We ‘chuted out of a plane about four miles back, using only pure skill and instinct to land in unfamiliar territory. I heard a few low curses when we started hitting the ground, but I stayed silent. Once regrouped, we moved out as a unit, so in sync with each other we could have been the same body.
I wasn’t sure what we’d be walking into tonight. Even if we’d had a full report to go on (which we didn’t), it wouldn’t matter. I always employed the mindset that I was walking into a completely unknown scenario. Being complacent got you killed.
During the four-mile hike, we barely spoke. My muscles worked beneath my gear. My finger stayed tense on the trigger. Despite the chill, sweat beaded down my temple and slid over my chest beneath my uniform.
Four miles wasn’t anything. It was sort of like a walk in the park. The last place we went into was ten miles, and the place before that, I stopped logging at fourteen.
We slowed as we approached the village. Calling it that was a mere courtesy. Nothing about this place was remotely inhabitable by most human standards. Yet people lived here. Squatting in huts that had barely enough room to lie in.
The sound of a child crying cut through the darkness, and I shared a look with Mercer. I hated missions when kids were fucking involved. Kids shouldn’t be in places like this with people like this. In the very beginning, I would get mad at the women who had them, until I realized they didn’t have a choice either. So many of the kids born into these kinds of places were results of rape, abuse, or just the fact that it was all these people knew.
“Let’s just get this done,” Mercer said to everyone.
We all moved, grim but confident. Our team was like a well-oiled machine at this point. We barely even had to talk about what we were going to do when we got somewhere. We read each other, and we had a system that never failed.
Lithely, I moved into position, backing up against a shack that I didn’t dare put any weight on. I waited for the two men I could still see to do the same. Adrenaline coursed through me, but I forced my body calm and waited.
Two of my teammates would be moving in right now, doing the job we were sent here to do.
It would be in and out. Easy.
Until all hell broke loose.
The sound of rapid gunfire from weapons that most definitely were not the ones we came equipped with cut through the night. I tensed but stayed in position because acting rash would be stupid.
More fire and the sound of cries and screams erupted.
“Ambush!” a familiar voice yelled, and I lunged from around the structure, weapon ready.
I surveyed the scene in seconds. People were running around, screaming and yelling, some naked and some partly clothed. Gun fire continued to reign, bullets hitting the ground with such force and speed the sand and dust created a haze. The bonfire in the center of the village seemed to glow ominously, backlighting one of my teammates as he stumbled forward.
He was hit.
I rushed forward, knowing the other guys would cover me, and shoved my shoulder up into his armpit as he collapsed against me. I half carried his weight as he wheezed, eyes picking up some movement in the place I had just come from.
I fired off a few rounds, taking out the guy before he could shoot first.
Bullets hit the ground behind us, kicking up sand and making every muscle in my body tense. I turned, using my body as a blockade for my wounded brother, and opened fire as I pushed him back.
The sound of a nearby explosion muffled all sound, making everything go blissfully silent for long moments and making me feel as if everything was put into slow motion. When we were in the clear, my brother fell onto the ground, clutching his side, blood spilling out from between his fingers.
I knelt, grabbing his neck and forcing him to look up. “Where’s Wells?” I demanded, though I knew he wouldn’t be able to hear my voice over the gunfight and chaos.
His lips thinned, and he shook his head once.
They killed him? These animalistic motherfuckers killed my teammate? My brother?
Movement in my peripheral brought me back to the moment. I lifted my gun and shot, dropping whoever it was.
Mind spinning as the pandemonium continued, I went on autopilot and let my training take over. I dragged my wounded mate over to the side where he had some concealment and was out of the line of fire, then made sure he had a loaded weapon in his hand.
Before I rushed back into the fight, I met his eyes. Beneath the pain, I saw the bleakness, the guilt he already felt at the loss of his friend.
This wasn’t supposed to happen tonight. Someone sold us out. Somehow, someone got intel we were coming, and we’d walked right into a fucking ambush.
Bodies were everywhere as I ran back into the melee. From what I could tell, the remaining three of us were holding them back.
Mercer was closest to me, and as he fought, he yelled, “In there!”
I started forward, then noticed the creeper coming up behind Merc, a dirty blade in his hand and a rag covering the lower half of his face. I dropped him.
Merc kept fighting, and I rushed around the fire, wondering why this was such a fucking blood bath.
Then I realized. I heard laughter. It twisted in my chest, making my stomach revolt.
They were taking out their own people. Yes, this had been an ambush to take us out, but they had turned on everyone else here, too.
Sweat dripped into my eyes and slipped between my lips. Ignoring it, I fought my way into the small building Merc had indicated, taking out the man watching the door and the one perched on the roof. He fell with a cry and then landed with a sickening thump nearby.
There was a man standing over my fallen comrade’s body. He stood leisurely, as if the war waging around him and the dead American at his feet was relaxing. We locked eyes, and he smiled.
He pointed to my brother and said something in a language I didn’t quite understand. I didn’t have to understand his words exactly, though, because the second he was done, he began to laugh again.
Cold plummeted over me. I welcomed the numbness it offered.
Something inside me switched off at the same time something else switched on…
* * *
A heavy hand fell onto my shoulder, and I reacted instantly. In seconds, I had the body slammed down on my desk, my hand at their throat.
“It’s me,” the man under me choked out.
I blinked. The past faded away, giving way to the present even as the sound of gunfire and screams echoed through my head. There was a lot of blood that night… so much blood.
“Shit,” I said, pulling back from my best friend. “Liam.”
He stayed down for another minute, watching me, but not with fear in his eyes. Liam wasn’t afraid of me, even when he probably should be.
“I wasn’t thinking,” I told him, reaching down to grab the front of his shirt and haul him off my desk.
He leapt up and cleared his throat. “Thought I might have pissed you off.”
I smiled, though I didn’t feel the humor in the situation. “I’m sorry.”
“Minor.”
It wasn’t minor, though. Getting that call brought up a lot of shit for me. A lot of shit I wanted to leave buried.
Liam hitched his chin at me. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” I said, gazing out the window overlooking the ski slopes. An intense urge to strap into a pair of skis and stand at the top of a trail clutched my chest. “I was just deep in thought. I didn’t hear you come in.”
“If you think I believe that, you’re an asshole.”
The side of my mouth lifted. “I don’t want to talk about it right now.”
“I can respect that.”
“So, ah, what’d you come in here for? What’s up?” I tried to inject normalcy in my voice. I tried not to hear the still-echoing gunfire and distant flashes of my hands grabbing bodies.
“Nothing important,” he answered. I felt him watching me, measuring me.
“You mind if I take off early today? The powder is calling my name.”
A beat passed before he answered, “The call of the mountain is strong.”
“You’d know better than anybody.”
He flashed a smile. “Probably. But I think you might come in second.”
On my way past, I slapped him on the back. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Alex,” he called out, and I turned back.
“Yeah?”
“You want some company on the slopes?”
“Naw,” I answered. “I think I’ll tear it up solo today.”
He nodded, not offended at all. “You know you can talk to me, right? I got your back no matter what.”
Some of the tension in me eased. “Yeah, bro. I know. Thanks.”
Liam already knew about the shit that haunted me. It’s not like I was afraid if I told him, it would change anything about our friendship. Didn’t mean I wanted to bring it up, though.
It was already resurrected inside me.
Sabrina
It was dark again when I felt the car finally come to a stop. Nudging one eye open, I peered out, half expecting some offensive, too-bright streetlight all gas stations seemed equipped with to nearly blind me.
When that didn’t happen, I opened both and stared out. From my hunched-over position in the passenger seat, I could see about a million stars.
More stars than I’d ever seen before in my entire life.
I blinked, thinking maybe I somehow had something in my eye, but no. When I refocused, the stars were still there, winking overhead like diamonds just waiting for someone to scoop them up. They glittered against a night sky that looked like royal velvet and stretched farther than any ocean I’d ever visited.
Still staring at the sky, I sat up. “Where are we?”
We were in a different car now. Not the beater from before. At some point during the day—when the sun was still high in the sky—my bother ditched that car, and we took off in a black SUV.
I didn’t ask where he got it or why he had an SUV stashed along the interstate somewhere. This was Daniel I was talking about. He had contingency plans for his contingency plans. Hell, he probably had a car stashed in every single state.
I’m serious. My brother made doomsday preppers look like wieners. And honestly, he wouldn’t tell me if I asked anyway.
Plausible deniability and all that.
“Is this truck stolen?” I asked abruptly.
He glanced at me with one raised eyebrow. “Would I drive my baby sister around in a stolen vehicle?”
I snorted. “Yes.”
“I need you to do something for me.”
I sighed. “I just asked you two questions, and instead of answering, you tell me you need a favor.”
Daniel rubbed a hand over his face. He looked exhausted. “Colorado and no.”
I perked up, surprised he actually told me something. Two somethings! “What are we doing in Colorado?” I asked, gazing around with renewed interest. There were a lot of trees, a road that might not even be a road (it wasn’t paved), and what looked like a lot of mountains.
Daniel’s hand slid over mine, drawing my attention to where he clasped it in my lap. “I have to leave for a while.”
“Like a job?” I asked, feeling my stomach dip. Suddenly, I felt like a little girl again. That moment he’d come home and said the same thing.
I remembered that hollow, aching pit in the base of my stomach as I stood at the window and watched him leave for bootcamp. I was twelve. Daniel was eighteen. And I remembered knowing that day everything would change.
I was right.
And now here I sat, eight years later, no longer a little girl but still needing my brother as though I were. I had that feeling again. I instinctively knew everything was going to change again.
“I have to tie up some loose ends,” he explained. “I can’t come home until it’s done. You know I won’t take any kinds of risks with you.”
Slowly, I nodded. “So those men in my apartment…”
“You’re my weakness, Brin-brin.” He cupped the side of my head, and something raw opened up inside me. “You always have been.”
Those men wanted to kill me so they could hurt my brother. Hurt him for probably trying to stop them from being a waste of human space. My brother was a lot of things—a killer one of them. But he didn’t kill frivolously. He killed deliberately. When he had to. When the world was better off without the scum he was wiping out.
“I’m sorry,” I said. It seemed maybe his life would be less complicated if he didn’t have me as his weak spot.
“I’m not,” he said, rubbing his palm against my hair. I lifted my eyes, and he smiled gently. “You’re pretty cool for a sister.”
I shoved him back, and he laughed.
“I need you to stay here for a while. Until I’m sure no one else is going to come looking for you.”
“Why here?”
“It’s safe.”
I glanced around again, not really sure why he thought Colorado was a safe place. He’d never mentioned this place before. As I rotated, I noticed a house out the back window of the SUV. I glanced at Daniel and then back out the window. “Whose house is that?”
“A friend.”
“You don’t have friends.”
“A brother.”
I felt my eyes narrow. “Daniel…”
He sighed. “Look. I know you think you can take care of yourself—”
“I can.”
“I know.” He allowed. “I made sure of it.”
“Then—”
“It’s different this time.” His words were harsh, and I drew back. He glanced away, then back again. “There are some dangerous, bad people out to get me, and they think the best way to do that is through you.”
I opened my mouth, but he spoke before I could.
“They’re right.”
All the air deflated from my lungs. “Daniel—”
“I went into the army for a better life. Not just for me, but for you. I just wanted to take care of you… make sure you always had what you needed.” He laughed humorlessly, released my hand, and shoved his through his hair. “I could have done that with some stupid admin job.”
I smirked. “You weren’t built for a desk job, Bear.”
“I’m sorry I dragged you into this. I’m sorry about a lot of shit… I do love you, though, Sabrina. More than anyone else on earth.”
“Same,” I said, my heart swelling just a little.
“Maybe bringing you here will make up for some of the shit I’ve pulled,” he said, almost as if he were rationalizing to himself.
I perked up. “Why here?”
His eyes became shuttered and the corner of his lips turned down into a grimace.
“Daniel…” A tingle of warning brushed over me.
“Promise me you’ll stay here. I can’t go out there if I think you’re not being protected.”
“Who’s in that house, Daniel?” I stabbed my finger toward the back window and the A-frame cabin nestled in the trees.
“Probably the only other man on this planet who would go as far as I would to keep you safe.”
A funny feeling wormed around inside me, and I grew uncomfortable, beginning to fidget in my seat. I didn’t like that answer.
I also didn’t like that his answer brought up a name in the back of my mind. A name that instantly dissolved into feelings tightening my diaphragm and making my insides tremble.
“You didn’t…” My voice was hoarse and deep. “You wouldn’t…”
Daniel sighed. “Get out of the car, Sabrina.”
I didn’t listen. Not because I was being stubborn. I was stubborn, but not even that character trait could break through the feelings and dread swirling inside me. I was stuck to the seat as if I’d been glued. My throat worked, trying to swallow spit my mouth didn’t even have. My tongue was dry; my lips were dry.
I was being irrational. Getting all wound up fo
r nothing. I knew whoever was inside that small A-frame wasn’t who I’d conjured in my mind with my brother’s words.
He was gone. Vanished from my life almost as if he hadn’t been there at all. Sometimes I found myself wondering if perhaps he was just a figment of my imagination.
The sound of the door opening beside me startled me, and I jolted, pressing a hand against my chest and collapsing against the seat.
“Drama is not a good look on you, sis.”
I gave him a depreciating look. “Who’s in there?”
“I want you to know…” His jaw worked and his eyes slid to the side. I could tell he was nearly choking on whatever it was he wanted to say, which naturally made me want to hear it.
“Yes?” I invited.
He gave me a dry look but then turned serious again. “I’m sorry for the shit I pulled a few years back. I—” His eyes softened. “You were so young. It was my job to protect you.”
Holy knicker-knackers. He is talking about him.
When I found the words to speak, they scraped out of my throat. “If you’re protecting me, then why bring me here? This isn’t protection, Daniel.” It’s pain.
“I told you. I was wrong.”
He didn’t tell me.
“I just did,” he replied exasperated. Apparently, that thought had come out of my mouth without me realizing.
I was spiraling. Spiraling back a few years. Spiraling back into heartache and anger. My palms were clammy, and the trembling inside me had only grown.
I couldn’t be here. I think I’d rather take my chances with whoever it was that wanted to kill me.
At least then I’d be dead and not walking around with my heart ripped out. Again.
“No,” I said. My final answer. My absolute decree.
I might have been “too young” back then, but I wasn’t now. I wasn’t going to allow this. The amount of control my brother had over my life was scary. Enough was enough.
Wind swirled around my body, reaching out and slipping over my bare arms like cool silk. I drew in a deep breath, feeling just the slightest relief from the emotions assaulting me. The crispness to the air strengthened me. The cold seemed to harden my resolve. Overhead, the trees rustled, creating their own sort of song, a compliment to the temperature in the breeze.
Subzero (BearPaw Resort Book 4) Page 2
