Oh God, would anyone even come to help her? How could they? For all she knew, Gazleer’s men could be capturing Castle, Phoenix, and Sunny right now and taking them prisoner. No one would know for another two weeks, and then Quantico and the team would worry. Would maybe activate the tracking system. She started to feel panicked but then calmed herself down.
I need to do this. There’s no one to count on but me. I’m a Marine, damn it. A survivalist, an adventurist. Well, here’s my fucking adventure. Get through the jungles of Costa Rica injured and being hunted by criminals, or die trying.
* * * *
“All right, tell me what you need,” Spartan said to Quantico over the phone.
“Backup. Men my team and I can trust,” Quantico told him. He explained about being involved with Kendra, then finding out about her past, about how she had been in a ménage relationship before and the three men cheated on her, cost her her position as a Marine, and how she now owned and operated a multimillion dollar business. That she had the skills and capabilities to survive on her own in the jungles of Costa Rica but was being hunted by some criminal asshole. It was a lot to take in.
“You need men who can maneuver through the jungle, pick up on her trail and the men that took her, with ease and precision. I’ll get Stack, Finlin, Pisces, and Rusty to assist as well as myself and Hans. We’ll get in touch with Jaguar, have him pull the strings we need for info on this guy Gazleer. Give me thirty minutes. Don’t take off on that plane without us,” Spartan said and then ended the call. He got up from his desk.
“Hans!” he called out and Hans appeared a moment later.
“Get packed up. Costa Rica in thirty minutes. Quantico and the guys need our help. Let Brye know we need contacts and intel. I’m sending info as I get it to me.”
“Got it.”
“What is it? Who is in trouble?” Cherokee asked from the doorway as he gathered his supplies, backpack and gear from the closet. She knew when he hit this room that he was leaving for some mission and to help someone out. Hans pulled her close and kissed her. When he released her lips he gave her a stern expression.
“No questions, remember?” he said then gave her ass a tap and headed out of the room.
Spartan was piling some things up on the floor. He was always prepared to leave at a moment’s notice. This situation was going to be intense.
He put the bags on his shoulder and headed toward the doorway.
“I need to hit the bathroom quickly and grab some stuff. Do me a favor, to help,” he said to Cherokee, seeing her fearful expression. He cupped her cheeks and she nodded.
“Go into the closet in the hallway by the front door. There’s a black case with my initials on it. Take it out and hold it for me. I’ll meet you by the stairs.” She nodded and he gave her a wink then went to grab his stuff.
As he came to the stairs, prepared to leave, he gave Nolan, John and, Brye a nod. “I will coordinate with Brye. Hans and I will let you know everything as soon as we have more info.”
He dropped his stuff and took the black case from Cherokee and put it into the one empty slot on his bag. Then he stood up and pulled her into his arms. “It will be okay. I promise. Now do like we discussed and no questions, just wait for me to return, and Hans, too, and be ready to love us,” he said to her then pulled back, cupped her cheeks and kissed her tenderly. He gave his brothers nods and he headed out. A glance over his shoulder and Hans kissed her next then grabbed his gear and they got into the jeep.
“So what’s the deal?” Hans asked as he drove.
Spartan explained as he continued to get information from Walker now through the cell phone.
“Fuck, she was a Marine? She was involved with these three men and they were there at her ransacked place? I don’t like the sound of this.”
“How do you think Quantico and his team feel? That’s their woman. They were planning on making it official upon her return. We’re going to be finding out some serious shit on Kendra. I just hope as Jaguar finds out that this doesn’t get worse for Quantico and the team. She could be involved with this mess and dealings with this Gazleer Numon guy.”
“And we’re all risking our lives for this?”
“It’s what we do, Hans. For our fellow brothers. Quantico and the team are family.”
His cell phone went off again. “Plane leaves in thirty minutes. Jaguar is already getting information.”
“Okay, so this is what I have thus far,” Jaguar said and Spartan listened, squinting his eyes and wondering what his buddies would think when they found out Kendra and her three lovers had been accused of smuggling illegal products into the United States and that was why she was forced to retire from the Marine Corps.
“I want proof of any of this, and info on these three assholes who were her lovers at the time. Quantico doesn’t trust them and not just because of jealousy either. He could tell they were lying about the situation. He’s keeping a clear head.”
“I’m on it, Spartan. Be safe and keep in contact with me. I’ll have whatever you need and in a flash when the time comes.”
“Thank you,” Spartan said as Hans stepped on the gas and got to the airfield.
* * * *
“Holy shit. Are you kidding me? When did all this happen?” Big John asked Nolan.
“Several hours ago. They all landed in Costa Rica and are heading to the resort where the situation took place.”
“And these three men she knew, one of them worked for the government?” Big John asked.
This time John replied. “They all did, were all military.”
“I wonder if that’s how she knew that agent Andy Spode who arrived with the team to help find Sam.”
“Shit, that’s right. Maybe he was friends with these three guys, Brandon, Skylar, and Paul? Let me contact Jaguar and see what he can find out,” John said.
“Hey, tell him not to trust the guy. Perhaps have someone more directly ask him questions.”
“You think he was hiding something like these three men who got her into this?” Nolan asked.
“Just a gut thing, but the way he eyed Kendra over, kept flirting and whispering to her, and her reaction to him, bothered her. Could be nothing.”
“Hey, we need all the help we can get. Quantico is saying that these three assholes aren’t budging or giving much info. One of them, Skylar, has a big chip on his shoulder and Quantico isn’t sure if it’s just because he knows Kendra is with him now or what.”
“A call is coming in from Finlin,” Brye said and answered it, putting it on speaker.
“What do you have?”
“A fucking mess. Three dead, Kendra’s friend Castle is barely alive, but enough to whisper that Kendra was taken by jeep by four men, and that she killed the three on the ground here. Her other two friends, Phoenix and Sunny, knocked out, beaten and tied up, put in one of the huts we cleared when we arrived.”
“Shit, any clues as to where she was taken? A route at all?” Brye asked.
“Not yet. That’s our next step as we try to just follow the road and see what direction maybe they went in. I’ll call back.”
“Stay safe,” Brye said.
“Shit, call Jaguar and get him on top of that agent Andy. If there’s something fishy going on then these guys have to have a location in Costa Rica, or some safe house or something. It could help to find Kendra faster,” Big John suggested and Brye called Jaguar immediately.
* * * *
Stone was pissed off and even more concerned for Kendra. Even though they found out why she left the Marine Corps, he had this feeling that Brandon, Skylar—the stuck up dick—and Paul were to blame. So when they traveled down the roadway and came to what appeared to be an accident, with a food cart tipped over, and the smell of fuel in the air, he started to get really pissed off. Further down the road, they saw where the smell was coming from, and a body on the ground. Another person wearing similar clothing to the three men found dead. They got out and headed to the edge of a stee
p hill and cliff and could see the broken branches, the markings in the jungle like the jeep tumbled over the hill.
“Fuck, we need to get down there,” Skylar stated and started to look for a path. Gear in place, he pulled out a device.
“What the fuck was she thinking? She changed the damn password. How the hell can we track her if she changed it on us?” Brandon yelled to his brothers.
“You mean her tracking device on her watch she wears?” Walker asked. And everyone looked at one another. Brandon gave Walker a dirty look.
“She gave you the password?”
“What the fuck do you think, considering she’s our woman?” Walker asked and then Quantico came over.
“Keep it active, it should start working as soon as she’s in range.”
“In range? We should be getting it right now if she’s injured and down there in that jeep,” Paul said to them.
“Apparently either she isn’t down there, or this thing doesn’t work. Only one way to find out. Let’s move,” Quantico said and Walker looked at Spartan and Hans.
“Be ready,” he whispered, and tapped his side arm. Walker didn’t trust these three men, Brandon, Skylar, and Paul and they seemed really on edge, and weren’t budging with information. So as they made their way down the steep incline, they were thinking the worst, wondering if Kendra did survive this fall and crash, how, and was she injured. Where did she go? When they came upon the wreck, they saw the one guy dead on the ground.
“Your woman left a set of bodies in her path that more than likely are going to piss off someone,” Hans said as he looked around the vehicle.
“Blood. On the steering wheel and on this metal door. How the hell did she get out of this?” Skylar said and exhaled then looked around them.
“I see more than just one set of footprints here,” Hans said, bending down and looking closer. Walker came over to look and then investigated further, picking up on several tracks.
“She’s being followed. More than two people, it looks like.” Walker was a great tracker and so was Hans.
“Okay, this happened at night, around ten p.m. from what we gathered on questioning staff and Phoenix and Sunny. Let’s assume she remained traveling on foot the last ten to twelve hours, unless her injuries slowed her down. We need to track her and hopefully her device kicks in soon,” Leather stated.
“Be ready. We don’t know how many are following her or how close they are or if they took her. Keep our direction on route in the device so we don’t wind up lost ourselves or going in circles. Hopefully we can follow the footsteps and get to her before these men do.
“That’s a lot of fucking hours,” one of the other men said.
“Kendra is more than capable if she’s in the right mindset,” Skylar stated, and it pissed Walker off, how he knew her that way, that side of her he and his team had only recently found out about. She was in danger, men were hunting her down and he and the team still didn’t know why. Then Spartan got a call. He walked to the side and listened, held Quantico’s gaze and looked pissed off.
* * * *
“Tell the fucking truth right now. Were you smuggling in shit? Working with this guy Gazleer and pulled a fast one on him? Did you just rip him the fuck off?” Quantico screamed into Brandon’s face and held him at gunpoint. Simultaneously as Paul and Skylar went to pull their guns, Stone grabbed Skylar and put his gun to his throat as Walker pointed his gun at Skylar and Paul as Leather held a gun to Paul’s throat.
Brandon was breathing heavy.
“Talk, the whole fucking story and we’ll decide if we get the feds involved and put your asses away for life,” Spartan demanded.
“Fuck. Who the fuck are you guys anyway? God damn it!” Brandon grunted and Quantico pressed his gun to his head more firmly.
“Tell them, Brandon. For Kendra’s sake, just fucking tell them,” Paul said to his brother.
Quantico was ready to pull the fucking trigger for putting their woman in such deep danger.
“Fine. Fucking fine, what does it matter at this point? We never intended for Kendra to be taken. We ended things with her three years ago because of this shit. She knew nothing about the smuggling. We did it one time, behind her back and shit hit the fan. We did what was necessary to cover the shit up, but unfortunately we couldn’t save our careers in the military entirely. By breaking things off with her we were saving her from being in harm’s way when Gazleer came looking for revenge. I’ve been actively hunting him down, and caught wind of some of his business dealings and was smoking him out,” Brandon said.
“Smoking him out? How about fucking pissing him off by ripping him off, and now he seeks revenge again? This time he went after Kendra because he obviously knows that she was important to you, and that she owns this multimillion dollar company,” Quantico yelled at him.
“We never thought—”
“Of course you never thought to just end the shit, your fucking mistake and move on. Your revenge against this guy may cost Kendra’s life. How does that fucking feel now? That woman loved you. She was truly hurt by your lack of respect for the relationship you had with her. Now she’s running for her life, lost in the fucking jungle with military men hunting her down. Fuck!” Quantico yelled and slugged Brandon in the stomach so hard the man fell to the ground. He was gasping for breath.
“Assholes,” Stone said and shoved Skylar away. Leather did the same to Paul and Walker lowered his gun.
“This is a fucking mess. A god damn mess,” Hans said aloud.
“Okay, this is how we’re going to handle this. Our top priority, the reason why we’re here, is to rescue Kendra and get her to safety. That’s our focus. Now, knowing what you three dicks did, we need to cover our asses and get shit in order. Spartan, we need to locate this Gazleer and Lupee. If we can confirm that they’re here in Costa Rica then we can hopefully get men there to watch until we have Kendra under our protection. She’s out there, alone, scared, injured, and time is running out if she has men with guns on her tail. Let’s get moving now,” Quantico ordered.
As he went to walk by Brandon and follow the tracks through the jungle, he heard Brandon speak. “We’ll always love Kendra. We know we fucked up something perfect with her. We’ll make it all up to her,” Brandon said and Quantico stopped and pointed down at Brandon.
“You’ll stay the fuck away from her. She’s our woman, not yours. You had your fucking chance and blew it. Don’t make any other mistakes, or I’ll have no qualms about leaving you here in the fucking jungle or dropping your ass on Gazleer’s doorstep. Now move it,” Quantico ordered and they headed out.
Chapter Five
She was shaking as she leaned against the tree deeper in the brush of the jungle. The sun rose and fell three times. Three days, she had been traveling. Her leg throbbing in pain, the burning getting worse despite her adding disinfectant to it and wrapping it up tight. She slid her hands over the plastic and then swallowed hard. She took a bite of the bar. Just half. She didn’t know where any roads were, or when she would come across a village or something.
She closed her eyes and thought about Quantico, Leather, Stone, and Walker. She missed them. How fucking stupid was that? She spent thirty-six hours with them and most of the time was spent with them making love to her. Holy God, talk about going fast. It was instant. The desire, the continuous attraction and need to have them inside her, next to her, and she longed for them now.
She should have asked them to come along or to meet up with her. Then they would have thought she was clingy, desperate, and she was trying to be so independent and strong, and minimize the connection. Now look where it got her.
She thought about Skylar, Paul, and Brandon and wondered if they had something to do with this situation, because it had been two years since any word or anything from Gazleer. She didn’t trust them, for obvious reasons, but she did still care about them, somewhat. Not like she cared about Quantico and the team. No, this was so different. She really wanted them here. They
were part of Sons of Justice, they were elite, capable soldiers, fierce men who trained soldiers to be fearless and to overcome and adapt at any given situation. She needed to do the same here. She needed to make them proud that she was so strong and their woman. She had to get to safety so she could get back to them. She had to.
As she pushed off the tree and put her backpack on she thought she heard branches breaking, and the mumbled sound of voices. She turned to look, unable to see that far behind her but sensed someone coming. Shit, more men hunting her down. Damn it. Her heart began to pound as she quickly started to walk as fast as she could. Her leg was slowing her down. She cursed the pain and ran through the clearing. Was that a road? Oh my God a road. She hurried toward it, heard the voices yelling and then the gunshots. Bullets hit the dirt around her and she clawed at the hill, using all her energy to get up to the road. More gunshots fired and then others behind the men. They were yelling and as she got to the top of the hill and road she saw other groups of men shooting at the men following her. An instant later two jeeps barreled around the turn, filled with men with guns. One jumped off and ran toward her. She started to head back toward the hill, screaming. More gunshots fired. She didn’t know who was who and she screamed out as the man tackled her and she struggled to get his gun.
* * * *
Stone led the team of men and paused as they came up on a group of six men hunting Kendra down. He could see her in the distance clawing up the hill, dragging her leg, trying to get away. He and the teams aimed and fired at the men. The men fired back. It all happened so quickly as they took cover and attempted to shoot the men getting closer to Kendra when suddenly jeeps appeared at the top of the hill with more men. He heard Kendra scream and then run. A man jumped from the jeep and tackled her, they tumbled partially down the hill. She was fighting him off and Stone, Walker, Leather, and Quantico were running and shooting, taking out the men climbing up the hill after her and trying to get away from them. He took out two men and then heard the gunshot. Thought Kendra was shot but then she pushed the guy off of her and she got up, pointed the gun and shot two more men. She didn’t see the three behind her.
Sons of Justice 5: Seasoned With Love (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever) Page 9