by Sybil Bartel
We rounded the back of the pool house, where we wouldn’t be visible from the main house, and it hit me.
I didn’t hear any voices.
I always heard voices on the property. Day or night. There were always at least six men patrolling, and they spoke to each other. They’d smoke cigarettes by the detached garage. You’d hear them coming and going from their shifts. You’d hear something other than just the night sounds.
But tonight it was silent.
Eerily silent.
Garrett paused by a large ficus tree and motioned me behind him. I opened my mouth to warn him about the strange silence when he abruptly shoved me to the ground and went on one knee.
Then all hell broke loose.
A dozen or more men, in combat gear and helmets, with night vision goggles and rifles, came from every direction. They rushed toward the main house as the night exploded with shouting and automatic gunfire.
“OHH SHIT,” TALERCO SAID through the comm. “Heads up, heads up.”
I shoved Brooke down and dropped to a knee.
“ATF in T minus—” Talon cut off midsentence as a dozen ATF agents swarmed the property. “Make that right now,” he added.
“Eight guards unloading the boat at the dock,” Neil clipped. “Three on patrol on the dock. Three in the house, three on the property I cannot see.”
“Two in my sights,” Marek interjected.
“One in mine,” Talon added.
Neil issued orders. “Marek, guard. Collins, retreat. Talerco, cover. Sawyer, cover.”
Christensen barely got the last word out and gunfire broke out around us, pinging off the motherfucking tree.
“Sawyer,” I yelled. “Cover.”
Sawyer laid down return fire, and I half shoved, half dragged Brooke and Mav around the tree. Adrenaline pumping, my heart pounding, I barked into my comm. “Coming at you, Talerco.”
Bullets whizzed past us and plinked against the ten-foot-high concrete wall on the south side of the estate, but we weren’t in the direct path of fire anymore.
“Copy that,” Talerco answered. “Ready and waitin’.”
I spared Brooke a quick glance. I didn’t have time to take in her brave face, or my kid not making a peep. I only had one mission, and that was to get them the fuck out of here.
I nodded at the wall five yards ahead of us with no fucking cover between us and it. “We’re going for the wall, and I’m gonna climb us up, but you need to hold Mav between us as you hold on to me. Can you do that?”
She nodded immediately as another round of gunfire erupted around us.
“Don’t got all day, Ivy,” Talerco said through the comm. “Those guards are pouring out of the place like it’s on fire, and I’m target practice up here. Save the pillow talk for later and hurry the fuck up.”
I ignored Talerco and spoke to Brooke. “When we get to the top, I got a man waiting, and he’ll take Maverick down the other side. You follow and I’ll be right behind you. Understand?”
“Yes.” She flinched as another bullet flew past.
“Sawyer,” I barked into the comm. “We’re heading for the wall. Cover.”
“Copy,” Sawyer answered, firing off a few rounds.
I put Brooke in front of me and gave her a slight shove. “Move, move, move.”
She ran for the wall with me right on her six. Like a fucking pro, she saw the rope, adjusted a yard to get to it then spun and wrapped her arms around my neck and lifted her legs around my waist.
I didn’t fucking hesitate.
Swinging my rifle to my back, I grabbed the rope. Hand over hand, my feet on the wall, I crawled us up.
Talerco popped up as my hand hit the top.
“Fancy meetin’ you here.” He grinned.
“Take Mav,” I barked, but Talerco was already reaching for him.
Brave, trusting, her legs locked around my waist, Brooke handed Mav to Talerco.
Talerco wrapped Mav in one arm. “Hey, little man, you like rock climbin’?”
I didn’t see if Mav responded. Talerco was already rappelling down the other side, and I was lifting Brooke to the top, trying to keep my body in front of hers. “Get over, get over,” I clipped. “Grab the rope. Follow Talon.”
She got one leg over the top as her hands gripped the rope.
I shoved her other leg over, and the spray of automatic fire hit my ears a split second before the bullets ripped into my flesh.
Brooke screamed.
Enraged, I reached for my rifle to return fire, but the hand still holding the rope started to slip as pain shot through my body.
Motherfucker. “Talerco,” I yelled. “Get her off the wall! Get her off the wall!”
The upper part of her body still lying over the top of the wall, her arm reached over to grab me.
“No,” I bit out at her as the muscles in my hand and arm gave out and the rope slipped from my grasp. “Go!” She was a sitting target. Goddamn it, she was a target. “Talerco! Talerco!”
I didn’t hear Talerco’s response.
I didn’t hear shit.
My back hit the ground. Her mouth opened, and her face twisted.
Everything went black.
BULLETS HIT GARRETT AND I screamed.
Then everything went slow motion.
My hand reached out for him. Blood sprayed all over my arm and the wall, and Garrett’s face twisted with anger.
I grasped at air because the father of my son was already falling.
One arm holding his rifle, the other dangling limp, his eyes on me, his lips moved, but I couldn’t hear his words over the sound of gunfire.
He hit the ground with a sickening thud.
“Garrett!”
His eyes closed, and he went impossibly still.
A strong arm wrapped around my legs and pulled. “We’ll get him, darlin’. We’ll get him. Get your head down. One hand over the other, your son needs you. Come on, come on, down you go.” The arm moved to my waist, and I was dragged from the top of the wall.
Tears streaming, gunfire everywhere, shots echoing in my head, I let go of the rope and the man Garrett called Talon took us down the wall.
Huddled in a frightened squat on the ground, still wrapped in his blanket, Mav looked at me with wide, tear-filled eyes.
Seeing his face kicked me into gear.
I scooped him into my arms. “It’s okay, baby. Momma has you.” I kissed his hair. “I got you. We’re okay.”
Talon picked up his rifle as he spoke into this earpiece. “Ivy, you copy?” He muttered a curse, then his arm was around my shoulders and we were moving. “Come on, darlin’, we gotta move.”
Keeping us close to the wall that separated Nathan’s estate from the one to the south, Talon led us at a quick pace through the neighbor’s yard, around a hedge, and into the next house’s yard as the sound of gunfire filling the dark night started to recede.
I didn’t ask where we were going when he cut us across the backyard of the house two doors down and led us toward the water. I didn’t ask if Garrett was still alive, and I didn’t ask what happened to the blond man who was with us.
I was holding my son, and my heart was breaking at the last sight I’d had of his father.
Talon scanned the yard then took us the last fifteen feet across open grass to the dock where a large boat was idling.
Rushing us down the dock, Talon swung his rifle behind him before reaching for me and Mav. One arm went behind my back, the other under my knees, and quicker than I could blink, he scooped us up and lifted us onto the boat.
Setting me on my feet on the deck, he glanced at the mammoth-sized man behind the wheel as he grabbed a black bag from one of the seats. “Neil, Brooke. Brooke, Neil.” Talon hopped off the boat and shouldered the bag before he undid the ties. Throwing the ropes on the boat, he glanced at Neil. “I’m goin’ back for Ivy. I’ll hitch a ride with Sawyer.” Talon’s gaze cut to me. “I’ll be in touch as soon as I know somethin’.” He tipped his chin
at Mav. “Take care of the little man.” He turned and ran back the way we’d come.
Desperate, I glanced at Neil. “We can’t leave him.”
“He will be taken care of.” His deep voice had an accent. “Have a seat.”
Intimidated by his expression, by the sheer size of him, I held on to Mav tightly and sat, but I didn’t want to leave Garrett behind. Not that I had a choice.
Neil maneuvered the huge boat into the main channel in the intracoastal and took on speed. It wasn’t a cold night, but when he opened up the engine’s throttle, the wind whipped through my T-shirt.
Hugging Mav to my chest, I kissed his short-cropped hair. “You’re okay, sweet boy. We’re safe. We’re just going for a boat ride.” He’d been on Nathan’s boat before, but not for a while, and I didn’t know what he was thinking. He was being quiet, not that he wasn’t usually pretty quiet, but I was worried about everything he’d seen tonight.
Rubbing his back to keep him warm, I kept speaking softly to him as Neil drove us who knew where. All I knew was that he wasn’t heading south, so we weren’t going to Garrett’s condo. Which was good, because that would probably be the first place Nathan looked for me… if he was still alive.
A few minutes, an hour later, I didn’t know how long it’d been, but Mav was asleep in my arms and Neil was slowing the boat down as he brought us into a half-empty marina.
I didn’t notice the raven-haired beauty standing on the dock until Neil backed into a slip. She took the ropes he tossed to her and tied the boat down while Neil picked up a rifle by the barrel like it was a baseball bat.
Same as the entire boat ride, he said nothing to me, but when the pretty dark-haired woman smiled at him, he spoke in another language.
“You’re welcome, babe.” She looked at me and smiled. “Hi, I’m Ariel. You must be Brooke.” She glanced at Mav in my arms and her smile softened. “And this must be Maverick. Poor boy, he must be exhausted. Let’s get you two to the truck. Love your boy’s name, by the way.” She took my arm to steady me as the boat rocked, and helped me onto the dock.
“Thanks. I’m sorry, Garrett didn’t mention you.” He’d never mentioned any of these people. Not that he’d ever had a chance. A wave of despair hit me wondering if he ever would, and I fought tears.
Ariel laughed easily as she nodded up the dock to indicate I should follow her. “That’s because he’s not one of the gossips at Luna and Associates.” She looked over her shoulder at me and winked like I knew what she was talking about. “Not like the other guys.” She glanced over my head. “Isn’t that right, babe?”
Following her glance, I was surprised to see Neil right behind me. He hadn’t made a sound. Not even his footsteps echoed on the wooden dock.
“I do not pretend to know what Luna’s men speak about.” His voice, so deep it was quiet, still somehow managed to cut through the night.
Ariel half laughed, half made a short, derisive sound. “Women and guns, in that order. That’s what they talk about.” She pulled a key fob out of her pocket and unlocked a full-sized pickup truck. “Car seat’s in the back, and there are some clothes and diapers in the bag next to it. I didn’t know what size he was, so I grabbed a couple different things.” She handed the keys to Neil.
I didn’t know what to say. My eyes welled.
“Oh, girl.” She put her arms around me and Mav and lowered her voice. “It’s gonna be okay. You’re in good hands, trust me. Just let them do their thing, and I promise it’ll be okay. These guys are the best at what they do.” She pulled back and squeezed my arm.
“What do they do?” I managed to ask past the lump in my throat.
Her expression turned deadly serious. “Whatever they have to.”
Neil’s hand landed on the back of her neck in a show of dominance. “It is time to go.”
She smiled up at him. “Okay.”
He handed her the key to the boat then, for one brief moment, he focused such an intense stare on her that I felt like I was intruding by even being in the same zip code. Then just as quick, his chest rose with an inhale, and he dropped his hand from her neck. “Go.”
She nodded, and he opened the back door to the truck’s cab.
Ariel smiled at me one last time. “Good luck, Brooke.”
“Thank you.” I barely got the two words out before Neil was taking Maverick from my arms, and panic hit me. “What are you doing?”
“Putting the boy in the car seat.” He deftly lifted a still sleeping Maverick, and cupping the back of his head, he secured Mav in the car seat in two swift movements. “Get in. Passenger side.” Without sparing me a glance, he quietly shut the door and got behind the wheel.
I scrambled around the front of the truck and used the running board to step up and get in.
Looking even bigger up close, Neil turned the engine over.
I had to ask. “Where are you taking us?”
His ice-blue gaze, cold and merciless, cut to me. “Safe house.”
SWIMMING THROUGH BLACKNESS, I COULDN’T breathe.
I couldn’t.
Fucking.
BREATHE.
No goddamn air.
Motherfucking cocksucker.
They needed me.
They fucking needed me.
Suck in a breath.
TAKE A GODDAMN BREATH.
My lungs wheezed through a ragged inhale and my eyes opened.
Rifle in one hand, Sawyer kneeled over me as he raised his fist.
Understanding hit. “If you goddamn chest thump me, you cocksucker, I’m gonna kick you in the balls,” I rasped, sucking in another breath.
For once in his fucking life, Sawyer looked shocked.
“That’s right.” I coughed and tried to roll to my side. Goddamn that hurt. “I’m alive.”
Sawyer hunched as rounds of automatic fire sprayed the blood-splattered wall behind him. “Talerco’s on his way back.”
“No,” I tried to shout, but it hurt to goddamn talk, let alone yell. “He needs to stay with them.” He needed to stay with Brooke and Maverick.
“Neil has them. They’re safe.” Sawyer swept his weapon to the left and shot off two rounds, then grabbed me by the front of the vest. “Time to move.” He pulled me to sitting position.
Pain shot from my left shoulder and my right arm and radiated through my whole goddamn body. My vision tunneled and my ears rang. “Stop!” Fuck. Fuck. “I’m getting up.” Goddamn it, I was getting the fuck up. They needed me. Fuck, they needed me.
“Then get up, or I’m getting you up.” On one knee, Sawyer spent a few more rounds. “We need cover.”
Out of habit, I put my palm down for leverage to get up, then put weight on it. Stabbing pain shot to my shoulder and my arm gave out. Letting out a roar, I rolled forward, got a knee under me, and used my goddamn forehead on the ground for leverage as I pushed up.
My head swimming, my arms hanging loose at my sides, I fucking staggered like a drunk, but I got up. “Rifle,” I coughed out the word. “Need my rifle.”
“You can’t hold it.” Aiming his rifle, he picked up my gun then pivoted to my six so he was between me and the line of fire.
“I can hold my fucking gun, you asshole.”
Shouldering my gun, Sawyer ignored me. “Move, move, move. Follow the wall all the way to the water. Talerco’s waiting.”
What the fuck? “I didn’t hear Talerco say shit.” I didn’t hear anyone say shit through the comm. Goddamn it. “I lost my comm.”
Sawyer fired off a few rounds. “Keep moving.”
Irrational, I paused. “They’ll find it.” Then any one of those assholes could hear we had Brooke and Maverick.
Sawyer pushed me forward. “You’re shot to hell, your shoulder looks dislocated and the place is crawling with ATF agents. I don’t give a shit about the comm. It’s a miracle we haven’t been spotted yet. Keep moving.”
I looked down.
Thick, dark sludge covered my fucking shoulder and arm and dripp
ed down my hand.
Everything came back.
Climbing the rope, getting Maverick over the wall, Brooke on the wall.
Then getting shot and falling.
God-fucking-damn it. “That motherfucker shot at me while I was holding her and my kid.” I knew it was Lewis. It had to be. Who the fuck else would shoot at a woman and kid.
“ATF showed up and everyone started shooting. Keep moving, five yards.” Sawyer spoke into his comm. “Thirty seconds, Talerco.”
I knew it was him. I fucking knew it was Lewis. “I’m gonna kill him.” I stumbled the last few feet, and the fucking twelve-foot wall ended only to be replaced by a chest-high hedge.
“Do it when you stop bleeding.” Sawyer moved in front of me and pushed enough of the hedge out of the way for me to step through.
Talerco came from the other side of the wall, carrying his kit. “Damn, Ivy.” He smiled without humor as his shrewd gaze took in my shoulder and arm. “I thought you were supposed to be able to climb like a motherfucker. Not get shot off a wall. Amateur hour, bro.” He dropped his bag and grabbed my hand and elbow. “But bonus points for deflectin’ rounds off missus and little man.” Holding my wrist tight, he grasped my elbow and rotated my arm.
Shit snapped.
“Motherfucker!” That hurt.
“Dislocated.” Talerco put his hand on my shoulder and moved my arm back and forth. “Figured you wanted it set before I took your vest off.”
“Fuck you.”
Talerco chuckled. “I’m all good, thanks.”
“I don’t need my vest off,” I bitched at him like a pussy. “Just get me outta here. I need to see my kid.” And her.
Ignoring me, Talerco glanced at Sawyer as he sat me down and ripped the Velcro straps of my vest. “How far away you parked?” He lifted the vest over my head.
“Few blocks.” Sawyer looked down at me like he was looking at a dead man.
Studying my shoulder, Talerco nodded absently. “Go get your ride, bring it around.”
“I’ll have to pass ATF.”
Talerco grabbed shit out of his kit. “Worth the risk. He ain’t walkin’ that far like this.”