Betrayed: Military MC Romance (Hell's Fire Riders Book 2)

by K. J. Dahlen

“I’m going to call my old C.O. in Iraq and tell him about the hit list over there. They can protect their own. You said your men could find and disarm the bombs. Then we can hunt down this little bastard and put him out of our misery.”

  “Sounds like a plan to me,” Boomer agreed.

  “I have more data to decode,” Trudy told them. “I’d better get on that while we have time.”

  “Get after it then, baby girl. We need to know everything we can before we get under way.” Boomer smacked her on the ass as she passed him.

  Dewey glared at the other man. When Trudy was sitting at the other table lost in thought he asked Boomer, “So how did you meet Trudy?”

  Boomer glanced at him then turned to study Trudy. “Maybe you should ask her. It’s not my story to tell.”

  Dewey shook his head. “I don’t have time for that. I need to know what kind of person she is and if she can be trusted.”

  Boomer nodded. “I can understand that. I still think it’s for her to decide but I can say this, I met her seven years ago. Some lowlife drug dealer had caused an accident that trapped her sister in her car and he and two others were beating the hell out of Trudy. Old Cyrus, myself and two of my boys taught the drug dealer and his friends some manners then we took care of baby girl and her sister. We’ve been friends since then.” He turned to stare at the other man. “I’ll tell you something else, if she’s on your side you got nothing to worry about. She’s true.”

  “So what’s her deal then? Do you know?” Dewey asked.

  Boomer nodded. “Yeah, I know. Her old man kicked her out when she was fourteen. She messed up the drug dealer and sent him to prison for three years and her old man found out about it. She wasn’t involved with the dealer, her brother was and the little bastard allowed her dad to kick her out. She’d been on the streets for about four years when I met her but even then, she knew how to survive. She worked hard and got her GED when she was fifteen, then she learned everything she could about how a computer works and she’s been doing very well on her own.”

  “We saw her place earlier today. She has quite the setup,” Dewey agreed. “I still don’t understand how she could decode everything.”

  Boomer laughed. “She once told me she sees patterns in her mind and ever since she was a little girl, she’s been reading everything she could find about codes and how to break them. She plays everything down but that girl is an asset the government would very much like to meet.”

  A while later, even more men bearing the Crimson Tide cut came to the compound. Another dozen men joined Boomer inside the shop.

  Parker joined Trudy at the desk and took her hand. “Have you found anything about the location of the bombs yet?”

  Trudy glanced up at him as if in a daze. Blinking her eyes, she focused on his face and smiled. “Sorry, I was concentrating so hard, I was lost in my head. Yes, I think I found the bombs.” She began going through the papers on the desk. Picking one from all the others she got up and joined Boomer, Dewey and the others. Handing the paper to Dewey she said, “This is the only mention of places with the bombs.”

  Dewey searched the cities listed and passed the paper to Boomer.

  After Boomer looked at it he said, “We need copies of this list.”

  Trudy noticed all the extra people and making her way over to Cyrus, she gave him a hug. “Hey, there.”

  Cyrus enfolded her in a hug and mumbled, “Bout time you noticed me, baby girl.”

  Trudy giggled as she hugged him, then turned to the man sitting next to Cyrus. “Hey there Tracker, how are things?”

  Tracker snorted. “You just laid a shit storm on us and ask how things are?” He shook his head. “Things are fucked up big time, girl.”

  “Hey, I didn’t plan this picnic, some other asshat did.” She chuckled.

  “You did good work as always,” Tracker commented before he grabbed her and hugged her hard. “Now, it’s our turn to shut him down.”

  “Let’s hope you can.” She looked toward the map behind her.

  Tracker turned her and wrapped his arms around her. “We aren’t gonna let that happen, believe me on that,” he whispered in her ear.

  Trudy shuddered. “God, I hope not. So many people will die if that happens.”

  Boomer came up to Tracker and handed him one of the papers in his hand. “This is a list of places Trudy believes the bombs are hidden. We have a schedule here, so we need you guys to leave as soon as you’re ready. We have no idea what you’re gonna find, so be prepared for anything.”

  Tracker studied the paper. “How long have these bombs been in place?”

  “Some have been in place for a number of years,” Dewey answered. “The man who placed them was with our unit in here and in Iraq for several years. We lost touch over little over a year ago. We thought he was killed but according to Wyatt, he simply walked off with the soldiers who set off some bombs in our path.”

  “What a nice guy.” Cyrus scoffed.

  “Yeah, we’re still looking into his background,” Parker told them. “We haven’t had time to discover anything yet.” He motioned toward the map. “We had to figure this out first.”

  Tracker nodded toward Trudy. “She’ll figure him out. If anyone can find him, she can.” He got to his feet and glanced at the others in his group. “Okay boys, let’s dance.” He gazed at Boomer. “We’ll call in when we’ve located the bombs and taken care of them.”

  Boomer nodded. “Take care of yourselves boys and all of you come back alive. Don’t let this bastard win.”

  “No chance of that big guy.” Tracker laughed.

  Trudy watched as the twelve men left the compound. She said a little prayer for each of them to come home safe.

  Cade chose that moment to return from the grocery store with the back of his truck loaded with food stuff. Everyone grabbed a couple of bags and brought them inside. Trudy went back to her desk and Cyrus began unloading the bags.

  Boomer asked Dewey if he had a hotplate and a grill and when it arrived, Boomer told them to leave the cooking to Cyrus. Boomer then motioned for Dewey to follow him.

  They both walked outside and Boomer came to a stop beside the second shed. “So what happened to your team in Iraq?”

  Chapter Four

  Dewey exhaled deeply and tipping his hat back, he ran his fingers down his face. “We were there to secure the area when shit hit the fan. The Taliban weren’t supposed to be there but as we started our recon, a team came out of the huts and began firing on us. They breached our line where Patrick Rivers was supposed to be and the next thing we know, a blast took out one of our own. When the smoke cleared, we had one dead, I was wounded and two more were missing. We never did find out what happened to them until yesterday when Wyatt Gage showed up with a bunch of papers we knew nothing about.”

  “What’s the story with this Patrick Rivers?”

  “According to Wyatt, Patrick Rivers walked away from his post and joined the Taliban. He’s the one behind the plot to break our nation and destroy our military.”

  “Is this guy one of us?” Boomer wanted to know.

  Dewey shrugged. “That, we don’t know yet. I’m going to have our tech guy look into his background.”

  Boomer shook his head. “Let baby girl do that. If he’s got something to hide, she’ll find it. She is the best at what she does.”

  “She seems awfully young for what she does.”

  Boomer grinned. “She’s young in truth, but she has skills like no one you’ve ever seen before.”

  “So my tech guys says.” Dewey crossed his arms over his chest.

  “Her old man is military, did you know that? He’s one of the big shots.”

  Dewey raised an eyebrow. “She never said anything about that.”

  “She wouldn’t. She doesn’t talk about him much but I did some checking on my own. Trudy Chase doesn’t exist. I don’t know her real name but her sister is in Port Arthur under an assumed name. She’s living in a housing unit for the bli
nd. She’s hiding for some reason and it’s not from the drug dealer.”

  “What happened to that guy anyway?”

  Boomer smiled. “Let’s just say his body will never be found and leave it at that.”

  Dewey held his hand out and when Boomer shook it he said, “Good man.” He paused then asked, “What about the brother?”

  “She doesn’t talk about him much. I do know his first name is Ronnie but not much else.” He paused then added, “She has nightmares sometimes. She gets caught up in the beating she took and it scares the hell out of her. It took a really long time for her to be comfortable around us. Big men like us scare the hell out of her. We remind her too much of the guys that laid a beating on her and her sister. That’s why she has the dogs, although Ivory belongs to her sister. I don’t have a clue why Trudy has her but Ebony is trained to protect her and wake her from the nightmares.”

  “Parker told us some of this already. She’s friends with his sister Janet,” Dewey explained. “He’s known her for about five years now.”

  “Then she trusts him and in turn, trusts the rest of you. It takes a lot for her to trust anyone. If you betray that trust, she’ll be gone in an instant and you’ll never see her again.”

  “What makes you think I’d betray her?” Dewey felt insulted.

  Boomer laughed. “I’ve seen the way you look at her. She may be unaware of it yet, but you want her.”

  Dewey chuckled. “I may want her but I’m too old for her. She’s what? All of twenty four? I’m over twelve years older and a hell of a lot more experience than she will ever have. I’ve seen things she can’t imagine.”

  “War does that to a man but I’ve also seen the way she watches you.” Boomer nodded.

  “And how is that?”

  “I think I’ll let you find that out on your own.” He shrugged. “Of course, I could be wrong, altogether.”

  Just then, Cyrus stuck his head out of the shop and called out, “Lunch is ready.”

  Boomer got up and began walking toward the shop. “Can you and I and the Marine work together to end this?”

  Dewey nodded. “It’s going to take all of us to bring this bastard down.”

  Boomer stopped and turned to stare at hm. “If you hurt her, I will break you into tiny pieces and feed you to the gators, I hope you understand that.”

  “I hear you, old man.”

  When they got into the shop, everyone was busy eating. Cyrus had made a big batch of spaghetti that smelled delicious. Grabbing their plates, Boomer joined Trudy at the desk and Dewey sat down next to his own men.

  Parker sat back and noted the look on his Captain’s face. Dewey was watching Boomer and Trudy with a frown.

  “So Captain, what do you want us to do?” Cade asked from the other side of Dewey.

  “I think we should see what we can find out about Patrick. If he is behind this, we need to figure out what his next step is going to be.”

  Colten heard their plan and nodded. “I’ll see what I can find out.”

  Dewey sat back and glanced at his men. ”Boomer thinks Trudy should do the background check on Patrick. He thinks she’ll find more than you can.”

  Colten agreed. “He may be right about that but I can get it started.”

  “Aren’t you the least bit upset about that?” Stone asked following the conversation without saying anything before now.

  Colten shrugged. “Why should I be? She’s got some mad skills. Besides, we wouldn’t have the information we have without her.”

  “What’s our next step boss?” Parker asked.

  “I need to make some calls. We need to alert our guys in the sandbox what’s coming,” Dewey informed them.

  “Who are you going to call?” Cade asked.

  “I thought I’d put Brag in charge of the command.”

  “I need to give you the location of the village I was held him.” Wyatt agreed. “The Taliban will probably still be there.”

  Dewey nodded. When he got the info from Wyatt, he stood and left the building. Walking to his cabin, he went to his bedroom and inside his closet, he opened the safe hidden there. Once the safe was open, he took out the cell phone he had inside. This phone was a secure line. Sitting on his bed, he dialed the number he hadn’t used since he returned Stateside.

  When a gruff voice answered his call, Dewey grinned. “Hey there boss man, how is the weather where you are?”

  Colonel Brag Warren growled into the phone. “Mann, what the hell do you want? Are you thinking about coming back to this hellhole?”

  “Not a chance old man. Not a chance.” Dewey laughed at the suggestion. “I do need to give you some solid Intel though.”

  “What’s up?”

  “We uncovered a plot to assassinate the leading military leaders in the Middle East.”

  “Fuck me, how good is your Intel?”

  “Do you remember the day our world went to hell?” Dewey asked. “We lost one good man and two went missing. Well you ain’t gonna believe this but one of those missing men came home. When we didn’t hear from him in all this time we thought he was dead. He brought with him a plan of action that showed us we have a serious problem.”

  “What kind of problem?”

  “There is a series of bombs planted along the New Madrid Fault line that could break our country in half. There is also a hit list of the leaders of our military over there.”

  “Damn,” Brag Warren growled into the phone. “Where did this info come from?”

  “One of the missing men in our unit. We found out he walked off his post and into the arms of the Taliban. I think it’s safe to say, he isn’t one of us. We’re doing what we can to find out why but we were told he was a sleeper, sent here years ago to infiltrate our defenses and take back what he found out and use that info against us. He used the name Patrick Rivers.”

  “Who was the man that came back?”

  “Wyatt Gage. He was taken that day and held for four months. He escaped with some local help but went back to find out what the plan was. He brought some papers back with him. He didn’t know what the papers were but we were able to decode them. They were a map of what our country would look like after the explosion. It will literary break out nation in half and leave us broken. Hundreds of thousands will die and in the chaos that would follow, no one will survive.”

  “Can you stop it?”

  “We have men already on the problem. I have a list of names of the men you need to protect. Wyatt gave me the location of the village he was kept in, he said the Taliban is living there.”

  “Give me the location and we’ll wipe the bastards off the face off the planet,” Brag assured him. “What is our timeline?”

  “December 31st at the dropping of the ball in Times Square.”

  “Happy fucking New Year to us.”

  “We’re still decoding the info we got but I thought I needed to pass along this info to you right away.”

  “Thanks, keep this phone on you and call me back if you discover something else. I’ll keep you informed on our end.” Brag hesitated a moment before passing along info he had, “We’ve been monitoring chatter on our end about an American working with the Taliban. We didn’t want to believe it but now we have to. You just confirmed our worst fears.”

  “If it makes any difference, we don’t think Patrick is American. We don’t know that for sure just yet though, but we’re working on it.”

  “That doesn’t make me feel any better. If he is Iraqi, how the hell did he get into our military in the first place?”

  “We’re going to find out as soon as we can, sir.”

  Brag chuckled. “I like that you still call me sir.”

  Dewey chuckled and ended the call. There was still too much they didn’t know. He went back to the shop.

  Trudy glanced up as Dewey came back in. She watched him as he walked over to his men. Her lips suddenly felt dry as she studied his body. She heard Boomer chuckle softly beside her and she turned to look at him
. “What?”

  “For the first time since I’ve known you, you look hungry, baby girl.” he whispered.

  “Maybe for the first time I am,” she whispered back. “Too bad, it has to be now and for a man who won’t give me the time of day.”

  “Oh, I think he’ll give you more than the time of day, if you let him, that is.”

  Trudy frowned as she stared at Boomer.

  “I have a feeling he’s as hungry for you as much you are for him.”

  Trudy turned back to watch Dewey. He moved effortlessly through the room. She could only imagine what his body would feel like against hers. When he walked over to the desk, she had to swallow hard. She heard Boomer chuckle but ignored him.

  “Have you found anything else we can use?”

  Trudy shook her head.

  “Then I want you to dig into Patrick’s background. I want everything you can find out about him. I want to know what the man ate for breakfast three years ago, where he came from and if his family is still around.”

  “Speaking about family.” Boomer picked up the papers Trudy had just decoded, handing them to Dewey. “Why would your guy include notes about your families in these papers? Why would that info be important to him?”

  Cade got up from the table and walked over to them. “What do you mean info about our families? What the fuck do our families have to do with this?”

  “That’s what I was asking your Captain,” Boomer stated.

  Trudy hung her head and kept her peace. As the other men of Dewey’s unit gathered around, she didn’t look up at them.

  Finally, Dewey reached out and slowly lifted her chin. When she lifted her eyes to his he asked her softly, “Why do you think he has info about our families in his notes?”

  “I don’t know,” she whispered as tears filled her eyes.

  Dewey studied her for a moment before he asked again, “Why?”

  Trudy’s tears spilled out and over her cheeks. Closing her eyes, she felt Boomer’s hand on her shoulder.

  “Tell us what you’re thinking? Why would he include this info?”

  She opened her eyes and stared at Dewey. She didn’t want to see his pain but she had to tell him what she knew. She had to give them fair warning. “What is the one thing that men away from home talk about the most?” she asked softly. “What would be the one thing he could use to draw you guys out into the open?”