Ace of Hart Read online

  Ace of Hart

  with

  Birth of the Darkness

  a novella

  Violeta M. Bagia

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  No part of this book may be reproduced, printed or transmitted in any form without consent from the author

  Author’s Note:

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and events are the work of the author’s imagination.

  Any resemblance to real persons, places, or events is coincidental.

  Copyright 2017 Violeta M. Bagia

  To the fans—When the decision was made to take my rights back for the Hart of Darkness series, it came with a sense of the unknown. What do I do now? How do I do it? But ultimately, it was a moment filled with not only, panic, but so much awe and wonder for the future.

  Solstice Publishing had taken a chance on me, made my dreams come true and they’d given me a new and much needed drive.

  And now, I present to you, the future of V&V Press, the future of Hart of Darkness and everything Ace and Illarion that I wanted to bring you from the start!

  New. Raw. Untamed.

  Birth of the Darkness

  Chapter One

  Ace

  T he meeting was boring. Endlessly, unsurprisingly boring. I suppressed a yawn and hid my face behind my palm. Unbeknownst to General Simmons, I was literally falling asleep.

  These meetings had been the same since word reached us about the potential shift in the Iraqi cells we were infiltrating. That information was important but now, after about four weeks and no new developments, I wasn’t even certain the information was legit.

  ‘Sergeant.’

  My eyes shot up. ‘Sir.’

  ‘What is your take on this?’

  ‘My take?’

  ‘Yes. Your take, Sergeant Hart.’

  Was now a good time to tell him I hadn’t heard a word he said? Yet somehow, I knew what the conversation was about. Something inside me drew my attention to the small scale-drawing of the surrounding desert. It was a replica of the entire insurgent camp and the surrounding built up areas, most of which American forces had inhabited.

  ‘I think it’s premature.’

  ‘How so?’

  ‘Well.’ I began, clearing my throat. I leaned over the table and poked the small roll of tape representing our post. ‘We’re here and the cell we’re watching is there, it’s too far, too much could go wrong. And, if I’m not mistaken, wasn’t there a convoy, a year ago that went MIA there?’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘If we’re to believe the intel, wouldn’t the insurgents have made a move by now? Especially considering they’ve been successful in the past.’

  ‘They could be biding their time.’

  ‘For?’

  ‘For the right convoy to come.’

  Searching his face, I stopped for a moment, there was something he wasn’t telling me.

  ‘They could.’ I leaned back. ‘But they’re not.’

  ‘How can you be sure?’

  ‘I don’t know how to say it without sounding like-’

  ‘Like what Sergeant?’

  ‘Like I’m telling you it’s a gut feeling.’

  ‘I see.’ He leaned back and narrowed his eyes. ‘A gut feeling.’

  The two lieutenants in the room averted their eyes but I felt something I didn’t understand. It went deep, like it was in the pit of my soul, I felt their understanding. But Corporal Westen, looked at me intently. He didn’t just understand, he agreed, and he was on my side, he always was. I forced my eyes away from his striking ones and looked back at the map.

  Hesitating for a moment, I cleared my throat and kicked myself mentally. This was no time to be a little bitch. He asked for my input and that’s what I was giving him.

  ‘You asked me what I think. This is what I think.’

  ‘What would your plan of attack be?’

  ‘If I were to rewrite the mission?’

  Simmons nodded.

  I looked across at the lieutenants and the corporal, taking strength from their support. I’d been leading them for more than six months and I’d been working with Westen for close to eight years. I’d always gotten us out, I’d always made the right decision and they trusted me. And out here, trust was the only thing we held on to.

  ‘Sergeant?’

  ‘I would forget the intel.’ I blurted out. ‘At this stage, we’re sitting where we were months ago. Nothing they’ve given us has been useful. We already knew where the original convoy was taken, we already know they killed everyone and searching for them came up empty. We’ve been out here for more than eight months now and we know these people, we know how they work, how they think. We can follow them, infiltrate like the original unit was planning to.’

  ‘All of this is going off the basis that everyone in that unit died.’

  Sifting through the layers of doubt, I stood my ground and nodded.

  ‘If someone did survive, then we have even more reason to do this, to bring them home.’ My eyes flicked to Westen’s, something akin to sympathy met me before he tore his gaze away.

  ‘Considering the last operation tasked to search for survivors was unsuccessful. What makes you think yours will have luck?’ The general drew my attention back to him.

  ‘Maybe we’re the right convoy.’

  ‘There are a lot of maybe’s here, sergeant.’

  ‘I know.’ I nodded. ‘I understand, but this is what I believe to be the best course of action.’

  ‘How would you engage?’ He motioned for me to continue.

  ‘I’d task two teams, one taking the south and the other, east. One team with me and the other from the north. You said there are two others ready to join us, from the base? Then we use them too. Surround them, get them when they’re not expecting us.’

  ‘And how would we know they’re not expecting us. They could very well be making the same plan they did last time, right now.’

  ‘I don’t think so, sir.’

  ‘Your gut feeling?’

  Ignoring the jab, I nodded. ‘Yes. Because right now, they think we’re cowering, they hit us when we weren’t ready, we’re still regrouping after that loss. We have to take action now.’

  ‘And your taking action is hitting them head on?’

  ‘Exactly. Four angles, and strictly speaking, they won’t see us until we’re on top of them, sir. And then, it’s game over. We do what the first group couldn’t.’

  ‘Game over.’

  ‘Yes sir.’

  He gave me a pointed look before turning his attention to my men. ‘Give us a minute.’

  They got up and unanimously nodded, leaving us but not before Corporal Westen gave me a quick nod of encouragement.

  ‘Ace.’ Simmons said.

  Turning my attention back to him, I sighed and looked down at the map. He searched my face, before he ran a hand over his tired face.

  The years had taken a toll on him, short spikes of greying hair peeked out from the regulation cap matching the light speckling of silver facial hair dusting his tanned skin. Beneath all that, his face was angular, and the lines told of a life well lived.

  ‘I know I’m not giving you a lot to go on, sir.’

  ‘Your father was as gifted as you, when it came to mission planning.’

  ‘I’m sorry?’

  He smiled, showing a perfect set of white teeth that made him the handsome, George Clooney type.

  ‘Your father and I trained together, many years ago now.’ He explained. ‘He didn’t stay with us, but the time he spent in the army was immeasurable. He was never wrong, even as a young private.’ He smiled, like he was remembering a faraway time. ‘I’m not surprised that you inherited your father’s gut feeling.’


  A flutter in the pit of my stomach sparked to life. I couldn’t process it. My father was in the army? It didn’t make sense, I couldn’t picture it, he was a business man, for as long as I could remember, for as long as my parents told me.

  ‘Write up your operation brief, work with Jacob, he’ll make sure everything is communicated to the teams.’

  ‘Thank you, Sir.’

  ‘Thank you.’ He nodded, squeezing my shoulder gently. ‘Make sure you get some rest too.’

  Chapter Two

  I closed the file and pressed my forehead to the table letting out a long and tired breath. God, that was a pain in the ass. Jacob was great, but he was super pedantic and every move I wrote down, he questioned. I got it, it was his job but damn, I couldn’t get a word in.

  Finally, seven hours, eight cups of coffee and fifteen rewrites later—we both had a plan we were happy with. He got up and left me with a smile and a spring in his step while I could barely peel myself from the seat.

  Groaning, I collected everything and got up.

  ‘Ace?’

  I turned on my spot, smiling when Alex rounded the corner.

  ‘Corporal.’ I nodded, rearranging the last few things I needed to take with me, a journal from the last unit and several files filled with aerial photographs.

  ‘Need a hand?’

  ‘No, I’ve got it, thanks.’ I chuckled, somehow managing to stash everything together.

  When I turned around, he’d plopped himself down on the end seat and looked up at me with a smile, the same smile that always made me turn red.

  He was hot. Insanely hot. I couldn’t hide the way I lit up when he was around. His eyes were as green as a freshly blooming forest and his smile, the widest and most genuine.

  His short black hair was arranged neatly but there was always a messy, tousled look about him that absolutely stole my breath.

  Both of us had been eyeing each other since I can remember yet nothing aside from a few casual glances or touches had ever transpired, and that made me ache in more ways than one.

  He raised his brow with a grin and nodded to the paperwork I was holding.

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘Operation plan.’

  ‘Yours?’

  ‘Yes. Well, more or less.’

  He cocked his brow.

  ‘Jacob checked over it a thousand times but yes, mostly mine.’

  ‘I can’t tell you how glad I am to hear that.’

  Grinning, I chanced a look across at him and when both our gazes locked again, a slow and steady burn started in my chest. I darted my eyes away and tightened my hold on the files.

  ‘Thought you might say that.’ I forced my voice to remain even. ‘I’ve got you and Ricky on my team, I tasked the other three teams with Jacob’s help.’

  ‘How’d that go?’ He laughed, taking a piece of fruit from the bowl at the end of the table.

  ‘As good as you can imagine.’

  ‘He’s a bit… intense.’

  ‘Just a bit.’ I nodded to the door. I wasn’t planning on spending my entire afternoon here.

  ‘Have you had time to rest?’ He followed me, finishing the apple and tossing it in the trash.

  ‘Not yet.’ I sighed. ‘This took a lot longer than I thought.’

  ‘What’d Simmons say?’

  We continued through the doors, walking past two privates who curtly nodded and quickly looked away as I passed.

  Alex smirked.

  ‘What are you grinning at?’

  ‘Nothing.’ He shielded his laugh with his hand.

  ‘You’re not good at this poker face thing.’

  ‘It’s nothing. Just makes me laugh every time I see their reactions.’

  ‘Why? Because I’m a girl?’

  ‘No. Because they’re scared shitless of you.’

  ‘They’re not scared of me.’

  ‘You’re kidding, right?’

  Turning my face back toward them slightly, I kind of stumbled when they quickly turned their gazes away like they were scared that I caught them looking.

  ‘See?’

  ‘They’re not scared of me.’

  ‘They always look at you like...’

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘They don’t know what you’re about. They know you’re smart and all that, a stellar fighter, but they don’t know you.’

  ‘No one knows me.’

  He stopped me beside a tall pillar and turned me slightly.

  ‘I know you.’

  ‘No, you don’t.’

  ‘You think that.’ He winked.

  I smirked and shook my head. He really knew how to push every button and I always let him.

  ‘Come on.’ I chuckled. ‘I do plan on getting some rest.’

  ‘Okay, sergeant.’ He smiled, giving me an exaggerated salute. ‘I’ll see you in the morning.’

  ‘Yes, you will. Get some sleep corporal.’

  ‘Love when you get all commanding.’

  I slapped him across the back of his head with my free hand and laughed. ‘Shut up and go to sleep.’

  ‘Yes ma’am.’ He saluted and grinned.

  Chapter Three

  I was running. I knew that I was in danger, the real kind that meant the end of your life king of danger. But I didn’t know why. I didn’t know where I was, or who I was with.

  All I could comprehend was the fear. My eyes darted frantically taking in my surroundings. Desert. As far as the eye could see.

  But I wasn’t alone.

  Someone was coming for me, someone I shouldn’t be afraid of, and as the day bled out, spilling into the oncoming blackness, a dense, fluid fog quickly filled the horizon and I felt my legs give way.

  My eyes shot open. I let out a long and staggered breath and pulled my sweat shirt off, tossing it aside. Another weird dream. They’d been getting stranger and stranger as the months went on here. I didn’t dare tell anyone about it, not even Alex. They’d probably think I’d finally cracked, all the sleepless nights, dangerous tasks, endless death.

  I ran a shaky hand through my hair and looked up at the ceiling. The fan spun slowly. Everything was just as it was before I went to sleep, yet somehow it all felt so different. Like today would be different.

  Grinding my teeth until my jaw hurt, I forced myself to get up, I was making something out of nothing.

  They were just dreams.

  They didn’t mean anything.

  As much as I was relieved that the morning came swiftly the accompanying headache unfortunately came just as quick. This was becoming a regular occurrence. I had no idea why I always woke up with migraines.

  Actually, that was a lie, I didn’t always wake up with migraines, I woke up with them after I had one of those weird ass dreams and since they were happening more frequently, it might as well have been every day.

  Running my hand over my face, I dropped my head with a sigh. This was more than the migraine, deep under the tightly knotted tension in my neck and shoulders, there was a sick, gut wrenching feeling that something was going to go very wrong today.

  Every operation, every time we went out there, every calculated risk was going to be scary, that was normal, but this was different. I couldn’t work out why my head was all over the place.

  Regardless of what my gut feeling was saying, right now I couldn’t let that influence me. We had a job to do and that job was outlined in a large manila folder full of names, squads and objectives.

  We couldn’t fail.

  A small tap at the door drew my eyes up.

  ‘Can I come in?’

  Alex’s voice was muffled through the door, but I could tell he had a grin on his face, his mood was light and maybe it would do me some good.

  ‘Give me a minute.’ I called out, quickly throwing my fatigues on, cringing that I’d slept in and missed my shower.

  ‘Get enough beauty sleep?’ He laughed through the door.

  ‘Shut up or you’re on dish duty again.’ I smirke
d when he remained silent.

  ‘Corporals don’t get dish duty.’

  ‘They do if I say so.’

  ‘Ouch.’ He replied with a chuckle, making my laugh to myself.

  Once I’d fastened my hair with enough pins, I pulled the door open and stepped back.

  ‘Sergeant.’ He nodded.

  ‘Corporal.’

  He closed the door with a quiet thud and leaned back against it. That same, gorgeous smile made my cheeks flush. His eyes were a lot more vibrant today, he must have had a good rest, I inwardly cringed. God, Ace, that’s so weird.

  ‘Feeling good about today?’

  I cleared my throat. Alex was someone I’d learned to trust, almost immediately, someone I told all my secrets to, someone I cared about a lot, despite the strict rules against fraternization.

  The rules could suck it, when I looked at him and saw the way he looked at me, I knew he thought the same.

  So, as I contemplated shrugging it off, I mentally kicked myself. There was no reason to lie to him. If I told him he could make me realize how ridiculous I was being, or he could tell me I was right to worry. Either way, I began to flush with nerves.

  His brows knotted, and frown tugged on his full lips.

  ‘What’s wrong?’

  Unease rolled through me and I sat on the edge of my cot shaking my head with a sigh.

  He stayed by the door, forcing my heart to speed up and then slow down. I had to get myself under control. This was absolutely not the time or place to let my emotions run wild.

  Tipping my chin up, I met his eyes. From across the room he exuded confidence, leadership, faith—everything I was lacking right now.

  ‘I have a bad feeling.’ I said quietly.

  ‘About the operation?’

  I nodded.

  ‘It’s okay to have a bad feeling, this is a big operation. A lot could go wrong.’

  ‘That’s the thing though. I feel like I know that something will go wrong.’

  ‘That’s no unheard of. The odds are always bouncing around, could go either way.’

  ‘You’re not listening. It’s not could or may. I know.’