by Dale Mayer
It was hard for Levi to imagine how he’d ended up with so many men working for him—well over twenty at any given time—but he had men already out on jobs right now, so that only left twelve on-site. He had another two men in town, on loan and looking after the women there. As soon as Levi got the all clear, he’d get them home to the compound.
Dakota added, “We have to make sure we hit them before they have time to send in reinforcements to break out their team.”
“Exactly,” Levi said. “We’re going over the vehicles right now too. We need to make sure we’ve pulled out any intel we can.”
“I think Stone was in there earlier, digging out the software they were running,” Flynn said. “And I think Merk is in the garage, tearing the vehicles apart.”
Just then the kitchen door opened, and Merk stuck his head in. “Levi, come look at this.”
Levi and the others trooped out to the garage to one of the vans the prisoners had used as a command center.
“Is this something you can rent?” one of the men asked from behind Levi.
Levi shook his head. “I wouldn’t have thought so. But it looks like old military. I’d think they’d have something like this in the US if they’re operating a cell of some kind here.”
“And, if that’s the truth,” Dakota said, “we can probably get some government assistance too.”
“We’ll see how big this op gets,” Levi said. “I’d like to keep this small and intense if we can. Much better if it’s just us. Otherwise we have to deal with authority issues.”
“Which is never fun,” Merk said with a grin. He motioned at the inside of one of the vehicles and said, “They’ve got full satellite.”
“Which makes no sense that they would get close enough so that we could get to them, much less capture them too,” Flynn said.
“True,” Levi said, not liking that thought at all. “A part of me worries this is a trap.”
“Oh, it definitely was a trap,” Merk said. “That’s one of the things I wanted to show you.”
Levi’s eyebrows rose.
Merk brought Levi around to the side of the vehicle and bent low, pointing under the engine. “I disconnected two bombs—one on this side and one on the front.”
Levi’s breath sucked back tight against his chest. He could hear the same reaction from the others. He shook his head. “We never even thought of that, did we? We need to change protocol for next time.”
“No,” Merk said. “It’s the first thing I did look for though. They didn’t get a chance to detonate before being taken. The remotes were inside each cab. But, if even one of those guys got loose, … these were military-grade IEDs. American military grade.”
Levi’s mouth turned down at the corners. “Not like that’s totally unexpected though,” he said. “When you think about it, we have to deal with our weapons being sold on the black market all over the world.”
“I know,” Merk said. “Just sucks that it’s sitting here on our own property.”
“Did you go over all the vehicles?”
Merk shot him a look that basically told him that he’d asked a foolish question.
At that, Rhodes came up from where the prisoners were and said, “All the captives have been processed and are locked up separately. I want to make sure I’m part of anything happening up here.”
Levi nodded. “This will be a big deal, but we’ll be quiet and calm about it. Way too much shit is happening.” Levi turned to Merk. “Any intel in the vehicles?”
“A lot of it. Going back for several months at least. Satellite images of here and their home base. They were trying to keep an eye on Columbia at the same time as they were keeping an eye on us here.”
“Perfect,” Levi said. “We need the location. We need an operation to get in and get out.”
“Already working on it,” Merk said. “Rhodes here will get the transport under control.” He stopped, looked over at Levi and said, “What about Ice?”
“What about her?” Levi said.
“Is she coming? It determines whether we’ll get a helicopter on the other end.”
Levi swore and said, “Then I guess she’s coming. But I wish she wasn’t.”
“Can’t do that, boss,” Rhodes said. “She’s been at your side since the beginning. She’ll be there at the end. Don’t take that away from her.”
“I know,” he said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I would just like to know she stays safe.”
“And that’s how she feels about you too,” Rhodes said in a warning tone. “If she thinks you’ll treat her like the little woman …” He shook his head. “I can’t imagine what she’ll have to say about that.”
“Let’s just set it up,” Levi said. “You’ve got twenty-four hours, and we have to decide what to do with the garbage we’ve collected around here. The live ones and their vehicles.”
“I kind of liked Ice’s idea of taking the prisoners back to where they came from,” Merk said. “They’re dead weight, and that’s a problem, but otherwise we can call some of our network and see what they have for suggestions.”
“I’ve got a suggestion,” Flynn said, “but then you already know how I feel about it.”
“We don’t murder in cold blood,” Levi reminded. “But we’ll keep their weapons, their vehicles as spoils of war. After all, they were just gonna blow up these two vans anyway. We may need their vans on this op. We’ll see as we firm up this plan.”
The guys all agreed on those points.
“If we take the prisoners back,” Dakota added, “they’ll just get weaponized again, and we can shoot them down there.”
“That way we don’t have to bury them,” Rhodes said without cracking a smile. With that, he got down to business.
Chapter 4
Back in the office, Ice had the women working hard on getting the logistics sorted out. Ice made two calls, one to somebody within the government and one to somebody outside of the country. The government guy didn’t want anything to do with her prisoners. She groaned. “You sure you don’t want a dozen deliveries?”
“No, I don’t,” he said, “I don’t want to know anything about it. Guatemala’s bad news without adding in a Columbian takeover. We’re not involved in any ups and downs there, and I don’t want any of that coming back on American soil.”
Ice snorted. “Too late,” she said. “They are already here, and we have the mercs, the guns, the intel and the vehicles to confirm it.”
There was silence for a long moment. “I’ll get back to you.” And he hung up.
Her next call was to a friend who was always there when she needed him. Then again it was reciprocal. When he heard her voice, he said, “You only call me in times of trouble. What’s up?”
She gave him a shortened version of what had happened.
He whistled. “Yeah, I know who that guy is. He’s trying to take over the world, one country at a time. He’s starting with Guatemala, but he’s from Mexico, part of one of the big Colombian drug families down there, trying to branch out on his own. He’s young. He’s arrogant. He’s beyond wealthy with a steady supply of more money coming in from the drug trade.”
“Right. Anything you can do to help us out would be wonderful.”
“Hate to touch Guatemala,” he said.
“So do we—at least more than we have been,” Ice said. “We’ve been helping that government, which is of course likely why we’ve been targeted. If this Juan character can take out everyone helping the Guatemalan government, then he’s got an easier time of it taking over the country.”
“Makes sense,” he said. “You can have ten men. They’re already there in Guatemala. Use them for backup only, please.”
“Which side are they working for?”
He gave a bark of laughter. “The same side you are. We can’t let this idiot get into power in Guatemala, or the whole world better watch out.”
“That’s the problem with too much money,” Ice said quietly. “And the suppor
t is welcome. Thank you.” When he hung up on her, she sat here for a long moment and then called command to check where Levi was.
Stone said he was in the garage at the vehicles, going over the intel they’d found. Stone warned her. “The vehicles also came in wired.”
She sucked in her breath for a long moment and said, “I presume Merk found them?”
“Yeah, we should have checked them first. And the fact that we didn’t …”
“I know. We got lazy,” she said. “We’ll have to get handhelds to run over every vehicle every time we go anywhere. Make sure they’re standard issue in all the vehicles now.”
“I’m on it,” Stone said. “Kind of pissy that we’re always looking over our shoulders. I thought by now, you know, I’d be getting married, have half-a-dozen kids.”
“We always will be looking over our shoulders,” she said sadly.
“Unless you guys want to get into a different line of business,” Stone joked.
“I don’t know about that. If I thought there was any other way to stop this from happening, I’d consider it. But, at the moment, when these assholes are always coming to take us out …”
“Hey, but just think. We did catch all of them. That’s different from the way we started.”
Ice smiled. “That’s true enough, but just look at the danger having a family caused us. It makes us vulnerable.”
“When you love, you’re already vulnerable,” Stone said, his voice gentling. “Just go and get married, will you? Levi would be a whole lot easier to live with. You too.” And, on that note, he closed the comm on her.
She swore and stood to see the other women looking at her with raised eyebrows. She just glared at them. “I’ll get married when I’m darn good and ready.”
“Or when you’re not so afraid,” Sienna said.
Ice rounded on her, and then her shoulders sagged. “Is it wrong to be afraid?”
“No, never. But this is what you’ve always wanted. The only reason to be afraid is if you’re afraid of why he’s doing it. Surely you can’t doubt he loves you.”
“I just don’t want him to be doing it to make me happy,” Ice said.
“Of course he’s doing it to make you happy,” Sienna said. “All men do. Do they want to be married? Probably. Do they give a damn? Probably not. But it makes you happy, so that makes them happy. Don’t go analyzing it. Just go get married.”
“Why? So you guys can?”
The women in the room all broke out laughing. “We’re talking about it but haven’t gotten any further,” Sienna said. “I think we all have plans, but nobody wants to jump your gun.”
“You’re welcome to all go and get married,” Ice said in surprise. “You know that.”
“We know,” Sienna said, “but you’re the one who’s engaged. Most of us have at least had a discussion about being engaged, but we want to see you guys happy first.”
“I’m definitely not planning a group wedding,” Ice said. “I just wanted something small and simple around the pool.”
The women looked at each other and nodded.
As Ice walked out, an odd shift in the atmosphere occurred behind her, but she was so focused on the job at hand that she didn’t really take time to understand. She thought about it briefly and then dismissed it. It didn’t matter. What mattered was what was happening here right now. Because, by tomorrow, they would all be scattered and heading for Guatemala. And there was no way she wasn’t going.
“Not in this lifetime,” she muttered as she hopped into the elevator and dropped down to the basement level. She checked that everybody guarding the prisoners was okay and then moved out to the garage. She found the guys surrounding a huge whiteboard setup as they worked out a strategy. She stepped into place and listened. When there was a break, she mentioned ten men were on the ground in Guatemala, waiting to join up.
She saw the relief in the others. “Just as backup,” she cautioned.
“That’s where we like other men,” Merk said. “Good job on getting hot bodies.”
“They’re hot and ready,” she warned. “No time to lose.”
“We’re leaving at midnight,” Levi said. “And we’ll take this lot with us.”
“Good. I couldn’t find anyone willing to take out the garbage for us.” Ice studied his face. “Are we driving? Flying? What?”
He shook his head. “We’ll drive across the Mexican border with this lot, and we’re taking a plane closer to Juan’s compound in Guatemala.”
“And?”
He looked at her steadily and said, “And you’ll fly us in. We’ll drop the prisoners, and we’ll follow them down.”
Ice thought about it, then nodded. “We’ll go in heavy then,” she said. “The added prisoner weight is a problem.”
“We thought of that,” Levi said. “But you can handle a big bird, and that’s what I’ve got lined up.”
“And who’s my copilot?”
His gaze was steady and strong as he said, “If I can, it’ll be me. But, if you want somebody else, say so.”
She gave him a smile that she knew always broke his heart and whispered, “You’re always my first choice as a copilot.”
Her gaze drifted around to the others. “We’re leaving at midnight. Be ready.” She turned and walked out. As she went to the internal door to leave the garage, Levi called out, “Where are you going?”
“I’ll measure off the drugs by weight. This drug should also erase their memories of these last few hours, but I can’t guarantee that. Regardless we want them out cold. No way I’ll fight with the dozen of them once we’re in a chopper.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to wait until we’ve walked them into the helicopter?” Merk asked. “How long can we keep them drugged for?”
“I’m good with thirty-six hours,” she tossed back, looking at him. “How about you?”
He grinned. “I’m good with permanently, so if you want to make one of those an overdose, it won’t bother me.”
Ice shook her head. “They get the same chance to live as everybody else. If they pulled a gun on us here, we would have taken them out. As it was, we rounded them up. We’ll drop them back home, like the garbage they are. But, if they pick up a weapon again,” she said, “they’re free game. They go down permanently. Absolutely no question about it.” And she turned and walked away.
As she left, she heard Levi chuckle. “That’s my girl.”
She grinned. One thing she knew for sure: she and Levi were a matched set. Didn’t matter if they walked down the aisle or not. They were meant to be together and to live or to die on that path together.
*
Levi didn’t know why Ice was holding back. He’d known since they first got together that marriage was the end game. He’d taken his time getting there, but, once here, he was in 100 percent, and he thought she would been right there with him.
No such luck.
Women. He couldn’t live without her but damned if he understood her, especially lately. Then again, hormones were one thing men around the globe knew better than to face off against.
And Ice was anything but the same as other women. She could fly a helicopter into battle and be the only one to return safely. Her skills were incredible, and her second sense for her safety and those she cared for was legendary. He never bucked her intuition.
If she said pull out, they pulled out. If she canceled a mission, they might be pissed, but no one argued. She’d saved their asses too many times for that.
Yet now … something was off. Something she was worrying about. He didn’t think she was ill, but she was sleeping longer, looking more tired even with more sleep under her belt, a little more irritable. Something was up, … and damn if he knew what it was.
And why the hell wouldn’t she set a wedding date? It was what she wanted. Hell, it was what they both wanted.
So why not?
With no answer forthcoming, he headed back to take care of business.
That w
as at least something he understood inside and out.
Ice? … Not so much. At least not right now.
Chapter 5
Ice was geared up and ready to go at midnight, and the convoy headed south soon afterward. They already had connections at the border, and they cleared it to get through. They were not making a normal border crossing. No way they could do that—not with a dozen unconscious men in tow. She was afraid it was a stupid idea to take them back, but the US government didn’t want anything to do with them either. That was why they needed clearance to take them into Mexico. They could dump them there, but that wasn’t a good choice either.
Two hours later, they pulled out onto the airstrip, where a private jet awaited them. They loaded weapons and the men on board and were taxiing within thirty minutes. Ice looked over at Levi. “We’re coming to take those vehicles back home again, correct?”
He nodded. “Tomorrow night,” he said, “again at midnight.”
She nodded. “Good thing.”
“It’ll be a tight schedule. We know anything can go wrong.”
“Things always go wrong. Doesn’t matter. We’ll deal with it.”
“I hear you,” Levi said. “I just wish you’d stayed home for this one.”
She glanced at him. “Something extra bugging you?”
He shook his head. “Not really. It just feels off.”
Ice respected his intuition. If there was one thing Levi had learned in his long and illustrious career, it was to listen to that gut instinct. Then, so had she, and her gut was talking about something completely different. “Do you think it’s a trap?” she asked in a low undertone.
“Not necessarily a trap, but I think it’ll be more than we expect.”
“Did Bullard get back to you?”
“Yes,” Levi said. “He recognizes several of our captives, and he’s sending an eight-man team to Guatemala too. Said it was time he came for a visit.”
She smiled at that. “That would be nice. I haven’t seen him in months.”