Torsten Dahl book 1 - Stand Your Ground (26 page)
Read Torsten Dahl book 1 - Stand Your Ground Online
Authors: David Leadbeater
Dahl smiled. These people, they learned from black belts and thought they were Bruce Lee. Maybe they were, but Bruce Lee wasn’t Torsten Dahl.
Grant danced in like Tinkerbell, all elbows, knees and squeals. Dahl let him have the first two hits, then trapped the sword arm, elbowed his nose and caught hold of Grant’s neck. He twisted. Grant started to buck, realizing his mistake. Dahl let him wriggle free to gain an even better position, then blazed his own path of utter destruction on the man who wanted to kill his family. Four strikes in lightning-quick procession stunned Grant, brought blood and tears and teeth falling, and left the man standing, staring into space, mind blown, no doubt wondering why the hell his sensei hadn’t warned him what a military man could do.
“Dojo this,” Dahl said, landing a simple kick never seen in any Van Damme movie. Grant collapsed to the sand, unconscious.
Breathing hard, Dahl glanced over at the motionless Dario. “Come here, mate. Come with me.”
The lad was staring at his dying father, regret mixed with fear and anger in his eyes. Dahl saw resolve there too, and hoped he might use it to absorb and process the brutal killing of his girlfriend. Such things could never be left behind, but they could be lived with, at least during the daylight hours.
“For now,” Dahl said, “I’d like to have you join my family.”
He stepped away a few strides, mindful of Grant’s current blackout and potential revival, but unable to stay away from his daughters for one more second.
“Isabella,” he breathed. “Julia.”
The smiles on their faces washed it all away, hours of unimaginable stress and horror and anxiety sloughing away to reveal the new skin beneath.
“Turns out I’m not only a soldier,” he said.
Johanna came with them for the family huddle. “I’ve missed you, Torsten, and not just tonight. I guess the soldier can be useful though.”
“Is everyone okay?”
“I think so. It’s early days.” She attempted a smile.
Dahl let them in, hugged them close and thought about the great change he’d seen in his wife today. No longer did she run within the pack. Now she owned the pack.
“You took it beyond the limit today. And helping the team out like that . . .” he paused, impressed and sorry he hadn’t seen it in her before. ”
“And you’re surprised?” Johanna smiled lightly, as if the whole thing had been entirely expected and natural.
“Not at all.” Dahl bowed his head.
Sirens split the night all around them, police cars streaming along the road and pulling into the car park. Dahl looked over at the motionless body of Gabrio Vega and the unconscious form of Nick Grant, watched over by Dario. How would this change things?
Where was Sealy?
Would this day ever end?
FORTY FOUR
Dario’s gunshots had drawn the cops; a higher force led them. The first wave wasn’t cops, exactly; instead a group of Bajan commandos arrived and formed a defensive perimeter, their leader quickly identifying Dahl and treating him as one of their own. All a result of Jo’s forewarning, Dahl’s incoming team had alerted the Bajan commandos and enlisted their help.
“Who sent you?”
“Came down the wires. Over the waves.” The commando smiled. “Someone has been watching Prime Minister Sealy for a long time now, hoping to catch the men who owned him. Turns out,” a slight pause. “All they needed to do was call you.”
Dahl still didn’t trust the new man entirely, but he knew Jo had called the team and, indirectly, hopefully this was the back-up. “Give me a name.”
The commando spoke one five-letter surname and all was well, since it was a name Dahl trusted with his life. Dahl relaxed and pointed to the dead body. “That one’s Gabrio Vega, cartel boss. He still has a few men running around the island somewhere, probably looking for the coast.” He smiled to convey the joke.
Dario said, “I killed him.”
Dahl grimaced. “We’ll get to that. The other man there is Nick Grant. He’s a fixer, of sorts. One of the worst gutter-crawlers alive. I do believe he’s one of the Top Ten.”
“You’re referring to the FBI’s Most Wanted list?”
“No, the other one. Signed off by the President.”
The commando looked impressed. “Wow.”
“Easy for you to say.”
“That alone guarantees your safety,” the commando said. “If we recognized your President’s authority. Which we don’t.”
“You work for Sealy then?”
A nod. “We do.”
Dahl re-evaluated the distance to weapons, the caliber of this man, the positioning of his team, the best route of escape. Against that, he weighed Jo’s call to the team and the team’s decision to send the commandos.
“But we can’t find Sealy,” the man went on. “So the situation’s under my control. For now.”
Dahl nodded. “My guess? The bastard’s long gone. You can find my ID back in the hotel room’s safe.”
“Agent?”
“Special Forces,” He held out a hand. “Torsten Dahl.”
“And your family?” The commando shot a glance over at the exact place where Dahl had secreted them.
“Just that. My family. This is our vacation.”
A laugh. “Some trip. You like it extreme?”
“Always.”
“What do you guys do for Christmas?”
“We blow shit up.”
“Cool. Cool. Us too. So, are you ready to tell me what the hell happened?”
Dahl noticed that Grant was starting to stir. “I am, but first will you cuff that asshat for me? Really tight. To a tree or something. You can’t let him slip away.”
The commando signaled to his men, who ran over to Grant, gear jangling as they moved.
Dahl eyed the commando. Could he trust this man? Everything he’d done today had been to save his family, even the comeback of the soldier and the Mad Swede. The unbreakable root that firmed up and guided everything he did was his children.
“Seriously,” he said. “I’ve found only one man I can trust on this island today,” he nodded at Dario. “And he’s the son of a Mexican cartel chief.”
The commando actually laughed. “Now there’s some irony, man. But hell, what else do I have to do?”
Dahl understood. A trustworthy name had been mentioned. No weapons leveled. No cuffs presented. They knew where his family were hidden yet hadn’t made a move. Grant had been secured, as requested.
Options clicked through his head like rolling symbols in a slot machine.
“We could talk,” he said. “You and I. Over there.”
Closer to the sea, away from potential turncoats and any form of back-up. The commandos’ leader would be putting his own life on the line, alone with Dahl. The risks were high, but trust had never been more important.
The commando stripped off all his communication devices but kept hold of his weapons. “I hear your friends are inbound. The team you called. Is this really necessary?”
They walked in silence for a while, ever closer to the lapping waves. A fresh, cool air embraced them, promising relaxation, safety and a change from the norm.
“D’you know?” Dahl said. “This is the first vacation I’ve had in years.”
“I can see why.”
“Nothing has ended well,” Dahl said ruefully. “Not really. My family are safe and that’s the blessing, but some enemies remain and others are still free. This is how real life goes. It’s not all beautifully wrapped in the end. There will always be threats to soldiers like you and I, and different people have different anxieties. It’s all relative.”
“We do it for those who can’t,” the Bajan commando said. “To keep our way of life safe. To keep the crazies away.”
Right then, Dahl knew he could trust the man. “What’s your name, pal?”
“Ambrose,” he said. “Kai Ambrose.”
“Well, well, Mr. Ambrose. Do I have a story for you . . .”
FORTY FIVE
Much later, Dahl thought back over the day and wondered when he’d accepted that he was entirely human. Working constantly with an expert team of warriors, problem-solvers and decision-makers tended to warp a man’s sense of himself, Dahl now understood. The truth was, something existed that could always bring him straight down to earth and set his foundations crumbling.
Well, two somethings.
The hotel room felt like an alien environment, cool, locked, safe, normal. They’d been allowed to return after an exhaustive conversation. There were armed guards outside the door and around the hotel, either to keep the Dahls in or to protect them. It was hard to say. His special team had now arrived and were also in discussions, but Dahl and Johanna and Dario had said all they could.
For today.
The night was almost beyond its expiration date, clinging on grimly like a man afraid to let go of an old image of himself. It dripped silently down the horizon, stealing away. Dahl and Johanna sat on the edge of their bed, the children close and dozing under the covers, the family not wanting to be parted now for even half a second.
“About the marriage thing,” Johanna said simply, staring into space. “I believe I said I wanted to be alone. That we should take a break. I think now that maybe I was wrong.”
Dahl knew they’d all changed—but he was still learning in exactly what ways. “I was wrong too. About so many things, Jo. You can’t always be a soldier. You can’t always be a father, the man they want to see. You have to switch between both like a bloody magician.”
“Sooner or later, they will need to see the real world.” she thought about the day they’d had and added: “A
different
real world.”
“Yeah, true, but not yet, eh? Their innocence is their spirit, it keeps it all so precious.”
“Hell, you’re such a softie. If only the bad guys could see you now.”
“Let’s not wish for any more of that. It seems that you can look after me as well as I can look after you. Now, there’s a future together we never knew.”
She laughed and shaded her eyes theatrically. “I can see it!”
“It’s odd. We can see it now but not 24 hours ago.”
“Perspectives have changed.”
“We’re standing our ground.”
“Are we?”
“As a unit. A marriage. A family. We’re holding on, breaking through. We’re making our stand. Yesterday, against criminals. Tomorrow, between ourselves. It’s—”
“All relative,” Johanna smiled. “Yes, I know.”
“Other things may come and go.” Dahl saw the first bloom of a new sunrise startle the horizon. “They may mingle. Situations may arise. Absences. Worry. But we’ll stand strong and make it through.”
Johanna laid her head on his arm. “I believe that we will.”
Dahl then felt one of the most simple and yet best and warmest sensations that life had ever offered — the loving feel of his child’s arms wrapping around his shoulders.
“I love you, Daddy,” Isabella murmured, still mostly asleep.
All his worries fell away as the new day began to dawn.
THE END
David Leadbeater is the author of nineteen Kindle International Bestsellers since 2012. To view them please see the list below. To view a chronological reading order please visit his website:
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Other Books by David Leadbeater:
The Matt Drake Series
The Bones of Odin (Matt Drake #1)
The Blood King Conspiracy (Matt Drake #2)
The Gates of hell (Matt Drake 3)
The Tomb of the Gods (Matt Drake #4)
Brothers in Arms (Matt Drake #5)
The Swords of Babylon (Matt Drake #6)
Blood Vengeance (Matt Drake #7)
Last Man Standing (Matt Drake #8)
The Plagues of Pandora (Matt Drake #9)
The Lost Kingdom (Matt Drake #10)
The Ghost Ships of Arizona (Matt Drake #11)
The Last Bazaar (Matt Drake #12)
Edge of Armageddon (Matt Drake #13)
The Alicia Myles Series
Crusader’s Gold (Alicia Myles #2)
The Disavowed Series:
The Razor’s Edge (Disavowed #1)
Threat Level: Red (Disavowed #3)
The Chosen Few Series