SEALs of Honor: Brett Read online

  Brett studied their pales faces.

  “Is this not normal behavior for them?”

  She twisted so she could see his face. “It’s hard to say. This is not a normal situation. There has been a lot of poor nights’ sleep, lots of stress and fear. Obviously they are tired.”

  Brett looked around the room. “Are there any leftovers?”

  She pointed to the fridge. “I stuck everything in there.”

  She watched in confusion as Brett walked to the fridge, bent down and opened it, pulled out one of the plates. He ripped off a chunk of hot dog left on Jimmy’s plate. He put it in his mouth but didn’t chew. She didn’t understand what he was doing until he opened the garbage and spat it back out. Then he took the plate and upended it into the garbage and proceeded to do the same with every other dish she’d placed in the fridge. As she watched her own dinner hit the garbage she felt sick. She’d planned to take some of that.

  “What are you doing?” she asked in a harsh whisper when he sniffed the apple juice the kids had drunk from earlier. He made a face and dumped everything down the sink. “We might need that.”

  He raised his gaze to hers, a cold sharp look in his eyes. He stroked a gentle finger across Jimmy’s cheek. Then he looked at her and said, “The food was drugged.”

  *

  He watched her disbelief as she stared at him for a long time before she pivoted to stare at the bed. She reached out to touch her children as if making sure they were safe. She’d been worried that something was wrong…

  When she turned back to him this time the shock had faded and anger had spiked to take its place. Brett was glad to see the anger. Fear incapacitated. Anger at least gave her some tools to work with. In this case she should be angry. Somebody had drugged her children.

  “Are you sure?” she asked in a hard voice.

  He nodded. “Yes, I recognized the smell.”

  She gazed at the garbage can. He knew she was going to blame herself for not having recognized the drugs.

  “I’ve had some training in this matter,” he said quietly. “You couldn’t have known.”

  She closed her eyes and just sat there. Not defeated, just blank as if not knowing what to do next. He placed a hand on her shoulder, gave a gentle squeeze. “They will pay for this.”

  Her gaze flew open. “I need to get them out of here and to safety.”

  “And for that we have to stay hidden. I don’t know how many terrorists are here but so far I’ve taken out two of the five I’ve seen and left a third unconscious.”

  “That leaves two more.” She stood up and walked toward the front door as if to leave. She wasn’t thinking straight. “And maybe the man who delivered the cart of food. I don’t understand why they’d drug the children.”

  “Make it easier to finish them off later? To keep them quiet? Maybe they didn’t want to have to kill them?” There were other just as bad reasons, but he had no plans to bring those up. She had enough to worry about.

  Tears came to her eyes to mix with the fire.

  “There could be any number of men here we don’t know about.” He caught her by the arm and turned her around to give her a hard shake. “Don’t do anything stupid. We have to be smart about this.”

  Her eyes snapped at him. “They hurt my children.”

  “We have to make sure they don’t do anything worse than this.”

  She spun around and cried, “Why? Why are they doing this?”

  “As far as I can tell there’s been a recent coup in this government, but it’s unstable, so either someone is trying to take over or the new government doesn’t want the US here any longer.”

  “So they just kill everyone? Don’t they realize there will be a price to pay?”

  “Often people don’t think past a moment in time. They like to think they are a superpower and can handle the US.”

  She snorted. “Like that’s going to happen.”

  She sat down on the end of the bed and looked up at him, most of the anger drained from her stiff frame. Now there was just sadness. “Three dead men,” she whispered. “Those poor families.”

  “Three that I saw, so far.” He knew she had to be comparing her loss to this situation. “And yes, I killed two of the enemy. But there are still two who passed me heading up the stairs.”

  Fire spit from her eyes again as she asked, “Why did you not kill them?”

  This lady was bloodthirsty. He liked it. “Because I needed to hear what they were saying. That’s how I found out the military was involved.”

  She winced. “Sorry. I’m not really that vengeful.”

  “You have every right. They drugged your children.”

  She turned to look back at the two sleeping babes. “On the other hand this is a perfect time for them to be sound asleep. This is not the kind of trauma they need. Not after the pirates.”

  “Best if we can get them to safety while they sleep. Set you up in a hotel somewhere safe and sound.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “And of course you have a way to make that happen?”

  “Maybe. Maybe not.” He stared off at the window wondering about the chances of exiting safely through the garage.

  “If we could get down to the garage level,” he said, “I could hotwire a vehicle and drive us out of here.”

  She waved her hand at him. “There’s going to be security at the exit,” she said. “Especially now.”

  “That’s a definite possibility. But the only other option is to go back out to the garden and over the fence.”

  “In order to do that we have to make sure we aren’t seen. And find a way over the fence.”

  He nodded.

  She frowned. “And is the top of that fence electric?”

  “Most likely.”

  She shook her head wildly. “Then we can’t take that chance.”

  “I can short it out,” he said. “That’s no problem. The issue is going to be getting to a place where we can’t be seen in order to scale it. As soon as they realize that some of their men are dead there’s going to be hell to pay.”

  She gave a clipped nod.

  “Exactly. It’s the same issue as trying to get down to the garage.” She took a shaky breath and stood up. “Let’s go. I’m already packed.”

  He gave her an approving smile. “If I carry Jimmy can you get Jennifer?”

  “Yes but better if we could take the stroller as well. It will hold two of them in a pinch.”

  He considered that. “I’ll strap it to my back.”

  She got up and used the washroom, then quickly loaded up the last few things she had for the children into the one bag. With the bag strapped crosswise over her shoulder she bent down and scooped up Jennifer.

  Turning around to check Brett’s progress, she gasped in shock. He had the stroller on his back and the weapon over his shoulder. Her heart pounded at the sight of it. He’d had it when he’d entered the room but she’d been so focused on everything else, she hadn’t noticed.

  He held out the kids’ boots and coats. “Maybe dress them first?”

  She looked outside at the darkening sky and agreed. They quickly dressed the sleeping children. When they were done, she picked up Jennifer and he had Jimmy. She took a deep breath at the front door and turned to look at him. “There’s really no other way is there?”

  “I’m so sorry.” He shook his head. “We could wait here until my unit arrives, but we can’t guarantee someone else won’t find us first.”

  “But the city out there is a jungle too, will we be any safer?”

  He gave her a slow, quiet smile. “Sweetheart, out there – that is my jungle. We’ll be fine.”

  And she believed him.

  Chapter 8

  She really had no choice. She had to do whatever she could to save her children. She just wished she understood how this world worked. At least she wasn’t alone anymore. Brett at her side made all the difference. She followed him down the hallway going in the opposite direction they
had taken before.

  She wanted to ask him why.

  She wanted to ask if he really knew what he was doing.

  Instead, she stayed quiet and followed his lead. When he pushed open the door to a large storage room she really wondered what he was up to. But then he pointed out a double door elevator, and she realized this was the service elevator entrance.

  If they wanted to stay out of the public eye this was their best chance.

  After he pushed the button, he moved her back gently behind him, the rifle tilted up under her son’s body, ready. When the doors opened to show an empty interior she let out a heavy sigh of relief.

  Still keeping an eye out in case anybody followed them, he motioned at her to enter. He then stepped in beside her and pushed the button for the garage level. She buried her face against her daughter’s sleeping neck and sent up a silent prayer for someone to watch over them. She’d found little enough faith to call on lately. She’d been raised without religion, but right now she could use some help from above.

  “Stay inside until I check it out,” he whispered. He gave her a hard look to make sure she understood his request.

  She nodded. She had no intention of going out there until he said it was all clear. He checked to the left, then the right before motioning for her to come out and follow him.

  “Is this where you were earlier?”

  He shook his head. “No. On the other side.”

  Too bad. She hadn’t been able to forget there was a woman lying in the back of a pickup. If the other guys found her before she managed to get herself to safety then she was dead too. If Ceci had no children she’d bug him to help the woman. But since she did, to save her was a hard call. Maybe he could save all of them.

  As they raced down the hallway to the open door she wondered what kind of people were prepared to walk through a building and shoot everyone in sight. Had they no respect for the sanctity of a human life?

  He held up his hand to stop her. Then he slipped around the corner to take a look at the cars. She could see several fancy ones, several more police issue looking, and a couple of big SUVs.

  At one SUV he tried to open the door. Of course, it was locked. He checked every other vehicle on this side looking for any unlocked. When he came to a truck, his grin flashed. He hopped in, did something under the dashboard, and the next thing she knew the truck revved into life.

  Yes! Now that was much better. They might just get out of this hellhole. He came racing back toward her and motioned at her to come. There were no car seats for the children so they laid Jimmy down on the seat between the two of them. She got in and buckled up with Jennifer still in her arms. Brett buckled Jimmy up as best he could. He put the stroller in the back of the truck, then got in and backed the truck up.

  He drove through the garage, made a couple of odd turns so she wasn’t sure what he was up to until he came to another truck. He put theirs in park and hopped out. Before she knew it, he’d collected the other woman and managed to get her into the back seat where he strapped her in similarly to Jimmy’s arrangement. He hopped back into the front of the truck and carefully drove his way to the exit.

  They came up to double security gates. There was some kind of computerized box about twenty feet in front of the doors. He pulled up to the side and stopped. He checked something above the windshield and found a card. He slipped the card into the slot and the lights flashed, followed by a loud click and the security gates opened. And just like that he drove out of the garage and onto the busy streets.

  He pulled his phone out and tossed it to her. “Find Mason under contacts and send him a message.”

  She did as he asked. He gave her the exact wording of what to say.

  “Good. Now hit send, please.”

  “Done.”

  He reached out for the phone and slipped it back into his pocket. She looked around to see traffic moving in all directions. “Now that we are free from that place, where do we go?” she asked. “I still have no passports for us.”

  “The paperwork is in progress, and we will get it as soon as it’s completed. Right now we need a place for you to lie low. The woman in the back seat needs to see a doctor.”

  She turned to look at the pale, slack face. “We need to take her to the emergency room.”

  “I’d love to but it would be a hard story to explain. And right now we don’t want to let the world know there’s been an attack on the US Embassy.”

  “But she needs to see a doctor,” Ceci protested. “She could be badly hurt.”

  “That is an entirely different story.” He flashed her a big grin, changed lanes and took a right hand corner.

  She didn’t recognize the area at all, but then she’d only driven straight to the embassy after being taken off the yacht. She sat quietly as he took several more turns and eventually merged onto a highway that seemed to take them further out of town into a flat countryside.

  His phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and answered it. “Mason. Yes, we’re on the highway heading toward Bullard’s house.” He glanced over at Ceci. “No, she’s not hurt. The children are sleeping off a drug, but it wouldn’t hurt to have them checked over. I rescued a woman who was in the process of being raped by two of the military men taking over the embassy. She’s out cold with a head injury. I didn’t dare take her to the hospital. Our ETA is nine minutes.”

  Ceci’s heart damn near stopped when she heard the explanation of what had happened to the poor woman. She turned to look back at her. It did explain the disarray of her clothing. Ceci wanted to cover her up, but she had nothing other than the clothes on her back. How could these men do that to her?

  When she finally turned back around and looked over at Brett he seemed to be studying her. “You okay?”

  She shrugged and settled back down in her seat. “It’s a little difficult to hear what happened to her.” She nodded toward the woman in the back seat of the truck.

  “Almost happened to her,” he corrected. “With any luck she will remember little. I killed one of her attackers and knocked the other unconscious.”

  “Should’ve killed them all,” she said passionately.

  “There’s a fine line,” he admitted. “I can’t go killing all the rapists and murderers in the world.”

  Unable to hold back, she cuddled her daughter close as she stared out the window. “Too bad.”

  “We agree on that. In the military I’ve seen a lot of things I don’t like. It would be nice if justice moved faster. But it often fails everyone. In those times it’s very difficult to do what I do.”

  She let that slide. “Who is Bullard?”

  “He was a SEAL years ago. When it was time to walk away, he finished his medical degree and picked up some special training.”

  She winced. “He went from smashing bodies to fixing them?”

  Brett laughed. “He hadn’t quite finished his degree before he signed up for BUD/s training and like most SEALs, ten years was more than enough. Now he’s doing what he can to help people.”

  “Just from a different position?”

  “Exactly.” They drove in silence for another minute then he took an exit ramp off the highway. Several miles later he turned a corner and drove down a long driveway to a very large house. In front of the property was a high security gate. Brett parked in front of the gate, hopped out and spoke into the security system. He faced the camera and waited.

  She held her breath to see if they’d be allowed to enter. Brett must know him well to call on him in these circumstances, she thought. She’d much rather be inside that security gate than outside here waiting for someone to find them.

  Ceci heard the strong click of the gate releasing.

  “Thanks, Bullard,” Brett called out.

  Ceci waited as he got back into the truck and started up the engine. When the gates were open wide enough he drove around the circular driveway ahead to the front door. “Stay here,” he said. “I need to get this woman into Bullard’s
clinic.”

  Clinic? She watched as he gently removed the woman from the back seat, hating to see her body lying so limp and cold. For all she knew the poor woman was dying and they’d been dragging her around town. How bad would that make her feel? Brett climbed the tall wide staircase to the front door. She watched from the window as the door opened automatically to let them into the front hall.

  She studied her own daughter’s pale face and bit her lip. What kind of animals would do something like this to innocent women and children?

  Not knowing how long she was going to be there she leaned her head back, closed her eyes and rocked her daughter gently. A few minutes later, sensing something but not sure what, she opened her eyes and glanced around. There were several very large, black, dangerous looking dogs sitting on either side of the circular staircase at the bottom.

  “Well that answers that question.” she said softly. “I won’t be going outside on my own.”

  Even as she said that Brett came racing out and took the stairs skipping every second one. When he reached her side of the door, she used the power button and lowered her window instead.

  He gave her a big smile and said, “Okay, let’s get the children checked over.”

  She motioned at the four dogs. “Is it safe?”

  He turned to the dogs, studied them and made an odd whistle sound that rose really high at the end. The dogs, as if released from some kind of a tight hold, bounced toward him barking excitedly, tails wagging. He gave them a big happy welcome. When they calmed down enough he helped her out of the truck with Jennifer in her arms. He reached inside and gently tugged Jimmy toward them so he could lift him up. With the door closed he led the way up the stairs. She was happy to follow but didn’t let him get too far in front. The dogs might know him, but they sure didn’t appear to be happy to see her.

  “Don’t worry about the dogs. They are not dangerous unless you happen to be an intruder. Because you’re with me it will be fine.”

  Under her breath, she whispered, “Sure. Like I’m going to believe that.”