Code Name: Kayla's Fire (A Warrior's Challenge)

by Natasza Waters

  She pursed her lips. “You belong with your men, Captain.”

  “You never stop putting others before you. So many people failed you, and you accepted each one with your head held high. You consciously put yourself in last place, thinking you’re not worth anything because everyone you trusted put you there, except maybe Lapierre.” His brow crumpled, and he whisked his hat from his head, tucking it under his arm. “Kayla, I never go back on my word. I promised you I’d be there for you and our son.”

  “I don’t need or want special treatment. You love being a SEAL. You all do.”

  He thrust his hand through his hair. “Kayla, I have spent a lifetime chasing bad guys. I couldn’t stop. I didn’t want to.” He shook his head, and drew her into his arms. “Although I know what I want, you still don’t.” Thane’s brow creased, and his Adam’s apple jumped in his throat. “I have a mission, and this time you’re coming with me.”

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  “Captain, what mission? You can’t take her on a mission, sir. She’s as big as a submarine,” Mace blustered in his ear.

  “Mace, if you don’t shut the hell up, and that goes for the lot of you, I’m trading you all off for a team from the East Coast,” he warned.

  Her eyes popped open, and she looked around. “Mace? The team’s here? Where?”

  “Close by,” he said. “I have one thing left to do before I take my new position.”

  “Captain, I don’t want you to stop being who you are, and I don’t want you chasing the Shark. That hasn’t changed.”

  He shot a look over her shoulder at the tall hedge between the Vicaroy’s and the neighbors, where Fox lay hunched and waiting. “This is going to come down to the Shark and me, Kayla. I’m going to prove to you that you’re worth it. Someone has to prove that to you once in your life, and it’s going to be me.”

  “Ahem,” someone interrupted loudly from behind them. Lena stood at the top of the stairs with her arms crossed. “Sorry to interrupt, but there’s a phone call for you, Kayla.”

  “For me? Who?”

  “I don’t know. He didn’t identify himself, just said he wants to talk to you.”

  Kayla wrenched from his arms. “It’s probably work.”

  He watched her waddle up the steps as gracefully as she could. “Eyes wide open,” he ordered.

  “Roger, Captain,” Cobbs replied.

  Kayla was still on the phone when he pushed the door open. He could easily read her body language. Her shoulders were taut, and her fist clenched against her leg. When he reached her, she hung up. “Who was it?”

  “Just work,” she said, without turning to look at him, and bent over to straighten a book on the coffee table. “They want me to do an extra shift.” She shot him a quick smile. “Well, I’m getting hungry. I think I’m going to go home and make a late dinner.”

  Evasion she was good at, interrogation, she cracked like a nut. She offered all the signs he needed to know she was lying. “Which shift?”

  “Um, a day shift.”

  “Tomorrow?”

  “No, uh the day after.” She blew past him with a quick stride, headed toward the door. “I’ll see ya, Lena.”

  Lena didn’t know the first thing about interrogation, but he could see she didn’t believe Kayla either. “I’ll call ya, okay, Kayla?” then threw a serious look his way.

  He waited until she was out the door. “Did you hear that?” he asked the team.

  “Yes, sir,” Clay answered, “already dialing.”

  Halfway down the neat and tidy front yard framed with a white picket fence, Clay responded, “Sir—”

  “No one called from work, right?”

  “Affirmative.”

  “Threats, probably on your life, Captain,” Cobbs returned.

  “Yup, and now she thinks she’s going to protect me,” he said, placing a hand on the roof of his car and opened the door with the other.

  “Oh, shit,” Mace muttered.

  “What is it?”

  “Sir, she’s…she’s. Where the hell is she?”

  A cold knife skewered his gut as he bent over, looking into an empty car. “You’re surrounding the place. Where is she?” He thrust himself up, and scanned the area quickly. “Where is she?” he barked loudly.

  “I didn’t see her,” Tinman stammered, losing his cool edge.

  “Everyone quiet. Listen.” Thane dialed her number. He told her to change the damn ring on her phone. It was loud and unmistakable. She said she needed it that way to hear, now it was like putting a bell around her neck.

  “Got it,” Mace yelled, from the south end of the house. “The alley.” They all zeroed in on the location.

  * * * *

  Mace came to a sliding stop, and his blood ran cold, the phone and her purse lay on the ground. The rest of the men joined him to form a circle.

  “It can’t be,” Cobbs choked. His head shot up, seeing the Captain coming. “Shit, oh shit.”

  Their captain strode toward them with purposeful steps. When they turned and separated, he looked down at the ground, stopping in his tracks. Seeing her purse, he blinked, looking as if he was going to refuse the notion outright. The Captain’s eyes darted to every face, then lingered on his. “Captain, I’m sorry.” He couldn’t think of anything else to say.

  The Captain took the last step to stand over the phone ringing with a short chorus of “O Canada.” Kneeling down, he scanned the ground, and his hand brushed the pavement gently. Then the emotion came, but it wasn’t what Mace expected. The Captain didn’t blow like a box of dynamite like they were used to, and Mace almost wished he had, because it would have been far easier to accept than to see the man he respected more than any on the planet break down.

  “She’s still got time,” Cobbs said. “Thane?” He reached out, and gripped his shoulder. “Come on, man, she still has time if it’s like the others. Two days, we’ve got two days.”

  Mace stared at the Lieutenant. No one had survived over two days, but each autopsy revealed the women had been kept alive for that length of time, raped repeatedly, abused, and he knew all of that was running through the Captain’s mind. He didn’t utter a word, pressing his knuckles against his mouth, and then his face crumpled into a mask of pain.

  Mace knelt down in front of him. “She’s going to give him a fight.” The tears came after all, but he fought them back. “We’re not going to give up on her, you know that, sir.” He swiped at his eyes, and glared into his captain’s. “When are you going to ask her to marry you?”

  The question jerked the Captain from his thoughts. “What?”

  “When are you going to ask her to marry you?”

  “Mace.” He shook his head as if he’d already given up.

  “I want to be your best man.” He watched him carefully. Hope brought a SEAL home. This time they would give him hope, instead of taking their strength from him, as they had done for years.

  Mace slipped his fingers in the Captain’s upper left pocket. No matter what uniform he wore, he carried it since the day Kayla gave it to him. Mace drew out the small piece of paper and thumbed it open, turning it toward him. The other men craned to see the words.

  Ghost reached for the paper as if it was Snow White herself. “Don’t give up on her. I think you want to look into her eyes again, don’t you? You weren’t listening to her, Captain. She might not have been able to say the words, but she was showing you all along she loved you. Those first days she spent at my place we talked a lot. Her biggest fear, the one she could never tell you was that she wasn’t noble enough for you. That’s why she walked away when Zara claimed you were hers. Everything from tracking you on your missions to trying to convince you not to chase the Shark, it all came from her heart. This note wasn’t about you in battle. This note was her silent plea that you never give up on her.” He choked, but he back his emotion, reading Kayla’s words aloud. “Never give up, Commander. I want to look in your eyes again.”

  The Captain’s head j
erked up to look at Cobbs.

  “It’s true, Thane. She said the very same thing to me at the ranch. You could have told her a thousand more times you loved her, but over the years Kayla erected a house of smoke and mirrors to survive. She was afraid one day you’d see through it, so she kept trying to push you away.”

  Ghost looked at every man in the squad. “Every day, every chance I could, I tried to show her she was all I wanted.” His breath caught in his throat, and his jaw flexed as he bit down on his pain. “My son, my Kayla, I’ll have to bury both of them.” Tears rained from his eyes, and a sob tore from the man’s heart that Mace was sure the whole squad felt. The legend that everyone looked up to, respected, was prepared to ring out. He couldn’t believe it.

  Lieutenant Cobbs hunched down in front of the Captain. “You think the Shark’s won and you’ve lost. The only thing you’ve lost, SEAL, is your direction. It always points toward her. Where is she, Ghost?”

  The Captain shook his head. Grief had him by the throat, cutting off the air to his heart. “Thane,” Mace uttered and squeezed his arm. “The Shark is twisted, but he’s just a man. He covets what’s yours. Have you ever failed a mission? Is this the one you’re going to bail on? Are you going to leave Snow White’s life in his hands? She can’t survive this without you.” Mace leaned back as the Captain fisted his tears away.

  His eyes closed, but when he opened them, strength returned to his gaze, settling on Mace. “You can be the best man, Mace, if you keep your damn mouth shut for a change.”

  A few chuckles erupted from the team. “Okay,” Mace said, nodding and slowly standing up, rubbing his sleeve across his eyes. “I promise.”

  The Captain rose, his daunting frame shadowing all of them, determination flickered in his eyes. Mace had seen the look so many times. The Shark was going to die.

  “Cap’n, I’ve called Manchester. His team will be here in under ten minutes,” Clay announced, putting things back into business mode.

  “All right.” Mace glanced down at his watch. “Ten minute lead, and every second he’s taking her farther away from us.” He scanned the alley. Movement caught his eye. A woman stood in her back window, watching them. They all turned to look. She cocked her head, and then made a motion as if she were driving, and pointed to the right.

  “Shit, we’ve got a witness. Cobbs—” the Captain ordered.

  “On it,” already running for the woman’s back door.

  Fox parted from the group, searching the roadway for signs.

  * * * *

  Within minutes, they heard the call of sirens. The woman had called the police when she saw Kayla’s struggle and abduction. The police gathered at the scene as day gave way to night. The car lights flashed with their eerie blue and red shimmer, the headlights flickering off the garages in the alley. Thane saw and heard everything, but his soul was stone cold with fear, but he refused to give in to it.

  Cobbs interviewed the woman. They were looking for a black, luxury Monte Carlo, an older model, maybe early nineties. The description she gave of the Blood Shark wasn’t very good, but a sketch artist was with her now. Kayla and the Shark had talked for a few seconds and then she’d turned to leave, and he’d struck her from behind, knocking her out and putting her in the car. The woman had only gotten the first three digits of the license plate, but it was something.

  They rallied in the alley around Manchester. He clutched a piece of paper in his hand. “We’ve got a good composite.” He held it up, and Tinman shone a light on it.

  “Jesus Christ,” blurted from the mouths of his men at the same time.

  He ripped the paper from Manchester’s hand. “Holy fuck.”

  “You know who this is, Captain?”

  “Let’s go,” he said to his men.

  “Captain?”

  “It’s the Harbor Patrol boat Captain, John Themes,” he yelled over his shoulder.

  “That fucking asshole, I should have fed him to the sharks,” Mace swore. “You think he’ll take her to the docks?”

  “Probably,” Cobbs said, as they ran for their cars.

  “He’s left the majority of women on the base. That’s where he’ll take Kayla. There’s plenty of places to hide her on the waterfront, but our search area is a lot smaller than five minutes ago,” Thane said, running fast. “Rendezvous at the boathouse. We’ll work a search pattern from there.”

  Cobbs and the others broke off, Mace stayed by his side.

  In a tight convoy, they raced toward the base, weaving in and out of the heavy traffic. The road opened up when they hit the Silver Strand leading to the base, and they reached the gates together.

  “Captain Austen, good evening, sir.” Johnson, one of the older security guards, leaned on the window.

  He nodded, and said nonchalantly. “Have ya seen Captain Themes? We were gonna meet for a drink. Did he come through already?”

  “Yes, sir, he came through here not more than an hour ago. Said he had to do some work on the boat.”

  He gave a short laugh. “I think he treats that thing better than he treats his wife.”

  Johnson wheezed out a chuckle. “Sometimes I wish I had a boat, if you know what I mean. Go ahead, Captain.”

  “Team’s right behind me.”

  He saluted, and then waved the rest of the team through the gates.

  “She’s here,” he said. “Clay, get Manchester on the earpiece.” He wove his way toward the boathouse, obeying the speed limit, not wanting to rouse attention.

  “Austen? Can you hear me?”

  “Roger, listen Manchester, I don’t want fifty cops splattering the docks. Let us go in and find her. Themes is here, and he’s probably got Kayla with him.”

  “I’ll agree to that, but if you need more resources we’ll be standing by. I’ll put up a second curtain about a hundred yards around the dock.”

  “Appreciate that, but my team’s all she needs.”

  When they reached the SEAL boathouse, Team Three Delta squad was unpacking from an exercise. Their gear lay out, drying off. Air tanks and the rumpled skins of the wetsuits looking like shriveled men lay on the ground.

  “We should bring them in,” Mace suggested.

  He parked the car. “All right,” he nodded, “give ’em a quick debrief.” He walked to the front of the boathouse, and gazed toward the Harbor Patrol boat. He prayed to God she was on that boat. If she was, Themes was pinned like a rat, and extraction was something they knew well. Fox appeared by his side. “Master Chief.”

  “Everyone’s ready, sir.”

  “Fox, watch the boat. Any movement—”

  “Yes, sir.”

  He walked into the weathered boathouse and saw the concerned but prepared expressions on the men’s faces. Mace had already retrieved the fifty cal sniper rifle from the arms locker. A rabbit didn’t stand a chance at five hundred meters if Mace took aim. He was the best shot they’d seen in years, and no one could touch his precision. The snap of the magazine bounced off the walls.

  “Men, Captain Themes is the Blood Shark, and he’s got….” He paused, clenching his jaw. “He’s got the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with down in that boat. I want her back, whole and alive.” Team Three, who had watched over Kayla while they’d deployed, nodded their understanding.

  Lieutenant Law spoke out. “We’ve kinda gotten used to that voice from Base Command. We won’t let ya down, Captain. You want him dark?”

  There was no question in that. He wasn’t going to take the chance Themes would ever see another sunrise or allow Kayla to live under the fear of him being free one day. “Like fucking night,” he swore.

  A few long strides brought him to his locker, and he quickly changed into a pair of camo pants and a T-shirt, about to close the thin metal door, his gaze stalled on something. He snatched it from the shelf, and hooked it on his belt.

  Five minutes later the team had situated themselves around the dock. Mace took his first position. Themes couldn’t be taken out, not
until he had Kayla in his arms.

  As always, the most dangerous time for the prisoner was when they boarded. That’s when things could go wrong. Although on alert, Themes wouldn’t expect them, thinking he’d gotten away unseen. Extraction was a skill all SEALs were trained in, but Cobbs, Law, Tinman and Ross were the best. They weren’t busting in hot. First, they had to be sure she was separated from Themes. It seemed easy, but he knew fate could throw a wrench into any mission, and this one was too important to him for any screw-ups.

  A group of BUD/S recruits milled on the dock, preparing for a night exercise. They were used to the team’s comings and goings, and barely gave them notice. Law was already in the water, making his way to the patrol vessel. Cobbs closed in from the south, and he made his way from the west finger, keeping a sharp look out on the boat for any movement. “All comms operational?” Everyone checked in.

  The vessel’s diesels rumbled to life. He darted across the pier, and took cover behind a piling. Themes appeared on deck.

  “Captain, I’ve got a kill shot,” Mace advised.

  “Negative.” He squinted. Themes carried something in his hand. He let go the lines, and then hurried back into the wheelhouse. This was how he’d done it. The vessel was the kill site, and Themes had been able to remove the evidence at sea. His presence was as routine as eating lunch. He’d walked among them as a trusted member. Themes, like his father, had been a Marine.

  “I don’t see Kayla,” Mace reported. “Lower deck?”

  He’d hide her better than that. He watched as the vessel came off the dock, and his eyes settled on the bow. “Chain locker,” he said quietly to the rest of the team. Ross took cover across from him. “Ross.”

  “Go ahead, Captain.”

  “I want you in that locker.”

  “Roger that,” Ross acknowledged. He waited until Themes cranked his head, and swift as wind, Ross ran, grabbed the towline dangling from the bow, and shimmied up.

  Thane slid down the hull of the vessel tied astern of the Patrol Boat. Tinman was flat out on his belly behind the winch. When he came abreast of Tinman, he saw him shake his head.