Xtreme Measures (Xtreme Ops Book 5)

by Em Petrova

  He stared at the darkened windows of Ruby’s Place while the fog was rolling in. When Penn gave the order for Winston and Lipton to patrol the restaurant and bar, Gasper had forced his way into the group—and was shocked when Penn didn’t even argue with him.

  A team of state troopers watched over the bed and breakfast, and that freed up the rest of the Xtreme Ops to keep eyes on the water. They had reason to believe a shipment might be coming in tonight.

  “You plan on going inside?” Lipton’s question drifted to him through the thick fog.

  “She doesn’t want me to.” He’d all but admitted to his love affair with Ruby to his captain’s second-in-command. At this point, he was done caring who knew. She was still in danger, and he couldn’t see anything past that. He would guard her life with his own—no way in hell would the mafia get their hands on her.

  “Falling out?” Lipton asked.

  “A difference of opinion.” He unclenched his fists again, letting the blood rush into his hands.

  “She decided she doesn’t like your ugly ass,” Lipton joked.

  Gasper stared at her blackened window. Any humor he might have responded with felt miles from him now. He couldn’t crack a joke if he tried.

  He pushed out a sigh. “She thinks we’re fucking up her situation.”

  “We are. But things usually have to get worse before all hell breaks loose and we get the people free. You know that.”

  Hell, he did, all too well. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I wasn’t thinking about that when I ran with her.”

  “I know.”

  Pivoting, he pierced Lipton with a stare. “I know you do. You’d do anything for Jenna.”

  “Damn straight I would. I would have laid down my life to save her in that forest when the bomber was on the loose.”

  “I feel the same. But how the hell do we get her and all the girls out safe and stop these guys? Is it me, or do our superiors want us to lose this battle?”

  Lipton’s eyes glittered in the faint cast of moonlight. The world looked creepy as hell, with a thin glow of light coming from the moon and the fog shifting around them like ghosts dancing. In the distance, he heard the crash of waves on the rocky shore and even the faint rustle of fishermen unloading their hauls.

  “Do you actually believe we’ll ever drive the Russian mafia out of Alaska? Organized crime’s been in the US practically since the country was founded. We’re never gonna fully get them out,” Lipton told him.

  “No, of course not. You’re right. I realize as much—it’s just hard to swallow. Working to beat down an enemy, but knowing they’ll just pop up again, stronger and with more backup.”

  Lipton stared at him for a long minute. “We’ll free the woman and her father.”

  Something in Lipton’s voice made him lift his head. “What news of her father? Any progress in finding him?”

  “They followed a money trail from a year ago, and it leads to some buildings owned by the original smuggler he gambled with. They think the father’s being kept in one of those properties.”

  “In Anchorage?”

  “Most of the properties are located in the city, yeah. Rentals and such. They also checked out the smuggler’s associates. Take a look at this.” He held out his phone, and Gasper walked over with stealthily quiet steps to see.

  “Recognize these assholes?” Lipton asked.

  A photo of Mikhail and another of Maxim filled the screen. Lipton swiped his thumb, and Russian prison mugshots came into view. They knew the bouncers had done time, but now that they saw their list of crimes, all those tattoos gained in prison made sense.

  Gasper scanned his surroundings for danger, but he directed his question at his teammate. “So, what’s the plan?”

  Lipton often knew what Penn had in mind, but he focused on the perimeter rather than Gasper.

  “Lip.” His tone was harsh.

  “I don’t know anything for certain.”

  “But you and Penn did discuss the plan.”

  “Nothing’s finalized, and I can’t say more than that.”

  “I assume we’re sending someone in after the father. The shipment’s due in here very soon, and the girls will be sent out.” Gasper’s gaze was dragged again and again to Ruby’s bedroom window. Was she tossing and turning? Or asleep like an angel?

  He swallowed hard. “If we really are planning to divide and conquer…it must happen at the same time, or someone will get killed.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Ruby searched the countertop for the new menus to tape onto the front door. She shifted around a few trays and a stack of clean dishes that still needed put on the shelf.

  “Anushka.”

  The girl looked up from the giant pot of chili she was manning. Just the smell of chili made Ruby think of Elias stripping down to his undies.

  “Did you see the menus anywhere?” Ruby asked. She wanted to ask where that guy sent to babysit her was but refrained. She hadn’t seen him in a while, and she suspected one of her girls might be entertaining him upstairs.

  “Big Mike talked to that other guy and he already took them.”

  Ruby’s heart pattered to a dull stop. “Took them?”

  “Yes, he already taped them in the window.”

  She ran to see for herself. When her gaze locked on the front and she saw the menus taped in the left side, terror struck.

  Shipments only happened on Tuesdays and Sundays. This wasn’t Tuesday or Sunday. What was happening?

  “Big Mike?” Where was the man? Not in his usual post by the entrance. She rushed to peer out, but he wasn’t on the sidewalk out front either.

  “Where is he?” she whispered under her breath. Chills broke over her.

  They’d cut her out of the loop, which meant they didn’t trust her.

  Quickly, she took the stairs two at a time to reach the top. She did a sweep of the girls’ rooms and found every woman accounted for. Ice sat like a giant block in her chest, even after seeing the girls hadn’t been stolen or sold out from under her nose.

  She had to fix the rift in her relationship with the Bratva. But how? They’d know if she was kissing up.

  What could she do? Who could she count on?

  The realization hit her as if a spotlight lit up a billboard. The answer had been there the whole time.

  Elias.

  They had promised to keep her safe, and well, she felt far from it this very minute. Realizing that Big Mike was communicating with the mafia behind her back, and was now completing tasks she’d been told to do…

  She rushed through the restaurant and strode into her office.

  From the kitchen, Anushka called, “Did you find him?”

  But Ruby slammed her office door and settled at her laptop. All her communications were watched by the men holding her father, but Elias had given her a way to bypass the mafia and to reach him if the need every arose.

  Did she need him? More than he knew. More than she had admitted to.

  With shaking hands, she typed in the link, and it took her directly to an email box. In a few quick sentences, she relayed the details about the shipment coming early and how they’d gone over her head directly to Big Mike.

  After she said what she needed to say, she let her fingers hover over the keys, thinking about what she wanted to say.

  At that moment, the door opened. She felt the overgrown man taking up the entrance, his stare unnerving as hell. Pretending to be engrossed in her work, she didn’t look away from the email she’d typed to Elias but hadn’t sent yet.

  “What do you need, Big Mike? I’m working on the books, and you know I can’t be disturbed. If I get a single number wrong—”

  He cut her off, “Anushka said you were looking for me.”

  She met his stare. “I can’t even remember what I needed now.” She pretended to think, tapping a fingertip against her lips. Hardly any air moved through her lungs, and under the desk, her knees were practically knocking together.

&n
bsp; If he came over here, how would she hide the email to Elias?

  “Oh! I remember Could you move that big carton of whiskey to the bar so I can put it away? It’s too heavy for me to move.” She offered him a smile. “Thanks. Close the door on your way out.”

  The latter was just the right amount of bitchiness of the normal Ruby, and Big Mike nodded before backing out of the room.

  Her fingers flew over the keys.

  I’m sorry about everything. Please don’t leave me alone in this. We can’t let these guys win.

  She hesitated before adding, “Love, Ruby.”

  Before she could change her words, she hit send. Then she sat there, heart pounding and her breaths rushing out too fast as she imagined the message moving through the air, sailing straight to Elias. Too late, she thought he might not be the person to receive the message. Did it matter, though? He’d hear about it and come to help her.

  To make it look as if she really was working hard, she sat in her office for half an hour. No email came back to her. Nobody texted or called, but that wasn’t surprising. The team knew she was being watched, and they wouldn’t put her at risk.

  How stupid she’d been to drive Elias away. What if something happened to him, and he left the world believing she didn’t give a damn? She of all people knew life was short. She’d gotten mere seconds to say goodbye to her father as they dragged him out of the bar and shoved him into a van. She only saw him on a screen after he’d been beaten. She never got a chance to tell him she loved him and would do anything in her power to save him.

  Emotions bubbled inside her. They churned like the sea. She loved Elias. Damn the man. Why did he have to show up now when she was in the middle of a personal hell?

  Her grandmother had all the superstition of a sailor, and if she were here, she’d tell Ruby that everything happens for a reason and when it’s meant to happen. Which meant Elias came to break her free of the Bratva’s hold …and possibly to break her free of herself.

  The few stolen moments with him—in the laundry room up or in her bed—were the happiest she could remember in her life. He made her feel…alive. And for a woman who’d been slogging through the motions of a bad situation, that was huge.

  She went to the kitchen and spent some time talking to Anushka just to make her think everything was business as usual. They discussed cornbread and Ruby suggested making an extra batch since chili was a popular special and they always ran out.

  As Anushka whirled around the kitchen to gather more ingredients, Ruby breathed a sigh of relief.

  She went through the motions of helping her mix up the cornbread batter and poured it into several greased baking pans. When she had all the pans lined up in the oven, she wiped her hands on a dishtowel and walked out into the restaurant.

  Big Mike’s back was to her, but she saw by the way he stood that he was on the phone with somebody. She froze, head cocked, listening hard to his low rumbling words. The conversation didn’t make much sense on this end, until he said, “Pull up the shipment.”

  Her mouth dried out. Pull up the shipment from the depths of the sea? The waterproof bag filled with drugs that the runners attached to the buoy—that same buoy she’d sent the special ops team to inspect. And from what she knew, they’d taken one of the bags.

  As soon as the mafia tried to fish that bag out of the water, they’d find it was missing. And then what?

  She tried to tell herself that she wasn’t involved in that job. For that matter, she hadn’t known Big Mike was either. But clearly, he and probably Max too, were more involved in this game than she’d ever thought. They weren’t only watching over her to ensure she did what she was told to. They were calling the shots.

  Oh God. How long had this been going on? She had to get another message to Elias. She didn’t care if he beat the man to a pulp—he had to stop him from exerting more power and giving the order to kill her father.

  She slowly backed out of the room and pushed through the kitchen door. Anushka was humming a tune and thankfully didn’t look up at Ruby as she hurried to her office.

  She only dropped into the chair behind her desk for just seconds before she was on her feet again, pacing.

  If the team was out at that buoy and the Russians came in to collect their goods…

  Her stomach balled up like someone had driven a fist into it. She settled her hand over the spot, breathing through the pain she only felt internally. If they killed Elias, she couldn’t forgive herself.

  She had to try to warn the team.

  Casting a desperate look around her office for some reason to go out, her stare landed on a pile of mail already bearing stamps. A walk to the corner mailbox would be just the excuse.

  She snatched up the mail and grabbed her light jacket from the arm of the chair. The mornings were cool enough to always require a coat, and the wind was coming off the sea today. When she headed for the back, Big Mike’s voice stopped her.

  “Where do you think you’re going?”

  “To mail these bills before the electric company cuts our power.” She arched a brow at him, tempting him to stop her from running the business fronting his disgusting human trafficking and drug trade.

  “I’ll take them.” He started toward her.

  At that moment, Anushka looked up and met Ruby’s stare. Whatever she saw on her face had the woman moving fast—too fast.

  “I’ll be right back!” Ruby called just as Anushka hit the handle of the big chili pot. In slow motion it tipped off the range. Ruby didn’t stick around to see the mess that followed, but she heard Big Mike’s bellow as hot chili splashed over him.

  She tucked the mail inside her coat and took off running. White Fog was the size of a crumb, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to locate the men. She headed straight for the dock. When she came to a stop, breathing hard, a low whistle sounded. She jerked in a circle, looking for the source.

  One of the special ops team stepped out from between two shipping crates sitting on the dock. She’d never heard his name, only that he ordered iced tea and the occasional beer he never drank.

  “You’re looking for Jack.”

  She blinked at him.

  “Gasper.”

  “Yes.” She hadn’t caught her breath yet, and she was well aware that Big Mike would be looking for her the minute he changed out of his chili-covered clothes. Thank God for Anushka. When she got to the restaurant, she’d give her a big hug and the rest of the day off.

  “He’s not here, but you can give me any message you have for him.” The man was so big and imposing she might be scared of him if she didn’t know what his job was here.

  “When will he be back?”

  He looked to the water. She followed his stare but didn’t see a single craft on the waves. “Sorry, I can’t say.”

  “Can’t or won’t?” Anger rose inside her.

  He looked into her eyes. “Can’t. I’m not sure when he’ll return.”

  “Where did he go?”

  He gave her a flat look she read to mean he wouldn’t say.

  She huffed out a breath. “Fine. Tell him that… Oh, screw it! If he isn’t even here, he can’t do anything anyhow. There’s a shipment coming in early.”

  “We know.”

  “You…” She gulped and bit off the words she wanted to blast him with. “I guess I just risked my life to come here and warn you. Good luck stopping it!” She whirled and stalked off.

  “Ruby,” he called.

  She stopped to look at him again.

  “I’m coming with you.”

  “No you’re not.” She took a step backward.

  “If your life’s in jeopardy—”

  “It’s been in jeopardy since my father lost that hand of poker. I’ve survived this long—I’ll be fine.” With that, she hurried from the dock, keeping an eye out for Big Mike or any of the Bratva ready to take her down.

  She was no idiot, though—that guy from the dock was definitely tailing her. She ignored him and
dumped the mail into the box before returning to Ruby’s Place. When she walked in, Anushka was singing to herself as she scrubbed the spilled chili off the walls and floor.

  She looked up at Ruby with a smile.

  Thank you, Ruby mouthed to her, and then she grabbed a cloth to help her.

  Gasper had a bad feeling about leaving White Fog. He also had a bad feeling about going to Anchorage. And yet what choice did he have but to take his captain’s order and join the mission to rescue Ruby’s father?

  Why wasn’t he on that ship with the Coast Guard, headed out to intercept the smugglers at the buoy? He couldn’t help but think Penn sent him on purpose, and that rankled. He had to prove his worth on this quest to locate Ruby’s father and see him safe.

  Shit was about to go down at Ruby’s Place, and he burned to be there to protect her. He would just have to leave it to his team to do it for him. He had to trust them to keep his woman safe.

  Not my woman. She didn’t want anything to do with him, and he understood even if it hurt.

  He listened to Lipton and Winston going over the particulars of freeing Ruby’s father. Their sources told them there were no guards during the day, when the man was locked into his prison. He kept half an ear on their discussion, but he knew everything they recounted, so he let his mind drift to the rest of the team.

  Half on a boat with the Coast Guard already out on the water. And two Xtreme Ops teammates were at the bar to keep the girls safe and get the bouncer out of the way.

  Where was Ruby in all this? He envisioned that chessboard again. Had they done anything to push the odds in her favor? He didn’t know anymore.

  “Jack?”

  He looked up at Lipton.

  They were holed up a few blocks from where they believed the father to be hidden, biding their time and waiting for word from the Anchorage PD who were staking out the house that the coast was clear.

  “What’s up?” he asked Lipton.

  “I don’t know if I should tell you this or not.”

  He went cold inside. “You already started, so you better finish.” He didn’t mean to clamp his hands into fists—his body took over.