Total Surrender (11 page)

She shook her head, surprised to find him blurry through tears. Those eyes. She’d never forget those eyes. “I can’t leave my mom.”

Jory’s jaw tightened. He faltered, and an odd vulnerability glowed in his eyes to be quickly snuffed out. “I never had a mom, but if I had one, I wouldn’t leave her.” He brushed a kiss across Piper’s forehead as the firefight waged on around them. “Okay. Then fight me, and make it look good.”

What the hell did he think she’d been doing? But her mind swirled that he thought her father needed to see her fight. That her father wouldn’t trust her otherwise. Opening her mouth, she screamed and punched with every ounce of fear consuming her.

Jory’s grip faltered. “More,” he hissed. She kicked and screamed and fought, honestly with everything she had.

“Sorry about this, Pipe.” Dropping her, Jory grabbed his eye as if she’d punched him, and yet held on to the blanket. “Run.”

She screeched. The blanket shredded away as he jumped into the helicopter. It rose into the air, the men firing all around. Fury heating her ears, she turned and ran full bore for her father by the cabin door. Buck-assed naked.

The gunfire increased, and the soldiers ignored her barefoot dash through mud and weeds to reach the door.

Somehow, she knew Jory wouldn’t let her get shot. She leaped into the cabin and whirled around to see him watching her, his gun covering her. He’d made sure she got safely inside.

She panted out air, and her chest hitched. The oddest part of her wanted to change her mind and go with him.

Then, with a quick nod, he pointed his weapon toward the forest as the helicopter continued to rise. Even as the storm pummeled him, he fired toward the forest, his gaze remaining on her. She watched him until he disappeared into the clouds, her body trembling with a shocking sense of loss.

Heart pounding, she leaped inside and went straight for her clothes at the fire. Jerking them on with shaking fingers, she ducked against the sofa until the firing stopped. She slowly lifted her head.

Silence.

Drawing in air, she crept toward the door and glanced outside. The commander was speaking into a radio. “They’re up and out of here. If you can’t bring them down peacefully, blow them out of the air. I want proof of life… or proof of death.”

Piper opened the door, her eyes wide. “No,” she whispered.

His black eyes narrowed. “You need to be debriefed.”

J
ORY FINISHED TYING
a bandage around Matt’s upper arm. “Went right through,” he said, patting tape into place. The smell of mildew and old cigarettes filtered around and made him need to sneeze.

Yet being with his brothers, finally, felt like home. “I didn’t bring the commander to you.” They had to believe him. No matter what, he’d never give up his brothers.

“We know.” Matt kept his gray gaze on him while sitting on a ragtag orange bedspread in a hotel in the middle of nowhere. Nate and Shane nodded.

“Duh,” Shane muttered and slapped his back in a show of support.

Jory threw him a glare in an attempt to hide the relief coursing through him. His brothers believed in him. How could he forget that, even for a moment?

No expression softened Matt’s hard face, but emotion shone hard and bright in his eyes. “I’m sorry, Jor.”

Jory blinked. “Getting caught was my fault, Mattie. Not yours.” For as long as Jory could remember, Matt had taken responsibility for them all. Not knowing where Jory had been for two years would’ve torn him apart. “I’m sorry.”

Shane tossed him a beer while Nate smoothly slid needle and thread through Shane’s forearm to seal a hole. “Enough apologies. We’re here, we’re alive, and we just crashed a helicopter into a Utah forest.” He grinned. “Let the commander go through that wreckage.”

Nate snorted.

Jory rubbed his aching neck, almost too full to speak. God, he’d missed them. “That was quite the plan you had.” They’d landed the copter and immediately jumped into an SUV hidden in the trees before blowing the Blackhawk to pieces while the other helicopters chased their asses in the clouds. “How did you put it together so quickly?”

Nate took a long swallow of beer. “We called in a couple of favors. It worked.”

Jory opened his beer and studied his brothers. Being away from them, not sure if they lived, had been like a fist continually gripping his heart. Now, finally, he could breathe.

His brothers were all about six-five, and he had an inch on them. One he’d gloated over so long ago. In the last two years, his brothers had hardened even more, which he wouldn’t have thought possible. But new lines fanned out from Matt’s eyes. Laugh lines. Shane seemed relaxed… for Shane. He sat easily, leaning against an ugly yellow chair, his face more angular than Matt’s but his eyes just as fierce. And Nate. The worried brother, the furious protector… calmness surrounded him. Even on high alert, he owned focus.

“What the hell did I miss?” Jory asked before tipping back his head and letting the cool brew slide down.

Shane shrugged. “I recaptured my wife.”

Jory grinned. He’d never met Josie, but he’d seen pictures.
The woman looked like Tinker Bell with an attitude. “Was she willing?”

“Eventually,” Shane said.

Good. That was good. Jory nodded. Shane had been miserable when he’d left Josie, and seeing him happy was the best thing that could’ve happened for Jory. No more anger for his big brother.

Nate smiled. “I hunted Audrey down, and now she’s pregnant.”

Jory nodded and scrutinized his brother. Nate seemed… happy. “Yeah, I heard. Congrats to you both.” Sweet Audrey was somehow Dr. Madison’s daughter, and they couldn’t be more different.

He’d missed a lot, and he wished he could’ve been there to help his brothers. But the idea that they’d actually found happiness, that they’d move on once he died, settled an ache in his chest. This was good.

He turned toward Matt, wondering what Matt thought of having women in the family.

Matt finished his beer. “I fell in love with one of the commander’s doctors, and now she’s ready to take the chips out of our spines the second we force them off-line.”

Jory stilled. He stopped his beer halfway to his mouth while studying his oldest brother. No tell. Then he looked toward Nate and then Shane. No amusement. “You’re kidding.”

“Nope.” Matt reached for another beer.

Nate shifted a knife against his calf. “Laney Lou is a sweetheart. You’ll like her, Jory.”

Jory scratched his chin. Nate was the most cynical person ever born, so if he liked the woman, she must be amazing. Still. One of the commander’s doctors? “Congrats?”

“Thanks.” Matt tossed him another beer. “You’ll meet her when we get picked up tonight.”

Now he really wanted to meet the woman who’d captured Matt’s heart. But first, they had another mission to take. Jory took a deep breath. “We can’t leave.”

Nate leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “We have the computer program, and now that your brain is back with us, you can figure out how to deactivate the chips.”

Jory nodded, his chest all but bursting. Even though they had the program, they didn’t have the frequency or the codes. The damn fucking codes that somehow changed easily in the right program. “That’s exactly what I’ll do.”

He’d watched Piper on the computer, but too much needed to come together in the time frame they had left. There just wasn’t enough time left. He’d tell them about his chip after he rendered theirs useless, which was already a nearly impossible task. Just trying to remove a chip might detonate the damn thing, even with the right codes put into the right program. “But first, we have an extraction.”

Matt frowned. “The woman? You released her.”

Jory nearly groaned as the image of Piper running nude toward the cabin zipped through his brain. The woman had an amazing ass. Full and ripe… just his type. Then he took a drink as reality smacked him. A deep breath. His gut swirled at the thought of Chance and the other two boys still under the commander’s thumb. At the boy who’d been lost.

Matt leaned forward. “Spit it out.”

“There are more kids,” Jory said, his voice going hoarse.

Tension slammed through the room. Matt went stone still, Shane leaped to his feet, and Nate put his back to the door.

“You sure?” Matt’s voice dropped to the dark tone of death.

“Yes.” Jory shoved a rough hand through his now dry hair. “Met one named Chance. Gray eyes—definitely one of us. Saw his bone structure and caught his scent.”

Nate exhaled slowly, through his nose. “How many?”

“Three, counting Chance. Now.” Jory tried to force emotion into a box. “We have three more brothers.”

“Three
now
?” Nate asked softly.

Jory nodded, rage nearly boiling his blood. “There were four. Lost one a month ago in the field—he was eleven.”

The sound Matt made could only be termed a tenor of pain.

“Fuck.” Shane threw his bottle across the room to smash into the bathroom wall. “Fucking fucktard of a bastard fucktard dickhead commander. I’ll take his balls and make him eat them before I rip off his fucking head.”

Ah. There was that anger.

Matt paled and glanced down at his hands, failure curling his lip.

Nate, always the balancing act to Matt’s guilt, kept his gaze on Matt, his back ramrod straight. “We didn’t know, and now we do.”

Matt rubbed his chest.

“Mattie?” Jory set down his beer, his voice softening. “There was no way for us to know. The kid—he reminded me of you. Badass attitude and total dedication to the other two kids.”

Matt’s head lifted, his eyes going dark. “He lost a brother. God.” Agony exhaled with his breath. “Is he all right?”

“No.” Jory gave the truth. “He’s fucking tortured, and he’s worried about the other two. He’s definitely hiding something, and he may be working wholeheartedly with the commander, or he may be getting ready to make a move for freedom. I’m not sure.”

“Either path will get them killed,” Nate murmured.

Matt stood. He exhaled slowly, his shoulders going back. “No. Nate, cancel our pickup. Shane, clean up the fucking beer bottle. And Jory? Sit the hell down and tell us everything about the organization, the two locations, and the woman.”

Better get this out of the way now. Jory cleared his throat. “She’s the commander’s daughter.”

Shane stopped in picking up a piece of glass to glance up and over his shoulder. His eyes widened. “Have you lost your ever-lovin’ mind?” He straightened.

“No.” Although he had been shot in the chest and lay in a coma for two years. “I don’t think so.”

Nate ground a fist into one eye. “You’re sure?”

“Yep. They both acknowledged the paternity, and I can see the resemblance beneath the skin.” Jory reached down for a shard of glass and straightened up.

“And we let her get away, why?” Matt stood, nearly nose to nose with Jory.

Jory held his ground. “She’s innocent. Last time I checked, we didn’t hurt innocents.”

“The commander’s daughter is not innocent,” Matt ground out, his eyebrows drawing down hard.

Jory kept his voice mild and his body relaxed. He let the truth in. Piper was innocent, and she wouldn’t be harmed. “With that reasoning, Nate’s Audrey is bad because Dr. Madison, her mother, is a psychopathic, sadistic bitch?”

Matt’s nostrils flared. Tension spiraled through the oxygen again, setting the hair on the back of Jory’s neck alive. Finally, Matt breathed out. “That’s a good point.”

“Sometimes I have one.” Jory tossed the glass into a mangled bucket serving as a garbage can perched in the corner.

Matt nodded and clapped him hard across the shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

“We’re fine.” Jory grinned. “I missed you.”

Matt huffed out breath. “I haven’t slept more than an hour at a time since we lost track of you. Thanks for staying alive.”

Jory nodded. “I promised, didn’t I?”

Matt’s eyes darkened. “Yeah. Yeah, you did. Thanks.”

But he couldn’t stay alive for much longer, and that just
sucked. He’d worry about telling them after they were safe, but he couldn’t tell them a lie because they’d all scent it. If they didn’t ask the right question, it wouldn’t be a problem. For now, they had to strategize. “I think Piper might help us. Since I let her go and she saw the commander in action. She’s smart enough to know he’s lying to her.”

Nate frowned. “Wait a minute. How did the commander find you today?”

Jory froze. “I don’t know.”

“The woman?” Shane growled.

“No, and her name is Piper.” Jory clicked through events in his head and then glanced down at his body. Where the hell was his brain, anyway? “Shit.”

Matt reached for the hem of Jory’s T-shirt and yanked it over his head. “Strip.”

What had he been thinking? He shucked out of his clothes and stood in the middle of the room, arms out, legs spread, as his brothers poked and prodded every inch.

“Got it,” Shane muttered, shoving at a scar covering one of the newest bullet holes in his sternum. “Knife.”

Nate handed him a knife and leaned in, his head next to Shane’s.

Pain lanced through Jory’s chest, and he caught a breath as Shane yanked out a tracker device to smash on the floor. The commander had tagged him like a dog at the vet’s. While Jory could sense devices in other people if he really concentrated, he couldn’t sense or feel anything within his own skin.

Unfortunate but ironic, really.

Shane grimaced. “Sorry, Jor.”

“It’s fine,” Jory muttered, knowing full well Shane had gone as easy as he could. “Doesn’t hurt a bit.”

“Tough guy.” Matt leaned around and poured beer onto Jory’s wound. “This might hurt.”

Jory coughed and breathed out to keep from biting Matt’s
head off. They had to disinfect the wound. “We need to run, now,” Jory muttered, reaching for his jeans.

Matt nodded and tossed him the shirt. “Wait. You sure you’re okay?”

Jory nodded. “Yes—stop worrying.” Although it felt damn good to be around family again. People who cared. “We need to move and now.”

Matt rubbed his chin. “Our best bet is to take the commander’s daughter and bargain for exchange.”

“No.” Jory drew the cotton over his head. “The commander wants us more than her.” Yeah, it was the truth, and it sucked. But the green-eyed hacker had a soft heart, and no way would she allow three kids to remain in danger, once she comprehended the danger. “I have another idea. I think she’ll help the boys get free. She’ll help us.”

Nate shook his head. “We can’t get to her. The commander will have guards on her.”

Jory finally smiled. “That’s all right because we’ll use his own surveillance against him. I have an idea.”

Piper stepped gingerly around the damaged hydrangea, a glass of Chardonnay in her hand. Her third of the night. Her mind swirled with intrigue and doubt, and she wished she could get ahold of Jory just to ask some questions.

A bush scratched her leg. If she didn’t know better, she’d believe Earl was sabotaging his own computer in order to get some alone time with Piper’s mom. Well, at least somebody was getting romanced. Brian had called several times, and she’d ignored him. She’d meant it when she’d said they were over.

Her mind remained steadfast on one gray-eyed badass soldier who’d protected her from rocks and bullets before letting her go free.

While being buck-assed naked.

Even so, while she’d tried to pepper the commander with questions about Jory, he’d shut her down fast. They’d ridden in different rigs back to the facility, and he’d set a meeting with her for the next morning. A chill skittered down her spine at the thought. Just who was he?

Enough with questions and with uncertainty. The wine wasn’t doing anything to answer anything, but it did leave her nice and mellow. Calm. Shoving open Earl’s back door, Piper wandered inside and to the computer desk tucked into an alcove off the kitchen.

A soft meow filtered up before a fur ball the size of an overgrown watermelon rubbed against her boot. “Hi, Payton Manning,” she said, reaching down to pet the tabby. He licked her fingers and rubbed some more. Earl had rescued the cat from under his car at the mall a year or so ago, according to Earl.

She began to type in Earl’s password when she stilled, her instincts on full alert. Silence. Heavy silence surrounded her.

Her fingers encircled a sharp letter opener, and she slowly turned around.

A lamp glowed on, and Jory sat on the side of a leather sofa, overwhelming the straight lines. “Piper.”

Something inside her shimmied. Danced, heated, and uncoiled. “Jory.”