by Susan Stoker
He stared in disbelief as a small section of the floor was slowly pushed upward.
Glancing to his right and left, he saw Rocco and Bubba had their weapons trained on whoever was about to pop up from beneath the floor.
The first thing they saw was a small hand pushing up a trapdoor at their feet—then a blonde head slowly peeked over the edge of the floor.
The woman’s eyes were huge in her face and she looked absolutely terrified.
“Don’t move!” Rocco ordered. “Show us your hands.”
She placed her other hand on the door and rose until they could see her shoulders and upper body. Ace had no idea if the woman was standing or kneeling on the ground below her. But the fact that she’d been hiding in the space meant there could definitely be others. This could easily be an ambush, which was why Rocco was being extremely cautious.
But Ace recognized the woman immediately—and he couldn’t help but feel oddly relieved.
From the first moment he’d seen her picture in the file they’d been given, he’d been curious about this woman. The disheartening thing, of course, was the blonde he’d seen in the picture was nothing like the one in front of him right now. Yes, she essentially looked the same, apart from the dirty face and hair, but he could tell just by looking into her eyes that she was no longer the carefree woman she’d once been.
Whatever had happened up here in Timor-Leste had changed her.
“Piper Johnson?” he confirmed.
Her brows shot up and she nodded vigorously. “You know who I am?” she asked.
“Yeah. Is Kalee down there with you?” Ace asked.
He hated the look of anguish that crossed her face, telling them what her answer was going to be before she said a word.
“No. You haven’t found her?”
“Not yet,” Rocco said. “Is anyone else down there with you?”
“The last time I saw Kalee, she told me to hide while she went and got some of the kids. There were gunshots and everyone was screaming. I hid and waited and waited, but she never returned.” Piper’s voice broke.
Ace didn’t miss that she hadn’t answered Rocco’s question. He figured the others hadn’t either, but he didn’t call her on it, just made a mental note to be very careful. At the moment, they could still see both her hands, and she looked way too relieved to see them to be faking it. But that didn’t mean someone else wasn’t down in the hole, forcing her to put them at ease enough to lower their weapons, so they could be ambushed.
“We’re still looking for her,” Bubba said.
“Good,” Piper breathed, voice shaky. “I’m sure she’s fine. She’s really smart and knows this place like the back of her hand. She’s probably got all the kids somewhere safe and is just lying low like I was.”
Ace didn’t take his eyes from her as he nodded. He didn’t think that was the case. Not with the amount of blood they’d seen, not to mention the bodies of the women in the next room. But he recognized a person at the end of their rope when he saw one. He had a feeling that, deep down, Piper knew her friend’s fate, and was merely saying what she hoped was true.
Her brow furrowed as she asked, “You guys are American, right?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Bubba said. “Navy SEALs.”
“Wow,” Piper whispered. “What in the world are you doing here? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m extremely grateful, but I’m confused. Wait, you are here to rescue us, right? You’re not here just doing exercises or training, are you?”
“How well do you know Kalee?” Rocco asked.
“She’s been my best friend since we were in junior high,” Piper said.
Ace shifted on his feet. He was feeling antsy. He felt like a sitting duck in the dilapidated building, and he definitely didn’t like the idea of just standing around shooting the shit. But one of the things they’d learned in training was when dealing with someone who was being rescued, the most important thing to do was establish trust. Once that was there, extraction would be five hundred percent smoother.
“Then you know that Kalee’s father has some pretty influential connections,” Rocco told Piper.
She nodded. “Yeah. I think he flies to Washington, DC, like once a month or something to have meetings with some politicians.”
Ace wanted to snort. “Some politicians” was a bit of an understatement. Paul Solberg was a multimillionaire who was on a first-name basis with the President of the United States and regularly had lunch with the vice president and half dozen other influential congressmen and senators.
“Right,” Rocco said with a nod. “The Peace Corps had already sounded the alarm when they hadn’t been able to get about a dozen of their volunteers back to Dili safely when the rebels began their attacks, but Kalee’s dad pulled out all the stops to get us here, and to get his daughter evacuated.”
Piper didn’t say anything for a moment, then she nodded slowly. “That makes sense. Even after all the years that I’ve known Kalee, her dad still intimidates me. I can totally see him pulling strings to do what he can to get her out of here. Kalee means everything to him. After her mom died, when she was a freshman in high school, he got even more protective than he already was. She’s everything to him. He’d do anything to keep her safe. Spend any amount of money. She’s extremely lucky.”
Ace didn’t like the wistful tone he heard in Piper’s voice, but he didn’t have time to figure it out. If she was jealous of her friend’s relationship with her father, that was her issue. His concern at the moment was getting her the hell off the mountain in one piece and on a plane back to the States.
“Who’s down there with you?” he asked point-blank.
To her credit, Piper didn’t try to lie to him or evade his question again. She met his gaze straight on. He could tell she was terrified, but she didn’t flinch from his hard tone. “Since you guys didn’t come here for me…are you going to help me get down the mountain to the capital?”
“Do you seriously think we’d leave you here?” Ace asked incredulously.
She shrugged. “I’d like to say no, but my grandparents don’t have the kind of money or connections Mr. Solberg has. And let’s just say I’ve gotten a crash course on human nature in the last few days.”
“You’re coming with us,” Ace confirmed. The very idea of leaving her behind was abhorrent. And the fact that she thought there was a chance they’d do so was equally disturbing.
“Enough,” Rocco said, though not harshly. “We can’t stand here chatting anymore.”
As if to punctuate his words, the sound of gunfire sounded loud in the quiet of the still morning air.
Piper flinched, and all three men froze in anticipation of the enemy bursting through the door at any second.
“I’m not alone,” Piper said quietly—and Ace could easily hear the true fear she’d kept at bay while she’d been talking to them.
“Who’s down there with you?” Bubba asked, voice pitched low. “A rebel? Are you being threatened?”
“No, nothing like that,” Piper said. She slowly lowered her arms and turned her face back toward the dark space behind her. “Come on out. It’s okay, they’re friends,” she said softly, motioning with one hand to whoever was behind her.
Ace watched in disbelief as Piper gathered not one, not two, but three little girls against her sides.
She stared up at them with what looked like defiance. “I’m not leaving them.”
“Fuck,” Rocco said under his breath.
Their entire mission had been screwed from the start. From the lack of information, to the village Kalee had been living in being destroyed, then not being able to find her, and now having not two women to rescue—which was hard enough—but at least one woman and three kids…
Fuck was right.
Trusting his teammates to have his six, Ace swung his weapon around to his back and crouched, putting himself closer to eye level with Piper and the girls. “Hi,” he said softly.
One of the girls trained her bi
g brown eyes on him and said, “Hi.”
“This’s Sinta,” Piper told him. “She’s seven. This is Rani, who’s four. And that’s Kemala. She’s thirteen.”
“Hi, Rani, Sinta, Kemala. I’m Ace. My real name is Beckett, but no one calls me that, and it’s quite a mouthful. So you can call me Ace too. My friends are Rocco and Bubba. Those are also nicknames. We’re glad to meet you.”
The girls just stared at him in response.
“They aren’t fluent in English,” Piper said quietly. “They’re working on it. Rani doesn’t talk at all, to anyone.”
“How much do they understand?” Ace asked.
Piper shrugged. “I think more than I probably suspect.”
Ace took a deep breath. Earning the trust of a terrified adult was one thing; trying to convince three orphan children that he had their best interests at heart when they couldn’t speak his language was next to impossible. But Piper was right. They weren’t going to leave the kids to fend for themselves. What the hell they were going to do with them, Ace had no idea, but he wasn’t going to abandon them. Not when he suspected the rebels wouldn’t have any problem killing children. And Kemala looked old enough that he refused to think about what the rebels would do to her if they got their hands on the girl.
He looked into the eyes of each of the children as he spoke. “We’re going to get you out of here safely. But you have to be very quiet and do what we say, when we say it. Can you do that?”
Sinta nodded. The other two just stared at him.
Ace looked back to Piper. She had tears in her eyes and was biting her lip. He needed her to keep it together. He had a feeling if she lost it, the kids would too. “Come on,” he said, scooting closer. “Let’s get you out of there.”
He leaned down and caught a whiff of body odor and excrement, but didn’t comment. He’d seen and experienced much worse.
Piper turned to the kids. “Keep your eyes on me,” she said, pointing to her eyes, then to theirs, then back to her own. “Don’t look around. Do you understand?”
Rani and Sinta nodded.
Piper looked at Kemala. “It’s bad. I don’t want you to see.” Her voice was hoarse and full of emotion. Finally, the teenager nodded. “Thank you,” Piper added, then turned back to Ace. “Okay, we’re ready.”
One by one, she handed the girls up to Ace until the three of them and Piper were standing in the kitchen huddled together once more. Something about the way she gathered them close struck a familiar chord in Ace. He had no idea what they’d been through in the last few days, but whatever it was had made her very protective of the children.
He stayed crouched down in front of them. Reaching into one of the many pockets on his uniform, Ace brought out three pieces of candy. He always had Life Savers stashed on his person when he went on a mission. The guys gave him shit about it, but he was more relieved than he could say that he had them right now.
He slowly unwrapped them as he spoke. “How would you guys like a piece of candy?”
“I don’t think they know what candy is,” Piper said, her voice suspiciously wobbly.
“Then it’s about time they do,” Ace said calmly, holding out the multicolored candies on his palm to the girls.
As he suspected they might, all three looked up at Piper, as if asking if it was all right.
She nodded at them, and Sinta was the first to reach out. She cautiously picked up the red one and sniffed it. Then her small tongue came out and licked the edge of the candy. Her eyes shot up to his in happy surprise at the sweet taste.
Ace couldn’t help but chuckle at her reaction. He smiled. “Yeah, it’s good, isn’t it? Red is my favorite.”
Sinta smiled back and popped the Life Saver into her mouth at the same time Rani and Kemala reached out and took the remaining two candies from his palm.
“Sorry I don’t have another for you,” Ace said regretfully to Piper.
“It’s fine. I’m not hungry,” she said.
Ace doubted that was true, but didn’t call her on it.
“Ace, we need to get out of here,” Bubba said quietly from behind him.
He nodded but didn’t take his gaze from Piper’s. “I don’t think this is going to be a surprise, but getting out of here won’t be a walk in the park.”
She pressed her lips together and nodded.
“We knew you were visiting Kalee, and had planned on getting you out along with her. But the kids…that makes everything much more complicated—”
“They’re good kids,” Piper interrupted. “They’ll be quiet and will do whatever you guys ask them to. I can’t leave them. I can’t!”
Ace slowly stood and looked down at Piper. He was taller than her by only a few inches, but she still seemed so small and fragile. He knew that probably wasn’t the case, because if she was, she wouldn’t have lasted as long as she had in a cramped space under this kitchen. She had to have nerves of steel. And the fact that she didn’t want to leave the girls was another thing that impressed him. He’d seen mothers willingly abandon their children in their haste to escape a dangerous situation, but here was Piper, protecting kids she probably hadn’t even known until a few days ago.
Ace thought back to when he, Rocco, and Gumby had been trapped in Bahrain on a recent op. They were sure they were going to die, and he’d told his fellow SEALs that his one regret in life was not having children. He’d always wanted them, and at the time, Ace had thought he’d never get that chance.
If these were his children, he’d sure as hell be responding just like Piper.
“We aren’t leaving them, or you, behind,” Ace said. “But you have to trust us.” He looked from one girl to the next, before looking back at Piper. “Whatever we ask you to do, you have to do it immediately. Without questions. Can you do that?”
Piper nodded. “I knew we couldn’t stay down there much longer, but I had no idea how I was going to get to Dili. I don’t even know what direction it’s in. So you guys coming along is an answer to a prayer. We’ll do whatever you tell us, as soon as you tell us to do it.” She looked down at the three girls. “Right?”
All three actually nodded.
It was as good as Ace and the team were going to get. He nodded back. “Okay.”
“But we’re going to find Kalee first, right?” Piper asked. “We can’t leave her.”
Ace opened his mouth to speak, but Rex stuck his head in the door and said urgently, “Phantom found something.”
Ace motioned to Piper. “Stay close to me. Don’t make a sound.”
She nodded and turned to the children. “Come on. Sinta, hold on to Kemala. I’ll carry Rani.” She put a finger to her lips before picking up the smallest of the three girls. Rani put her little arms around Piper’s neck and rested her head on her shoulder.
The sight of the little girl’s trust, and how protective Piper was toward not only her, but the other two girls as well, stirred Ace deeply. He had a feeling if something threatened the three orphans, Piper would do whatever it took to make sure they were safe. She wasn’t their mother, but she seemed to have formed a close bond with them.
Pushing his thoughts aside, knowing their mission had just gotten more difficult with the addition of the children and he needed to concentrate on his surroundings, Ace nodded at the quartet and swung his weapon back around so it was at the ready. Rocco led the way out of the kitchen with Ace at his six, Piper and the kids after him, and Bubba taking up the rear.
They walked out of the building toward where they could see Phantom and Gumby standing in the near distance. They were looking down at something, but Ace couldn’t make out what it was.
As they got closer, the smell wafted their way, and Ace did his best to breathe through his mouth and not his nose.
He knew that smell. Human decomp.
He stopped and heard Piper halt right behind him.
“Stay quiet,” he requested.
She nodded, and when he looked at her, he knew she had no idea what the
awful smell was.
“I’ll stay here with them,” Gumby said quietly.
Ace nodded. “I’ll be right back. Stay here with my friend. Okay?”
Piper nodded immediately. He was proud of her for doing as she’d promised, and not questioning him. He had a feeling she wasn’t usually this compliant, but as she’d said, she and the kids were at their mercy. They wouldn’t make it to the capital by themselves.
Ace and Rocco walked up to where the others were standing and stared down at a large hole in the ground. He almost lost it. The stench from the bodies was more intense here.
But it was more the sight that greeted him that made his stomach lurch.
Bodies. At least two dozen. They were piled on top of each other in the hole. Thrown there as if they were trash to be discarded. Flies were everywhere.
And the worst of it was…most of the dead were children. Little girls who’d been shot.
“Is that Kalee Solberg?” Rocco asked quietly.
Phantom hadn’t said a word, and Ace saw that his jaw was flexing as if he was barely holding himself together.
“Pretty sure, yeah,” Rex said just as quietly. “It’s kind of hard to tell, but the red hair matches and her skin’s lighter than that of the locals.”
“We need to get her out of there,” Phantom said in the silence that followed Rex’s words. “We promised to bring her home.”
All four of the other men nodded. It wouldn’t be pleasant, but their mission was to get Kalee out of the country, and even though she’d been killed in the raid against the orphanage, they still had a job to do.
“How do we want to do this?” Rocco asked.
Phantom opened his mouth to respond when a loud burst of gunfire echoed from the jungle around them.
“Shit,” Rex swore at the same time Rocco flipped the safety off his weapon.
“There’s no time,” Ace said. “We have to get out of here.”
“We can’t leave her,” Phantom argued. “I’ll meet you guys back at the village.”
They could hear shouts nearby. The rebels were way too fucking close for comfort.
“We aren’t splitting up,” Rocco said, grabbing Phantom’s arm. “We need to go.”