Amber tried to focus. Something was happening.
“You’re all gathering around, aren’t you? Come on, get closer. Come and watch. See? Lovely breasts. And you can all have her for free tonight. Let me get to the pants now. Don’t you want those long legs spread for each one of you? Amber, can you hear me? You’re going to feel something big and hard inside you.”
It was as if she were floating above somewhere watching herself on the table. She should struggle. But she just lay there. She focused on Dilaver’s hand pulling at the zipper on his pants. She wanted to kick him in the groin, but she couldn’t remember how to move her legs. And she didn’t feel a thing. Shouldn’t she scream, like that girl she had seen not so long ago? Then she thought she heard more shots.
“Well, if it isn’t another one of Amber’s men. Good to see you again, Hawk McMillan. How do you like my hand on your girlfriend’s breast?”
Hawk! Hawk would come and save her. Didn’t Lily say that? Hawk was here. Amber moved her head, trying to see, but there were arms and legs and blue stuff in the way.
“Let her go.”
That was Hawk’s voice. She would know it anywhere. She strained upward.
“Oh, look, she heard her lover. Come get her, lover boy. She’s lying here all lovely, waiting for you. Or me, ha! She can’t move very well, though. The other bitch delivered her full of drugs, something I hadn’t agreed to. Should have known I couldn’t trust a woman. These pants have got to go, what do you say?”
“Make another move and I’ll detonate this and everything here will be gone.”
“Sacrificing yourself for a woman? What kind of warrior is that? Aunt Greta said you’re probably a Navy SEAL. You know what? This is for your killing two of my best men. I’m going to fuck your woman and kill her in front of you. Here, let me hold her head up and you can see her pretty face one last time. Take him, men. Shoot his legs.”
Amber still couldn’t see what was happening. Gunshots reverberated around her. “Nooooooo!” she managed, struggling against whatever that was holding her down. He was here for her. And suddenly panic rose in her and everything seemed to speed up, even her heartbeat. Hawk was in danger. “No!”
It took every ounce of her energy. She turned her head. And bit down hard.
She didn’t even know what exactly she was biting on, but Dilaver’s howl sliced through her consciousness like a wakeup call. Her head was shaken back and forth, but she refused to let go. Another hand grasped her throat, cutting off her air.
There were more shots. She could hear men shouting. Gunshots. She didn’t care about them. She concentrated on Dilaver instead. He had hurt Hawk and he was going to pay.
Hawk had been told fury could fuel a human bomb ticking and he would always remember the moment of explosion. That was all he could recall for debriefing, even months later. The moment he laid eyes on Amber on that table, everything important ceased to exist except to get to the man standing there, his filthy hands mauling her.
He had hated that table worse than anything else in thekafena. There were so many times he had to walk by it, following Dilaver out, and not look at the girls left there after a “free” night. Sometimes, when he did look at an empty table, he would still see glimpses of faces and hear the screams. And there had been nothing he could do then.
Not now.
Not this time.
It didn’t seem possible, but somehow he reached Dilaver across the expanse of the room without getting shot. Maybe some of the UN soldiers present had their conscience pricked at seeing a woman they knew laid out there on the table for them. Maybe someone up there was protecting him. He got to the big Slav as he was bending over Amber, screaming, trying to shake her off. A part of his mind registered that her mouth was clamped on some part of Dilaver’s hand.
Hawk curled an arm over Dilaver’s beefy throat from behind and snapped his head back. The snarling man immediately released Amber to pry Hawk’s arm from his throat.
“It’s over, pig,” Hawk said into Dilaver’s ear. “My turn to show you how to have fun.”
The Slav was strong, pulling at Hawk’s arm as he jammed his elbow into his injured ribs. Hawk felt the pain but forced himself to apply more pressure.
The roar of multiple C-4 being set off added to the confusion around the table. There were shouts as people fell to the ground, covering their heads in fear. Screaming girls ran out from the back. Hawk felt the ground shake from so many explosions around the city. His SEAL brothers were doing what they did best.
“I’ve wired every one of your places in Velesta and they are coming down tonight,” Hawk said as he swung a punch into Dilaver’s face. He punctuated each blow. “Every. One. Of. Them. Gone.”
Dilaver wasn’t going down easily. He matched Hawk’s blows with several of his own. He had gotten free of Amber, blood splattering all over as he went for Hawk’s throat, pushing his thumbs inward.
Hawk let out a roar and rammed his body against Dilaver, pushing forward until the other man hit one of the supporting beams in the room. The blood made everything slippery and the hold on his throat loosened. Dilaver landed a vicious fist on the side of his face. Hawk straightened up and resumed punching at his target like he did to his punching bag in his room, going for the face and neck area. He cut upward into the groin. He head-butted him. Dilaver roared and struck out one last time. Hawk smashed a fist into his face so hard, the other man’s head whipped backward and hit the beam with a loud crack. Even then he continued pounding as Dilaver slid down the beam.
He was still beating and kicking when someone pulled him off. It was Jazz, holding him from behind, cuffing him from the underarms.
“It’s over, buddy, hey, it’s okay, he’s done.”
Hawk finally stopped. He looked down at Dilaver. He had just killed a man with his own bare hands. “Let go,” he said. “I’m fine. Where’s Amber?”
Jazz released him and he turned to the table, stumbling over debris and bodies. He caught sight of her blond hair.
