Shattered Valor (36 page)

“I guess so, if you’re his enemy. Otherwise, he’s pretty nice.” Eden looked at the big bear the little girl was clutching. “That’s a great stuffy. What’s his name?”

“Bo. That’s short for Bolanger, my dad’s last name.”

Eden smiled. “That’s a terrific name.”

“So, the short answer is this,” Mandy told Ivy. “The WKB have stirred up trouble by partnering with some terrorists who are bringing drugs into the country. Kit and the other guys work for a company that consults with Homeland Security. They’ve partnered with the FBI on this project. As to what specifically is happening tonight, I don’t know. I’m not sure why they’ve tucked us away down here. Whatever the reason, it can’t be good. You know that the terrorists got Fee’s dad to blow up my equestrian center.”

“And they attacked Ty a few days ago,” Eden added.

Zavi sighed and made a little snoring sound. Casey jumped. “What was that?”

“That,” Mandy said with a smile, “is Zavi, Rocco’s son.”

“He has a son?” Ivy asked, her eyes wide with disbelief. “When were you going to tell me any of this? I thought we were friends, Em.”

Mandy sighed. “We are friends, Ivy, you know that. This hasn’t been easy. It isn’t something I can talk about. The fewer people involved the better.”

“Well, like it or not, the whole town is involved and they’re pretty upset about it. A little less secrecy might be a whole lot better.”

Mandy looked at Fee. “The guys know there are other insiders in town, like Fee’s dad, that the WKB and their terrorist friends have recruited. The less the town knows, the better.”

“How long is this—this siege—going to go on?”

Mandy shook her head. “I wish I knew.”

Ty listened to Kit assigning positions to the team. Val was to take the bridge upstairs to cover the front and back entrances. Kit and Owen would each take one end of the house, nearest the two entrances to the bunker. Max and Greer would man the control room and the site cameras. Kelan would guard the bunker side of the tunnel. Angel would guard the exterior entrance to the tunnel. Ty and Rocco would man the main room of the bunker.

“Max, if you see Amir anywhere on the premises, I need to know. He’s our number one target. We take him alive.”

“Roger that.”

The house was huge and porous as hell. Almost every room on the main floor had an exterior door. As Ty expected, when the WKB hit them, they hit from all areas at once. He was stuck in the bunker waiting for it to be breached. He could hear gunfire via the comm units of the guys upstairs. Glass was shattering.

Men stampeded down the winding stairs from the den. Ty looked at Rocco. He looked calm and determined. Rocco’s gaze shifted briefly to Ty. They’d backed each other up tactically for years in Afghanistan while Rocco was undercover, but they hadn’t fought together in close combat outside of training. When the door swung open and a group of men charged into the room, they picked off the first few through the door. Their bodies tripped the next few pushing into the room. They eliminated the third group of guys, but by the time the fourth group made it down the stairs and into the room, they were engulfed in hand-to-hand combat, with still more men coming down the stairs and joining the fight. Kelan joined them from the hallway next to the tunnel entrance.

They were just making headway when Angel came over their comm units. “I’m at the tunnel entrance, following a dozen tangos with a couple RPG launchers.”

“If they fire those RPGs, they will blast through the tunnel doors and into the room where the girls are,” Max warned.

“Greer, get me one of the M60s and an ammo belt,” Kelan ordered as he pulled back from Ty and Rocco’s fight.

“Don’t open the doors until you hear my fire, K. We’ll pin them between us,” Angel said as he jogged down the tunnel. The tunnel had a bend in it as it turned toward the bunker. He lay down on the dirt and watched the men approach the bunker door. Nothing obstructed his view. The SUVs that Kelan and Val drove had been moved back to the wide parking area near the tunnel entrance.

“Ready, Kelan?”

“Check.”

Angel opened fire. The men turned to face him, unaware that the tunnel door was opening behind them. They were quickly terminated. Angel jogged back to take up a position at the tunnel entrance. Kelan and Greer removed their weapons and secured the fallen enemies.

“Max, one got past me. He’s in the elevator,”
Kit radioed. Greer looked at Kelan, who nodded for him to go.

“I’m on it,” Greer responded as he rushed back into the bunker and went into the control room. He opened the door to the weapons room, saw the intruder run back to the elevator. The doors to the hidden compartments were open.

“He’s headed back your way, Kit. He was after the drugs.”

“Greer,” Owen’s voice came over their earpieces, “grab a dozen GPS trackers and go tag the cars we haven’t tagged.”

“Too late, Owen. They’re pulling out,” Max told the team. “Amir never showed.”

Ty and Rocco had seven dead and two wounded. They zip-tied all of them and gathered up their weapons, then went to check on the women.

“Ladies, stand down,” Max announced before opening the door to the bunkroom. Yeller and Blue came over to greet him, tails wagging. “Everyone okay?”

Fee and Eden stood up when he entered. “We’re fine,” Eden answered. “Any of the guys hurt?”

“No. It’s over for now. We’ve got some clean-up to take care of. Stay in here until we tell you it’s all clear.”

Ivy and Casey were huddled on one of the bunks, the Jacksons on another. Mandy headed to the back to check on Zavi. Rocco came into the room. When she looked up, he was there, standing over them. She smiled at him.

“He’s sleeping like a baby,” she whispered. Rocco’s dark eyes raged with emotion. She stood and touched his chest. “We’re fine.”

He sighed as he drew her against him. He still held his rifle in his hand, but his left arm banded around her. “Are you?” he asked as if needing to hear her reassurance again.

Eden looked away from them as Ty came into the room. Her heart jumped. He had a cut on one arm. His cheek was bleeding. Dark stains were on his face, sleeves, and vest. There was a sharpness about his gaze as if the adrenaline hadn’t yet eased its hold on him.

She walked over to him and slowly lifted her hands to his face. “You okay?”

He reached for her, pulling her against his body, lifting her in a one-armed grip as his other hand cupped the back of her head. He took her mouth in a fevered kiss that said so much more than words ever could.

Eden broke from Ty’s kiss, pressing her forehead against his. Fee darted around them to get to Kelan. He caught her up against himself, then buried his face in her neck. Eden’s brows raised as she watched them. She nodded at Ty so that he would turn to see them. He watched them for a minute, then gave Eden a big grin.

“Is it over?” Eden asked him.

“I think so. We’ll need you stay here while we clear the house. It’s bad. There are some things you and kids should not have to see.” He stroked her cheek. “Don’t leave this room. Give us a little while to take care of it, okay?”

Ty stepped out of the bunkroom and into the hallway where Kelan was ravaging Fee’s mouth. He tapped Kelan on the shoulder. “Why don’t you join us when you get to a stopping point?”

Kelan managed to groan. “Fiona, I—”

“Don’t you dare say a thing, Kelan,” she warned as she tugged her vest back into place. “Don’t you dare say that didn’t mean anything.”

Kelan seemed at a loss for words. Rocco looked back at them. “K doesn’t do anything without intent, Fee. I’d watch out if I were you.”

Max came out of the ops room. “Ty, your father’s still in the house. Looks like he’s got a few more men with him.”

“Where?”

“The basement.”

Ty jogged ahead and ran up the spiral stairs, then hurried into the den. He was shocked at the carnage he saw. There were four dead and six wounded, all of whom had been secured with zip ties. It was hard to believe Owen had survived the battle. He’d had to defend two entrances to the den, the hallway and the patio, by himself.

Owen was standing at the entrance to the basement when Ty stepped into the hall. He was covered with red stains. One cheek was swelling and his lip was cut. He stopped Ty before he could go down to the basement.

“Kit and Angel are down there, Blade. Let them handle it.”

He met Owen’s cold eyes. “It’s not their fight.”

A muscle worked in Owen’s jaw. He pulled several zip ties from one of his pockets and handed them to Ty.

“Don’t tell me you want him alive,” Ty said through clenched teeth.

Owen made a face as he looked at the many dead men in the hallway, killed by Val or himself. He shrugged. “I don’t see how he could have survived this bloodbath. These are just in case you need them.”

Ty moved down the stairs cautiously. He didn’t know what the situation was or where everyone was positioned. Angel was at the base of the stairs, his Beretta drawn. He motioned toward the front of the basement. “Blade’s headed your way, Kit,” he said quietly into his comm unit.

Ty stepped off the stairs into the familiar chill of the unfinished basement. There were plenty of large windows on both sides of the wide space, but the decking around the back of the house only let indirect light in. The steel of his pistol was warm in his hand. He wondered how he would kill the bastard—with a bullet or his bare hands.

He stopped next to Kit, whose gun was pointed at his father. Ty looked at the man, feeling a wash of memories and pain flood his mind. His father stood next to the ugly, closed-in box he’d built to cage Ty. What kind of father would do something like that to his own child? To any child?

Whatever. This was the end of the road for the prick.

“Max,” Kit spoke into his comm unit. “Get the girls off the comm system.”

“Hello again, son.” The bastard’s voice sounded the same, though he’d aged.

“You’re no father to me.”

“Figured that out, did you?” His dad grinned at him. “Your whoring mother was fucking her bodyguard. She died and left me with her bastard.”

“Did you kill her?”

“Of course I did. She was going to leave me, or rather, force me to leave. She was going to take everything and leave me nothing.”

“What happened to my dad?”

The bastard laughed, a sickening chortle that raised the hairs on Ty’s neck. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“It’s why I asked.” He holstered his pistol and pulled a zip tie out of his pocket. “But you know what,
Phillip
? I don’t really care if you tell me or tell the police. You have a lot to stand trial for. The legal system can have you.”

He grabbed the man’s wrist, spinning him around against the wall of the cage as he slipped the zip-tie over one hand. A shot thundered from inside the cage, hitting Phillip in the chest, making his body buck against Ty’s grip before it slumped against the wall.

“Get down, Blade!” Angel ordered.

Ty dropped and rolled out of sight around the corner of the cage as the men inside it opened fire on Kit and Angel. They returned fire. One man cried out, then everything went quiet inside the box.

“Kick your weapons out of the bathroom and come out. Come out now. Move it!” Angel shouted. A handgun came sliding across the floor, followed by a man with his hands on his head.

“Get down! Now! On the floor!” Angel shouted as he hurried over to secure him. Ty popped to his feet to clear the bathroom. From the large hole he’d chopped in the bathroom wall, he could see only the man on the floor. There was a space behind the door that he couldn’t see, a space large enough to hide a man.

Kit came over to cover the hole in the wall while Ty went inside. He pushed the door back until it hit an obstacle. A man walked out, his hands up.

“Holbrook,” Ty snapped.

“Little Ty Bladen. My favorite boy,” Holbrook said in that hauntingly soft voice of his. “Tell me, is it true that you never forget your first? It is, isn’t? I can see it in your eyes. You never stopped thinking about me.”

Ty laughed. “This is turning out to be a great day. You’re out-manned—literally. And outgunned.” He kept his pistol on Holbrook as he moved sideways to kick the gun away from the man on the floor. “Drop your gun, Holbrook. Do it now.”

Holbrook held one hand aloft while he set his pistol on the ground. Kit left the hole in the wall to enter the bathroom. When he did, the man on the floor moved suddenly, throwing a knife at Holbrook. Kit fired at him as Holbrook slumped back against the wall. When Kit flipped the bathroom lights on, Ty realized the man who had just stabbed Holbrook was one of his old time bodyguards who had
accompanied him that first summer of Ty’s prostitution, nearly twenty years ago now. Strange how one’s childhood monsters looked so different through adult eyes.

“Ty,” Holbrook hissed. “Ty, please—” He held out a hand.

Ty knelt beside him. He looked at the knife protruding from the bastard’s chest with its widening red stain. He’d imagined that very scenario a thousand times, never thinking it would take him eighteen years to see it happen. Odd that the bastard’s death really didn’t matter, now. It didn’t undo the pain he’d felt all those years ago. It didn’t undo anything.