Stronger (The Unit Book 2) (16 page)

He rushed to the monitors sitting atop her desk in the living room.
How could he have not heard anything? How did they get past the security system? How could he let this happen? Again?
Lizzie. Lola. He had failed them both! He felt the lump rise in the back of his throat as he rewound the disc that recorded last night’s events. He pushed forward until he saw Lola enter the kitchen. She had no clue there was a man behind her. He watched helpless as the man lowered Lola’s unconscious body to the ground. Check the time stamp: 0545. He looked at the clock on the wall: 0757. How did he sleep through it? He should have sensed something wasn’t right. He was a trained Green Beret after all. “Fuck,” he cried as he crumbled to the ground. He couldn’t lose her, not now, not when he was starting to get his life back; not when he had such deep feelings for her. Not after last night, the most amazing night of his life. He had to find her. He straightened from his crumpled position on the floor and stood with a new purpose. He wouldn’t fail this time. This time he would get the girl. He would save Lola. He had to; he didn’t have a choice. He would get Lola back or die trying. The warrior was back. Feelings he hadn’t felt since Afghanistan resurfaced. He didn’t fear death; he feared Lola’s death while he was still alive. He lifted his hand to his corded neck and began to rub while he paced back and forth devising a plan. He would need his team. He would find out where Ortiz’s Cartel was located and take down every one of those mother fuckers. No one messed with what was his. For all intents and purposes, that was Lola. She may not have agreed to it yet, but after last night, she was his. He needed to save her to save himself. He picked up his phone from the coffee table and keyed in Tony’s number.

Rob paced as he waited for Tony to answer his phone. He finally heard Tony’s voice on the third ring. “Hello.”

Rob’s voice cracked. “They have her.”

“Wait, what? Who has who? Someone has Lola?” Tony asked.

“They took her two hours ago. I need to come in. Now. I need the jet.”

“I will fly it to you myself,” Tony reassured his friend. “Other than her being gone, what happened? Something’s going on with you. I can hear it in your voice. It cracked my friend. What’s going on?”

“I can’t lose her. I was just getting to a place that I liked. Do you know I slept in this morning? That’s how she was taken. I was fucking sleeping. Tell me Tony, you know me, when was the last time I slept, let alone slept in? She does something to me. Something I can’t explain. But if I don’t get her back, I will die. I don’t want to be alive in a life where she doesn’t exist.”

“Rob, man, you’re scaring me.”

“You should be fucking scared. I’m fucking pissed. This is Lizzie all over again. What if we don’t make it in time? What if I never find her?”

“Calm down. I will grab my gear, get the jet, and be there in two hours,” Tony replied trying to calm his agitated friend.

Rob ran a hand roughly over his face and through his hair. He stopped on the back of his neck and rubbed it trying to calm himself. His voiced wavered as he spoke, “I can’t lose her, man.”

“Oh no! Not you, too,” Tony quipped. “What the fuck is going on around here. I heard those exact same words from Michael about one year ago.”

“You don’t understand. I will explain it to you when you get here. You’ve met her. You’ve seen her. I can’t let her go,” Rob explained. “Not after last night.”

“Why? What happened last night?”

Rob spoke too much. He was just so used to sharing everything with Tony and Michael. They were his brothers.

In his most reassuring voice, Tony said, “We will get her, man. We found her once; we will find her again. She was wearing the necklace, right?”

“I am going to find her or die trying.” There he said it to his friend. “There is no coming back for me this time if we don’t find her.” There would be no sugar coating this. Rob was all in on this, his most important mission. This time there was no one else to worry about, just his Lola. He had to find her. He would find her. It was twisted in his mind, but saving Lola would make up for not saving Lizzie. He knew he was good at what he did. He was a good solider.

“Don’t talk like that, man. I didn’t realize this girl meant so much to you,” Tony cautioned his friend trying to bring him back to reality.

“Don’t say shit like that to me. She is my everything! She is my world. I will not lose her; do you understand? If you aren’t ready to die, I can do this without you. But know this, I am not leaving without her.”

“I get it man. I didn’t realize. I’m sorry. You know I have your back. I will be right there beside you when we find her.”

“Thank you,” Rob said. He needed his friend’s steady confidence and strength just like he needed it when Lizzie died. He needed Tony, Michael, and Steve more now than ever. He could still save her. No one was torturing her, yet. No one was raping her, yet. They wanted to sell her so they would keep her in good condition. That gave him a morsel of comfort. He just had to find them in time.

Rob ran upstairs to the guest room and shoved his shirt and pants into his gear bag. He hurried to Lola’s room and grabbed some of her stuff and shoved it into his gear bag as well. When he was ready, he jumped into his rented SUV and drove to the airfield where he waited for Tony to appear. A little over an hour later, Tony landed and debarked the plane. It would need more fuel. He walked in to ask the controller to have it refueled when he spotted Rob. Rob’s head hung low and his shoulders slumped. Tony hurried over to Rob and extended his hand. Without hesitation, Rob grabbed his brother’s hand and hugged him with his other arm. The two men embraced until Rob pulled away. Tony was there for him.

“You realize we might die this time?” Rob offered.

“I know. I’m ready. I already talked to Steve. You know he’s in.”

“What about Tyrrell? Did you tell him?”

“I only told him it was an emergency. He’s waiting to be debriefed when we return,” Tony warned his friend.

“We don’t have time for a debriefing. He’s either going to trust me or he isn’t. But I do need his resources,” Rob admitted.

“Then bring him in. He has always had our backs in the past. He will have them again, especially since he is still on Richard Sardeson’s payroll,” Tony promised.

After the agonizing thirty minutes it took to refuel the plane and pay the controller, they were finally taxiing down the runway.

They pulled up to the office building of Blackrain Security, grabbed their gear bags from the backseat, and ran into the building. The Ortiz Cartel now had a half day start on them. Rob went straight to Tyrrell’s office.

“What’s the emergency?” Tyrrell questioned.

“We don’t have a lot of time. The Ortiz Cartel recaptured Lola and it’s my fault. I was there and didn’t stop it.”

“Did you see it happen? Why didn’t you go after them?”

Rob hung his head in shame and mumbled, “I was sleeping.”

“You’re kidding?” Tyrrell knew him better than that. Hell, anyone who knew Rob, knew he didn’t sleep, yet alone soundly.

“Look, I already know I fucked up. Now I need your help to fix it. Can I count on you?” Rob asked cutting to the chase.

“You have worked for me for a little under a year. Have I ever let you down? What makes you think I would now?”

“This is a do or die mission for me. Are you still in?”

“What do you need? You’re lead.” Tyrrell reassured him.

“I need a satellite location on the Ortiz Cartel. Pull up Lola’s necklace GPS. Call the FBI, the CIA, whomever you need to call. Hell, call them all. I need authorization to take down the entire Cartel. No man left standing. I won’t leave a man alive. Lola isn’t safe until all of those mother fuckers are in the ground. You still in?” Rob asked with a worried voice.

“Explain to me why you are willing to risk your life and the life of my men for a woman you just met. You aren’t even being paid for this mission,” Tyrrell said as he raised a brow quizzically.

“I can’t explain it because I don’t understand it myself, but Lola has done something to me. I’m hers as long as she will have me. And I promised her no harm would come to her. I intend to keep that promise.”

“You’re talking about taking down an entire drug cartel for one woman,” Tyrrell argued.

“I know exactly what I’m doing. And I am doing this. I know Tony and Steve will be in with me. The only question is, will you?”

“You’re going to need more help than that. I need to reach out to my contacts with the FBI and let them know about this. And what are you going to do if you get caught? At most this will be an unsanctioned mission. You know damn well the FBI can’t move on a Mexican cartel located in Mexico.”

“I know that. I’m not blind nor am I stupid. But I won’t let anything happen to Lola. She’s already been taken. I have to get to her before they sell her again or worse.”

“Do you love her?” Tyrrell asked, pretty sure of the answer.

“Yes,” Rob responded. “She has me, boss. When I’m with her, I’m alive again. The memory of Lizzie’s death stops playing in my head. She brought me back to life. And I’ll be damned if I don’t get her back. I will do whatever is necessary for her.”

“I didn’t realize you could feel so strongly after only a few days.”

“I knew it the minute I saw her. I knew I had to have her. She was more than a mission from the second I laid eyes on her. She feels it, too. I’m not crazy. We’re both unique individuals. It just happened fast for us. So what do you say? Do I have your support?” Rob asked hope filling his eyes.

“Let me make a few phone calls then we will talk strategy.”

Rob extended his hand and Tyrrell shook it looking at him with both eyes. Tyrrell could see the fire and love that burned in Rob’s eyes. He would be the last person to extinguish it. And hell, even Tyrrell knew if anything happened to Lola, Rob would go over the cliff never to return.

Rob met Tyrrell’s steady eyes. “I am in love with her.” He turned and walked out of the room. There was nothing left to say. That one sentence summed up everything for Rob. He loved her with his entire being. He would figure a way to let Lizzie go after he got Lola back. He still didn’t know how he could love her after Lizzie, but that was how he felt. He would die for her. And one only dies for true love.

It took the better part of the morning, but Tony had pinpointed the Ortiz Cartel to within a one-mile radius. Ortiz’s compound was large. Satellite imagery showed a main house, several outlying smaller structures, and one large warehouse. The warehouse must be where he got his drugs ready for distribution. Satellite imagery also showed large trucks moving in and out of the compound. The trucks backed up to the warehouse for loading so it had to have a loading dock.

The main house was large. They would need to get boots on the ground to stake out the compound and study the armed guards and their movements. A stake out like this could take two weeks. Tony just hoped Rob didn’t lose his shit during that time. He didn’t know how he was going to keep his brother from going on a suicide mission. They had to make this a clean take down. They would eliminate the Ortiz Cartel so they could never sell another innocent girl ever again.

The next morning, Tony awoke from a fitful sleep in one of the bedrooms housed at Blackrain’s office building. The room didn’t have a window, so he had no idea what time it was until he glanced at the clock on the side of the table: 0627. Getting out of bed, he headed to the shower. He thought about the right words to say to Rob that would calm him down and make him wait the required length of time necessary to track Ortiz’s men’s movements. There could be no mistakes. This operation had to go off without a hitch.

Tony knew Tyrrell spent the better part of the evening contacting everyone he knew in all law enforcement agencies and would have information for them today. Tony was anxious to hear that information. Having the FBI backing their mission meant they didn’t go to jail. That was important to Tony. After five tours in Afghanistan, he rather liked his freedom. He quickly lathered his body with soap and rinsed. He stepped from the hot shower with red marks on his back from where the hot water had washed away his guilt for the day. Tony had seen and done many things he wasn’t proud of; things that weighed on his conscious like a load of cinder blocks. He didn’t suffer from the nightmares like his brothers did. Now that Michael had Emma, Michael told him his nightmares had dissipated, but Tony knew Rob and Steve suffered from them nightly. They often confided in him about what they constantly dreamt about and they were the same things that weighed on Tony’s mind: the killings, the close brushes with death they’d each had, the torture they inflicted on other human beings, the kill or be killed mindset which they were all still living with. These thoughts plagued Tony’s mind as they did the minds off all the men in The Unit.

He stepped from the shower, dried himself off, and quickly dressed. He ambled down the hallway to the conference room to find an anguish-filled Rob, Tyrrell, Steve, and Aaron waiting on him.

“Nice of you to join us,” Tyrrell commented tapping his watch.

“I didn’t realize we were scheduled to meet this morning,” Tony replied. “I came to brief you on what I found last night.”

“Great, we will get to that in a second. First, I want to go over how this will play out,” Tyrrell said looking Rob directly in the eyes. “We will stake out the compound until we are certain we have the routine of Ortiz and his men down pat. We will not enter the compound until we can say, without a doubt, where subject one will be and when. These men have a routine, and they will stick to it. Spend enough time watching and yes, waiting, to figure it out. I just got off of the phone with the FBI. They can’t officially support this mission and will deny knowing anything about it. But they are willing to go along with it after the man you turned over to them a week or so ago confirmed they are running a sex-slave trade and abducting girls from the United States. They can’t send a team, but they will keep us out of hot water. That is, as long as we don’t get caught.”