Chapter 38
38
Hawk had waited under the cover of trees for Cole to find a place to land, which wasn’t easy with the wind and the limited space to maneuver the bird. Catching a tree in a rotor would end in disaster. Maybe that was a better outcome than facing his brother.
No. He couldn’t think like that.
But really, what did he hope to accomplish?
Ending this.
Saving Remi.
And he had no idea how to approach his brother. Aim his gun and tie him up? Make a citizen’s arrest? Hawk had so much more he wanted to say and do, and the last thing he wanted was to be forced to kill his own brother.
God, why does it have to come down to this?
He raced through the trees and found the opening where Cole was trying to land. Hawk watched his brother set the bird down in a precarious spot. Cole was a skilled pilot. Admittedly, it surprised Hawk just how skilled he was. He didn’t know his brother as well as he thought. He’d missed some things. Cole didn’t wait for the rotors to slow as he hopped out of the bird and raced toward the trees in the direction of Cedar Trails Lodge.
God, help me stop him!
“Cole! Stop!” Hawk chased after him. He meant to stand between his brother and Remi.
He stepped out in front of Cole, who instantly lifted his weapon, aiming at Hawk. His chest squeezed tight. What was he doing standing here vulnerable? A target for his brother. Hawk lifted his hands. “Are you really going to shoot me?”
He’d shot at him before.
He lowered the gun and stomped forward. “I don’t want to, but I will if I have to, so get out of my way. You’re a traitor to your country.” The words seethed from Cole as he bumped past Hawk, hitting his shoulder.
Oh yeah? Cole was asking for a fight. Hawk had dreamed of the moment when he could beat some sense into his brother. He grabbed his shoulder to yank him around. And Cole responded. Instincts kicked in as he fought Cole.
Boiling anger rose in Hawk’s throat. “ I’m the traitor? I have no idea what you mean, man. What are you talking about? Explain it to me. You’re the assassin. You turned rogue. Why, Cole?”
“You’re wasting my time. What have you done with her?” Cole lifted his weapon as if he was going to finish Hawk. “If only Dad could see you now. He was so proud of you, his favorite son, but you’ve turned your back on all that’s good and right.”
Cole’s words were like a shot in the dark, except they didn’t miss their mark, cutting Hawk right in the heart. “You’ve got me mixed up with someone else.”
Facing Cole wasn’t going down like Hawk had imagined—that he would be able to reason with his brother. Nope. He was going for the throat.
“Let’s finish this once and for all.” Hawk fisted his hands.
“Fine by me.” Cole stomped forward and punched Hawk in the face.
Men suddenly became boys again. Brothers. Wrestling. Punching. Grunting.
Mom tried to pull them apart. Dad wanted to let them finish ... but apparently, they never had.
But they would today.
On the ground now, slowing through the wet earth, their wrestling days as brothers fresh on his mind, Hawk held Cole in a choke hold. Cole would pass out if he couldn’t break out of this. His brother tapped his leg, signaling he was giving up. “Are you sure you’re done? Because I could keep going.”
Slamming his fist into Hawk, he let him know it was now or never. Hawk released him and he rolled away. They both lay in the muck, gasping for breath, rain lashing them.
Cole scrambled to his feet, ready to pounce again. “Enough games, Hawk. What have you done with her?”
“Like I would tell you.”
“I’m taking her.” Cole readied his weapon. “Don’t stand in my way.”
“You’d shoot your own brother? What happened to you, Cole? You were a hero, and now you’re a gun for hire? How does that even happen?” Anger and shock fueling him, Hawk barely noticed the pain Cole had inflicted on him, but the look that Cole was giving Hawk left him confused. “I’ve got news for you. I’m standing in your way. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m protecting her from you.”
Hawk braced against a strong gust of wind. Prepared for Cole’s reaction.
Still gasping for breath, Cole swiped the rain from his eyes. “From me ? What are you talking about?”
A gunshot rang out. Hawk jolted at the sound. Grimacing, Cole grabbed his shoulder. Hawk yanked Cole with him as they dove behind a boulder for cover. Gunfire ricocheted against the rock. Leaning against the cold, wet stone, Cole’s face twisted as he looked at his shoulder, then pressed a hand against it.
“Keep your hand pressed there. Stop the bleeding.”
“I know how to do it!”
“It must be John’s men,” Hawk said. “They’re supposed to be here to protect Remi. They saw you, so took a shot. That was a wrong move, but I understand. You tried to kill John, so they’re out for revenge.”
Blood leaked between Cole’s fingers, and Hawk added his hand. He couldn’t watch his brother bleed out. “I’ll fix this. I’ll get us help and keep them from shooting you. But you’re going to have to come in. I don’t know how you escaped.”
Hawk started to move, but Cole gripped him. “I don’t know what that conspirator John told you, but I didn’t shoot him. I didn’t try to kill him.” Cole spat the words at him.
“I saw him with my own eyes.”
“You saw him. Already shot? The first time you saw me at John’s, that was the first moment I stepped into that house. You didn’t see me shoot him, did you?”
“No, but...”
“He told you that, didn’t he? Like he told you I was an assassin.”
Was Cole just trying to get in his head and twist things all around in a weird psychological game? “Well, yes, but...”
“And you’re part of this. Working for him, so who’s the traitor here?” Cole asked.
“I’m not working for John! He was helping me keep Remi safe. He sent me to the lodge, knowing I’d find you. I’ve been looking for you.” Hawk had already gotten a very bad feeling about it.
Cole pulled Hawk close and ground the words through clenched teeth. “You’re telling me, brother to brother, that you’re not after the device.”
“No. I didn’t even know about it.” And Hawk’s reply meant he’d confessed to knowing something. In fact, he shouldn’t have said that much, but he wasn’t going to lie to his brother. They were already in too deep for it to matter. Either of them could die today. They might not make it out of this.
“Guess what?” Cole asked. “John is trying to get it so he can sell to the highest bidder. He was all set to sell to Andre Aslam when you tangled with him.”
“What? How do you know this? You can’t believe that. I won’t believe it.”
“Then you’re naive.”
“I’ve known him for years. He saved my life.”
“And he’s counting on that loyalty. He’s using it to turn you against me, and by the way, you’ve known me longer. When this is all over, he’ll blame whatever happens on me. Don’t you see?”
No. Hawk didn’t see. Or maybe he didn’t want to see. But this was Cole. How could he have been so willing to believe the worst?
“Remi said you were there on the helicopter that crashed. Tell me what happened to bring you to this point.” Hawk needed to hear this story. He was torn between believing his brother and his longtime mentor and friend.
Cole winced in pain and drew in a few quick breaths. “Someone took out my team. I made it my mission to find out who was behind it, and in the process, I discovered your buddy was working with an arms trafficker but double-crossed him. They wanted to sell what Sergei developed to the highest bidder, which just happened to be a very bad dude who ran a very bad terrorist group.”
“Aslam.”
“Yes. My team got caught in the crossfire. And then their most valuable asset—Sergei Petrov—was dead. It’s all been a race to wait.”
“A race to wait. What do you mean?” Then Hawk thought he understood.
“For Remi Grant to remember. She was inadvertently drawn into keeping Sergei safe. My intel connections suggested that both Whitman and Marshall believed Sergei must have told her something. But I suspected it to begin with. I saw him push her out of the helicopter. We were over water, and he had to suspect what was coming next. He was self-sacrificial in that way. But she couldn’t survive on her own, or at least I thought. Our bird had been sabotaged from the inside out. I jumped to save Remi, and I thought the rest would follow. They would have. I know they were going to, but a rocket launcher took it out.”
Cole closed his eyes.
“Bro. You still with me? You okay?” Hawk had to get him out of this position. He fired his weapon, keeping the men after them at bay, but he could only hold them for so long.
“I didn’t find her. I was rescued and later learned that she had been too, but she was off-limits. Untouchable. But I got close, and I saw John Marshall there.”
“Are you sure you’re right about him?” Hawk hated himself for asking the question.
“I’m positive. I’ve been working with a cyber operations specialist—a hacker in the Army, basically—who lost someone on that mission gone wrong. She’s been helping me. She intercepted communications between John Marshall and Charles Whitman, and we’ve sent this to the appropriate authorities. It’s only a matter of time before John is arrested. I’m relieved that you’re not working with him.”
“I can’t believe you thought I was,” Hawk said.
“And I can’t believe you thought I was a rogue agent, a gun for hire.”
“What was I supposed to think?”
Hawk thought about John’s words.
“...the difference between the good guys and the bad guys was often a matter of point of view.”
John must have been using that philosophy as his justification to go after the Tempest device.
He peered around the rock, trying to find their egress. Shadows crept between the trees. Time was running out.
“It doesn’t matter right now. Let’s just say that they know that two different parties want what she knows, and someone else wants her dead. I tried to encourage her to remember. Jar her memory before it was too late.”
“With the puzzle pieces? That was you, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah. I showed up to watch out for her and found you here. I thought you were working for him, man. I couldn’t seem to get a break and get her away from you. You had her fooled into believing I was on the wrong side of this.”
“Why would you think I’d betray my own country?”
“You were close to John. You were here. Remi was here.”
“That makes sense. But we need to trust each other. I’m sorry that I believed John. But I was trying to find you so I could talk to you. Why didn’t you just come to tell me?”
“I did...”
“What? When?”
“I followed you. You were meeting with John, and it was too late. He’d already turned you against me. I thought you were the traitor,” Cole grunted out. “But that’s his men out there. And they’re not just trying to kill me. They’re going to kill you, too, because by now they know that John’s game is up.”
His brother’s words left Hawk grasping for something solid. The storm system was building to a crescendo around them—it was almost a metaphor for this situation. How would they escape? Hawk spotted two men on either side of them, hiding in the woods, signaling each other and creeping forward, so he kept shooting.
“I’m running out of ammo.”
If Cole was telling him the truth, then they were both in trouble.
“They’re making their way around,” Cole said. “We need an escape. You know this place better than me.”
Hawk doubted that. “The cliff. We can get close to the edge in those trees, and then make our way over to the bunkers. You remember those, don’t you? You abducted Jo and chained her to a wall.”
“Dude, I don’t know about the bunkers, and I didn’t chain anyone to the wall.” Cole grimaced in pain.
They crawled through the underbrush, making their way close to the edge. “Not too close.” He didn’t want this to be one of those rare moments when erosion tried to dump them in the ocean.
Hawk and Cole pressed forward until they found the entryway to the bunker built in the cliffside. The ocean boiled below, pounding the rocks and soaking them to the bone with cold sea spray.
Hawk and Cole scrambled toward the entrance.
“It’s a maze down there.” Hawk shook his head as they entered the corridor built into the cliff. “This was a bad idea. We should have found another way. Remi needs protection. We need to get back to her.”
He should never have left her to stop Cole, who wasn’t even his enemy here.
Well played, John. Well played.
“They’ll follow us,” Cole said. “They aren’t going after Remi until they’ve taken us both out. They need us out of the way.”
“Unless more of John’s men are at the lodge.”
“Doesn’t matter. We can’t help her until we get out of this,” Cole said.
Hawk pressed forward. “We can draw them in here and take them down.” Hawk moved to the door but found it bolted shut. “What?”
He pounded on the door. Jo must have come back and made sure no one could be locked up inside again. He didn’t blame her.
But now we’re trapped.