Men of Mercy: The Complete Story

by Cross, Lindsay

  “Shane-”

  “You filthy whore. I'm out risking my life. Held hostage, tortured, starved, and what are you doing?” Shane’s upper lip curled, a bulldog ready to bite. “Did you even wait for them to put the coffin in the ground before you started fucking him?”

  Her heart tha-thunked at his deadly accurate bombs of guilt. Targeting her conscious with precision. The effect was like a percussion grenade had gone off in her body. Amy jerked. Unable to contain the physical reaction of his accusations. “Whore? You were screwing Hayden, a damn teenager, while you were home! At least I never cheated on you. I didn’t get with Ranger until long after I saw the DNA evidence that you were dead.”

  Shane emitted a wild and animalistic snarl that sent her pulse skittering. He looked at her like a starved rabid wolf who’d spotted a wounded doe. And just like a predator, he advanced, pushing her bodily against the wall and pinning her there with an arm at her throat.

  She choked, barely able to breathe beneath the painful pressure. Shane lifted his free hand, his spit splattered on her face when he spoke. “You mean this DNA evidence? The evidence they sent using a pair of dull wire cutters?”

  Amy stared at the missing pinky and ring fingers on Shane’s left hand and in their place a jagged scar. Nausea erupted on the tail of horror at his torture. “Oh, my God. What did they do to you?”

  Shane leaned in, his face not even an inch from hers. “I don’t think you really care what they did. Not since you’ve been so busy spreading your legs. I won’t be able to walk through the streets of my own home town now that you have defiled my name.”

  Shane threw her across the room and she landed in the middle of the living room on her hands and knees. Her shoulder slammed into the overturned coffee table. Pain shot up her legs and arms. She lay there, stunned at his violence.

  Who was this man?

  He advanced and she scrambled away on all fours, unable to get her feet under her. The couch could provide an obstacle between them. It wouldn’t keep her safe, but it would give her precious seconds. The foreboding she’d felt, the intuition something was wrong, came rolling in fast. Shane wasn’t just mad. He was unstable.

  She’d hoped to talk to him, explain her feelings. Introduce him to his daughter. But this wasn’t Shane resurrected like he was before. He’d come back…wrong.

  She heard his heavy footsteps and practically stumbled behind the couch, jumped to her feet and held on to the piece of furniture for support and armor. Shane’s shoulders heaved, his shirt hanging loose on his body.

  “You’re going to pay for betraying me. And then when I’m done with you, I’ll finish him.” Shane dove over the couch and Amy screamed. She ran blind, trying to get away. She should have listened to Ranger.

  Shane grabbed her hair and ripped her back. She clutched her scalp, the burning pain, but he just pulled harder. Winding her hair around his fist until she was forced next to him, her head yanked backwards. “Shane, you’re hurting me.”

  “You have no idea what pain is.” He jerked her down to her knees. “You have no idea what it feels like to watch someone cut your fingers off while you beg for them to stop.”

  His slap caught her unprepared. Stinging pain radiated across her face and the taste of blood filled her mouth.

  “You have no idea what it’s like to go with no food for so long you forget what things taste like. Locked in a hole. You forget your own name.”

  Amy braced for another blow, but it didn’t come. Shane seemed to shake himself. “No one survives that.” He looked down at her again, this time his eyes weren’t full of hate. They were empty.

  “Shane. Please stop.” Amy trembled, knowing deep down the blank look was far worse than the anger.

  “Don’t call me that. Never again. Shane is dead.”

  “What? I thought you were dead, but you’re not. You’re right here.” He was crazy. Ranger had been right. She had to escape. Now. If she could distract him, maybe, somehow, she could run. Get to her truck.

  Shane started walking, dragging her by the hair across the floor. She tried to get up from her knees but he kept going. Her scalp was on fire. “Shane, stop!”

  Amy did her best to catch up with him, but she was no match for his speed or power. His smaller size had done nothing to diminish his strength. “I am no longer Shane. I am Abdullah Asad Nassar. And you are an adulterer who must be punished.”

  He wasn’t wrong. He wasn’t broken. He was insane.

  Amy screamed again but it didn’t affect him in the least. He continued dragging her through the living room and when she realized his destination, their bedroom, dread filled her stomach. What kind of punishment did he intend? “Please, you can’t do this. I’m your wife.”

  She kicked, scrambled, anything to get a foothold and rise, but he already crossed the threshold into their bedroom. He threw her near the foot of the bed. Her shoulder hit the hardwood floor, her skull cracked against the bedpost. Agony exploded through her head. Dazed, she lay there, unable to make her body work. The room seemed to flicker dark then light. Amy groaned and rolled onto her back.

  Not her husband.

  Shane squatted beside her and gently brushed her hair from her face. She longed to turn away from him, but her head hurt too much.

  “You are my wife. But you are a sinner who must be punished and when I’m sure you have been cleansed, then we can start anew. In my new home.” Shane spoke to her calm and collected, as if he hadn’t just thrown her around like a rag doll.

  “This is my home.” Amy managed to croak out.

  Shane smiled, for the first time, and she cringed. “No. Your home is with your husband. You will return with me to my true country.”

  “You’re insane.” There would be no reasoning with him. No anything.

  His crazed smile disappeared and was quickly replaced with an impenetrable mask. “You will not speak to me this way.”

  He slapped her again. “You will realize that as a woman you must bow to your husband. You cannot help but do so. I know it is different than you are used to, but I will teach you.”

  She licked the trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth. “Screw you.”

  “You will, wife. You will.”

  Shane stood and she had the brief thought that maybe she was the insane one. She watched, transfixed as he pulled a booted foot back. Time seemed to slow. Her heart pounded hard and she clenched her muscles tight. His foot flew forward and buried in her side. Agony unlike any she’d felt before exploded through her ribs.

  She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move. Couldn’t do anything but ball up on the floor and fight for breath.

  Shane knelt at her side again, sweeping the backs of his fingers across her cheek. “This is Allah’s will. We must obey Him. My master taught me the true path to righteousness is through pain, and so, as your master, I shall teach you.”

  Chapter 35

  “Dammit!” Ranger slammed into his brother’s house, ready to destroy anything in sight.

  “Come on, tell me how you really feel.” Hunter appeared in the kitchen, his stance relaxed.

  “I’ll fucking tell you. Shane Carter. Is. Alive.”

  Hunter’s relaxed pose disappeared. “What?”

  “I can’t fucking believe it. I just can’t believe it.” Ranger paced to the refrigerator, grabbed a beer and downed the whole thing. He silently prayed the day would rewind, and he would wake up, surrounded by Amy’s soft scent.

  “You wanna run that one by me again? ‘Cause I swear you said Shane was alive.”

  “You heard me. I woke up this morning in his bed. Naked with his fucking wife.” Ranger threw the empty beer bottle, watching with no satisfaction as the glass shattered against the kitchen wall.

  Hunter got in his face and grabbed his arms. “Have you lost it? Shane Carter is dead. D.E.A.D. Dead. You saw the DNA evidence.”

  Ranger snorted and jerked away, immediately going for another beer. Maybe the alcohol could numb some of the pai
n. Ranger popped the top. Maybe if he drank enough he could pass out. “Apparently, our intelligent CIA isn’t so intelligent. They checked the fingers alright. And they were his. Want to know how I know? Cause the fist the fucker punched me in the face with was missing two fingers.”

  “Jesus Christ.” Hunter reached past him and grabbed a beer.

  “Exactly. Amy is at home with Shane. Alone.” Ranger suddenly realized how quiet the house was. “Where’s Chloe and Arturo?”

  “Evie took ‘em over to Hank’s to play. Maxine was there and wanted to see the kids.”

  “Good. I don’t want Chloe going near Shane until I know he’s okay.”

  “How the hell did he get here? And after all this time?” Hunter asked.

  “I don’t know, but something isn’t right.” Ranger shook his head, trying to clear the all-consuming rage from his mind so he could think straight.

  “You bet your sweet ass it isn’t. Why the hell aren’t you at headquarters having Hoyt pull surveillance?”

  Shit. Because he’d been so wrapped up in jealousy he’d forgotten about the danger.

  “I’m going now. I’ll clean the glass up later.”

  “Forget the glass. Get in the truck, I’m going with you.”

  A few minutes later, Ranger and Hunter parked in front of the pole barn that housed their current headquarters.

  “No one answered their phone, I’ll try again once we’re inside.” Hunter slapped a palm over the hand scanner and unlocked the steel entry door.

  “Don’t bother.” Ranger stepped inside and nodded to their team.

  “Dude, glad you two are here. I’ve been getting all kinds of traffic on Al Seriq’s network. Something big is up.” Hoyt spun around in his chair, putting his back to the computer screens.

  “We think he’s made contact somehow with Brown and has sent someone to pick up the weapons.” Merc straightened from his bent over perch at the table. Multiple maps and profiles lay scattered all over its surface.

  “Right. Grey is on the way from Ft. Grenada. ETA is about ten minutes,” Hoyt said.

  Riser, Aaron and Jared strode out of the weapons locker in the back, big black duffle bags in each of their hands. Jared said, “Just in time for the gun show, boys. Looks like Brown’s gonna have to move the weapons and when he does…”

  “I’ll be there with my M32,” Riser finished.

  “You’re gonna bring a grenade launcher?” Aaron asked.

  “Shit yeah, bro. Been waiting over a year to use this baby.” Riser lifted the M32 grenade launcher from the duffle bag, and held it in the upright position, nozzle pointed at the ceiling.

  “Put it away. That thing has a kill radius of ten yards.” Jared backed up a step, putting himself behind Riser and the huge weapon.

  “Don’t worry, I’m saving the rounds for my favorite sheriff.”

  “Wait, Hoyt, show me what video you’ve got of the movement at Al Seriq’s camp.” Ranger strode up to Hoyt’s computer center. It looked like a miniaturized version of NASA.

  “How far back?”

  “Give me footage from eight months ago.”

  Hoyt cast him a quizzical look but did as Ranger asked. “Hunter, come here.”

  Ranger leaned over Hoyt’s shoulder, studying the images. Most were taken from a distance. A few of Al Seriq talking to different men already known to be in his command. Hoyt started scrolling forward. “There wasn’t much from this time frame.”

  “Stop,” Ranger commanded. “Right there.” He pointed at the last monitor. A grainy photo of Al Seriq, standing on a concrete balcony overlooking his court yard. Multiple combatants trained below, but it was the man standing next to Seriq that held Ranger’s interest. “Who is that?”

  Hoyt clicked and zoomed in. “Can’t tell, he’s covered too much for our facial recognition to get a good read.”

  Dammit. “Okay, keep going.”

  There were too many coincidences to discount. Ranger fully expected to see something, anything.

  “Wanna tell me who exactly you’re looking for? If it’s Mr. J, don’t waste your time. I already ran every possible image against his and came up empty. If he is still alive, and that is a big fucking if, he ain’t showing up near Seriq or his followers.”

  “Not Mr. J.”

  Hoyt crossed his arms and turned to Ranger. “I’m not budging until you tell me who.”

  Ranger squeezed the table, crushing it under the force of his grip. The man threatening my woman.

  “Shane.”

  All eyes turned to Hunter.

  Ranger stood, shoved a hand through his hair and sighed. “He’s alive. He showed up this morning.”

  “What?”

  “Where? How?”

  “At his house,” Ranger said.

  “Were you there?” Aaron asked.

  “I was in bed with Amy.” Ranger dropped the info and waited for the atomic bomb to explode.

  “Holy shit, dude,” Hoyt said.

  “Are you sure it was him?” Merc stepped forward and the rest fell silent, all eyes turning on Ranger.

  “Yes, I’m as certain as the black eye he gave me.”

  Jared let out a whistle. “Talk about a cluster fuck.”

  Ranger resisted the urge to scream and instead said, “We had been together, the night before, when I woke up he was just sitting at the foot of the bed. Staring at me.”

  The moment replayed over and over in Ranger’s mind, the worst movie he’d ever had the misfortune to see. That sinking sensation that the world he’d come to know with Amy was over.

  “What did you do?” Hoyt asked.

  “I tried to keep it together. For her. But I kept getting this bad vibe from Shane. Something was way off.”

  The door slid open and the whole group turned to see Grey stride in. A call sound trilled from Hoyt’s computer. Gray kept striding forward and said, “Answer it.”

  Hoyt spun around, clicked some keys and took the video call on the back wall of monitors for the whole team to see. Grey strode to the meeting table in the middle of the room and hit the speaker in the center. “Go ahead.”

  Mr. K, Team Scorpion’s new handler appeared on the screens. His normally expressionless face was haggard. “Hoyt, I just had my man send you the intel. Pull it up so you can all see it.”

  “What is going on?” Grey demanded and crossed his arms.

  “You won’t believe me until I show you the picture. Hell, I didn’t believe it myself until our cyber forensics team confirmed it.”

  A huge ball of dread formed in the pit of Ranger’s stomach. Somehow, he knew. He knew before the picture even appeared on the screen. Too many coincidences. Too many surprises. “Fucking hell.”

  No one paid him any attention. All gazes were riveted on the blown up black and white surveillance image of a man in an airport. The image was grainy and way less than high definition, but the man was as clear as a cloudless sky.

  “No way,” Riser said.

  “Meet Seriq’s newest right hand man. Abdullah Asad Nassar, otherwise known as, Shane Carter.” Mr. K’s voice came over the comm and the room fell silent. “We lost track of him after that, but I know he’s in the U.S. I need your team to find him.”

  “Already done. I know exactly where he is.” Ranger felt every single nerve fire. He’d been so wrong to leave Amy alone with him. With her husband. A terrorist.

  “How?” Mr. K asked.

  “I saw him this morning.”

  “When the hell were you going to inform me?” Grey turned stunned eyes on Ranger.

  “Now. That is why I’m here. He came to his house. I knew something was off, so I came here, looking for answers.”

  “Well you’ve damn well got them. You need to move. Now. He’s more than likely been tortured and turned. And if that is true, anyone close to him is in danger,” Mr. K said.

  “Amy,” Ranger breathed her name out.

  His pulse skyrocketed. He’d fucking left her with a psycho.

 
“Easy, bro. We know where he is. We know exactly who is with him. How much easier can it get?” Hunter pulled Ranger’s attention from his self-recrimination.

  “If anything happens to her.” Ranger couldn’t finish the sentence. The thought was too painful.

  “I know. That’s why we go in together, and we go in prepared. He won’t be expecting an assault this early.”

  “My team here has been tracking all footage from your area. Heat signals. Nuclear. Anything we can find. If our estimates are correct, you better find Shane soon, cause if Brown has what we think he has, this isn’t just a shipment of automatic rifles,” Mr. K said. Another image replaced that of Shane, Abdullah, walking into the airport. This image was taken from a satellite. There were five very large, very obvious heat signatures.

  “We randomly stumbled on this around the time Marcus Carvant was killed. He’d kept it at your local paper mill, hidden in with the barges.”

  Ranger stepped closer to the screens. “What is it?”

  “Long range missiles, capable of taking out an entire city. And capable of reaching the U.S. from another country.”

  “Son of a bitch.” Ranger couldn’t believe it. No way. This whole time, they’d been under the inclination that Marcus and Brown had guns. But not bombs.

  “I don’t need to tell you what will happen if Seriq gets his hands on these,” Mr. K said.

  “No, sir. We will recover the weapons, and we will recover Shane Carter.” Grey turned to face the team. Each man there nodded his agreement.

  “Do whatever it takes to keep these bombs out of their hands.” Mr. K signed off. The bank of screens on the back wall flashed, the bomb signatures seemed to glow.

  “You heard him. Gear up, get the fuck out of here and get me those damn weapons.” Grey walked over to the table and rifled through the papers.

  “Right, I think Ranger should take lead,” Hunter said.

  “I agree, he knows the lay out of the house better than any of us. He knows Shane the best. And Amy.” Merc pulled a black duffle over his shoulder.