Targets Entangled by Kennedy Layne Read Free Book Online Page A

hesitate to pull the trigger myself if that’s what you’re worried about. I assume we would all slit their throats with no more thought than if they were nothing more than trash that needed to be taken out. Our government knows that, Starr knows that, and I sure as hell know exactly what we’re dealing with. All I wanted to convey to Gunny is that no matter what goes down once we are in country and we reach those children, it doesn’t bring his sister back from the grave.”
    “Who was she?” Stick asked, his voice almost drowning out in the wind as it picked up from the forward starboard beam. Daegan felt his chest tighten and he leaned his head forward, hiding his eyes and almost wishing he would have kept his comments to himself. “Shit, man. I’m sorry. That’s none of my business.”
    “Her name was Kayla.” The words had escaped Daegan before he even realized it. He flexed his fingers, knowing there wasn’t a way to take back the name. He hadn’t said it aloud for years and doing so now only brought back the helplessness that had swallowed him whole so many years ago. “She was eighteen and had just graduated high school when she walked into an ongoing robbery of a local convenience store. One shot to the chest and her life was snuffed out as if it meant nothing to anyone.”
    Daegan felt like he was suffocating. Kayla’s image had faded throughout the years and damn if he didn’t feel guilty about that. The young always thought they were so invincible. It didn’t take much to prove them wrong, but she hadn’t deserved to die in a pool of her own blood due to the desperation of some useless junkie.
    Memories of the past came over him like a tidal wave, pulling him farther back in time. Images of the trial were like grains of sand falling through the hourglass one by one. The reaction of Kayla’s parents when the verdict had come in not guilty due to a technicality eliminating much of the incriminating evidence was among them. Daegan’s brother putting a hand on his shoulder as he used his strength to keep him from moving flashed in his mind’s eye. Callum had done his best to protect Daegan, but nothing could shield a person from their destiny. The resonance of the gavel hitting the sounding block and sealing everyone’s fate still echoed in his mind.
    “Is the person responsible in prison?” The hesitancy in which Stick asked that question meant that he already knew the answer.
    “No, he isn’t.” Daegan placed his hands on the warm deck before he pushed against it and stood. He’d thought of Kayla more in the last week than he had in the last decade. He’d left his past behind him when he’d entered the Marines, doing everything he could to save the lives of his comrades and make up for the one life he hadn’t been able to save. “As I said to Gunny, since you’re so curious, taking Mykelti out will be a Pyrrhic victory. Whether or not that happens when we rescue those girls is another matter altogether. He’s scum whose bloodline needs to be washed from this earth, but it will not bring peace to Gunny or his parents. Nothing will do that…ever.”
    Daegan stretched his neck muscles, needing to shoot. He wanted to exorcise the demons from his past that Stick had so graciously brought up out of idle curiosity. Stick hadn’t meant harm and the more Daegan thought about it, the more he understood that the man might be trying to come to terms with the tragedy that happened to his sister. Shit, maybe the drunk driver had served his sentence and was about to get out of prison. If that was the case Stick had better work within the law. He wouldn’t be any good to his sister or the team behind bars. It was one thing to take Mykelti out during a mission in which he posed to threaten children’s lives. It was another to take the life of a man who’d served his time for those crimes committed, regardless if that was Stick’s belief or not.
    “Spot me.”
    Daegan proceeded to spend the