Chapter Six
Beast didn’t like leaving Miracle on her own. He’d spent the whole time, after CIRO was called in for a mission, trying to convince himself not wanting to leave her was only because of his growing feelings for her. After all, his building was pretty secure. And it wasn’t like he was off gallivanting around the place. Duty called. His commanding officer had agreed to send a patrol to sit on the place but Beast was still uncomfortable with it. No one could protect her like he could. He checked over his G3K rifle and set it on the large table in the room as his team milled around preparing their weapons. He took a breath and switched his mind from Miracle to the mission.
If he couldn’t focus, one or more of his guys would not make it home.
“All right,” Beast said after clearing his throat. “We move out in ten.”
“Sir!” the guys acknowledged him.
Mouth, Zero, and Pitbull left the room but he could feel Barbie hovering. He smiled and faced her already knowing what she wanted to talk about.
“Okay. I was wondering when you’d get around to it,” Beast said, lifting a booted foot to a chair and fixing his lace. “What’s on your mind?”
“You and Miracle...”
“Yeah?”
“You are serious, right? This is not a game for you.”
“Why are you asking?”
“Because she’s a nice girl,” Barbie said. “I know how you cats operate.”
Beast drew his laces in tight and tied them. He lowered his foot to the floor and faced her. “You think I’m in this to hurt her?”
“Are you?”
“No! Of course not.” Beast rubbed the back of his neck. “But I’m not going to lie. I don’t know what this is. All I know is I feel something for her and I want to see where it goes. I don’t even know if she feels it too.”
“Have you slept together?”
“No.” He reached for his rifle. “It’s not like we don’t want to—but I didn’t feel right sleeping with her with danger lurking. I mean, if we were to sleep together I want it to be because she wants to and not because she sees me as some kind of savior.”
“Now, that’s a load of crap,” Barbie said. She picked up the Steyr AUG A3 rifle and raised a brow at him. “Sex is sex. It becomes more if you feel something else for the other person. I see it in your eyes, Beast—you want more.”
Beast groaned. “It doesn’t matter what I want or what I feel if the feelings aren’t mutual. No means no.”
“Has she said no to you?”
“No.”
“Then?”
Beast shook his head and shrugged.
“Oh I see—when it comes to work you’re beast mode—all the time. But a little feelings and you go chicken?”
“I haven’t—can we get this mission over with? I really want to go back to her.”
“She’ll be fine.”
“Yeah, and then she’s going to leave...”
Barbie tilted her head. “As in go back home? Well, yeah, that’s a strong possibility. You just have to give her a reason to stay.”
But Beast said nothing. Instead he exited the room and joined up with the gathering outside. Barbie joined them and they piled into the transport. As usual the drive to the drop was silent. No one said anything and half the time Beast wondered if they were all breathing. Still, he remained quiet, head down, and put Miracle and her flawless perfection to the back of his head.
The first drop was Barbie so she could set up to cover them if they needed it. At the main stop, Zero and Mouth alighted first and got down followed by Beast and Pitbull. Afterward, a scurry of activities carried them into the two story building. Every movement was quick, precise.
“Barbie,” Beast called after clearing yet another room. “Report.”
“Clear.” Barbie’s voice was crisp through the earpiece.
The team finally converged on the final door. When Mouth tested it, the knob didn’t budge and they couldn’t play around with it. Any noise would alert whoever inside of their presence and the hostages would be dead. Beast knew they would have to go in loud and that mean once the door came down, they were going to have to go in hard.
Pitbull looked toward him and Beast nodded. He backed up with the others and Pitbull stepped forward. He placed a black disc against the back of the door. As he stepped away, Beast palmed a flashbang. After the disc beeped once, there was a loud bang and the door fell forward. Beast and Zero hurled flashbangs into the room then charged in first.
“GSG 9!” Beast shouted.
That must have been the wrong thing to say for at that moment, all hell broke loose. He quickly located the hostages and moved wide away from them to draw fire at himself. He fired, taking out one kidnapper while Zero handled another. There was a slurping sound and Beast glanced behind him to see a man almost as if he was frozen in time with a hole through the side of his head.
Barbie struck again.
By the time the smoke cleared and they evacuated all the hostages, Beast was exhausted. He went back to base with his team, debriefed them, filled out the report then climbed onto his motorcycle and headed straight to his apartment. The moment he pulled into the parking lot he knew something wasn’t right. Then he saw the squad car, that was supposed to be watching over Miracle, sat with two of its doors opened. On the passenger side, the officer was hanging out, throat slit. On the driver’s side the cop had a bullet to the chest. Beast parked the cycle and charged into the building. As he moved, he called in the officers down, and then dropped his phone into his pocket. By the time he made it to his unit, his exhaustion had long since been forgotten. When he entered and found the place ransacked, the fear quickly morphed to rage.
“Fleur?” He called going from through the place. “Miracle?”
When he confirmed she wasn’t there, he sent a text to his team with one simple word. “SOS.”
He then called Tex.
“Beast—what’s the word?” Tex answered.
“I fucked up,” Beast said, pacing one way then the other. He dragged his free palm over his head. “I fucked up and now she’s gone.”
“Beast—calm down. Tell me what’s going on, brother.”
“We had a mission. I don’t even know why we were called. GSG 9/1 was available. Anyway, we had to leave her. The commander sent a squad car to keep watch, but now I’m back, they’re dead and she’s gone! Tex, find her!”
“Okay, I’ll do my best. In the mean time what’s your plan?”
“I’m waiting for the rest of the guys to show up. Once they’re here, we can start digging.”
“Good. I’ll send Dude your way as well.” Tex promised. “Turn on your computer, Beast. I need to send you what I found. Maybe that will help us narrow down where she is.”
Beast hurried to do what Tex asked. “Done.”
“She figured out who Heinrik was.” Tex’s voice was hard.
“She didn’t tell me.”
“Well, I don’t think she knew she figured it out,” Tex said. “I had to have the picture restored to get a face. My guess is, whoever this guy is now, thinks she knows more than she does and he wants to get the proof back and shut her up. She’ll be fine if she doesn’t say anything.”
Oh God.
“Tex, please…”
“Hang tight, brother. I’ll hit you back,” Tex said and was gone.
Though he was tempted to hurl the phone across the room, Beast set it on the table beside the laptop instead. He watched as the screen to his computer came alive and files began opening. That was Tex at work.
He paced a grove into the floor waiting for the rest of CIRO to show up. He then busied himself going through the files and photos Tex had sent. When they were all there, including Dude, Beast faced them.
“Where’s Miracle?” Faulker “Dude” Cooper asked.
“They took her while we were on a mission,” Beast said. “Now, I have to get her back.”
“What’s this I business?” Barbie asked. “Like you always say, Beast, there’s no I in the word team.”
“This mission will not be sanctioned,” Beast told her. “You know that.”
“And your point is?” Dude asked.
“We’re not going anywhere,” Zero said. “Your woman is missing and none of us are going home until she’s back.”
“She’s not my—” Beast started.
“Deny it all you want, Beast.” Mouth peeled off his leather jacket and tossed it over the back of a chair. “But we all know better. Now, what did Tex send you?”
“Let’s recap what we know.” Beast swallowed convulsively then picked up the laptop. “Miracle was digging into a man name Heinrik Loft. He was about fourteen years old at the end of World War 2. He was kind of an adopted son to Hitler. When Miracle started digging, someone tried running her off the road and a couple of days ago they tried grabbing her at the mall. Now, for the new bits. Tex did some nosing around and found Heinrik Loft.”
“He’s still alive?” Barbie asked.
Beast handed her a picture. She looked at it and gasped.
“Yes. And he’s...” Beast swallowed. The anger pulsed inside him like a simmering volcano.
“No way,” Mouth murmured looking at the image over Barbie’s shoulder before she passed it to Zero.
“Who is he?” Dude asked.
“Take a closer look,” Zero handed the picture to Dude.
“Is that Oberstleutnant Hunfried?” Dude asked.
“He is a cop! How could he be the same guy?” Mouth asked. “There has to be an explanation.”
It all made sense then—why Hunfried had sent CIRO to that hostage situation. He wanted to get them away from Miracle.
“Like I said.” Beast growled. “Anyone who wants to back out, do that now.”
“Lay off that bullshit, would you?” Dude snapped. “You’re a part of this family and if one of us is hurting then all of us are hurting.”
“What’s the plan?” Barbie asked.
“We find Miracle.” Beast snarled. “We go through every single level of Hunfried’s life if we have to. We get Miracle back. Then we burn his world to the ground.”