Homecoming Hearts Series Collection

by HJ Welch

  “That’s close enough.”

  Raiden stopped and held his hands up higher. “I assume you’re the one behind all these attacks.” Raiden shook his head, trying to wrap his thoughts around it all. “Even the first doxing of all those celebrities?”

  Glenn’s breathing was shallow and rapid, but a look of pride flashed across his shiny face. The gun shook ever so slightly in his hand. “Of course. I had to give you a pool of literally thousands of suspects. You never once looked my way when I was supposedly fixing it all for you.” He barked out a laugh. “All you were doing was giving me better access!”

  “But why?” Raiden cried. “What have I ever done to you? You’ve worked for Eric for years, you know my family!”

  Glenn laughed again, but it was more like a demented shriek. He pressed the gun closer to Pearl’s skull, making her snarl and squirm. Her bloodshot eyes were wet but murderous.

  “You don’t even fucking remember, do you? That – that’s why I’m doing this, you spoiled, privileged, selfish brat!”

  He licked his lips and let go of the gun with one hand. Carefully, he fished out a packet of cigarettes, making Raiden remember that was what he always stank of, and removed one from the packet with his teeth. He put the rest away, then retrieved a lighter. It took him several clicks to get a flame as his hand was quivering so much, but eventually he managed it and took a long drag, visibly relaxing.

  “I never wanted to do this,” he said. He dropped the lighter into his breast pocket and took another deep pull from the cigarette. His lips were thin, framed by his scraggly goatee. “I’m not the kind of person to terrorize little girls. That would be your boyfriend.”

  He spat the word out, but Raiden didn’t flinch. If Glenn thought attacking his sexuality was going to insult him, rile him up, he was mistaken.

  Raiden also knew the truth behind those sealed files from Iraq. He wasn’t going to let Glenn unnerve him.

  “You still have a gun to my friend’s head,” he said.

  “Because you made me!” Glenn shrieked. As he jerked, so did the gun and the cigarette. “Because you left me no choice! I don’t want to be here any more than she does, but someone needed to teach you a lesson!”

  “For what?” Raiden said, trying not to shout, lest he spooked Glenn and his trigger finger. From this distance, Raiden couldn’t tell if the safety was on or off. “What did I ever do to you that was so bad?”

  Glenn glared, hatred clear in his eyes.

  “Apple Blossom Farm.”

  Raiden blinked. “What?” What did his home, his dad’s business, have to do with anything?

  Glenn shook his head, taking another drag from his cigarette, the smoke escaping from his mouth and nose. “I can’t believe you don’t remember stealing my family’s legacy from me. I should have worked harder to destroy yours.”

  Slowly, realization came over Raiden. He did remember that when his dad had taken over the ranch and all its horses, it was because the previous owner had gone bankrupt.

  “Wait, that was you?” he said. “But, we didn’t steal anything. Your dad had run the business into the ground. We bought him out in cash.”

  “It’s not about the money!” Glenn yelled, knocking Pearl with the gun, making her flinch and whimper. Her hands were in fists, though, showing she still had fight in her. “That ranch was my home. Those horses meant everything to me! You don’t even ride, you little prick. You just use them like a business, paying other people who don’t care about them to muck out the stalls and feed them and-”

  He broke off with a sob, and, despite everything, Raiden felt a pang of sympathy for him. “Glenn,” he said as evenly as he could manage. “The ranch is my dad’s pride and joy. But it’s nothing to do with me.”

  “You’ll inherit it!” Glenn cried. “It’s in your family name now, but it should be mine!”

  Raiden couldn’t believe he was hearing this right. “So, buy it back from him? Or ask to work there? Jesus, there’s no need for all this!”

  Glenn shook his head, flicking the ash from his cigarette haphazardly. “No, no, I tried to talk to your dad, but he laughed at me. Laughed! Said I’d never be able to buy him out, and he didn’t want to sell anyway. Told me my dad should have been more careful than to gamble our fortunes away.”

  Raiden did remember that now. His mom had once mentioned that Mr. Browne had made some seriously bad investments in the housing market. Right before it had all come tumbling down around everyone.

  “He took my legacy away, so I took his away right back.” He sneered, crushing out the cigarette with his boot and lighting another one, faster this time. “Unfortunately, his record was squeaky clean. But you.” He shook his head and laughed without mirth. “G.I. Joe was right. You are filthy.”

  Raiden clenched his jaw but said nothing. He wasn’t going to give Glenn the satisfaction.

  “Not as bad as that homo you let fuck you, though,” he said. “What a dream it was when I pulled up his service records. But of course, I heard him spin you that sob-story about his lieutenant. Which you swallowed, hook, line and sinker.”

  Raiden ignored the flicker of doubt that crept into his heart. He was not going to believe this asshole over Levi.

  But Glenn scoffed, taking a long puff on the cigarette. “Meyrick doesn’t have anything like that in his file. All his targets were approved for engagement. And yet you let that ‘Viking’ mount you like a dog. Fuck you like the little whore you are.”

  Raiden was shaking with anger, but he focused on Pearl instead. “It’s okay,” he said to her. “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Levi’s a good man.”

  “He’s not here now, though, is he?” Glenn snapped. He purposefully shoved the gun barrel roughly against Pearl’s head. “So, you’re going to do exactly what I say.”

  Raiden shook his hands, the palms still facing Glenn. “Okay, okay,” he said.

  He wasn’t sure what scenario Glenn imagined would end this. But he was looking at charges of kidnapping and assault at the very least. That, combined with all the cyber attacks, meant he surely knew he would go to jail for a damned long time.

  Raiden had also watched enough crime thrillers to know that if Glenn were sensible, he wouldn’t want to let him and Pearl live as witnesses.

  He was so scared he wasn’t sure how he was still standing. But Pearl was depending on him, so he had to stay strong.

  “What do you want?” he asked.

  Glenn used his cigarette to point at Raiden’s pocket. “Get your phone out. Call your dad. Call Eric – you’re going to need a lawyer. You’re going to get the ranch signed over to me by the end of the day, or they’ll never find your body.”

  Pearl gnashed her teeth and screamed something from behind the gag. Raiden would bet any money it was an insult to Glenn’s moral character to the highest degree. Glenn grabbed her lilac hair and pulled her head back.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” he hissed into her ear. “So don’t give me a reason to.” He looked back at Raiden. “Same goes to you. Behave, and I promise she’ll walk away from this.”

  He wasn’t offering the same promise to Raiden, but Pearl was the immediate priority. She was completely innocent in all this. Glenn was only using her purely to manipulate him. Raiden wanted to call him the worst kind of coward, but he couldn’t risk any more harm coming to Pearl.

  “Fine,” he said. “I’m going to reach for my phone and make the calls. Okay?”

  Glenn nodded, then pointed the gun towards Raiden.

  A shot rang out, so loud Raiden dropped to his knees and covered his head. Pearl screamed. Glenn staggered back, blood spurting from his arm as he dropped his cigarette. But the hand with his gun was still vaguely pointed at Raiden.

  “Don’t. Move,” Levi’s voice growled from somewhere behind Raiden.

  30

  Levi

  The elevator door opened and thankfully only gave a quiet ping. Levi slipped into the empty corridor and immediately moved
to the small amount of cover to his right. There was a short portion of wall jutting out next to the elevator before the hall opened out into the abandoned office space. It didn’t give him much, but it was better than nothing.

  A voice traveled through the air. Levi immediately recognized it as Raiden, and that he was about ten feet away.

  “What do you want?”

  The next voice was familiar to Levi, but he couldn’t quite place it. “Get your phone out. Call your dad. Call Eric – you’re going to need a lawyer.”

  That was it. The link to Eric Solomon and Sam Jones sparked his memory. That voice belonged to Glenn Browne, the IT expert. What the hell was he doing here? Levi risked glimpsing around the corner into the office. A split second was enough to show him the horror scene he was facing.

  Raiden was standing with his hands up, his back to Levi. Then about twenty feet away stood Glenn. He had Pearl tied to a chair, a gun pointed to her head.

  Very quickly, Levi pieced together that however he’d done it, Glenn must have lured Raiden to him by using Pearl as a hostage. Rage made Levi’s focus laser sharp. But he still didn’t understand why.

  He got part of an answer as Glenn continued talking.

  “You’re going to get the ranch signed over to me by the end of the day,” he told Raiden, “or they’ll never find your body.”

  Levi almost lost control. No one was going to hurt Raiden. No one.

  Pearl screamed and struggled in her chair. Levi wished he could look more than a fraction of a second each time. But he couldn’t take the chance that Glenn would see him.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” he heard Glenn say, presumably to Pearl. “So don’t give me a reason to. Same goes to you. Behave, and I promise she’ll walk away from this.”

  “Fine,” Raiden replied. “I’m going to reach for my phone and make the calls. Okay?”

  Levi looked out just in time to see Glenn switch the target of his gun from Pearl to Raiden.

  Levi didn’t hesitate. His training told him that Glenn was far less likely to hit a target ten feet away than when he had his gun pressed to someone’s head. So Levi fired as he stepped out, clipping Glenn on the arm not holding the weapon. Levi would have preferred a chest shot, but Raiden was slightly too close to his line of fire to risk that.

  Raiden, god bless him, dropped to his knees. Glenn raised his gun again, but Levi had his own weapon trained on him now. “Don’t. Move,” he snarled.

  “Levi?” Raiden cried.

  “I’m here, baby,” Levi said calmly, advancing into the room. “I’ve got you.”

  “You fucking shot me!” Glenn screeched, like he couldn’t believe Levi’s audacity.

  “You pointed a gun at my partner’s head and kidnapped my friend,” Levi said. He reached Raiden and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. Raiden leaned into him. “You’re very lucky I didn’t blow your brains out.”

  Glenn gave an hysterical laugh. “Oh, because that’s what you do, isn’t it? You barbarian. You shoot innocent people and call it heroism.”

  “You’re confusing me with someone else,” Levi said. He was stalling for time. His concentration was entirely on Glenn, but he could have sworn he smelled smoke. “But how about you put that gun down and we can talk about it?”

  Glenn was trembling quite badly. Blood was dripping down his arm from the flesh wound Levi had given him, and his forehead was beaded with sweat. He shuddered and scowled. “So you can shoot me in the head like you just promised? I don’t think so.”

  Several things happened at once. The first of which being that one of the piles of shredded paper by Glenn inexplicably burst into flames. Pearl screamed, Raiden bucked backwards and Levi, stupidly, glanced to see the source of the fire.

  So did Glenn, but he recovered quick enough to fire a shot.

  Hitting Raiden in the leg.

  Levi roared, grabbing Raiden and pulling him behind a desk. Glenn also threw himself down behind another table, leaving Pearl exposed in the open office. Raiden screamed in pain, then called her name.

  “Pearl,” he shouted, clutching his leg as tears streamed down his face. “Get Pearl!”

  He’d been caught in the thigh, though. Levi had to prioritize him, already pulling his belt off to make a tourniquet. In seconds, he had it buckled as tightly as he could at the top of Raiden’s thigh. Then he peeked back around the desk.

  Pearl was shouting and thrashing her body around. The flames had already moved at an alarming rate, catching not only the cardboard boxes littered near the shredded paper, but also one of the cloths thrown over a nearby desk. There was no sign of Glenn.

  Gun raised, Levi sprinted the few feet over to Pearl, seized the back of her chair, and wheeled her to safety with Raiden. Glenn didn’t show himself. He could have crawled anywhere in this small maze of office furniture by now.

  To give her cover, Levi tipped Pearl and the chair backwards so they were all protected by the desk. Luckily, it was one of those ones with a panel at the front. It likely wouldn’t stop a bullet, but it meant Glenn at least couldn’t see them.

  Raiden reached out and grabbed Pearl’s still-bound hand with his own bloody one. “Shh, shh,” he said, trying to smile. “We’ve got you now.”

  Levi undid her gag first and she gasped in several panicked breaths. “Sh-shoot that fucker,” she stammered at Levi.

  He smiled as he sliced the rope around her left wrist with the Ka-Bar knife he always carried with him. “Good girl,” he said, freeing one hand, then the other. “Let’s got out of here first, huh?”

  His heart rate was too high, so Levi focused on calming himself as he released her feet and she crawled out of the chair to Raiden’s side. But Raiden was still losing a fair amount of blood despite the tourniquet, and when Levi glanced around the desk again, he was dismayed to find the fire had already spread twice as far. Smoke was filling the room and there was obviously no working sprinkler system in place.

  “Levi?” Raiden said. His voice sounded horribly weak.

  Levi turned and grasped his hand, kissing his lips once. He knew Pearl wouldn’t judge. “I’m here, baby. You’re doing so well. But you’re going to stay awake for me, aren’t you? I know you can do it.”

  His heart swelled as Raiden nodded, his eyelids drooping. He reached up with crimson fingers and touched Levi’s cheek.

  “I promise.”

  Levi looked at Pearl. She was shaking and disheveled and rubbed raw from the rope that had been tied around her. But she looked mad as all hell and ready to fight.

  “There are no stairs,” Levi told her, not dancing around the problem. “We need to get to the elevator before the fire does.”

  To prove his point, she coughed from the smoke as she nodded. The heat in the room must have risen ten degrees already.

  “Raiden, sweetheart,” Levi said. He slipped his arm around Raiden’s back. He was sluggish and shaking from the pain. “I’m going to help you get back to the elevator. Okay?”

  Raiden nodded.

  “Me too,” said Pearl. She scooted around to his other side, this ninety-pound girl, and grabbed Raiden’s other arm.

  Before they stood, Levi took a good hard look for Glenn. But amid the billowing smoke and flames, he couldn’t see him anywhere. The trash on the ground and cloth covers were being devoured by the flames. Levi was deeply concerned about using the elevator, but it was either that or jump from the fifth floor.

  “Let’s go,” he said.

  The three of them rose and moved as fast as possible towards the corridor. Raiden could hardly walk at all, and even though Levi was much bigger than him, he was still a fully-grown man made into a dead weight as his consciousness slipped away. “Raiden,” Levi barked as Pearl struggled underneath his arm. “You stay with me, you promised. I-”

  The gunshot missed them by inches. Levi pushed them all to the ground, his heart aching as Raiden screamed in agony. But Levi dragged him back behind a toppled bookcase despite his poor lover’s prote
sts. They were so close to the damn elevator. But so was the fire.

  “He’s not going anywhere!” Glenn screamed. Levi’s heart sank. Even over the roaring flames, he could tell he wasn’t that far away from them. “He’s not leaving until he gives back my legacy!”

  “He’s insane,” said Pearl as she applied pressure to Raiden’s gun wound with both her hands.

  “Glenn,” Levi bellowed. “We’re all going to die here unless we leave now.”

  Glenn spluttered, the smoke reaching his lungs. Levi’s clothes were drenched with sweat and the flames danced around the edge of the room. Something groaned and crashed to the floor as the fire consumed it.

  “No!” Glenn howled. “I was so close! He owes me!”

  He fired off a volley of shots. Levi counted, waiting for the barrel to empty.

  Then he stood and fired a single shot.

  It clipped Glenn on the opposite shoulder to his first injury, forcing him to drop the empty gun as he jerked and slammed to the floor, catching his head on one of the desk corners. Levi only watched long enough to make sure he wasn’t going to get back up, then turned back to pick up Raiden.

  He’d lost consciousness and Levi clenched his jaw, not allowing his emotions to get the better of him. Instead, he scooped his arms under his back and knees, hugging Raiden to his chest and carrying him like a groom would his bride over the threshold.

  To his horror, Pearl ran back into the room.

  “We need to go!” Levi yelled. “Now!”

  Pearl grabbed Glenn’s shirt by his shoulders and began dragging him, unconscious, towards the elevator. “He is not getting out of jail time,” she said, coughing.

  Levi didn’t have time to argue. He marched out into the hall, just managing to keep hold of Raiden’s limp body, and pressed the call button with his knee. Relief flooded him as the doors opened immediately. The car must not have gone back down after he’d used it.

  Carefully, he sat Raiden down in the corner of the car. A quick check of his pulse told Levi it was thready, but definitely still there. Satisfied, he jabbed the hold button, then ran back out into the hall to help Pearl drag Glenn’s worthless ass inside the elevator as well. He was still breathing, so Levi had to admit she had done the right thing.