Merciless (Option Zero 1)

His mind raced with a thousand suspects and a million scenarios of how any stolen intel could compromise the lives of thousands.

“Did they get everything?”

“Thankfully, no. We change our passwords daily and have multiple security measures in place. It’s what they did get that has me concerned.”

“Such as?”

“They hacked the files on Turner.”

Ash closed his eyes. He wasn’t surprised, but it did increase his concern. When it came to technology, OZ had the tightest, most sophisticated security. Whoever had hacked them was no amateur.

“There’s something else. They got into your personal file. They know where—”

Jules!

Ash was out the door before Serena finished her sentence.

Jules walked along the pathway that led to the gift shop. She needed to remember to buy gum before she went back to the room, but that wasn’t why she’d wanted to come to the gift shop. Yesterday, she’d seen a suncatcher in the window, and she couldn’t resist getting it for Ash. He had a tattoo of a phoenix on his arm and had explained that when he had started OZ, he had looked at it as a new beginning. A new life. A phoenix represented reinvention, rebirth. She knew the symbol meant a lot to him. The suncatcher had the exact same emblem on it. When they were alone tonight, after they returned home, she would give it to him.

She smiled at the people she passed by, marveling at the sheer beauty they’d enjoyed the last ten days. It had been a glorious experience, and while she would definitely miss the warmth of the sun and the beautiful ocean, she couldn’t wait to get back home and start her life with Ash. When she and Kate had cooked up this plan months ago, never had she believed this would be the outcome. She was in love with a man of strength, honor, and incredible courage. They hadn’t talked marriage or anything permanent really, but she wasn’t concerned. She trusted him with her heart. They would reach that point, but for now she was relishing each day as it came.

With Ash and his beautiful smile on her mind, Jules didn’t see the man until he was right on her. A gun was shoved into her side, and a voice growled in her ear, “Get in the van.”

Training took over, and Jules turned away from the man, whirled, and kicked. The kick never landed. A sharp pain slammed into her face. Momentarily stunned, she fell face first into the arms of someone extremely strong. The arms threw her into the back of a van, and the vehicle sped off.

Jules shot up from the floorboard, ready to fight. A needle jabbed into her arm. She got in one good punch to her faceless attacker before darkness swallowed her.

* * *

Blinking her eyes open, Jules tried to move and found she couldn’t. Her hands and feet were tied together in an awkward position. She couldn’t move a muscle. How long had she been out? And where was she? The air smelled stale, damp…slightly moldy. She was in a container of some sort. The outside sounds were indistinguishable but sounded hollow, as if she were in a drum.

Ash! He would be tracking her. He would know within minutes that something was wrong when she didn’t return from the gift shop. He’d check her tracker and be on his way. She needed to be ready when he arrived. Together, they would take these men on and find out who was behind it.

She had that confident assurance up until she heard a massive engine start up, and the vehicle that held the compartment she was in began to move, faster and faster. Seconds later, she felt the lift of takeoff. She was in the air.

Calm spread over her mind. Ash could track her anywhere in the world. He and the OZ team would find her. Whoever these people were, they didn’t know Asher Drake or the Option Zero people. They thought they were dealing with average, ordinary people. They were wrong. There was nothing average or ordinary about the OZ team. For the first time ever, Jules realized what it was to be a part of something bigger. She had always been a loner. Even before she was taken and her parents were killed, she had often gone her own way in things, even when others disagreed. Her mother had called it marching to the beat of her own drum.

Then, after everything happened, there had been no other choice. Being alone meant not getting hurt.

All of that had changed. She was a member of an elite team of warriors. Ash had told her that no one would watch her back like OZ would. They depended on one another. They would find her, there was no doubt. But that didn’t mean she would sit back and just wait to be rescued. She was no victim…never would be again. Whoever was responsible for this was in for a rude awakening.

Surrounded by OZ operatives, Ash sat in the rear of the helicopter. The whir of the blades drowned out even the loudest of shouts, but he’d said all he’d needed to say when they’d been on the ground. They were going to do whatever they had to do to save Jules.

Ash had been stunned when he’d lost her tracker signal. When he’d found a small abandoned airstrip a few miles down the road, his question was answered. She had to have been flown off the island—there was no other explanation. Unfortunately, not a soul around could confirm a flight had taken off.

He’d called the team and given them the details. Serena was able to pull up Jules’s signal. It was weak and went in and out frequently, but when the plane she was on landed, the signal was crystal clear. The instant he learned the location, he’d had no trouble connecting the dots.

That someone had leaked Humphrey’s real identity was no surprise. Ash had known that would happen someday. But what infuriated him was that Jules’s identity as Elsa Olsen had also been discovered. Few people outside of OZ knew about the op that had brought Carl Lang down, but someone in that inner circle had given the intel to the one person who had cause to hate both Ash and Jules. Nora Turner had gotten her revenge after all. Her final vengeful act before she died had been a call to Omar Schrader.

Schrader was not a killer. Not that he wasn’t evil. He was just on a different level of evil. Money was the weapons broker’s number one motivator. This was a different scenario, though. Learning that he’d been deceived and used

might bring out other tendencies. Would his pride turn him into something more dangerous?

Ash had three choices. He could go subtle—call the man and find out exactly what he wanted.

He could go in soft—sneak in and take her without Schrader even knowing he was there until it was too late.

But the time for subtlety or softness was gone. He was going in hard and fast, with the full force of OZ at his back. Arriving with his entire team, they would sweep through the place like rockets. What happened to Omar was up to Omar.