Special Forces Savior (16 page)

Chapter Twenty-Four

Derek was going to kill that son of a bitch.

He hit the side button on his watch so he had an exact countdown for the time. Because he was sure Belisario would be true to his word about every ten minutes.

Molly’s scream as that bastard broke her finger would haunt Derek for a long time. He was still sweating even though the weather was mild. Adrenaline coursed through him.

He was ready to fight.

Liam was on his way, as were Jon and Steve. He estimated Liam’s arrival would be in another ten minutes. Jon and Steve’s sometime after that, depending on where they were when Liam was able to contact them.

Derek had told Belisario it would take him thirty minutes to get there. He’d lied.

He was already on the roof of Molly’s house. And he’d be damned if he was going to let another of Molly’s bones be broken.

Eight minutes.

Mrs. Pope had been very surprised to see him when he’d knocked on her door a few minutes ago. He’d shown her his badge. “Molly’s in trouble, Mrs. Pope. I need to use the roof access to get her away from the bad people who have her.”

He’d expected hysterics, expected her threatening to call the police, expected to have to traumatize the old woman by locking her in a closet.

Instead she’d let him in saying, “Is it like that remake of the
Hawaii Five-O
show? I love that program. I watch it every week.”

“Yes, ma’am. Something just like that.” He smiled and quickly made his way up the stairs.

“Book ’em, Danno,” she’d called after him, giggling like a schoolgirl.

Booking had been the plan before Belisario had decided to start torturing Molly. Now all bets were off.

Seven minutes.

Derek dialed Liam’s number. “Bastard called me. Said he would break one of Molly’s bones for every ten minutes it takes you and me to get to him.”

“Do you believe him?”

“I heard him break one already.”

Liam let out a blue streak, which matched Derek’s feelings exactly. “I’m five minutes out.”

Five minutes was cutting it close to the next deadline.

“There’s roof access to her condo. I’m already on it. They won’t be expecting me coming from this way or this early.”

“Is Han in play?”

Brandon Han was not only the smartest guy they all knew, he was wicked good in hand-to-hand fighting. Black belt in all sorts of martial arts. But if he was dead or injured, he wouldn’t be any help to them.

“Unknown. We can’t count on him.”

Six minutes.

“I’ll get in position,” Derek told him. “You ring the doorbell. They won’t be expecting it to be us this soon. You take out whoever is at the door, I’ll try to take out the rest.”

“We don’t know how many are in there, Derek. We may be way outnumbered.”

“I know. But I also know that Belisario has no intentions of letting any of us leave alive anyway. We may as well go down fighting if we have to go down.”

Derek grimaced. Molly would be right in the middle of the firefight.

“Jon and Steve are about ten minutes behind me. I’ll tell them to just come in hot. Might as well add more partygoers to this throwdown. See you soon, brother. Be careful.”

Derek heard the car speed up as Liam disconnected.

Five minutes.

The roof door was still broken from where they’d gotten in yesterday, so Derek inched it open as quietly as possible. The element of surprise was his only tactical advantage.

Weapon drawn, he eased down the steps, opened the door that led into Molly’s hallway. No one seemed to be upstairs, but Derek checked again, just in case. Although taking someone out without notifying everyone downstairs of his presence would be just about impossible.

Four minutes.

As he neared the main stairs, Molly’s quiet crying tore at his heart. He just wanted to get her to a place where she never had to cry again. To get Belisario out of their lives for good.

Liam would be ringing the doorbell soon and Derek wanted to be in place to do the most damage while they had the element of surprise. The two men talking allowed him to slip down the stairs without anyone hearing him.

He eased himself around the corner and kept to the wall, taking small steps toward the kitchen.

Three minutes.

“So Ms. Humphries, Mr. Waterman didn’t think he’d be here for thirty minutes. And it looks like we’re coming up on the ten minute mark. What do you think, your other pinky this time?”

Derek expected Molly to cry more at that, but after a moment of quiet she spoke.

“You know what, Belisario, go—”

Derek couldn’t clearly hear the rest of Molly’s statement, but he was pretty sure that what she wanted Belisario to do to himself was anatomically impossible. Derek smiled at her spunk. That was his girl.

“We’ll see if you’re so spirited in two minutes,” Belisario replied.

Derek felt the silent vibration in his pocket. A text from Liam.

At least three minutes out. Not going to make it in time.

Damn it. Molly didn’t have three minutes.

Forget the doorbell.
Derek texted him back.
Get here as soon as you can and come in loud and hot
.

K. Stay away from the front door.

Derek put his phone back in his pocket and eased to the corner, dropping low so he could peek around without being spotted. He only needed one second to ascertain the situation.

Belisario stood across from Molly; one of his men stood directly behind her. Brandon Han, alive but restrained, was on the other side of the table, injured.

If he had to do this alone, he would round the corner, take out the guard closest to Molly, then Belisario. He damn well wasn’t going to sit here while another finger was broken.

Derek was about to make his move when he felt the muzzle of a gun against the back of his head.

Damn it.

“Stand up. Keep your hands up, too.” The man took Derek’s weapon out of his hand and nudged him forward with his gun. They rounded the corner.

“Boss.”

“Ah, Mr. Waterman,” Belisario said. “It seems like you were able to join us just a little sooner than you thought.”

“I like to be early for my parties.” Derek made eye contact with Molly, giving her a half smile, hoping it would be encouraging. She was pale and visibly sweating.

“And where is the other person who was supposed to be with you? Niam, is it?”

“Liam. He’ll be here soon.”

“Not soon enough to save Ms. Humphries from another broken bone, I’m afraid.”

Derek watched as Molly blanched, the last of the color draining from her face.

“How about if you break one of mine instead, if you’ve got some weird fetish with the bone-breaking thing.” It wouldn’t be the first bone he’d ever had broken. Growing up on a ranch in Wyoming had made sure of that.

And it would be much less painful than watching Molly suffer more.

Which evidently Belisario had figured out. “Oh, no,” he said. “I’ll keep my word. One of Ms. Humphries bones every ten minutes.”

Derek dove for the other man, he didn’t care if it got him shot. But Belisario’s two goons grabbed him before he could pound the man’s face in like he wanted to. One on each arm, they dragged him back.

Brandon leapt across the table at Belisario when he came near Molly again, but Belisario clocked him in the head with the butt of his gun. Han fell unconscious to the floor.

Molly backed away from Belisario as he came closer to her, fear obvious on her face.

“Stop, or I shoot your boyfriend in the kneecaps, then still break your finger.”

Molly stopped. Belisario took a step forward.

Then the whole front of the building seemed to cave in with a huge crashing noise.

Liam had arrived.

Derek took advantage of the men’s confusion and yanked himself from their grips. He hit the first one with an uppercut that no doubt broke the man’s nose and sent him straight to the floor. Derek leapt behind Molly’s couch, landing hard on the floor, knowing Belisario’s other man would be shooting at him. Bullets flew past him, as he grabbed his backup weapon from his ankle holster. He felt a searing pain in his arm as a bullet grazed him.

Scrambling to the side, Derek jumped up from the side of the couch the man wasn’t expecting. Derek was able to get off a shot before the man could turn his gun back toward him. He fell dead from Derek’s chest shot.

Derek rushed over to Molly, putting her directly behind him as Liam wrestled with Belisario. Derek had his weapon raised and Belisario in his sights. He could take the shot and finish Belisario right here. Rid the world of a scumbag.

He had done it many other times with much less reason than he had right now. Judge, jury, executioner.

But he thought of Molly, could feel her hand tucked inside the waistband of his jeans again like she had in the jungle. She trusted him to do the right thing.

“Belisario, put your hands up right now, or so help me God, I will shoot you.”

Belisario stopped fighting Liam. He turned and looked at Derek with such a look of malevolence that Derek was sure he was making a mistake by letting the man live. He would have to spend the rest of his life protecting Molly from this possible threat. It would never go away.

But Derek realized he was okay with that. If it meant proving to her—hell, proving to
himself
—that he wasn’t the man he used to be, then it was worth it.

Derek lowered his weapon and brought Molly around to his side, careful not to jar her broken finger, as Liam began reading Belisario his rights. Liam was getting his handcuffs out when the henchman Derek had knocked unconscious began waking up and moaned on the ground. Liam’s attention was divided for just a moment as he looked over at the man.

Belisario took advantage of it.

He shoved Liam away and grabbed for the gun on the table next to him. He swung it up straight toward Molly.

Derek didn’t hesitate. He put three bullets through Belisario’s chest. The man died with the same look of evil intent that he’d had when he’d lived.

Derek didn’t regret the kill. Not for a split second. The man he had been, the man he was now and the man he would be in the future would always be willing to do whatever he had to do to keep Molly safe.

No matter what.

Chapter Twenty-Five

“You’re a moron, you know.” Molly rolled her eyes at Derek.

Derek just sat in the chair across from her hospital bed, holding the gauze against his arm where the bullet had grazed him. After their arrival at the emergency room, Molly had insisted that Derek be treated first. She wasn’t a medical doctor, but she knew that his bleeding wound needed more immediate care than her broken pinky. Her finger wouldn’t get any worse, unlike what his loss of blood could become.

But he’d refused to let any doctors see him until her finger was taken care of.

So now they were waiting for the numbing to take place in Molly’s finger so the doctor could reset it. He said it was a clean break, would just need a splint. No permanent damage. Derek’s wound, after a quick glance, had also been deemed of the impermanent kind, although it would still need bandaging.

“I’m glad you killed him.”

Derek shrugged. “Once he pointed that gun at you he was a dead man.”

Molly reached her uninjured hand out to him and he took it. “I’m sorry you had to do it, though. I don’t want the taking of another life weighing on you.”

“You know, before he pointed the gun at you, when he and Liam were fighting, I could’ve taken the shot. It would’ve been a clean shot, Liam was far enough out of the way. And I thought about it. After everything that had happened, nobody at Omega would’ve questioned it.”

She ran her fingers over his. “Why didn’t you?”

Derek stood up and came to stand in front of her where she sat on the hospital bed. He linked their fingers together so that their palms were against each other. “I realized that what you said yesterday was true. The man I was—the decisions I made in the past—they don’t define who I am now. I lived in a dark world. But I don’t have to stay there anymore.”

Molly brought their joined hands to her lips and kissed his fingers. “Well, I’m glad that I never have to worry about him or any of his goons being inside my apartment ever again. So thank you.”

The doctor came in and reset Molly’s finger, a painless process due to the anesthesia. Not long after, Derek’s wound was cleaned and properly bandaged. After the paperwork, they were deemed clear to leave.

“I don’t have a house to go home to now,” Molly said as they walked out of the hospital in a much less clandestine fashion as when they had snuck out just forty-eight hours ago.

“Yeah, I told Liam to come in loud and hot, but I was envisioning him breaking through the door himself with some uniformed cops, not tearing down your entire dining room with his car.”

“I guess I need to check into a hotel or something.” Molly hadn’t really gotten that far in her thinking. Now that the danger had passed and she wasn’t in pain, Molly was bone-weary exhausted.

“How about you let me do something I should’ve done after our night together three years ago? Hell, before our night together three years ago.”

“What’s that?”

“Move you in with me. Court you. Win your heart. Not necessarily in that order.”

Molly smiled up at him as he turned her around and leaned her against the car. “You’ve already done one of those things. A long time ago. The other two, I think, can be arranged.”

Derek looked down at her in the way she had always dreamed of having him look at her. “You’re the strongest person I know, Molly. I love you.”

He kissed her.

“But you’re still in trouble for locking me in the clean room.”

Molly wrapped her arms around his neck. “I love you, too. And maybe I can find a way to make it up to you.”

“Yes. But after you rest. You need some sleep.” He trailed a finger down her cheek.

“Okay, but it involves me wearing a lab coat and heels.” She got in the car as he opened the door for her. “And nothing else.”

She saw his eyes bug out and his whole body jerk. She smiled wickedly back up at him. He made her feel wicked and sexy and smart and strong.

He leaned down and kissed her, taking her breath away. “Okay, maybe sleep can wait.”

* * * * *

Look for more books in Janie Crouch’s
OMEGA SECTOR: CRITICAL RESPONSE
miniseries in 2016.
You’ll find them wherever Harlequin Intrigue books
and ebooks are sold!

Keep reading for an excerpt from
EXPOSED
by Carla Cassidy
(Part 1 of TOUGH JUSTICE).