by Avery Gale
Jen felt his grip tighten around her throat and felt herself sway. She could see the fire flash in Lilly’s eyes and even though she didn’t know the woman particularly well, everything about her body language screamed a warning that her response to the jackass gripping Jen’s throat was not going to play out well for anyone. Lilly tilted her chin and gave him what Jen knew was likely a well-honed look of haughty indifference. “Well, I’m not sure who you are, but you seem to know everyone here so perhaps you’d like to introduce yourself.” Good plan, Lilly. Stall. The men have to know by now there is a problem. She’d seen Tobi move her fingers over the cuff bracelet she wore all the time and knew she had pressed the panic button that was disguised as one of the sparkling gemstones.
Tobi and Gracie both wore jewelry that allowed the Prairie Winds security team to know their location at any given moment. The pieces also gave the women the opportunity to activate an alarm in case they needed help. Tobi had done a good job of making her motions look like nothing more than nervous fidgeting, but Jen hadn’t been fooled. Baldamino snorted in disgust before looking at Lilly as if she was nothing more than a bothersome pest. “Don’t play coy, Mrs. West. My name is Raphael Baldamino and I am not interested in playing your social games. Buying time is not going to help you, I’m taking Rose and Daisy with me back to Costa Rica and it is time for us to go.” Jerking Jen to her feet, he moved his bruising grip to her upper arm and she winced when he clamped down on her tender flesh. Taking two steps toward Gracie, Jen saw Jax and Micah’s wife start to shake in fear just before her entire demeanor changed and she tilted her chin in defiance.
Gracie looked up at him and snarled, “I’m not going anywhere with you. Let go of Jen. You are hurting her. Why do you feel you should be allowed to just take whatever you decide is yours even when it clearly is not?” Jen saw him raise his other hand, the glint of light off metal confirmed her worst fear…he was armed. When he raised his arm and pointed the gun at Lilly, Jen felt herself sway and in the next instant she saw Lilly’s hand raise with a weapon of her own. Lilly’s eyes met Jen’s for just the briefest of seconds before they flickered toward the floor, but it was enough for Jen to know exactly what she was supposed to do.
With every bit of drama she could manage, Jen swayed again and starting to shake and then dropped like a stone. Before she’d hit the floor Jen heard two deafening cracks as both weapons were fired almost simultaneously. Baldamino’s lifeless body slumped over her and she felt the sticky warmth of blood before he rolled to the floor with a sickening thud. Her ears were ringing because the man’s hand had been so close to her head when he’d fired his weapon but she could hear Gracie’s scream over Lilly’s cursing. And it registered in her mind that if Lilly was cursing at least she was alive.
The pounding of boots on the wooden deck of the gazebo brought her attention to the men swarming them but Jen’s gaze sought out Sam and Sage and never wavered from them until Sage’s arms wrapped around her. She felt herself being lifted from the floor and heard him asking her if she was all right, but as much as she wanted to tell him the blood wasn’t hers, she couldn’t form the words and then everything faded very slowly to black.
*****
Sam and Sage had been walking in the back door of the club when they’d nearly been run over by several members of the security team. The quick jerk of Kent’s head had the two of them following as he’d asked Micah who was in the control center. The life of every Special Forces soldier is continually balanced along a razor’s edge and often the only thing standing between the team and death is their communications officer. So finding out who was handing logistics and communication was as natural as breathing in a crisis situation. Micah’s terse, “Ash” was answer enough. Even though Sam had never been a teammate of Ash’s, his skills were well known and respected among the other squads. It was Micah’s next words that sent a chill through Sam’s blood, “Baldamino is in the gazebo with the girls.”
“How?” Sam had barely been able to choke out the word as an unfamiliar wave of fear washed over him.
“Looks like he stole Dean and Dell’s boat so nobody noticed when it docked. The system is set up to recognize the digital signals of certain vessels, so their boat didn’t attract any attention.” The frustration in Micah’s voice was easy to hear. Sam knew without question that hole in their system would be addressed immediately. But right now their priority was getting the women away from Baldamino. As they ran down the cobblestone path leading to the gazebo every possible scenario ran through Sam’s mind and too many of those didn’t end well. Just as they rounded the last curve in the shrub lined path two shots rang out and Sam felt like he’d been gut punched.
*****
Sage sprinted ahead of everyone and into the gazebo just in time to see Baldamino’s body roll off Jen. He was grateful for all his years of training or he wasn’t sure how he would have reacted to the blood covering her back. She looked up from her crouched position and he saw her frantic search of the men entering the white wooden structure until she found him and Sam. Her gaze never wavered as he quickly made his way to her and pulled her up into his arms. Putting even the smallest of distances between them so he could ask her if she was hurt, was excruciating. He’d picked her up and looked into her sweet face and watched as her eyes seem to dull and lose focus just before they rolled back and she went limp in his arms.
Sage looked on as Sam had leaned down to check the man laying at his feet, but it hadn’t been necessary, the single bullet hole in the middle of his scarred face had told them everything they had needed to know. Sage laid Jen on one of the tables and he and Sam quickly checked to be sure the only blood on her wasn’t actually hers. Once they were sure she wasn’t injured Sam had picked her up and headed to their cabin to get her cleaned up while Sage stayed and helped sort through what had happened.
Lilly was cursing like a sailor about the fact Baldamino had winged her before she’d taken him out, and both Kent and Kyle looked like they were about ready to blow a gasket. Tobi was leaning over her mother-in-law wrapping the wound in a cloth napkin and Sage could hear sirens in the distance. Lilly’s voice had taken on the distinct mother-tone that all kids recognize and Sage had to bite back his smile. “Stop barking at me, Kyle West. I’m already about five shades of pissed off and I don’t need you telling me I should have waited for you and your brother to get here. Hell, I wasn’t going to let him take Gracie and Jen. And he didn’t seem like he was exactly the president of my fan club either. Besides…he pointed his gun at me, so I am perfectly within my rights to defend myself and others. Look it up.” She then she’d muttered something that made Tobi snort a quick laugh but Sage hadn’t been able to catch it all, but it was clear she hadn’t been at all pleased about being called Annie Oakley either.
“You know the dads are going to be pissed that you brought a gun to the party, right? What exactly were you thinking?” Kyle had begun pacing in front of his wife and mother and Sage could see he was struggling to hold on to his patience. Sage had seen it a thousand times, Kyle was lashing out because he felt out of control and from the look on Lilly’s face, she was fast approaching the end of her rope.
“What was I thinking? I was thinking I might have to use it. Why else does anyone carry a weapon? Geez, Kyle, that wasn’t a very smart question. You can do better than that.” For the first time he heard Lilly’s voice relax a bit and he was glad she seemed to be calming down, even if it was only fractionally. And then she looked up and Sage got a brief glimpse of a much wilder and much younger Lilly West as she grinned and added, “I wasn’t looking for trouble, but you have to admit, I hang out with a rough crowd.” Tobi and Gracie both stared at her, their mouths gapping open, until the both dissolved into hysterical laughter. Lilly’s sly grin showed how pleased she was that her attempt to distract Kyle had been successful and the tension drained from Kent as well. Emergency personnel from several different agencies stormed them and Sage slipped away and headed for the cabin to check on Jen.
/> Sage knew they’d have to take her back up to the gazebo to answer questions, but they’d wanted to get that asshole’s blood off her as soon as possible and he was anxious to see how she was coping. Not everyone would deal well with having a dead man collapsed over them. Personally, he was thrilled that Lilly West had taken care of the insane prick who terrorized Gracie and Jen. Raphael Baldamino wouldn’t be a problem for either of them ever again. And even though there would be a hundred men and women who would be more than happy to fill his shoes in Central America’s underworld, at least the momentum of growth Baldamino had achieved would be slowed for a while and his predecessors wouldn’t share his obsession with Jen and Gracie.
Knowing the team the Wests were in the process of bringing together would now have time to properly train to work together helped ease Sage’s mind. He and Sam had been conflicted about bringing Jen on board, but in the end, having her in danger where they could help was better than having her unprotected and attracting trouble while working for the State Department. The general consensus was that someone in her agency had sold her out to Baldamino, and if it happened once it would certainly happen again. Sage knew there were efforts being made already to figure out who was responsible and then they would be able to put together a plan to deal with the culprit—he and Sam both had some very strong ideas about how that should play out, but it was likely the Wests would hand over the traitor to the authorities.
Pausing for a moment on the cabin’s large front porch, Sage took a deep breath and sent up a prayer of thanks to the Universe for sending them Jen and for protecting her once again. It didn’t matter how long it took—he and Sam would make her theirs. Smiling to himself, he shook his head as he thought back on everything that had happened in the past year and remembered Dean West’s advice.
He’d been standing on the curb in front of the hotel the morning after Jax, Gracie, and Micah’s wedding celebration waiting for the valet to bring his truck around when he’d noticed the elder West standing to his side. Jen had pulled a disappearing act sometime during the very early hours of the morning, and he and Sam had been livid that she managed to give them the slip. In truth, Sage had been devastated she’d felt the need to escape them.
Dean West had looked at him and smiled, “I know you aren’t happy with how this has played out, Sage. But I want you to consider this, would you be attracted to a woman who wasn’t filled with fire? Would a woman who didn’t challenge you light up yours and Sam’s life?” He paused for just a moment, giving Sage the time to consider the question, and then continued, “It is only the strong ones that can survive a polyamorous relationship because there are tremendous social pressures that come into play…things the men in a relationship rarely have to face, but the women face regularly.” Sage considered Dean’s words and then nodded. “There are a lot of judgmental people out there and they only see love as acceptable if it falls within their very narrow parameters. They won’t often express those bits of hate and discontent to you or Sam—they’ll go after Jen. Now, I don’t know that young lady well, but I can tell you she didn’t run because she is weak. She ran because she has lost so much during her short life and I imagine the idea of losing you now feels safer to her than losing you after she gets in any deeper, because anybody watching the three of you can plainly see where her heart is.”
Dean’s words had surprised him and for several seconds Sage just stood staring at him. For the first time since he’d awakened to find Jen missing from their bed, he’d felt hopeful they hadn’t lost her forever. He’d smiled at Dean and thanked him. When they’d reached forward to shake the man’s hand, Dean had pulled him into a hug and said, “You two get yourselves safely back to Texas soon, you hear?” And then he’d strolled away. Sage had climbed in the truck just as Sam had walked out of the hotel and climbed in. After he’d told his brother about his encounter with Dean, the tension had drained from his brother as well.
Sage shook off the memories and walked into the house just in time to hear Sam speaking to Jen, “Sexual awareness isn’t a destination, Jen, it’s a journey. And the path isn’t a straight ribbon of highway curving across the west Texas prairie—rather it is a twisting, turning, switchback that meanders through the mountains and valleys. But the question is, are you really ready for the trip? Because unless you are ready to be completely honest with us and yourself, you aren’t prepared for everything the trip has to offer and all the beautiful scenery will be wasted. You have to go in with your eyes and your heart open or all you’ll see are the trees blocking your view along your way.”
Stepping up alongside his brother, Sage felt his heart squeeze when he looked into her beautiful blue eyes. Their sapphire depths held his future and the significance of the moment was almost overwhelming in its intensity. Cupping the side of her face, he let the wet strands of her hair move over his fingers as he brushed the pad of his thumb over her flushed cheek. “We want you to focus on the forest, baby, not the trees. I’m not saying everything will be perfect, because you know none of us can make that promise. But I can tell you we’ll always be here for you. There won’t be a moment that we won’t have your best interests at heart. We’d love nothing more than to show you all the ways there are to love, but you have to be willing to take a few risks. Are you willing to try?”
Her quick nod was all it took and their lives were changed in ways that only the future would reveal. But for this brief moment, everything was perfect. And the woman standing in front of them held their hearts in her hands.
Chapter Twenty-One
Four Months Later
Jen strolled along the pristine white beach of Boracay in the Phillipines. With her sandals dangling from her fingers, she listened to the sounds of the never-ending party further up the beach and thought back at how very similar today was to the day her world had changed so dramatically. Oh, the location might be on the other side of the planet, but she could still feel the heartbeat of the ocean as if her body was synchronizing with its rhythm. It feels so similar yet so much is different. That day she’d been blissfully unaware of the fact she’d come to the attention of a monster. But her “almost” brother had already set plans in motion to whisk her out of harm’s way, despite the fact she’d been seventeen hundred miles away. The men whose help he’d enlisted had turned her life upside down and stolen her heart. Knowing they were watching her now made her smile as she stepped into the foaming surf at the water’s edge. There wasn’t anything quite like feeling the warm sand beneath your feet as you let the steady beat of the ocean’s waves bring everything back into synch.
After Raphael Baldamino’s death, there had been a mad scramble to take over his various business ventures. Only one of those endeavors was of interest to the new Black Ops team Jen was working with. The Wests along with Jax and Micah’s security business had joined forces and their teams were contracting with various government agencies and corporations. They would be specializing in hostage rescues and curbing the growing problem of the lucrative sex slave trade industry.
Recently there had been numerous abductions of women matching Jen’s description from beaches just like this one. All the Intel they’d gathered indicated the current global market for sex trading was spiking in this part of the world…so here she was listening to the men chatter over her ear bud and making a heroic effort not to react. And don’t forget, walking along a beach alone smiling like a loon and chatting away at people no one else could see tends to make people think they should drop a net over you. And even though I don’t have much experience with the finer details related to sex trafficking, I’m pretty sure insanity is not high on purchasers list of favored attributes.
The past four months had been filled with intense training and more than once Jen had been certain she’d reached her limit. However, Sam and Sage had always encouraged her and she’d soon discovered her limits were far beyond anything she could have imagined. The information end of the training had been intense and challenging, but the physical par
t had been downright grueling. She’d had aches and pains in places she didn’t even know she had and after the guerrilla-warrior brigade was finished with her, they’d turned her over to the preggo battalion yoga group to finish her off. Tobi West was a slave driver of biblical proportions and Jen wondered if the tiny tornado would actually rock that baby she was carrying or if she’d have the tyke down in the Prairie Winds gym working out every afternoon because “naps are for wimps”. Jen and Lilly had “skipped class” one afternoon and hidden down at the boat dock, but Tobi and Gracie had found them and dragged them back to the gym.
Sage’s voice came over her ear bud and Jen had to suppress her body’s startle reflex. “I don’t know, brother, our woman looks so beautiful standing at the edge of the surf—lost in thought. I’ll bet we could get her to agree to marry us before we return home. The great thing is she can’t talk back right now, oh yeah, this is a sweet arrangement indeed.”
Not likely, lover boy. I already told you I want to be romanced and—
Sam interrupted her thoughts, “I don’t know. I think our mom and sisters have already gotten to her. We’ll probably have to grovel or do something ultra-romantic.” Jen could hear the amusement in Sam’s voice and found herself kicking at the waves so her smile didn’t look so out of place. She stroked the soft feather she’d found while walking along the beach and smiled at the comfort it brought her. Millie Sinclair had been her last foster mother and the sweet woman had always reminded her that finding a feather was a reminder from heaven that someone she loved was watching over her from the other side. One of the last times Jen had spoken with Millie, they’d been sitting on the front porch swing and Millie had said, “Jen, you need to remember to fill your life with adventures. Anybody can muddle through, but it takes somebody with a real purpose in life to see all the opportunities for doing something special. You watch for those feathers and when you find them you’ll know you are on the right path.” In the weeks following Millie’s sudden passing, Jen had found dozens of feathers. Some had been in such unlikely places Jen had laughed, knowing Millie was letting her know she was still close. Those feathers had brought her enormous comfort and had gotten Jen through many lonely nights.