Darkest Before Dawn

“Did you kill him?” Garrett asked calmly.

“Fuck yeah, I did, and I made damn sure it wasn’t quick and it sure as hell wasn’t merciful. Hancock would have done it himself. He wanted to take him apart with his bare hands, but he was the only one who had a prayer of talking Honor down, and he did. But if you could have seen him in that moment, if you could have seen him when he gave the order that the mission had changed, you would not question his—our—motives in the least bit. She means something to all of us, Kelly,” he said, using the common address for them all. “She’s ours and we are not giving her up to that sadistic piece of shit. All we wanted was to give the appearance that we were making the exchange and we were going to take him out. Fuck making it clean and tidy, building evidence, dismantling his empire and allowing countries to fight over who got what of his seized assets. We wanted his goddamn ass dead and that was all that mattered to us.

“He had more than one mole in Bristow’s organization. We knew of one. We killed Bristow because we no longer needed him and even if we had, after what he did, he was a dead man walking. But Maksimov still wasn’t quite sure and so he showed himself when they ambushed us. Hancock betrayed his emotions for Honor when he tried to keep Maksimov from taking her from his grasp. A sniper had already put a through-and-through in his left shoulder. This time Maksimov shot him in the chest with a cop killer at close range, and he’s not doing good. Not good at all. I’ve already lost a damn good man and goddamn it, I won’t lose Hancock. And I sure as fuck am not losing Honor Cambridge to that twisted asshole who thinks he’s a god.”

Maren burst in, her glasses askew, her hair in disarray as if she’d run the entire way. Steele immediately took Olivia from her arms and gently guided her toward the phone.

“Conrad, Maren Steele, our team doctor, is here and you’ll give her the rundown so she can see if there’s any hope for him.”

“I’m more interested in knowing if there’s hope for any of us. Especially Honor,” Conrad ground out.

“Cool your jets. We’ve got to think about this for more than three seconds. Talk to Maren. Let her help you help Hancock.”

At Hancock’s name, Maren’s head jerked up, her eyes widening in concern. Steele’s hand slipped comfortingly around his wife’s nape, his expression grim.

“They need you honey. Hancock needs you.” He sighed, knowing despite his misgivings over the man, he owed his wife’s and daughter’s lives to him, just as Rio did. “It doesn’t look good,” he added quietly. “You need to talk quick and help his man any way you can while we prepare to roll out.”

Maren briskly took the sat phone but turned off the speakerphone, much to Sam’s chagrin. She frowned at him and shook her head. “I need to think, damn it, Sam.”

She pushed away from the others, talking in urgent, hushed tones, her questions calm and efficient, not allowing Conrad to panic.

“What the fuck, Sam?” Garrett asked in a low voice. “This is some deep shit. This goes deeper than even we’re up for.”

“What else can we do?” Rio asked simply, his dark eyes flashing. “I get that Hancock is a wild card. But he’s got a code. It may be fucked up to you and me, but he is an honorable man. Before you laugh me out of the war room, just remember that he could have taken Grace at any time. I carried her halfway out of the mountains attached to my back, and she walked the rest of the way in unspeakable agony until she wanted to die from it. Me and my men were in no way prepared to ward off a full-scale attack from Titan. Instead? Hancock gave me a pass. Said it was my only one, but it was bullshit. Saving face. Looking like he owed me because I saved his life. It was what we did as a team. No one kept score. That was bullshit. We did what we had to do and we offered no apologies or thank-yous. And then he warned me. He gave me everything I needed to know about who and what was after Grace. All he didn’t give me was why, and you want to take a guess why that was?”

“No, but I’m sure you’ll tell us,” Donovan said in a weary voice.

“Because he knew Grace was too goddamn weak to heal a kitten. That she’d likely die if he brought her to Farnsworth right then and forced her to attempt to heal his daughter. So he bided his time, waiting, knowing damn well she was in good hands with me. And when he knew she was well enough to have a chance to save Elizabeth, then he took her. He never hurt her. Never laid a hand on her. But she was also fucking fierce and he admired that about her.”

“Is this going somewhere, because the clock is ticking,” Garrett snarled.

“Yeah, it is,” Rio snapped back.

“Let him speak because I have a hell of a lot to say too,” Steele said in a frigid tone.

“Only when he was certain Grace had a good chance of surviving Elizabeth’s healing did he take her in. He could have taken out Farnsworth at any time. Why wait? Why would a mere child matter to him?”

Joe cleared his throat. “It wouldn’t appear an innocent woman means much to him.”

“He wanted to save Elizabeth,” Rio said quietly. “And he wanted to save Grace. I didn’t figure it out until the whole thing with Maren went down, and I only told Steele. But you all know. I’ve told you. Titan was the real deal. Failure was tantamount to dishonorable death. And yet he gave up his chance to nail Maksimov for good because he feared for Maren to stay another night as Caldwell’s prisoner. She was pregnant, scared out of her mind, and so he called me and he pulled her out.”