SEALs of Honor: Hawk (7 page)

The driver waved and with a squeal as his gears shifted, backed down the driveway.

She turned to face them. And kicked her chin up a notch.

Chapter 8

“I
’VE CALLED THE
Bangor brothers. They are dropping off a couple of sets of harnesses,” she rushed to say before Hawk could interrupt and yell at her. Her gaze went from one man to the other. “If we leave now we’ll have a few hours of daylight. In the caves, time won’t matter as it’s all darkness anyway. We won’t be hampered by a lack of daylight.”

She stepped forward and held out her hand. “You must be Swede.”

Swede shook her hand and nodded.

With her hand still outstretched, she walked to Shadow. “I’m Mia. Thank you for helping.”

Shadow, quiet as ever, stepped forward and with a soft drawl said, “My pleasure. I’m sorry about your father. He’s a good man.”

And that was when she realized these men had met her father. Not just Hawk but the others as well. “He is a good man,” she whispered. “He didn’t deserve this.”

“And your uncle?” Shadow asked. “What can you tell us about him?”

She shrugged. “Not much. He and my father were estranged for over thirty years. Then all of a sudden he shows up wanting to make peace. Dad never thought anything of it. He opened his door and let him back into his house and his life.”

Shadow nodded. “What did your uncle do for a living?”

“Apparently he was down on his luck when he showed up at Dad’s house. Part of the reason he let him in, I think. Dad has always been a softie.”

“And then he started working at the store?” Shadow asked.

She nodded. “It gave me more time as I’d been helping out a lot more since Dad’s accident.”

His voice quiet, Hawk said, “How did the accident happen?”

“He was driving on the highway and some idiot ran him off the road.”

The three men exchanged glances. She frowned. “What are you thinking?”

“That it was all a little too convenient,” Swede suggested.

“In what way?”

“He gets run off the road, your father is injured, a long lost brother shows up needing work and before you know it there’s a cache of weapons found and all hell breaks loose.”

The thoughts ran through her mind. “Do you think Gerry was helping with bombs?”

“Was he the type?” Hawk asked curiously. “You haven’t said anything as to what he was like. Or not like. How did you feel when he showed up?”

“I was happy for Dad’s sake. But…” She stopped, hating to say anything against the dead man.

“But what?” prompted Swede.

“But… I didn’t like him. I didn’t like the avariciousness I heard from his everyday words or his constant assessing looks at my father, the shop, the house. As if to say if something happened to Dad, he’d be happy to step into his shoes. But he’d never fill them.” She ran a hand through her hair. “He wasn’t half the man Dad is.”

The others nodded. “Then for the moment we’ll assume he had something to do with this as the one terrorist implied. That his death was a falling out among thieves.”

“What a thought.”

“Have you any better hypothesis?”

Shadow’s soft voice belied something else entirely. A sidelong glance his way confirmed her initial impression. That man handled danger like a baker handled bread dough.

And Swede. The big man looked like he’d used full size trees as toothpicks and snap them in half when he was done. But Hawk, there was something so implacable in his visage, she wondered if he wasn’t the most dan-gerous. “No,” she said in a quiet voice. “I don’t have a clue what’s going on.”

A car drove in as she finished speaking. “That’s Paul.” She walked over and talked to her friend. He got out and unloaded the gear from the trunk. “Thanks for this, Paul.”

He nodded. “Not an issue. Bring it back when you’re done.” She smiled her thanks as he pulled away.

Once he was out of sight, she turned to the others. “Ready?”

A scant half hour later, she was directing them to the turn off she’d taken first thing in the morning. The shadows from the tall trees cast the entrance in darkness. Only she’d been here many times over. She turned on her headlamp and led the way in. They were fully geared for anything, and like this morning, she hoped for nothing but a nice hike. If they were so lucky.

As they walked, she studied the men and realized they moved easily, fit and with lethal smoothness. Like Hawk, they made no noise as they walked.

In contrast, she felt like an elephant with every step she took. No matter how much she tried, the leaves still crackled under her feet.

“You’re trying too hard. Instead of walking on the ground,” Hawk said, correctly interpreting her frustration, “step inside the ground and be one with it.”

She stopped and considered what he was saying then closed her eyes and stepped again. Her steps were softer. More in tune. Good. Well, better at least.

They entered the first cave, and she took the lead across the same cavernous space she’d walked this morning. And led them to the other cave and on and on. By the time they were at the tunnel, and she had to squirm through on her belly, she was comfortable with her companions’ skill. They took to this like they likely took to every other challenge. Although Swede might find this part of the journey a little small. “This next section is tight,” she warned. “So suck in your guts.”

And she dove into the tight channel. By the time she made it through, dirt falling down on her face and neck and coughing out as much dust as she could, she struggled to her feet in the last cavern – the one where she’d found the bullet – and reached for her water bottle. She was still drinking when the others crawled out behind her.

Swede was covered. In fact, as she watched him come out, she realized he must have ploughed the tunnel wider with those damn shoulders of his. Shadow came behind him and made the journey look easy. And it probably was.

“So Swede, did you make it big enough I can walk through on the way back?”

The big man, now dusty with sand, spat and gave a chuckle. “You should have let me lead. I’d have made it easier for you this time too.”

She laughed and motioned to the far side. “It’s in this cave that I found the bullet.”

“Where?” Hawk was all business. Since standing up, his gaze had been steadily clocking the distance, the walls, the type of dirt on the walls, the height of the ceiling, etc. Such awareness she hadn’t seen before.

Amazing.

She gave herself a good shake and walked to where she’d seen the small object. It was on the far side. She bent and pointed where it had lain.

Hawk studied the ground, then kicked the area with his boot. There was a small metallic sound. He bent down and ran his fingers through the loose dirt. And pulled up two more casings. He straightened, rolled them through his fingers. And nodded. “Likely the same gun that killed Gerry.”

“I’m surprised they shot him at the store,” she said. “Why not down here?”

“Why down here?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. So no one would find him.”

“How many times have you been here in the last few days?”

She frowned. “Twice.”

“And other people you know, how many were likely here?”

She winced. “Point taken. There’s possibly been a dozen or more.”

“So hardly out of the way. If they knew this area was mapped, they knew they’d likely be found and way earlier than they’d want to be.”

“I suppose.”

“Besides, this way it points to your father being guilty.”

She gasped. “I never thought of that.” She glanced around. “So why the casings here? Target practice?”

“Anything is possible.” Swede looked at the far wall and pointed. “Look.”

Sure enough on the far side were a series of circles chalked on the cave wall.

“Over here.”

The others turned to where Shadow stood about twenty feet away. He pointed to the ground.

Walking over to stand beside the others, she glanced at the ground and realized she was staring at another set of casings. “Rifle?”

“Automatic.”

“Now that we know we’re in the right place, spread out and see what else you can find.”

“This isn’t where the cache was found,” she protested.

“No, it might not be but the men were here.”

“Then they didn’t come the same way we did.” She was positive about that.

The men stopped and looked at her. “Why?”

“Because you’re not going to haul any of the weapons or bomb making equipment all through here. And there’s no easy access for hauling it out.”

Hawk’s eyebrows shot up. “Right. Suggestions.”

“Yes. I think the next cavern over has a double entrance with a slightly different access point. There was a lot of talk about it on my last trip. There used to be a long hike to get to it, but from what I understand, there are now truck tracks to the entrance.”

“Can we get there from here?”

“And if so, why didn’t we go that way this time?”

“Because I don’t know how to find it from the outside,” she said in exasperation. “This place is riddled with different tunnels.”

“But you know how to get from here to there?” Swede asked her in surprise. “How does that work?”

“I don’t know for sure, I know the general route, but that looks likely.” She moved around Shadow and pointed to the floor in front of a small tunnel. “It’s also seen recent traffic. I don’t remember seeing these tracks earlier today.”

“So you think someone came through from the other side today?”

“It’s possible. It’s also possible I missed it. I was thinking more of getting home than checking out footsteps.” She crouched in front of the tunnel. “It’s partly hidden, and we stopped before entering this one this morning as time was running out.”

“So if you’d had enough time, would you have gone further?” Swede asked.

“Oh definitely.” She stood up.

“It’s a popular through fare? Do you file your trips?”

She nodded. “I go with several of the local club. We always file a trip plan.”

He nodded. “Good. Let’s go.” He nodded to the tunnel. “Do you want to lead?”

She grinned. “Absolutely.” Then stepped back. “But Swede makes it much easier if I go behind him.”

Shadow laughed. “She’s got your number.”

With a roll of his eyes, the big man dropped to his knees and crawled inside the tunnel. It was big enough for him to squeeze through with difficulty. She fell into step behind him.

This tunnel was longer than the others she’d been in.

When Swede stopped, she halted in place. But they were still inside the tunnel. She waited but he didn’t move. She reached over and grabbed his foot and gave it a shake. He reached a hand back in warning.

And she understood. Someone was up in front. Someone like the gunmen. She settled down to wait.

And wait. The temperature in the tunnel was surprisingly hot. It had been cool at the start, but full as it was now with large male bodies generating a tremendous amount of heat, it was getting overheated.

Her body ached from being on her knees hunched over. She shifted slightly and then froze. Sounds carried like a shot through the tunnel.

She could hear voices. Were they approaching? Shit. The other men hadn’t made a move. Only her. What an idiot she was.

She took several deep open mouthed breaths. Trying to still the sense of panic.

The thought of being caught in here forever…well that was enough to make anyone panic. Why the men couldn’t go forward and catch these bastards, she didn’t know. Just when she’d given up trying to stay quiet and needing to move, Swede scrambled ahead and was suddenly gone.

Hawk was behind her. He gave her a hard shove and she scrambled to get out of the way. At the entrance she slipped to the left while her eyes adjusted to the different light.

The other two men bolted through the entrance and raced after Swede. She didn’t even understand where he’d gone, but he wasn’t in front of her. Her gaze searched the gloom. Was he?

And if he wasn’t, where was he? And the others? Had they raced into unknown territory like that? Were they nuts? They might be SEALs but they weren’t completely infallible. Surely.

She used the wall to stand up while she tried to adjust her gaze to the off lighting. And gasped. The whole room was empty. She ran to the far side where the next tunnel opened. There was no one as far as she could see there either. But it was the only route out so they’d had to have gone down there. Shit. She wanted to click her headlight on so she could see but didn’t want to bring any unwanted attention her way.

The safest thing she could do was keep herself snugged up against the wall where she was out of sight and out of the way.

Except…how long was she supposed to stand here in the dark.

“Well, well well, what do we have here?”

She spun around and a hand clapped over her head, a cloth came over her mouth. She struggled, but her head swam and clouds filled her mind. Her body crumpled but never hit the ground.

*

“
M
IA?”

Hawk circled the large room. He’d left her in the tunnel. Where the hell was she now? Swede and Shadow were following the trail of goods to the exit. He’d doubled back for her. Where the hell was she?

“Mia?” he called out louder. But there was no answer. He made it back to the opening of the tunnel and froze. He lifted his nose and sniffed the air harder. Chloroform.

Shit.

He turned his light on bright and glanced at the ground. Footsteps where she’d been standing, her weight strong, her back leaned against the wall, her heels dug into the dirt. Then scuff marks as she struggled.

Her heels dragged along the tunnel as she was pulled backwards. For how long? He raced behind the tracks. She couldn’t have been taken far. There hadn’t been time. Less than ten minutes.

He ran easily, tracking the trail.

And came to the large cavern. He slid out into the cavern and against the closest wall. Nothing rustled in the darkness. Nothing moved. And there were no shadows that hadn’t been there earlier. No sign of her.

He raced to the small tunnel. It would be much harder to take her all the way back. But there was the evidence that just that was in progress. She was being dragged. Likely her arms over her head and dragged. A hard way to go. They’d have to be strong. Then again, Mia was slim. Long and lean but light.