“Dang, dude! I’ve been all over this ship looking for you. For a minute there I thought you were hiding from me,” Mary Jean told him.
Kevin stood slowly and looked at the woman in a cropped mint green sweater that had a really large praying mantis embroidered on it. She wore lush red walking shorts and strappy sandals that matched the mini arms of the praying mantis. She had reverted to her old style and was wearing the large eyelashes and sported a pair of praying mantis earrings. Saxton stood there watching her with his brow furrowed, confused, confounded, but spellbound by her ability to coordinate such odd choices.
But Kevin was only standing there taking her all in. She had been generous when she loved him, giving freely of her body and her spirit. He knew he needed to be right with her. “I was talking to Saxton,” he said as he moved closer to her and pulled a wayward strand of her hair that had caught it in her long fake eyelashes. “But then I was torn between hitting the buffet for some fruit and cheese, the bar for a bottle of wine and the sweet shop for some chocolates.”
Her nose was scrunched up. “What are you planning to do with all that?”
His grin was wide as he looked at the odd little woman. “Well, for starters, the wine I was planning to pour you a large glass. The chocolates I was planning to feed you and the rest...” he stopped to let his words sink in, “... I plan to eat off that juicy body of yours.”
Agent Roget stood up in his lounger and looked at Kevin. Rentería turned around in his chair to assess the situation and Saxton left for the elevator. Kevin called after him, “Saxton, where you going?”
“To the buffet for fruit, the candy shop for chocolates, the bar for wine ... and then to my room.” He waved at Kevin and disappeared down the hall. Saxton Blakemore was going to check on his wife. Then he wanted to work on making his son.
And Mary Jean, she was grinning like a fool. It was another day at sea since the ship had been unable to dock in St. Kitts. The bug lady had a new specimen to add to her collection.
Locked & loaded...
It could easily be said that it was almost the most perfect vacation ever. The love fest was in full swing and Odessa was feeling better. As the ship pulled into the port of St. Maarten, Saxton was ready for some action. He rented ATV’s for a morning outing, but he knew trouble was brewing. Since the ship was unable to come into port at St. Kitts yesterday, it was more time for those who were conducting the surveillance to get organized. Whoever sent the tattooed henchmen now had a pretty accurate count of how many people the Blakemores were traveling with. It made Saxton nervous.
Both Agent Roget and Rentería must have felt the same. Marecus Roget was a methodical planner. He, much like Odessa, liked to calculate probabilities and the odds. He calculated an attack and planned accordingly. Once on the island, the group headed to the ATV rental excursion office. The group was met by two tall men in dark glasses who seemed as if they had not smiled in years. No one found it odd when Agent Roget began to assign which ATVs each person would ride.
Saxton understood. Inside his seat was a weapon. Uncertain if he would need it, they cranked up the Polaris automatic transmission vehicles with Roget taking lead behind their guide, followed by Hilda, Ryanne and Dwight. Rentería rode a double bike since Antoinette suddenly became helpless and unable to understand that pushing the button made it go and releasing the button made it stop. Mary Jean rode the next bike, followed by Kevin, Jr., then Odessa and pulling up the flank was Saxton.
It was a beautiful day for a ride across the island. Well, it started that way as the convoy of ATVs began a leisurely cruise along the French side of the island. Rolling mountains, beautiful panoramic views and small communities where residents came out of their homes to greet the tourists as they rolled by. Saxton spotted the first tattooed man on the cell making a call as he ducked behind the building. Not good.
Winding up the hillside and coming around a steep curve, Saxton’s hands began to sweat. He could not be heard over the sound of the four wheelers as they came to a cove with scenic views and the guide pulled over. Saxton jumped off his bike and ran by Odessa yelling, “Scan your sectors!”
Immediately everyone went on high alert. Dwight headed down the beach and checked behind large boulders as he lay in wait in a perfect covered position. Odessa watched him closely. Something is not right about this dude. There was no time to discuss. Agent Roget was in charge and barking out commands. “Under each seat is a weapon. Each is locked and loaded,” he told them with a very serious look on his face. When he removed his glasses, it was known that he was about to deliver some bad news.
“As we head into Orient Beach, there are several copses of high, leafy green foliage. It is the perfect spot for an ambush,” he told them, but his eyes were focused on Odessa. It was almost as if he was waiting for her to make the call.
Her voice was lowered. “This is my sister’s honeymoon. It’s also the first time she and I have had a chance to do anything together in a long time. I need to have some fun. I think we’ll be okay.”
Agent Roget looked at Saxton, who only shrugged. “She is very seldom wrong. Let’s do it.”
The last on the list were Kevin, Jr. and Dwight, who was watching his wife and Mary Jean eye the parasailer on the high surf. Kevin spoke softly, “I was nearly fed to a big ass snake a few days ago. Ain’t much gonna scare me now.”
Dwight looked at him. “What?”
“Dude, you don’t know the half of it,” he told him as he turned to join Mary Jean on the beach.
The ride to Orient Beach was serene, peaceful and a calm cruise downhill into the white sand beaches. All of the ATVs were parked, and as soon as Kevin, Jr., Mary Jean and Odessa walked away, the zing of a bullet went whizzing by Saxton’s arm. He ducked behind the four wheeler and went for one of the weapons under the seat. Roget was moving fast as he pulled one from under his trouser leg and began to fire back with his weapon that had a silencer. The bushes rumbled as the assailant fell, rolled into the open and popped to his feet running.
“Heads up!” Roget yelled as he threw his weapon at Saxton and took off on foot behind the shooter. The man moved with great agility for someone so tall. He was almost poetry in motion as his long legs came high, his knees to his chest, his arms pumping smoothly as he ran, appearing to move in slow motion like the Six Million Dollar Man coming across the back side of the beach. His head scanning left and right, assessing, looking, being careful of any threats that could jump out in front of his path. Then he stopped. He came to a complete, sudden and abrupt stop.
A dead stop. His head whipped left and right like he was surrounded by an enclosing enemy. Suddenly, he turned, his face covered in utter fear as he ran back towards them. Dwight held his weapon low and out of sight as he picked up speed running toward Roget, ready, scanning, and looking. But he could not see what had frightened the tall man.
Saxton was on his heels, meeting Roget half way. “Marecus, what’s wrong, what did you see?”
“Naked!” he kept running towards the other side of the beach.
“Marecus, wait... the gunman, you let him get away,” Saxton implored.
Agent Roget was not hearing it as he ran into the beachfront eatery and ordered a beer. “He can stay down there!” The big man was panting, shaking, sweating.
Dwight was concerned. “What did you see?”
Roget’s face was contorted. “Nekkid peoples ... lots of nekkid peoples ... it was a nude beach.” He started shaking his head like a wet dog. “That old dude... his stuff was hanging down his leg like a bag of chicken parts....” He shuddered as he picked up the beer. He began recounting what he had had experienced like a war torn vet going over a squad attack in Fallujah. His voice low as if he was reliving something from 10 years ago versus 10 second ago. He was rocking back and forth like Ms. Celie at the dinner table recounting her time in the jail cell.
“That old lady... her boobs hung down to her belly button and she had the nerve to have her nipples pierced! It l
ooked like two silver rings hanging on the ends of baguettes.” He turned up the beer and chugged half of it. “Maybe I should pour this into my eyes instead. Dear God!”
Dwight was trying to stifle his laughter, but even Saxton couldn’t hold it after what Roget said next. “There was a giant black man who was wearing a pink hat and he was waving at me.” He drank the last of his beer. “He wasn’t waving with his hands.” Roget started to rub his eyes. “Make the bad images stop.”
Saxton leaned back and let go of a gut busting belly laugh. Roget was two steps from sucking his thumb and calling it a night. “That joker had dyed the hair around his junk pink as well. I have been scarred for life,” he yelled as he screamed for the woman to bring him another beer. One of the toughest agents in the bureau was taken down by a few naked people on a beach. Everyone has their fears. Saxton’s was snakes. Roget didn’t care for naked people, and his wife, her fear was losing her family. When the going got rough, Odessa was one tough cookie.
She wasn’t any match for her mother, though. Dora Trodat was not a woman to be messed with as a few men were about to find out.
Where’s my mama?
The last night on the ship was a quiet one as cruise line passengers sorted through the last of the photos making their final selections. Dora was pleased with the family portrait that was taken. She was even okay that Mary Jean had managed to slip into the photo shoot to stand next to her son. She is an odd one. Dora watched the young lady who wore a long flowing skirt covered with imprinted grasshoppers. Where she found the matching grasshopper earrings was going to be a question, but the most obvious question was the heavy layers of grasshopper green eye shadow.
Dora watched with interest as her son used a paper towel to tone down the shadow. He wiped at her eyes like a father washing away the remains of a sticky dessert from a small child’s hand. “There, that’s better. I can see those pretty brown eyes,” Kevin, Jr. told her.
Big Sarge’s face was twisted as he mumbled for only his wife’s ears, “Ahh, hell nawww. I sure would hate if they had kids. She would dress them all up for Halloween as bugs and roaches.”
“She is fixated a bit on the insects,” Dora whispered back to him.
“What does she do for a living again?”
“I think she’s a science teacher,” Dora answered. “If so, that would explain it.”
Big Sarge wasn’t hearing it. “That don’t explain shit! Ain’t no reason in the world for a grown ass woman to be wearing a grasshopper covered skirt, Dora! The other day she dressed like a praying mantis!”
“Be nice, Big Sarge,” Dora cautioned him.
“You be nice. You ain’t gonna wanna be nice when she comes to Thanksgiving dinner and wants to discuss the mating habits of the tsetse fly,” he told her with a frown.
“You are just plain ole cantankerous, Kevin Trodat,” she told him.
His arms slipped around her waist as he planted a wet kiss on her lips. “Yeah, but you love it and you love me.”
“You are right about that,” she told him as she grabbed his hips. “Big Sarge!”
The ship docked in San Juan on time and since Odessa had sailed before, she had purchased a ‘Faster to the Fun’ pass, and she and Saxton were able to disembark early. She sent her parents a text that she would meet them back at the hotel. They had a day or so before flying back to the states and she needed to get her land legs back. Between the boat and the catamaran, she had been bordering on nauseous for several days. Holding down food had become laborious.
Seeing her brother making out with Mary Jean did not help her stomach either. Mary Jean was an odd little woman, and today was wearing a sundress covered in giant beetles. The mandible of one was sitting smack dead in the center of Mary Jean’s oddly shaped ass that seemed to rock and roll as the woman walked. To make it even weirder, she wore a hair clip of a sizeable beetle in her head that people kept trying to knock out of her hair. Saxton was quick to point out the most humorous analogy. “Odessa, is that a dung beetle with its mandible pointing at her butt?”
She was quiet as they rode back to the hotel, the air thick between them. “What’s on your mind?” he asked her.
“Life – our life. Our life together,” she said as she took hold of his hand and continued to stare out of the window.
“You do know that what is mine is yours... and thought I was kidding about me being rich and not you...” she put her hand to his lips.
“I have no doubts about you or us. I have concerns about our life and if we are going to get to live it out,” she said as she wiped away a tear that rolled down her cheek. Where in the hell did that come from?
“Odessa, are you pregnant?” he asked flat out.
She shook her head slowly. “Not that I know of... you know something I don’t?”
He pulled her close. So much had happened in the past 12 days that it was no wonder she was a bundle of nerves and crying. “Let’s get to our room and decompress a bit. We head home tomorrow and back to our regular life.” Well, as regular as it could get. This mission was a complete bust. They had gathered no Intel, identified not avenues of transport, and the only thing they managed to get was shot at by some shady dude hiding in the bushes. Saxton felt kind of low; not completing a mission was out of character for him.
Crying for Odessa was completely out of character for her. It was very irregular to see her cry at all. Yet there was nothing regular about their life and it was about to take an even stranger turn.
An hour later there was a banging at the door. Kevin and Big Sarge were winded and Dwight’s eye was swelling. Ryanne was in tears and Mary Jean was running down the hall screaming, “Oh Lord, Oh Lord.”
“What is going on?” Saxton asked.
But Odessa noticed the obvious. “Where is my mama?”
Tina the who?
“Where is my mama?” she asked again, but everyone was talking at the same time. Odessa ran into the room to retrieve her weapons that she had stored in the ceiling tiles, the toilet tank and under carriage of the big chair. Ryanne ran into the room and pulled away a sideboard under the bed to retrieve a Beretta that she checked for rounds.
Saxton was still in the hallway trying to calm everyone down when the ding from the elevator was heard. Everyone got quiet except for Mary Jean, who was still running around like a headless chicken. Agent Roget rounded the corner, taking long, purposeful steps. His overnight bag in his right hand as he reached out and grabbed Mary Jean by the beetle in her hair. “Stop it!” he told her in a firm voice as he drug her by the arm down the hall, pushing her into Kevin, Jr. “Handle that right now,” he said with firmness.
Mary Jean took offense, turning on the agent. “Who you calling ‘that’?” She rolled her neck causing the loose beetle to fall down in front of her face like it was holding on to a strand for dear life.
Before Kevin, Jr. could respond, Agent Roget was in her face, so close their noses were touching. Considering she was short, the big man had to lean down. “I have a snatching on my hand and a woman in danger. I do not have time for histrionics nor for you to make this be about you. Either you are part of the team or you are going to be a problem. THAT, I have no time for.” He called everyone into the room, handing his bag to Dwight.
“Did someone take my mama?”
“Yes, Odessa, they did,” Roget told her with a softer voice. It was Big Sarge’s reaction that was throwing everything off. He was inconsolable.
“Do you know who?” She asked.
“It was Mateo,” Roget answered.
“How do we know it was Mateo?” Saxton asked, since they had been followed by so many different snake tattoo wearing men.
Roget handed Odessa a piece of paper, which made Ryanne ask, “What does it say ‘Dessa?”
She opened the wrinkled sheet of yellow lined paper to read the out loud.
I took tu Mamá. xoxxooxx Mateo.
Bug Sarge was mumbling, trying to stand, but sat back down. Once he sat down, he stood
back up. “Daddy, please calm down. We’ll find her,” Odessa told him.
But Big Sarge kept shaking his head. “You don’t understand, ‘Dessa.” He looked at Roget. “We have to find her and fast!”
Kevin, Jr. asked, “Saxton, did you put one of those things in her butt?”
His dad turned far faster than expected, twisting at an angle that sent pangs up his hip and then the man fell back in the chair. “What thing in her butt? Why your husband would be sticking anything in my wife’s butt, ‘Dessa?”
“I didn’t tag her,” Saxton said.
“But I did,” Roget said. “Let’s move. Ryanne, Mary Jean, you stay here with Big Sarge.”
Big Sarge was on his feet. “No. If she flips, I need to be there to bring her back down,” he said as he grabbed his cane.
“You will slow us down. We have to move fast, Daddy. We’ll get her back, don’t worry,” she told him as she tried to get him back in the chair.
“No, you don’t understand, ‘Dessa. I am not worried about your mama. I am worried about them!”
Everyone stopped to look at him. What did he mean by flipped? “Your mama is crazy as hell! If one of them makes her mad, getting her off the ceiling is going to be hard to do!”
Agent Roget’s eyes were wide. “Okay, Mr. Trodat, you are with me.” He opened the door and peered out, giving the signal to move.
A call had been put in to Rentería who was out front in two Suburbans. “Dwight, I will drive, you call the coordinates,” Roget told him as he got into the driver’s seat. Rentería climbed in the back and took a seat next to Ryanne. Saxton drove the second vehicle. As they rolled along it appeared as if they were driving along the same pathway that led them to where Mateo had held Kevin, Jr. the first time. As they drove by Cementerio De Santa Maria Magdalena De Pazzis, Saxton knew where they were headed.
Cruising with the Blakemores Page 5