by KB Winters
Gunnar huffed out a bitter laugh. “Take in a deep breath.”
“Why?” That sounded like the exact wrong thing to do for broken ribs.
“If it hurts like a motherfucker, your ribs are broken. If they only hurt like a son of a bitch, they’re just bruised.” With the amusement in his voice I couldn’t tell if he was fucking with me or not, but I did it anyway. “Shit that hurts! But they’re not broken.”
“Good.”
Gunnar actually sounded like he meant it, which was hard for me to believe since he’d made no secret out of the fact he thought this was all my fault. Which it was.
“You’ll live long enough for me to beat some sense into you.”
I huffed out a laugh, not because anything was funny with us both kidnapped, beaten and bloody, but because it was such a damn Gunnar thing to say. “Your compassion is overwhelming, bro.”
“I’m compassionate as fuck,” he shot back, spitting again. “I’m gonna wait until we’re safe and healed first.”
Yeah, I suppose that was fair. “What the fuck are we gonna do?” Neither of us could take any more beatings before something broke or ruptured, resulting in our eventual deaths.
Gunnar sighed and I could hear the sound of the wooden chair he was tied to groaning under his massive size. “Find a way out of this fuckin’ place, that’s what.”
The door opened and the lights switched on, temporarily blinding me until the only thing in my vision was the crazy bastard called Guapo. He was at least six feet tall and built like a fucking refrigerator with a long, ugly fucking scar from the left corner of his mouth all the way to his ear. I could only imagine the painful story behind it, but it didn’t make me warm up to the fucker. “What the fuck do you want?”
The bastard grinned and it wasn’t just basic happiness, no, it was the smile of a man who enjoyed causing pain. “I could beat you until you’re just a puddle of meat and blood, but El Jefe wants to talk to you.”
The sound of Carlito’s bitch heels sounded loud on the concrete floor in short, quick steps, getting closer until he reached us.
“I have a proposition for you.” He gave us each a death stare and stepped in front of Gunnar. “Between the two of you, you seem to be the smarter man, so let’s make a deal.” The little fucker laughed like he’d just told the best fucking joke around.
“Ain’t exactly a deal with me tied to a fucking chair, is it?” That was Gunnar, tough until the very fucking end, even with ropes wrapped around his wrists.
Carlito threw his head back and laughed. “Well I would be stupid to release you when you have that look on your face. Like you want to kill me, no?”
“I can’t say for sure how fucking stupid you are. Jefe. What the fuck do you want?”
Instantly his demeanor changed from playful to serious, hands folded in front of him as he kept a respectable distance between himself and Gunnar. “What I want is an exchange. Your lives for…let’s call it a favor.”
“Again, not a fucking favor if my life is on the line.”
Guapo sent a fist flying right into Gunnar’s stomach, but that tough son of a bitch didn’t let out so much as a grunt. Carlito barked, “Let him speak!”
“You hit like a bitch.” Gunnar spit blood, barely missing Guapo’s pointy ass leather shoes. He couldn’t help but taunt the stocky fucker.
Guapo leaned in, eager to land another blow but Carlito put up a hand to step in. “Are you ready to listen?”
“My ears ain’t taped shut, are they?”
Carlito’s brown eyes narrowed but he banked his temper, probably because he realized that was as good as he’d get from Gunnar. “Right. Well I have a shipment here but I need it to be someplace else.”
Gunnar scoffed. “Where exactly is here?”
“Come on now. Let’s not play games.”
Gunnar flicked a look at me that was equal parts frustration and amusement before he switched his gaze back to the little man with the chunky psychopath at his side. “Since I was knocked out when we got here, and we haven’t left this fucking room, you’re gonna have to tell me, Jefe.”
Carlito sighed and crossed his arms before uncrossing them self-consciously. “We’re in Mexico,” he conceded. “Now, I need you to get this shipment from this side of the border all the way up to Reno.”
“And for this, we get to get the fuck outta here?”
Carlito nodded and Gunnar scoffed. “So much for this being about your bitch.”
Then Guapo hit him again, right in the face and it only made Gunnar smile. “Watch your mouth.”
“Get this rope off me and then say that.” His voice pitched low, lethal even, and Carlito took a step back. Guapo took a step forward but it was a mistake because Gunnar had spent every free second he had loosening the ropes. The crazy fucker had dislocated his thumb last night trying to loosen them enough that he could slip in and out of them with ease. One of his legs was free now, too. Thanks to the rickety ass chair that could barely hold his weight. As soon as Guapo was close enough, Gunnar swept his foot forward, catching the creep until he was on the ground. His head hit with a sickening crack. “Bad move, Guapo.”
“Get up!” Carlito shouted at his henchman, the panic in his voice bouncing off the walls as he took another step back. And another. And another fucking step.
Pussy.
“I said get up, motherfucker! Get. Up!”
Guapo tried but Gunnar had unleashed the beast, cracking his now free hand against the arm of the chair until the wood snapped and freed his other hand. Then the crazy bastard broke the rest of the chair over Guapo’s back until it was in shards all around him. “Yeah, Guapo. Get. The. Fuck. Up!” He roared like a man possessed, urging Guapo to his feet while Carlito yelled in the background.
Carlito moved away, one step at a time, but he was too focused on Gunnar and Guapo to remember me until he tripped over my legs. “You motherfucker!” He scrambled up on all fours before struggling to his feet in those slippery ass bitch heels he wore.
“You’ll regret that.” He sneered, his eyes narrow and menacing. The fucker was a goddamn contradiction; equal parts terrifyingly cold and scared of his own fucking shadow. “I doubt it.” I spat out.
Carlito rushed to the door, pounding on it with his fists and speaking in very fast, panicked Spanish.
When the door opened, he stumbled back and shouted an order to the two armed men who couldn’t have been more than twenty or twenty-one years old. “Rapido!” He turned his dark, icy glare back to me. “We could have done this the easy way.”
“Easy?” Gunnar’s question came out as a feral roar as he landed one last sickening blow to Guapo’s face, rendering the man unconscious. “The easy way would have involved asking, not fucking kidnapping or attempted fucking murder!”
Carlito scoffed but kept his distance and I couldn’t say I blamed him. At all. Right now Gunnar was the more terrifying of the two. “If I wanted you dead, you would be dead.”
“Maybe so,” Gunnar snapped, “but we ain’t dead yet, are we? And now you need something from us so it seems like all your talk about your precious side piece was nothing more than bullshit so you could find two errand boys.”
Guapo finally stood with a grunt and Gunnar looked over his shoulder before sending an elbow flying at his nose. He flashed a satisfied smile when the man went down, leaving droplets of blood flying all around.
Carlito shook his head in disgust and turned to me with a malicious grin that twisted his features. “Errand boys, I like the sound of that. Particularly because I have something you want.”
Gunnar barked out a laugh. “I can assure you that you don’t have shit I want.”
Carlito’s lips curled up and a chill went through me. “Maybe not you, but your friend and I seem to have the same taste in women.” He snapped his fingers twice and one of the armed men appeared with a hand squeezing Marisol’s arm tight enough to make her cry out. I struggled not to go after the bastard for pushing her to the groun
d. “Ah yes, I thought this might get your attention.” He grabbed that same arm and yanked Marisol to her feet.
“She has nothing to do with me,” Gunnar spat out, glaring at me and daring me to disagree. I knew I shouldn’t, that choosing her could mean war with a fucking cartel but looking at her, bruised and bloody and shaken, how could I leave her to that fate? I wasn’t that fucking cold.
“It would seem that your friend would disagree.” Carlito seemed way too pleased with himself, until six feet six inches of angry Gunnar in all his baldheaded glory stalked his way, then he took a step back.
“Then that’s between you and him. It’s got fuck all to do with me.” A sliver of unease ran through me at how fast Gunnar was walking. He was either deadly fucking serious or on a suicide mission and considering he had his baby sister to think about, the only option was deadly fucking serious.
Carlito shouted, “Stop him!”
One of the armed men stepped into Gunnar’s path but before he could aim his M4 Carbine, Gunnar had the man pressed against the wall, his feet dangling about three inches from the ground with nothing but his own gun at his throat to keep him from falling.
“Yeah, stop me.” Gunnar’s voice was low and menacing but his movements were calm. Calculated.
Gunnar meant business but so did Carlito if Marisol’s swollen eye had anything to do with it. He gripped her hair and pulled hard enough that she fell to her knees in pain.
“Gunnar!” I shouted.
He wasn’t listening, goddammit. “Gunnar,” I yelled again but he was someplace else. In the dark place a man had to go when he had to take a life. It was never easy, definitely not for soldiers who had to kill people who didn’t look like they expected you to. But we weren’t at war. Not yet. “Goddammit Gunnar, stop it!”
He pulled back the gun, letting the man drop to his knees before he sent a size thirteen boot crashing down on his cheek. Then he turned to me, rage burning in his blue eyes. “What the fuck?”
My gaze slid to Marisol who trembled with fear. Her brown skin was tear-streaked and dirty, her hair matted like she’d been in another dark room for as long as we had. Gunnar nodded reluctantly and aimed the gun at the ground. It was the only fucking sign I would get.
“What’s in the truck?” I asked Carlito.
He looked at me with fire in his eyes. “That’s not your business.”
“Bullshit,” I spat at him, feeling helpless still strapped to the fucking chair. I let my gaze fall on Marisol who looked resigned to her fate and I knew then that it didn’t matter what was inside.
Carlito laughed triumphantly. “I thought you would see things my way.”
“He might but I don’t.” Gunnar took a step closer, slowly lifting the gun until it was trained on Carlito. “What’s in the goddamn truck?”
The bastard gripped her hair tighter and Marisol released another tortured cry. “I could break her beautiful neck right now.”
Gunnar shrugged, finger slowly moving to the trigger like it would mean nothing to him to kill Carlito. “She doesn’t mean shit to me, Carlito. But I was trained by the good ol’ U.S. government which means I could kill you and all of your men before they even get their finger on the trigger. So, go on, test me.”
Marisol looked at me, fear shining in her eyes and making her body shudder, pleading with me to help. She squeezed her brown eyes shut and clenched her jaws against the pain of Carlito’s tight grip. “Please,” she mouthed to me.
Carlito loosened his grip but not before yanking Marisol back to her feet. “Fine. Maybe a few more days will make you more agreeable.” He grinned but it looked more like a grimace, showing off teeth that looked like they’d been bleached so many times they might crumble at the slightest pressure. “You can handle a few more days, can’t you Marisol?”
She kept her eyes closed and said nothing, but she didn’t have to because I knew. Whatever he’d put me and Gunnar through over the past few days was nothing compared to what he’d done to her.
“Contestame!!”
She nodded but her eyes never opened and her body shook even harder. “Yes,” she squeaked out.
“Good. Because until you agree, she will get enough punishment for three.” The room fell silent beyond Marisol’s sniffles and Gunnar and I both heard the telltale click of a gun.
He turned a half a second before I did, squeezing the trigger three times until the other armed guard was nothing more than a memory. Then he turned to the other guard he’d choked earlier and put one round in his leg before he faced Carlito. “Or I could just put a bullet in you now and all three of us just walk out of here. What’s it gonna be, Jefe?”
Carlito swallowed hard at the lethal look on Gunnar’s face, slowly moving Marisol between them but he miscalculated because Gunnar didn’t let the gun fall, not one fucking millimeter. “You would kill me over a woman?”
“Hell no. I’ll kill you for plenty of reasons but never for a chick. But,” he raised the gun over Marisol’s head so it was trained right on Carlito’s forehead. “If it makes you feel any better, we can say it’s because of her.”
“Or,” Carlito added with a nervous grin. “I could pay you for your trouble and if you complete the job, I’ll return Marisol to your friend. And,” he added nervously when Gunnar adjusted his grip on the firearm, “no further harm will come to her.”
Gunnar dropped the barrel with an annoyed sigh. “If she’s not in Reno when we get there and unharmed, I’ll blow up the fucking shipment no matter what it is. And I’ll kill everyone in sight.”
Carlito grinned, impressed. “It’s too bad we met the way we did, I could use someone of your caliber.” Gunnar grunted but I didn’t miss the angry glare Carlito slanted at Guapo, coming to on the ground. “Good help is impossible to find.”
Marisol’s brown eyes met mine and I gave her a quick wink before Carlito pulled her away. Despite his rough treatment, I relaxed because I knew something Marisol didn’t. He cared more about his shipment than he did about her. She was worth nothing to him in comparison to whatever was in that fucking truck.
When the door closed, Gunnar growled. “You’re dead fucking meat, kid. Dead fucking meat.”
I did the only thing I could in the situation. I grinned.
Chapter Fourteen - Jag
After spending the past four days digging into Reed Henderson’s background, his life and every fucking person he’d ever crossed paths with, I’d come up with nothing. “Not one goddamn thing,” I said to no one in particular, even though Vivi sat less than five feet away from me with her pretzels, diet root beer and fingers flying over the keyboard.
“Poor baby,” she said with her trademark snark and a sexy little smirk on her face while she continued digging into…something. “Guess you better stick to ink.”
“Yeah?” I poked her in the side and she laughed, smacking my hand away. “What did you find?”
“Plenty,” she said with the same confidence she always had when it came to digging through people’s digital footprints. “And in a few minutes I’ll wow you with my cyber prowess.”
“I’d rather you wow me with something else,” I told her and pushed my laptop away, scooting closer to inhale her sexy, tough girl scent. To press my lips to the delicate skin of her neck because every minute I wasn’t touching her was a minute wasted. We’d been apart for too long.
“Let me finish this and I’ll show you all of my prowesses.” She laughed and shook her head. “Or whatever the plural of prowess is, I’m gonna show you all of them. Big time.”
A deep laugh bubbled out of me at her weird string of word salad, but I wasn’t deterred, not when there was all this delicious skin for me to taste. “Then make it snappy, woman.”
“Hey, this kind of genius takes time.” She stuffed a pretzel in her mouth. “Besides, I prefer to be thorough and believe me, the suits I worked with, they love redundant levels of thorough.”
She hadn’t said much about her time back on the east coast and i
f I had to guess I’d say it was deliberate. What I didn’t know was if it was because she couldn’t talk about it or because there was some underlying issue between us. “Okay, all done.” She turned and pressed a kiss to my nose. “Want me to tell you and you can pass the info on, or do a whole presentation for your bros?”
I snickered. “My bros?” She nodded and it made me laugh even harder. “You can tell the bros.”
“Great. Gather up the bros, then!” She smiled at me, her gray eyes soft and so filled with love I couldn’t help but lean forward to capture her lips in a slow, sensual kiss that probably wasn’t the best idea considering how packed the clubhouse was these days.
“Have I told you how glad I am that you’re back?”
Vivi smiled against my lips and nodded. “Maybe a time or two. Good thing it never gets old to hear.” She pulled my bottom lip between her teeth and tugged gently. “I’m glad to be back. I missed the hell out of you.”
“No need to miss me anymore, babe.”
“Damn straight. And if we can get this little presentation on the road, I could show you my other prowess-es,” she said on a snicker, giving me a gentle shove.
I was already on my feet in search of Cross. I found him and Moon getting hot and heavy in his office. “Vivi’s found some info she thinks we need to hear.”
He groaned but Moon only smiled, giving him one final kiss before pulling back and smoothing her hair. “Hey Jag.”
“Lookin’ good, Moon.”
“You too,” she laughed. “Being in love agrees with you.”
I smiled and whispered a quick, “Thanks,” as she breezed out of the office. Moon seemed a little too hippie dippy at first, but the truth was she was as solid as they came with her good advice, spirituality and keen insights. “So, where do you want to do this?” We didn’t allow women or non-members in the Merry Mayhem room, and this wasn’t information for everybody’s ears.
“We’ll clear out the main room for a while and let the prospects keep an eye on the women and children.” Cross stood and raked a hand through his hair, blowing out a deep breath. “Tell me it’s good news.”