Collateral Damage (35 page)

“It’s like playing X-Box,” the Ranger captain whispered beside him with a grin.

“Nah, man, way cooler than X-Box,” Ryan added, waiting for command to reply to his message. He and the captain waited in the darkness while the rest of the platoon spread out around them in a protective circle. Nothing moved on the hillside, the cool night breeze barely stirring the air.

The response came less than fifteen minutes later over Ryan’s headset. “Target confirmed.”

Fuck, yeah.
“Roger that.” His heart thudded in anticipation as he got on his radio and contacted the pilot for this op. As he spoke he could feel the Ranger captain watching him, an almost palpable current of excitement coming from him.

Using his laser designator rangefinder set up on a short tripod in front of him, Ryan helped mark the target location and verified the coordinates with the pilot. A new feed was patched through to his device. On screen he watched the bird’s eye view of the ground from the new drone overhead. Launched from a FOB less than twenty miles from here, it took only a matter of minutes to arrive on station.

“Affirmative, target coordinates confirmed,” Ryan murmured through his mic to the pilot sitting back at his station somewhere stateside. An American soldier about to deliver some serious payback to the asshole who’d killed their president and attacked JBLM. It was rumored that Safir was terrified of the possibility of dying by drone strike. Sheer, poetic fucking justice that one was about to end him now. “Green light to engage target in three, two, one.”

Ryan’s gaze remained riveted to the small screen in his hands as it showed a missile streaking away from the drone. Setting the device down, he peered through his rangefinder at the cave location on the bottom of the far mountain ridge across the valley.

Three seconds passed, then a distant boom shook the air. A bright orange fireball erupted into the night sky. “Good hit,” Ryan told the pilot. “Stand by for confirmation.”

Using his remote control device he accessed the feed to the smaller drone he’d carried here in his ruck. He flew it over top of the target and used the powerful camera to zoom in on the destruction. A large chunk of the mountainside was missing, blown away by the missile. Amidst the piles of debris, he started counting the heat signatures lying in the rubble.

Three scattered in one grouping. None of them moving.

A fourth trying to drag himself away, but he collapsed after only a few feet.

A fifth lay in two pieces at the base of a large boulder.

And a sixth lay twitching in the dirt at the bottom of the hill.

Ryan zoomed in on all of them. Using the device’s night vision equipment, he took pictures to send back to HQ for identification. But when he saw the face of the sixth target up close, the wide open, sightless eyes, he already knew.

Triumph roared through him. Smiling in satisfaction, he muttered, “See ya in hell, motherfucker.”

Two months later

“Are the others here yet?” Honor asked Erin, craning her neck to see beyond the flagstone entryway at the edge of the beautifully decorated lawn of the resort where the ceremony would be held.

She’d been to Leavenworth a couple of times, years before, and loved it. The former logging town nestled in the heart of the Cascade Mountains had been turned into a Bavarian-style tourist town and provided the absolute perfect setting for Cam and Devon’s wedding.

It was also the first real break she’d had since the attack at JBLM, so she’d been looking forward to it for weeks now. Especially because it meant spending more time with Liam.

“All accounted for,” Erin said to her, “I’m glad we’re finally all together again—pretty sure we’ve all been looking forward to having something to celebrate.”

“Tell me about it.” The country was still in mourning but beginning to heal in the wake of the attack. For the perpetrators, justice had been swift and brutal.

Safir was dead, killed by a drone strike along with his inner circle, and the hacker named Omar, who’d worked at Boeing Field and stolen the drones, had been caught trying to cross into Mexico two days later. He’d spend the next few months rotting in a SuperMax prison while his lawyers appealed his sentence, but it wouldn’t change his fate. Sooner or later he would die by lethal injection for his crimes.

Andrews’ story had been deeply disturbing to her. She’d first learned the gist of it after visiting Smithers in the hospital a few days after the attack. Investigators had dug into Andrews’ financials and found he had racked up large gambling debts, one of the reasons why his marriage had begun to unravel.

The captured hacker Omar had helped fill in the rest. Between the severe financial stress and his resentment toward Honor, blaming her for his stalled military career, Andrews had been ripe for the picking when Safir’s network had approached him and offered him a large amount of cash to help them pull off the attack.

Honor took a fierce satisfaction in knowing that he’d died before he’d been able to touch a cent of the five hundred thousand Safir’s network had wired to an offshore account in Andrews’ name.

“Dev, Maya and I are civilians now, but I consider it a minor miracle that the rest of you were able to be here for the weekend,” Erin said. She smiled up at Wade as he crossed to her. The former undercover CIA officer handed her a glass of wine and slid a proprietary arm around her waist. “And lucky me, I’ve got the hottest man here,” she added.

“Keep talking like that and you’ll get anything you want from me,” Wade told her in a low voice.

Erin smiled wider. “I’m counting on it.”

Honor grinned at the two of them. She’d never actually met Wade in person before last night but she had to admit, Wade was damn hot in his black suit and black Stetson. That whole cowboy-commando thing he had going on was pretty sexy and from what Honor had seen in the past twelve hours, he treated Erin amazingly well. So yeah, she liked him just fine.

“Hey, what are you doing ogling Wade when you have your own man to drool over?”

Honor spun around to find Maya striding toward her. Her mouth dropped open at the sight of the other woman in a pale pink dress with a fluffy skirt that hit her just below the knee. Her dark hair was pinned up in an intricate knot and she had a strand of white pearls at her throat. The transformation was shocking. She looked like she’d just stepped off the cover of a magazine.

Maya’s lips quirked and she raised an eyebrow. “What, you thought I only wore camo?”

Honor laughed and walked over to hug her. “God, you look freaking amazing. Seriously. Stunning.” She squeezed Maya, feeling the steely strength of that slender body as she returned the hug. The woman was all muscle and attitude, but seeing her in a dress, let alone one like
this
, was a revelation.

She eased back to study Maya’s face, her friend’s deep sea-green eyes even more arresting with the artful touches of makeup. “Holy hell, Jackson’s never gonna be able to keep his hands off you until the end of the night.”

“Oh, he will, because if he tries any funny business in front of everyone, I’ll break his hand.”

“Uh-huh,” Honor said dryly.

She wasn’t worried Maya would actually do it. The former Security Forces officer talked big, and while she could definitely back up her tough talk with action, more so than any other female Honor knew, she’d never do anything to hurt Jackson. She was putty in that PJ’s hands and everyone knew it, including Maya. It warmed Honor’s heart to see her so happy after all she’d gone through. “Did you guys come with Ace just now?”

“Nah, she’s been with Dev all morning and Jackson’s been with Cam. Maid of honor and best man stuff, you know how it is.”

“Wait, there’s Ace now,” Erin said excitedly, waving behind them.

Honor and Maya both turned to see the gunship pilot gliding toward them in a pale blue sleeveless gown, its skirt flowing to her ankles in layers of tulle, each step showing peeks of the silver strappy heels on her feet. Ace’s honey-blond hair was set in loose waves that fell around her face and shoulders, bouncing slightly with each step she took.

“Holy shit,” Maya breathed.

Ace grinned at their stunned expressions. “Hey, look at us! We clean up pretty good, huh? Who knew? Look at you guys,” she said and embraced them all individually.

“Good thing there’ll be lots of pictures,” Erin added, “otherwise nobody’d ever believe it.”

“Wait ‘til you see Spike,” Ace said, referring to Devon by her nickname. “Won’t be a dry eye in the house and I’m betting even Cam will tear up when he sees her.” She frowned at Honor. “Hey, where’s your hot date?”

“Parking the truck, so I didn’t have to walk a mile in these heels.” She gestured to the red four-inch, peep-toe stilettos she’d chosen to go with her form-fitting little black dress. Liam had taken one look at her when she’d stepped out of the bathroom this morning and told her he wanted her wearing them and nothing else when he got her to the hotel tonight, and she was totally okay with that plan. She loved seeing his expression turn all hungry when he looked at her, and these heels were going to drive him wild.

“It was so great of him, to get time off and then fly all the way back from overseas to be here,” Ace said.

“He wouldn’t have missed it.” They hadn’t had much time together after the base attack, only thirty hours before he’d been sent back to Afghanistan. So his being here was as much about spending time with her as it was to be at his friends’ wedding.

“Hey, there’s my date,” Ace said, smiling fondly as Ryan strode over, his big frame filling out his black suit jacket.

“Just when I think you can’t be any more beautiful,” he said and shook his head as he gazed at her, earning a chorus of
awwws
from Honor, Maya and Erin.

Ace choked on a laugh and playfully batted his arm. “You’re a terrible flirt.”

Ryan grinned, slid one hand into her hair and leaned in for a kiss, totally uncaring that they had an audience. Honor would never ask him outright, but she’d heard through the grapevine that he’d been involved with taking out Safir. She wanted to hug him for it, and might later on. “I know,” he murmured before giving Ace another, deeper kiss. “But you love it.”

“As long as it’s only with me, I don’t
hate
it,” Ace admitted. “And you just remember not to encourage my cousins when you see them at the reunion tomorrow. They tend to get overzealous with the whole flirting thing.”

Ryan pulled his head back, his smile fading. “Wait, reunion? You said it was a family gathering.”

Ace shrugged, setting her golden waves swishing against her shoulders. “Reunion, gathering. Whatever, same thing.”

“For which side is this again?” he asked, his expression carefully neutral.

“My dad’s.” She frowned at him. “Why?”

“So your grandma’s gonna be there?”

At that Honor burst out laughing. “Oh, please, Ryan, you can’t still be scared of Ace’s grandma.”

Ryan shot her an
oh-yes-I-can
look. “You didn’t get your face slapped off in front of everyone, six seconds after meeting her.” He looked at Ace. “Please say she’s not off the wagon at least?”

Ace rolled her eyes. “Grandma’s never even been
on
the wagon, Ryan.”

“Great,” he mumbled. “Can’t wait to see what kind of greeting I get tomorrow.”

“Well at least this time I’ve got a ring on my finger,” Ace said, wriggling the fingers of her left hand to show off her engagement ring. She’d worn it on a chain around her neck while she was overseas.

“Yeah, so that’ll get me one cheek slapped instead of two, I guess,” he muttered.

Ace chuckled and wound her arms around his waist, leaning her head on his shoulder. “You just stay close to me. I’ll protect you from the crazy blue-haired psycho in my family.”

Just then Liam’s broad-shouldered silhouette appeared in the archway leading to the lobby and a wide smile broke over Honor’s face. Her heart sped up and her body began to tingle as she watched him move. On him that custom-made suit should be illegal. The man was raw, alpha sex appeal, and he was all hers.

Watching her, Erin chuckled. “I’d say if anyone’s going to have trouble keeping their hands to themselves through the ceremony, Honor, it’s you.”

Honor shrugged good-naturedly and grinned. “Can you blame me?” Liam stepped into the light, the sun glinting on his dark hair. He wore shades but she knew the instant he spotted her. His rugged face broke into a sexy smile and the sight of him walking toward her in that tailored suit took her breath away.

Just look at him
, she thought.

Maya punched her gently in the shoulder. “We’ll leave you guys alone for a couple minutes. Better get your groping in now, chica, before the ceremony starts.”

Erin waggled her brows in encouragement and looped her arm through Wade’s as the others strolled onto the lawn to take their seats and Ace went to help Devon with her veil.

Pulling off his shades as he approached, Liam’s gaze traveled over the length of her body, igniting sparks of heat wherever it touched her. He paused at her breasts and bare legs before zeroing in on the heels. “You are so damn hot,” he said as he reached her.

“Thanks. That suit makes me want to do bad things to you.”

He grinned. “Yeah? How bad are you talking?”

“Filthy,” she whispered, biting her lip.

Liam’s hands closed around her hips and he tugged her close, bending his head until his mouth brushed her ear. “I can’t wait to get you alone later,” he murmured, the warmth of his breath raising goose bumps across her skin.

“Quickie in your truck before the ceremony?” she suggested, leaning up to tease his mouth with hers. The man did insane things to her libido. They’d had sex last night after he’d arrived in town and again this morning before they’d gone to the VA hospital to visit Blinski and his wife. The Night Stalker was recovering from his fourteenth surgery and his wife was sticking to his side, supportive and loyal and determined to make their marriage last. Honor loved the woman for it.