Chapter 14
14
“ H ow can you eat and be so calm?” Octavia pushed her plate across the table. She glanced out at the marina. The tall masts of the sailboat swayed in the wind. The silent clanking of the sheets against the metal echoed over the chatter of the people in the restaurant. Birds gathered on the docks. A family stood near the water while a little boy leaned over and happily tossed some bait, hoping to see large fish swarm to the surface.
“Trust me, I’m not calm.” He brought her plate closer. “You didn’t eat breakfast and you barely touched your lunch.” He lifted half of her clam roll. “Your body needs fuel whether you feel like eating or not.”
“My stomach is all twisted as if I just got off one of those rides that spins until you vomit.” She grabbed her sandwich and took a bite. One thing she remembered from all those years with Bellamy was when not to argue with the man.
This was one of those times.
As soon as she swallowed, her gut pitched and rolled. She covered her mouth and belched. “Jesus, I really don’t feel that great.”
“It’s just nerves.” He squeezed her thigh.
Roxy shifted under her seat. Damn dog had been like a piece of gum tangled in her hair for the last two days.
Tucker whined at Bellamy’s feet.
They both knew something was developing.
“Don’t patronize me,” she said.
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to.” He wiped his mouth with his napkin, leaned back, and pressed his finger against his ear. “Yeah. I heard that.”
She leaned closer. “What’s going on?”
He held up his index finger. “How many?” He nodded. “And where are our friends?” Bellamy’s eyes narrowed. “Shit. Who’s got eyes on him?” he asked. “Okay. Copy that.” He lifted his hand, waving to the waitress. “Can we get our check, please?”
“Will you freaking talk to me?” Octavia folded her arms and tapped her foot against the floor. She glared at Bellamy, mentally tossing daggers directly into the center of his chest .
“Once we’re outside.” He dared to try to kiss her cheek.
She jerked her head. “I have absolutely no patience.”
He took the bill, glanced at it, and handed the waitress a wad of cash. “Keep the change.” He stood, taking Octavia by the hand and tugging her through the sea of tables. Once outside, he wrapped his arm around her waist. It would take them about fifteen minutes to walk up the road to his house and considering his turtle pace, he wasn’t in a hurry to get there.
“I didn’t want to talk too much inside there in case we missed one of Eric’s men.” Bellamy glanced over his shoulder. “We can’t be too careful.”
“Okay.” She swallowed her beating heart and stared straight ahead. She didn’t dare look at anyone or shift her gaze. “Who was talking to you in your ear, and what did they say?”
“It was Coop and he informed me that my house is surrounded and Eric has entered the building.”
“So, we’re walking into an ambush.” She flattened her hand on her stomach. Her breath caught in her throat liked a caged animal trying to escape but there was no way out.
“I know it feels that way but it’s the other way around.” Bellamy took her hand and kissed the inside of her palm. “We followed his decoy back to the airport earlier. We are acting as though we believe he left Big Island. Coop and the guys will methodically take out Eric’s men while we’re getting him to talk.”
“Unless he kills us the second we come into sight.”
“Eric’s a lot of things, but he’s not stupid. He can’t just leave us for dead. There would be too many questions. He’s got to take you and make my death look like an?—”
“Can we not talk about that, please?” She shivered. They had gone over this plan a million times. She was confident that if she pushed the right buttons, Eric would more than enjoy letting Bellamy know what he’d done to her five years ago.
What scared her more than anything was how Bellamy might react.
“As long as you understand that we do have the upper hand in this situation.” He released her hand and reached behind his back. Then he bent over and fiddled with his pant leg.
Her heart pounded in her chest as it pulsed blood through her body. Images of the attack assaulted her mind. They came fast and furious. She couldn’t slow them down or focus on any single one. They flew by her as if she were sitting on a high-speed train.
“It’s hard to believe that when you’re letting him break into your home. ”
“Quinn is on a roof two houses up on your right. He’s our overwatch. The rest of his team, Bowie, Flint, and Carter, have taken other positions while Waylen, Kian, Lane, and Raider are working with my men to deal with the assholes that Eric brought. Nova and Agent Adams are less than a mile away. With all the listening devices we’ve put in my house, they will be able to hear everything. They will move in to make the arrest at precisely the right time. We’ve gone over every worst-case scenario aspect of this op. I’ll die before I let anything happen to you.”
“That’s exactly what I don’t want you or any of your friends to do,” she whispered, holding back a sob as memories of the raid once again flooded her brain like a bad horror flick. “I’ve seen too much death and the last thing I want is to be responsible for anyone else dying.”
“I need you to stop worrying about that and focus on the plan.” He ran his hand up and down her spine. “I get you’re scared. But understand this is exactly the kind of thing we have trained for our entire careers. It’s not our first rodeo.”
That didn’t make her feel any better. However, she kept that thought to herself. The last thing Bellamy needed was for her to go off the rails. Besides, this was what Tate had been working toward. She owed it to him to see this through.
She squared her shoulders, sucked in a deep breath, and pushed all the negative thoughts and her fears into a tiny little box in the corner of her brain.
“Team Koa: Charlie. Can I have an update?” Bellamy paused for a moment. He stood silent for what seemed like an eternity. “Okay. I’m going dark.” He took his comms piece out of his ear and tucked it in his pocket. He looped his arm around her shoulders. “I’ve been given the go. Are you ready?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be.” She paused, grabbing Bellamy by the biceps. “No matter what happens tonight, I want you to know that what happened between us, our breakup, it wasn’t all your fault. I’m as much to blame in our failure to communicate.”
He tilted her chin and kissed her tenderly. “Do you love me?”
“Very much.”
“That’s all that matters.”
It was rare that Bellamy had to run an op without comms. But this was no ordinary mission.
It was personal.
This was the op that would forever change his life.
Slowly, he stepped onto his porch and tried to act like this was a typical night out with his girl. Only the news that Tommy had slipped into a vehicle and driven off to parts unknown had certainly rattled his nerves.
He should have given Octavia that juicy piece of intel, but she was already frazzled. Waylen had called on his old buddy, Mano, the private investigator, to follow Tommy. Mano might not be part of the Brotherhood Protectors, but they used his services occasionally. If they trusted him to get the job done, then so did Bellamy.
He gripped the handle of his front door and turned.
If all had gone according to plan, all of Eric’s men except Lemin had been handled. Eric had come with a team of six. From what Bellamy could gather, all of them had some covert operations training. That made his team’s job harder.
But the Brotherhood Protectors were the best.
Now, all he and Octavia had to do was make sure Eric talked before he learned his team could no longer communicate.
Normally, he’d be the gentleman that his mother raised and allow Octavia to enter the home before he did, but not with knowing Eric sat in his family room with a gun in his lap.
Eric had taken out the main security camera before entering the house. But he missed the tiny cameras that Bellamy had installed earlier .
“That was a nice evening,” he said, pretending he hadn’t seen Eric out of the corner of his eye.
The only problem was that Lemin hadn’t shown up on the cameras the last time he checked. He knew Lemin was in his home because Rusty had seen him enter the building, and no one saw him exit.
Of course, Tommy was the bigger problem. In the military, Tommy had a habit of going rogue. He wasn’t the kind of man who followed orders.
Bellamy had been reprimanded a time or two for going against a direct command, but Bellamy only did so when he believed his men were in danger and there was no way they could accomplish their mission without massive loss of life.
Tommy broke ranks for no other reason than he was an arrogant asshole. He had no regard for his fellow man. Nor did he respect the uniform he once wore or his country. Tommy cared about power. When it didn’t come to him, he tried to take it.
Bellamy didn’t believe for one second that Tommy was going against Eric. No. Whatever Tommy was up to, it was part of Eric’s plan and that meant Bellamy and his team had missed something.
“I’m sure you enjoyed getting out and about and not having to hide anymore,” Bellamy added as a shadow slinked across the top of the stairs.
Lemin .
Shit. That gave Bellamy two potential blind spots. He shifted so that Octavia would have her back to the wall as much as possible.
A deep clearing of a man’s throat echoed in the air.
For good measure, he whipped his head around at the sound. He reached for his weapon.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Eric stood, pointing his gun at Bellamy’s heart.
The man had already destroyed it once. Bellamy would be damned if he let Eric do it again.
Much less kill him.
“Surprised to see me?” Eric smiled.
“Not entirely.” Bellamy held his weapon at his side.
Octavia gripped his hips, leaning over his shoulder but keeping out of the line of fire.
“You’re not welcome here,” Bellamy said. “I’m only going to ask you nicely to leave once.”
“I’ll gladly leave, but my fiancée is coming with me.” Eric took one step forward.
“I’m not your fiancée,” Octavia said with a strong voice. “I’m nothing to you.”
“That’s not what the world believes,” Eric said. “I grieved hard for you. I was heartbroken over your death. I still am and let people know all the time how much I miss you.”
“You don’t have a heart,” she muttered.
“If he does, it’s made of stone.” Bellamy shifted his stance. “I should have known you didn’t leave the island when you came poking around.” Well, crap.
Backup.
And Bellamy had no way of communicating that thought to his team. Though, they were smart. They probably already figured out that Eric had a second team either already on the island somewhere.
Or they had just landed and Tommy was about to bring them in.
Bellamy was going to have to speed things up. He couldn’t give Tommy that much time.
But he needed to give Octavia the time she needed to get Eric to admit what he’d done.
Bellamy owed her that.
“You’ve never been very good at your job.” Eric jerked his head. “Put that gun down and kick it over. If you try anything funny, I won’t hesitate to kill you. I know enough about this island to know that murders happen. You’ve also made a few enemies in your day. Shit happens.”
“You’re forgetting one thing,” Bellamy said. “My team and the organization I work for all know Octavia is alive. They know she’s here. They will come gunning for you.”
Eric laughed. Hard. “Once again, Bell you?—”
Bellamy set his weapon on the ground and kicked it across the floor. “Don’t call me that. Only people who are my friends or family can call me by that name and you are neither.” He had never enjoyed his name being shortened. His mom started it when he’d been a small boy and it continued on with family and eventually classmates who sometimes called him Bell Pepper. He absolutely hated that one. He often corrected people, especially guys like Eric. But as he aged, the nickname grew on him and when his team or Octavia used it, he found it endearing.
“Whatever.” Eric shrugged. “Like always, you fucked up. The moment you pulled her from Colombia, you should have announced to the world she was alive. Had you done that, you would have tied my hands.”
Octavia curled her fingers around his biceps with a death grip as she inched out from behind his back.
Eric had opened the door and now it was time to let her start talking.
Bellamy took one step back, putting himself between Eric and the foyer. He needed to see the stairs while also having a line of vision on the front and back door.
However, if all had gone exactly according to plan—which almost never happened—Rusty and Cooper should be upstairs and Ethan should be on the back porch.
Quinn had the overwatch from down the street. Quinn was a damn good shot. If by chance this op went sideways and Eric waltzed out the front door, he wasn’t getting too far.
Flint and Lane should be taking their positions near the detached garage and Bowie and Waylen should have the rear.
Everyone else should still be at their post.
But nothing ever went according to plan.
And he had no idea where Tommy was and what kind of team or firepower he’d be bringing to this party.