They walked until they came upon a clearing and then Loki stopped and set his bag down. It had rained, the ground was saturated, and it made it hard to walk while carrying their packs. But none of them complained, not even Shadow whose blinding white socks were now caked in mud.
“Okay, this is where we are splitting up. Anthony, make sure you tell Mom that I am here before you tell her you are here to help her. She will not believe you and probably kill you,” Loki said.
Anthony pulled his head back and looked at the man and asked, “Seriously? She is in a third world country jail. How in the hell would she kill me?”
“Uh, she is my mother, I know how she operates, trust me, tell her you are with me,” Loki drawled, and then Anthony nodded.
Neither man paid attention to Shadow as he sat down on the ground and leaned against the tree. They continued to discuss their plan, making sure they had gone over every detail before they left each other.
“I will go to Jaci’s last coordinates; I will secure her, then move to the secure location we will be working out of. Once you make contact with Carole, we will meet at the secure location and figure out what the fuck we do next,” Loki said and then frowned and lifted up his head and sniffed. “What the fuck is that?”
Anthony frowned and looked around; then their eyes came to Shadow on the ground, he was smoking, and not a cigarette. “Seriously? You bastard, are you lighting up in a foreign country? I mean, you do know that it is stupid, right? You could be arrested for that?”
Shadow took a long drag and sucked in and held his breath for a second and then smiled and shrugged. “You guys are ruining my buzz.”
Loki took a deep breath and then said, “Shadow, you can't be stoned and fully participate in a rescue.”
Shadow looked at Loki and smiled. “Dude, there is nothing I can't do stoned. It is my natural state, well, my new natural state. You know I lived in the south, but when Boony told me Cali legalized pot, I was so there. You know they prescribe it for PTSD, it makes you mellow as shit, and have the munchies. That is really the only downfall. Especially when you are in a different space like here, I mean I doubt they have a 7-11 to stop in and grab some Flaming Hot Cheetos, which kinda sucks. Oh, and a Slurpee, dammit, now I am hungry.”
Loki rolled his eyes and looked back at Anthony. “Good luck with that.”
“He needs clothes, seriously,” Anthony said and ran a hand over his face, but Shadow shook his head.
“Man, I don’t need clothes,” Shadow said and pulled out a pair of black pants and a white shirt, which was wrinkled but would work.
“WHY THE FUCK DIDN”T YOU TELL ME SOONER?” Anthony bellowed, and Shadow grinned and shrugged.
“I am telling you now; I brought my whole 007 wardrobe, you never know when you need to be ‘Bond, James Bond,’” Shadow said and then posed like he was holding a gun. Anthony growled and looked at Loki.
“No, I refuse, you can keep him.”
Loki shook his head. “You lost the draw.”
“You cheated,” Anthony fired back.
“True, but still you lost and didn’t call me on cheating until now. So tough shit, he is all yours.”
“Hey,” Shadow said happily. “How’s about this, I will be the floater.”
Loki and Anthony both looked at the man, and Loki said slowly, “You do realize we are going to literally be on opposite sides of the city.”
Shadow smiled. “Duh, you do realize that it takes like an hour to get across the city?”
Loki groaned and said, “Yeah, and we are trying not to draw attention.”
“007 remember?” Shadow said and rolled his eyes.
“We are all going to die,” Anthony muttered and then sighed.
“How about this?” Loki said slowly as he tried to pull this back together. “How about, Shadow, you are going to be in charge of logistics. With your computer, you will get close enough to the jail to hack their systems and find a way to get my mother out. Then you are going to find that motherfucker if he is here—the hack—and you are going to lock his ass down.”
“I was doing that anyway,” Shadow said and pointed to his computer. “Already running the searches where the info came from. Since he has been jumping from Embassy to Embassy, Boony is tracking as well to narrow it down. If he is here, we will find him.”
Chapter Three
Jaci watched the small boy sleep; after showering and eating, the young man had finally fallen asleep. Unfortunately, there was no way she could rest. It had been twenty-four hours since Kaden had called her. There was still no way he could be here that soon, but it didn’t stop her from hoping. She had checked her email every hour, making sure her location wasn’t compromised.
There was no word about Carole. Basically, she was sitting here wasting time, waiting for Kaden, but then what? She really didn’t think Kaden would be able to get his mother out alone. Jaci had avoided the check in yesterday by just sending them the basic message she was waiting for Carole to get back. Basically, she played dumb, which wouldn’t work today, mostly because by now they knew Carole had been caught and would want information from her about the situation. But she was still a little freaked by it. What did Carole know that she didn’t? Was there something more to this hacker that she hadn’t been briefed on? Shit, she could drive herself nuts thinking about this.
Moving quietly, Jaci walked to the front door and looked out the small window—raining still. It was just beginning to get light, and soon the small street would be hopping with activity, people getting their things ready for either taking to the market to sell or waiting to make a deal that was less than legal.
Since coming here, Jaci had been very leery to answer the door or to talk to someone. If they recognized her, she was screwed, and with the bounty on her head, someone here would turn her in. She looked back over her shoulder; the small boy was going to be an issue. Mostly because she wasn’t sure what to do with him. She couldn't leave him, and damn, she refused to turn him over to the authorities. They would just put him in an orphanage and forget him.
She sighed and then went back to sitting, this had to be the longest day of her life. Since joining the agency, Jaci had been on a handful of missions. They usually limited them to two a year because no one knew when they would end. Her longest assignment had been for six months, Carole and Jaci had been in Western Europe that time. Since the hacker had begun releasing information, the entire agency had been hopping. No one knew when someone’s cover was going to be blown.
It made for stressful times when in the field, but Carole had been fearless, she refused to let anyone stop her from doing her job. She grinned as she thought about their last assignment that had been routine. They were to look into the passage of information between a group of so-called exchange students. It turned out they had been assigned to dignitaries by the Foreign Exchange agency in order to obtain classified documents. However, that hadn’t really been the humorous part, no what Jaci still laughed about was when the student who was no more than seventeen or eighteen, when discovered, had tried to offer sexual favors to Carole in exchange for being let off the hook. She had never seen her partner laugh so hard in her life.
This assignment had been trickier; especially when they discovered Victor Burns was here, and he was planning on staying for a while. The intel they discovered was solid, but the information they also got about the North Korean government had been as well. Carole told Jaci to make sure not to send it to the computer; there was no such thing as a safe way to communicate this information other than face to face. It was that explosive.
Noise in the back of her made her turn and frown. The computer was up, but it shouldn’t be live, but the light had just come on. Moving slowly, she stared at the screen, and then she saw the small camera on the top of the screen turn green. What the fuck?
She was out of the camera range, but the camera stayed lit, so she grabbed a towel and threw it over the lens and then moved in front of the computer and reached
to shut it down until she heard a voice, “Wait.”
Jaci’s finger hovered over the button as she paused. There was something in the voice. “Please don’t shut down.”
Jaci frowned and then looked at the little boy. She wasn’t only putting herself in danger right now, but she was also putting the boy if this was someone who wanted to turn her into the government, she was screwed.
“I swear, I am not the one who gave your information away,” she heard say to her, and she rolled her eyes. Yeah, that is what they all say. “If I can convince you of that, will you help me?”
“Who is this?” she asked softly, looking at her watch; she knew how long it would take for someone to find her with the signal she was using, she had about two minutes before she had to shut down. Right now, her signal was being routed into more than twelve countries.
“My name is Victor Burns,” she heard, and Jaci literally growled and reached for the button to turn off her computer. The fucker was messing with her, she was so not going to allow that. “I am not the one who is releasing the information. I swear.”
“Fuck off,” Jaci snapped and lowered her finger.
“Seriously! I can prove it,” the man said desperately, and Jaci paused, thirty seconds was all she had.
“Where are you?” she yelled, beyond caring at that point how much noise she made. This asshole was trying to fuck with her. He had already fucked with her partner, and there was no way she was going to let that go.
She heard a sigh. “I don’t know, but you need to believe me. I know they arrested the woman you were with, but it was not me who gave the information. They know where you are, you need to leave. Five months ago I was just sitting at my house when suddenly…”
Jaci cut the feed and stared at the computer. She couldn’t turn it back on, she had no idea how he got onto the secured server the agency set up for its operatives, but she wasn’t going to chance it. Well, when she didn’t check in, they would know for sure, there was nothing she could do about it. Her cover had been compromised and now her location, she needed to get the fuck out of here.
She turned and looked at the bed where the little boy was sleeping, he was awake and staring at her. Jaci smiled and stood. She walked to her bag and knelt down, and grabbing a thick wad of bills from the bottom, she handed them to the little boy and said, “Here, I have to leave; you stay here in this house, I will send someone to you soon to help you.”
The little boy shook his head but stood and waited. She frowned. “What?”
“I come with you,” the boy said, and Jaci shook her head. She couldn't take him.
“You can't, it is too dangerous. I will make sure though, that someone comes to help you, I promise. I have friends…” she said, and once again he shook his head.
“I come with you,” he repeated, and once again she shook her head.
“No,” she said, and he waited. Jaci stood and put the money on the table, and she looked at the young boy. “Use the money for food; it shouldn’t be long. I will make some phone calls, I promise, you will get someone to help you.”
The little boy leaned forward and yelled, “I COME WITH YOU.”
Shit, shit, shit, what the hell was she going to do? Jaci bit her lip; she didn’t have time, the boy would be safe if she wasn’t here, but she also wasn’t stupid and knew he would run if she left him. With a loud sigh, Jaci said, “Okay, you come with until I find somewhere safe for you.”
The little boy shook his head but watched as she grabbed the money, left the computer, and followed her out the door. Jaci turned and turned on the burner phone she had, then put it in her pocket after adding the phone number Kaden gave her. She really hoped he was going to get here soon. Because she only had one more place she could go. If they found her there, she was going to be forced to do something drastic.
Loki moved quietly and quickly through the streets, well if you could call the dirt roads actually streets. The house had to be close, but this part of town, the houses were fairly close together, and unless he called Jaci and asked her to give him a signal, she could be in any of the row houses that seemed to all be leaning to the left as if they were resting on one another. Hell, a good stiff wind and Loki seriously thought they would be wiped out.
He really hoped Anthony was making headway, and Shadow was actually, well, not smoking the ganja so much he baked more of his brain cells. What the hell was Boony thinking sending that man with them? They were fucking professionals, they couldn’t afford to make mistakes. Loki knew he had to deal with it, just as he knew when they landed back in San Diego, he was kicking Boony’s ass. He didn’t give a shit if the Lady Riders were protecting him.
Pausing at the end of the row of houses, he looked down. Only a few more clicks, he was close. He felt something in his back pocket buzz, and he swore, if it was Shadow, he was totally going to kill him. No contact, meant no texts, calls, anything until they met at the safehouse. He had explained it several times.
Loki heard a noise, and he looked up. A large military truck pulled to a house down the street and stopped. He moved around the corner of the house he had stopped at and watched. Distractedly looking at his phone as a text message flashed at him. Fuck, he thought when he read it and looked up. How the fuck had they found her?
He watched as a group of military men, all armed, stand in line while what looked like their commanding officer talked into a phone. Then the officer waved to the men to move forward, and Loki watched as the line of men raised their guns into position and began to run toward the house.
Loki bent and opened his bag. If she were in there, they weren’t taking her. He pulled out a small grenade Boomer had given him and slid it into his pocket. Then he pulled out a few more of the little presents Boomer gave him, including a dirty bomb that had a chemical inside that could burn the skin of anyone it came in contact with. It was painful and deadly if he needed it, Loki was going to use it.
Peeking around the corner, he waited and watched as the men kicked in the door to the house, and they were yelling. Their commanding officer was still on the phone, waiting, talking to whoever was on the other side of the phone.
He stood and then moved to the back of the house and looked around that corner and watched as the armed men flooded into the backyard, yelling and pointing their guns into the shrubs and looking under the house.
She was gone, the message she had sent told him as much, but he wasn’t sure if she had sent it before she left or after. Hell, either way, she had just missed being caught. He pulled out his map and nodded. He knew where she was going, and it was smart, and it was also close to the house Fling had already set up. Putting his head down, Loki moved in the shadows of the rundown shacks until he was blocks away. Then he finally looked up and around, the city was waking up, and now he could blend in a little bit with the hustle and bustle of the workers.
Chapter Four
Fling and the other Furies all moved to the back gate, the one that connected their compound with the Ops’s compound. There was so much shit flying around right now, they couldn’t afford for any of them to leave the property, so the Furies were locking down both properties as well as Boomer and Tank helping with explosives.
This was the last meeting before they were going to finally deal with the past. Fling had already made plans for his brother's son to be back before shit went down. They were going to need the manpower now that everything was about ready to get real.
Creed stood and nodded to him as they moved across the bar area. The table was already filled with beer, and Fling grabbed a bottle and took a drink before he sat down. Fuck, he needed that. All of this shit was beginning to take its toll on him, and the club. Too many irons in the fire, they were spreading themselves thin. He really hoped they had good news tonight. The Black Hawk club was hopefully going to be joining them as well.
“Fling,” Creed said, and Fork joined him as well and nodded to Fling.
“Creed…Fork,” Fling said and then sat down.
>
“How are the plans?” Creed asked, and Fling nodded.
“We will have the manpower, but I am hoping you will have Black Hawk as well. Loki had to leave, and Ironside will be back right before this goes down. It leaves us a few men short, sorry it was unplanned.”
Fork said, “Yeah, Black Hawk will be here. We will be fine on men.”
All of the men heard a scream, and they stood up and reached for their weapons. Boo ran into the room and yelled, “Open the fucking gate, Maxi and Kink found someone out front.”
Fork pointed at the table where the Lady Riders were sitting and snapped, “Do not fucking move.”
Shady stood, her belly sticking out and she nodded. “Boo, get your ass over here.”
The room emptied as the men ran out to the front of the compound, all with their guns drawn, all looking for danger. Fling saw the two Ops Warriors kneeling on the ground with a figure in the middle of the drive. The gates were sliding open, and he heard their president roar.
“Is she alive?”
Kink looked up at him with a pained expression, and he whispered, “Yeah, Creed, and it’s Dani, how the fuck did she get here? Who in the fuck would ever connect her to us?”
Chapter Five
Jaci moved quickly with her head down and the little boy with no name following her. She only had a few more blocks, and finally, she could rest. Not taking any transportation for fear they would see her, Jaci had walked almost the entire way across the city in order to get to the next safehouse.
It was still in a shitty part of town, she had just gone from slightly shitty, to extremely shitty. Carole always found the out-of-the-way places for them to hide if needed. Although this morning, that failed. When she and the young boy walked out of the house, she had heard the rumble of the military trucks. Hearing that, Jaci had grabbed the little boy's hand, and they had run.
Backfire (Furies MC Book 4) Page 3