Little red bugs got inside Patrick’s ankles, traveling up his calf. He cursed that he’d not thought to tie his boots over his pants. The little critters stung and then itched. One or two others had the same thing going on, but the group stayed together, hanging under the cover of trees, which were getting larger and larger the closer they got north.
“Kyle,” Coop whispered.
Everyone gathered around his screen. Due north was an encampment along the edge of a fairly good-sized lake. A large two-story building with bars on the windows was in the center of a clearing. As the drone adjusted focus, they could see a sign hanging at an angle, ready to fall to the ground.
Deto University.
“What the hell?” Coop asked Washington.
“The government claims to have built seventeen colleges with money they got from the U.N.. We could never find one for the nearly billion dollars they got.”
“So, is this the source of their funds? This is no billion-dollar building.” Kyle was stating the obvious.
“Looks like one of the Spanish prisons in Puerto Rico,” Armando added. “Built for the slave traders originally.”
“See if you can get any detail into the windows,” asked Kyle.
Coop skillfully adjusted the directional stick, remotely adjusting the camera lens so photographs could be sent to the crew at the embassy in Abuja. From there it could be uploaded to Washington as well as to the joint task force in Djibouti.
“I don’t want to get too close,” Coop began. “It looks like most of the windows are dark, but… there!”
In the window opening at the upper left of the building, an arm was resting on the sill. The exposed skin was that of a Caucasian male. His torso was in full shade. None of the other windows yielded anything.
Patrick pointed out a pair of black boots sticking out from under an overhang of some kind. They saw an arm waving, and then three people walked out into the bright sunlight, two in African uniforms. One gentleman was walking with a cell phone to his ear. When he finished his call, he lowered the phone, revealing the image of a lion tattooed on his cheek.
“Fuckin’ Johnathan Fortune.”
Coop sent the upload for identification and the call came back that it was indeed the warlord. He was asked to try to get a picture of anyone else nearby. Coop adjusted the angle again, swung around so that the sun was behind the drone, and got a shot of the faces of Fortune’s guests. The other man wore a uniform similar to Fortunes, but the third one, a much smaller man, was in civilian clothes with dark hair and appeared oriental.
A green Russian-made Jeep pulled up the dusty road, parking in front of the concrete building and four men got out. Patrick saw several arms and faces appear in the barred windows.
“Coop, I think you’ve got more prisoners. That’s what this appears to be, a prison.”
Every one of the faces was Caucasian. Coop scanned them slowly, hoping to get better detail but no one in the group of unfortunates appeared familiar. And none of them resembled Connie.
Washington told them there’d been some chatter about Connie late last night, but the detail was non-specific.
“Suppose she’s injured?” Patrick asked. “She could be housed somewhere else.”
They tried to maneuver the drone to get a view of what kind of a structure was under the overhang, but the shadows were too long. The Asian man looked up to the sky.
“Oops. I might have been seen,” Coop muttered. “I’m bringing her home.”
Fortune aimed a pistol at the camera. The men heard the crack of the firearm, but the drone had banked, returning to their position. It landed with little problem just like a model airplane. Coop quickly slid the body of the drone out from the slit in the single wing piece, placed the two parts in his gun cloth, and rolled then tied them up together. He placed them in his backpack, alongside the monitor.
“So much for the element of surprise,” Kyle muttered.
“He’s going to figure someone is out here and will check it out. I say we split up,” offered Washington.
Kyle agreed, waving Armando and Danny forward to scout out a spot they could give cover. They disappeared into the brush without a sound.
“We should wait until dark,” said Washington.
“I agree, but we don’t have that much time. I just hope they aren’t working with the Egyptian. They’d be expecting a night raid, so we have to go in now. Besides, this isn’t heavily fortified. We outnumber them. This might be the first truck in a convoy and then we’d be fucked.”
The sound of a high-powered rifle got the Team’s attention. Coop and Fredo looked at each other and shook their heads. “Kyle, that’s not Danny or Armando,” Fredo reported.
Their LPO split them quickly into four-man teams, sending them to different corners of the complex. He asked them to identify positions to the shooters to avoid a mishap but also to be a source of information about targets. He sent Jameson and Patrick back to the base camp to stay with the vehicles in case they had visitors, ordering them to stay out of sight. Two other men came with them.
Patrick’s group did a fast jog along a dried-up creek bed and then across a field of what used to be well-tilled farmland. They encountered a dead goat with its belly bloated and feet sticking in the air. The animal had been recently shot.
Patrick found evidence of a campsite, the fire still warm, and some bloody rags. But they continued their jog until at last they came upon the edge of Adolphis’ old village and hunkered down low in the wild foliage. They could hear the sounds of a vehicle approaching.
Kyle let them know the team was going in to take over the complex. The sounds of automatic fire were at their backs just as the green transport arrived. Scanning the area, Fortune climbed out and four other men trained their rifles on the brush, taking random shots.
“We gotta get out of here,” said Jameson.
They rolled to take cover behind a burned-out tree stump and watched the men approach their vehicles.
Fortune peered through the glass on the first one, then walked to the rear of the second, which held the soccer balls.
“Can you get that shot?” he asked Jameson.
“I can,” the young shooter agreed, already having them in his sites.
Patrick messaged Kyle. “Can we sacrifice the Suburbans?”
Everyone heard the approval, and within a second, the young kid took dead aim at the gas tanks firing at one and then the other. Fortune ducked, thinking he was the target, just as both vans went up in a fireball ten feet high, and then fell to the ground on top of the shredded bodies of Fortune’s crew.
Jameson notified Kyle, and the chatter was all celebration.
“We’ve cleaned house, too, and have some aid workers. Plus we found Connie. She’s injured, but she’ll be okay.
After waiting for any other enemy to show up, Patrick and the other three SEALs ran to the scene of the soccer bombs. He took out his camera and held it high in one hand while pouring through the carnage until he found the detached head of the man who killed Adolphis’ family. He snapped a picture and sent it off to his friend in London.
It might cost him a future promotion, maybe get him into bigger trouble, but Patrick had to let Adolphis know that the spear had done his job.
Chapter 26
The homecoming was spectacular. Stephanie raced to the airfield and parked along the fence with the other dozen or so SEAL wives. She inched over closer to Christy, who was telling them some general details.
“I’m allowed to tell you they got their target and a whole lot of other information, too. Computers, cash, a whole treasure trove of stuff. And they rescued a dozen international aid workers, including two embassy employees. Ladies, they did really good. We should be proud of them.”
Several wives hugged each other as Christy sauntered over to speak to Stephanie.
“I have a message for you, sweetie,” Christy began. “Your guy was a star. I have no idea what he did, but Kyle said he saved the day.”
“Thanks. That was what he always did on his soccer team. I know he’ll not tell me, but you let me know if you ever find out.” She grabbed Christy and gave her a healthy hug.
“They aren’t always this way. Most the time they just walk in the door and we know they’re home. This one was special for some reason.”
The sound of a bloated body transport was so loud they all covered their ears. The huge plane hovered forever over the runway and then touched down. Stephanie held on to the chain-link fence they were required to stand behind, just like the other ladies present.
One by one, the men ran down the rear ramp and onto the tarmac, and one by one, they ran to the gate guarded by two handsome Marines doing airfield security. The lock was removed, and Stephanie felt arms about her before she saw him.
“Welcome home, hero.”
Patrick pressed her so hard into him, she had to push back. “So how’s your month been?” he asked as he wrapped his arm around her waist, hoisted his duty bag on his other shoulder, and walked in tandem until they arrived at his truck.
“Oh, pretty normal. But I hope you won’t be upset with me.”
He started the truck and cocked his head, frowning. “Not possible. What did you do?”
“I was naughty.”
“Is that all? Well, Stephanie, I was counting on that. Tell me something I’m not expecting. What other little tricks do you have in your treasure trove?”
She smiled. “You’ll see.”
Patrick flew them to London for Christmas, like he’d promised. It was festive being in the land of Dickens, and they even caught a live performance of A Christmas Carol. They went antique shopping and found some boutique children’s shops, purchasing enough for the new baby to need another suitcase for the trip home.
On Sunday, they had tickets to see the Hotspurs play. The fans were rowdy. The riot police were out in full force, separating the sections from each other, and rotated every twenty minutes. A bus was turned over when an opposing group discovered who was on board.
Adolphis met them outside the locker room. He gave Patrick a hug, tears streaming down his face. Patrick introduced her, and the young man nearly bowed.
“He’s da best. Da best goalkeeper ever.”
Stephanie was so proud. “I completely agree.”
Adolphis screamed and picked Patrick up again in a bear hug. “You did it, man. You got that sonofabitch.”
“Not me, the Team. But yes.”
She listened to the two athletes share their memories, their history. It wasn’t until that moment she realized what the mission had meant to the young man who had barely escaped with his life. Patrick reached into his pocket and pulled out a small foil packet, handing it to Adolphis.
“Here you go, kid. Mission accomplished. I took it with me all through BUD/S. I wore it every day during the training, during the Trident ceremony, and I brought it to Africa with me. It now belongs with you.”
The young keeper was overwhelmed, but pushed back the shiny foil package, returning it to Patrick’s possession.
“No, man. It’s yours. We share this. I have my pages and you have yours. You rid the world of one very bad guy who was responsible for many many families being completely wiped out. This gift, I want you to keep. The blood of my family will protect you forever. Thank you, Paddy, my friend.”
“It won’t always be like this. There aren’t always winners like this time. We were lucky, Steph.”
She was tucked under his arm as they stood in the massive oak-paneled suite overlooking Big Ben. “I suspected as much. But what a way to start your new career.”
“I wish everyone always came back safe, whole, and the mission achieved. But the world is not like that.” He kissed the top of her head.
“Until then, we move on, and we celebrate what we can. Ryan would have liked this,” she said.
His slight reflexive inhale told her he hadn’t expected that comment. “I have to tell you something, Steph. He was with me. He came with us all. Does that sound nuts?”
“Not at all. If it wasn’t for Ryan, you and I would have never met, Patrick.”
He shook his head. “Nah. I’d have spotted you and that little pink lunchbox eventually. You were always destined to be mine.”
About the Author
Sharon Hamilton
NYT and USA Today best-selling author Sharon Hamilton’s award-winning Navy SEAL Brotherhood series have been a fan favorite from the day the first one was released. They’ve earned her the coveted Amazon author ranking of #1 in Romantic Suspense, Military Romance and Contemporary Romance categories, as well as in Gothic Romance for her Vampires of Tuscany and Guardian Angels. Her characters follow a sometimes rocky road to redemption through passion and true love.
Now that he’s out of the Navy, Sharon can share with her readers that her son spent a decade as a Navy SEAL, and he’s the inspiration for her books.
Her Golden Vampires of Tuscany are not like any vamps you’ve read about before, since they don’t go to ground and can walk around in the full light of the sun.
Her Guardian Angels struggle with the human charges they are sent to save, often escaping their vanilla world of Heaven for the brief human one. You won’t find any of these beings in any Sunday school class.
She lives in Sonoma County, California with her husband and her Doberman, Tucker. A lifelong organic gardener, when she’s not writing, she’s getting verra verra dirty in the mud, or wandering Farmers Markets looking for new Heirloom varieties of vegetables and flowers. She and her husband plan to cure their wanderlust (or make it worse) by traveling in their Diesel Class A Pusher, Romance Rider. Starting with this book, all her writing will be done on the road.
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Life is one fool thing after another.
Love is two fool things after each other.
Reviews
PRAISE FOR THE
GOLDEN VAMPIRES OF TUSCANY SERIES
“Well to say the least I was thoroughly surprise. I have read many Vampire books, from Ann Rice to Kym Grosso and few other Authors, so yes I do like Vampires, not the super scary ones from the old days, but the new ones are far more interesting far more human then one can remember. I found Honeymoon Bite a totally engrossing book, I was not able to put it down, page after page I found delight, love, understanding, well that is until the bad bad Vamp started being really bad. But seeing someone love another person so much that they would do anything to protect them, well that had me going, then well there was more and for a while I thought it was the end of a beautiful love story that spanned not only time but, spanned Italy and California. Won’t divulge how it ended, but I d
id shed a few tears after screaming but Sharon Hamilton did not let me down, she took me on amazing trip that I loved, look forward to reading another Vampire book of hers.”
“An excellent paranormal romance that was exciting, romantic, entertaining and very satisfying to read. It had me anticipating what would happen next many times over, so much so I could not put it down and even finished it up in a day. The vampires in this book were different from your average vampire, but I enjoy different variations and changes to the same old stuff. It made for a more unpredictable read and more adventurous to explore! Vampire lovers, any paranormal readers and even those who love the romance genre will enjoy Honeymoon Bite.”
“This is the first non-Seal book of this author’s I have read and I loved it. There is a cast-like hierarchy in this vampire community with humans at the very bottom and Golden vampires at the top. Lionel is a dark vampire who are servants of the Goldens. Phoebe is a Golden who has not decided if she will remain human or accept the turning to become a vampire. Either way she and Lionel can never be together since it is forbidden.
I enjoyed this story and I am looking forward to the next installment.”
“A hauntingly romantic read. Old love lost and new love found. Family, heart, intrigue and vampires. Grabbed my attention and couldn’t put down. Would definitely recommend.”
PRAISE FOR THE
SEAL BROTHERHOOD SERIES
“Fans of Navy SEAL romance, I found a new author to feed your addiction. Finely written and loaded delicious with moments, Sharon Hamilton’s storytelling satisfies like a thick bar of chocolate.” —Marliss Melton, bestselling author of the Team Twelve Navy SEALs series
“Sharon Hamilton does an EXCELLENT job of fitting all the characters into a brotherhood of SEALS that may not be real but sure makes you feel that you have entered the circle and security of their world. The stories intertwine with each book before…and each book after and THAT is what makes Sharon Hamilton’s SEAL Brotherhood Series so very interesting. You won’t want to put down ANY of her books and they will keep you reading into the night when you should be sleeping. Start with this book…and you will not want to stop until you’ve read the whole series and then…you will be waiting for Sharon to write the next one.” (5 Star Review)
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