Merciless (Option Zero 1)

He glanced behind him. Mason and Dunley were headed his way. Mason had blood running down the side of his face, and Dunley was limping and holding his left arm at his side. They were banged up but very much alive.

“Yeah. Bates is pinned.”

They went to work, shoving and lifting, trying to get the beam to move even an inch. In the midst of grunting and cursing at their slow progress, the rumble of a helicopter caught their attention.

Ash straightened and peered toward the area where the noise was coming from. Was this help, or had the bastards found another way to get to them?

A heavy breeze swept the area, clearing the air. About two hundred yards away, a Chinook helicopter was touching down. Ash watched as a horde of people appeared from behind some big bushes and ran toward the chopper. A man dressed in black jumped to the ground and herded the people onto the chopper.

Relief flooded him. At least they had help.

He shouted and waved his arms, making sure that the pilot saw him. It was a long distance away, but Ash knew he’d been spotted. The pilot looked directly at him, but there was no nod or the slightest acknowledgment.

The realization hit him seconds before the giant bird lifted from the ground and took off. “They’re leaving us.”

“No way in hell,” Mason snarled. “They can’t—”

But they had. Standing in the midst of destruction and death, next to a man pinned beneath a gargantuan beam, Ash watched the helicopter grow smaller and smaller until it was a dot in the sky.

The sound of a vehicle caught his attention. Hopeful that this was a sign that they hadn’t been abandoned, Ash turned. The truck that had fired the rockets was coming toward them. This was no rescue. This was an army headed to finish the job.

They needed to get the hell out of here. They had arrived in several vehicles. If they could hold the bastards off for a few minutes, maybe they could tie a rope to one of the larger SUVs and dislodge the beam. T

hen they’d hightail it out of here.

His eyes darted to the parking lot that had been on the other side of the building and his heart sank.

Reading him correctly, Dunley said, “They’re demolished. Mason and I checked before we headed this way.”

Ash exchanged a look with each man, silently acknowledging what had happened. They had been left behind. And they had no way out.

They were military, trained to fight till their last breath. And that’s what they would do.

But if he survived, Ash swore that he would spend the rest of his life hunting down the people who left them to die.

Chapter Two

Spokane, Washington

Lucy Carson pulled into her driveway, put the car in park, and pressed her forehead against the steering wheel. She still had no answers. For the past two hours, she had been driving around the city, trying to come up with the right words. How had life suddenly become so complicated? She and her dad had always had a special bond. He was her hero. But the last couple of months, they’d argued more than they’d talked. She had disappointed him—she knew that. Her parents’ approval meant everything to her. They had stood by her, believed in her, and had been her cheerleaders all her life.

This was different, though. She was twenty-one years old, had just graduated from college, and would soon use her degree in art history to work at one of the top museums in the state. No, it wasn’t a high paying job, but as she had tried to explain, starting at the bottom was one of the best ways to learn. Art, in its many forms and fashions, was a field that both fascinated and inspired her. Her dad thought it was impractical and frivolous.

This was the first problem they had not been able to talk through. He was an attorney, and his fondest wish was for her to go to law school and join him in his practice. It was his dream, but it had never been hers.

She had tried, she really had. She’d even taken several pre-law courses and had done well in them, but neither her heart nor her imagination had been engaged. Being a lawyer was not what she wanted.

The dinner tonight was to have been a celebration of her graduation, but it had turned into a shouting match by the end of the meal. Oh, how she wanted to snatch back those words she’d spouted off to him. The restaurant had been full of diners, and she had embarrassed her parents by not only shouting at them, but also by storming out of the restaurant. They had raised her better, expected more from her. She expected more from herself. It didn’t matter that her dad had started the argument, she should have controlled her temper.

Now she needed to figure out how to apologize but still make him understand that she could not do what he wanted. She had to live her own life.

She wished Rob had been there with her. Even though he also disagreed with her decision, he would have smoothed things over with her dad. They’d been dating for almost a year, and both her parents approved. Which was no surprise. Rob was in law school and in his own words, loving every moment. That was Rob’s dream and she was happy for him. But again, it wasn’t hers.

Resolved, Lucy opened the car door and stepped out onto the driveway. Either way, she had to talk to her dad tonight, to at least apologize. She wouldn’t be able to sleep until she did, even if it was just a quick I’m sorry. She could wait to have a more open discussion tomorrow, after they’d both had a good night’s sleep. But she had to apologize tonight.

She turned the key in the lock and pushed the front door open. For the first time, she noticed that though the porch light was on, all the lights inside the house were off. That was unusual. Her parents were night owls and often went to bed long after she’d turned in for the night. It was only a little after eleven. Maybe they were in their bedroom. The master bedroom faced the back of the house and couldn’t be seen from the front.

She set the security alarm and headed upstairs. As she trudged up the stairway, she continued to work on the words that would help her dad understand without causing more hard feelings. Hurting him was the last thing she wanted.