Her fearless warrior, p.1
Her Fearless Warrior, page 1
Her Fearless Warrior
Omega Sky
Book 4
Caitlyn O’Leary
Contents
Synopsis
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
Epilogue
About the Author
Also by Caitlyn O’Leary
© Copyright 2023 Caitlyn O’Leary
All rights reserved.
All cover art and logo © Copyright 2023
By Passionately Kind Publishing Inc.
Cover by Lori Jackson Design
Edited by Rebecca Hodgkins
Content Edited by Trenda Lundin
Cover Photo by Wander Aguiar Photography
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from the author.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, and places portrayed in this book are entirely products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and not intended by the author.
The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
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To my sister Molly, who always amazes me. I love you to the moon and back, little sister.
Synopsis
Finding Them? Simple.
Getting Them Out Alive? Now That Will Take a Minute.
* * *
Lincoln Hart’s Navy SEAL team is sent to Syria to rescue a team of Americans who have been captured. When he realizes their interpreter, Leila Cloud is one of the people who has been kidnapped, all bets are off. He’s been dreaming about her for months.
* * *
With their protective detail dead, Leila was determined to keep her small group unhurt and alive. Can she do this without making herself a target of their brutal captors?
* * *
Linc knows that finding the group of American’s will be the simple part of the mission. Getting them out alive will be next to impossible.
Prologue
Seven-year-old Lincoln Edison turned up the volume on his iPod as high as it would go and winced as Nickelback’s lead singer tried to blow out his eardrums. He would do anything to block out the sounds from down the hall.
Despite Chad Kroeger’s best attempts, Linc couldn’t block out his mother’s scream. Only one scream. Those were the worst. He grabbed his pencil so tight it broke. If his mom wasn’t screaming, it meant that Dad was choking her or she’d passed out.
Or was this the time that Dad would finally kill Mom?
Ick churned through his stomach and he felt like he was going to throw up. He could hear them in their bedroom, so he snuck downstairs to the kitchen. He was barefoot, so he didn’t make any noise. He’d learned how to be quiet when you’re barefoot from that movie—he was pretty sure it was E.T. When he got to the kitchen, he reached up real high to get the phone off the hook from the wall.
He carefully dialed 911.
“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?”
That lady was really loud. Linc pushed the receiver to his chest to make sure her voice couldn’t be heard. He pulled the long cord so that he could move around the counter and scrunch down real small into the corner of the cupboards.
“You need to be quiet,” he whispered to the lady.
“Okay. Can you tell me what your emergency is?”
“I think he’s going to kill her this time.” Linc choked back a sob.
“Are you someplace safe?”
“Yeah, I’m hiding in the kitchen.”
“That’s good. Now tell me your address.”
Linc did. He had it memorized. “Is a policeman going to come?”
“Yes, honey. A police officer is going to come.”
“Okay.”
“Tell me your name.”
“I’ve got to go back to my room. If he finds me here, I’ll get it.”
He got up from the corner and started to walk around the counter to hang up the phone.
“I need your name,” she said louder.
She wasn’t supposed to talk loud. Linc had already told her.
He reached up on his tiptoes and hung up the phone. He listened carefully and heard a shout, then a soft scream. That was another thing he hated, when Mom couldn’t scream anymore. It meant that everything was getting worse.
He carefully made it back up to his room, making sure to close his door as quietly as he could. Then he went to his window and waited. It seemed like forever for the police car to drive up to the curb. They didn’t have their lights flashing or their siren going, and he didn’t understand why not. Two men got out of their car and knocked on the front door.
All the sound in his parents’ bedroom stopped.
Then he heard his dad’s shoes stomping down the hall, and Linc’s door slammed open. “It was you!” his dad hissed.
His dad’s eyes glowed as he towered over him. Then he did something he’d never done before. He hit Linc. He punched Linc in the stomach so hard that he landed against his bed. “You called them, didn’t you, boy?”
Linc couldn’t pull in air. He saw his mom behind his dad. She looked like she always did, scared and hunched over. That’s because his dad was always sure not to hit anyplace that people could see.
“Because of you, you little shit, I’m going to have to go deal with them. When I come back, I’m going to come deal with you. In the meantime, you stay here and keep your trap closed. You got it?”
Linc nodded. He didn’t know what else to do.
His dad gave him a funny look. And he strode further into the bedroom and picked Linc up by his Star War pajamas. “You know, I don’t think you’ve got it.” Linc looked up at eyes identical to his own. “If you make one peep, you do one little thing that brings attention to you, I will knock her into next Sunday,” he said as he pointed to Linc’s mom. “She’s my wife. You’re my kid. You both are my property. I can do whatever the fuck I want to each of you. You got that?”
Linc’s father dropped him onto the floor, where he curled up into the fetal position, trying to ease the pain in his stomach.
“Come on, Connie. You better tell them nothing is going on. I want to see you smile, otherwise I’ll start in on him.” Following Linc’s mom out, his dad shut his bedroom door.
Linc could hear them going down the stairs and then the front door opened. He dragged himself to his bedroom window so he could see and hear what was said. He opened the window just a little bit.
“Hello. What can I do for you?” his mother asked.
“We got a report of a domestic disturbance.”
Linc looked at the two men on the porch. They were both bigger than his dad. They could make him stop hitting his mom.
“Are you sure you have the right house?” his mom asked. “My husband and I were just watching TV.”
“May we talk to your husband?”
“Hold on and I’ll get him.”
She shut the door.
“Did you see the way she winced when she turned to close the door? I think she might have a broken rib,” the tall policeman said.
“I don’t know. She seems fine to me.”
The door opened again. “Hi, I’m Bill Edison. My wife tells me you got a report of a domestic disturbance? Would you like to come in? I think there must be some kind of mistake.”
“Bill’s right. We weren’t even playing the TV loud, so I don’t understand.”
“Do you have any children? They said that they thought it was a child who made the call,” the tall policeman said.
“Yes, we have one son, Lincoln. He’s seven years old,” his mother answered.
“But he’s sleeping over at a friend’s house tonight. So, he couldn’t have made any call. If he ever did that, we’d have to ground him for calling the police when there wasn’t anything wrong.”
“Therefore, we can’t talk to your son?”
“If you want to go all the way over to Englewood. That’s where the sleepover is happening.” His dad laughed.
* * *
“Bill, would you mind coming out here and answering a few questions while my partner, Officer Gilbert, goes in and talks to your wife?”
“That would be just fine.”
Linc could stand up now. He still couldn’t take a full breath. He pulled up his pajama top and pressed his hand against the spot where his dad’s fist had hit him. It felt really warm, and it hu rt when he pressed on it. But Linc refused to cry. He hardly ever saw his mom cry, so he wouldn’t cry.
He went to his bedroom door and slid it open just enough so he could slip out. He wanted to hear what his mom said to the tall policeman.
“Are there any firearms in the house, Mrs. Edison?”
“Only one gun. But Bill keeps it in a safe.”
“Are you sure? Are you sure it’s in a safe?”
“I’m positive. Bill keeps it for protection. Only his or my thumbprint can open the safe in case of an emergency.”
The policeman sighed.
“Has your husband ever hit you, Mrs. Edison?”
“Never. No matter how mad he’s gotten, he has never hit me,” she lied.
“I noticed that you’re walking slowly, and you’re favoring your right side. Did you injure yourself?”
Please tell him, Mom. Please tell him. Please tell him.
“I worked out too hard yesterday during my exercise class at the gym. It usually takes me a day or two to recover.”
Linc hit the stair railing in frustration.
“Ma’am, is somebody else in the house? What made that sound?”
“It’s just our dog. He’s afraid of strangers, so he hides upstairs whenever somebody new comes over.”
“Mrs. Edison, if your husband hurts you, we can help. Now is the time to tell us. We can protect you.”
“I’ve read stories about what happens when the husband is taken away for the night. Then he makes bail, and he’s angrier than ever. Why would a smart woman ever tell the police anything?”
“There are shelters that are totally private. You would be safe,” the tall police officer said.
“Look around this house. Like I would ever subject my boy to a shelter. This is his home. It is my home. My husband is a good provider, and he has never hurt me.”
“Mrs. Edison, I’ve been called out on almost one hundred of these kinds of cases. Ninety percent of them, the husband or boyfriend escalates, and the woman ends up in the hospital.”
“I told you, my husband has never hurt me. Why won’t you believe me?”
“And usually,” the policeman continued, like she hadn’t even said anything, “the husband or boyfriend will eventually start hitting the kids. Is that what you want for your son?”
His mom was crying now. “How many times do I have to tell you he’s not violent?”
“Is that what you want me to write in your statement? He has never hurt you?”
“Yes, write that down. I’ll sign it.”
Linc felt a tear trickle down his cheek.
He went back to his bedroom. He put on his earphones and cranked up the music to its highest volume and went back to doing his math homework.
He’d finished his math assignment and took out his spelling homework. He knew some kids had their parents help them, but most of the time, his mother was too sick to help him. Linc knew what too sick meant. Why had his mother lied to the police?
He looked down and saw water on his paper. He scrubbed his face with the sleeve of his Star Wars pajamas and started concentrating on the words in front of him.
“You little shit!”
He was shoved so hard that he flew off his chair, and his headphones came off.
“It was you!” His father kicked him in his side. Linc cried out.
“Don’t hurt him,” his mother begged. She grabbed at his dad’s arm and he wrenched away from her, causing her to stumble. As she gripped Linc’s dad’s arm, Linc saw his dad clench both of his hands into fists and he hit her so hard, in the face this time, that she fell down. Linc thought he’d killed her until she moaned.
Linc’s dad kicked him really hard in his butt. “Get up,” he yelled. “I’m not done with you.”
Linc pushed up from the floor, listening to his mother’s whimpers. When he was on his feet, his father grabbed his shoulders and shook him.
“I’m a good father to you. Do you hear me? I make sure you can live like a little fucking prince,” he snarled.
Linc was dizzy and having trouble understanding what his dad was saying.
“Answer me. Do you hear me?”
“Yes.” He somehow managed to get the word out.
“Yes!” His dad stopped shaking him, and continued to hold him with one hand, and with the other, backhanded him across the face. The world exploded in pain. He cried out.
“Shut up. Don’t make a fucking sound. You take your punishment like a man.”
“Bill, stop. He’s just a little boy.”
His dad dropped him, and Linc stared as his dad took three steps toward his mom and punched her in the stomach. She bent over, then he hit her with his other fist under her jaw. Her head snapped back and she hit the blue wall of his bedroom then slid down it. Her bathrobe split open so that her boobs were showing. Linc looked back at his dad.
“Stop hurting her,” he shouted.
“You’re right. I will. You still need to be taught a lesson. I think you need a bare-assed spanking. You wait right here.” His father stalked out of his room, and Linc slumped to the floor. He needed to get to his mom. He crawled to her. He’d almost made it until his dad was back holding one of his belts.
He picked Linc up by the neck of his pajamas. Then his dad sat down on his twin bed with the Chewbacca bedspread, and he shoved Linc over his lap. He pulled down Linc’s pajamas, then Linc heard the slap of the belt hitting flesh. For a brief moment, he wondered what had happened, then fire erupted on his butt and he screamed.
“I told you not to make a sound. If you do, I’ll only beat you harder. Do you understand?”
Linc had no breath to say anything.
His dad gripped him by his hair and twisted his neck so their eyes met. “Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Linc wheezed.
“That was one. You get ten. You’ll end up bloody, but you deserve it for calling the cops. If you scream again, it’ll be twenty.”
Linc lost count of how many times his dad hit him. The pain was excruciating. He bit his bottom lip as hard as he could so he wouldn’t make a sound. Then his dad whipped him on his thighs, and he screamed again.
“You were so close to the end of your punishment.”
Another eruption of pain blasted through his entire body. Everything went red. He heard his mom screaming again.
She wasn’t supposed to scream.
“Don’t, Mom,” he wheezed out the words.
“Mom, don’t scream,” he begged.
“Leave my baby alone!” It was his mom, but she sounded funny.
He toppled to the ground as his dad stood up.
“You wouldn’t dare!” his father roared.
“I’m not kidding, Bill. Don’t you dare touch him again.”
Ahhhhhh, Linc moaned. The kick to his head made everything gray. He thought he heard more screaming and yelling, but he couldn’t be sure.
“No, Mom.” He thought he said the words, but he wasn’t sure.
“Give me the gun, Connie. I’ll stop.”
“You’ll never stop. That’s what he said. You’ll never stop.”
“Just give me the fucking gun, you whore!”
Linc heard a loud explosion, then the world went black.
1
“No!” Elijah Hopkins roared.
Blood and bits sprayed Leila Cloud as Nottingham was shot in the head, his body hitting the rubble beside her.
“I’ll go quiet—” Elijah didn’t get to finish his sentence as Paul Unger was shot in the head. Now both bodyguards for their team were dead, killed in seconds.
Leila locked eyes with her boss. They’d worked together on and off for five years.
