Kyle

by Riley Edwards

  “Shit, shit, shit. You’re right. Do you know where the silo is? The address?”

  “No. But how hard can it be to find a decommissioned missile silo? I know it’s in Lewis, hundred percent because I thought it was funny the town was the same as his last name. Let’s just get there and we can ask around. Someone will know.”

  “But you know Zane is crazy about security—it won’t be left open. What if we get there and can’t get in?”

  Damn.

  She was not wrong, Zane was a little over the top, but that was exactly what we needed.

  I ripped open the package and pulled out the phone, hoping there was a partial charge. What felt like five hundred hours later, the phone booted up and the screen displayed five percent battery life.

  “Do you know the office number?”

  “We have to turn my phone on for a second to get the number. Or should we call four-one-one?”

  “Is that still a thing?” Emerson’s face scrunched up.

  “Fuck if I know.”

  “Power up your phone. It will be faster.”

  After waiting another five hundred hours, my phone was on and I scrolled to the number I needed, punched it into the burner, and handed Emerson my phone.

  One ring, then to voicemail. Damn.

  It took five calls back-to-back before a very angry voice answered.

  “I know the IRS isn’t after me, dickweed, and I’m not a dumbass so I’m not—”

  “Zane,” I snapped.

  “Who is this?”

  “Anaya. Listen—”

  “What number is this?”

  “Shut up and listen,” I growled. “There’s no time to explain. We ran into trouble. Jeremy’s…shit…Jeremy’s dead.”

  “Motherfucker! Garrett!” Zane roared.

  “Monica’s dead, too.”

  “Where’s Emerson?”

  “With me,” I rushed out. “We’re fine. But…umm…we have Harry Landry tied up in the back of the car.”

  “Cut his motherfucking ass loose and—”

  “God. Shut up. The battery’s almost dead.”

  Thank God the man was not standing in front of me. I could be a telephone tough guy all day long but Zane’s six-foot-plus frame standing in front of me would make me cower.

  “We’re not headed home. We’re going to your silo.”

  “What?”

  “Your silo. It’s closer. Only three hours. Harry tracked Emerson’s phone. We have all of them turned off but if he has a tracker, we need to go somewhere…”

  I felt the phone vibrate before it chimed and powered down.

  “Dead,” I told Emerson. “Let’s head north. He knows where we’re going.”

  “Okay, if you’re sure.”

  “I’m sure.”

  “Then let’s do this.”

  “Let’s do it.”

  Emerson smiled and scrunched her nose before she leaned in.

  “Do you kinda feel like Thelma and Louise?”

  “Yeah. But let’s just hope this doesn’t end with us flying off a cliff.”

  “You and me, Anaya. We’re gonna be fine.”

  “I know we are.”

  At least, I hoped we were.

  We broke apart, Emerson going to the driver’s side and me the passenger. But before I got in, I grabbed the duct tape, tore a piece off, and opened the back door.

  “Taping my mouth shut won’t save your life,” Harry sneered.

  “Maybe not. But at least it will make what’s left of it more enjoyable if I don’t have to hear your voice, you disgusting bastard.”

  He opened his mouth to say something but I slammed the tape down and smiled when he grunted.

  Garrett

  In the last forty minutes, Zane’s mood was quickly deteriorating.

  We had seconds before he went thermonuclear and all of us in his wake of destruction would feel the ramifications.

  “Here.” Tatiana shoved Zane’s go-bag at his chest. Hers was already strapped over her shoulder.

  Ivy and Violet were in the nursery that Zane had had the foresight to enlarge, considering the team was reproducing with the same speed as rabbits.

  Jaxon came into the control room with his gear and announced, “There will be a helo upstairs in thirty minutes.”

  Zane remained silent.

  Silence and Zane did not mean good things. When a normal man was quiet, he was thinking. When Zane was, he was plotting murder and mayhem.

  “Did you call Tom?” I asked.

  Nothing.

  “Zane!” Tatiana shouted.

  “Fuck!” The single word he roared sounded painful. It bore the burden of his family being in danger.

  It didn’t matter Anaya and Emerson were new and had only been with us a short time. They were family. They were a part of the team. Zane’s team. The one he fought fiercely to protect, and two of his flock were in danger.

  Grave danger from what little information Zane had gathered before the line had gone dead.

  “Knew better. Goddamn it, I knew better. Kyle didn’t want it. Thad didn’t want it. I fucking rushed it because I’m tired of this shit hanging over our heads.”

  “Zane,” Jaxon started.

  “You know it’s my fault. Fucking know it, Jax, so don’t bullshit—”

  “It doesn’t matter whose goddamn fault it is, brother. Call Tom, find out what to do with the asshole, and let’s fucking roll.”

  “Should I call Kyle and Thad?” Tatiana asked.

  And three resounding ‘no’s’ echoed in the room.

  “Not until we have more intel,” Jax said.

  “But—”

  “We’ll call from the air. We call now, both will flip their shit and Declan will be fucked with no backup to lock them down. We call from the air, they can head south and join us. Not a word, until we know more.”

  “Okay.”

  “Get me a secure line,” Zane barked.

  After all the years I worked for the man, Zane’s attitude didn’t faze me. I knew he felt this and he felt it deep. Straight down to his soul. If something happened to either woman, he’d never forgive himself. But more than that, Kyle and Thad would be wrecked, and he knew that, too.

  Two women may’ve been in danger, but it was four lives that would forever be lost.

  “Color of the day?” a monotone voice came over the line.

  “Pink,” Zane answered.

  “Word?”

  “Zebra.”

  “Number?”

  “Six.”

  “Name?”

  “Viper.”

  After Zane answered all the questions correctly, the operator announced. “Please hold.”

  A moment later, President Tom Anderson came on the line.

  “Zane?”

  “We have a problem. Landry tracked my team to Connecticut. One man is down. Two captured and fled the scene with Landry. I need direction.”

  “Bring him in alive,” Tom grunted.

  “Tom—”

  “I know what you’re feeling. But we need him alive. There are people higher up in the food chain and we need him.”

  “Respect, Tom, but you do not know how I’m feeling.”

  “Zane, I do. And if you weren’t so far gone, you’d remember I do. I need you to trust me. Bring him to me alive.”

  “I can’t promise you—”

  “Trust me, goddamn it!” Tom roared. “Trust me to have your back the way you have had mine.”

  Zane’s long and colorful string of curse words, most of which I’d never heard strung together in that manner, bounced off the walls of the office.

  “Call me when you pick him up and I’ll give you a drop-off location,” Tom continued after Zane finished his tirade.

  “Copy that,” Zane sneered.

  “What’s their twenty?” Jaxon asked for the team’s location.

  I clicked a few buttons on my keyboard and Declan, Kyle, and Thad’s location was displayed on one of the wall-mounted sc
reens.

  “Just north of Bakersfield, Vermont,” I answered. “Roughly two hours from Lewis. But Dec’s driving, so make that one hour.”

  Zane’s phone rang and he fumbled it a moment before he settled it in his hand and answered.

  “Lewis,” he clipped.

  “It’s me,” Anaya’s calm voice came over the line. “Sorry, I had to let the phone charge and we had no service.”

  “Where are you?”

  I had to give it to my boss; he sounded almost normal but the vein pounding on the side of his neck gave him away.

  “We’re making good time. We’re in New York and just passed Route 13. I’m looking at alternate routes since there are tolls.”

  “Don’t worry about that. Fastest route. We’ll be there before you.”

  “Really?”

  “How are you two holding up? Either of you hurt?”

  “No. We’re both fine. But, Zane. We had to leave Jeremy behind. I’m so sorry, but we couldn’t—”

  “You did the right thing. I’ll send someone to pick him up.”

  “He tried, Zane. He tried to protect us.”

  “I know he did.”

  Zane’s eyes drifted closed and his head bowed.

  Yeah, he was feeling that, too. Another man’s death he’d unnecessarily take responsibility for. Jeremy didn’t work for Z Corps but he’d died while protecting our own. That would never go unappreciated or unnoticed.

  So Zane would take that mark to his soul.

  “Keep the phone plugged into the charger and on. I’m giving Garrett the number before we leave.”

  “Okay. One more thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Emmy and I were talkin’, we don’t want you telling the guys.”

  “Anaya—”

  “No, please listen. Please, Zane. They’ll worry. And someone could get hurt if they don’t…you know…have their heads in the game or whatever it’s called. Them coming home is more important. Everyone coming home is. So don’t tell them. We’re fine. Me and Emmy can do this.”

  “Kyle, Thad, and Dec are back in the US after a successful mission. They’ll be notified when we end this call. I appreciate the both of you having their backs, but I was only waiting to hear from you again until I called them in.”

  “Do you think—”

  “I don’t have the right to think. This isn’t about me, it’s about them. And I would burn someone to the ground if they withheld info about Ivy from me. I’m callin’ them in. You two stay the course, drive careful, and we’ll see you soon.”

  “Thanks, Zane. Appreciate your help.”

  Anaya disconnected and Zane’s body turned to granite.

  “You heard her,” I told my boss. “She sounded strong and capable. Do not fuck this for Tom and smoke Landry. He’s never given you reason to doubt him.”

  “I’d like to gut the motherfucker. But it ain’t me Tom needs to be worried about. Thad and or Kyle may not be able to be contained.”

  “You’re wrong. Once they clap eyes on their women safe and unharmed, I think you’ll be surprised. Amazing what a good woman by your side does. Goes a long way helping a man keep his shit in check.”

  Not that I’d know about that. It had been a long time since I’d had a woman by my side. Good or otherwise.

  Chapter 31

  “Any word from Anaya?” Thad asked. “I’ve texted and called Emmy but she’s not responding.”

  “Same.”

  “The cabin’s remote,” Dec reminded us. “Doubt they have service.”

  Just a little while longer, I kept repeating to myself, happy for once that Dec didn’t understand the meaning of a speed limit. It was more of a suggestion to him, one he chose to ignore.

  It had been hours since we’d passed our group of girls off to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and checked in with Lincoln. He and Leo had run into some issues and two girls had been injured during their rescue. No one else had any issues and the RCMP had called in the Canadian Security Intelligence Service to handle the compound the girls had been held in.

  In other words, our job was done and the team was making their way back to Maryland. Everyone but us—we were headed to Connecticut to pick up our women.

  I hadn’t spoken to Anaya in days, and even now after the mission was complete, the ball in my gut hadn’t unraveled.

  Dec’s phone rang and he tossed it to me. “Check that, would ya?”

  I glanced down at the display. “It’s Zane.”

  And it was about fucking time. Comms had gone down while we were in Canada and they’d never come back online. Linc had relayed he’d been able to call and get through to Garrett to give him a SITREP but Zane had been otherwise occupied and he hadn’t spoken directly with his brother.

  Dec rattled off his code to unlock his phone and I swiped the screen to answer.

  “Mission shift,” Zane barked.

  Instantly and immediately my body coiled.

  “What’s that noise?” Thad asked from behind me. He was now sitting forward, his big body angling between the two front seats.

  “Head straight to Lewis.” Zane ignored Thad’s question about the whooshing and rumbling.

  If I didn’t know any better, I’d say it sounded like helicopter blades.

  “Lewis—”

  “To the silo,” Zane cut off Declan. “Anaya and Emerson ran into some trouble…”

  Every atom, every cell, every molecule in my body felt those words. I fucking knew it. Knew it down to my bones there was a problem.

  I cut him off. “Say again?”

  The question had come from me but I didn’t recognize my own voice. I couldn’t feel my limbs. I didn’t even register the pounding in my chest. All I could feel was an ache so powerful it threatened to shatter me.

  “Both are unhurt but Jeremy’s dead. So is Monica. Anaya and Emerson captured Landry and they’re taking him to the silo.”

  Nothing Zane had said was making sense. “Captured? How in the fuck did that happen?”

  “What in the actual fuck?” Thad roared and I jerked my head to the side, my left eardrum ringing.

  “I don’t have details beyond that. Last I spoke to Anaya, she said they were unhurt, and an hour and a half out. You’re an hour forty-five from the silo, and I expect we’ll land the same time you get there.”

  Declan had already changed lanes, the speedometer pushing a hundred instead of the normal eighty-five he drove.

  “We’ll be there before the women,” Dec announced. “Have Garrett send the fastest route.”

  “One more thing,” Zane started. “Landry is to be brought in alive.”

  Hell to the motherfucking no. Just no. Absolutely fucking no.

  “I gave my word to Tom. Didn’t promise what shape he’d be delivered in, and just to say, if he makes a move that makes you twitch, you do what you need to do. That promise was one I made personally, me. I didn’t promise I could keep my team in-check.”

  How the hell had this happened? I had so many thoughts swirling in my head I couldn’t keep one train of thought straight long enough to begin to form a scenario where Anaya and Emerson could overpower and capture Landry.

  “I want to talk to my wife,” Thad demanded.

  “You’ll see her in an hour.”

  “Not fucking good enough, Zane. She—”

  “She’s holding strong. Her and Anaya both. Fucking so strong, Thaddeus, they’re solid. They played it smart. Did all the right things. You talk to her now, she starts to crumble, then what? Let her do her thing, and you’ll be there when the adrenaline dwindles and the gravity of the situation hits. You do not want that to happen now, while she’s driving and the fucktard is tied up in the back seat.”

  “How the fuck did this happen?” Thad asked the million-dollar question.

  “I don’t have the details. Anaya called it in, gave me the basics, it was her idea to go the silo, I didn’t question how she knew about it, but it was a good play. Lewis is c
loser and they wanted the asshole locked up and away from them as soon as possible.”

  “Neither are answering their phones,” Dec put in.

  “That’s because they’re damn smart. Turned them off and stopped to buy a burner. Anaya mentioned they were afraid Emerson’s phone had been tracked but didn’t elaborate as to why and I wasn’t going to question it. Garrett is in contact and they’re reporting in to him.”

  “Zane—”

  “Just get your asses to the silo. I know you’re both pissed as shit at me, and you should be. This is my fault. All of it is on me. But right now, I’m asking you both to check it. There will be time for it later and I’m fully prepared. All I care about right now is getting to Anaya and Emerson.”

  The line went dead and I felt Thad’s body move, then heard him slam against the back seat.

  They played it smart.

  Did all the right things.

  They’re solid.

  Those three sentences were all I had to hold on to as Dec sped down the highway.

  Empty words spoken while my woman was in danger.

  If one hair was hurt…

  No. I couldn’t go there. I couldn’t even think about Anaya being hurt.

  I was fighting to keep my rage contained. There would be a time and a place to unleash it. Unfortunately, sitting in the goddamn car was not the time.

  “I was fucking right. I felt it,” I growled.

  Declan didn’t speak.

  Thad didn’t speak.

  And in the silence as the miles passed, I dwelled on the knowledge that once again, I didn’t listen to my gut and stop Anaya. Never fucking again would that happen. I’d tried. I had tried not to be the type of man who would put his foot down and forbid his woman from doing something.

  Lesson learned.

  Loud and motherfucking clear.

  Never again.

  Chapter 32

  “How much longer?” Emerson asked.

  “Fifteen miles.”

  I went back to looking out the window. The closer we got to the silo the more nervous I’d become. As time had gone by, I could see Emerson tightening her grip on the steering wheel in an effort to make her hands stop shaking.