Jacqueline’s Quest

by TL Reeve

  He turned then. “Did you? Because I think you’re still under the impression that this is the wild west and you’re going to be kicking down doors and taking names.”

  “I thought the saying was; kicking asses and taking names?” The corner of her mouth kicked upward.

  “In this situation, it’ll be kicking down doors,” Murray replied.

  “Right.” She squinted as she glanced up at him.

  “Fuck,” Murray muttered. “I can’t even argue with you. You’re like a fucking tick.”

  “Are you serious?” She crossed her arms, offended by the term.

  "You're under my skin and you're driving me insane," he snarled. "Grab your fucking camera. We're going on a mini-mission."

  The switch in his attitude caused her to have whiplash. “My what?”

  He stomped past her. “Your camera. Get it and meet me at my Jeep. We’re going on a mission.”

  Right. Her camera. “O-kay.” She followed after her. “Mind telling me where we’re going?”

  “Not especially. Don’t need you causing a scene.” He grabbed his go-pack off her kitchen table then strode through the living room to the front door. “Are you coming or am I doing this on my own too?”

  “Cabrón,” she grumbled, grabbing her camera bag off the shelf where she kept it. “Of course, I am coming with you. Why wouldn’t I?”

  Jaqueline would be the death of Murray, he knew it. She was so pigheaded and fucking on edge. Every clue meant she had to run toward danger without thinking about what it might cause for everyone who was around her. As much as she thought about her brother and if he believed her, his sister, she threw all her care away when it came to breadcrumb clues. What did she expect them to do? What could they do without some kind of backing, when according to her, no one in Juarez wanted to do a damn thing to shut the club down?

  He slid into his Jeep and started it up. When Jaqueline clicked her belt into place, he took off. While he stood outside staring off in the direction of Juarez, he thought about what she said and about the satellite stills from almost four hours ago. It was a longshot going to the club to do a little recon, but with people being outside of the building, it might give them a chance to get a little closer than what the drone could.

  “Can I ask where we’re going?”

  “You could,” he said. “We’re doing a little recon.”

  “You said as much, but why’d you change your mind?”

  "I haven't. You're a loose cannon," Murray said. "You have zero discipline when it comes to your brother. In the long run, it can get both of us killed. However, something about the photos didn't sit right with me. If what you said is true and the upper floors were private quarters and playrooms, why isn't there more activity?"

  "There normally isn't," Jaqueline said. "It'd been pure luck I got a good picture of my brother and caught a glimpse of a girl who didn't look like she belonged when I sent the info to Tex."

  Murray would kick his ass later for asking the next question. "Was the wheelchair the same one you saw when you saw Hannah?"

  "I can't be 100% sure, but yes, it appears to be the same." She glanced at him. "Can I tell you everything without you ripping my head off?"

  He snorted. “Sure.”

  “Most of the wheelchairs, unless a family has money, are shit here,” she said. “To order a chair like Hannah’s would cost more than some people make in five years. Despite what you believe about Raul, he wouldn’t spend a hundred dollars let alone ten thousand dollars on a custom chair for anyone in the club. It’s what caught my attention in the picture the satellite caught. It’s Hannah’s chair. It’s not a gut feeling or me being hopeful for you. It’s the truth.”

  He frowned. Hannah's chair would have to be too small for her now. She was a woman, not a child. When she'd been kidnapped, Murray had been ready to upgrade her chair to something more streamlined for his sister, since no one knew if she'd ever been able to walk again. Yet, what Jaqueline said had a ring of truth to it too. No one could afford Hannah's chair. It'd been something he'd been fortunate to obtain due to the military doctors and hospital where she stayed for longer than he'd been anticipating. Thankfully, it was also where some of the leading doctors in the field of AMF were located too.

  “Let’s say it is her,” Murray stated. “How do you think we could get in there and out without being seen by someone?”

  “We can’t,” she admitted.

  “Exactly, we can’t. Not to mention we’d never get Hannah or Christian out. We’d be doing them more harm than good.”

  She let out a breath. “I get it. I go with brute force and not mission finesse. It’s something even my commanding officers had an issue with.”

  “You don’t say?” he teased.

  “Tonto,” she laughed. “I also realize Christian has been separated from me for three years and Hannah hasn’t been with you in ten years, but they’re so close. Not doing something is driving me insane.”

  “We are though,” Murray said. “We’re going to bring them home, if, and this is a big if, we follow the game plan.”

  “I know.”

  “Do you?” He pulled along the curb of the building diagonal to the club. “I can’t do this with you if we’re not on the same page.”

  She stared at him and the fire he’d seen blazing to life in them earlier returned, washing out the desperation. “I’m with you.”

  "Good. Let's go. We can get a good view of the building from the roof." He pointed up toward the top of the structure they'd parked in front of.

  Since it was still early in the day, there wasn’t much traffic, which wouldn’t help them, but it also wouldn’t hinder them. They pushed into the shop and went straight for the staircase. Since he’d arrived in Mexico, he realized most of the time, the general public turned a blind eye to anything out of the normal, a conditioned reaction caused by what, he’d assume, was the cartel and their threats and killings. It played to their advantage as they climbed up the seven floors until they reached the rooftop.

  Murray pushed through first. The west wall of the building was the perfect place to look inside the Emporium. He didn’t think they could spend too much time there, maybe thirty or forty minutes at most before someone saw them. However, it would be long enough to get some great shots, which would also come in handy recreating the building layout in the 3-D map. He motioned for Jaqueline to follow as he pulled the sniper scope Noah gave him from his pack.

  “We’ll set up over there. We have less than an hour. Whatever photos we get, will have to do until we breach the building.”

  Jaqueline inclined her chin. “I spent thirty minutes up here as well. Only I was two buildings down with one of my better telephoto lenses.”

  Murray knelt and began examining the building with the scope. The reason he carried it was simple, it could pick up heat signatures. The little gift from Noah had come in handy on many missions with his team. He wasn't known as the best shot or the most athletic, but he could lead. He did it well too. The scope, when he spotted with Noah, helped them with some of the most intricate kills they had to make.

  He switched the scope on and squinted through the hole. Three heat signatures came into view. "There." He pointed. "What do you see?"

  Jaqueline pulled her camera out of her pack then focused it on the club. “People. Looks like one of the guards and two of the subs.” She took a few shots then lowered the camera. “Where now?”

  Murray peered through the lens. There were some on the floor below where he’d spotted the three people. “Can you get a shot of the floor below?”

  “I can,” she said. “How about you call them out and I’ll get the pictures.”

  “Perfect.” Each time he named a location, she took photos. There’d not been another sighting of the wheelchair she’d been so convinced was Hannah’s and he was okay with it. He didn’t need the distraction.

  “Murray, are you seeing this?” Jaqueline’s question drew his attention.

&nbs
p; “What?” He looked in the scope and frowned. The three SUV’s they’d seen in the pictures from the pictures taken earlier in the morning pulled up to the curb closest to the building. “Shit.”

  The click of the shutter on Jaqueline’s camera worked double time as she took more shots. He watched as people exited the vehicles and rushed into the building. Between the traffic on the road, pedestrians filling the sidewalks, and the giant black blankets covering those going in, he couldn’t get a good look at the people. He only hoped when they downloaded the images from Jaqueline’s camera, they’d get something good.

  “We should go,” Murray said. “We don’t want to wear out our welcome.”

  “I agree,” she said as they put their things away then headed back down to the street. “I’m not sure we got anything good.”

  “We’ll know soon enough,” Murray replied. “Let’s go.”

  When they returned to the ranch, Jaqueline grabbed her laptop and got to work. While she was doing that, he downloaded the next batch of images from the satellite. Until they were ready to breach the building, they would receive a cache of pictures every four to six hours a day. Murray placed his laptop on the counter while he made a fresh pot of coffee, which would eventually tear his stomach up. He had a bad habit of sticking to the caffeine ride while he worked a mission and, days later, he paid for it. Every time it happened, he swore he’d never do it again, and every time he needed it, he’d fall right back into old habits.

  “Murray?” Jaqueline called out. “You’re going to want to see this.”

  After turning on the maker and grabbing his laptop, he went straight into the security room. Jaqueline sat hunched over her computer staring at something. He wrapped his arm around her and hit a few keys on her laptop, sending the photo to the large screen above them. “What am I looking at?”

  “The person has red hair.” She pointed to the face of a person being helped into the club. “I know you’re going to say I am imagining it, but doesn’t he look like Scotty?”

  Murray narrowed his eyes. Holy shit. It does. “Do you have any more pictures of him?”

  “Give me a second.” She scrolled through the images on her laptop then cursed in Spanish under her breath. “It is Scotty. Look.” She sent the picture to the screen.

  Sure enough, it was the kid. If the photo of him was any indication, he’d been out of it. He hung limply from some man’s arms. Murray took his focus off of Scotty for a second to study the rest of the people in the photo. There were at least four men and... Holy fuck. His sister. He scratched his beard as he stood there staring at the back of Hannah. He couldn’t believe it. Jaqueline was right. Nevertheless, what the fuck was she doing with those men and why had she been with Scotty too?

  “Fuck, this changes everything. I have to call Asher.”

  “I’ll get these sent to him while you talk to him,” Jaqueline said.

  “Thanks.” He stepped out of the office and went outside. He couldn’t wrap his mind around seeing Hannah helping those men. He tried to rationalize why she’d been there, but everything came back to her helping them.

  He frowned.

  Stop torturing yourself. You need to relay the info to Asher, quick, he chided himself as he pulled Asher’s number up. Once he hit send, it rang twice before Asher answered. “It’s me. We have a problem.

  “Tell me about it,” Asher grunted. “We’re missing a team member, and no one knows where the hell he could be.”

  “I might have an idea,” Murray said. “Jaqueline is sending the photos now. He was being carried into the club.”

  "Are you fucking kidding me?" Asher blew out a roughened breath. "Thomas and AJ have been looking for Scotty. It's been a cluster fuck of epic proportions, to say the least."

  “I wish I was,” Murray answered. “He didn’t look good either.”

  “Damn it. What about your sister?” Asher hedged.

  “Hannah is here too,” Murray replied. “She was with the people who brought Scotty in.”

  “Fuck,” Asher spat. “This is getting complicated.”

  “Tell me about it.” Murray glanced down at the ground. Bebito sat beside him. His tongue lulled out of his mouth as he stared up at Murray.

  “I’ll brief the team. You should know they’ll be out there sooner rather than later,” Asher stated. “How is everything else going?”

  He snorted. "Not good. I've done this shit before, but with her, it's different."

  “Do I need to send an alternate team?”

  “No.” Murray shook his head. “We’ll get it figured out. We just need a minute. It’s kind of hard telling someone to be a seductress when all they can think about is their brother.”

  Asher grunted. “Sure enough. I do have some contacts in Mexico, say the word and they’ll be at your disposal.”

  “I appreciate it,” he replied. “We also have some close-up images from inside the club we’ll be sending along once we get a second to review them.”

  “Good. Keep me abreast. I’ll let you know when the team is inbound. I would expect them to be leaving tonight.”

  “Don’t doubt it for a second. I’ll call in when we’re done here,” Murray said.

  “Roger that.”

  Murray ended the call and headed back into the security room where he’d left Jaqueline. She sat at the small desk going through all of the pictures, her bottom lip tucked between her teeth as she studied the pictures on the screen, looking for what, he didn’t know. She blew up a section of it near Scotty’s head then zoomed out and went to where Hannah had been. Blown up as Jaqueline did, he could see someone pushed her wheelchair back into the building. Who it was, Murray had no clue.

  “Looks like Thomas and AJ will be here by morning. Seems they’ve been searching for Scotty,” Murray said.

  “Holy shit,” Jaqueline said, facing him. “How come they didn’t tell us?”

  Murray shrugged. “Maybe they didn’t think it was connected. I’m sure we’ll figure it out when they get here.”

  She nodded. “What do we do now?”

  “We finish up with our recon work and then we send it off to Asher. From there, we get ready for our company. After that, we should try again with our new dynamic. I think we could both use a little time to stop thinking, especially after what we saw today.” Murray sat in the chair he claimed as his.

  After their little experiment went awry, he'd taken a shower. His reaction to having Jaqueline spank him shocked the hell out of him. He came so hard, he thought for sure she would have figured it out. Instead, she thought she hurt him. The worst part, while in the shower, he'd climaxed again with minimal effort. She had so much potential, he wanted to make sure she harnessed it in the right direction, but her jump first, ask questions later attitude would be the death of both of them if she didn't get it under control.

  “I agree,” she said. “With the mission parameters changing, it’s even more imperative we’re a cohesive team once we get into the club.”

  "Exactly," Murray replied. "Now, let's get this done and sent off. I'm sure Thomas and AJ when they land, will want to dig in, and we need to be ready for it."

  Chapter 3

  Murray stared at the screen of his laptop while gulping down massive amounts of the hot, sweet coffee Jaqueline made. He couldn't allow his emotions or personal connections to cloud his judgment or his ability to do the job, especially when he studied the photos Asher and Hank sent him. The majority of them were repeated, some were new. But, what struck him as odd were the ones where nothing moved. The vehicles stayed in the same places. The absence of people on the street. What did or what had Raul done to keep his end of the block quiet?

  He'd noticed it earlier before he and Jaqueline left to pick up Thomas and AJ. He'd wanted to talk about it on the drive, however, one look at AJ and Thomas told Murray it was best to wait until both of them were settled in. The turmoil each of them were going through, he and Jaqueline had already experienced. They were at the beginning of th
e journey while Jaqueline and Murray, hopefully, were at the end of theirs. If Thomas and AJ didn't keep their minds focused on the mission, they could fall into the void of depression and rage—a place he knew all too well. Had it not been for Asher, Murray shuddered to think of where he'd be today.

  As it was, he hoped to have some information for the duo by the time they joined Murray and Jaqueline. Until then, he did the work. Stayed focused. Since Jaqueline was outside working the ranch, something he’d been doing for the last couple of weeks, and he assumed Thomas was sleeping, leaving the house quiet. AJ, if the pop of the water heater coming on was any indication, had finished her shower.

  Meeting her face to face not only exposed her vulnerability but just how young she'd been. It shocked Murray. He didn't understand why she wasn't used for different missions or how she got hooked up with Tex. Yet, he'd also seen her abilities, so it did make sense. He also knew to keep his opinions to himself and to trust Asher. His commander never steered them wrong, he wouldn’t this time either.

  He also noticed something else. The sexual tension between Thomas and AJ was off the fucking charts. He wondered if that tension had something to do with the awkwardness between the two of them. Had something happened before Scotty had been taken? It would make sense if it did. However, it bothered him. Murray acknowledged it had to do with AJ’s age and the fact she reminded him of Hannah. Maybe not in looks, but in the sassy attitude he’d caught a glimpse of when she’d made some off-handed quip before retreating to the bathroom.

  Anyway, the concept of mingling within the team was fairly new. Of course, Asher had been the first one to publicly blow the hell out of the rules when he got with Doc Rae. Then there was Noah and Mateo, which no one knew they’d been married let alone in a relationship. Hell, there was even the asshole O’Malley—who’d been suspended from what Murray understood—who’d snuck his ex-wife, Ginger, into the base to get his dick wet. Plus, he knew at some point, while on the mission, he’d be getting balls deep in Jaqueline.

  Murray grunted. Now wasn't the time to think about sex, though the mission might call for it. In the situation they'd all been thrust into, he'd willingly throw out his moral compass to get the results. It disturbed him to even allow those thoughts to creep in, but Hannah was his sister and he'd do whatever it took to ensure her safety and getting her back where she belongs—home with him.