CHAPTER 20

I'll Curse the Ground Where You Kneel

I wake up at six in the morning with Beth sprawled on my chest, a piece of hair stuck to her mouth, and her snores drowning out any other possible noise in the bunker. I pray to God that I get a lifetime's worth of moments just like this, but this one will have to be cut short.

I need to get ready.

For the first time in years, I put on the T-shirt and pants, as well as my thick brown combat boots, my mother's rosary, and my tactical thigh holster for my gun. After I'm done, I wake Beth with kisses over her face and neck, and she greets me with a groggy smile. I hate watching the happiness flood from her gaze and the smile slacken when she realizes what today is, and without another word, she gets out of bed and goes into her closet.

I leave her to go check on the others, and to my delight, Ian is picking out weapons while Ambrose keeps an eye on Harrison's team using his computer, which is directly linked with the tracker he planted on their boats. He's already set up shop in the office, the hub of our security system. It's where he and Beth will be during this, giving directions and information through earpieces Ian and I both have.

Ian inspects the guns he's picked out, making sure each has the right kind of bullets in their magazine and that he has extra ammo for the fight. He also polishes a couple knives and sticks them in random places on his outfit, which consists of a dark-green shirt and cargo pants.

As I do a gun inspection myself, I begin to talk, keeping my voice low. "I did leave service because I hated following all the rules and being blocked by red tape and bureaucracy, but not because I wanted to do whatever I wished. It was because my mother was taken when I was a child, and those obstacles kept me from finding her."

Ian freezes, flicking his eyes up from the knife in his hand, his eyebrows furrowing. I give him the entire story beat for beat as I did with Beth, and by the time I'm done, Ian's expression has become one of pain, and I see regret in his eyes before he voices it. "I'm sorry—for all of it."

"I am too." I set my gun down on the rack of weapons, taking a step towards him. "I should have come to you about this. I should have told you and the team everything and allowed you to help me."

"Why didn't you?" he whispers.

"Because I thought it was my mistake to fix, and I couldn't bear if anyone else I cared about got hurt because of me and my failures."

Ian shakes his head, closing the distance between us, grasping my shoulders tightly in his hands. "You didn't fail your mother, and you certainly didn't fail me. You're not to blame for any part of this."

"I know, which is why I wanted to tell you. If the worst happens today, I wanted you to know the truth. I wanted you to know how sorry I am."

The next thing I know is I'm being hugged, and it's just as stiff and awkward as I would have expected hugging Ian would be like. His long arms wrap around my shoulders, and he bends at the knees to equalize our heights. He then pats my back gently, like you would to a fussy baby. "You're forgiven," he tells me.

I return his embrace, resting my head against his shoulder, glad my expression is hidden from him. "Promise me that if I die up there, you'll protect Beth. Promise me you will ensure she's safe, comfortable, and happy till the day you die."

Ian is silent for a moment, then in his usual stoic tone, he replies, "I swear I will look out for her and protect her from danger. I swear it on my life."

"Not good enough," I grit out, emotion clogging my throat.

Ian pulls back, staring at me dead in the eyes. "I swear on Ambrose's life that I will protect and care for Beth."

I nod my acceptance, clearing my throat so I don't give away my emotions. "I never thought I'd see the day Ian Lukas would find love, much less to a criminal," I tease, trying to distract myself.

He sighs, picking up the knife he had set down on the rack. "I knew your reasons for leaving service weren't what I had assumed after our conversation on the plane. I knew you were still the good man I used to call a friend, whom I trusted with my life and the lives of our team. You made me reconsider my opinion that people who break laws have cruel intentions. The world is a lot greyer than I thought it was."

With a small smirk, I reply, "I'm just glad someone has loosened that pole jammed far up your ass."

He rolls his eyes, shoving my shoulder. "Fuck off."

Ambrose has already set everything up by the time I join him in the office. All our security camera footage is on, as is the laptop connected to the tracker on Harrison's boats. On one of the monitors, we have the digital version of the mapped booby traps, and then on a slightly smaller one, we have a map of the island that picks up on thermal radiation, so we can see who is where. There are two red dots showing where Ian and Henry sit in two high hides in the trees. They're these small platforms that snipers use to gain a tactical advantage above an enemy while staying hidden. Ian is in the south section of the island; Henry is in the north. They're both in the inner part of the island, with Henry closest to the entrance to the bunker.

"Coms check," I say into my earpiece.

"Check," Ian replies.

"Check," Henry says.

"The tracker shows the yacht a few clicks east of the island. They should be here any minute," Ambrose informs all of us, pointing at the screen to show me the little dot moving.

My stomach drops, dread filling my entire being.

"It's going to be okay, B," Henry assures me, having somehow guessed my current emotional state despite being far away.

I take a deep breath, shutting my eyes. "I know. God doesn't have the patience to put up with you anyways."

Ian barks out a laugh, and Henry joins him. I can tell he's smiling. "What about Satan?"

"Oh, even less. If you stepped one foot in Hell there would be big scary demons ready to kick your ass out."

"Well, it's a good thing I don't plan on meeting either today."

I smile to myself, the distance between us now becoming a physical ache. "Be safe."

"Always."

To my right, Ambrose taps a couple keys, humming to himself as he does, and then he shoots me a crooked grin. "It's time to rock and roll."

He presses the space bar, and Martha Reeves starts playing from one of the monitors. I'm about to ask why, but that's when I see that little tracking dot sitting on the coast of the island.

They're here.

"Their communications are jammed," Ambrose says, playing the keyboard like a pianist. "All they can hear is ‘Nowhere to Run.'"

"Doesn't that tip them off that we're here?" I ask him, biting back a smirk.

"They would have been tipped off no matter what when they realized they couldn't talk to each other. Besides, I never do anything without something to set the mood."

"And why is that?"

He leans back in his chair, excitement lighting his eyes. "What kind of pirate would I be if I wasn't a master of presentation?"

I huff a laugh at that. "Pirate is a bit of a stretch."

Ambrose shrugs. "A smuggler that steals goods and sells them overseas is quite literally the definition of a pirate. Besides, I'm the registered captain of my smuggling boat. So, joke's on you."

"You can deal with the semantics of your title later," Ian interrupts. "Let's get this over with."

"Eyes sharp," Henry adds, going into "work mode."

"Looks like they're splitting up," I tell them, watching the thermal signatures veer off to the east and west coasts, slowly making their way in.

"This is where the fun begins," Ambrose murmurs.

He's here.

From the second I stepped foot on the sandy beach, I knew this was the one. All the other islands we've searched had the noises of wildlife filling the air—there were squawking birds and rustling bushes where turtles were laying their eggs. But not here. Everything is silent, lifeless, as Cai will be, and everyone on this island, when I'm done.

And then just when I call out for a comms check to test our earpieces, Martha Reeves started blasting into my ear, a clear sign that our communications are trying to be blocked.

It's no matter—there's nine of us, and if my intelligence from the islands is correct, there are only three of them.

With Reeves as the unexpected soundtrack of our operation, I split the team in half, directing half to follow me along the east of the beach and the other towards the west. We'll meet in the north point of the island and start making our way inward.

Colton, my second-in-command, walks beside me, murmuring under his breath to me, "The lack of any wildlife tells me Cai did something to the land."

I nod, keeping my eyes on the tree line as we continue to walk along the sandy path. "Keep a sharp eye out. Who knows what he has planned as a welcome party."

I hear a whistle from behind me. One of my teammates, Jane, makes the tactical hand signal for "enter," gesturing to a thicker part of the brush.

I nod to her, signaling for the others to stay put, guns ready. Jane cautiously walks towards the brush, keeping her gun aimed and her steps silent. She makes the signal for "stop," tilting her head to the side as she inspects the growth there. The song in our earpieces changes to a one I don't recognize.

"On the farm, every Friday

On the farm, it's rabbit pie day

So every Friday that ever comes along

I get up early and sing this little song"

Jane takes a step forward, and as the chorus kicks in, the ground disappears beneath her, and she falls into a pit of some kind.

"Run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run, run, run

Run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run, run, run"

We all rush forward to see Jane face-up, impaled on sharpened tree branches. Her blood soaks the wood as she stares down at her chest in horror, her screams echoing throughout the beach.

"Bang, bang, bang, bang goes the farmer's gun"

Another scream echoes in the distance, and I know one of my other team members fell victim to one of Cai's stupid little traps. Their scream fills the void Jane's left, now that her limp body lies skewered on the stakes like a fucking kabob.

"Run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run, run, run

Run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run, run, run"

"Do we continue along the beach, Sir?" Colton asks, staring down at Jane's body in anger.

"Don't give the farmer his fun, fun, fun"

I shake my head, already walking towards the trees next to the pit. "Cai has this place booby trapped like a caveman. Who knows what traps he set or where he set them. No matter how cautious we are, we're just as blind."

"He'll get by without his rabbit pie

So run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run, run, run"

"What's your order, sir?"

I look over my shoulder at Colton just as my feet leave the sand and touch wet dirt. "Kill Lukas but keep Reed alive if you find her. She could be of use to us. If you see Cai, bring him to me."

"Sir, yes, sir," my remaining teammates say in unison.

"Let's finish this," I growl, disappearing into the jungle.

"They're scattering," Beth informs me. "One is dead, one is injured, two are still in the perimeter, the rest are making their way towards the center of the island."

I'm crouching in my high hide, peering around at the ground through the cover of the leaves. "Copy. I'm going to go silent from now on. Don't want to give myself away."

"Okay…I love you, Henry."

My chest squeezes painfully, making it hard to breathe. I want to keep my promise to her, I want to stay alive and live a long fucking life with her by my side, but anything could happen in a battle. Despite my promises, despite Beth's proclamation that my fate is in my hands, God may plan to take me today. And there might be nothing I can do to stop it.

"I was taught that you must love God above all others," I tell her, blinking back the stinging in my eyes. "But as God is my witness, I have never loved anyone the way I love you. My soul and spirit have belonged to you since the moment we met, and I would watch Hell freeze and Heaven burn before I let anything harm you. My one regret in life is that I waited so long to tell you, and if today is the day the devil wants to claim me, I will find a way back to you. In this life or the next."

"Why does that sound like a goodbye?" Beth whispers, emotion clogging her voice.

I shut my eyes, leaning my head against a branch of the tree I hide inside. "I love you."

I take my earpiece out, using the back of my hand to wipe the tear that has slipped from my shut eyelids. I can hear the faint sound of Beth's voice coming from the small piece of plastic, but I try my best to ignore it, needing to refocus on the task at hand.

In the distance, I hear the sounds of shouts and bloody screams, I hear detonating bombs and trip wired machine guns. All this preparation and planning has led to this moment, and I'll die before I let Harrison anywhere near Beth.

He is going to die tonight, even if it means I have to drag him down to Hell with me.

I watch on the monitors as the mercs unknowingly fall into the traps Henry set. One of them gets hit with the swinging mace, another gets blown up by a grenade, and another gets gunned down by one of the trip wired machine guns. Ambrose and I have been keeping the boys updated on where everyone is, and so far, no one has gotten to the inner part of the island yet, where Henry is. Ian, on the other hand, is currently in a shootout with one of the mercs who has two machine guns, one of which belonged to the merc who got hit with the mace. This guy was to be right next to him when it happened. We watched the merc scream and hold his dying friend, then he picked up his machine gun and ran towards the center of the island, but Ian started shooting at him, creating this back-and-forth we are witnessing now.

I'm trying to keep an eye on everyone, but my gaze keeps gravitating towards Henry, who I can see pretty well on one of the camera feeds. He's kneeling, his gun aimed and ready, his body almost completely still. He's a predator waiting to pounce.

Every now and then my eyes flicker to Johnathon Harrison, who has made it farther than any of his other teammates. He's almost at the inner part of the island, where he'll be in range for the landmines, but he'll also be near Henry. By his current path, he'll end up right where Henry is hiding.

As soon as I enter the jungle, chaos erupts.

To my right, Maximus hits a trip wire that activates a machine gun; the bullets rip his chest to shreds and I know he's dead well before he hits the ground. Kathleen watches this and lets out a bloodcurdling scream, diving behind a tree for cover. As soon as she's behind the trunk, I see blood and chunks of flesh spray out from both sides. She must have triggered some grenade or land mine. Colton was too close to her when the blast went off; he got blown back into another tree, hitting his head and falling hard onto the bloody grass.

Despite how stupid it might be, I run over to check on him, and thankfully, he's still alive. As much as I didn't want to, I have to leave Colton there, knowing he has a concussion at best and a collapsed lung and massive internal bleeding at worst. Moving him now will only cause him more harm. It is best to leave him and hope he'll be alright.

Screams of my other teammates fills the island. Guns fire, bombs go off, agony is echoed through the trees. It's a fucking war zone. I'm luckier than the rest, or maybe I can just keep my head better in a situation like this. I manage to evade most of the traps by throwing sticks and rocks onto the ground to activate any possible trip wires or reveal any pit traps. One of my rocks hits a grenade, which does throw me back a little, but towards the path I had already walked.

One of my sticks hits a trip wire or sensor of some kind, because a loud creaking sound starts from behind me, and thankfully I have presence of mind to jump out of the way just in time to miss a spiked tree trunk flying through the air. It swings back and forth along the path I had been tracking, so I decide to head west, but no more than five steps into that direction, another swinging tree nearly wipes me out. I'm forced to crawl on the ground for several yards to stay clear of them, continuing to throw sticks around so I don't fertilize the ground with my intestines.

The Andrews Sisters' "I Didn't Know the Gun Was Loaded" plays in my earpiece the whole time.

Once I finally make it several feet without another flying tree being activated, I catch sight of a camera lodged into a knot in a nearby tree. Careful to avoid any traps, I walk directly up to the tree and look into that little camera, wiping the dirt and blood from my face. "Very fucking funny, Reed. I hope you're enjoying yourself while you hide away like a coward. Know this, I am coming for you and everyone else on this island. There is nowhere you can hide that I won't find you, no hole deep enough and no place where you will be safe from me."

I then take a couple steps forward, and my left foot lands right in a bear trap.

A scream rips from my chest as I crumple to the ground, my hands clutching at my calf so tightly my nails dig into my skin. The sharp metal claws of the trap are completely imbedded into the middle of my foot, and already I can feel blood pooling into the bottom of my boot. And even though getting rid of it may cause more damage than it did going in, I know it has to be done. I am not about to accept defeat from a goddamn animal trap.

I pick up a stick from the ground around me and shove it in my mouth, biting down on it as hard as possible. I place a hand on each side of the trap, and as hard as I can, I pull them apart. My scream is muffled by the stick between my teeth, my arms shake from the exertion and the pain, but I manage to rip the claws out of my boot and then chuck the trap into the jungle behind me.

Blood seeps out from the holes made in my boot, and when I try to put pressure on that foot, I immediately collapse. I try again, and the same result occurs. I make myself push through, though. I take it step by step, alternating between crawling, limping, and hopping forward, my rage and thirst for vengeance being the only things fueling me to keep moving.

At this point I've made it into the heart of the island—covered in my blood and the blood of my teammates, injured, exhausted, and all alone. I look around me, at the trees, the bushes, and the brush, and my rage overtakes me.

"Cai!" I shout, my voice raw from screaming.