Vendetta (10 page)

“You’re serious?”

“Deadly,” his facial expression never changed. “So, what’s your answer, Jenna? Stay, or go?” In other words, live or die, but he couldn’t phrase it that way.

She laughed and shook her head. “You do beat all, Vic. I could see me lounging on the beach in a very skimpy bikini. And it would be nice not to have to deal with any more devilish brats.” She smiled at him with excitement in her eyes. “Go,” she beamed as she held her arms wide and beckoned him to come to her.

“Smart decision,” he joined her on the bed and took her in his arms. She was a keeper and he knew it. He was glad she had made the right decision because if she hadn’t he would have had to kill her. While he knew he could find another woman to fill her space he wasn’t sure he could find another one as good in bed as she was—at least not quickly.

“Are you running from the law?” She laughed. “Why the Cayman Islands? Isn’t that where people go when they are on the run.”

He chuckled. He wasn’t running from the law. He would, however, be running from a team of men who wanted to kill him without mercy. “I just have enough money to retire and live in paradise. I’d like to do it with a very sexy, very beautiful woman,” he stroked his fingers down her arm.

“Me?”

“Who else?”

“So how much money are we talking here? Will I need to try to find a job there?”

“No. Not at all. I have fifteen million in my account and once this deal goes through I’ll have about forty more.”

“Whoa!” She pulled back and stared at him. “You’re doing legal stuff right?”

Now was the time to ask, he thought. She should have done that from day one. But instead of giving her reason to worry, or suspect, he laughed and said, “I’m not selling drugs or anything.” And he wasn’t selling drugs. “I just have been working on this deal for over ten years now and it’s finally coming together. My clients are happy and they have promised to reward me for all of my laborious work.”

“Oh,” she sighed, relieved at his admission…or rather, his omission. “You have had to travel a lot. They should pay you in gold.”

He laughed heartedly. “I didn’t ask them for that…see, that’s why I need you. You can think of all the things I forget.” He didn’t need her really, not for anything other than out of this world sex, but the way to this woman’s heart was to make her think she was needed. He could do that—for a little while anyway. At some point he might want to get rid of her, but right now she was just too much fun in the sack for that.

“I’m so glad you asked me to go with you, Vic. We’ve been together for six years and I was starting to wonder just how much you wanted to be with me.”

“Oh, baby. I want to be with you. I’ve just been so wrapped up in this…but it’s almost over and then we can get out of here and go live in paradise.”

“Sounds good to me. When do we leave?”

“I have at least three weeks before the deal is done. And unfortunately I have to go take care of some business beforehand…travel is a must here. I can’t risk the deal falling through because it would kill me.” Literally it would kill him.

“You’ve worked so hard…I can understand why you’d feel that way.”

“I have to head out west for a couple weeks and then the final portion for my work should be done by the middle of next month. We can get on a private plane the same day if you want to, baby.”

“I want to. But we still have to figure out this place.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of everything.”

“You’re so busy. I should help.”

He placed his finger on her nose and tapped it. “You just relax and focus on those sexy swimwear articles you promised to wear.”

She threw her head back and laughed. Her locks floated even farther down her back and he took one tendril in his fingers, twisting the soft, silky fibers between them. “This is so perfect, Vic. I can’t wait.”

“Me either, baby.” He had a lot of unfinished business stateside. The first order of business was putting some distance between his current mission and the men hunting him. The sooner he made sure Thomas and his companions were busy with other issues, the better he could sleep. They didn’t know where he was—not yet—but they were getting close. He could feel their presence hanging over him, and he didn’t like it. No; he had to make a move, and he had to make it soon.

“Are we all ready?” Valencia looked to the men standing before her. This could be it. This could be either victory or defeat and yet they all stood there, tall, proud, strong—they amazed her. Their determination, their loyalty, their courage…these men of action were the heroes the world only dreamed about and yet here they were, ready to risk their life to set things right.

Her primary concern was Thomas. Keeping him alive was her main mission here, but she wouldn’t deny that she would readily jump in to keep any of these men safe.

“We’re ready,” Thomas nodded. “We all have our locations, keep your head up.”

“And come out alive,” Drake added.

Gavin and Thomas looked at each other. “Semper Fi, little brother.”

“Semper Fi.”

“I’m uphill,” Valencia said. “I’ll see you all on the other side.” She turned to leave and Thomas caught hold of her arm, turning her back to face him.

“You come out alive; you hear me?”

“Is there any other way?” She smiled, winked and took her leave. Now was not the time to get over emotional. Emotions would cloud judgment and clouded judgment is not something she took into battle—and she wouldn’t let them either. Her mission took her into the heart of their compound, right into the inner chambers of their lair. She picked that route because she was the one with the most experience getting into places unnoticed. Being small helped a lot. She was, provided she made it past the outer security without tripping an alarm, going to be the one crawling through the ventilation system until she reached the communications control room. The last thing they needed was for somebody to get a call off, warning the people in Florida of what was going on in Texas.

She knew there wouldn’t be much time, and quite frankly she knew once they took out this location the others in Florida might already be suspicious over lack of contact, but they had to hit this one first. It was bigger, stronger, and getting the training compound would deliver a huge blow to Sabian even if they didn’t get a chance to dismantle the Florida location.

Drake had said they should take one alive as a just in case. If things went south and they missed the Florida connection then they would at least have one prisoner to interrogate and find out exactly where Sabian was, and exactly how far reaching this sedition ring was. Alive wasn’t exactly her forte so she hoped one of the other men could accomplish that feat. She was just going to focus on keeping Thomas alive. She would have stuck by his side if she could have, but the man was highly trained and he didn’t need her holding his hand through the battle field. She knew his abilities, and she was confident in them—but that didn’t stop her from worrying about him.

Valencia was accustomed to working alone so the lack of radio communications between the team wasn’t necessarily something that worried her—much. On one level she knew she could do the job without being in contact, but the problem was if any of them were in trouble they were on their own because they were on dead silence. They had to be without communication because any devices they took in could be easily picked up on by the security at the compound and if that happened then they lost their advantage. They had all agreed, but that didn’t mean they had all liked the silent attack. She prayed they all had a successful run without getting shot, captured or killed. Right now she was half way to Eureka because she was already inside without setting off even one alarm. Of course there were alarms inside as well, she was sure of that—there were always alarms on the inside parameter and if these guys had left that out she would be surprised. She still had to air on the side of caution in order to get to the communications room. Fortunately the tripwires for the security monitoring devises were inside that room and getting there meant she could cut off everything—with hopes, before any of the guys accidently stepped on something.

She eased through the ventilation system on her belly and forearms until she came to the room she sought. There were four men inside, heavily armed and extremely big. She had been outnumbered before, and out sized. She knew she could do this, but something felt off. She didn’t have full view of the room and she couldn’t tell if anybody else was over in the corner she couldn’t spot. That corner would be on her six once she descended into the room and if somebody was in it they’d have the upper hand on her quickly. She could handle it, but could she do it while covering the guys in front of her too? Well, there was only one way to find out. It was now or never, and never wasn’t an option.

Sully shook his head as he moved cautiously through the training area. Sabian was one sick bastard that was for sure. Live IEDs strategically placed to train his men was sadistic at best. He wondered how many had fallen to the devices. He also wondered why not even the local authorities had shut this place down. It wasn’t as if there was a big government sponsored sign at the front door.

Mike had made arrangements with Admiral Caine and they all knew once they completed their mission here that they need only call him for the cleanup. He had a few men he trusted, and he was willing to call in some favors to keep things as quiet as possible until they were completely finished with what they had to do. The Florida strike would, if all went according to plan, get underway before word of this mission got out.

He heard the sound of two men’s voices approaching his position. He climbed up into one of the trees and secured himself in the mass of leaves and branches. This was like being back on duty again. He was covered in the standard military camouflage, had his favorite weapon on hand and now he was using night specs to find his way through the encampment. He didn’t realize he had missed the action so much. If life hadn’t taken the turn it had for him he would probably still be serving his country on covert ops. But life had taken a strange set of turns the moment his wife ran off, leaving his daughter in some desert motel room while she had a Vegas affair that led to her death. He owed it to Teagan to be the best father he could and in doing so he needed to be home for her. And then there was Alaina. She was the love of his life now and she already had a child for him, and was working on more—almost ready to deliver actually, yet she had assured him he should go help his friends. He knew she wanted him to stay safe, but he also knew she understood the kind of man he is. She knew he would feel guilty forever if he didn’t help his friends.

It didn’t help that he had been crankier than a rabid skunk after speaking with Thomas. He was angry that Thomas had told him not to come. Thomas was trying to protect him by dissolving his commitment to this mission and while he appreciated his friend’s concern, he hated that he was pushing him out on this one. Fortunately, Alaina was a phenomenally wise woman. She went up the stairs, packed his military combat clothing along with a few other needed items and then she came back down the stairs, waddling into the kitchen before dropping the bag at his feet. “You’re on your own packing your weapons,” she had said to him. When he looked inside the bag he knew what she was telling him; he heard her unspoken words loud and clear. “Get out there and help your friends,” was what her actions had said to him.

Now he was here. His adrenaline flowing hard and fast; his senses on high alert, and he was ready for whatever battle came his way. He never underestimated a man based on his size. The two headed toward him were small—five seven and five nine from what he could tell—but he knew they were skilled and deadly. He wouldn’t assume he had the advantage because of his height over their height because he knew there were times when size really didn’t matter. He surveyed their weapons. He could see them clearly through his night specs, and he realized they weren’t wearing any night vision gear themselves. He sat up in the tree, assessing the threat and waiting to see if that threat continued his way. If they did, then he would have to work fast so neither man got a shot off. His blood was pumping fast—oh yeah, he missed this.

They were indeed coming his way, but they hadn’t seen him. They didn’t even know he was there, waiting to stop them. If he could take them both alive then he would. They weren’t there to turn into something worse than Sabian. But at the same time, if it came down to their life or his, he was going to preserve his own life even if it meant taking theirs.

Mike hadn’t seen the first guy in time and he caught a fist in his face. Fortunately for him the commotion hadn’t roused any suspicion and he was able to take the bastard down—mortally wounded unfortunately. They had all agreed they would take them alive if they could—well, maybe they had mostly all agreed because Valencia had made no such promise. What he had now was a split lip and a gut full of anger. He couldn’t believe the bastard hit him. He could only guess he wanted to try his hand at a little hand to hand combat—maybe he should have just pulled the gun and shot him, but he hadn’t. For that Mike was grateful because it would have not only taken him out, but it would have alerted security and heightened their awareness of the other team members.

He pressed onward, being cautious of his surroundings and trying to make sure he didn’t get a surprise attack from another one of Sabian’s men. He was so focused on one enemy that he missed sight of a bigger threat. It wasn’t until he tripped the wire and the alarms started blaring that he realized he had just put his entire team in jeopardy. A second later he caught sight of a soldier dressed in military garb. He evaded his bullets and managed to fire off a few of his own before another one of the men on guard put a bullet in him and he went down hard.  This wasn’t the outcome he foresaw for this mission. He prayed the rest of his team had better luck, because right now, lying on the ground, his gun out of reach, with one of Sabian’s men standing over him with his gun pointed at his head, Mike knew this was end game for him. His only thought now was of Zenya and the children and he prayed to whatever God there was that he would help her survive the loss.