by L. T. Ryan
Bear hesitated. He couldn’t exactly tell her Seamus disappeared but that he knew he was okay. That information had come from Mr. Jones. “He’s good. His friend Annie picked him up. They’re both safe and they’re going to lay low.”
“Bear—”
“I don’t like it any more than you do,” he said. “But it’s the best I could do in the moment. Besides, we have a bigger problem.”
“The flash drive?”
“Yep.” Bear patted his pocket to reassure himself it was still in there. “It looks like the Irish gang wanted to use some abandoned tunnel to house and transport their drugs, but there was a little bit of territory dispute.”
“With who?” she asked.
“Our favorite group of unidentified terrorists. Turns out this flash drive belonged to them. They have plans to blow the tunnel to kingdom come.”
Sadie was silent for a minute. “But why would the flash drive be buried in the front yard of the apartment building? They wouldn’t have planted it there, which means—”
Bear was just about to confirm her greatest fear, that one or more of her men might’ve been working for the other side, when a thin wire passed down in front of his eyes and tightened around his throat. Bear dropped his phone and scrambled to pull at the garrote, but it was already cutting into his neck, slicing at his skin until he started bleeding.
Bear was used to fighting for his life, but usually he saw death coming at him head first. This time, he barely had time to assess the situation before his air supply started to run out.
22
As the wire sunk deeper into his neck, Bear knew he only had one option: stop struggling. His body screamed to fight back, but he knew it would just make the situation worse. With the garrote tight around his throat, Bear had to find a way to loosen it without causing more damage.
Instead of pulling away, Bear pressed himself against the back of the bench. He brought up first one foot, and then the other. He pushed with all his strength, forcing himself backwards over the bench. He collapsed on top of the person behind him and immediately the garrote loosened around his neck. Bear didn’t waste his opportunity.
Bear flipped over and pinned the man who had nearly killed him. He had dark golden skin, a clean-shaven face, and wore dark clothes, black gloves, and a hat that barely covered his brown hair.
Bear took this all in within seconds, delivering several punches to the guy’s face. There was a grunt, then an exhalation of air. The man was out for now, but it wouldn’t last long.
Feeling that his eyes were wild as he looked up, Bear took in his surroundings. Four other figures emerged from the shadows, all dressed similarly to the first man. Each one of them had Middle-Eastern features, wore black street clothes, and had on gloves and a cap. Three of them wielded knives, while the fourth had a garrote just like the first man.
Bear knew they meant business, and weren’t amateurs, when all four of them attacked at once. He barely had enough time to react before they were on him, but the bench that had nearly been his undoing a few seconds earlier was now his salvation.
Hopping to the other side, Bear kept it between him and the four attacking men. It forced them to split up into pairs and circle around, but it bought Bear just enough time to get his bearings and formulate a plan. It was a pretty basic plan, but a plan nonetheless.
Don’t die.
Jack would’ve appreciated the simplicity of it, and for a moment, Bear wanted more than anything to see his friend materialize out of the darkness to stand at his side. Jack loved a good fight, and even though he was a crazy son of a bitch, he had a habit of winning them.
Bear hoped his own luck wasn’t about to run out.
The pair on the left moved first, so Bear took them head on. He jabbed one in the neck and followed it up with a strike to the guy’s nose, leaving him unable to breathe and see. His partner swung wide, attempting to take Bear out. He blocked the attack. The first man recovered more quickly than Bear anticipated and his knife found Bear’s arm.
With a grunt, Bear pushed back at the second man’s elbow and snapped his arm. There was a scream, but Bear cut it off with a jab to the throat that left the guy gagging for air. Bear turned his attention back to the man who’d stabbed him and didn’t waste any time. A Spartan kick to the chest was enough to knock him down and give Bear the room he needed to turn his attention back to the second pair of men, who were creeping up behind him.
Bear grabbed for the man with the garrote, who made excellent armor against the other one with the knife. A perfect blow to the chest meant Bear felt the life slip away from his human shield, but it also took one more person out of the equation.
Removing his weapon from the chest of his friend, the man swung at Bear and caught him across the chest. Another slice of pain sharpened Bear’s vision. It was like everything slowed down to a snail’s pace. He could see the trajectory of the man’s next move like there was a neon sign with a step-by-step guide.
Bear ducked the attack and tackled the man, throwing him against the edge of the bench. There was a loud pop and a howl of pain. The force had been enough to break something, but Bear wasn’t in the mood to take chances. He wrested the knife from the man’s hand and buried it to the hilt in the side of his neck.
That was another one down.
As Bear crawled off the second dead man, someone sliced at his arm again, cutting across the wound that was already there. An involuntary scream left his lips, but he didn’t wait to register the full extent of the pain. Instead, he turned to find the man he’d Spartan kicked was back for more.
Bear was only too happy to oblige.
Without a weapon, he had to dodge the other man’s harried attempts to slice and dice him. But it only took one wrong move to give Bear the opening he needed. Off balance from a missed slash, the man couldn’t jump back quickly enough to stop Bear from grabbing his wrist and wrested the knife from him. A stab to the gut, the chest, and finally through the center of his neck was enough to make the third man fall.
Two more to go.
The one with the broken arm had switched his weapon to his other hand. He was less of a threat now that his dominant arm was out of commission, but Bear could also see the first man, the one who’d tried to get a jump on him with the garrote, rising from the pavement, his face a bloody mess.
Bear ignored the pain in his arm and his chest and chose to go for the easy shot. He struck out with his fist, connecting with the man’s broken elbow. That’s all it took to bring him to his knees, where Bear took his neck and snapped it. The man slumped to the ground.
“You don’t have to die like your friends,” Bear said, turning to the final man. He picked up the remaining knife and held it with a reverse grip, the blade out toward his enemy. “We can talk this out.”
The remaining man didn’t bother answering. He rounded the bench, garrote in hand, keeping his center of gravity low. His face was still bleeding, but his eyes were wide. The injuries were superficial, which meant he was automatically better off than Bear.
Instead of waiting to be on the defensive, Bear attacked. He launched forward and swiped for the man’s neck. But his opponent was quick, using Bear’s momentum to knock him sideways and off-balance. While Bear righted himself, the other man wrapped the wire around his neck again, fitting it along the bloody line it had already carved earlier in the fight.
It wasn’t ideal, but at least the man was closer now. Bear twisted around, ignoring the searing pain across his neck, and drove the knife into his opponent’s side. He could feel it meeting flesh and bone, but the other man didn’t loosen his grip.
Bear pulled the knife free and drove it forward again. But instead of jumping away, the man just leaned back and pulled on the wire even harder. With it digging into his skin and cutting off his air, Bear made one final attempt. He freed the knife and then drove it up into the man’s armpit.
It was enough to loosen the garrote. Bear pulled free of the weapon, twisted around, an
d drove the knife into the man’s chest for the final time. That kept him down for good.
Five to zero. Bear’s favor.
23
Bear was in a daze when the cops arrived. Sadie showed up within a few minutes and deescalated the entire situation. He didn’t bother listening. The pain in his shoulder and chest filled his mind. It was easier if he didn’t move. Easier if he concentrated on the mechanics of the fight rather than the results.
Before he knew it, Bear was sitting in the back of an ambulance while someone checked him out. Sadie was staring at him, disbelief in her eyes.
“What?” he asked. It sounded like his voice was at the end of a tunnel.
“What do you mean what? Bear, do you know what you look like right now?”
Bear looked down at his chest. He was covered in blood and he was pretty sure most of it wasn’t his. His face felt raw and his knuckles were bruised. “Like shit?”
She laughed. “Yeah, like shit. You’re gonna need stitches.”
“No hospitals.”
Sadie said, “Bear, those cuts on your arm are deep. You need stitches. Probably antibiotics to stave off infection.”
Bear shook his head but didn’t verbally argue. He knew he’d be in bigger trouble if he didn’t get fixed up before going back into the fray.
“I’ll meet you there, okay?” Sadie said. She looked back at the bloody scene behind them and then returned her gaze to Bear. “Let me just make sure we’re wrapped up here, and then we’ll talk, okay?”
Bear nodded and allowed himself to be placed on a stretcher. Sadie walked away, casting a furtive glance over her shoulder, while Bear was lifted into the ambulance and taken to the hospital at top speed.
The rest was a blur. He remembered arriving in the emergency room, assuring everyone that it looked worse than it felt. Still, he didn’t say no to the pain meds they put him on. It made his whole body feel like it had been submerged in a warm bath.
There were no broken bones and no concussion. A cute nurse with her wavy hair in a ponytail told jokes while she stitched him up. He chuckled in all the right parts, and when she left, he settled back with a smile on his face.
But it was short lived.
Sadie popped in twenty minutes later, looking relieved. “It’s nice to see you’re no longer covered in blood.”
Bear made a noncommittal sound and Sadie frowned.
“You’ve been acting weird since earlier tonight.” She pulled the singular chair closer to his bed and sat down. “What’s wrong? Did something else happen?”
Maybe it was the pain medication or maybe Bear was just tired of not getting direct answers. Either way, he decided he was done playing games. “You hired Mr. Jones to follow me.”
Sadie froze, and then closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. “You weren’t supposed to find out about that.”
“Clearly.”
“It’s not what you think.”
“And what do I think it is?”
“Look, Bear, I know how you feel. I know what this job does to us. The constant paranoia. I know you count the number of people you trust on one hand, and at the end of the day the only person you’ve ever been able to really rely on is Jack. I know this probably made you question a lot of our interactions, especially given what happened in Korea.”
She wasn’t wrong, but Bear wasn’t going to admit that.
“I’m just worried,” Sadie said. “About you and Jack. I feel like something else is going on here. Something behind the scenes that neither one of us can see. Mr. Jones is a good contact. He knows almost everything that goes on in London.”
“Does he know about Jack?” Bear asked.
She smiled but it was filled with sadness. “I said almost everything.”
“Figures.”
“I didn’t want to tell you because I knew you wouldn’t appreciate me worrying about you. And I thought it would be best if no one else knew about Mr. Jones’ involvement except for me.”
“Because—”
“No.” Sadie’s voice was firm. “Before you say it, the answer is no.”
Bear threw up his one good arm. “You don’t even know what I was going to say.”
“You were going to say, because you don’t trust me to keep my mouth shut or something like that.”
“I do not sound like that,” Bear said. “I’m offended.”
“Am I right?” she asked.
Bear tried to lie, but he couldn’t grasp the right words.
“Exactly,” Sadie said. She had a smug smile on her face, but she sobered quickly. “It had nothing to do with how much I trust you. I had a feeling this would all go to shit, and I needed someone on the outside to keep me informed. The fewer people who knew about it, the better. I was just trying to keep you safe.”
“I don’t appreciate the methods,” Bear said. “But I appreciate the gesture.”
“Noted.” Sadie looked like she was searching for the right words before finally landing on, “I’m sorry.”
“But this is about more than just keeping me safe,” Bear said. “It’s also about Jack.”
Sadie opened her mouth to argue, but closed it and nodded. A slight blush crept into her cheeks.
“What’s going on between you two?” Bear grunted as he shifted in his bed. “I mean, really?”
“Nothing.” When Bear looked skeptical, Sadie became insistent. “Really. Nothing. I care about him. I think he cares about me, too…”
“He does.”
She raised an eyebrow, but kept going. “But nothing is going on between us. I don’t even think I want there to be anything between us. Jack is—”
“A pain in the ass?”
“Complicated,” Sadie said, but she was smiling. “And I don’t need more complications in my life.”
“So, after this?” Bear asked. He had trouble saying it, trouble believing it, but he forced the words out anyway. “After we find him?”
Sadie threw back her head and laughed. “Oh, you’re not getting rid of me that easily.”
“Good.” Bear met her eyes when he said it. “You’re turning out to be almost as big of a pain in the ass as Jack. Maybe that’s why I like you.”
Sadie’s face fell. “I owe you guys a lot after Costa Rica.”
“Stop. Don’t start that.”
“But,” Sadie continued, giving Bear a stern look, “it’s more than that. If there were more people like you two in the world, it would be a better place.”
“I’m not so sure about that. But I’ll take the compliment.” He glanced down at himself. “Might be the only way I can get you to leave me alone so I can enjoy what’s left of the buzz from the pain meds.”
Sadie cleared her throat and pulled her phone out of her pocket. “Fat chance. Maybe then we can get down to business?”
“Thank Christ,” Bear said, but he was grateful for their heart-to-heart. “What’ve you got?”
“We think we’ve got some information on the terrorists.”
“You think?” Bear asked.
Sadie gave him a half-hearted shrug. “Kind of hard to know. They’re basically neo jihadists. It’s a new faction that’s popped up in London whose ideals are more aggressive and forward thinking than traditional jihadist motivations.”
“More aggressive?” Bear had first-hand experience with these guys. “Is that possible?”
“Oh, it’s possible.” Sadie swiped through some screens on her phone. “They’re less concerned about spreading their political agenda and more interested in watching the world burn. We’re talking about major targeted violence with the most destruction possible.”
“Which explains the plans for the tunnel,” Bear said.
“Do you have the flash drive still?”
Bear reached for his shirt and pulled the drive from his pocket and handed it over. “It’s all yours.”
Sadie tucked it away. “I’ll hand this off to Director Winters. They should be able to locate the tunnel based off the
blueprints and make sure it’s under lock and key moving forward.”
Sadie’s phone buzzed in her hand. “Speak of the devil,” she said before answering. “Hello?”
Bear watched as Sadie’s face went from passive to excited to determined. She put one hand over the mouthpiece on her cell and leaned toward Bear.
“We know where our Marine is.”
24
It took some convincing, but Sadie eventually gave in to Bear’s insistence that he accompany her to track down the Marine. Winters and her available men were busy trying to stop a potential terrorist attack on the city, so Sadie would’ve been chasing down the lead on her own. It wasn’t that Bear didn’t trust her to take care of business. He just didn’t like the idea that some discharged Marine was walking around the city, throwing his weight behind the very people he used to fight against.
It was personal.
Bear’s wounds were fairly superficial, so the hospital couldn’t hold him against his will. By the time he was released, a courier arrived from Winters to take the flash drive back to MI5 headquarters so they could start locating the tunnel that had become such a hot spot for criminal activity.
Now Sadie was speeding away from the hospital and toward the location Winters had provided her. If all went according to plan, they’d get their Marine and discover exactly how he was involved in the fire and the missing agents.
“Where are we headed?” Bear asked, adjusting his seatbelt so it didn’t rub against the wounds on his chest and arm.
Sadie cast a quick glance at him before returning her eyes to the road. “I don’t feel good about this, Bear. Your stitches have only been in for a couple of hours.”
“I’ll be fine,” he said.
“I’m more worried about not having reliable backup,” she said, but her voice was light.
“We both know you can handle an idiot,” Bear said. “And I can still shoot a gun. I’ve got a couple light scratches, that’s all.”
“Light scratches,” she repeated. Bear could practically feel her roll her eyes, but she changed the subject. “We’re heading out to a private airfield. One of Miller’s known aliases popped up and the owner of the airfield happens to be former military. He’s stalling him until we arrive.”