by Susan Stoker
Tires squealed as Mr. Solberg sped away from the house, but Piper didn’t hear them. She was down for the count.
Down in the basement, Kemala paced back and forth. Sinta had reverted to speaking to her in Tetum, something she hadn’t done in weeks. The girls had made a vow to only use English with each other so they could learn it faster.
But they both knew something was wrong. Very wrong. Piper wouldn’t have told them to come down here unless she was worried. And the man who’d entered their house was the same one who’d hit Piper when they’d gotten off the airplane.
Something wasn’t right with him. He looked desperate. Kemala knew what desperation looked like. She’d seen it many times back in Timor-Leste. In the faces of kids who would do anything to get something to eat. In the faces of the rebels she’d seen as they’d fled the orphanage. On Kalee’s face, as she’d shut the door to the crawlspace and said she’d be back in a minute or two.
But what really struck Kemala was the way Piper had put herself between her and Sinta and the man. Kemala knew she’d been mean to Piper and Ace back in Timor-Leste, but she’d been scared she was going to be left behind in the city. She didn’t know anything about living in a city, except that she would have no choices and would most likely be sold to whatever man decided he needed a wife. The trip to Dili had been her first, and it was overwhelming and scary. The thought of being left to fend for herself was frightening, and she’d taken it out on Piper.
But then she’d told her that if she had to pick one of them to take with her to America, she’d pick Kemala. That had stunned her.
And just now, upstairs, she saw Piper put herself in danger for her. And Sinta.
Feeling like a coward for hiding in the basement, Kemala continued to pace back and forth, trying to decide what to do.
“What do you think the man wants? He’s Kalee’s father?” Sinta asked, still speaking in their native language.
Kemala nodded. “Yes. He didn’t look right in the eyes.”
Sinta agreed. “Piper’s up there with him, and Rani. We need to do something! Daddy has guns here.”
Kemala turned and glared at Sinta. “Do. Not. Touch. Them.”
Sinta held up her hands. “I wasn’t. I didn’t!”
“We can’t use the guns. No. But you’re right in that we must do something. That man hits. Ace and Piper said in America, it’s against the law for men to hit women. Even though he is old, he could kill both Rani and Piper.”
“So what are we going to do?” Sinta practically screeched. Tears filled her eyes, and she stared up at Kemala as if she could solve all their problems.
Staring at Sinta…resolve filled her.
For the first time, Kemala felt important.
All her life, she’d been just another number. Another mouth to feed. A girl who eventually would be married off to whoever needed a housekeeper. But here in America, she was an older sister. A daughter.
“We need a phone,” Kemala told Sinta. “Piper wouldn’t want us to leave this room, but Ace told us to call for help if anything happened.”
The two girls opened drawers and looked on all the shelves in the room, ignoring the guns and bullets they found.
Finally, Sinta opened one last drawer and held up what looked to be a small cell phone still in plastic packaging. “Is this one? The one Piper and Daddy uses, it doesn’t look like this.”
Kemala took it from her and struggled for five full minutes to claw her way through the plastic to get to the phone inside. She flipped it open and held down the green button. She hadn’t been familiar with electronics when she’d left Timor-Leste, but she’d quickly become proficient after living with Piper and Ace for almost a month.
When the screen lit up, Kemala smiled at Sinta. “It works.”
“Great!” Then she frowned. “But who are you going to call?”
Kemala’s face fell. She wanted to call Ace, but didn’t know the numbers she had to push to get him. She could call any of Piper’s friends, but didn’t know their numbers either.
Her shoulders sagged. Piper needed help, but she didn’t know how to get it for her.
“Look!” Sinta shouted, pointing at a piece of paper in the drawer with more phones still in plastic.
Kemala leaned over and picked it up. There was a word on the paper, with a bunch of numbers after it. She didn’t know who the person was—if it was even a person at all—but she didn’t know what else to do.
Slowly and carefully, she pushed the numbers on the phone in the same order they were on the piece of paper.
When she was done, she put the phone up to her ear and held her breath.
“Hello?” a man said after the phone rang three times.
“Hello?” Kemala responded.
“Who is this?” he asked in a stern voice. “How did you get this number?”
Kemala’s shoulders hunched and she almost clicked the red button to hang up, but she took a deep breath instead. Whoever this was, he was important enough for Ace to have put his numbers in the drawer. And she had to help Piper. She had to be strong.
“My name is Kemala. My…Piper needs help. Please.”
“Kemala? Holy crap! This is Tex. I met you the other week on the beach, remember?”
“Tex?” She did remember. He was the nice older man who had helped make it possible for Piper and Ace to adopt them and bring them to the United States. Piper had told her a little more about the man that same night. How he used to do what Ace did, and how he’d lost his leg. He had also adopted a girl from another country.
“Yeah, it’s me. Tell me what’s wrong.”
Kemala knew her English still wasn’t strong, but she did her best to explain the situation.
When she was done, Tex said, “Stay right where you are and don’t move. Do you understand?”
“Yes. But Piper need help! Man from airport who hits is here.”
“I know, and I’m going to get help for her and you. But no matter what you hear, do not leave that room with Sinta until someone comes to get you. It’s very important. Piper sent you there so you would be safe. Just like when you were in Timor-Leste. Sometimes it’s better to stay put and hidden than to put yourself in more danger.”
Kemala understood that more than most people. “I stay.”
“You did good, Kemala. I’m so proud of you, and your parents will be too, when they hear. I’m going to hang up and get help to you now, okay?”
Her parents.
Kemala had been thinking about the two people who’d adopted her as Piper and Ace, but now, she fully understood what they’d done for her. They’d given her a family. A real family. She belonged to them, and they belonged to her. They were her parents. It was something she used to pray for every night, until she’d gotten old enough to understand that she would never be adopted. That she’d always be on her own.
“Okay,” she whispered.
“I’m hanging up now,” Tex told her. “Just stay safe; help is on the way.”
Kemala nodded and heard the tone in her ear that she knew meant Tex had ended the connection.
“Who was it? Are they going to help us?” Sinta asked impatiently.
“It was Tex. The man who made it so our parents could adopt us,” Kemala said in Tetum.
“Is he going to help?” Sinta asked.
“Yes. We have to stay here. He’s sending help.”
After hearing that, Sinta burst into tears.
Then, as she’d done in the crawlspace under the kitchen in Timor-Leste, Kemala wrapped her arms around Sinta and eased them to their butts against the wall of their father’s playroom and held her as she cried.
Chapter Fifteen
Ace and his teammates were poring over the new intel that had come in and discussing different plans of attack. A high-value target had been found and they were going to be sent in to take him out. HVT terrorists were like cockroaches, they had the ability to slide into the tiniest cracks and hide even as bombs were raining down on the
ir heads. They were protected by minions and moved to safe hiding places until their locations were compromised once more, then moved again. And so it went.
But this time, this HVT wasn’t going to get away. The government and the military were determined to make him pay for all the innocent people he’d killed or had his followers kill. The SEALs would go in under the cover of darkness, take him out, make sure the man was dead, then disappear like a puff of smoke as if they were never there.
In the middle of their planning, Commander North’s phone rang. He excused himself and went out into the hall to take the call.
In seconds, he was back, his phone still to his ear. “Ace, call Piper. Now.”
For a second, Ace had a hard time switching his brain from military tactics and infiltrating enemy territory, but when his commander’s words sank in, his stomach instantly clenched in fear. He took out his phone and hit Piper’s name. The phone rang several times, then went to voicemail. “Fuck,” he said, then immediately called her back.
Again, it rang and went to her voicemail.
“She’s not answering,” he told his commander. “Sitrep.”
“I’m talking to Tex. He said he got a call from a disposable phone, and it was your daughter Kemala on the other end.”
Ace could hear his commander still talking, but he was already on his feet, heading for the door. Rocco caught his arm and held him back, and Ace struggled to get his friend to release him.
“Let go! I need to get home!”
“And we’ll all go with you, but we need more info. You can’t just go off half-cocked. Use your brain, man.”
Taking a deep breath, Ace knew his friend was right, but his first instinct was to get to his wife and kids.
“Tex called the cops. They’re on the way to your house. He told Kemala to stay put with Sinta. I’m guessing they’re in your safe room?” the commander asked.
Ace nodded. “If they’re using a disposable cell phone, probably. I keep them in a drawer in there. Wait—you said Kemala and Sinta are in there? Where’s Piper and Rani?”
“I don’t know. Kemala said the man who hit Piper at the airport was there, and that Piper told her to take Sinta to the basement. Told her to go to the playroom down there. Rani was sleeping on the couch the last time Kemala saw her.”
With every word out of his commander’s mouth, Ace got more and more frantic. He had no idea why Paul Solberg would be at his house, especially since he hadn’t returned any of the emails Piper had sent. He’d tried to get her to stop, but she’d simply said she couldn’t. That he was Kalee’s dad, and he was hurting, and she wanted to do whatever she could to help.
Piper had the biggest heart of anyone he’d ever met, and the thought that Solberg might have done something to dim that in his wife was repulsive.
He held out his hand to the commander and impatiently wiggled his fingers. He knew he was being disrespectful, but hoped Storm would forgive him, considering the situation.
Without hesitation, his commander handed him his cell.
“Paul Solberg,” Ace told Tex. “He’s Kalee’s father. When we landed after getting back from Timor-Leste, he smacked Piper. Hard. He wasn’t happy to see her alive and well when his daughter had been killed. He might try to kidnap my wife or hurt her.”
“I’m on it,” Tex reassured him. “I’ll send over what I find out about the man as soon as I’ve got something.”
“I want to know every little thing about him,” Ace growled. “I know he’s got a shitload of money, and men with that kind of money at their fingertips have to have skeletons. I want to know everything.”
“If he’s taken Piper, and he’s rich, he’s probably got the resources to disappear pretty thoroughly,” Tex warned. “And since your woman isn’t wearing a tracker, it’ll make her harder to find.”
“If he’s touched one hair on Piper’s head, I’ll fucking kill him,” Ace growled.
“Easy, man. Don’t get all worked up until we figure out what’s going on. It could be he came over to apologize, and she’s sitting on your couch having a heart-to-heart with him right this second.”
Ace knew deep in his bones that wasn’t what was happening, not if Piper had sent the girls to the basement…but he didn’t refute Tex’s words. “We’re headed there now. Send me anything you find.”
“Will do.”
“And, Tex?”
“Yeah?”
“I’ll never be able to repay you for being there for my daughter when I wasn’t.”
“Fuck off,” Tex told him lightly. “You don’t ever have to thank me for something like this. But, Ace, make your daughter memorize your number. I don’t know how she got ahold of me, but I’m guessing it was only because she didn’t know how to find you.”
He’d already thought about that. He had Tex’s number written on a piece of paper in the drawer with all the disposable cell phones. He didn’t know why he’d put it there, but something had told him to do it. And thank God he had. Realizing that he and Piper hadn’t talked about dialing 9-1-1, and how that would bring the good guys running, he made a mental vow to make sure all three of his girls knew exactly how to get ahold of him and Piper and the police in the future.
“Will do,” he told Tex. “Over and out.” He hung up and handed the phone back to the commander. His teammates had already packed up the maps they’d been looking at and were ready to go.
“Lead the way,” Bubba said.
Seeing all his friends ready and eager to help him fix whatever this fucked-up situation had become…Ace thanked his lucky stars for them.
“What about the op?” he asked their commander. He was a professional through and through, and he knew that ultimately his country came first. He’d known that when he’d signed on to become a SEAL, back when he didn’t have anyone who was more important than his job—but there was no way he was going to ignore whatever was happening at his house. He’d quit right then and there before he did so.
He wasn’t going to let his friends and teammates tank their careers for him, though.
“There’s a Delta team in Texas that’s on standby. I’ll tell the rear admiral that they need to be given the go-sign. That we’ve got a situation here that’s come up and is more important.”
The respect Ace had for his commander rose even higher, and he sighed in relief. He loved what he did, but if push came to shove, he’d throw it all away for his family.
“Come on,” Rex urged him. “Time to stop fucking around.”
“Kemala and the girls need us,” Phantom growled.
Without another word, Ace turned and exited the room, followed by four of his teammates.
Ten minutes later, Phantom pulled down Ace’s street and slammed on the brakes upon seeing the amount of red and blue lights spinning round and round on all the cop cars.
Ace didn’t hesitate. He threw open the door and ran as fast as he could toward his house. He managed to get past the two police officers who tried to stop him, but he froze in his tracks when he entered his living room.
There was blood all over his floor. It looked like whatever had happened had started over by the large bookcase against one wall, then a trail of blood led over to the couch before it led to the door to their deck…which was currently standing open.
Piper was lying on the floor just inside the glass doors, covered in blood, as paramedics tended to her.
Before he could get to her, he was forcibly restrained by three police officers. Ace fought to get out of their grasp so he could get to his wife. Piper was bleeding, she needed him, and the assholes were trying to keep him from her!
After several tense moments, and with the help of his teammates, the officers finally realized who he was and let him go. Shrugging them off, Ace fell to his knees at Piper’s feet, making sure to stay out of the way of the men working to stop the bleeding on her face.
“What happened?” he croaked.
“We don’t know. But she’s got two good lacerations on h
er face. One on her temple right above her right eye, and the other on her forehead.”
“Any other injuries?” Rocco asked from where he was standing above Ace.
“Not that we can see, but we’ll need to get her looked over at the hospital. She needs stitches.”
At that moment, Piper groaned, and Ace grabbed her ankle, wanting her to know he was there.
One second she was still and compliant, and the next she was fighting with everything she had. Her left foot hit Ace in the chest, but he barely grunted. The paramedics were shouting for her to calm down, but she wasn’t listening, still lost in whatever had happened before help had arrived.
“Move!” Ace ordered one of the paramedics. “Let her see me. Let me talk to her. I can calm her down.”
The man moved aside and Ace grabbed Piper’s face as he leaned over her. “Piper,” he said loudly. “It’s me! Ace. You’re safe. Stop fighting, baby. You’re okay.”
Her eyes were open, but he knew she wasn’t seeing him. He’d been so proud of how she’d handled herself after escaping Timor-Leste, but it was obvious to Ace that some PTSD had been lurking just under the surface. That whatever had happened in his house had brought it forth.
He gentled his tone and began murmuring nonsense to her. Trying to break through. It took two long minutes of her thrashing and fighting against the hands holding her down, but eventually her eyes lost the wild look, and she blinked as she saw him for the first time. Truly saw him.
“Ace?”
“Yeah, sweetheart. It’s me. You’re okay. Calm down and talk to me.”
“Ace!” she cried. And instead of trying to push him away, she grabbed hold of his wrist and squeezed tightly. “Mr. Solberg was here!”
“I know. Can you tell me what happened?”
“Rani—where’s Rani?” she asked frantically, trying to sit up and look around him.
Ace held her down, not letting her move. “Talk to me, Piper. Take a big breath and tell me what happened.”
She did as he ordered, and explained, “We had just come in from the car. Rani was asleep…you know what car rides do to her. I put her on the couch, and the other girls were helping me carry in our stuff. I turned around, and Kalee’s dad was just standing here in the house. He must’ve come in behind us and I didn’t even notice. He was acting all crazy, saying the strangest things. I sent Sinta and Kemala to the basement— Oh! Where are they? Are they okay?”