Retribution (9 page)

Surrey and Bleak were loaded up, but Con and Dray were still out there; they couldn’t leave without them. The bird began to rise. Panic beat at her, whipped her into a frenzy, and she fought as Surrey held her down while Bleak strapped her in.

“Damn it, Surrey, don’t leave without him. Don’t you leave without him!” she screamed herself hoarse as regret carved deep grooves into Surrey’s face. “Please,
please
don’t leave.”

She would never be the same if she lost him now. This could not be happening.

But it was and as the chopper lifted off, the only thing she could see below her was a stygian darkness so complete it invaded her soul.

*

The distinctive
whump-whump
of the blades achieving lift pulled Dray’s attention from the rough ground in front of him. The chopper ascended into the sky as the last light of day fled behind the mountains. He laid down cover fire to keep the sniper above them busy. Con did the same. Not until the sound of the helicopter was a distant hum did he let up.

Time had slowed interminably when he’d been shot. Sasha had been running back toward him, and he’d just about lost his mind shouting over the comm link for Surrey to get her to the chopper. The woman was crazy. Did she not know that those were real bullets zipping by them? Running around like it was a day at the fucking fair, for cripe’s sake.

Rolling over, he pushed to his feet. Fire poured through his shoulder, the sting hot as the muscle protested being gouged. A flesh wound would hurt like hell, but it wouldn’t stop him. Several deep breaths and the pain eased, his mind pushing it down deep. It was time to go hunting.

He met Con halfway up the hillside. The other man pocketed his field glasses, and Dray couldn’t contain the question that ripped from him.

“Was she okay?” It was a harsh whisper, but sound carried in these mountains.

“Surrey carried her in. Don’t worry. He’ll take care of her,” Con assured him in an almost silent voice.

“No more fire above us, but they’re there. Let’s go get them.”

They made their way farther into the mountainous terrain. It didn’t take long to find where the few fighters had made camp. Because they’d shot him, had been a source of potential problems for his team and his woman, and would continue to pose problems for any U.S. forces in this area, Dray and Con eliminated them all and searched their meager belongings.

“Dray, we need to move out,” Con urged, and then his voice tipped into confusion. “What the hell’s this shit?” he asked as he pulled out a stash of discs hidden in a small hole beside one of the dead fighters.

Dray moved over to crouch beside him and took the discs from Con. Why were Taliban fighters in the middle of the Hindu Kush carrying around discs?

“Beats the fuck outta me. Maybe they’re carrier pigeons. Search everything. We’ve got about a day of hard walking to make it to Camp Freedom.” Dray’s gaze locked on the discs as acid ate away at his gut. He looked over at Con. “You’re good to go, right? No hits?”

“Yeah, I’m good, but you ain’t, so let’s bandage you up first.” Con wasn’t a medic, but they all had some field training.

His shoulder needed to be cleaned and gauzed before they started their journey to the American base. Once that was taken care of, he and Con removed the bodies from the area and decided to make camp right where the Taliban fighters had been. They needed rest—it’d been a helluva day.

As he lay down, Dray thought back to Sasha running toward him hell-bent-for-leather. The look on her face had been tortured. He smiled to himself as he drifted in that land between wakefulness and sleep. There was a serious connection between the two of them that hadn’t disappeared with time or distance. The last year and a half had been hard for both of them, but he was going to contact General Post when they reached Freedom. Then he’d head back to the States and to the woman he should have never left in the first place.

Gainesville, Georgia

“Sasha, you can’t just keep ignoring him.”

Hal’s low voice broke through Sasha’s reverie. Sasha kept her head down and ignored her. It didn’t deter Hal.

“He did what he had to do. You heard him tell you he was following Dray’s orders. Hell, we could be vulture food right now if we hadn’t taken off when we did, even Bleak said so.”

The flat tone of her sister’s words finally brought Sasha’s head up. The light seemed to have dimmed from Hal’s eyes since their return from Afghanistan. Had Sasha not been mired down in her own misery, she would’ve noticed it sooner.

“What’s going on, Hal? Surrey put you up to making friends with me on his behalf?” She let her question hang in the air for a few seconds. “He left Dray. If he doesn’t come back whole, Surrey won’t have to worry about friends ever again. You make sure you report that back to him for me, yeah?”

Sasha had spent the better part of her time since returning home alternately worrying, biting her nails while watching CNN, and bugging the ever-living shit out of Surrey for information. Dray’s teammate said he didn’t have any, which was just so much bull. She was sick of the subterfuge and half-truths.

They’d returned home to Georgia two freaking weeks ago and still nothing from Dray. Was he alive? Surrey assured her Dray was too hardheaded and stubborn to have let a shoulder wound keep him down. And what the hell that meant she had no freaking idea.

What if it’d been worse than a shoulder wound? Damn it, she needed to know he was okay. The episode in Afghanistan had brought all the old stuff from a year and a half ago back up. Night terrors stalked her as the darkness fell, and she was now looking over her shoulder when the sun came up. Fear had a stranglehold on her days
and
nights. Dreams of being lost as a child reflected her very adult fear that she’d lost something precious when Dray hadn’t gotten on that helicopter with her.

Hal snorted and it drew Sasha’s gaze.

“You can be such a bitch, Sash. Surrey did what he had to do, and if you’d stop for two seconds and get your head out of your ass, you’d see it. I know what your problem is, but since there isn’t anything you can do about it right now, just give the man a break. Or better yet, why don’t you try coming to dinner with all of us tonight and acting like you’re part of the family?”

Sasha ignored her. “So, can you find out anything for me? Call Zoren down at GBI and see if he can tap into…” she trailed off as heavy footsteps made their way to the kitchen.

Surrey walked through the entryway and headed toward the coffee pot. Filling a cup that read F-OFF, he sat down at the table and looked up at both women. His gaze skimmed over Hal’s body before he managed to jerk his attention to Sasha.

“No, she can’t, Sasha. She can’t call Zoren for anything, right Hal?” The question was delivered with a nonchalant tone, but Surrey’s eyes told another story.

Sasha’s gaze played tennis between him and her sister. Hal’s mouth fell open before an elegantly arched eyebrow arched even farther. Sasha felt the heat in the air before her sister opened her mouth. She shook her head. Poor Surrey.

“You don’t ever tell me who I can and can’t call, Surrey. Read my mug and fuck off. I don’t need your shit this morning. Sasha? Devyn, Kara, and I are heading to town later on to shop and see a movie. Want to come with?” Hal was staring at Sasha, but her attention was obviously on the huge man seated at their table.

“Yeah, I’ll go. I’ll meet you around six at Peppino’s, okay?”

“Sure. Hey, how about we meet here at five and then go to Ray’s after the movie?”

Sasha imagined Hal liked living dangerously. She shrugged. It wasn’t her business. She had her own shit to worry about.

“Devyn and Kara are coming?” Sasha asked. It would be difficult to have anything close to a good time, but maybe it would serve to distract her a little.

“Yep, just spoke to ’em. They’ll meet us there, if that’s okay, and we’ll just have a girl’s night. Sadie won’t be there, but I’m sure we can manage to get into something.” She shot Surrey a final venomous look, and then smiled at Sasha and flounced out of the house.

They heard her motorcycle rev up just before she squealed out of the drive. She hadn’t waited for Sasha to say “Okay.” Sasha’s head swiveled to Surrey, and she pinned him with a gaze that had him squirming.

“You really upset her, Surrey. Seems to be something you excel at. And maybe if you could take a second to remove your eyes from my sister’s ass when she’s in the room, you could answer some of my questions, yeah?”

He rolled his eyes. “Look, all I can tell you is that Itchy, Bleak, and I are to remain close to you and your family until we get the clear from Dray. I haven’t heard from him, but I would be more worried if I had heard something. Silence,” he gave her a pointed look and held up his hand, “is golden in our profession, Sasha. When everything is quiet on Dray’s end, that means business is being handled. Believe me, enough people want a piece of him that we would’ve heard if something had happened.”

“Oh, that’s reassuring! Who wants pieces of him? Damn, Surrey, don’t say shit like that and expect me to feel better. Geesh, you are so not the comforting type, are you?”

All the guys of Team12, now retired and gone private as Presidio Security, were welcome in the Bennoit home, but Surrey’s welcome was wearing a little thin for Sasha. She was feeling more than a little resentment that he was sitting there drinking coffee and flirting dangerously with her sister while Dray could be somewhere fighting for his life.

She sighed and rubbed a hand over her face. Truth was, it wasn’t really Surrey’s fault. He was nothing more than a convenient outlet for her anger and worry.

“Hal told me I owe you an apology, Surrey. So here goes: I’m sorry. This has really gotten to me, and I didn’t think I could be as low as I have been the last year and a half. But here I am struggling to keep from sinking and not being very successful. You don’t deserve my shit, though you may deserve Hal’s. What’s up with that anyway?”

Surrey looked her right in the eyes and said firmly, “None of your business.” A moment, just a breath of silence, and then he continued. “He’ll be back, Sasha, have some faith. I’ve seen him hurt worse in training than he was two weeks ago in a combat situation. General Post would have notified any of us of anything different. So keep calm and it’ll work out. He’s coming back for you, don’t doubt it. You aren’t gonna pull the same crap you did last time, are you? ’Cause if you do, I’m gonna paddle your ass myself. Dray didn’t deserve it then, and he damn sure doesn’t deserve it now, you understand?”

Sasha winced. She remembered the instance he referenced as if it’d just happened. Bleak, Itchy, Surrey, and Con had all visited Sasha after she’d returned to the States. She’d had several surgeries to repair her multitude of injuries and had been immersed in rehab when Dray had decided to introduce himself properly.

That had been such a bitter day for Sasha. He’d appeared out of nowhere, hunched down in front of her, and introduced himself as if they’d never met. He’d been beautiful and, in that moment, so unattainable to Sasha’s way of thinking he may as well have been on another planet, though he’d been crouched before her wheelchair. He’d been a knife in her heart. She’d been broken and hurting, unable to handle the man she wanted above all others.

She’d acted as if she didn’t remember him in front of everyone. Sent him away when all she’d wanted was to crawl inside his soul for shelter and stay there forever.

“Hey, Surrey, not to copy my sister, but read her mug, ’k? Don’t go all Oprah on me. What’s between Dray and me is just that, between Dray and me. So I’ll stay out of your business—notice I said
your
business, not Hal’s—if you’ll stay out of mine. Have a great day, Surrey. I’m off to Daddy’s.”

She grabbed her purse and walked out the door, ignoring his open mouth and slamming the door. Sasha took a deep breath. She had a lot to say to Dray Bonner when he got his ass back stateside.

A whole lot.

*

Surrey shook his head. The little viper played hell with all of them. She was so physically vulnerable that they all had a hard time remembering what a smart-ass she could really be. He couldn’t let her know that the entire team was worried about Dray and Con. They hadn’t heard anything from either man.

He hadn’t lied when he’d told Sasha silence was golden—if that silence was underground. Silence from your men, that didn’t always indicate something good. And he was starting to worry. Bleak and Itchy were getting antsy too, so he hoped they got information soon. He threw back his coffee, poured another cup, and sat there in the empty kitchen, his mind a million miles away.

Itchy strode in fifteen minutes later.

“We got information from Post, Surrey. Time to move out. Dray and Con went to Camp Freedom where they dropped off a package for the general before they headed back out. He hasn’t heard from them in almost twelve days, so he thinks it’s best to be on the ground looking.” Itchy was always primed for action, but his tone was full of concern.

Surrey’s muscles tensed, and he took a deep breath to control the adrenaline surge.

“Let’s get on it then. Tell the Bennoits we’re leaving. Bleak needs to contact Norris so he can camp out behind the house while we’re gone. Dray would kill me if we left them alone. I’ll call Post so we can get transport set.” He stood and washed his cup out before turning back to his friend, “And Itchy? Don’t tell the Bennoits why we’re leaving.” Surrey didn’t want anyone dealt a crushing blow if all wasn’t well, especially Sasha.

Itchy went to find Coleman and Tilda Bennoit as Surrey hustled upstairs. Once he had his bag packed, he stopped at the door to Hal’s room. He opened it and stood staring at her sparsely furnished room. It was indicative of the woman and how she’d grown up before coming to the Bennoits.

He only knew bits and pieces of the sisters’ stories, but what little he knew of Hal’s gave him pause. She was going to end up getting the best of him if he hung around, so he was glad this diversion had come up. Her sad, navy blue eyes and back-the-fuck-up attitude hid a very insecure woman, and he was really starting to want to help her out with that whole insecurity thing. Make her see she was so much more than just a smoking hot body and bad attitude. But there was no time right now. It depressed him, yet he was grateful.