Heartbreaker (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Simone Sinna

  “We stay put here.”

  Zac’s hand automatically went to his Glock. Excluding the New York fiasco it had been a long time since he had been out on field work. He’d used it then, and though an excellent marksman found the difference between shooting at a paper target versus a real person was not an easy transition. He’d been taught to shoot to kill, aiming for the largest body mass, the torso, because if he had to shoot then the chances were he would need to drop the target to stop them causing injury. But on the three times he had shot at someone, once he’d missed when the man’s eyes had caught his, and the other two he had deliberately changed aim and hit to demobilize rather than kill. It sat better with him. Now, however, he wouldn’t hesitate. Hezekiah was dangerous and wouldn’t hesitate to kill Savannah if it suited him.

  Zac saw the room with the two New York thugs suddenly explode with gas. The men started coughing, and came out through the front door, automatic weapons firing as they did. Zac saw two of his agents in the brush at the edge of the house fire and watched the thugs drop, one falling flat on his back, the other dropping in slow motion as he kept firing his weapon. Another round of FBI fire ensured that he would cause no more problems.

  Securing the house was performed meticulously. To Zac, every minute appeared like five. Kane’s group was joined by the general’s team as they searched the house and then the outbuildings, calling the all clear first for the house then the series of barns. Zac knew something was wrong as soon as he saw Kane’s face when they all convened.

  “Three dead, one injured critically, one female captured.”

  Zac looked up and saw the angry-looking woman that was standing between two of the special force’s men.

  “Where’s…” He couldn’t bring himself to say her name. “…The hostage?”

  “Hostage missing, sir.” Kane wasn’t looking at his boss. “So is Hezekiah.”

  * * * *

  When Ben heard the scream he had wanted to run straight into the house and save Savannah. He’d been told to wait and as he passed the car he paused. There was a lot of noise, and in the dark he could see the flashes of the gunfire. His heart sank, hand on the gun that Kane had given him. He thought of all he knew about Hezekiah, thought of the three weeks he had followed Corey. Corey he knew well, and this was Corey’s car. Corey was lazy and a thug. Ultimately he would look after his own skin rather than his uncle’s. Which meant he’d be thinking escape the moment things went wrong.

  When they burst out of the undergrowth there was no time to plan. Two huge men and Savannah between them heading in his direction. Ben was hiding in the undergrowth with Howie. “Get the big guy if you can, but not if he is anywhere near the girl,” whispered Ben. “I’m going around the other side of the car.”

  Savannah was doing her best to delay progress, tripping and falling over a tree root. Ben thought he could almost get a clear shot, but Hezekiah had one of her arms and Corey the other so as fast as she dropped they had her up again. Hezekiah slapped her. Ben’s grip tightened on his gun. There was still twenty yards to the car. Ben had to make a decision.

  * * * *

  The car burst out of the scrub amidst a hail of bullet fire. Zac could just make the tail lights out along the track. “They’re getting away! Kane, who of ours is up there firing?”

  The general shook his head. “No path there on our map.”

  “They’re ours.” Kane took a breath and looked at Zac. “Ben and one of the local cops.”

  “And here’s our vehicle to follow them.” The general’s team were coming down the main track, and both he and Zac jumped into the first vehicle and were soon in pursuit. Three hundred yards on a cop waved them along. There was no sign of Ben.

  “Your stepbrother?”

  Zac shook his head. “No, which means Ben’s either dead, or in that car.”

  They exchanged glances and looked grimly in front, willing the driver to go faster. Ahead of them the SUV was flying over tree roots and had already bounced off the side of a tree it had collected. The driving appeared increasingly erratic. Ahead they could just make out the freeway lights. Then, just before the track emerged, the car took a sudden sharp left turn and went straight for the creek.

  * * * *

  When Savannah had been dragged off by Corey and Hezekiah she knew she had to try everything she could think of to delay. Right now it looked as if her rescue team had arrived and she planned on leaving with them. Trouble was, either one of her two captors were strong enough to pretty much put her under one arm and hold her firm.

  Hezekiah’s fanatical look was as terrifying as his size. She was under no illusion that he would die and take her with him rather than surrender.

  “God is commanding us to go forth!” He declared as he joined Corey.

  “They’re gonna try and kill us.” Corey was sounding a good deal less certain about where they were heading, in either this world or the next.

  Hezekiah tightened his grip on Savannah’s arm. His eyes glowed as if he was seeing God looking down on him from Heaven.

  “The world is not in harmony! Now is our chance boy to make God’s presence felt throughout all of America. Our America!”

  “It’s not the America real Americans want.” Savannah tried to wrench herself out of his grasp but his fist was around her arm like a vise.

  When Hezekiah hit her, just as they came up to the car, she felt her head go so far back she thought her neck would snap, and was seeing stars as her vision righted itself. She heard gunfire, heard a groan, but the next thing she knew was the back door of an SUV was opened and she was being pushed inside. She fell on the seat, vaguely aware of Corey climbing into the driver’s seat and Hezekiah into the front seat.

  “You hit?” Corey’s voice.

  “Leg. Get driving boy.”

  The car took off amidst more gunfire. Savannah was sliding across the seat, trying to right herself. She thought she was dreaming when from behind her she heard a soft whisper.

  “Don’t look. Put your belt on and get ready for a rough ride.”

  She did look, couldn’t help herself because she thought she was listening to a ghost. Corey and Hezekiah were focused elsewhere. Sure enough, crouched over the back was Ben. She nodded, gulped, and found her belt. Hezekiah was rummaging into a back pack he had been carrying with him.

  “What the fuck you doing?” Corey was flustered enough to forget to be subservient. But his uncle was too busy to be bothered. Savannah saw what he had in his hand. Grenades.

  “Just you drive, boy!” Opening the window the first one was launched. Savannah heard an explosion and yells. She started to shake, closing her eyes and hoping that it had missed. How on earth did Ben stand a chance against this maniac?

  The next thing she heard was an order to stop. Ben’s voice. When Hezekiah turned around, gun in hand, a shot rang out from the seat behind her, the car sideswiped a tree, corrected, and kept right on going. Suddenly Ben was next to her and coming across and in between the front seats to grab the wheel. The car veered off to the left and she saw the river coming right at her.

  The river was deep and with a strong current right by the bridge where the SUV went in. The windows at the back were down and soon started filling with ice-cold water. It was about to be submerged and Savannah knew what real terror felt like, numbing and so overwhelming she was unable to think. She was vaguely aware of splashing around her, but more aware of the intense cold, of Ben half urging, half pushing her through the car window against a steady rush of water that was filling her eyes and nose and ears. She heard him yell, “Swim up,” and every morsel of her being was desperate to do just that. There were people all around her and she just looked up and kicked hard. Gasping for breath, already shaking with cold, she hit the surface and found she was already twenty yards downstream. She screamed as she tried to swim to the river edge, the current pulling her further and further away. She caught sight of Ben right behind her in the water and Zac also in the river with several other m
en, around the car battling with Corey. Zac punched him hard and she saw blood spurting from his nose. As she submerged, taking a mouthful of water in, she yelled out, “Yeah!”

  “Got you.” Ben grabbed her.

  “I thought you were dead!” Savannah said between gulps of water.

  “I’m indestructible.”

  Savannah saw his grin and tried to kiss him, both submerging in the process.

  “Put that on hold!” Ben was pulling her hard, going with the current but edging towards the river bank. She kicked hard and finally with one last push Ben was able to grab a fallen tree branch and hold them firm. Savannah found a grip and this time managed the kiss with more success.

  It took several minutes to drag themselves out, cold and shaking, but more or less intact. Ben had an a arm around her, and they were limping towards the massing forces where they could see several men with Corey, still dripping blood and in handcuffs, and a number of people standing on the edge of the river. But where was Zac?

  * * * *

  Once Corey had been taken by General Pearson Zac dived down looking for Hezekiah. Having got this close, the Prophet of the Soldiers of Leviticus was not going to evade him and the FBI yet again. But the cabin of the car was empty. Surfacing, he looked around. The car had got stuck on some submerged logs so he hadn’t travelled as far as the current might otherwise have taken him. Instinctively he looked downstream, and was sure he saw movement on the river edge. Letting go of the car while yelling for backup, he made his way down and across.

  There was no sign of movement, but the flattened reeds and footsteps in the river bank mud made it clear that Zac was right on Hezekiah’s tail. Somewhere in the water he had dropped his gun. He could only hope that Hezekiah had also, or that the water would render any firearm useless. Thinking of Hezekiah’s build didn’t fill him with optimism about success in a fist fight. A quick check showed that backup was still grouping on the opposite river bank. There was no choice. He couldn’t afford to lose the man. If anyone had an escape plan it would be Hezekiah. He could be halfway to Canada before they even worked out which direction he’d taken.

  Hezekiah was too big to not have left a trail. Broken branches and flattened bushes went straight up. For an older man he had been travelling fast, but the blood Zac saw suggested he had been injured. It occurred to Zac that in the wild injured animals were the most dangerous, and just as the thought formed he saw movement to his left and a branch, held back by the militia man, came flying back at him. He had just enough time to duck and miss the full force of the tree but it unbalanced him enough to send him sliding several feet back down the hillside.

  “Thou hath not kept the decrees of the Lord your God!” Hezekiah boomed. “And ye shall suffer you thy sins!”

  “I’m taking you in, Hezekiah.”

  The man laughed. Zac caught sight of him, his face ruddy from exertion, eyes dancing wildly. Then he saw the gun. And heard it click.

  * * * *

  Both Ben and a man in military uniform saw the gun at the same instant. There hadn’t been time to introduce themselves, but both had dived in when they had heard Zac’s call for help and had been fifty yards behind until they had seen Hezekiah in front and found a shorter route. Zac was now below them, they to Hezekiah’s right. As they saw the gun they dived towards him. Hezekiah heard them coming and as the gun fired he was turning, missing Zac by only inches. By the time Zac joined them Hezekiah was still fighting like a man many years younger, calling for the Lord God to bring vengeance on them all.

  It took all three of them. The older man headbutted him and broke Hezekiah’s nose, Zac bent him over after kicking him in the balls, and Ben found his handcuffs and attached him to a tree. Panting, they all sat back and watched him trying out his strength against a two-hundred-year-old chestnut tree to no avail.

  “Good work, kid,” said Zac finally.

  “Not bad for the FBI,” added the older guy.

  Ben just grinned before finally adding, “It was a cop that tied him down.”

  But none of them had figured on Hezekiah’s belief in his date with his maker. Zac caught the movement out of his eye and at first moved to see what the man was trying to get out of his pocket. But when he realized what it was he yelled at the other two to jump. As Hezekiah pulled the pin on the last grenade Zac saw him fragment in front of his eyes, as all three were flung backwards.

  * * * *

  They were lucky. But the bruises meant for a slow trip back. There was a lot to catch up on when Kane, hearing the explosion, found them and helped with transport. The first thing was to introduce the general. Zac hugged Savannah, then Ben did likewise, before Zac turned to the older man, pulling Savannah with him.

  “Savannah,” he said, “let me introduce you to your father. General Pearson, your daughter.”

  Most of it had to wait until they’d had a shower and were in some warm, dry clothes. On the helicopter trip back to West Point they covered all the operational matters. Corey and Hezekiah’s henchmen would be charged with a list of offences, as would be Channing’s daughter, though how much involvement Channing himself had was in dispute. Peyton had apparently been getting and giving them information, and from his hospital bed was talking loudly. It had been talking too much that had gotten him into trouble from Hezekiah’s henchmen but he was safe from them now.

  “How did you pick General Pearson out of the three people your team identified?” Savannah suddenly asked, watching her father out of the corner of her eye. She wouldn’t need a DNA test. He looked like her. Same eyes, same curly black hair. He smiled at her and she had to stop herself from tearing up. A general’s daughter probably wasn’t meant to do that.

  “You gave me the hint.”

  “I did?”

  “Yes, with our earlier suspects you identified as the Todd and then their state of birth.”

  “But the general is a Charles.”

  “Ah yes,” said Charles Pearson, “but you saw my best friend, the Boston Todd.”

  “The one in the wheelchair!”

  “Yes, he rang me after you’d been there. He knew I had used his name in my first undercover assignment. It was like a nod to him, one of the most remarkable men I’ve ever met.”

  “But you were born in Georgia,” said Zac.

  Charles nodded.

  “And I bet you told that to Savannah’s mother.”

  Charles nodded, frown turning to a smile as he understood.

  “Savannah, the town,” said Zac, “is in Georgia. Your mother named you in memory of your dad.”

  Savannah smiled sadly.

  “I think you broke her heart,” she said.

  “Unintentionally,” said Charles, taking her hand. “Sal lied to her. Probably told her I was using an alias, had injured him. She sent me a letter saying she couldn’t live a double life, was sorry that I was injured but that she needed a safe, predictable existence.”

  “But of course because Sal lied to her,” said Savannah, “she never got to be safe.”

  “And I,” said the general, “will make sure Sal pays.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Her visa lasted long enough for her to learn that she loved her father, that his wife, still heartbroken over the loss of their only son, the half brother she would never meet, was as willing as Charles was to let her help mend their hearts. She had been given her own room in their house, and there was a photo of the Todd Pearson she would never meet on her bedside table, next to a photo of her mother.

  The visa also lasted long enough to learn that Salvatore Mazzola had been taken into custody in Australia, and though it would take time for his appeal to be heard, everyone was optimistic that the extradition order would be honored and he would face a trial in the USA for the murder of US military personal in Berlin, as well as a number of other charges that were still to be laid related to the bombing in Rome. She was happy that she never had to see him again.

  It lasted also long enough for her to discover that
she never wanted to leave. She loved Australia, it would always be where she had been born and raised, the country of her childhood. But her heart had now been given also to America, the land of her father, and the land of the two men she loved. General Pearson was running for Congress and needed someone to take charge of his private security, and decided Ben was the man for the job. He said that when she got a green card she could also join his staff. Ben had let go of the lease on his house in San Francisco and come to DC. He and Savannah stayed with Zac but they spent time together looking for a house on the outskirts where Ben could get some of the countryside of his childhood that he missed. Savannah looked at the houses and though she tried not to, she kept picturing herself there with Ben Masterton and Zac Bateman. She had never felt so comfortable with anyone. No hint of restlessness, rather, she felt she had found the place in the world where she was meant to be. In the end she had to make up excuses not to go house-hunting with them. It hurt too much.

  When they had spare time they showed her their country. Even though she had had three months, she felt that she had barely scratched the surface.

  Her father had supported her application for a long-stay visa, the aim to one day be able to call this country home. But nothing had come through, and she knew that if she overstayed her visa then it would be a black mark, maybe even a strike out, on her application.

  They had one last night together, walking back from dinner to Zac’s apartment along the Mall, soaking in the glow of a city of monuments. She took one last look at the Capitol and never wanted the moment to end.

  “I’m in the mood for some dessert,” said Ben, arms around her and lips brushing her cheek. Back at Zac’s apartment she nestled into him, savoring a moment where encased by him she felt safe and secure. Ben was the sort of man she always thought she would end up with, though she hadn’t imagined anyone even half as good looking or well built or, well, as nice.