Betrayed: Military MC Romance (Hell's Fire Riders Book 2) (3 page)

The main focus held her computers. Four different monitors and several hubs filled the desk area. Filing cabinets separated this area from the rest of the room. The rest of the area was filled with two large TV’s, three sofas and two reclining chairs. There were even two large dog beds along one wall in the living room area. The whole area was clean and uncluttered.

“Who lives here?” Dewey finally asked.

“I do, why?” She turned to look at them.

“Why would you live here, instead of a house or apartment?”

“Why do you care where I live?” she asked with a glare.

“I don’t really care one way or the other,” Dewey admitted. “It just surprised me, that’s all.”

“I do have to ask you guys keep this place a secret.” She wrung her hands together. She hadn’t wanted to bring them here but in the end, she had no choice.

“How are we going to know when he gets here?’ Colten asked.

Trudy walked over to the wall behind them and pressed a button, allowing the panel to slide open. Several small monitors turned on and gave them a view of the outside from several angles.

“How is this possible?’ Dewey asked her. She’d surprised him again. All this was state of the art and he didn’t know why she would have it.

“I used the old security cameras,” Trudy explained. “I just had to reroute them.”

“Aren’t you the clever girl then?” Cade whispered.

Trudy glared at him but didn’t say what she was thinking. She had to be clever she’d done all this to protect not only her, but her sister as well. It was a harsh word out there and when you were hiding from bad people, it was even worse.

“Let’s get ready in case he shows early.” Dewey tried to break the tension.

“I’ll make some coffee.” Trudy headed for the kitchen. While the coffee was brewing, she made a plate of sandwiches. When she brought everything out to the table with the coffee, the sandwiches were gone within minutes.

Jake and Cade settled down in front of the outside camera system and the others settled down in the living room area.

Trudy sat at the kitchen table with her sandwich and coffee and watched them all.

Parker came to sit down next to her. “So this is where you live?”

Trudy nodded. “This is one of the places I stay.”

“Why do you hide here?” he finally asked.

For as long as she’d know him this was the first time, he’d actually talked to her away from the company of his sister.

“I feel safe here. The world outside these walls can be an ugly place but no one can get to me here.”

Parker looked enraged for a flash of a second. “Did someone try to hurt you?”

Trudy shook her head. “They didn’t just try, they succeeded.”

“What happened?” he asked quietly.

She didn’t like to talk about it but she knew he needed to understand where she was coming from, so she told him the short version, “When I was fourteen, my dad threw me out of his house. I did something stupid and he thought I was to blame. My brother owed a drug dealer and I tried to get him out of it. I broke into his house and destroyed his supply. I didn’t know he had cameras and when the cops showed up to arrest me for B&E, he threw me out. He said no kid of his would use drugs under his roof. My brother didn’t tell him the drugs were his. I flipped the drug dealer and turned evidence over to the police and the dealer went to jail for three years.”

Parker sat back and listened as he clenched his fists.

“Anyway, after my dad threw me out, I had to learn to live on the streets. My sister would visit with me from time to time when she could escape my father’s scrutiny. Then one day just before my eighteen birthday, the dealer caught up with us. He’s just gotten out of prison and he came looking for his revenge. He caused her to crash her car and then he beat the hell out of both of us. If a bunch of guys on motorcycles hadn’t shown up, he probably would have killed us. As it was, I had three broken ribs, a busted ankle, several deep cuts and a concussion. My sister wasn’t so lucky. Because of the accident she was blinded.”

“What happened to the drug dealer?”

Trudy smiled. “No one really knows for sure but he’s never been seen since that day.”

“And the bikers?”

“They became my best friends.”

“Boss,” Cade shouted. “I think he’s here.”

Everyone scrambled to the monitors. They all watched as a man and a woman made their way along the outside of the building. At one point, the man stopped and looked directly into the cameras, showing his face. Dewey and the others gasped in astonishment.

“It is him,” Parker whispered. “Hot damn, he made it.”

Dewey tore his eyes away from the monitors and looked at Trudy. “Can you bring him in to us?”

Trudy got up and went to the front door, closing it behind her. A few minutes later, she opened it again and ushered in the other two. Turning around to view the men in front of her, she found six guns pointed at the three of them.

“Explain to me why you are standing here, instead of being dead in another country?” Dewey asked harshly.

Wyatt held up his hands carefully. His eyes never left Dewey’s. “I am alive only by the grace of God. The day everything went to hell, I was taken prisoner in all the confusion after the bombs went off. I was beaten, blindfolded and dragged through the desert for three days before we stopped. I didn’t know where I was or how many prisoners they took that day. I didn’t know if you guys were dead or alive yet. We were in a small village somewhere in the mountains when they took the blindfold off. I was chained to the floor like a dog for three more days before they came to talk to me.”

“Who are
they
and what did they want?” Dewey asked his former teammate.

“They were Taliban and they wanted information about US troops and where they were going.”

Dewey stared at him for a long time before he asked, “Did you give it to them?”

Wyatt snorted. “I am a SEAL Captain, I didn’t give them shit.”

Dewey nodded. “That’s good.”

“But they didn’t really need my info,” Wyatt explained.

“Why do you say it that way?” Dewey frowned.

“They got all the information they needed and more from one of their own.” Wyatt snarled.

“What are you saying?”

“They put a sleeper in our group. Someone we would have trusted, to get whatever info they needed to know.”

“Who would have betrayed us like that?” Cade shouted.

“The bastard we knew as Patrick Rivers,” Wyatt spat.

“What the hell are you telling us?” Parker demanded.

“I never learned what his real name was but he was at the same village I was. I saw him two days after we arrived. He was dressed as they were and I heard him speaking the same language they used. The same fuckin language he claimed not to know. I was beaten on a daily basis but he wasn’t. He roamed free and I learned he was one of them. I couldn’t believe it at first. I mean Patrick was one of us. We all went through SEAL training together.”

“What happened then?” Dewey asked. “You can lower your arms. Come on over to the table and finish your story.”

Wyatt sat down and the woman he was with sat next to him. She hadn’t raised her head since they got there.

Trudy went to the kitchen and got a couple cups of coffee. Sitting them down in front of Wyatt and his friend, she joined the others at the table.

Wyatt took the cup and handed it to the woman then took the other cup and raised it to his lips. Taking a sip, he groaned at the brew. “God, this is great coffee.”

“Get on with the rest of the story,” Cade prompted with a growl.

Wyatt nodded. “I learned a month after we got there that Patrick had just walked away from his post. He’d allowed the Taliban to get into the camp and after the bomb went off, he just walked into the desert with the rest of them.”

“How would that be possible?” Dewey asked.

The woman beside Wyatt raised her head to speak to them, “It wouldn’t really be that difficult to do.” Her dark hair and eyes sparkled under the florescent lighting of the room. One side of her face bore a jagged scar but the rest of her was beautiful.

“And you are?” Dewey asked.

“My name is Alea Jarden, I lived in that small village they brought Wyatt to,” she admitted. “I helped Wyatt escape.”

Dewey nodded. “Why are you helping us against your own people?”

Alea shook her head. “My people only want peace. We are not killers or Taliban but simple farmers. When the Taliban moved into our village, life became very hard. They used and abused us to the point where life no longer had meaning.”

“What do you know of Patrick?” Parker asked.

“The man you call Patrick is not American by birth. He is Iraqi,” she explained. “The Taliban leaders called him Serif, but I don’t think that is his real name. He told them he came from one of the lower towns. He bragged about how easy it was to fool your military.”

Dewey glanced a Wyatt. “How did you escape and what took you so long to come home?”

“They held me for four months before Alea could get me out. At first, I was headed to the nearest base I could find, then something happened and I had to go back. I heard chatter around the village that Patrick was coming back to the States to finish something that he started years before the war. The Taliban deemed it important and I had to find out what it was.”

“And did you find out?”

Wyatt shrugged. “I got into his house and grabbed some papers but I have no idea what they are. They are written in code and I can’t read them. The code is something Alea has never seen before either.” He reached around to the pack he carried on his back and opened it. He handed Dewey the entire stack of files. “We had to wait until we knew what was going on before we could come back. I didn’t want anyone to know where we were, so we didn’t come back through regular channels. No one knows I’m still alive and we have to keep it that way until we can figure out what these papers mean.”

“The Taliban are very excited for this mission and that can only mean one thing. Bad news for your country and many people will die,” Alea added.

“How did you guys get home?” Jake asked.

“We flew into South America then into Mexico two weeks ago and just walked across the border,” Wyatt replied. “We had to get forged papers to get into South America and Mexico but the rest was too easy.”

“Well, let’s get back to the shop and have a look at what you found,” Dewey suggested.

“So you got it going then?” Wyatt asked. They had all talked about what they wanted to do after they were done with the military life. They all wanted to work together and have a good future together, working on hot rods and old motorcycles.

Dewey grinned. “Yup, 10-7 became a reality. We met up with Stone Masterson and some of his boys. Together, we got the shop going, that and a whole lot more.”

“10-7?”

“10-7 is cop code for home,” Parker explained. “Some of us are cops and mechanics.”

Wyatt smiled for the first time in a long time. “That sounds like you and Cade.” Turning to Colten he asked, “Are you still into your computers?”

“Oh yeah, but I finally found someone who can beat me, hands down.”

“Oh, yeah? I didn’t think there was anyone like that out there,” Wyatt commented.

Colten grinned and motioned toward Trudy. “Have you met our charming hostess? Her name is Trudy and she’s the one who can best me. She found you in no time this morning.”

Wyatt turned to Trudy and smiled. “I was hoping you would be able to do that. I took a hell of a chance last night, giving you the message.”

Dewey pulled her aside, away from the others. “I think until we know more, you should stay with us.”

“Why?” she argued. “You got your guy back and I don’t see why I have to stay with you.”

“If what Wyatt is saying is true, there is a very real threat out there. I need to know the info we’ve got is secure and there is only one way to do that. We need to keep everyone who knows all together in one place, until we figure out what is going on. At this point, we can’t risk any leaks. When we decipher the papers Wyatt gave us and feel the threat isn’t as bad as he thinks, then you are more than free to go anywhere you want but until that time, its best you are with us.”

“I’ll need to take some stuff back with me then.”

He nodded. “Bring whatever you need.”

Looking less than happy, she stomped to the bedroom area and began to pack some clothes. Then she went to her computers and gathered some of her things. She packed a couple of her laptops and using a key code, she opened a safe in the floor, hidden by a rug, then added the discs and flash drives. Finally, she put her stuff by the front door and waited until they were ready to leave.

Twenty minutes later, Dewey got everyone together to go back to the compound. Wyatt and Alea rode back in Dewey’s truck along with Trudy.

When they got back to the compound, Wyatt sat there looking at everything. He’d been one of them dreaming about the future. Shaking his head, he complimented Dewey on making the dream a reality, “Damn Captain, you did it.”