Merciless

by Sybil Bartel

  One of Lewis’s armed guards, Ty Asher, had been in the corps, and Luna was waiting for him at his house after his shift the next night. Turned out Ty hated Lewis. Didn’t know what he was signing up for when he took the job. Ty wanted out, but he said Lewis was a loose cannon and unpredictable at best. He figured there were only two ways out—Lewis dead or him dead.

  That’s when Luna offered him double his current salary if he stayed and helped us take down Lewis.

  Ty was in and here we were, nine fucking days later still waiting to get enough to call the Feds. Luna wouldn’t let me contact her or go near the house. I fucking got it, one of us needed to be clean so we could get the kid if the shit hit the fan and child protective services got involved, but still.

  Ten motherfucking days.

  I sat in my condo glued to a goddamn computer. Waiting.

  Nine minutes the fuck had been in the pool house.

  I called Luna.

  It rang three times. “I see it,” Luna said without preamble.

  “If that motherfucker Lewis touches her or my kid, I’m done waiting.”

  “Hold….” Luna trailed off. “Copy,” he said to someone else. “Do we know when?… Mierda. Yeah, all right…. All right. Copy.” Luna came back on the line. “We’ve got escalation.”

  I was already on my feet. “What kind of escalation?”

  “That was Ty again. Something’s going down tonight. He said he’ll report back in a few.”

  Shit. “I’m coming to you, but keep this between us.” I didn’t want to bring anyone else at L&A down if shit went south. “I’ll go in and get them myself.”

  “Not a one-person job,” Luna warned. “Christensen’s already here.”

  Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. If Luna had called Christensen, then shit had already hit the fan. “Has he called his ATF contact?”

  “In process.”

  “Okay.” Fuck. I only had one other friend I trusted to deal with something on this level. “I’m texting Talerco. Then I’m coming in.”

  “Copy.” Luna hung up.

  I shot off a text to Talon Talerco, and five minutes later I was in my company SUV gunning it. Twelve more minutes and I was pulling in to the underground parking at Luna and Associates. I took the elevator up to the offices and strode toward the command center. Entering my code, I walked into the room that housed all our servers, monitoring stations and video feeds. I was expecting to see the floor-to-ceiling massive wall of dozens of screens showing hundreds of security feeds for all of L&A’s clients, but I wasn’t expecting half the monitors to be showing a single, blown up image of Ty Asher facing the camera we’d planted on the neighbors house. And I definitely wasn’t expecting to see Dane Marek standing next to Neil Christensen and Luna.

  Luna looked up and nodded at me, while Christensen watched the screen and held his phone to his ear. Marek glanced at me, and in typical Marek fashion, he barely acknowledged me with a tip of his chin.

  I glanced at Luna and dropped my voice. “What’s Marek doing here?”

  “We need him,” Luna clipped.

  I raised my voice and glanced at Marek. “You here by choice?”

  Marek tipped his chin at Christensen to indicate he’d brought him in, then he nodded once.

  The command room was empty of L&A employees when it usually had three to four guys at any given time. Marek and Christensen didn’t work for Luna. Christensen was a fucking billionaire commercial real estate developer. You wouldn’t know it from looking at him though. The fucker was six and half feet of solid muscle and built like a goddamn Viking. Ex-Danish Special Forces, he was intimidating as fuck without ever speaking a word. I’d be wary as hell of him if I didn’t know him, but having seen his ass in action downrange, I wasn’t only intimidated by him, I had a healthy dose of fear of what he was capable of.

  But none of that compared to Marek.

  Marek was silent, lethal and, if rumors were true, amoral. All the men at Luna and Associates gossiped like high school girls, and the running rumor was that Marek was a merc for hire.

  Luna spared me a glance before turning back to the monitors of Ty gesticulating. “I cleared the room like you asked.”

  “Thanks.” I glanced at the screen again. Ty was still moving his hands. “What the hell’s going on?”

  Luna didn’t have time to answer. Sawyer walked in and strode over to me.

  Luna eyed him. “I warned you.”

  Legs slightly apart, shoulders squared, Sawyer folded his hands in front of him and stared at the monitors. “I’m off the clock.”

  “It doesn’t work like that,” Luna warned.

  Sawyer’s gaze cut to Luna. “I’m here in a personal capacity.”

  Luna stared at him for a moment, then finally nodded. “Understood.”

  Christensen spoke in Danish to whoever the fuck he was talking to, Marek stared at the screen, Sawyer didn’t say shit and Luna shook his head as he stared at the feeds of Ty.

  Okay, what the fuck? “Somebody needs to tell me what the fuck is going on. And why is Ty signing?” I didn’t know ASL, but I knew enough to know that Ty was using sign language.

  “Waiting on Christensen,” Luna answered. “I don’t know what he’s saying.”

  His voice rough like he rarely used it, Marek started translating. “He says a new shipment is coming in to the estate… Boss called everyone in, seventeen guards on site, he only has a few seconds before he is missed, he did not have time to call Luna back… Repeating himself, new shipment coming to estate. Now or never…” Ty turned and walked out of camera range. Marek looked at Luna. “He says to tell you he can’t watch the girl or the kid anymore.”

  Motherfucking fuck. I looked at Luna. “If he’s bringing shit to the estate, I need to move.” Now.

  Christensen hung up the phone. “FinCEN made a move.”

  “What the fuck is FinCEN?” I asked, getting more pissed off by the second. My son was on that estate. If shit was about to go down, I needed to get him out.

  “Financial Crimes Enforcement Network,” Christensen answered in his accented English.

  “Part of the US Treasury department,” Luna added. “They combat domestic and international money laundering, terrorist financing, and financial crimes. They follow the money then they hand shit over to ATF, DEA or the FBI.”

  Jesus fuck. “What kind of a move did they make?”

  Christensen leveled me with a look. “That is beyond your security clearance.”

  What the actual hell? “And you have security clearance?” He wasn’t even an American. Did this fucker’s connections know no bounds?

  Christensen didn’t answer. He stared at me.

  “Okay, fine.” Fuck. “Just give me the gist of it. My son is in that asshole’s house.”

  “So is his mother,” Christensen pointed out.

  No fucking shit. “FinCEN?”

  Christensen stared at me a moment before answering. “Lewis is no longer able to use his offshore accounts. He received a large shipment today. He needs to move the money. If he is smart, he will move it quickly.”

  “And if he isn’t?”

  “ATF will move in before he unloads his shipment.”

  “Which means?” I asked, but I already saw the writing on the wall.

  Christensen confirmed my worst fears. “Everyone on site who is not shot will be arrested.”

  And Maverick would go to CPS. “We need to move. I need to get them out of there.”

  “Agreed.” Christensen’s gaze cut from me to Luna to Marek to Sawyer then back to Luna. “You are out. If you are arrested, you will lose your license.”

  Luna nodded and the door to the command room burst open.

  Talon Talerco, the medic who’d served with our unit in Afghanistan, waltzed in. “What up, ladies?” He smiled like he didn’t have a care in the world. “What’d I miss? We shootin’ shit up tonight?” His gaze cut to me. “‘Cept your old lady and little man, of course.” He grinned and slapped me on t
he shoulder. “Congrats on that, by the way, Ivy. Nice aim.” Talerco winked at me.

  I hated the nickname Ivy. Only Talerco and Tyler called me that, but Tyler was smart enough not to say it to my face.

  Sawyer glanced at me then Talerco. “Ivy?”

  Talon laughed. “Yeah, like the shit that grows on the side of buildin’s? You shoulda seen this fucker downrange. We got ambushed in the Helmand Province and we’re takin’ fire from all sides and we’re trapped. Couldn’t get any clear shots to save our lives, so this guy”—Talon nods at me—”climbs over rubble and shimmies his ass to the top of what’s left of this bombed-out buildin’ to get to a higher vantage point, then starts pickin’ off hajjis. He saved our ass.” Talon grinned. “Figured Ivy was fittin’. He climbs like a motherfucker.” Talon slapped me on the back again. “So, what’d I miss?”

  “Extraction,” Christensen answered. “One female, one child, seventeen armed guards.”

  “We need to get in and out,” Luna added. “We don’t know when ATF is gonna strike, and we don’t want to be there when they do.”

  Jesus fuck. “Okay, I’m gonna go in on the southeast side of the property, by the back of the pool house.” I’d been studying the property for ten days, knowing it’d probably come to this, but hoping it wouldn’t. I’d been praying she’d take Maverick on a run, and I would have ignored Luna’s warning and grabbed them, but she’d always gone alone. “There’s a small window of opportunity every time the two guards patrolling that section rotate their positions. It leaves a few second opening.”

  Christensen stated the obvious. “A few seconds is fine for you to get in, less so to get out with a female and child.”

  “I’ll go in with him,” Sawyer offered.

  “I’ll watch the two guards,” Talon added.

  “Marek and I will cover the other guards,” Neil stated, like fifteen armed guards was no big fucking deal. Which, to those two, it probably wasn’t.

  “And I’ll cover the feeds from here.” Luna glanced at Marek. “House to the west of the estate, the occupants left two days ago and haven’t returned. You should have a good vantage point from there.”

  Marek nodded once.

  Luna glanced around the room. “Any questions?”

  “There’s only one road in and out.” I stated the obvious. “Between whatever shipment he has coming in, the ATF and us, that’s gonna be a clusterfuck.”

  “We will take my Cobalt.” Neil glanced at Luna. “Does the house to the west have a dock?”

  “Yes.” Luna hesitated as he walked to one of the computer terminals and typed something in. “But the dock is visible from Lewis’s property.” An aerial shot of Lewis’s property and the surrounding houses came up on the monitors. Luna walked over to the wall of video screens and pointed. “But two houses to the west isn’t visible and they have a dock. Or going east….” He pointed in the other direction. “This dock isn’t visible from his property either.”

  I studied the aerial shot. “The dock to the west is closer to the extraction point. How visible is that dock from the house on that property?” The last thing we needed was a neighbor calling the cops.

  “I’ll go in by vehicle ahead of everyone and recon both docks,” Sawyer offered.

  Luna nodded. “All right. Anything else?”

  No one said shit.

  “Gear up.” Luna nodded toward the supply room. “Don’t forget comms.”

  Talon clapped his hands and grinned. “Hot extraction, here we come. Let’s go kick some ass!”

  A HAND CLOSED OVER MY mouth at the same time something brushed against my ear.

  “Don’t scream,” the deep male voice commanded.

  I went from dead sleep to sheer panic in zero point two seconds. Unable to suck in air, my arms flailed out and I tried to kick my abductor.

  “Brooke, stop,” he whispered. “It’s me, Garrett. We don’t have much time.”

  It was instant. I recognized his smell, then his voice, and my limbs stopped moving, but my heart kept beating out of control.

  I shoved his hand off my mouth and glanced at Maverick in his crib to make sure he was still sleeping before I whispered angrily, “What are you doing?”

  “We only have a couple minutes. I don’t have time to explain, but we need to get you and Maverick out of here.”

  “We?”

  Garrett nodded over his shoulder.

  I glanced behind us. The blond man from the SUV was standing in the doorway, dressed in all black, with a Kevlar vest on, holding a huge rifle. I looked back to Garrett and realized not only was he dressed identically, but both men had extra ammo clips strapped to them, the cargo pockets on their pants were stuffed with who knew what, and Garrett had his rifle slung over his back by the shoulder strap going across his body.

  “I-I can’t,” I blurted, remembering every sick word Nathan had said to me. “Nathan has a recording of me on his phone. It’s damning. He’ll take Maverick from me.”

  “We’ll handle it,” Garrett countered with total confidence. “But we need to go now.”

  I instantly felt both terrified and protected, but I had to tell them what they were up against. “Nathan has extra guards here tonight.” I’d heard the men outside the pool house earlier. Something about a shipment. There was no way we could get off the estate without them seeing us.

  “We know.” Garrett stood, bringing me up with him. “There’re seventeen guards patrolling. We don’t have much time.” He glanced at my cutoffs and bikini. “Throw a shirt on and grab a few things for Maverick.”

  The blond-haired man stepped into the room and silently handed me Maverick’s diaper bag.

  I looked between them as I took the bag. “Are we coming back?”

  “No.” Garrett didn’t hesitate. “Grab what you can. We’ll replace the rest.”

  I panicked, but then realized there wasn’t much Mav was attached too that I couldn’t replace. I shoved some clothes into the bag and his favorite stuffed dinosaur, then I carefully lifted his blanket out of his crib and tucked it in the bag. I glanced around the room once but didn’t see anything else.

  Garrett took the bag from me and handed it to the blond man. “Go put a shirt on, but don’t turn on any lights.”

  Half in shock he was here, half ready to already be gone from this place, I nodded. “Be right back.”

  I rushed into my bedroom and grabbed my purse. Pulling a T-shirt over my head, I shoved some underwear and a change of clothes in my bag and a few toiletries. Reaching under my mattress, I grabbed the little money I had and shoved it in my pocket as I stepped into a pair of sneakers sans socks.

  “We need to go. Now.”

  Not having heard Garrett come up behind me, I jumped. “I’m ready.” I slung my purse over my head and one shoulder so it sat across my body.

  “Are you leaving any identifying information here? Bills in your name, ID, papers, pictures, computer, anything?”

  “No. I don’t have any bills in my name or a computer. My ID is in my purse, along with Mav’s birth certificate, and there are no other papers.” I’d been living for this moment for years.

  Garrett nodded once.

  “I’ll get Mav.”

  The blond man stepped into the doorway of my bedroom and looked at Garrett.

  “I know, I know. I heard.” Garrett put his hand on my lower back. “Let’s go.” He ushered me toward Mav’s room as the blond man stepped back.

  “What did you hear?” I asked, but almost didn’t want to know. My heart was already pounding like I was going to have a heart attack. If Nathan saw us trying to leave, he’d have his men shoot. I had no doubts about that.

  “Lewis has a shipment at his dock, and ATF is moving in. Shit’s gonna get ugly any minute.” Garrett scanned the windows in the living area that faced the pool. “Grab Maverick. Keep him as quiet as possible.”

  The blond man moved to the French doors as I ran into Mav’s room. Pasting on a big, giant fake smile, I reached i
n his crib and picked him up. “Sh, sh, baby. Momma’s got you.”

  His big brown eyes fluttered open in confusion. “Mama,” he whispered in his sleep-rough voice.

  I held him close as I walked us into the main living space. “Mav, Mommy needs you to not make a sound. Do you remember how we practiced this before? In the closet when we play hide-and-seek?”

  He nodded.

  “This is like that. We’re not going to make a sound. Mommy has two friends who are coming with us, and we’re going for a ride, but you have to be absolutely quiet. No talking. Okay?”

  His eyes wide, he looked over my shoulder.

  I felt Garrett’s heat on my back a second before he stepped in front of me and quietly spoke. “We have to move. Stay on my six. Stop when I stop, run when I say run, and keep your head down. Questions?”

  “No.” I shook my head, and Mav put his thumb in his mouth as he looked at his father.

  Garrett touched something in his ear. “We’re coming out. We clear?”

  It must have been a communication device, because in the next second, he nodded at the blond man and swung his rifle in front of him. Opening the French door, his rifle in front of him, Garrett scanned the area surrounding the pool, then glanced at me once and stepped out into the night.

  My diaper bag over his shoulder, his rifle in his hand, the blond man stepped up behind me and Mav and put his hand on my shoulder. “Go,” he whispered.

  Terrified, I stepped out after Garrett.

  Constantly scanning the pool area and the yard beyond it, Garrett looked over his shoulder to make sure I was behind him, then he nodded once. In the next second, he was moving at a fast clip along the side of the pool house, his rifle in front of him.

  My arms tight around Mav, I clutched him to my chest and ran with Garrett. The breeze off the water blew the palm fronds. The intracoastal slapped against the seawall. The cicadas made their nighttime mating calls. Everything sounded as it usually did, but something was off.