Targeted: Newlywed Navy Seals Risk It All! (Truth and Lies Series Book 1)

by Pinki Parks

  “I will try, but I can’t promise anything. He hasn’t made any friends by trying to kill us. By military standards, he was only doing what he was ordered to do and I can’t fault him for that. He does have a unique skill set that might come in handy. Go and make your approach before I change my mind.” I gave her a sweet kiss and I could see out of my peripheral vision that Xavier was sticking his finger down his throat like he was going to be sick.

  “I would tell you to get a room, but I think that you might take me seriously. Don’t take too long or I’m going to come looking for you. He has the element of surprise on his side. We still don’t know for sure that he’s here, but I would be in his shoes.” Xavier was a font of information and he wasn’t shy about expressing his opinion.

  “I know him better than the both of you combined. His body language will tell me everything I need to know, but I need to make my assessment by looking him in the eyes. This whole thing might have been orchestrated by him, but he dragged me into it by using my loyalty to him and this country. I won’t be fooled by false platitudes and lip service.” Letting her go wasn’t easy and it had nothing to do with her gender.

  I had learned a long time ago some women were stronger when faced with adversity. My wife was one of those who showed exemplary patience. It was a known fact that women were more detailed oriented than men. They had this uncanny ability to easily recognize someone from what they were wearing down to the minute detail.

  “This is a bad idea. I suspect that we’re not going to be alone for much longer. They are probably wheels up and, on their way, here as we speak. We should set up some kind of early warning system to know when they arrive.” It was a good idea, but I wasn’t going to give him a pat on the back for doing his job.

  “Come to think of it, my mentor and Commander might have done the same thing. I’m going to have to tread carefully and watch my step.” Her advice was good for all of us.

  It was very quiet and it seemed the wildlife had some understanding that things were going to turn bad in a hurry. They were waiting for the break in the deafening silence. The leaves fluttered on the trees with the snap of branches to make my ears twitch with suspicion.

  “Take this with you and use it to feel your way down to the cabin. There’s no reason to take unnecessary chances with your life.” I handed her a walking stick made from a branch that I had broken off from a nearby tree.

  She began to work the walking stick in a defensive gesture. It was a graceful display of how she could use this weapon in self-defense. Bentley had a quiver full of tricks. I hadn’t scratched the surface of what she was capable of when push came to shove.

  “I do like the way that it feels in my hands. The weight is perfect.” She moved quickly and steadily until she was out of sight, but certainly not out of my mind.

  “That girl is dangerous. Her training officer must be proud. I’m glad I had the foresight to secure her to the chair in the plane. I get the feeling that I would have had my hands full protecting more than my honor.” Xavier was what was wrong with the human race.

  “I really don’t want to hear anything coming out of your mouth. I have a good mind to lash you to that tree and let whoever comes discover you weak and vulnerable. What you have done is more than a misdemeanor. We both know that you should spend the rest of your days behind bars with only a sliver of sunlight coming through the bars. The only think keeping me from killing you right now is the new information that has changed everything.” I was letting my personal feelings cloud my judgment.

  “You don’t have to tell me and I already know that you hold a grudge against me for what happened to your brother. I wasn’t the one who shot him. I had nothing against him.” I didn’t want to hear it and it was bringing to mind my brother’s last few moments before he was taken too soon.

  “Did you get confirmation that he was dead?”

  “No. But I watched him walk right into a wall of bullets. Remember, he walked off on his own. I didn’t hold a gun to his head.”

  “Stop trying to convince me that you’re innocent in all of this. It doesn’t matter what you say. You’re the one that was complicit in what happened to him. I can’t direct my anger toward those who had their hand on the trigger. We need to go back to the road and make sure that our tracks are covered.” I felt this intense rage come over me in a flash.

  “There’s no reason to get defensive. I’m here to help and the sooner you realize that the better off all of us are going to be. I can’t always be defending my past actions. It’s an effort to even care about your loss, but I’m doing my best. I can’t empathize.” Xavier was looking to get punched in the mouth again and I was just the person to do it.

  “Let’s concentrate on the task at hand and worry about the personal baggage later. I’m far from finished talking about this. Don’t make the mistake of uncovering a festering wound.” A wounded animal was liable to attack first and ask questions later.

  I was on pins and needles waiting for my moment to grab him by the throat for what he did to my brother. I had to refrain and push down my anger and resentment for the time being. It was still there, but I could use that anger in a more constructive way. I was going to throw myself into making our common enemy the target of my rage.

  I picked up voices in the air and I knew we were no longer alone. It was the Russians. They wanted the code so they could expose the lies that our politicians have built. Except they didn’t know the three of us were on their side. They were coming after Riker and we needed to get to him first. What they did with him afterwards was going to be something he probably deserved. We needed to by Bentley some time with Riker.

  They would no doubt have the numbers, but that was going to be to their detriment. The both of us were going to pick them off one at a time without using anything loud enough to attract their attention. It meant that we were going to have to get close enough to render them speechless by cutting each one off from communicating with the rest of the pack.

  “You don’t have to tell me. I’m way ahead of you. I hate to say this, but we are going to have to split up and count on one another to have each other’s back.” I gave him a solemn nod, but I didn’t feel very good about losing sight of him for any length of time.

  Chapter 23

  Bentley

  Poking at the ground, I felt the point of the stick touch something that wasn’t supposed to be there. I cleared the area and found a pressurized landmine. It was a good thing that Pride had the foresight to give me the walking stick as my only line of defense. It was slow going, but I managed to avoid most of the hidden surprises. I didn’t spring them leaving them intact for possible intruders.

  The steps leading to the front door made me cock my head to the side quizzically. Three of the boards had been replaced and I had a feeling it had nothing to do with age. The covered porch kept the elements at bay. There was really only one reason why the boards would need to be replaced. I knelt on the ground and used my hand to sweep away the leaves.

  There was nothing there. I realized too late it was a ruse to get me into a compromising position.

  “I was wondering what was taking you so long.” I didn’t hear him and his deathly silent approach had me putting up my hands.

  “I got here as fast as I could. You left me to fend for myself. There have been some close calls. I’m lucky that I’m even here talking to you. Tell me if I’m wrong, but I believe that you knew this was going to happen.” I couldn’t see him, but from working together for so long mostly using telecommunication devices, I recognize his voice anywhere.

  “I came to you at your wedding to give us both a fighting chance. It wasn’t one of my finest moments. I put you in a terrible position but you exceeded my expectations. I noticed that you didn’t come alone. I expected that you might bring your husband, but I never imagined in my wildest nightmares that you would bring Xavier. He has proven in the past to only think about himself. Dying doesn’t scare me, but
I would rather leave it up to old age.” I turned slowly and faced the business end of a shotgun.

  He was wearing a camouflage jacket with matching pants and a mask covering his face. He could literally be standing right next to me and I wouldn’t have even noticed.

  “I would ask how you found me, but I know how resourceful you can be. Putting you in a cage is only going to make you find a way out with extreme prejudice. I’m glad you came. I was getting tired of waiting.” He didn’t look like the same polished officer that I had seen in the past.

  “It might take days or even weeks before the contract is rescinded. These people are not going to give up easily. It’s not just those trying to take us alive. Xavier was sent by our government to take me out. When he didn’t get the job done they decided on a different tactic by making us work with our enemy to bring you in safely. We can’t remain out here in the cold.” I could only hope that he was not going to ignore my plight and find a way to come in without resisting.

  “I’ve known for quite some time there are forces at work here that have their own agenda. The only one I’ve cleared of any wrongdoing is Joe Pitman. I’ve been working behind the scenes going over the financials of everybody on the committee. Jessica Stevens has shown signs of being corrupt. She was quite interested in what I had to say.” Stevens worked at the DNC and was the only female on the panel in front of us when they brought us forth to get some answers.

  “It’s a sad day when one of the only females with that kind of power can be influenced by outside forces. I shed a tear for the generation of young females who want to be exactly like her. I hope that her betrayal doesn’t become public knowledge. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.” It peeved me knowing those women in the past had sacrificed to make it possible for women like Jessica Stevens to break that gender bias.

  “Oh, this goes beyond all that gender crap. Look at you. Don’t tell me there is inequality.”

  “What are you trying to tell me?” It left me a little disillusioned to think that my rock could break so easily with discussions of a very lucrative payday.

  “I’m not coming in with you Carlotti. Sorry you weren’t in the loop. The code wasn’t even supposed to be for you. Someone else was meant to have it.” If he had a hand on deciding who would receive the codes, it meant that he had a contact in the NSA influencing this decision. The question was, how did I end up with the code. Something must have gone wrong at the NSA.

  I was stunned into silence unable to voice my displeasure over his betrayal to himself and his country. I couldn’t pretend to be his friend any longer. “What were you planning on doing with the codes?”

  “Come on Bentley. Wake up! The codes were a misdirection! It was the files that were supposed to be destroyed!” He shouted the truth at me as if I was a child. I guess it was because I didn’t expect my own Commander to be guilty of betraying his own country.

  “I hope this is some kind of joke. You can’t possibly believe the garbage that is coming out of your mouth. I can see how you can be disheartened, but that doesn’t give you the right to send these innocent people to the gallows. We both know undercover work can be taxing. You’ve seen for yourself how it is difficult to separate the man you are from the one you are pretending to be.” I was blind, but I could finally see his work undercover had exposed him to the finer things in life.

  It left a lasting impression that he couldn’t run from.

  “Don’t be so naïve. Those people in Tikah and Benghazi were living in war zones. This goes beyond their pathetic little lives.” He had brainwashed himself into believing that he was doing the right thing.

  “I’m talking about the men and women in uniform that we sent over there to prevent the president from being overthrown. The men and women who you put bullets in.”

  “Oh. That. I didn’t start out like this. Delivering OUR weapons to OUR enemies. It started with one or two shady favors for you know, the powers that be. And then, before you know it, you are in knee deep.” His tone got quieter and talked to me while staring at the ground with regret. “But I’m not about to let that secret out!”

  I saw this flock of birds fly over the area obviously distressed over something. They made a racket. I was faced with the enemy, but I wondered how far he was willing to go. Did he have designs on getting me to tell him what the last numbers were? He had been known in the past to be quite persuasive with deadly techniques to make somebody talk.

  He was waiting for my response with his finger on the trigger of a weapon that would have leveled the playing field. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other with my fingers curled around the walking stick. It was a tense negotiation with my life hanging by a thread.

  There was a trickle of sweat running down my spine. It was soaking through the red and black plaid shirt hanging loosely from my frame. My eyes narrowed and I scrutinized everything he was saying. His body language was rigid and the eyes underneath the mask never wavered from how he was glaring at me with daggers.

  “We never got into the military to be praised for our talents. The work is the reward. I hear what I’m saying and I’m having a hard time believing it myself. My loyalty cannot be bought and paid for with the blood of others. I don’t know how you can stand there and justify your actions.” I was digging my heels into the dirt slowly covering the steel-toes boots I had gotten from Regis with imperceptible movements.

  “I’m getting too old for this. I’m still five years away from retirement. It feels like a never-ending escalator continually moving downward and I’m moving up. I’m not getting any further ahead and my investments tanked when the market crashed. I don’t have anything to show for my military career. Admiration from my peers is not going to put food on my table.” He took a firm hold of the gun and steadied his aim making sure that one shot was going to do the trick.

  “Think about what you’re doing. Nothing has been done that can’t be taken back. The database will cause a ripple effect. Most importantly, the families of the men and women who died fighting for our country in Tikah, would have something to say about this. I had to try to appeal to his better half and not the greedy son of a bitch trying to profit on the backs of others.

  “I try not to think about them. They are nothing but numbers in a game of checks and balances. Those giving the orders don’t even know their names. They sit in their cushy little offices holding court over the rest of the world.” I was beginning to believe that he was too far gone to be reasoned with.

  “I suppose you want me to give up those numbers willingly without a fight. The money you are probably getting is most likely going to keep you fat and happy for the rest of your natural life. I’m guessing the amount is more than you can spend in your lifetime. Good for you. Good for fucking you. Pardon my tongue. I just can’t stand here and keep quiet. You exemplified everything there was good about the military.” I admired the man, but I wasn’t going to follow him on the dark path he had chosen.

  “You are going to give me what I want. Coming here enforced the decisions that I have made. I wasn’t expecting you to make it this easy. Give me the series of numbers. This doesn’t have to be hard. I can share the wealth and you’ll never have to take orders from anybody ever again.” I couldn’t say that I wasn’t tempted by the offer, but my moral compass was still intact.

  “I’m not going to give you what you want. You may as well just shoot me dead where I stand.” I wasn’t going to close my eyes and wait for the bullet to exit the chamber.

  It sounded like a crack of thunder and something went sailing over my shoulder crashing through the glass of the living room window. The whitewash of heat penetrating the back of my shirt was like a very determined hot hand on my back. It forced me forward and I kicked out my right foot covered in dirt to temporarily blind my opponent.

  The gun lowered and I took that moment to cover the distance between us. I tried to wrench it free from his hands, but he wasn’t giving it up easily. The color of mone
y had shrouded the man I used to know in ugly greed.

  The gun was between us and the fire was growing with intensity behind me. I grabbed onto the gun and we fought to see who was going to get control of it. His fiery determination was hard to overcome. His convictions were skewed for his own selfish purposes. His weight advantage was going to overpower me if I didn’t do something.

  There were propane tanks behind the house. We were too close to withstand the blast. Making a run for it wasn’t an option considering how I was fighting for my very life.

  Chapter 24

  Pride

  I could hear him breathing and the pressure I was exerting was causing my bicep muscles to ripple. I had relieved him of his weapon and this was number three of too many to count. I had no idea what kind of damage Xavier was doing. I had my hands full sneaking up on the enemy one at a time with careful deliberation.

  I wasn’t even looking at my opponent. My eyes cast upon the eerie glow in the distance. The man’s struggle in my arms waned considerably, but he was putting up an amazing effort. He was trying to claw my eyes and I was leaning back to avoid contact with his gloved hands.

  “I don’t want to hurt you. Go to sleep and I won’t have to. This is a fight you can’t win. I will give you credit for slowing your breathing. Not many would be able to do that when they are fighting for their very consciousness.” I lifted him off the ground using the pressure of my arms around his neck like a tightened noose.

  It took some time for his hands to go slack lying at his side, but I was worried that he was playing possum. I lowered him until his tiptoes were on solid ground. I waited for him to show his true colors, but his dead weight confirmed that he was out cold.

  I dragged him with both hands around his wrists into the shadows of the trees. I made sure that he didn’t have anything on him to come back at me once I turned around.