Firethorn (Discarded Heroes)

by Kendig, Ronie

  She drew him close and kissed his cheek, inhaling the scent that was so like his father’s. “It’s time to leave. Are you ready for another trip?”

  Wary, dark eyes held hers. “Are we going to see Daddy now?”

  She dusted the silky black hair from his forehead. “Maybe. I don’t know.” She cupped his hand in hers, lifted the carrier and her purse, then turned toward the others. All similarly armed with two children, bags of belongings they’d accumulated in the weeks of solitary, the ladies of Nightshade once again faced the unknown.

  Eight heart-thumping minutes later, they were escorted back down the cement tunnel, into a secure elevator, and across a parking garage. Sydney hoisted the carrier up higher, the ache radiating through her abdomen, shoulder, and arms at Dakota’s hefty weight.

  Past a guard hut loomed a chain-link, barbed wire–topped gate. The two Marines flanked it as another Marine exited the hut and unlocked it.

  Sydney stepped outside, the bitter air tracing her neck and face. “Can I use a phone to get a ride to my home?”

  “Sorry, government use only.”

  She wanted to smack the smug look off the man’s face.

  “And I hate to be the one to tell you this, Mrs. Jacobs, but you don’t have a home.” He slid his hands into the pockets of the too-expensive suit. “In fact, none of you do. Not anymore. They’ve been seized.” “Come again?” Dani snapped. “What do you—?” “Until certain questionable activities conducted by General Lambert are investigated and cleared, including any involvement of your husbands, all assets are seized until further notice.”

  CHAPTER 15

  Cyprus

  Really? Did she have a brain? Trusting this man? It was no wonder she ended up owing Carrick the very air she breathed with stupidity drenching her brain cells.

  Calves burning as she pushed her way up the sandy and rocky incline, she glared at Legend’s back. At the broad shoulders that seemed to bear the weight of the world without so much as a flinch. Despite it all he had not complained. He’d ribbed her, prodded her, even taunted her, but even she knew most of it had been a form of stress reduction.

  The thought gave her a mental pause. The image of her first encounter with him skidded into her memory. And oddly enough, she realized that he’d already changed. The man in the prison scrubs had stood hunched. This man stalking up the beach toward a gorgeous Cyprian home moved with purpose and determination.

  He’s got a mission.

  Or at least she seriously hoped so. He’d just hopped over a waist-high white wall that encompassed an expansive property. To be on the coast and have this much—the owner must have a shiny shilling. She vaulted over the wall.

  “Hold up,” Griffin whispered and crouched in the anonymity the shadows provided.

  “What’s wrong?” Even keeping her voice down, it felt like a scream in the quiet.

  He shook his head, gaze locked on the home.

  Kazi traced the plaster glowing a peaceful blue under the caress of the full moon. Now this was a place she wouldn’t mind calling home. A sense of community nestled amid other terraced homes, yet an ocean of freedom was just a short walk back. But someone like her didn’t belong in domestic life. The idea of staying in one place more than a few months made her skin crawl. Too easy to trace.

  “Not home. Security system,” Griffin whispered.

  “I can probably disable it.”

  Griffin shook his head and indicated another home. There, cresting a slight incline on the other side of the road, the home overlooked an expansive estate. A bank of windows revealed a gorgeous interior. All lit up. Wide open.

  We’d be seen.

  He dropped to a knee and slumped back.

  Great. He intended to wait. The longer they stayed in one place, the greater the chance of being discovered. Surely Legend knew that. Surely he didn’t expect to sit here for hours on end.

  As she slid against the wall, hugging her legs, she glared at him. “Your hour is up.”

  He eyeballed her.

  Kazi looked away because in his expression she read the dare to offer something better. And there wasn’t anything better. Not exactly true—anything was better than sitting here waiting for death to come to them.

  She pushed away from the wall. “I’m going to scout out the area.”

  He caught her arm and tugged her down.

  Kazi shoved a hand into his chest.

  Griffin grunted, then snatched her hand free. “We wait.”

  “Waiting gets us killed.”

  “We wait.”

  Tremors zipped through her arms and legs, both out of weariness and agitation. Kazi threw herself back against the wall with a grunt. Wait? Wait for what? Someone to walk up and gun them down? Someone to call the authorities?

  If they’d just landed on Greece…. Over there, across the sea, she had options, knew people. Here, nothing. What they needed to do was take a boat. Jet across the waters. And she’d be back in control. She’d make contact with the general again and figure out the next step.

  His somber eyes begged for her to provide the solution.

  She couldn’t.

  “I’m going to knock on the door.”

  When he started to push up, Kazi’s heart jumped into her throat. “Wait!” She touched his arm. “Let me go.”

  “No.”

  “I’ll knock, and you stay by the date palm tree. Check out the house, and if it’s clear, then speak up.”

  “If not?” Warning simmered in his dark irises, the Cyprian moon glinting off his eyes.

  She smirked and strode into the open.

  “Kacie,” he hissed after her.

  After a quick check of her surroundings, Kacie stepped into the small covered patio and knocked. A few seconds later, light burst out from under the threshold seconds before it flooded her.

  Training kicked in and pushed one foot back.

  The door creaked open a couple of inches. Bushy, graying eyebrows hooded intelligent eyes. “Yes?”

  “I’m sorry.” Kazi planted a hand on the door, as if bracing herself, and reached for her shoe. “Sorry, I think I stepped in—” She intentionally stumbled and pushed into the door.

  It swung wide.

  The older man stumbled backward.

  “Oh!” Kacie steadied the man and let her gaze sweep the interior of the home. Simple but lavish all the same. And empty. “I’m so sorry!” What about the kitchen? “Forgive me.” Empty as well. “I thought—“

  “Dr. Golding,” Legend’s voice boomed from behind.

  Golding…a doctor? That’s interesting.

  The man straightened. His eyes went wide as he took a step back. Confusion yet a flicker of recognition. “Do I—?” He gasped and waved Griffin into the home. Quickly, he shut the door. “Yeshua is at the center of this, nachon?”

  Griffin hesitated. So did Kazi. But she’d let the lug work this one out on his own. The two obviously knew each other, and both seemed to have faith in God. She’d had it once. Or rather, her father had. He’d been devout in his faith. When he died, so did her desire for anything related to God. Not that she didn’t believe He was there. She just didn’t get why He let the things happen that happened. If He didn’t have time for her, to keep a man alive who devoted his every move to pleasing Him, then she didn’t have time for Him either.

  “As much as I’d like to agree, I’d be a liar if I did.” Griffin smoothed a hand over his head. “Listen, Dr. Golding, we are in one messed-up mess.”

  Golding stroked a neatly trimmed beard. “Yes, yes.”

  Griffin glanced at Kazi, his large frame filling the small doorway. Or maybe it wasn’t that the door was so small but that he was so big. “No, no.” Griffin scowled. “I don’t think you understand.”

  “He understands more than you could know, Legend,” came a voice.

  Griffin pulled straight.

  Kazi spun. “General!”

  Relief roiled through Olin as he stepped into the sitting area. Bu
t then it hit him. “Where’s Aladdin?”

  “They took him.” Kazi sneered at Legend.

  “He was messed up—bad. The authorities have him, probably at a hospital.”

  “I will make a discreet inquiry and locate him.” Dr. Golding lifted a phone from his pocket and stepped out onto the terrace.

  Olin saw the anger, the confusion, the frustration rippling through the face of the man known only as “Firethorn” in his above top-secret reports. Reports that seemed to have been somehow exposed.

  The man who’d helped him put the Nightshade team together stepped closer, hovering over him, his voice low but angry. “General, what is going on?”

  Olin touched the man’s upper arm, mentally noting his fingers did not even make it halfway around the muscle. “I share your anger.”

  Legend stared at him for a while. “If you shared what I was feeling right now, you wouldn’t be standing still. You shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t be here.” His deep brown eyes resonated with conviction. “But I knew—knew—you wouldn’t break me out if it wasn’t bad.”

  The unspoken warning that Legend had just risked everything he valued—respect and honor—to do this came through clearly. “It is. In fact, it’s worse.” Olin pointed to the long arrangement of chairs and low tables. “There is much to discuss. Let’s sit.”

  Soft light from the living room danced along the popping muscle in Legend’s jaw. Finally, he gave a single nod, stepped back, and stretched a hand toward Kazi, directing her to the seats.

  Surprise leapt over the milky complexion of the girl. And it was only then that Olin realized he’d never thought of Kazi Faron as a female so much as a very skilled and effective Polish-born operative. And yet the pink tingeing her cheeks awakened an awareness in him—and apparently in another man in this room.

  Or was that Legend just being the Southern gentleman he’d been raised to be?

  Once Kazi sat, Griffin took the chair to her right and Olin lowered himself onto the sofa, then met Kazi’s green eyes. “The final payment has been made. I will depend on your integrity and reputation, Kazi, to fulfill your obligation.”

  Griffin stared at her hard, no doubt questioning that integrity. He knew nothing of the woman except the obvious—she’d broken him out of prison and orchestrated Aladdin’s extraction from the hands of Palestinians intent on ripping the betrayal from his chest.

  Kazi said nothing and did not respond to Griffin’s nonverbal questions.

  “Legend, we are beyond protecting our identities. Someone knows who we are.” Heaviness pulled at his limbs, rife with exhaustion, agitation, and exasperation. Olin scooted to the edge of the cushions. “Things have gone downhill fast. We must figure out who’s holding that basket and pry it from them. A week ago, Charlotte had a dream—“

  “It was more like a nightmare.” The soft, gentle voice drifted from the room where his wife had gone for a rest. Charlotte glided into the room, pulling him to his feet.

  Griffin stood.

  On his feet, Olin extended a hand to his wife, looking at the others in the room. “Legend, you’ve met Charlotte before.”

  “Mrs. Lambert.” The big, surly former Marine nodded.

  This time Olin extended his hand toward Kazi. “And this is—“

  “Kacie Whitcomb.” She stepped in and offered her hand.

  It did not surprise Olin that she wanted her identity concealed. Olin watched the woman, an enigma of a covert operative, ever impressed with the way she maintained a strong presence despite her diminutive size. And next to Griffin the height difference seemed comical. With her white-blond hair wet and askew, she looked much younger than her midtwenties, more childlike and vulnerable than he’d ever seen her.

  “The dream.” Undaunted, Griffin pressed them.

  Easing onto the sofa, Charlotte wrapped her arms around herself. “I awoke drenched in sweat. I’d never had a dream like that—as if I’d already walked through a day of unimaginable horror. It was so clear and alarming that I immediately awakened Olin. In the dream, I saw Olin and me hurrying through the night to a waiting plane. On board a waiter arrived and handed out small plates of baklava, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. As the plane taxied, I looked out the window. There I saw my home, my friends, my entire life—and they vanished as if someone had swiped an eraser across a chalkboard.”

  Olin held his wife’s wringing hands, offering a vain thread of comfort. “I hadn’t told her about the events of the previous few weeks, though she detected my distress and angst, so this dream was not something I could dismiss.” The older couple shared a look before Olin focused back on Griffin. “We were on a plane out of the United States within two hours. I won’t bother with specifics, but know that Charlotte and I are here under false identities—we can’t be traced.”

  “Everything can be traced if someone wants to find it badly enough.” Kazi met Olin’s gaze with a fierce determination. “I found Aladdin, and he was buried deep.”

  “Exactly.” Griffin swiped a hand over his face. “You bought us time, but that’s it. Tactically, the smart thing would be to hide out, let us finish our mission, get the team back together.”

  “I had to amend our plans when things spiraled into utter chaos.”

  Intense dark eyes held his. “What happened?”

  “Someone is turning my life inside out, trying to find evidence of treason, espionage…. I don’t know what. I saw it coming, so I created a false trail and left, but not before sending another asset to retrieve Midas from Venezuela and another to the Kid.”

  Griffin hung his head and hooked his arms over his head, hands resting on his shoulder blades. With a groan, he straightened. “What about Frogman, Squirt, and Cowboy?”

  “Frogman and Dighton are MIA.” Olin eyed Kazi. “Max made contact with his wife to warn her, then both he and Dighton vanished.”

  Griffin peered up at him. “Cowboy?”

  “He’s your next assignment.”

  “Okay, wait.” Kazi sat straighter, her expression knotted. “This is my gig. You paid me, so why exactly are we dividing up the jobs?”

  “When I hired you, I needed an operative who could work under the radar, report back to me as progress was made. Since you left, someone escalated the situation. They came after me and the wives of my men.”

  Griffin drew back, as if a warrior drawing in his strength and focus to unleash on a foe. “Wives?”

  “Yes.” Olin ground his teeth. “They tried to kill them. I got them to a safe house, but that’s when things collapsed around me. I have no idea where the women and children are now, and I cannot find out. My normal means and access are completely shut down.” Each breath felt like fire. “We need this team back together. Now.”

  “Isn’t that dangerous?” Kazi finally looked at Griffin. “If they want you dissected, what’s to stop them from blowing you off the planet if you guys go after them?”

  Griffin’s shoulders seemed to swell with purpose and fury. “Because we’re going to blow them away first.”

  CHAPTER 1

  Unknown Location

  A voice warbled through the maze of discordant images. Burning buildings. Marble halls. Water. Fire.

  Marshall, can you hear me?

  Where was she? He could hear her, but only a gray smokescreen separated them. A strange warmth spiraled through his blood. He moaned.

  “Marshall?”

  He blinked. An angel stood beside him. Beautiful, amazing. “Narelle.”

  She quickly pressed a finger to his lips, then checked over her shoulder. “Shh. I’m using a jamming device.”

  He loved the sound of her voice, the Australian lilt to her words. But she wasn’t making sense. “What…?” He shook his head, trying to clear the fog from his brain. “Why? It’s a hospital.”

  “It’s not. I can’t really explain much right now. I’m going to find a way to get you out of here. You have to call me Kim. That’s the name I gave them as a nurse, okay? Got it
?”

  He frowned.

  She squeezed his hand. “Please trust me. Things are really stuffed up.” “Huh?”

  “Stuffed—messed up.”

  “Oh. Okay, sure.” Did he really care as long as she was here with him? “I don’t get it.”

  “There’s too much. You were shot, and…” Her brown eyes danced over his face, then dropped to his arm.

  “Shot? When…?” What wasn’t she telling him?

  Slowly, she looked at him, her voice quieter this time. “Just get better, okay?” She snapped her head around. “Quiet, someone’s coming.” Quickly, she went to work. With both hands poised on the tower, she looked over her shoulder.

  His father bled from a blurry image in the background to one more in focus.

  “Hey.” Weird. His father had never cared the other times he’d been in the hospital, even that first day after the accident when Mom died. Melanie had been there, faithful and loyal sister that she was. Until she married Nathan Sands, ticking off Marshall in a big way.

  “Evening, son.” Even a simple greeting sounded formal, as if part of a speech given on the floor of the Senate. His father strolled to his bedside. “I thought I’d drop by the hospital and see how you were doing.”

  Blinding flash of the obvious, Dad.

  “Besides killer pain and another victory badge, I’m fine.”

  Hold up. Hadn’t Rel said he wasn’t in a hospital? Then why was his dad saying he was in one? The confusion swam a mean circle around his mind.

  A strong pat on his arm. “Well, get better, Marshall.”

  “Sure, Dad.”

  “You’re his nurse?”

  Rel angled herself toward him, her attention fastened on the charts. “Yes, sir. I…I started today.” She turned and offered her hand.

  His father accepted the greeting. “If he needs anything, just let them know. It’ll be taken care of.”

  Without a good-bye or another word, Warren Vaughn strode out of the room. And as he did, in the seconds between the door closing and his father moving out of view, Marshall saw the wood paneling that lined the upper attic of their home.