Onyx (K19 Security Solutions Book 10)

by Heather Slade

  “Tell me about them.”

  “My favorite thing about my mom was how easily she laughed. She had a wicked dry sense of humor and didn’t shy away from off-color jokes.” A smile lit up Blanca’s face. “She was also so loving. Even though Germans aren’t known to be that demonstrative, she was. If I sat beside her, she’d put her arm around me or stroke my hair or hold my hand. My dad was affectionate too, but with my mom, it was as though the words she didn’t say out loud were conveyed through her touch.” Her eyes met mine. “That probably doesn’t make sense.”

  “It makes perfect sense to me.” Every touch, every look, every smile, every eye roll made me fall in love with Blanca just a little bit more. Yes, I loved her. That I’d known her for a couple of weeks didn’t matter. It wasn’t just that she was under my skin; I loved her heart and soul.

  Funny how people in love say that when you meet “the one,” it feels different from any time before, when they thought they’d met their soulmate. I completely got that now. With what I thought was my dying breath, I’d told her twin the sentiment, but I hadn’t meant it. At least not the same way. Maybe part of me loved Sofia, but not at all in the same way I loved Blanca.

  Afraid I’d say the words that would make me look ridiculous, I pulled her into my arms and kissed her.

  “What was that for?”

  “You’re magnificent.”

  She pulled back, and the smile left her face.

  “That’s a good thing, Blanca.”

  She appeared stunned and shook her head.

  “What? What did I say to upset you?”

  “I’m not upset. It’s just that my father used to say that to my mother.”

  “And I bet she was.”

  Blanca took one more long look around. “We should probably get going before someone finds us in here. I wonder why it was open.”

  “Maybe someone’s doing maintenance.”

  We walked down the stairs and out onto the midway, where I hoped Blanca would notice her surprise. She didn’t disappoint me.

  “Look!” she exclaimed like she had when we arrived and she saw the dance hall was open. “The carousel is running.” She took my hand and pulled me along with her as she raced toward it.

  “Well, hello there,” said the man we’d met the night we went to the Outlet restaurant. Al, as he’d told us then, had lived all seventy-seven years of his life here, and at one time, had been the general manager of the amusement park. “Wanna take a ride?”

  “Are you serious? I’d loved to,” said Blanca, climbing on the platform and walking between the rows. “This one was my favorite.” She climbed up on a white horse that was adorned with pink-painted flowers and ribbons.

  We stayed on long enough that I was dizzy and slightly nauseated, but there was no way I’d spoil a single minute of her fun.

  “We should probably let the man get on with whatever he was doing.”

  “Isn’t there something else you want to do?” I asked, motioning to Al to stop the ride.

  “I don’t know. What?”

  I climbed off my horse, held out my hand to help her down, and led her over to one of the stationary seats. Once we sat down, Al started the ride up again.

  “My sister used to make fun of me every chance she got, but this was the one thing she never teased me about. In fact, one year, she got me a music box that was a carousel horse. I don’t know how she found it, but it played the same tune this one does.”

  “How old were you?”

  “Hmm. Ten, I think.” Blanca’s eyes opened wide, and she grabbed my hand. “The music box!”

  “What about it?”

  “It’s at the camp! I found it and put it in my suitcase when I first got there. Right before I got the weird feeling and ran out.”

  “Stop the ride,” I shouted at Al.

  “Everything okay?” he asked, walking toward us as it slowed down.

  “Something we have to check on back at the camp,” I told him. “But thank you for this.”

  “My pleasure. Sure felt good to see this baby back in motion.”

  “Wait. You arranged this?” Blanca’s eyes filled with tears, and I pulled her into my arms. “You are such a good man, Montano Yáñez.”

  Her words both warmed and chilled me. Soon enough, Blanca would learn I wasn’t a good man, and when I finally braved up enough to tell her the truth, she wouldn’t think so either.

  24

  Blanca

  I felt the air chill as we walked from the carousel to the car, and it had nothing to do with the temperature. It was as though the heat emanating from Montano’s body shut off. Even his hand that held mine felt cold.

  “Are you okay?” I asked once we were in the car and on our way to the camp.

  “I’m fine. How about you?” he responded without looking at me.

  It was such an odd response for him that I didn’t know what else to say. He didn’t appear to notice when I didn’t answer.

  When we arrived, I didn’t wait for him to come around and open my door. I got out and raced toward the camp, anxious to get to the music box before he did. I had no idea why I felt as though I needed to. It was just instinctual.

  “Do not go inside without me, Blanca,” he called after me. “It may not be safe.”

  I couldn’t decide which to listen to: my own gut reaction or the pleading tone in his voice. I sighed and took a step back from the door.

  “Thank you. Now, please wait out here with Ranger.” I hadn’t seen the other man approach. “Where did you put it?”

  I couldn’t bring myself to tell him. “It’s mine.”

  Montano put his hands on my shoulders. “I have no intention of taking your music box. I just need to see if what we believe your sister hid is inside it.”

  While there was no good reason for me to, I started to cry.

  “Blanca, please.” He tightened the hold he had on my shoulders. “You have no idea how important this might be.”

  I had no idea how important it might be to him? Did he have any idea how important it was to me? “Inside the left pocket of my suitcase,” I muttered.

  Without another word, he raced inside. Moments later, he came out with my music box and rushed toward the other camp.

  My head was spinning. It was as though once Montano had it in his hands, I became so inconsequential. He didn’t even look at me.

  “Wait!” I shouted, running after him. I grabbed his arm, and when I did, my precious carousel horse fell to the ground, breaking into pieces.

  “There it is,” I heard Montano say as though he’d just seen the Holy Grail or some other priceless treasure. He reached out, plucked the tiny piece of cardboard that looked like a SIM card for a cell phone out of what was left of the only thing my sister had given me that ever mattered. “Blanca, I’m so sorry. I—”

  Ranger bent down beside me. “Onyx, I’ve got this. Now go!”

  25

  Onyx

  “Go and help Ranger with Blanca,” I barked at Wasp when I stormed into the other camp and found him in the kitchen.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  I spun around on him. “Follow orders!” I shouted.

  “What the hell?” said Diesel, whom Wasp had been talking to.

  “This,” I said, setting the SD card on the counter. “We need to see what’s on it.” When I handed it to him, Diesel took it over to the laptop that sat on the kitchen counter.

  “It’s password-protected,” he said, taking it out and handing it back to me.

  I’d expected it to be. “We need to get it to the cryptologists at agency headquarters. I don’t want to fuck around with it here. Find Trap and have him arrange for the fastest mode of transport he can.” For the first time since this mission began, I was glad Money had sent him in.

  “I’m right here,” I heard him say.

  “Good, then, you heard me.” I pulled out my phone to alert Money we were on our way, but froze when I heard a gun cock. I looked u
p and saw Trap’s trained on me.

  “What the hell?” I muttered, repeating Diesel’s words from a minute ago.

  “Weapons, boys,” he said, waving his gun between Diesel and me. “On the counter.”

  I held up one hand, reached behind me, grabbed my gun, and slid it over to him. Diesel did the same.

  “Hand it over.”

  Diesel looked at me, and I looked at him.

  “I heard you!” Trap bellowed. “I know one of you has it.”

  Rather than respond, I engaged. “Trap, what in the hell are you doing?”

  “Just give me the card, Onyx.”

  “What the fuck, Trap? Were you working with Corazón?”

  “Corazón worked for me. Just like the rest of you should have.”

  “For you? How would that have played out? Were you planning on taking over K19? I doubt Doc would have gone along with that. Razor or Gunner either.”

  Perspiration broke out on Trap’s upper lip, his breathing accelerated, and his eyes were like lasers on mine. “You think it’s a goddamn joke, but I could’ve done the job better than any one of the assholes it was given to. Dutch, Striker, and Money, for fuck’s sake. He’s a piece-of-shit analyst.”

  “You didn’t get the job you wanted, so you betrayed your country and became a double agent?” I said in a taunting tone of voice.

  “Shut up! Hand the card over before I kill you.”

  I glanced over at Diesel.

  “It’s still in the computer.”

  “How did Corazón fit into all this?” I asked as I watched Trap grappling with what to do next.

  “Pilots stick together. She understood how little value we were to the government. You use us like machines and then toss us to the curb. You tell us to go drive a fucking bus where we don’t make as much as we did when we were active duty. She figured that out early. Hell, she was barely out of flight training before we onboarded her.”

  “I’m a pilot.”

  “Were.” Trap waved his gun at Diesel. “Get the card out and give it to me.”

  “So it was the money? Is that why the two of you sold out your country? The almighty dollar?”

  “Says the guy who is probably collecting a multimillion-dollar settlement from the same government who doesn’t want to pay us shit.”

  “What’s on the card, Trap? Did Corazón leave an insurance policy in case you betrayed her?”

  “She was an amateur, never measured up. It was only about the money to her. No loyalty that way. I guess you realized that before we did. Did us a favor, taking her out. It won’t be long now until I do what she failed to.”

  In the split second I heard a gunshot ring out from next door, I leaped toward the counter and my gun. Before I could reach it, I felt a bullet tear into my back and something hard and heavy come down on my head.

  When I came to, I was on a medevac chopper and Diesel was seated beside me. “Blanca?” I gasped.

  I didn’t hear his answer; everything faded to black.

  26

  Onyx

  Christmas Day

  Last Year

  Washington, DC

  I opened my eyes and looked up at my mother. Tears streamed down her face. “Es un milagro,” she exclaimed, putting her palms on my cheeks. “Es un milagro de Navidad!”

  “Good morning,” said my sister Erlinda, who was crying as hard or harder than my mother. “And merry Christmas!”

  I tried to speak, but my throat was too dry and scratchy.

  Someone I didn’t recognize but who had to be a nurse based on her attire, burst through the door, followed by my oldest brother, Carlos.

  “Welcome back, Mister Yáñez. I’m Peggy, and I’m your nurse today.” She checked my IV, the monitors, and looked into my eyes. “I’ve heard you have the most beautiful hazel eyes. It’s nice to finally see them.”

  “Water,” I gasped.

  “Only a few sips to start with.” She brought a cup and straw to my lips.

  “Where…am…I?” Damn, it hurt to talk.

  “George Washington University Hospital. Can you tell me your name?”

  “Onyx.”

  “Is that your first name?”

  “Montano.”

  “That’s right. I won’t ask if you know what day it is.”

  “Christmas,” I said anyway, looking around the room at my mother, brother, and sister. “What happened?”

  “From what I understand, you were in a plane crash. You’ve been in a coma for twenty-seven days.”

  I closed my eyes. A plane crash? I didn’t remember anything about a plane crash.

  “Where’s Monk?” I asked. I couldn’t remember much of anything except dreaming that he was talking to me—endlessly.

  Erlinda moved closer when the nurse walked to the other side of the room. “Do you want us to call him?”

  “That bastard has been talking my ears off.”

  “He’s been here every day,” Carlos told me. “I swear there were times he stayed all night too.”

  I rested my head against the pillow and closed my eyes.

  “What, did you go back to sleep?”

  “Being awake is exhausting.” When I opened my eyes, my family was gone, but Monk was there. A woman stood behind him. “Is that Saylor with you?”

  “It’s so good to see you,” she said, walking closer to the bed. “Merry Christmas.”

  “Merry Christmas, and it’s good to be seen.” I reached out my hand to her. “He’s talked about you nonstop.” I motioned to Monk.

  “Yeah?”

  “He told me to hurry and wake the fuck up so he could go home.”

  “Nice,” muttered Monk, shaking his head.

  “Tell her it isn’t true,” I chided.

  “She knows it is.”

  I motioned for him to get closer, and when he did, I grasped his hand. “You kept me alive, son.”

  “You did that all on your own. And, by the way, I’m older than you are.”

  I smiled. “In age maybe, but certainly not in wisdom.”

  “We should go. Let some of your family get back in here,” he said, his eyes filling with tears.

  I refused to loosen my grasp on his hand. “You are my family. You’re my brother. Even if you are a pain in the ass.”

  “I’ll be back in the morning.”

  I shook my head. “Take the day off, son. You’ve earned it.”

  He shook his head.

  “I’ll instruct the nurses not to let you in.”

  “They won’t listen. They like me.”

  “Give me an hour, and they’ll like me better.” I looked over at Saylor and winked. “Keep him in bed all day tomorrow.”

  “It would be my pleasure,” she answered, returning my wink.

  Monk squeezed my hand. “I’ll see you soon.”

  “I have a feeling I’ll be here a while.”

  “As will I.”

  Four months. That’s how long I’d been in this fucking hospital, trying to piece my life back together—the life that Sofia Descanso had ripped to shreds.

  No one would tell me why the plane I was flying crashed. The therapist that came to see me once a day, whether I acknowledged his presence or not, insisted I allow the memories to come back on their own.

  They were there, in my nightmares anyway, but in bits and pieces. The day I woke up in a cold sweat and found Monk where he always was, by my side, I looked at him in horror. “She shot me?”

  He nodded and then told me as much as he knew, saying he didn’t give a shit whether the therapist or anyone else approved.

  “We’re going to miss you, Mr. Yáñez,” said the head rehab nurse.

  “No offense, Steph, but I’m not gonna miss this place.”

  “No offense taken. We all wish you the absolute best.”

  Hospital policy was that patients were to be taken to the front door in a wheelchair, but as hard as I’d worked in the last four months to walk again, no one mentioned policy.

&nbs
p; For now, I was headed to the loft Monk had been living in since I arrived at the hospital back in November. Considering I had no idea what I was going to do with the rest of my life, it was easy to say yes when he offered to let me move in with him.

  “Nice place,” I said when he unlocked the door. “Surprised you didn’t spend more time here.”

  He opened the refrigerator and handed me a beer. “This is you,” he said, motioning to the master bedroom.

  “I’m not taking your room, son.”

  “I don’t sleep in there.”

  “Why not?”

  “Just don’t.”

  I threw my bag on the bed and kicked off my shoes. “Goddamn, it’s gonna feel good not to have someone waking me up all the damned time to take my blood pressure. You aren’t gonna do that, are you?”

  “Fuck, no,” he said, going back out into the kitchen and pulling food out of the refrigerator. I followed.

  “All right, son, why the hell does that big ol’ bed in there sit empty every night?”

  “It just does.”

  “What happened between you and Saylor?”

  “Didn’t work out.”

  “Tell you what. I’ll make a deal with you.”

  “Not interested.”

  I laughed. “You don’t know what I’m going to say.”

  “We aren’t gonna do this tonight.”

  “Here’s my offer. I’ll tell you what happened with Corazón if you tell me what happened with Saylor. If you don’t agree to this, there ain’t anybody ever gonna know what happened in that fuckin’ cockpit.”

  While Monk had told me what he learned from Halo and Tackle, the other two guys that survived the plane crash that should’ve killed us all, no one knew what else I remembered about that day. Monk hadn’t pushed, but I knew damn well he wanted to. He wasn’t the only one either.