Stranded with the SEAL (11 page)

S
he looked a little like Brooke
, and that was his undoing.

Marco Steele always kept a firm hand on the reins of his emotions. He knew better than to mix business with pleasure, and he sure as hell knew better than to touch the merchandise. But she looked like Brooke, just a little around the eyes, and a hand reached out of the cavernous abyss of loss he’d been skirting since she disappeared.

Mister, you want blow job?

He closed his eyes as he let out a deep growl. She wasn’t doing it right, wasn’t as innocent or experienced or just plain perfect as his Brooke. He pushed the woman’s forehead away and grabbed his dick in his hand, jiggling it. “Lick my balls,” he commanded. “Suck ’em deep into your mouth.”

Her eyes were not like Brooke’s at all, now that he could see them up close. No one would ever be as pretty as Brooke, or as perfect. He’d been a fool to think this woman could change that, but now he needed to come.

He opened his eyes to watch her. He tugged himself, harder this time. He wanted to fuck her mouth, but she kept doing it wrong and he was getting angry, which made him want to hurt her.

Or maybe it was because she looked like Brooke that he longed to wail her with his open hand until she screamed.

How could she do this to him? Didn’t she know he loved her more than anyone else ever could? He’d taken care of her. Given her everything she could ever ask for and more.

If it weren’t for him, she’d be no one, nothing at all. Olivia Grayson was nobody, but Brooke Barrons was a star.

Teeth scraped his scrotum, making him stiffen and shout. “Careful!” Closing his eyes, it was Brooke’s mouth he was sinking into, and she loved the flavor of him, the intimacy of this act, even though Brooke had never taken him in her mouth.

A guy can dream.

She wasn’t Brooke anymore. She was nobody, there only for his pleasure. When he was satisfied, he let go of her hair and she fell to the floor like a rag doll. “Get up,” he said.

Her worried eyes got big and round. “You be nice to me now.”

He laughed and grabbed her wrist, pulling her down until she was bent over his lap. “That’s not how this works.”

He hit her sharply, his eyes closing again. “Now tell me you’re sorry for running away.”

She was silent.

He hit her again.

“I sorry for running.”

He began to relax. “Now tell me how much you love me.”

H
ERO Force arrived
at Steele’s compound in the last light of dusk, colors fading into grayscale, and stashed their vehicles in the woods nearby. Proceeding on foot, they made their way to the compound under the cover of pine trees that followed the perimeter.

Hawk’s knee was much improved with the help of a splint from Logan, and he moved with speed and a practiced warrior’s gait, his weapons harnessed and tucked all over his body.

The utility gate to Steele’s compound was hidden around the back of the complex behind several dumpsters. Hawk only knew it was there because he’d been studying maps and satellite pictures. As the voice had promised on the other end of the walkie-talkie, the gate appeared to be locked but was, in fact, open.

The men filed in after him — Logan and Matteo on their way to infiltrate the communications and control systems, Cowboy on the grass just inside the fence to patrol for tangos, and Jax on Hawk’s six as they went in search of Steele.

The compound consisted of four buildings: a large warehouse, Steele’s private residence, a small office building, and a barracks for Steele’s men. The residence was dark, so Hawk jogged toward the office building, moving nearly silently in his fatigues and combat boots.

Several windows were glowing, and he headed for the one farthest from the front of the building, hunkering down and peering inside. A kitchenette, empty. Next to it, a sitting room, also empty. The third window stopped Hawk in his tracks.

Steele leaned back on the edge of his desk, a naked woman kneeling in front of him. Steele threw his head back so that his eyes lined up with their hiding place outside the window, and Hawk and Jax both stepped back into the darkness.

“I don’t think he saw us,” said Jax.

“No, I think he’s pretty busy.” Hawk narrowed his eyes at the glass windowpane, focusing on the wire mesh inside it and tracing the wires back to a small box. “This window’s wired to an alarm. If we take the shot from here, we get one chance and alert the tangos at the same time.”

Jax shook his head. “I’ve got twenty bucks says it’s bulletproof glass. We need to get inside. At least he’s distracted.”

The woman stood up and Steele turned her around.

“That girl’s not more than twenty,” said Hawk.

“I’m guessing she’s closer to fifteen.” Jax tapped his earpiece. “Logan, you in?”

A voice replied in their ears. “I’ve got the com system online. Working on the rest.”

Hawk got a better look at the girl when Steele laid her across his lap and began to spank her. “She’s not enjoying that,” he said.

“Logan, I need you in that system!” snapped Jax.

“Two more minutes…” Logan sounded like he was physically exerting himself. “I’m in. I’ve got security cameras throughout the building and perimeter. Climate controls, electrical, everything.”

“We’ve got a teenager being raped in the office building. Can you trigger the sprinkler system?”

“Give me a minute,” said Logan.

Hawk and Jax made eye contact, knowing how much could happen in a minute. “If he doesn’t get it in sixty seconds,” said Hawk, “I’m firing into that room.”

“He’ll get it,” said Jax.

They looked back through the window. The girl was sobbing openly now, and Hawk’s finger twitched on his weapon.

The sprinklers went on in the room, water pouring out everywhere. Steele dumped the girl on the floor in his rush to stand, quickly running from the room as he held up his pants.

“Nice job, Doc,” said Jax. “Now deactivate the alarm.”

“Done.”

Hawk moved to the kitchenette window. Steele was alone and appeared to be cursing as he dabbed at his wet clothes with a towel. Hawk moved on to the next room, which was dark, and turned on his night vision goggles. It was an office, a perfect point of entry. He took out glass and wire cutters from his pack and began to work.

He was nearly in when Logan spoke again.

“Uh oh, we’ve got trouble. Brooke Barrons just walked in the front door.”

Hawk froze, his heart in his chest. “Olivia?”

“That’s the one. She’s with a man, considerably taller than her.”

“Are you sure it’s her?”

“My mom used to watch
The Young and the Restless
. It’s definitely her,” said Logan.

Hawk turned to Jax. “Why would she follow us? I told her to stay in the chopper.”

Jax shrugged. “She’s engaged to him. Maybe she wanted to be here. Logan, cut the sprinklers.”

So Olivia had her memory back, and the first thing she did was head out to see her fiancé. He wanted to bash his fist into something hard. She couldn’t even wait until he came back to the helicopter to tell him where she was going.

“Wait a second,” Hawk said. “How did she get here, Logan?”

“Let me rewind the surveillance video,” said Logan.

Jax eyed Hawk intently. “It doesn’t change anything, does it?”

“Hell yes, it does,” said Hawk.

Logan’s voice was calm in their ears. “Checking, hang on…”

Hawk’s mind raced while he waited, looking for any other explanation for her presence here right now and finding none.

“Got it,” said Logan. “She arrived on a snowmobile with the tall guy.”

“Gallant,” said Hawk. He met Jax’s stare. “He’s Steele’s henchman. He’s the one who tortured Ralph before Steele killed him.”

“What the hell’s he doing with her?” asked Jax.

Hawk shook his head. “I have no idea. But we can’t assume she’s here of her own free will.” Even as he said it, he knew what the rest of the team was thinking. That he was a sucker, pure and simple.

He gritted his teeth and carefully removed the glass, placing it in the snow behind them. “On my six,” he said to Jax, then entered the dark room feet first.

A phone rang in the distance as Jax climbed in behind him, and they slipped through the kitchenette and toward the open door to Steele’s office.

“What is it?” said Steele into the phone. “It’s about goddamn time. Do you know what it’s cost me to feed these people for three weeks? What about the roads between here and the bridge?” He nodded. “Excellent. So we move them early in the morning. And tell D’jar there’s a ten percent surcharge to cover unforeseen expenses. I’m not running a boardinghouse for third-world indigents.”

Hawk strained his ears to hear the phone hanging up, then Steele talking again. Hawk moved closer, desperate for a visual.

“Yes, this is Marco Acero. Lieutenant Richards, please.”

Hawk could just see the desk.

Steele hunched in his desk chair. It was several minutes before he spoke again. “Lieutenant, this is Marco Acero calling again. Is there any word on Miss Barrons?” He rubbed his temples. “I see. In the video, was she driving herself or was someone else driving?”

So he was trying to track Olivia down, and without much success. Trevor shifted silently onto his opposite arm. He couldn’t get a good shot at Steele from this angle.

Logan was back on the com system. “Olivia and Gallant are heading toward Steele’s office.”

Get off the damn phone, Steele!

Steele opened a drawer and withdrew a picture frame. While Trevor couldn’t see what it held, he’d bet money it was a woman they both knew well, a woman who at that very moment was making her way toward this office and back into her fiancé’s arms.

Bitter bile coated the back of Hawk’s throat.

Steele continued. “I disagree, Lieutenant. She would not have left of her own accord. If she was driving, then clearly there was someone else in the vehicle controlling her actions.” His hand balled up into a fist. “Fine, yes, I’ll do that.” He hung up the phone and leaned back in his chair.

Damn it.

He could only get a shot at Steele’s arm.

A shot in the arm was better than no shot at all. He popped two bullets into Steele’s left arm and sprung from his crouch on the floor. Jax was right behind him, weapon drawn.

Steele was screaming and pulled a gun from beneath his desk. Hawk shot it out of his hand before Steele could train it on them. Hawk knew he should kill him now, just like that, a few rounds to the chest and the bastard would be gone forever. But he wanted to see Steele suffer just like Ralph.

“Remember me, motherfucker?” he asked, his gun still pointed at Steele.

“Please…” Steele said, cradling one wounded arm with another and crying.

“It’s important to me you remember,” Hawk said, closing the distance between them. “You killed a good man the last time we met, and I want you to know why you’re going to die.”

The picture Steele had been looking at was now on his desk. It was indeed of Olivia, though in the photo she’d been much younger. A headshot from her early acting days, perhaps. Jealousy beat like a drum in his chest, anxious to control his body and tongue. “I know where your precious Olivia is.”

Any color left in the other man’s face drained at the mention of her name. “You couldn’t possibly,” he whispered.

“But I wouldn’t really call her ‘yours’ anymore.”

Steele’s expression was pained. “If you hurt her, I will murder you!”

Hawk leveled his firearm at Steele’s ear. “You’re not going to get that chance. But I can assure you, I didn’t hurt her. She loved every minute of fucking me.” His finger moved to cinch the trigger.

“Trevor, no!” Olivia’s scream wrenched from deep in her chest, and he turned around to find her and Gallant standing in the open doorway.

Gallant quickly wrapped his arm around Olivia’s neck, holding her against his chest and a gun to her head. “You should listen to the lady,” he said. “Because if you kill Marco, I’ll have to kill her.”

Gallant was a fool. He was so much taller than Olivia, she was no sort of shield. Hawk fired a round directly into Gallant’s head, and the giant fell to the ground, pulling Olivia with him. She screamed hysterically as she freed herself.

“What are you doing?” she yelled.

“This is the man who killed Ralph,” Hawk said. “He stood there and he watched as that useless piece of shit tortured him, then he took a knife and ended his life.”

Her head fell forward and he thought she might pass out, but she raised it again a moment later. “So put him in prison.” She walked toward Hawk with a wobbling gait. “But don’t kill him. I’m begging you.”

“Why?” Hawk asked. “Does he mean that much to you? You can’t stand to see the man you love suffer?”

“No. I want answers. I need to know what happened to Ellie and Frank. I have to get my entire memory back so I can move on with my life. I may not be able to do that if he’s dead.”

“Go on,” Trevor said, sneering.

“What do you mean?”

“Keep going. You didn’t get to the part where you feel like you owe him something for taking care of you all those years.”

“That’s not fair. It’s not that simple.”

“Sure it is, Livy.”

She sneered. “Don’t call me that. Marco has his problems…”

“Marco Steele is a human trafficker who raped a teenager on this desk not one hour ago.”

She physically shriveled.

Hawk was screaming now. “Now how about you tell me how the
fuck
you ended up engaged to that monster?”

She crossed her arms. “None of your business.”

“He’s not who you think he is, Olivia.”

“No, you’re the one who isn’t who I thought he was! You made your work sound noble. Important. But you’re shooting an old man in the arm and telling him you slept with me! How honorable is that?”

Trevor wished he’d never met her, wished her car hadn’t gotten stuck in the snow, that there hadn’t been any impediment between her and her lover on the top of this mountain of shit. “We’re done here.” He turned on his heel.

“It won’t bring Ralph back, Trevor,” she said.

He kept walking.

“If you care about me at all, let the police handle it. If what you’re saying is true, he’ll go to jail. You don’t need to kill him.”

He spun around. “Don’t you understand?
I want to kill him
. I want him dead and I want to be the reason he stops breathing. I want revenge, damn it! I want him to pay for what he did.”

“Then do it for me,” she said. “Keep him alive for me.”

“Because you love him?”

Jax fired his gun behind Hawk, and everyone turned to see what happened. There was Steele, blood spreading on his abdomen and a different gun dangling from his hand.

“The last shot is yours if you want it,” said Jax, looking at Hawk.

Hawk looked to Olivia’s eyes, then lifted his weapon and trained it on Steele.

“No!” Olivia’s piercing scream echoed in the room, and Hawk’s determination wavered. While there was no question in his mind Steele deserved to die, he suddenly wondered if Olivia deserved to watch her fiancé be shot to death.

Hawk lowered his gun and looked pointedly at Olivia. He would do what she asked. He would let Steele live, if only because she asked him to.

Jax moved closer to Steele and pulled out a pair of handcuffs, but they got stuck on his tactical suit and Jax bent his head to free them. In the split-second he was turned away, Steele shoved his good arm underneath his desk.

He’s looking for a weapon.

No!

Hawk raised his gun once again, training it on Steele at the same moment Steele pointed a gun at Jax.

Hawk pulled the trigger, a perfect shot right into Steele’s chest.

Jax’s head snapped to Hawk’s. “Holy shit,” said Jax.

“How could you?” asked Olivia.

Hawk turned to see her standing right where she’d been, staring at Steele, and knew she was going into shock. Jax knew it, too, because he said, “Logan, send Red and Cowboy to free the prisoners. We need you down here for a medical eval on Olivia.”

“I’m sorry,” said Hawk, but she didn’t seem to hear.

Hawk looked long and hard at Steele’s dead body, then turned and walked toward the door. Olivia would never forgive him for this, but he couldn’t forgive himself if he’d let Steele kill another one of his brothers.