Protecting Mari (Special Forces: Operation Alpha) (Counterstrike Book 1)

by Cara Carnes

  There it was again. Affirmation that Twitch and the other guys who’d looked around Shady Apartments found something they hadn’t liked, something Jen and her brothers suspected Chester of. “What did you find?”

  She’d gone enough rounds with her crazy ex to recognize him from two miles away in the dark. She’d recognize his punches, his hands. His breath.

  Chester says hello, cunt. She forced back a shudder that rolled through her and took a sip of juice. But there was no flavor. Everything was metallic cardboard whenever she thought of the shit she’d endured because of Chester.

  “There was a discarded photo of you in the trash bin nearest your unit. Your address and apartment number were on the back,” Ethan said.

  “We should set up an appointment with Internal Affairs,” Milo said.

  Mari tightened. Chester wouldn’t take that well at all. She choked on the fear a few moments but didn’t respond. For once she had someone else willing to tag in and handle the next bout. And that felt good.

  Really, really good.

  “You aren’t surprised he’s behind this,” Jen commented. “I know it’s difficult, and you don’t know us or trust us yet, but we need to know everything, Mari. If something else happened last night, we need to know now rather than finding out about it later.”

  Damn.

  She studied the other woman a moment. She was right. They’d already figured out Chester hired the guy. “The guy mentioned Chester by name when he was…”

  A lump formed in her throat. The rest of the words wouldn’t roll across her tongue. Her stomach churned.

  “We have what we need,” Jen said softly as she reached over and patted Mari’s hand.

  Ethan squeezed her arm. “It’s going to be okay, Mari. We won’t stop until we fix this for you.”

  The doorbell rang. Ethan and Milo looked at one another and rose.

  “Stay here,” Ethan ordered as he followed his brother into the other room.

  Mari’s pulse quickened. Her heart thudded against her chest. There was no reason to be concerned, but she was. Every knock, every ringing doorbell was another potential threat, another way Chester was messing with her mind.

  “Come on,” Jen said as she rose from her seat. “You aren’t cowering in the corner, Mari. You did absolutely nothing wrong, and you’ve lost enough of your life because of that asshole. My brothers mean well, but Counterstrike is about more than keeping you and our other clients safe. It’s about giving you the tools you need to help you stay that way. And the first tool for you is anger.”

  “I have plenty of that.”

  “Good. Then it’s time you start honing it into a weapon, wielding it whenever your flight response kicks in. You’re done running. From now on, you stand your ground and fight.” Jen headed toward the entryway spilling into the living room. She paused. “Are you coming?”

  Mari swallowed. She was right, but she was also wrong. “I fought, but I could only go so many rounds before I had to run.”

  She wasn’t a kickass soldier like her brother, Ethan, and Milo. She wasn’t a natural fighter. And she didn’t even know who she was fighting anymore because the enemy was a faceless beast controlled by her ex. Interchangeable soldiers and incidents, one after another. She hadn’t seen Chester in months, because he followed the restraining order to the very letter of the law.

  But Jen was right. Mari had lost years of her life because of that bastard. She stood and followed the woman into the living room. And froze.

  “Get back in the kitchen,” Ethan ordered.

  His gaze remained locked on the imposing man standing in the entryway of the house. A small woman with pink and purple-tipped hair stood beside him, not that Ethan and Milo appeared to notice her.

  No, their gazes were locked on the man before them. Stance relaxed, he didn’t appear phased in the slightest that Ethan and Milo seemed to be seconds away from kicking his ass.

  The woman punched the man beside her. “Behave. I told you not to piss off Tex’s friends.”

  Mention of the phantom Tex eased Ethan’s and Milo’s stances. The former reached out, snagged Mari and drew her behind him fully.

  Yikes.

  The stranger tracked the move with a smirk. He held out a hand. “Gage Sanderson, Arsenal. This is Zoey Dawson, Tex’s friend, and the newest member of the Arsenal’s nerd collective.”

  “Nerd collective? Seriously?” The woman shook her head. “I swear you’re one stupid statement away from me darting your ass.”

  The man chuckled. “Go ahead and try it, Little Bit.”

  “Don’t mind him,” the woman quipped. “We don’t allow him to socialize much. I’m Zoey, but Tex knows me as Zero D. Sorry for the delay in getting here, but my bosses wanted to vet you all and your operation before they decided whether we would help or not.”

  “The last I heard, you were looking into the possibility, said you’d call Tex back,” Ethan said, a slight growl in his voice. “There wasn’t a discussion about you showing up.”

  “Right.” The woman blinked, seemingly unfazed by his anger. “Jud and his nephew Jacob are at your headquarters. That didn’t go well. You should call.”

  “Fuck,” Milo replied as he dragged out his cell. He punched a button. A voice came on over the speaker.

  “We’re a little busy here right now, boss, but you might want to get your ass down here.”

  “Afraid that’s not happening, Jet. Status?”

  “Uh, yeah. Status. Everyone’s a bit in shock, rattled and…” Jet sighed. “Field’s assessing for injuries. So far everyone seems okay, except for Twitch. He’s…down.”

  “Twitch is down?” Ethan glared at Gage. “What the hell did you do to our men?”

  “I told you we should’ve handled headquarters,” Zoey muttered. She sighed, set her duffel bag down, and trundled over to Milo like he wasn’t pinning her with daggers via his gaze. She snagged his phone. “Give the phone to the lummox.”

  “Come again?”

  “Give. The. Phone. To. The. Lummox.” She sighed. “You know, the guy who just plowed through all of you.”

  “Who the hell is this?” Jet demanded.

  “Jet,” Milo said, his lips thinned. “They’re friends of Tex’s, or so we’re being told. Do what she says.”

  “I’ll hand the phone over to the runt. I’m not going near the other bastard.”

  “Jacob is not a runt. He’s twenty! He’s got at least one more growth spurt ahead of him, if not two,” Zoey spewed angrily into the phone.

  “Z,” a voice said. “Uncle Jud tried to be nice. Honest. But Twitch was bigger than we expected and didn’t take it too kindly when we didn’t leave like he ordered. I don’t think he was used to someone refusing him anything.”

  “Please tell me Jud didn’t hurt anyone.”

  “Nah, everyone’s good, but Uncle Jud and Twitch are a little pissed at me. They wouldn’t stop fighting, and it was agitating everyone else, so I zinged them both.”

  Zoey blinked. Eyes wide, she stammered, “You what?”

  “I had a couple of the drones out, the ones armed with zingers. I was surveying the building like Quillery and Edge wanted. So when they wouldn’t stop, I zinged them.”

  “Them?” Gage asked, his voice lilted with humor.

  “Yeah, Uncle Jud and the other guy. The brick mountain.”

  “Twitch,” Milo supplied.

  “Please tell me you have that footage,” Zoey said with a grin. “I can’t believe you tasered Judson Jensen.”

  “Uncle Jud isn’t very happy right now. I should get back to him and the other guy before they wake up.” The voice halted. “What’s up?”

  “Give the phone back to Jet. His bosses need confirmation everyone’s okay, then we can move on. Tell Jud to behave.”

  “Right.”

  Zoey turned the phone back over to Milo and looked at Mari. She visibly paled and stumbled on her high heels. Gage reached out and leaned her against his tall, muscular frame
.

  “Who did that to you?” The woman glared at Ethan. “Tex told me you needed a security system. He told me you all were helping a friend with a sticky situation. Cracked ribs and an asshole ex with a badge. He didn’t mention a busted face. That isn’t a sticky situation.”

  Mari gulped and edged closer to Ethan.

  “Who did that to you?” Zoey repeated, her voice harder than before.

  “We’re finding out, though her ex is likely behind it.”

  “Right.” Zoey pinned Mari with another intense gaze.

  “Dial it back a notch, Little Bit. You’re scaring her,” Gage whispered.

  Zoey clicked something in her ear. “We’re either in, or I’m in, and you really don’t want me handling this without it being an Arsenal decision. One way or another, I’m not leaving until Counterstrike has the tools they need to help her out of this sticky situation.”

  Yowza.

  Gage’s gaze narrowed as he looked at Zoey, then reached up and hit something in his ear. “Sorry, ladies, I’m with Z on this one.”

  Zoey’s eyes widened as she peered up at the man like he’d suddenly grown two heads.

  “No, I know,” Zoey said into the com. “Right. Of course. Erm…did you miss the part where your man almost got pummeled by one of their guys? ‘Cause I didn’t even see it, and I know that’s evidence enough they can handle securing whatever we give them.”

  Silence ticked by as Zoey and Gage listened to what Mari assumed was the other side of a conversation. Every second that ticked by raised her pulse a notch. Ethan settled an arm around her.

  “Okay, good. Okay, okay, okay, I’m good.” Zoey expended a long breath. “Right. I’ll coordinate with Gemini. I know you two are the badasses with the brains and the strategic minds, but this is my wheelhouse. I’m point on the safehouses.”

  The woman clicked off, then looked at Ethan. “Vi and Mary agreed to install a security system into all Counterstrike facilities. We’re doing your house here, Jen’s next door, and your headquarters today. We’ve got six teams en route to begin on your twelve safehouses first thing in the morning. We need to coordinate their work to not frighten or disturb anyone who might be there.”

  Mari noted the tension in Ethan’s stance as he glanced at his brother.

  “Vi and Mary? The kid on the phone mentioned Quillery and Edge.”

  “Yeah. That’s their codenames,” Zoey replied. Her eyes widened. “Oh, wow. That’s my bad. Okay, Edge, calm down. Yeesh, Jacob didn’t know. The pieces barely clicked for me, and I memorized all the files on the way up here.”

  “What am I missing?” Mari asked.

  “Nolan Mason and his brothers run the Arsenal, where these two are from,” Ethan said. “He saved my life in the jungle, kept me alive.”

  “Okay,” Jen said, her voice low.

  Mari took Ethan’s hand and squeezed, not sure what about that had made him react.

  “The Edge was the voice on the com, the one who talked him through what to do, kept him focused on keeping his team safe. Me alive.”

  Chapter 4

  First Nolan Mason. Now The Edge. The spec ops world was a small one, but Ethan didn’t realize how much so until a few hours ago when he’d heard Jacob reference the Quillery Edge.

  He wasn’t sure what to think about their paths crossing once again, so he packed the thought away to focus on another time. For now, he was single-mindedly determined to make Mari’s world safer.

  The first step in that mission was her statement about the break-in and assault. He squeezed her hand as they followed Detective Raul Rodriguez into a small room with a sofa along one wall and a chair on the other. A camera pointed down at the two seating places.

  “I’d rather you step outside, wait for Ms. Santos there. We have coffee around the corner in a breakroom,” Detective Rodriguez commented.

  “I’d rather he stay,” Mari replied quickly.

  Ethan’s protective instincts ratcheted up a couple notches when she squeezed his hand harder. He sat beside her on the sofa and dared the detective to do anything about it. If she wanted him there, he wasn’t leaving.

  The detective’s lips quirked up in a grin. “Tex said you were stubborn.”

  Ethan didn’t offer comment. Just because he knew Tex didn’t make him good people, it just made him smart.

  “I’m going to share a couple things with you, Ms. Santos, because I feel it’s important we start our relationship off on the right foot.” The detective motioned toward the cameras. “A couple acquaintances of mine are working with the Internal Affairs Division to investigate your ex-husband. I’ve been asked to facilitate information gathering from you on their behalf.”

  Holy crap.

  “It’s unfortunate my presence here is because you suffered yet another incident. I assure you as far as my acquaintances and I are concerned, it’ll be the last.” Detective Rodriguez looked at Ethan. “From what Tex has told me, your operation is the best around. I agree. We’ve heard a lot of great things about Counterstrike. Hell, a lot of the cases I’ve worked have crossed your path at one point or another.”

  “I’m not here because of last night.” Mari tensed against Ethan. Her voice was low, pained. “You don’t care about last night.”

  Ethan wrapped an arm around her and wished he could take away her pain, undo what’d happened to put it there. She trembled but relaxed within his hold.

  “I am most certainly taking a statement about last night’s attack, Ms. Santos. I do care, more than you’ll likely ever know. No one gets by with hurting anyone on my watch.” The detective leaned forward. “But this isn’t the first time you’ve had trouble. I’ve looked into your previous incidents. Things are escalating. It’s time someone got to the root of the real problem and dug it out of your life. It’ll be my pleasure helping that happen. So in that respect, I’m not focused on last night. I’m focused on why it happened in the first place. That’s why you’re here.”

  “W-what do I need to do?”

  “Take a deep breath,” the man advised. “We’ll start at the beginning whenever you’re ready.”

  Ethan sat back and studied the man a moment. Pieces clicked together in his head. “I’m thinking Tex didn’t wait for my say to get a certain friend of ours in the Texas Rangers activated.”

  Raul’s eyebrows rose. “I’m not at liberty to discuss an ongoing investigation, but I can assure you all pertinent outside agencies have been in contact with the Internal Affairs Division and the investigation is being taken very seriously.”

  Ethan and Milo had met Daxton Chambers a couple months after starting Counterstrike, when their first client’s troubles necessitated Tex’s involvement. Chambers, along with a couple buddies of his from the San Antonio Police Department had helped get their client’s mother secure when a drug dealer had threatened her life.

  Daxton Chambers was one hell of an officer, as was all the others he’d met through Tex. The fact they were a short trip down Interstate 35 in San Antonio was reassuring. He’d intended to phone Dax, get his input on how best to proceed with this situation once he got a firmer grasp on the details.

  Clearly things were progressing faster than Ethan expected, likely because of the whirlwind known as Zoey who’d entered the situation. Tex’s friend was a touch strange, but Ethan couldn’t deny that she, Gage, Jacob and Jud had gotten to work immediately.

  His mind wandered to Nolan Mason, but Ethan shoved the thoughts aside. Everything else would have to wait until he got Mari secured. All that mattered right now was helping her through giving her statement.

  Mari swallowed the unease rising in her throat as Ethan navigated his massive truck into a narrow parking spot of the unpaved parking lot. She stared at the green dumpster beside the vehicle as her heart thudded in her chest.

  Her gaze swept upward until it rested on the small eatery in a small out-of-the-way pocket of East Austin. Hank’s was a downhome style restaurant that was more of a local watering hole for cops,
firefighters and every other assortment of first responders than anything else.

  “Why are we here?” She forced the words out even though she already knew the answer.

  “Look at me, Mari.” Ethan’s firm voice drew her focus.

  She blinked, turned her head and tumbled into the light cinnamon-swirled gaze. “This isn’t a good idea.”

  “He’s done messing with you,” Ethan declared. “We walk in there, your face looking like a punching bag, everyone in his crew will get wind of what went down. You do it with me and my crew at your back, they’ll know things have changed.”

  She swallowed. Shame kept her silent. He made it sound so simple. Maybe for him it was. She’d tried. She’d fought, both inside and outside court for so long. It wasn’t like she wasn’t prepared to go another twenty rounds with Chester, because she was. She just wasn’t an in-your-face style fighter.

  “We’re sending a message, a warning to everyone in blue to either do the right thing, or stay the hell out of our way while we take out the trash,” Ethan continued. “You’re what matters in this situation, Mari. If you aren’t ready to walk in there, then we’ll go back to the house.”

  The offer was sweet, but the firm set to Ethan’s jaw as his gaze slid over to the entrance of Hank’s spoke volumes. And he was right. Walking in there with her face bruising from the latest episode of her Chester nightmare was the right move, even if it felt like the most terrifying thing she’d ever done.

  For the first time in a long while she’d left a police station feeling safe. Detective Rodriguez had been professional, kind and considerate. He’d been patient. He’d let her stop and take a break whenever she wanted, which she’d done more than once. Composing herself in the bathroom gave her small breaks from the intensity within the room, which had spiked incrementally as she offered more insight into what all she’d endured since the divorce proceedings began.

  The questions had been intense, pointed and very embarrassing in so many ways, but she’d passed the point of worrying about what people thought about her long ago. She had very few, if any, real friends. They’d vacated her life like rats fleeing a sinking ship.