by Jana Leigh
Slowly she pushed herself up a little more so she could see the area around the Hummer. He had to be thinking she was nuts at this point, certainly there was that possibility since she was wondering that herself a few minutes ago when she had been bathing with wet wipes, but there was her being dirty from hiding in her Hummer for seven days, and then there was down right gross if she hadn’t washed up. Where is he? she wondered and looked out the back window, and still didn’t see him.
As she turned around, thankfully the morning sun was at the right angle, she saw the flash of metal and ducked quickly before she heard the first shot. Fuck, he was shooting at her? Why in the hell would he do that? She called him for help, not to kill her. She covered her head and waited while she heard the rapid shots breaking her front windshield. Fucker.
She finally focused, he had a gun, well so did she. Moving quickly, Arden opened her dash, and grinned. Dag took her to buy her first gun, she remembered her hesitation. However, he started her off small, a lady's gun, he called it, but it fit her fine. Dag took her to the shooting range and made sure she knew how to use it. Surprisingly enough, Arden found she enjoyed the release shooting a weapon into a silhouette of a man on the target more than she would have thought.
When her brother died, he left her a Beretta, one she knew she could handle. Over the last few years, Arden had become quite the shot, with many different styles of guns. The guys at the range liked to challenge her to a competition and of course, she would never pass over beating a guy who thought he was all that. These assholes had no idea who they were dealing with. How dare they shoot out the window of her baby. Did they know how much those cost to replace?
There was a pause in the firing, she could hear two men shouting at one another in another language. What the fuck? Had she pissed off a country now?
“Hey, assholes, you need to back off. I am armed and pissed, I don’t want to hurt you!” she yelled loudly and heard the two men laugh, and it wasn’t a nice one. She shook her head and became enraged when she heard a clip being secured in a gun. Fuck this, they couldn’t do anymore damage.
“Pricks,” she muttered and flung open her door to distract them and sat up quickly taking aim. Two shots, two hits, both in the leg. The men both dropped screaming and she got out of the Hummer and ran to grab the guns they dropped.
“Damn it, see what you made me do?!” she screamed and then looked back at her car and grumbled. “Now I need a new paint job, and look at those holes. What the fuck is your major malfunction?” she said, then jumped and raised her weapon when she heard another car as both men cursed at her, and they hobbled to their car even though she was yelling at them to stop. Damn it, she couldn’t shoot an unarmed man.
West turned onto the dirt road where Arden was supposed to be according to her last GPS signal. He didn’t want to tell her that her phone was the beacon he was referring to, he needed her to stay in one place until he got there. Now, hearing the gunshots, he knew he was too late. Damn it, the poor woman was probably freaked out and cowering waiting for him to get there…if she was still alive that is.
Pushing on the gas, he pulled into the fray with his gun out and ready to kick some ass. He paused for a second before jumping out of his truck and yelling.
“Freeze!” he said and then frowned.
“Really? Freeze? That is the best you can come up with?” Arden laughed at him and he groaned. She had shot both men who were almost in the car, bleeding, and cussing. “I did all the hard work, you round them up, Scooby.”
“Seriously? I came to save you?!” West yelled.
Arden lifted an eyebrow at him and then shrugged. “Ohhh…poor me, I am hiding behind the rock, save me…save me!” she cried.
West rolled his eyes and then heard the click of a gun loading. Shit, he had been distracted. Diving for Arden, he pulled her behind his truck and covered her head. She struggled against him, trying to raise her gun.
“Fuckers, I was nice to them and shot them in the leg, and they do this? Where is the gratitude?!” she screamed and West held on to her tight to keep her in place as the driver and passenger emptied round after round of bullets into his truck, the tires went first, followed by the engine, and then he smelled gas. Fuck a duck, they were going to have to get the hell out of here.
“Hummer key?!” he yelled when the firing stopped, they were reloading and laughing.
“Huh?” Arden said lifting her head in confusion.
“Keys! Now!” he yelled and pulled her behind him and ran for her SUV.
“Ignition,” she screeched.
West threw the woman in the driver’s door and pushed her ass until she fell into the passenger seat upside down and cussing.
Grabbing the key, he started the Hummer and put it into drive before the first bullet flew. West grinned, rammed the little SUV, and wanted to pump his fists at the crunch he heard. It wasn’t the Hummer—it was theirs. Backing up, West floored the gas and they took off in a shot, clearing the corner and racing toward civilization before they heard his truck blow. Damn, he loved that truck, West thought and shook his head.
Arden turned upright and then began to yell. “What the hell was that?!”
“My truck,” West said grimly and then waited for her to scream some more.
“Awww…that sucks,” she cooed and he took a chance and looked at her staring at him with sympathy and understanding in her eyes. “She was your baby, I know, look what they did to mine, windshield and bullet holes. My mechanic is going to be pissed when he has to repair all this.”
“Bipolar much?” He laughed.
“What? I know how it is for guys, all my ex's were the same, wax on—wax off. I am just saying I understand,” she growled.
“How many ex’s we talking about here?” He laughed.
“None of your business.” Arden sniffed and turned to look out the window.
“It was your phone,” he said quietly. “I am sorry, I should have warned you to turn it off and leave it there and then leave the area.”
“Shit, I knew it!” Arden yelled and slammed her hands against the dash. “I was totally going to do that, but I didn’t want to go into another store smelling like rotten cheese.”
West looked at her wide-eyed. Was she serious? he wondered and then shook his head. He listened as she rambled on and on about the training Dag had given her. He felt a moment of satisfaction that she wasn’t a shrinking violet. In fact, now that he looked at her, West knew why he had a hard-on the moment he met her. It just took his brain a bit to catch up with his body. Damn, she is hot. He turned down roads and moved around, especially when she threw out her phone in a fit of rage, he did the same. Assholes probably had his address already if the registration was left intact after his truck exploded. With his luck, it would be the only thing left untouched. They needed to get lost, and stay lost until he could contact the Commander. Until then, they were stuck together.
“I'm hungry,” she whined and looked longingly out the window. West pressed his lips together so he didn’t laugh aloud again. She had gone from a raving lunatic, to sympathetic and back again. Now she was whining. Yeah, this assignment was gonna be fun.
“Give me a half hour, with no complaints and I will pull over. We just need to get lost, now,” West said.
“Not to hard here, did you know that any given road in the Bayou leads you to a quaint little town, were everyone knows your business. Hell, they probably know mine as well.” Arden laughed.
“Once I find a place we will eat and talk,” he promised and then he gripped the steering wheel, hoping like hell the two idiots were blown up with his truck. It would be a win-win situation.
After a half an hour of driving and silence, West finally found a place to pull over. He was watching Arden process everything that happened. She had gone from alert to looking like she needed a nap. Her adrenalin high was over and she was crashing. It would be best if she went to sleep while he got them to a safe place.
He pulled into a d
rive-in restaurant wanting to laugh aloud because he didn’t think they still had them. The covered spaces and waitresses' rolling around on skates made him want to grab his phone and take a picture. His buddies would never believe this. When they were overseas once, he saw an old drive-in place that looked like it was straight from the movies, they had gotten a kick out of it, and since then they have taken pictures of quirky restaurants they had come across.
Arden perked up and looked around and then turned to him, “Do they have chocolate malts?”
“I have no clue, look at the menu next to you, but if they do I want one too,” he teased and then laughed when she bounced in the seat and pumped her fist.
“Oh ya,” she crowed and then looked at the people surrounding her. “Uh…where are we?”
West shrugged, “Lost.”
“Oh good, for a minute there I thought you intended on coming here,” she snorted.
“Well, they have a hotel, mechanic, and food. We are good here for a while. At least until we make some calls.” West smiled.
“Hotel? Like hot running water?” Arden asked wistfully.
“I can't guarantee anything, and when I say hotel, I mean ‘Vince’s Roadside Motel'. I just thought it sounded better. In fact, 'The Bank of Bob' is across the street.” West laughed.
“Whatever, if it has a shower, and clean sheets, I will be in heaven. Stop teasing about the small town feel.” Arden smiled and then looked as a young girl wearing skates rolled up to West’s window.
He noted the girl was wearing short shorts and a tank top, but clearly looked comfortable in what she was doing, spinning in a little circle as she stopped so she was leaning against the door with one shoulder. She flipped an arm on the window and blew a bubble with the watermelon gum she was snapping in her mouth. He knew the flavor because it was the same smell as his much younger brother chewed.
“Hey, what can I get ya’ll?” the girl said grinning at Arden as well as West.
Arden giggled and then leaned over him. “Do you have chocolate malts? Like the old fashion kind?” Arden asked.
“Yes, ma’am, we do. Malt powder and Jimmy uses only the real ice cream, not ice milk,” the girl said and smiled. “Hey, you don’t look familiar, are you tourists? We don’t get too many of them but I guess you are, considering you have bullet holes in your fancy truck. Did ya get freaked out by a gator or something? That’s what we see mostly with the tourists, come down here to see gators,” the girl snorted. “But when they actually see them, they think a gun will protect them. Hell, it just pisses them off.”
“You get many cars with bullet holes in them?” he asked innocently.
“Do one legged ducks swim in circles,” the girl laughed and swung her head wide. “Half these folks here are guides, just look around.”
Arden and West swung their head around, sure enough, half of the trucks had a visible bullet hole, and a few had a lot more than that. But what drew West’s eyes was the car parked across from them and down a few. How in the hell had he missed that monstrosity? He had to ask because it was too funny not to get an explanation.
“What is the deal with that one?” West used his head to motion to the truck he was talking about.
He saw Arden put a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing aloud. The truck in question was an old 94’ Ford F150 truck, with a missing windshield as well, along with about a dozen or more bullet holes that he could see. That was not the disturbing part. The once, black or dark blue truck, now was spray painted baby blue on one side, and pale pink on the other. He could only assume the words he saw on the blue side were repeated on the other for a girl, because in yellow words with a duck looking blob next to it said, “It’s a boy.” In the gentle bayou breeze a flag flew from the antenna, it looked like it would be something a baby’s sheet would be made of, but in thick black Sharpie, a date was written. The date was about a month away.
“Oh, that is Jabo’s truck. His girlfriend is pregnant with their second baby. He didn’t want to know the sex, so he painted his truck so he has his bases covered, something about the Bayou Queen’s dream. Anyway, he is just excited, and plus you can see the damn thing from a mile away. Sassy said she could find him anywhere now. Good thing too, she had a craving for craw daddies one night, damn near caused a riot at Bolo’s Bar. She called demanding they deliver five of the specials in five minutes or she was gonna shoot up the place. Bolo told Jabo who was sitting in the bar, chatting up some fancy tourist. Never seen that man move so fast, plus he doesn’t let his eyes wander much anymore. Sassy hid his gun.”
By the time she was done filling them on the continuing saga of Sassy and Jabo, West just wanted to give his order so he could crawl in the back and laugh his ass off without offending the town of “Guns-r-Us”.
Arden apparently had more control than he did and she quickly gave their order and waited for the waitress to walk away before sliding to the floor and burying her head in the soft seat and laughing. He could tell it would have been loud because of the way her shoulders were shaking. Finally, he lost the battle and laid down the seat as far as he could and put his arm over his mouth and let go.
Chapter Four
Shit, Arden's place was trashed. Mason went from room to room, making sure she wasn’t lying in the apartment dead. This sucked. Dagwood was pissed, as the shadow of a man roared threw the apartment looking for his little sister. The only time he had heard Dagwood yell like that was on one of their missions, in fact the last one they had done solo. Dag had been pissed at him for covering his ass. Apparently, he had failed anyway, his friend was dead, and his sister was on the run.
Shit, if he had told Dag about his sleeping with his sister and asked permission to date her this would be all for not. Voodoo would have been here, it was what he wanted but the guilt had sucked him in. He dreamed of Arden, the night they spent together had been amazing. They connected, and now he was going to have to face her and tell her he was too fucked up for words. Let her go, so she could find someone that would be able to take care of her—a whole man.
“These bastards are dead. Voodoo, find her,” Dagwood ground out while the rest of his team stood in the background. Marie, Raider’s wife, stepped forward and put her arm around Dagwood and whispered something in his ear. It seemed to comfort his friend who nodded.
Marie had always been the steady girl in their lives. When they found out she had been killed all of them felt the pain. But they had found their baby and she was their reminder of the couple and all of their lost team members. So were Sable and Jolie, their addition to the family were key to the healing he had seen going on. But Voodoo knew he was beyond hope. He was going to be the protector just like he had always been. He would make sure nothing happened to his remaining family.
“LC!” Mason yelled and his friend appeared in the doorway with a phone in his hand. He held up a finger and spoke into the phone. Mason became instantly alert.
“Yes, sir, last contact was with North who was heading to her. I need approximate coordinates of his last communication, we will head that way and wait until they call back in. Hell, maybe we’ll stumble across them,” LC said and Mason paused, his heart beating fast.
‘North’, shit, West Trete had somehow become involved in all of this. That was great. West was part of SEAL Team EIGHT, they had been their extraction team on the last solo mission Dag and Voodoo had completed. They were also the Team who was supposed to come in for the kill, and they had missed it. At the time, North had teased them relentlessly. If there was a man Voodoo trusted outside his team, it would be North, they had been in training together and on graduation gone to different teams, but the bond that had started years ago still held.
“Mase, we need to move. Arden called in and asked for help from North, we need to get to his last coordinates. There have been reports of an explosion about a half an hour away from his house. They are investigating but so far, no info of it was related,” LC said with a clipped tone.
“Well, wh
at are we standing around for?” Mason’s mother said. “Let’s move, boys. I have a daughter-in-law to find!” she crowed.
Mason rolled his eyes and shook his head lowering it. This was going to be a nightmare. He lifted his head and glared at Dagwood who was standing there smiling.
“Really? We had to share that?” Mason hissed at Dag.
His friend shrugged and showed no signs of being sorry. “Dude, you have to find her, she is the key to your healing.”
“Whatever,” Mason said, following his slightly crazy mother who was leading his spirit friends down the stairs. It was official—he had lost control of his life, and right now he didn’t care. Arden needed him and he would not let her down like he had Dagwood.
West settled into only one room with Arden. He needed to watch her, he thought. She was going to be a handful. When they were at the drive-in restaurant, she had finally come up from the floor and proceeded to get out of the Hummer and meet the local people who were there. She loved their characters, as he watched and in just a few minutes she had won them all over. Damn she was good.
When he asked her why she did that when she got into the car after the food arrived, she laughed and said, “Really? A town full of armed people who could be on our side, like I was gonna pass up on that.”
West had not even thought about it. It would be helpful to have someone watching their backs for a few nights. He wanted to call and check in, but until he knew exactly what he was dealing with. His plan included leaving Arden here, safe and sound, with people watching out for her. Driving with Jabo to the next town and picking up burner phones, and a few other things he needed, and then come back and hunker down until the Commander could get someone here.
He heard the water stop and almost groaned out load. He had tried to ignore what his body’s response to the X-rated thoughts he had when Arden had gone into the bathroom, the noises of pleasure had made him hard and ready. Shit, it was more than that, it was a connection he felt when they met. She was sexy, hot, sweet, and dangerous. Totally his idea of the perfect woman. Hell, she shot better than some of his friends, what wasn't there to be attracted to. Now, as he imagined her drying her wet, slick, perfect body alone in the next room, West tried to hold himself back. He needed to breathe deep and relax or he was going to get up and burst into the bathroom to see if his imagination fit what he was thinking she would look like naked. Damn, he had to stop. Mission.