Healing Hearts 12: Road to Happiness Read online

  “She can’t be free if that fuck is alive and well,” Rusty replied. He clenched his teeth and was filled with so much rage. How the fuck was Charles remaining undetected for so long? How was he conducting these trades?

  “We need to find him and stop him and his minions from continuing their efforts to support terrorist cells,” Rusty said to them.

  “We’re getting closer. We know this guy Manuel Forte is working for him. Even though the feds are on his ass, we can still access his location and question him. We’ll get him to give up Charles’s location,” Forge said.

  “We have to be careful. Remember what Commander Sommers said to us. This is a major operation, and if we screw it up, because our focus is solely on revenge against Charles Muller, then we could jeopardize an entire operation. Everything we’ve been working for the last few years. The commander wants Charles, as well. He was the rat. The one who set us up, who strategically planned those hits and took the military weapons. Charles will go down for treason. He will suffer for setting us up to take the fall and trying to kill us, and he will suffer for what he did to Amber. He could have destroyed our careers. Our credibility as soldiers. We need to be patient,” Forge replied.

  “Two years, Forge. Two fucking years, and my sister doesn’t know the truth. She still believes that we were working for the bad guys. Charles almost won the first time. Almost killed us and kept my little sister a prisoner. He raped her, took what he wanted for her, beat her, drugged her, and here she is trying to live a new life, and he isn’t giving up. You say be patient, but how can I when I know a man like Fender is moving into position? Is getting closer and closer to where Amber is? How? I can’t sit back. I know we are getting closer to ending this, but I can’t. She won’t survive this time. You remember what she said. If Charles ever caught her again, ever touched her again, she would take her own life. She wouldn’t be able to handle it a second time around. I’ll give it a few more days. That’s it. Then we’ll get her and take her into protection. Sommers will ensure that. He owes us.”

  * * * *

  Danny looked at his brother Ace. “This is bad. Really fucking bad. Terrorists, Ace. Fucking terrorists. Jesus, how the fuck are we going to find these men and eliminate them before they strike?” Danny asked his brother. He ran his fingers through his hair, and Ace leaned back and exhaled and then looked at Kyle, Danny’s partner.

  Ace had been helping Danny when the name Visado Lang came up in the investigation and then some information appeared anonymously about a mission, stolen military weapons and chatter under the radar about a hit to the consulate in Dubai. That was right up Ace’s and his brother’s alley, as they usually did missions involving covert operations destroying terrorist cells before they could become so large, so capable of committing attacks. Ace already had calls into his commander, as well as some other friends with deeper connections.

  Ace heard the computer “ding,” indicating information was coming in through private mail server. “It’s one of my informants,” Ace said and pulled up the email. Danny and Kyle moved closer.

  “Okay, so this guy Visado Lang has been making quite the name for himself. Government investigators are linking his involvement to that massacre in Iraq last year that supposedly took out a military surplus warehouse,” Ace said as he read the information.

  “We didn’t get much intel on that. We were told it wasn’t connected to our case,” Kyle said.

  “Yeah, well, considering the amount of US military weapons being stored there at the time, and not recovered after the fire, I’d say it was a setup to take those weapons and then make it look like they were destroyed in the process. Simple snag, grab, and set fire, hoping to make it look like the weapons disintegrated on-site,” Ace said and then squinted his eyes and sat forward.

  “What? What do you see?” Danny asked.

  “Son of a bitch. No fucking way. Shit,” Ace said and reached for his cell phone.

  “What is it?”

  “Hold up a second, and I’ll explain,” Ace said, and then he texted and put his phone down.

  “I texted Briar, Cliff, and Corona. We were there in Pakistan when there was some sort of situation that entailed us providing backup to secret military operatives. We didn’t know who they were, and honestly never saw anything or had to provide gun cover. These teams took care of it, and we were there as a precaution, but it seems that they were right where the location was that links some stolen military supplies. The team was investigated as our government thought they were double-crossing the government and stealing the military supplies then selling them to terrorists or whoever the highest bidder was. It has to be the same military team,” Ace said and looked up at Briar, Cliff, and Corona, who entered the room and heard what he said.

  “You talking about Pakistan and coming in to aid for what turned out to be criminals?” Cliff asked.

  “Yeah. We were so pissed off. We told our commander we would volunteer to find the fucks and take them out. Then the commander gets a call, and it’s squashed. It was like none of it ever happened. We were all told to forget everything we heard, saw, or thought,” Ace said.

  “Oh yeah, we were trying to figure out what exactly went down, but then our commander told us that it was some covert operation. That the bad guys were the good guys working undercover, and they were nearly killed. We were then called into that shitshow near Cyprus,” Corona said to them.

  “Oh yeah. Got the fucking scars from that one. Jesus, we were fucking lucky,” Ace replied.

  “So this sounds really fucking complicated. Like maybe this team could be the ones going in and annihilating these men for a reason. The fucking crime scenes at these warehouses are brutal and definitely military-like killings. We all figured out that pretty damn fast,” Danny said.

  “Is there anyone we can call to confirm this? I mean, not for nothing, but it isn’t exactly legal to be killing people and leaving the bodies for us agents to discover,” Kyle said,

  “Unless the plan is for you to figure out who the men they are after are. Like this Manuel Forte guy, and this Visado Lang? How are they connected? What type of business are they doing together to warrant special operations military units hunting their businesses down and kill? Something else is going on,” Ace said, and his cell phone rang. He excused himself to answer it.

  “Where are you in your investigation, Kyle? What’s the deal?” Corona asked.

  “We believe that these men are importing illegal drugs and perhaps military weapons into the country and overseas by means of coffee grounds and art antiques. We recently uncovered drugs and gun residue in a warehouse where eight bodies were found. Initial investigation into those individuals indicate they are not legal. Their ties to terrorist cells are why we came here to talk to Ace and maybe get deeper information. Seems suspicious,” Kyle said.

  “Shit, I agree,” Corona said.

  “Well, looks like you’re in the middle of some deep shit, Danny,” Ace said, entering the room and placing his cell phone back onto the clip on his jeans.

  Danny squinted.

  “What?”

  “I got a call from our commander, who got a call from another big shot, and they say back down and lie low. You’ll be getting a call from your superior soon enough. Looks like something bigger is going on here than you realize,” Ace said.

  “Are you fucking kidding me? We’re too close to figuring out who these men are and with your connections—”

  Danny stopped talking.

  “Exactly. With our connections and that little bit of digging we did, we red flagged whoever is running this show, and they want us to stop. I can tell you this much, our commander said the investigation is deep and years of work, and we aren’t to continue with anything.”

  Danny’s cell phone rang. He glanced at the caller ID.

  “Fields,” he said to them and walked out of the room. That was his commander.

  * * * *

  “Two weeks? No wonder you look so happy, Amber,�
� Francesca said to her. They sat at a table by the bay. Francesca had been gone for the week, trying to help her sister out. She had gotten into some trouble at the bar she worked at in Corrin, an hour from Mercy. Francesca was trying to get her sister to come move in with her, but she was resistant.

  “I am happy, for the first time in years,” Amber said and ran her finger along the rim of her glass.

  “I’m happy for you, Amber. Although you never explained the ordeal you went through in Connecticut, I know it was bad, and that you see Kiana for counseling. Just be sure that these men are the real deal. Sometimes men can lie so good and be so convincing, you forget to think and to follow your gut.”

  Amber gave her a sympathetic smile. “I know. I took a big risk letting them in, letting five men into my heart and into my bed, but it feels right. I finally feel safe when they’re with me. Like nothing could destroy that connection and happiness we share.”

  Francesca was envious. She had loved a man once. With her heart and soul, and he turned out to not be who she believed him to be. She swallowed hard.

  “How is your cousin Nina doing? Is she still seeing that therapist?” Amber asked. Francesca had confided in Amber, telling her about her sister being attacked by some guys who were after Francesca’s brothers. It was a gang thing. Francesca’s family wasn’t exactly representative of law-abiding citizens of society. In fact, they were criminals, and Francesca had done some things in her past out of survival that she wasn’t proud of, but they had saved her life and her family’s.

  “She is, and it seems to help her some days more than others, but she’s stronger now. She’ll get through it. I just wish she would take me up on my offer of her moving in with me. The house is big enough that she could have her own space, her own side of the house. I even spoke to Ghost and Cosmo about her bartending at Corporal’s, and even Houston said he could give her hours at Gordon’s.”

  “She doesn’t want to leave Corrin?” Amber asked and took a bite from her salad.

  “Nope. I think she’s stuck because my cousins run the bar and restaurant and she feels safe with them around. She doesn’t realize that they’re still involved with bad shit.”

  Amber squinted. “I thought two of your cousins who ran the place were serving time?”

  “They were, which is why she stayed on to help, but they’re getting out in a few weeks. I’m hoping to go there and talk some sense into her. Maybe bring her around Mercy to see how much better it would be for her. There’s some guy who’s been sniffing around her. I haven’t met him yet, but considering the clientele around the bar, bets are he isn’t a good guy.”

  “Damn, and you would think she had been through so much with the last situation, and of course what happened to you.”

  “She was nearly raped, and still that didn’t make her leave that town and my brothers’ ways of life. I don’t get it.”

  “Maybe she just feels safe there because they are her brothers and they are big men.”

  “Doesn’t mean shit. They failed to protect me. They failed to protect her when my cousin botched that deal he had with those assholes from Arizona. She could have been raped. Came near close to it. Those kind of men have their own set of laws and rules. You don’t abide, you either get beaten or left for dead. She makes me crazy. I want her to meet some good men. Men who will treat her right, protect her, and show her what real love is. She won’t find that there.”

  “What about you? When do you start worrying about you, Francesca?” Amber asked.

  “I’m just living my life, trying to survive, Amber. A lot of shit happened in my life. My heart isn’t capable of feeling anything anymore. I’ve given up on counting on anyone but myself. I mean, I know I have friends, my brothers, and family, I have you to help me if needed, but the deeper stuff. The emotions that are supposed to bind you to someone deeply were destroyed years ago. Not all of us are meant to heal and move on like you did,” she said and winked, giving Amber a smile.

  Amber smiled softly and was staring at her plate, but then she looked up and held Francesca’s gaze. “I was hurt so badly, feared so much, that I wanted to die, Francesca. I wanted to end it all,” she whispered, and Francesca was shocked.

  She felt the tears fill her eyes, and she reached out and covered Amber’s hand. She didn’t know what Amber went through, just that she had a fear in her eyes, a wall up that Francesca had, as well. She found a connection to her because of it.

  She squinted.

  “No need to get into the details, but I too thought that I was completely alone. That my heart would never heal. That my body would never heal, as well.”

  “Amber?”

  “The world can be a pretty cruel place, but somehow in the midst of all that horror, all the fears, the hidden wounds, and scars that run so deep, there’s a tiny light. A hope of living on, moving on, leaving the past behind and just living. I felt it. I held onto that small simmer of hope and didn’t know why until I met Danny, Corona, Cliff, Ace, and Briar. Now, the pain that man inflicted upon me, the words, the control, the damage, doesn’t take me to that place so dark, so overwhelming that I don’t want to live or take another breath. If someone told me two years ago that one day I would be healed, would feel love and happiness, I would have laughed and called them a liar. I was wrong. I didn’t give up. You don’t give up either, and don’t let Nina give up, as well.”

  Francesca couldn’t help the tear that escaped or the emotions she felt with the information Amber shared with her.

  “Thank you, Amber. I don’t know what you went through, but I hope I can be as strong as you are and continue to fight. I hope.”

  * * * *

  Amber sent a text message to Briar as soon as she finished up lunch with Francesca. He was going to meet her at her house. She was excited about seeing him, and then the others as they each arrived to spend time with her. Well, make love to her. She stifled a yawn, having worked an evening shift last night and into this morning. Meeting Francesca hadn’t been planned, but after her shower this morning and her friend’s text about needing to talk, she sucked up the exhaustion she felt and she went out with her. By the time Amber got into her small house and made sure that the place was nice and clean, Briar still hadn’t arrived yet. She was in the bedroom when her mind drifted off to another place.

  Her happiness and excitement about seeing Briar and the guys disappeared as she remembered Charles and his rules. Whenever he was out, he would text her a time of arrival, and she was to be ready for him, waiting for his orders. Her heart began to race, and she looked around the room frantically. The bed was made nice and neat. She had changed the sheets last night before work. The blinds were only slightly ajar, giving a little bit of sunlight to the room, making it look welcoming and warm. Would Briar want her on the bed naked? On the floor in a kneeling position, head bowed? Sitting on the edge, feet flat on the floor, hands clasped on her lap waiting for the first order? She was breathing faster now, her heart pounding inside of her chest. An anxiety attack loomed close by.

  “Oh God, what if he isn’t happy? What if Briar had a bad day? He texted me, I didn’t speak to him, so I wouldn’t know. Oh God,” she said aloud and really started to shake.

  “Amber!”

  She gasped as she heard his hard tone, and she hurried to the bedroom door. His hands were on his hips, and Ace was right behind him, along with Corona, Cliff, and Danny, too.

  “The door was unlocked. Are you out of your mind?” Briar raised his voice.

  She fell to her knees and hugged his leg. “I’m sorry, Briar. Oh God, I’m so sorry.” She was crying now, and there was silence. She glanced up, seeing a shocked expression on Briar’s face.

  * * * *

  Briar didn’t know what to do. He was shocked. On their way here, they talked about this case Danny had. About the potential threat of terrorist activities on US soil, and they were in a rage. Then when they got to Amber’s small little house, the door was unlocked. The front entryway unlit, and
they discussed adding some low voltage lighting, and then to find her door unlocked upset them. Her reaction, the expression on her face indicating she was already in some sort of emotional state, had him stopping in his tracks. Her words, the way she lowered quickly to her knees in a servant, submissive, slavelike position instantly shocked him. His mind was in a whirlwind. His brothers’ as well as they stood and didn’t move. He did though. It hit him instinctually. Her demeanor, her need to serve them, do whatever they asked her to do to make up for her not locking her door, for their anger. He didn’t know how he knew, but it was because of the man who had raped her and probably done much, much more.

  Briar lowered down, grabbed her by her arms, and lifted her up into his arms, hugging her tight.

  “Easy breaths, Amber. Easy, baby. You’re fine. Everything is going to be just fine,” he whispered against her hair, inhaling the scent of her shampoo he liked so much. He squeezed her to him and walked her to the bedroom. She was sobbing and whispering into his ear.

  “Please. Please tell me you’re not angry. Please tell me what I need to do. Please, Briar. Please.”

  “Shhh.” He caressed her back and hair as he sat down on the edge of the bed. She was straddling his hips in the pretty sundress she wore. She smelled of soap and a light hint of perfume. Something tropical like coconut and pineapple. Maybe. He locked gazes with his brothers. Their scowls would not help her. He shook his head at them, and they got his message.

  Ace cleared his throat.

  “Never fear us, Amber. We aren’t him,” he said to her, stepping forward to massaging her back.

  She tightened up and lifted her head to look up at Ace. She was shaking still, her top lowered slightly, revealing her deep cleavage. She looked sexy, like some experienced pinup model, yet sweet, sensual, and inexperienced, as well. The monster that had raped her, hurt her, had definitely messed with her head. Perhaps taught her to obey commands or even worse. His jaw tightened.