Honor Avenged (HORNET)

by Tonya Burrows

  “We can’t evacuate.” It spilled out his mouth before his brain told him it wasn’t a good idea to argue with Gabe right now.

  “You said you have critically wounded.”

  “We do, and she needs a med evac stat.” He again looked over at Mercedes. She’d awakened sometime in the last few minutes and watched him with pleading, pain-filled eyes. “Alexander Cabot is here, a prisoner of Volkov. He sent Leah to us so we’d find him, so let’s find him.”

  “We don’t even know who he is,” Gabe said. “Harvard and Sami found next to nil on him, and that makes me twitchy as hell. For all we know, he could be leading us into a trap.”

  “It’s possible,” Marcus granted. “But I don’t think so. He worked for Danny as an informant.”

  Gabe was silent for so long that Marcus started to wonder if he’d dropped the connection.

  “Go on,” Gabe finally said.

  “I don’t know what or who he was informing on, but there’s something big going down here. The place is crawling with Russian mercs, and locals are disappearing by the hundreds. Whatever intel Cabot possesses has to be of the earth-shattering, twenty-four-hour news cycle variety. The kind of intel that bad, powerful people want to keep buried. We need to find him or else Leah and her kids will never be safe from this.” As he laid out his case, he searched the church for her. She’d found a spot to sit on the floor near the altar. Abel had scrounged up a plate of food and was encouraging her to eat.

  Good kid.

  She still looked shocky as hell, but a splash of color had returned to her cheeks as she picked at the rice dish. The borrowed tank top showcased her gorgeous breasts, and the colorful skirt did great things for her ass.

  She looked perfect.

  Man, he had it bad.

  Gabe was saying something in his ear. He refocused his attention on the conversation. The only part he caught was, “…we’ll reassess then.”

  It wasn’t a no. He’d take the small victory and run with it. “Thank you, Gabe.”

  Gabe pushed out a gusty sigh. “Get some sleep. You sound like you need it.”

  “You, too.” He winced. Again, there went his mouth before his brain. “I mean, you sound a little tense. More than usual.”

  Gabe groaned. “Babies, man. They should be outlawed as torture devices.” Despite his words, his tone all but oozed with pride.

  And that took him off guard. In all the chaos, he’d forgotten Gabe’s wife had been pregnant when he left headquarters all those months ago. “So, uh, Audrey had the baby?”

  “Almost four months ago. March twenty-second.”

  Great, another thing to feel guilty about. He should’ve been there for the birth of their first child. Then again, until recently, he hadn’t been in any shape to be trusted around an infant. He cleared his throat. “Uh, congrats. Boy or girl?”

  “Girl. Rowan Kendra. She’s as beautiful as her mother. And as bossy.” He paused. “It’s time to come home, Marcus.”

  Those last six words hit like a punch. Because Gabe was actually saying he never should’ve left. He should have stayed and let his brothers-in-arms help him. He should’ve stayed and helped Leah.

  Instead, he was a coward who ran away from his problems and left everyone hurting in his wake.

  His gaze caught on Leah again. She looked up right then and their eyes met.

  No more. He couldn’t run from this fight as long as Leah was in danger.

  “One problem at a time, boss,” he said into the phone.

  “Yeah,” Gabe agreed reluctantly. “Roger that. Keep this line open.”

  …

  He could barely stand to look at her. Spent the last several hours doing everything in his power to avoid her.

  Why was she surprised? It was perfectly on-brand for Marcus, after all. He’d rather run away than discuss what happened between them in the shower.

  Okay, that wasn’t entirely fair.

  He had more important things on his mind than figuring out what sex between them meant—like coordinating a rescue before Mercedes died.

  And, really, if she was honest with herself, she wasn’t ready to talk about it, either. It was the only reason she hadn’t approached him since he’d left her without a word. She didn’t know how she felt and was too exhausted to figure it out right now.

  Leah sat down next to Mercedes’s cot. The woman didn’t look good. Her skin was kind of gray, her lips had a blue tinge, and the few times she’d regained consciousness, she hadn’t been fully coherent. She shivered despite the muggy, oppressive heat that seemed even worse inside the church due to all the bodies crowded into the space. Marcus and the local nurse, Habiba, were worried about blood loss. They managed to staunch the flow from her wounds, but she had lost too much and wasn’t out of the danger zone. She needed a hospital.

  Leah folded Mercedes’s cold hand between both of hers, hoping to lend some of her body heat. If not for this woman, Leah would be unconscious on that cot, bleeding out.

  “Why did you jump in front of me?” she whispered. She was grateful, no doubt, but it made no sense. They barely knew each other. She didn’t expect a response and sucked in a sharp breath in surprise when Mercedes’s heavy eyes opened a crack.

  “I owed you,” she whispered back, her voice thick and raspy.

  “You didn’t owe me—”

  “You don’t even know the whole truth,” she scoffed. There was a spark of the old Mercedes, scornful and sarcastic. She stared up with defiant eyes. “It’s about time someone told you. The man who shot your husband? He was my lover. More than that. I…loved him.”

  Leah dropped her hand as if the contact burned. “What?”

  Mercedes groaned softly as she lifted herself into a sitting position against the wall. “Sebastian Haly. I slept with him the night before he left to take your husband’s life. I knew where he was going and what he was going there to do.”

  Why was she talking about it like it was no big deal? Like it was an everyday, average thing for your lover to do? It wasn’t normal. It wasn’t right. “Why didn’t you stop him?”

  “It was a job. It was what he did. What I did. If it’s any consolation, he told me Danny wasn’t his target. Marcus was. When Seb missed the shot, he was torn up about it, wanted to get out of the life. Danny’s death brought out the best in Sebastian. So, yeah.” She waved a hand toward her wounds. “I owed you.”

  Mercedes should have let the bullets hit her. It would’ve hurt less. “You think this makes us even?”

  “No. The only way we’d be even is if I died.” She winced in pain, hissing out a breath through her teeth. “But I’m not planning on doing that. Sorry.”

  Leah jumped to her feet and stared down at the woman. “You’re…” She couldn’t even think of the right word to describe her. “Evil.”

  “Hey, I never claimed to be a saint. And for the record, your boyfriend over there isn’t one, either. How do you think he knew about Sebastian?”

  Leah shook her head and backed away. She didn’t want to know.

  “He tortured me. He and his team held me captive for months.”

  Leah couldn’t hear more. Didn’t want to know more about any of it. She spun on her heel and walked away. She needed out of this cramped church, needed air. She shoved through the front door.

  Still raining.

  She didn’t care. She walked out into the rain and gulped down lungsful of the humid air. She wanted to hit something. She wanted to throw herself on the ground and kick and scream until all the pain and anger and sorrow left her body. She was shaking with it all. Couldn’t keep carrying it around, bottled up inside, or she was going to explode.

  “Leah!”

  She whirled at Marcus’s voice. He was right behind her, reaching for her.

  She knocked his hands away. “Don’t touch me.”


  He ground to a halt and if she wasn’t mistaken his complexion lost a few shades. “What did she say to you?”

  “You know exactly what she said.”

  “Leah—” Again he tried to reach for her, but she stalked away from him. She couldn’t stomach his hands on her right now.

  “No! You dragged Danny into this world where people kill like it’s as normal as buying milk, where people torture one another for information. He’s dead because of you.”

  He flinched like she’d struck him and dropped his arms to his sides. “I would trade places with him in a heartbeat. You have to know that. I’d give anything to—”

  “But you can’t.” She was beyond reason now, drowning in a deep, dark, ugly tsunami of grief. “He’s gone and you might as well have pulled the trigger yourself. Why did you come back into our lives? Why couldn’t you have just stayed away when you left the FBI?”

  “I…” He lifted his hands but then dropped them uselessly to his sides again. “I’m sorry.”

  He looked miserable, aching down to the bottom of his soul like she was.

  No, she couldn’t let it sway her. She’d been so convinced Marcus had nothing to do with Danny’s death, but all along it was one of his personal enemies who had pulled the trigger. His enemy, not a random act of violence during a hostage situation like he’d led her to believe. He’d lied to her. Then he had the audacity to put his hands on her. And she’d let him. She’d welcomed him. She’d wanted him.

  Oh God. She was going to be sick. She pressed a shaking hand to her stomach, where the little bit of rice she’d managed to eat was threatening a return visit. “When this is over—”

  Headlights splashed over them, and she flinched back like a frightened mouse. She hated that she’d become a scared little waif of a woman who jumped at shadows. Where was the woman who had buried her husband and conquered single parenthood? The woman who had her world yanked out from underneath her and still held her head high, persevering, surviving?

  She didn’t feel like that woman anymore.

  Maybe she’d never been her. Maybe she’d been deluding herself into thinking she was strong when all along she was one bad storm away from snapping.

  Marcus stepped between her and the two vehicles that rolled to a stop in front of the church’s gate. And that act of chivalry just twisted her up more inside. Despite the horrible things she had just accused him of, he was still willing to jump between her and any danger.

  He pulled his stolen rifle off his back and aimed it at the driver’s side door of the first car as it popped open. The lights were too bright, blinding, and she couldn’t see more than a shadow’s movement on the other side.

  “Identify yourself,” Marcus demanded.

  After another second, the lights cut off. More doors opened.

  “Mais, if you don’t want our help,” a male voice said in a lazy drawl, “we can turn around, head home…”

  Marcus exhaled audibly and lowered his weapon. “Cajun.”

  “Gonna let us in or what?” Jean-Luc Cavalier asked.

  She recognized his voice now. She’d met Jean-Luc during the many parties—birthdays, weddings, baby showers, backyard barbecues—that she and Danny had attended with the team over the last few years.

  HORNET had come to the rescue.

  So why didn’t she feel the least bit relieved?

  Chapter Nineteen

  They had excellent timing, that was for sure.

  Here he was with his heart ripped to shreds, bleeding through his hands as he tried to hold the pieces together, and now he had to deal with the family-by-choice that he hadn’t seen in eight months. Because he wasn’t raw enough. And the universe obviously hated him.

  Not that he blamed the universe for that.

  His own mother would hate him when she found out all the things Leah just discovered.

  Oh, hell, he missed his beach shack in Indonesia more with each passing minute. At least there, he could wallow in his pain in solitude. He could pick up the pieces of his heart and glue them messily back together without scrutiny.

  He forced a grin as he met Jean-Luc at the gate. “Not here even five minutes and you’re already running your smart-ass mouth.”

  “Ah, you love my smart-ass mouth.” Jean-Luc grabbed him and pulled him in for a tight, back-slapping hug as soon as the gate slid back. “Mon ami, you look good. Healthier than last time I saw you.”

  “Sun and surf does that for a guy.” After an awkward moment, Marcus patted Jean-Luc’s back a couple times in return before pulling away. “I’m not Deadpool like you. Don’t have superhero healing abilities.”

  Jean-Luc scowled. “Me either, anymore. Claire says I’m a mere mortal now. Her miracle drug is out of my system. Oh, and I tricked her into marrying me.” He held up his hand to show off his wedding band, then balled his fingers into a fist and socked Marcus in the stomach. “You should’ve been there, coullion.”

  Marcus grunted and rubbed his stomach. “Yeah. Hearing that a lot lately.”

  “Guys, can we do the whole reunion thing later?” Jesse Warrick asked, all business as he strode by with his medical bag in hand. “Where’s the critical patient?”

  “Inside.” Though after the way Mercedes had so cruelly ripped Leah’s world apart, he was half tempted to let her bleed out.

  He looked at Leah. She already thought he was a monster. Why not run with it?

  Except Mercedes could still be useful.

  “Hey.” He caught Jesse’s shoulder as the medic passed. “Heads up—your patient is Mercedes Raya.”

  “What the fuck?” someone behind them said. He wasn’t sure who until he turned around and found Ian glowering at him like he wanted to take a chunk out of him with his teeth.

  Tank, thankfully, wasn’t of the same mind. The dog stood at Ian’s side, tail wagging uncertainly as his gaze darted back and forth between his master and Marcus.

  “What did you do to her?” Ian demanded.

  “She did it to herself. She jumped in front of a bullet.”

  Leah spoke up. “To protect me.”

  Everyone turned to look at her. She stood off to the side of the group, her arms wrapped tightly around her middle. Several buttons had popped on her blouse, showing too much cleavage for his liking, and the rain had slicked the fabric to her skin, showing off every curve. Good thing all of the guys—except for Ian—were married or in committed relationships or else he’d be feeling real growly and possessive right about now.

  Who was he kidding?

  He was absolutely feeling growly and possessive.

  He wanted to yank off his shirt and drop it over her, hide her from all the male gazes, but she made it quite clear he had no right to touch her. Which should have been rule numero uno from the get-go, but he could still feel her lips against his, taste her kiss. The sweetness of her arousal still filled his head, making any other thoughts damn near impossible. He’d never expected that response from her, but now that he’d had a taste, he wanted more.

  If only she wasn’t who she was, and he wasn’t who he was, and they didn’t have the painful history they had.

  Of all the women to fall for, it had to be his best friend’s widow.

  Leah’s chin tilted up defensively. “Mercedes saved me. That was her decision. Marcus had nothing to do with it, so if you want to be pissed at anyone, it should be me.”

  Ian turned the intensity of his glare on her. To her credit, she didn’t flinch. Marcus knew she had to be a messy tangle of emotions inside, but she projected a calm, collected, in-charge woman. As someone who had always worn his emotions on his sleeve, he admired her for it.

  Ian was the first to break eye contact. He looked toward the church. “Why the fuck are we standing here in the rain?”

  Marcus managed to smother his smirk—just barely. Even a hard-ass psychopa
th like Ian wilted under Leah’s “mom stare.” That was hilarious.

  Leah’s features softened and she placed a gentle hand on Ian’s forearm. “It’s okay. I’ll take you to her.”

  Marcus watched them go. Her ability for compassion was astounding. She couldn’t have many nice feelings toward Mercedes right now, but she still sensed that the woman was—somehow, for some insane reason—important to Ian. How did she manage that much compassion without losing herself? Marcus cared about his family, his friends, her and her kids—of course he cared. But sometimes all that emotion grew so big, so all-consuming, he had to get away from it to risk having it swallow him up.

  Lanie caught his gaze and motioned him over. “So what’s going on here? You told Gabe we can’t leave yet. Mind giving me an explanation?”

  He tilted his head toward the church, indicating they should get out of the open, and on the way inside filled her in on the situation.

  By the time he finished, Lanie was shaking her head. “This is unbelievable.” She scanned the faces of the refugees. “Do I even want to know what this doctor’s doing with the people she takes?”

  “Probably not,” Marcus said. “But Volkov sent Cabot to her, so we gotta find out.”

  Lanie scanned the room again, then blew out a breath and rubbed a hand over her face. “Yeah, okay. Okay. Let me get on the phone with HQ and figure out the logistics. Given Volkov Group’s connections, they could be acting on unofficial orders from the Kremlin for all we know. If we fuck this up, we could give Russia ammunition to start a war.”

  “Let’s not do that.”

  “Solid plan, Deangelo.”

  As she stepped back outside with her phone to her ear, Harvard walked by with his laptop case. He stopped beside Marcus. “Hey. You okay?”

  Nope. He wasn’t ready to be thrown back into HORNET’s world. Wasn’t ready to face his teammates and the concern he saw in all of their eyes. “I’m wondering if I want to stay in Wonderland or see how deep this rabbit hole goes.”

  A slow grin spread across Harvard’s lips and he turned to Sami, who had joined them. “See? Told you he’s fine. He’s quoting The Matrix. Same old Marcus.”