Beautiful Surrender (Pride and Honor Book 4)

by Ember-Raine Winters

  After searching hallways, I was able find the medical wing and saw Country sitting up in bed grimacing, hooked up to multiple IV lines with his arm bandaged from fingers to elbow.

  “How’s it going?” I asked nodding toward his bandaged hand.

  “They say I’m gonna lose it. All the way up to the elbow. There’s nothin’ they can do for it.” Then he shocked the shit out of me by saying, “Guess I’ll never make it as a rock star.”

  “You played before?” I asked curiously, having no idea if he was joking or not.

  “Nah.” He grinned. “Never was musically talented.”

  I laughed. I couldn’t help it. Kenzie was right about this guy. He seemed to find the humor in any situation.

  “How are the kids doin’?”

  “Not great. Leanne and Lance already had a rough go of it before this happened. They had nearly gotten the nightmares under control from their last ordeal. Now, they are right back to square one.”

  “What happened before? If you don’t mind me asking.”

  “No, it’s no big secret. Kaylee, their mom, and Lance were kidnapped by her ex a few months back and once we got them both back, the kids’ dad petitioned for temporary custody and then turned right around and kidnapped the kids. We found them in a seedy motel and the dad was nowhere to be found,” I said and rubbed my fingers through my hair. “They were just getting back on track when the plane they were on got hijacked and they got sold to the Somali pirates.”

  “Mother fucker. The littlest is what? Four?”

  “Yeah, he just turned four in December.”

  “That’s some fucked up shit.”

  “You’re telling me. I only met those kids a few months ago, but I love them like they’re my own. It kills me watching them suffer like this, but I thank God every day I didn’t put my son on that plane.” I sighed, feeling guilty that the thought even came out let alone that I spoke it out loud. “That’s fucked up, right?”

  “Nah, I’m glad you didn’t put him on the plane either. The less kids that have to go through that hell the better.” He smiled reassuringly. “I’m still not understanding why you’re all in this mess in the first place though.”

  “It’s a long story. Let’s just say we pissed off the wrong people, and now we have to take them down before anyone else gets hurt.”

  “If I could help you with that, I would but it doesn’t look like I’ll be of much use to anybody for a while.”

  “Look, I came by to give you my card. You helped us and if you need work or anything in the future, don’t hesitate to give me a call.”

  “Thanks, man. I think I’m out of the protection game for a while though.”

  “No worries, I’m sure we can find something for a one-handed mercenary to do.” I grinned and Country chuckled.

  “Okay, thanks.”

  “Do you know where they’re keeping Bob? I need to speak with him.”

  “Yeah, I think he’s next door. He had nerve damage in his leg or something. They are preparing a medivac to take us to the military hospital in Germany.”

  “Well, good luck, brother. Call me when you get back to the States and let me know how it goes. Maybe once they get you to the hospital, the prognosis will change.”

  “Yeah, I’m not keeping my hopes on that, but that sure would be good. Thanks again, Trey. Take care of that girl of yours she really is somethin’ else.”

  “Will do, man.”

  I left the room and walked next door knocking softly before I opened it. Bob looked to be resting so I started to edge back out when he spoke. “Where do you think you’re going, Trey? We have some things to discuss, don’t we?”

  “Yes, sir,” I said walking fully into the room. He looked like shit. I could see the dark circles under his eyes and his leg was propped up in some kind of sling.

  “They’re taking me to Germany so this may be the last chance I see you until the hospital there clears me to go home. I need to give you everything I’ve got on Barnes before he hurts someone else.”

  “That’s actually what I came to talk to you about.”

  “Good, here’s the key to my safe in my LA mansion." He handed me the keys then started scribbling on a piece of paper he grabbed from a drawer at his bedside. “This is all the information you need to get in the house and the safe. Everything, and I mean everything you need to take that son of a bitch down is there. You’ll have enough to take down his entire operation. All the drug lords he associates with and everyone who has ever had dealings with him and Millie.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “One thing, trust no one outside of your group. Not everyone is who they say they are,” he said cryptically, but I’d already learned that lesson well. “If you need help, the guys that I hired to help get you out are the best, and they will continue to help if you need it. They may be mercenaries, but they only take on rescues and only if it’s a good cause. They aren’t killers and they are the good guys.”

  “Yes sir,” I said and took the paper.

  I left the room a minute later. The meds they had him on for pain were starting to kick in. I was wondering about his warnings. Who was it that wasn’t who they seemed? Was there another one? The only person I could think of was Kim. Marie had mentioned her once before but that was Tasha’s mom. Surely she wouldn’t be working with Barnes, would she? She had been working both sides for so long that it was entirely possible she caught a case of Stockholm Syndrome. But did I trust Marie to give it to us straight? She did give us the locations for where everybody was being held. The only one we hadn’t yet rescued was Twitch and had no idea where Barnes was keeping him, or if he was even still alive. I was so in my head that I didn’t notice until I ran literally into Marcy.

  “Sorry about that, Tink. Are you okay?” I asked as I steadied her.

  “Yeah, just going to see Bob. Johnny wants to make sure he’s okay,” she said and pointed to the kid standing beside her.

  “Hey, kid. How’re you doing?”

  “I’m all right, I guess,” he whispered looking down. I could see the dark circles around his eyes and wondered if he had as bad a night as the other kids.

  “You’ll be all right buddy, you’re safe now and we are going back to see your dad in a couple hours.” I tried for reassurance. He attempted a smile, but I could tell it was flat.

  “Thanks, I can’t wait to be home.” He still looked haunted. I shuddered to think about what he might have seen.

  “Come on, buddy. Let’s go see Bob.” Marcy smiled sadly.

  Continuing down the hall, I made my way back to our rooms and noticed Kenzie sitting with Lance. They were giggling together quietly and it was the cutest damn thing I had ever seen. I noticed she had a picture book in her hand and they were laughing at the silly animals in the pictures. Leaning against the door frame, I watched them thinking how awesome she would be with Mikey. He’ll love her just as much as I do. The thought came from nowhere and punched me in the gut. I nearly gasped out loud. Do I love Kenzie? It was too soon to tell, right? Maybe it was just all the traumatic experiences we had been through since we met a few months ago that had me thinking and feeling this way. I didn’t know, but what I did know is that I couldn’t tell her. If I did, she would run as far and as fast away from me as she could and never look back.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  KENZIE

  I felt eyes on me. Turning to the adjoining door I noticed the tiny little man staring at me with curiosity. “Hi, Lance.” I smiled and the little smile I got back melted my heart.

  “Where’s Tey?” he asked in his adorable little voice.

  “He’ll be back in a little bit. Can I help you with something?” I asked noticing the picture book he had in his hand.

  “Read it to me, please?” he asked showing me it was Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

  “Sure, you know this was one of my favorite books when I was a kid?” I sat down, patting the bed beside me
.

  He walked over cautiously and sat on the bed. I felt for the poor kid. He shouldn’t be this afraid of people at his age but after everything he’d been through, I wasn’t surprised that he was wary.

  I began reading the book and we stopped a couple times to look at the pictures and giggle over the silly things Goldilocks did. It wasn’t long before the hair on the back of my neck stood on end and I looked up to find Trey watching me. I smiled at him and tapped Lance on the shoulder. He looked up with his little doe eyes and I pointed to where Trey was standing in the doorway.

  “You ready to go see your mom, buddy?” he asked and Lance squealed.

  “Yes.” He jumped up and down on the bed.

  “We gotta take a long plane ride, so we better get going.” There was something lurking behind those eyes. Something I wasn’t so sure I wanted to know about. So many emotions were shining through and I had to look away before they ensnared me.

  “Come on, munchkin. Let’s get on that plane.”

  “I’m not a munchkin.” He gave me a stern look, and I nearly busted up laughing but contained myself, barely.

  “Sorry.” I giggled and Trey had such love in his eyes looking at the boy, it made me wonder how amazing a father he must be.

  “Come on, Lance.”

  Griffin walked out of the other room and lit up looking at the boy bouncing on the bed. “I was wondering where you went, little bud. We’ll follow you down there,” he said to us. “Lee-Lee’s in the shower.”

  “Sounds good.” Trey swung a giggling Lance up onto his shoulders.

  Walking down the halls, they were busier than they had been the night before. We walked into an office with a very official looking desk and saw an American man wearing jeans and a T-shirt sitting behind it with his feet up. “I’m Ambassador Locke, and I’m guessing you’re the people we brought in in the middle of the night last night?”

  “Yes, sir,” Trey said politely and introduced everyone. “These kids were on the plane that was taken last month and we just got them back from the Somali pirates.”

  “I see.” He steepled his fingers and thought briefly. “How were you planning on getting back?”

  “We had a plane waiting, but it was sabotaged and the pilot was killed,” I replied.

  “I have a plane ready to take you back to Miami. If you follow me we can get you out of here and back home as soon as possible.” He smiled reassuringly.

  “That would be great,” I said and started for the door.

  Within the hour we were in the air and I sighed with relief when we finally touched down in Miami and were met at the airport by a military motorcade. Apparently, Tom wasn’t leaving stuff to chance this time. I was glad for that because I was tired of taking chances. We were taken directly to the DOD offices right there in Miami and ushered into an office. They wanted to take the kids to another room to play while the adults talked, but the kids weren’t having it.

  “No,” Leanne squeaked as she held Griffin’s arm in a death grip. Lance was practically strangling Trey and Johnny was standing there calmly holding his ground.

  “With all due respect sir,” Johnny said forcefully. “We would rather play quietly in a corner. Last time we were separated from our family bad things happened.”

  “Okay, you can stay. We will have some markers and paper brought in to keep you occupied.” Tom smiled indulgently, looking specifically at Lance.

  I was feeling the same thing. I would do whatever they wanted to make them happy. Lance released his death grip on Trey’s neck and I could see the spots on Griffins arm’s where Lee-Lees nails had dug into his skin. Johnny was trying to be the strong one and led the others over to a table in the corner where he whispered to Leanne and she smiled at him. The rest of us stood in rapt fascination and watched as Johnny grabbed Lee’s hand and squeezed it gently.

  “I’m sure you all want to get back to Louisiana, so let’s make this quick. What happened in Somalia? I know all of you weren’t there and I have two men in Germany getting treatment who weren’t with you when you left as well. I have four missing SEALs and I need to know what happened.” Tom huffed out a breath and stared us down.

  “Those four SEALs, they defected and imprisoned the rest of us on that mission,” Ace said angrily. “If Kenzie and Marcy hadn’t organized their own mission, we’d be dead right now.”

  Hawk nodded along with Trey and Griffin. Marcy and I shared a smug smile which Trey caught and rolled his eyes, but I could tell he was smiling as well.

  “You two,” Tom said looking at Buck and Bubba. “You’re mercenaries. How did you get roped into this?”

  “We were paid to extract some kids from Somali pirates and that’s what we did,” Buck replied.

  “I still have no idea why the kids were taken in the first place, and where are the rest of the people that were on that plane?”

  I looked at Griffin who nodded and shot me a look like ‘well do you want to tell him or should I?’ I was actually surprised that Griffin was even trusting me to do this much. Maybe he was coming around? I wasn’t sure though, I’d thought the same thing and he’d turned on me last time. But, there was no time like the present and the guy in front of us had helped us even though more than half the team he sent defected; it was only fair to give him the whole story.

  It took a half an hour to tell the story. I told him about my mom and Barnes, about Tasha and how her mom had left her information on Barnes. I kept going with the tale of Johnny’s first kidnapping, Mac’s accident, and even told him about Orpheus. Trey flinched when I said the name. I could see his body coil tight. When I was finished with my story, Tom was gaping like a fish. It didn’t seem real. I had lived it and still felt like some crazy action movie. I bet Hollywood would love to get their hands on our story. “Allow me to introduce myself, sir. I’m Orpheus.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  TREY

  What. The. Fuck.

  What the hell was Kenzie thinking telling a high-ranking member of the DOD who she was? Griffin and I moved in unison to step in front of her. There was no way in hell Tom was doing anything to her.

  “Relax gentlemen, I have no intention of harming your friend,” Tom said lightly but I could see the gleam in his eye as he looked at Kenzie.

  “That was monumentally stupid, sunshine. You could’ve told him the whole story without revealing your identity,” I said ignoring Tom’s comment.

  “You’re holding out on us, Barbie.” Buck laughed lightly and I growled, not liking the familiarity the guy was using with my woman. “Easy there killer, I was just jokin’”

  “Orpheus’ identity will not leave this room,” Tom said and looked pointedly at everyone there. “The DOJ wants your head young lady, and I have a feeling it has to do with Barnes and the fact that you have been hacking him and leaving your signature there to taunt him for years.” He laughed, sharing her idea of fun.

  Kenzie smirked and I looked at her like she was crazy. That was ballsy, but I guess if the person she was leaving a signature for didn’t actually exist then it was actually a brilliant way to taunt them. “I may have some work to throw your way from time to time.” He winked at her and she pulled out a card.

  “Get us back to our friends and I would be happy to hack the DOD for you.”

  “Are we about done?” I asked a little too forcefully and Kenzie looked at me funny.

  “Ace and Hawk are going with you. You can use the added security,” Tom said and I sighed, hating this was turning into more and more people.

  “We’ve got this,” Bubba replied.

  “You’re going with us, too?” I asked confused.

  “Bob requested that we keep an eye on his daughter and grandson,” Buck said simply.

  “And you’re just going to do it?” I asked suspiciously. “What’s in it for you?”

  “Getting the bastard that sold a couple kids to pirates is the only thing we need,” Bubba said with convicti
on.

  “Hoorah,” Buck agreed.

  “Well then, it looks like you’ll have plenty of help taking that asshole down.” Hawk slapped me on the back. “SEALs always help each other out.”

  Kenzie looked at me funny, placing her hand on her hip. “So, you’re a SEAL now?”

  “Honorary. Something about jumping out of a plane together seals you as brothers or something.” She mouthed ‘boys’ and I couldn’t help but laugh.

  “All right then, let’s go.” Griffin rubbed his hands together, anxious. I was sure to get all of us on a plane and get his little family all back together. Leanne walked up to Griffin; the poor thing was reluctant to leave her soon-to-be stepfather’s side.

  I wrapped one hand around Kenzie’s and the other I picked up Lance. “You ready to go see your mom?”

  “Mommy?” he asked with big puppy dog eyes and I nodded happily. “Yes!”

  “One more plane ride and then we’re going to see mommy.” He wrapped his little arms around my neck and squeezed. The hug felt good. I felt eyes on me and looked over at Kenzie who was smiling softly. She reached her hand up and patted Lance’s back.

  **

  The plane trip was much shorter than the others we had taken recently and I was glad for it. All the kids slept the whole trip and no one woke up screaming this time, which I was thankful for. We were on a commercial flight so that could have raised even more suspicions than six huge guys, two women, and three children already raised. People kept staring at our group like we were the enemy, and I couldn’t help but chuckle under my breath.

  “Can I speak to you, Trey?” Griffin asked warily.

  I turned around in my seat and looked at him. I had Lance and Kenzie sleeping on both sides of me and Leanne was sleeping with her head on Griffin’s shoulder’

  “Sure, talk.”

  “I’m sorry… for everything. I should have told Mac to shut his damn mouth and stop being an asshole. I see how much you care about her and I should have had your back from the beginning.”

  I sighed. That wasn’t the place to be having that conversation, but we all knew how fast things could change and we may not get another chance to hash this out.