by B. B. Hamel
But I could. I kicked open the door and fired at the thugs, killing two instantly as I rolled, coming up behind a control console. They returned fire, but it bit uselessly into the steel panels.
“Hold your fucking fire!” Omar yelled out. “You fucking idiots!”
The gunfire ceased.
“Is that you, Emory?” Omar called out.
“Omar Hooth, so nice to finally meet you,” I answered.
“And you have a friend out there with a sniper rifle, yes?”
“I think the bodies are proof enough of that.”
“Seems we are at a standoff then.”
“Standoff? Seems that I have you all cornered.”
“Ah, but we have hostages.”
“Don’t worry about us. Kill them,” Tara’s dad yelled.
“Ignore the dumb American,” Omar said. “I think you and I should negotiate.”
I came up fast, gun aimed, and killed the last thug. I dropped back into cover before Omar could return fire.
“I don’t negotiate with terrorists, Omar.”
That left just Omar and Tara’s parents. The threat was done, but her parents weren’t out of danger.
“Do you want to save these two civilians?” he asked.
“Give it up, Omar,” I called out. “Your men are dead. You’re trapped in this room.”
“Yes, so I am. But I am prepared to die, and to take these Americans with me. Are you prepared, Emory Rush?”
“Enough talk. Let them go.”
As I moved up to check on them, I heard something rolling toward me. I looked down, wide-eyed, as a grenade stopped near me.
“Fuck,” I said, and covered my body.
The explosion was loud and the light was blinding, but it didn’t physically hurt me.
It was a stun grenade, just a stun grenade. It was meant to confuse and to blind, but not to kill.
But Omar was meant to kill.
“Goodbye, you bastard. This is revenge for my family.”
I dove forward, rolling blindly. I heard Omar curse and stumble as I moved wildly.
And then he screamed in pain. I kept rolling as my senses slowly came back to me, the room going from a fuzzy blur to full resolution.
Omar was on the ground, clutching his shoulder, bleeding. His gun was just out of reach.
I got to my feet and kicked the gun away. I grabbed my radio. “He’s mine,” I said into it and then tossed the radio aside.
Omar grinned. He stood up slowly, one arm bloody. “Look at you, wanting to fight an injured man.”
I slipped my knife from my sheath. “You’ve caused me a lot of problems,” I said, “and now I’m finishing this.”
He pulled a knife from his belt and growled. Omar was tall and broad, strong in the shoulders and chest. He was an ugly bastard, and he came at me viciously.
I fended off his attacks, our knives slashing through the air. Our bodies twisted and moved together as he came at me, attacking violently and savagely.
He shoved me back and I slammed against a console. I blinked, twisting away from a slash, and realized that my eyes were still fucked from the grenade. I blinked and ducked, fighting off more slashes, twisting to my side. I gave up more ground as Omar came at me like an animal.
He needed to make this fast. He was bleeding, and soon his strength would give out. I couldn’t see well, my depth perception slightly off, but I could see well enough to stay out of his reach.
We moved like that, knives flashing. Omar was slowing and my vision was coming back, slowly but surely.
He lunged at me, stabbing out fast. I used my left arm to sweep his attack away, locking his elbow, and I shoved my shoulder into his chest, forcing him back. I released his arm and he stumbled, off balance.
I kicked out, catching his knee. He swiped wildly and caught my thigh with his blade, sending pain searing up my leg. I didn’t stop though, just kept moving forward. I blocked his knife again and shoved, sending him stumbling. I followed that up hard, stabbing and slashing at him, forcing him back, back, back.
He kept it up, fighting hard, but he wasn’t watching his footing. He stumbled on his own gun, and I knew I had him. I took the opening, my knife biting out like a snake, and caught him in the neck.
I pushed it farther in, looking into his eyes. He looked surprised as I let my knife go, leaving it buried deep in his throat.
He fell to his knees, bleeding, and collapsed.
It was fucking over.
I felt someone next to me. “Are you okay?” he asked.
Tara’s father. I looked at him. “Fine,” I said. “The plant?”
“Nothing bad,” he said, and he quickly went to the control. “Most of this is fried, but I can get it back under control.”
“You mean it’s melting down?”
“No. Not yet. It would have if you hadn’t gotten here sooner.” He began to press buttons, typing at a computer monitor.
I leaned up against a wall, breathing deeply.
We were out of the water. Omar lay dead at my feet and everything was over.
Tara’s parents were safe. Her mother was still huddled against the wall, looking terrified, but she was alive. Her father worked hard at the console, but I had total faith in him.
I called Travis on the radio. “We’re good to go,” I said. “Threat is neutralized. Over.”
“Nice fighting there, cap,” he said. “I’ll call Blackfire. You get those people out. Over.”
“Roger that. Over and out.”
I felt tired, so fucking tired. Exhaustion ran through my whole body, and all I wanted to do was fall onto the floor and sleep.
But a SEAL’s job was never over until it was completely over.
I wasn’t going to ever give up or walk away. I was a SEAL for life, even if I wasn’t actively working as a SEAL.
Because the only thing I wanted was Tara. This was my biggest achievement. I’d averted an enormous disaster, saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
And after this, I wanted to live my own life. I wanted to finally have the freedom to be with the woman I wanted, I claimed, I loved. Tara and Mason, the only two people I needed, the only two people who mattered.
I pushed up off the wall, feeling my strength returning, and pushed forward, Tara’s smiling face in my mind, excitement coursing through my body.
I knew it was only going to get better and better.
Epilogue: Tara
One Year Later
I laughed as Mason stumbled across the room and fell into my arms. I swooped him up, marveling at how big and heavy he’d gotten.
“Mommy,” he said, grinning at me just like his father.
“Good job, Mason,” I said. “Now go play.” I put him back down and he tottered off toward his toys.
I sighed, smiling to myself and looking out the large, glass, back sliding door. The sun was shining brightly on our backyard, and I wondered if the tomatoes we’d planted would be coming in soon.
I couldn’t believe how much had changed in the last year. After everything with The Network had happened, I thought we’d never be able to pick up the pieces and restart our lives.
Sitting alone in that hotel room was probably the hardest thing I’d ever done. I was powerless, totally helpless to save anyone.
But one of the best moments was when Emory came back, followed by my parents.
I could barely understand how I felt in that moment. It was a mixture of joy and relief and much, much more. I’d really thought I might never see my parents again, and there had been a strong chance that Emory wouldn’t be coming back either. I knew I couldn’t follow his last orders, that I’d stick around and wait for him no matter what.
But I didn’t have to make that awful choice. He came back to me, just like he promised, and brought my parents with him.
“What are you thinking about?”
I turned and saw Emory standing in the kitchen, grinning at me.
“Nothing,” I said.
&nb
sp; “Liar.” He came over to me and kissed me. I felt a thrill run through my body, the same thrill I’d first felt. It never got old, Emory touching my body that way.
“Just reminiscing about the past,” I admitted.
“Oh yeah? Thinking about that time I fucked you in the rest stop?”
I laughed. “Emory, Mason is right over there.”
“He can’t hear me.” He kissed me again.
“I was also wondering about those tomatoes,” I said as we finally broke our kiss off.
“They’ll come in. Don’t worry.” Emory pulled me close against him. “Listen, I have something for you.”
“What’s that? You didn’t need to get me something.”
“You finally graduated. I sure as hell had to buy you a present.”
I laughed, shaking my head. After everything, I finally went back and finished my degree. It was a long time coming, but it felt so good finally finishing it.
“What’s this present then?” I asked.
“Go out front.”
“Why?”
“Just do it.”
Emory walked over to Mason and swooped him up. Mason giggled and laughed as Emory lifted him into the air.
I smiled at them. Emory was an incredible father. He’d had some catching up to do, had to figure out how to change diapers and what it meant to really take care of a child, but he took to it so fast. I was so proud of him.
I touched my stomach, smiling. He was going to be a great dad to our next child, too. A little brother or sister for Mason, only a few months away.
“Come on,” Emory said.
“Come on, Mommy,” Mason cheered.
I laughed and followed my two favorite men through the house, our house. When Emory told me he was retiring from the SEALs, I’d argued against him for hours, but he was such a stubborn man. He got a job working for the Navy Intelligence as an analyst, and I had no clue what that meant. Apparently he looked at data and helped determine threat scenarios, whatever that was.
But even better, he’d bought a house near my parents in Dayton. It was only a few minutes by car to get to my parents, and that couldn’t have been more perfect. Lindy was still living in the area in her own apartment, and so all of my favorite people in the world were still living in one small town, all near each other.
I’d always wanted my own house, and Emory had made that happen. I never asked it of him, but he said he had a ton of money saved up from years of SEAL pay. He sold his apartment and all his stuff back in California and moved into the house with me.
We never looked back. I got pregnant again not too long after that, after a long discussion. We both wanted a big family, and we knew that we needed to get started right away. Which wasn’t exactly a chore, since I was constantly in and out of bed with Emory. Every spare second we got, we spent in bed together, our bodies sweating together. Emory taught me so much about what it meant to get off, what my body could do, what I could feel. His fingers, his mouth, his muscles, everything about him drove me absolutely wild.
It was perfect. I couldn’t have asked for more. When The Network was after us, I’d thought my life was over, but my real life was just getting started. I could have gone without all the violence and the terror, but I was so beyond happy that Emory was brought back into my life.
Emory pushed open the front door and I followed him out.
I gasped at what I saw.
“Emory!” I said. “You didn’t.”
“Happy graduation, mommy,” he said, grinning.
“Happy gradation!” Mason cried out.
I walked over to the blue car parked in the driveway, shocked. I’d never owned a new car before, and this was perfect.
“It’s a Prius,” Emory said. “I’d rather a big black truck, but I know how you’re all environmentally conscious.”
“Emory, how can we afford this?”
He smirked at me. “The Navy pays pretty well, and I have a lot more saved than you realize. Trust me, you’re worth it.”
I shook my head, on the verge of happy tears. How could this all be happening to me?
The man of my dreams, a perfect, happy son, a beautiful house, another child on the way, and now the exact car I’d always dreamed about. It felt like none of this was real, but it was my life, my real life, and none of it was going away.
I walked over to Emory and kissed him hard. Mason made a noise, not happy to see us kissing, but that was okay.
“I love you,” I said to him.
“I love you too.” He grinned hugely and put Mason down. “Now, Mason,” he said, “remember what I told you? Like we practiced?”
“Yeah!”
I stepped back. “What are you doing?”
Emory faced me on one knee. “Tara Bright, I love you, and this was a long, long time coming.”
“No,” I said, shocked.
Mason walked over to me and took a little box from his pocket. “Marry Daddy?” he asked.
I took the box. “Thank you, Mason,” I said.
He ran back over to Emory, who swooped him up.
I opened the box and gasped, shocked again. It was the most beautiful ring I’d ever seen, a cluster ring with perfect, shining diamonds. I slipped it onto my finger.
“Yes, of course,” I said.
Emory put Mason down, wrapped me in his arms, and kissed me hard.
“Now I’ll make you mine forever,” he said.
I kissed him again. “I already was yours forever.”
I knew it was true. Perfect house, perfect husband, perfect children. It seemed too good to be true. I was having such a hard time wrapping my head around all of this, but it wasn’t going away. Emory was here to stay, and that meant my life was going to keep feeling like a lovely waking dream.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go call your parents and Lindy.”
We moved toward the house, our home, the place where I felt the happiest, the safest, because of him. Because of Emory.
He wrapped his big, strong arms around me and we walked toward the house together, Mason in tow.
This was my family, my joy.
I couldn’t ask for anything more.
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