Darkest Before Dawn

So wrapped up in trying to find and free Honor, Hancock hadn’t even noticed until now that her eyes were open. He froze, staring down at completely lifeless eyes. No spark. Dull as death. Absolutely no reaction, no evidence that she even knew they were there.

He tentatively caressed her cheek, afraid that she might well shatter if he touched her.

“Honor?”

His voice was hoarse, laced with worry and choked with tears he couldn’t control. They streamed down his cheeks and he lowered his face to her hair as Conrad set to unlocking the last manacle holding her ankle.

His entire body heaved as his tears soaked into her hair.

“She’s free,” Conrad said in a low voice. “Let me carry her, Hancock. You know you aren’t strong enough. And if she wakes and sees you like this, you’ll scare the shit out of her.”

Hancock reluctantly agreed but not for the reasons Conrad outlined. Hancock knew that if Honor regained awareness and saw Hancock, she’d look at him like the betrayer he was. Like the failure he was. Like a man who’d broken his promises to her time and time again.

“Only until we get to the plane,” Hancock said fiercely. “Then I want her to have pain medication and a sedative. I don’t want her to wake up this way. Not here. Not on the plane. I want her to wake up in a place she knows she’s safe.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Conrad said, understanding the torment Hancock faced. “And Hancock, we all failed her. Not just you.”

“I betrayed her,” Hancock said savagely. “I was the one who promised her I wouldn’t give her to Maksimov, that I’d find a way. I was the one who drugged her and didn’t tell her what we were doing. I’m the one who she thought betrayed her when she woke up with Maksimov’s hands on her. This is on me. Only me. And it’s me who’s going to have to live with it for the rest of my goddamn life.”

CHAPTER 37

“I just struck gold,” Donovan said, gleefully doing a fist pump as he leaned back from where he’d been feverishly hacking into Maksimov’s encrypted computer files.

The plane had lifted into the air an hour ago and Honor lay in the small bedroom, sedated, while the others had sprawled in the sitting area on chairs, the couch and even the floor.

One of Resnick’s teams had taken the other jet so they could keep close watch on Honor’s family. Sam had sent word ahead to Sean to lock down the compound, and that under no circumstances was anyone to go in or out of the secure area.

It had already been decided that Nathan and Joe’s team would remain at the compound to ensure the safety of the family while every other available KGI member along with Titan would go after Maksimov.

“Spill,” Hancock growled.

He was the only one not seated and the one who needed to be resting the most, but he paced the small confines of the sitting area, his gaze going often to the door to the bedroom where Honor slept, which was left ajar just in case she awoke and panicked.

“If it were anyone else, I’d suspect a trap,” Donovan said. “But Maksimov is an arrogant bastard who truly believes he’s invincible and is unstoppable. I have the coordinates, the place and the time he’s making the exchange with ANE and he’s gone ahead already. It’s why he wasn’t here. He’s negotiating with ANE and milking his ‘find’ for all its worth. He sent his men to bring Honor to him—and ANE. We have a dream scenario here. We can take them both out at the same time. We’ll never get another opportunity like this, so we have to go in and get it done.”

Sam frowned. “We don’t have the manpower for that kind of op. We’re good, but we’re vastly outnumbered and without the team guarding Honor’s family and Nathan and Joe’s team locking down the compound, we don’t have a chance in hell of taking both Maksimov and ANE out.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Resnick said fiercely. “I’m going all out on this. I have four SEAL teams I’m calling in. I have the two black ops teams, and I’m bringing three special forces units and the best of the best, army rangers and several airborne units. They won’t know what hit them. Uncle Sam would like nothing more than to kill two birds with one stone, and they’ll give us whatever the fuck we need to take them all down. For this mission? They’ll give me the fucking keys to the kingdom. And that’s a fact.”

“You’ll need bait,” P.J. said thoughtfully. “Without evidence of Honor, we’ll never get close enough to take them out.”

“No!” Cole exploded in fury, knowing exactly where she was going with this. Hancock could see the raw pain in Cole’s eyes and knew he was remembering the last time KGI had used bait—P.J.—and the horrific results. She’d been raped and brutalized and every single member of KGI still carried the weight of their guilt, but no one more than Cole.

“It is not an option,” Cole said in an icy, furious tone. “I will not risk you again, P.J. You can’t expect me to let you. Not after . . .”

He broke off, the words choking and dying in his voice, but tears glittered harshly in his eyes.

“Of course she can’t,” Skylar said in a soothing voice, putting her hand on Cole’s arm, squeezing in a comforting gesture. “P.J. looks nothing like Honor. It would never work.”

Relief made Cole go weak in the knees, and he dragged P.J. against his side, burying his face in her hair, and she let him, a testament to just how upset she knew her husband was.