Deadly Hunt (Deadly #1) (21 page)

“You wanted a family dinner, now it’s a proper family dinner.” And hops out of the car, she hugs all of them hello, and they wait for me to get out of the car.

“Hey guys, fancy seeing you here.” I say sarcastically. Scott laughs the prick.

“Well when Sophia said it was family dinner, well we came.” Scott replies. Funny fucker.

“Well come on then, I’ll introduce you to my family.” I tell them looking at Steven rather than Scott. Sophia snorts.

“Fucked up family is more like it.” Sophia mumbles under her breath but everyone can still hear her. Damn this will be fun. We all walk in the house.

“Mom, dad, this is Sophia’s father and her brothers; Steven, Luke and Scott. Guys these are my parents, Kitty and Conrad Slade.” Mom has a massive smile on her face, she usually hates having her plans ruined, but yet she looks like she knew they were coming.

“Hi guys, welcome, Kitty, get them some drinks.” Dad says. Mom being the ever so gracious host asks what they would like, and gets them.

“Well, hello, I’m Kat, who are you?” Kat says looking at Luke, who looks extremely uncomfortable. Scott walks over to Sophia, just as Connor walks in the room. Sophia however answers Kat’s question.

“Kat, this is my brother Luke. Luke this is Nathan’s sister Kat.” Kat actually looks shocked. Mom comes back with the drinks and tells us it’s time for dinner.

“No he’s not, you look nothing alike. So really who is he?” Soph glares at me. She moves over to Steven and Scott follows. Mom calls everyone for dinner for the second time since no one has moved. I take this time to talk to Kat.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” she looks like I just killed her cat.

“Nothing, she’s lying, they aren’t related.” Fuck me, I’m getting pissed now.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but they are adopted, now fucking act like a human. You’re seriously pissing me off.” I walk into the sitting room leaving her behind. We sit down for dinner as Brody walks in.

“Hey mom, sorry I’m late, I was busy with work.” He walks in and sits down, the lying fuckface, his buttons are done up wrong. Sophia snorts when she sees him, he raises his eyebrow.

“What?” Brody asks Sophia, she just shakes her head, Connor leans forward and says.

“Is your ass jealous of the amount of shit that comes out of your mouth?” the table is silent. I can’t help it I burst out laughing, and so does dad and the rest of the table.

“I’m a police detective, you know that, you can’t talk to me like this.” Connor hides his laugh with a cough, Sophia smiles sweetly at him but it’s Scott that says quietly.

“Damn are they just handing detective badges out these days?” I see Steven elbow him; it doesn’t hurt him as his elbow went into a mass of muscle.

“Okay, can everyone stop with the insults and finish our dinner in peace?” Dad asks everyone and they look down at their plates. I look up and see Scott wink at Sophia, she looks really defeated.

Everyone stays quiet throughout the rest of dinner. Mom goes and gets dessert, peach cobbler, she brings it out and Sophia declines, says she will have ice-cream instead.

“What? You too good to eat the cobbler?” Of course Kat starts her shit again. Sophia doesn’t say a word to her, however Steven speaks.

“My daughter is six months pregnant and I have watched her be insulted by your sister all day. What the fuck is wrong with you Nathan? How could you bring her here? Come on Soph, we are leaving.” Sophia looks shocked.

“But dad I was having fun.” She whines. Of course that sets Connor laughing again. I’m pissed how dare he question my motives, I love Sophia, I wouldn’t hurt her.

“Steven, how fucking dare you think I would ever put her in harm’s way. I love her and my child.” He chuckles.

“You don’t call this causing her harm? Where she is constantly treated like shit and insulted. That is causing her harm.” Sophia stands up.

“Enough. It’s bad enough having her treat me like shit, I don’t need you and Nathan arguing. Now let’s get out of here, I can’t be around her much longer without causing bodily harm.” She walks out of the house, Steven follows her. Scott still has a smile on his face as he leaves and Luke glares at me. Every one of them leaves the house without saying goodbye to anyone.

“I’m so fucking ashamed of you all right now.” I actually am. I’m so pissed, how she treated Sophia was disgusting.

“Now hold on a minute son, she wasn’t that bad.” Dad says and Connor scoffs.

“She was rude Conrad. How can you sit there and say she wasn’t that bad? Ever since Soph sat down she has been constantly at her.” With that he gets up and walks out.

“He’s right, what the fuck happened to you? We have enough going on without adding your crazy ass bullshit. Don’t contact me again until you know how to behave around people.” With that I walk out, Connor is standing by my car talking to Scott and Sophia. I walk up to them and Sophia looks at me, she kisses Scott’s cheek and looks Connor up and down in distaste, she still hasn’t forgiven him since the Hailey incident at my office, then gets into the car.

“You may need to do some serious grovelling, she could be mighty pissed at you bro,” Connor feels the need to inform me. I look back at the car and see she is on the phone. She looks pissed. With a quick goodbye to the guys, I jump in the car.

“Yeah I’ll come into the docks; yep I’ll be there soon. Right. Bye Sarge.” I stare at her through the corner of my eye.

“What’s going on?” She sighs.

“We need to head to the docks. And you need to get your men there as well.” The docks are a storage unit. Smithy International has taken an old storage unit and renovated it. It’s their secret hide out, no one knows how it isn’t linked to them. They have a whole office there, and they have enough ammunition to bring the US to its knees. I call the guys telling them to meet us there.

We make it to the docks and Sophia walks ahead of me to enter she puts her palm on the screen, then the peep hole opens up and she puts her eye there so it can do a full retina scan. Then the door opens, it’s fucking cool, but expensive. Dwayne’s been on at me to get them in the new office but I can’t afford them. I follow behind Soph as she walks into the warehouse.

We make it to the centre of their operations, it’s fucking huge. In the middle of the floor is a circle covered with screens. Dwayne and Oscar are standing in the middle. Rotating 360 degrees they search the screens. There isn’t much else in the room, just a few desks. Sarge walks up and hits a switch on the wall. I’m in fucking shock at what it does. The walls open up to show a fully equipped arsenal, you name it they got it. It’s like a fucking playground for them. Sophia gets giddy with weapons, and the damn woman is a master at getting any weapon you want. She had this whole place fully equipped in less than 48 hours. When I asked how she did it, she looked at me like I was crazy, then when I asked the guys they told me not to ask, that it will be a secret she dies with. So I left it alone, but she did tell me any weapon I need she can get for me. I guess I know what presents she is going to get me. Once Scott and Connor arrive Sophia lets them in and I hear her ask.

“What the fuck? Why on earth would you bring them?” I turn to the door and see not only did Scott bring his dad and Luke that they also brought Hailey. I agree, what the fuck was he playing at?

“Look, I was in the car with them when you called. I pulled up here and that fucker had Hailey in the car with him, so I’m going to break his fucking neck.” Sophia turns to Connor.

“So what the fuck were you thinking bringing her here? Hmm, why not bring her further into the danger. You know what? I don’t give a fuck why you brought her, it’s obvious you have no fucking judgement. Thank fuck I’m not going with you to Mullah’s hideout, I’d kill you before we left. I can’t have someone at my back who has no judgement.” Soph says with that, she walks off.

“I agree with her you know, what on earth were you thinking man?” I ask Connor when we get a private moment. “Damn Con, I honestly thought you had better judgement than that.” He sighs.

“Look I was at Maddie’s place and Hailey was there. When I got the call I left and she came with me, she wouldn’t take no for an answer.” He says and seems to realize the mistake he made, I hear a laugh behind me and turn to see Sophia behind us.

“So to stay on Maddie’s good side, you allow her sister to walk into a potentially life threatening situation. Answer this Conner, what’s Maddie going to think of you if her sister gets injured again or worse? Yeah exactly, maybe next time you will man the fuck up. You have caused my friends enough fucking trouble. If you know what’s good for you, stay the hell away from Maddie.” She’s still pissed he allowed Winter to kiss him. She is right though; he does need to think.

“Damn, she hates me,” Connor says. Yep.

“And I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon.” I say. She has every right to say what she did to him, he’s just trying to make Maddie happy and that means he’s not thinking clearly.

Ryder calls us all to the middle of the room. We’re all surrounded by the screens.

“So we had intelligence come in within the last hour, Mullah Al Mohammed has been sighted, we have confirmed this sighting and followed him back to a house. We know this could be a trap, but it’s the first lead we have gotten. So Sophia and Hailey you’re staying here with Dwayne. As Sophia is out of action Oscar is coming with us. So that will be Nathan, Asher, Scott, Luke, Steven, Connor, Skye, Doc, Oscar, Sam and myself. We are going in and out as quickly as we can, no casualties, now any questions?” Sophia does.

“Sarge, how secure will this place be? I mean where exactly are you heading?” Oscar has a big smile on his face.

“I have been scoping it out ever since the Intel came in, it’s secure as it’s going to get. We leave in two minutes, get ready, we’re heading to Hell’s Kitchen. The bastards have been living in luxury.”

Sophia hands out bullet proof vests and guns and ear pieces so we’re in constant contact with base. She walks up to Scott, Luke and Steven, hugs them all and says “Be safe.” Then she walks up to me, I open my arms and she walks into them straight away.

“No heroics, okay? I need you, even if you are a pain in the fucking ass, you aren’t indestructible.” I chuckle.

“Baby, no one can keep me away from you, you’re it for me. You think some motherfucking terrorist is going to keep me away from you? You got another thing coming.” She smiles. I bend town and take her mouth, I kiss her with everything I possess. She moans into my mouth, opens her mouth a bit wider and I completely consume her. I hear a cough and realize it’s time to go.

“Don’t worry baby, we’re all going to be fine, just look after yourself and our baby. I have to go, I love you.” I give her one last kiss and get in the car.

We reach the house in Hell’s Kitchen and I’m wired. I really hope the fucker is here, I want to kill him, and the rage I’ve kept bottled up for the past four months is ready to be unleashed. We stop at the curb waiting for the signal.

“And it’s a Go, Go, Go.” I hear Sophia say. I need to calm down; I can’t go Rambo, because her and our baby needs me. We all hop out of the car and out onto the street. Ryder goes in first.

“Okay Sarge, everything looks clear, a bit too quiet if you catch my drift. It smells like a set-up; I don’t like it. Halt back and get Sam to look for explosives,” Sophia says into our ears. Ryder puts his hand up to halt our movements. Sam runs to the side of the building.

“Oh come on, what we stopping for, because some woman says so?” Connor says and before anyone can answer him, Sam comes back.

“You’re right Soph, it’s all set to go boom once someone opens either the front or back door. Thank fuck we halted, there is enough C4 in there to take down the whole block.”

Ryder walks over to us. “Look, I don’t know how you usually handle things, but I trust my team100%, if one of them says pull back I pull back, but if Sophia tells me to pull back, you can guarantee that there is a fucking reason. Now sort your man out, I don’t take insubordination from my own team, the team that I have served with for years, the team that have survived being at war, the team I would die for, the team I would kill for. What makes you think I’m going to take insubordination from the prick that thinks it’s okay to bring an untrained woman into a potentially dangerous situation? If you think I will, you have another thing coming. Sophia is right, his judgment sucks, and he could end up getting one, if not all of us killed. You better shape him up Slade, or I will, and when I do it, it won’t be pretty.” I’ve had enough of being made to look like I’m incapable of running my team.

“Let’s get one thing straight, I’m not under your command. I don’t take orders from you, do you understand?” He nods and walks away.

“Damn, that was hot.” Fuck I forgot these were two-way mics. “Fuck that was so hot my panties are ruined.” Damn it now I’m hard!

“Sophia, I can fucking hear you. If I can hear you then so can everyone else” I growl out.

“Shit, I forgot. Pregnancy brain.”

“Ok, what about if you were to go in through a window, would that work?” Soph asks. We’ve been discussing strategy for the last twenty minutes. No one has come up with a viable solution, but as soon as Soph asks the question, Sam’s face lights up. He walks over to the window, jimmies it open a tiny bit and inserts the small camera. He looks down at the screen, then says.