by KJ Dahlen
The other man poked him in the chest. “I don’t give a shit what you want or don’t want. Lydia is my woman and Caiden belongs to me as well.” Turning his head, he glared at Calico. “Despite the man who walked out on both of them before he was even born.”
Calico listened with his heart beating wildly. He knew then that Lydia had given him a son. He’d thought about her and the baby from time to time over the years but he stayed away from them for a reason. “Who are you?” he finally asked.
“My name is Slammer. My crew is Swede, Mutzy, Tenor, Falcon and Thor.” He motioned to the five other man as he spoke.
“So why are you here?” Bastian asked.
“I was with Lydia and her kid when five men broke into their house. They knocked me out but before I went under, I heard one of the men mention the name of this town. When I came to, I saw blood on the floor and Lydia and Caiden were gone. I gathered some of my crew and we came here.” Slammer ran his hands over his head. Then he glared at Calico. “I saw you and decided to follow you until I could find out where they were.”
“What made you follow him here?” Dewey asked.
“His hair.” Slammer shrugged.
“What about it?” Bastian frowned.
“Caiden has the same coloring,” Slammer informed them. “When I saw that, I followed him to get some answers.”
Bastian sighed deeply. When he exhaled he said, “Well, we know where they are but there are twenty men guarding them.” He looked over at Jim, “Lydia and Caiden must be the other two we couldn’t place.”
Jim nodded.
“Who are these men and why would they take Lydia and Caiden?” Slammer asked.
“These men are from my past,” Calico admitted. “They took Lydia and Caiden to make me give myself up for their release. More than likely, they won’t keep their word and try to take us all out.” Nodding, he also told them, “They are holding my daughter prisoner as well.”
“Why would they do that?” Slammer asked. “They must have a reason.”
Calico rolled his eyes. “They think they do. Eleven years ago, I turned their sons over to Homeland Security. They were running drugs and weapons along the east coast. They committed such atrocities against innocent people and I didn’t really have a choice. Homeland came down hard but it was the Barrone brothers that started the gunfight that took them down. Enrique was wounded badly but he managed to escape. Tomas was captured and went to jail, then Jose was killed outright along with the rest of their crew. Tomas was sentenced to life in prison but managed to escape after ten years. A few days ago, Enrique and Tomas grabbed my daughter Sawyer off the street. Bastian was able to get her back but it cost them their lives. We only found out earlier today about their father and older brother being here. We didn’t know they’d taken Lydia and Caiden until you got here.”
“What are these men likely to do with them?” Slammer asked looking like he dreaded the answer.
“They are waiting for me to show up,” Calico admitted. “Then they will either kill me in front of them or kill them all in front of me. Either way, they plan to kill us all. They are also looking for what happened to Tomas and Enrique. They don’t know yet that Tomas and Enrique are dead.”
Slammer crossed his arms over his chest and demanded, “So what are you going to do to get them back old man?”
Calico gestured to the others, “We’re going in and getting them out.”
“Without getting Lydia, Caiden and your daughter killed?” Slammer scoffed.
“The only ones dying today will be the Barrone Cartel members,” Bastian assured everyone his deadly tone spoke volumes.
“Look I don’t know you,” Slammer exclaimed. “But I’m not going to trust you to get my old lady and her kid out of this without getting them killed. Me and my guys are going with you.”
Bastian shook his head. “I don’t think so. These men…” He motioned around the parking lot. “These men are trained military men. They know how to infiltrate a place and get in and out without causing causalities. They can get in, get the hostages and get out, better than you and your men can.”
Slammer glared. “Me and my men are going in, with or without you. If being ex-military is the only requirement then we have that covered. We served our time in the sandbox.”
Slammer and the others pushed up the sleeves of their t shirts and showed off their tattoos. All six of them were Marines.
Dewey searched Bastian for a moment then shook his head. He turned to Slammer and tried to defuse the situation. “Look I understand what you’re saying but we don’t know you and you don’t know us. You don’t know how we work and we need to work together as a unit. We need to go in there, neutralize the men on guard, and get to Sawyer and the others before they get hurt.”
Slammer narrowed his eyes as he stared at Dewey. “You aren’t going to kill them?”
Bastian answered his query, “Oh yeah, they’ll die but I want them to know the reason they are dying.”
“What good is that going to do anyone?” Slammer scoffed. “I say go in there strong and let them die where they fall.”
“I won’t risk my woman’s life, not for you and not even for her father,” Bastian growled.
“That’s my woman and kid in there too. If you think I’d risk them, then you are an idiot.” Slammer glared at the man in front of him.
“You go rushing in there and the first ones to die will be Sawyer, Lydia and Caiden,” Dewey gritted out.
Slammer grinned evilly. “Not the way we’re going in. They won’t even see us until it’s too late. We don’t need guns to kill someone. As Marines we do know hand to hand mortal combat.”
“We need to take care of the twenty men on guard before we confront Maximillian and Paco Barrone,” Bastian told them.
“Then let us help.” Slammer insisted his eyes like live wires. “I have as much right in this as you do.” He glared at Bastian. Turning to Calico, he added, “And he doesn’t have any rights here at all. He turned his back on Lydia and Caiden before Caiden was even born. If his daughter is your woman then you and I have a claim here but he has nothing.”
“I may not have ever seen my son face to face but I did support him.” Calico stated. “Lydia asked me to stay away and I did, but I also sent her money every month for his support.”
“As you should have but in the end that don’t mean shit.” Slammer sneered. “You ended up throwing money at a real live human being, instead of being there to help raise him. Lydia has no other family, so while she was pregnant and through his first nine years, she was alone raising your son. I’ve only known Caiden for the last five years but he’s a very cool little man. He takes good care of his mom and he’s just a kid.”
“I watched over both of them,” Calico insisted.
“Can we not argue this right now?” Bastian interrupted their argument. “We need to get our families back then argue who did what.”
“I agree.” Dewey nodded.
“So, do you know where these men are or are we going in without a plan?” Slammer asked.
“We know where they are. We used inferred scanning to locate where they all were,” Jim offered.
“Okay, tell us where you want us to go,” Slammer insisted.
Jim looked over at Bastian.
He nodded his head though he didn’t like any of this.
“We think Sawyer, Lydia and Caiden are on the third floor. There are ten men on the ground floor and seven more on the second floor. That leaves three more along with Maximillian and Paco with the prisoners on the top floor.”
Slammer nodded. “Okay, you and your men take the front door. Me and my men will come in the back door.”
Bastian reached out and grabbed his arm. “I mean it, I want them all alive until the end.”
“We’ll try but if it’s between them and us I pick us.” Slammer shrugged.
“That’s good enough for me,” Bastian agreed. “Tie them up and work your way to the third floor. That
’s where the rest of us will be.”
Slammer nodded then turned to his men. “You heard him. Attack but do not kill unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
Each of his men nodded their agreement and when he threw his leg over his bike, they were ready to go.
Dewey and his men got ready. Dewey led them back to the hotel and about three blocks away, they parked their bikes. Bastian and Jim parked their cars and all the men gathered for one last confab before they hit the hotel.
Slammer and his men got their orders and slipped into the shadows. Dewey and his men left shortly after that.
Bastian slipped away on his own and made his own way to the hotel. Slipping inside he saw a couple of men knocked out and tied up. Slowly making his way to the staircase, he went up three floors. Listening carefully, he couldn’t hear any noise from the other side. Opening the heavy door carefully, all he saw was an empty hall.
He knew where about the rooms he needed would be, so he carefully made his way down the left side of the hall. He withdrew the knife from the sheath on his belt and continued on his path down the hall.
His ears caught the sound of someone pacing back and forth in one of the rooms down the hall. Jim had told him there were two people in the third room from the end on the right side of the hall and five bodies in the room at the end of the hall on the left.
Stepping carefully, he heard Jim’s voice come over the mic in his ear, “Nine men down on the ground floor, three men down on the second floor. Hang on a minute, seven men down on the second floor, all ten down on the first. Everyone is coming your way.”
Bastian texted his position and his next move as he closed in on the right side of the hall. Without making a sound, he opened the door. There was a man standing over the bed with a gun in his hand. On the bed was a woman’s body and it wasn’t moving. Silently, he walked up behind the man and pressed on a nerve in his neck. The man went down without making a sound.
Bastian checked on the woman and found her breathing easy, so he didn’t want to disturb her. He tied the man’s hands behind his back and shoved a rag in his mouth. Then he went back out in the hall to wait for back up.
Within a few minutes, he saw his men coming down the hall. When Slammer came into sight, he nodded toward the room he just left and raised his finger to his lips.
Slammer nodded then disappeared into the room.
Dewey and a couple of his men went into the adjoining room. They’d been told the two rooms shared a door between them.
Bastian and Calico went closer to the door. None of the rooms had locks on them, instead they all supported holes where the locks had been. When the hotel was abandoned, all the hardware was removed.
Kneeling down, Bastian peeked into the room. He saw Sawyer tied to a chair in the middle of the room. Caiden was laying on his side on the floor in front of her. There was a man standing at the window but he couldn’t see where the other man was.
He backed away and allowed Calico to see what he had. His phone vibrated with an incoming text. When he read it, he saw Dewey had eyes in the room. He told them an older man was laying on the bed which was why Bastian hadn’t seen him. The bed was out of his line of sight. He also said he could see a handgun within Paco’s reach but it wasn’t in his hands.
Bastian thought for a moment then suggested via text, “We need to draw Paco away from the room, then all we have to deal with is the old man.”
“From what I’ve heard of the old man, he’s the worst of the bunch,” Calico whispered from next to him.
“When we have Paco buttoned up, we’ll come in through both doors. He won’t know where to shoot first. It might give us enough time to get the drop on him,” Bastian texted back.
“10-4.” Was his response.
Behind them Slammer came out of the room with Lydia in his arms. She was still unconscious and flopped over his arms. He adjusted his hold and when he did, her arms smacked the door frame. It barely made a sound but Dewey texted Bastian that Paco heard something.
Bastian looked at the men in the hall and pointing at his eyes he told them through gestures, to look out.
The men faded into the doorways and held their positions.
Bastian took up his own position behind the door.
Calico slipped across the hall into the room Slammer had just come out of.
Paco came through the door and checked the hall first, then went into the room Calico disappeared into. There were slight sounds of a brief struggle then silence. Moments later, Calico came to the door and nodded.
Bastian texted Dewey. Checking his watch, he gave the command. Then watched the seconds tick down. When it was time, he breached the door as Dewey came through the other door, throwing Maximillian Barrone into a tizzy. He leapt up from the bed and grabbed his gun in one motion. Too bad, he never reached it. Before he could, a shot echoed and he screamed in pain as a bullet went through his hand. Then he began to swear.
He fell back on the bed and glared at the number of men flooding into his room. His left hand was cradling his right and blood spread over both hands.
Both Dewey and Caine held weapons on the old man while Bastian and Calico released Sawyer and Caiden.
Bastian heard the words Maximillian was screaming and he paused, then whipped his head around to glare at the older man. His eyes narrowed as he stared at the other man. Then his lips curled into a sneer. He turned back to Sawyer and began cutting her free.
“Where is my mother?” Caiden glared at Calico.
“She’s safe. Slammer has her,” Calico told him.
Sawyer sobbed as Bastian cut the ropes holding her. He grabbed her up in his arms and held her close. Then he set her away from him and checked her over carefully. “Are you alright?” he had to ask. “They didn’t hurt you?”
Sawyer shook her head. “No they didn’t hurt either of us too bad. Caiden said they beat his mother pretty bad though,” she said wiping the tears off her face. “Is she going to be okay?”
Bastian shrugged. “We don’t know yet. We haven’t had time to check her out.”
“So what happens now?” Caiden asked.
“Now we settled things here and go back to the compound,” Bastian told him. He turned to glare at Maximillian. “Bring him over here and tie him to the chair.” Glancing over at Calico he said, “Bring Paco in and tie him down too.”
Dewey crossed his arms over his chest. “What about the others?”
“Bring them up here.” Bastian nodded at the other men. “Then I want you to all go back to the compound. Get Lydia, Caiden and Sawyer checked out. I’ll be there soon.”
Sawyer grabbed his arm. “What are you going to do?” she whispered fearfully.
Bastian looked her in the eyes and gave her half a smile. “I’m not going to tell you. All you have to know is that this particular nightmare will be over soon.”
Before she could say anything, the men began leading Barrone’s men into the room. They were still tied up and gagged and they really didn’t want to be there. They were shoved to the floor around their boss. Ropes secured them to prevent any kind of movement. No matter how much they struggled, they couldn’t get free.
Paco was dragged into the room and bound back to back with his father. Bastian looked at the others and walked over to Sawyer. “I want you to go back to the compound with the others. I’ll meet you back there as soon as I’m done here.”
Sawyer tried to shake her head but Bastian put his hands on either side of her face. Looking at her eye to eye he told her, “This is something I have to do. I can’t allow my enemies the chance to use you against me ever again. I can’t let anyone use you against me or any member of your family. This is the only way to keep you and our baby safe. It will also stop anyone from coming after your father as well. This will send everyone a message that if they come after anyone I care about, they will lose more than they can afford. I will crush them.”
“I don’t want you to put yourself in danger,” she whispered.
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Bastian pressed his lips to hers. “Please go. I’ll be with you soon.”
Calico gently peeled her away from Bastian and led her away from the room.
Bastian went over to the window overlooking the parking lot. He watched and waited until he heard the bikes roar and take off before he turned back to search the eyes of the men awaiting their fate.
His eyes caught Maximillian’s and he wouldn’t let them go. “So we finally meet,” Bastian told the older man with a sneer.
“What are you talking about?” Maximillian huffed. “I don’t know you and you have no idea who I am. If you did, you would let me go and be thankful I don’t have you shot down like the dog you are. Lesser men have quaked in my presence.”
Bastian threw his head back and laughed out loud. “Old man you amuse me greatly, but you are wrong. I do know you and you do know me. In fact, you have used my services a time or two in the past.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Maximillian growled. “I’ve never seen you before just now.”
Bastian nodded. “You might not have known who I was but you paid me a great deal of money for a job a time or two.”
“You worked for me? I don’t believe you.”
“Do the names Miguel Diego and Frances Montague mean anything to you?” Bastian asked as he watched recognition finally dawn in the other man’s eyes.
“The Priest,” Maximillian whispered reverently.
Bastian’s lips curled into a slight smile as he dipped his head down in a single nod of recognition.
Maximillian growled and tried to twist out of his bindings. “Let me loose. You work for me and I demand that you release me and my men.”
“I don’t think so, old man.” Bastian sneered.
“You are on my payroll and I own you,” Maximillian commanded. “Let me loose.”
“You paid me to find your enemies’ secrets. I do not work for you and I am not on your payroll,” Bastian clarified.
“My sons will kill you,” Maximillian told him. Spit drooled down his chin and his eyes narrowed as he stared at Bastian. “They will hunt you down and kill you slowly.”
Bastian shrugged his shoulders. “If you’re speaking of Tomas and Enrique that feat might be a little hard for them to accomplish.”