Xtreme Measures (Xtreme Ops Book 5)

by Em Petrova

  “Broshears just gave word that Ruby came to the dock looking for you.”

  Christ. His heart felt stabbed with pain and fear and longing.

  “Is she okay?”

  “He followed her to Ruby’s Place to make sure, so yeah.”

  He owed Broshears a drink when they got to base.

  “What did she need?” Dragging information from Lipton lately was like extracting a pebble encased in cement.

  “She came to warn us that the shipment’s coming early.”

  “Fuck.” They’d found out hours before the ship was spotted on the water headed to the buoy. And if she knew, that meant she was in danger. But when was Ruby not in danger?

  He didn’t care if she hated him, or that their relationship could never work out. He still wanted to be there to watch over her.

  Struggling to deal with his feelings, he walked to the window of the apartment where they were set up and looked out on the ugly, overgrown patch of grass across the way.

  “Jack?” Lipton’s voice shook him.

  “Now I know why Penn sent me away.”

  “What do you mean?” Winston leaned against the wall, arms folded in a nonchalant pose.

  “You guys call me the jack-of-all-trades, but I can’t master this one thing.”

  “What thing?” Lipton asked.

  He scrubbed a hand over his face. He was tired. He wanted to find Ruby, lock her against his body and fall into a healing sleep with her.

  “I can’t separate my personal life from my duty.” His voice came out with an edge of the anger he directed at himself. “I’ve never had an issue before.”

  “You’ve never been in love before.”

  He looked to Lipton. He was close to all the guys, but typically he confided in Shadow. Having this new bond with Lipton left him even more grateful to have these men in his life.

  “Man, listen to us.” His lips quirked. “We sound like a soap opera. I’m in love with the owner of a bar, she rejected me, and still I’m going crazy with the need to make sure she’s safe.”

  Lipton chuckled. “Guess that means I’d better confide my own little secret.”

  Winston and Gasper stared at Lipton, waiting.

  “Jenna’s pregnant. With twins.”

  For some reason this struck them all as hilarious, and laughing through blinding tears, Gasper walked over to clap Lipton on the shoulder.

  “Congrats, man. I guess you’d better ask for a raise in pay to support your family.”

  They laughed harder. Gasper and Lipton focused on Winston. “What’s your story, bro? Your mom’s got amnesia and now she thinks she’s your sister?” Gasper swiped new tears of mirth out of his eyes. They razzed Winston for a while until they calmed down.

  “All kidding aside, Jack, you’re holding up pretty damn well. If Jenna were in danger, I’d be losing my shit.” Lipton took out his pocket knife and started cleaning his nails.

  “That doesn’t make me feel better, man.”

  Lipton sobered. “She’s in good hands. The guys at the bar won’t let her get hurt. They’ve been posted there to protect all the women. Beckett and Day are damn good, and Pax’s replacement is one hell of a shot. I’m hopin’ Penn keeps him on the team after Paxton returns.”

  “If he returns.” Winston’s quiet statement rang with too much truth.

  “We gotta keep our heads in the game. Be ready to hit that rental property and free the old man as soon as we get word,” Lipton said.

  “Copy that.” Gasper looked out the window again. Through the heavy cloud cover hanging over Anchorage, a ray of sun broke through. He was far from superstitious, but maybe loving Ruby made him tap into his gut feelings more than usual. Because now, he saw that beam of sunlight slanting through the sky and knew without a doubt they’d be successful today. They’d see her father safe.

  Then it would be time to fight for a place in Ruby’s heart.

  His phone buzzed, and next thing he knew a message flashed on his screen. An email from Ruby, saying the shipment was coming early and that they had to win against these guys.

  She signed it with ”Love, Ruby.” His heart ached. What did that mean for them?

  He barely processed the thought before they got the call. Gasper burst outside first.

  He knew the drill—bust down the door of the house and find the old man. Shoot anything that moved besides the old man. Get him out, seek medical attention if necessary—though from the images he’d seen on Max’s phone, Ruby’s father would definitely require medical treatment.

  They had to hide him too. It was far too easy for the Russians to put their hands on him again, and this time they wouldn’t be kind enough to keep him alive. Or maybe the true kindness would have been death rather than torture.

  They ran the few blocks to the house. The entire street of homes was rundown, needing updates the owners couldn’t afford. Broken sidewalks and falling-down porches and enough moss growing in places moss shouldn’t even be growing were only a few indications that the inside of the house wouldn’t be better.

  Lipton gave the signal, and Gasper aimed his weapon at the lock. He shot it open, and the door swung inward as if a spectral hand opened it to invite them in.

  The adrenaline rush was something Gasper lived for. It’d been too long since he actually did more than bide his time and wait for the perfect moment. This was their moment.

  Rushing into the house, he and Winston took turns clearing rooms. The kitchen reeked and rats scurried into hiding spots. The sticky floors underfoot made him want to look down but at the same time he avoided doing so. He didn’t want to see what was underfoot as they blasted through the house searching for Ruby’s father.

  Winston reached the room first. “Jack.”

  He strode toward the door with several locks and a chain to hold it shut.

  “Somebody really didn’t want him getting free.”

  Shooting the lock off meant the bullet could possibly strike the old man within. “I’ll have to pick them.”

  “Hurry,” Lipton said from his six. “We don’t know how much time we’ve got. I checked the place for a security system, and I don’t see one, which is a direct indication there is someone watching this place.”

  “Maybe not. A harmless old man who can’t escape his room is only important to his daughter.” Jack stuck the tool into the first lock and popped it. Seconds later, he opened another. “Give me something to cut through this chain.” He focused on the inner workings of the lock, found the next sweet spot and tripped that lock too.

  Winston had bolt cutters in hand, pulled out of thin air, and he crunched through the heavy steel link.

  “On my lead. Three, two…” Gasper shoved open the door and set eyes on the man shriveled into a ball on a dirty cot. The man reared up, crying out for them not to hurt him. In his battered face, he saw some of the features he shared with Ruby.

  Gasper’s heart lifted with victory. They’d found him.

  He crossed the room to the old man and looked down at him. “Mr. Rynizski, we’re getting you out of here. And I want you to know your daughter is safe.”

  At least she was an hour ago. He only prayed that was still the case.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Get him out of here!” Lipton’s bellow came between blasts of gunfire.

  Gasper took one look at the man on the bed and knew he was too weak to walk, much less sprint through bullets. With no other choice, he hooked the man beneath the arms and lifted him. He weighed little, and Gasper carried heavier in his pack on a boring Tuesday.

  He tossed him over his shoulder, locked an arm around his thighs and ran.

  Archer Rynizski smelled like sweat and stale breath and something worse underneath those odors. He’d taken enough beatings and seen enough torture that Gasper wouldn’t be shocked if he had an infection, maybe in those ruined fingers he’d seen on screen.

  In a few strides, he faced the empty hall leading to the staircase he needed to navigate
while being shot at. The mafia showed up seconds after they burst into the house, and they had Lipton and Winston pinned down in these rooms. Fuck if Gasper could help his brothers right now, though.

  He stepped out of the room and spotted Lipton jerking his head in as a bullet sliced past him and slammed into the doorframe. Fuck, they were all going it alone.

  With his weapon up, he provided his own covering fire, making sure his bullets didn’t hit either of his men. Over his shoulder, Archer hung limply. Had he passed out from terror?

  Didn’t matter now. A scream sounded from his side as he booked it to the exit. Chances that the mafia didn’t have the house surrounded seemed slim, but again, he had few options. See Archer to safety and complete his mission, or stick around and fight.

  A man jumped into view. Gasper didn’t think—he saw the weapon in the man’s hand, and he took the shot.

  The thug flew backward, and Gasper kept running. Thank God the Anchorage PD was on site and provided enough cover for him to make it to the street. A paramedic unit also sat waiting at the corner. The stretch of road seemed endless, when really it took mere seconds to move Ruby’s father to the waiting medics.

  He dumped him on the ground and whirled to race to his brothers. He was having a déjà vu moment of running Paxton to safety.

  Two more police units rolled up. An officer jumped out at the sight of him toting a weapon, but then he realized he was one of the good guys.

  He’d never tuned out of the communication between Lipton and Winston, but their words were sharper in his hearing now.

  “Two on my nine.”

  “In my sights. Duck, Lip.”

  Gunfire sounded. Then silence.

  From Gasper’s experience, silence was never good.

  With stealthy steps, he cleared the back door and entered the house. He was good at picking out hiding spots and shot two men before they knew what hit them.

  “Down two,” he told his team.

  “Do we have a body count?” Lipton asked.

  “Six,” came Winston’s response.

  A big police officer stepped in behind him. “We spotted a suspicious vehicle parked down the block.”

  Gasper looked at him. “Empty?”

  He nodded.

  “Run the plates.”

  “One step ahead of ya.” He grinned. “Do what you gotta do here. I got your six.”

  “’Preciate it.”

  Together they moved through the rooms, sweeping every corner for more men hiding. The creak of floorboards upstairs along with the whispered communications in his ear between Winston and Lipton told him the guys were doing the same.

  “Clear.”

  Seconds later, the guys’ boots sounded on the stairs. Gasper and the officer completed their search of the lower level of the house. The officer called for drug enforcement to come take a look at the kitchen, where baggies of drugs were scattered on the counter along with a scale and other paraphernalia.

  “Looks like they were doing more than torturing a man here,” he said.

  Gasper nodded. “Do what you need to do. We got what we came here for.” He reached out and bumped knuckles with the officer.

  Outside, more officers milled around the property, stretching police tape and snapping photos. He and his team headed straight for the ambulance on the corner. They were just loading Ruby’s father into the back.

  Gasper put out a hand to stop them. “I want to ride with him if possible.”

  “Sure. Get in.”

  Lipton gave him a lift of his jaw in recognition. “We’ll meet you at the hospital, Jack.”

  He gripped the doorframe and launched himself into the rear of the ambulance. Settling along the side, he examined Ruby’s father. His red hair was thin and matted. Blood stained his shirt and crusted on a scab over his brow that looked to be a source of infection.

  He was starved and sickly, but he was alive.

  Reaching out, Gasper rested a hand over the man’s bony one. He opened his eyes. Confusion and fear lit the depths, a flint gray similar to Ruby’s.

  “You’re safe now,” he told him.

  He closed his eyes and then slowly opened them. “I owe you my thanks.” His voice was reedy.

  “I did it for Ruby.”

  “You know my daughter?”

  “Yes. She’s very special.”

  A tear trickled from the corner of his eye. “She is.”

  “You put her in danger.”

  His throat worked for a moment. Gasper could go easy on the man—maybe he should. But fact was, if Archer hadn’t gotten in over his head with the Bratva, he and Ruby wouldn’t be in this situation.

  “You’re right. Did they hurt her? Is she okay?”

  Gasper thought of Ruby’s bruised face and God knew what else she’d endured before he knew her.

  “She’s strong. She’s survived,” he told the old man.

  “Thank God for that.”

  “She’s headstrong too. She refused to leave when she should have long ago.”

  The medic who was fussing with the man’s IV glanced up at Gasper as if to tell him not to upset the old man. But he deserved to be punished for putting his daughter in danger. Putting himself above his love for her was his first mistake, and luckily Ruby’s strength had pulled her through. But Gasper wasn’t letting him off the hook for hurting someone he was supposed to love—and who Gasper loved.

  “You care about her.” Archer’s voice broke.

  “Yes.”

  “Does she care about you?”

  How to answer that? When he thought of Ruby’s eyes when he claimed her body, he believed she felt more than lust. And she’d signed the email with ”Love, Ruby.”

  But she’d pushed him away too.

  It might be her nature to reject anything good for herself.

  None of that mattered—he would be there for her until the day he died and never ask a thing of her in return. He might not have any skills in relationships, but he’d learned how to love.

  He met the old man’s eyes. “I don’t know the answer to your question. But if she agrees, I’ll take her out of White Fog and let her have a fresh start.”

  He closed his eyes again and didn’t speak for a long time. When he did, Gasper had to lean in to catch the faint words.

  “She should go with you. She deserves better—always did.”

  Ruby’s hands shook. She didn’t think she could hide her emotions any longer—she was too scared.

  Big Mike hadn’t taken his eyes off her since he returned from God knew where. The only mercy was the fact she didn’t have Max to deal with too.

  But people had been coming and going all day long. Sooner or later, someone would tell her to sneak the girls out the back and load them into a truck. What then? She wouldn’t let them go—not this time. She’d failed too many girls over the course of a year. If Elias had taught her anything, it was that she needed to fight for what she believed in. To give her life for the cause if it came down to it.

  She moved through the restaurant, watching every patron closely. Truck drivers and fishermen might be her contact, which could be any number of people all spooning her chili special into their mouths.

  The only person she’d ruled out as being her contact was the older woman dressed in khaki slacks, a light sweater with an anchor on it and the white sneakers Ruby’d come to associate with tourists in White Fog.

  Setting a couple of plates in front of two customers, she offered what smile she could and told them to enjoy their lunches.

  When the door opened, all the hair rose on her body. She felt a stare on her spine and hardly wanted to turn around and see who was standing there.

  Slowly, she pivoted enough to cast a look from the corner of her eye.

  Her heart flipped over and thudded flat on its back. Two of the guys from the special ops team stood in her restaurant, looking for an empty table.

  Why, today of all days, was it her chili special? She needed the restaurant
to be empty.

  One of the men gave her a nod as he casually walked to a table and pulled out a chair. His buddy followed. She had to wait on them, didn’t she?

  Grounding herself, she made her way toward them. “Wh-what can I bring you two?”

  The dark-haired man who’d been on the dock pulled something out of his pocket, set it on the table and covered it with his hand. Holding her stare, he pushed it toward her. “I’ll have a lemonade for now.”

  She threw a look around for Big Mike. The last thing she needed was for him to see her accepting a note from this man. Thinking on her feet, she set her tray down as if it was too heavy, and when she picked it up again, she clasped the note in her palm.

  “Make that two lemonades,” the other guy said.

  “Be right back.” On legs that felt wooden, she walked into the kitchen and set down the tray. Anushka looked up from ladling chili into bowls. Ruby tossed her a nod and rushed into the bathroom to be alone.

  As soon as she slammed the door and twisted the lock, she unfolded the tiny square of paper.

  Gasper is rescuing your father. Will be there soon. If the mission’s a success, I’ll order two bowls of chili.

  Her lips parted on a silent cry. It was happening—the team was going to break her father free. But what would happen to her once the Russians found out their captive had gone missing? They’d come straight here.

  Fear only rose inside her for a split second before joy flooded in to replace it. Her father would be safe, after all this time! And by Gasper’s hands. Surely the man deserved a steak and a blow job as a reward for such a thing.

  She wanted to laugh, but tears trickled out of her eyes instead. A mess of emotions, she blinked through the droplets enough to read the note one more time. Then she tore it up and flushed it down the toilet.

  Standing there for a long minute, she dragged in deep breaths to collect herself. She splashed her face with water and dried her eyes. When she walked into the kitchen, Big Mike stood there waiting for her.

  She cocked a brow at him in challenge. “Can’t a woman take a piss?”

  “You should be more ladylike, Ruby.”