Special Forces_Operation Alpha_Redeeming Violet Read online

  Text copyright ©2018 by the Author.

  This work was made possible by a special license through the Kindle Worlds publishing program and has not necessarily been reviewed by Stoker Aces Production, LLC. All characters, scenes, events, plots and related elements appearing in the original Special Forces: Operation Alpha remain the exclusive copyrighted and/or trademarked property of Stoker Aces Production, LLC, or their affiliates or licensors.

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  Redeeming Violet

  RED TEAM

  and

  SEAL of Protection

  Kindle World Crossover

  RILEY EDWARDS

  BEFORE YOU BEGIN

  Thank you for purchasing Redeeming Violet. I’m beyond thrilled to write in Susan Stoker’s Special Forces: Operation Alpha universe again. I’ve been a fan of Susan’s for many years and have read every book she’s published (multiple times.) While I’ve tried my hardest to stay true to her original characters (because, hello, they are already awesome) I am not Susan, I wrote them as I, the reader, experienced them. I want fans of the SOP series to feel like they’re visiting old friends when they see Susan’s characters. I hope that I did her beloved SEALs justice. But please remember, I’ve taken some liberties.

  I hope you enjoy the world I’ve created for you as much as I loved writing it.

  Sign up for the Riley’s Rebels mailing list and stay up to date on releases, sales, and giveaways.

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  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty- Seven

  Epilogue

  Dedication

  To our fallen.

  Our heroes.

  May you sing a noble death song and die like a hero going home.

  When the three-gun volley sounds and the battlefield is cleared of our dead.

  Be ready to fight. Clear heart. Morally sound. No fear.

  Honor Them. ~ RE

  So, live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.

  Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none.

  When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.

  When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.

  ~ Chief Tecumseh

  Acknowledgments

  I used to believe writing was a solitary endeavor. I was wrong. There are days the voices are quiet, the words won’t come, a scene is beyond fucked, and nothing makes sense. The story’s not flowing, I’ve pushed too far over suspension of disbelief and I’m ready to junk words, chapters, and sometimes the whole book. That’s when I turn to my friends.

  Michelle and Cindy - Thank you for talking scenes out with me. Both of you must think I’m crazy at this point as I try and explain the method to my madness. I know I get lost in my head and disappear when the words are flowing, shutting out the outside world. Your texts, pm’s, and phone calls go unanswered, but I see them, and more importantly I always feel your unwavering support and friendship.

  Chriss Prokic – You keep me honest. You are the best Alpha reader ‘eva! You don’t pull punches and tell me where I fall flat. (Or where I forget to take off someone’s trackies.) Your feedback is invaluable to me. I cannot thank you enough for all your help.

  Ellie Masters, Chris Genovese, and Faith Gibson – This journey would suck if I wasn’t on it with you.

  Kendall Barnett – Thank you for not ever letting me throw in the towel. This book kicked my ass and you wouldn’t let me quit. xoxo

  My husband and children – Sigh… There is no greater joy for me than hearing your laugher. I cannot think of any of you without smiling. My team. My greatest accomplishment. I love you all. 3160.

  Prologue

  Jaxon

  Zane had been pacing for the last hour. I was contemplating duct taping him to the chair or tossing his ass over the balcony into the water below. I wondered what his fancy neighbors would think when they saw a body falling from the penthouse.

  “It’s not adding up,” Zane told me something I already knew. That was the whole reason for our meeting this evening. “The information is classified, yet the hacks are sloppy. If someone was hacking into top secret information, wouldn’t they cover their tracks better?”

  “They have covered their tracks. We don’t know who the fuck they are. It’s as if they wanted someone to know the system had been breached, but not who they are,” I mused.

  It had been too easy to find where Olivia Cox had been kept. Too easy to trace that someone from Langley had hacked into the White House server. And way too easy to pin it on Timothy Clark. Why would anyone want us to find all the breadcrumbs they were leaving but not their identity?

  Zane’s phone rang, and he pulled it out of his pocket, looking at the screen. “Goddamn telemarketers. I’m writing the fucking phone company a letter tomorrow about the do not fucking call registry. I’m on the list. Assholes.” Zane angrily swiped his phone, stopping the ringing. Before he could re-pocket his phone, it started again. This time he answered, placing the call on speaker.

  “Hello,” he barked. It was hard to suppress the laugh that was bubbling.

  “Zane Lewis?” a woman asked.

  Zane turned to me and rolled his eyes. “Yes. Who is this?” he asked.

  “My name is Violet Myers. I am with the CIA. I believe you’ve been looking for me?”

  “Why would I be looking for you?” he asked and motioned for me to trace the call.

  “There is no time for games. There has been a breach and a SEAL platoon is walking into an ambush. They were deployed two hours ago out of San Diego. I’m working on my end to find their exact location. With your resources, I thought it would be faster to work together,” Violet replied. “And there is no need to try and trace this call. I have emailed you all my intel and I will give you my cell number before we hang up. I’m actually on my way to you right now. I had to leave Virginia.”

  “On your way to me?” Zane asked,
still trying to stall so I could triangulate her location.

  “Yes, to your condo. ETA five minutes,” she replied.

  “The fuck you say?” Zane Lewis had gone from pissed to nuclear.

  “Mr. Lewis, I don’t think you need me to repeat myself. Do you want to play these games and explain to Caroline why her husband Matthew and his team didn’t come home? Or do you want to work together and warn them?”

  “I swear to Christ woman, if you leaked information that gets them killed, I will personally cut your throat and watch your blood spill,” Zane yelled.

  “And I will gladly stand in front of you while you do. I’m ready to turn myself in and help but I need a favor.” Violet had lost the bravado she had at the start of the conversation.

  “You have some balls asking me for a favor. What could you possibly want from me?” Zane glanced at me and I turned my laptop in his direction. Sure as shit, the woman was turning down his street heading straight to us.

  “I’ll tell you when I come up. I’m here now.” The call disconnected, and I thought Zane was going to crush his phone.

  “Call Tex,” Zane yelled over his shoulder as he moved to his bedroom, no doubt to pull out the heavy artillery. Zane can be a scary motherfucker when he was pissed.

  Tex picked up on the first ring. “Tex, it’s Jaxon. I’m unsecure,” I informed him.

  “Copy that,” he replied, apprehension thick.

  “Sorry to bother you. I need conformation that the Frogs have gone to play in the Sandbox,” I asked, using the nickname for SEALs and the universal term for the Middle East.

  “I’d say that sounds about right,” he replied.

  “We have a problem. Track them and tell them to hold fast for further intel and possible EXFIL. Possible mission compromise.”

  “Fuck. Copy.” Tex disconnected. There was no one better at tracking. I had faith that we’d have their location within the hour, hopefully before the team landed.

  Zane came out of his bedroom just as expected, his Sig Sauer P226 secured in a thigh holster and a HK MP5 slung over his shoulder.

  “Seriously?” I asked and shook my head at his antics, then sobered. “Tex confirmed. The team is deployed.”

  “You’re questioning my choice of firepower when a fucking spook called my private cellphone, knows my address, and…” He was cut off by a knock on the door. “Can get past building security.”

  Zane ambled to door, checked the peephole, and threw the door open, uncaring he looked like Rambo.

  I thought I heard a feminine giggle before Zane barked, “What the fuck woman? How’d you get up here? Never mind, I don’t want to know. I knew I should’ve installed my own system.”

  “May I come in?” she asked.

  This woman had no sense of self-preservation. Zane Lewis was an opposing man standing at six-foot-three. He was so large I couldn’t see the woman who called herself Violet, if that was her real name. His hand was also on his P226 at his thigh, yet she still asked to enter. Either she had a death wish or she was plain stupid. Much to my surprise, Zane stepped to the side offering her entrance and I got my first look at the petite brunette. Not at all what I was expecting. She was younger than I thought, and absolutely stunning. I shook my head to dislodge the fantasies my mind was conjuring up and back to the situation at hand. There was a traitor in our midst and she needed to be dealt with accordingly.

  She walked in and wasted no time. “Have you already confirmed what I told you?” she asked.

  Zane narrowed his eyes and asked, “Why are you here?”

  “I already told you. I have credible intel that says Wolf and his team are walking into an ambush.”

  “That’s not what I’m asking. Why are you here - in my living room? You could’ve alerted a hundred different people in your office, including the National Security Advisor. Maybe the Secretary of Defense. Yet you’re standing your skinny ass in my house. What. The. Fuck?”

  She didn’t even flinch at Zane’s gruff comeback. If anything, she stood taller and crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t know who I can trust.”

  “But I’m supposed to trust you?” Zane asked.

  “No. You’re supposed to trust my intel.”

  “Like that can’t be faked. Again, what the fuck?”

  For the first time since Violet walked into Zane’s apartment, she turned toward me. “Is he always like this?”

  “Only with people he doesn’t like,” I told her.

  She didn’t seem to be deterred and pulled a laptop out of her messenger bag, knelt down in front of Zane’s coffee table, and powered the machine on. Zane looked at me, his eyebrow cocked up in his signature look of annoyance and asked, “Can I shoot her now?”

  “Not if you don’t want to have to explain to the management why the carpet needs to be replaced.”

  Violet didn’t care Zane was plotting her murder and continued to click buttons on her keyboard until she’d pulled up the file she wanted.

  “Here.” She turned the laptop so Zane and I could see the screen.

  “Jesus.” I muttered. It was the flight plan and mission information for Wolf’s team.

  I scanned the top-secret document, reading the mission specifics, something that no one outside of the platoon’s chain of command should have.

  “Where’d you get that?” I asked. My phone was already in my hand, ready to call Tex.

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  He answered on the first ring and before I could press for more answers. “Go.”

  “Mission is compromised. Call them back.”

  “That’s a no-go. All comms have been severed. They’re dark.”

  “The pilot?” I asked.

  “Negative.”

  “Sat phone, personal cell, a smoke signal?”

  “No. No. And triple no. They’re ghosts,” Tex said.

  “Unfortunately, they’re not. They’ll have company as soon as they land,” I told him.

  “Tell him to clear our path. They’ll be at least three hours ahead of us, but Wolf is smart. He’ll sniff this shit out, quick. We’ll be right behind them for back up,” Zane said. “Ask him to run a full work up on Violet Myers. I want everything. Tex knows how I like it, crawl up her ass. She’s a turncoat – no lube necessary.”

  “I heard him,” Tex chuckled. “I’ll have what you need within the hour.”

  He disconnected and for the first time Violet looked nervous. There was something in her background she didn’t want us to know.

  “Why’d you do it?” I asked.

  “Do what? Bring you my intel? Innocent men are getting ready to die.”

  “That wasn’t a problem for you before,” I reminded her.

  “Innocent?” she screeched. “Timothy Clark, the agent who sold state secrets? The Bolivian drug lord slash arms dealer, Siles? Gomez? Who of them were innocent? I sent you everything you needed to save Olivia Newton. The only thing more I could’ve done was draw the map myself.”

  “You still haven’t answered. Why?”

  “It doesn’t matter why. I did it. I’m prepared to turn myself in and suffer the consequences right after we get to Wolf.”

  “We’re not doing anything. I’m hauling your ass to the Director personally and handing you over,” Zane put in.

  “No, you won’t. I haven’t told you who else is involved.”

  Violet and Zane locked eyes and it was a toss-up who was going to cave. I almost had the tiniest bit of respect for her. Not many people had the balls to go toe-to-toe with the former Navy SEAL – especially a woman.

  Chapter One

  Violet

  What the hell had I been thinking hauling ass to Annapolis and barging in on Zane Lewis, owner of the most sought after private security firm in the US? Everyone in the government knew about Z Corps and his Red Team. His tier-one team was handpicked by Zane himself, comprised of former spec ops soldiers, and one woman – Jasmin Parker, Zane’s sister-in-law. Jasmin was known throughout the
community as being a hardass. She’d have to be to keep up with her male counterparts.

  Now I was sitting across from her, and the rest of the Red Team in an old barn that Zane had converted to an off-site covert headquarters. When I’d suggested we go to his downtown office he’d laughed at me and accused me of wanting intel on his inner sanctum. Then he said he didn’t trust me not to blow it up or sell his security protocol to one of the many foreign agencies that would love to see him dead.

  He wasn’t wrong about half of the foreign governments wanting him gone and buried. Zane seemed to know, and have in his back pocket, information brokers around the world. He had the instincts of a predator, and the best intuition in the business. Both made him dangerous to those who went against him. He was also known to hold a grudge. I’d done my research on him and his team before I’d made my approach. I had thought when Timothy Clark died I would be free. I wasn’t. The information Timothy had used to blackmail me had been sold. Now someone much worse held my future in their hands. I had one shot at freeing myself once and for all, and Zane Lewis held the key.

  “We don’t need her, Z and I don’t trust her, she’ll only slow us down,” Jasmin argued.

  Zane had just finished explaining we were headed to Africa. As expected, his team wasn’t happy to see me. He hadn’t sugar coated my felonies and told them all the information I had given the Bolivians. Not that they needed a recap. The team had been the ones to save Olivia from her captors. The information he had provided was correct; I had hacked into the White House to get information on Pamela Cox. I had also deleted call logs from the prison server in Iceland where witnesses or prisoners were held in rendition. What Zane failed to understand, and I wouldn’t correct, was I did not sell anything. And the call logs and recordings were not deleted, I still had copies of all conversations between Siles and his men. Siles had been planning a coup. He wanted to take over a drug lord’s, Gomez, territory, and thought the easiest way was to set up the kidnapping of Olivia Cox Newton, the Attorney General’s daughter, and pin it on Gomez. The US government would go after Gomez and kill him, freeing Siles to take over without having a war with Gomez. It was a good plan and may have worked if someone hadn’t sent the recordings to Gomez, prompting him to reach out to Zane and clear his name. Once the team knew who was truly behind the kidnapping, Siles was taken out.