by Dale Mayer
Eton’s Escape
Bullard’s Battle
Book #3
Dale Mayer
Books in This Series:
Ryland’s Reach, Book 1
Cain’s Cross, Book 2
Eton’s Escape, Book 3
Garret’s Gambit, Book 4
Kano’s Keep, Book 5
Fallon’s Flaw, Book 6
Quinn’s Quest, Book 7
Bullard’s Beauty, Book 8
Bullard’s Best, Book 9
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
About This Book
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Epilogue
About Garret’s Gambit
Excerpt from Damon’s Deal
Author’s Note
Complimentary Download
About the Author
Copyright Page
About This Book
Welcome to a new stand-alone but interconnected series from Dale Mayer. This is Bullard’s story—and that of his team’s. All raw, rough, incredibly capable men who have one goal: to find out who was behind the attack on their leader, before the attacker, or attackers, return to finish the job.
Stay tuned for more nonstop action as the men narrow down their suspects … and find a way to let love back into their own empty lives.
Eton journeys to Switzerland, unimpressed at finding Garret there as his backup. Barely recovered but pissed and mobile, Garret refuses to be kept out of service any longer. Eton’s intel leads them to a small village, to a woman in distress, and to someone who likes cleaning up a trail a little too much.
Living a quiet life with her aging father, Sammy is surprised by an offer of help when she gets an unexpected flat tire. Strangers in this area are not common, and neither are they well received. Still this stranger’s a can-do person, and she instinctively turns to him when she soon needs additional help.
Only to find he’s partly why she’s in trouble—and he’s got bigger troubles of his own. Now they both had to get out of this nightmare and somewhere safe and sound, … before it’s too late.
Chapter 1
As soon as he landed in Switzerland, Eton Duram picked up a rental car but was later told to turn around and to head deeper into the countryside, hours driving time from here. Which in some ways explained why he hadn’t caught a connecting flight, but also he trusted the men on his team. If they felt taking a little more convoluted route was a good idea, then it was the right thing to do. The rental vehicle was under a different name, and that was all good with him. He’d picked it up without any problem, and now, hours later, according to his phone’s GPS, he was only about fifty minutes from the latest address he had been given.
As he drove away from the city onto country roads, he noted a vehicle pulled off to the side, where a woman dealt with a flat tire. He knew he needed to drive on by. He was only a few minutes away from his destination, but damn it—not even his particular brand of work should take precedence over his personal sense of humanity. Immediately another thought struck him though. What if it was a trap? Apparently a lot of people were hunting him down. The idea that she might have something to do with that just didn’t sit right with him. He hit the brakes and slowly backed up. Hopping out, he walked back, every nerve on edge as he studied her.
Surprised, she turned to look at him and then shrugged. He was a stranger, probably a tourist. She tried English.
“I’m almost done,” she said. “I could have used your help about twenty minutes ago though.”
“How did you get the old tire off?” he asked, because the lug nuts were often very hard to loosen.
She nodded. “I had to jump on the lug wrench.”
“Whatever works,” he said. He took the big wrench from her hand, bent down, and gave the lug nuts on the spare a good hard turn, tightening them considerably.
“Now that I couldn’t have done,” she said.
Helping her pack up the lug wrench and the jack, he smiled and said, “Glad I could help.”
She held out her hand. “My name is Sammy,” she said. “Thank you for stopping.”
“It’s hard not to,” he said. “Some things are just ingrained.”
“Well, they didn’t seem to be ingrained in the two people who went by before you,” she said cheerfully. “I don’t really expect much less though.”
“Why is that?” he asked.
“Carjacking has become a problem here lately,” she said. “People are scared.”
“Are you a local?”
She nodded.
“So they would know that it’s you and that you weren’t likely to be carjacking them,” he said, standing tall, his hands on his hips, studying the area around him. “It’s a pretty rural area here, huh?”
“Not in comparison to other places,” she said. “It’s much more isolated out toward the ski resorts. Not that many people are in this area, but, when you get to the center of town, it really is building upon building, yet only lasts for about one-quarter mile, and then it’s gone again.”
He smiled at that. “Thanks for the heads-up.”
“Where are you headed?”
“Some friends rented a chalet somewhere around here,” he lied glibly.
“Nice,” she said. “Any particular reason for choosing this part of town?”
His senses always on the alert, he shrugged and said, “Don’t know. It was their choice. I just decided to come and spend a few days with them. Haven’t managed to do that since my buddy got hurt.”
“Ouch,” she said. “I hope he’s doing better.”
“Better enough to get here,” he said cheerfully. “I guess I’ll be on my way, if you don’t need any more help,” he said, turning to face her.
She smiled and said, “No, I’m good. Thank you. You didn’t give me your name though.”
He hesitated, then flashed her a bright smile and said, “Eton.”
“Eton,” she said, pronouncing it slowly.
“Yes, it’s a British name,” he said, with a smile and a goodbye wave. He raced ahead and hopped into his vehicle, then pretended to be on his phone while he looked up her license plate. Some things were just so ingrained that he couldn’t not do them if he tried. Next, he sent a text to Cain. This vehicle was stopped on the road with a flat. I stopped to help her but—He left that part hanging, and Cain replied right away.
I’m on it.
Eton started up the engine, just as she drove past him slowly. She leaned over and waved, so he smiled and waved back. Any other day he would have followed up on that lead, absolutely loving her yoga butt, slim waist, and lean body. She was only average height, but something about her slimness made her seem taller. She also had her long blond hair in a plait down her back, and it almost reached to her butt. He had to admit it though. He really liked long hair.
In his world, it was a danger though. It could always be used as a weapon against you, but, then again, not too many women were in the type of warfare he was involved in. And Ice? Well, Ice was the exception. She’d even learned a bunch of tricks on how to get out of a hold on her hair.
Ice and Kai had worked hard on developing some self-defense moves because neither had wanted to cut their hair. And now that Ice was married and had her baby, she was looking pretty rosy and fine, indeed. Eton was g
lad she hadn’t had to cut her hair. Something was just so very feminine about long hair. At least for him. It was always one of the first things he noticed about a woman. And, in this case, Sammy had beautiful hair. The fact that she’d been struggling with the lug nuts had also given her some bright pink cheeks and wispy hair. All in all, she was quite refreshing. Yet sadly, it was so not the right time for dating.
Shifting into Drive, he pulled back onto the country road. Following the GPS, he noted he was behind her for most of the way. As she headed into the small village that she’d described and then took a right, his turn was only two driveways past hers. Hers appeared to be more of a mainstream side road though, so he wasn’t sure how far up she went. He followed the main road until he got to his turn and took it, then drove another two miles and took a left up into the hills.
As he went farther into the trees, he approved of the location. Quiet, private, easy to track from overhead, with lots of cover, in case somebody was coming after them on foot. That was never a good thing, but it also gave them a lot of cover to go after somebody too. So it was a balance. As he rounded a corner, he saw a chalet built into the hillside. He pulled up beside the other vehicle and, grabbing his duffel bag, hopped out and headed inside.
He suspected someone would be here, and he hoped like hell it wouldn’t be Garret. It was one thing to have your good friend here, but another thing completely when your good friend just got out of the hospital, after being in a coma for far too long. Eton walked to the door and knocked hard, then knocked again. When it was unlocked from the inside, he pushed it open and stepped in. Sure enough, there was Garret, a huge grin on his face. Eton dropped his bag and started swearing at him.
But instead of swearing back or having anything to say, Garret walked over and gave Eton a big hug. “Love you too, man,” he said.
Eton hugged him hard, then stepped back. Looking at his buddy, he said, “Dammit, Garret. You should be back in that hospital.” He wouldn’t even give Garret a chance to respond. “Why the hell are you here? You should be resting.”
“Any reason I can’t rest here?” he asked quietly.
“You shouldn’t be in the line of fire yet.”
“I was in the line of fire from day one,” he said. “It was me who got blown up. Remember? You think you’ll pass me by on any leg of this journey? I was there with Bullard. Bullard. Who is still missing, in spite of the number of people we have out looking for him. Including Ice running point on that, yet we’ve found no sign of him. Even Terk is out there, searching the damn ethers or whatever the hell he does. No sign of Bullard. I won’t sit and do nothing. I can do this. So I will do this. No matter if you want to send me back, I’ll do this from wherever.”
“I should send you back, yes,” he said. “Maybe we’d get it all solved before you are physically fit and cleared to return to work again.”
“I’m fit now,” Garret bit off. “The rest of the team agreed, and I’m here, so you better get used to it.” With that, he turned and walked away.
Grabbing his bag, Eton followed. “Well, let’s hope it’s a simple case of stopping by for one night and popping somebody.”
“It won’t be that easy,” he said. “You know that.”
“Do we have any information? I feel like I’ve been traveling forever.”
“Hardly,” he said. “We do have some intel, none of it terribly useful yet.”
“Goddammit,” he said and then swore again.
Garret grinned. “I see your mouth still spews a blue streak.”
“It’s a stress release,” he announced and shrugged. “You’ve never complained before.”
“I’m not complaining now,” he said cheerfully. “The fact of the matter is that you care, and this is your way of showing it.”
*
Sammy Hedrick drove home slowly. It had been an opportune time to have the stranger stop and ask if she needed help. Too bad he hadn’t shown up a little earlier. But, if he had, he would have seen the slashed tire. She still wasn’t sure why the tire hadn’t given up the ghost a whole lot earlier. But she’d only left her friend’s house a few minutes ago, and she had yet to tell her dad what had happened. He would be pretty pissed off and upset to think that she’d somehow gotten a flat tire at her friend’s place. Sammy wasn’t exactly sure that it had happened there. She was hoping to have her dad check it out. But it depended on how he was doing first, sick or not sick. Most of the time he was sick these days. There just wasn’t any break at all.
As she drove through town, she saw the stranger behind her.
Eton was his name. She rolled that around in her mind. Wasn’t there a university or something called that? Oh, yeah. Eton College somewhere in England? He didn’t really look English though. She wasn’t sure what he was. Big, that was one thing, and tall. Well tanned and used to a tough physical life, judging by the muscles. He was a male in his prime. And she heartily approved.
The fact that she’d been taken in by his sex appeal was something she chalked up to the fact that she’d been on a bit of a dry spell. As Annie would say, a very long dry spell. But Sammy had had enough short-term relationships that had gone nowhere that she really wasn’t interested in taking that route anymore.
She wanted something that would last. Something that was steadfast as compared to her previous relationships. It wasn’t like the guys were the problem either. She had come across as too intense, according to one of them. Another said he wasn’t ready for a commitment, while she obviously was. The first one though, that was just weird. He’d been there, and then he’d been gone. She thought the term ghosting applied in his case. She suspected he’d be back, and, sure enough, a couple months later he’d turned up, sending her a little smiley emoji saying, Hook up? She hadn’t even responded.
The last thing she needed was to always be waiting on some guy to get in touch with her. She had better things to do with her time. Now that she had finished her architectural degree, she had to make some big decisions. She could go to a big city and set up her own business. But who would hire her with so little experience, since she was only twenty-nine? It was a good thing that her father was also an architect. A fairly major architect. He was famous for his underground homes and his Swiss house.
She absolutely loved him and wanted him to keep on with his work. The trouble was that his work was starting to drag, right along with his health. He had asked her to come work for him, and she’d been his assistant for years now, while attending university part-time, but it didn’t feel quite right to step in as his replacement. If he could hold on for another four or five years, she could make a name for herself, apart from his reputation, at the same time. In the meantime, not so much.
She parked outside her home, her father’s famous house, hopped out, and wondered what she should do about the tire. Deciding there was no point in keeping it in her trunk, she should bring it closer to the house for her father to inspect. She opened up the back of the car, struggled to get it from the vehicle, then rolled it up to the side of the house and just plunked it down. It had a decent-size slash. At least it wasn’t like somebody had taken a knife and jammed it in a bunch of times, like some psycho ex-lover, but somebody had stabbed it once and then definitely cut it.
Of course it could have come from something off the driveway or along the road, but still it didn’t seem likely. Frowning, she headed inside. “Dad, I’m home,” she said, calling out for him.
She headed into the kitchen, put on the teakettle, and threw down her purse. Obviously it said something about how rattled she was that the tea came first. Then she went looking for her father. He was in his second-floor office, still at the drafting board, but staring out the window, an almost vacant smile on his face. She rushed to his side. “Dad, how are you doing?” she asked gently.
He looked up at her, gave a mental shake, and smiled. “I’m fine,” he said, with more force than necessary. She frowned at him. He smiled, reached over, and patted her hand. “Honest.”
>
“Well, I’m back from Annie’s,” she said, “and I’ve put on the teakettle.”
He pushed his chair back with a big smile. “A piece of that spice cake would be lovely,” he said. “A cup of tea and cake—the elixirs of God.”
“We need to do something about lunch before cake,” she teased.
He frowned. “I’m not very hungry,” he admitted.
Her heart sank again. He was never hungry anymore, and eating was something she had to force him to do. “I’ll go make you anything you want,” she promised. “What would you like?” He just stared at her, and she knew that some of his thoughts were already drifting away. “Never mind,” she said. “I’ll make something, and you can have it before cake.”
At that, he smiled and said, “Cake sounds good.” Then he returned to his work.
She stepped up behind him to look down at the work he had done. One of the odd things about his condition was that his mental clarity seemed to be sharp when he was working. At the end of every day, she came and checked over his work to ensure everything was solid and wouldn’t collapse under the intrusion of the real world. She patted him gently on the shoulder, as he brought out his ruler again and started marking line blinds, involved in piping systems. “How is the job going?”
“Almost done,” he said cheerfully. “Two more to do after this.”
She looked at the stack of files and frowned. “I think it’s more than that,” she said worriedly.
“I’ll only deal with two ahead at a time,” he said.
She laughed and said, “Okay, we’ll do it your way.”
“I’ll need your help on this one though later,” he said.
“Sure enough, after lunch,” she said. “Unless you need my help now?” She stopped to look at him.
He shook his head. “I’ll just finish this section here,” he said. “Then, after lunch, I’ll get your help.”
She nodded and headed downstairs. Back in the kitchen she opened up the fridge, wondering what she would feed him. Not only did he have no appetite but his stomach was touchy too. The doctors had run a lot of tests, but he wasn’t exactly forthcoming with the results. That bothered her too. It was just the two of them. She wasn’t at all sure what she would do if and when he passed in the not-so-distant future. That was something she didn’t dare think about.
