Stone's Surrender: A SEALs of Honor World Novel (Heroes for Hire Book 2) Read online

  STONE’S SURRENDER

  Heroes for Hire, Book 2

  Dale Mayer

  Books in This Series:

  Levi’s Legend: Heroes for Hire, Book 1

  Stone’s Surrender: Heroes for Hire, Book 2

  Merk’s Mistake: Heroes for Hire, Book 3

  Rhodes’ Reward: Heroes for Hire, Book 4

  Flynn’s Firecracker: Heroes for Hire, Book 5

  Logan’s Light: Heroes for Hire, Book 6

  Harrison’s Heart: Heroes for Hire, Book 7

  Jarrod’s Jewel: Heroes for Hire, Book 8

  Books in the SEALs of Honor Series:

  Mason: SEALs of Honor, Book 1

  Hawk: SEALs of Honor, Book 2

  Dane: SEALs of Honor, Book 3

  Swede: SEALs of Honor, Book 4

  Shadow: SEALs of Honor, Book 5

  Cooper: SEALs of Honor, Book 6

  Markus: SEALs of Honor, Book 7

  Evan: SEALs of Honor, Book 8

  Mason’s Wish: SEALs of Honor, Book 9

  Chase: SEALs of Honor, Book 10

  Brett: SEALs of Honor, Book 11

  Devlin: SEALs of Honor, Book 12

  SEALs of Honor, Books 1–3

  SEALs of Honor, Books 4–6

  SEALs of Honor, Books 7–10

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  About the Book

  Complimentary Download

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  Complimentary Download

  About the Author

  Also by Dale Mayer

  Copyright Page

  Back Cover

  Welcome to Stone’s Surrender, book 2 in Heroes for Hire reconnecting readers with the unforgettable men from SEALs of Honor in a new series of action packed, page turning romantic suspense that fans have come to expect from USA TODAY Bestselling author Dale Mayer.

  Life is on the move again…

  After a long slow-ass recovery, Stone finds himself triumphantly back at work at Levi’s new company. The action comes fast and furious on his first run out as they rescue a senator’s daughter who’s been kidnapped in the Middle East.

  Lissa will do almost anything to thwart her father’s plans for her. Getting kidnapped wasn’t on her list. And once she meets Stone no other man matters. She falls, and she falls hard. But even on home soil, there’s no respite as she finds the nightmare has followed her home…and she’s caught in the middle of it.

  It’s a battle that requires both of them to not only clear her name but to keep her safe…especially when a twist is thrown at them that they didn’t see coming…

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  Chapter 1

  “Two more damn-close shots.”

  Stone Tollard winced, sitting taller in the driver’s seat, as Levi swore loud and long into Stone’s headset.

  The next distinctive boom shook their vehicle. Stone turned to look at Ice, riding shotgun beside him.

  “Stone, what’s your ETA?” Levi’s hard voice snagged Stone’s attention. Levi and the rest of the unit arrived earlier in another truck and were already situated in town, scoping things out.

  At least until Stone swerved to avoid another depression in the road. Likely a land mine again. He checked the laptop monitor mounted before him. Ice’s main duty was watching this screen, although she’d rather be flying a helicopter. She nodded for him to continue in the same direction.

  Normally this would be a military operation. Yet no one was to know Levi and his unit were in Afghanistan to rescue a senator’s daughter—kidnapped by rebels intent on funding their army for another couple years. Not that the senator didn’t have the money to pay, because he did; but, as everyone knew, paying was no guarantee of getting the senator’s daughter home safe and sound. In the senator’s own words, Lissa was a mite too stubborn to listen to anyone—even kidnapping rebels.

  The senator knew what Levi could do and also trusted him to keep this as quiet as possible. On those terms Levi had agreed to take on the job.

  Levi’s team were all ex-soldiers of some kind and excelled in this stuff, although there was talk of a few other law enforcement types joining them. One of Levi’s old friends, Mike, a Texas Ranger, was looking to join up. Stone had no trouble with that because Mike had helped them out before, having access to some information and skills that they wouldn’t have otherwise. Stone was all for a global company.

  Hell, although the formal name of Levi’s company was Legendary Security, privately the team joked their name should be Heroes for Hire. Truly sappy. And something to make them all groan. But anything to put a grin on their faces and to turn tough situations into something easier was well worth it.

  “Now.” Ice’s voice rose sharply at the end of the word as she pointed where she wanted Stone to go.

  Stone tightened his grip on the wheel and made a sharp left turn and kept going until she told him otherwise. Stone and Levi had learned to listen to Ice a long time ago.

  “Straighten up,” she said in a calm voice. “You’re clear for another hundred yards.”

  “Jesus, is that all?” he asked.

  No way in hell they’d have made it this far if they didn’t have that special software. Although military grade, it was an early adaptation of Mason’s wife, Tesla’s, program. So technically not an illegal copy. More of a prototype, and she’d made a few tweaks to improve its efficiency and accuracy. Stone was damn grateful.

  He and Ice would’ve been blown to shit a long time ago if they didn’t have this thing telling them where all the land mines were. They couldn’t be positive every single mark on that screen was one, but they sure as hell weren’t taking any chances. The program had been developed to forewarn them, and it worked like a charm.

  “Stone?” Levi asked impatiently. “ETA? Answer me.”

  Stone looked at Ice.

  She shrugged. “If we could go in a straight line, it would be eight minutes,” she said to both men. “Since we’re zigzagging across the damn countryside to avoid land mines, double that.”

  Stone kept his focus on the road, knowing they neared the one-hundred-yard mark, and Ice would fire off another set of instructions soon.

  “Clear so far.”

  He nodded. That meant in ten seconds she would tell him to head in another direction she deemed safe. And he’d follow her order, as he had for years. And it was so much easier now that she and Levi had settled their differences. When they’d been on the outs, it had been tough on everybody. The team could all see what needed to happen, but nobody dared speak to Levi or Ice since both were hotheads.

  Stone grinned. Of course he was just a pussycat himself. Like hell.

  He and Ice drove in silence for another couple minutes, and he was surprised when she didn’t tell him to change direction.
It also made him extremely uneasy. This was the longest they’d actually driven in a straight line since they’d hit this section of the road. “Is the program still working?”

  “It is. And there’s one coming up ninety yards to the right. Take a left in four, three, two …”

  The cab was silent except for his heavy breathing as he waited for that final order.

  “Now,” she snapped.

  He jerked the wheel again, making a hard left, and waited for her to tell him to straighten up. That meant heading back to the road when it was clear. But she didn’t say anything. He glanced at her quickly and then returned his gaze to the road. The double-cab truck bounced over the heavy countryside, hit a rock, then bounced again. Not a whole lot he could do. The terrain was very rough out here.

  “Ice?”

  “Get ready,” she warned. “When I say so, take a hard right and go forward about ten yards.”

  “Jesus.” He followed her instructions though. It took another five minutes before she had them on the road again. And so it went for the next fifteen miles. At one point it seemed like nothing but land mines were on the road. Finally the small village rose up ahead. Not their final destination but where they would stay for the night. Lissa was being held somewhere within a few miles of this place.

  He entered the village very slowly, dust swarming up around them.

  Levi’s voice crackled in his ear. “Take the second left.”

  Stone shook his head. There was no left, nor right because there were no damn roads. Just a hodgepodge of makeshift buildings set in the middle of nowhere. How the hell did these people live like this?

  Ice lifted her hand and pointed to the left. He followed her instructions and came to a sudden stop inside what appeared to be a shelter of some kind. Instantly the men on the ground covered up the truck with camouflage materials. Stone hopped out and walked over to Rhodes and Merk, standing in front of the truck. For every step Stone took, he heard a clink, clink, clink.

  Rhodes shook his head and looked down at Stone’s foot and leg hidden by his jeans. “That won’t work. No way can you sneak up on anybody like that.”

  “Two screws are loose. I just need a minute to fix it,” Stone said.

  Merk cleared a spot on the table and said, “Take that thing off, and I’ll get to it.”

  Only … Stone did things his way. He stood at the table, reached down, pulled up his pant leg, and took off his prosthetic leg. Then he laid it on the clean spot on the table. Instantly a light turned on, giving him visibility as bright as he could get here. Tools were all over the place; few of them belonged to his team. But Stone would use what he could. Quickly checking out the offending joint, he realized one of the bearings was working less than perfectly.

  He always carried a repair kit in his pocket, just in case. He pulled that out, quickly changed the seal and replaced the screws, taking great care to oil everything. Soon as he was done, he strapped it on again. This model had a butter-soft leather pad for his stump and was much easier on the scar tissue.

  His buddy, Swede, had helped him design a different clip-on system. All in all each new design was getting better and better. None were as good as the flesh-and-blood leg he’d lost, but he was doing just fine.

  At least until he was all alone in the dark. Sometimes the waves of depression just couldn’t be held back. But those were few and far between, and he sure as hell would never admit those times to anybody else. That would be surrendering, admitting to the weakness within. He’d never done that. Not yet at least, and didn’t have any plans to do so in the near future.

  He swung around to the others and asked, “What’s the plan?”

  “You and Ice will take the road up to the rear of the rebel camp on the other side of those hills. We want you to park at the top and be the lookout. Harrison’s going with you. Sniper rifles are right over there on the left wall. Ice will run communications from inside the truck. Logan will run comm from down here.”

  Stone looked over to see Logan’s flat glare. “Hey, Logan. Glad it’s you this time and not me.” Stone grinned at the sour look on his friend’s face.

  Logan had been shot up pretty good not very long ago, and though he was recovering, his muscles hadn’t responded as well as they should have. He was doing physiotherapy and rebuilding his strength again, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t pack a sniper rifle for hours and still make the shots he needed to.

  However, Logan was also a whiz with communications, so this was a perfect fit for him.

  It also explained why Ice would be in the truck, communicating with Logan and whoever else was running late, which would in this case, be Levi.

  Ice also had been injured—her upper arm—so she’d healed faster than Logan. Another sour point in Logan’s life. But he was a good guy, and if need be, he’d pick up that rifle and run through the swamp, desert, or forest or jump out of a plane with the rest of them. Given a chance he’d actually beat them all to the other side. They were a small team, only seven of them at the moment, all having finally moved permanently into the Texas compound. Still they’d done plenty in the military with that many men. Levi expected nothing less from them now.

  In fact, he expected a lot more because they weren’t constrained by the same rules. Although it also meant he didn’t have to follow the same regulations. Sometimes those were a good thing. Levi ran a tight ship, and so far they’d all gotten along just fine.

  Levi walked over to Stone as he stood staring at the sniper rifles. “You okay, buddy?”

  Stone knew what Levi was asking. “I’m fine. We’re good to go.”

  No need to hash out the fact that this was his first active mission since having his leg blown apart. No way in hell was he getting left behind again. You started that; it never ended. He’d be the one staying with Alfred, the one who kept the compound running and the meals cooking. Plus the team needed Stone. They had so much damn work, they were bringing in more men.

  The world was in a sad state of affairs.

  “Listen up, everyone,” Levi said. “We’re out in one hour. Stock up on water because it’ll get hot as hell out there today.”

  Damn. Stone hated the heat. But it didn’t matter. This was the job. He’d make sure he was up for it one way or another.

  *

  Lissa Brampton crouched behind the door, her ear pressed tight against the wood. She could hear spats of conversation, but didn’t understand what was being said. She hadn’t been over here long enough to pick up any of the language. Although she’d picked up Spanish and French fairly easily while studying it, she wasn’t having the same experience with the Afghan tongues.

  But their tone wasn’t hard to understand. Something was going on. The men were yelling at one another, and she heard sounds of running feet. Thankfully nobody came in her direction.

  She looked at the other two hostages. The three of them had been taken from the refugee camp. A husband and wife, both doctors, and her. Somehow they’d been singled out, probably because they were all Americans.

  She didn’t know if the kidnappers knew who her father was, but it was likely. She understood the rebels had been asking for a lot of money in order to secure her release, but she also knew the American government’s policy was to not pay ransoms to terrorists.

  In theory she agreed, but now that her head was on the chopping block, not so much.

  She stared down at her hands, not surprised when they clenched into fists yet again. It didn’t matter that she’d come to this country of her own free will in the first place. She’d defied her father’s wishes and left once again as fast as she could. She had volunteered all over the world, and still couldn’t be far enough away from her mother and father. He wasn’t an easy man to live with, and watching the relationship between her parents was enough to make anybody flee. He would never change. Her mother would always be this frail, clingy listen-to-your-father-type woman.

  Thankfully she had her own condo in a different state. She’d left
home as soon as she was old enough.

  It didn’t matter that inside her head was a brain that supposedly functioned on its own. It also didn’t matter that her father had wanted a son; instead he’d gotten Lissa. At least she tried not to make it matter. His attitude toward women was less than inspiring. As his daughter, she was supposed to be a clone of her mother. That wasn’t working so well. Lissa had more spine than any other woman she knew. Instead of that being a benefit, all it had done was get her in trouble time and time again.

  She reached up and checked out the couple of stitches along her temple. It still hurt like shit. Getting stitches without any anesthesia was not something she’d recommend. But she was grateful to Kevin for putting them in. When they’d been kidnapped, Kevin had been packing up several first aid kits, and those, as well as some of their bags, had been grabbed along with them. He’d managed to keep Susan’s bag with them initially, and thankfully it had yielded a small first aid kit.

  Lissa turned and contemplated the older woman and her husband. They were in their mid- to late-fifties. Having raised their family, they’d wanted to do more with their skills. So they’d headed out and traveled for the last four years, helping out where and how they could.

  Somehow they’d ended up here. Now Susan looked tired, worn out.

  Lissa’s head pounded, and she was desperately in need of water. But ever since they’d been shoved into this room, they’d been given very little, just enough to stay alive. A bucket was in the far corner, which they had tactically agreed to use for waste, and other than that, not a whole lot was here.

  She wasn’t into whining, but it had been like this for days.

  She walked over to the small window too high to climb up, being a good six to eight feet above ground. She could probably do it with help, but no way would she leave anybody behind. This place was a death trap, and she wasn’t like her father.

  The beam of sunshine shone on her face where she stood. She didn’t need the warmth, but something was just so soothing about being in the sunlight.