When things were under control and the woman was escorted to the doctor’s office, Tat placed his hands on Talia’s shoulders and squeezed. “That was quite impressive. Where did you learn Italian?” he asked her, and from Spadaro’s expression as he seemed to watch her closely, he looked concerned.
She stepped from Tat’s hold.
“It’s a beautiful language, and I don’t get to use it as often as I would like,” she said, sounding so classy and sophisticated, but for some strange reason, his gut clenched and he felt suspicious, especially as she immediately changed the subject.
“So was that guy really drunk?” she asked Vacarro and Spadaro.
“He was definitely drinking, but the deputies will check for certain. That lady is lucky to be alive,” Vacarro said to her.
“That was so scary and upsetting. I hope she’ll be okay.”
“You were a huge help speaking to her, making her comfortable,” Basile said, and he reached out and stroked her cheek.
She froze and stared up at him. “Basile.”
He shook his head at her.
“You’re so beautiful, and caring, and hearing you speak Italian was super fucking sexy,” he said, then slid his hand from her cheek, to under her hair, and pulled her close and kissed her. Right there. Right on Main Street in town.
“Shit just got real,” Vacarro said, and Tat didn’t even care that people were looking, hell, smiling, but then came the worry. They weren’t commitment material, and she didn’t seem like she wanted a relationship either.
* * * *
Basile couldn’t resist—she was just so gorgeous and sexy, and it turned him on when she spoke fluent Italian and aided the old woman. Then seeing her in the spandex shorts, and catching a glimpse of her abundant breasts in some sort of half top she wore under a hoodie, and his mind went crazy with thoughts. Did that guy she was with get to see her without the hoodie on? Who the fuck was he? As he started pulling back, Talia gripped his shirt tight and kept her eyes closed and exhaled.
As she blinked her eyes open, she stared up at him.
“You know it felt good. Don’t lie to me.” Basile stated firmly.
“I’m not going to lie to you, but that doesn’t mean I’m interested.”
“Why the hell not?” Vacarro asked before Basile could.
“Bad timing. I have a lot going on in my life, and I don’t date. You can’t keep grabbing me and kissing me like that. I can’t focus or think, and this is a bad idea.”
“Maybe it’s better if you don’t think and you just react,” Vacarro said to her.
“That will make a mess of things.”
“So what do you suggest?” Tat asked her.
“I don’t know,” she said to them.
They stared at her, and she stared at them.
Then all their cell phones went off at once.
“Shit,” Basile said, and they all looked at their cell phones.
“We need to go. It was nice seeing you again,” Tat said and turned to leave.
Basile looked her over. “We’ll see you soon,” he said, and then they all walked away. He glanced back over his shoulder, and she was watching them, looking sort of sad and confused, and it hit him that having a commitment to one woman would mean having to leave her. Leave that face, that look, that body.
He got into the truck with his team, and they headed to the compound.
“That didn’t go as I hoped it would have,” Basile said to them.
“You see her face? Damn,” Vacarro said and then looked out the window.
“This is why we can’t get involved with a woman. It fucks up your head, and none of us have even fucked her yet. The warning signs are here—why are you all pretending to be blind to them? Leave it alone. She isn’t interested, and we’re all better off without the obligation and the bullshit that comes a relationship. She’s young, too. Twenty-fucking-five. Has her MBA, runs her own online business, and makes a killing. She’s independent, sophisticated, and drop-dead gorgeous. We’re Marines. Our jobs come first and foremost,” Spadaro stated.
“How the hell do you know all that information on her?” Vacarro asked.
“How the fuck you think? One of us had to not think with his cock and do a little intel,” he replied.
“And what did you think you would find, Spadaro?” Tat asked as he drove.
“Something, but I got nothing but more questions. Now throw in the Italian thing today, and how’s a twenty-five-year-old who supposedly did her college education at the University of Houston, never went abroad or took any language in school, become so fluent in the language?”
They were all quiet.
“Spartan and Cesar called me that night at the Station. They could have called anyone,” Tat said, thinking out loud.
“I think someone saw Vacarro and me kissing her,” Basile said.
“Good. Keep men away from her,” Vacarro said.
Spadaro turned around in the passenger seat.
“Didn’t you just hear what the fuck I said? She’s got trouble written all over her. Let some other guys deal with it while we deal with real shit, like this emergency meeting with Spartan and the commanders. Fuck this other crap. She isn’t even interested,” Spadaro stated and then turned back around just as Tat drove through the small private neighborhood to the main gates outside the compound.
Every time they came here, knowing there was a meeting, Basile had that feeling in his gut. They were going to get orders for a mission. Now, right when he was starting to really want Talia and put some serious work into getting her into bed. He thought about if they did go, how long would it be for? How dangerous? When would he see Talia again, and how many different men would hit on her, ask her out, hell, kiss her, before he could get back to her and gain her full attention? Where were these thoughts coming from? He went from zero to eighty in a half a second. Was he really interested in making a commitment to her?
He glanced at the others. They all looked pissed. Not without the team. If we do this, we do it together or not at all.
* * * *
“This is the situation, and we think that the four of you fit the job,” Spartan said.
They were all in the meeting room at the main headquarters on SOJ campground.
“What we discuss in this room doesn’t leave here. We have a team, four men who have been following this group of militia terrorists out of Europe,” Spartan added.
“You know them. Have worked with them a few years back, right before they started to investigate this group. Hired killers really, but top-notch military operations,” Hans said to them.
“You mean Flame and his team?” Tat asked, arms crossed as he leaned back in the chair.
“Yes, and they’ve been steps behind this militia until now. They’re close. They believe they’re responsible for wiping out this weaponry facility in Switzerland just a few days ago. As they were tracking several of the men, they were waiting for the opportunity to strike when they were ambushed. Cast took a hit to the arm, but he’s recovering. Flame, Yani, and Slova are in pursuit. They’re working with several other military teams, but they need men with your abilities to back them up as they’re getting closer to pinpointing a location on who they believe to be the main leader of this militia group. Because they’re down several men, it’s dangerous, and you will be shot at, but it’s believed that Portros Fagas is either the leader or second-in-command,” Spartan explained.
Tat sat forward in his seat as he uncrossed his arms.
“Portros? Are you sure?” he asked, and didn’t even glance at his team—he felt their anxiousness, the anger, the need to avenge their good friends’ lives that were lost because of that asshole.
“It’s him. They have pictures, but they need more intel, info you guys have gathered over the past two years, and assistance capturing him,” John said.
“Capturing him or killing him?” Vacarro asked.
“Either way, just as long as he and the rest of that militia a
re brought down. They’ve killed, never mind injured, so many military soldiers not just from the United States but from our allies, that I don’t think the commanders even care. Just as long as the militia is destroyed,” Spartan stated.
Tat looked at his team.
“We know the risks dealing with Portros. If he’s behind this, then more than likely Locust is, too,” Tat said to them.
“Then we finally have the opportunity to get some revenge, but it will be dangerous,” Basile said.
“It’s what we do,” Spadaro stated.
“Let’s get you in contact with Flame. You leave in an hour. Sorry about the short notice, but you’re catching a military flight to an air base in Switzerland,” John said to them.
“We’re fine with that. We’ll go grab our shit and head to the pickup location.”
They stood up and shook hands, and their commanders wished them good luck. As they walked out, Spartan stopped Tat.
“Hey, be smart and don’t take any unnecessary chances. I know you guys want these men, but they’ve left a bloodbath in their path to success in the criminal world. They’re killers for hire, which means criminal assholes could have their backs.”
“We got it. Trust no one. Not a problem at all,” Tat said, and Spartan nodded, and they left the house to prepare for the next mission. One that could bring closure for each of them, considering that Portros had killed several close friends of theirs, including Braxton, who would have been part of their team.
* * * *
“This could be our chance. The one we couldn’t take, the opportunity we weren’t allowed to pursue because of orders,” Spadaro said to Tat and the team as they drove to their house.
“We aren’t vigilantes. We’re Marines, and I know it was hard for all of us to lose Braxton, but he was sent on a mission with another troop of soldiers. His transfer to our team hadn’t been official,” Tat said to him.
“Still, it wasn’t right. The red tape bullshit cost him his life. You, me, and the others all know the truth. He was sent into Nigeria blind, with not enough information to conduct a small operation, never mind the large-scale one that clusterfuck turned into,” Spadaro said, feeling that anger at the memory of losing someone so close, a man he considered a brother. Braxton was part of their team, or would have been officially if he hadn’t gone on that mission.
“It just goes to show you that you never know when your time is up. When something could go wrong and things could be over. We have one another to rely on, to trust, to have one another’s backs, and together we get through things. Let’s not focus on revenge against Portros. Let’s focus on the mission and what our jobs are. Hopefully, we’ll be back home soon enough to take a real break from things,” Tat said, but Spadaro couldn’t stop the thoughts of getting some revenge in on Portros. Maybe they could find some sort of closure and move on.
When suddenly Talia popped into his mind, he was shocked. Where the hell did that thought come from, and why was he even thinking about her? She wasn’t even interested in getting involved with them, and he had kept his distance. He hadn’t even kissed her. Thinking about how Braxton died just reiterated the fact that getting involved with a woman wasn’t a smart move at all. If something happened to them, then she would suffer. How unfair was that? He knew firsthand what that kind of pain of losing someone close felt like. Of losing a fellow soldier, a friend, a brother, and a woman as beautiful and special as her shouldn’t have to suffer like that. In fact, she didn’t have a clue about what anger or pain was, and that should stay that way for her. He cleared his head and focused on this mission. That was his job, and the Marines came first.
Chapter Four
“Switzerland? What the fuck are you guys doing in Switzerland?” Nathan asked Woodrow and Bronco.
“We got a call, some inside information on a weapons facility that was destroyed, completely wiped clean, and bodies left everywhere,” Bronco told him.
“And?”
“And it has fucking Portros’s name written all over it. If our intel and information is true, Portros is in negotiations working with Sandris,” Bronco said to him.
“Which could mean that he knows where Barishna is. Hell, he could be working for him, and this hit was for Barishna,” Nathan said.
“Exactly. We’re moving into a location we think that Portros and his men are hulled up in. It’s going to be risky, but we’re getting ready to move in. I’ll call you soon,” Bronco said.
“Be careful and remember no unnecessary chances,” Nathan said to them and then ended the call.
“Cast is in a hospital in Milan. Do you think there’s a connection to that incident?” Spade asked.
Nathan took a deep breath and exhaled.
“I don’t know. It could be, considering that Cast, Flame, Yani, and Slova have been investigating Barishna’s associates for a while now. Flame said he would call us if any of them got any intel on Barishna’s whereabouts or on any of his men,” Nathan said.
“Well, I’m thinking that maybe Cast and them didn’t know it. That maybe it was Portros, and Barishna is somewhere in Switzerland.”
“Wouldn’t that be so nice and neat? But not our luck. No, Barishna is very smart and a strategic planner. Find out what you can on the owners of that facility that was ripped off, and if there’s a connection that way to Barishna, besides Portros being involved, then maybe just maybe we’re steps closer in finding Barishna’s secret hideout.”
* * * *
Talia wondered, as the week passed, why she spent so much time thinking about four men she said she wanted nothing to do with. In fact, as she lay in bed feeling uneasy after her nightly panic attack, she tried thinking about them to calm her breathing and relax.
To her surprise, it had been working the last three mornings. What was she doing? Was she creating a fantasy relationship with four men she knew she could never have? Four soldiers, who were intense, hard-core, and who scared her by their intimidating expressions and attitudes, yet in fantasy were easing her fears? How could she fear them, yet find comfort in thinking about them? Had she lost her mind? Her grasp on reality? These were not men who made a commitment to a woman. For all she knew, they wanted sex and sex only from her. By God, it would be incredible sex, and if she were a different woman, a more experienced woman or perhaps inexperienced, then maybe it would be okay to just spread her legs and to take as she was being taken.
She gulped and felt her pussy tighten. She was inexperienced in love, in romance, in gentle pleasure. Never experiencing the raw, calm, intense, deep touch of a man’s fingers stroking or caressing her skin. No, in her mind, in the memories she recalled the callous way Barishna treated her. How her virginity was taken from her in a façade he created to exploit her purity. To display it as his ownership of her even to his men, to those who served him. They all saw her as Barishna’s possession, his jewel. She was an object, and at times as she closed her mind to the man who pounded into her, she became just flesh as he took what he wanted.
She pretended for far too long to be his lover and to reciprocate his affection and desires because she feared him. Why wasn’t she listening to the warning signs now? Especially with knowledge that the four soldiers weren’t commitment material. They could use her, and to top it off, if she did get involved with them, then Cesar and Spartan would tell them about her past and about Barishna. They wouldn’t look at her in the same way. It was her secret, so why was she using thoughts of them, their muscles, their capabilities, and the way they made her feel so aroused, to give her strength to block the nightmares? Why? She could never allow them so close, and it wasn’t just because she feared intimacy and sex, but deep down inside, she feared Barishna’s return.
This situation, her past wasn’t like her friends’ and the things that happened to them. The danger brought on by choices they made, or by whom they loved. No, no, this was different. She was a nobody, an upper-class woman forced to leave the States with her father after her mother passed, and her bro
ther took off for the Marine Corps. Her father’s business dealings and love affairs led them to Italy, Sienna first and then Trento. She absorbed herself in her schoolwork, her business she started from her own ideas and money saved from working, not money given to her by her father. A man who saw materialistic things as expressions of caring. The funny thing was, Talia wanted to leave and get her own place, and be free from his control, his money, his insistence that she play a role as his only child. He was pissed that Nathan entered the Marine Corps. Angry that he didn’t do as their father told him to do. Thank God Nathan hadn’t, or perhaps he would have turned into an evil backstabbing asshole like their father.
She swallowed hard and looked toward the window in her bedroom, seeing the sun beginning to rise. She remembered the beauty of the Tuscan sun, of the way the sky so bright, with little clouds, woke her to her mornings. She could remember loving the markets and walking through, seeing all the new fabrics and buying different things to help promote her business. She wasn’t a designer, but she found materials that designers, especially in the States, would love. Her one smart move, strategic and after her father sold her to Barishna, was creating the fake business name and setting up an account in America, thanks to an old friend from college who lived in New York. It nearly went under, but once she recovered, and her brother and his team rescued her from Italy and her prison, she began to build her strength and her confidence, and her time, her energy, and her focus went into training with Frankie and building up that online business. Thank God Barishna never found out.
She closed her eyes and tightened, instantly envisioning his wrath. The strikes to her body, the abrupt way he grabbed her in public, treated her while with his men, commanding them, ordering them while he stroked her shoulder, held her in front of them, and she obeyed his commands. Tears rolled down her cheeks. He was a monster, but he was also obsessed with her. Obsessed with touching her skin, cupping her breasts, and making sure every man and woman knew that she was his possession.
Sons of Justice 10 Deliver Us from Evil Page 7