“He sounded horrible.”
He couldn’t stand it, how Diego sounded. “I know, Tom, but he’s alive. Right now, hold onto that. Okay?”
Nodding, he asked dryly, “How do we do this?”
“We have two days where they will have their guard down. We are gonna have to hike part of the way there, as they’ll likely see a car coming from a few miles away.”
“Please, don’t ask if I can handle it.”
Gary grinned at him and assured, “I wasn’t going to. I don’t want you to use one of those grenades on my balls.”
Tommy had to smile at that. “It’s tempting anyway, so good call.”
“We’ll come up with our action plan tonight, then we sleep. I’ll get some sleeping pills if I have to, but you have to be on the top of your game, and that means sleep. We’ll head out tomorrow.”
Chapter Six
Pretending to sleep wasn’t an option. Gary saw through things like that easily. How could he sleep, though, knowing Diego was suffering, and what was worse, knowing Gary was in the bed next to him?
As much as he knew Diego was the right choice for him, that didn’t kill the love he felt for Gary. The tall, broad mercenary had brought out things in him that had been buried so deeply, Tommy hadn’t known they were there.
The thoughts of their sexual activity were thick in his mind, but there was more than that. Those few and beautiful times that Gary showed his softer side, when he’d share a bit of himself, those were what Tommy had truly fallen in love with.
He went to sleep thinking of them both. Their eyes haunting him, hands reaching for him, but each time they did, he was too far to touch. Then, his dream changed and he was in bed with the two of them, Gary biting his neck like a fucking vampire and Diego there to tenderly kiss the wound.
That was them, one hurting him, the other healing, but it was also the confusing part, because he loved both. Gary never hurt him with malice, he wouldn’t. He hurt him to make him feel harsh things in a good and healthy way. And Diego’s softness didn’t take away from the fact that he was a strong, determined man that got what he wanted while giving Tommy what he wanted, too.
When he woke, he heard Gary’s soft snores, smiling even as his heart yearned. He remembered those noises in the night when Gary was lying next to him. His warmth under the covers, his big body taking up most of the bed…
He pissed and got in the shower, though he regretted that decision as soon as three roaches scattered from behind the soap dish. After hopping around until they were spiraling down the drain, he got clean as fast as he could and got out to see Gary walking in, morning wood pushing out his briefs.
Tommy had the towel in his hands, and he moved it in front of his dick right as Gary’s eyes landed there. “Sorry. Thought you were still in bed.”
“It’s okay. Not like you’ve never seen it before.”
Gary nodded, cutting his eyes to the sink. “I gotta piss, but I’ll wait.”
Tommy wrapped the towel around his waist before he stepped out of the tiny bathroom. “Go ahead.”
As he dressed, he shook his head, pissed at himself, but unable to help it. He wanted to return the peek, walk in on Gary while he stood in the nasty shower. All this while his boyfriend was suffering. He felt as low as one of those fucking roaches.
As soon as they were both dressed, Tommy averting his eyes when Gary was pulling on his pants no matter how hard it was, Gary sat with him, reviewing their plan. “We get there, and you cover me while I sneak in. There are always pipes, air vents, and they’re disguised.”
Tommy took in everything he said, memorizing it. On the drive, they went over everything again. “I know you’ll want to rush in there, but don’t.”
Gary had always been able to read his mind. “It’s going to be hard, yeah, but I’m not going to do anything to risk him. Or you.”
“Thanks for adding that,” Gary said, chuckling. “If you see me go down, Tommy, get out of there.”
“What? What do you mean?” That was new, and he didn’t like it at all.
“Tommy, I know you’re strong and you know your shit, but if I go down, someone who’s been doing this twenty some years, then it’s real bad and you need to go. They may fuck him up some, but they won’t kill him, not right off, and you can still try to negotiate.”
“You said they’d kill him, money or no.”
“Yeah, but you’re smart, Tommy. You can negotiate a way for them to bring him to the money drop, something. That is a last resort, okay? I’m not saying it’ll happen. Believe me, it’s not a suicide mission for me. I want to get out of it, see if I can win you back somehow.”
Tommy wasn’t falling for the distraction. “Gary, just don’t get yourself killed.”
“I’m going to try not to.”
Less than two miles from the spot they’d seen on the topographic map, they parked the car in a ditch behind some big stands of scrub oak bushes and cacti. After popping the trunk, Gary started pulling things out and loading Tommy down with them.
He made Tommy take off his shirt and he handed him a Kevlar vest, then after Tommy had placed the t-shirt back over it, he got another vest on, this one to hold his ammo and smaller weapons.
And every damn pocket in that vest was filled by the time Gary was finished. “Your phone charged?”
“Yeah, all night. Ringer’s on high until we get close enough and then I’ll leave it on vibrate.”
“Good. Good job, Tommy. When Javi was teaching you all to shoot, did he give you a weapon with a silencer?”
“No.”
Gary held up a Sig Sauer 9mm then showed him how to attach one of the three silencers in the trunk. “When you shoot it, now the silencer adds a little weight, so it’ll shoot differently than without the silencer.”
“Like having a scope?”
“Yes. Only the silencer won’t help you aim. Control the shoot. That’s it. Control it.”
“I can handle that.”
After packing away the pistol and silencer, Gary handed him a bowie knife and brass knuckles. “These are for quiet attacks. Like the gun with the silencer, we need to be sneaky. Punch a guy with the knuckles, break his neck, if you can manage it, stab him in the throat or slit it, if you have to. I’m going to try to make sure you are kept away from that. And again, not because I don’t think you can handle it, but the more blood that’s on your hands, Tommy, the harder it is to sleep at night. I don’t want that for you.”
Another way he showed he cared.
Each had two rifles slung over their shoulders and were packed and ready for a small war. Gary crouched low as he ran, making Tommy do the same. They stopped every so often so Gary could get the lay of the land and check for lookouts.
Once they found an air vent, barely a pipe sticking out through the packed dirt, Gary set a finger over his lips, letting him know to keep silent. Lowering his ear to the pipe, he was listening to whatever he could hear below.
After he moved away from it, he whispered to Tommy, “I hear a man groaning. It must be Diego.”
Groaning in pain. Tommy’s gut flipped over that.
“Stay right here, over on that hill there. Three-sixty view, Tommy, never relax. Three-hundred-sixty degrees your eyes are gonna be moving. You got me?”
As he was nodding his agreement, Gary surprised him and moved in fast, kissing him, grabbing his head in case he tried to move away, which he didn’t. He was too shocked to think of it.
When he pulled back, Gary was smiling shyly, and he never did that. “Figured we were getting him back. I might not ever get to do that again.”
His heart broke a little after it flew. Gary moved quickly away from him, running into what could be his death.
For him.
He had no illusions about Gary being some knight in shining armor. He wasn’t doing it to save Diego, he was doing it to show Tommy that he still cared. That he still loved him and would do anything for him. Including saving the man he was in love with.<
br />
Tommy did exactly as Gary said, keeping aware of his surroundings, all the way around him. He knew he wouldn’t find out how it was going until he saw them coming, or didn’t.
It was going to drive him insane, but he had no doubt that he’d see them both, coming to him, being okay. He couldn’t allow himself to think of another outcome.
****
One thing the kidnappers never counted on was the fact that Diego had idolized magicians and illusionists when he was growing up and read everything he could on them. Harry Houdini’s biography was dogeared and the spine cracked from how much he’d read it. In fact, his mother gave it to him and bought the library a new one to replace it.
When they tied him up after beating the shit out of him, he was angry, and he used that to tense up his muscles, widening his wrists and chest. He felt the chains loosen, but he knew they’d come in after they called the second time, knowing that Tommy or Gary or both would insist on proof of life. That would mean they would return, and they did. Once they left him alone in the room the second time, he relaxed completely, feeling the dog chain they’d tied him with fall away from him.
He was in some dank room, a pipe the only airshaft, and one door leading in or out of it. The door had a cracked but whole piece of yellow plastic where the window was supposed to be and he saw the shadow of the man they’d left there to guard him.
One man.
Diego got out of the chains and quietly wound them around his hand. The steel bands under the plastic coating would leave a hell of a dent in the guy’s face, then he could use it to strangle him after he was woozy. It was the only weapon he had, so he had to make it count.
Listening at the door, he heard the snore, knowing the guard had taken a little nap. He’d be in a world of shit for it, if he were caught, so killing him would be a blessing.
After trying the doorknob, he felt the give and finished turning it, careful not to let it make any noise. Peeking out the door, he saw he was across from a dirt wall and to the left was the man snoozing in a wooden chair.
Diego moved quickly, grabbing the man’s greasy hair then laying one on the side of his head, and the only noise was the oomph he made before passing out. Diego wrapped the chain around his throat, but then saw the necklace around his neck.
It was a gold chain with a pendant that read Dad.
“Fuck,” he whispered to himself.
Though it hurt all his aching muscles, he dragged the man into the room where he’d been held and laid him out on the floor, hitting him once more for good measure. The rifle was laying in the hall and he grabbed it, checking to assure it was loaded and slung the strap over his shoulder. When he left the room again, he set the chair against the handle to lock it.
The hall ran far to the right and not half as far to the left. He took his chances going left, hoping the short hall would quickly lead to the exit.
The tunneled walls made sounds echo wildly. Even his heavy breathing sounded like a tornado was rushing down the hall. He stopped, tried his best to calm himself so he could hear if anyone else was making their own echoes.
Surprisingly, he heard nothing. He saw a few doors down the hall once he turned a corner. Once of them was open and there were moving shadows being cast on the wall across from it. Stiffening, he knew he’d chosen the wrong way to go.
Heading back the other way, just before he rounded the corner to get back to the hall he’d come from, he heard them. More men walking toward him.
If he started shooting, he’d be the lone man against countless others. He knew he was out manned and out gunned.
He was trapped.
****
Gary saw three men pacing outside the door and four more playing cards at a table next to a tall cactus, the only shade. They were all armed to the teeth.
The door was off to his right, so he went left, knowing they’d have another way out of the underground hideout, in case they were found and raided by law enforcement or rival cartels. Heading back from where the door was in a straight line to the pipe, he tested the ground with each step. Sure enough, halfway from the door to the pipe, he got a dull thud under his boot.
On his hands and knees, he felt around and found the edges of a door in the ground. Setting his ear to it, he didn’t hear a thing from below, but that didn’t mean much. They could be far below and walking on dirt. There’d be little way of hearing it.
He had to take the chance. Time was ticking. No matter what he told Tommy about being able to negotiate, he knew Diego had little time left. They’d kill him and give Tommy his body parts, money or no.
Lifting the heavy door a couple inches, he listened again, and hearing nothing, he lifted it more and peered down into the hole, a ladder to the side showing the way down.
There was no sign of anyone below, so he headed carefully down the ladder, gun at the ready to pull from his waistband and shoot if necessary. Once he was on the ground, he saw he was in the center of a long tunnel, and on the right there were three doors.
Gauging how far he was from the pipe, he headed in that direction, ignoring the first doors and heading to the third. Listening, he heard the groaning he’d head from aboveground and he took the chair from in front of the door, opening it just enough to look inside.
Instead of Diego, he saw a tattooed man hogtied on the ground, and he recognized the tattoos on his neck. He was part of the cartel. “Get me out of here you fuck!”
There was blood running down his face from the deep cut on his forehead and Gary grinned at him. “He escaped, didn’t he?”
“Get me the fuck out of here or you’ll die with him!”
Gary went over to the man and took out his gun, clocking him with the handle and spitting on him. “Can’t believe the college boy had it in him.”
He hurried out of the room, relocking the door with the chair and looked to the right and the left. He guessed, being the tunnel was shorter in that direction, Diego would head left, so Gary did the same.
Farther down that way, however, when the lights allowed it, he saw men walking to the corner, just past where he had climbed down from the trapdoor.
Trying to decide what to do next, he slipped into a room that was empty save for an old mattress on the floor. With that, and the fact the room smelled of blood and sex, Gary knew what happened there and he hated the fuckers in the cartel all that much more.
The moment he looked out to see if the passage was clear, he started hearing the gunfire. Cussing to himself, he flew out of the room and started running, making it around the corner in time to see the three men closing in on someone who was returning fire from another room like he one he’d just come out of.
He had the drop on the three, so he opened fire with the pistol, dropping the three before any of them knew what was going on and ran down the hall to do the same with the others that were firing from the other side, those he hadn’t seen.
When they were taken out, he turned to the room to see a bloody and bruised Diego throwing down his rifle. “Out of fucking ammunition. If you hadn’t shown…”
“I did. Come on before they spread out and find Tommy.”
“You brought Tommy? What the fuck is wrong with you?”
Gary growled, “Like he’d let me leave him behind when your ass is on the line. Come on. I wanted to do this quiet and get away before they knew you were gone, and you already fucked that up.”
“Fuck you! How was I supposed to know you’d come to get me?”
They heard men running toward them and Gary gripped his arm. “Follow me.”
Gary took him to the ladder and helped him get his beaten ass up until he was halfway there and Gary jumped on right as a man came to the doorway and Gary took him out before he had a chance to shoot. There were more coming and he’d never make it up the ladder before he was killed, so he jumped down and set himself against the frame of the door, covering Diego so he could get away.
Chapter Seven
Tommy saw someone running and he
set his rifle on the rock that he was sitting behind, aiming but not firing in case it was one of his men, and once he got closer, Tommy threw down the gun and moved from behind the rock, taking off at a dead run.
Once Diego got close enough, Tommy saw he was bloody and beaten and he didn’t jump in his arms like he’d wanted. He did grab him into a tight hug and that made Diego groan, “Ow! Fuck, that hurts but I don’t care. Are you okay, Tommy?”
“Me? I’m fine! What did those mother fuckers do to you?”
“I’m okay, just sore.”
Tommy kissed him tenderly, unwilling to hurt him, and hugged him again. “God. I missed you. I was so worried.”
His eyes opened as Diego returned the concern, and he realized he didn’t see Gary running to them. “Where’s Gary?”
Diego pushed him back and turned to stare. “Fuck. I thought he was right behind me. He jumped down to cover me, but he must not have gotten out right away.”
“We have to go get him!”
“Tommy, we can’t! They know I’m gone, more will be coming soon! We have to get out of here!”
“He didn’t leave you there!”
Diego nodded and confessed, “I know, babe, but if we go back there right now, we’re dead.”
Just then, he pointed. “Where is the car?”
“It’s a couple miles back.”
“Go get it, baby. Either that’s him coming, or they are about to come down on us like a ton of bricks.”
Tommy ran off, running faster than he ever had in his life and once he got to the car, he jumped in and started the engine, he set his foot on the gas pedal as far as it would go and headed straight for where his men were.
Once he got close, he saw a jeep in the distance and a man running just ahead of it. The men in the jeep were firing weapons and barely missing who Tommy knew was Gary. Then, he saw something remarkable. Diego was firing as well, and he took out the driver of the jeep, causing the vehicle to make a sharp turn to the left, then it started to roll, making a dust cloud that blocked the jeep entirely.
Tommy passed Diego and got to Gary, letting him get into the car, then he turned around sharply to pick up Diego. When they were both in the car, he started speeding away, no direction in mind except away from the other jeeps that were coming in the far distance.
Tug of War (Legacy Book 5) Page 6