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Prologue
“I can’t believe you’re sitting here in my kitchen. It’s been over a year. I was so worried about you. Are you out of the service?” Shawna James asked her brother, Keith, as he looked around the place. He appeared tired, yet on edge since he arrived fifteen minutes ago. He had visited her over the years. He also made sure she was well trained in self-defense and other moves. He loved her, but his military career was his life.
His brown hair was to his shoulders, his beard looked patchy and unkempt. Something was wrong. She just knew it.
He leaned forward, the muscles in his forearm visible with the sleeves of his shirt rolled up to his biceps.
“Baby, listen to me. It’s important that you listen to every word I say, and don’t ask any questions.” He looked around the small apartment. Hell, she was embarrassed, but it was hers. She paid the rent. She worked at the club behind the bar. She was the one finishing college. Shawna was a survivor and trust didn’t come easy. In fact, her brother was the only man, never mind the only person, she trusted.
She stared at him, her heart filled with so much sadness and bad memories of their childhood.
“What’s going on?”
He looked to the right and then back at her. He did just tell her to not ask any questions. She raised her stubborn shoulders as well as her eyebrows in challenge.
“I need you to listen to everything I tell you and keep it in the back of your mind just in case people come looking for me.”
“People? Who?”
“Shawna, I can’t tell you who, but I can tell you that these men are bad. They want things from me. Things that they can’t have. My cover could have gotten blown on a recent mission. It was supposed to be my last.”
“Your last mission? What about the team? Your commander? The other four men?”
Men she never met. Men she didn’t even know the names of, just men her brother referred to as his team and family.
r /> He took a deep breath and released it. “I was solo on this one. It’s important that you know the possible danger you could be in. These men will stop at nothing to get what I have. I came here because you’re my only family. I had to warn you and set up a plan to help you survive. If they come here, and they find you, they’ll use you to get to me and to get this information.”
“Well then, why did you come here? Who are these people and how come the government isn’t helping you?”
He looked down at the table and then back into her eyes. She knew that look whether he was thirteen or thirty. He had done something he wasn’t supposed to do.
He lifted up a black bag from the floor. He had arrived with it. A backpack.
He unzipped it and showed her the contents.
“There’s twenty thousand dollars in here. You take it, its unmarked bills, and you use it to get as far from here as possible. Don’t stay in one place too long. Don’t trust anyone. Don’t go to the police or even the feds. You understand me?”
“No. If you did something so wrong that you can’t even rely on help from a government you dedicated your life to, then this must be very illegal. Why are you dragging me into your problems, Keith? Jesus! Like I haven’t been through a hard enough life as is?”
“Damn it, Shawna, I’m trying to save your life because of all that. I know our childhood sucked. Hell, I got out as fast as I could. Don’t you realize all those times I showed up over the years, and taught you all those self-defense moves, and signed you up for the martial arts training and shooting instructions on guns that it might have been to prepare you?”
“Prepare me for what? I’m not a soldier. I have shit, and I work at a freaking bar. I’m struggling to pay for college and finish up so I can have a real job, a real career, and a life. I don’t even have a boyfriend because of my fears from the past. Look at this shithole I live in because I have no choice.”
She was standing now and pacing in her small kitchen.
Keith stood up and laid the bag on the table. He walked closer and placed his hands on her shoulders. Her brother had always protected her when things got rough, but he did leave her to deal with the mess at home. She took off when she finished high school and never looked back. Keith was her only family.
“I know you’ve been through some rough times. It was why I kept coming back to train you, to prepare you to be safe. My job in the military has taken a turn along the way that I didn’t expect. There are some very evil people out there, Shawna. People that would think nothing of taking you and raping and torturing you to get to me. So please just forget about the fucked-up shit from the past and take me seriously. They will come for you. I need you to be ready.”
“Oh God, Keith. I can’t believe this is happening. Where am I supposed to go?”
I know my life isn’t perfect. I know the apartment is shitty and I live in an unsafe neighborhood, but it’s my life, my apartment. I worked hard to get here, and I’ve been studying and working to get that degree so I can make more money and get out of here. Why is this happening?
“Bounce around from place to place. There is a passport in there but once you choose a country to relocate to you can’t come back here. That’s your last resort. If they come for you, you must not let them catch you. Use your training, your skills to evade their capture, Shawna.”
She swallowed hard, her heart was racing, and her eyes filled with tears.
“Can’t I go with you? You’ll protect me like always, Keith.” She grabbed his arm. She wanted to cry, to burst into tears and demand that he hold her, take the fear away like he did when they were kids.
“I can’t, Shawna,” he whispered, holding her shoulder and her waist. He stared down into her eyes. “It’s better if you’re not with me. Hopefully I can resolve this and you can go on with your life. I want you safe and I want you happy.”
She swallowed hard.
“And what about you?” she asked.
He released her arms and took an unsteady breath. “I’m going to finish what I started.”
He hugged her tight and she cried, holding him, not knowing if she would ever see him again. Her life was now in danger, too. What the hell was he involved in?
He pulled back and wiped the tears from her eyes. “You’re strong, well trained, and smart. They may never come here but that’s not a chance I’m willing to take.”
“When will I know that you have it all resolved and that I don’t have to hide out or move around a bunch?” she asked him.
He stared at her and she could tell that he was upset.
“I don’t know. But if these people succeed and they kill me, remember to trust no one. Only trust the person who knows the password and gives it to you.”
“The password?” she asked. He smiled as he tugged on her long brown hair.
“Yes, you mean you forgot after all these years?” he asked. She thought about it and then remembered.
“Are you serious? Do you mean the cubbyhole?”
“Of course. It’s where we hid whenever they fought and yelled at one another. It was under the stairs in the house and blocked out most of the noise.”
She swallowed hard. “It was our secret place,” she said, remembering how they ran to it as soon as their parents drank too much and started becoming violent. Keith kept her safe then, and he would keep her safe now. She held his gaze.
“I’ll remember the password, Keith. Please be safe. Please come back to me. You’re the only family I have.” She hugged him and he held her close until it was time to leave. Her life just didn’t feel the same.
Chapter 1
Mercury Brooks was looking at the computer screen in the library. He couldn’t believe the e-mail he received from a friend inside the government agency. What the fuck did you do, Keith? You were supposed to be here months ago. Retired and living the life with your team.
Mercury ran his hand through black crew-cut hair and leaned back. He felt sick to his stomach. How could Keith go rogue? He had always been one of them. They conducted their missions with the upmost respect and commitment to the Corps and to the United States of America. This couldn’t be right.
Mercury looked away from the computer screen and toward the window that looked out at the open land. Their land. He and his team, Tex, Lee, Stitch, and Tiek. They’d moved out here to Texas, to an area near fellow soldiers, people who understood the life they once led and how difficult it was to fall back into civilian life. Keith was supposed to be part of this, too, but the kid never wanted to settle down. Mercury knew Keith had a tough life. As his gunnery sergeant, hell, he knew that he had someone in San Antonio from his past that he went to see from time to time between missions. But what was he doing in Mexico, Brazil, and even Argentina? Had he really gotten involved with some sort of terrorist group?
“Fuck!” he yelled out and slammed his fist down onto the desk.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Lee asked as he walked into the room. Mercury turned toward his friend, well, more like family now. Lee was the team planner. Thirty-six, no family, a soldier through and through, and Keith’s closest friend. This was going to be hell.
