes widened. “Trevor has nothing to do with this.”
“You’re fucking kidding, right?”
“What?”
“Jesus, you ain’t kidding.” He shook his head and laughed. “What are the odds of you dirty dancing with the exact same guy who’s got a beef with Marco?”
Olivia went still, a horrible image beginning to emerge from the dots she’d yet to connect. She swallowed hard. “What do you mean, a beef with Marco?”
“They’ve got a history, those two.”
“Marco and Trevor?”
His brows drew together. “I thought his name was Hawk.”
She suddenly felt dizzy.
Trevor was after Marco.
Marco was the one who killed Trevor’s friend, Ralph.
Trevor’s words came back to her. They’re going to help me go after Ralph’s killer.
“Take me there,” she said.
“I thought you didn’t want to go.”
“Damn it, whoever you are, just take me there! Now!”
32
She looked a little like Brooke, and that was his undoing.
Marco Steele always kept a firm hand on the reins of his emotions. He knew better than to mix business with pleasure, and he sure as hell knew better than to touch the merchandise. But she looked like Brooke, just a little around the eyes, and a hand reached out of the cavernous abyss of loss he’d been skirting since she disappeared.
Mister, you want blow job?
He closed his eyes as he let out a deep growl. She wasn’t doing it right, wasn’t as innocent or experienced or just plain perfect as his Brooke. He pushed the woman’s forehead away and grabbed his dick in his hand, jiggling it. “Lick my balls,” he commanded. “Suck ’em deep into your mouth.”