There was no guarantee that the man with the gun wouldn’t pull the trigger as soon as I pushed myself off the rocks. He could have a bullet in my chest before I made contact with him, but then at least Ten would have some warning as to what was going on down below. I wanted to take the man by surprise. I wanted to catch him unaware and maybe knock him off his stance enough that he would lose his grip on the gun. I wanted to level the playing field just a little bit and honestly, I wanted to put a knee in his balls as hard as I could for scaring me and for pointing a gun right at my face. I was over tip-toeing around the things I found threatening and intimidating.
I gave myself a second to breathe. I sucked in the mountain air, tuned out the sound of bullets ricocheting off of rocks and trees, and told myself that everything about this trip had been about making moments that mattered. This moment was make it or break it. It would either help save the day or end in a tragedy of epic proportions. There was no more playing it safe and keeping harm at arm’s length. It was time to jump feet first into the fire and let all the old fear and hesitance burn away. It was time to be the phoenix that rose from the ashes as something fierce and ferocious. It was time to fly because I was done sinking.
Swallowing back the scream that was lodged in my throat, I pushed off the rocks with both my hands and feet. I was immediately airborne with the ground and the startled man in the greasepaint rushing toward me. I heard him call out, “What in the hell! Crazy woman!” but it was too late. I was flying, falling, careening right for him and there wasn’t enough time for him to get out of the way or pull the trigger.
“Son of a bitch!” He barked out the words loud enough that I knew there was no way Ten wouldn’t hear them. But much to my surprise, as I hurdled toward him, he let the gun fall to the ground at his side and reached his hands up. He acted like he was going to catch me and stop my wild freefall.
I fell fast, so when I hit him it was like running into a brick wall that was reinforced with concrete. The impact was enough to send the hat on my head flying. He was a big man, not as big or as tall as Cy, but wider and stockier. He took the brunt of my quickly moving weight without losing his footing. He wrapped his arms around me as I swung wildly the moment I got my bearings. My tattered and torn nails dug into every sensitive spot I could reach and I tried to kick at him but the effort was wasted as the toes of my boots hit hard leather. The guy was dressed in some kind of tactical gear that might as well have been a suit of armor.
He shifted his hold on me and some of my adrenaline drained away when I realized that fighting against him was futile. One of his beefy arms locked around mine and he used his free hand to wind my thick hair up in his fist, so that I couldn’t head-butt him or bite at him. He didn’t have to struggle very hard to corral me into a submissive position.
“Listen, fireball, this could be fun if we were both naked and redheads were my jam but we aren’t and that Irish in you doesn’t do it for me. Calm down and breathe for a hot second and I’ll let you go.”
I scowled up at him and tried to work my leg into position so I could get my knee between his legs. He blocked the move and growled at me to knock my shit off. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I will. I don’t know who you are or what kind of fresh hell you brought with you up this mountain, but there’s a government-sanctioned raid about to pop off on that compound in less than three minutes and your happy ass has wandered into the perimeter. You need to get gone before the good guys mistake you for a bad guy.”
I went limp in his hold, hanging there like a ragdoll. He had to adjust his grip on me to keep me from hitting the ground.
He grunted and gave me a little shake as he asked, “Hey, you okay?” I shook my head slowly and started to push his hands away.
“What do you mean there’s a raid happening?” I knew what the words meant but they sounded like an alien language.
“I’d pull out my badge and show it to you, but those fuckers at the camp caught me snooping around a week or so ago. They worked me over, put a bullet in my chest, and dumped me in the river. Idiots didn’t check for Kevlar. I was pretty messed up and really fucking lost. It took me a week to find my way to a phone, and a few more days to convince my boss to send a crew in. Usually, these clandestine grow operations aren’t a big deal, but this one,” he shook his head and rubbed at his camo painted chin. “This one has ties to the big boys in Mexico and they aren’t scared to add to an already out of control body count. You need to get out of here before the flashbangs start to go off and chaos takes over the mountain.”
Back on my feet, I stumbled away from him and bent over so I could put my hands on my knees. “You wouldn’t happen to be Wyatt Bryant, would you?” It seemed like such a long shot but the way he talked, and the fact that his concern seemed to be for me and not the fact I’d tried to take him out with a WWE move, made me wonder.
I saw his eyes widen and his jaw clench at my question. “Why would you ask me that?”
I let my head fall forward and struggled to get my composure back together. “Because I’ve spent the last week with your brother and your partner searching these woods for any sign of you. They know bodies have been turning up in the river and Webb is convinced one of them is yours. Grady had to quit his job in order to come looking for you. They were worried sick when you didn’t check in. Chaos has already ripped this mountain apart and you, sir, are right at the goddamn center of it.”
Webb’s brother stared at me for a long silent second and then threw his hands up above his head as he started pacing back and forth in front of me. “Fucking Webb. That goddamn kid will never learn. Impulsive as shit, and unstoppable when he gets his mind set to something. I can’t believe Grady played into his bullshit.”
“His bullshit just saved my best friend’s life. Those guys at the camp took her and a local rancher as hostage.” I lifted my eyebrows. “Your partner and the rancher’s brother went into the camp to get them back. I bet you know what would have happened to all them if they were there when your raid started. You brother is reckless but sometimes someone has to be.”
He swore again and continued to pace. “I’m the one who dropped the bodies in the water. The guy in charge of the camp and the grow field sent a couple lackeys to ditch me in the river. I played dead until we got to the shore and then I tried to turn them. Promised them immunity and green cards if they would lead me to the people who set up the operation. It’s too well funded to be some fly-by-night dealers. They were either too scared or too loyal to talk. They wouldn’t give it up and, unfortunately, they tried to finish the job they started at the camp. It was me or them and I’m always going to pick me.”
I snorted. “So does your brother and apparently, your partner . . . they pick you, too.”
He opened his mouth to retort but ended up swearing and jumping back a foot as the ground right in front of his feet exploded upward. The ricochet sent dirt kicking up in my direction so I took a step back toward the rocks. Webb’s brother dove for the pistol he dropped to catch me and swore long and loud as a bullet dug into the ground inches away from his fingertips.
I looked up at the rock surface and saw Ten standing at the top, her weapon trained on the man who was now lying at my feet. She looked like an ancient warrior queen, ready to defend her territory and punish the intruder.
I called up to her, “He’s with the DEA, so you probably want to stop shooting at him.” She made a face at me and I shrugged. “He’s Webb’s brother. Apparently, he just has a really shitty sense of direction and got himself lost out here, but now the troops are on their way in. I hope they’re in time to save your brother, Special Agent Bryant, because he gave up pretty much everything to try and save you, even though he didn’t know if you were still breathing or not.”
“Webb is clear. He had a few guys hot on his tail when he darted back into the trees, but most of the bad guys turned around to return fire when I started shooting. This spot is compromised so we should move.” Wyatt’s painted eyebrows
lifted at her bossy tone and that distorted smile flashed through the face paint covering his features. Ten looked between the two of us with a sharp frown. “There still was no sign of the older guy and Sutton. That’s bad news because there is no way Cy is going to leave his brother in the middle of that shit show. We need to go find your friend and make sure our hero doesn’t end up on the wrong end of a DEA strike.”
Webb’s brother let out a low whistle and moved to collect his weapon. “Now, a ballsy blonde with mile long legs? That I can totally get on board with.” He gave Ten a wink which made her scowl in response.
I rolled my eyes. “That apparently runs in the family.” I huffed out a breath and gave him a hard look. “Don’t you want to let your fellow agents know that your partner is at the camp, and that he’s armed?”
Ten gave me a look that was bright with agreement but the shine went diamond hard when Wyatt shook his head. “This is a quick strike and there isn’t a way to alert them to the fact Grady is on the ground. They’ll move in and sweep him up with the rest of the grow crew. The team is going in silent and fast, no radios, so no way to signal a change in plans. We need to move if we want to intercept them before they mistake your friends for enemies and we have deadly friendly fire on our hands.” His grin turned rueful and he looked up at the sky like the vast blue held answers to questions he had been asking for a lifetime. “I will never understand how my idiot brother manages to make every bad situation he stumbles into even worse. It’s like his superpower.”
Ten let out a huff and jerked her head to the side, indicating she wanted us to follow her around the rock formation and back toward the trees. She said we could circle around to the opposite side of the camp where Cy had disappeared with Emrys, but her tone was tense and her words came out tight and sharp. She turned her back on the intimidating special agent but not before she told him, “That idiot just took on a hail of bullets and an entire cartel camp because he was determined to find you, dead or alive. I think brotherly love is probably his superpower and his kryptonite.”
Thoroughly chastised, Wyatt snapped his mouth shut, straightened his broad shoulders, and started after her. They were moving fast in front of me, but the serious weight of what was going on around us and the real threat looming ahead of us didn’t mean that Wyatt bothered to hide the fact that his gaze was trained on Ten’s long legged gait rather than the surrounding area. I might have found it funny, if I wasn’t occupied looking for Emrys and praying that Cy hadn’t dropped her somewhere he deemed safe so he could run back to the drug compound that was about to be under government siege. Ten was right. There was no way in hell Cy would leave Sutton in that camp, no matter the condition he was in. I didn’t want to think about the reasons the men might have had for pulling Emrys out so quickly, while leaving the middle Warner brother behind. It didn’t sit right and it had me in knots made up of all kinds of anxiety and concern for Cy.
We hit the tree line, and once again I was dodging branches and twigs that pulled at my clothes and stuck in my hair. It didn’t take long to fall behind the two in front of me, both of whom were practically jogging over the uneven terrain. They were trained for this and I was not. Their focus on moving through the woods as quickly and as silently as possible prevented both of them from noticing a barely discernable X carved into the bark of one of the millions of pine trees we were racing past. I stumbled to a stop and put my hand on the rough bark right below the mark so I could catch my breath. Desperately, I looked around for some other indication that Cy or Emrys had been in this part of the woods, but I couldn’t see anything obvious.
Ten and Wyatt were quickly getting out of eyesight as they kept moving through the trees, unaware I had halted behind them. I was sucking in lungfuls of air, preparing to sprint to catch back up to them when I heard a soft sound from somewhere above my head. I told myself not to get my hopes up, that it was probably just a squirrel or a pinecone falling but when I looked up I was startled to see a square, metal platform secured high into the tree. It was easily a hundred feet up in the air and there was no mistaking the sound of a woman moaning.
I took a few steps backwards and tilted my head so that I could whisper-yell, “Em, is that you?” I knew I was going to be in trouble if anyone else poked their head over the edge of the tree stand, but deep down in my gut, I had a feeling this was the safest place Cy could find to stash my best friend. When her dark head poked over the edge I had to school my expression into one of relief rather than horror.
Her face was covered in blood and there was a makeshift bandage covering half of it that was stained a furious scarlet. Her black hair was a tangled mess around her head and I could see, even with the distance between us, that her normally golden complexion was shockingly pale and ashen. She didn’t look very good, in fact, she couldn’t look worse. As grateful as I was that Cy got her out of the camp alive, I was furious that he had left her alone and unreachable in her current condition.
“Em, I’m gonna figure out how to get up there so I can help you, okay?” I circled the tree and couldn’t for the life of me figure out how Cy had managed to make his way all the way up there while carrying Em in his arms. There were no steps nailed into the tree, there wasn’t a rope or any kind of staggered branches that I could use to shimmy my way up the trunk and Em wasn’t helping. She moaned again, and I watched her upper body collapse onto the tiny platform she was perched on.
“Emrys!” I didn’t bother to whisper this time when I called her name. Frankly, I didn’t care if an army of drug running bad guys came bursting out of the woods with weapons drawn. I was frantic over my friend and determined to get to her. “Em, you have to tell me how to get up there. How did Cy get you up the tree?”
There was no response and I panicked because I thought she might have passed out. I couldn’t tell the extent of her injuries but she had been whimpering softly and there was enough blood on her face for me to be justifiably alarmed. I was contemplating if I could hug the tree with my arms and legs and work my way up to the stand like a monkey when there was the rattle of something that sounded like chains overhead.
“Move, Leo.” Her voice was raspy and her words sounded broken. I jumped back as a metal ladder with narrow rungs came sailing down from her roost. The thing had barely clattered to the ground in front of my feet before I started to shimmy my way up to the top. Em disappeared from view again on a low groan, and my worry for her made my palms sweat and my knees weak. I had to take a couple deep breaths to get my adrenaline under control so that my quaking body didn’t slip off the rungs.
“I’m coming, Em. Just hold on a little bit longer.” There was no response and the dead silence made my hand slip. I had visions of falling backwards through the air and cracking my head open on the ground below, but even the gruesome image couldn’t halt my hurried progress to the edge of the platform that seemed even higher up in the air from this vantage point. I gulped . . . hard, and wiggled my way on my belly onto the flat surface where Em was lying face down and curled tightly into the fetal position. From this vantage point, I could barely make out the back of Ten’s blonde head as it bobbed and dipped deeper into the forest. Wyatt and his scary war paint and tactical gear was much harder to make out as he moved like a big shadow behind her. They hadn’t stopped or bothered to wait for me. Both moved with their mission in mind.
As delicately as I could, I pushed Emrys’s hair away from her face and sucked in a breath so hard it made my lungs hurt. She was bleeding everywhere, not just from the bandage that was hastily wrapped around the side of her face. Trickles of crimson were leaking out of each nostril and out of her ear. She had ugly, dark bruises all around the eye that was uncovered, and both her top and bottom lip were split open and slowly oozing blood.
“Oh, honey. What did they do to you?” I cradled her head in my lap and futilely tried to clean her face up with the bottom of my shirt.
I knew the guys running the camp were bad news, but looking at Em’s face and the way
her body lay limp and lifeless across the platform, real terror for what they could and would do to Cy and the rest of the people riding to the rescue choked me up and held me in a stranglehold. It was hard to breathe and even harder to think straight, but I did my best to keep it all pulled together because Emrys needed me and I refused to falter.
Her swollen and distorted eye flicked open and her puffy, torn lips twitched. The tiny movements obviously hurt her a great deal because her entire body spasmed as she struggled to focus on my hovering face. Crystalline liquid started to drip from her lashes mixing with the dried blood on her cheek that I couldn’t wipe away.
“They hurt me, Leo, and they shot Sutton.” She started to shake uncontrollably and I freaked out thinking she was going into shock. She weakly pushed at my clutching hands because I was holding her tightly enough that it hurt her already damaged skin. She started to cry harder and I couldn’t stop my own tears from racing after hers. “The two guys who were supposed to be watching us . . .” she trailed off and started sobbing into my lap. “They . . . they held me down and did things to me.” My hands curled into fists against her arms and I shook just as violently as she did. “They were going to rape me, Leo. They had my clothes off and they had their hands all over me.” Her tragic face twisted into something even uglier and more damaged. “Sutton stopped them. He went nuts. His hands were tied together but he still stopped them.” She hiccupped softly and let her eye drift closed as she burrowed into me. “The guy in charge came in to see what the commotion was all about. He was pissed when he saw my face, and even more pissed when he saw that Sutton had hurt his men.” Em curled back into a ball and flinched away from me when I reached out to put a hand on her shoulder.
Retreat Page 24