Chapter 1 #4
It was a rhetorical question, and Silas looked as if he was about to have a heart attack.
But Tex didn’t feel even a scrap of pity for the man.
If he’d used what he’d learned in SEAL training to guide his life, he wouldn’t be in this situation right now.
He stayed silent while the two men circled Silas as they spoke.
“And your daughter? Simone? She should be your princess. You should be huntin’ down anyone who dares even look at her wrong. And yet, she’d been to just as many doctors as her mom. You just claimed she was a clumsy child.” Paul rolled his eyes. “Worst excuse in the book. Such a fucking cliché.”
Then he turned and abruptly punched Silas in the face.
The chair tipped over and Silas fell to the floor with a loud thump. He moaned.
Paul leaned over him. “How does it feel to be helpless, you fucking asshole?”
Frank picked up the chair and hauled Silas upright once more.
“Please! No more. I’ll do anything!”
“Too late,” Frank said matter-of-factly. “It’s time that you paid for your sins. And we’re going to be the ones to do it.”
“What are you gonna do?” Silas asked, his voice trembling.
“You really want to know?” Paul asked.
The man tied to the chair nodded.
“We’re going to take you with us. To a place where we can make as much of a mess as we want, and no one will be the wiser.
We’re going to break all the bones in your hands.
Then your leg bones, so you have to crawl, like you did to our friend here.
We’re going to take turns beating you until you’re black and blue all over.
Then we’ll cut out your tongue so we don’t have to hear you begging for your life when we burn that tattoo off your arm. ”
“Navy SEAL my ass,” Frank muttered.
Tex approved. He wasn’t especially proud of himself for having no remorse about what was going to happen to Stroud, but then again, the man hadn’t had a scrap of empathy for him when he’d been in a similar situation. When he’d been tortured by Rook and his flunkies. He’d participated gleefully.
Silas whimpered pathetically.
“Then we’re going to leave you there. Alone. No food. No water. Just like your friends did to Tex. We’ll pump in some loud, obnoxious music so you can’t hear yourself think. Leave you in the dark. If you survive the week, we’ll come in and finish you off. How’s that sound?”
Tex wasn’t normally a violent man. But Stroud was complicit in everything that had happened to him.
He could’ve said no. Could’ve gone to the cops.
It wasn’t as if his kidnapping was a secret.
It had been all over the news. But instead, he’d stayed silent and taken money for his role in the whole fucked-up plot.
Tex could’ve died. Melody would’ve had to bury him.
She would’ve been devastated. His daughters would’ve had to learn to live without their dad.
Not to mention all the men and women he’d no longer be able to assist. It wasn’t just his life on the line when he’d been held against his will, it was all the missing people Tex wouldn’t have been able to help find in the future. All of which was unacceptable.
He straightened and nodded at Frank. He’d used up one hell of a marker with the Mafia, as had Baker, but it was worth it.
Knowing this man wouldn’t be out there doing the same thing he’d done to him to other unsuspecting men.
Knowing he could no longer besmirch the Navy SEAL name.
Knowing his wife and daughter were safe and wouldn’t be hurt by him any longer. All of it was worth it.
“Wait, where are you going? You can’t just leave me here with—”
His words were cut off when Paul picked up a baseball bat he’d obviously stashed near the couch and swung it hard and low at Silas’s leg.
The man screamed in pain, but even that sound was quickly cut off as Frank stuffed a big piece of cloth into the man’s mouth, then threw a black bag over his head and tied it securely around his neck, muffling the sounds Silas was making.
Tex headed for the front door and didn’t hesitate on his way out, shutting the door firmly behind him.
Whatever happened to Silas Stroud now was out of his hands.
He’d done his part. Had tracked him electronically, gotten him fired, and made sure Stroud knew why he was in the position he was in.
Not to mention giving Sarah and Simone a fresh start far, far away.
He walked down the sidewalk and pulled out his cell. He clicked on a name on his contact list and put the phone up to his ear. As soon as the man on the other end answered, Tex said, “It’s done.”
“Good riddance.”
Tex smiled a little at the venom in Baker’s voice.
The former Navy SEAL was back in Hawaii with his wife, Jodelle, and was the only person in the world who knew where Tex was at the moment.
Baker was the one he’d gone to for help because of his connections with the Mafia, and because he knew he’d never tell a soul what Tex had planned.
“You need any clean-up help?” Baker asked.
“No. It’s taken care of. Silas Stroud will disappear without a trace but I’m guessing no one will be too upset about it.
I’ve arranged for Sarah and Simone’s personal items to be collected from the house and sent to them.
All that’s left is for me to get on a plane and head out to California to join my family, and to have a beer or two with Wolf and the rest of the guys. ”
“Tell them hello from me.”
“Will do. Baker?”
“Yeah?”
Tex swallowed hard. “You don’t think differently about me now, do you?” It was uncharacteristic of Tex to second-guess anything he did, but giving a man to the Mafia on a silver platter for them to do what they wanted with was very outside his norm.
“Fuck no. I was there, Tex. I saw what Melody went through. The suffering. I saw you when you got out of that house. Rook got off easy after what he put you through. As did the rest of the men he hired. But Stroud? He’s the worst of the bunch.
Us Navy SEALs are supposed to be the good guys.
The ones who rescue the people who are being held against their will.
Stroud besmirched every single SEAL who ever wore the pin, who swore to uphold the law, who gave their life protecting others.
Him not breathing the same air we do is a favor to everyone. ”
Tex let out a long breath. “Thanks, Baker.”
“Don’t fucking thank me, Tex. If I could’ve done it myself, I would’ve.”
Tex chuckled. The man sounded like him. “That wouldn’t have been a good idea,” he told his friend and fellow SEAL.
“I know. Which is why I called in that marker for us both. Gotta go. Jodelle and I are headed to the beach to surf.”
“She surfs now?”
“Fuck no. She sits on her bench and chats with her students and watches me on the waves. But simply knowing she wants to be there with me is a fucking miracle. Later.”
“Later,” Tex said. Then he clicked on the tracking app he built and checked on Melody.
The icon on the phone showed that she was at Caroline and Wolf’s house, along with Hope and Akilah.
He had no reason to suspect that wasn’t where she’d be, as she’d done as he asked and texted him her whereabouts as she and the girls traveled.
But he breathed a sigh of relief all the same as he closed out the app and put the phone in his pocket.
He glanced at his watch. He had just enough time to get to the airport and catch his flight.
He spared one last thought for Silas Stroud. What was in store for him wasn’t good. He’d suffer. But so had Tex. He took Baker’s words to heart and put any misgivings he had about his role in the man’s fate out of his head.
He couldn’t wait to catch up with Wolf and the rest of his team and hear how all their kids were doing.
There were days he felt extremely old, but he was grateful to be alive and relatively healthy.
He never would’ve thought that losing his leg would lead to where he was today…
watching over men and women serving their country in the most dangerous places in the world, and doing whatever he could to help protect their loved ones.
It wasn’t hard to be a good person. To be kind. To do the right thing. That’s how Tex tried to live his life, and how he’d tried to teach his children to live theirs. But he also wasn’t above making sure those who preyed on others paid the price for their evil deeds.
In the case of Stroud, it was enough that he knew why he was in the position he was in. Tex hadn’t had to say a word to get that point across.
But that was done. He was moving on. Could move on without a dark cloud hovering over his head anymore. He was safe, and he’d stay that way.
Tex got behind the wheel of his car and headed for the airport, feeling lighter than he had in months. He couldn’t wait to see Melody, to hold her, to hear his daughters’ laughter.
Family. It’s why he did what he did, day in and day out.
Life was good. Damn good. And he’d fight to do his part to keep it that way.
For him. His family. His friends. It was what he was born to do.
He believed that with every breath in his body.
He had the skills to help make the world a safer place.
It was enough…and made even more worthwhile with the love of his life by his side.