Whiskey & Roses (The Xander King Series Book 1)

by Bradley Wright

“No disrespect, mate. Apologies.”

  “We’ve been friends for almost twenty years.”

  “Twenty years? Really? That is quite a long time. You must know everything there is to know about him.”

  “Pretty much. If he’s been through it, I’ve been through it, and vice versa.” Kyle sensed a really condescending and awkward tone from James.

  “I bet. So, whatever would cause a man to embark on such a mission as tonight? Swimming straight into suicide really.”

  “Well, James, if I’m being straight with you, it’s really none of your business.”

  “Oh, we’re being straight are we?” James snarked.

  Kyle could sense a sharp change in James’s tone. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Well, as long as we are being straight, let’s pass the time and play a little game. How bout it?”

  “I’m not really in the mood for games. Why don’t we just go back to ignoring each other, my man.”

  Kyle was on edge now. James stood up and walked toward the front of the boat. With his back turned to Kyle he looked up into the empty sky.

  “Come on, old chap, let’s play a game called ‘Have you ever.’ What do you say, mate?” James turned back to Kyle with both arms palms up and out to his sides. He wore an almost maniacal grin on his weaselly little face. Kyle said nothing. “All right then, I’ll go first. Kyle—bud—have you ever held a million pounds—dollars—in your hand?”

  “No,” Kyle answered, almost grunting.

  “No, I figured not. I can tell you really don’t like this game, and I am bored with you so I’ll just get straight to the point.”

  Kyle shifted in his seat as a pit formed in his stomach. Xander would have already sniffed out what was coming, but Kyle had not yet learned this part of the game.

  “Your dear friend Xander, I’m afraid, he is as we speak, swimming to his certain death. He, Sam, and that redneck you brought along last minute. I hated to have to do it to Sam; she is quite the piece of ass I tell you.”

  Kyle stood up from his seat. “What the hell are you talking about?” The pit in his stomach had turned into the size of a bowling ball.

  “Well, you see, the reason I asked you if you’d ever held a million dollars is because I have. This morning actually, when Sanharib Khatib handed me a briefcase full of money to give him the specifics of what exactly was going down tonight.”

  “You motherfucker!” Kyle lunged at James but before he could close the distance between them. James pulled a gun and let out a ghoulish laugh that echoed over the surrounding water. Kyle froze in his tracks as he stared down the barrel of James’s pistol.

  “Aww, was it something I said, mate?” James grinned a devilish grin as he took a step forward and put the gun just inches from Kyle's forehead.

  “You son of a bitch, how could you do this? You’ve been hunting Khatib for years!” Kyle's voice cracked with fear.

  “I’m certain I just told you how. But again, since you’ve never actually held a million dollars in your hands, you couldn’t possibly understand what it feels like. What freedom feels like,” James preached with delight.

  Kyle felt adrenaline begin to course through his veins and somehow the fear was gone.

  “You dumb prick, I flew here on a G650 luxury jet. You think I don’t know what money feels like? A million dollars wouldn’t even pay for the upholstery on that bird, you stupid little shit!”

  “Whoa, my friend, I suggest you relax. I’m not afraid to use this gun that I have to your head.”

  “Then use it. It won’t save you,” Kyle said forcefully.

  “Save me?” James laughed hysterically. “Save me from what? Your dead boyfriend?”

  “Sam clearly didn’t give you enough information about who in the hell you were dealing with.” Now a maniacal smile came to Kyle's face. James didn’t like it. He pressed the gun to Kyle's forehead and his voice raised as he spoke.

  “Who I am dealing with? Ha! I suppose your pea brain believes that your hero is going to swim up to that compound, take out the forty some-odd armed guards that are ready and waiting patiently for him to pop up out of the water, then call you on that com and tell you everything is roses? Ha!” James laughed a crazy laugh.

  Even in the face of madness, Kyle's pulse slowed. His heart-rate fell and a calm came over him. His mind flashed to Xander’s gym and to the moment Xander had taught him to disarm a man that held a gun too close to him. James, however, was no ordinary gunman. He saw Kyle's movement in his eyes before it even happened and squeezed the trigger of his nine-millimeter pistol. But it was Xander’s words teaching Kyle—move your head first, no matter what—that saved Kyle's life. Just as the gun clicked and the bullet fired, Kyle jerked his head to the left and the blast sent a terrible ringing off inside his ears. The bullet skipped out over the back of the boat into the ocean. He wasn’t successful in disarming James, but he’d bought himself a moment.

  His training kicked in.

  Kyle wrapped his right arm around James’s still outstretched gun-holding arm and drove his knee as hard as he could into his groin. The gun popped off again and as the bullet ricocheted off the rail of the boat, James doubled over and let out a grunt of pain. Kyle, still holding James’s arm, lowered his leg back to the floor and as soon as his toe tapped the ground he drove his knee right back up and smashed it against the bridge of James’s nose. The force of impact was so hard that Kyle lost his grip and James crashed violently onto his back. Before James could move it, Kyle front kicked the gun out of James’s hand and it skipped along the floor of the boat and came to a stop about ten feet from them. Kyle immediately recoiled and went to stomp on James. As he drove the heel of his boot down toward James’s head, James rolled and Kyle struck only the weatherproof carpet that covered the fiberglass floor of the boat. Kyle felt James scissor his legs around his own, and before he could adjust, James sent him flying face forward to the floor. The boat rocked back and forth in the water. The fall knocked the wind out of Kyle's lungs as his chest took the brunt of the impact. James rose to his feet, staggering, and desperately trying to stop the blood that was now gushing from his shattered nose.

  “You prick! You broke my nose!” James continued to grasp at his face but the blood kept coming. “You broke my nose!”

  Kyle gasped for breath as his forehead rested against the floor. He knew James was on his feet now but until he caught his breath there was nothing he could do. Kyle looked up and the moonlight sparkled off the shiny nickel plating of James’s fallen gun. As he attempted another deep breath he threw his arm forward and his fingers landed about a foot short of the handle. Another deep breath and a push of the knees moved his outstretched hand halfway there.

  One more. Just one more stretch.

  He gathered his right knee to the level of his hip and dug the toe of his boot into the carpet. His hamstring fired and just as his body began to lunge forward the collar of his wet suit jerked violently against his neck and he hung there, suspended, like a rabid dog at the end of his chain. James had caught him and the next thing Kyle felt was a thump on the back of his head, courtesy of the point of James’s elbow. Purple circles inside sparks of pain burst in front of his eyes. He felt his body go limp but he immediately snapped back into consciousness when James rolled him over onto his back. Kyle caught James’s body in between his legs and instinctively wrapped them around him like an anaconda. As soon as Kyle's vision cleared, James’s elbow was rocketing down toward his head. In one movement, Kyle moved his head, avoiding the elbow while trapping that same arm with his right hand. Simultaneously he brought both legs up around James’s shoulders. Kyle's right leg bent to the left, across the back of James’s neck, while he wrapped his left leg around the foot of his right leg, placing that foot under the bend of his knee. This created a hinge that allowed him to squeeze his legs around James’s neck. Xander and Kyle had drilled this move—the triangle choke—at least a thousand times. To set up the finish, and to really shut of
f the blood from being able to reach James’s brain, he made sure James’s right arm—the arm that threw the elbow—was pulled tightly across his body. This was crucial in causing the neck to be properly squeezed and thus to effectively keep the carotid artery from doing its job of delivering oxygenated blood to James’s brain.

  James struggled and thrashed wildly as Kyle seamlessly applied the proper steps of the choke. It was almost tight enough now. Kyle just needed to set his hips to the side and—James brought his knees to Kyle's ass and struggled his way to his feet. In an act of pure adrenaline rage he somehow began to lift Kyle off of the ground. Unfortunately for James, Xander had done this to Kyle many times in the gym. Kyle held his body in position as James raised him up over his head. Kyle knew that if he could stay alert after this oncoming slam, if he could just keep his consciousness and hold the choke by maintaining the squeeze around James’s neck, he could—

  James arched his back and with a choked rebel yell he jerked his body forward and with all his power he sent Kyle's body to the floor of the boat, cracking the fiberglass on impact. It wasn’t enough. Kyle had managed to keep his head from taking the force of the slam and in a twist of irony, it actually further secured Kyle's position, and doubled the effectiveness of the choke. Kyle wrapped his hands around the back of James’s head and pulled it straight down as he thrust his hips upward. This was the final step.

  “Ten…nine…eight…” Kyle counted out loud. James still thrashed inside of Kyle's grip, but it started to subside.

  “Seven…six…five…” Kyle felt James’s body go limp. This is where he would let go if he were in a street fight, because the lack of blood flow just brought James to unconsciousness. This was the point where James would wake up no worse for wear, if he let go right now.

  “Four…three…two…one.” He squeezed even harder. This was the point where someone should be dead. His arms and legs burned fiercely as he continued to squeeze, James’s lifeless body held suspended in Kyle's grip. Finally, after a few more seconds, Kyle let go of the hold and James’s body tumbled lifelessly between his legs, facedown on the floor of the boat. Kyle took a moment to catch his breath and let the burning pain subside from his now tired muscles. The air was thick, but quiet. He got up to his feet and gathered James’s vest in his hands. James’s head fell back and thumped against the floor, blood still ran from his broken nose. Kyle lifted him up, dragged him to the side of the boat, and tossed his body over the rail into the dark water below.

  Kyle Hamilton Saves the Day…

  for Now

  Even with the light shining from the band on his head, just above his goggles, Xander could hardly see more than five feet in front of him. All he could do was check the compass on his watch and trust that heading due east, as Sam instructed, would land them where they needed to be. They had been swimming for a bit now and Xander knew from his incessant internal counting that they should be just yards from the beach and mere meters to the North end of the compound. He slowed his pace and finally came to a stop as Sean and Sam, who were swimming on his heels, gathered around him. They were deep enough so that their headlamps couldn’t be seen from the surface. He motioned to them that he was going up to have a look. He shut off his light and started up toward the surface. The water surrounded him in pure dark now, so black it may as well have been oil. A burning fear crept up his spine. He wasn’t afraid of what he might see when he surfaced. Xander feared no man. It was what else might be down there in the darkness of the water with him that really frightened him. He could fight a man; he could not, however, fight a monster with rows of knife-sharp teeth and an instinct only to kill. Much to his surprise, as he tried to steady his nerves, it was Natalie’s face that came to mind. In the middle of the blackness of the ocean as he slowly ascended, with only the sound of his oxygen tank and its bubbles surrounding him, he thought of her. He didn’t fight it, because it worked. Thoughts of giant man-eating sharks subsided. He focused in on her beautiful smile and her almond-shaped eyes as he fluttered his feet back and forth inside his flippers. He would go and surprise her in Paris, he thought. After all of this madness was over. He would take a break from the anger inside of him that would surely be quenched after he squeezed the life out of Sanharib Khatib. His hunger for revenge would finally be satisfied and he could live his life for other reasons. Perhaps for her?

  Suddenly, in the blackness above, a sliver of light became visible. Just above him, at the end of his ascension, he could see the light of the moon. His head reached the surface and after a brief moment of disorientation, shock gripped his body as he saw it wasn’t the light of the moon at all.

  It was the spotlight from a boat.

  A boat that floated just couple of feet from him, and before he could dip back under the surface he heard a man scream and after a loud pop he felt a searing pain in his shoulder. When he looked down he had a small harpoon lodged through the outside of his deltoid muscle, entangled in his wetsuit. He couldn’t help the scream of pain that leaped out of him and before he could react, he was being pulled toward the boat. He knew immediately that there was a rat in the group, and he knew immediately that it was James. Horror rolled like thunder through his body as he thought of his best friend, alone on the boat with that traitor. Adrenaline shot through his veins and he grabbed the rope attached to the harpoon and gave it a violent tug. Whomever was on the other end of the rope was dragged forward and Xander heard a splash as slack came to the rope and he was no longer being pulled. He looked up but could only make out the silhouette of a small fishing boat through the intense beam of the spotlight in his eyes. He saw another shadow move forward on the boat when the man who’d fired the harpoon hit the water. Then next thing he heard was the unmistakable pop of an M24. A darting splash rose up from the water beside his head as the bullet zinged by. He heard a couple more screams from the boat and he began to swim sideways. He reached for his pistol as two more shots rang out. He felt nothing so he pulled his pistol up out of the water and fired at the shadow. A wave rolled through at that same moment and pushed his arms upward, forcing his aim off line. Another shot rang out from the boat and this time a ping from the harpoon in his arm sounded off and luckily ricocheted the bullet into the water. Xander didn’t hesitate and fired another shot at the shadow. This time there was no wave to throw off his aim and the shadow on the boat dropped out of sight. That brought about some scrambling on the boat. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the man he’d pulled into the water swimming at him but Xander put a bullet in his head before he could reach him. Just as he was about to dive back under the water and regroup with Sam and Sean, they popped up beside him as a second boat, a speedboat, carrying three armed men, raced toward them. Xander knew they were in real trouble. He knew the two of them wouldn’t be able to process what was happening in time to dive back down, so he raised his pistol as a last-ditch effort to keep the worst from happening. Before he ever even got the gun back out of the water, shots had already been fired from the speedboat, and out of the corner of his eye he saw another man on the first boat raise a gun. Bullets darted through the water around them and Sam let out a scream through her oxygen-tank mouthpiece. The boat was right in front of them now and if Sam had time to work up some percentages on the probable survival rate, well, it wouldn’t—

  Whaaaam! A thunderous crash filled the air when out of nowhere a boat smashed into the side of the speedboat carrying the three gunman that were rifling bullets at them. The boat hit so hard, and in just the right spot, that it cut right through the middle of it, impaling one of the gunmen and sending the other two into the water. Xander moved his pistol immediately to the man holding the gun from the first boat and shot him straight through the throat. He looked back to the boat that sped in last minute but no one was in it now. The impact must have thrown—

  “Kyle!” Xander screamed. It was Kyle who had saved them. “Kyle! Haha! Yeah!” Xander whooped.

  Sean and Sam were up to speed now and they began to swim tow
ard their boat to find Kyle. Xander squelched his celebration as he put a bullet into each of the two men that had been thrown from the speedboat when Kyle slammed through them. The spotlight from the first little fishing boat that discovered Xander was now facing the boat Kyle was driving about fifty yards in front of them. It looked to Xander like it may have even run ashore. He could see movement on the beach now, just outside the compound, only a couple hundred feet from where he could see for sure now that Kyle had in fact crashed the boat onto the beach. However, there was still no sign of Kyle, and a hint of worry fell on his chest. Xander holstered his gun and started swimming feverishly toward the beached boat. He could see three men running down the beach toward it.

  Time was running out.

  He kicked it into another gear and passed by Sam and Sean. Now, only twenty feet from the boat, he heard the men from the beach screaming at them and shots rang out into the night. The three of them swam up and crawled behind the boat to use it for cover. The shots continued and they removed their diving equipment and prepared for the standoff. However, before they had a chance to glance over the boat to locate the three gunmen, they heard a burst of gunshots from inside the boat and the shouting coming from the men on the beach stopped abruptly. For a moment, silence fell over the night. Sam looked over to Xander and shrugged her shoulders.

  “You guys gonna help a brother out up here, or am I going to have to take everyone out myself?” A voice from just above them at the rail of the boat asked them.

  Xander looked up.

  “You sexy son of a bitch!” He yelled when he saw Kyle's shit-eating grin staring back at him. The three of them popped up and Kyle jumped over the rail, rifle in hand, and they all hugged and cheered at the reunion.

  “How the hell…” Xander started. “James turned on you, didn’t he?”

  “How’d you know?” Kyle asked.

  “What are you talking about?” Sam chimed in.