by J. L. Drake
“Check this out.” Cole turned the watch over and pointed to a tiny pin stuck in the stitching. “Army approved tracking device. Frank got me enough for all our field agents. After what happened to me…” He cleared his throat. I knew so much of what happened last year still preyed on him. “Well, at least these are undetectable.”
“Thanks.” I wrapped it around my wrist and fastened in place. “I really should wear watches more.”
Cole shook his head before he went back into the hotel room. “Let’s get moving.”
I entered the park at 85th Street and Museum Mile and headed down to the water. Right under a huge oak tree was a red bench, with children’s handprints all over it. I sat and waited; I knew he’d be late. He was most likely watching me to see if I would signal to my team. I made sure not to do anything but sit very still.
A twig snapped behind me, and I could almost feel the wind change. I knew it was him.
“You’re late.”
“Is that any way to greet your brother?” He opened his arms for a hug, but I just waited for him to sit. “Damn, boy, you’ve been working out.”
“Yeah, you might want to try it.” I took in the haggard look on his face.
“Hey,” he lit a cigarette and took a long drag, “I’m seven years older and didn’t have the luxuries the U.S. Army gave you.”
“That was your choice.”
His dull green eyes squinted as he sucked back some more smoke. There it was. That was the look that haunted me when I was at my worst. “Hardly.” His voice dropped low and was laced with a sharp edge. However, this time I wouldn’t let it get to me—not when he included Mia in his threat. “So, are you gonna help me or not?”
“What do you expect me to do, here, Manuel? You were caught on tape.”
He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, before he looked back. “I want you to tell them I did it for you.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
He threw his cigarette onto the ground and stomped on it. “No.” He lit another cigarette and got himself under control. “Remember what I did for you, Mark.”
“How can I forget? Every time I think you’re probably dead in a ditch somewhere, you pop your goddamn head up from the grave to remind me.”
He flinched before he took a long drag. “Army grew you some balls.”
“Yeah, and what a set I have.” I held his stare. “You got yourself in this shit, get yourself out of it.”
“You’re not going to help me?”
“Fuck you, Manuel!” I stood and tucked my hands into the pockets of my long jacket.
“The girl. She’s pretty.” He smirked, his cigarette dangling from his lip.
I figured he’d go there, so I was ready.
“Yeah, she is.” I turned on my heel and walked back toward the parking lot. Each step took effort. I wasn’t sure if I had made the right decision yet. Only time would tell.
Frank’s black Escalade pulled up and the door swung open. I hopped inside, and Cole let out a long breath.
“Good?” He held up his fist, and I bumped.
“Yeah.”
When we finally got back to our hotel, I skipped drinks at the bar and headed to my room. I wanted to be alone. No, what I wanted was to be with Mia.
I plugged in my phone, as it had died on the way home, and headed for a shower.
My body hit the mattress with a heavy thud. I was too tired to change, so I just wrapped myself in a towel. I reached for my phone, wondering when the Penguins were playing tonight.
I jerked up on my elbow when I saw a bunch of missed texts from Mia.
Mia: Hey you, I want you to be here too.
Mia: Something to help ;)
There were three pictures. I tapped to download the text, since the Wi-Fi sucked here. My heart nearly froze when I saw she had taken a selfie of herself in the rain. The next one was her at the hospital, making an unhappy face at all the work she had to do. However, the third one had me smiling into my pillow like I was seventeen and in love. She was in bed, lying down, looking at the camera with a sleepy smile. There was a text attached to that one.
Mia: Good night, sweet dreams.
I turned my camera at my face and did my version of her last picture.
Mark: Good night, Mia. Sweet dreams.
I flicked on the TV and started to flip. My phone rang, and I dreaded to see who it was. I just closed my eyes and answered.
“Lopez,” I muttered, figuring it was probably Frank.
“Hey.” Her voice was low and went right to my chest.
“Wow,” I laughed lightly, “I really did need to hear your voice.”
I heard her move about. “Is everything all right?”
“Yeah, just work stuff.”
“Oh.” She yawned.
“How is work going?”
“Interesting.”
“Is the manicured Doc Francis bothering you?” Strange. I didn’t get jealous, but with her I was a bit. It bothered me that he got to see her every day, and I couldn’t. She paused somewhat too long for my liking. “Mia?”
“No, he’s been pretty good.”
“Did something happen?”
“No! God, no, Mark.” She cleared her throat. “I would never.”
“I mean, it would make sense. He is there every day.”
“Mark!”
I felt like a dick. “Sorry.” I needed to pull it together. “It’s been a day.”
There was silence.
“Mia, I am sorry. I was just being a dick.”
“Can I ask you something, without you getting upset?”
My stomach twisted; I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear this. “Sure.”
She sighed into the phone. “When am I going to see you next?”
My heart lightened, happy to know she wanted me like I wanted her.
“I’m not sure yet. Soon, I hope.”
“Me too.” She yawned again.
“Look, you go get some sleep, and I’ll talk to you later.” I heard Butters groan into the phone. “You take care of her while I’m gone, boy.”
“He does, don’t you, boy? Okay, call me later if you can.”
“I will. Bye, hon.”
“Bye.”
***
The next week, I ran my drills with the team. I worked out, played with Livy, and waited. Two more days went by, and still no word from Manuel.
“Hey,” Keith dropped his bag at my door, “you ready?”
“Yeah.” I grabbed my jacket and did one last check before we left.
Keith looked at his phone right before it rang. “Carlos.” His voice was completely different. He turned to look at me, and he held his finger to his mouth to keep me quiet. “Oh, shit, this weekend? No, man, I can’t, but I’ll try to make the next meeting.” He waited for a minute. “Yeah, brother, I’ll be there.” He hung up and kept his fast pace down the stairs.
“Good luck, guys.” Savannah smiled from the doorway. “Be safe.” She stopped Keith. “What?”
“He has other friends, besides us,” I joked and hurried up the path to the chopper. We needed to be across the border soon if we were going to nab our next houseguest.
“All good.” I heard Keith kiss her cheek before he followed behind me. “Hey, Lopez,” he called out. “You heard nothing, okay?”
“Heard what?”
He gave me a slight nod. “Thanks.”
I waited for the moment the chopper left the ground. It always made my adrenaline kick up a few notches.
***
Location: Mexico
Coordinates: Classified
“I’d never live here.” Cole ran his finger along the inside of his shirt. “Too fucking hot.”
“Yup.” We’d been in this dugout for four and half hours, with no movement from the house below.
“Why aren’t you entertaining me?” Cole opened his water. “Hello.”
“Thinking.”
“’Bout?”
“Manuel.”
“And?”
I rolled my eyes. “And Mia.”
He shifted to lean on his other shoulder. “You seem different with this girl.”
“Yeah.” He waited for me to go on. “She doesn’t mind me disappearing. I mean, she doesn’t like it, but she seems to understand how it works. I guess since she signed the NDA, she would have had an idea.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.” I knew there was more coming.
“I guess I want to know where your head is, if you two are getting serious.”
There was that heavy feeling that crawled across my chest whenever this came up.
“Honestly, I have no idea, but I’d welcome any suggestions.”
Cole rubbed his head as he thought. “Well, I can’t lose you, so leave it with me, and I’ll see what I can come up with.”
“Sounds good.” We went back to silence, then I smirked. “You can tell Savannah I’m okay.”
He laughed softly and shook his head. Savannah was always looking out for us, and now used Cole to do her work. It was sweet she cared.
“Hey, what’s up with Keith, anyway?”
Cole flopped his head back against the dirt. “Personal stuff.”
“Well, since Keith told us nothing about himself, that isn’t helpful. Everything okay?”
“He needs to make some big decisions. His past is catching up.”
“I hear that!”
“Yeah.” I knew better than to push Cole. He kept everyone’s secrets. Everything was on a need to know basis with him. Which, Lord knew, I appreciated.
Gunshots sounded in the distance, and we got on our knees and into position.
“Visual?” I asked Cole as I rested the side of my cheek on the hot steel and lined up my sights with the front door. With my breathing steady, I scanned the front of the house.
“Negative.”
My finger flexed against the trigger; I loved this part. The unknown. Which way would this situation go?
“East gate,” Cole muttered as he cocked his weapon.
I spat out the details to the rest of the team before Cole started to fire. In nine seconds, five cartel were down.
Let’s move.” He scrambled to his feet.
We ran down the hill, across a field, where we hunched behind a small wall. Cole got the team in place before we stormed the house.
With my back against the house, I took a quick peek inside the window, but something blocked my view.
I joined Cole as he prepared to clear the front door. Paul rolled a smoke bomb inside before we entered. After the pop, we formed a line and moved forward.
Smoke, heat, and a horrible smell found us in a matter of seconds.
“Everyone get down!” I shouted through the blinding haze. I tripped over something heavy and bounced off something rubbery. My hands went out and landed against…
“Shit!” I shouted just as Keith ripped the blind off the window.
Piles and piles of dead bodies lay in all directions on the floor. My hand was on top of a woman’s lifeless face. I jerked back as if I’d been burned.
“What the fuck?” John was almost green but managed to hold it together. Keith offered me an arm up so I wouldn’t have to touch any more of them.
Cole stepped out to call it in.
“How many?” John covered his mouth.
“Must be eighty,” Keith shook his head, “just in this room.”
“There’s more?” John coughed at the smell, waving his arm around to shoo the flies away.
Keith pointed up the stairs, where more bodies littered the floor.
“Let’s get this over with.” I wiped my hand over my pants before I pulled on rubber gloves.
We started at one end and shifted through body after body to see if our target was included in the massacre.
John struggled, so I told him to do lookout. We all had our strengths. This wasn’t his, and that was fine.
It became just a job after about the twelfth body. I turned off my emotions and did my thing. It wasn’t until I came across the body of a young boy who had been shot in the stomach and the eye that I needed a moment.
Fuck it.
I pulled the boy free, cradled him in my arms, and carried him outside, where I laid him by some shrubs. His remaining eye stared up at the sky.
I bent down and fixed his t-shirt, and when I tugged it down, a tiny tin car fell from his pocket.
“Fuck,” I grunted, a knot in my chest. I scooped it up and examined it. Yellow doors with a black stripe across the top. It was homemade, with the name Felipe on the bumper. I curled it in my fist and held it to my mouth to keep the sob back. This wasn’t right. We fought every goddamn day in an endless war. Sadly, at this rate, by the time we found peace, what would be left? Nothing but destruction. “For what it’s worth, little guy,” I whispered, “I’m really sorry.” I immediately stood and checked myself. Detached. I turned and found the guys watching me.
Cole shifted into my path. “You good?”
I brushed by him. “No.”
That was how it went. Whenever one of us found a child this way, we would remove the small body from the site, place it outside under the sky, and then they were given a moment of our time. We didn’t say much to whoever found the body. Mostly, we just touched their arm and let them continue with that small gesture of comfort. This was the worst trip I’d had yet.
Three hours later, we counted and checked sixty-three adults and seventeen children. The Mexican police arrived and started to take over.
“Logan.” Keith stood at the top of the stairs. “Found our target.”
“And?”
“Dead.”
“How?”
“Hung from the ceiling, cut to the stomach. Bled to death.”
“Fuck!”
***
Mia
“Oh, here, let me help.” Chris, the new manager, opened the apartment door for me.
I tried to balance my groceries in my arms. “Thanks.”
He raced forward and hit the call button for the elevator. “You need some help?”
“Ah, no, I think I got it.”
“Okay.” He actually gave me a friendly smile before he stepped back to let the door close between us.
Christ, he was an odd guy. I shook off the bad vibe. I couldn’t wait to open my vodka and sip on a strong cosmo.
My keys were stuck between my fingers as I jammed them into the little hole and opened the door to my apartment. Then my heart jumped.
Mark was slumped forward, head in his hands, on my comfy chair.
“Hey.” I wanted to be excited, but his body language made me nervous. I set my bags on the island. I didn’t think he heard me, but when I started to speak, he abruptly stood and walked right over to me. He crushed his body to mine with a huge sigh. “Oh!”
He leaned back, took my face in his hands, and stared into my eyes before he leaned down and kissed me. I could tell this was what he needed, so I went along and kept my questions to myself.
I stepped back and removed my shirt. He did the same, and then his hands were all over my body. Cupping, kneading, rubbing—he was so much more intense than normal.
We barely made it to the bed before he rolled a condom on.
“I need you now.” He laid me back before he crawled on top. His eyes showed his internal struggle, and when I cupped his cheek, he turned into it. “Mia,” he nearly whimpered, “I need you to help me forget.”
I knew his head was somewhere else, and I knew he needed me to bring him back. Even though his mind wasn’t all in the present, he was still so sweet and careful. I dragged my nails down his back, but stopped at the now familiar deep groove on his side. Slowly but firmly, he removed my hand.
I took his face in my hands so he would look at me. “I’m here, Mark.” He squeezed his eyes shut and his neck muscles strained. “Hey,” I ran my fingertips down his cheeks, “let me help.”
After a beat, he let me push him to the be
d, where I climbed up and sank down over his length. His hands landed on my hips and set the pace. As my body moved, I leaned forward and kissed the scars on his chest, across his collarbone, and up along his neck.
“I’m here.” My lips vibrated against his ribs.
His threaded his fingers into my hair and gently raised me to his lips. The moment we touched, he growled. The kiss was wild, but not a race—more like a hunger that consumed the entire body. I clenched around him.
Once he let go, I leaned back, took his hands in mine, and gently rocked to a pace that seemed to relax him. Neither of us spoke; we didn’t need to.
At one point, when I saw him slip, I stopped and cupped his cheek again. “Hey.” He closed his eyes, and I realized that was what he did when he tried to sort his thoughts. His hands moved to my hips before his eyes opened. “I saw some things.” His jaw flexed. There weren’t any tears, but the rawness in his voice was enough to make me feel his pain. “I need you to bring me back—to me again.”
“Oh, Mark.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and held him the best I could. After a bit, he moved me so I lay with my body wrapped around him from the side. His hand rubbed lightly from my shoulder to my elbow. It was soothing, but I was too worried to relax.
“Tell me something about you.” I really wanted to know him. No boundaries, just who he was.
“Like what?”
I thought for a moment and started to laugh.
“What?” His tone was curious.
“Please don’t take this the wrong way, but why do you smell like a fifteen-year-old girl sometimes?”
He moved to sit up, and his hands went to his chest very dramatically. “Pardon me?”
“It’s like I keep having this deja vu of when I was seven riding my pink sparkly bike.” I stood and picked up his jeans.
“Oh, that’s not weird. Sure, smell my pants.” His sarcasm made me smile, and then I felt a long, hard thing. “Okay, you don’t need to—”
“Ohhhh.” I laughed at the half-empty pack of Hubba Bubba. “Oh, thank God.” I laughed harder. “I had a lot of things flash in front of me, there.”