Hannah knew she should feel guilty for killing that man, but she couldn't muster the emotion. When she saw him come out of the trapdoor, she recognized him as one of her tormentors. He had laughed at her pain and humiliation. She hadn’t thought about her actions she just grabbed Ben's pistol that she had seen holstered on his leg and fired at the man. Her only thought had been to protect him. She couldn't believe she had pulled a weapon on someone. Her grandfather had taught her to shoot years ago but never thought she would have need of those skills. Gunfire and explosions still went off around them but had died down. Ben grabbed her hand and dragged her to the truck, urging her to get in the truck then turned his attention back to those trying to halt their retreat.
“Took long enough." One of them said as they walked up to the truck. He had a permanent scowl on his face that reminded Hannah of a bulldog.
"I got the job done, didn’t I?" Ben argued.
"I’m sorry to interrupt," Hannah said stepping betweenthem, "but can you guys have your who has the bigger dickconversationlater?"
Hannah took an instinctive step back when the bulldog-faced guy turned his gaze on her. Half his face was covered in burns and scars. It looked ugly and painful, but the man didn’t seem to notice.A smile broke across his face or what she thought was supposed to be a smile, and he chuckled low. “You got a backbone, I like that.” The smile died when gunfire broke out, and an explosion near the building broke a window and rained down on them. Hannah hunkered as deep as she could in the truck and watched the men firing at Alejandro’s men. They stood their ground without fear at the overwhelming odds against them.
“RPG’s,” someone yelled before dropping to the ground.
More? How much ammo was stashed on this island? Hannah wondered. She knew Alejandro was an arms dealer too but didn’t think he kept his own arson here. This was ridiculous.
Ben pushed Hannah’s head down and ushered herto the back of the truck where the other women were huddled. Once in the truck, Hannah turned around to thankBen but movementbehind him had her screaming 'behind you'. Ben spun around to fire, but the man next to him who had smiled at her, already took down the target.
"Let’s get out of here," the guy said getting behind the wheel, firing the truck up. Ben and twelveother men jumped in the back and fired at those that ran after them as they sped down the road. Bullets flew at the truck from all sides. Bullets pinged off the sides of the truck. Hannah prayed no one shot out the tires. The soldiers pushed the women as low in the truck as they could so the men could return fire. Hannah kept waiting for a stray bullet to hit her or an RPG to blow them up. The truck engine roared even louder drowning out the sound of bullets as it sped up and rammed through the gate. Sparks flew around them, the truck rattled bouncing her along the rough truck bed. The truck swerved losing control before it was corrected.
The sound of bullets dimmed. Hannah cautiously poked her head up and watched the mansion fade behind her. They made it. She was finally going home. Hannah pulled her knees to her chest. "I am Hannah Grace O’Connell. My older brother is Garrett Patrick O’Connell; my younger brother is Jason Peter O'Connell. I live at 2304 New Mesa Road in Portland Oregon; I have a cocker spaniel named Cocoa. My best friend was Judy Snow. And Iam goinghome."
Chapter Three
Once on the truck, Ben reportedto base that they were carrying precious cargo, their code for the hostages. How had the missiongone wrong so quickly? Colonel Hardy reported Alejandro’s base wasn’t heavily fortified and should be an easy in and out mission. It was almost asif they had beenset up. It would explain why security hadn’t been walking the perimeter. They had been lying in wait for the two teams and ambushed them. Waves of militants came pouring at them from all directions, and they were heavily armed. Ben didn’t even know where Alejandro’s men kept coming from. When they had flown in, they hadn’t seen many guards. Suddenly they were like ants. Living underground and coming up all at once. Tunnels? It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. Several terrorists had bunkers underground, and the hostages had been found underground. Not that the information helped him now. He felt his side cargo pocket and felt the flash drive. The weight felt heavy. A wealth of knowledge laid in that tiny little thing. Maybe the answers to who set them up were on it.
He looked at the women seated in the back of the truck, some were crying silently, and others looked lifeless. He had rescued plenty of hostages in his career, but hehad never seen anythinglike this. Especiallylike Hannah, who tried to stay behind and protectthem. Who did that? Shouldn’t she have been running and screaming like all the others? She had even warnedhim when someone snuck up behind him. He was losing his edge. Bulldog would neverlet him live this down. Who was this woman? This could not be the same Hannah O’Connell from his youth. She had been scared and uncertain of everything. He and Adam had watched out for her but once he left for basic training he didn’t allow himself to think about her. Adam kept an eye on her and told him tidbits about her occasionally. As soon as he left she became everything she hated. Her mother’s protégé. What had made her change? It couldn’t be him. She had a childhood crush on him, nothing more.
She also had flawless tan skin and a toned body she worked out to have. This woman before him was filthy and her ribs poked out telling him she had been starved for quite a while. Her hair was long and matted. Maybe after a shower, she would look more like the Hannah she claimed to be. How odd that he hadn’t thought of her in years and on the same day he thought of her she appears.
Hannah had been wary of Bulldog after she stepped between them telling him she had a backbone but when Bulldog had looked at her, she backed down which told Ben she had been subdued more than once. He wanted to know how she ended up here. Her parents had always been protective of her and not allow her to leave their side without a bodyguard. When he had spoken to Adam a few days ago, Adam mentioned nothing about her either. Strange. Ben studied her carefully. Even dirty and half-starved she was beautiful. Thoughts best dead resurfaced. Made him yearn for things. Things he had no business yearning for. He wanted to hold her and comfort her. He had never felt that way aboutany other woman. Women were only goodfor one thingand he left right after. After what Hannah had suffered he wassure a crazy night in bed with him was the last thing on her mind. Not that he would ever do that with Hannah. She was so far above his reach it wasn’t even funny. Her father would kill him just for thinking it. He watched her carefully out of the corner of his eye and saw her whispering to herself, but it wastoo low to make out.
All too soon they made it to a small airport and several team members helped the women off the truck. "Careful with them,” Hannah said but didn’t elaborate why. Ben assumed it wasbecause of what they had gone through.Everyonerushed to the waitingC-17, and there was a collectivesigh once everyone was on board and they were airborne. Ben walked to the backwhere Bulldog and his team were sitting once the plane had leveled out. "You guysgood?"
Bulldog nodded. "Not even a scratch. What the fuck happenedback there?" Bulldog asked Ben with a pointed look.
"Hound found the trap door in the warehouse. We came acrossa room full of those women and they were each chained to a cot." Bulldog cursed and muttered to himself about low life scum. Ben continued, ignoring him. "We unlocked them, and that’s when guards came out of nowhere from down the end of the opposite hall. Hannah tried to stay behind to buy us time."
All the men looked at him shocked.
“Hannah?” Bulldog asked. “You’re on first name bases with the hostages now?”
Ben realized his mistake immediately. He was never supposed to get close to those he helped. Hannah shouldn’t have been any different. He ran away from her all those years ago because of emotions she invoked in him. Now they had come back just as hard. He didn’t know what to do about them yet. He should treat her like all the others, get her help and move on but the thought of never seeing her again felt wrong. “I knew her from a long time ago.” Ben played it off.
Bulldog wasn’t buying it. “Uh huh.”
“What?” Ben asked defensively. “There was no way I could have left her behind even at the risk of the mission.”He didn’t want to talk about Hannah and their past anymore. He wanted to talk about getting ambushed and who could have leaked the information. Someone had set them up and he wanted to know who. There had been no one guarding the property. They had been waiting for the right moment to strike at Bulldog’s and his team. They had been lucky to get out of there with their lives.
"No one would have expected you to," Romeo, a teammate of Bulldog’s, spoke up.
“I convinced her to leave and she even took me to the guy’s office, so I could upload his files.”
“She sounds like a very brave woman,” Bulldog said quietly.
Ben nodded in agreement. She was selfless and always willing to sacrifice her happiness for others, or at leastthat washow he remembered her. He realized he took advantage of her when they were younger. She was always helping him, and he let her and lust after her. Now wasn’t the time to think about that, however. “Something isn’t right about this mission and I’m going to get to the bottom of this. I’ll have Hound contact his FBI buddy, Blade and see what he can come up with.”
“Let me know. No one betrays brothers.” Bulldog’s piercing green eyes locked on Ben. Ben agreed and went back to his team and watched Hannah. He couldn’t keep his eyes off her. Like a moth drawn to a flame. She sat forward in her seat with her legs to her chest and resting her head on her knees. He wondered what she was thinking about. He was wondering a lot more about her, if hewas going to behonest with himself, but knew he had no right to ask her. Seeing her swimming in the lake that last summer and looking all woman struck him like a bolt of lightning. She was every man’s fantasy. He had avoided seeing her like thatmany timesfor just that reason. He had known she had a crush on him, but he had never viewed at her that way. Until now. She had always been smart and beautiful. She could have had any man in the world, and she had wanted him, and he rejected her because he knew she could do so much better. He was such an idiot. But even then, when he realized his feelings turned from friendly to more he knew he would never be good enough for her. He was a farm boy. He could never give her the lifestyle she was used to. Her dad would have had security chase him away in a second. He doubted the old man knew about the kiss he and Hannah shared at the lake. Otherwise he would have approached him by now.
"You stare ather any harder you’re going to burn a hole throughher." Sunshine teased slappinghim on the back. Sunshine was their pretty boy of the team. He looked like a model with his blonde hair and perfect face, what got everyone though was his easy smile. It was hard not to like him. He was easygoing and quick with a joke. After all the shit he had seen and done the man still sounded like the world was all sunshine and rainbows.
"It’s not like that. Can you believeshe wanted me to leave her behind to buy us some time?" Hewasn’t going to tellSunshine he knew Hannah while growing up. Sunshine would demand details Ben didn’t want to share. Open emotions he didn’t want to admit he had. It had taken everything in him to leave Hannah once. He didn’t know if he had the strength to do it again.
