Code of Honor (Special Ops Book 7) (6 page)

He shook his head. “These guys think you know more than you do and they…he shouldn’t have put you in danger like this.”

“Why would these criminals let us get this far? If they were watching him, which I think they probably were, why let us start building the game in the first place? Why not just kill him before he made contact with us?”

“They may not have been watching from pre-contract. The contract may have made them start paying attention to him. I need more information on him, his past, in order to figure that part out. But I think they waited because the lower level guys aren’t the ones they cared about. You must be close, or something your boy genius was about to give you was going to hit too close to home for higher level people…whatever it was they are ready to end this completely.”

“By ending me,” she stated. “Because they think I have the end game in my head.”

He nodded.

She exhaled slowly. The thought occurred to her that this game really was worth killing for and unfortunately for her she was, as Rhys had said, a “marked target in a very deadly game.” She felt anger hit her hard. “Well if I’m going to hell I’m taking them with me.”

He grabbed hold to her hand swiftly, stopping her from leaving the table. She had gotten up fast, trying to escape into her room so she could cry out her anger, but he refused to let her go.

“You are not going to hell.”

“I don’t believe in heaven.”

His glare was stern and decisive. “I mean they are not ending your life. You got me?”

She nodded. “They could end us both, Rhys.”

“Not this time,” he nearly growled those words out. “Not this time.”

She leaned in and kissed his lips. “Then let’s take them out before they take us out.”

“No. Not you, not this.”

“You can’t do this alone. I can’t survive this guy that’s after me without you. Neither of us can do this alone, but together we can destroy them.” She stressed the last part of her sentence, punctuating each word with the calm sense of anger she now felt within her. Together they could win this. Together they could give an end game that left them both alive.

“Then together we find victory, or we find death.”

She nodded. “Victory,” she said because that sounded a heck of a lot better than them dying. Of course he was both a skilled warrior and a realist. He knew nothing was promised, no outcome could be guaranteed, but he would fight until death to make sure those responsible for his parents’ murder were punished and that she would be able to wake up every day breathing. He was protector and warrior. He was a man without borders, without boundaries, without mercy. He would do whatever it took to win this not just for himself, but for her too. Together they would take these guys down.

Chapter Five

Abby had awakened early, showered and ate the breakfast food Rhys had prepared. She cleaned the kitchen. He cooked, the least she could do was help clean up. Then she went to the back room where she was sure he was at so she could spend a little time talking with him about their plan. She had barely made it into the room when he knocked her to the ground.

“Stay down,” the harsh timbers of his voice sent fear cascading down her spine. Something was wrong. Somebody was out there. Had the guy found them already? How could he find them so quickly?

“He’s here,” his words confirmed her fears.

“How,” she whispered as if whispering would keep them hidden.

“I don’t know.” He uttered words in a language she still didn’t understand. Clearly he didn’t want for her to understand them. “He tripped one of my sensors on the property line which triggered one of the cameras I have hidden. He’s good, but he missed my security—so far anyway.”

“And if he figures it out?”

“Then he’ll figure out how to cut us off. Right now he’s moving toward us.”

“Should we leave?” He lay atop her, still covering her as if he were shielding her from bullets.

“Too risky. Plus I need to get this guy. He won’t give up. If I don’t take him down he’ll keep hunting you.”

“I get it, but what about capturing him and getting him to tell us who hired him?”

“Men like him don’t talk, not even under torture.”

His voice told her he knew of what he spoke. He had said this man was like some younger version of his skills so of course he would know how tough he was, how determined he was, and how mulish he could be when it came to going out his own way. Besides, capturing him would probably just end with him finding a way to escape and come back for them. “So two of us against one of him should be winnable right?”

“Correction, one of us against one of him. You’re sitting this one out.”

“Hey! Partners, remember?” Now was not the time for him to go all primeval caveman on her. They were going to get this guy together.

“Not in this. You can’t win this. Stay put, stay low, and stay out of my way.”

She would find righteous indignation but the man was right. She couldn’t win with this guy. He had already proven that. “Okay, but if you go down and I think you need help I will get up and help.”

He snorted but gave what she thought to be the okay grunt. Well too bad if he wasn’t okay with it because he had to know that she was not going to lay low and let him get killed. If he died she would die here anyway so why rest on her haunches and watch him need help without getting up to give him the help he needed? No, she was going to help, if and when he needed it. Until then she would stay out of his way the best she could.

She knew he would have to remove himself from on top of her body at some point, but that didn’t mean she was glad that he did. Not only did she miss the feel of the heat of his body pressed against hers, but she also missed the idea that the longer they stayed that way the longer the danger stayed away from them.

“Stay on your belly and follow me.”

Yeah, so she wasn’t trained for this but it wasn’t all that hard to stay behind him. When he got her to the island stationed in the center of the room he told her to stay there before he crawled away from her. Okay, so maybe she was getting a lot afraid now. She had passed a little afraid a long time ago, but this was out the stratosphere of fear. She liked it better when he was right beside her, but she did understand. It wouldn’t make sense for them both to get caught by this guy while hiding behind the same temporary safe zone. She figured he planned to be positioned and ready for an attack. She just had to stay put until he needed her.

Maybe he wouldn’t need her. He and this guy had the same type of training so maybe, just maybe, he could end this by taking the guy out sooner rather than later. She could hope so anyway.

She heard the creaking of the front door; this was something Rhys had said he orchestrated to have the advantage of early warning. He had also left the alarms on, but had set them to silent. He had told her he had a way of getting warning, but that didn’t mean he wanted the guy after her to know he had already been alerted.

She understood everything he told her the other night. She understood that this guy didn’t know who he was about to come up against and the less warning he had to Rhys’ expertise the better the advantage. The last thing Rhys needed was for this guy to think of not so ethical ways to making the attack—not that there was anything ethical about his actions in the first place.

She stayed put until she heard the sound of fist connecting with flesh. She got on her knees and peeked around the island to see Rhys and Psycho Underwear guy, that’s what she was calling him now since she didn’t know much more about him or how much of what she had seen of him had been reality, punching each other. No, that wasn’t punching it was pounding and this guy was giving just as good as he was getting. The problem was this guy wasn’t trying to win this with any hint of fairness. His lack of nobleness in the fight didn’t surprise her. A noble minded man wouldn’t go on the hunt for an innocent woman and then try to rape her and kill her all at the same time. No, this guy was unadulterated evil and she doubted that any hint of goodness was within him. A man like that wouldn’t fight fair.

He picked up the adobe floor vase and smashed it over Rhys as Rhys was trying to pull himself off the ground. Oh no he just didn’t, she thought as she bolted out of her hiding spot and headed for him. he heard her. She wasn’t going to be able to jump on his back or give a blitz encounter. She was going to have to try to fight him again. She knew he was stronger, faster, more skilled in ways that she wasn’t, but she was trained. She was a fighter and she wouldn’t go into that dark night without breaking parts of him in the process.

One kick to his shin gave her leverage to put her foot hard against his nose. If only she had stilettos on right now she could have taken out an eye. No, she was barefoot as the cliché river duck and while she had drawn blood she hadn’t hurt him enough. He looked pissed and he gave her the hand on hand to prove it.

She worked swiftly, but she missed the punch that connected with her gut which left her open for the one that smashed against her cheek and knocked her into the table as she fell to the ground.

She thought she was for sure about to die but when she was able to look up she saw that Rhys had rejoined the fight and this time he was not aiming for hand to hand war. He was aiming for a hand to hand kill and he got it. One sharp thrust of his hand into the back of the guy’s neck snapped bones. She could hear them breaking and she could see the life escape out of him as he fell to the floor.

Rhys was on his knees beside her so fast she could barely fathom a coherent thought as he pulled her to her feet.

“Are you hurt anywhere other than your face?”

Hurt? Sure. “That punch to my stomach hurt, but nothing’s broken and I’m almost positive of that.” She flinched when his fingers touched her chin. He wiped blood away assuring her that the twinge of pain really was a split lip she was starting to feel as the adrenalin was starting to go from boiling to simmer. He wiped more blood away from her forehead which told her she must have cut her forehead or the widow’s peak area of her  head when she hit the table.

She hadn’t heard the noise like he had. He had a weapon pulled from his boot so swiftly and her pushed behind him just as swiftly. She had to try to stable herself not to fall down again.

The tension in his body was the tension of a man, lethal, ready to strike and kill. She noticed when his body went from kill first ask questions later to assess and then kill status.

“Lilith? You’re dead.”

She peeped around him. The woman was very much alive. Her hair was short, shaved closer to her scalp but still very feminine.

“Rhys,” she smiled as she looked at the dead body on the floor. “Not dead, just in hiding for a very long time. They tried to kill me.” She lowered her weapon and put the safety on before putting it away. Rhys didn’t put his away but he did lower it.

“The same people who killed your parents tried to kill me. If it wasn’t for the “terrorist” they sent me in to kill I would have died. He saved me.”

“A terrorist saved you?” Abby asked as she stepped from behind Rhys.

“Yeah, he wasn’t a terrorist. They set me up.”

“For the kill,” Rhys nodded. “You die, he dies and they don’t care. He wasn’t a threat but they would see that everybody thought he was and that he killed you.”

“Yeah. After he got me back to fully living status he helped me find out what happened. He helped me piece things together, but I knew when the names started hitting Congress and Senate level that I couldn’t just come back.”

“The game,” Abby looked at her with wide eyes. “It was you,” she gasped.

“Yes. I found a man who wanted to help, a man who knew the hell our government could create. I gave him piece by piece not fully trusting him, but not willing to drop the ball here. He was my only choice and your company was the only one I knew could get this game out there. I figured somebody would find out about it. I figured somebody would either smell a conspiracy and start blabbing about find out the truth online, or that somebody in Deep Six would recognize the family and then tell you,” she looked at Rhys. “I figured you were the only person who could get justice for your family and try to get these dicks put in the grave or behind bars. But the more time passed the less I was thinking this was going to work. Especially with the VP being one of bad guys here.”

“He said it went to the Whitehouse, but he didn’t say he knew who it was.”

“He didn’t know, Abby. I didn’t tell him. I just told him it went to the Whitehouse. I told him I would give it to him. I set a date and time for him to get something from the hiding place I was to tell him about. I got worried when he didn’t make contact.”

“He was killed.”

“I found that out. I activated the tracking device I put in the notebook he gave you.”

Abby’s eyes shifted over to the floor where her now butterfly decorated covered book lay. “Tracking device?”

Lilith smiled coyly. “That piece of glass gem has a precious little something from me to you.”

“I checked,” Rhys said.

“It was inactive until I hit the switch. You wouldn’t have seen it. I’ve been dead for years, Rhys; I figured out how to stay that way while getting the information I needed and finding the people I had to find. Unfortunately it’s how he found you.” She pointed to the man on the floor. “He must have been monitoring the area for the signals these devices put off and my activating it led him right to you. I guess he was close, but he didn’t know just how close until I hit the switch. I’m sorry, but I had to find her. the people helping me died and I needed to make sure I didn’t cause her death. I also needed to make sure the game got out there. But now…well, it’s gone beyond that.”

“We can still put it out.”

“Oh your company will put something out, but anybody who knows about this,” she wiggled her ring finger. “well, they’ll be dead before the truth can get out. You’ll need to go into deep cover.”

“The hell she will.” Rhys growled. “You’ve got an MC in that thing?”

“MC?” Abby looked between the two of them.

“Microchip,” Lilith nodded affirmatively.

“Then we’ll get it out. As you know, Lilith, I know how to blitz attack in more than just a physical nature.”

Abby watched as the woman pulled the ring off and gave it to Rhys. She watched as Rhys popped the stone out, removed the chip and tossed the remaining contents of the ring onto the floor.

“Come with me,” he walked in a steady stride toward the door making sure Lilith stayed on one side and Abby on the other.

They came to a closed door with what she thought was an air conditioning and heating controller but found out the second Rhys finished punching in numbers that it was a code for the wall to shift sideways, opening and showing another hidden room.

The computers were self evident. The man had so many hidden talents she just couldn’t wrap her brain around the mystery of Rhys. At least he had let her see what he really looked like and all she could say was that he looked more Columbian than he knew, but good Lord the man was gorgeous in her mind. The red hair was hot too. Of course he wasn’t looking the same as he had last night now. It was as if he put his disguise on each morning just in case they had an encounter. She figured he must have used something that this Lilith woman knew about because she had recognized him right away. A previous disguise she would say.

He sat down at the computer and tinkered until the screens came to light. He silently tweaked and operated while she stood beside him and Lilith stood more at a front angle. Abby figured Lilith understood the need to give the man his space. She figured all operations people must have known to stay out of the side range and never get behind the person. She, on the other hand, was a woman he fully trusted and when she was going to walk away he had put his hand out and grabbed her wrist to make her stay so she stayed.

“What are you doing?” Abby saw the codes blitzing across the monitor. He chuckled as he hit another button and the television screens came to life. There were ten stations with various news sources from America to England to Japan and beyond.