Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Aaron's Honor (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Men of Mercy Book 8) Read online

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  DOSSIER

  TASK FORCE SCORPION (TF-S)

  A branch of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC)

  Ft. Grenada, MS—

  MACK GREY: Detachment Commander, Captain

  ♣ Recruited from the 75th Ranger Regiment, Ft. Benning, GA

  ♣ Specialized Skills: direct action, unconventional warfare, special reconnaissance, interrogations specialist, psychological warfare

  ♣ First in Command. Responsible for ensuring and maintaining operational readiness.

  ♣ Height: 6’

  ♣ Weight: 195lbs

  ♣ Combat Experience: Operation Gothic Serpent, Somalia. Operation Desert Storm, OIF, Operation Crescent Wind, Operation Rhino, Operation Anaconda, Operation Jacana, Operation Mountain Viper, Operation Eagle Fury, Operation Condor, Operation Summit, Operation Volcano, Operation Achilles

  HUNTER JAMES: Warrant Officer, Detachment Commander

  ♣ Recruited from the 75th Ranger Regiment, Ft. Benning, GA

  ♣ Specialized Skills: direct action, unconventional warfare, special reconnaissance, psychological warfare

  ♣ Responsible for overseeing all Team ops. Commands in absence of detachment commander.

  ♣ Height: 6’3”

  ♣ Weight: 230lbs

  ♣ Combat Experience: Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Crescent Wind, Operation Anaconda, Operation Jacana, Operation Mountain Viper

  RANGER JAMES: Team Daddy/Team Sergeant, Master Sgt.

  ♣ Recruited from the 75th Ranger Regiment, Ft. Benning, GA

  ♣ Specialized Skills: direct action, unconventional warfare, special recon

  ♣ Plans, coordinates & directs Team intelligence, analysis and dissemination.

  ♣ Height: 6’4”

  ♣ Weight: 225lbs

  ♣ Combat Experience: Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Crescent Wind, Operation Anaconda, Operation Jacana, Operation Mountain Viper, Operation Eagle Fury

  JARED CROWE: Weapons Sergeant, Sgt. 1st Class

  ♣ Recruited from Delta Force, Ft. Bragg, NC

  ♣ Specialized Skills: direct action, unconventional warfare, special recon, Sniper

  ♣ Weapons expert. Capable of firing and employing all small arm and crew served weapons

  ♣ Height: 6’0”

  ♣ Weight: 220lbs

  ♣ Combat Experience: Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Crescent Wind, Operation Anaconda, Operation Jacana, Operation Condor, Operation Summit, Operation Volcano, Operation Achilles

  HOYT CROWE: Asst. Weapons Sergeant, Staff Sgt.

  ♣ Recruited from Delta Force, Ft. Bragg, NC

  ♣ Specialized Skills: direct action, unconventional warfare, special recon, Sniper

  ♣ Weapons expert. Capable of firing and employing all small arm and crew served weapons

  ♣ Height: 6’0”

  ♣ Weight: 210lbs

  ♣ Combat Experience: Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Crescent Wind, Operation Anaconda, Operation Jacana, Operation Condor, Operation Summit, Operation Volcano, Operation Achilles

  AARON SPEIRS: Medical Sergeant, Sgt. 1st Class

  ♣ Recruited from Delta Force, Ft. Bragg, NC

  ♣ Specialized Skills: direct action, unconventional warfare, special reconnaissance, medic

  ♣ The life-saver. Employs the latest field medical technology and limited surgical procedures

  ♣ Height: 6’1”

  ♣ Weight: 195lbs

  ♣ Combat Experience: Operation Anaconda, Operation Jacana, Operation Condor, Operation Summit, Operation Volcano, Operation Achilles

  RISER MALLON: Asst. Medical Sergeant, Staff Sgt.

  ♣ Recruited from Delta Force, Ft. Bragg, NC

  ♣ Specialized Skills: direct action, unconventional warfare, special recon, medic

  ♣ The life-saver. Employs the latest field medical technology and limited surgical procedures

  ♣ Height: 6’2”

  ♣ Weight: 215lbs

  ♣ Combat Experience: Operation Anaconda, Operation Jacana, Operation Condor, Operation Summit, Operation Volcano, Operation Achilles, Operation Mountain Viper, Operation Eagle Fury

  MERC: Engineer Sergeant, Sgt. 1st Class

  ♣ Recruited from Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

  ♣ Specialized Skills: direct action, unconventional warfare, special recon, Demolitions, psychological operations

  ♣ Demolition expert. Trained in psychological warfare, conducts field interrogations.

  ♣ Height: 6’5”

  ♣ Weight: 250lbs

  ♣ Combat Experience: Classified

  ETHAN SLADE: Communications

  Sergeant/Commo Guy, Sgt. 1st Class

  ♣ Recruited from the 75th Ranger Regiment, Ft. Benning, GA

  ♣ Specialized Skills: direct action, unconventional warfare, special recon, communications

  ♣ Communications expert. Employ latest FM, multi-channel, and satellite communication devices.

  ♣ Height: 6’0”

  ♣ Weight: 200lbs

  ♣ Combat Experience: Operation Condor, Operation Summit, Operation Volcano, Operation Achilles

  CORD CARTER: Weapons Sergeant, Staff Sgt.

  ♣ Recruited from the Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC), Camp Lejeune, NC

  ♣ Specialized Skills: direct action, unconventional warfare, special reconnaissance, weapons expert/sniper

  ♣ Weapons expert. Capable of firing and employing all small arm and crew served weapons

  ♣ Height: 6’1”

  ♣ Weight: 210lbs

  ♣ Combat Experience: Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Condor, Operation Summit, Operation Volcano, Operation Achilles

  CHAPTER ONE

  Camp Eagle Claw, classified location Afghanistan…

  The Afghanistan desert would have made the devil himself sweat, not that the devil was brave enough to set up headquarters in this godforsaken land. Only the United States Special Forces would be smart enough to pick the meanest valley in the Middle East as its home away from home.

  Even the insects were AWOL. The only creatures crawling across the sand were the death dealers – scorpions, snakes and Special Forces.

  Operative Aaron Speirs, assistant medical sergeant and weapons expert, bent over and gripped the metal bar in front of him, working on his fourth set of dead lifts in the spotted shade provided by the camo net over Task Force Scorpions, TF-S, camp.

  Up, down. Three hundred ninety-five pounds, nearly twice his bodyweight, an extreme amount guaranteed to give him arthritis by retirement – but he wasn’t worried about that since most men in the Teams didn’t live to see their fiftieth birthday. Sweat ran in rivulets down his shirtless chest, dropped to the scorched earth with a sizzle and evaporated instantly.

  Up, down. One more round of lifts and he might fall out from weariness, which was exactly what he intended. He couldn’t stop thinking about Celine Latimer with her perfect platinum hair an
d sinful sweet personality. He couldn’t forget the taste of her strawberry flavored lip gloss or the fact that it was his fault she’d been kidnapped.

  Up, down. Another lift. Aaron’s exhausted muscles screamed in protest but he kept moving, ignoring the pain.

  Why hadn’t he taken her in his arms and devoured her whole instead of turning her away?

  “Dammit, Speirs, never seen you lift that heavy. You need to ease up, give yourself a break.” Ethan Slade, communications sergeant and best friend, strained under the weight of his bench press five feet away. Ethan racked his weight and sat up, yanking a towel from a nearby chair to mop up the moisture on his face.

  “Celine’s not getting a break. Caroline’s not getting a break. We don’t know where they are or what’s being done to them.” Every night he went to bed with a small head shot of Celine gripped in his hand and during the day he kept it tucked in his shirt pocket. Her picture a haunting ghost to remind him daily of his fuck up.

  “You gotta have some faith, man. We’ll find them. We’ve already narrowed their location down to this area of the desert.”

  “You mean this hundred square mile radius of ISA loyalists? And what about Mr. J? He’s here too. He works for ISA. He wants nothing more than to make us pay.” The Islamic State of Afghanistan, the lead terrorist organization in the world, responsible for kidnapping Caroline Cotter from her wedding to a very high profile general. The whole thing had been orchestrated by Mr. J, Task Force Scorpions former CIA liaison turned traitor. Celine Latimer had been collateral damage.

  “It should never have gone down like that. The whole time I was thinking it was a cake mission, how hard could it be to pull security at Caroline’s wedding anyway? I got soft, complacent. I should never have taken Senator Cotter’s word that he’d fully vetted his own staff.”

  Up, down. The barbell bowed under the heavyweights stacked onto the ends every time he lifted. He was going to make Celine’s kidnapper bend like that, right before he snapped the bastard in half.

  “You’re right, we knew better, but we both trusted the Senator. It was his fuck up, too, and his daughter that was kidnapped because of it,” Ethan said.

  “Not just Caroline. Celine was kidnapped, too. Don’t forget her,” Aaron ground out, jaw clenched under the pressure of holding up the extreme weight and guilt.

  “Don’t forget my girlfriend, Kate, was almost taken. Don’t talk like I don’t understand, man. We nearly lost all of them.”

  “I’m not, I just-I was the reason for Celine being there in the first place,” Aaron said.

  “Yeah, so what? You invited her because you already knew her, you’d vetted her and we needed someone we could trust. Someone who could be close to Caroline that we wouldn’t have to worry about. You were just doing your job.”

  Oh, he did his job alright, he fully vetted Celine Latimer, but not as a stylist for the bride.

  He wanted her. He’d wanted her for nearly a year. He’d wanted her so bad he’d forgotten the cardinal rule – no relationships in the special forces. Not that he enjoyed one night stands, but he wasn’t about to put a girl through the shit of being in a relationship with a man that was never there, or one that may never come home from a mission. He’d seen the toll it took on his buddies’ wives – no way would he do that to a female. If he couldn’t fully commit to a relationship, he wouldn’t do it at all. “If you say so, man.”

  He wasn’t in the mood to talk about it anymore. Aaron dropped the heavy-metal bar with a satisfying loud clank onto the concrete at his feet.

  Ethan wiped the sweat from his face and dropped the soaked hand towel on a nearby metal chair. Their workout facility had the necessities. Water enough so they wouldn’t pass out from dehydration. Weights heavy enough guaranteed to work off the steam. All the outdoor circulation the desert could provide.

  Hell on earth.

  Aaron and the rest of his team had been here for two weeks, searching and pulling recon non-stop. They’d tapped all their contacts in the area, searched satellite photographs and even done some door-to-door searches only to come up with nothing. Not even a blip. It was as if the two girls had vanished.

  “I saw Hoyt and Jared pull in a few seconds ago. Let’s head back out, who knows, maybe we’ll get a lead,” Ethan said.

  Aaron left the barbell on the concrete pad for the next guy who needed to bend some metal. “Five minutes.”

  After a quick shower and uniform change the two checked in with the commander and then headed out on their knock and talk mission, which was a complete waste of time, but it was also their only hope for a lead right now.

  “Just got a call from Delta Force, they’ll be here in the next hour. Their team leader, Ghost, has some new intel he wants to show us.” Ethan pulled the Humvee to a stop at the end of Mississippi Street. They’d named the routes and streets around Shorawak, a medium sized town near the Afghanistan/Pakistan border, according to states. Mississippi was one of the safer streets to patrol, and one that they hadn’t covered yet in their door to door search for Caroline and Celine.

  “OK,” Aaron said and got out of the Humvee, heading to the first door on the street. He banged hard, waited a sec and knocked again. A man answered, his gaunt face haggard with deprivation and dirt. Aaron held up the headshots of the girls. “You see them?”

  “No.” The man slammed the door in his face and Aaron forced himself to back up a step and move down the street.

  No had been the standard response from those who had any English vocabulary. Most of the time, they just got angry retorts in the local language, Farsi, and a door slam.

  Ethan followed along, guarding Aaron’s back as he stopped at every single door on the street. When they finally reached the end, Aaron had reached the end of his patience. “I hate not knowing.”

  “Me, too, brother. Maybe Delta Force will have some new intel we can use,” Ethan scanned the now deserted street behind them, keeping his rifle at the ready.

  “I’m letting you take the next one.” Aaron knocked on the beaten up green metal door. A man in a white tunic and pants answered the door, his gaze raking over Aaron with hate.

  Aaron gritted his teeth and held up the worn photos of the girls. “Have you seen them?”

  The man spat at his feet and made to shut the door. Hot rage turned his vision red. Aaron slammed a hand to the door and yanked the man out, pinning him to the wall. “You hear me? I asked you a question. Where are the girls?!”

  The man threw his hands up, waving in front of his face and shouted back in Farsi, “Man nemefahmam. Man nemefahmam.”

  Ethan grabbed Aaron’s shoulder, pulling him off the local. “Hey, he doesn’t know. What the hell are you doing?”

  The man ran inside and locked the door. Ethan threw Aaron against the wall where the villager had been. “What the hell is really going on? I know you, this isn’t like you. And don’t give me another line of shit about how you feel guilty for screwing up the mission, because we all screwed that one. Plus, we’ve all failed missions before and moved on. What’s eating you alive over this one?”

  What was so different?

  Maybe it was the fact he’d cornered Celine in her bedroom and tried to devour her whole. Or maybe that she’d returned the favor full force in an explosion of passion neither of them had been prepared for. Or maybe, just maybe, it was the fact Colonel Grey had walked in on them going at it like two teenagers in the back of his father’s car when Aaron should have been on patrol.

  Instead of being a man and facing his commander, Aaron had tucked tail and turned away from Celine, pointedly ignoring her for the rest of the week despite the wounded expression she shot him whenever they were in each other’s vicinity. “I should have paid better attention. It was my job to protect them.”

  “And mine. And Team Omega’s. And the Secret Service.”

  “But-”

  “No buts.” Ethan kept him pinned. “You’ve been on edge since we got here and I’ve tried to stay out of it, bu
t I’m not gonna sit back and watch you lose it. You’ve been taking chances lately, chances you never used to take.”

  Celine was at the mercy of a murderer and in a din of monsters who thought women were worth less than dogs. They wouldn’t hesitate to hurt her. Bile clawed its way up his throat at the thought of another man’s hands on Celine’s body.

  “Just let it out, brother. Get whatever it is eating you alive off your chest so we can get to work.” Ethan crossed his arms.

  If he’d have pushed harder, tried to pick him apart, Aaron might have clamped down, but the obvious concern in Ethan’s voice broke through Aaron’s wall of anger.

  “Shit.” Aaron shoved a hand through his thick sweaty hair. “I’m trying, you know. I can’t get her out of my mind long enough to concentrate. Every time I think about someone hurting her.” He wanted to punch something. To break something. To kill someone.

  “I get it. You know I get it. But you got to find a way back to zero, brother, this edge you’ve got puts us all at risk.”

  “I know you understand but that doesn’t stop the fact that Mr. J has them. We know that. He’s already tried to have our team murdered twice. If he can find a way to use the girls to hurt us, you know he will.”

  Ethan put a hand on Aaron’s shoulder. “That’s right, he will. I know it. You know it. Just like we both know that if you don’t get your center back, Mr. J will win. Again. Your greatest weapon is your training. Take that rage filling up your insides right now and compress it into cold hard hate. You figure out a way to get it under control and we will find Mr. J and Celine. But you keep letting the anger rule your decisions instead of logic and you’ll get us all killed.”

  Aaron blew out a long sigh, knowing Ethan was right, but at a complete loss as to how to get the raging beast inside him under control. “I know you’re right, I know I should, I just don’t know if I can.”

  “Oh you can, brother, trust me. Just think about how good it’s going to feel to put a bullet in Mr. J’s skull. If it hadn’t been for Mr. J, Shane might not be dead, and ISA sure as shit wouldn’t have had the resources to attack us on our own soil.” The terrorist group made the Taliban look like amateurs. They had ambushed Task Force Scorpion’s headquarters, nearly killing the entire team and their families. They’d turned Shane Carter, TF-S’s first sniper, against his own team, resulting in Merc having to put a bullet in his teammate.