Final Strike

by Jana Leigh

  Without a thought he walked around the SUV and pulled open the door, Mel grinned up at him and held out her hand for him to help her untangle herself from the floor. When she was out of the car Thane didn’t even think, he just pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

  Mel didn’t hesitate, she wrapped her arms around his neck and held on for dear life as Thane reassured her she was alive and he was through waiting. Her only thought was if Dario was involved in the embrace, everything would be perfect.

  Chapter Five

  “So, that is how I came to be here,” Harper said and continued to babble as she helped Mel out of the Hummer. Everything had happened so fast her head was still whirling. “I really like your gun, mine has a pink grip, wanna see?” the energizer bunny said.

  Mel nodded slowly and felt like she had been taken down a rabbit hole. Harper was the first woman she ever met that she could talk with about guns. It was surreal to be having this conversation, when right out the window a flurry of activity was surrounding the Hummer.

  The men from Team TEN had grabbed her from Thane’s arms and pushed her into the Hummer with Dario as the local police and military police both descended on the SUV they had driven. All of them demanding answers as to who was driving and what was going on. The gunshots had been reported by so many sources the local news was on its way.

  Gage, Jessie, and Drake had taken over, and told them not to speak to anyone. Dario and Mel had sat in the back of the Hummer, huddled together watching as the events unfolded around them. The kiss she shared with Thane hung between Dario and her. He had been silent since they got into the car, just staring at her intently as she watched Thane. Fuckin A, this was going to turn out to be a clusterfuck. Maybe hoping the sexy Lothario would be up for a menage was asking too much.

  It had taken some fancy footwork, but Thane had convinced them that he was driving the SUV and was being chased by unknown assailants. After giving his statement and having the Commander call and inform the local police that they would be looking into the situation as well, the police had let them go and called for a tow truck for the ruined vehicle, which suddenly was in Thanes name.

  Mel didn’t know how they did that, but she heard the police scanner come back with the plates registered to Thane. She had looked at Dario in confusion and the man had smiled and shook his head. “Someone is looking out for these guys.”

  “Well, we are gonna need that someone,” Mel had replied and then watched. When Harper crawled into the back of the Hummer, she had introduced herself. Mel had taken an instant liking to the tough, straight shooting female. She was a ball of contradiction, her body covered in bruises, she had smiled at them and said she was the welcoming committee and offered her soft feminine hand to shake. They were the only things delicate on her.

  When Drake crawled into the front seat and started the Hummer, Harper had announced that she was in a relationship with both him and Joel. From there Mel got the rundown of who was who and who was with who. Her head was swimming from the information the woman was chattering. For the last hour, Harper had continued to talk to her and Dario who both just made a few noises here and there in agreement with her.

  “Babe,” Drake said from the front of the Hummer. “I think they got it.”

  Mel straightened and looked at the female with a gorgeous red ponytail, black tank top with pink words, black cargos pants and military utility boots with a vest that Rambo would be jealous of, even if it was lined in pink.

  “Hey, I am sure they are in shock,” Harper argued and looked at Mel and winked. “She won’t remember this anyway.”

  Mel frowned and shook her head. “Sorry, photographic memory. I heard it all.”

  “Oh, well,” Harper snorted. “I was just trying to give you a chance to get yourself together.”

  “Hearing the word menage pretty much put the screech on my panicking,” Mel laughed.

  “As long as it didn’t freak you out,” Harper laughed.

  Mel snuck a glance at Dario, who was staring out the side window but he was listening. So far, he had made no comments about what Harper said. Although it put pictures in her mind about what could never be, Mel had to admit.

  “Nope, Sam explained to me years ago about Alex’s family. I have seen the love they have for each other,” Mel admitted.

  Dario, who had remained silent throughout, then turned to Drake and said, “Where are we?”

  “Welcome to our home base,” Drake said and put an arm around the large man’s shoulders. “Let’s get you inside and then we will talk.”

  Dario nodded and still hesitated. He saw Harper and Mel walk slowly to the front of the house, the talkative woman was pointing to things and laughing. All Dario wanted was some answers, about a lot of things. First things first, he needed to know how much the team knew and didn’t know about his family.

  Thane pushed the gas down on the second Hummer so he could get back to base faster. It was Harper, Drake, and Joel’s second home and base of operations now in San Diego. There was a lot of shit going on around them while they tried to fix this shit. All of it for the good, the men finding their places in the world and cementing their future. That was all Thane ever wanted, for his men to be able to live their lives in peace.

  After kissing Mel, Thane felt the peace they had all been talking about. It was something tangible, something he could hold onto, and he wanted to grasp it with both hands.

  “LC, you may want to slow down a bit unless you want us to get pulled over and have to explain again why a car registered to you is speeding now. I am pretty sure your license is tenuous at best,” Jessie laughed.

  Thane flipped his friend off but didn’t take his foot off the gas. He needed to get back to the house and see what was going on. Mel and Dario had not had a chance to talk to him at all. They needed to get a handle on what the fuck was going on and so far, they were just reacting, not planning. The time had come for them to take the offensive and find the fuckers who were behind this.

  “We need to get the team all together. Call the island and tell them we are going to have a conference call. Everyone could have a piece of the puzzle, or not have any knowledge at all, but regardless, they all have a right to know,” Thane said briskly. He hated to get the whole group involved but whoever was behind this had brought them all in by putting a target on their back. They had a right to know what was going on.

  The rest of the drive was made with Jessie making plans to have a meeting as soon as they were able to debrief Mel and Dario. Thane could feel Sam, he was in his head, whispering in the background. He had been since he heard the gunshots. Now it was becoming insistent.

  ‘LC, damn it, will you fucking listen to me for a few?’ Sam ground out.

  ‘What?’ Thane thought, taking a turn on the long road to the mansion they had taken over.

  Alex’s family had fronted the money for Harper to start her new company. The mansion was their home base, although according Harper, she was going to have the main base of operations in Healing, Wyoming when they got back. Healing, Thane had laughed at the name of the town they moved to at first, but it had been healing for all of them.

  Alex’s parents bought a huge spread for Alex and the others to run to after the bombing. At first Thane figured he could follow and make sure the guys were settled and good and then leave.

  ‘There is so much more going on than you realize,’ Sam said darkly.

  ‘Like what?’ Thane asked.

  ‘Like love,’ Sam yelled. ‘You are so caught up in wallowing in guilt that you refuse to admit what you need.’

  ‘Clipper, I believe we have more important things to worry about than my love life,’ Thane said dryly.

  ‘Yes you do, but it is still there,’ Sam said softly.

  Thane knew what he was talking about and had been hesitant to think about it. Each of his men had found the love they needed right when they needed it most. From the first, he thought about Melanie when each of the men found their women. She
was the one who was always in the back of his mind.

  From the moment they met, Thane had felt a pull to her. When they couldn’t find her after the first incident, he had worried about her. Sending out inquiries on the sly to find her and make sure she was safe. A few of his contacts had told him she was fine, working for the State Department in San Diego. She had once lived in the same building as Sam, but when Thane had sent someone to the apartment to talk to her, they found she had moved suddenly, no forwarding address.

  He ignored Sam as he continued to whisper in his ear about moving on with his life. Jessie apparently guessed what was going on now, and he was smirking as Thane pulled into the driveway. “Not a word,” he warned as they got out of the car and went to walk into the front entrance.

  There was a lot of construction going on. Thane was still shocked at how swiftly Alex’s parents moved when they wanted something done. It was something he was still getting used to since Dallas, Noah, and Bailey had apparently adopted them all. Money never seemed to be a factor in anything they did.

  As they entered the hallway where their headquarters had been setup, Thane heard Mel’s laugh. He took a deep breath, letting her out of his sight for even a few hours had driven him nuts. He wanted her out of the line of fire. Going in guns a barreling was not going to work, he had seen Mel go head-to-head with Sam on occasion and it was as sight to behold. It would be easier to keep it light, even when everything in him screamed to lock her in a room and throw away the key.

  Mel and Dario were in a small room off to the side of main area where they worked. He looked in briefly and then opened the door and walked in. “So they just stood there and watched while I kicked the bad guy’s ass,” Harper was saying when he walked in. “Oh look, it is my brother from a different mother!”

  Mel and Dario looked at him in surprise when Thane laughed and shook his head. Harper had a way about her, he couldn’t seem to get pissed when she referred to him like that. “And my sister from another mister,” he teased and Harper paused and looked back at him, a shocked expression on her face.

  “Did you just make a joke, LC?” Harper said with an awed tone.

  “I think he did!” Jessie said from behind him.

  “Shit, were you wounded, hit in the head, do we need a doctor?” Mason laughed from the other side of the room.

  Thane rolled his eyes, “Fuck off. Dario and Mel, I see they are getting you settled. We have a lot to discuss.”

  Everyone in the room walked out leaving Thane alone with Mel and Dario. When the door closed behind them, Dario was the first to speak.

  “Thane,” Dario stood, “what is going on?” Mel was staring at him intently while he spoke to Dario, “We need information.”

  “Yeah, I know, I brought it. They brought us in this room, but no one would tell us anything. Why are you treating us like we have the plague?” Dario argued.

  “Because we don’t know who to trust anymore,” Thane said truthfully and he saw Dario sink back into his seat.

  Mel stepped up and said, “What do you want to know?”

  “How are you involved in all of this?” Thane asked briskly. He hated treating her like this, but until they were all satisfied Dario wasn’t a plant, that had to be. Unfortunately, Mel was with him, and right now, he needed to keep his team safe here. If it turned out Mel was somehow unwittingly involved, he would move her to somewhere he could deal with afterward. Because no matter what came out of her mouth, he was going to make sure she was safe.

  Mel looked at Dario, sat back down in her chair, and then took a deep breath. “I was working one day and a file came across my desk. I noticed the name Moghodan, and then they were being assigned to the embassy and realized I had seen it on the after incident report from the base. Don’t ask how I got that,” Mel warned and held up her hand when Thane opened his mouth. “I applied because I wanted some answers about Sam, ones that you wouldn’t give me.”

  Thane listened as Mel explained about getting close to Dario to get information. Dario just listened and grinned when she explained how she initially was going to pump him for information.

  “Of course it didn’t work like that because from the moment I set foot in the embassy, it was clear there was something else going on. I waited and watched, some things didn’t add up, and I wasn’t sure who I should go to,” Mel admitted.

  “What didn’t add up?” Thane asked.

  “The embassy paperwork. When I first got there, like any new position you learn your new post. The liaison to the American Government is to work with the embassy in a variety of ways. Contrary to Dario’s mother’s beliefs, it is not just to help arrange her social calendar with American dignitaries. My first day, she demanded I help her get onto certain politicians lists, you know for dinners, other than that she had no use for me. I explained I needed access to certain files, like applications for work papers for the people she employed in the embassy. She was pissed and refused; of course, it was a red flag. Over the next few weeks, I noticed certain packages would come in and go out, without anyone checking them. Dario wasn’t officially assigned to the embassy for a few months, so I waited and watched. By the time he arrived, I was convinced his mother was behind some illegal activities, but had no proof,” Mel explained.

  “I admit, I was suspicious when my mother asked me to come and be head of her security detail,” Dario said slowly. “Mel came to me after I had been there for a few weeks and asked me about a Visa that was filed by my mother for my half-brother. That is when I knew I had a problem. My half-brother is, should we say, the black sheep of the family. But the name she filed the Visa for was not his real last name. Moghodan was my father’s name. Diego was born to a different man. To be honest, my mother told me his last name was Faisal, then we started gathering information and I was shocked. His birth name is Diego Dragomir.”

  Thane listened as they spoke about what had happened, and what they knew and didn’t know, his brother’s name was one he knew very well. He didn’t let any emotion show as he listened. Most was what they expected, his mother being involved with his brother’s activities. They pulled out the drives they had taken and handed them over to Thane who nodded.

  Then Dario looked Thane right in the eyes and said, “I also know my brother is responsible for your team’s death.”

  “Why?” Thane said coldly.

  “That I am not sure about, but I do know the answers are somewhere in those files. We photocopied pages from my mother’s files that went back years. I didn’t have time to read any of it,” Dario admitted.

  “And if we can prove it?” Thane said.

  “He should burn,” Dario said firmly and stood. “Thane, you trained me, I respect you, I would never have knowingly been involved in something like that. I share the same beliefs you do, and I would never betray you.”

  Thane frowned and remained silent as he thought about what Dario and Mel told him. When he finally looked up, he said, “What do you know about our final mission?”

  Thane saw the sadness in the other man’s eyes, but he had to be sure, his gut told him Dario was not involved, but he wouldn’t chance the lives of the other men on his gut right now.

  “My brother and mother hired the suicide bomber that day. His son was killed in a blast your team carried out, and he had been seeking vengeance,” Dario said. “They sent him the information of where you would be.”

  “How did they find that out?” Thane yelled.

  “I don’t know,” Dario admitted.

  Mel sat stiffly and looked at Thane, “I trust him with my life.”

  Thane looked at Melanie and then nodded slowly. She knew in that instance that she was speaking the truth. Dario could be trusted, Thane just needed to make sure he hadn’t known that Thane was the one who had took Diego’s father in. “Let’s get this figured out then.”

  Dario leaned back as Thane showed Mel out of the room. She requested a place to get cleaned up. Dario waited, he knew Thane was going to come back and tal
k to him. He saw Thane pull Ice to the side and whisper something in his ear. When Ice pulled back he saw the look of surprise in his eyes. Something was up, and Dario really hoped he wasn’t going to take the fall for something he didn’t do.

  They hadn’t have a moment alone to discuss how this had all come about. Seeing him after all these months, Dario missed the friendship he had shared with all of the men on the team. They had trained his group, and Dario felt closer to them than he did his own team. Maybe it was because of the respect they gave him.

  “Dario,” Thane sighed as he came into the room. “How the fuck did we get here?”

  He had been waiting for this very question, and he wasn’t going to shy away from it. “LC, there is so much more here than what meets the eye. I have been struggling over this for weeks. I mean what are the odds this would all come together like this, too astronomical to actually compute. No man, I think we are all pawns in a chess game that we didn’t start. I don’t know how or why, but somehow we are being played, I just wish we knew who the Master chess player is who is calling the shots. I would love to hand you everything tied in a neat bow, but I can’t. I know my brother is involved and I know that looks bad, but I swear to you, I had nothing to do with what he or my mother have done. It makes me sick to think about them right now.”

  “Let’s just deal with what we know.” Thane nodded and said, “When did you get out of the service?”

  “Right after the extradition, it screwed me up,” Dario admitted. “I have lost people before, men who fought side by side with me. But when your team was killed, it was like a fucking bomb went off inside me. I was angry—everything we had been fighting for didn’t work—the peace never seemed to come. I couldn’t figure out who to trust anymore, it was as if everyone was a leak. The Intel showed there had been someone on the inside, I don’t know, that just seemed like too much you know. It is bad enough we are fighting them, but having to fight ourselves. I just couldn’t do it anymore. I took their retirement, and my mother made me head of her security here. I thought it was the perfect plan. I mean, I could get out of the situation, but now I see it was all just a ploy to get me here, to see who I contacted. When I heard about the problems in Healing, I made some calls, offered my help. It was just what they wanted.”