Shattered Valor (4 page)

She opened her arms and called him over. “Come here, Zavi. I think I need a hug. You are so much braver than I am.”

When Rocco returned a few minutes later, she couldn’t meet his eyes. She was still too close to tears. Zavi lay on top of her, folded into her. She tightened her grip on his little body. Rocco set her tea down, then turned away.

“Rocco, please—don’t go.”

He moved the pillow beneath her feet and lifted them onto his lap. After removing her boots, he began massaging her feet. Mandy sighed, feeling some of her tension ease away.

“I think I could get used to you boys.”

“I think you’d better,” he growled. “We aren’t going anywhere.”

Ty dropped into one of the kitchen chairs at the dinette table in the bunkhouse. Val made him a sandwich from lunchmeat in the fridge and Kelan brought him a tall glass of water before joining him at the table. Owen and Kit leaned against the counter.

“So what the fuck happened, Blade?” Kit asked as he folded his arms across his chest.

Ty washed down a bite of sandwich with a long drink of the water. “I’ll tell you, if you’ll tell me what happened here.”

“You first,” Kit agreed with a nod.

“I was sending my foreman and his wife on vacation. I told him some weird things were happening here at Mandy’s and that I wanted them out of the way. He called me two nights ago to tell me he had some things to go over with me before he left.

“When I went over to my house, he was in the den. I saw Kathy come out of the bathroom, bound and gagged with Amir holding a gun to her head. Then Dennis tranq’d me and I woke up in a pit with rattlers climbing all over me.

“Took me a while to get out. Had no idea snakes could climb. Made getting out a little tricky. That and my leg’s not as strong as it could be. I got down to the first house I could find, which happened to be Holbrook’s guesthouse, where Eden and the girls were staying. We loaded them in the cars and went to the clinic.”

He looked at both of the men. “Now what the hell happened here? And has there been any more word on the Jacksons?”

“They were in a car accident the night they dumped you in the pit,” Owen told him. “Their brakes were tampered with, and they went over the side of the mountain near Centennial.”

Ty leaned forward and met Owen’s eyes. “Tell me they’re going to be okay.”

Owen shrugged. “They survived the crash, but they tricked you and let Amir take you. I’ve not yet determined their fate.”

“Maybe they had no choice.”

“And maybe they’re in it up to their necks. Greer’s been with them at the hospital. After I question them, I’ll decide what’s going to happen to them.”

“I want to be there when you talk to them. They’re good people, Owen. They’ve worked for my family most of my life. Bring them here. I don’t want Amir to try to finish what he didn’t complete with the car accident. I owe them my protection.”

“You owe them justice, Blade. Whether that acts in their favor or against it is yet to be seen.”

“They’re innocent. Amir got to them somehow.”

“He got to the plumber—Fiona’s stepdad—too. He blew Mandy’s riding center. Innocent or guilty, Amir’s associates are equally deadly. And we have no idea how many other people he’s gotten to. He’s been planning this a long time.”

“When the center blew the night you were taken,” Kit picked up the event summary, “the explosion jogged Rocco’s memory loose. He had a big breakthrough. Then one of Amir’s associates kidnapped Mandy.”

Ty cursed. He wished he been here to help.

Kit nodded. “We found her pretty quickly and cleared the site where Amir’s men were holed up in the Medicine Bow, but he’s got more fun and games planned—I can feel it.” Kit and Owen exchanged glances.

“What do you make of that note Holbrook left for Eden?” Owen asked Ty.

He tipped his chair back on Its hind legs. “My dad was a con artist. He always had a scam going. I have a feeling it caused his death—he crossed the wrong people. We’ll see what Max finds.” He looked at Owen. “What are you going to do about Eden?”

“She’s an interesting development. I want to know why Holbrook was stalking Sherri online. Was her friends’ trip out here a coincidence or was it timed to coincide with our arrival? And I’m curious to know if Tank can really do what she says he can.”

Ty wanted Eden protected from the WKB—and from the team. He didn’t want her sucked into their work. It was too much for a civilian who lacked the training needed to tackle terrorists, even in a non-combat position. “She’s a kid, Owen. She’s not prepared to be in our world.”

“She’s already in it. Holbrook and the girls took care of that. See if you can get her to bring her dog and do a search of your house.”

“Owen—I’ve got the info you asked for on Eden,”
Max’s voice came over their comm units.

“Hold on. Let Ty get his ears on,” Owen ordered. Val fetched Ty’s comm unit from the dresser in the room where they’d moved his things.

“Hey, Max,” Ty greeted his friend when he connected.

“S’up, Blade? Glad you’re back, man!”
Max told him.

“Thanks. What did you find on Eden?”

“She was born twenty-six years ago in Newark, New Jersey. Her family situation is pretty fucked. Her parents divorced while she was in junior high school. Her mom, a grade school teacher, has remarried four times. Her dad, a mechanic, is on wife number three. The marriages have left them financially strapped. Eden worked her way through college by waiting tables and cleaning animal pens at shelters. Took her a couple of extra years to finish her degree.

“She moved to Wyoming a year ago. She’s apprenticed to a well-respected dog trainer out of Cheyenne. She’s been looking for a backer to help her set up her own dog training operation. Her credit is in the sewer—she owes more than fifty grand in student loans. She has several half- and step-siblings, no husband or children. Her tax returns are filed in a timely way each year. No ties to organized crime or any gangs. In fact, she’s training dogs for law enforcement use. She looks clean, boss,”
Max finished his report.

Owen looked at Ty and smiled. “Very interesting. Thanks, Max. Maybe we’ll have her put Tank through his paces and see what she’s got as a trainer. I’m out.”

Ty knew that look. And he didn’t like it one bit.

“Get yourself cleaned up, then get some rest,” Kit told him. “When you’re up, we’ll go see the Jacksons.”

The guys took their leave. Ty wondered how he was going to keep Eden from getting sucked into the danger and chaos of their lives.

Or if he even wanted to keep her out.

CHAPTER THREE

Ty moved through the sterile halls of the hospital in Cheyenne, flanked by Kit and Owen. He wouldn’t relax until he saw for himself that the Jacksons’ injuries weren’t severe. He wished he’d been able to get them out of town before the trouble hit. They were the only adults who’d done anything to try to mitigate the circumstances of his childhood. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Mandy’s grandparents had tried to help, as he learned the year he’d had his broken leg.

If the Jacksons had been in trouble, why hadn’t they said something to him?

Greer was waiting outside their room when they arrived. Something about the boy assassin always set Ty on edge. To the untutored eye, Greer looked like an average, hometown athlete. Tall, lean. Brown hair and whiskey-colored eyes. But Ty knew his deadly side—his focus, endurance, and absolute dedication to whatever mission he was set to. He was like a pet panther. Domesticated, mostly, though his feral core shadowed his every move.

He smiled at Ty and bumped fists with him. “Good to have you back, man.”

Ty smiled back, glad the sociopath was a friend. “Thanks. And thanks for taking care of the Jacksons.”

“Not a problem.”

When Ty entered the room, Dennis Jackson stood up. He looked like a man about to be handcuffed—solemn and calm, resigned to his fate. He was in his fifties and had the lean, wiry build of an active rancher, with reddened cheeks and salt and pepper hair.

The older man held out his right hand, bandaged though it was. “I can’t believe you made it, Ty. Or am I looking at a ghost?”

Ty grasped his forearm. “It’s good to see you, Dennis. I was sure hoping to avoid having you two in this situation.”

Dennis glanced over at Kit. “Look at you boys. You’re still friends.” He shook Kit’s forearm as well. “Been a long time. You were both just teenagers when Kathy and I last saw you together. We’ve appreciated your letters over the years.”

For a minute, time spun back to the years when he and Kit were teenagers. Kit would sneak into the house to hang out with Ty, who wasn’t allowed off the Bladen property. Dennis had often been the one to find Kit and chase him out before Ty’s dad got him. Kathy had always made sure he left with a bag of food.

“Dennis, this is Owen Tremaine. Kit and I work for him now. He’s a good guy. You can trust him—and any of the men who are working this case with me. Owen, this is Dennis Jackson, my foreman. And his wife, Kathy.” The two men exchanged greetings.

Ty turned his attention to Kathy, Dennis’ wife. She was in the bed, her forehead patched with a big gauze bandage. Her dark blond hair was shot through with gray. The lines etched into her freckled face said a lot about the life she’d lived. Seeing Ty, she crumpled into tears, covering her face with her hands.

“Whoa, Kathy, no need for that,” Ty said as he sat on the bed. “C’mon, honey.” He pulled her hands away from her face and bent down to look into her eyes. “It’s gonna be okay.” She made a strange “eep” sound as she gasped for air. He wrapped his arms around her and held her.

“I thought we killed you, Ty.” She began to weep in earnest as she clung to him.

“I think you saved my life. You got me down to that ledge.”

“I didn’t see the ledge. I thought we dropped you a hundred feet into that terrible place.”

“Dennis saw it.”

“Can you ever forgive us, Ty? What a terrible, terrible thing we did. We heard Amir shoot at you. We heard it and we ran away. We left you. And he was shooting at you.”

“There was coat that had bullet holes in it, but that was way down in the pit. And I’m glad you ran. That was smart.”

“That was my coat. Kathy threw it in after you,” Dennis said.

“See there? You did save my life.” He smiled at the distraught woman. “Amir must have thought I was under it. It was hard to see in the dark. If not for the coat, he might have looked harder and found me.”

“After everything that’s happened to you, you didn’t need this, too.” She took the fistful of tissues Ty handed to her and dabbed at her eyes with one of them.

“No, but that’s the enemy I have. He has no scruples. I hated to think what he’d done to you. I should have gotten you out of there sooner.”

Ty looked over at Dennis, whose face was rigid with emotion. “How did you survive the accident?” Ty asked Dennis.

“Seatbelts, airbags, and a couple of trees that broke our fall,” his foreman told him. “I don’t know if Amir came looking for us. If he did, he would have seen our SUV upside down, wedged between the trees. We weren’t too far off the road. Still, we had to wait until morning before the ambulance came.” Dennis looked at Ty, then at the other men in the room. “What happened to Amir? Tell me you caught him.”

“No. He’s still loose,” Kit told Dennis. “We did get several of his men, however, but not before he’d had Mandy’s riding center blown up.”

“Oh, God! Oh, no. This is not going to be okay, Ty,” Kathy started crying again. “We waited so many long years for you to come home. We thought when your father passed you’d return. But you didn’t. And then, when you did finally come home, we had to kill you.”

Ty laughed. “But you didn’t kill me.” He took her hand and put it on his chest. It still felt raw with the cuts from his climb out of the pit, but she didn’t have to know that. He wanted her to feel his heartbeat. She kept her hand beneath his as tears continued to leak from her eyes.

“We need to ask you some questions, if you’re up to it,” Ty said, looking from Kathy to Dennis. Kathy nodded and dabbed at her eyes.

“Tell us what happened with Amir,” Owen prompted Dennis, who exchanged a look with his wife.

“About six weeks or so ago, a letter arrived from Amir Hadad. He said he was a friend of Ty’s.”

“It was a lovely letter,” Kathy interrupted. “He had nothing but high praise for you.”

“He said you’d met in Afghanistan and had offered him the use of your home when he visited the US. He said he and several of his peers were coming to do some guest lecturing at a couple of nearby schools and asked that if the house was available, could they stay there?” Dennis looked at Ty. “I tried to reach you, but you were being moved between hospitals at the time—we couldn’t get you. We didn’t know what to do. He seemed to know so much about you that I felt he had to be your friend.

“In any case, Amir and his men showed up at our doorstep before I could respond.” Dennis took hold of Kathy’s hand. “We immediately knew something wasn’t right, but by then it was too late. They separated Kathy and me so that they could control us. When you told me you wanted us to leave, I was terrified for you, worried about what to do. I knew Amir was listening. I feared if I warned you, something terrible would happen to Kathy. And it did.” He stopped speaking as he fought to maintain his composure.