Griff: Hell Squad #17

by Hackett, Anna

  “Griff—”

  He made a sound and punched a fist into the wall above her head. The plaster cracked.

  She flinched, her heart thudding hard in her chest.

  “I should have known you’d push.” He sucked in a sharp breath. “Amelia is a memory. She was what I thought I wanted, and although I was committed, she wasn’t.”

  Indy waited, biting her lip.

  “Don’t be afraid of me,” he whispered.

  “I’m not.” She lifted her chin. “I’m made of tougher stuff than that ex of yours. I can put up with your shit, Griff. Your anger, your bad manners, your grumpiness.”

  He laughed abruptly and looked surprised that he had. He cupped her cheek, his anger fading. “Indy. Bright, gorgeous Indy.”

  She saw something flicker in his gray eyes.

  “What are you hiding from me?” she asked.

  He closed his eyes.

  “Did…did someone hurt you in prison…sexually? If they did—”

  “No.” He sucked in a breath. “That doesn’t mean some didn’t try. But I was a mean motherfucker.”

  “I was so afraid for you. And Gareth, well, he refused to talk about it.” She felt Griff stiffen. She blinked. The tension wound around them. She frowned. “Griff—”

  He gripped her chin. “I’ll protect you, Indy.” As he looked at her face, a fierce look entered his eyes. His lips brushed hers. “I’ll protect you from everything, no matter what.”

  She sensed the heartfelt promise in his words. But she also heard the echo of something else beneath the surface. Something she wasn’t quite grasping. “No.”

  He stilled again.

  “I don’t need protecting. I’m here for you, and I want you to talk to me.”

  “Leave it.” The sharp tone was back.

  “You need to talk about it. About prison, about what sent you in there, about losing your career—”

  “Fuck!” He stepped back, running a hand through his hair.

  The explosion made her pull in a careful breath. “Griff—”

  “It was Gareth!”

  The air froze around her, and Indy’s heart started to pound. “What?”

  Griff cursed again. “I swore I’d never tell you. Never hurt you.”

  She shook her head. “What do you mean, it was Gareth?”

  Griff’s shoulders drooped. “He was the one who betrayed me.”

  Shock vibrated through her and she gasped. “No.”

  There was misery in Griff’s eyes. “He got messed up with cops taking drugs from evidence. He killed one of them, framed me to take the fall.”

  She shook her head. No, not her bright, reckless brother. Then she remembered how he’d refused to talk about Griff once Griff was in prison.

  No. Not the brother she’d looked up to. Indy pressed her closed fist to her chest, over her hammering heart. It felt like the organ was going to tear through her ribs.

  “No, no, no,” the words tumbled out of her.

  “I’m so sorry,” Griff whispered.

  “This is what you’ve been keeping from me,” she whispered.

  “I didn’t want to hurt you.”

  Oh, God. Pain tore through her like an electric shock, and she couldn’t process it. “I…I…”

  Griff reached out and Indy stepped back. She wrapped her arms around herself.

  He watched, his face shutting down. They stared at each other for a beat. “There’s something else I haven’t told you.”

  She braced, not sure she could take more.

  “I’m falling in love with you,” he said.

  Indy sucked in a breath. Shock and a whirling mix of emotion swirled through her. She could barely breathe.

  “I’ve loved you like a sister, as a friend, but now what I’m talking about is loving you as a woman,” he said. “Loving you in every way possible.”

  God. Her heart was beating so hard. He was falling for her. Griff Callan was falling in love with her.

  Then he turned and slammed out.

  Indy staggered to the bed and dropped down. How had her life imploded in only a few words?

  Images of her brother raced around her head—his laughing face, his giant hugs, the deep rumble of his voice.

  She wasn’t sure how long she sat there, emotions rising and falling.

  Her brother was a murderer and a criminal. She squeezed her eyes closed. He was a man who’d sent his innocent best friend to prison to save himself. God, it hurt. Pain like knives inside her.

  It was going to take time to process that.

  And then Griff had dropped a second bombshell on her.

  Griff. She sprang to her feet. She needed to find Griff. He’d confessed his feelings, and fully expected her to push him away.

  Fuck that.

  But she’d only taken one step when she heard the chime of the built-in communicator beside her bed.

  “Dammit.” Duty called.

  Chapter Thirteen

  At the last possible moment, Griff snuck into the back of the packed Command Center.

  Lia stood at the front of the room, talking with Holmes. The redhead was gesturing a lot with her hands. Nearby, Santha was talking with Niko and Dev, her face serious.

  Griff moved over to his team, lifting his chin in greeting. Hemi’s gaze moved over him, frowning.

  Yeah, Griff figured his friends would spot the fact that he was fucking torn apart inside. For a few blissful hours, Indy had been his.

  And then he’d torn her world apart.

  “Drones spotted the octagon,” Tane murmured. Then he looked past Griff. “Hey, Indy.”

  Griff stiffened and turned. Indy eyed him with an inscrutable look. His gut tightened. He had no idea what she was thinking, feeling.

  With a nod at the general, Lia stepped forward. “Thanks for coming, everyone. My team has pinned down the location of the octagon.”

  The tension in the room ratcheted up. Indy’s hand slipped into Griff’s. He inhaled sharply in surprise, and then he squeezed it.

  “After Squad Three and their Hawk got caught in the Gizzida net trap, we concentrated drones in that particular area.”

  A map appeared on the screen. “The octagon is in the town of Katoomba. Pre-invasion, it used to be a major tourist spot in the Blue Mountains.”

  Griff studied the old pictures of the pretty town perched on the edge of a mountain. One of the attractions was a long, stunning waterfall that dropped down into the valley below. And there was also the iconic rock formation of the Three Sisters.

  The three sandstone pillars stood at the edge of the escarpment. He knew the unusual rock formation had been formed by erosion, and was named after a legend told by the local Aboriginal people of the area.

  “The octagon’s being kept in a large resort area perched on the edge of the cliff.” As Lia continued, the pre-invasion pictures gave way to the current ones. The town was now a mostly destroyed shell of what it had once been. “The Gizzida have been clearing the trees. No surprise there.” Stacks of downed trees were visible.

  Griff studied the resort. The stone buildings had once been grand. But now, windows were broken, the pool was filled with green sludge, and alien tech was dotted all around the property.

  “The octagon’s inside the main building. Unfortunately, we only got a quick glimpse, before the drone was spotted and destroyed.”

  A fuzzy image appeared. It had clearly been taken through a window with grimy glass. But the bulk of the black octagon was visible.

  Indy sucked in a breath, and Griff squeezed her hand again.

  Lia scanned the room, her pretty face looking serious. “The town is teeming with Gizzida. It’s heavily fortified. They’ve chosen a very secure location to store the device. There’s a cliff face on one side, and on the other side, they have increased raptor soldiers and lots of turrets set up.”

  The room was full of low rumbles now.

  Marcus scowled at the screen. “Can we fly in?”

  “Th
ere aren’t any great places to land. They have anti-aircraft turrets situated here and here.” Lia used a laser pointer to show the locations.

  “There must be a way in,” Roth growled.

  Tane stared thoughtfully at the screen, as the images scrolled through. “What’s that cable coming across the cliff over here?”

  Lia’s brows drew together. “That’s the old Skyway.”

  “I remember that,” Shaw from Hell Squad said. “Big tourist attraction. A glass cable car took passengers from one side to the other. Gave a great view of the Three Sisters and Katoomba Falls.”

  “Right,” Lia said. “The place was called Scenic World. It had the Skyway across the cliffs, as well as the Railway down into the Jamison Valley, which was the steepest passenger railway in the world. The original railway was built in the 1800s to haul coal out of the valley. It was extensively refurbished to become a tourist attraction. On top of that, there was also the Cableway, which was a cable car down into the valley. And the Walkway, which consisted of a bunch of wooden walkways meandering through the rainforest in the bottom of the valley.”

  “Is the Skyway still intact?” Tane asked.

  Lia zoomed in on the images. “The cable is.” Then she zoomed out. Griff saw a large building consisting of lots of different levels perched on the edge of the cliff.

  Holmes’ eyes widened. “You can’t possibly want to take a cable car across a canyon into a heavily fortified alien base?”

  Tane shrugged. “We could do it.”

  “I very much doubt the engines of the Skyway would still be operational,” the general said.

  “So, we take a portable, thermonuclear one with us,” Hemi said.

  Shit. Griff stared at the image of the cable. He could just see one of the glass cars sitting near the Skyway station. He felt Indy tense beside him.

  “Holy shit,” Mac from Squad Nine murmured. “You guys are serious.”

  “Trust the berserkers,” Taylor said with a smile.

  Yeah, they’d done some crazy shit in the past. But they always got the mission done.

  “How do we get to the Skyway?” Griff asked. “If we fly in, the raptors would spot us.”

  More images filled the screen, and Lia tapped a finger against her chin. “Like I said, Scenic World had several other attractions. The old Railway runs up to the Skyway building from the valley. It would cut a path straight up the hill.”

  Holmes nodded. “It’s crazy, but it could work.”

  Tane’s gaze narrowed. “But a Hawk couldn’t drop us right at the base of the Railway. It’s too risky. They’d have to fly in blind, which would be beyond dangerous, or if we have lights on, the raptors could spot us.”

  “And there could be more traps like that web shit,” Hemi added.

  Finn moved closer, brow creased. “We could circle around and come in from the western side of the valley, away from the Gizzida encampment. I’d try and drop you as close as I could to the Railway.”

  Tane nodded. “That could work.” He pointed at the map. “If you dropped us here—”

  “That’s a long fucking walk in a dark rainforest,” Griff said.

  Tane raised a brow. “Not if we take our bikes.”

  All the berserkers had big, armor-plated motorcycles that were covered in weapons and modifications, including illusion systems to keep them hidden. They’d taken them out on loads of missions.

  “Hell yeah,” Hemi said.

  Griff didn’t love the idea of riding through a rainforest in the dark either, but he guessed it was no crazier than taking a cable car into an alien base.

  “Oh.” Lia spun and tapped on a comp screen. “Look.” A map appeared, outlining some winding paths in the forest on the valley floor. “This is the old Walkway system belonging to Scenic World. If any of the walkways are intact, you could ride along them right up to the bottom of the Railway.”

  Tane gave a single nod. “I suggest we have another squad cause a distraction. Keep the Gizzida looking away from the Railway and the Skyway.”

  Roth cleared his throat. “I know a squad who could do that.” Behind him, his soldiers were smiling.

  “We have another problem,” Lia said. “The signals are all screwed up in that area. The aliens are jamming all long-range signals. So, no comms.” The woman’s gaze fell on Indy. “Your comms officer would need to be with you, in close range.”

  Fuck. Griff’s spine locked. The last thing he wanted was to take Indy into this clusterfuck. He didn’t want her anywhere near the octagon.

  He felt Indy’s fingers brush his thigh.

  She lifted her chin. “I’m in.”

  Of course, she was. Griff looked at Tane, then the rest of his team. They all looked at her and nodded their heads.

  They’d protect her.

  Something inside him settled. These crazy bastards would all help him keep her safe. And Griff would give his life for her.

  “We got the green light?” Tane asked.

  Holmes nodded. “Yes. Do it.”

  “I suggest you go in at night,” Lia said. “They’ll be less likely to see you coming.”

  Tane nodded. “Okay, we have a mission to plan.”

  “Squad Nine.” Holmes’ blue gaze shifted to Roth. “You’ll provide the distraction for the berserkers.”

  Roth looked at Mac and the two nodded. “With pleasure,” Roth said.

  As Griff headed out of the room, Indy looked up at him. “You going to explode?”

  “I just want you to know that I’ll protect you with everything I have. Whatever it takes.”

  Out in the corridor, she merely stared at him.

  God, he’d prefer to be facing a pack of canids right now. “I never meant to hurt you before…”

  “By telling me the truth?”

  He nodded.

  “By telling me that you’re falling for me?”

  “Indy—”

  She made a frustrated noise, went up on her toes, and kissed him. He returned it, wrapping his arms around her. She hummed into his mouth. Instantly, desire roared to life. With a moan, she jumped up, wrapping her legs around his waist.

  As he deepened the kiss, wolf whistles broke out.

  She rubbed her nose against his. “Griff—”

  Relief slammed into him, along with fierce satisfaction. Despite everything, this beautiful, bright woman still wanted him. He kissed her again. He wished like hell he could drag her back to her room and lock them in there for days.

  Then Griff cleared his throat. “Gareth—”

  “He fucked up,” she said, interrupting him. “He stole your life, your freedom from you.”

  A muscle ticked in Griff’s jaw. “You loved him.”

  “Yes, but he covered his own ass and betrayed you.” Anger exploded in her eyes. “That selfish bastard.”

  “Indy…whatever his faults, he loved you.”

  She sucked in a breath. “Now isn’t the time to talk about him. I need time to process his actions, but regardless, Gareth isn’t here anymore.” Her voice was firm. “It’s just you and me, and right now, we have a mission to plan.”

  “Indy, whatever you need, I’ll give it to you.”

  She nipped his lips. “I’m going to hold you to that.”

  “Thank God, you two finally sorted your shit,” a deep voice said.

  Hemi. Griff and Indy spun to find Hemi and Tane standing in the hall, watching them with amused expressions.

  Griff pulled Indy close. “Yeah.”

  Tane eyed him. “You going to be okay on this mission?”

  “We keep her safe. That’s my priority.”

  Tane nodded.

  “Well, at least the edgy tension you two have been pumping out will be gone,” Hemi said. “Been waiting for you to jump his bones, Indy.”

  “Tension’s not gone, Big H,” Indy drawled, scratching her nails down Griff’s chest. “I have a lot more jumping of Griff’s bones to do.”

  Hemi barked out a laugh.

&nbs
p; Tane shook his head. “How about we table the bone jumping for now, and plan our mission? You know, the dangerous one that might save the world?”

  “Or the one that might kill us all,” Hemi added dryly. “You never know what the hell’s gonna happen.”

  Indy tilted her head. “Fair enough. I definitely would rather we didn’t die, so let’s do this right.”

  The berserkers spent the rest of the day locked in a room in the Command Center, prepping for the mission. They studied the Skyway in detail. The tech team worked to put together a sturdy, reinforced, and portable engine for them, powered by a small thermonuclear generator.

  Indy pulled up every picture of the old Railway she could find. She worked with Griff and the others on the plan of attack.

  “So, I’ll come in with you,” Indy said. “My relay to the nearest drone should keep our comms link open.”

  “As soon as we cross the Skyway—” Griff splayed his hands on the conference room table “—we find you a safe place to hide while we go after the octagon.”

  Her nose wrinkled, but she nodded.

  “Now.” Griff straightened. “You need some armor.”

  Griff called in the ladies from Squad Nine. Taylor and Sienna appeared and whisked Indy away. He was confident they’d properly set her up with some armor and gear for her to wear. He wasn’t taking any chances.

  He stared up at the map on the screen. He tried to tamp down the fear of taking the woman he loved into a shitstorm.

  * * *

  Indy tapped her boot nervously on the floor of the Hawk. She fought the fear, and lifted her chin. She knew she could do this.

  Moments later, the Hawk was airborne, and angling away from the Enclave. Even with a belly full of nervous flutters, it was actually nice to be in an aircraft, out of the base, soaring through the blue sky. The sun was setting, turning all the clouds on the horizon shades of pink and gold.

  Around her, Griff, Dom, and Hemi were tense and quiet. At the back of the Hawk, three huge, rugged bikes were locked into place. She knew the berserkers, especially former bikers Levi and Ash, spent a lot of time tinkering with the bikes. Hemi’s even had a missile launcher attached to it. She shook her head. Don’t mess with a berserker.

  Even though she couldn’t see, a second Hawk piloted by Thom was following right behind them, carrying Tane, Ash, and Levi, and their bikes.