“I’ll call her. I’ll go by and get her. She shouldn’t be driving. I will go pick her up.”
“Just get here as soon as you can.”
She called her friend, Karen, and they spoke briefly until she got the call she’d been expecting from Adele. “Karen, I’m going to have to go. I’ll let you know.”
Karen had offered to watch the girls if she needed it, which she appreciated.
“I’m in the parking lot, heading for the lobby. Is he—?”
“Yes, he passed away a few minutes ago, Adele.”
“I’ll be right there,” she said and hung up.
Ginger called Karlene and left a message. And then she tried to reach Jake, but the phone went right into voicemail, as she’d expected.
“Jake, sweetheart. You dad is gone. I wanted to tell you in person, but just wanted you to know as soon as possible. Call me as soon as you can. I love you. So sorry, sweetheart.”
She waited, heard the ping of the elevator doors, and met Adele in the lobby.
Adele gave her a stiff hug and then asked, “Was he alone?”
“No. The attorney was there with him.”
“Bob Fellows?”
“Yes.”
“Was he signing papers?”
“Yes. I think so. He told me Burt died before they could be completed and he’d give you a call.”
She glanced down at her cell phone. “Did he say anything else?” Her forehead was lined with worry.
“No, he didn’t.”
“Do you want to see him now?” Ginger asked. She was surprised she had to ask, but understood grief did strange things to people.
“Yes. I should go do that.”
She came dressed comfortably in a light blue pants set, her hair done, makeup on, wearing a colorful scarf that matched her shoes. Flawless and attractive. In contrast, Ginger felt dumpy and wrinkled, and suddenly very tired.
She stopped at the doorway with the no admittance sign. The doctor appeared, placing a hand on her shoulder and spoke to her gently. “He’s at peace now, Mrs. Green. Nothing horrible to look at, so don’t be afraid. He’s just resting, while we await you and your family’s instructions, okay?”
“Okay,” she said meekly.
Since the doctor was with Adele, Ginger opted to wait outside. She’d already seen the time of his death once, and didn’t need to be reminded of it. She wandered back down the hallway and dialed Christy Lansdowne.
“Oh, I’m so sorry, Ginger. Does Jake know?”
“No. He said they’d be out of communication, but I did leave him a message. I guess that’s okay, right?”
“Oh, of course. These guys are tough. He’d want to know right away. Dealing with news is much easier than waiting and worrying about it. But I know he’ll be missing his father though. Maybe Kyle can get him home sooner.”
“I hope.”
“So how are you, then?” she asked.
Ginger heard screaming on the other end of the phone.
“Hold it a minute.”
Christy’s scolding voice and the sounds of a little fanny getting spanked and someone else crying were normal sounds Ginger was actually grateful for. Oddly enough, it brightened her mood.
“I’m sorry. Brandon is just being a brat. Nothing to worry about, but he plays a little too rough sometimes.”
“I understand. The girls adore him.”
“He’s quite the charmer. Organizes all these games and things. Gets the kids all participating in these big projects, acting out things. He has to run the show, of course.”
“Of course.”
“Yeah, wonder where he gets it, right?”
Ginger laughed. She gave a deep sigh. “Thanks, Christy. I needed to hear something I’m used to hearing. This is all so strange over here.”
“Oh you poor dear. Well, don’t worry about the kids. And I have to tell you, there are going to be tears at our house when we have to give that puppy back. What an adorable little things she is.”
“She is, isn’t she? Hope that hasn’t been too much work.”
“Nonsense!” She hesitated. “So, you need some company? We do that, you know. Want someone to come over and sit with you? Keep all Jake’s relatives at bay so you can think?”
“Oh, that’s nice. Actually, Jake’s mom is the only one here right now. But maybe later. Just knowing the girls are doing okay is wonderful, Christy.”
“You want to tell them, or?”
“Oh, God no. I should do that in person. And the last night with Burt, well, it was strange. He scared them, Christy.”
“That’s too bad. Hang in there. I better go. But you call me, and I’ll get you whatever you want. And I can tell Kyle if he calls, right?”
“Of course.”
“We’ll get Jake to call you as soon as he can. Just don’t worry about a thing until—until—oh, whatever, you know what I mean.”
Ginger was eternally grateful for Christy’s matter-of-fact attitude and honest advice. She was, as Jake had told her many times, the mama bear of the whole team.
Chapter 22
Sounds of vehicles arriving woke Jake up. Coop was already looking at the new arrivals.
“Girls,” he said in a disgusted mumble.
Alex had them in his sights. “They’re young. Fuckin’ children.”
Jake removed his binoculars and focused them on the gravel approach to the front door. He saw three men carrying women over their shoulders,—women with their wrists and ankles bound with zip ties. Two of them were very small girls who appeared to be preteen at best. Their long hair was braided in tandem. They wore tennis shoes like they’d been taken right from a shopping mall somewhere. White gags were tied securely across their mouths.
The third girl was slightly older, and barefoot. Her gag had slipped down around her neck and one shoulder, and she began to scream. The noise echoed down along the hillside and rolled its way off into the distance. Dogs barked and a house on a lower street lit up all of a sudden.
The girl was nearly dropped to the ground by her handler, who was getting ready to kick her in the belly, but a fourth man ran up and stopped him. Together, they held her roughly on the concrete porch, a palm pressed against her mouth while she tried to wiggle, until one of the men slapped her across the face so hard it sounded like her cheek bone had fractured. They hurriedly untied the rag, and re-cinched it so tight the girl moaned in pain. Her pants were covered in caked blood, and her long dark curly hair spewed out everywhere. She was hoisted up over the handler’s shoulder so rough they heard her grunt.
“Fuckin’ looks like Mia,” Coop whispered.
He was right, too. The girl did resemble Fredo’s wife, Mia, who was also the younger sister of Armando. But this girl was a much younger version of her. Mia herself had been kidnapped by a San Diego gang several years ago, and when Armando tried to come to her rescue, he himself was captured. It forced several on the Team to go in and rescue them both. Those who had been in on the rescue mission were reliving it again right now as they watched these girls hauled into the house.
Introducing this girl to the party both Fredo and Armando were trying to infiltrate was going to put a wrinkle the size of the San Andreas fault right in the middle of the Team’s mission. That meant Plan A was pretty much DOA, and Plan B was to be implemented immediately.
Jake checked the time. It was nearly twelve-thirty. He’d been asleep for over an hour.
“Fuckin’ perverts,” whispered Jameson.
Coop spoke to Kyle on the com. “Lannie, you getting this?”
Everyone heard the string of expletives in response. “No way they’re gonna let that slide inside,” Kyle finally announced.
They’d been prepared for the illegal substances and the weaponry. Excesses of party behavior was somewhat expected, but they’d not planned for the importation of forced child prostitutes. Jake knew that virgin girls stolen from the cities commanded a high price in some circles. It was the same all over the world and had b
een spreading, especially with displaced populations.
A loud roar from the house marked the entry of these new partygoers. Next thing Jake expected to hear was gunshots. But none came.
“So I’m thinking out loud here,” Kyle began. “We don’t storm it, we introduce a little bit of our own brand of surprise.”
“You’re thinking?”
“T.J. here is loaded up with some small loud and harmless stuff. I don’t want him going in alone to pick a fight with Fredo. I can’t spare a man here. So Jake, you’re it. You and T.J. make your grand entrance and make all kinds of noise.
“Roger that.” answered Jake. “On my way.”
He slid down the backside of the storage building, which was on a rise above the main house, and quietly rendezvoused with T.J. At the corner of the house, Jake watched him remove a small flashbomb from his vest pocket, and strike the fuse, tossing it into the bushes on the other side of the driveway. With the music blaring inside, no one there could hear, but the two security guards readied their short-barreled automatics and began to investigate.
Jake and T.J. overcame them without either being able to scream or fire a shot. Their element of surprise was intact.
T.J. handled one of the weapons, balancing it on his palm and shaking his head. “We’re better off without it.”
He flicked on the safety and tossed it into the canyon. They quickly tied the guards’ wrists and ankles, and secured their mouths with two wide patches of duct tape, and then rolled them into the brush out of eyesight.
Though they both had Kevlar plates in their vests, it was a risk going in without having scoped it out beforehand. They had to find their three Teammates quick, hopefully get the girls and then get out.
“Going in,” T.J. said.
Instead of bursting through the door, T.J. just opened it slowly and walked in like he’d been invited and checked out. Jake had been right behind him. At first no one paid attention, since the girls were put up on the pool table where they attempted to huddle together, their eyes wide with fear. Parts of their clothing were being removed as the audience taunted them, laughed and enjoyed their reaction.
Jake saw Fredo and Armando in a dark corner and tapped T.J. “Right corner, ten degrees.”
All four made eye contact. This time, T.J. hung back behind Jake, as if he was trying to sneak up on Fredo, buying them more time. Jake crossed over by making a large swing to the right, with Teammate in tow. He heard the whisper com report, “We’re in.”
Jake knew the others were drawing closer as he spoke to Fredo.
“Where’s Danny?”
“Sent him to get the van,” whispered Armando. He’d acknowledged their arrival, but his eyes burned with hatred for what he saw paraded and fondled on the pool table.
“Five minutes,” Kyle whispered through the Invisio. Jake held up his fingers to indicate that to Fredo.
“I can feel a pain coming on,” Fredo said. Jake turned and discovered Rodrigo Garcia and two of his goons headed straight for them.
That was T.J.’s cue. He gave Fredo a swift upper cut that Jake could tell he tried to couch, but landed a little too hard. Fredo was knocked backward and was out cold.
“Motherfucker,” T.J. yelled at Fredo and spit on him.
Garcia aimed a pistol at the back of T.J.’s skull. “Wrong party, sport.”
Jake didn’t hesitate. He knocked the weapon out of Garcia’s hand just as one of the goons landed a blow to his gut, sending him to his knees. Armando scrambled for the weapon that was scooting across the floor but he was soon tackled by two very quick partygoers.
Simultaneously, T.J. and Jake pulled out their sidearms and delivered lethal head taps to Garcia and both his lieutenants and then aimed toward at the crowd, which sent the innocents screaming to the corners but signaled the active shooters to get ready.
The music still played, but all movement stopped. Jake knew it was the quiet before the gun battle. He’d seen close combat shooting before in Iraq where nearly all innocents were killed. He saw the women and children lying in a heap of bloodied clothes, pictures plastered over the news that claimed the SEALs had conducted a massacre and had extracted revenge against the non-combatants. All B.S.
But this was one of those no-win situations. They only had a few seconds to make the right decision. He saw movement, a weapon, and he sent someone into the corner. A volley of return fire exploded, shots coming from behind him as he recognized Kyle and the rest of the Team had arrived. A dark figure rushed him on the left while he heard automatic fire next to the pool table on the right. One of the rounds hit the guy below, who then crashed into Jake as he was readying to aim. From his knees, he adjusted to the target. The girls screamed and one of them lost her balance, falling against the others. Jake had already taken aim and fired. He watched in horror as his shot hit the young woman instead.
He wouldn’t look, but peripherally, he saw her fall to her knees, the other girls screaming, falling over into a huddle.
“Fuck!”
T.J. took out the asshole on his left. Armando had cleared the pack and aimed Garcia’s pistol at the shooter near the pool table. Jake and T.J. backed up to the wall for protection when they heard the sound of a vehicle approaching the opened front door, and he hoped to God it was Danny.
Kyle and Lucas approached the girls as T.J. and Jake were joined by Coop, Alex and Jameson, holding the nasty looking crowd at bay. Weapons were dropped without a word being said. The girls were lifted off the table. Coop scooped up the injured girl, ran past them and carried her out first.
That’s when Jake snuck a peek. She had a chest wound, on her left side, right where her heart was. She was not breathing.
Chapter 23
Ginger waited until the rest of the family arrived. She hadn’t seen Jake’s son with Karlene since he was a baby. He was the spitting image of his dad. The boy at only two, had a penetrating gaze, and she could see in his big brown eyes he’d be a heartbreaker just like his dad. He was smart, and observed everything, she noted.
She didn’t agree that he should be brought, not only because it was very late for his age, but she didn’t think it was necessary. Karlene wasn’t paying attention to making sure there wasn’t an accidental sighting of Burt’s body on the hospital bed. She had her back turned, talking to Adele. So Ginger took advantage of keeping the boy occupied. She squat down to be at Aaron’s eye level.
“So Aaron, you like preschool?”
“Yes.” He had a plastic airplane clutched in his fingers.
“What do you like the best.”
“Playing.”
“Good for you. Playing is very important. You like to fly?”
“Yes!” He demonstrated with the plane.
“Where did you go flying?”
“To the moon!”
“To the moon? Wow. You’re been somewhere I’ve never been. What else do you like to do?”
“I read.”
Ginger was impressed. “That’s great. You must be very smart.”
“Yup, I am. I’m the smartest.”
Ginger smiled and put her palm on his chubby cheek. “You hold on to that thought, Aaron. I’m sure you are a very, very, good little boy, too.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Ginger. You can remember that because I have orange hair.”
He reached over to touch it.
“It looks like fire, doesn’t it? But you won’t get burned.” She smiled and he poked a forefinger into her bangs and quickly withdrew his hand.
He leaned into her. “Is Bompa sleeping?” he whispered.
“Yes, sweetheart. He’s going to be sleeping for a very long time.”
“Do you know daddy has another baby now, who doesn’t live with me?”
“Yes, that’s little Samantha. She’s very pretty. Have you seen her?”
“Nope.”
“Do you remember Jenni and Jasmine?”
He crossed his a
rms to think.
“They have red hair, too, like mine. They are a little older than you are.”
“I don’t remember.”
“Ah, well, they are your daddy’s babies, too.”
Aaron frowned and uncrossed his arms, and grabbed on of his mother’s long legs, then poked his head around her and watched Ginger with one eye. She stood and waved at him.
She examined the little crowd of family, her family, by marriage, except she was divorced from the man she loved, and getting back together. But, she wasn’t married. She had two children. She was looking at two ex-wives and two other children her husband had fathered. And Jake was gone.
She had witnessed some horrible family interactions, and suspected there was more going on she didn’t know about.. Jake would have to spend time with everyone here, and that left less time for the two of them, which she immediately recognized as a selfish thought. He would be coming home from a deployment and he always needed his down time, but now he’d have to plunge himself into the family dynamics of his father’s passing as well as deal with his own personal grief.
She wasn’t really sure what the relationship was between Jake and his dad, but she knew it was practically non-existent when they were married. She watched Monica and Karlene, both beautiful, younger women, with long legs and of course gorgeous children. She heard Jake’s name come up several times, but no one actively included her in any of their family talk. They had closed ranks. Ginger felt like an outsider.
It was a lot to take in. She wondered if she had the courage to face it all. She knew that it was worth it, but she was beginning to doubt her courage. Maybe sleep would help.
Ready to leave, she wove her way through the small group. Monica still didn’t look at her. Karlene was vying for Adele’s attention. But Ginger finally just interrupted the conversation and announced she was going to pick the girls up and go home.
“Adele, you let me know if you need anything now,” she added.
“Thanks, Ginger. You’ve been a dear. We’re all here, except Jake.”
“I’m not sure when he’ll be back, but I’ve left a message.”
Band of Bachelors: Jake Book 3 Page 13