When Day Breaks(5)

“What’s going on, Dad?” Raid asked in a low voice.

Eddie wiped his palm down over his face. “It’s a long story. One I need to tell you from beginning to end so you understand what we’re dealing with.”

Ryker frowned and glanced over at his brother. No doubt they weren’t used to seeing their father in such a state of agitation. Eddie had never been anything but assured and confident.

“Sit,” Eddie commanded, gesturing toward the couch.

His two sons did as he directed and then looked expectantly at him, but he didn’t take a seat. He was too jittery, too gutted by what he had to tell his boys. How could he ever look any of his children in the eyes again once they knew the truth?

“You’re worrying me, Dad,” Ryker said in a grim tone.

Eddie closed his eyes and then ran a hand raggedly through his hair.

“Your mother’s death wasn’t an accident,” he said.

Shock registered on both his sons’ faces.

“I don’t understand,” Raid said, his tone as grim as Ryker’s had been moments earlier. “What the fuck are you saying, Dad? Did you just find this out? How the hell did you find this out anyway? And if her death wasn’t an accident . . .”

“Who killed her?” Ryker asked hoarsely.

The knot in Eddie’s stomach grew, clenching painfully. “It’s a long story, one that begins before you were born.”

“We’re listening,” Raid said tightly, his features drawn into a mask of pain and confusion. And worry.

Eddie finally slumped into one of the armchairs across from the couch where Raid and Ryker sat and bleakly stared at his sons.

“You both know I served in the military.”

They nodded, impatience simmering in Ryker’s eyes. He wanted his dad to get to the point.

“I served in a special ops group, one that didn’t officially exist. Our missions weren’t the usual run of the mill. We took on missions that were it discovered the U.S. had a hand in them, the fallout would have been messy. One particular mission took us three years to complete. Three long years of waiting and watching for the right opportunity. Raul Sanchez was our mission. Taking him down and dismantling his operation. Three years and two months into our operation, we caught a break. We got intel that he was going to be in a particular location for a family gathering. His daughter’s birthday. This was a man who was as slippery as an eel. More than one country’s military was after him. We just happened to get to him first.

“We set up surveillance on the compound where he was going to be. Everything went off without a hitch. But then the unthinkable happened. We believed his wife and daughter had already left in a car. We waited until they were clear of the compound and then we went in.”

He broke off, regret and guilt surging and pumping through his veins as if it had happened just yesterday. For years he’d lived with his mistake. A mistake his wife had paid for, his entire family had paid for. And now it would appear Eden would pay for it if he and his sons didn’t prevent it.

“A firefight broke out. Our entry wasn’t clean. A guard got lucky and deviated in his patrol, saw one of my men and all hell broke loose. I was leading the group of men tasked with taking out Sanchez. We burst into the study he was holed up in. He had two men with him and they drew on us. We had no choice but to return fire and . . .”

He scrubbed his hands over his face, tears burning his eyelids.

“What happened?” Raid asked quietly.

“Sanchez’s wife and daughter got caught in the cross fire. God, she was just a little girl. Holding the doll she’d been given as a birthday present. There was blood everywhere. God, I can still see them in my dreams, my nightmares.”

“Jesus. I’m sorry, Dad. That’s a big burden to carry around all these years,” Ryker said.

“Sanchez and his son got away, in the chaos and my horror over the wife and daughter being caught in the cross fire. My priority was trying to get them help, and Sanchez and his son escaped.

“We cleaned up best we could. Collected the information needed to dismantle his operation and rounded up a lot of the key players in his business. He had a hand in a lot of different pots. Drugs. Arms trafficking. God, he even had a lucrative human trafficking operation going. Selling young girls into sexual slavery to the highest bidder.”

Raid made a sound of disgust.

“I thought . . .” Eddie took a deep breath. “Years went by and I thought I’d put it behind me. I retired after that debacle. I just couldn’t do it any longer. You children were born and your mother and I were happy. And then . . .”