Atonement: The Hunter Mercenary Series (Book One)

by Morgan Kelley

  He laughed.

  Stella wasn’t as amused. “We need to get you down to the kitchen. I want to look at your arm. I want to check it to make sure you’re okay.”

  “Sweetness, I’m only…”

  Her lower lip quivered.

  “Okay. Let’s go play doctor. There’s no point chasing the masked gunman. He’s long gone thanks to security.”

  Rogue took that as his sign. “I’ll go grab the discs.”

  He took off.

  Zayn lumbered down the stairs, trying not to bleed on the floors or Stella.

  She didn’t seem to care. She was holding his bloody hand in hers.

  “Sit down.”

  She grabbed a medical kit from the pantry. She, fortunately, kept one at home. Although, she didn’t think she’d need one for something like this.

  Zayn sat down.

  “What happened?” Danforth asked his daughter.

  “I told you,” Zayn said. “We were making up. We had just wrapped it up, and…”

  Danforth looked like he was going to lose it.

  “I think he meant with the shooter. Skip that part, Zayn,” Dakota stated.

  “He was wearing a mask, was a leftie, and he had shitty aim. He was pointing his gun at her, but I took it to the arm.”

  She cleaned his wound.

  It was right beside another scar.

  “Were you shot before?” she asked.

  “Yeah, five times counting this one,” he said, going back to telling them what had happened.

  “He pulled the trigger, I grabbed Stella and rolled, and he took a jump.”

  “If he didn’t put his body over mine, that bullet would have hit me in the chest. You saved me, Zayn. Again.”

  She took his face in her hands and laid one right on his lips. She didn’t seem to care.

  “I have the disc,” Rogue said, coming back into the room. “He wasn’t lying, Mr. Harrington.”

  He pushed play. There was no audio for the bedroom, thank God, but they saw the man rush the balcony, leap down, and race down the driveway.

  “He had an easy getaway. Security was…busy,” Rogue said.

  “We have to hide her. They want her back.”

  She was cleaning the wound in his arm.

  “Well, they aren’t getting her. No one is taking my Stella. No one.”

  It looked like it was time to be the bearer of bad news.

  Sarah shook her head. “Nope. I took my turn. I’m not pissing Hulk off.”

  “You know that makes me angry.”

  “Yeah, yeah, and you no like Hulk angry,” she mocked in the Hulk voice.

  He laughed.

  “What are you afraid to tell me?”

  Rogue keyed up the last part of the disc where they were told the ransom demands for Mercedes’s life.

  He glared at it.

  “No. Fucking. Way.”

  Well, that said it all.

  “I’m with him,” stated Danforth. “How can I swap one child for another? This is a trap.”

  “I’ll do it,” she offered. “I’ll go.”

  Yeah, no.

  “Sorry, sweetness. No. They want you there. In fact, this house isn’t as safe as it should be. We are getting out of here. Sarah, take her to get a bag. We leave in five.”

  She waited for the woman to steri-strip his arm, and then she took her away.

  “Where are you taking her?”

  “Texas.”

  “What?” Dakota asked. “If we need her to do a drop,” he began.

  “Listen up. Would you let your woman do something so freaking insane as that?” he asked.

  He had Dakota there.

  “No. It’s a trap.”

  Exactly.

  “How about you?” he asked, pointing at Rogue.

  “Uh, yeah. Well, the only person who was ever ‘my woman’ hates me. I’d take her out before she could take me out,” he teased, trying to lighten the mood.

  “See? Ignore him.”

  “I have a place. She’s going with me. We are going to leave immediately. It’s a long drive.”

  It wasn’t, but they didn’t need to know that. He was going to hide his woman right under their noses.

  When Stella came in, with Sarah, Zayn grabbed the woman. Not his, but Dakota’s. He whispered in her ear.

  “Got it?”

  She nodded.

  “Only one person knows my address. I trust Sarah. She’s the only one in this group that I know won’t make a mess of this.”

  “Thanks,” Dakota stated.

  “No offense.”

  “None was taken.”

  “Maybe I should do the drop to save them,” Stella offered, trying to help.

  “Uh, no.”

  It was time to give her the bad news.

  Rogue took this one.

  “Stella, honey, we saw the video. The person is dead serious. They killed Maia on the video.”

  She gasped.

  “Oh, Daddy! I’m so sorry,” she said, beginning to cry. She went into his arms, and he hugged her.

  “That’s why you can’t do this, Stella. They will likely kill you the second they find you.”

  She understood.

  “Okay, I’ll go over with Zayn.”

  He looked confused, but then he got it.

  “Sweetness, it’s go under.”

  She went into his body next. “Sorry. I’m a doctor. What do I know about this kind of thing?”

  He cuddled her close to his torso. No one was getting her. “You have my number. Don’t use it unless it’s an emergency. I don’t trust anyone.”

  Yeah, not with her life.

  “Be safe,” Dakota said, shaking his hand. “Grab some fire power in the war room.”

  He laughed. “Is that what we’re calling it?”

  “Yeah, we are.”

  He stared into Dakota’s eyes. “I need your word on something.”

  “What?”

  “I need you both to handle Chesky Jensen for me. I need you to promise me as soldiers, brothers, and partners that you will not let him get away.”

  He held out his hand.

  Rogue grabbed his wrist like warriors did. “I swear on our lives, Joh-sdah-dah-nuh-tlee.”

  He took the oath of a brother.

  Dakota grabbed their joined wrists. “I won’t let him get away with what he’s done. Protect your woman. We’ll have your back.”

  “Law aside?” Zayn asked. “Can you put aside the past life and realize that this is a new game?”

  He glanced over at Sarah.

  “I can.”

  “There will come a time when we will stand for each other. I stand now, Joh-sdah-dah-nuh-tlee,” he said, repeating what Rogue had said.

  Zayn believed them.

  “God! I hope that wasn’t something like I love you,” he teased.

  Rogue stared at him.

  “Really?”

  “Maybe you’re gay. How do I know?” Dakota teased.

  Rogue rolled his eyes.

  “In Dakota’s defense, you do look pretty all dressed up in your fancy duds,” Zayn teased.

  He flipped them both off.

  “Let’s get this taken care of,” Dakota said as Zayn and Stella walked away.

  They were racing against the clock, and time was NOT on their side.

  * * * H U N T E R * * *

  They watched as they left the building.

  It was easy to see him. He was built like a brick shithouse. There was no way that they were going to slip away.

  “Should we follow them back to the house or should we sit here?” he asked.

  “You screwed this up. You were supposed to destroy that man’s life.”

  He shrugged. “Hey, I didn’t know they were going to be fornicating. He was on top of her. How was I supposed to be prepared for that?”

  “Whatever. We are following them. She’s the key to all of this. If we lose her, we’re screwed. He loves her. We’re going to make him pay.�
�

  He laughed.

  “You’re horrible.”

  “So?”

  “What did he ever do to you?” he asked, as the car pulled out of some trees to follow them back into the city.

  “He was born.”

  “Someone is cranky,” he teased.

  A gun was put in his face.

  “Listen to me, Chesky, if you want to get your money in this deal, we have to do it right. Her father will keep paying. He’s not going to pay forever for Maia and Mercedes. This is about the girl he loves more than anything.”

  He pushed the gun out of his face.

  “I get it. We’ve been partners a long time. We can dump Mercedes now. You know keeping her around is a risk. We can’t take that chance.”

  He had a point.

  “Okay. You handle it. I don’t want to know. You’re the one that handles this kind of thing.”

  Oh, it was his specialty.

  “I’ll make sure she’s taken care of and the right way.”

  “Don’t leave any evidence.”

  He laughed. “I’ve been doing this a long time. This isn’t my first day at this. First, we let the boys have some fun.”

  “Whatever.”

  He made a call.

  The plan had changed.

  It was time to lose the evidence.

  They were upping their game.

  And Danforth’s first born was the golden goose.

  And she was going to lay, and lay, and lay.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Monday Mid-Morning

  B ack at the house, they’d just said goodbye to Zayn and Stella. They were going to work out of her father’s house, but he was hovering, and they wanted to take that video apart. No one wanted him to suffer as he watched his wife being shot.

  Again.

  And Again.

  And…

  It was brutal when he actually forced them to let him see it. He said he was ready, and that he needed to see it to make sure, so they let him.

  He wasn’t ready.

  Who would be?

  That was something you couldn’t prepare for on a good day, let alone after finding out that hope was pretty much gone.

  So, they headed back to the base, and it was already beginning to feel like a home. They dropped down onto the couch and were having some sandwiches that Dakota whipped up.

  “Can your laptop pinpoint Chesky Jensen?” he asked, drinking some sweet tea.

  “We can try.”

  Rogue pulled out earbuds and plugged them in. “I’m going to start working on that video. Maybe I can pull something from the surroundings.”

  “That’s a good idea. I say go for it,” Dakota offered.

  The room went quiet as Sarah researched and Rogue watched and re-watched the video. A good forty minutes went by before there was a beep.

  They all looked up.

  “Tell me you have him.”

  She glanced over. “Well…”

  “Come on, my lucky research girl. You have to have something.”

  “I confirmed what Charlotte told Zayn. I have a credit card hit on one of his aliases for about one thousand dollars.”

  That had Rogue pulling out his buds. “Cash advance?” he asked.

  She scrolled. “No, and it’s reoccurring, but the addy keeps changing.”

  “The boat.”

  She smiled. “Yep. He was there last night. I can pinpoint a pattern,” she began.

  They watched her work.

  “If his pattern holds out, he flips between aliases every other night. Tomorrow, he should be there under the name of…Stan Glover, Patrick O’Malley, or Lewis Carahah.”

  She leaned back and gave Dakota a high five. “We have him.”

  “Yeah, now, we need to get on that boat,” he said, knowing that this was just the beginning of the hunt for Chesky Jensen.

  They both looked over at Rogue.

  He laughed.

  “It’s not that easy. You can’t just stroll onto that boat. You have to have an invite or be invited by someone who frequents the gambling holes in this town.”

  They kept smiling.

  “What?”

  “I bet Charlotte can get us in.”

  He stared at them.

  “NO!”

  Dakota didn’t give up. He was hell bent on playing matchmaker. If not with Zayn, then with this man.

  Why?

  He had no idea, other than he liked being with Sarah, and men shouldn’t be alone. They were better paired off. Look how happy he was, and Zayn too.

  “Care to go see her and ask her for us?” he asked again, crossing his fingers.

  Again, he got the look.

  “Not if I was on fire and she had the only fire extinguisher in the county. That bridge burned down. I left her, and I don’t plan on going back. We were toxic.”

  He didn’t get why this man was so ‘afraid’ of a woman. There had to be more. Rogue Ravenscroft was a killer. He was a con man who sold guns to despotic leaders, and he was afraid of a tattooed woman?

  Okay, he had to ask.

  “Why did you leave? What are we missing? You’re not a wuss. You could take her.”

  He leaned back.

  How did he explain something he didn’t know for a fact? His gut told him to leave. His brain told him to run. He figured out a way to get him to understand.

  “What do you feel for Sarah?”

  “I love her.”

  He thought it out. “I thought I loved Charlotte, but I wanted more. I wanted what you have.”

  He pointed at them cuddling.

  “That’s what I sought.”

  “Okay.”

  They understood that.

  “When I mentioned that kind of relationship, she laughed. She told me that she wasn’t settling down. It made me feel like I was less than her. My whole life, I’ve had to pretend I was okay when people said shit, but that one time…it rubbed me raw.”

  “Uh okay, so you left?”

  “Not immediately. I tried to get her to give me more. I tried to include her in my circle, I tried to be romantic, go on dates, and imagine how difficult that is with my life and hers. We can’t just have dinner in a restaurant—not without getting shot. Then there was my mother.”

  Dakota didn’t laugh. He really thought the man was waiting for it. This had to be a huge part.

  “I asked her to meet my mom.”

  They waited.

  “She’s important in my life. My mother matters to me. She’s all I have. My dad knocked her up in her youth, and she didn’t abort me or dump me. She raised me as a single woman.”

  “And what happened?”

  “They met.”

  “And?”

  He laughed.

  “It wasn’t good. My mom hated her right off the bat. She tried to be nice, but Charlotte…she’s not the kind of girl you bring home to mom. That’s why I punched you in the face. Not because I was in love with her, but I am so tied up in knots over protecting her and I don’t know why. See the difference? She’s a bad girl, and Sarah…she’s good.”

  He pointed at her.

  “Should I be insulted?” she asked. “I can be bad.”

  He laughed. “Down girl.”

  “No, but my mom is easy going. I get it from her,” Dakota offered.

  “So I’m screwed.”

  He grinned at her. “Yep.”

  They focused on the man sitting there.

  “So, after that disastrous dinner where Charlotte left, she said I got chilly. I did. Was it my fault? Maybe, but I wanted more. She wasn’t willing to meet me halfway. I was willing to settle down. Trust me when I say that’s huge. I wanted what you both have. I watch Zayn with Stella. Love, at first sight, is for only the lucky—if it even exists.”

  “It does exist, Rogue. If she wasn’t the one, the right one is waiting for you to find her. I knew the second I saw him,” Sarah offered. “I was introduced at work, and that need was there. I was pretty sure I�
�d marry him one day.”

  He squeezed her hand. “We will.”

  He wanted that in the worst way. Rogue wanted that feeling of safety with someone.

  “She and I didn’t have love at first sight. As we began fighting, I realized she and I couldn’t be a unit. I had a tumultuous life without a father. He bailed, and I couldn’t see myself having another internal battle like that. I wanted some happiness for a change. When I said I was going to stop doing this kind of thing, she asked about money.”

  “Uh oh.”

  “I know. Do you ask Dakota about money?” he asked Sarah.

  She laughed. “Uh, we were both slaves to the man. We don’t have money. We have medals of honor.”

  She had a point.

  “She was worried I couldn’t buy her things and give her stuff. It freaked me out.”

  “I would have been worried too,” Dakota stated.

  “Yeah, and now she’s running ‘Purgatory’ and in the thick of it. I feel guilty like I led her down that route with my ill-gotten gains. She loved the money and got greedy. I made her into that beast.”

  It was nice that he trusted them enough to share.

  “I didn’t want to create a life, argue, and have a kid see that. My mom didn’t marry my father because he was a criminal. I get it from him. I didn’t want to start a life and have that over me.”

  “Did your mom ever marry?”

  “Nope. She threw herself into raising me. She swore he was the love of her life, but he was trouble. She waited for him. I think she’s nuts, but she is happy alone. In a way, I’m glad. He wouldn’t have been good for her at that point.”

  They got it.

  “Is that why you want to find him?”

  “Yeah, to give my mom one last moment. She’s sick. She’s dying. Her last wish is to say goodbye to a man who left her. Oh, the irony.”

  Sarah touched his arm. “I’m so sorry, Rogue. Is there something I can do? I can help you.”

  He patted her hand.

  “See? That is what I was looking for in a partner. You’re lucky, Dakota. You found it. I wanted a woman who would say that, even if she thought my mother is a pain in the ass because I would do the same. Relationships can’t be all take, and Charlotte was no give whatsoever.”

  Well, now they would stop pushing it.

  Clearly, he was over her.

  “I allow everyone to think it was my fault that I left. They assume I’m like my old man. I’m not. I’m like my mom. I hold out for hope.” He paused. “Okay, I am like my old man. I’m as dirty as the day is long, but if I found ‘HER’, I’d love her forever like my mother loves that rat bastard father of mine.”