What I Fight For: A Bad Boy Military Romance (Easy Team Book 1) (17 page)

              “What the fuck are you doing?” I said, thinking about Commander Wolffe’s orders.

             
Stand down.

              People were on the hunt for Randall already. It was better to let them take him out than to get involved when we had so many civilians under our care at the moment.

              “I’m glad to see my little deliveryman got to you,” Randall said, ignoring my question. “You never know with this lot. They’re as dumb as they look usually. But I guess that one seemed to understand direction.”

              I put my hand over eyes, squeezing my temples while trying not to let anger and frustration overwhelm me. How many lives had this one man ruined or destroyed?

              “
What
do you think you are doing?” I asked again, bitingly.

              “Always the conversationalist, aren’t you?” Randall replied dryly. “You’d think you’d be a little more ingratiating towards me, all things considered.”

              I snorted. “All things considered? I’m betting that you’re on the run right now, Randall. Your troubles have been coming in loud and clear on the chatter.”

              Even without words, I heard the annoyance and anger travel through him. And it gave me a twisted sense of satisfaction to hear it.

              “I’ve always been quite popular,” he said, his tone a little strained in anger.

              “Oh yeah, popular for sure,” I concurred dryly. “So popular that multiple terrorist cells will be coming after that hide of yours. That’s some special talent you got there.”

              “Well,” he said shortly, “I appreciate that this saves me some time in explanation since you’re already informed of my current situation.”

              “So then I guess I’ll ask again,” I said tersely. “What the fuck are you doing?”

              “Asking for your help,” Randall replied without hesitation.

              “Well now you’ve really lost that head of yours,” I said. “You must be fucking nuts if you thought that would work.”

              Randall chuckled softly. “I’m sorry. I did lose my head for a moment. I didn’t mean ‘ask.’ I meant to say, I’m demanding your help.”

              “Good fucking luck getting it,” I said, gripping the phone in lieu of his throat.

              Randall snorted. “As it happens, I think I’ll have plenty of luck in that regard.” I heard him shuffle in his seat as he turned. “Won’t I, sweetheart?” he said, his voice muffled as he spoke away from the phone.

              I heard a struggle and a voice shout out, “Don’t fucking touch me!”

              Immediately, my entire body plunged into an icy freeze. I nearly snapped the phone in two.

              That had been, without a doubt in my body, Emilia.

              It had been Emilia’s voice.

              I immediately stood up and ran towards the medical tent. I saw Bear standing in front of the tent with Doc Jones, a couple packed boxes in front of them.

              I hailed Bear.

              “Where is she?” I demanded as soon as he got within distance. “Where is Emilia?”

              Bear stared at me in slight alarm. I must’ve looked deranged as anger and worry pulsed through me like a virus.

              “She went to the camp,” he said slowly. “The UN workers asked for any volunteers since they were running shorthand. Dr. Lyon and Margie went down to help them.”

              “Get them on the radio
now!
” I said just as Randall started laughing in my ear. Of course Emilia would’ve volunteered herself. She would’ve been the first one to step up once she had heard help was needed.

              “Get who on what radio?” he teased. “The one you’re looking for is sitting right here, next to me. And I have to say, Captain, your tastes haven’t faded in the least.”

              “What the fuck do you want?” I breathed through my teeth. I watched as Bear radioed into the camp.

              “See, that’s why I was saying you should be a lot nicer to me, all things considered. ‘All things’ being this sweet little doctor you seem to have fallen for,” Randall said, clearly pleased to reveal his trump card.

              I heard a muffled struggle through the phone and could all too clearly imagine Randall touching Emilia’s soft cheeks as she tried to fight against him. I was sure my muscles would snap in two from the tension that ran through me.

              “Cap,” Bear said, rushing over with his radio in one hand, “Margie says she hasn’t seen Dr. Lyon for hours. They had been working separate parts of the camp. But some of the refugees are saying they saw a black truck come and take her away.”

              “I think I’ve finally gotten your attention now,” Randall said. “So why don’t I tell you now what I need?” He cleared his throat and said firmly, “I need you to get me out of Qunar.”

              “What,” I said, not even fully aware of speaking aloud. I was in a cloud of rage and anger and could hardly be aware of any words that passed through my lips. But I knew I had to remain calm. I had to get more information if I wanted to get Emilia back.

              “The chatter’s right,” Randall continued. “There are quite a few people angry with me. Angry enough to kill me. So I need to get out of here. I need guaranteed safe passage out of Qunar.”

              “Nothing’s guaranteed,” I said tightly. “And with a high value target like you, the guarantees are even less.”

              “Then the doctor dies,” Randall said calmly. “And you’ll be receiving packages of her body parts for the next year. Won’t he, sweetheart?” I heard Emilia cry out in pain followed by a small grunt from Randall. I could only imagine what Randall was doing and it made me nearly go blind in anger to not know.

              But one thing was clear: Emilia was not taking anything lying down. That had been Randall who had grunted and I hoped that Emilia had given him a good knee in the balls.

              “Where is our meet point?” I said through gritted teeth. Bear was watching me warily, his own fists clenched as he guessed just who was behind this entire mess.

              “There we go,” Randall said in a pleased tone. I could hear the relief behind his words. The man was desperate. He knew just how close his neck was to the guillotine. “I knew you just needed the proper motivation. We’ll meet at the tent camp where you found my products.”

              “With Emilia,” I said firmly.

              “Ah well, I don’t know about that,” Randall said. “She’ll remain behind and once I’ve been securely transported out of the country, my men will release her—”

              “No,” I said in steely firmness. “This mission is only carried out with Emilia present. Or else, no dice.”

              Randall knew he had me by the balls. I would do anything to rescue Emilia. But I knew that the man was desperate. Extremely desperate. He needed to get out of this country to live and I was his only option for survival.

              We had to make this agreement or else we’d be stuck at this impasse.

              “Fine then,” Randall said. “I’ll give it a think. Keep the phone handy and I’ll let you know my decision. But,” his voice dropped in annoyance, “you should know that if I go down, this girl will most definitely go down with me. And terrorist cells don’t have the best policy when it comes to women. Remember that.”

              The line died with a click.

              It took a moment before my rage caught up with my indignation.

              “FUCK!” I roared as I fought the desire to throw the phone against a tree. I breathed heavily, feeling the beast of anger claw within me.

              “Where is Randall headed?” Bear asked, not bothering with any preliminaries.

              Doc Jones stared at us in shock and confusion. “Who is Randall? What’s happened to Emilia?” he asked.

              “No location,” I said, my voice almost shaking in rage. “But he’s got her. And he wants safe passage in return for her.”

              Bear shook his head. “Safe passage
where?
If he’s wanted by one cell, he’ll be wanted by all cells. He has no safe space in a 3,000 mile radius!”

              I swallowed tightly, trying to control my emotions. They would do me no good in rescuing Emilia.

              Randall had contacted me not only because I was his only option but because he knew we had come in for a peacekeeping mission. That meant we were not properly equipped for a rescue mission. We had our basic armory but that wouldn’t be enough against whatever Randall and his men would have.

              He knew that he had the upper hand against us and even though we were equally matched in desperation (he had to get out and I had to get Emilia), he had the addition of superior firepower. And that did make all the difference.

              But the fucker had been out of Easy Team far too long if he thought that was enough of an obstacle for me to give up.

              “I don’t know when Randall will call back,” I said. “But we need to move fast in the interim. Get Dozer. Call some contacts. We need some weapons. Mainly a sniper rifle. Some C4 would be handy too. Go.”

              Without a backwards glance, Bear rushed off to find Dozer. No matter where Easy Team went, no matter what the mission was, we made sure to recon and site out all the useful contacts within the region. We always found at least a handful of contacts into the local black market and usually made connection with one or two territory leaders.

              And Qunar had been no different.

              If we were given enough time, Randall’s last trump card of superior firepower would be demolished.

              Then we’d be left evenly matched. He with his fight for survival and me with my fight for Emilia.

              “Where is Emilia?” Doc Jones asked again, grabbing my arm. His eyes were wide with worry and fear. The normal mask of sarcastic humor was gone. “Is she in danger?”

              I stared at the older man. He was clearly like a father to Emilia. I had seen the close relationship the two had had. For some reason, it soothed me fractionally to be with someone who clearly loved Emilia as much as I did.

              “Yes,” I replied tightly. “But not for long.”

Chapter
Nineteen
Emilia

              I looked around the room frantically, trying to make sense of my surroundings as panic rose within me.

             
Get a grip, Em! Get a grip on yourself!

              But it was hard to do that when I was sitting in an unfamiliar building with my hands tied behind me and facing a man who had threatened to gun down three dozen girls and myself only a few weeks ago.

              “I have to say,” Randall said as he leaned against a wall, staring out a window. The sky was turning a deep blue as it settled into night. “I’ve never heard Hawk so worked up over a girl before. You must’ve really worked some magic over him.”

              “Where are we?” I demanded. My tongue felt floppy in my mouth. After the phone call to Cooper, one of Randall’s men had gagged me with a bit of rags and my lips were chapped and my tongue feeling odd and dry.

              “What does it matter?” Randall asked, not looking over at me. “Would you know it if I told you? All you need to know is that you’re with me and you’re with me until Hawk makes up his mind about letting you live or die.”

              “I doubt that’s his decision,” I muttered, unable to help myself.

              Randall finally turned, his lean face breaking into an unexpected smile as he looked at me. “Well,” he said with a measure of modesty, “I might’ve helped push him into the situation.”

              I twisted my wrists but the rough ropes held fast. All I felt were the abrasions against my wrist as I futilely tried to work my way free.

              It all felt like some kind of crazy nightmare. It had happened so fast that I could barely process my current situation.

              I had just arrived at the refugee camp. It was in complete ruins after the earthquake. All the tents had collapsed and some of them were buried underneath sand dunes that had popped up after the quake.

              Margie and I had decided to split up and work with two different UN teams so we could be more efficient. But no sooner had I seen Margie off that a large black truck swerved into the sight. I barely had a chance to realize the truck looked familiar when two men jumped out, grabbed me, and threw me into the back seat where Randall was waiting for me with a length of rope.

              I had listened to his call with Cooper and could hear Cooper’s strained voice as he tried not to let his anger take hold of him.

             
Oh my god, please don’t let me have put him in danger.

              They were on a peacekeeping mission. How many times had I been told that? How could a peacekeeping team go on a rescue mission? I pictured all the horrific ways Cooper could die trying to save me.

              I had tried not to cry out in the car to alarm him but Randall had made sure I had made noise. He had wrapped a large hand around my throat, squeezing till I saw black spots. Or he had grabbed a fistful of my hair, pulling my face closer to the phone so my cries of pain could be heard more clearly.

              Finally, after hanging up the phone, Randall had made a motion to one of his men. A gag was firmly tied around my mouth and then a bag was thrown over my head.

              When the bag was finally removed and I got a chance to take a breath of fresh air, I was being led into an unfamiliar room and thrown into a chair.

              The room looked like some kind of abandoned meeting hall, much like the one that had collapsed in town.

              We had driven for quite a while so perhaps we were now in a different town?

              “You know,” Randall suddenly started, making me jump in surprise, “I think it’s a little odd that a doctor would find herself attracted to a mercenary.”

              He waited a bit, expecting me to make some kind of response. But I kept quiet, unsure where he was going with this conversation and unwilling to participate.

              Ignoring my silence, he continued, “After all, isn’t it the doctor’s oath to save lives and help the helpless? How can you follow that oath while being with a man whose job it is to search and kill people?”

              “That is
not
his job!” I retorted, unable to keep my silence any longer.

              “Oh really?” Randall said, brow raised, clearly enjoying the idea of getting under my skin. “And you know the job of a mercenary now? After only so many weeks with the man.”

              “He doesn’t kill indiscriminately,” I said through my teeth, irate that this man was putting Cooper through hell right now by kidnapping me then had the gall to insult him on top of that. “His job is to stop people who are causing death and destruction in the first place.”

              “Death and destruction,” Randall repeated. “How dramatic. A lot of time the people Easy Team targets are people who are trying to make a living in this world. And that’s not always an easy thing. Get out of any first world country, and making a living becomes a dirty, messy business that can be bloody at times. But that’s the nature of the world.”

              I stared at the man. “Is that how you justify El Salvador?” I said.

              A momentary look of genuine surprise crossed Randall’s face. “Wow, so Hawk has told you about El Salvador,” he said, almost to himself. “That’s probably one of the highest compliments he could pay you. He considers that mission a personal shame of his. He’s always trying to bury that chapter of his life.”

              “Well no wonder!” I said. “You made him inadvertently responsible for dozens of deaths. Deaths that didn’t need to happen but did because of
you.
”

              “Like I said, making a living can be a bloody business,” he said, walking towards me.

              “So long as the blood spilt isn’t yours,” I said, anger and fear roiling through me like a storm. Adrenaline flooded my veins making me nearly quiver in overstimulation.

              Randall leaned down, putting himself eye to eye with me. The man was lean and dark like a jaguar. And just as dangerous. In another world he might’ve been considered handsome but in this world, in the world where I knew of all the heinous misdeeds he had committed, he looked monstrous.

              He ran a thumb down my jaw and brushed lightly against my bottom lip. I jerked my head away but had very little room to escape.

              “That’s right,” he said softly. “As long as the blood isn’t mine.”

              Tears suddenly sprang to my eyes. I was just so angry. So frightened. The man had killed so many in his wake, all for the sake of greed. And the lives he had not taken, he had ruined. I thought of all those little girls in the camp. Lost souls that he had scattered into the darkest corners of the world.

              But I was frightened as well. Terrified. Clearly, this man didn’t even give a second look at horrific violence or cruelty. He didn’t care as long as his bottom line was met.

              And to know now that I was one of his pawns was terrifying. I was one of those game pieces that he had absolutely no qualms about destroying if it meant it would aid his end goal.

              Randall continued to study me.

              “You’re quite mouthy for someone who could very well die at my hands,” he said, a faint twitch playing at the corner of his lips. It looked like the amused smile a snake would give to a brave mouse before he ate it.

              Having him literally say what I had been thinking aloud made me gasp a little. I closed my eyes and felt a hot tear roll down my cheek.

              “Ah, there we go,” he said in a soft, pleased voice. A thumb brushed against my cheek, wiping away the tear. My skin recoiled at his touch. “That’s more like it, Dr. Lyon.”

              A beat of tense silence passed between us. I almost stopped breathing, knowing he was so close to me.

              Suddenly, I heard a muffled high pitched cry.

              My eyes flew open and I tried my best to look behind me. But we were in an empty room, Randall and I. His men were outside standing guard. There was no around who could’ve made that kind of sound.

              But I had definitely heard it.

              It had been muffled and distant sounding but I had heard the high cry of someone.

              “What was that?” I asked.

              “Nothing worth talking about,” Randall said in annoyance as he straightened up.

              He put his hand in his pocket where I knew his cell phone was. “Now let’s hope Hawk calls soon,” he said. “Or else who knows what might happen to you?”

              My heart thudded against my chest. “He might not call,” I said huskily, my throat tight with adrenaline.

              Randall rubbed his hand against his chin as he looked at me. “Oh yeah? You think he wouldn’t? That doesn’t say a lot about his love for you,” he said.

              I raised my own chin a fraction of an inch higher. “No but it says a lot about who he is as a man. He wouldn’t risk the lives of his men on a death trap.” I took in a breath. “He has honor.”

              Randall snorted. “Honor.” He said the word in a derisive spat. “And let’s see how far that’ll get you. Honor certainly won’t pay the bills.”

              “But selling little girls will?” I countered before I could stop myself.

              Randall looked up at me sharply. He crossed over to me in two long strides and put his hands on the arms of the chair, keeping me imprisoned in front of him. I tried to squirm away but was trapped.

              “That’s right,” he said, his breath brushing against my cheek. “But don’t think that doesn’t mean a grown woman won’t either. I bet I can pay a bill or two with your body and face.” He cupped my chin and when I tried to pull away he gripped my cheeks tighter, turning my face towards him. I could tell by the pain in my face that his fingers would leave bruises.

              “How much do you think you could fetch, hm?” he asked, his voice like a slimy caress. “Or maybe, if Hawk really wants to defend his ‘honor,’ I’ll sell you at a loss. At a bargain. Want to see what kind of man would take you on when he pays bargain basement prices? Want to see what kind of life you would lead when you become worth less than his cow?”             

              I tried to pull away again but his finger dug into my cheeks, keeping me immobilized. Tears gathered at my lashes as I felt powerless, helpless.

              Randall’s eyes glittered in the dim room. He looked like he was on some kind of high. The high of cruelty. The high of power. With every painful jerk and word, his face grew wilder with a manic kind of glow.

              “But before I’d let you go,” he continued, his face mere inches from mine, “I’d have to find out for myself what Hawk has been enjoying. He always did have the best taste when it came to pussy.”

              And without any warning, his lips descended on mine, his tongue plunging into my mouth. I tried to push away, squirm out of his kiss, if it could even be called that. But he grabbed onto the nape of my neck and held me prisoner.

              His lips pressed against me bruisingly with his tongue penetrating me and tasting me in the most violating manner. Hot tears fell down my cheeks as I tried to gather enough breath to scream or to cry out. Anything to get him to just stop touching me.

              Driven by an impulse that was almost animalistic, I turned my head towards him and bit down as hard as I could on his bottom lip.

              “Gargh!” he cried out as he jerked away from me. I gasped as I finally got to breathe air that had been mingled with his breath.

              He touched his lips were blood began to drip down his chin. He looked down at his stained fingers, rubbing finger and thumb in the blood.

              Then with precise movements, he walked towards me, and threw his hand back before releasing it against my cheek, slapping me so hard the chair actually wobbled sideways.

              He had hit me so hard, so quickly, that all the air in my lungs evaporated. I made no cry. Almost instantly, I felt my cheek begin to swell and bruise. My jaw was sore and it hurt to move my mouth. I wasn’t sure if it was fractured or not.

              “Let me tell you something,” Randall said, his voice a little breathless from anger and arousal. “The demons that haunt me haunt Hawk. We’re more alike than you realize. And if you can’t stand me, then you don’t know Hawk.”

              I looked up at him, my hair fallen across my face, tears matting some strands down as my cheek puffed and swelled in agonizing pain.

              Randall nodded as if verifying some fact, his bottom lip bloodied and swollen. He walked towards the door.

“You don’t know Hawk,” he said again before closing the door behind him, leaving me completely alone in the dark room.