Brecken

Arms dealer? It was damn loud up here with the sound of the motor, but she was close enough to me that I’d heard her clear as a bell. My fascination with Hadley had apparently driven me to fuck up on the research end of this mission because I hadn’t done much looking into her father. He’d come to me on a referral from a well-respected Army General for fuck’s sake. I hadn’t seen the need to focus on him when a man I’d served under had vouched for him. Then, I’d become immersed in what I could find out about Hadley’s life. As soon as I’d tracked her down, I hadn’t waited to charge in and rescue her, assuming her kidnapping was connected to human trafficking and time was quickly dwindling before they moved her to somewhere I’d never be able to find her.

I held my tongue, resisting the urge to question Hadley and leveling Sera and Whit with a glare to ensure neither of them asked her what she was talking about. With her father’s connection to the General, odds were high there was more to the story. The kind of more that usually came with a top secret stamp on the file. None of us were in the military anymore, but being civilians didn’t mean we were going to discuss what could possibly be classified information with Hadley. Especially not when it was possible the discussion could put her in more danger. Hadley’s safety was my top priority.

Whit drew my attention by waving an ear piece under my nose. I checked mine and confirmed it was working before realizing he meant for me to give it to Hadley, knowing damn well I’d be pissed if he put it in for her. I turned it on and slid it into place in her ear.

“It’s a good thing for you that she knows how to shoot, Boss,” Whit said, making Hadley smile. “Sera wouldn’t have gotten to him in time, and I’m the worst shot of the lot of us, her included.”

“Which is why we need to teach you how to fly one of these suckers,” Devon replied from the pilot’s seat. “To free me up to shoot.”

“Or he could spend more time at the shooting range with me,” Sera added. “Practice makes perfect.”

“I don’t know about that,” Whit drawled, looking at Hadley. “When’s the last time you were at a range?”

“Seven months ago.”

Those three little words held so much nostalgia. I needed to ask her about it later when we were alone.

“See!” Whit crowed. “She was damn near perfect without a hint of practice in almost forever. I was at the range last week and couldn’t have made the same shot she did. My point has been made, practice doesn’t always make perfect. Natural ability factors in and Boss’s girl was born to hold a gun.”

“Enough,” I barked out, feeling Hadley’s muscles tense. Whit, Devon, Sera and I had each killed during our time in the military. Some of us more than others, something Whit took for granted since the body count from his explosives was damn high. But Hadley was a civilian, an innocent twenty-two-year-old woman. Based on her trembling, I was certain her only previous experience with guns had been firing at paper targets. She’d proven herself to be incredibly strong with how well she’d held up over the last day and a half, but killing a man was another thing entirely. After her kidnapping, her time spent with her captors and her escape, this very well could be the straw that broke the camel’s back for her.

“Don’t be a dipshit,” Sera hissed, gesturing at Hadley.

She tugged on Whit’s arm to move them to the side of the aircraft opposite of us, giving Hadley and me a small degree of privacy. I yanked our comms units out of our ears and gripped them in a fist, settling us on our side until my back was against the wall of the chopper and Hadley was seated on my lap facing me. I lowered my head, my mouth settling above her ear to ensure she could hear me over the noise from the chopper’s motor.

“It was him or me, precious, and I for one am damn grateful you took the shot that saved my life.”

She pulled back, staring at me with tears filling her pretty green eyes before she leaned up to answer me. “Me, too. I think that’s the hardest part, knowing I don’t regret taking a life. Not even a little bit. I know if I hadn’t done it then you’d be dead, and that’s something I couldn’t live with.”

When she was done speaking, her head dropped onto my shoulder and sobs shook her body. I held her close, running my hands down her back trying to soothe her as she cried for the rest of the long flight to the airstrip where a private plane waited for us. The chopper had been borrowed from the army base in Honduras, thanks to the General. Once we made contact with him, someone would be sent to pick it up from the airstrip since it was a short drive from the base.

The plane belonged to my best friend. I’d helped to save Morgan’s woman a while back and he was happy to return the favor when I’d called him to see if he could help with our transportation on this mission. I hadn’t wanted to trigger any red flags with our arrival, and he’d arranged for the flight into Honduras under the guise of business purposes, listing Devon as the pilot, Whit as the co-pilot and Sera and me as the only passengers—only we hadn’t flown in under our own names and had used Morgan and his wife’s credentials. It was risky, but the General had pulled some strings with his military contacts to make it work.

He’d also arranged for a military log to show Sera as flying into the base yesterday. The plan was for her to fly back with us on her own passport while Hadley and I entered the United States as Morgan and Angelica, who would meet us at the private airport when we had our “emergency landing” and exchange places with us before the plane was “repaired” and continued on to the final destination where Customs would board the plane. The plan was risky because I wasn’t sure if the fake passports I’d had made for Hadley and I would hold up if we weren’t able to make the switch, but I didn’t want anyone to know she was back in the States.

I also didn’t want her captors to connect Hadley to me or my company. Not until I was able to pinpoint who’d been the one to order her kidnapping. Then they wouldn’t need to link us together because they’d be too busy trying to stay alive to worry about Hadley. I’d collected a lot of contacts during my time in the military, made friends and saved lives. Many favors were owed to me, and I’d call in every single one if that’s what it took to ensure her safety. A message needed to be sent— Hadley was off limits—and I was the man who’d make sure it was received loud and clear by anyone who thought to use her as a pawn in the future.

Even if it turned out that her father and the General were in bed with the bad guys somehow, Hadley was officially out of this mess. She wasn’t her father’s responsibility anymore. She was mine, and I’d do whatever was necessary to keep her safe and happy, right where she belonged. With me.

As I led her from the chopper and across the airstrip to the plane, it was as though she was in sync with me. She asked a question directly in line with what I was thinking, the perfect question for me to be able to keep her by my side.

“Where are we going? Is there anywhere in the world where I’ll be safe?”

“Yes, Hadley. There’s most definitely somewhere you can go to be safe. You’re coming home with me.” And that’s where you’ll stay once this is all over, too. At least I was smart enough to only think the last part and didn’t blurt it out and scare her half to death.