SEALs of Honor: Shadow (23 page)
Read SEALs of Honor: Shadow Online
Authors: Dale Mayer
There was an odd looking couch bench chair thing at the window, he sat down and studied the information coming in. Everyone knew they’d planned to return this night. So the senator’s office could know as well. If nothing else, Kevin had been told and he’d likely told several other people. How could he not? He was eight. And this was his adored sister.
But that didn’t mean something nasty wasn’t planned for Arianna’s return. Especially if she stood between a killer and his prize.
With messages coming and going, he hated the warning sensation at the nape of his neck. Yet he couldn’t seem to get the idea out of his head. If he was on the killing streak and she was on his list then he’d have made sure there’d be something or someone waiting for her when she got home. Like early in the morning. As their tickets out of Seattle had originally had them booked. But they’d caught a military flight out. Getting them home hours early. Cooper had made the arrangements. Had he canceled the original plans?
He checked the airlines. It still said Arianna was due to arrive at five-thirty am.
His instinct prodded him. What if someone planned for her to not make it home?
He wanted to take her out of here and back to his place now. He quickly dressed, that sense of something wrong riding him hard. He sent several more texts then turned his attention to sleeping beauty. Throwing back her covers, he went to the dresser and pulled out clothes for her.
“Arianna?” he said in a harsh whisper. “Get dressed. We’re leaving.”
Groggy after only a couple of hours sleep, she sat up and blinked at him.
He didn’t waste any time with explanations but worked to get her clothes on her again. When she was up and ready to go, silent but awake, he carried her downstairs and out the back of the house.
She wrapped her arms around him and held on. He loved that she didn’t bubble over with protest or questions. She trusted him at a level he’d never had anyone trust him before.
Outside he recognized the condos all shared the same backyard. He kept close to the buildings and worked his way to the right, around the last one. The room was tight, but the sky was already getting lighter. He peered out onto the street. Then raced to his Jeep.
He set her down on her feet and unlocked his vehicle.
“Oh, I don’t think so.”
Shadow froze at the foreign sounding voice. He glanced at Arianna to see the horror on her face. And knew.
It was the missing so called terrorist who had turned to exhortation and kidnapping to fund his cause. Shadow turned slowly to see a handgun pointed directly at him. Shit.
“If you don’t mind, we need you to get into that truck. We have a bit of a trip ahead of us.”
Arianna shook her head. “No, I can’t. No more.”
“I could put a bullet in your friend here? Would that make you more cooperative?”
“No!” she cried. “I’ll come.” She glanced around blindly. “Where do you want me to go?”
“That truck.” And he pointed to a black vehicle to the far side of the road. “Now.”
Arianna stumbled forward, her leg stiff and ungainly. As she came close to the kidnapper, she fell.
He swore and reached out to stop her.
And Shadow was on him in an instant.
A
rianna lay on
the pavement, her leg throbbing and watched as Shadow kicked the gun out of the man’s hands and pounded his face into the ground. She didn’t want him to kill the enemy, he had enough to deal with in his life. But she didn’t want the asshole to get up again. She pulled herself along the ground to where the gun lay. She might not like them, but to save Shadow’s life, she’d use it without a second thought. As she already had.
“Ha. Like you’re going to get that.”
And a foot stomped down on top of the gun in front of her.
She closed her eyes. Damn she’d been so close. She stared at her step–uncle. A man more a stranger than a relative. “Really? It was you all the time?”
He shrugged. “Well, not just me.”
He nodded to the vehicle parked to the side. “Your stepmother might have had something to do with it.”
If a heart could break, Arianna knew hers was at the point of trying. Her stepmother had her father killed? Together with her uncle? How…how…words failed her. With difficulty, she pulled herself up to stand then hobbled closer to face her stepmother. “You did that to him?” she said incredulously. “Why? You had everything.”
“He was going to divorce me,” Linda snapped.
Arianna shook her head. “So? That’s hardly worth killing him for. He planned to divorce my mother, but she died before he could.”
“And if she’d lived you’d have realized that he planned well for that contingency. She was going to be squeezed out completely. He wasn’t going to give me anything either.” She sneered. “You lucked out. Do you have any idea how shitty your life would have been if your mother had lived?”
“Money? This has always been about money? Not Father’s job?”
The uncle shrugged. “Why not make it a dual purpose. There was a lobbying committee that did want your father to take a beating. But that wasn’t enough for our purposes. He needed to die so we could have the inheritance.”
She nodded numbly as if she understood. But honestly…there was no understanding this. “And Kevin? Did he not deserve a father?” She wanted to rail against a world that would now take Kevin’s mother from him too. There’s no way Linda could keep this secret. The SEAL’s would hunt her down and take her out – one way or another.
Her stepmother’s vicious voice snapped, “He was no father.”
“Right, well he’s the one Kevin had. Now he has to learn that his mother is a murderer.”
“And who is going to tell him?” Linda said in harsh acerbic tones. “You won’t be around to ruin him.”
Ruin him. She’d have done anything to make that boy’s life happy. Unlike his parents. “Is that why you needed me dead? So you didn’t have to worry about Kevin loving me more than you?” she cried. “So you have to murder me?”
The stepmother laughed. “Absolutely not. I was never jealous of you, no need to be. Kevin doesn’t love you,” she said snidely. “But we need your money.”
“My money?” Arianna stared at her in bewilderment. “I have some, but nothing like what you have now Father is dead.”
It was her step–uncle who gave a bark of laughter at that comment. “That’s where you’re wrong. See, his estate goes equally to you and Kevin. And your estate when you die, goes to Kevin. So as his guardian, Linda and I will have complete control over all of it.”
“And my brother?” She gazed from one to the other. “Will he ever see a penny of it?”
“Maybe. And maybe not. Depends on how long the money lasts.”
She shook her head. She couldn’t believe it. She’d been surrounded by the enemy. If she died, then there’d be no one there for Kevin. Did they know about her inheritance from her grandmother, on her father’s side that left Kevin a sizable inheritance as well? If so they’d kill him too. She had little doubts that if it came to a competition between her son and money, Linda would choose the money.
She always had.
There had to be some way out of this mess. She glanced at the unconscious kidnapper on the street. “So is he a terrorist?”
“Well, yes and no. He bears a remarkable resemblance to a famous one so I knew the ruse would work.” He sneered. “Sometimes you just have to act when you see the perfect opportunity.” He lifted the hand gun. “The funny thing is, he’s a little terrorist connected to a bigger one and they jumped all over this plan. Squeezed me about dry trying to get to this point. I’m happy there aren’t any of them left. Less to pay at the end.” He casually lined the gun up and pulled the trigger.
The unconscious man’s body jerked.
Arianna cried out in a low voice, “He was unarmed.”
“And now he’s dead.” Her step–uncle laughed. “Jesus, you’re such a fool. None of you get to live this night out. Sorry about your boyfriend though. What did you do, pick him up at the airport?”
He laughed and lined the gun up on Shadow’s head. “Now to make sure it looks like our terrorist shot your boyfriend first then killed himself.”
He went to pull the trigger. Arianna screamed and dove in front of the gun but was slammed to the ground as gunfire lit the night.
Followed by a hushed silence.
Arianna lay on the ground, Shadow covered her as a blanket. Her stepmother was crying hysterically beside the vehicle. And her step–uncle…was lying in a pool of blood.
As sudden as the silence, there came the noise. Sirens, dogs barking, house lights came on.
And then the men.
Cooper. Mason. Dane. Hawk. Swede’s big head above Shadow’s.
“Arianna, you hurt?” Swede asked.
She shook her head, realizing she was bawling like an idiot. She sniffled and tried to stop the waterworks, but it wasn’t until Shadow got up and hauled her gently up into his arms that she managed to slow it down. She wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed tight.
“It’s okay,” he whispered. “You’re safe.”
She sniffled and looked at the men surrounding them. She let go of Shadow to walk into Swede’s huge arms. Then each of the others as she hugged them hard.
Held safe and secure back in Shadow’s arms, she said, “Thank you all so much.”
“We were hardly going to desert you until it was over,” Swede said. “Besides, Shadow here hasn’t told us if he’s keeping you.”
“Keeping me?” she turned a puzzled look up to Shadow.
“Forget about it. It’s a recurring joke among the men.”
Shadow used such a dismissive tone, her suspicions were instantly aroused. She turned back to Swede for clarification, studied the huge grin on everyone’s face, and thought about all she’d learned about the group. “As in a joke you all participated in and now it’s Shadow’s turn. Correct?”
Cooper laughed. “I said she was bright.” And he nodded. “That’s exactly right. Only Shadow and I are still unattached. So it’s been a standing joke since Mason first met his partner. Now if anyone looks close to finding their perfect partner, we have to ask if he’s keeping the woman in question. Because if not, there is always another one of us who might be interested.” And he waggled his eyebrows in a mock leer.
She laughed. Then threw her arms around Shadow crying, “Keep me, please keep me.”
“I never planned to do anything but that from the moment I met you,” he whispered against her ear. “Some of us know exactly what we want and know to go after it.”
With a happy cry, she hugged him tight. Then pulled back slightly and said, “I come with baggage, you know that, don’t you?”
“Kevin?”
She nodded. “He’s lost everyone else.”
Shadow smiled. “No, he’s gained six uncles.”
She turned to look at the group of heroes smiling at the two of them. “He’s going to love that,” she said warmly. “He’s had so very little male contact in his life.”
“Oh,” Mason said with a grin. “He’ll get lots now.”
Tears came to her eyes. It had been a hell of a trip. She’d lost her father, found out her stepmother had betrayed them all, and her step-uncle. Kevin would need years to get over this nightmare, and all she could think of as she stood there in Shadows arms – was that she was so damn lucky. She smiled up at him. “I’m so glad I went on that trip. It was the worst trip imaginable but as far as silver linings go… If I hadn’t gone I’d have missed meeting you and that would have been horrible.” She leaned up and whispered so only he could hear, “I love you so much.”
“Not as much as I love you,” he murmured and to the cheers of his team, he kissed her yet again.
This concludes Book 5 of SEALs of Honor: Shadow.
Shadow: SEALs of Honor, Book 5
Cooper: SEALs of Honor, Book 6