Love Under Two Navy Seals (28 page)

“We could tell the men,” Abigail suggested.

“We could, yes. Would they listen?” Grandma Kate looked at each one of them in turn.

“No.”

Julia giggled, because all eight women had said that at the same time.

“Susan, Mom, Tracy, and I are the best shooters here,” Julia said.

“Bernice, do you still have those smocks we used to wear when we volunteered at the clinic?” Grandma Kate asked.

“Do you know, I do? They’re at the back of my closet.”

“I can’t shoot none, but I can moan and groan with the best of them,” Ginny said. “I figure you’re going to need someone to play ‘patient.’” She met Julia’s gaze, and then looked at Grandma Kate. “I need to help with this.”

The silence only lasted a moment. Grandma Kate said in her really soft voice, “Of course you do, sweetheart.”

Julia knew most of Ginny’s story, and had an idea how far the young woman had come since the entire town of Lusty had adopted her and her young son as their own.

“The only tricky part,” Tamara said, “will be getting past Steven, and the uncles.”

“I can distract Steven,” Kelsey said. When everyone looked at her, she added, “Technically, they didn’t tell us we couldn’t leave. And neither of my men bothered to mention we would be ‘guarded’ and that they wanted us to stay here. So what’s to stop me from looking out the window, seeing Steven, and indulging in a little, um, private time?”

“A valid point, Kelsey,” Grandma Kate said. “You can leave my sons to me. Now, how long, do you figure, until the men have gotten themselves into position around Tracy’s house?”

Julia looked at her watch. “I’ve been here roughly half an hour, and I’m pretty certain those two Navy SEALs are in charge of the ‘deployment.’ So I’d say, give them another twenty minutes before we head out.”

“Good,” Grandma Kate said. “That gives us a bit of time to have some more tea and work out the finer details of our plan.”

* * * *

Adam Kendall adjusted the special Bluetooth he wore, the unfamiliar presence in his ear only slightly irritating. He kept one eye on the clock, counting down the minutes since everyone had gotten into position and checked in.

From every bit of intelligence they’d been able to gather—which admittedly wasn’t much—and from the best guesses of three experienced special ops operatives, they’d calculated that Miguel Ramos should be approaching Lusty within the next half hour.

If they’d had more time, they might have alerted both the Rangers and maybe even the FBI. Adam felt a smile ghost across his lips. He could admit to himself, at least, that no, they likely wouldn’t have.

That bastard Ramos had dared to take one of
their
women. They might all be living in the twenty-first century, but the men of Lusty weren’t that far removed, mentally and spiritually, from the founders of their town.

They couldn’t lynch the bastard, but they sure as hell could bag his ass.

Adam already had his story figured out for when they presented Ramos to the Feds. Since they’d only been working on a hunch, he hadn’t felt comfortable alerting the authorities and possibly wasting precious resources on what could have ended up being a wild-goose chase.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it
. Adam grinned at the thought.

“What the hell.”

Adam jerked straighter as the voice of his Uncle Caleb, sounding annoyed, echoed in his ear.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m not sure. It looks like…well, hell’s bells, it’s the women!”

“The women? What about the women?”

“They’ve just pulled to the curb by the clinic. I don’t…now that doesn’t make
any
sense at all.”

“Caleb, what the hell is going on over there?”

“Just give me a second to verify. I’m about a block away, but I’ve got the binoculars…”

Adam knew precisely where Caleb Benedict was with relation to the clinic. He was closer to a half block away, but Adam decided not to quibble over the distance.

“Okay, I think we have a problem. We’ve got Susie, Julia, Tracy, and Abby packing guns, Tamara, Bernie and Ginny unarmed, all heading into the clinic, and,
crap
, Mother’s headed this way.”

“What in the name of all that’s holy are they doing?” Hearing Ginny’s name included in Caleb’s litany shook him, badly.

“I don’t know but it looked like Ginny was wearing a hospital gown and Bernie had on a lab coat, looking like a doctor. Oh, and Tamara had some sort of video camera, I think.”

Apparently Grandma Kate reached Caleb just then. Adam was able to hear both sides of the conversation.

“Mother, what in tarnation are y’all
doing
?”

“We’re just seeing to it that all the bases are covered, dear. Nothing for you to worry about.”

“Mother…”

“Hush now, Caleb. If you want to be useful, you might tell whoever’s coordinating your communications that we’re here. And keep an eye out. Of course, if that Ramos fellow shows up, why then, we’d be happy for a little backup.”

“Mother, come back!”

“I can’t, I have to go and…”

Adam didn’t hear the rest, but then, he didn’t have to. It took him only a few seconds to understand just exactly what was going on. When he did, he swore, long and loud.

Finally he said, “They think Ramos is going to head for the clinic instead of Jordan’s.”

There was a short silence in Adam’s ear, and then a few choice expletives as Caleb agreed.

“What the hell do you want me to do? You want I should try and get them to go home?”

Like you could
. “No. They’re in the clinic, they’re armed, and safe for the moment. I’ll alert the others, because Ramos going there makes a certain kind of sense. We missed something in our planning.”

“I don’t see what,” Caleb grumbled.

“I don’t, either. But I trust Grandma Kate’s instincts. If she’s involved—”

Caleb cut him off. “Damn it, Adam, they could be right. Here comes an old brown Chevy I don’t recognize, and, hell, it just turned in at the clinic, too. Single driver, male, wearing a hat. Older man, judging by the way he’s moving. Shit, he just went inside. I have to get over there.”

“No!”

“What the hell do you mean,
no
?”

It was the toughest call he’d ever made. “Caleb, the women obviously have a plan. If you go bursting in there waving your gun, you could mess it up.”

“Damn easy for you to say, Adam Kendall. You don’t have a woman over there in harm’s way.”

“Guess again. Ginny’s in there, Caleb, so you just wait one damn minute. I’ll alert the others. In the meantime, you get Jon and Mike Murphy to join you. I have an idea. I’ll be there in five.”

“I don’t know…”

“Well I do, and I’m still the sheriff of this town. Do as I say, now!”

Adam switched channels, alerted Dev, and headed out to his car. At the last moment he veered away from the cruiser and slid behind the wheel of Morgan’s Jeep. He’d have to approach Caleb’s position from the north, and he sure as hell didn’t want that bastard, Ramos, to spot his cruiser and get spooked.

His heart pounded loud in his chest, and it sounded very much like Ginny’s name.

Chapter 20

Julia sat in the waiting room, magazine open, and hat pulled low, her very favorite Smith & Wesson 9mm in her hand, safety off. Across from her, Grandma Kate manned the reception desk. She had the telephone receiver in one hand, and her gaze, much like Julia’s, was fixed on the door.

Because of her vantage point, Grandma Kate would see him first when he arrived.

“We have to be prepared, because Caleb was wearing a Bluetooth, so the men know by now what we’re up to.”

“Do you think they’ll storm their way in here?” Julia asked.

“Lord, I hope not. They should have more brains than that. Not that I wouldn’t mind a discreet entrance, mind you.”

Julia grinned. “I’m with you.”

Julia knew full well if they’d called Adam, or any of the men, and tried to convince them they’d picked the wrong spot, it wouldn’t have worked.

But they’d been alerted now, and would be ready to move at a moment’s notice. Every one of the women getting ready to face a drug lord and murderer counted on the men getting here, and getting it right.

Julia had never fired her gun at a human being, and didn’t relish the idea she might have to do so before this scene played out. But she’d do whatever she had to do to bring an end to that bastard’s intimidation of her family.

The uncles hadn’t been very happy about having their clinic invaded by the women of Lusty, Texas. But once Bernice and her mother had explained things to them, they’d agreed to help.

Her mother and Tracy were concealed behind the doors to exam rooms one and two respectively. In room three, Ginny lay on the bed, her head bandaged, looking suitably concussed. Beside her, Susie acted the grieving older sister, her hair frazzled, tears streaking down her face—and her Glock loaded and concealed on her lap.

“I have to admit, the Glock beats a shovel as a weapon of choice,” she’d said as she headed toward exam room three.

Julia found she had to agree with her, there.

Along one wall, tall supply cupboards held everything from linens to tongue depressors. Today they held considerably more as, hidden by strategically draped linens that gave her just enough of a vantage point, Tamara sat with a camcorder, ready to document the coming confrontation.

Bernice, along with Dr. James, came to stand near the reception desk. Bernice’s lab coat concealed her weapon of choice, a small derringer that Julia had never seen before. Uncle James wasn’t armed, but he stood at the reception desk, ready to say his lines the moment Kate gave him his cue.

Ramos would come. Julia could feel it.

She was just wondering how long they’d have to wait when Grandma Kate got this look on her face and Julia realized the waiting was over.

The door to the clinic swung open, and it was as if some unseen director had said “action.”

“Kate, try and get hold of Peter Alvarez again. See how long he thinks it’ll be before he gets here. Tell him he’d best hurry. It’s not looking good for his fiancée. No, it’s not looking good at all.”

“Right away, Doctor. It’s such a shame. Those two lovebirds had such plans for the future.” Kate picked up the phone and pretended to be placing the call.

Julia tried not to roll her eyes as she continued to appear to be reading her magazine. In fact she watched as the man known as Don Miguel Ramos made his way toward her family.

She recognized him from the photo her men had shown her on their cell phones as they’d tried to talk her into going into hiding with the rest of the women.

“Excuse me, Doctor…I am Ricardo Alvarez. I heard you mention the name of
mi sobrino nieto
…my great-nephew, Peter. I have come to see him and
su novia
…his fiancée. Such a tragedy. Please, will you take me to them?”

Julia thought Ramos was a better actor than he was a drug lord. Her heart pounded in her chest, and she felt a bead of sweat travel down her back.

Her uncle James, bless him, frowned as he considered the request.

“Peter’s not here yet. He’s on his way, but a traffic tie up on the Interstate…” He let the sentence trail off, and treated the man to a look of doctoral concern.

“I will be glad to represent
la familia Alvarez
, until Peter arrives.”

Ramos had stood taller when he’d said that, as if he was indeed “manning up” in a difficult situation.

“Well, I don’t know, it would be highly unusual, but—”

The door swung open to the sound of moans and groans. Into the reception area came her Uncles Caleb and Jonathan, with Mike Murphy between them.

“Take it easy, damn it, it hurts!” Mike Murphy surely sounded like a man in pain.

“It’s what you get for being a damn fool and trying to jump off the tailgate of that truck,” Caleb said. Then he looked up. “Hey, Doc, glad you’re there. I think Mike busted his leg again.”