He glanced up, said something to the others, and then all h.e.l.l broke loose.

A weird pattering sound filled the morning, while men dropped from the skies on ropes. Jory raced across the distance in a zigzag pattern. She held out a hand to stop him, her mind fuzzing.

He reached her, yanked her up, and smacked her in a chest hard enough to knock the wind out of her. Without missing a stride, he turned in one smooth motion before she could utter a word. She grabbed on to his shirt for balance and screamed. He ducked his head over her to zigzag back toward the helicopter. Mud popped up next to them, and she gasped. Her mind swirled.

They were being shot at.

Jory's brothers' helicopter whirred into action, and his family leaned out, all shooting at the men in black who'd dropped from the sky.

One of the brothers jerked back, growled, and kept fighting.

How badly was he shot?

Jory bent low over her, protecting her. Panic heated up her lungs, all reality faded, and she started to struggle.

She had to get out of there. Away from the shooting and blood.

They reached the helicopter, and her fists pounded into his chest. A man shouted as he ran around the cabin, and she turned to stare.

Her father. She gasped. He faltered and stopped firing, his black eyes blazing. "Your brother gave you up, Matt. Brought you right to me." His voice rose like power over the fight and through the rain.

Jory faltered. "a.s.shole."

"Let me go." Piper shoved at Jory's chin, squirming to keep him from throwing her in the copter. She didn't know him-not really. Where were they going? What about her mother? Piper couldn't just leave.

"Let Piper go. Now." The commander braced his legs as if unafraid of any bullet.

"No." Jory used his body as a shield around her, and she tried not to find comfort in his protection. This was over the top.

The commander slid dark gla.s.ses off his eyes, his gaze sliding to the front of the craft. "Matthew. So good to see you again. Come home, boy."

Jory's black-haired brother leaned out the pilot's window, his gun out. "I have a new home, a.s.shole. Leave us alone, or I'll take you out." He ducked back as bullets pinged into the side of the copter. "Everyone load up," he ordered, returning fire.

He sounded a lot like Jory, in control and threatening.

The commander ducked to the side of the cabin and out of the open.

Jory bent low, holding her against the metal as his brothers fired around them, providing cover. "One chance to come with us. I won't force you."

She shook her head, surprised to find him blurry through tears. Those eyes. She'd never forget those eyes. "I can't leave my mom."

Jory's jaw tightened. He faltered, and an odd vulnerability glowed in his eyes to be quickly snuffed out. "I never had a mom, but if I had one, I wouldn't leave her." He brushed a kiss across Piper's forehead as the firefight waged on around them. "Okay. Then fight me, and make it look good."

What the h.e.l.l did he think she'd been doing? But her mind swirled that he thought her father needed to see her fight. That her father wouldn't trust her otherwise. Opening her mouth, she screamed and punched with every ounce of fear consuming her.

Jory's grip faltered. "More," he hissed. She kicked and screamed and fought, honestly with everything she had.

"Sorry about this, Pipe." Dropping her, Jory grabbed his eye as if she'd punched him, and yet held on to the blanket. "Run."

She screeched. The blanket shredded away as he jumped into the helicopter. It rose into the air, the men firing all around. Fury heating her ears, she turned and ran full bore for her father by the cabin door. Buck-a.s.sed naked.

The gunfire increased, and the soldiers ignored her barefoot dash through mud and weeds to reach the door.

Somehow, she knew Jory wouldn't let her get shot. She leaped into the cabin and whirled around to see him watching her, his gun covering her. He'd made sure she got safely inside.

She panted out air, and her chest hitched. The oddest part of her wanted to change her mind and go with him.

Then, with a quick nod, he pointed his weapon toward the forest as the helicopter continued to rise. Even as the storm pummeled him, he fired toward the forest, his gaze remaining on her. She watched him until he disappeared into the clouds, her body trembling with a shocking sense of loss.

Heart pounding, she leaped inside and went straight for her clothes at the fire. Jerking them on with shaking fingers, she ducked against the sofa until the firing stopped. She slowly lifted her head.

Silence.

Drawing in air, she crept toward the door and glanced outside. The commander was speaking into a radio. "They're up and out of here. If you can't bring them down peacefully, blow them out of the air. I want proof of life... or proof of death."

Piper opened the door, her eyes wide. "No," she whispered.

His black eyes narrowed. "You need to be debriefed."

CHAPTER.

12.

JORY FINISHED TYING a bandage around Matt's upper arm. "Went right through," he said, patting tape into place. The smell of mildew and old cigarettes filtered around and made him need to sneeze.

Yet being with his brothers, finally, felt like home. "I didn't bring the commander to you." They had to believe him. No matter what, he'd never give up his brothers.

"We know." Matt kept his gray gaze on him while sitting on a ragtag orange bedspread in a hotel in the middle of nowhere. Nate and Shane nodded.

"Duh," Shane muttered and slapped his back in a show of support.

Jory threw him a glare in an attempt to hide the relief coursing through him. His brothers believed in him. How could he forget that, even for a moment?

No expression softened Matt's hard face, but emotion shone hard and bright in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Jor."

Jory blinked. "Getting caught was my fault, Mattie. Not yours." For as long as Jory could remember, Matt had taken responsibility for them all. Not knowing where Jory had been for two years would've torn him apart. "I'm sorry."

Shane tossed him a beer while Nate smoothly slid needle and thread through Shane's forearm to seal a hole. "Enough apologies. We're here, we're alive, and we just crashed a helicopter into a Utah forest." He grinned. "Let the commander go through that wreckage."

Nate snorted.

Jory rubbed his aching neck, almost too full to speak. G.o.d, he'd missed them. "That was quite the plan you had." They'd landed the copter and immediately jumped into an SUV hidden in the trees before blowing the Blackhawk to pieces while the other helicopters chased their a.s.ses in the clouds. "How did you put it together so quickly?"

Nate took a long swallow of beer. "We called in a couple of favors. It worked."

Jory opened his beer and studied his brothers. Being away from them, not sure if they lived, had been like a fist continually gripping his heart. Now, finally, he could breathe.

His brothers were all about six-five, and he had an inch on them. One he'd gloated over so long ago. In the last two years, his brothers had hardened even more, which he wouldn't have thought possible. But new lines fanned out from Matt's eyes. Laugh lines. Shane seemed relaxed... for Shane. He sat easily, leaning against an ugly yellow chair, his face more angular than Matt's but his eyes just as fierce. And Nate. The worried brother, the furious protector... calmness surrounded him. Even on high alert, he owned focus.

"What the h.e.l.l did I miss?" Jory asked before tipping back his head and letting the cool brew slide down.

Shane shrugged. "I recaptured my wife."

Jory grinned. He'd never met Josie, but he'd seen pictures. The woman looked like Tinker Bell with an att.i.tude. "Was she willing?"

"Eventually," Shane said.

Good. That was good. Jory nodded. Shane had been miserable when he'd left Josie, and seeing him happy was the best thing that could've happened for Jory. No more anger for his big brother.

Nate smiled. "I hunted Audrey down, and now she's pregnant."

Jory nodded and scrutinized his brother. Nate seemed... happy. "Yeah, I heard. Congrats to you both." Sweet Audrey was somehow Dr. Madison's daughter, and they couldn't be more different.

He'd missed a lot, and he wished he could've been there to help his brothers. But the idea that they'd actually found happiness, that they'd move on once he died, settled an ache in his chest. This was good.

He turned toward Matt, wondering what Matt thought of having women in the family.

Matt finished his beer. "I fell in love with one of the commander's doctors, and now she's ready to take the chips out of our spines the second we force them off-line."

Jory stilled. He stopped his beer halfway to his mouth while studying his oldest brother. No tell. Then he looked toward Nate and then Shane. No amus.e.m.e.nt. "You're kidding."

"Nope." Matt reached for another beer.

Nate shifted a knife against his calf. "Laney Lou is a sweetheart. You'll like her, Jory."

Jory scratched his chin. Nate was the most cynical person ever born, so if he liked the woman, she must be amazing. Still. One of the commander's doctors? "Congrats?"

"Thanks." Matt tossed him another beer. "You'll meet her when we get picked up tonight."

Now he really wanted to meet the woman who'd captured Matt's heart. But first, they had another mission to take. Jory took a deep breath. "We can't leave."

Nate leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. "We have the computer program, and now that your brain is back with us, you can figure out how to deactivate the chips."

Jory nodded, his chest all but bursting. Even though they had the program, they didn't have the frequency or the codes. The d.a.m.n f.u.c.king codes that somehow changed easily in the right program. "That's exactly what I'll do."

He'd watched Piper on the computer, but too much needed to come together in the time frame they had left. There just wasn't enough time left. He'd tell them about his chip after he rendered theirs useless, which was already a nearly impossible task. Just trying to remove a chip might detonate the d.a.m.n thing, even with the right codes put into the right program. "But first, we have an extraction."

Matt frowned. "The woman? You released her."

Jory nearly groaned as the image of Piper running nude toward the cabin zipped through his brain. The woman had an amazing a.s.s. Full and ripe... just his type. Then he took a drink as reality smacked him. A deep breath. His gut swirled at the thought of Chance and the other two boys still under the commander's thumb. At the boy who'd been lost.

Matt leaned forward. "Spit it out."

"There are more kids," Jory said, his voice going hoa.r.s.e.

Tension slammed through the room. Matt went stone still, Shane leaped to his feet, and Nate put his back to the door.

"You sure?" Matt's voice dropped to the dark tone of death.

"Yes." Jory shoved a rough hand through his now dry hair. "Met one named Chance. Gray eyes-definitely one of us. Saw his bone structure and caught his scent."

Nate exhaled slowly, through his nose. "How many?"

"Three, counting Chance. Now." Jory tried to force emotion into a box. "We have three more brothers."

"Three now?" Nate asked softly.

Jory nodded, rage nearly boiling his blood. "There were four. Lost one a month ago in the field-he was eleven."

The sound Matt made could only be termed a tenor of pain.

"f.u.c.k." Shane threw his bottle across the room to smash into the bathroom wall. "f.u.c.king f.u.c.ktard of a b.a.s.t.a.r.d f.u.c.ktard d.i.c.khead commander. I'll take his b.a.l.l.s and make him eat them before I rip off his f.u.c.king head."

Ah. There was that anger.

Matt paled and glanced down at his hands, failure curling his lip.

Nate, always the balancing act to Matt's guilt, kept his gaze on Matt, his back ramrod straight. "We didn't know, and now we do."

Matt rubbed his chest.

"Mattie?" Jory set down his beer, his voice softening. "There was no way for us to know. The kid-he reminded me of you. Bada.s.s att.i.tude and total dedication to the other two kids."

Matt's head lifted, his eyes going dark. "He lost a brother. G.o.d." Agony exhaled with his breath. "Is he all right?"

"No." Jory gave the truth. "He's f.u.c.king tortured, and he's worried about the other two. He's definitely hiding something, and he may be working wholeheartedly with the commander, or he may be getting ready to make a move for freedom. I'm not sure."

"Either path will get them killed," Nate murmured.

Matt stood. He exhaled slowly, his shoulders going back. "No. Nate, cancel our pickup. Shane, clean up the f.u.c.king beer bottle. And Jory? Sit the h.e.l.l down and tell us everything about the organization, the two locations, and the woman."

Better get this out of the way now. Jory cleared his throat. "She's the commander's daughter."

Shane stopped in picking up a piece of gla.s.s to glance up and over his shoulder. His eyes widened. "Have you lost your ever-lovin' mind?" He straightened.

"No." Although he had been shot in the chest and lay in a coma for two years. "I don't think so."