DECK

A fucking fellow soldier.

I was having a hard time trying to digest what just went down in the war room. The code between comrades was something that should never be broken, and now it looked like a rogue soldier was targeting us. Well, let’s just say, we were all reeling from that shit. Especially Steel and Creed. Since they pointed the tattoo out, I could see it plain as day—except for the number on the dog tag. That would be too fucking easy.

Walking into the main room, my eyes searched for Shiloh and Charlie. Not finding them, I went in the direction of the new dance room I had set up for them and the other girls in the club. Smiling to myself as I walked, I thought about the private showing I would be getting from my sweetness as she wrapped herself around a pole. I was more than happy to see her swinging her butt, only in private this time. The memories of Gypsies still plagued me.

I found the dance room void of my girls, and after a quick search of the rooms, I came up the same.

“Where the hell are they?”

I jogged back to the main room and walked through to the kitchen. I found Stella up to her elbows, literally, in cookie dough and went straight to her.

“Stella, have you seen Charlie and Shiloh?”

Stella didn’t stop mixing what was in the bowl. “No, Deck. I saw them about thirty minutes ago when Charlotte grabbed two apples and some waters, then took off out into the main room.”

“Thanks, honey.” I leaned over and pressed a kiss to her temple. Her smile seemed strained but there. I also noticed a yellowing under her jaw, but I blew it off as food colouring from the icing used on the cookies. My focus was finding my girls. The shit with the security footage left me with a desperate need to have them close.

As I passed by the pool table, Seb stopped me.

“Wanna play, Deck?”

“Nah, brother, just heading to Shiloh’s playground out back to see if I can find my girls,” I explained from nearly halfway to the other side of the room.

“They aren’t out there, Deck. Teach and Shiloh headed out a bit ago for that park Shiloh loves so much,” Squid piped up.

My steps instantly faltered. Turning around, I stomped back to where they were playing pool.

“Did anyone go with them?” I asked, grinding my teeth. I was nearly ready to tear someone a new arsehole. How could they let her take off without a detail? I knew they had no idea about what was happening with the rogue soldier, but they fucking knew Shiloh never went anywhere without protection.

My mind was screaming at me to get to them fast. I took off at a dead run and shouted out to Darth, who was coming out of the kitchen with a large sandwich in his hand.

“Shiloh and Charlie are at the park exposed. No one on them.” I didn’t bother to stop. I knew he would follow right behind me.

Darth growled, “Fuck.”

I made it to the parking lot and then heard Darth behind me.

“Fuck! Brother, they went on foot.”

I looked around and saw my truck was still in the parking space.

“Goddammit.”

My heart was beating out of my chest. I’d just seen my little girl on a security screen being watched by some fucker with a camera and a grudge. And I was scared. I could face bullets and bombs with my eyes closed. Facing the fact that my daughter and woman might be in danger and knowing I wasn’t there to protect them? No fucking way could I face that.

Jumping on my bike, I fired her up and took off, spewing gravel as I left. I saw Darth jump into his truck and pull out behind me. All I could think was that they were walking and someone could have taken them already. There were endless possibilities as to which way an abductor could go, I wouldn’t know where to start looking. Feeling the tightness in my chest growing and growing, I doubled down on the throttle and wove my way through the light traffic.

In my mirrors, I could see Darth keeping up with me, keeping the truck on my left. I then noticed three other bikes closing in quickly. Booth, Creed and Mannix. The four men I depended on for my life had my back, and that made all the difference to me.

Finally, we arrived at the park. Knowing Shiloh loved the merry-go-round and the massive adventure playground, I quickly deduced where to begin my search. The two were close together, so without too much thought, I lowered the bike’s stand and just barely made sure the bike was still upright before I took off. I could hear multiple footfalls behind me.

“Split up, and circle the whole area, boys,” Booth boomed out the order. And they complied immediately.

I kept my sights on the merry-go-round. I didn’t know how many hours I had spent there, watching Shiloh going around and around. Her giggles always filled the air, but as I approached, I noticed it was empty. No one was there.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. Where are you, Squirt? I repeated over and over in my head.

I cupped my hands over my mouth, and at the top of my lungs, I shouted, “Shiloh.”

In the distance, I could hear my team yelling her name.

As I sprinted towards the playground, I prayed they were there. When I arrived, Booth and the others were already there. Creed and Mannix were on the ladders, climbing to get a better vantage point of the park.

“Shiloh. Charlie.” My voice was becoming hoarse from yelling out their names, but I couldn’t stop. Finding them was my only option.

My phone started to ring in my pocket, and the ‘Paint It Black’ ringtone pierced the silence of the nearly deserted park. Hoping it was Charlie, I neglected to look at the caller ID.

“Charlie?” I nearly shouted into the phone.

But a distorted voice was on the other end. “Looking for someone, Sergeant?”

I could tell whoever was on the other end was using a voice changer. It was coming out like a digital robot.

“Who the fuck is this?” I shouted. My voice was full of so much anger that it caught the attention of my fellow brothers.

“Put it on speakerphone so the others can hear, or I will hang up, and you will never know where they are,” the disembodied voice demanded.

Taking the phone from my ear, I pressed the speakerphone option. “Okay, we can all hear you.”

Creed and Mannix had joined us. I was ready to fucking spit nails. This fucker was playing games, and I just wanted to find my baby girl, then hold her and never let her go.

“You boys look a little distressed. Have you lost something? Perhaps a pretty blonde with smallish tits, nice arse, and a decent face? And perhaps a cute little black-haired girl wearing a ballet tutu and chunky black boots?” A laugh erupted from the phone, sounding distorted just like the voice.

I saw red.

“Listen to me, you fucking prick. You touch them, and I will—”

“You’ll what?” he interrupted me. The laughter was gone from his tone, and I could hear his anger. “You can’t do fucking shit to me. I have all the power. I can take everything away from you like you took everything from me. I can see those two pretties of yours right now. In my sights. It won’t take much to pull the trigger and take them both out with one shot.” Another laugh, and then he hung up.

“Where is my daughter?” I screamed at the silent phone. Looking up, I saw Darth was panting with anger. The others weren’t doing much better. Someone was playing us, but the fucker was using my woman and child to fuck with us.

Had he shot them already? He said he had them in his sights. The very thought literally brought me to my knees. The sharp cobblestones of the path bit into my flesh. I noticed Creed had taken off for the ladders again. I couldn’t breathe. The pain in my chest was making it impossible to take in a deep gulp of air. I raked my fingers through my hair and let out a growl.

“Shiloh, where are you?” I screamed again. I vaguely heard Booth on the phone to Ford, telling him to tap into the security cameras the local council had put up around various areas of the park.

“Fuck me, Deck. Deck, there they are,” Creed yelled from his vantage point high up on the wooden structure. “There is a dark blue SUV parked about one hundred metres from them,” he cried out at the same time as he scrambled down the ladder.

I quickly rose to my feet and took off after Darth, who had a head start on me. My legs were still a bit unsteady from falling to my knees. All six of us were running faster than we ever had before. Steel wasn’t as quick because of his leg, but he was no slouch. Mannix, Booth, and Steel broke off and headed straight for the SUV. Darth and I only had eyes for the two people who had no idea they were sitting in the crosshairs of a sniper rifle.

Pumping my arms harder, I tried to gain speed any way I could. I was still a good five hundred metres from them, and one thing I couldn’t outrun was a bullet. As I got closer, I saw the girls were eating what looked to be ice cream and were giggling together.

“Charlie, get the fuck down,” I shouted as loudly as I could when in a dead run.

Charlie looked towards us, and a look of shock crossed over her face as her eyes took in Darth and me running towards her. Then she must have seen Booth, Creed, Mannix, and Steel running towards a car because understanding dawned on her face. She instantly gathered Shiloh into her arms and put her back to the car, putting herself in the firing line. My heart swelled at her gesture, her natural instinct to protect my child, but what she didn’t realise was the bullet from that particular rifle was capable of going through her and into Shiloh.

“Daddy!” Shiloh finally saw me and happily yelled out my name. She broke out of Charlie’s embrace and started to run to me.

Oh, fuck. No, no, no, no.

Ignoring the burning of my lungs from sprinting so far, I pushed a bit stronger and made it to Shiloh, grabbed her in my arms, and threw us to the ground, rolling so she was on top of me to protect her from any kind of impact. Her tiny body hugged into mine.

As I rolled, I saw Darth grab Charlie in the exact same way, rolling so he took all the impact of the fall. Her shriek penetrated my overloaded brain. Was she hurt? Did she get hit? But I couldn’t form the words to ask. My little girl was in my arms, thank fuck.

I felt wetness against my chest, and for a second, I panicked, thinking Shiloh or I had been hit. Still cradling her head and body to me, I lifted my other hand and saw it was covered with a chocolate coloured muck.

Fucking ice cream.

In the distance, I heard a high-powered engine rev and tyres screeching. Hearing Booth’s and Creed’s cursing, I guessed the fucker got away.

“Daddy, youse is crushing my icy cream,” Shiloh cried indignantly at me.

Oh, Jesus Christ, save me. My breathing was out of control, my chest covered with ice cream, my knees and now my elbows skinned from the tackle, but my daughter was in my arms and pissed off at me for destroying her dessert.

I couldn’t help it. I let out a loud bellow, more from relief than anything else because it certainly wasn’t funny.

“Sorry, Squirt. Let’s get up and see if we can save it.” My voice felt like I’d eaten gravel. I needed a drink, badly. My lungs were screaming.

“That was fun, Daddy. Can we doos it again?” my pint-sized pain in the arse begged, not understanding the gravity of the situation at all.

“Like hell,” Booth muttered, coming over to see for himself that Shiloh was indeed okay. Darth came over, too, and his eyes scanned my baby girl with his medic-trained glare, making sure a bullet or the tackle hadn’t hurt her. His hand searched and found a small cut on her arm. There must have been glass or something on the ground when I went down because her little arm had a two-centimetre gash on the top of her forearm.

“Deck, let’s get her back to the compound. I can take care of this with some surgical glue.” His voice was all business, but I could tell her blood was affecting him as much as it was me.

Unfortunately, Shiloh saw and let out a distressed cry.

“Ouch, Daddy, ouch.”

“Brother, let’s get out of here. We lost the car, but the danger may not be over,” Booth urged us. He was vigilant and wary, and the tension in his body was palpable. I could see he was disappointed in himself for letting the rogue soldier get away.

Without letting go of Shiloh, I took Mannix’s outstretched hand and allowed him to help Shiloh and me to our feet. The adrenaline and excitement of my tackle and roll were wearing off on her, and I knew she was starting to feel the sting of the cut.

With my life in my arms, my brothers and I took off to the car park where we’d left our bikes and Darth’s truck.