SEAL Brotherhood 06 - SEAL My Destiny (27 page)

K
yle, Luke, Tyler
and Armando had been sleeping on top of the large two-story building down the block from the target house. Jack Daniels had brought them food to supplement their rations, as well as fresh water. They’d found shade in the makeshift cover installed by the owner, which was just large enough for a couple of folding chairs to fit under it. But it still was hot as hell.

The rest of the team waited on the ground floor. Rory and Jones were waiting behind the hulk of a destroyed Russian tank which lay on its side, and which gave them shade as well as cover. The crew downstairs rotated, taking turns moving so they stayed sharp and ready to roll on a moment’s notice.

Two black SUVs pulled up to the front door of the target house. Luke recognized the swagger of the dangerous militia leader. He felt Jack tense up beside him.

They counted four men entering the building, all dressed in white robes. The SUVs barreled out of sight. Kyle spoke into his Invisio. “Have them, and I count two, repeat two black SUVs, to be followed discreetly once they’ve left the city proper.” They were working in tandem with a Marine unit who had been stationed in this part of the city for several months. Luke knew the Marines would pick them up and conduct a thorough interrogation.

Showtime.

Normally entering the home of a person of interest didn’t involve a firefight. They would allow the SEALs to remove the insurgent. In some cases, the insurgents’ families seemed relieved. At first, Luke had been surprised about their cooperation. But then he learned people who didn’t care about killing innocent women and children often mistreated their own.

But today would be different. The entire family of the young girl Hamid wanted was being held hostage. Hamid wouldn’t even have to pay them a bride price. He was just going to steal their most precious cargo for his own evil designs.

Which meant there would be no peaceful snatch and grab today.

They surrounded the building. Armando stayed back but still within sniper range, also on the lookout for other bad guys or accomplices from other homes nearby.

Sure as shit, when Kyle banged on the front door and shouted, “United States military, permission to enter,” Luke observed a scramble, and two white-robed figures climbed out on the roof through a hatch in the second floor. Armando took care of them quietly.

Luke was second to enter the house behind Kyle, followed by Tyler, who touched him on the leg, to let Luke know he had his back. The family of the girl huddled off to the side, leaving room for the SEALs to maneuver. Luke put a finger to his lips for them to be quiet. The Team needed to hear what was going on upstairs to avoid any of their own from being injured. Except for minor sniffles and muffled cries from a baby, the downstairs was relatively quiet. A television program was playing Arabic music somewhere upstairs.

Jones and Rory were watching the back door. Luke wished they had more men inside, but he followed Kyle while they trained their guns on anything that moved. Kyle motioned for Tyler to stay downstairs and got a thumbs-up. Tyler gave another thumbs-up to Luke, who returned it.

On the second floor, they found their person of interest holding the young girl, a pistol jammed into the side of her face. She was in a white cotton nightdress, her head uncovered, her hair wildly twisted around in all directions. Luke knew they were just in time to prevent a rape.

He recognized Hamid, because Luke himself had knocked one of the asshole’s two front teeth out with a swift kick during the fight just before the insurgent had escaped. The Afghani shouted something in Arabic which didn’t require translation. Hamid had one arm under her chin, cutting off her circulation, while the gun remained steady at her temple. Hamid had pulled his face away from her wild hair and it was all Luke needed. He aimed for the vacant spot between his teeth and fired. The man’s head exploded like a watermelon.

The fourth intruder surrendered without a fight and was turned over to the Marine unit for questioning off-site.

Jack came running up the stairs calling a name. Horrified at the bloody scene, he fell at the feet of the girl, who hurriedly reached for a headscarf and blanket to cover herself. Jack shouted something downstairs and they could hear the happy acknowledgement from her relatives, who had anxiously waited to learn the results of the mission.

An hour later
they mounted a transport to Norfolk, and then they’d take the bird back to San Diego. It would be another twenty hours or so before he arrived. He tried calling Julie’s number and there was no answer, so he left a message.

Thinking she might be teaching or in a meeting, he texted her the news.

Headed in country. Home in twenty. Love, L

Kyle moved to take up the seat next to Luke. Across from them sat Tyler, who was listening to music with ear buds.

“I’d have you covering my fuckin’ ass any day, man.” Kyle extended his hand, and Luke shook it.

“Honor. Just like shooting fuckin’ clowns at the fair back home.”

“You knew for sure he was the motherfucker?”

“No question about it.” Luke pointed to his two front teeth. “I did that to him two years ago. He was a mean motherfucker. You keep screwing over your own people, sooner or later you run out of fuckin’ places to hide.”

“Yup. Fuckin’ died on his wedding day.”

“Fucker.”

“One thing I liked about today, though,” Kyle said.

“What?”

“You didn’t fuckin’ hesitate.”

Luke thought about it while he watched Tyler rock out to his music. Nothing had come between him and the mission. Even his hatred of the men who did evil things to innocents had stayed between the lines and remained calculated.

“I don’t want to hear any more stuff about not being ready, unless you go home and pee on your own couch or some dumb shit like that.”

Yeah. Luke knew he’d done good. The good guys had prevailed. He liked that.

He leaned back and closed his eyes.

Just another fuckin’ day at the office.

‡

L
uke and Tyler
ate first, then showered on the base at Norfolk and changed clothes, glad to shuck the desert gear. It always felt like he was finally home when he could get into his cargoes and flip-flops. He couldn’t wait to talk to Julie. Actually, he didn’t want to talk at all. He wanted her up close and personal for his own private form of snatch and grab, where the surrender was a jackpot for both of them.

But he couldn’t reach her. He double-checked his phone, and his message had not been returned. He wondered if she somehow couldn’t figure out how to do it, or had some sort of scrubber on her phone blocking certain things.

He left her another message, “Hey Miss Julie. I’m really missing you something fierce. I just wish I could listen to your voice before I hop on this next bird. Never been so glad to be back in the old U.S. of A. And as soon as—”

A man’s voice broke into his conversation. “Who is this, please?”

“Who is this?”

“This is detective Stanfield of the San Diego P.D.”

Oh, no!

“What’s happened? I’ve been overseas on deployment. Is Julie okay? I’m flying home to see her, leaving any minute.”

“Well, son, we are trying to locate Julie right now. Seems she was abducted from her classroom yesterday afternoon. She’s been gone for nearly twenty-four hours.”

“Shit!” Luke paused to adjust his tone. “Sorry, sir. Julie is my…my…fiancée.” There, he’d said it. Now he needed to say it to her. It was going to be the first thing out of his mouth when he saw her pretty face. He remembered her speaking about the parent she was having difficulty with. “Julie told me she was having trouble with some guy whose daughter was in her class—”

“We know all about it, son. Looking for him now.”

Luke and the detective exchanged numbers and then he boarded the plane.

“You call Colin yet?” Tyler asked him.

“Shit, no. Maybe he knows something. Do you think?”

“Probably not, but maybe the police have been talking to him. Worth a shot.”

Luke tried his phone but there wasn’t any reception. “I’ll wait and call him when I land.”

“I know it’s going to turn out okay, man. You two are fuckin’ made for each other.”

“How the hell do you know? Did you ever take her out?”

“Shit, no, Luke. You know that. I told you. It’s just that Colin—”

“Tyler, that shit’s not helping me right now.”

Tyler rolled his shoulder and cracked his neck. “I feel you. My bad.”

Luke waited a minute before he added, “She
is
fuckin’ made for me Tyler. The sweetest little thing you ever
didn’t
have. And that’s a fuckin’ fact.”

Tyler gave him a grin and punched his arm. Hard.

But Luke wasn’t lured into the false hope everything would be fine when he landed, and worked to prepare himself mentally. Kidnappers of women usually made good on threats of violence. He recalled Julie saying the guy was wound up a bit tight. If anything happened to her, he’d risk his career to get even with the guy, exact his pound of flesh. If he—

He stopped his thoughts. They weren’t productive, and, amazingly, he was able to control his emotions immediately. He called Colin the minute they landed, and left a message that he was back in town and asking about Julie.

“Not sure my sister and Colin are back yet,” he told Tyler. “Maybe he doesn’t know.”

“Yea, good idea not to panic the guy by leaving a strange message then,” Tyler answered.

Tyler drove him home, and Luke was relieved to see his Hummer there. He took the key out from under the bumper and fired it up.

“You want company?”

“Sure.”

“Really?”

“Fuckin’ get in the truck, Tyler, and stop it.”

“Should we leave the duty bags in your apartment?”

“Nah, I want my gear.”

“Okay. This will be fun.”

“Not sure we can do anything, but we might think of something.” Luke was amazingly calm. His damaged self would have been filled with remorse, guilt at having left her alone, which was ridiculous. She
had
to be okay. Had to be.

They went by the school, which was taped off as a crime scene. He asked for the detective he’d talked to last night, and he was shown to a short, portly man and introduced himself and Tyler.

“What can we do, Detective?” Tyler added.

“Not a damned thing. We have her cell phone, as you know. I noticed your two messages, but no one else called her except some clinic in town.”

“A clinic?”

“Yeah, the Women’s Reproductive and Fertility Clinic.” Stanfield stumbled a bit on his words, hesitating. “You know anything about that?”

Stanfield watched carefully while he answered.

“No.”

“Having a hard time believing they’d be involved in her disappearance. No, everything is pointing to the kid’s father, a Mr. Miller. Several of the kids recognized him with his daughter, and saw Miss Christensen chasing after the guy. You ever meet the man, son?”

“I know someone who has, her union rep. You get hold of the principal yet?” Luke asked.

“Yes, he came over yesterday and gave us the Miller file.”

Luke had some choice words he wanted to leave for the principal himself, so was glad.

“You been to her apartment?” Detective Stanfield asked.

“Nope. Actually, I’ve never been there.”

“So you want to ‘splain this to me? How can you two be engaged and you’ve never seen the inside of her apartment?”

Luke didn’t feel like he was being treated as a suspect, but he didn’t like the questions. Of course, he definitely didn’t like the answers he was going to have to give. God he’d been such a dumb fuck. “I met her here, but not at the apartment. A couple of months ago. Then we re-kindled our friendship at the wedding of her brother and my sister two weekends ago, up in Sonoma County.”

“You move fast, son.”

“Fuckin’ A, he does. Beat me to it,” Tyler whispered and looked off to the side.

“I’m getting the impression you’re military, special ops?” Stanfield asked.

“Yessir.”

“One of
those
guys?”

“Yessir.”

“You think it has anything to do with her disappearance? I mean, Miller have a thing against the military or something else she might have mentioned?”

“No. She did tell me she was afraid of him.”

“Well it sounds like her instincts were right on in that department. I don’t know why she would chase after the guy, though, if she thought he was dangerous.”

Luke knew she took her job seriously. Just like he did. But he was trained to deal with sociopaths and psychos, and she was not. She loved being a teacher. Just like the one he’d saved in Afghanistan. Maybe he’d have to tell her the story someday. About how he’d almost sacrificed his life for a teacher.

No, that was work. This was the rest of his life. This was the woman he was going to love and honor and cherish for the rest of his life.

Dr. Connors arrived, racing in from his car. Luke took a good, long look at him and decided he needed his clock cleaned. Tyler quickly stepped between them.