Caballo Security Box Set

by Camilla Blake

  “Don’t look back,” Oliver hissed in my ear as he moved up behind me, his hands on my hips, pushing me forward. “Don’t let them get to you. We’re almost there!”

  A little voice told me I was a damn fool to trust Oliver. How could I trust the man who’d kept me locked up for the last twenty-four hours? But I’d rather trust him than the fools with the guns!

  Something whizzed past my head, barely missing my temple by a hair’s breadth. Oliver jerked me sideways a moment too late, pulling me out of the way. A second later, he pushed my head down, making me nearly fly face first into the sidewalk. A chunk of brick flew off of the building just ahead of us, hitting a woman on the shoulder, causing her boyfriend to turn around angrily, then pale as he grabbed her and pulled her back to the car they’d just exited.

  Oliver pushed me sideways, shoving me into a large alley between two tall buildings. I turned, catching sight of two men rushing into the alley almost directly behind us. I hopped backward, trying to turn again, losing my footing and falling on my hip with a hard smack. Oliver grabbed my arm and jerked me up onto my feet again, pushing me forward as he continued to run, not even missing a step in the whole process.

  “Stop!”

  The voice came from behind us. Oliver didn’t heed it. He pushed me harder, forcing me forward faster, always faster. I couldn’t breathe and my head was pounding, playing games with my vision. I was seeing stars and gray fog, my lungs struggling to get the air necessary to nourish my brain, especially the place that interpreted the things I was seeing. But there was enough oxygen to see the dark SUV suddenly screech to a halt at the other end of the alleyway.

  “Oliver,” I gasped, “we’re surrounded.”

  “Get down!” he ordered as three men jumped out of the SUV and charged forward with guns in outstretched hands. It was surreal, almost like a scene from a movie, these hot men dressed in jeans and pristine T-shirts under dark sports coats. My exhausted, starving brain connected them to that old show, Miami Vice, the one where the actors dressed more like fashion models than cops. That’s what these guys looked like: Hollywood hunks playing at being cops.

  I fell, hit the ground with my elbows and palms, Oliver’s reassuring weight pressed down on top of me. Four, six, nine explosions filled the narrow alley, gunfire bouncing around over my head. We were dead. I just knew it! They were firing at us, their bullets tearing through our bodies like we were nothing more than targets on a shooting range. They’d fill us with bullets, then leave us here like we were nothing more than trash, used up and no longer needed.

  I waited when the silence fell, expected to feel the warmth of Oliver’s blood flowing down over me. I waited for the pain to kick in, waited for the adrenaline to wear off and for the wounds to weaken our bodies. But that’s not what happened.

  “Keep up, Ollie!” a man’s voice ordered. “We need to get out of here before their buddies catch up!”

  Oliver shifted then, his arms coming to encase me for a long moment, his breath warm as he asked near my ear if I was okay. I rolled over and looked up at him, my hands automatically searching for wounds on his face, his head, his chest. He smiled, leaning down to drop a kiss on my nose.

  “Ollie!”

  Oliver jumped to his feet with a grace no man should possess, and held out a hand to help me up. I moved slowly, confused by the lack of blood, the lack of holes in his gorgeous body. And then I caught sight of the two men lying awkwardly at the other end of the alley, their bodies bleeding from wounds I couldn’t see.

  “What’s going on?” I turned, regarding the three men who’d exited the SUV. “Who are you?”

  A tall, dark-haired man with a military presence—you know, that sort of stiff, formal way some former soldiers couldn’t seem to shake?—stepped forward and smiled quite gallantly, taking a deep bow as he said, “We’re Caballo, ma’am.”

  Chapter 20

  Scott

  I walked around the room, lifting small items, listening to the dial tone on the phone, looking behind paintings and drapes, looking for anything that might indicate we weren’t completely alone. TJ watched, his expression something between amusement and bewilderment, aware of what I was doing, but clearly thinking it wasn’t necessary.

  “They have no reason to believe anything other than the story you gave them.”

  “You don’t know these people, babe. You haven’t been around them as long as I have.”

  “Why would they bug your hotel room? They didn’t even know this was going to be your room until five minutes ago.”

  “You can never be too careful.”

  TJ came over, took hold of my wrists from behind as I reached for the edge of a painting that hung over the narrow table they called a desk on their website. “It’s okay,” he said softly against my ear. “We’re safe here.”

  I nodded, twisting in his arms, my mouth seeking out his. He jerked me forward, pulling me hard against his chest, his heart pounding under his ribs. It’d been torture for me, being so close to him this week but not allowed to touch him. If Jacob Cole found out that his stepson was a fairy, he’d never acknowledge me again. A good ole boy like Jake? He was a Texan from the old school, the kind of guy who’d rather go shooting than see a romcom with his wife and daughter. He was a man who thought the measure of a man was in the conquests he made with women, in the arm candy he had to show off to his adoring public. To learn that I, the boy he’d raised in his own home, was gay would shatter everything he believed about me. He’d never treat me the same again, never allow me to use his name, never replenish the bank account that made it possible for me to keep up appearances for his friends.

  TJ took me to the bed and we worked out all the frustrations that had been building all week, all the need that had to be hidden from the world for the sake of my family’s reputation.

  We’d been seeing each other just a few months. I’d known him for a while, having met him a few times at Valerie’s office on those rare occasions when I was in town. But it wasn’t until late March that I came to know him in more of a Biblical sense—yes, I recognize the irony of using that term—a freak meeting in a gay bar that led to a hot night between the sheets at his condo. I’d tried to end it there, but TJ could be quite persuasive when he wanted to be. It didn’t hurt that he was incredible in bed, and that he seemed to always know exactly what to say to me, how to draw me out of the funk I sometimes allowed myself to fall into. He was kinder, gentler than any other man I’d ever known. He was my first relationship—true relationship—and it was the first time I’d trusted a man deep enough to see him more than a handful of times. He was the first I’d told my life story to, the first I’d trusted with some—if not all—of my deep, dark secrets.

  “I love you,” I whispered in the quiet of my hotel room, forgetting for a minute why we were there and what was happening outside these four walls.

  “It’s going to be okay, Scott. They’ll find her.”

  “They better. If they don’t—”

  “The GPS marker I put under her shoulder will help them find her. And, if it doesn’t, she’ll make a mistake and she’ll expose herself. Believe me.”

  I nodded, my heart pounding as I wrapped my sore body around his. “It’ll all be over by morning—right?”

  “It’ll be over, and we’ll be on our way to Mozambique.”

  I smiled, remembering the vastness of the Lebombo Mountains, the clean, cool air. I’d always imagined it would be a lovely place to live, but never imagined I could make that particular dream come true until TJ told me there was nothing that could possibly stand in my way. TJ believed in me in a way I’d never believed in myself.

  “You can do this, baby,” he said close to my ear. “Just a few more hours and you’ll have everything you ever wanted. To hell with them for never understanding what a good man you are, for never giving you the credit you were due. To hell with them for always underestimating you and not appreciating how truly clever you really are.”

  I
nodded, exhaustion beginning to seal my eyes shut. “What about Valerie?”

  “I know you love her, but she’s part of all this, isn’t she? She’s his blood, the only one he truly cares about.”

  I nodded, nesting my head in his armpit. “You’re so smart, TJ.”

  “No, baby, it’s all you. I just helped you put it into a workable plan, that’s all.”

  “Now we just have to get Angela out of that mess at GME and we’re golden.”

  TJ said something to that, but I was already falling, drifting into a deep sleep. And I had some of the best dreams I’d had in a long time, lying there in my lover’s arms.

  Life couldn’t get much better than this!

  Chapter 21

  Valerie

  “Explain to me what the hell is going on!”

  Oliver touched my arm, moving me sideways so that he could run this thing over me that looked kind of like a little black box. It was cold and it was smooth, these little lights on it glowing in the fading light of the huge, empty house where we were leaning against one of those big, cheap buffet tables that schools and organizations liked to use for parties.

  “Let me finish this, then I’ll explain everything.”

  “Put the girl out of her misery, Ollie,” a man who—now that I could really look at him—looked a hell of a lot like Oliver said. “You’ve put her through enough, I’m sure.”

  “Who are you?” I wanted to know.

  “He hasn’t told you even that much?”

  “I was a little busy having a nervous breakdown on the way over here.”

  He smiled, his smile a little crooked, but just as charming as Oliver’s. “I’m Oxley Winn, Ollie’s big brother.” He executed a nice little bow. “Everyone calls me Ox.”

  “Ox.”

  I tilted my head slightly, wondering if the nickname fit him. He wasn’t an exceedingly large man, tall and slender like his brother. He had the same dark hair, but his was longer on top, the same dark eyes, but his seemed less haunted than his brother’s. And he had the same broad shoulders and narrow hips, the same athletic build. Hollywood handsome, but not quite an ox.

  Oliver set down the black box and gestured across the room to where the other two men who’d come to our rescue were perched on the lower steps of the staircase. “The marine over there is Akker Mills, and the guy with him is Max Lucas.”

  I lifted a hand, offering something of a greeting.

  “Akker’s the one who changed your clothes, by the way,” Oliver leaned close to me to whisper. I sat up a little straighter, studying the stranger’s face for a second. “He’s very respectful,” Oliver added.

  “What is Caballo?” I turned to Ox, assuming he was the guy in charge here because that was the way everyone was acting, referring to him before they did or said much of anything. Everybody but Oliver.

  “Caballo is a security firm that was started back in the nineties by our father.”

  “James Winn,” I said, glancing at Oliver. He lowered his head slightly to acknowledge the unasked question in my voice.

  “That’s the one,” Ox said, a question in his eyes, too, as he looked from his brother to me and back again. “It was our father’s habit to bet on the horse races quite often, so when he decided to retire from the police department and start a security firm, he thought it would bring him luck if he named the place after his favorite pastime. He played around with a lot of possibilities, including the name of his favorite horse, Citation. He finally settled on Caballo—Spanish for horse. I think the fact that we’re headquartered in San Antonio—where more than half the population is Hispanic—played a big role in his decision.”

  “And now you run the firm?”

  Ox lowered his head slightly. “After Dad died, his best friend, Walter McDonald, took control until we were old enough to take over.” Ox shot Oliver a look. “In the last four years, we’ve expanded the business, taking it from a sort of temp agency for security guards to a full-service security firm, complete with international services.”

  I reached up and released my hair from the scrunchie that had already begun to fall out so that I could massage my scalp. “So, I guess I’m supposed to assume by our current circumstances that you’ve been hired to protect me.”

  “Correct.”

  “I got some information that someone was planning to kidnap you in Mexico,” Oliver told me, sitting back against the table and crossing his arms over his chest. “When I took that information to Ox, it turned out someone had already hired him to protect you. He was in the middle of planning the operation, already had an operative picked out to follow you down here and everything.”

  “But your information changed things?”

  “His information proved to be invaluable,” Ox admitted, slapping his brother on the shoulder. “We knew who and when and where because of him.”

  “That’s why they sent me down to watch over you.”

  “It was his first official stint as an operative. He did a good job.”

  “She’s still alive,” Oliver said almost bashfully.

  “I am.”

  I studied the two brothers, picking up on some tension. But, interestingly enough, it wasn’t coming from Ox. He seemed proud. He seemed enthusiastic, excited even. He seemed to be open, where Oliver was the one keeping him at arm’s length. Made me wonder what the deal was.

  Oliver cleared his throat. “I knew the names of the men who were hired to take you. All I had to do was get a job at that auto shop and watch for them to show up.”

  “Just the clinic? Was that prearranged or something?”

  “We had someone watching your condo, too,” Ox let me know, gesturing over his shoulder toward the men on the steps. The one Oliver had called Max held up his hand to indicate it was him.

  “I think I saw him once or twice.”

  Ox grunted, glancing at his man. “That better not be the case.”

  “It was a difficult place to disappear, boss. I did the best I could.”

  “I’m glad I saw him,” I told them all. “At least now I know I wasn’t seeing things back there. Now I know it was real.”

  Oliver slid his hand over my wrist, letting his fingers push their way between mine. Ox seemed surprised by the gesture, but he didn’t say a word. He just stepped back a little, crossing his arms over his chest in a mimic of the position his brother had just had his own arms in.

  “What really happened that day at the clinic?”

  Oliver looked down at the ground for a moment before twisting his neck so he could look me in the eye. “I saw two men pull up to the front of the clinic in a white van. When they got out, I recognized them from the photographs we procured of the potential kidnappers before leaving San Antonio. I texted Akker over there, let him know it was going down. By the time I was done, when I managed to get to my bike, they were already halfway out of town.”

  “Just like that?”

  “Just like that.” He squeezed my hand lightly. “We knew that they were supposed to take you to another location and wait for a man to pick you up to take you to another location. This man had been told to make you disappear. The person who arranged your kidnapping had never intended for you to be located.”

  That hit me hard. I gasped a little as I tried to suck in a breath. Tears filled my eyes, but I refused to let them fall, lifting my head to stare at the ceiling until I was confident I had control of myself.

  “We knew this,” Ox said, his voice softened. “That’s why Oliver followed you to the location and convinced those men that he was the man sent to pick you up. The two guys were so stupid, they had no clue that he was lying to them until he had you at a private airport and on our jet.”

  “A plane?”

  Oliver nodded. “That’s how we got to Mexico City.”

  “Did you drug me?”

  “That would have been me!” Akker announced, raising his hand and sort of waving it in the empty air above his head. “We had to make sure you didn’t wake up bef
ore you were settled in the trailer.”

  “You could have picked better accommodations.”

  Ox laughed, nodding a little. “It was the best we could do with short notice. The owner is actually a friend of mine. He plans to run a cattle ranch there.”

  “Lofty dream, considering the location and lack of grass.”

  “That’s what I told him.”

  I sighed, using my free hand to drag my fingers through my hair again. “You saved me. While I greatly appreciate that knowledge, I have to ask what the next step is. Do I just go home and pretend none of this happened—or what?”

  Oliver shook his head. “It’s not over yet, Valerie. The people who hired these guys are still out there and still desperate to get their hands on that money your father set aside for ransoms. And there’s the business of the GPS marker in your shoulder.”

  “The what?” I reached over my shoulder, feeling the smooth skin there. “What are you talking about?”

  Oliver reached behind him and picked up the black box again. “This thing can detect and disrupt a device’s connection to the satellite that allows GPS coordinates to be broadcast. It tells me there’s a marker in your shoulder.”

  “But that’s not possible!”

  “They’re very small these days. If someone had access to the right lab or the right tech company, it wouldn’t be hard to get one small enough that you might not even know when it was inserted, let alone feel it through the skin.”

  “But I would know. I’ve not been that close to someone in a long time.” I blushed as Oliver met my eyes, the curiosity and hope in his eyes almost overwhelming. “No lovers, no friends. I’ve been too busy.”

  “It wouldn’t take much,” Ox said. “It would feel like a small scratch. An accident.”

  I frowned, trying to remember a time recently when I’d had a scratch on my shoulder. It wasn’t really a normal place to get a scratch. I couldn’t think of anything.

  “You’re going to take it out—right?”

  Oliver and Ox exchanged a look. “The device is blocking the signal right now,” Ox informed me. “They can’t use it to find us now,” Oliver added.