Say No More

by Liliana Hart

  The guard knocked on the door and waited until a man’s voice said, “Enter,” and then he opened the door and then turned and took the tray from Dante, delivering it to her himself.

  Dante didn’t mind. He’d seen enough of the room. He hadn’t been able to gain access to the son’s room. This bungalow had a lot more daily traffic than the other, and Elizabeth—Yasmin—tended to stay to herself in the bungalow when she couldn’t be escorted by her husband.

  The curious thing was that Yasmin hadn’t been alone in her room. She and Shiv had been standing face-to-face, and it wasn’t difficult to tell by their body language that whatever they were discussing was very intense. Shiv hadn’t looked well at all—he’d been pale and soaked with sweat. And whatever he’d been telling his wife must have been distressing because she didn’t look much better.

  Dante couldn’t take the chance and stay around longer than a waiter was supposed to, so he gave Tess another wink. But when he got to the front door, it slammed opened, and he barely avoided taking it to the face. Raj Mittal wasn’t a tall man, but intimidation didn’t have a size. He’d kept himself in good shape for a man who was well into his sixties.

  Dante moved out of the way quickly and let Raj pass, and then he slipped outside, ignoring the two guards Mittal had placed by the front door. His gut was screaming that something was about to go down, but he wasn’t in a position to alert the others through the comm unit—not yet—there were too many potential ears close by, and he didn’t want to blow cover until he had to.

  Mittal was angry about something, and Dante made his way around the backside of the bungalow so he could hear what was being said. Yasmin had left the French doors open in the bedroom.

  There was another of Raj’s guards waiting at the side of the bungalow, and he was clearly interested in whatever was being said because he didn’t even feel Dante’s presence until it was too late. Dante had his hands on the man’s head and was snapping his neck before the guard had the chance to gasp. He let him drop slowly to the ground, knowing that Raj’s guards were all mercenaries and their only goal was to kill potential threats to their employer. It was a situation of kill or be killed.

  He moved into position just outside the open French doors, and pulled the pistol from beneath his shirt at the small of his back. He then reached in his pocket and pulled out a silencer, quickly screwing on an attachment. It wasn’t difficult to hear what was being said.

  “Give me the launch codes,” Raj spat. “I’ll not give you another warning. You are no longer a son of mine.”

  “That’s the best news I’ve heard all day,” Shiv said. “I’ll not give them to you. Not when I know what will come of it. Those codes in the hands of a man like Joaquin Logan would be the end of us all.”

  But Dante could hear the fear in Shiv’s voice, and he knew Raj could too. And he’d exploit it.

  “Logan is smarter than that,” Raj said. “I wish he were my son. We could do great things together. But all that matters is the money, and the very many causes I can fund with it.”

  “Which causes?” Shiv asked. “Terrorist organizations, or the rape and torture of more little girls?”

  “Let me make this very easy for you,” Raj said.

  And then Dante heard a scuffle and a woman’s scream of pain.

  More guards appeared from around the side of the house, weapons at the ready, responding to the sounds of struggle. There was another guard pounding at the door, demanding to be let in. Dante took the two guards rounding the corner quickly—a double tap for each—one to the chest and another to the forehead. And then he moved around the corner of the French doors in time to see Elizabeth pull the trigger and kill her father-in-law.

  The bedroom door slammed open and Dante took care of the guards bursting through. Shock and panic had left Elizabeth frozen in place, the gun trembling in her hands. She watched the guards drop to the ground and then turned to stare at him, her eyes glazed and glassy, and she didn’t even notice when he disarmed her.

  Shiv was unconscious on the ground, so he leaned down and placed two fingers at the crook of his neck, feeling for a pulse.

  “Oh, God,” Elizabeth said, dropping to her knees beside her husband. “He hit his head when they started to fight. Raj … Raj struck me.” She touched the red, swollen area of her cheek. “As soon as he struck me Shiv just went crazy. I’ve only ever seen him that way once before. When we were newly married and Raj thought he could still … could still …” Elizabeth shook her head, chasing the memories away and said, “it doesn’t matter now.”

  “No, it doesn’t matter now,” Dante said, compassion for the woman who shared Liv’s face rising up inside of him. He couldn’t imagine what she’d been through. Couldn’t imagine how he’d feel if it were Liv, knowing what had happened to her and wanting to do everything in his power to protect her.

  “They fought terribly, but Shiv is not a fighter,” she said, smoothing her hand over her husband’s brow. “Raj tossed him like a rag doll, and he hit his head on the bedpost.” Then she stopped and really took a look at Dante. “You’re the man who was in my bedroom.”

  “I’m with Liv,” he said, his mouthing quirking in a smile. “This place is about to be swarming with Raj’s guards.” He pointed to the briefcase sitting on the desk. “Take the case and find your sister. We’ve got to protect the contents. Don’t let anyone but her have it.”

  “But my husband,” she said, her face pale at the thought of leaving him.

  Even as she said the words, Shiv began to wake, and rubbed the knot on the back of his head.

  “Protect him,” she said. “He’s the only one who can make order out of all of this. Otherwise, we’re all dead.”

  “With my life,” he assured her. “Now go.”

  “WE’RE TAKING THE ferry to extraction point A,” Elias said as more gunfire echoed through their comm units and all around the island. “Keep your comm unit on at all times.”

  “Got it,” Liv said, already heading in the direction Dante and her sister were located. She chambered a bullet in her weapon, her finger off the trigger.

  Elias and Miller took off in the opposite direction from the sirens and noise, headed toward where they’d left the ferry docked.

  “What the hell is going on out there?” she said.

  “No clue,” Axel said, sounding out of breath. “Whatever it is, it’s given these assholes permission to lose their damned minds. It’s a free-for-all. From what I can tell, that alarm only goes off if the safe is broken into. Everyone thinks the launch codes have been stolen. So now we’re in a guilty-until-proven-innocent scenario.”

  “Or as I like to call it,” Deacon said, “shoot first and ask questions later. Tess, check in.”

  “I’m fine,” Tess said calmly. “But I might need a little help. I’m inside Mittal’s bungalow, hiding. There’s a lot of gunfire.”

  “I’ll get her,” Dante said. “I’m right here. It’s chaos around the compound. Raj Mittal’s dead.”

  “Well, that certainly makes things interesting,” Deacon said. “Get Tess out of there fast, Dante.”

  “Whatever I have to do, brother,” Dante said.

  “I’m on the south side of the island,” Axel said. “There’s a couple of men down. I’ll do a sweep here and see if I can run those codes to ground.”

  “Good,” Deacon said. “Levi, what’s your position?”

  “I’m east,” Levi said.

  “Work outside in,” Deacon told him. “We’ll all meet in the middle and extract the girls. I’ll work the north end. Liv, where are you?”

  “I’m west, heading in from my bungalow,” she answered. “I’m moving toward the girls now that we have the bunker location. Elias and Miller will have the ferry at extraction point A.”

  “Roger that,” they said in unison.

  Liv was almost to the grotto when palm fronds started shaking ahead and she could hear the slap of shoes against the ground. Her weapon was up and ready to f
ire when Elizabeth came bursting through the trees.

  “Christ, Eliza—Yasmin,” she corrected. “I could’ve killed you.” And then she saw the briefcase in Elizabeth’s hand.

  “Holy shit, what have you done?” Liv looked at her sister, then grabbed her by the arm and pulled her behind a taller grouping of fronds and ferns.

  “I killed him. Here,” she said, shoving the briefcase at Liv. “You were right. He’s a monster.”

  “Take a deep breath and tell me what happened,” she said. “How many are following you?”

  “Sit tight, Liv,” Axel said in her ear. “We’re heading in your direction.”

  “No,” Liv said. “I’ll meet you at the extraction point. Don’t waste time. Just get the girls. I’ve got the codes.”

  “Copy that,” Axel said. “We’ll meet you at the extraction point.”

  “I started digging about the girls,” Elizabeth said, her voice catching as tears filled her eyes. “They’re here. Just like you said. Ten little girls. And he’s keeping them in a hole in the ground like animals. I couldn’t let him do that.”

  Liv couldn’t help herself. She reached out and drew her sister into her arms, holding her tight. Something she thought she’d never be able to do again. They’d spent many an hour just like this, usually Liv comforting Elizabeth because of something Liv had done to get them into trouble.

  As if reading her mind, Elizabeth said, “It looks like I got us into trouble this time.”

  Liv chuckled. “You’re probably due. Did you confront him?”

  “I went to Shiv,” she said. “I told him what Raj was doing to the girls and about the launch codes. He confessed to everything and said he knew about the codes because his father had stolen them from him. He didn’t know about the girls. But once we started talking about a plan, things spiraled from there.”

  “I didn’t realize Shiv was going to get the codes so soon. We knew we needed to escape the island, but things weren’t quite in place yet. I panicked, knowing he would kill us if he discovered they were gone before we could escape. And he tried,” she said, choking back a sob.

  “He was so angry. He struck me, and then Shiv went after his father like the devil himself. He hates his father, but Raj has so much power, so much control. It’s why Shiv went off on his own with his computers. He didn’t ever want to be dependent on his father, but it’s a difficult life to escape. We have emergency money and plans in case we ever need to leave. But when Raj stormed in and confronted us, we weren’t prepared. While he and Shiv fought I grabbed the gun from the nightstand. When Raj threw Shiv and he hit his head, I pulled the trigger. I killed him.”

  And then her shoulders straightened and a ferocity Liv recognized came into her sister’s eyes. “And I’m not sorry either.”

  “It’s okay,” Liv told her. “You’re both safe. That’s what matters. And the girls will be safe too.”

  “I know,” Elizabeth said. “You had that stubborn look in your eyes last night. I knew you’d find them with or without my help. But I wanted to help.”

  “Now that his father is dead, Shiv must move very quickly to consolidate his authority. Otherwise, someone else will try to move in and take over. He can do it,” she said fiercely.

  “We’ll help him get things under control as fast as we can.”

  “We?” she asked.

  “You don’t think I’d come to this party alone, do you?”

  “No, I met your friend,” Elizabeth said, looking at Liv as if she were really seeing her for the first time. “He killed the guards and told me to bring you the case.” She paused. “Do me a favor,” she said.

  “What’s that?” Liv asked.

  “Color your hair back as soon as possible. We’re meant to be blondes.”

  Liv smiled and lowered her head to her sister’s shoulder. She was older by twelve whole minutes, but she very much felt like the baby as she let the tears fall.

  “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now,” Liv said. “I’ve done nothing but search for you my whole life. I’ve carried the guilt of that day with me, and I felt the accusation in mother’s eyes every time she looked at me.

  “I think she hated me. Nothing I ever did, no matter what I accomplished, was enough in her eyes. But I always had father. And then he was gone and I had no one. I wasn’t even surprised when I got the call about mother’s death. It was exactly the kind of thing she’d do, killing herself so she could upstage father. But I still had to deal with the headache of the details of both funerals and the estate, while I was numb with grief over father. And the whole time, all I could think was that the horrible, soul-crushing grief wouldn’t be quite so bad if you were with me. But you weren’t.”

  “I’m sorry,” Elizabeth said softly. “I never imagined that you’d be going through your own kind of hell. But it’s time to close those chapters of your life. It’s time for you to move on. I have.”

  The truth of her sister’s words weighed heavy on her. This was it. She knew what had to be done now. She couldn’t think about the future later.

  “I have to go,” Liv said. What if Shiv doesn’t retain control?”

  “He will,” Elizabeth said confidently. “My place is with my husband. And he needs me to be at his side right now, not hiding in the jungle.”

  “Is this the last time I’ll see you?” Liv asked.

  Elizabeth looked sad as she shrugged. “I don’t know. My place is with him.”

  Liv grabbed her sister in one last hug and whispered, “I’ve always loved you. I’ve never forgotten you.” And then she released her, grabbed the briefcase, and headed toward the extraction point.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  “On my signal,” Deacon said.

  They’d cleared the brush away and stared down at a thick iron door, approximately three feet by three feet. It was going to be a tight fit, but it was the only way to get the girls from their prison below ground.

  “Shape charge is in place,” Elias said. “Hold onto your balls.”

  The shape charge was molded around the lock, a blasting cap placed inside, and Elias unwound the detonation cord from a spool until he stood a few feet away. Deacon, Axel, and Levi took a couple of steps back and Elias handed him the detonator.

  “Fire in the hole,” Deacon said, and everyone plugged their ears. He’d already put his own earplugs in.

  “Fire in the hole …”

  “Fire in the hole,” he said a third time and pushed the button. There was a muffle pfft as the charge exploded, and they moved in quickly, he and Axel each placing a hand in the hole that was now in the door.

  “On three,” Deacon said. “One, two …”

  They lifted the heavy door and tossed it to the side. Levi had the flashlight ready and shined it below. Five little girls huddled together, their hands over their eyes as light hit them for the first time in a long while.

  Gunfire erupted from all over the island, and Deacon wasn’t sure who was firing at who. Between the mercenaries, drug lords, and arms dealers, it was a toss up.

  “Let’s make this quick,” Axel said. “Levi and I will cover.”

  “Damn,” Elias said. “I wish I’d have called it. There’s no way I’m fitting in that little hole.”

  Deacon rolled his eyes. “We’re the same damned size.” And then he got down on his belly and leaned into the hole, his shoulders just fitting in the space. The girls were terrified, but there wasn’t time to try and calm them.

  Deacon spoke to them in Russian, and then he began lifting them, one by one, handing them off to Elias. There were five in total, and Elias took the oldest, carrying her in a fireman’s hold, and Levi took the two smallest, carrying each in an arm. Deacon and Axel took the other two, and then they ran for the extraction point.

  “That’s the sexiest damned woman I’ve ever seen,” Elias said.

  Miller stood on the deck of the ferry, a machine gun slung across her chest, while she waited for them to arrive. When she caught sig
ht of them, she smiled in relief.

  “There’s a Zodiac waiting for us beneath the dock,” Elias said.

  Just before they stepped foot on the dock, Dante and Tess came running out of the trees like demons were hot on their tails.

  “Tess,” Deacon said, reaching for his wife and bringing her in close.

  “Time for that later,” Dante said. “The guys with guns are not going to be far behind us. Where’s Liv?”

  “We haven’t seen her,” Deacon said. “She said she’d meet us here.”

  “Shit,” Dante said, looking back at the island. Then he checked his magazine in his weapon. “I need extras,” he said, holding out a hand. Two magazines were immediately slapped into his hand.

  “She knows the risks,” Deacon told him. “But we won’t sacrifice the team for one.”

  “Understood,” Dante said. “But I recall a mission not too long ago where you stayed behind to make sure we all got out alive.”

  Deacon nodded. “Be fast. We’ll hold them off as long as we can from the boat. Thank God Trident has a little extra unexpected firepower in everything they make.”

  Dante slapped Deacon on the shoulder and pocketed the extra magazines, running back into the line of fire to find Liv.

  HE STAYED AWAY from the bungalows and buildings, knowing that everyone had taken their positions for ultimate cover. Those who hadn’t made it or who were too unaware of the danger they were in lay dead among the vines and grottoes.

  The humidity was thick, like walking through lukewarm soup, and moisture covered his body, making his clothes stick to his skin. His movements were fast and sure, and years of training kicked in as he saw even the smallest movements from the corners of his eyes and was alerted to sounds where there shouldn’t have been sound at all.

  He saw the flash of a wristwatch from behind a grouping of ferns, and then noticed the height of where the fern was shaking. Whoever was taking cover was too tall to be Liv. And then he saw the flashy watch glint again as he moved his arm. It was then he noticed the weapon raise and shots were fired in the direction opposite of where Dante was standing. Return fire was given, and Dante was able to see exactly where both of their positions were.