Hope's Delta (Special Forces: Operation Alpha) (Delta Team Three Book 5)

by Riley Edwards

  “Who’s he talking to?”

  “Major General Downing,” Woof told him.

  Fuck.

  “Downing call Roe?” Jangles pushed.

  “Yep.”

  “Christ.”

  “’Bout sums it up,” Zip grunted.

  It was not a good sign when the Commander of the Joint Special Operations Command personally called.

  Someone knew more than they were saying.

  “There’s something we don’t know,” Woof voiced Jangles’ thoughts.

  “Did you try Nori?”

  “Don’t need to, he has her.”

  “Woof, brother, you don’t know that.”

  Woof turned his hard eyes to Jangles and pinned him with a deadly stare. “I know. And so do you. Demir left her for dead in that tunnel. He believes Zip killed his son. He knows we killed his brother. So don’t bullshit me. He might not personally have his filthy hands on her since he’s here in the U.S. but he has her. And we both fuckin’ know she’s got limited hours, so let’s not pretend my woman’s not on a goddamn clock.”

  Fuck.

  “I can’t get Ivy on the phone,” Duff announced, unchecked fear clear on his face.

  “Hold up,” Roe called.

  Duff jerked to a halt and narrowed his eyes but didn’t say what was very obviously on his mind. The man had no intention of waiting long and he gave zero fucks what Roe had to say about it. Out of all the men, Duff would be the second hardest to contain. That was, second to Jangles if Hope didn’t answer her goddamn phone.

  He dialed Hope again as Merlin entered, a harassed expression visible, and Jangles swallowed the lump in his throat.

  “No answer, and she’s not at the bookstore.” Merlin’s rough, thick voice hit Jangles like a sledgehammer.

  Five women unaccounted for.

  Five women who belonged to the men who Onur Demir wanted to seek revenge on.

  “Is there a snowball’s chance any of you will follow my order to stand down and allow Team Two to handle this?”

  Five resounding ‘nos’ rang out in the room.

  “We are in-country. Do not turn Killeen, Texas, into a war zone. Go get your women and bring them back here. Zip and Woof, you’re with me, JSOC and the State Department are feeling generous, intel’s coming our way.”

  Jangles didn’t spare his team a second glance as he shot out of the room and sprinted through the building.

  Chapter 13

  Hope’s body swayed, her stomach recoiled from the motion, and her head swam in confusion. And the more alert she became, the more aware she was that her body ached. No, that wasn’t right, her body hurt—all over, from the soles of her feet to her scalp and every part in between. But mostly her head pounded and her shoulders throbbed.

  She tried to roll to her back and moaned in pain.

  “Is someone there?”

  Wait, what?

  “Huh?” Hope croaked, and when she swallowed, it felt like sand was clogging her throat.

  “Who’s there?”

  Hope fought to open her eyes but was unsure if she’d succeeded in this endeavor because it was pitch black. Something tickled the bridge of her nose but she couldn’t move her hand.

  What in the world?

  “What’s going on?”

  “Oh, God. Hope?”

  It was the fear in the other woman’s voice that jolted Hope from semi-consciousness to fully awake. She struggled to move her arms, sit up, bend her legs—something, anything—but she was stuck. Unable to move any part of her body. And she realized she was blindfolded.

  “Gwen?”

  “Yeah. Oh, shit. They got you, too.”

  “Got me, too? Who? What are you talking about? I can’t move.”

  “Neither can I. I thought I was alone.” Gwen’s voice hitched before it broke into a sob.

  “Who, Gwen? Where are we?”

  “I don’t know.”

  A cold detachment washed over Hope. It was almost as if she were back in Beau’s bed, warm and cuddled under the mound of blankets he’d pulled up and over her before he’d kissed her forehead, then brushed her hair over her shoulder.

  “I was in Beau’s bed,” Hope muttered. “That’s the last thing I remember.”

  “I was behind the bookstore, setting out the boxes for recycling,” Gwen told her. “Then someone grabbed me from behind. I felt something prick my neck and I didn’t wake up until…until a little while ago.”

  “Are we moving?”

  “Yeah.”

  Hope became aware of a mechanical roaring sound. She sniffed but couldn’t place a single smell. She rocked side to side the best she could and realized her hands were tied behind her back. She felt around with the tips of her fingers—something hard, kind of scratchy but not abrasive. When she rubbed her palms against it, she was no closer to figuring it out.

  They were definitely moving, but it was smooth motion.

  “I think we’re in a plane,” Gwen said.

  “I think you’re right. Are we alone? I can’t see anything.”

  “I can’t either, remember?” Gwen hissed. “I thought I was alone until I heard you.”

  “Shit. I forgot. I’m not used to being tied up, blindfolded, and kidnapped,” Hope snapped back.

  “Sorry,” Gwen mumbled. “I’m a little freaked out.”

  Freaked out, that’s all?

  Hope was on the verge of a panic attack. But before she freaked the fuck out, she wanted to know where she was.

  “They’ll know, right?” Gwen whispered. “They’ll know and find us.”

  Jangles.

  Jangles and Merlin.

  Of course, they’ll know and find us.

  “Yeah. They’ll find us.” Hope nodded even though she knew Gwen couldn’t see her. “Can you move at all?”

  “No. My hands are behind my back and my legs are attached to something.”

  “Yeah, mine, too.”

  “What are we gonna do?”

  Hope didn’t want to think it, much less feel it, but she couldn’t help it—the relief she felt knowing Gwen was with her was overwhelming. She didn’t want to believe that Jangles wouldn’t look for her, but the truth was, she’d dodged him in the past, and if Gwen hadn’t been taken, too, Jangles might’ve thought Hope had ghosted him. But there was no chance Merlin would think Gwen would leave him. With them both gone, they’d look, and they wouldn’t delay.

  “We wait and we keep our mouths shut until we can see. Someone could be watching.”

  “Yeah. That’s smart.”

  That wasn’t smart.

  Smart would be knowing what to do while you were blindfolded, tied up, and kidnapped. But Hope only pretended to be strong. She perfected the tough-chick act—at the bar, the shooting range, with BF and his cronies, with the guys who came into the Ugly Mug. They all thought she was carefree and sassy. She threw attitude their way and they believed it.

  The truth was, Hope was none of those things.

  She’d been scared most of her life, therefore she knew fear. She’d felt it the first time Went had grabbed her bicep too hard and left bruises. She knew it when her parents had demanded she break up with him and she’d stupidly told Went and he yanked her by her ponytail and yelled in her face that was never going to happen. And she’d been scared out of her mind when Went charged her dad with a knife and started to stab him. Then her world went black—darkness seeped into her, unconscionable evil soaked her soul, and that was when she’d learned there was something beyond fear. It didn’t have a name, it couldn’t be described, it was a feeling that coursed through your veins. It coiled in your stomach, a cancer that fed until it consumed you.

  But right then, blinded and unable to move, Hope knew a new kind of fear—dread. The feeling one had when they were paralyzed. She couldn’t do anything, even if she knew what to do, she wouldn’t have been able to do it, because she couldn’t move.

  And sweet, funny, pretty Gwen was somewhere close and she could help he
r.

  Hope lay there in the darkness, her hands trapped and digging into the small of her back, her shoulders cocked at a painful angle, her head fuzzy and pounding, her nose tingling with emotion she was trying not to show, and her ankles bound and secured to something so she couldn’t even bend her knees. Gwen was beside her, and she decided that no matter what, she’d protect Gwen.

  When they got to where they were going, Hope would beg their captors to let Gwen go. She’d do anything they wanted. Sweet, pretty Gwen didn’t deserve this. Nope, whatever this was, Gwen absolutely didn’t deserve it.

  “Gwen?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You’re gonna be all right.”

  “So will you.”

  Before Hope could explain that her life didn’t matter, a moan filled the room, or the cabin, or the train car, or the ship hull—whatever kind of space they were locked in—the painful groan filled it and Hope froze.

  “What…where…oh, God.” The panicked voice sounded familiar but Hope couldn’t place it. She was reeling from the knowledge she and Gwen weren’t alone.

  “Ivy?” Gwen asked.

  Oh, shit.

  “Gwen?”

  Oh, fucking shit.

  “Yeah, it’s me. Hope’s here, too.”

  Chapter 14

  Jangles didn’t bother with his driveway. He pulled to the curb and slammed his truck in park. Not bothering to take the time to kill the ignition, he jumped out and looked at his house.

  Front door open.

  In one smooth motion, he brushed his shirt aside and pulled his Glock free from the concealed carry holster and racked the slide. His feet hadn’t slowed taking him to the porch. He listened. Nothing. Jangles cleared the front rooms and made his way to the bedroom.

  Empty.

  He went to the bed, touched the sheets, and found them cold. Fury engulfed his system and took him to his knees. His forehead hit Hope’s pillow that was sideways, mostly hanging off the bed, and he breathed in her scent.

  Fuck.

  Jangles got to his feet and looked around the room. The sheets and comforter he’d tucked around Hope before he’d left were tangled on the floor, the lamp on the nightstand broken and on its side. Her jeans, T-shirt, and shoes were still laying where she’d tossed them the night before.

  Which meant Hope had been taken from his bed, wearing only his tee and a pair of fucking panties.

  “Fuck!” he roared.

  A burn ignited—so hot, so deep, it scorched his chest.

  “I’m gonna find you,” he whispered to an empty room. “I’m gonna find you and bring you home.”

  Jangles turned on his heel and left.

  The war room was filled to capacity.

  Grover, Doc, Lucky, Trigger, Lefty, Brain, and Oz were huddled together on one side of the room, Roe was front and center, and Jangles and his team were squared off on the other side.

  “We’re playing this smart,” Roe repeated his earlier statement, the one that had started the standoff, and the air around them went from simmering to sizzling.

  “Smart would be sending us in,” Woof also repeated his earlier response.

  “If I send you in, I’m giving him what he wants, and you’d be walking into a trap.”

  “It’s not a trap if we know he’s laid it. Besides, you sending in Team Two is no different. They’d be walking into the same snare,” Zip added.

  “They’ll have backup. I’ll call in—”

  “Waste of time,” Jangles cut the commander off. “We’ve been there. We know the compound. We know Demir. We know the tunnels. We’re up to speed. It’d take hours to get another team up to speed. Hours they don’t have.”

  Roe clenched his jaw, his face paled, but he didn’t relent. “I can’t allow a bloodbath.”

  Jangles felt it, his control was dangerously close to snapping. Pain shafted through his heart thinking about Hope—how scared she was, if she was injured, being tortured—ugly images that plagued his thoughts until he couldn’t tamp them down. Couldn’t keep them locked inside.

  “My woman was taken from my home.” The words blistered Jangles’ throat as he said them. “From my bed. A place she should be safe. She was torn from the sheets I’d tucked around her just hours before, taken in nothing but my shirt and a pair of fucking panties. So, you’re goddamn right there’s gonna be a bloodbath. And if you think by sending in Team Two there will be any less blood spilled, you’re kidding yourself and you know it, Roe. Look at them, they’re itching to get their hands on Demir. Luckily for you, when we’re done the world will be a better place, one less piece of shit breathing. Now we’re wasting fucking time. Five women are being held hostage. Five civilians. And let’s not forget one of those civilians is Senator Fremont’s daughter. The media catches wind of this, the clusterfuck we’ll have on our hands—”

  Jangles clamped his mouth shut when a low menacing sound emanated from Duff at the reminder his fiancée, Ivy, was kidnapped—again. It hadn’t been too long ago they’d gone down to Costa Rica to get her. An operation that had ended with Ivy recovering from a gunshot wound.

  Roe glanced around the room, knowing Jangles was right. Even if by some miracle he managed to lock down Jangles and his team, Trigger and Team Two would not go in easy. They’d spill blood and they’d do it the same way Jangles, Woof, Zip, Duff, and Merlin would—with precision, with extreme violence—and they’d do it for the brotherhood.

  The commander walked to Jangles, shoved a piece of paper at him, and said, “Call this number. The man’s name is Tex. He can get you everything I can’t.” Roe paused, held Jangles’ gaze, and finally dropped the mask of Delta commander. Anger glittered in Rouvin Turano’s eyes, his face set to fury, and then he continued. “Go. Be smart. And whatever you do, don’t get dead.”

  Fucking finally they had the green light.

  Roe prowled to the door, turned to face the room, looked to each man with his gaze still hard, jaw tight, trying to keep his own emotions in check.

  “Transport’s fueled and ready. Good luck, men.”

  Hope was freezing her ass off, had been since she’d been carried off the plane. And the only way she’d known it was an aircraft was because when the wheels had touched the tarmac, she bounced and landed so hard she would’ve thrown up from the pain had she not been so scared. And she knew Gwen and Ivy had hit hard, too, because they’d both cried out in pain. Then she was carried off the plane, this was done in silence. Total and utter deafening silence. For her part, she hadn’t said a word because she couldn’t see, and that was so frightening any thoughts of protest died on her tongue. She also hadn’t struggled to get free because she didn’t know where she was, and without sight or the use of her limbs, she was literally at the mercy of whoever had been carrying her.

  The bumpy car ride had been the same.

  No one spoke. She couldn’t see or move but she could smell. And for some reason, the musky scent of cologne and leather freaked her out. In her mind, she’d pictured herself sitting next to an unbathed monster in a piece of shit junker car. Not a luxury ride next to a man who bathed and wore aftershave. Between the leather and the smooth ride even though they were cruising on what she’d assumed was a dirt road or one that was full of potholes, the drive hadn’t been as bumpy as it could’ve been.

  It wasn’t until she was carried from the car and set on her feet that the man spoke, and his only words were not to move. Therefore Hope didn’t move. She stood rooted, frozen in fear. She needed to play it smart and wait until she could see before she came up with a plan.

  And she prayed for the first time since her parents died.

  She prayed Ivy and Gwen were still with her and they hadn’t been separated and taken to different locations.

  So there she was, standing statue-still, like a coward, too afraid to move, while someone was working the ties around her ankles. She felt the rope loosen and finally drop around her feet. She bit back a cry of pain but only because the hands that had untied her
were now on her calves, and they slowly inched their way up to the backs of her knees. When they got to her thighs with no signs of stopping, self-preservation kicked in and she jerked her body forward while taking a step and slammed into something hard. Her face took the brunt of the impact and she cried out.

  “Stop!”

  A decidedly male chuckle rang out close to her ear and she lurched away, smacking her face a second time.

  “Don’t touch me!”

  No answer. But the hands were back, this time at her wrists. Seconds later, the rope cruelly slid over her chafed flesh until finally it unwound and her arms fell useless to her sides.

  Pins and needles raced up her arms, her shoulders cramped, and bile pooled in her mouth. So much pain, just from her arms being freed. Scratchy material brushed her bare arm, and she felt the man press close to her back. Her mind raced, trying to find a way to escape. Her legs were jelly but freed, her arms useless, and something was blocking the path directly in front of her, but if she could turn and body slam—

  Hope couldn’t finish her thought before the blindfold was ripped free and the blazing light pierced through the darkness. Before she could blink away sharp pain, a hand between her shoulder blades shoved her so hard she stumbled forward. Unable to get her balance or her arms to work, she could only twist at the last second so she landed with an agonizing thud mostly on her shoulder and hip, but the side of her head still slammed onto the concrete floor.

  “Holy fuck.” The voice was female, but with multiple blows to her head, Hope couldn’t stop her eyes from closing.

  “No, Hope, stay awake. Open your eyes.”

  “Hurts,” Hope mumbled.

  “Ivy, get her some water.”

  Suddenly, water sounded spectacular.

  “Open your eyes, honey, I’ll help you up.”

  Hope pried her lids open and immediately slammed them closed again, but not before she’d caught a glimpse of Destiny.

  Oh, no.

  “Destiny?”

  “Yeah, it’s me.”