Fierce Justice

As hospital rooms went, waking up in this one was one of the better experiences Jason Landon had had to date. The ceiling lights were off, thankfully, and the soft light filling the room was natural. It had a homey feel to it, as opposed to the sterile look of other places or the desperate wear and tear of more beleaguered facilities. He turned his head, cautiously, and found not a window but an actual lanai door on the wall to his right.

Caution amped up to full awareness.

This room was on the ground floor. Not good. He needed to get to a more defensible position. He started to roll off the side of the hospital bed.

“Stay.”

The woman’s voice was pitched low but held every bit as much authority as any commanding officer or drill sergeant’s. He whipped his head around to find her seated in a chair against the opposite wall, within arm’s reach of him but as far away from the open door to the hallway as possible. He instantly regretted moving his head too fast as the rest of the room seemed to catch up in his vision and settle around her along with the onset of a steady pounding to the back of his skull.

“Tch.” She didn’t sound happy.

He stared at her, willing his vision to clear. Dark hair was easiest to see, tied back in a ponytail. Her face, fuzzy at first, was a light shade of golden brown. High cheekbones and soft lips registered in his brain as her face gained definition. Lips were a favorite feature to him, and he focused to pull his brain back online. Her top lip was delicately curved, and her lower lip was full and plump. Amazingly kissable. Her facial features came together in a sweet countenance completely at odds with the irritated tone of her voice.

Once his vision cleared, he reached for some memory of why she looked familiar to him and what the hell he’d been doing before he’d ended up here in the first place.

In reference to her, there’d been an encounter, someplace else, outdoors and…on top of a roof somewhere. Same fierce scowl, but it’d been partially hidden behind the scope of a rifle. The ache in his skull eased a fraction as he matched his recollection with the severe expression she was wearing now. Dire, but not menacing, she wasn’t an immediate threat.

She was striking. Not simply beautiful, and she most definitely was with that face and those curves, but vibrant with the kind of energy that would’ve made her stand out even in a crowd. Alone with her in a small room, she filled the space with a readiness for action that demanded he do the same.

Okay, yeah. Now he remembered her. Relief washed through him in a cool wave as he did. He hadn’t been sure he’d ever meet her again, thought he’d have to search for her, and here she was.

He’d been leading a team on a private security contract, protecting the outer perimeter of a plantation on Oahu. She and her people had successfully broken through all layers of security and infiltrated the main building complex. That had been a blow to his pride, and he’d been working to up his strategic planning skills ever since to make sure it didn’t happen again. Not that he was currently in a position to apply his improved skill set.

Despite his still aching head, he grinned ruefully at the memory, because that day had tossed his world upside down. He’d been angry as hell with his failure. Her team had been good, all of them, and they’d distracted him with an actual explosion out in the far fields where he’d thought the valuable crops were. But when he noticed none of his client’s personal security rushing to put out the fires, he’d checked back at the main building complex to find several of those resources neutralized and her on the roof with a sniper rifle.

Petite, dark beauty combined with deadly competence. He’d been captivated by her.

He’d confronted her until he saw the captives, the slaves, fleeing. He’d been completely ignorant of what the true property of value was on that plantation. Seeing those abused people had stopped him cold.

Now he had no idea what she was doing in a hospital room with him—months later and on a completely different island—seated as far as possible from both exits but with a clear line of sight out either of them.

“How many nurses have you scared?” At least his voice was working. His throat was raw and he could kill for a beer right about now. Hell, he’d settle for water.

His lady companion sighed and if anything, managed to look even more disgruntled just by drawing her brows together. “One was in here a full five minutes checking your records and fussing with your sheets before she looked around the room. The way she gasped and clutched her chest, I wasn’t sure if we’d need to hit the call button for her cardiac distress.”

He barked out a laugh despite the strain to his aching throat. “I have a few burning questions for you, but we need to get out of here.”

She raised one of those gently arched eyebrows, and her expression brightened. “Yeah? You have a concussion. You need to be under observation.”

Maybe, but it wasn’t a good idea to stick around here. Memories were coming back now, catching up as his brain engaged. Conversation helped. He remembered how long it’d been since he’d seen her, what he’d been up to in the meantime, and why he’d come to Big Island in the first place. Maybe he’d even explain it all to her, later.

“We’re on the ground floor. We both need to not be dead.” He scowled as he reached for his IV and realized the same arm was handcuffed to the hospital bed railing at the wrist. Maybe she wasn’t a companion so much as a keeper. “This is not a good start.”

“There’s only one level to this hospital, so ground floor was the only option.” She came to her feet, though, the motion fluid and graceful. He wondered if she danced. As she moved closer, there was an odd scraping noise and a large black and tan dog came into view, too. He must’ve been lying on the floor, almost under the bed. She glanced down the hallway first, then out the lanai. “This is an interior room, though. The lanai opens into an enclosed garden.”

“Copy that.” He glared at the handcuffs. “Look, I get the reason for these. I’m actually surprised there aren’t police officers in here. But I’m also somewhat surprised to be alive and would like to stay that way.”

“We have teams outside the room.” Now that she was standing, he saw the rifle and scope leaning next to her recently vacated chair. She also wore a shoulder harness with a handgun. “However, if you’re ready to start explaining what you were doing and what we might be expecting, chances of remaining secure in this location would be greatly increased.”

He forced himself to pause and think through the massive headache. It might be good to leave in the IV for a few seconds longer. Hydration wasn’t going to cure a concussion or the accompanying headache, but it could keep it all from getting worse. “You’re last line of defense.”

She didn’t respond.

Security wasn’t a simple thing. It was always set up in layers within layers, starting with some sort of outer perimeter and progressing inward. Sure, the hospital had its own alarm and surveillance systems for everyday safety, but she was here because she was watching him. If she and her team were protecting him, she was the final thing standing between potential attackers and their objective. He preferred that perspective, because the other way around meant she was the first line of defense to keep him from walking out of here. He still planned to leave and he’d like for her to let him. Hell, maybe even come with him for a bit.

“It’s been months, so the story is longer than we’ve got time for. I’m going for the highlights here.” He thought hard about what it would take for him to believe, if their positions were reversed. “Last time we met, you were in a rush. I’m going to point out that I took you at your word, with very minimal details, and I pulled back my team to let you and yours go on your way.”

She gave him the barest nod. “You can start with the highlights and I’ll decide if I need more before we move anywhere. Go.”

Not exactly what he’d asked for, but he’d take it and make the best of it. It was what he always did.

“Meeting you was a wakeup call for me. I told you back then I didn’t know about the captives on the plantation. Withdrawing, then letting the authorities come in, was the right thing to do.” He swallowed against the bitter taste in his mouth as he remembered his frustration. “Afterward, I reported back to my company and they didn’t agree with my decision. Maintaining their relationship with a high-paying client was more important than questionable ethics, as they put it. They considered my actions a dereliction of duty.”

It’d been a load of bullshit. What was worse, he had to admit he’d been inclined to turn a blind eye and give the same reasoning in other situations before that. Throughout his career, he’d been focused on contracts for the money and building his reputation in the private sector. He hadn’t thought beyond the immediate objectives in any given contract, mostly security, to what the client might be trying to secure. His integrity had been about being trusted to fulfill a contract, executing it with excellence. But that’d been for black market goods, inanimate objects or animals. He drew the line at the buying and selling of human life.

“I was reprimanded and demoted.” That’d angered him, too, because he’d worked hard to rise up in the organization.

She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, looking like she wanted to say something, but she didn’t.

He took a guess at what she was thinking and waved it away with his free hand. “I don’t regret it. I did the right thing. Then I gathered intel on you and your team, because I wanted to know more about who broke through my security plan.”

It’d been a point of pride and a warped sort of goal to find the team that’d bested him. He’d also been intrigued by her. He wanted to know more about how she fit into her team—not the lead but a strategic asset. She was a sniper but her team all worked with dogs and her dog hadn’t been with her when he’d first met her. Obviously, the GSD was with her now. Why had a sniper gone into search and rescue? How had she become a working dog handler? It was possible, just unusual, to change career paths that drastically and he was fascinated by the questions she inspired.

“Search and Protect Corporation.” Honestly, he didn’t like the name of their organization at all; too snappy. “You get paid to use dogs for search and rescue. Don’t people usually volunteer for that kind of thing?”

“We are contracted to locate and extract high-value hostages from extremely dangerous situations, the kind that require infiltration and a decent amount of firepower on the way out.” Her response was quick and pointed, but matter-of-fact. “Most of us have also volunteered in the case of major disaster.”

Cool and calm. He liked to poke until he got a glimpse of temper in people, figure out what it took to get them fired up and potentially distracted. She was not an easy target for teasing, and he liked the challenge she posed. “Uh huh. Back then, we never would’ve met if my client hadn’t started it all. I had to backtrack to figure it out since my team wasn’t part of it.”

She didn’t respond, didn’t even move.

He shook his head. “A group of scientists conducting interviews in Honolulu’s Chinatown, researching human trafficking on Oahu and in the Hawaiian islands, and the client couldn’t keep his cool. He made a bold move, snatching those scientists right off the street. He was lucky Hawaiian police were stretched thin at the time, or maybe he’d set up a distraction somewhere else. Either way, he didn’t take time to find out who any of the scientists were before he had them taken. If he had, maybe he’d have realized one of them had family on the island. And if he’d followed up, he’d have figured out that family was you. If he’d asked my team to look into it, we’d have advised him against that kind of activity. He brought you and the police down on his head and my team had no warning. Maybe it was sheer luck Mali Siri evaded his goons and got to you for help. But even if she hadn’t, I think you’d have come looking for her.”

She interrupted her roving vigilance of the approaches to the room to give him a hard stare.