Sins and Scarlet Lace

chapter FIVE

It didn’t take Declan long to circle around and head off the men as they made their way across Sophia’s property. It was a large area to cover, and they’d spread themselves too thin, each man taking a different direction.

He could’ve heard the first man coming from a mile away. He wasn’t even trying to be quiet as he kicked leaves and branches out of the way. Dec moved in behind him and snapped his neck quickly, the familiar scent of death permeating the air as he laid the man gently on the ground and moved toward the next one.

He’d only counted half a dozen men, but there was always the chance more could’ve been waiting in the wings. He hunted with a single goal in mind—to terminate any threats to Sophia.

He dealt with each man the same way as the first, until he got to the last. The man in front of him must have had a bad feeling because he let out a low whistle, a signal to the others, and no one answered him back. He stopped in his tracks, his weapon held at the ready, and he listened for movement. He never heard Dec come up behind him.

Dec kicked out at the man’s knees, and the sickening crunch of snapping bone and cartilage had him crying out in pain as he fell to the ground. Dec followed through with a series of hits that caused numbing in the arms, and the weapon that had been in the mercenary’s hand dropped with a soft thud into the leaves.

“Who sent you?” Dec asked, gripping the man by the hair and forcing him to look into his face.

“F*ck you.” The man glared daggers at Declan, already seeing his death, and he spat on the ground at his feet.

“I’ll pass. You’re in need of a bath.” Dec’s grip tightened on the man’s hair and he pulled the Ka-Bar from his boot, watching the man’s eyes widen at the sight of the sharp blade. “I’ll ask you again. Who sent you?”

Dec brought the knife to the man’s throat, nicking it just enough for the coppery scent of blood to fill the air. “Your friends are dead. It’s just you and me now, so you might as well tell me what you know. I’m willing to let you live so you can take a message back to your boss.”

“He’ll kill me faster than you will,” he spat. “You might as well make it quick.”

“Oh, believe me when I tell you I can make you live for a long time with the things I’ll do to you. You’ll only be wishing for death.”

Whatever the man saw in Dec’s eyes must have convinced him of the truth because his lips trembled with fear and the sickly scent of urine surrounded them.

“I don’t know his name,” the man said.

Declan pressed harder with the knife and the man cried out in protest. “Honest, I don’t. We get our orders though an encrypted email account and then when the job is done, money shows up in our accounts. It’s all electronic.”

“What were the instructions for the girl?”

“To find out where the money is and to do whatever it took to make her talk.”

“And once she told you where the money was?”

“Elimination.”

“You’ve been very helpful,” Dec said, knowing the feeling would be coming back to the man’s arms soon. He swiped the blade quickly across his throat and moved out of the way before the spray of blood reached him.

Eliminate all threats to Sophia. That was his mission, and he wasn’t going to veer from that path.

He pressed the button on his watch so it glowed, and he winced as he saw his time was almost up to get back to Sophia before she took off. She’d do it too, the stubborn wench. Dec took off at a run and just made it back to where Sophia was hiding when he heard the sound of a vehicle pulling into the drive of her house.

“Time to go,” he said, pulling her from her crouched position behind the brush. “We’re not out of this yet. It looks like the backup team has arrived.”

The glare of headlights cut through the darkness and he watched as a cargo van skidded to a stop. Two men jumped out, weapons at the ready, and headed straight into the house. Dec cursed silently at his miscalculations. These men hadn’t been following Sophia through the week. He would have seen them. But they’d been somewhere close and had been assigned some other task.

“Can you run?” he asked.

“As far as it takes.”

“Follow me. Take the steps I take. We can’t afford for you to have a broken ankle.”

She nodded and he pushed the rest of the way through the brush and out of the gulley until they were on flatter land. And then they ran.

It took less than twenty minutes for the glow of fire to reach above the treetops, and Sophia reached out and grabbed his arm, pulling him to a stop. Her breath was labored and she bent over so her hands rested on her knees and she sucked in great lungfuls of air.

Dec stood silent and watched as the sky glowed bright with the haze of orange flames. Black smoke roiled in heavy clouds and hung suspended, no breeze to move them along.

“Oh, God,” Sophia said, her face wet with sweat and tears. “Oh my God. That’s everything. It’s all gone.”

Her voice was barely a whisper, but every word sliced into him. She’d endured more than any woman should ever have to, and she had every reason to blame him. He’d been the one to send her away, to chase her into the arms of another man. But he’d had no choice. At least he thought he hadn’t. And those choices were the reason she stood here now, devastation etched on her face.

But after watching men who’d become his friends get blown to hell and back, he knew he could never have a normal life. Never have a wife or children without bringing them into harm’s way. Because those men—his friends—had died because of who Declan was. Even during his Special Forces days he was being trained for deep cover within the CIA, and he’d had to make a choice. But the thing about choices was they had a snowball effect, and Sophia had been the one to suffer.

“Soph,” he said, putting his hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry, baby.”

She shrugged him off, her gaze never wavering from the glow. “I don’t need your pity,” she said, her voice husky with tears. “Just get me out of here and back into town so I can figure out how to put my life together again.”

“That’s easy enough,” Dec said, narrowing his eyes at the stubborn tilt of her chin and the blaze of anger in her eyes. “Because if you think for one second I’m going to let you out of my sight while these bastards are after you then you’re out of your mind.”

“You’ve been the catalyst to everything that has ever gone wrong in my life, Declan. Quite frankly, I’d rather take my chances with these a*sholes on my own. I don’t think I can survive any more of your help.”