Firethorn (Discarded Heroes) by Ronie Kendig Page B

McKenna’s hand, who sat playing with Tala, the Filipino beauty-of-a-child.
    “Tala, come on, sweetie. Time to go.” Dani rushed toward Sydney with her newborn son.
    As Sydney hurried toward the door, she realized kids outnumbered available seat belts. She hesitated.
    “What’s wrong?” Dani cupped her hand around Tala’s silky black hair. If anyone hadn’t met the two before Dani married Canyon, nobody would know Tala wasn’t her biological daughter.
    What would she do? Sydney couldn’t ask Dani to separate from one of her kids, especially if the vehicles got separated. “I only have five seats.”
    “Tala can ride with us,” Piper said.
    Dani’s hesitation screamed through the seconds. She squatted next to the little one. “Tala, go with McKenna, okay?”
    Tala’s pale-blue eyes widened, and slowly she nodded.
    Sydney cringed. The girl had a very rough early childhood and now suffered separation anxiety. Only recently had she begun to trust Canyon and Dani.
    The drone of the chopper grew louder. “We have to go.” Her own fear was mirrored in their worried expressions. But right now, she had one goal: get to the rendezvous site.
    Dani scooped up the little girl in her free arm and stood.
    They hurried out the door, armed with kids and terror.
    Boom! Crack!
The ground vibrated beneath her feet. The small blue sedan Piper had driven flipped into the air and landed, upside down, engulfed in flames.
    Sydney shielded her face. The children screamed. The chopper hovered over them, wind, smoke, and fire whipping into a frantic frenzy. She lifted the carrier closer and pulled Dillon to her leg as she looked into the sky at the big black bird. Was someone leaning out of the side?
    She sucked in a breath as he aimed a weapon at them.

    Dublin, Ireland One Week Later
     
    Kazi stood at the pub counter, her fingers stroking the glass.
Squeak. Squeak.
Tina was gone. Really gone. All because of Kazi, because Carrick wanted her to remember all he had done for her. That he could reach her anywhere, anytime, force her will to his. To remind her that she owed him everything. Even the very breath she breathed. For saving her.
    And he had. Plucking her, a then homeless girl, off the streets after two years of living as one of Boucher’s girls.
Thanks to Roman.
    Laughter, smoke, and bodies pressed in around her. Kazi stared at the foam head of her Guinness.
    “It’s got more head than Carrick,” Tina said.
    A smile pulled back the gray clouds that had formed over Kazi’s mind as the infectious, annoying laughter once again filled her thoughts. Then, swift and deadly, like a trip wire, memories killed that ray of sunshine.
    Tina’s dead. Murdered by Carrick.
    I’ll make him pay.
    She didn’t have a plan yet, but she’d struck gold yesterday in a rendezvous with an American general. She would locate and retrieve four missing men. Her prize? Millions. She could vanish. That would do more damage and create more pain to Carrick than she could do any other way. She’d amassed significant proof that could put him away in a dozen EU countries and bury him beneath the White House’s ever-green lawns. The information she had, nobody would want made public. And lording this over Carrick would force him to stay away from her.
    “She wouldn’t want you to do it, you know.”
    Kazi blinked and glanced to the side, to the hand cupping a tall glass of golden beer. “Leave me alone, Mick.” She dumped some of the warm stout into her mouth and braced herself. While it was a good drink, she wasn’t one for alcohol or the buzz that fried the synapses afterward.
    “Now, that I won’t.” He shifted on the stool, his hazel eyes peering beneath a mop of curly brown hair. “She always wanted me to take care of you, help you find your family.” One leg propped on the bar, one on the floor, he caught her fingers.
    She shook them free. Stabbed him with a fierce glare for the comment about her family.
    “Tina wanted you to be