Hardwired (The Brotherhood Series)
Hardwired
Andrea Bills
Hardwired
Copyright © 2018, Andrea Bills
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used factiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Editor: Tayler Bennett
Cover Design: Amanda Walker
Cover Photographer: Shauna Kruse with Kruse Image and Photography
Cover Model: BT Urruela
Created with Vellum
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Epilogue
The Forgotten Ones C1
The Forgotten Ones C2
The Forgotten Ones C3
About the Author
Also by Andrea Bills
Acknowledgments
For all those who struggle with the darkness inside of them. May you find your warrior(s) of light to take your hand and help you find your way out.
Prologue
Jen
“You can’t go! You can’t! You have to stay here with me, with us!” Jen yelled as Luke calmly packed his bags.
“Luke, she’s only three weeks old. We need you here with us. Can’t you just be done? You told them you were done; that should be enough.”
When Luke turned to her, his dark eyes were blazing with pain and guilt. Jen’s heart ached for him knowing she was just making it worse. She couldn’t help herself. Nightmares had tortured her the night before of Luke not coming home. Bella their beautiful daughter, was in the next room sound asleep in her bassinet. Luke had laid her there just an hour before.
“Jen, you know I don’t want to go. This is it; just one final mission. Then I’ll get a job at Lowe’s or something.”
“You’ll come back to me, to us?” She sobbed as she threw herself against his barrel-like chest.
His giant arms wrapped around her and squeezed her tight. She wished she could stop the tears that were pouring down her cheeks, but between her hormones and the nightmares they were uncontrollable. When Luke pulled away from her, his eyes were cloudy with his own tears.
“There is nobody on this earth who can keep me from coming back to you,” he said, his deep voice like a thick blanket over her on a frigid day.
“I’ll kill anyone who tries.”
“I know you will, baby.”
Luke turned back and zipped his duffle bag up and then hauled it over his shoulder. They walked quietly down the stairs. Jen tried to memorize everything about him when he turned and faced her. His eyes were dark brown; they matched his hair. His tattoos snaked all the way up his arms so that there was always a hint of them poking out of the top of his t-shirts. Luke’s hands were calloused and marred from his years of training; Jen loved the way they felt against her soft skin. She would miss that feeling. She would miss him.
“I’ll see you in four weeks max,” he said breaking her train of thought.
“Four weeks, and then I’m going to start banging on every Navy door out there,” she said, trying to joke but failing miserably as tears flowed down her face.
“Don’t spoil Bella while I’m gone. That’s my job, my Ahava,” Luke said wiping the tears from her cheeks.
“I’m going to rock her to sleep every night.” She threatened.
“I’ll be wishing I was here with you two every single second of every single day.”
“No!” Jen said louder than she meant to.
“No?” He asked, raising one of his eye brows at her.
“You can’t think about us while you’re over there. Whatever it is you do, think about that. Focus on that, so that you come back to me alive.”
“I can do both.”
Luke kissed her on the forehead and then both of her cheeks. Jen tried to hold back her tears. Then his mouth crashed over top of hers in a soul crushing kiss. Jen poured all her love and fear into the kiss. When he finally pulled away, Jen sagged forward into his chest.
Neither of them said a word as they leaned their foreheads together. Luke was the one to finally break their connection. He dragged himself from her, placed one more kiss on her forehead, and then disappeared out the door.
Jen leaned against the cold metal of the door. She wasn’t sure how long she stood there, but when she finally pulled herself away her muscles ached with the movement. Unable to bear the thought of sleeping in their bed alone, she slipped into their daughter’s nursery. Jen laid down on the floor next to the bassinet and cried herself to sleep.
Bella woke Jen up the next morning with a cry. She rubbed her swollen eyes and cradled her precious baby in her arms as she made her way to the kitchen to warm her up a bottle. When she finally got everything they needed, she settled down in the rocking chair in the living room. Bella’s tiny mouth frantically searched for the bottle as Jen brought it to her lips.
“There you go, sweet girl,” Jen cooed, as Bella’s eyes locked with hers.
“He’ll come back to us, Bella.”
More tears slipped down Jen’s face as she prayed her words were true.
Chapter One
Luke
Five years later
He loved the way his bike felt as it rumbled to life underneath him. Luke tugged on his helmet and then kicked the gear shift up. He had nowhere to be and no expectations of him for the next week, and he planned on spending every last minute on his bike riding or sitting at the beach. The open road and the open water, both were his only home. As he pulled out of the barracks he had called home for the past year, he headed toward the interstate.
Interstate driving wasn’t his usual choice, but he had decided to spend his week at the Outer Banks in North Carolina. With nothing but freedom ahead of him the beach seemed like a natural choice. Even though he didn’t remember his past, he felt he had always been a fan of the beach. As the other soldiers had been granted their leave he had heard stories of how peaceful and healing the secluded peninsula of beaches were. Luke could use a healthy dose of both of those things. It was also conveniently only a c
ouple hours away from his current station.
With it being his first time granted leave since his implant, everyone was on edge about him being out in the civilian world by himself. If Luke were being honest he was nervous as well. His life’s work was made up of the things people feared. He had killed so many people he had lost count. His only saving grace was each and every soul he had sent down to the devil had earned their trip. The Navy didn’t send him in after just anyone. The people that terrorist feared were the people Luke killed.
The leather jacket he always wore while riding tugged at the sensitive skin around the hard drive in his back causing him to roll his shoulders in hopes of readjusting it. After five years, he had become as accustomed to it and the hundreds of tiny wires he could feel if he touched the skin around the hard drive as he was ever going to get. They were a part of him now; there was no getting around it.
After an hour on the road, he stopped off for a break in a deserted rest area. He rarely rode far from the barracks he was stationed at, and he never stopped anywhere, making sure to stay within a couple hours of base. When he had first been allowed back on his motorcycle, he used to drive to large rest areas, so he could see the families. Luke loved to watch them, fascinated by the love that bonded them together, wondering what it would be like to have someone he felt that deep connection with. He realized most families anymore ended in divorce, but he liked to pretend. If just for a moment, Luke liked to think that the people he watched at the rest areas stayed just as happy as they were on the road to vacation, forever. Once the headaches and blurred vision started, his therapist had urged him to stop going to places full of civilians. There was no telling what a man like Luke would be capable of if his PTSD would take a turn for the worse in a crowded rest area. Luke would never risk anyone’s safety for his foolish notions, so he had stayed to himself from then on.
The summer sun beat down on his black leather coat, causing sweat to trickle down his back. At first the sweat had stung the area where his wires were just under his skin’s surface, but that too had passed. Luke needed the breeze of the open road to ward off the sweltering Carolina sun, so he straddled his bike and continued his journey. The interstate turned into a highway as he grew closer to the Outer Banks. The cities turned into towns, and the trees and hills turned into sand dunes and tall wavy sea oats. Things seemed to slow down, and the towns got smaller; the four-lane highway morphed into two. Luke already felt lighter, as if he were going home.
Home. That was a term he hadn’t let himself think much of over the past five years. Dean, his best friend and handler, had told him pieces of what he knew of Luke’s life prior to them becoming friends during basic training. The lack of information was as depressing as the amnesia part of his injuries, so as time went on Luke had asked less and less. He did the only thing he had been capable of doing at the time. He had thrown himself into his new role, as the most sought-after assassin in the country. Compliments to his new special abilities.
Thirty minutes away from his destination he began to feel a sense of urgency. He wasn’t accustomed to the new civilian chip they had inserted into his hard drive; his other chips didn’t allow for feelings like anxiety. Those type of feelings got men like him killed. When it didn’t pass, Luke decided to pull off, and walk around. His Honda Shadow roared into the tiny two-pump gas station, in a town with barely even a red light. He pulled into a parking spot and killed his engine. A shudder rolled down his spine, as he felt all the gas stations patrons eyes on him; the outsider.
Lifting his road stiff leg up over his bike, he stood and worked his muscles loose. Luke tugged his helmet off, and then headed into the tiny gas station. The selection was small, but he walked the aisles all the same, enjoying the normalcy of it all. It was nice to be by himself and free to wander wherever he chose. Basically, since they implanted a computer hard drive into his central nervous system to keep him alive, the government hadn’t let him leave whichever base he was assigned to at the time, unless it was for a mission with his team. Before that, well, he couldn’t remember what he did before the implant.
Finally, he picked up a Reese’s Cup and Mountain Dew and headed to the checkout. The young female clerk gawked at him for several seconds before quickly scanning his items and handing them back to him. Luke just smirked at the young woman as he handed her a twenty. She had no idea who he was. To her, he probably seemed dark and mysterious; women apparently found that attractive. She had no idea he was a born-again killer, literally hardwired for death.
“Have a good day,” she called, her voice as soft as silk.
“You too,” he replied before throwing the door wide and heading back to his bike.
The people who were still out pumping their gas all turned their heads quickly when he reemerged, causing him to smile even bigger. If only they knew him; they’d run. If he took his jacket off and lifted his shirt over his head revealing to them the hard drive protruding between his shoulder blades, they’d all scream. There was a reason the government kept him close; it was because civilians would never understand. They could never know.
Luke swung himself back on top of his bike and pulled his helmet back on. His anxiety had faded, so he rode on to see what else awaited him.
Chapter Two
Jen
“Bella, please go put your shoes on.”
“Mamma, why do I have to wear shoes?” The adorable toddler’s blue eyes looked up at Jen as if she were asking the most serious question she had ever encountered in her five years.
Jen laughed because she knew it more than likely was the most important question to Bella for the time being. They were running late, as usual, and Jen was desperate to get Bella to hurry along so that they could make it into town in time to get breakfast on the go.
“Baby, we’ve got to go. If you want to get an orange juice for breakfast we need to leave, like ten minutes ago,” Jen said, as she lovingly patted Bella’s butt, pushing her off in the direction of her shoes.
“You going to teach today, Mamma?” Bella asked when they were finally in the car.
“Yes, Mamma’s going to teach today. You’re going to go spend the day with Mam and Pap. That’ll be fun, won’t it?”
“Mam’s my best friend. We’re going to have a tea party, and Pap will fix me his world-famous pancakes.”
“I don’t think they’re quite world famous, yet,” Jen said, with a laugh.
“Why?” Bella’s small voice called from the back seat.
There was that word again. Jen swore every day if she heard the word one more time she was going to lose her mind. Bella had hit that stage, weeks ago, and had hit it hard. Jen spent every off day she had explaining why for every single detail of her life. Bella was so inquisitive and smart Jen feared the faze would never end.
Jen glanced at the dashboard clock as she closed in on their favorite bagel shop. Since she was substituting at the high school, she didn’t have to be at work quite as early as normal, so she decided to risk it and hit her turn signal seconds before swinging into the parking lot. Five quick minutes later, she and Bella were on the road again to meet her mom, iced coffee and Bella’s breakfast in hand.
Bella tore into the small bag shortly after and started on her breakfast sandwich. The smell engulfed the vehicle, and Jen wished she had splurged and gotten herself one as well. With three more days left before Luke’s SGLI hit her account and five days until her substituting paycheck, she had to make her money stretch.
“I’ll split it with you, Mamma.”
“That’s okay baby; Mamma just wanted coffee today. Thank you, though. That’s very nice of you.”
Bella shrugged and then tore a big bite out of her sausage. Jen glanced in her rearview mirror and smiled at how amazing Bella was. Heartache clenched her insides, and Jen had to swallow back her tears. Bella was so much like her father. Jen couldn’t look at her without seeing Luke. Somedays it was a blessing to have just a small piece of him still there with her, other days it fe
lt more like a curse. Jen reached for her neck feeling the small metal beads there that were strung together to hold his dog tag’s then she pulled them out from under her shirt and rubbed her thumb over them as she drove.
Since the day Luke’s Operations Officer had given them to her, she hadn’t taken them off.
“You’re thinking about Daddy again?” Bella asked, causing Jen to quickly tuck the tags back down inside of her shirt.
“Yeah baby, I am.”
“Why?”
“I’ll always think about Daddy,” she responded.
“Why?”
“Because I loved him, and he loved us.”
“Why?”
Just like that, Bella turned Jen’s frown into a smile.
Chapter Three
Luke
“How was the ride?” Dean asked when Luke called to check in.
“Awesome. Did I miss anything?”
“Aren’t you supposed to be on leave for a week?”