by J. M. Davies
“Nice to see you again, Ella, you’re positively glowing my dear. All this fresh air must agree with you.” The professor stepped closer, not too close but enough that Marcus could stare into the man’s cold, steely eyes that glimmered with a peculiar excitement as he stared at Ella. He clasped his hands to form a steeple and rested his middle finger on his chin as he pondered for a moment.
“I’m sure you’re both wondering why and what is going to happen next.” The professor tilted his head up at the moon and smiled. His lips widened into a wide, long grin bracketed by deep lines that made his mouth stand out as his jaw narrowed to almost a point. He was pure evil.
Marcus remained calm. He knew to stay alive, he needed to be alert, cold, and as equally deadly as his opponent. He turned his emotions off and again weighed the odds of getting out of here alive because he needed to stay alive and he needed Ella to stay alive.
“We hoped you’d lead us to the goddess herself but as that hasn’t happened, we need you for something else. And with the full moon coming in forty-eight hours, we needed to rein you in, dear. I have something that is going to make you feel wonderful.”
Marcus tightened his fist; whatever happened from here on in, the professor was his. He would kill him without a moment of regret once this was over. He didn’t know what their intentions were but it was obviously to do with the cycle of the moon and that meant Ella’s sexual state. He gritted his teeth, not giving anything away, which would only make it worse, and Ella stiffened beside him; he knew she was thinking the same thing. She didn’t respond and neither did he. The professor nodded and two of the soldiers strode toward him, heading for Ella. He couldn’t stop Ella from being taken this time but he could escape and be ready for next time because there would be a next time if he could break free. The soldier nearest to him, with his military buzz cut and face streaked in green and black grease paint, didn’t make eye contact with Marcus, which was a big mistake because he was ready as his hand touched Ella. Marcus lifted his knife from the belt and grabbed the man around the neck, throttling and pinning him back against his chest.
Ella screamed but the man holding her dragged her away.
“We’re leaving. Deal with him.”
As the soldier tried to drag Ella away, she stomped on his foot and lashed out with her leg.
The professor slapped his hand across her cheek; she went flying. The soldier roughly launched after her and hauled her away through the trees as the professor followed, not looking back at him. Four mercenaries faced him, equal in size and stature, ready to kill him. Holding the man up against him to cover his chest, he squeezed his throat, and his team watched. Marcus coldly sliced the man’s throat open and blood gushed out. Stealing the gun from the man’s side holster, he fired off rounds in quick succession, peppering the air with bullets and scattering the soldiers into the bushes. Without hesitation, Marcus shoved the dead man away from him and disappeared into the forest.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Marcus charged through the densely knitted forest and twisted branches that slashed across his cheeks and ducked behind a thick oak tree. With his fingers, he swiped the damp earth and smeared his face with moist brown soil. His heart was tapping along but he breathed very slowly through his nostrils. His gaze was alert and watchful in the dark as he ran over the scene of events that had unfolded moments before. Ella would believe he had abandoned her, which he had, but it had been necessary to regain control. The professor was alive and more than just friends with the Elusti; he imagined he was quite high up in the ranking system as he was here in charge of this little get-together but not for much longer. Once he dispatched the others, he would be right on their tail. He needed to be quick and deadly. A movement behind him and a sudden change in the wind had him leaping at the dark shadow to his left. The solid silhouette shoved him hard in the belly and gripped his arm.
“Boss, it’s me.”
“Jake, what the hell are you doing here?”
Jake eased his grip on Marcus and shoved him away. “Saving your sorry ass.” Gunfire sounded in the distance and Marcus stared at Jake. “You didn’t think I would come alone, did you?”
Marcus hissed and strode off through the bushes and undergrowth until he was back by the stone circle. Two men lay inert and sprawled on the ground, including the one Marcus had killed from earlier, which meant there were the two others out there either in hiding or had fled. A skyscraper of a man stood next to the dead bodies, as black as the night sky and as broad as any oak tree. His nut brown eyes connected with Marcus. He nodded and gave him a wide grin as he secured his rifle over his shoulder. Shadow and Bear were a pair; they were his sniper team back in SEAL Team 5 based back on the West Coast but he didn’t have a clue why they were here.
“Good to see you, boss. Sorry we didn’t get to the meet-and-greet earlier.”
Marcus wiped his forehead and stared at the two heavyweights Bear and Shadow, dressed in full combat gear and boots, covered with face paint as if this were a routine mission. What the hell.
“What the fuck are you up to? How the hell?” He didn’t move and the men eased back and shifted their glances toward Jake. Marcus turned his angry stare on Jake.
“You have exactly two minutes.”
Marcus could feel the blood pump inside his veins and he was ready to spew like a volcano. They once were his team and they never made a move without him.
“Marcus, you knew that I’d left the SEALs, just like you. After Dallas died, it wasn’t the same. You were injured and hell, it wasn’t the same. Anyhow, Captain Steel was leaving and setting up a worldwide private security team. He’s collected quite a few impressive clients who wanted to hire him immediately. The work is the same: covert, don’t know if we’ll get back alive—that kind of stuff—but the pay is way much better. Look, shit, I should have said something back in New York but, man, you caught me on the hop. You were running blind from the FBI. I was scared shitless you were going to get yourself killed, man. Your head wasn’t screwed on. Hell, you’ve never given a skirt the chance to pull one over on you, ever. And she pulled a doozy on you!” Jake chuckled but Marcus remained unmoved.
“I knew she was up to something. I had it under control.”
“It didn’t look like it, all trussed up in handcuffs. Anyway, when I knew you were going to keep chasing the skirt and you asked for help to get airborne, Steel came to mind. The jet you flew in is his and he—”
Marcus flipped his hand up and clenched his mouth; he’d heard enough. “I know we were flying on Steel’s plane. What I didn’t know was that he has his own army and that I’m your mission. Again, what the fuck is going on, Jake? My patience evaporated thirty minutes ago. Ella, the woman you keep referring to as the skirt, is not just some woman. Do I make myself clear?”
The two men eyeballed each other.
“Seriously, you think we don’t know that, boss?”
This, coming from Shadow, who stood to his side and who was as silent as his name, was like a blast of cold water over Marcus. He paused and took a breath as he rubbed his forehead. He was bringing his emotions into play here, something he never did. That wasn’t good on any mission and this was his hardest. Staring down at Jake, not giving an inch, now wasn’t the time to appear weak or nervous, especially around his team. He shoved his emotions into check.
“Steel is investigating Aidan O’Connor, the professor. He’s known to mix in some very bad and influential circles that deal with arms trafficking worldwide. They also deal with drugs, sex trafficking, you name it. When I mentioned what was going on with you back in New York, Steel jumped on it and this became a mission. Ella Masters, the Witch, became our mission.”
Marcus didn’t blink an eye. Months ago, Ben Steel—a man whose life had been the military and he had enough medals to prove it, his former and very well-respected captain—had contacted him out of the blue to offer him a job. At the time, he wasn’t in the right frame of mind to talk to anyone who reminded him of the pas
t but now, as he stood in the chilling temperatures and stared at his former teammates and knowing Ella was a prisoner at the mercy of this psychotic group the Elusti, he couldn’t be happier. It evened the odds somewhat and he could take a breath. This would be his hardest mission yet but he could complete it and bring her home safely. He strode over to Jake, who backed away, but he grabbed him by the scruff of his thick black sweater and slapped him roughly on the back.
“Ella never had the upper hand, man, never. I knew her game from the beginning because I’m exactly the same as her. She was trying to survive any way she could. Failure is not an option on this mission, understand? Now, where’s Payday?” If Jake and the sniper team were here, he knew that Steel would have recruited other members. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad being part of this band of fierce warriors again.
“How did you…he’s our surveillance. He bugged the transportation and he’s keeping eyes on the ground. He’s already on the road with Preacher Boy. We’re here to bring you in for a full debriefing. Steel’s waiting at the operations center.”
Marcus breathed a sigh of relief. Operation center. That meant it wasn’t some scrambled, put-together mission but a bona fide, well-organized tactical team in place. With Steel at the helm with an unlimited financial back pocket—well, if the rumors were true and certainly your average Joe didn’t have his own jet!—maybe it was time to talk about this job he’d been banging on about to his deaf ears until now. Marcus stared at Jake’s steel-gray eyes and nodded.
“We’ll get your lady back, boss. Don’t you worry,” Bear chipped in as they trudged their way back through the moist earth.
Shadow spoke into his mouthpiece and swatted away a fly. “I’m counting on it.”
****
“Just let me get this straight, Steel. You’ve been watching me since New York, since I touched base with Gateway?” Marcus stood almost nose to nose with his former captain Ben Steel, who, at six two, was the same height as him. They had been arguing for hours. The sun had come up and daylight streamed in through the windows that fronted onto Cardiff Bay. Copious mugs of coffee had been drained, which hadn’t helped his urgent need to move, to find Ella, but Steel wouldn’t let him go until the air was totally cleared between them and ensured that they were on the same page, whatever the hell that meant. He did have a sneaking suspicion he was being drawn into something he had little choice in, which only got his back up even more.
He studied his former boss who, although he carried a little more weight around the middle, was a formidable man. He knew he trained every day. Most of the team did because they believed warriors were made through training hard to increase their strength and speed. Their motto, The only easy day was yesterday, was ingrained on his brain. He also knew that Steel wouldn’t give up until he got what he wanted.
Ben Steel wore his hair closely shaved at the bottom with a longer length on top of thick silver hair that he parted neatly to the side. Thick swatches of stray strands flopped over his lined forehead. His wide eyebrows, also silver, arched and his neatly trimmed horseshoe mustache twitched as his hazel eyes narrowed. He scratched his mustache and sighed.
They stood alone in an old deserted brick warehouse somewhere down on the waterfront in Cardiff. The water taxis honked their horns as they passed by and tiny sailboats fluttered on the horizon of the deep blue waters that he could see through the broken windowpane. Seagulls squawked and Marcus wondered not for the first time how Ella was and he shook his head.
“Drayton, if you must know, you’ve never been off my radar. I’ve been biding my time and waiting, but I knew at some point you would make the right decision and join us. You know me—you know my loyalty is to my country and to my men. Hiding mistakes and covering up bullshit for evil because they have bigger purses or are influential politicians—it’s never been what I’m about. You knew I would never simply retire. I’ve been dreaming of creating this elite group for years. The timing is right. I need men like you. A natural leader willing to do anything to get the job done and the men respect you. Hell, I respect you and what’s more, I trust you when you’re thinking straight and your head is in the game. I pay well but loyalty isn’t bought. I’m creating an elite team of specialists who will be committed to the mission first. As usual, anything we do is covert and undercover but we’re still the good guys. We fight for justice and to help those who cannot help themselves. Each mission is agreed by the team and I want you as my second-in-command. I want you to help with recruitment and to have a say in accepting or rejecting the assignments. I have two teams in the making but it’s early days. Some of the men you know. Others you don’t. Most are ex-SEALs but I’m not restricting recruitment to just military backgrounds. I need men and women with certain credentials and abilities. Experts who are driven and are the best in their field: scientists, doctors, psychologists, linguistics as well as soldiers. Like I said, I’m creating a very specialized team that will work worldwide. Are you in?”
Marcus was excited by Steel’s vision and enthusiastic recruitment bullshit but his mind was focused on Ella. He walked over to a wall that held a multitude of photographs stuck up on the massive whiteboard that housed the main players in the Witch mission. Ella’s picture was at the center, her eyes pleading and tugging at his heart. He rubbed both his hands over his face. Staring at his platinum Rolex watch, it was eleven hours since he’d last seen her and the thoughts of what that madman was doing to her was driving him mad.
“We know exactly where she is and we’ll free her but I need Aidan O’Connor. He’s not the main player of this group we know to be called the Elusti but he is one of the Masters. We need him as leverage to discover who the ultimate leader is and gather the intel about this group’s network. Once we have Ella Masters secured, you do realize she will never be safe? She will be a target forever. If you care at all for this woman, and I think you do, you must let her go, for both your sakes.”
Marcus swiveled around and banged his fist on the tall black filing cabinet. “Fuck you.” Who the hell did he think he was to dictate to him about his personal life? Even if he took the job, his personal life was his business. But as he flicked his gaze back at the photograph of Ella’s pale and perfect face, he knew that wasn’t true. As a SEAL, the job always came first. It played a big part in the reason he never settled down: a) he didn’t believe he would be any good at it and b) he was the job. Leaving a wife and some kid behind didn’t sit well in his gut and most guys who had taken that plunge in his line of work ended up divorced fuckers anyway. It didn’t matter whether they were soul mates or not; if he took this job, he would be married to it.
“I’m not trying to mess with your head but you know the rules. You know the life and the risks we take. When we get Ella back, the only chance for her to live a normal life is to start over, with a new identity, and I can provide all that as well as security that will watch over her twenty-four seven…if you agree to work for me.”
Steel’s words made him laugh. Ella never had a normal life and she never would. Steel didn’t know who the hell he was dealing with. Or, for that matter, who he truly was and what that meant for him and Ella. He still felt torn in opposing directions and he wasn’t sure he would ever resolve that conflict. It was as if he stood on the precipice of the Grand Canyon. Did he take the offer and get Ella to safety or run after her on his own? It seemed both sides had been following him and he’d been totally unaware; his skills as a SEAL were already compromised because of Ella. His personal mission before he met Ella was to seek the Elusti out and eradicate them from the face of the planet. With Steel, he could do that, set himself up financially for a change, and ensure that Ella was safe, even if she wasn’t with him. Could he do that? After all he said to her, could he truly walk away? Money wasn’t the only issue. He needed a job, and he was certain; he no longer had one. Staring around the empty but technology-filled warehouse with long, dust-filled glass windows that housed table after table with electronic devices, screens, and state-of
-the-art computers, he was amazed at the speed and efficiency of Steel’s group and how quickly they had set up base camp.
“What about the FBI? They’re not going to like the fact that I absconded with one of their most wanted and left the country. They will have me arrested—won’t that be a bit messy for you?”
Ben Steel picked up a beige folder from the collapsible table next to him, walked the few steps it took and shoved it in Marcus’s chest. “Like I said, Drayton, you’ve been on my radar since you left the SEALs. I’ve been charting your progress, and just because I’m not working for the government anymore doesn’t mean I don’t have contacts there. As far as the FBI is concerned, you’re working with me as a favor, which is another reason why when this is all cleared up that you need to give the lady up! She’s hot, she messes with your focus, and to be fucking honest, you’re not at your best when she’s around. You make mistakes and I cannot afford any. I want this task force to be legitimate as far as possible and I don’t want to piss off the government agencies if I can help it. They were ready to haul your ass to jail for treason until I told them that you were working for me. Your boss Philip Jackson is gone. He just up and disappeared. They’re too busy trying to figure out, what, if any, information he took because his sudden departure was mysterious to say the least. Luckily for you, I was able to give them something. I’m trying to save your ass, but you don’t make it easy. I’d rather try to work with them and not break too many rules. You know that word teamwork? The code you used to live by? Now, make yourself worthy of the dog tags you wear around your mangy neck and make her proud.”
