Home > Honor Avenged (HORNET #6)(5)

Honor Avenged (HORNET #6)(5)
Author: Tonya Burrows

   “I owe Leah closure. I owe her…” He stared up with bleary, red-rimmed eyes. “I told her I’d catch the man responsible. I told her…”

   Despite all of his protestations to the contrary, Ian felt for this guy. Marcus wasn’t a bad man. He was shattered and lost and so fucking sad it hurt to be in the same room as him. But at his heart, underneath the anger and sadness, Marcus was one of the best men Ian had ever known. A man with a quick smile and quicker wit. A man who loved his mother, put her up on a pedestal, and treated her like a queen. A man who took care of his friends, even when he was hurting.

   Someone should do the same for him. Unfortunately, the only person awake at this hour was Ian.

   “Marcus…” He hesitated. He wasn’t sure how to be a good friend, wasn’t even sure if they could be considered friends at all. “Man, you should leave for a while. Get away from here. Get your head on straight. Get away from the sauce.” He nodded toward the bottle. “You’re too good to let that demon get the best of you.”

   Marcus swayed on his feet for a moment, then looked at the bottle in his hand. “Hurts too much to be sober.”

   “Yeah, I get it.”

   He blinked hard and to Ian’s horror tears spilled from the guy’s eyes. “It was ’posed to be me. I shoulda died on that beach, not Danny. Me.” He thumped his chest. “The sniper wanted me.”

   With that, he spun away and swayed off into the swirling snow.

   Ian let out the breath he’d been holding. “Fuck,” he said softly. That had been more emotion than he’d wanted to deal with tonight. Or, you know, ever.

   He waited until he could no longer see Marcus. The guy would either make it back to his cabin or pass out and freeze to death in the snow. Ian told himself he didn’t care which one happened as long as Marcus stayed away, and he shoved through the door.

   The construction on the dorm had kicked into double-time since the previous dorm sustained fire damage a few weeks ago. Currently, the trainees were all staying at a hotel in Jackson. Before much longer, they’d move into this building, which begged the question—what did Gabe and Quinn plan to do with the prisoner then?

   Well, after tonight it wouldn’t matter.

   He found Seth Harlan standing guard outside the cell. The sniper was recently back from his honeymoon and looked tanned and as relaxed as Ian had ever seen him. His attention was on his ereader until he yawned and reached for his empty coffee mug. Only then did he notice Ian’s approach. “What are you doing up?”

   “Hey, Hero. First day back and they have you on bitch-sitting duty, huh?”

   Seth shook his head and set aside his mug. “Don’t call her that.”

   Ian rolled his eyes. That was Seth. Golden Boy Scout Hero to his core, even after all the shit he’d gone through. Had to give the guy credit. Torture like he’d endured as a POW in Afghanistan would’ve broken a lesser man. But Seth? Nah. It only chipped him a little bit, dinged him up.

   Ian suspected Seth Harlan was stronger than all the rest of them put together, which made what he was about to do to the guy that much worse.

   “Couldn’t sleep,” Ian said. “Went for a walk, ended up here.”

   Seth yawned again and rubbed at his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “Lucky. I’m struggling to stay awake.”

   “Want me to take over for a bit?”

   Seth’s head snapped up and his eyes narrowed. “Why are you being nice?”

   Guy was no idiot. This would be so much easier if he were. “I’m not an asshole all the time.”

   Seth just stared at him. “Yeah, man, you are.”

   Ian resisted the urge to shift on his feet. He wasn’t about to examine why those words made him so uncomfortable. It shouldn’t matter that Seth thought he was a Grade A prick, but…it did.

   Goddammit.

   Going for disinterest, he shrugged and turned away like he planned to leave. “See if I offer to help again.”

   He’d wanted to do this without hurting anyone, but it looked like that would be impossible now. And, fuck, why did Seth have to be on duty now? Out of all of them, Seth was the guy he least wanted to hurt.

   “Wait.” Seth got up from his seat and stepped forward, giving the perfect opening.

   Ian swung around, rotating his hips to add KO power behind the punch. Seth never saw it coming. His head snapped back and it was lights out.

   Ian caught him before he collapsed and lowered him to the floor. “Sorry, pal. I really didn’t want to do that, but I need our prisoner free.”

   He searched Seth’s pockets for the key, found it, and took it over to the door. He drew his weapon with one hand while unlocking the door with his other. He didn’t need the gun. He could kill silently with his bare hands. The gun was for show, intimidation.

   As if anyone could intimidate Mercedes Raya.

   She sat on the end of the narrow bed, dressed in sweatpants and an oversized sweatshirt. The clothes she’d had on when they picked her up in Nigeria had been destroyed in case she’d come in contact with the virus still burning its way through the population there. Whoever had bought her the sweats hadn’t paid much attention to her size—she swam in them.

   She looked like hell. She’d lost weight. Her hair was a matted mess, reminding him of the crazy homeless woman who used to wheel around a broken cart full of junk outside the troubled boys’ group home where he’d grown up in Brooklyn.

   Crazy Cart Lady. Huh. He hadn’t thought of her in ages.

   Mercedes stared at him for a long moment, her dark eyes huge in her drawn face. “Come to kill me?”

   He motioned with his weapon. “Get up. You’re getting out of here.”

   She didn’t move. Only nodded. “You’ve come to kill me.”

   Out of patience, he stalked forward. “I’m not killing anybody. Yet. Put on your goddamn shoes and get the fuck outta here before Seth wakes up.”

   “If I leave this room, it’s only a matter of time until I’m dead.”

   “I’m counting on it.”

   “Then why would I leave? Your friends are too good. They won’t kill me. But out there…” She motioned vaguely toward the door with one hand. “Defion is looking for me. They think I’m a traitor and don’t have the same moral hang-ups about murder.”

   “That’s your problem. You chose the wrong team.”

   “So did you. Once upon a time.”

   And I’ve been paying for it ever since. He shrugged out of his jacket and threw it at her. She’d make shitty bait if she died of hypothermia before Defion found her. “You’ll leave because if you don’t, I’ll kill you. And I’ll make it hurt. You know I don’t have the same moral hang-ups as my teammates.”

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