Lock and Load (SEAL EXtreme Team) (24 page)

Willy coughed—
make-out house
—cough.

Jenna gave Willy the evil eye. “By no means is it a hotel, William Handly. I mentioned it to Charlie because his satellite signal is spotty and I thought it would be better up the hill.”

But Amber wondered.
Is she trying to give us time alone? Jenna Collins, the matchmaker?
Did she really know Jenna at all?

Charlie shrugged. “I haven’t been getting a good radio or sat signals for the last hour, or so.”

Mack nodded. “Good plan then, Charlie. We need to be able to monitor the jackasses.”

Willy coughed—
kiss ass
—cough.

“Shut the hell up.” Tavon slapped Willy’s chest.

Willy coughed for real. “Damn, Tavon. You almost made me choke on my tongue.”

“It’s not too far up the trail, a short walk from the dock. We’ll be able to get back to the
junk
to work on the hard drive in no time,” Charlie whispered in her ear, sending delicious tremors up her neck.

“Okay.”

“After we dock the
junk,
we’ll throw cammo netting over it. The idea is to make it look like some old guy’s fishing boat left behind for a few days. Got it? Then we split up and stake out different quadrants of the island.”

“Cool, I call a chick! I get a girl to go with me. Or two,” Willy said, but seeing Tavon’s big hand come up, he shook his head. “Don’t hit me, man. You don’t know your own strength.”

Tavon grinned. “Oh, I know it. And use it whenever possible to knock some sense into that puny rabbit’s brain of yours.”

“Might as well give it up, Tavon,” Charlie said. “No amount of pounding will ever knock sense into him.”

Shaking his head, Ty stepped forward. “What do you want me to do other than dock this sucker?”

“You and Willy get the lay of the land. Stake out cover. Steer clear of locals, though. We don’t want too many questions, or anyone to tip off the triad. Tavon you and I are on sniper detail,” Mack said. “We might check out the lighthouse. We’ll have to see how many clicks it is from the cove.”

Amber marveled at how energized the men were. They hadn’t slept all night but they were obviously ready to go. More than ready…they seemed excited, pumped up.

“What about me?” Jenna’s chin lifted but Amber thought you’d have to be blind not to see the fear in Jenna’s eyes.

“You, babe, have the most important job of all. You’ll talk to the monks in the temple and any official types on this island. Explain what’s going on and that we don’t mean them any harm. We’re the good guys. Make sure you tell them that. We’ll be out of their hair soon enough.”

Jenna’s smile was loaded with relief
.
“Perfect. I can do that, Mack.”

“I know you can, babe.” He linked his fingers with hers.

Amber was glad Mack gave Jenna a job away from any potential gunfire. Talking to the locals was perfect for Jenna. Plus, she needed to stay busy. To keep the demons at bay.

“You know, thirty years ago about a thousand people lived on this island. Now it’s down to a handful. I’ll talk to the couple who owns the mom and pop seaweed store too. Supposedly the best seaweed in Hong Kong is collected on these shores. They’re very nice people. I’m sure they’ll tell us if they hear anything suspicious.”

“Good.” Mack’s steely blue eyes scanned the group. “Any questions?”

“How long are we going to be on
Po Toi
Island
?” Ty asked.

“That’s up to the admiral. He’s running with our latest intel to figure out who we are dealing with. As soon as we know who sent the triad after us, we’ll ask Admiral Collins to set up a bug-out plan. We’ve got to ditch the
junk
. The hostiles from the boat knew about it. Duncan’s jet is out of the question. They would’ve found it by now.”

Amber had a hard time focusing. The horrible words kept rolling through her brain.
The SBs will kill us all if we don’t deliver the card and the girl’s body.

She looked up and saw Charlie’s green eyes studying her.

“That’s it. Roughly five minutes to dock. You all know what you have to do,” Mack said. He and Jenna walked away. Tavon and Willy started packing up their gear. Amber swallowed hard when she saw all the guns and ammunition they loaded into their packs.

“Wait, I’ll be right back,” Charlie said to her. “Find a good spot to sit.”

“Okay…” She sat on the wooden bench.

It was a surprise to everyone when he returned with a blanket and wrapped it around Amber’s shoulders. “What? She’s cold.”

Willy looked up from his packing. “Dude. You’re in serious trouble here. I’ve never seen you like this. Next, you’re going to be picking daisies and singing to her. Seriously, Amber. You don’t want him to sing.”

Charlie lifted his middle finger, but he was smiling. “I sing like a toad.” He squeezed in the bench behind Amber and cinched the blanket tight with his strong arms. “Lay back against me, I’ll get you warm.”

She didn’t tell him that worry and sadness made her shiver, more than the cold night air. Why ruin the moment? She breathed in his amazing scent and wiggled deeper into his embrace. His strength surrounded her. As the junk moved across the water toward the dock, the cool moist breeze buffeted her face but for the first time in a long while she was warm and safe. It was heaven. Or it would have been if tears weren’t filling her eyes.

That’s when she looked more closely at a tattoo on the inside of his arm. It was strange. Who gets a black bird tat and then draws a red line through it?

“What’s this mean?” she asked.

“That’s the bad supervisor story. Remember I told you that I ran with a bad group of guys for a while? They called themselves Superior BUDs-men because they scored at the top in their BUD/s training. Most guys are happy enough to complete the training, I know I was. But somehow, I did score highest in my group. Shortly after that, these assholes came to recruit me for special ops.”

He shook his head. “I’m ashamed to say I was honored to be singled out. I let them put this stupid bird on my arm and wore it proudly. Until I saw how they operated. While we were training for our assignments, we were called back a few times to demonstrate our ‘superior BUD/s skills’ to the new guys. What I didn’t know at the time was that our Commanding Officer Milton Crow…“ He pointed to the black bird tattoo. “Was a sadistic bastard. He was determined ‘to keep the SEALs pure and free of any lowlife weak links.’ His words, not mine. The idea was that anyone who couldn’t hack BUD/s training—in their opinion not-hacking meant scoring below the top—shouldn’t be a SEAL and probably shouldn’t be allowed to live. But these guys, Crow’s men, got to decide who wouldn’t be able to hack BUDs, based on their own personal assholeness. They had fun doing it.”

Charlie was angrily spitting the words out. She pulled her arm out of the blanket and gently rubbed his hand, letting him know she was there for him.

“They used whatever torture they deemed necessary to force a man to ring the bell.” He looked down at her. “That means to quit.”

She figured as much, but didn’t interrupt. Charlie seemed to need to get the festering words out. Willy leaned against the railing, obviously listening too. His dimples were gone, his forehead crinkled with concern as if he hadn’t heard this story before.

Charlie went on, “I found out later they’d attacked a good buddy of mine. No matter how hard they beat him, he refused to ring out. He still walks with a limp. But the worse thing happened before my eyes.”

She felt him shudder. “What happened?”

“They have this underwater training exercise. The candidate’s arms and ankles are bound, his eyes blindfolded before he is dropped in the deep end of the pool. He’s supposed to get himself to the surface before the allotted time is up.”

“Oh, my gosh. Without any air supply? That’s terrifying.”

“Yeah.” Much softer he added, “Especially when two of Crow’s men jump in with sticks and beat the hell out of the candidate underwater.”

“They didn’t!” Willy popped off the railing and joined the conversation.

“At first, I couldn’t figure out what they were doing. But when blood bubbled up to the surface…” Charlie paused, as if going on was too difficult. He was also squeezing her tight. “I jumped in, surprising both of them. They thought I was there to ‘help rid the SEALs of filth.’ Actually...” His lips lifted. “I was.”

“You fought the assholes.” Willy’s face was glowing with admiration. “My little brother against two men.”

“Hell, yeah, I fought them. I broke one guy’s nose, and busted the other guy’s ribs. I hauled the unconscious candidate to the surface and began CPR. He was a bloody, broken mess. It was too late. The poor guy didn’t make it.”

No one said a word for a long minute.

“Commander Crow was very disappointed with my behavior. Two of his men had to be hospitalized—they had to completely redo the broken nose.” Charlie was smiling in earnest now. “I was ordered to never speak of this to anyone. He said he’d personally pluck out each of my eyes and cut of my fingers. Slowly. He’d enjoy hearing me scream. But if I went along with the official line the candidate had panicked all by himself and drowned, I’d be promoted. End of story. Never mind that the guy’s face looked like ground hamburger. And he had internal organ damage.”

“Sonofabitch.” Willy slammed his hand against the wooden bench. “Where is this guy?”

“Crow? Who knows? Rotting in hell, I hope.”

“You turned them in, didn’t you?” Amber asked, suddenly very frightened for Charlie. Could Crow come after him?

“Hell, yeah. I went directly to Admiral Collins and told him the whole story. Crow and his men were court martialed and booted out of the Navy. Shit. Just saying that name makes my mouth taste like dung.”

“Dude, what you did took humongous balls. Why didn’t you tell me? I never knew that’s why you were transferred to Mack’s team.” Willy was obviously impressed with his little brother.

“Now you do. But that’s why I had a red line tattooed over the black crow. I vowed I would make them pay. Getting court martialed and thrown out of the SEALs was way too good for those sadistic bastards. They beat and killed a young man who wanted to serve his country just because they could. That’s sick. And I won’t forget.”

No, she didn’t think he would. She looked closer at the tattoo. Something about it was familiar. Why?

“Are you okay?” Charlie stopped hiking up the long trail of concrete steps toward Old Mo’s house and faced Amber. She hadn’t said a word since they’d left the team.

Her head moved, a minuscule nod, but her beautiful eyes didn’t look up and meet his.
Shit.
She wasn’t okay. Maybe the day’s terrors had finally caught up with her. Sometimes, it took a while for the adrenaline excreted in heat of the battle to wear off. It could be a sonofabitch when it did.

“Want to stop and rest?” he asked.

“No.” She pushed on ahead.

“Okay then.” He trudged after her.

Why did there have to be so many dammed steps? Hundreds of them were poured into the hillside. This was taking longer than he thought it would. The start of the trail toward Old Mo’s house was slow going since it had been sheltered by thick, young trees. Charlie’s flashlight was the only thing they had to brighten the way. Luckily, the vegetation was thinning out and the sky was lighter now. They could move faster.

All he wanted to do was get Amber into his arms. It had been Jenna’s idea to separate from the team and be alone for a while. He’d slipped away to ask her about a good place on the island that would offer protection and safety for his girl.

“You’re in love aren’t you, Charlie?” Jenna had asked him back on the
junk
.

“Way over my head. I’ve never felt like this before. It’s scaring the living shit out of me,” he’d admitted.

Jenna had smiled. “That’s how it is supposed to feel. Like the person you love holds your fragile beating heart in their hands and if they let go....” She opened her hands and he could almost feel his heart crashing to the rocks. "If I can offer a small piece of advice?" He'd nodded. "Allow yourself to fall, completely on your butt, in love. Be fearless. The opportunity doesn't come around too often. Love is precious. Treasure every moment."

He'd grabbed Jenna in his arms and kissed her on both cheeks. "Don't tell, Mack that I kissed his girl."

She zipped her lip and then vowed to do everything she could to give him a few moments of well-deserved quiet and peace with Amber.

He’d wanted to get Amber alone since the time she shared her rebreather with him. He’d wanted Hot Girl for much longer than that. The fact that the two were one in the same? He was one lucky man. He vowed to make every second in Mo's old house count.

“Is that it?” Amber stopped. If he hadn’t been watching her sweet little ass, he might have rear-ended her. He grinned. Not a bad idea at all.

He pressed his chin in the crook of her shoulder. The ruins of a broken down gray cement house was just ahead. It looked to be little more than a doorway, partial roof, and sections of brick walls buried beneath trees. “Yep. Thank you, Old Mo. But shit, man, did there have to be so many damned steps?”