Page 7 of Bryson's Treasure

Chapter 3

“You mad?”Azadeh asked in a soft voice. It wasn’t the first time she’d asked the question in the past twenty-four-hour trip across the globe.

Each time she asked, her eyes were glossy with tears, and it broke his heart. He didn’t know how many times he would have to tell her it was okay before she would understand he wasn’t mad. Concern that she could have hurt herself was the only thing that filled his mind, and that wasn’t until he woke up.

Smiling, he reached into his carry-on to grab another candy bar. Bryson knew she couldn’t live on chocolate, but the smile on her face each time she ate it made him happy. “I promise I’m not mad at you.” He handed her the Hershey’s bar. “I didn’t mean to yell. I was worried you were hurt, not the guards.”

“Bad men.” She played with the wrapper before slowly ripping the side open.

Azadeh wasn’t the best driver, but she was able to take two men out so they could get on the aircraft. Customs had cleared them to leave, and the plane had been waiting. The guards were trying to get money out of Asher and Antonio. They’d overheard the brothers bribing the customs worker to get Azadeh out of the country. Bryson had no doubts the men would’ve killed them and taken what they could find. “Yes, bad men.”

He glanced around the first-class cabin. It was nice but not as comfortable as the Ross brothers’ private plane. In the past, Bryson had only ever flown regular commercial or military. When they’d landed in the private airfield in Fort Lauderdale, customs hadn’t blinked an eye at the passengers. Antonio had handed him and Azadeh a set of tickets, and an hour later, they were on another flight.

Azadeh had slept in the bedroom of Antonio’s private plane. Bryson, on the other hand, hadn’t been able to fall asleep. He looked down at his watch. He’d been up well over twenty-four hours. It wasn’t the first time he’d stayed up so long. Many missions called for no sleep, but he hadn’t done it in a while. Bryson knew no one on the commercial flight was going to try to take Azadeh from him, but he couldn’t turn off his concern. When he got to his brother’s, he would crash for a few hours.

Once in Montana, he would call in every favor owed to him to make sure Azadeh’s paperwork made it through the right channels. Antonio had already started the process and was sure it wouldn’t be long before things were okay. Asher had told Bryson that he had a bounty on his head. Another decision he would need to make once he reached Montana was if he should leave Azadeh with Noah while he worked to take down Ricky and his men. Bryson wasn’t going to let the corrupt soldier get away with using the military to move drugs.

As soon as the airplane descended, Azadeh gripped his hand. She’d done the same when they’d landed in Fort Lauderdale. Before yesterday, she had never been on a plane, but she didn’t complain or say anything, just held his hand each time they prepared to land. Moments later, the tires skimmed the tarmac, and the pilot turned on the reverse thrust to slow the aircraft down.

He wasn’t sure how his brother would take receiving an extra person. Bryson hadn’t stopped to tell Noah that Azadeh was coming back with him.

Once the seat belt light turned off, Bryson released his seat belt and stood. Antonio had gotten him and Azadeh the first seats on the plane, so they both stood. Neither had bags or any extra items of clothing. He would need to stop and buy things for her immediately so she would have something to wear to bed.

Growing up, his mom had always talked about wanting a little girl, but it had never happened. Now Bryson found himself taking care of one and had no clue where to start. So far, they hadn’t had too much of a language barrier. Azadeh understood what he said, but she struggled with coming up with words to reply.

The stewardess popped the door open, and Bryson reached down and grabbed Azadeh’s hand. “Ready?”

She smiled up at him and nodded. They hadn’t had time to shower since leaving Pakistan. Antonio gave them clean clothes on the airplane, but he still felt the dirt and sweat on his body. Azadeh’s hair needed to be washed. He wiped a smudge of dirt off her face before guiding her into the airport.

The Eagle Ridge airport terminal was on the smaller side. They followed the signs leading them to baggage claim. He expected his brother to be waiting for him. If Noah wasn’t, Bryson would need to find a phone and figure out how to get ahold of him. Not taking the burner phone from Antonio was starting to bite him in the ass. The Ross brothers had insisted, but he figured he didn’t need it. Bryson pinched the bridge of his nose. He was tired and still in a lot of pain. Twenty-four hours of flying did nothing for his bruised ribs and throbbing head.

Bryson hadn’t even had time to think about getting out of the military. For as long as he could remember, he had planned to enlist in the Marines. He looked up to his older brothers and had wanted to be like them. The only difference was that Grayson and Noah went into the Navy. Then Noah had gone to the CIA.

Now, Bryson was getting thrown back into the civilian world. He’d thought he had a couple more months to figure everything out, mostly to look for a job. His talents could be utilized outside the military. Bryson was the tech guy for their unit, and he spent his downtime developing his hacking skills and working on a network security system to stop hackers.

Luckily, he backed everything up to the Cloud. No one knew where his computer was. It hadn’t been with the couple of things Asher was able to retrieve. Ricky and his crew must’ve gone through Bryson’s things when they had him locked up. One of the first things he did was build a self-destruct code into his startup. If someone entered an incorrect password three times, the computer would automatically erase the data.

Finishing his product would be his priority. He needed to find a software developer to help with the last few pieces. Over the years, he’d put away a lot of money for when he decided to get out of the Marines. Now he had a young girl to take care of.

Bryson shook his head when he stepped into the baggage claim area and noticed his brother holding a large Welcome Home sign. Next to Noah stood a short woman holding an equally over-the-top decorated sign.

“My brother’s over there.” Bryson pointed out Noah to Azadeh.

Noah set the sign down and walked a few steps before his eyes landed on the girl next to Bryson. Bryson had to give it to his brother. The look of surprise that washed across his face was quickly neutralized. “Ghost.”

Bryson rolled his eyes. “I’m out of the military. You can call me Bryson.”

Noah wrapped him in a hug before stepping back. “We called you Ghost way before they called you that at boot camp.”

It was true. Bryson ended up with the same nickname in the military as he had growing up, but both times it was given for different reasons. When he was little, he’d thought a ghost lived in his closet. To that day, he still believed the house he grew up in was haunted. In basic, everyone had said he was like a ghost, never could be seen.

Bryson nodded. “Azadeh, this is my brother Noah and his girlfriend, Matilda.”

Matilda smiled and pulled her into a hug. “I’m so happy to meet you. I didn’t know you had a daughter.”

Noah frowned. “He doesn’t. I assume you are the little girl who answered the phone when I called to ask your location.”

She nodded. “I answered. Thank you for help.”

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