He never had a family. His parent’s died when he was younger and he’d been raised in foster care for most of his life. As soon as he was old enough he enlisted and taken on the life of a soldier. He had many of his brothers in arms approach him before a mission with a letter to give their families in case something happened to them. More times than he’d wished he didn’t have to; he’d had to deliver those letters. He always felt lucky that he’d been on his own. He’d only needed to worry about but himself. That was different now. This woman next to him, with her sarcastic mouth and spunky attitude, owned him body and soul.
She stirred lightly stretching her arms towards him as she blinked up at him with a sleepy smile.
“Good afternoon, Love.” He lay down onto the pillow next to her.
“Afternoon? How late did I sleep?”
“Oh it’s only noon. You had a long night last night. How are you feeling?” He ran his hand down the loose curls that fell around her face.
“Aside from starving, better than I think I should.” She smiled until she took in the look in his eyes. “Jace, what’s wrong?”
“I talked to Antonio a few minutes ago.”
“What did he say?”
“We are going tonight. I am waiting for him to call with the information.” He took a deep breath as he saw the look of sadness creep into Judy’s eyes. “Listen, Honey, I know that you are scared and you don’t really know what to think right now. To be honest I don’t either. I have never had to think of anyone else before. You know I don’t have any family other than you so it’s always been easy going into battle. Now I don’t know what to do. I know this is something I have to do but it scares the hell out of me that if something happens to me that you will be alone.”
“Jace, I know you feel like you don’t have a family but you do. You have Ryan and Abbi; you have the guys at the office. They are all your brothers. Yes, it does scare the hell out of me to think you might get hurt but I also know that you wouldn’t be able to live with yourself if you asked someone else to go in your place and they were hurt instead.” She reached over and softly caressed the side of his face. “What do you have there?” Her fingers traveled down to the dog tags that were in his hand.
“These have gone into so many battles with me. I have always thought they were lucky, that they kept me from harm. Stupid I know.” He held them up. “Like they held some magical power.”
“I don’t think it’s stupid. You have to have something to believe in.”
“I do. Us.” He gently lifted her off the bed and pulled her to his chest. He took the metal chain of the dog tags and slowly placed them around her head pulling them down to her neck. “I believe in us. I know that no matter what waits for us tonight that I have to get back here to you. I have to be here to protect you for the rest of your life.”
“You do Jace. I have never felt so much love before. I promise these won’t leave my neck until you walk back through that door.”
“When I leave tonight I would like to have you and Abbi together here. Josh and Gabe will be inside the apartment with you and we will have a detail outside also. You will be on lockdown. Until I get back you don’t leave. No matter what happens you don’t leave.”
“I promise Jace. I will wait right here for you.” He wrapped his arms around her and held her, taking in the softness of her skin and the light smell of coconut in her hair.
A soft knock came from their bedroom door. Jace reached down and covered Judy up with the covers. “Come in.”
Mason peeked his head in. “Hey, Ryan and the guys are on their way.” He whispered.
“Ok, we will be out in a minute.”
Mason left the room as Jace turned back to Judy. “Go get a shower, Babe. You will feel better after you do. I am going to be in the office with the guys. What would you like to eat?”
“Um, surprise me.” She smiled up at him as she rolled out of her side of the bed and headed for their bathroom.
“Hey, Judy?” He called out to her as she stopped in the doorway.
“Yeah, Babe?”
“I love you.”
“I love you more.” She smiled as she headed through the door into the bathroom.
*****
“I don’t know what to think Abs.” Judy sighed as she picked at the grilled chicken salad that Jace had wrapped up for her.
“I just wish I could be sure that nothing bad will happen. What if something goes wrong, Judy? Am I crazy or is this whole idea crazy?”
“I don’t think you’re crazy. It’s just something we have never had to deal with before. The last time the guys put themselves in this situation it was because they were worried about our safety. Now they are doing it and it’s our turn to worry about theirs. We will get through tonight and everyone will be ok.” Judy put on a brave face.
She honestly didn’t know what to think about what would be going down in a few hours. Jace and the guys would be leaving and she wasn’t sure if they would be coming back. What if there were people there with Trent? What if someone got hurt or worse? She wasn’t sure how she would go on if something happened to Jace.
“I just wish I knew that everyone would be ok. It’s scary, ya know? Ryan and I have more to think about than ourselves now. We have Olivia to think about now too.”
“Olivia?” Judy looked puzzled.
Abbi’s hand came to rest on her stomach. “We decided to name her Olivia Madison Dixon.” She said smiling.
“It’s not Judy Jr. but it will do.” Judy laughed. “Where did you come up with it?”
“Olivia was Ryan’s grandmother’s name and Madison was my mother’s name. Ryan’s mom insisted that we name her after his grandmother instead of her and Olivia just kinda stuck.”
“I love it. Baby Olivia.” Judy grinned.
“I also have some other good news to share with you. We picked a date.”
“Really! When did you pick?”
“Next month on the 26th. That leaves us with a little over a month. We figured that since we were having such a small wedding that it wouldn’t be too last minute for anyone.”
“I will mark my calendar. I guess this means I have to decide on a bridesmaids dress. Blue or coral?” Judy asked.
They both paused for a moment trying to gauge which the other would choose before spouting out in unison, “Blue.”
“Ha! Great minds do think alike! I will call tomorrow and order it.” Judy pushed the lettuce in her salad around the bowl.
A comfortable silence fell between the two of them. It was so hard to carry on small talk with the unknown that tonight held. Judy knew they needed to stay positive and hope for the best but the darkness of negative thoughts kept seeping back into her head.
The guys had been holed up in Jace’s office for what seemed like hours. Abbi and Judy had gone through every channel on the TV and countless wedding and baby magazines before they all reemerged. Mark and Aaron headed immediately out the door as Ryan, Mason and Jace came into the great room.
“Ok girls. We need to go over a few things for tonight.” Jace let out a deep breath as he took a seat next to Judy.
“When we leave this apartment tonight you do not under any circumstance leave. There is still the possibility that this could be gang retaliation and until we know for sure that it isn’t you have to be where we know you’re safe. Our heads have to be on our mission and we can’t be worried that you’re not ok.” Ryan placed his hand on Abbi’s back. “You will have Gabe and Josh inside the apartment with you. Johnson and Martinez will be in the hallway and Lucas will be in the lobby.”
“We have already alerted the building security so that they will be aware in case something happens here. But that is only a precaution.” Jace squeezed Judy’s hand reassuringly.
“When are you leaving?” Judy whispered.
“We are meeting Mark and Aaron at the office in a few hours. I wanted to give them time to go and talk to their families before we left.” Jace answered.
“Jace, what are you going to do to him? Are you going to…kill…” Judy questioned as her voice trailed off. Fear of what his answer would be sent a shudder through her body.
“Too much death has already been caused at his hands. I also don’t want to have any possible way of this blowing back on us. Our mission tonight is to send the fear of pain, just like what he has caused others, into his soul. When we are done we will hand him over to Antonio and it’s his business what he does from there.”
“Ok.” Judy’s voice was still quiet.
“Babe. Everything is going to be ok.” Jace reassured.
Chapter fifteen
Jace, Ryan and Mason walked into the office as the last of the LA sunset came flooding in through the windows. They made their way to Ryan’s office where Mark and Aaron were already anxiously waiting. Both were already dressed in black tactical attire. Aaron’s two .9mm were holstered on his sides as Mark had one placed in a holster on his hip and another tucked into the back of his pants.
“Alright guys. Let’s go over the details one more time before we head out.” Ryan clicked the button turning on the big screen TV that hung on the opposite wall. Bending over his desk he hit a few keys before the blueprints of the apartment complex came up onto the TV screen.
“I know we are asking a lot from you guys and I appreciate your willingness to join us. However I want you to know that you do not have to go with us tonight. If anything happens or if the law gets involved I expect you to run like hell.” Jace said taking a seat onto Ryan’s desk.
“No way we’d be anywhere else man. I am ready to give this asshole what he deserves.” Mark nodded agreeing with Aaron.
“Ok then let’s get into it. This is the apartment complex. It’s mostly vacant. It’s has quite a bit of tree cover on each side which will help to conceal us on our approach…” Ryan’s voice hummed throughout the room as he went over the details of the mission.
Jace had already played it out a thousand times in his head. He was ready to face it head on. They had confirmed the address and time with Antonio this afternoon. They would be meeting up with Antonio and a few members of the gang before entering through the back exit of the complex. From there it would be up to their own creativity as to what they did to make him suffer.
Jace knew there was a possibility that this wouldn’t have a storybook ending but not everyone in life gets that. Alexis didn’t get that, nor did Ashley.
“Jace do you have anything to add?” Ryan’s question pulled him from his thoughts.
“Let’s get in there, raise some hell, and get this shit done.” Jace said turning to the guys.
A silent nod from everyone and they were off toward the lower garage. Tension radiated throughout the elevator as they took it down to the private parking area. As they stepped out the group made their way towards the blacked out Yukon parked in the VIP Bodyguard section. They gathered around the back of the SUV as Jace reached in and took out the locked ammunition box. He grabbed his two Smith and Wesson .45 mm pistols and holstered them on each side. Taking the two Sig Sauer .9mm’s and handing them to Mason.
“These got me out of a lot of bad situations in the desert.” He handed him the pistols along with extra clips of ammunition.
The group loaded into the SUV and sped off into traffic. They sat quietly on the ride through the city. The blacked out windows of the SUV made it hard for anyone to see into the vehicle, which only made people stare harder hoping to get a glimpse of someone famous.
As they pulled onto the street leading to the apartment complex Jace allowed the worry to sink in. He couldn’t answer the ‘what if’s’, he could only hope for the best. Just as quickly as he began to dwell on the bad he let it go. He emotionally prepared for what was ahead of them and he couldn’t let his mind wander to anything else.
Looking out he noticed the variety of gang signs painted on the sides of different buildings as they drove toward the apartment. It was as if they had left LA altogether and were now driving through the streets of the Middle East. Tattered and worn dwellings lined each side of the road that without a doubt had seen their own fair share of tragedy and violence. They were in someone else’s stomping ground now, they had no pull here and he didn’t figure they would get any assistance if things went wrong.
Jace felt the SUV slow into the darkness as Ryan turned the main headlights of. Just the slight glow from the running lights and the moon were all they had to guide their way in. Ryan pulled the SUV just outside of the apartment complex and stopped.
“Jace see if you can get eyes on our building.” Ryan motioned to the small paper map of the apartment complex.
Jace lifted his binoculars and scanned the perimeter of the buildings. Building A, Building B, Building… C. “Got it.”
“This place looks pretty empty Ryan. Do we know if there are any other people living here?” Mason asked from the back.
“The complex got condemned about a year or so ago. I imagine there isn’t anyone else here and if there is I can promise you they are up to no good so they shouldn’t be a problem to us.” Ryan answered.
“I got Antonio. He’s at the base of the stairwell. He just flagged me, we have confirmation that Trent is in the building.”
Ryan pulled the SUV past the apartment complex and up into the thick tree line on the other side of the road. Jace’s heart quickened as Ryan killed the engine. Nothing but blackness surrounded them as they left the vehicle. They didn’t speak but followed Ryan’s signal to cross the road and go into the trees outside the complex.
Without making a sound the group formed a line and crossed into the tree line. Under the cover of the brush they made their way in front of the abandoned complex. As they approached the building that Trent was staying in a sudden commotion of movement forced them to stop.
“Jace, get eyes up there.” Ryan’s tone was that of a leader in war as he whispered over to Jace.
Jace quietly lay onto the ground and pulled the binoculars up. He could see a dim light coming from inside the apartment as the door flung back open. The shouting cut through the silence as Trent stepped out onto the walkway of the third floor.
“You stupid bitch!” Trent’s hand slammed down hard on the face of the other person.
He adjusted his line of sight and took in the curly brunette hair that tangled into the railing of the walkway.
“I told you to stay the fuck out of it!” Trent’s voice reverberated off of the empty walls.
Jace looked down at Antonio who was now squatting on the backside of the apartment complex next to two shadowed figures.
“I was just trying to help! I promise I will do whatever you want me to!” A woman’s voice cut through the darkness.
Jace’s heart almost stopped as he looked back up toward the walkway to see Ashley’s disheveled body standing in front of Trent. Bruises and cuts marked the sides of her face as the bloody track marks ran down her arms. You gotta be fucking kidding me.
“Ryan.” Jace whispered as he motioned toward him. “Ashley is up there too.”
He could see the anger flare into Ryan’s eyes but they had taken into consideration that Trent may not have been alone. However they had never considered that someone so close to them would be up there. Ryan motioned for them to keep moving toward the end of the apartment building. Again they crept slowly through the thick brush staying as quiet as they could. Approaching the end of the apartment complex they heard the courtyard again go silent.
As they neared the opening of the tree line they each masked their face with a bandana in order to conceal their identity. Jace stood at the front of the group and looked back toward Mark taking in the skeleton outline across his mask. As Jace led them out of the tree line and to the side of the complex a sudden movement to his right caused him to bring his pistol up meeting the forehead of Antonio.
“It’s me Ese!” He whispered quickly holding his hands up.
Jace dropped his gun as the group moved behind the building.
<
br /> “What Antonio?” The irritation could be heard through Jace’s low voice.
“You fuckers are slick. I didn’t even see you coming.” Antonio smirked.
“What. Do. You. Want?” Jace’s voice was clipped as he spoke.
“Ok here’s the plan. He’s got that drunk bitch up there with him. If she sees anything she’s as good as dead. We don’t leave loose ends.”
“You let me take care of her. Is there anyone else up there?” Jace asked.
“Not that we know of. Here’s the plan. You go get him, rough him up and then you bring his ass to me. We will be down here waiting. You have thirty minutes.” Antonio motioned to the two men standing back by the empty dumpster.
Jace nodded as he motioned to the guys to line up behind him. They made their way to the edge of the stairwell as Mark’s hand came up and squeezed Jace’s shoulder telling him the team behind was ready to follow him in. Jace swiftly moved up the stairs, the heat from his breath blowing out against the bandana covering his face caused condensation to form around his mouth. As he reached the top of the stairs he paused surveying the area again before moving forward. Quickly and quietly they made their way to the apartment door. Jace, Mark and Mason took the right side as Ryan and Aaron took the left. Jace motioned that he would open the door and Ryan would enter the room first. He took a deep breath as he reached over to the door handle. Time to bring the pain.
*****
“Abbi, they have been gone forever. Do you think they are ok?” Judy paced the living room in front of the fireplace.
“Judy, I am going to smother you if you ask me that one more time. Or at least duct tape you and put you in the closet until they get back.” Abbi said from the couch.
“Josh, have you heard anything? What’s going on?” Judy asked again.
“Judy, I promise once I know something I will tell you.” He said apologetically.
“Well I can’t just fucking sit here with my thumb up my ass. I am about to go crazy.” Judy spouted off as she paced.
“Josh, the duct tape is in the middle drawer of the kitchen island.” Abbi said from the couch. “I will get her hands if you get her feet.”
Cherish Me (The Protected Love Series) Page 11