“Some warrior I am,” she mumbled.
“What did you say? Are you okay?” Travis asked as he helped her back up into a sitting position.
“I’m fine. Go help Lisa,” she said.
Think, Camilla, think. She hurt so bad and she knew a fever had started. Great—fuzzy brain, just what she needed.
Think.
She looked out the back of the truck. Rain. Perfect. At least they were in the truck, but God knew where they were taking them. What was next?
9
“We’ve got a problem,” Nic heard Zed say through his receiver. Raiden glanced over at him, having heard the same thing.
“What?” Max demanded to know.
Nic and Raiden sped up to meet up with all the others.
“We’ve got a fork in the road and the rain has doused all the tracks.”
Nic’s heart stopped. He and Raiden ran faster; their boots kept them steady on the wet and slippery jungle floor. When they met up with the group, everybody was there except Zed and Cullen, their two best trackers.
“Any word?” Nic managed to keep the anxiety out of his voice as he addressed his lieutenant.
Max shook his head.
Kane sidled up next to him. “We’re going to get them, you know that, right?”
Nic gave one short nod.
He looked the group over. Nobody looked tired, everybody looked as fresh as the moment they had jumped out of the plane. He was probably the one who looked the most strung out if he had to guess.
Nic watched as Kane went over to Max and grabbed his tablet out of his pack. That damn thing could handle gale-force hurricane winds and rain, a little drizzle here in the jungle was nothing.
He watched the two of them put their heads together and talk over some things as Kane pointed to things on the tablet. Please God, say Kane knew something…anything.
“I got nothing,” Zed said. Nic heard him in stereo as his voice came over his receiver and Zed came out from the road on the right. “The mud’s too deep; it washed away whatever tracks might have been there.”
Two minutes later, Cullen echoed Zed’s words when he came back to the team. Max motioned for everyone to gather round.
“There are two villages along each fork in the road, if you can even call them that. They don’t have names. We know about them through satellite photos that have scanned them in the past.”
Everybody pressed to look at Kane’s screen so they could see what in the hell he was talking about.
“That doesn’t look like a village, that looks like three little houses,” Ezio said.
“Yeah,” Leo agreed. “Village my ass.”
Kane looked up and glared at both men. “They’re villages. Look at how much land has been cleared. From the satellite, we’re lucky that we’re seeing the three buildings. God knows how much more there is.”
“I’m shutting up now,” Leo said.
“Tell me more,” Ezio demanded.
Nic was in Ezio’s camp. “Where does the road go after the so-called village?”
“It takes about eight more hours before they finally get to Once de Mayo.”
“That has to be their final destination, right? They need internet and a bank. They won’t get it where there are just three damn houses,” Nic asserted.
“Don’t be so sure of that,” Kane said slowly. “They could have quite the set-up in the middle of nowhere if they have someone who knows what they’re doing.”
“Okay, that’s the left fork,” Asher said. “What’s behind door number two, the right fork?”
Kane tapped his tablet and showed another part of the jungle. “This is village number two, again there is no name. This time we have five buildings. It is on the way to Villa Hermosa.”
“Zoom in further,” Raiden demanded. Kane did. “It doesn’t look like there is much of anything after that. At least with Once de Mayo, it takes them to a main highway eventually. Villa Hermosa just goes deeper into the jungle.”
Nic had a bad feeling about that. “So the kidnappers go to the no-name village, then they move onto Villa Hermosa. Anywhere between there, they can hide the hostages until they get paid. The other way leaves them more exposed.”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
“It’s a crapshoot,” Cullen spat out.
“You called it,” Max agreed. “We’re splitting up.”
Before Max could assign anybody Nic threw out his preference. He didn’t give two shits about protocol at this point. “I want the right.”
Max gave him a cool assessment. “Nic, me, Raiden, Cullen, and Zed are on the right. The rest of you go with Kane to the left.”
Nic perked up. Max was sending five to the right and four to the left. That meant he had the same kind of feeling he did. They better be damn well heading out at a fucking run.
“We need to shut this shit down,” Max said. “We’re going full out, got it?”
Everybody nodded, most of the men grinned.
“Let’s move.”
For once Camilla was awake when a vehicle stopped. Not alert, but at least she was awake. Out of the back of the truck, the first thing she noticed were children. They were peeking out from small little homes, their eyes wide before they were hustled back inside.
“Out, all of you, out.”
The tailgate was opened, and there stood El Jefe with his arms crossed. He was grinning like he had won the lottery.
“Let’s see the merchandise.”
One of the guards from the truck jumped out while the other one stayed on the truck to shove them out. Camilla was first.
“Ahh, the troublemaker.” El Jefe said when she landed in front of him. “Wait until you see your new accommodations. You’ll be pleased, I’m sure.”
It was dusk. They were in the middle of a village by the looks of things. She saw one building that had a cross on it. The church. It was made of adobe bricks—how in the world had they gotten the clay?
Quit geeking out and look around.
Looking closer, one of the homes looked like it might be some kind of store, but she wasn’t sure. One obvious thing was that now that everybody was in hiding, there was nobody on the street and all of the doors were closed. It was just the truck and the three Jeeps in the middle of the tiny little village square. Just El Jefe’s people, Camilla, and all the rest.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something else.
What was that? Was that an antenna?
“Do you like what you see?” El Jefe asked.
Camilla jerked around to look at him. He was still smiling. It was then she noticed the long rope he was holding. “Give me your hands.”
She heard the kids behind her getting out of the truck while she put out her hands. El Jefe tied the thin nylon rope around her wrists. She kept her wrists side to side so that there would be more give after he was done. Thank God she did considering how tight he tied the knot. Then he wrapped the rope around her waist.
“I think you should be next,” he said. He was pointing to someone behind her. She turned to look, and El Jefe cuffed the back of her head. “Mind your own business.”
It wasn’t much of a hit. In fact, it was minor, all things considered. Who knew that she’d be rating the impact of blows four days ago? Camilla felt the tug of her rope as it was used to connect her with the person behind her.
“Ouch,” she heard Roxanne cry out.
“I’ll just tie it tighter if you don’t stop whining.”
The man got off scaring the hell out of everyone.
Camilla could hear the shuddering breaths that Roxanne was taking behind her.
Good girl, you’re not sobbing.
“Ah, now we have our little hero. Hands behind your back. I don’t need any shit from you.” She assumed he was talking to Travis.
On and on it went, until finally, Camilla heard him talking to Lisa. She cringed when she heard Lisa cry out. If Lisa made a sound, it must have been bad, whatever El Jefe did to her.
> How was her arm?
Was it infected?
How about Jan?
Fingers snapped in front of her. She jerked her head upwards and pain shot through her shoulder. “Uppy, uppy, bitch. You need to stay awake, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done.”
Maria grabbed at the rope that was hanging down from Camilla’s tied hands and yanked. As she moved forward, Roxanne knocked into her.
“I’m sorry,” the girl said.
Maria laughed. “This is all part of the fun, seeing you all try to learn to walk together. You’ll all fall on your asses and be dragging one another along. I love this.”
She turned around and dropped the rope over her shoulder, then started marching toward the church. Camilla had to almost run to keep up. She felt a huge tug on the rope behind her, then she fell backward against Roxanne. Maria was standing over her, laughing.
“I told you how it would be. You can’t keep up.”
Camilla struggled to her feet and got a good look at everybody behind her. Nearly half of the students were on the ground—all of the girl students along with Travis. She watched as Brian Lane tried to help him up since Travis’ hands were tied behind him. Lisa was still on her feet and she was helping Phyllis and Leslie to get up off the ground.
“Maria, you have ten minutes to get them strung up in front of the church, got it?” He yelled over at her in Spanish.
“Got it,” she yelled back.
Then she yelled at two guards who were still at their Jeeps and told them to get over and help her. Camilla saw that a couple of the other men were pounding on the villagers’ doors and displaying their guns. The women who answered looked just as terrified as Camilla felt. Wait a minute, were there more men than there had been?
She looked some more and saw another truck and two more Jeeps.
Jesus, God, what was going to happen to them?
One of the doors was wrested off its hinges and two guards stormed in.
“What are you looking at?” a guard demanded in English. Camilla’s rope was yanked and she stumbled forward, but somehow managed to stay on her feet. Now the little village square was teeming with people. She saw more men in fatigues, and that new truck had some kind of antenna attached to it that looked like something on a news truck. So she had seen an antenna. What’s more, there was a satellite dish.
“Food, lots of food.” She heard someone shout behind her.
“Faster,” Maria said as she yanked harder and walked faster. The rope bit into her wrists, but it would have been worse if she’d let them tie them as tightly as they’d wanted.
“Ahhh,” she let out a scream as her arms were yanked forward and her waist was dragged backward. Roxanne had fallen again, pulling Camilla’s shoulder out of the socket.
“Get moving!” Maria yanked harder.
Camilla shrieked, hating the sound that came out of her throat. The pain swirled around her body and then dripped over her head and shoulder like a lava flow. Her body was being ripped apart by the taut rope, her muscles beginning to stretch to the breaking point.
“You’re worthless. Do I have to carry you?”
The words didn’t make sense until she careened into Maria as the pull of the rope behind her let loose.
“Ah, fuck,” Maria said. “We’re never going to get this done. Jorge, come here.”
Jorge picked Camilla up and she cried out again.
“Where’s El Jefe?” Maria asked.
“In the truck. He’s working to get the satellite internet up,” a man responded.
“Take this knife,” Maria said.
Even through her tears, Camilla saw the big knife flash in front of her. No matter how bad the pain was she didn’t want to die. She struggled to get out of the guard’s arms. He hugged her tighter. “I’m just cutting the rope,” he growled.
She didn’t get any kind of relief when her hands were cut free, the overall pain was too overwhelming. She tried to keep her eyes open, but she lost the battle.
Right had been the right way to go, but Jesus, what in the hell was going on? Max had the five of them spread out, so that they had the village surrounded, trying to get as much intel as possible. It had killed him to go past the prisoners to the back of the village where there were only a couple of dilapidated shacks, with no sign of life.
“I’ve got nothing,” Nic reported in. “I think these two huts have been abandoned. I’m going to go further around, closer to Zed.”
“Agreed,” Max said over the mic. “I’ve contacted Kane, the others are on their way.”
“Any ETA?” Cullen asked.
“Kane will report back in when he has one,” Max answered.
Nic moved quietly through the jungle, staying deep in the foliage but close enough so he could see what was going on. The further he moved toward Zed, the closer he got to the back of the church and away from possibly spotting Cami.
“I count eleven,” Raiden said. “All of them are hanging from their wrists off of some sort of scaffolding in front of the church.”
“Motherfucker,” Cullen’s voice was harsh.
“At least their feet are touching the ground. Three of the women are hanging by just one arm. They’re not in good shape,” Raiden continued.
Nic’s stomach rolled. He felt his gorge rise.
Keep it together.
“I’ve got a count. We’ve got twenty-three we need to take out, which includes one woman. If I had to guess, the guy in charge is sitting in the chair in front of the tied-up prisoners.”
Nic listened to Zed’s report. Twenty-three against five, that was…doable…with time and planning. Twenty-three against five with eleven hostages? That was going to be a problem.
“We’ve got a lot of incidental targets. Four women outside of their houses over cooking fires. Shit, man, some of them have kids with them. It’s a fucking menagerie,” Cullen reported.
It just kept getting worse and worse. Nic tasted vomit and spat on the ground.
“We’re going to have to go in tonight,” Max said. “Raiden, how bad are we talking? How are the prisoners holding up?”
“I’d say at least two broken bones and a head wound for sure,” Raiden said slowly. “One is unconscious, but I don’t see any contusions around her face, but with the way her arm is hanging down, she could just be out of it from pain. I don’t see a choice but waiting until tonight.”
“Agreed,” Max said. “I want all of you monitoring this situation. It’s two hours until sundown, I want to take them at zero three hundred. Any unfriendly who leaves the village to take a smoke or a piss after zero two hundred, you take him out quietly, understood?”
Everyone answered in the affirmative.
“In the meantime,” Max continued, “I want you, Zed, to be scoping out the best goddamn tree that you can find for a sniper position. The rest of us will go in nice and quiet, Zed will start in when the ruckus starts.”
Nic could hear Zed’s grin over his receiver.
“I want to go across and see the prisoners,” Nic said after everything was said and done.
His request was met by a moment of silence.
“Can you keep your head in the game?” Max asked.
“Absolutely. What’s more, I can give you intel on Camilla Ross, describe what kind of asset she could be if that’s the girl I remember.”
Again there was silence.
“Take your time moving around the village. Raiden, you switch places with Nic.”
“Gotcha.”
10
It took an hour before Nic finally maneuvered himself in a position where he could clearly see all eleven hostages. His heart clenched. How could he ever mistake that chestnut hair for anybody other than Cami? Her head was hanging down as she hung from one arm from a beam of wood. Her other arm dangled from her shoulder—it had to be broken or dislocated.
He scanned the other ten people in the group. Two men were big and looked pissed as hell. They could be a real help to get the
others to safety while Nic and his team took out the garbage. He said as much to the others.
“Yeah, that’s what I’d thought,” Raiden agreed.
“Where are all of the men in the village?” Cullen asked. “You would have thought that there would have been somebody here to defend the women and children.”
The hair on the back of Nic’s neck rose. “Raiden, I didn’t get close enough to check out the two shacks, but there was no sign of life. I saw nothing. Can you check closer?”
“You don’t think?” Raiden started.
“Yeah, I do,” Nic said.
Nic swung his binoculars to the south end of the village where he could make out the shacks. Again, he couldn’t see anything moving. It almost looked like they were now used for storage or something. In the dim light of dusk, Nic thought he saw a shadow and knew damn well it was Raiden Sato moving toward the shack closest to the jungle’s edge.
Peering intently through his binoculars he tried to home in on Raiden, but he couldn’t find him.
“Sato, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Max growled through their comm.
Raiden didn’t answer. Nic kept his eyes on the far corner of the shack, positive that Raiden would pass by there to get back to the jungle.
“Someone’s coming. Get out of there.” It was Cullen.
Nic saw a movement but it was just for a moment. He counted to ten in his head. At number eleven, Raiden’s voice came through his receiver.
“Men and teenage boy’s bodies were in the one shack I checked. They must have decimated the entire male population of the village.”
Nic gripped his rifle tighter, and even though he kept his eyes open, for a millisecond he literally saw only red.
“Jesus.” He heard the others’ shocked responses over his receiver as he wafted a prayer up to heaven.
“Men, heads-up. Kane said he and the others will be here at zero four hundred. They’re hauling ass. So, change of plans.”
“We’re waiting,” Zed said in response.
“You got it in one,” Max agreed. “So no taking out anyone, smoking or shitting in the jungle until zero three hundred. Got it?”
Her Faithful Protector: A Navy SEAL Romance (Night Storm Book 6) Page 8