Hardwired (The Brotherhood Series) Read online

  Neither Dean nor Luke moved. Jen finally wedged herself in between them, putting her hand on Luke’s chest.

  “Luke, leave it behind. We need to get to Bella and to our new life.”

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Jen

  Luke was coiled like a snake. It was as if the closer they got to their freedom the more he was fighting against leaving his past behind him. Jen had a sickening feeling in her gut that though they were close to winning the battle, the war was just beginning. Luke had been a soldier his whole life, and no doubt the past five years he had been completely submersed in that part of his mind. All she could do was pray that he could adjust.

  He finally pulled away from Dean and stormed off to get his bags. Kip picked up hers and ducked back outside to load it in the car for her. She and Dean were left in an uncomfortable silence.

  “I’m not sure which one of us knows him better. I know one side of him, a side I’m hoping isn’t lost. You know the rest of him, the most primitive part of him. Do you think he can let this life go?”

  “We could debate what I think all day, but what I do know to be true is that he loves you and Bella. He’ll get there.”

  “I’m sorry your friendship is ruined. I feel like that’s just one more thing they took from him.”

  “We’ve always been like this believe it or not. If he wants to fight me it means he still sees me as his friend.”

  “Men are weird.”

  Dean’s lip pulled up into a smirk that Jen was sure sent most women to their knees. He was the epitome of a sexy southern gentleman. There was a quietness to him, underneath all the winks and heart stopping smiles, that told Jen there was much more to his story than he was letting anyone else know.

  “What will you do now? Can you go back to your job?”

  “Not without being deemed a traitor and receiving some sort of penalty.”

  “Oh my gosh. Can you just come with us?”

  “Don’t you worry, I’ll be just fine.”

  “Are you married Dean?”

  Jen regretted asking the question as soon as it left her mouth. His face twisted into a look of regret and anger.

  “And disappoint the ladies of the world? Nah,” he said, sliding back into his playboy persona.

  Jen offered him a small smile, accepting his lie. Luke returned with his small duffle bag. He brushed passed Dean and headed outside. Jen turned and followed him out the door. They all piled into the vehicle, and Kip started the engine. As the vehicle rolled forward taking them to an unknown destination, Jen couldn’t help but feel anxious.

  No one said anything for the entire two-hour car ride. Jen felt like her eyes were going to be tired of rolling at their testosterone induced silence. When they finally arrived at the small airport, Jen all but jumped out of the car as soon as it lurched to a stop. The airport was smaller than any other airport she had ever seen before.

  “What is this place?”

  “It’s an old terminal that was decommissioned years ago. The CIA and the Marshalls still use it to move people.”

  “How many decommissioned places does the government have lying around?”

  “Too many to count,” Luke replied, yanking their bags out of the trunk.

  There was no airplane that Jen could see so she figured they were early. She was anxious to see Bella or at least talk to her, but she knew there was no chance of that until she arrived wherever Bella was. Jen just hoped it wasn’t cold. She had gotten used to life by the beach. The Outer Banks had chilly winters, but there was no snow to deal with.

  They filed into the small waiting room. Dean immediately booted up his laptop and began working. Kip moved around the small space, as if he were looking for something. Luke went to a giant control panel looking thing that stretched across the entire length of one of the walls and began studying it.

  “Do you know what it all means?” She asked, moving to stand next to him.

  He draped and arm across her shoulder, pulling her in tight against his side. It was the first bit of affection he had shown since Dean interrupted their movie marathon.

  “See this dot? That’s our plane.”

  “Can you tell where it came from?”

  “No, the pilot will have been directed to make several stops and change course in order to throw off any flight patterns.”

  “Oh, that makes sense. The not knowing is killing me. I hope Bella loves it wherever we end up. If she’s happy, I’m happy.”

  “If you two are happy, then my life is complete.”

  Jen raised up on her tip toes and tugged on Luke’s shirt so he would lean down to meet her the rest of way, so she could kiss him. The problem with having to have him meet her in the middle was he always took control of the kiss. What she had meant as a quick peck on the lips, Luke turned into more. His tongue licked across her closed lips demanding entrance, which she knew she was going to give him. A smile formed on her lips, which roused a growl from deep within Luke’s chest.

  She caved, opening her mouth to him. Jen poured her feelings into the kiss; her anxiety as well as her overwhelming love for him. Luke ended the kiss, looking satisfied with himself, while Jen felt a bit wobbly. She smacked him in the gut in retaliation. Luke went back to studying the board. Since she had no idea what it all meant, she walked around to the large window to look outside. All of the lights from the runway looked pretty against the fading sunset colors.

  “We’ve got a chopper in bound,” Luke said, his voice strained.

  Kip and Dean joined him in front of the control panel.

  “Shit.”

  “I take it the chopper’s not here to give us a lift?”

  “It’s here for us alright, but it’s not the ride we want.”

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Luke

  Luke didn’t even feel shocked at their arrival. It was as if he had been waiting for them to show up. The final battle.

  “Are we armed?” Luke asked, hoping they all had more on them than just hand guns.

  “I’ve got some in the trunk,” Kip said, rushing outside to get the guns.

  “They can’t have many in the chopper.” Dean commented.

  Kip returned with his artillery. They divided up the ammo, just as the chopper was landing.

  “Stay with Jen. No matter what happens: she gets out of here alive,” Luke barked at Dean.

  Dean nodded.

  “Luke, I’m not leaving this freaking tarmac without you,” Jen said, grabbing his arm and turning him to face her.

  “Don’t think about me; think about Bella. Do what’s best for her.”

  Jen’s face fell. It was as if he could feel her heart breaking. He didn’t have any intentions on her leaving without him, but if they found them even after all of Dean’s security barricades, they were armed with more than just guns.

  He kissed Jen again, hard and brief, a promise of more to come on the other side of the hell that awaited him outside. She stood tall. If she was afraid, she wasn’t letting it show. Luke finally tore his gaze from her and joined Kip at the door as they made their way down to the tarmac.

  Soldiers leaped from the chopper, guns at the ready. Luke wondered how much they all knew of him. Did they know they had their gun trained on a fellow soldier? Had they been led to believe he was a danger to the country? Or did they know the whole story, that he was just a man looking to live his life in peace with the family the government had stolen from him?

  “You don’t have to do this kid,” Luke said to Kip, seconds before they stepped out of the spot where they were hiding in the hallway.

  “I joined the Navy because it’s what my old man had done. He wasn’t anything special, though. He drank too much when he got out and beat my mom most nights. He didn’t give a shit if I was alive or dead. You’ve given everything to this country, and now you want to go home to your family. That’s something I’ll fight for any day.”

  The kid had barely said more than two words the entire time Luke had b
een around him, so he was shocked at the kid’s heart felt speech. He also felt like a prick for pinning the kid to the door to intimidate him.

  “I’m proud to fight beside you, kid; you’re a hell of a soldier.”

  With that, Luke kicked the door open and they went out, guns blazing. Gunfire erupted all around them. He and Kip took cover behind the car. Luke couldn’t remember the last time he had been in a gun fight. Most of his assignments required his hands to be the weapon; they were efficient and quiet.”

  “They’re not hitting us,” Luke yelled to Kip, over the roar of the bullets.

  Kip looked at him with a confused expression.

  “They’re missing on purpose. I don’t know a soldier out there that can’t hit an engine of a car and blow us to pieces. This is a distraction.”

  “Jen?” Kip asked.

  Luke couldn’t imagine what they would want with her. They had him outside and surrounded. Luke lifted his gun and raised up, intent on firing off several more rounds, but he took a hit to the back of the head. He hit his knees from the impact, but he fought to keep consciousness. He turned, hoping to land a hit on his opponent, but he met the butt end of a gun, smashing into his face.

  Through his blurred vision, he realized he recognized who had hit him.

  “You son of a bitch,” he roared.

  Luke threw himself forward, tackling Kip to the ground. He was mindless to everything else except for beating the traitor to a pulp. The entire thing had been a set up. Luke hammered on the kid with his fists, knowing he would be taken from Jen and Bella once again.

  He felt hands grab him and tear him off the now bloodied Kip. He struggled against them, but he was outnumbered. They slammed him down on the ground and lifted his shirt up. Kip fumbled his way to his feet and pulled something out of his pocket. Luke knew what he was doing, what they were doing. He thrashed against them with all his strength, managing to free his left arm. It wasn’t enough though. Kip pinned his left arm down using his boot, holding him in place.

  Then they inserted a chip into Luke’s hard drive. Luke felt the effects immediately. The chip held back his strength considerably; it had been a long time since he had felt so weak and vulnerable. The dragged him up, letting him rest on his knees.

  His mind began to fog. A sharp pain tore through his mind as images began blurring together. They were erasing them. Jen and Bella would be gone again. He raised his eyes up to the window. Dean was holding Jen back as she pounded wildly on the glass. He couldn’t hear her screams, but he could feel them as they ripped through his heart.

  Luke gathered what strength he had left and tried to free his arms from their captivity, releasing a guttural shout of his own. None of it mattered

  . Slowly it all slipped away and then everything stilled. The last memory that floated through Luke’s mind was of Jen in a hospital bed, and he was holding a baby, but he couldn’t remember the baby’s name.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Jen

  They say that time heals all wounds. Jen didn’t know who they were, but they lied. Time didn’t heal anything. It had been six months since Luke had been taken captive, his memories erased, and every second Jen hurt worse. Watching herself slowly fade from his memories had been a paralysis of her heart and soul. She had fought against Dean’s hold, screaming for mercy.

  Bella played happily on the beach with Jen’s mom and dad, but Jen couldn’t bring herself to join them. She stayed on the deck, simply watching. Dean had kept one promise to Luke, and he had seen her safely off of the tarmac. The plane had landed soon after they had dragged Luke onto the helicopter. Dean never said a word as he hauled Jen onto the plane and dumped her into a seat.

  Jen couldn’t remember the flight. When they landed, her parents and Bella had been waiting on her. Once they saw her face, they all knew what had happened. Maybe not all the gory details, but they knew. Luke was gone, again. Bella cried, but Jen couldn’t. She had shed so many tears for Luke when she had been told he had died, maybe she just didn’t have any left in her. Maybe one day she would cry.

  Bella healed slowly; time was kind to her. Her young soul was free and happy. She loved their new home in Hawaii. Jen couldn’t even muster any excitement over that. They were living on one of the most beautiful islands of the world, and Jen could barely leave the house most days.

  Her father walked back up to the house and joined her on the deck.

  “Honey, maybe you should go see someone.”

  “Who? What am I going to tell them?”

  “I don’t know, but this isn’t healthy. It’s been months. I just hate seeing you like this.”

  “I don’t know if I can do it, Dad. He’s out there. He’s alive, and he wants to be with us. How can I just ignore that?”

  “I wish I had an answer for you, Punkin’, but I don’t.”

  Silence fell between them. It seemed like all Jen heard anymore was silence. She knew she needed to be present for Bella, but she couldn’t forget Luke. If only they had been given the option to forget. It sounded like a blessing to her now to have her mind blank and void of all the memories she had with Luke.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Luke

  Luke sat in the briefing room waiting for Dean and the Operations Officer to give him the info on his next mission. Dean walked in and shut and locked the door behind him.

  “Where’s the Operations Officer?”

  “He’s not coming; he’s actually not even on base for the next few days. That’s why we need to work quickly.”

  “Are you on some sort of medication or something man? What the fuck are you even talking about?”

  Dean held up a chip signaling Luke to turn around. Luke lifted his shirt up so that Dean could swap his chips. He was anxious to find out what kind of mission they were sending him on that had Dean so worked up. He felt the chip eject and the other one take its place. A tingling spread over his back and down his arms and legs. Luke hit his knees as pain ripped through his mind, images flooded his memory. When he was finally able, he stood up and opened his eyes. Then he punched Dean in the face.

  “I deserve that,” Dean said, rubbing his hand over his jaw.

  “No, what you deserve is to be dead. Where’s that cousin of yours, too?”

  “Luke, take a second and listen to me. What we did had to be done, and I knew you would never agree.”

  “No, I wouldn’t. I’ve been taken from them not once but twice, and neither time did I agree to it.”

  “That’s the thing. They were never going to stop coming for you, and they have the technology and the manpower to do it. Don’t you see? There was nowhere on this planet that you could go where they wouldn’t find you. That’s no life. Now, we’re going to do this the right way.”

  “How’s that?”

  “We’re going to take out the bastards that set this up, and then you’re going to negotiate with the President himself for your freedom.”

  “Does this chip let me fight?”

  “There’s nothing you can’t do with that chip.”

  “Are Jen and Bella safe?”

  “They are one hundred percent safe. No one’s even bothered looking for them since they took you in.”

  “Let’s do this. I’ve always wanted to meet the President.”

  “Okay, so here’s what I know. After your injury, there were several calls made to the doctor who performed your surgery.”

  “That’s not weird.”

  “They were made from a burner phone.”

  Luke digested the information trying to look at the information from all angles. There were a couple reasons why someone would use a burner phone. The chances of Luke dying on the operating table were high, and no one wants to be blamed for the death of a soldier. They also could have used the burner because the government shouldn’t be having contact with doctors who perform surgeries outside the of the norm.

  “This was something that had been in the works for a while. Not specifically for you, b
ut for someone. They just had to wait for the right soldier to come along with the right type of injuries to be the guinea pig. It could have just as easily have been me, had I gone with you.”

  “Don’t do that. There is absolutely no way of knowing what would have happened if you had gone in with me. Chances are I would still be standing here in this situation today, except you could have been the one dead instead of the other kid.”

  “I know. I just don’t like it.”

  “Let’s fix what we can and leave the past in the past. Aside from the ass kicking I owe you for keeping me in the dark about your little plan.”

  “It had to look authentic, and you, my friend, are a shitty actor.”

  “Can we trace the burner phone to anyone?”

  “No, but the call originated inside of the hospital on the floor you were being kept. That narrows it down tremendously. Besides me and the Operations Officer, there were limited people even allowed on the floor.”

  “Do we have a list of those people?”

  “You know I do,” Dean said, as he handed Luke a list from the folder he had brought in with him.

  Luke scanned the list of names, some of which he didn’t recognize, but Dean had them marked down as hospital personnel. The only people on the list who were military, had been Dean, their Operations Officer four New Guys who worked security in and out of Luke’s room, the Lieutenant Commander and the Skipper. Luke’s interaction with the Lt. Commander and the Skipper himself had been scarce over the years. Neither of them were much for micromanagement, but every so often they would do a one on one with Luke.

  “For some reason none of those people are striking me as the person behind this,” Luke said.

  “I can’t seem to place it either. Honestly, my first thought was the Operations Officer. He’s always had a hard on for your missions, but I don’t think he would have ever thought someone like you would have been possible beforehand. Whoever is behind this, dreamed this up about three years prior to your surgery.”