What I Fight For: A Bad Boy Military Romance (Easy Team Book 1) (10 page)

Chapter
Eleven
Emilia

              I stared at the man as he grinned familiarly at Cooper.

              He was nearly as tall as Cooper but with a leaner, slighter build. He had a scruff of dark beard lining his jaw and he looked menacing in his dark suit even in the bright desert sunlight.

              I tried to lean around Cooper to get a better look of the man but Cooper shifted his body to keep me firmly positioned behind him.

              “Do you know…?” I trailed off, unable to finish my thought. The tension in the air was so thick, my muscles were nearly cramping from being so stiff. And looking at the back of Cooper’s neck, I could see the muscles taut and ready for action. Seeing him so wired made my own stress that much worse.

              Cooper kept his gun pointed at the man.              

              “Randall,” he said finally. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

              The man, Randall, raised his brows in surprise then laughed. “Is that how you greet an old comrade, Hawk?” he chided. “And after so long as well.”

              Randall gestured towards Cooper with his sunglasses. “Who’s the beauty there?” he asked casually. He leaned a little to get a look at me. Although I had just been trying to do the same to get a look at him, I now scooted closer to Cooper’s hard back, wanting to keep myself hidden from the man’s gaze.

              “What are you doing here?” Cooper repeated, not engaging.

              Randall quirked a brow. “Really, I should be asking you that question. What are you doing on my property?” he asked. He gave a pointed look to the gray eyed girl he had called Sora. “And
with
my property?”

              Cooper didn’t respond right away. Although I couldn’t see his face, I had a feeling he was assessing the men behind Randall. There were about six of them. And they were all armed. Having seen Cooper pull his gun on their boss, they had all pulled out their own weapons.

              Randall might be standing calmly, speaking casually, but he knew he had a small army behind him.

              “We’re here to provide medical care,” Cooper finally answered.

              Randall was surprised by the answer. “To who?”

              “To all of them,” I piped up, unable to help myself. “But especially Sora. She has measles. And if not treated, she could give the virus to the other girls if they don’t already have it.”

              Randall’s eyes gleamed as he pointed his gaze towards me, interest rapidly growing.

              “Oh are we some kind of doctor here?” he asked, his voice smooth and silky. He reminded me of a snake. Cool, slithery, charming, and filled with venom.

              “I-I’m Dr. Lyon,” I replied.

              “What is this?” Cooper interrupted, clearing wanted to prevent Randall from having too much interaction with me. “Since when were you in the slave trade?”

              Randall pursed his lips and made a broad gesture with his hands. “Oh, only the small players get into the slave trade. And it’s a messy business at that. No, I’m in a more
valuable
trade.” He grinned, his teeth glinting brilliantly in the light. “No matter how far civilizations and societies progress, man is still man. And our baser needs always need to be filled. And they are willing to pay whatever it takes to fulfill those needs.”

              I looked around me. Most of the girls looked to be Sora’s age, eleven to twelve. Some looked like they were around fourteen with small, developing breasts. My stomach turned seeing some girls as young as six.

              He couldn’t possibly….

              It was just too horrid if he….

              “Sex always sells, Hawk,” Randall said, as if reading my mind. “If our travels around the world has taught us nothing else, that is one thing we know to be true.”

              “That’s what you’ve fallen into now?” Cooper asked, clearly disgusted. “The sex trafficking of little girls?”

              Randall shrugged, unfazed by Cooper’s tone. “Among other things,” he said. “Hey, I outgrew mercenary money.”

              “And mercenary code as well,” Cooper nearly spat.

              Randall grinned. “Whoever heard of a mercenary with a code?”

              “You’re looking at him,” Cooper snapped back. “And you worked with a team of them. But clearly shit in the soul will rear its head no matter what.”

              Randall extended a hand to Sora, done with the philosophical conversation. I could see the little girl’s face, blank with no expression or emotion. She was clearly numb to the pain of her life and the trials she had experienced.

              “Regardless of your high morals, Captain,” Randall said, the sarcasm dripping from his voice, “I have an auction to organize. And the next little flower up for sale is this one,” he said, his hand still extended. “And measles or no, she’s going to earn me a killing.” He grinned, saying the last word.

              Sora was about to take a step forward when I jerked out behind Cooper’s back, putting my arm out in front of the little girl.

              “No!” I cried out. My thoughts ran frantically in my mind as I tried to think of a way to buy her time. “She is ill and needs immediate medical attention!”

              I saw from the corner of my eye Cooper immediately shifting his body to make sure that he was still covering us. He was a little off to my left but still easily within reach. I knew that if he needed to, he could cover us with his body.

              Randall’s jaw tightened a little as he narrowed his gaze at me. “Dr. Lyon, I’ve had my fill of games for today. I’d ask you kindly to step away from my property.”

              “She isn’t property!” I spat out, angry and afraid at the same time. I could feel my pulse nearly humming in my throat. “She’s a little girl. And a sick one at that! The least you could do is let me treat her!”

              Randall stared at me. His gaze was icy cold like a black diamond. A small tremor of fear moved constantly through my body. Yes, I was frightened. There were six loaded guns pointed at me.

              But afraid or no, I wasn’t going to let Sora die.

              Randall finally broke his gaze, looking down and nodding, as if coming to his senses. “I see,” he said. He turned over his shoulder, giving his men a quick glance.

              Immediately, the men shifted and swung their arms out, making a circle as they pointed their guns at the little girls. There were small cries of terror as the girls huddled closer together in fear.

              My eyes widened in horror.

              Randall looked back at me, his eyes sharp and unmoving. “Dr. Lyon, you have a choice—either give me my property or you will watch me as I kill every other girl here on this camp.” He gave me a humorless smile. “After which, I can’t promise you won’t be next.”

              I swallowed, terror flowing as freely through me as blood.

              “So which is it?” Randall demanded. “Sora or everybody else?”

              My mouth opened but neither words nor air escaped it. What could I do? That was an impossible choice. I could see girls crying silently around the circle. They had learned long ago not to make noises to call attention to themselves. Tracks of tears fell down their dirty cheeks as crazy idea after idea ran through my head.

              A small smile played at Randall’s lips. “Feels like old times, doesn’t it, Hawk?” he said, his voice almost a tease.

              I had no idea what he meant but I couldn’t worry about that now. I had to protect Sora.

              After what felt like eons but had probably been less than a minute, Cooper stepped away and grabbed me by the arm, pulling me back towards him.

              I stared up at him in horror as he kept me pinned against him, allowing Sora to step forward into Randall’s extended hand. I watched with a sickening twist of the gut as her little hand was enveloped in his larger one.

              Randall smiled at the little girl. He whispered a few words in Qunari to her then looked up and smiled at me.

              “Good choice,” he said. But I knew the words weren’t directed at me.

              I looked up and saw a muscle leap in Cooper’s throat. But his face was as stoic as granite as he glared at Randall. Only his eyes, tight with pain, revealed the storm of emotions he must’ve felt inside.

              “I can see you’re not a fan of history repeating,” Randall said as he led Sora to their black truck. Cooper’s body jerked at those cryptic words. “It was good to see you again, Cap!”

              “It won’t be the last time,” Cooper said, watching them get into the vehicle.

              Randall stared at Cooper just before he slid into the truck. He grinned. “Oh I know,” he promised.

              Then the driver started the engine and they drove off with Sora, sick and pale sitting between one of the gunmen and Randall.

              “No!” I cried out. The girl would die if she wasn’t properly treated. She needed medicine. She needed care. But mostly, she needed safety. “No!”

              I wrenched myself free and ran down the rocky road, down the trail of dust the truck left in its wake.

              But she was gone. Sora was gone.

              And the worst part was, I knew exactly what would happen to her.

              Tears burned down my cheeks as my heart broke in pain.

Chapter
Twelve
Emilia

              “How could you do that?” I cried out as I nearly stumbled out of the truck in my rage. “How could you just let her go like that? She was a child!”

              Cooper stepped out from the driver’s side. He looked around and saw some of the men of Easy Team and the medical team staring at us curiously. With a firm arm around me, he led me to a remote corner of camp. I tried to push him away but it was to no avail and anger flooded through me as I felt impotent and helpless again.

              We had left the camp with Cooper nearly throwing me into the truck when I had refused to leave the camp without the children. Cooper had grabbed me, threatened me, and then eventually just bodily picked me up and threw me into the truck without another word, driving us back towards base while I cried tears of rage at what had just happened.

              Finally in a more secluded space, he let go of me and I jumped away from him. I was furious. And offended. And disgusted. How could he do that? How could he let Sora go? Abandon those girls?

              “How could you do that?” I asked again, my voice breaking a little as a fresh wave of tears struck me. I cried more out of frustration than sadness.

              Cooper had his hands on his hips and his head bent down. The lines of his body radiated stress. He looked like he was barely keeping a hold of his own temper. But I didn’t care. Who was he to get angry when he had let that monster take Sora?

              “How many girls were in that camp today, Em?” he finally said, looking up at me. His gaze held an indescribable look of harsh pain and resignation.

              I gave him a funny look. “What?”

              “You heard me,” he said. “How many girls were in that camp today?”

              I threw my hand out in a frustrated gesture. “Two dozen. Three, maybe! Why? What does it matter? Every one of them needed help!”

              “There were thirty eight girls in that camp, including Sora,” he said, surprising me. He had actually counted each girl?

              He pressed his lips as if trying his best to fight for any measure of patience he had left in him. “And how many men today had guns, not including me?”

              I stared at him, confused by the direction he was taking this conversation. “Six,” I said impatiently. “Six men.”

              “Seven,” Cooper corrected. He stopped me before I could interrupt. “You didn’t see it but Randall was carrying a weapon on him.”

              He looked down again and took a deep breath before looking back up and pinning me with a frank gaze. “So there were seven armed men amongst a camp of thirty eight children and one unarmed woman.” He gave a quick shake of his head as if mentally admonishing himself for something. “Not only that,” he continued, “they had the drop on us. I didn’t even see them coming. So we didn’t even have the element of surprise on our side.”

              Cooper looked at me, clearly asking me to understand what had just happened today. “Even in my best form, there was no way to protect you and the children by myself against seven gunmen. If I had acted, the absolute best case scenario would be walking out of there with at least half of those children dead.”

              I opened my mouth to argue that we could’ve fought for Sora at least but he stopped me.

              “I don’t like what I saw today,” he said tightly. “Obviously. What sane person would be okay with child trafficking? But to people like Randall, to people like the men who work for him, those girls are expendable. He wasn’t joking when he called them his ‘property.’ You can always throw away property if it gets too difficult to manage and just find new property. Randall and those men could easily shoot every single one of those girls in the head with a smile before leaving to find their replacements.”

              My stomach turned at this graphic visual.

              Cooper stepped towards me. He put his hands on my shoulders. I tried to step back away from him but he kept me still.

              “Do you understand what I did?” he asked. “I chose to save thirty seven girls and a doctor today over the one girl I couldn’t.”

              There was strained pain in his voice as he spoke. I looked up and saw the harsh lines of resignation in his face. He was familiar with this kind of reality, this kind of cruelty, but that didn’t mean it didn’t still claw at his heart.

              “Going after Sora would’ve meant the death of everybody at that camp,” he said. “And at the end of it all, Randall would’ve still just taken Sora with him anyway. So the deaths would’ve been for nothing.”

              Tears stung my eyes at the hopelessness of the situation. What kind of cruelty was this? How was it fair to have children live in such horrible conditions?

              “But the others,” I whispered raggedly. “We could’ve brought the others with us. We could’ve kept them here, safe.”

              Cooper sighed as if I didn’t fully understand the picture.

              “And you think that when those men come back, probably tonight, to the camp and see all those missing girls, they won’t come looking?” he asked. “They saw us. They’d know who would’ve taken the girls. They’d know where to look. They know where our base camp is. And who’s on this camp right now? Two dozen sick children and a medical staff with no combat training.”

              The explanation hit me like a rock. He was right. He had thought through every possibility in that short moment between Randall’s ultimatum and had seen the grim truth.

              “Easy Team did not come here for a tactical mission,” Cooper continued. “We were sent here for peacekeeping duties. We haven’t entered this country, set up our camp, and made our patrols under the protocol of a tactical mission. So in a combat scenario, we are already at a disadvantage.”

              Tears finally fell as reality came crashing down around me and my heart broke again at realizing just how completely helpless I was. I could treat their measles, I could treat their flus, but what was I making these children healthy for? So they could go back to a ragged tent and be sold off as a sex slave?

              Cooper’s hands relaxed as he felt my realization sinking into me. He gave me a squeeze. I looked up, my vision watery and wet.

              “Don’t feel guilty,” he said, although I could see the pain of today in his eyes. “Realize that you saved two dozen children here from dying of measles. You’ve saved the refugee camp and the city from a medical epidemic. You've probably prevented countless deaths.”

              “But those girls,” I whispered. “Is there nothing we could do for them?”

              Cooper’s lips pressed tightly together as he said nothing.

              “But…but the UN! Couldn’t
they
do something? Couldn’t they send aid workers here? Maybe they could evacuate the children to some place far away?” I asked, trying to grasp at the desperate hope that fluttered within me.

              Cooper sighed. He gave my shoulders another squeeze. I saw the look of sympathetic pity cross his eyes. But he nodded. “I can give them a call,” he said. “I’ll let them know what we found.”

              My heart settled fractionally at the thought that we might be able to help the rest of the girls. We couldn’t save Sora from her fate but maybe we could prevent the others from following her.

              But my body still hummed with the adrenaline from today. It seemed as if every muscle in my body was twitching from energy.

              I looked up at Cooper, wanting to expend some of my energy in the gathering of more information.

              “Who was that man? Randall?” I asked, wiping away a stray tear. “How did he know you?”

              Immediately, it was as if a live wire ran through Cooper’s body. His entire body jerked as if in complete revulsion at even the mention of Randall. Clearly, there was some kind of history there.

              “Graham Randall,” Cooper said tightly. “A former Green Beret and an ex-member of Easy Team.”

              “What…!” I breathed in surprise, hesitant to continue this line of questioning yet too desperate to know the backstory, “How come he’s not a member anymore?”

              Cooper sighed before suddenly jerking away from me. He turned and took a few steps, running a hand behind his neck, trying to squeeze out the strain in his muscles.

              “About six years ago, we had a mission in El Salvador,” he finally started, his back still to me. “A small but very efficient cartel had basically taken a whole town captive as they used the town for a base of operations. They used the townspeople for forced labor. All around, a bad situation.” He sighed again, heaviness pouring out of him with each breath.

              “Easy Team was called in to take out the leader and the two commanders of the cartel. With those three men taken out, the cartel would be easy to disband and the townspeople could be freed without risk of casualties.”

              Cooper turned around. “Randall had been one of the best men on Easy Team. Smart, tactical, and a killer shot. He had had my back countless of times.” Cooper grimaced darkly. “I trusted him.” He made the admission as if admitting a dark crime. “But he was never satisfied with the life of a mercenary. At least, I see that now. He was always making remarks about how the players on the other side made more money than the good guys. I always thought he was joking but I can see now that his greed was no joke.

              “Anyway, we landed in El Salvador and we were closing in on our target,” he continued, his eyes looking out into the dark desert as if he could see the humid tropics of Central America once more. “Randall was the lead for the mission. He had us positioned and ready just outside the town walls. We were supposed to wait for when the cartel leader stepped out of his house to get into his SUV.

              “Except something felt wrong,” Cooper swallowed hard. “I could just feel in my gut that something felt off. There were too few guards. The cartel leader’s house was too quiet. Randall was supposed to be the one who went on ahead to set up his shot for the cartel leader. I was just about to radio Randall to confirm his position when shots began to come out from
behind
us.”

              My heart raced as I listened to Cooper recount his bloody battle.

              “There was no way we could’ve missed men positioned behind us. We had walked through all that brush to get to the village and we were careful. The only way they could’ve come from behind is if they had come
after
we had gotten into position. In other words—”

              “They knew you were coming,” I finished breathlessly, my eyes wide.

              Cooper nodded. “They knew exactly where we’d be and when we’d be there. And if they hadn’t been such poorly trained shots, we would’ve all died there that day. But luckily we managed to get away with minimal damage. We headed towards the western edge of town where the cartel leader’s home was. Regardless, we had a mission to carry out. But when we got near to the house, a black Humvee pulled out, nearly running us over. Before we could take aim, it stopped and the door opened.”

              Cooper’s fists tightened in remembrance of that day. I watched the veins pulse against his forearms as his large hands curled in anger.

              “Randall hopped out with the cartel leader. He had his rifled pointed at us. ‘Stand down, brothers,’ he said. ‘Let’s end this nice and clean.’” Cooper’s lips flattened into a white line as the memory seared through him, his anger and frustration from that day still very much alive. “I was about to demand what the fuck he thought he was doing but before I could a string of sobbing women came out of the cartel leader’s house. He had kidnapped a bunch of the women from town and had strapped them into vests loaded with C4 explosives.”

              My hand flew to my mouth, horrified by the unwinding tale. If I had thought Randall monstrous before, it was nothing to what I thought of him now.

              “‘Or follow me,’ he said, ‘and we can end things messy and bloody.’” Cooper’s lips tightened. “Basically, follow and he’d blow the women up. Randall was sure we’d stand down and got back in the SUV to drive off. But as they neared the town wall, I just
couldn’t
let that cartel leader go. He’d just terrorize some other village and ruin another batch of lives. He’d just keep going. I figured if I shot out the car fast enough, they’d crash before they could detonate the vests. Then we’d have the target in custody and the women saved. So I took aim with my rifle and fired at the tires. I shot out one and the car swerved but before I could take out the other,” Cooper’s face twisted in anguish and anger, “Randall detonated the vests.”

“No!” I cried out, my gut wrenching in pain. “No, he couldn’t have!”

Cooper’s whole body was as taut as a guitar string. “He did. He killed all the women. And the bastard didn’t just strap them with vests. He had them decked out with pieces of broken glass and metal so the shrapnel would fly once their vests were detonated. We lost a man that day because of a piece of shrapnel that got lodged in his throat.”

Cooper swallowed harshly, his eyes holding a distant glare for a memory from long ago. “I fucked up that day. I saw the women, I saw their vests, but I chose to go for that one target. I refused to let the needs of the many dictate my need for the one target. And…” he breathed out harshly, “that got half a dozen women killed, orphaning countless children, and taking one of my men.” He looked up at me. “I valued one life over everyone else’s and it cost me. Those lives are on my hands.”