“I’m done playing nice, girlie. Come with me quietly or I kill your little friend.” The commander sneered down at her with his fists clenched at the side.
Hannah looked at Cora and saw her standing but holding the side of her face. As much as Hannah didn’t want to go with him she knew she couldn’t risk Cora’s life. Cora was a good person and didn’t need to be involved in this. Hannah opened her mouth to tell the commander she would come with him when a blur raced from the front door and tackled the commander to the ground.
Ben.
Hannah smiled at seeing Ben. She frowned when she saw him straddling his commander and rained blows to his face. Hannah couldn’t allow him to do that. He could never live with himself if he killed his boss. Hannah picked herself off the ground and made her way to Ben who hadn’t let up. If he continued there would be nothing left of the commander. “Ben,” she called out to him but he either didn’t hear or ignored her. She called him a few more times and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Ben, please stop.”
He finally stopped and took deep gulps of air. His fists were covered in blood and she had no idea if any of it was his. The commander was eerily quiet and she couldn’t see much of his features anymore. Hannah squatted down and stepped to Ben’s side and touched his face. He stared at the commander for a long minute before turning his predatory eyes on her. When they focused on her they turned softer. “Hannah,” he sighed her name.
Hannah gave him her most radiant smile, trying to quell her fear. “I’m here. You saved me. Again.” Ben stood up and stepped over the commander and pulled Hannah close. She could barely breathe he was holding her so tight but she didn’t protest. They were both alive.
He pulled back from her and looked her over. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Rattled but okay. Oh, Cora.” She looked over to her friend but saw another man looking over Cora despite her protests. It was Liam. It was the first time she had seen him since they landed in California almost three weeks ago.
Chapter Ten
Ben hated his morning interrupted with Hannah. They had made love throughout the night and he was sore and in much need of a few hours of sleep before he did it again. The phone call from his Commander had sounded odd but when commanded for his presence he couldn’t say no. Hannah had looked at him sadly this morning at his abrupt change in attitude but he was angry at his commander for calling him. It wasn’t like him to call him right after a mission. He had already debriefed and so there hadn’t been a reason for him to call him. But Commander Brady said there was new intel on the ambush and he needed to get down to the office immediately. Ben kissed Hannah and rushed out the door hoping to rush back to her.
He could tell something was wrong when he arrived. The building was quiet and the commander wasn’t there. Strange. Why would the commander call him and tell him to get there if he wasn’t there himself? Maybe he ran out to get something to eat or go to the bathroom. Ben sat down on the bench outside the office and waited. Thirty minutes later the commander still wasn’t there. Now Ben was pissed. The commander had interrupted his morning for no reason. He stood up to storm out of the building when his cell phone went off. It was Hound.
“Hound, how’s Cricket?” Cricket had been clipped in the shoulder by a militia on their last mission. The guy had just popped out of nowhere. Now Cricket was in the hospital getting it looked at and Hound volunteered to keep an eye on him.
“Grumpy, but what do you expect?” Hound chuckled.
“Glad to hear it. Is that why you called?” Ben didn’t have time for idle chit-chat right now. He wanted to get back to Hannah.
“No, my contact Blade just got back to me. He thinks he found the mole. It traces back to this base.”
“What?” Ben stopped dead in his tracks. “Impossible.”
“I’m afraid not. We’ve been tracking the money and found a few offshore accounts. Whoever set them up was good but not better than me. You’ll never guess who the Fox is.”
“Who?” The base was big enough it could be anybody.
“Commander Brady.” Ben couldn’t have heard him right. Their commander had set them up? That didn’t make any sense. “Midas, you there?” Hound asked.
“I’m here. It just doesn’t make any sense. We’ve worked with him for years and nothing has ever happened before. He even called me to meet him at his office this morning but he’s not here.”
“That’s not good. Where’s Hannah?” Ben was touched his teammate was worried about her. The guys liked her and ribbed him a few times about her over the mission. Now that Hannah knew about what he did for a living and accepted it, he didn’t want to let her go. She fit him in a way that defied reason. She had touched him as no other woman had before or ever
