“I know. ManTech doesn’t exist. I just thought I should be the one to tell you what happened.” Gunner’s tone matched his expression. The storm stirring in Daniel’s gut intensified, picking up speed.
“This is my new life,” he stated. “I don’t care about the past or anything in it.”
“I’m sorry.” Two words no man ever wanted to hear.
“For what? What did you do?”
When Gunner didn’t speak, the storm strengthened. The drumbeat in Daniel’s head intensified.
“What happened?” Daniel gripped Gunner by the arms because his worst fear was about to be realized. Naomi hadn’t answered his text this morning. She always answered.
“It happened last night. Miguel Nunez’s men were given your home address when Helena posted our employee files on the dark Web,” he stated. There was sorrow in his eyes.
“That’s not possible.” Daniel heard Gunner’s words but they were buzzing somewhere outside of his brain. No way could he let them in because that would mean one thing…his family was dead.
“This never should’ve happened,” Gunner said. “Your family didn’t deserve to be targets. I take full responsibility for Helena’s actions. If I’d stopped her before this never…”
“No.” Daniel took a swing at his former boss. Gale force winds pummeled Daniel as air whooshed from his lungs.
Gunner put up his forearm to block the punch but Daniel knocked the man back a couple of steps. Daniel kept charging toward Gunner, who winced as though ready to take whatever Daniel dished out.
Rage from deep within rose up, fueling every forward step toward his target.
“Both of them?” Daniel managed to get out through teeth clenched so hard his molars should crack in half.
Gunner nodded.
“How could you let this happen?” Daniel ground out. He drew back, ready to deliver another blow.
Before he could fire off the punch, Samuel and a couple of his Haitian friends were on either side of him, struggling to hold him back.
“It won’t change anything,” Samuel soothed.
“He killed my family.” Anger fed the storm brewing inside until it was a raging hurricane.
“I’m sorry,” Gunner said, bowing his head but standing his ground.
Daniel lunged forward but rebounded. The men gripped him harder. Others joined them, forming a circle around Daniel, chanting, praying.
“What did you do?” Daniel cried out, dropping to his knees.
Gunner pulled a report from under his arm. “It’s all in here. What happened. The breech. My men were close, so Nunez had to move fast. It was over in a flash for both of them. I thought you should know that. They didn’t suffer.”
Daniel struggled against the men’s arms, like bindings, holding him down.
He wanted to ram his fists into the nearest body. This couldn’t be real. His family couldn’t be gone. They had plans. Ruthie. She was going to be Wonder Woman this year for Halloween. And he and Naomi were going to get over the rough patch. Daniel had been more determined than ever to get a grip on his demons and do right by her.
Ruthie wanted to learn how to bob for apples. This was the first year he’d be home to take her trick-or-treating. Daniel had mapped out the neighborhood and drawn up a plan. Naomi had shaken her head but he could see the amusement in her eyes. He was starting to break through the protective walls his wife had constructed, slowly building a bridge over the cavern between them.
However fleeting those moments of true connection had been, they’d been real. And now it was all gone?
There was no way it could be true.
Daniel tried to jerk free from the vise-like grips around his forearms.
“You’re a lying sonofabitch. Ruthie is home in bed right now. She’s safe and so is her mother. They’re asleep and that’s why Naomi didn’t answer—”
“I’m sorry.”
“No,” Daniel raged. “You don’t get to be sorry.”
“We couldn’t get there in time. The tip came in too late,” Gunner said.
“Get out of here. You’re a liar,” Daniel ground out. Anger. Torment. Rage nipped at him.
“I wish that was the case,” Gunner said. His head was still bowed and the look of anguish on his face said this was all too real.
Pain doubled Daniel over. Tears raced down his cheeks. He folded forward onto the dry dirt, rocking back and forth, wishing he could trade places, knowing he would give his life in a heartbeat if it could save either one of them.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
Chapter 4
Two years later…
Havana, Cuba
“How’d you find me?” Daniel almost couldn’t believe who stood in front of him. Jaden Dean, now known by his real name of Jaden Orchard wore jeans, a sweat-soaked white T-shirt and a gold band on his wedding finger. No matter what the man called himself, he had a helluva lot of nerve showing up.
“It wasn’t easy.” Jaden kept one eye trained on Daniel.
“What are you doing here?” The two had worked together at ManTech. In fact, Jaden had been Daniel’s supervisor.
“I need a good man and we both know that you’re the best.” Jaden leaned against the wall and folded his arms. His gaze surveyed the one-room apartment and he looked unsure if Daniel would pop off the couch and throw a punch.
“You’ve come to the wrong place. I don’t do grunt work for idiot politicians anymore.”
“Neither do I. This isn’t the same kind of assignment we used to do. In fact, I almost didn’t come because...” Jaden looked around before kicking a Coke can out of the path on his way to the sofa.
“Maid doesn’t come ’til Thursday,” Daniel stated.
“It is Thursday,” Jaden said plainly.
“Then she’ll be here any minute, so you’d better get to the point.” Daniel sat up and rubbed the scruff on his chin. He probably looked like crap, which pretty much matched his mood so he couldn’t care less. “Besides, I have shit to do.”
“A girl’s missing,” Jaden said.
“Now I see why you’d come to the holy trinity of human trafficking epicenters,” Daniel said, referring to Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti. “Still not interested.”
“Look, Gunner told me what happened before and I’m sorry—”
“Save the sermon.” Daniel didn’t do Sunday
