SEALs of Honor: Troy Read online

  “You can learn a lot about a guy in a situation like this,” Axel said. “Seriously.”

  “Yep, absolutely. And, like I said, he’s a good guy.”

  “Well, in that case,” he said, “instead of the barbecue on the weekend being at Mason’s, it’ll be at my place. Why don’t you bring him?”

  She looked at him in delight. “You know what? I just might manage that.”

  He grinned. “Good, because you never know. We’ve got to take these things one day at a time. Life is over way too fast in some cases.”

  “I hear you,” she said quietly. “It’s not exactly how I want to think about life, but you’re right.” As she sat there, nursing her coffee, she sent Troy several more texts. Can I come down there?

  No.

  Please.

  No.

  Okay, I’m coming.

  NO!

  Laughing, she texted back. Okay, just teasing.

  Make sure that you are.

  Not in any danger here.

  How do you figure that?

  Nobody even around. Just Axel and me.

  Where’s Mason?

  Took off in a hurry.

  I’ll call him.

  “Troy will call Mason to make sure everything’s okay.”

  “Well, I tried myself, except he’s not answering,” Axel said, staring down at his phone. “I’ll try Nelson.” He lifted his phone to his ear, trying to call him. But, when he got no answer, he looked at her, clearly concerned.

  “Go,” she said.

  Immediately he shook his head. “Hell no, I’m not leaving you behind.”

  “Well, you should,” she said. “We can’t have any more people hurt.”

  “Exactly,” he said with emphasis.

  She glared at him. “If I order you, will you go?”

  He burst out laughing.

  She sat here, her chin propped on her palm. “Then let’s both go,” she said.

  “No,” he said. “That’s not happening either.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely I’m sure,” he said.

  Just then the door opened, and Troy walked in, but he wasn’t alone. She looked over at the man beside him and bolted to her feet. “Lionel,” she cried out and raced toward him.

  He gave her a wan smile but let her hug him. In fact, as she held him close, he wrapped his arms around her, and what started off as a gentle hug, ended up with the two of them almost supporting each other upright.

  She looked at him and whispered, “Are you okay?”

  He shook his head. “Not sure I’ll ever be okay again,” he whispered.

  She led him to her spot and sat him gently down on the chair. “I was so afraid they’d done to you what they did to Tabitha.”

  He looked at her with huge puffy eyes.

  “Oh, God,” she whispered.

  He nodded slowly.

  “This is an outrage,” she whispered to Lionel. She grabbed another chair to sit down beside him and looked at Troy to see if he understood but could tell from the look on his face that he did.

  Axel stood, went for coffee, and brought a stout cup of black coffee to Lionel, sitting across the table from him. Without saying a word, Lionel seemed to calm down some.

  She patted Lionel softly on the shoulder as she got up and huddled with Troy, to have a private conversation. “Evidence of it?”

  “Date-rape drug,” Troy whispered, as he nodded, then turned his back to Lionel, drawing Berkley closer, so the poor guy couldn’t hear more. “Lionel was knocked out several times and then attacked. They used him, took photos, and when he woke up again, he had no idea except that he’d been abused and sometimes beaten. It happened at least three times, possibly four or five. He’s not even sure. The last time they left him bleeding pretty badly. He went to the doctor, and that’s when he realized the doc already knew about it, even made a comment about something they shouldn’t have done.”

  “That little bastard.” She straightened, her hands clenched into fists.

  Troy grabbed her and said, “Slow down. He’s already dead. Remember?”

  “Too bad,” she growled. “I’d like to punch him into the ground myself.”

  “And we also have the doctor’s phone and the other manager’s phone, plus the doctor’s computer,” he said, “and it’s more damning than anything. I have emailed the photos and the schedule.”

  “Schedule?” she said, in a horrified voice.

  “Yes, schedule.”

  “Let me see it,” she said. He brought it up on his phone, and she studied it in shock. “They planned these attacks? And they organized them in advance?” Something was almost familiar about it, but she didn’t really understand why.

  “Yes,” he said, “they did.”

  Berkley was shocked. “That’s pretty low for anybody,” she said. “But to plan something like this, over and over again? That’s sick.”

  “Oh, it gets worse,” Troy said. He brought up the calendar again, tapped a day several days ago, and said, “This was on the schedule before the blast.”

  She looked down at it and slowly sank back against the wall, looking dumbfounded. “It’s got my name right there.”

  He nodded. “They were done abusing Lionel for a while, and they wanted a woman again.”

  She stared up at him, feeling heartsick. “They would do to me what they did to Tabitha?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “You were on the schedule. So whoever caused the sabotage kept you from being drugged and raped. You could have been really hurt.”

  *

  There was no easy way to tell her, but Troy figured blunt and straightforward was the best. But then the look on her face about did him in. He wrapped her up in his arms, and she curled up against him. He could feel the shudders rocking through her. He looked over at Axel, the two of them sharing a look, still amazed to be shocked at the depravity of some people.

  Troy gently moved Berkley over to the table with Axel and Lionel.

  “What was it Denny said? Something about a group of men like this?” Troy asked.

  “I think that was Chucky,” Axel said. “I think those two knew more than they let on.”

  “Maybe so,” Troy said. “And maybe that’s why they wanted out. Maybe that’s why they were so sick of life here and what they were seeing and hearing evidence of.”

  “Probably,” Axel said. “Bastards.”

  Now with Lionel and Berkley here, both of them shattered by the news and revelations, Troy wasn’t even sure what the next step was. He had to keep them both safe, before whatever group of assholes decided to try to hurt them again.

  “We can’t know who all is involved though, can we? Are they listed?” she asked.

  “Quite a few of them are listed, yes,” Troy said. “They paid for the honor.”

  A shudder racked through her as she stared at him. “Why? Why are men so horrible?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

  “Only some men,” Troy reminded her. “Lionel has confirmed those he can ID.”

  Lionel gave a nod, his expression grim, but he seemed to be sitting taller now that he was surrounded by people to support him.

  She leaned up against Troy’s chest and burrowed against him. “I don’t even want to think about it,” she said.

  “The thing is,” Troy said, “Lionel says that he woke up in the body bag and doesn’t know how he got in there.”

  She stared at Lionel. “Seriously?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I woke up in the body bag. In the freezer. That was unnerving, I tell you. I managed to get out of the body bag and realized where I was and got out. I thought I was dead for sure, but it was so similar to every other time, only this time it didn’t feel like I’d been raped.”

  “Can you remember what you might have ingested?” Berkley asked him. “They drugged my rum one night.”

  “I don’t really drink alcohol,” Lionel stated.

  “Any idea otherwise how you might have ended up d
rugged?”

  “No,” he said. “I’ve racked my brain about it, but I don’t know.”

  “Your brother is still here,” Berkley said. “You know that, right?”

  “I really wanted to tell him,” he said. “I’ve been worried about explaining this to him, but then I didn’t have the guts to.”

  “I get it,” Troy said. They stared out over the oceans as the sun rose. It was still stormy and ugly outside, but a little bit more daylight was breaking through.

  “Can we get off the rig today?” she asked.

  “I hope so,” Troy said. “I presume you’re done with wanting to stay.”

  “I’m very done,” she said, in a quiet voice. “I won’t be coming back here again.”

  “No, this culture is not good for anybody,” he said.

  “I know,” she whispered. “But we still haven’t found who’s behind all this.”

  Just then Mason and Nelson walked in.

  “So, what the hell’s going on?” she asked Mason, hopping to her feet.

  He studied her face for a long moment. “Well, we appear to have brought something to light,” he said, “but you won’t want to hear it.”

  “If you’re telling us about Lionel here,” she said, stepping back so they could see Lionel, “and that I was on the calendar as being the next victim for their nasty pay-to-play events, I already know.”

  He nodded. “Glad I didn’t have to tell you that,” he said in a clipped voice. “Chucky and Winslow are up, and they’ll join us here,” he said. “I stopped in to talk to Denny, and he’s on his way back here too.”

  “What about the others?” Troy said.

  “Well, Bruce, as we know, is dead, so we need Jonesy and Idiot to join everybody too,” Axel said.

  “Right,” she said. “Well, Jonesy is a little worse for wear, after Troy beat the crap out of him. What’s up with the pilot?”

  “He’s fine. He’s staying with our men.”

  “And Daniel, the foreman?” she asked.

  “Right, that’s who I was looking for. Where is his room?” Mason asked.

  Lionel gave it to him. Then added, “But he’s in my room.”

  “We’ll go wake him up,” Mason said.

  “What about the company man, Gregor?” Troy asked.

  “Yeah, we knocked on his door earlier,” he said. “If he’s not up, we’ll rap on it again, after we wake up Daniel.” Mason and Nelson both left.

  “I’ll put on more coffee,” Berkley said.

  Troy got up to walk over and check on her. “Are you okay?”

  She looked at him and gave him a dark look. “Just rattled. It’s a little hard to realize that you’ve been targeted, and they had you on a calendar, scheduled for that kind of abuse,” she said. “It’s pretty upsetting.”

  “It is,” he said, as he helped her put on another pot. “It could get really ugly coming up. You know that, right?”

  “Uglier?” she asked, skeptical. “I’m not sure that’s possible.”

  “Yes,” he said, “it actually could.”

  She shrugged. “If you say so.”

  Just then several more blasts came, and the four of them stared at each other in shock. Troy and Axel were at the door instantly. Berkley went back to Lionel and waved at them. “Go, go, go.”

  Troy hesitated, then shook his head. “We stay together. Both of you come on.”

  Lionel looked at him. “Leave me here,” he said, his voice broken. “Maybe they’ll blast me into the ocean too.”

  Troy wasn’t having anything to do with that, and he grabbed one of Berkley’s hands and one of Lionel’s arms and hauled them down and outside.

  They could hear creaking steel and metal as the rig suffered.

  “I don’t think any of us are intended to get off this rig alive,” she cried out.

  “It’ll be fine,” Troy said. “We have a navy ship close at hand,” he said, “so we’ve got a way off. But I want to make sure that whoever is here has another way to get themselves off too. We can take everybody, but we need to all be in one place.”

  As he spoke, another huge crash came, and one part of the rig started to collapse. She screamed as Troy pulled the three of them underneath the shelter, as the steel railing from above came down.

  “We didn’t get up to check the top of the rig, did we?” Berkley asked.

  “No,” he said. “It probably wouldn’t have made a difference anyway, because whoever did this has been working all night to get around us.”

  “One guy can get around pretty hidden from sight in this rig,” Lionel said, but his voice was faint, and he looked terrified.

  “What about the helicopter?” she asked.

  Troy nodded. “We’ll take you both up there right now.”

  They headed toward the chopper. As they got up there, Chucky and Winslow were already there, waiting. They looked relieved when they saw them.

  “Please tell me that you’ve got a pilot for this bird.”

  “Not at the moment, but we will have,” Troy said. “We’re getting everybody up here. I’m not sure what’s going on, but everybody needs to be evacuated.”

  Just then another blast rumbled throughout the rig, and the part they stood on listed and dropped about six inches.

  Chapter 15

  Berkley screamed and hung on to the railing.

  Troy looked at Winslow and Chucky. “You two keep these two here and stay together. I have to go help the others.”

  The two men nodded, grim but determined, as they reached out and grabbed hold of Lionel.

  “You knew, didn’t you?” Lionel asked.

  “We suspected something,” he said, “but, no, we didn’t know. We would have stopped it if we’d known for sure, and we just found out a couple days ago.”

  “Just before the first blast?” she asked.

  He nodded. “Yeah, somebody was posting pictures, and we accidentally saw them.”

  “Jesus,” she swore, feeling sick.

  Chucky looked at Lionel. “We’re so sorry.”

  “Yeah, I am too,” Lionel said. “This isn’t exactly something that you walk away from.”

  “No, it isn’t.”

  The wind picked up just then, carrying everybody’s words away. They clung to each other beside the helicopter, which was still strapped down, as more blasts continued to erupt around them.

  “This whole place will go down,” she screamed.

  Chucky nodded. “It will.” He looked over at Winslow. “How is your helicopter flying?”

  “Hell no,” he said, “I can’t stand to fly anyway. I do it under duress only.”

  The two men looked at Lionel and Berkley. “Either of you know how to fly?”

  She shook her head as several men climbed up the ladder on the side, and one of them was the pilot. “Here’s our pilot,” she said, and they all cheered.

  He hopped into the helicopter as Gregor arrived, and then Troy came up, carrying Jonesy over his shoulder, who was still unconscious or perhaps passed out. Troy laid him down not-so-gently on the deck and disappeared again.

  Axel came up, dragging Idiot and Denny.

  Denny was shaking. “Oh, my God, oh, my God,” he cried out. “Why would somebody do this?”

  She reached out a hand and grabbed his. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “The next place will become home too. You’ll see.”

  He looked at her sadly. “No,” he said. “It won’t.”

  The pilot started the rotors on the helicopter and began his usual preflight procedures.

  The others were gathered to get access to the helicopter, and she realized that there weren’t enough seats. She looked up and swore, then looked at the pilot. “We have too many people.”

  “I know,” he said grimly.

  Gregor hopped in and said, “Well, this is my helicopter, so you can damn well be sure I’m going in.”

  At that, Denny looked over, and Gregor nodded and said, “Denny, get up here. Chucky, Winslow, let�
�s go.”

  It was almost as if he were picking and choosing who he would save. And she knew in her heart of hearts it wouldn’t be her. She hadn’t had anything to do with him all this time that he’d been here. But would he let Mason, Nelson, Axel, and Troy die too?

  Just then a big life raft was tossed over the side. She stared at it in shock. As she looked up, Troy and Axel were coming up onto the top deck. Axel picked up Jonesy and tossed him into the life raft and Idiot too, screaming the whole way. “Keep a close watch on those two,” Troy yelled to someone below.

  Berkley heard the life raft take off.

  As Troy ran over to her, he reached for Gregor and pulled him out of the helicopter. When she turned to look back at Axel in shock, he had somebody in his grasp too. It was Daniel. Lionel still stood beside her.

  “Daniel,” he called out, and he raced toward him. Daniel gave him a big hug and then stepped back.

  “Go, save yourself,” he said.

  Lionel shook his head. “No,” he said. “I need you to come too.”

  Daniel gave him a gentle look. “No, buddy. This time you’ll have to take the trip alone.”

  “Why?” Lionel cried out, not sure what Daniel was trying to say.

  “I’m not coming,” Daniel said.

  And then Berkley understood. “It was you, wasn’t it?” she said. “You saw the same pictures that everybody else did, and you found out what they had done to your brother.”

  He looked at his brother and nodded. “I didn’t know, buddy. I would have done anything to have stopped it. I’m the one who drugged you and put you in the body bag. I was trying to get you away from those assholes, hopefully off the rig, while I made them pay. The fucking supers were damn easy to take out with an overdose of the same drug they used on the others. But I was looking for an opportunity to get rid of the rest, those sickos who paid for the photos, when these new guys arrived.”

  “How did you score the C-4?” Berkley asked, understanding his rage. She’d felt the same over her girlfriend’s rape at the hands of her coworkers but had been helpless to go Daniel’s route. She’d planned to make the men pay through the law.

  Daniel looked at Lionel. “I told Jude what happened. He offered to score the C-4 and to bring it to me as he was close by. He wanted to stay and to make the men pay too, but I didn’t want him to know just what I’d done or how far it had gone. He still loves you, kid. He didn’t have any part in this, … but he wanted to protect you.”