Zero Hour: Brotherhood Protectors World

by Holt, Desiree

  They slept in each other’s arms that night, silently agreeing to leave sex off the table until this whole mess was over.

  Max was inside the house right after dawn but Jesse and Terry were both already up. Micki, complaining she needed to feel useful, was up fixing coffee and setting out muffins for everyone. No one had much of an appetite, and most of them, including Jesse and Zane, said they never ate before a mission. And then it was time to leave.

  Max’s men had two big SUVs they were traveling in. Max had a big double cab pickup that the rest of them used, Terry again hidden beneath the dash just in case. The air was heavy with the kind of anticipation Jesse said they always experienced before a mission. Everyone was armed and carried extra ammo.

  When they got to where the gate to the silos was, they split up, half going in each direction because they weren’t sure exactly which one Reed and his men would approach from. It seemed like an eternity before they heard the hum of tires on the road and two jeeps, each with four men, came into sight. They both stopped and everyone but the two drivers got out. Terry recognized Morgan at once as he strode to the middle of the road..

  “Run one of these Jeeps into the ditch,” he ordered. “Bring the other one close, at an angle, and just have them touch, so it looks like an accident.”

  They all waited while Morgan staged the scene, then added five minutes for good measure. Terry remembered the real guards had been asked to delay their arrival by thirty minutes, but she was still nervous. Morgan, who had climbed back into one of the Jeeps and leaned sideways as if he’d been hurt, poked his head up.

  “Gorman, what the fuck is going on? They’re ten minutes late. I thought you said you timed this enough to know their timing was precise.”

  “I don’t know,” Gorman answered. “This isn’t right. Maybe—”

  “No, it’s not.” That was Max’s voice as he stepped out of the trees with his men. “Get your fucking hands up and do it now. I’d just love for you to give me a reason to put a bullet in you.”

  “What the hell?” Morgan looked around.

  “Game’s over,” Morgan. Your little plan isn’t going to work. D.C. is not going to get blown to hell today. Sorry.”

  Terry watched Morgan trying to decide what to do. The look on his face was a mixture of fury and disbelief. All those weeks and hours of planning, all the money spent getting the codes they needed to fire the missile, gone to waste. He sat in the Jeep, hands raised as he’d been ordered to do, while one of Max’s team relieved him of his gun and checked him for other weapons.

  “Out of the vehicle.” The man nudged him with his own gun.

  With all the other men also under guard and surrounded by Max, his team, Jesse, Zane, and Alex, she finally walked out of the trees to the scene on the road.

  “Sorry to spoil your party,” she told Morgan as she reached the road.

  “You!” He could hardly speak as incoherent with rage as he was. “You fucking bitch. I should have listened to Beckett and gotten rid of you at the beginning.”

  The guard standing beside him again ordered him out of the vehicle. So swiftly it caught everyone off balance, Morgan leaned forward then sat up holding a gun pointed at Terry, firing as he did so. Most of the bullets missed, but one of them nicked her arm. Before the man guarding Morgan could react, or Terry herself could fire, a bullet hit Morgan’s hand, causing him to drop the gun. He screamed, cradling his arm, blood dripping from his injured hand.

  Terry looked at where the shot came from and saw Jesse standing there, still bracing his gun hand, looking at Morgan with pure hatred on his face.

  Max actually laughed. “Nice shot, Donovan.”

  “I should have shot the bastard in the head,” he growled. “But then we wouldn’t be able to show the world what a piece of shit he is.”

  “Is someone going to take care of my hand?” Morgan yelled. “I’m bleeding.”

  Jesse looked at him. “Tough shit.” He hurried over to Terry and examined her wound.

  “It’s just a nick,” she insisted. “Didn’t even enter the flesh. Here.””

  She pulled off the shirt she’d worn over a T-shirt and handed it to Jesse to wrap the wound.

  “I about had a heart attack,” he told her. “All I could think was how I’d been such a selfish ass, only thinking of myself and my problems and nearly missing out on the best thing that ever happened to me. I just didn’t want to put that on your shoulders, you know?”

  “I’ve got big shoulders,” she told him, grimacing slightly as he tied off the material over the wound.

  He smiled, but she could still see traces of fear in his eyes.

  “I’m not running this time,” he promised. “But we do need to talk about the future.”

  “I like the sound of that.”

  And despite the audience and the grimness of the situation, she stood on tiptoe and pressed a soft kiss to his lips.

  By now, all of Morgan’s men were cuffed and distributed in the vehicles so each was guarded by a heavily armed man. Max rode in the lead Jeep, sitting in the back next to Morgan whose hands were cuffed despite his wound. No sympathy there, Terry thought. She and Jesse once again rode back with Zane and Alex. At the sheriff’s office, they were met by armed soldiers from Malmstrom. They all boarded a very large helicopter standing in the field next to Alex’s office where more armed men were waiting.

  “I’ll call you,” Max hollered at Terry as he ran for the chopper. The rotors were already turning. “Guys? Thanks for your help. We’ll be in touch.”

  Then it was just the four of them again.

  “We’d better let our wives know we lived through this,” Zane said to Alex with a wry grin. “Otherwise we’re liable to get shot ourselves.”

  “True that.” He looked at Jesse and Terry. “You guys okay if we take off for a bit? We won’t be gone long. And I know we’ll have questions to answer here.” He waved at the porch of his office where his small staff stared at them, curiosity stamped on their faces.

  Jesse put his arm around Terry.

  “I need to bandage her arm, and I think we both could use a drink.” He looked hard at her. “And then I think we have a lot of things to talk about.”

  “Right.” Terry laughed despite the pain in her arm. “So don’t hurry on our account.”

  “I plan to do a lot more than talking,” Jesse murmured in her ear.

  “Is that so?”

  “Uh huh. After.”

  “After what?”

  “After I show you why you need to keep me around. And this time I’m not leaving.”

  Epilogue

  The story filled the news for several days. Frank Morgan was a nationally known figure, and while those who knew him were aware of his extreme views regarding the government, no one had expected anything like this. The thought of what the Minuteman ICBM could do to the nation’s capital had a lot of people scared for a long time. And it had the government changing a lot of its protocols and background checks regarding the whole missile process.

  Ed Gooding had been identified as the killer of Frank Vanetti. A former sniper, code name Deadshot, it had been an easy job for him. But Morgan, known as Steel for his iron control, had lost it over Lyle Beckett and wanted to do the deed himself, once Zero Hour had passed. He’d been heard to say he was sick of people using their money to try and push him aside. The men gathered at his place in Montana were also arrested although, since they had not committed an actual crime yet, they were all released. But the government planned to keep a sharp eye on what they did from here.

  Terry had taken a leave of absence, which Max readily signed off on, and she and Jesse were using the time to get to know each other better and come to some decisions about the rest of their lives. They explored the area, spent some time with the Halsteads and the Russos, and a lot of time with themselves.

  They had just finished a lazy morning of making love in bed and were seated on the back porch with fresh coffee, enjoying the view.
>
  This was truly the happiest she’d been in a long time. She and Jesse had talked many long hours, about what had happened when they were together before and since. He had also spoken with Zane and agreed to start seeing a counselor to get some help with his PTSD. Day by day it seemed they were growing closer together. But they were also coming closer to having to make some decisions about the future.

  “I think I could look at this forever,” Terry sighed.

  “Yeah?” Zane had his arm around her, and she rested her head on his shoulder, one of her favorite places to be. “Interesting that you should say that.”

  “And why is that, exactly?”

  “Yesterday when I went into town I stopped by Alex’s office. He’d asked me to come by for a few minutes. Said he wanted to talk to me.”

  Terry sat up. “About a job?”

  She knew he’d been discussing the pros and cons at length with Zane.

  “Uh huh. I’d have to take the classes at Montana Law Enforcement Academy to get my license, but he said I’m qualified to go right into the advance program.”

  She tried not to tense up. She knew Alex really wanted him, and Lainie Halstead, who she’d become friends with, had extolled the virtues of both the job and the area. The longer she stayed here, the more she liked it, but she was determined the first move had to come from Jesse.

  “And what did you say?”

  He shrugged. “I said it depended on you. I didn’t want to be here unless you did. Terry, I screwed up a lot last time, and I’ve paid dearly for it. I don’t want to live the rest of my life without you. I want to marry you and settle here in the Crazy Mountains and raise kids with you. But you have to tell me what you want.”

  She sat for a moment, realizing that for the first time in her life she felt really at peace.

  “I want the same thing,” she told him. “I trust you this time, Jesse.”

  “Hold on, then.” He fished in the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a little velvet pouch. Then he got down on one knee.

  “Jesse?” She stared at him.

  “I love you, Teresa Fordice, more than I thought I could love a woman. Make me the happiest man on earth and say you’ll marry me? Please?”

  She knew she could have drawn it out, but she had no reason or desire to.

  “Yes,” she told him, throwing her arms around him and raining kisses on his face. ”Yes, yes, yes.”

  He managed to maneuver the ring free and slid it onto her finger then kissed her again.

  “I have something to tell you,” she said. “Max called the other day. Said if I didn’t want to come back to Washington, there was an opening in the field office in Billings. It’s a short commute, and he says the people there are very nice.”

  “A lot quieter than you’re used to,” he pointed out.

  “And that’s a good thing,” she said. “I’m kind of getting used to quiet.”

  “Think we should go inside and seal the deal?” he asked.

  “Our own Zero Hour?”

  He smiled, a hungry look on his face. “It is.”

  Terry laughed. “I can’t think of anything I’d rather do.”

  * * *

  If you have not read Book #1 in Heroes rising

  Here is Chapter One of Desperate Deception

  I also recommend you read Guarding Jenna and Unmasking Evil

  The two books that set the stage for the series

  Desperate Deception

  Desiree Holt

  Chapter 1

  She was in a soft, warm, comfortable place, cocooned. Happy. She wanted to stay there forever, but a distracting voice kept talking to her.

  “Come on, Lainie. Can you open your eyes for me? I want to check your blood pressure again.”

  The voice was familiar but the last thing Lainie Taggert wanted to do was open her eyes. The pain would come back, along with the feel of his fists and his voice raging at her. Here, in this darkness, she was safe.

  “Please, Lainie?” the soothing voice begged again. “Come on. Open those baby blues. Just for a few minutes. I promise.”

  The voice was both familiar and nonthreatening, so Lainie gritted her teeth and forced her lids open. Well, at least one. And found herself looking at the face of Drea Halstead. The woman who had once been her friend, eons ago, before he had taken over her life and cut her off from everyone.

  “There you go.” Drea smiled at her. “We have to stop meeting like this.”

  “Drea?” Lainie tried to blink and realized she could only see out of one eye. “Is that really you?”

  “Sure is. I only started here last month. Got a job offer I couldn’t refuse.”

  “Oh god.” A tear rolled out of her good eye. “I’m not dreaming, right?”

  “Nope. When I got your chart and walked into this room, imagine my surprise to find my friend lying in this bed.” Her lips curved in a hint of a smile. “I know we haven’t seen each other in a good while, but, really, you didn’t have to go to such drastic lengths to make it happen.”

  Lainie tried to move, but pain surged everywhere in her body, including her left hand. And her left arm seemed to be restrained in some fashion. She wanted to close her eyes again and fall back into the soft place where none of this existed.

  ”Nope. Uh uh.” Drea’s voice was both coaxing and demanding. “You have to wake up so I can talk to you.” She paused. “What’s going on, Lainie? I pulled up your hospital records. This has become a really bad pattern.”

  “I know.” Lainie tried to hide her embarrassment, but she hurt too much to do anything but lie there. She knew she needed help, but where could she go? Who could she turn to? This time was the worst. Next time he might kill her. “Drea, I—I don’t—I ‘m sorry."

  “Stop. Please. You have nothing to apologize to me for. But that asshole you live with, the one whose goon told me to get lost or else, is going to have to answer some questions.”

  “Oh lord.” Lainie closed her good eye. “Please tell me he’s not here.”

  “He’s not here. But, Lainie, you can’t go back to that house. I’m afraid he’ll kill you.”

  “You’re right, but I don’t know what to do,” she whispered. “I have no one to go to, no one to help me, and I have to get away from him. God, Drea.” She closed her eyes for a moment then opened them. “I don’t know how a smart woman like me got herself into a situation that looks as if there’s no way out.”

  “I wish I’d insisted you leave him when you had the chance. I’ve gotten so I can spot the abusers.”

  “But I didn’t see it then,” Lainie reminded her. “I still had blinders on.” She swallowed back tears that were a combination of pain and humiliation. “I can’t believe how stupid I was.”

  “Not stupid. Men like Sonny Fitzgerald are great con artists.” Drea studied her.

  “More than that,” she whispered. “They’re evil.”

  Something she hadn’t discovered until too late.

  Drea studied her for a long time, and Lainie wondered if she had bad news to tell her? She wasn’t sure she could take any more.

  “What?” she asked at last.

  “Listen,” Drea went on. “I’ve been thinking about this a lot while you were being treated and lying in here. Lainie, I have a way out for you, if you’re willing to take it.”

  Lanie stared at her. A way out? Was it even possible? “Like what?”

  “What if I could make you disappear? Not only from the hospital. I mean from the city. And without Sonny Fitzgerald knowing how or where you’d gone to?”

  “I don’t know how you could do that.” Lainie swallowed, although her throat was so dry it hurt. “He’s going to find out where I am. He finds out everything. I had to use my cell phone to call for the ride here. I meant to get rid of it after that, but—” She caught her lower lip between her teeth.

  “A cell phone I have in my possession, without a battery or sim card.” She grinned. “I watch a lot of television. I’m talking about makin
g you disappear from here.”

  “You can do that, even with my injuries?” Lainie was almost afraid to hear the answer.

  “It’s not as bad as it could have been. Your right eye is swollen shut, your face looks like a painter’s palette fell on it, your left shoulder is sprained, which is why it’s in a sling, and two fingers of your left hand are broken. The doctor taped them together to stabilize them.” She paused. “And the rest of your body is sprouting brises like flowers in a garden, but all that will heal. We’ve got to get you out of here, so this doesn’t happen again.”

  “When Sonny comes to pick me up, which you know he will, if I’m not here he’ll pitch a fit.” She closed her eyes for a moment. “Drea, I learned something I wasn’t supposed to know. That’s part of the reason he went berserk last night. Teaching me what would happen if I opened my mouth. He’ll be insane to find me. What will you tell him?”

  “We’ll get to that in a minute. Look. We’ve been friends for a long time. We’re still friends, despite the fact that asshole has cut you off from everyone but him and his people.”

  “I know, and I’m so sorry.” She felt like crying, but this was no time for tears. She had to be strong.

  “Forget that. This is your fourth visit here this year,” Drea went on. “Honey, why didn’t you ever reach out to the medical staff? They would have called the police and taken you to safety.”

  She wiped away a stupid tear with her good hand. This was no time for that. “He’d have found me, Drea. It wouldn’t have been pretty for me or the people shielding me.”

  “But the police—”

  “Can’t always do what you want them to.”

  “He won’t find out anything. I promise you. But, according to Rick, the other times Sonny brought you he insisted that you fell, or some other half-assed answer. It was obvious he got you to go along with it or the police would have been called.”