Avenged (Hostage Rescue Team Series) (Volume 5) (14 page)

“Selfish?” Shaken, Ayman tore free of his father’s grip and stumbled back a step, panting from all the volatile emotions racing through his veins. “You’re the selfish one, dragging us here where we are less than nothing. I’m tired of being nothing!”

“Nothing?” his father said, eyebrows rising in disbelief. “You’re
alive
and
free
, Ayman, which is more than you would be back in Syria right now, and more than most of our friends and relatives there are. At least here you have a chance. Don’t be stupid and throw it away.”

Before he could protest, his father turned on Jaleel, pinning him with a withering look. “And
you
. I trusted you. What would your mother think of you if she knew about this?” He shook a gnarled finger at him. “She’s broken her back working two jobs to give you a better life than she had, and look how you repay her. It would break her heart to see you involved with something like this—going against everything Allah teaches us.”

Jaleel cut Ayman a pleading look out of the corner of his eye, clearly not knowing what to do, already half turned as though he was going to bolt.

Years of pent up anger and resentment suddenly detonated in Ayman’s chest. He would not stand here and be scolded like a disobedient child for doing something he believed in.

“Enough,” Ayman snapped. His father’s eyes shot to him, narrowed in warning at the blatant disrespect in his tone, but he didn’t care. And now that his father knew, he could be at risk from The Brethren. “I’m a grown man and I will determine my own path. I no longer answer to you.”

Under the low light from the nearby streetlamp his father paled visibly, his mustache quivering with his outrage. “How dare you,” he whispered. “How
dare
you speak to me that way after all I have sacrificed for you? I am still your
father
and the head of this family. You will answer to me!”

“Not anymore.” The answer was automatic, spewing out of his mouth from years of repressed resentment. Guilt pressed down on his chest, so heavy it hurt to breathe. He had the awful intuition that he was about to step off the edge into an abyss from which there was no return. But he couldn’t rein in his frustration, or his pride. And as angry as he was, he didn’t want his father paying for the choices Ayman had made.

“I’m done with you and the others—
all
of you. Get out of my way.” He shoved past his father, knocking him aside with his shoulder, something he would never have dared to do before now.

The violence of the action shocked even him, freezing him in place for a split second.

His father reeled back at the impact, the stricken look on his face like a knife through the heart as Ayman stalked past.

He caught himself against the rough brick exterior and scrambled upright as Ayman strode away. “Ayman, no. No, please, I beg you.
Listen
to me—”

But he was done listening.

His father’s pleading voice followed him for half a block down the sidewalk until he finally stopped calling after him. Shameful tears blurred his vision as he fled from the man he’d idolized his entire life, but he refused to let them fall. The confrontation had shaken him far more than he’d realized. He was prepared to hunt down a woman and kill her in cold blood, yet what he’d just done left him queasy and bathed in sweat.

He’d just destroyed the only remaining bridge leading back to his family, cutting off his last means of escape from what awaited him. There was no escape for him. He knew too much, they’d never let him go. There was only one path left for him.

A path that seemed more and more likely to end with him either in jail or an early grave.

“Ayman,” Jaleel began in a shaky voice, hurrying beside him.

“Shut up,” he growled and kept walking, moving faster. There was no going back now. Not for either of them. His father was a strict, law-abiding man. He wouldn’t hesitate to turn his own son in for being involved with The Brethren. Especially after this.

“He’ll call the cops on us, and maybe the FBI.” Not to turn on him out of vengeance, but to save him. Hoping the FBI and other law enforcement agencies would be able to find and arrest him, stop him from putting his life at risk. His father loved him that much.

The fingers wrapped around his backpack strap curled into a fist. “We can’t go back and we have to cut ties with everyone else now.” They were fugitives on the run, depending upon a group of dangerous strangers to help them. “We have to go to The Brethren, and we have to find the woman in the next few days. We
have
to, Jaleel.” Their lives depended on it.

“Okay, I know.”

First he had to calm down, focus. Sucking in a deep breath, he took comfort from the feel of the weapon hard against the small of his back, and concentrated on what he needed to do. Go to the meeting, draw on whatever resources they could find to help narrow the search until they could locate the target.

He’d wanted his independence from his family, to stand on his own merit without them. Now he had his wish. And it scared the hell out of him.

He’d never felt so alone in his life, even though Jaleel walked beside him.

He was fully committed now. All in, for better or worse.

God help me for what I have done and for what I’m about to do.

Taya sat cross-legged on the patchwork quilt on her bed at the inn, holding her phone to her ear with one shoulder as she fiddled with her hair. “Sorry this has to be such a short conversation, but they don’t want me on the phone long for security reasons. Been a long day, so I’m looking forward to some quality time with my pillow.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet you are,” her brother said.

“You know how I love my sleep.” She tugged her ponytail higher up on her head. Normally she wore her hair down but her thick, newly straightened hair was slippery and kept making it slide down toward her nape.

Right after waking up she’d used the hair color Briar had given her, turning her from a dark brunette into a golden brown one. It wasn’t a great dye job and the roots would show within a week or so, but it did the trick for now. Once the trial was underway they could hire a professional to come to her hotel room and do a better job. After it dried she’d taken a flat iron to it, and the resulting transformation was startling, even for her. Anyone looking for her would be hard-pressed to recognize her unless they got up close, and that was the whole point.

“You sure Dad’s doing okay?” she asked.

Kevin snorted. “You know how he is. Stubborn as a fucking ox and twice as thick-headed. Insists he can do everything on his own, same as before the heart attack.”

So like her father. “Wow, sounds like someone else I know,” she said in a wry voice.

“Yeah, well, at least when I was being stubborn it wasn’t gonna get me killed.”

“No? What about all the blood clot scares you had while you were at Walter Reed, and you flat out ignored all the medical advice telling you to scale it back and rest, hmmm?”

“Whatever, you know what I mean. But other than that, yeah, he’s doing fine. We’re both worried about you though, especially after the airport attack. How are you doing?”

“I’m all right. Except, did you hear about the female witness?”

“Yeah. Did you know her?”

“Yes.”

“Hell, Tay, I’m sorry. Damn, I wish there was something I could do.”

“I know. I’m doing the best I can, and I’ve got a crack security team with me. Including the former PJ who got me to Bagram,” she added after a pause.

Kevin sucked in a breath. She’d told him all about Nathan when she’d come home. “No fucking way.”

“Way. He works for a different agency now, heard about what happened and volunteered to be part of my detail.” She didn’t feel right telling her brother that Nathan was now with the HRT. She’d wait until later, when it was safe to talk in person, and she could divulge more. “Anyway, there are three guys keeping a very close eye on things here.”

“Good. That takes a load off my mind.”

Taya smiled. Kevin didn’t like people to know it, but he had an incredibly soft side when it came to people he cared about. Speaking of which… “Have you talked to Michelle lately?”

A pause. “Yeah, she called yesterday when all this news broke. Why?” He sounded a little suspicious.

“Just wondered. If you could pass on the message to her that I’m okay, I’d appreciate it.” She didn’t feel like talking on the phone to anyone else right now. And she had an ulterior motive in wanting her brother to call her best friend.

The change had developed slowly, so slowly even Taya hadn’t noticed right away, but Michelle definitely had serious feelings for Kevin. Taya got the feeling they might even be reciprocated, except that every time she brought it up, Kev dismissed the idea with some muttered remark about Michelle deserving better than being with a cripple. He might be one of the strongest men she’d ever known and Taya idolized him, but losing a lower leg to an IED blast during his last tour had done as much damage to his self-esteem as it had to his body.

Afghanistan had not been kind to the Kostas siblings.

He grunted. “I’ll text her once I get off the phone with you,” he said grudgingly.

“You know she’ll just call you if you do.”

“Hell, knowing her, she’ll probably show up here instead.”

Taya grinned. “Such a hardship for you, putting up with the likes of her, a pretty little blonde who’d do anything for our family. My heart bleeds for you.”

“She only comes around to check on Dad,” he muttered.

“That’s not the whole reason, and you know it.” She was tired of watching her brother avoid the woman who might be the one to knock down the walls surrounding his jaded heart.

Another grunt. “She’s a good girl.”

His wording might not sound like much, but that compliment was the highest form of praise from her gruff, macho brother. “Yes, she is.” She and Taya had been besties for over a decade. Michelle had been there for her after Taya came back to the States. She was more than a friend, she was family. And Taya knew damn well her brother saw her as way more than a friend as well. “So you might think about being a little more sociable with her the next time she visits.”

Kevin blew out a breath. “I told you before—”

“Yeah, and it’s still bullshit, no matter how many times you say it. Make all the excuses you want about why you’re not for her, but it’s not going to change the reality. Don’t you think it’s time you stopped being a dick and quit pushing her away?”

A heavy sigh came through the phone, and she pictured him scrubbing a hand over his closely-shorn hair, his forehead creased in a deep frown. “I should go check on Dad.”

“Chicken. But all right, and tell him I send a big hug. I’ll try to call you again tonight, or if there’s an update. You can reach me at this number if you need me, they gave me an encrypted phone so I could contact whoever I need to. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

As she disconnected Taya glanced at the time displayed on the phone. She’d heard at least one of the guys upstairs earlier when she got into the shower and knew the other two would be inside or near the inn at all times.

After checking her hair one last time in the mirror above the pedestal sink in the bathroom, she pulled a knit sweater over her top and headed out of her room. The rich scent of coffee and something sweet tickled her nose and made her stomach rumble as she reached the landing at the top of the stairs.

The front door opened and closed below her, just out of view downstairs, and solid footsteps sounded on the old hardwood floor.

“Well, if it isn’t Dr. Feelgood,” she heard Agent Cruz say. “Want some coffee, sunshine?”

“You’re way too fucking happy first thing in the morning, man,” Nathan’s voice responded. “I ever tell you that? And yes, I want coffee.”

Taya descended the stairs, keeping her footsteps light. Stepping into the breakfast nook, she found Agent Cruz at the table and Nathan standing in the kitchen with his back to her. A very broad back, the dark gray T-shirt molding to the muscles across his shoulders and down his spine. Muscles she wanted to trace and explore with her fingertips.

“Morning.”

They both looked over at her but she noticed the way Nathan’s gaze swept over her, taking in her new look before coming back to her face. “Wow, you look really different,” he murmured, an appreciative gleam in his eyes. “Hungry?”

“Starved.” She headed for the mugs laid out on the counter next to where he stood near the coffee maker.

Cruz shoved a big bite of what appeared to be a muffin into his mouth and stood, the tats on his forearm shifting as he grabbed the mug in front of him. “I’ll go relieve the big man, send him in to catch some rack time. See you later.”

“Later,” Nathan murmured as he sipped his coffee.

Taya stole a glance at him out of the corner of her eye as she selected a mug. “You get any sleep last night?”

“A bit. I’m good. Here,” he said, and took the mug from her. He filled it with coffee and handed it back. His fingers brushed against hers, sending tendrils of heat up her forearms. “You?”

He looked tired, the start of dark circles showing beneath his eyes. She knew sleep deprivation was part of his job, but she hated being the cause of it. “Once I fell asleep, yeah.” She’d lain awake thinking of him for a long time after coming inside from the porch, even though she’d been wiped.

“Talk to your family yet?”

“Just before I came down. Dad’s doing well, except he’s starting to drive my brother nuts because he won’t stay in bed like the doctors want him to.”

“Ah.” He skirted the edge of the counter and headed for the dining table, all without looking at her, and Taya got the feeling he felt suddenly awkward around her. Because of what she’d told him last night? Maybe because things had gotten too personal and he felt the need to distance himself now, for professional reasons?

Coffee in hand, she joined him at the table and helped herself to a piece of toast. The innkeeper had laid out different kinds of jams in little crystal dishes, the luscious ruby red of the raspberry glistening in the sunlight filtering through the sheers covering the French doors.