Chapter 18
Pid paced his yard while his team did their best to try to figure out where Bull would take Monica.
Commander Huttner was pulling all the strings he could to track the man down.
He’d apparently arrived in Hawaii using another one of his aliases.
No one had known he was here. Which was fucking embarrassing.
The United States Navy was supposed to be the best of the best, and yet they couldn’t track down one man?
It was bad enough it took so long to figure out who was causing so many problems for so many years.
But the fact that it had turned out to be one their own?
A man they’d spent a large amount of money and time training? It was like a punch to the gut.
But Pid didn’t care about any of that, all he cared about was finding Monica. It had been fifty-three and a half minutes exactly since he’d spoken to Baker, and he hadn’t heard another word from the man. There was no way he’d be able to get to his house in an hour unless—
His thoughts were broken off when a very familiar sound reached his ears. Even though it was dark, he looked up at the sky as the light from a helicopter got closer and closer. It wasn’t a military chopper, but rather one that took tourists up for aerial tours of the island.
The noise had all of his teammates looking upward as the chopper began to descend. Luckily, the property Pid lived on was largely a wide-open space. The landlord was probably wondering what in the hell a helicopter was doing landing in his field, but Pid didn’t spare that more than a thought.
The second the skids came to rest on the ground, Pid and his team were running toward the helicopter. The door opened and Baker stuck his head out.
“You!” he yelled over the noise of the blades, pointing at Pid. “Get in.”
Pid continued toward the chopper, but Midas grabbed hold of his arm, forcing him to wait. “Talk to us, Baker. What the fuck is going on?”
This wasn’t the time for a conversation. Monica was out there somewhere with Bull, and every second she was with him was one more second she could be hurt.
“Bull wants me. Says he’ll kill Monica if I don’t show up at the coordinates he gave me.”
“Where?” Jag asked.
“Leilani Estates!” Baker yelled.
“Fuck. On the Big Island?” Midas asked.
Baker nodded. “There’s only room for one of you,” he said. “Bull said to come alone, but if it was my woman, there’s no way in hell that would happen.”
“Damn straight,” Pid growled.
“I’ll call Huttner,” Mustang said. “See if we can’t get a second chopper in the air to have your back.”
“If you get too close, he’ll kill her,” Baker warned. He looked each one of the SEALs in the eye before he said, “Let me handle it. I’m gonna take care of him once and for all. Bull’s a menace to society, a fucking psycho, and he’ll continue to kill. This ends now.”
“Go,” Mustang told Pid, letting go of his arm, giving him a small shove toward the helicopter.
Pid climbed into the chopper with Baker’s assistance.
He had no idea what the plan was, but one thing was for sure—he wasn’t going to come home without Monica.
He wasn’t going to lose her. Especially not to a rogue SEAL.
He had no idea if she’d want anything to do with him afterward.
She’d lived her entire life being afraid of military men, and now here she was, in a deadly situation because of yet another.
Even before he was settled, Pid felt the chopper lift off. He put on the pair of headphones Baker handed him and didn’t waste time. “What’s really going on, Baker?”
“Bull’s fucking lost it, that’s what,” Baker said. “Not that we had any doubt before now. He brought her to the middle of Kilauea’s hot zone. The coordinates he gave me lead right to the middle of a section that was overtaken by lava a few years ago. The same place the lava is headed for again.”
“Shit!”
“Yeah. And like I said, he told me to come alone, so you’ll have to stay out of sight.”
“Where’d you get the chopper?” Pid asked.
Baker merely shrugged. “I called in a favor.”
It must’ve been a hell of a favor. Glancing at the pilot, Pid saw the man was focused on flying, showing no interest in their conversation.
He’d bet his life the man was former military of some sort, but at the moment, Pid was just grateful Baker had been able to secure the perfect mode of transportation to get to the other island so quickly.
“What’s the plan?”
“We’ll be dropped off as close as we can get to the coordinates. It’ll depend on the lava flow and how hot things are in the area. I’ll go meet with Bull, kill him, get your woman, and we’ll get the hell out of there.”
It wasn’t much of a plan, and both men were well aware of all the things that could go wrong, but without knowing what kind of situation they were headed into, they couldn’t actually strategize.
“Monica’s life comes first,” Pid felt obligated to say. “I know you and your former teammate have bad blood, but if it comes down to it, Monica’s life comes before revenge. If Bull escapes, he escapes.”
Baker eyed Pid with irritation. “You really think I’d sacrifice your woman for revenge?”
Pid didn’t flinch from the ire he saw in the other man’s eyes.
Baker had scary connections and might exude some pretty serious killer vibes, but with the way Pid was feeling, he was the man Bull should be worried about right now, not his former team leader.
He maintained his silence and didn’t answer Baker’s question.
“The objective of this mission is to find Monica and get her the hell out of there,” Baker finally concurred. “But if I get the opportunity, Bull’s a dead man.”
Pid nodded. That was more than fine with him. The last thing any of them wanted was to have to worry about him coming back for a second chance to hurt someone close to Baker.
The two men fell silent as the chopper made its way across the ocean toward the Big Island.
Monica yelped in pain as Shane stopped abruptly and shrugged her off his back. She barely managed not to fall on her ass, but the sharp lava rocks under her feet hurt like hell.
“We’re here,” he announced with glee.
Looking around, she couldn’t make out much beyond the light on Shane’s headlamp.
She couldn’t see any stars or the moon, figuring clouds must be obscuring the night sky.
She hadn’t seen any other illumination the entire time they’d been moving.
Not only that, but the heat around them had increased as Bull walked.
She’d caught glimpses of the roofs of cars and other signs of civilization that had been swallowed by the lava flow a few years ago.
Shane bent over and picked up a lava rock, throwing it in the air before catching it once again. He smiled as he turned toward her.
Monica winced and shielded her gaze from the headlamp shining in her eyes.
“Sorry,” Shane said, as if they were two friends out on a nighttime pleasure hike. He took off the headlamp and looked around. Then he walked over to a pile of rocks and propped up the light, illuminating the area around them. “There,” he said in satisfaction.
He picked up another rock and twirled it around his fingers, before putting it in his pocket.
“That’s bad luck,” Monica blurted before she could think better of it.
He merely laughed. “I don’t believe in luck,” he said. “I’ve studied long and hard to be as good as I am at what I do. Luck has nothing to do with it.”
“What about Pele’s Curse?” Monica asked. “Any visitor who takes sand or rocks off the islands will have bad luck until they return the pilfered objects.”
Shane shook his head. “It’s bullshit. That story was made up by a disgruntled park ranger who was angry so many rocks were being taken from his park.
You’re stupid if you believe that garbage.
Besides, I want a souvenir. To remember the night I finally exacted revenge on the man who fucked up my life. ”
So he was meeting Baker. Hopefully Shane didn’t have an accomplice on the way. She’d bet on Baker over this psycho asshole any day. Monica wanted to tell Shane that the only person who’d fucked up his life was himself, but she decided that probably wasn’t a good idea right now.
As her eyes adjusted, she looked around again, realizing it wasn’t quite pitch dark out here—wherever here was—after all.
Off in the distance, there were odd bright flashes here and there…
and after a moment, Monica realized she was seeing red-hot lava as it ever so slowly rolled closer.
Small flares winked brightly when something caught on fire, before being smothered by the lava.
She’d watched a documentary about lava once, intrigued by how it was black on top from the cooler air, while viscous and absolutely deadly underneath to anything in its path. At the time, she’d found it fascinating and almost beautiful in its own way.
Right now, it was anything but. It was fucking terrifying to think of that same two-thousand-degree molten lava moving steadily toward her.
Even from a decent distance, she was beginning to sweat from the intense heat.
She saw more flashes of the yellowish-red flow moving steadily toward them.
She wanted to flee. To get away. But she had no idea which way to go, and she wouldn’t get far without shoes.
She was well and truly stuck. She just had to hope Baker arrived soon… and somehow got them both out of this.
On the heels of that thought, she suddenly had no doubt whatsoever that Stuart would accompany his friend. He wouldn’t let Bull kidnap her, then sit back and do nothing while Baker did all the work.
As if her thoughts had summoned it, the sound of a helicopter cut through the quiet of the night.
“He’s here,” Shane said with a smile. “The fun’s about to start.”
Monica wanted to puke. Wanted to scream. But instead, all she did was stand as still as possible and pray.