Chapter 17: Demon
It took the rest of the afternoon, evening, and night to get everything in place. I knew realistically they were going as fast as they could, but it was killing me to do nothing. As we prepared on our end, Smoke kept us updated on anything new he found out, which wasn’t a whole lot.
The news was reporting the same thing over and over. They didn’t know or share if there had been any other demands. Anderson told us he was shaking the trees, trying to find out what his contacts knew. As I waited, I got my personal weapons ready—my sniper rifle, a shit load of magazines, two handguns, and my knives. Several of my brothers were doing the same. We wouldn’t take everyone, some would need to stay here with the women and babies.
I told the ones with kids, I didn’t want them to go. They all protested, but no way did I want to be responsible for one of them not coming home to their families. It would be bad enough for the others. Not all of us making it back was a distinct possibility, no matter how good or prepared we were.
At six the next morning, the clubhouse doors opened and Griffin and Gabe walked in. Last night, a few of Terror’s guys came. He’d heeded my wishes and sent three single guys—Gunner, Sniper, and Tiger. Those three, with Griffin and Gabe, plus me, Payne, and Maverick made eight. Jinx had showed up last night with Sarge and Animal. He said there was no way he was staying behind. Zara had been unofficially adopted as his sister. Damn, Jinx was my pseudo-brother-in-law.
Griffin apologized for Sean not being there. He was home with Cassidy, his wife. She was pregnant with their first child. They had been trying for a while. I told them it was fine. I wouldn’t want him to go either.
We said goodbye to those we were leaving behind. Hugs, well wishes and kisses were exchanged, then we headed to the airport to take the private jet the Dark Patriots had brought.
We all boarded the plane after bypassing security with a flash of some kind of papers Gabe and Griffin had. Then we were airborne. The plane wasn’t your typical commercial airliner. This was a Cessna outfitted for military use. It was sleek and would be able to come in under the radar if I wasn’t mistaken. It had all the earmarks of being something they’d gotten through one of the covert military departments. Maybe this was Anderson’s doing.
Inside, there were loads more weapons and supplies. C4 was one of them. Several of us had experience with explosives. There were earpieces so we’d be able to communicate in the field. In addition, we had night vision goggles. Those would come in real handy at night if we happened to go in then. All of us had been given bulletproof vests with infrared markers that would be visible with our night vision. It would help so we didn’t confuse each other with the enemy in the dark. No one wanted to accidentally shoot a brother.
I sat there thinking through what we would find when we landed. We had no idea where these rebels had taken the hostages. I was praying Anderson, Smoke, and some of the others could find that information. We were going to start at the village where they had been taken. Surely, there would be villagers there that we could talk to. Of course, they might not want to talk to us. That would be a hurdle we’d have to overcome.
Nothing was going to keep me from finding Zara. And when we did, I’d kill every last one of the bastards who’d taken her. I only hoped and prayed I’d find her unharmed. Thoughts of what had happened to Wren, Brielle, and the other women from Dublin Falls filled me with angst and worry. Her being raped was a distinct possibility. I didn’t know how she’d deal with that if it happened. How did any woman deal with it?
It was a two-and-a-half-hour flight to Chihuahua, Mexico. From there, we’d travel about three hours to the remote village where the doctors had been staying. It seemed like it was an eternity. I got up and paced around the cabin. I checked and rechecked the equipment, made sure my guns were loaded and ready to go. I sharpened my already razor-sharp blades.
Jinx came over and pulled me down into one of the seats in the back. “Sit. You’re driving yourself and all of us crazy. I know you’re worried. We all are. But I promise you, we’ll find her, even if we have to tear Mexico apart. These rebels think they’re badasses. They haven’t seen anything yet. They made the biggest mistake of their life taking your old lady.”
“I know, Jinx. I just can’t stop wondering what they’re doing to her. She has to be scared out of her mind. They haven’t demanded the ransom again. Why? Are they going to use them for some other purpose? Maybe for a political gesture? These cartel people are fucking crazy.”
“So the fuck are we. I’d put us up against them any day of the week. You have more contacts than I’d ever imagined. How in the hell do you know a black-ops military group? And who is this Anderson, I heard you all talking about?”
“We met the Dark Patriots through Dublin Falls. They’d helped one of the old ladies there a few years ago. Then there was a joint mission to shut down a human trafficking ring here and over in the Middle East. Cassidy, who is Sean’s wife now, is the sister of one of their deceased SEAL brothers. He co-founded the Dark Patriots with the others. She and Everly set themselves up to be taken so we could shut it down. We’ve been close to them ever since.”
“Damn, you Warriors seem to find trouble without even looking for it.”
“Yeah, it does seem that way. As for Anderson, no one other than Smoke and his wife, Everly, know which agency he works for, but he’s stuck out his neck for us before and helped with that same operation. Smoke and Everly still work for him on the side. No one knows exactly what they do. It’s better if we don’t know, though the trackers they get come from Anderson, I’m sure.”
“Trackers? What trackers?”
“The Dublin Falls chapter started years ago having these tiny trackers inserted in their bodies. It was a precaution in case they were taken. They have all their women get them, and in order to convince the women to allow it, the guys did too. Bull adopted the same thing here after he found Jocelyn. We got them as well. I wish like hell I’d gotten one for Zara. If I had, we’d be able to hone right in on where she is.”
“Shit! That’s some fucking crazy shit. I might need to talk to Terror about those. It would be nice to have, especially if we get old ladies. I’m seeing more and more the attraction to having someone all my own in my life. It’s all your guys’ fault. Damn Warriors,” he teased as he bumped his shoulder into mine and grinned. I had to smile back.
“You have no idea, Jinx. None at all. I can’t tell you what Zara has done for my life in the short time we’ve been together. Hell, I knew the minute I saw her, she was for me.”
“Damn, stop it before you have us hugging and crying like a couple of women. We’re Warriors, not pantywaists.” I laughed out loud. The others gave us curious looks.
The rest of the flight, Jinx worked to keep my mind off what could be happening to Zara. When we landed, two transport trucks were waiting for us. Again, we swept through security with barely a glance at our papers. We left the plane with the pilot, one of the Dark Patriots’ men. I think they said his name was Lance something.
Gunner and Animal drove the trucks. As the miles were eaten up by the tires, I sat there shaking my leg. I was about to scream when the SAT phone rang. I sat forward to hear what Gabe had to say when he answered it.
“Hey, Smoke, talk to me.” He spent the next few minutes shaking his head, nodding, and saying things like, “aah” and “mhm” or “uh-huh.” I was ready to rip the damn phone out of his hands. He finally hung up and turned to look back at me.
He was frowning. My stomach dropped into my toes. It wasn’t good. “Tell me. It’s bad, isn’t it?”
“It hasn’t gone out on the news, but the government finally got another ransom demand. They said if they don’t get the ten million dollars within the next twenty-four hours, they’ll start killing a hostage one at a time. To show they were serious, they shot one of the doctors in the leg. But don’t worry, it wasn’t her,” he hurried to add when he saw my expression.
“Son of a bitch! We need to know where they went. Have they figured anything out yet?”
“Not yet, but our guys, Smoke, and Everly are working on it nonstop. We might know more once we get to the village.”