“I shouldn’t talk to anyone but Craig.” She sobbed again. “He wouldn’t leave without telling me. Who are you?”
“My name is Special Agent Peter Munfry,” he said, confirming he was the man we needed to speak to. “I worked with Craig, and I can help you. You just need to tell me who you are and the situation you’re in.”
Hope remained silent along the line for a moment, and I wondered if she was having second thoughts.
“Ma’am,” Munfry continued. “I can help you.”
Hope let out a deep breath. “This is Hope Fisher,” she said. “ID code, TL9236480. My position was compromised, and Mickey Dolmilo has tried to kill me.”
The rest of the conversation comprised of Hope given Munfry details of what happened when she saw Dolmilo at the bar and later when we were run off the road. She also confirmed her exact location. “There’s one more thing,” she said when Munrfy told her to stay put and that he’d have someone out to her with twelve hours. “I reached out to someone from my old life, my fiancé, Bono Travers. I need him to come with me.”
“That’s not going to be possible,” Munfry said.
Hope sniffed back tears. “You have to make it happen. Dolmilo tried to kill him too.”
Munfry huffed down the line, impatient. “He wasn’t part of the initial deal,” he said. “I’ll see what I can do, but you might have to leave him behind.”
“If that’s the case, then you need to come sooner,” Hope said. She cleared her throat before speaking but her voice still broke on the words. “He’s heading back to Castel Rock in the next hour to sort a few things out. He’ll be back first thing in the morning. If I’m not gone by then. I just... I just don’t know what to do. If Bono can’t come with me, you have to come for me while I’m alone.”
“Everything’s going to be fine,” Munfry said. “I’ll come myself. Just stay put and don’t panic. We’ll have you set up with a new identity in no time.”
“How will I know that it’s you?” Hope asked.
“I’ll have ID. I also have a slight limp in my left leg. An old injury. It’s the reason, I usually stay behind a desk instead of venturing into the field.”
“Thank you,” Hope said and hung up.
Rex punched some keys on his laptop to end the recording. “Got it. Weathers is gonna love it.” He shook his head and chuckled. “That was one hell of a performance. You should be a fucking actress.”
I looked at Hope and she gave me a tight smile. We both knew she hadn’t been acting. “I’m going to be right outside,” I said. “Dolmilo’s not going to get within an inch of this house.”
Hope sucked on her lip and nodded her head. Rex excused himself, saying he had to check everything was set around the house, and left, but not before giving Hope a comms unit and showing her how to use it.
“You look tired,” she said and stroked my face again. “We should have got more rest.”
“We’ll rest when this is over,” I promised, knowing I wouldn’t be able to sleep until this matter was settled. “I’ve got to go. Talk to me over the comms, so I know you’re alright, okay?” Hope nodded and we stood. “Rex said that this house has a state-of-the-art security system. He’s going to put it on as soon as I leave. No-one’s getting in here without every brother in the area knowing about it. Stay away from the doors and windows. There’s a crawl space at the back of the walk-in wardrobe in the master bedroom. Rex said it’s a good place to hide.”
“I don’t want to hide.” I nodded and turned to leave. Hope pulled me back and kissed me third on the lips. “But I do want a gun,” she said when she pulled back.
I pulled the gun Caleb had handed me from the belt of my pants. “Do you know how to use this?” I asked.
Hope smiled and took it from me. With practiced hands, she checked the barrel and chamber. “I’ve been to the range every weekend for over eight years. I know how to use it,” she said.
I pulled her in for another kiss. “That’s my girl,” I said, feeling a damn sight better about using her as bait, knowing she had the means to defend herself. “Is there anything else I should know?” I asked.
“Only that I have a black-belt in jiu-jitsu, I guess.”
I shook my head and laughed.
Chapter Sixteen
Bono
I pulled away from the house in my jeep, wishing for all the world Hope was in it with me and we could ride away into the sunset. After I’d gone a fair distance. I pulled off the road and into a field out of sight and made my way on foot to the outbuilding where I was set to keep watch with Cane and Caleb.
A light drizzle had started by the time I arrived. “I’m with the others now, Hope,” I said into my comms unit.
“Okay. The waiting is driving me crazy. Do you think it would be alright for me to go lie down?”
“Yeah, of course. I’ll speak to you in a little while. Keep your comms unit on, okay?”
“Will do.” I switched mine off and sat against the wall next to Caleb when Cane said he’d keep watch. If I didn’t think it too early for anything to happen, I’d have refused his offer and kept my eyes glued to the house and the road.
“Anything to report?” Caleb said into his comms unit.
“Position one, nothing to report,” one of my brothers answered.
“Position two. Likewise.”
“Same for position three.”
“Nothing to report at the house, either,” Rex added.
“Okay, keep me updated if you see anything,” Caleb said and switched off his mic. “How you holding up?” he asked me.
I chuckled and rested my head against the wall. “I’ve had better days.”
He nodded. “You and Hope seem to be hitting it off. After all this is over, do you think she’ll stick around?” He cleared his throat. “Do you want her to?”
“I haven’t got a fucking clue what either of us wants,” I said, and Caleb smiled. I sat forward and looked at him. “I don’t know how the fuck you did it with Amber.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“It’s just... I’m glad Hope’s alive, and damn it, I still fucking love her. But so much has happened in both our lives. How did you just put all that behind you and move on?”
This time it was Caleb who leaned his head against the wall and sighed. “During all the shit with Leo, all I could think about was keeping her safe and having her near me again. I didn’t take the time then to think things through, I acted on instinct.”
“And now?” I asked, picking up on the word ‘then’.
“I love Amber, and Charlie, but I’d be lying if I said there weren’t times when I hate that she left the way she did, that I missed so much of Charlie’s life, of both their lives because she chose to run away instead of talking to me. But I have to accept that’s what happened, because it did, and I can’t change it, and I need to keep them both in my life.”
I looked at the president of Forever Midnight MC and realized that was the most he’d ever confided in me about his personal life. It was easy to forget how much crap everyone else had been through when wallowing in my own.
“And that’s what you both have to do,” he added. “If you want to be together now, if you love each other, then you have to accept the past and move on, together.” He rubbed at his eyes. “Amber still pushes me to get a paternity test every now and then,” he added out of the blue.
“Do you think you’ll do it?” Cane asked from his position by the door.
Caleb shrugged. “Right now, Charlie’s my daughter. Of that I’m certain, and so is Amber. It’s why she wants me to take the test.”
“So, what’s the problem?” I asked.
Caleb looked me in the eyes. “What if we’re wrong?”
“Would it make a difference?”
“Not to me, and I doubt it would to Amber. But what about Charlie? What happens if at some point in the future we slip up and she discovers Leo was her biological father and she was a product of rape? How would that make her feel?�
�
“Life’s a big fucking ball of shit ninety-nine-percent of the time,” I said not knowing how to solve any of our problems.
“Not anymore.” Caleb shook his head. “Not with Amber and Charlie in my life. And not with Thea and the baby, right Cane?”
“Fucking right.” Cane smiled at me and Caleb laughed.
“See. I didn’t even know his mouth could make that hideous shape he calls a smile. I have no idea what Thea sees in that ugly fucker.”
“I take after my brother,” Cane said, and we all laughed.
~
Six hours passed. Everyone was restless. I resisted growling out my frustration. This had never been a good plan to start with and it was pretty clear it had failed. Hell, we were all probably wrong about Munfry, and he’d turn up in the morning ready to take Hope and me into protective custody. We’d all face a shitstorm then.
The rain worsened, opening up the heavens with a torrential downpour.
“Fuck. It’s practically biblical,” Cane said, glancing over my shoulder as I crouched by the doorway, taking my turn to watch.
To punctuate his words, one of the brothers called through the comms, shouting to be heard above the wind and the rain. “Our position isn’t sustainable,” he said. “Back-up’s getting restless and wondering if this is all a waste of time and resources.”
“We’re experiencing the same problem,” a second brother added.
“Fuck! He should have been here by now,” Cane said, but my ears were focused on another sound. A faint rumble just audible beneath the thundering rain.
I turned my attention to the road. A gleam of headlights came into view. From the angle, and height, I guessed the vehicle to be a van. I nudged Cane and he motioned Caleb over. After a brief moment, the lights disappeared and the rumble of the engine cut.
“Get ready to act,” Caleb said into his comms unit. “We might have something here, brothers.”
“Hope,” I called through mine.
“I’m here,” she answered, and a lump formed in my throat.
“We need to move closer,” I said, glancing at my brothers.
Cane and Caleb agreed. We started to move, but another vehicle came up the road and turned into the driveway of the house. It surprised us all and drove right up to the building. Some fucker in a suit got out of the car, opened an umbrella over his head, and limped towards the house.
“Munfry,” I said, remembering he’d mentioned his limp.
“You think he’s here to move Hope?” Cane asked.
I squinted into the distance. It was a possibility, but what about the van that arrived moments before him. I shook my head. “I don’t like it.”
“Me neither,” Caleb added.
The lights were on in the house, illuminating the area with a dappled glow through the falling rain. A low growl built in my chest as I watched Munfry climb the steps to the front door and knock. I clenched my fists and listened to the voice inside my head that told me everything about this situation was wrong. He glanced back along the drive toward the location I knew the first car had stopped.
“Do you think he’s here to deal with Hope himself?” Cane asked.
“No,” I answered. “He’s making a fucking distraction. Everyone, get to the fucking house. Hope, don’t answer the door,” I called into the comms, sure that we’d made the biggest fucking mistake of our lives.
I sprang to my feet as a gang of men edged around the outbuilding. I ducked back inside, hoping they hadn’t seen me and that the rain had covered my voice.
From the brief glimpse I’d caught, there were three of them, stocky men, wearing black waterproofs overlaid with stab jackets. They slunk around the side of the building. I motioned with my finger for Caleb and Cane to keep quiet. I held my breath and pushed up against the wall next to the door. I felt more than heard them do the same on the outside. Nothing happened for several seconds, but then, the door nudged open. Still none of us moved until the barrel of a Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun emerged through the gap.
I didn’t hesitate in moving. I grabbed the barrel of the gun, squeezing my finger behind the trigger to stop it from firing; yanked its owner into the room; and slammed the weapon into his face.
Chapter Seventeen
Hope
The rain pounded and the wind lashed tree branches against the window. My heart dropped into my stomach as I tried to block out the sound of Munfry thumping on the door from outside.
“Hope, it’s Special Agent Peter Munfry,” he called.
I stood in the doorway of the living room just out of sight. Rex perched on the stairs, and Lucky hung back around the corner of the kitchen doorway. Rex pressed a finger to his mouth telling me to keep quiet.
In the shadows outside, we noted Munfry pulling what looked like a gun. Rex motioned for me to come to him. I glanced at the dark stained-glass windows on the front door worried that Munrfy would spot my movement as surely as I saw him and hesitated. Only when it looked as though his back was turned did I move.
The first step on the stairs creaked when I stepped on it and I froze. Munfry’s voice sounded outside, muffled and indistinct. It was clear he wasn’t calling into the house when I caught the words, “I’m going in.” I couldn’t hear the response that followed, but Munfry said, “Okay, two minutes. Count me down when you’re ready.”
I rushed up the next step, and quickly told Rex what I’d heard. He nodded and motioned me up the stairs and into the Master bedroom.
I went, but although my heart raced and my legs felt like they would crumble beneath me, I refused to climb in the wardrobe hidey-hole. Instead, I pulled the gun and waited by the door, never in my life as possessed by fear the way I was then. Not when Kate had been murdered and I hid from Dolmilo under the desk, not knowing if he’d find me and kill me next, and not when I’d run scared and alone through the streets, hiding out in bars. I realized then that my fear was no longer just for me. It was for the man I loved.
“Bono,” I said, speaking into my comms unit, wanting to feel less alone and to know he was safe. My mouth dried and my stomach lurched when he didn’t respond.
The house moaned and creaked around me, making my skin crawl. The two minutes Munfry had mentioned seemed more like twenty, but eventually, a gunshot sounded, and the front door blasted open with a reverberating crash as it smashed against the wall and the stain-glass window shattered.
The whole house lit up with every light coming on and an alarm blaring. Rex shouted. Lucky followed suit. More gunshots, and the thud of people fighting.
My skin crawled. Despite the commotion downstairs, I couldn’t shake the feeling that upstairs, I was no longer alone, that the crash of the front door smashing against the wall wasn’t the only source of breaking glass I’d heard.
Warning bells screamed in my head. “Bono,” I said again into the comms.
“Hope,” he answered, making my heart soar. “SWAT is here. They’ve caught three men. Do Rex and Lucky have Munfry?”
“We’ve got him pinned,” Rex answered in my stead.
“Great. Stay put. I’m coming to you.”
I stepped into the hall, holding my gun out in front of me ready to fire at any movement. But as I rounded the bend toward the top of the stairs, I was unprepared for the blow that smashed down onto my hands. I lost the gun in a flash but managed to duck a second blow aimed at my head.
Dolmilo drove forward like a battering ram. I lashed out, trying to take him down, but flinched back when a blade sliced my arm. Dolmilo backhanded me, making my cheek sting and my eyes water. The next moment, I was pinned against the wall with a knife to my throat, every shred of martial arts training forgotten. It was far different facing someone who wanted to kill me than it was a sparring partner.
He pressed the knife tight against my skin, stealing my breath. “You have been so much fucking trouble. I should kill you now and be done with it.”
I stared deep into his eyes and fought my fear. “Just do it,�
�� I said.
He laughed. “Don’t fucking tempt me.” Instead, he snatched the comms unit from me and spoke into the mic. “I have your woman,” he said. “If you have any hope of seeing her alive, you’ll pull everyone back away from the house.”
“If you hurt one hair on her head, I will fucking kill you,” Bono’s voice sounded cold along the open channel.
“Yeah. You think you and your fucking army of brothers are better than me? I got past you all and into the house without you seeing. You really think I can’t get out and take you down one by one?”
I could barely breathe, but I had to get the panic flooding me under control. There was no doubt in my mind that Dolmilo would use me as a shield to escape and then kill me as he’d always intended.
He grabbed my hair and flipped me around to face the stairs. With the knife still to my throat, he released my hair and pulled a gun, holding it in his other hand as he wrapped his arm around my waist. I flinched as the movement caused the knife to dig deeper into my flesh, knowing that a fraction of an inch more would see me dead.
My mind ran through a number of possibilities. In training, I’d grab his knife arm and twist until I had it behind his back. But that didn’t take into account the gun, and in practice the fake blade had never had the tip pressed tightly against my jugular so that even swallowing caused it to press deeper into my skin.
We stood at the top step. The alarm bells still blaring, making it hard to think. In the hallway below, Rex and Lucky were nowhere to be seen.
“In the kitchen, both of you,” Dolmilo called into the empty space.
After a moment, Rex appeared in the open front doorway. He chucked his gun on the floor and raised his arms above his head. Lucky stepped forward still holding Munrfy, whose hands were pinned behind his back. He pushed him, making him stumble forward. While he recovered, Lucky tossed his gun to join Rex’, raised his hands, and stepped through the doorway behind Rex.
“Kitchen now,” Dolmio said and nudged me in the back, making me slowly step down the stairs, one at a time, always careful to keep fully between him and the men below.
Forever Midnight MC Collection: Books 1-3 Page 35