by Maddie Wade
He hoped that the man would tap out and save his life, but he knew deep down he wouldn’t, and as he felt the struggle weaken, he prayed to a God he no longer believed in that he didn’t have to take this life. As the man struggles stopped and he went limp, Smithy knew his prayers wouldn’t be answered. He fought the bile in his gut trying to work its way up his throat and the hysterical laughter that made him wonder if he was even sane any more. God wouldn’t help; the only person who would answer his prayers was the devil because he had already reserved him a place beside him in hell.
A roar went up as he staggered to his feet, casting a glance at the lone guard who held hatred in his eyes before he inclined his head and left the room. Smithy stepped out of the cage as the dead man was carried away.
“Enough drills for today.” He waved at the blood and gore. “Clean this fucking mess up.” He walked to his tiny room with a cot and his locker, if you could call it that, nothing locked in this hell.
Sitting down heavily, he dropped his head into his hands, breathing hard. Disgust simmered inside him at what he’d done, at the man he’d become. His muscles shook with adrenalin as he tried to choke back the thick knot of despair. Knowing that even if he left this place it had taken another part of him that he could never get back, because this time when he’d killed, he’d known precisely what he was doing.
He looked at his hands covered in blood, the taste of it on his tongue. Standing, he went to the shower and shucked his clothes, stepping under the scolding hot spray as the water turned red. Bracing his hand against the wall, he bent his head and watched as it swirled down the drain.
As the shakes began to recede, he soaped his body clean and shut off the water. That he even had this minuscule amount of privacy was only because he was the Commander and his rank demanded it.
Wrapping a towel around himself, he looked in the small mirror he used to shave and saw haunted eyes staring back at him. He had promised Lizzie he’d come back to her and try to heal. He’d meant it, he wanted to heal. He prayed for a future with her, but as the stranger stared back at him, he wondered if he’d once again break her heart with a lie he couldn’t help.
He knew in the pit of his gut that he’d rather die than disappoint her, but he recognised that he’d do both to keep her and Mateo safe. There would be no sacrifice. He’d step into the flames of hell to keep her from facing a single moment more of pain than she already had.
He lifted the tile underneath his bunk and retrieved the phone he’d hidden there. With his eyes on the door, he sent the message that would seal his fate. The time for an extract had come and gone, and now it was time to face his fate.
Chapter 2
Lizzie hit the brakes on the car as she drew to a halt outside Fortis Security. Her breath heaved out angrily as she slammed the door closed and stormed towards the entrance. Celeste’s wide eyes moved to her in surprise.
“Let me through, Celeste,” Lizzie demanded of her friend who could permit her through to the conference room and offices.
Celeste slid her hand underneath the desk and pressed the door release as Lizzie felt a frisson of guilt for treating her friend so abruptly, but she had no time to explain or apologise. Time wasn’t something she had, and her belly squeezed with a cramp of anxiety as she thought of the man who’d been a part of her heart since she was too young to understand what love was.
Stepping into the conference room, she saw all eyes move to her. Every single Fortis operative was there, including her sister Lucy and her brother Dane. She cast them a withering glare, her anger no longer in check as she faced Zack’s ire.
“Lizzie, what’s going on?” His cool gaze showed no emotion, and she knew she’d have a fight on her hands.
Walking to the spare chair on the opposite side, she felt the eyes of her family and those she considered friends on her as she plopped down in the seat. “I want in!” Her statement was met with a few cautious looks.
“Sis, I’m not sure what you mean. In on what?” Dane cocked his head as if she were a slightly crazed animal he wanted to appease.
Lizzie raised a brow at him, knowing he was being deliberately obtuse. She would, however, spell it out for them, as she knew the schedule was short. “To rescue Smithy. I want in.”
“Absolutely not.”
“No way.”
“Are you out of your mind?”
A barrage of negativity hit her from Lucy, Dane, and Daniel, who was like a brother to her. She stonily met their words before she turned her attention to Zack, who was watching her with a questioning expression.
“What makes you think you can help? You have no skills that we need, no business being involved with this.” He sat back throwing a pencil he’d been playing with on to the table.
Lizzie knew this would be a hard sell, and she was still struggling to understand it herself. But how could she explain a feeling that wasn’t tangible? Just pain and longing so strong it was crippling before a torrent of grief hit her, almost knocking the breath from her body. She’d been getting dinner ready when it happened, the hand bracing herself against the counter the only thing holding her up as her knees almost gave way.
“He needs me.”
The sympathetic looks Nate, Drew, and Kanan shot her made her hands curl into fists. She knew what everyone thought, that she was a fool to care for a man who would never have it in him to feel the same, but none of them, not even her siblings, knew of the love they’d shared.
The connection two teens had felt for each other, a love that could never be destroyed for either of them. At least that was what she’d thought until Ty Smith had broken her heart so severely she’d thought it would never heal. Yet Lizzie couldn’t regret the past, without it she wouldn’t have Mateo—her beautiful son who was the joy of her life.
Not wanting to go back in time and evaluate all the ways her life had gone off track Lizzie squared her shoulders.
Zack looked at her thoughtfully, and she saw guilt on his face, the man had a big sense of responsibility sometimes, one that was misplaced. “I know you think I’m a fool,” she put a hand over her heart, “but I know him. In here. What we went through forged a bond between us. Only his guilt stops him from seeing it.”
Lucy stood and moved to her, placing an arm around her shoulders, the swell of her belly bumping against her shoulder. Lizzie glanced up, offering a smile of gratitude at her silent support as she laid her hand over Lucy’s.
“I understand you care for him, Lizzie, but this mission is dangerous. It will take us right to the heart of the Divine Watchers’ compound. The risk of a civilian being there is just too dangerous. I’m sorry.” Zack’s face was hard with finality and Lizzie’s heart sunk with dismay.
“I could stay somewhere safe. I won’t get in the way, but I need to be there, Zack. I can’t explain how I know, but this is important, and if I’m not there, I worry he won’t come back.”
“You think you being there will help, but you’re the one he feels the most guilt over,” Zin said quietly.
Lizzie glanced at Zin, his cool eyes unflinching, hiding his emotions under a veneer of ice but she wasn’t afraid. Zin might scare almost everyone else, but to her, he was a mouse. She’d faced pure evil and come out scarred and broken, but she’d survived.
“What’s between Ty and I is nobody’s business but ours. I wouldn’t presume to know what goes on between you and Celeste, so do me the same courtesy.”
“Are you saying Whittaker Smith is your soulmate?” Zin cocked his head, and the silence in the room became oppressive.
Nobody called Smithy that anymore, nobody ever really had before. He hated the name and only went by Smithy, but she called him Ty, and he never seemed to mind.
“He always has been. We just lost our way, and now we need to find it again. I need to make him see that before it’s too late.”
“Liz, it might already be too late for him.”
She saw pity in her brother’s face at his words and wanted to strike
out at them. Deep down though, she knew it was his love for her that made him want to keep her heart safe.
“Dane, I know you love me, and God knows I love you all too, but I need you to understand that as long as I breathe, I won’t give up on him.”
Pain crossed her brother’s handsome features, and her lip trembled.
“Why?” Daniel asked.
A sad smile pulled her lips tight. “Because he never, not once when I was a captive, left my side. He stood outside my door while I was in agonising pain, screaming and desperate, and he never left me. He kept me safe even though he didn’t know me or remember me.” She stopped not wanting to reveal her past to them at that moment.
“You should let her come.” Jace looked at her then Zack, who sighed.
“If she gets on the chopper and something happens, do you think I can live with that?” Zack asked.
“I have a bad vibe about this rescue, and if we don’t take her, I think the only way Smithy is coming back is in a body bag.”
Pain hit her in the solar plexus at his words, and she sucked in a breath to relieve the pain. The hand on her shoulder flexed, and she felt Lucy move closer.
“You can’t read him from here,” Zack stated.
“No, but I can read her,” he cocked his head at Lizzie, “and she’s feeling whatever despair Smithy is feeling.”
Every head in the room turned to her, but it was Dane who spoke. “You can feel what he feels?”
“Yes.”
“Since when?”
She had no intention of answering that right now. There would be time for secrets to come out but now wasn’t it, so she shrugged. Plus, it was difficult to explain a bond like they had. It wasn’t the same as hearing his thoughts like Lucy and Jace, it was more of a connection that wasn’t tangible in any way. They’d always had the ability to feel what the other did, at least they had until Rhea Winslow. Now she didn’t know if Smithy felt it anymore.
“We don’t have time for this. We need to go.” Her frustration and fear were getting stronger with every minute that passed. Her heart was becoming heavier with each second that Smithy wasn’t with her.
“Fine, you can come, but you do as I tell you.”
Relief flowed through as she nodded her assent at Zack. As the others began to plan the mission to save their friend, she just prayed it wasn’t too late as the light she carried in her heart for him became weaker and weaker.
The ping of a text coming through made her look up as Jace looked down, reading it before his eyes came up to hers, the desolation in them turning her blood to ice.
“It’s Smithy. He says not to come, it’s too late and to forget about him.”
Zack shot up from the table, scattering the papers across the floor in anger as he paced. “No fucking way.”
A clawed hand of terror choked her as her belly cramped in pain. “Give me the phone.” Her words were barely a husk as she held her hand out to Jace.
He handed her the phone in a daze as everyone watched her intently as if she held the answers of the universe in her palm.
With shaky hands, she dialled the number hoping with every breath in her body that he’d answer. As the answerphone kicked in, she knew in her gut he’d diverted her call and buried the hurt it caused that he wouldn’t even give her that.
“Whittaker Smith, you answer this damn phone and speak to me.” She waited to see if he’d answer for a second and then carried on speaking when she realised he couldn’t hear her anyway “Hear me, Ty.” Her voice softened as she turned her back on the watchful eyes, laying her heart bare. “Please don’t give up. I need you to fight, to survive. I survived everything Rhea Winslow did to me and didn’t let her break me. I survived the first time you walked away from me. I saw you that day, my wedding day, and I saw the pain it caused you to leave. I survived it, but I won’t survive losing you again. You’re my soulmate, Ty. No matter what you say to convince yourself you’re not worthy of my love, it doesn’t matter because we’re two pieces of a whole and without you, the best part of me will die. So, you be ready because we’re coming to get you.”
Lizzie hung up and turned to see the tears streaming down Lucy’s face as Jace held her in his arms. The devastation on the faces of the men who loved Smithy like a brother all too painful to bear.
“We need to go,” Lizzie pushed the words out as she stood tall and looked them in the eye. A series of nods and looks of pride and respect from Zin, K, Nate, and the others bolstered her, but it was the arms of her family who kept her standing when she wanted to fall.
Zack crossed his arms, leaning back against the wall. “We need to plan first. We can’t just walk the fuck in there and get him.”
Lucy squeezed her shoulder and smiled. “No, we can’t, but I know some people who might.” Lucy turned to look at Nate. “How fast can Stoner, Ice, and Simon get here?”
Nate nodded returning the wide smile. “Two hours or they can meet us there.”
Zack stepped forward. “You think they’d help us?”
“Yes, they still have the skills, and the Watchers won’t link them to us like they would Eidolon or Zenobi.”
“Make the call.”
Lizzie felt the knot in her belly loosen as the call was made, and with the three paras on board, a plan came together.
Chapter 3
The knock on the door came at midnight as Smithy lay staring at the ceiling of his room. Curling up, he came to his feet, and slid a t-shirt over his body. He already had trousers on, half expecting this to be the night when his life would end. He could feel it on the air, almost taste the tension on his tongue.
Pulling the door open abruptly, he frowned as one of the men under his command stared back, his back ramrod straight. “What is it?”
“Sir, there are three men at the gate who say they’re from headquarters.”
“And?” he asked feigning impatience, not wanting the man to catch any hint in his tone that he was on alert.
“They aren’t on the log and but said you sent for them.”
Smithy’s neck tingled with a warning. “Fine, I’ll come now.” Turning, he went to his locker and withdrew the gun he kept there. With a deft hand, he slid a K-Bar into the pocket on his leg, making sure the man watching him didn’t see it. Spinning, he walked past his subordinate and strode down the long corridor towards the exit. The floodlights on the training area also captured the main gate. A gatehouse held two guards with high powered automatic rifles.
As he drew closer, he saw three men in black clothing, all were tall and built, but a deadly air flowed around them. From this distance, he couldn’t make out their faces but as he got closer, an inkling of memory touched his brain and the way they stood, their countenance, seemed familiar.
The first man turned, and Smithy almost missed a step as he recognised the man. He’d been at Nate’s stag do and wedding. Simon, Stoner, and Ice were ex-parachute regiment and had served with Nate. That didn’t explain what they were doing here, though. Had Rhea Winslow captured them or was this something else?
Smithy had turned his phone off after sending the last message, not wanting to hear the guilt from his friends. They would never understand his decision to stay and take his chance at ending this hate-filled group—even if it cost him his life. Rhea Winslow couldn’t live, and he was in the best place to end her here tomorrow.
He knew it was a suicide mission, but some things were more important than one life, and deep down, he recognised that it was what he deserved.
Simon faced him, his back straight, an air of command about him which Smithy recognised. This man was quiet, said little but heard everything. He had a watchfulness that Smithy had seen in other soldiers.
“Commander, we have an urgent message for you.”
“Where is your clearance?” Smithy fought the knot in his belly, trying to figure out if they were with him or against him. Had Fortis sent them to extract him anyway? It was something he should have expected.
“
Here, sir.”
In one practised and efficient movement, the three men moved. Simultaneously the pops of weapons firing went off beside him, and then the guards and the soldier who’d knocked on his door fell to the ground dead.
“Fuck,” Smithy bit out. “Now every fucker in the place will be out here.” Seconds later, the alarm began to blare.
“Time to get you home, Smithy,” Ice said with a grin.
Smithy knew he was enjoying this. The thrill of the rush that came with the chance of getting killed was a high for some but not him. Shouts behind him had him making a split-second choice, and his heart sank, knowing that he’d have to leave without finishing the job he’d begun. Yet, behind that came the relief that he’d get to see the woman he loved again, even if he couldn’t be with her.
Spinning on his heel, he saw men running towards them with their weapons drawn, a split second of hesitation showing in their eyes as they saw him. He fired warning shots at them, not shooting to kill. His debt was already so heavy with the lives he’d taken he could hardly keep his head above the river of the blood threatening to drown him.
Ducking his head, he ran with the men there to rescue him towards the outer perimeter gate. He had no idea how they’d got past that gate without clearance, but now they were sandwiched between the enemy and the fence.
“Head over there. Zack and K are waiting,” Simon snapped out and pointed. He spoke into his comms unit then quickly handed him an earpiece.
Smithy popped it in his ear as they ran for the fence, the sound of their boots resounding in his ears before Zack’s calm voice replaced it.
“Move towards the left of the fence line by the trees. We have you covered from there, but you need to get past the dogs.”
As they skirted the floodlights and returned fire, overhead and out of sight, a sniper was taking out targets. Seeing the fence, he moved quickly, the others close behind him as he made for the razor wire barrier. As he stepped within touching distance, he heard a growl and a figure stepped into the light.