Because of You: Covert OPS 1

by Kymber Jones

  Stone and Bullet never spoke about their biological family. They said they had a fight with their parents and that their younger brother was killed. Chrys knew they had a niece somewhere, but she had no idea where or what her name was. She figured when they were ready to talk about her, they would, but she would be there for them until then, the same as they are always here for her.

  Instantly Chrys made up her mind and wrote back.

  “This is Devastation. I will have Jack and Tate get back to you momentarily after confirming they have a niece and nephew by these names. Is there a phone number at which they can call you?”

  “Yes. 520-555-7829.”

  “Stand by your phone. I will go talk to Jack and Tate. If these two are who they say, Jack and Tate will call you back in just a few minutes.”

  “Thank you.”

  Chrys stepped away from the computer and stretched her neck. She looked around to see who was around and was pleased to see both of her Uncles there talking to her brothers, but when Tate showed up, she had no idea. In fact, her dad and brother were standing there with them, but Daniel was looking up at Apollo’s Chariot like it was God's gift to man.

  Walking over to the group, Chrys kept one eye on her table where her computer and backpack were still set up. She was not going to lose that damn computer because she took her eyes off it for one second too long.

  “Hey, Love, what’s wrong?”

  “Not much,” Chrys replied. “Uncle Tate, Uncle Jack, do you have a niece and nephew named Spence and Stella?”

  “How would you know that?” Stone asked.

  “The person breaking into the firewalls Dad asked me to look into? It’s someone by the name of Gunner. He says he’s helping your niece and nephew Spence and Stella, who are staying with him and his family. He says major issues are going on and that you need to contact them. I told them if they checked out, you would call them back,”

  “Did he leave a phone number?”

  “520-555-7829.”

  Quickly Stone pulled out his phone and dialed the number they were given. Before he could say anything, he heard someone say, “Talk to me.”

  “I was told you have a Stella and Spence Hunter there. Is that true?”

  “It is. I have Stella right next to me. Give me a second, and I will hand the phone to her. May I tell her who’s calling?” Gunner asked.

  “Tell her Jack and Tate are on the phone for her.”

  “Very well. Stella, I’m putting the phone on speaker, is that okay?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s all yours. I’m here for any questions you may have.”

  “Thanks.”

  Before anyone could say anything else, Stella cried, “Uncle Tate! I’ve tried to get a hold of you for so long!”

  “Stella? Baby? Is it you?” Tate sounded as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

  “I’ve tried so hard to look for you two. If Gunner didn’t help me, I was going to give up. I had no other means of searching.”

  “Our number is unlisted, I know. I’m sorry. Is Spence there? What about Gram and Gramps? Where are they?”

  “Spence is with our hosts. I’ll get him. He wants to speak to you too. He asks me all the time if I managed to contact you yet. Gram and Gramps, though? They aren’t here.”

  Jack joined the conversation. “It’s great to hear your voice, love. But what do you mean Gram and Gramps aren’t there? Where are they?”

  “Uncle Jack!” Stella greeted him joyously.

  “Love?” Jack asked again.

  “They died,” Stella said softly. “They died nine years ago in a fucking car accident.”

  “WHAT?!” The two uncles shouted.

  “Just after your fight. They went out for their date night, and on their way back, a drunk driver hit them. Grams died right away, but Gramps died as they tried to take him to the hospital.”

  “Why didn’t anyone reach out to us through Red Cross?” Tate demanded.

  “We tried. The Navy told the State they would try to get a hold of you. I have copies of all correspondence. We never heard anything.”

  “No one ever reached out to us. This is the first time we’ve ever heard anything about Grams and Gramps dying. If they’re gone, where have you been staying?”

  “Spence and I are in a foster house. We’ve been with them since the accident.”

  “Dear God,” Jack muttered when Tate swore.

  “And Gunner, how are you involved?” Tate wanted to know.

  “I’m a member of….” Gunner began, only to be cut off.

  “He’s a family member of our best friend. After being separated for years, she was just reunited with her biological family. We’re all here getting to know each other.”

  A loud banging on the door interrupted the conversation.

  “Gunner, open up!” Axel shouted from outside the computer room.

  “Opening!” Gunner replied. “What’s going on?” He asked.

  “We have a situation. The Bitch who kept Marla is here. She brought the Police with her. Sitting in a car across the street is none other than Salvatore and Timón.”

  Jack spoke up, joining the conversation. “Salvatore and Timón? You don’t mean Salvatore Guarnieri and Timón Valdovinos do you?”

  Axel shrugged, then realized Jack couldn’t see his response over the phone and said, “I don’t know. Stella, are those the Bastards’ last names?”

  “Yes. And if those Bastards are waiting across the street, Marla won’t make it to the Bitch’s house or the Police Station. Sal’s here to take her now.”

  “The fuck he will.” Axel snarled. “No one is taking my woman’s daughter from her again. Not after she just got the girl back!”

  Stella looked up at Axel, tears in her eyes. “Are you prepared to die, to keep her here? Because that’s what it will take.”

  “Damn right, I am. And so are my men. We’re a family, and we make damn sure we watch each other’s backs!”

  “Jack and I will be there in five hours. Can you hold these people off until we get there?” Tate asked.

  “And just who the fuck are you?” Axel asked.

  “We’re Stella and Spence’s Uncles. Let’s just say we’re part of a sub-group of the Special OPS.”

  Axel’s head jerked up. “The Covert Teams.” He said, shocking Tate and Jack with his knowledge.

  “All Special OPS are covert, yes. We have to be.”

  “We’ll hold them off. Five hours is nothing.”

  “Keep us on the phone while you deal with this woman and the Police. We’d like to hear what they have to say.” Tate told Axel.

  “Sure. Gunner, you and Stella come with me. Let’s get this shit over with.”

  “Stella,” Tate said, switching the conversation back to his niece. “As soon as we’re done, we’re flying out after we say hi to Spence. I will text Gunner our phone numbers, so you have them; call us at any time.”

  “Thank you, Uncle Tate,” Stella said.

  “You don’t need to thank us. You should have been with us.”

  “You’re coming to get us now. That’s all that matters.” Stella paused. “We’re about to enter the lobby.”

  “Okay. Keep quiet, no matter what happens or what you hear. Do you understand?”

  “I can’t promise that.”

  “Stella, do you understand?” Tate repeated. “These people are dangerous.

  “No, shit. We’ve lived with these Bastards for the past nine years.”

  “I’m sorry about that. Now, Jack and I are going to be silent while this conversation goes on. We need to hear everything. Don’t worry. We’re going to stay on the line.”

  “Okay.”

  When Stella put the phone in her pocket, Stone listened as the Inferno Wolves, MC, was threatened by not just a woman who thought she could get away with it, but Salvatore Guarnieri, one of two men their Team had been searching for, for the past several years. Only, every time the Team thought they were getting
close, the sons of bitches managed to slither away.

  Reaching over, Bullet put the phone on mute then spoke to Chrys and Stone.

  “We have to get over to this Club ASAP,” Bullet told them.

  “Of course,” Chrys agreed. “We have to pick your niece and nephew up first of all. Secondly, we have to get a damn lead on these bastards. We’ve been after them too fucking long.”

  “We can worry about the bastards after we get Stella and Spence to safety.”

  “Absolutely. We don’t do anything until your family is safe.”

  “How soon can we head out?” Bullet asked.

  “We can head out as soon as we get back to the house. I’ll start calling everyone once we get to the car.” Chrys told her Uncles.

  “Are you sure you’re up for this? You can sit this out. We have enough people to cover you.”

  “Hell no, no one is going to cover me. I’m going in, the same as everybody else. I may have to sit out on some of the physical aspects of the early parts of this mission, but there is no way you are leaving me behind.”

  Bullet and Stone nodded as Vita demanded to know who they were talking about.

  “Salvatore Guarnieri,” Chrys said. “He’s at the top of our most-wanted list and has been for many years. Only every time we come close to catching the son of a bitch, he manages to slip away. The same for Timón Valdovinos. Somewhere along the line, the two thought it a great idea to become business partners. Unfortunately, the citizens of this world are the people that end up suffering.” Chrys swore.

  “Well, don’t worry too much about them. I’m quite familiar with Salvatore. Maybe not to the extent that you are, but I am well aware that he is not the type of person we want running around out there. Now, what is this about your niece and nephew?” Vita asked Bullet and Stone, who both shrugged and shook their heads.

  “We don’t know.” Stone replied.

  Bullet continued. “The last we knew, Stella and Spence were with our parents. Then we get a call from a girl claiming to be Stella after all these years, and she said our parents have been dead for the past nine years. She also let us know she and Spence have been living in a foster home until now because no one has been able to reach us and that they need help keeping their friends safe from Salvatore and Timón, who plan on either killing them or selling them on the black market.”

  “So, what do you plan on doing to take care of him? He is beyond paranoid if you have not figured that out by now.” Abe spoke up.

  “We’ll figure something out on our way over to where Uncle Tate and Jack’s niece and nephew are located.”

  Before the group realized it, a young woman, none of them recognized, was speaking in Italian after it seemed Salvatore and his leading moneymaker had just left in a fit of anger.

  Jack spoke up from the phone. “Are you Marla?”

  “No, Sir. I’m Marcie.” Melodie gasped upon hearing the name. “Marla’s the name those Bastards gave me. I’m going back to the name my Mom gave me when I was born.”

  “Good for you, Marcie, but to answer your question, I’m Jack. I’m part of a special military unit that has been tracking Salvatore and Timón for years. We could never pinpoint where the Bastards are, though. Every time we found them, they went underground. Now, we know exactly where they’re going to be. And we’re going to be there to capture the sonofabitch.”

  “Okay,” Marcie said, “But I have to ask why. Why are you so interested now?”

  Spence practically answered her with a question of his own when he spoke up.

  “Uncle Jack?”

  “Hey, Bud. You hang in there. Uncle Tate and I are coming to get you and Stella. I promise.” Jack told him, then spoke to Marla again. “Because Marcie, Salvatore just threatened a place where our niece and nephew are. He threatened to kill every person in the home, including them. No one, especially a sick human trafficking Mobster, threatens our family and lives to tell about it.”

  Chapter 5

  Up in the air, Bullet and Stone sat at the back of the G700 Gulfstream, the newest Gulfstream available in the private jetstream sector, and spoke quietly about their parents and the fight that drove them away.

  Chrys watched as her Uncles kept to themselves, wanting desperately to help them but not knowing what to do.

  “How are you holding up, Love?” Hopkins asked, sitting down next to Chrys.

  “I’m holding up okay. I just wish there was something I could do for my Uncles.” Chrys nodded towards Bullet and Stone.

  “You’ll be able to help them soon enough,” Sveren told her, sitting next to her. “Right now, you need to concentrate on yourself.”

  “Easier said than done.”

  “Maybe,” Chrys agreed. “But they had no idea their parents were killed. Or that their niece and nephew were put into a foster home. They’re feeling completely guilty.”

  “And it’s not their fault. It’s the bastards that kept you here in this life that did this to them. If you want to help them, you need to think about taking those bastards down.”

  Chrys nodded. “I know. But the question is how to do that.”

  “We know at least one of the players,” Hopkins said. “He may not be one of the major players, but he can at least lead up to some of the others. It all depends on how we want to use him.”

  Chrys shuddered. “I don’t. I just want to forget the sonofabitch ever existed.”

  Sveren smirked. “Poor Baby.”

  “Hey, you would too, if every time you saw him, he felt you up with his eyes.”

  Sveren laughed. “How did he get such a hard-on for you? What did you ever do to lead him on?”

  “You mean besides threaten to cut his balls off and feed them to the fish if he ever came near me a second time? What can I say? Some guys just like danger.”

  “You count as danger; I’ll have to give you that.” Hopkins nodded, smiling.

  Joining the Team in the back, the Tornabene brothers left the cockpit and made their way over to Chrys, who was sitting with Hopkins and Sveren.

  “What is this we heard about Chrys threatening someone?” Abe asked, smiling.

  “One of the men in a different department. He has a large crush on Chrys. He seems to think she’ll become impressed with him the harder he tries to show his dominance. Only the harder he tries, the more she puts him in his place and continues to embarrass him. The idiot has no clue when to stop.”

  “And he thinks this will win Crysti’s approval?” Vita wanted to know. “She does not seem the sort to be easily swayed by such tactics.”

  “She’s not. And the more the Ass tries, the more pissed off she gets. The more pissed off she gets, the more she embarrasses the idiot to teach him a lesson. It’s a vicious cycle. It’s also funny as hell. But we’re going to have to start stepping in because, during the last mission, he could have seriously endangered Chrys, which is not something we’ll allow.”

  Vita watched Sveren as he told him about stepping in due to the last mission. He knew there was no romance between Sveren and Chrys, but there was a bond unlike any he had ever seen before, and he was unsure if he approved of it or not. While it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, Vita couldn’t say it was a good thing either, and that was what bothered him.

  “What did this man do?” Vita asked.

  Chrys shook her head. “He broke radio silence, demanding information he had no right asking. He shouldn’t have even had my position, yet he found out where I was. He then decided to talk to me on my radio while I was on radio silence. Someone is helping him.”

  “You’re saying this man could have gotten you killed,” Abe stated.

  Sveren nodded. “Damn right, he could have gotten her killed. And it isn’t the first time the ass has made a fucked up move like this. He’s pulled this type of foolish stunt in the past. This stunt is just going to be his last.”

  An announcement over the intercom let the group know the pilot was about to start the plane’s descent into Tucson, Arizo
na.

  “Ladies and Gentlemen, we will be arriving in Tucson in ten minutes. Please put the seats back, the trays up, and the armrests in their folded down position. The Stewardess will be right out to collect any trash you might have.”

  “Well, just over five hours to get here isn’t that bad,” Chrys said. “Uncle Jack told his niece we would be at their place in five hours. By the time we land and drive down, it will have taken us almost six and a half hours.”

  Chapter 6

  Two hours later, the Hellion Division pulled in front of the Compound, which housed the entire Inferno Wolves MC, with Chrys’s brothers in tow.

  “Well, Hell, I’ve seen small towns, but this almost takes the cake. You practically blink, and you’re going to miss the place.”

  Chrys laughed. “Shut up, you Ass!” She said, “It is NOT that small. You just don’t like any place smaller than a hundred thousand people. I, on the other hand, think this place is almost too big. It’s just over forty-five thousand here. No idea where everyone is, you can’t tell there are that many people here, but it just looks and feels a bit claustrophobic to me with the businesses.”

  “You just want to live in a place that has a zero percent population.” Tate smiled.

  “And what’s wrong with that?” Chrys smiled.

  “Nothing, if you’re planning on becoming a hermit,” Jack told her, joining in the conversation.

  Tate looked at Chrys, his eyes wide, when he realized what Chrys had been doing with the property she had recently purchased.

  “That’s what you’re planning to do, isn’t it?” Tate demanded.

  “What?” Chrys asked. “What am I planning to do?”

  “With all the property you’ve been buying in remote places, becoming a hermit is what you’re planning on doing.”

  Chrys shrugged. “Not exactly, but close, I’ll give you that.”