by Dale Mayer
Diesel
The Mavericks, Book 13
Dale Mayer
Books in This Series:
Kerrick, Book 1
Griffin, Book 2
Jax, Book 3
Beau, Book 4
Asher, Book 5
Ryker, Book 6
Miles, Book 7
Nico, Book 8
Keane, Book 9
Lennox, Book 10
Gavin, Book 11
Shane, Book 12
Diesel, Book 13
Jerricho, Book 14
The Mavericks, Books 1–2
The Mavericks, Books 3–4
The Mavericks, Books 5–6
The Mavericks, Books 7–8
The Mavericks, Books 9–10
The Mavericks, Books 11–12
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
About This Book
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Epilogue
About Jerricho
Author’s Note
Complimentary Download
About the Author
Copyright Page
About This Book
What happens when the very men—trained to make the hard decisions—come up against the rules and regulations that hold them back from doing what needs to be done? They either stay and work within the constraints given to them or they walk away. Only now, for a select few, they have another option:
The Mavericks. A covert black ops team that steps up and break all the rules … but gets the job done.
Welcome to a new military romance series by USA Today best-selling author Dale Mayer. A series where you meet new friends and just might get to meet old ones too in this raw and compelling look at the men who keep us safe every day from the darkness where they operate—and live—in the shadows … until someone special helps them step into the light.
Traveling to China to retrieve a kidnapped scientist shows Diesel the depths of human depravity. Not that he needs more proof. He’s been doing this type of work for a decade. This is the first time though the person he was rescuing was this interesting.
Eva Langston had been kidnapped while walking across the street and then locked up in a lab half a world away. Joining two other scientists, both letting her know there was no escape, she refuses to give up hope. When the rescue does come, it wasn’t smooth or easy.
Still she was damn glad to be free. Until she realizes that freedom is a long way off, as, one by one, her science team is picked off, leaving her the last one to be dealt with.
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Prologue
Diesel Edwards walked back into his small apartment, even as his cell phone rang inside. He quickly picked it up and answered. It was Shane. “Hey, I was just outside, washing the car.”
“And you didn’t have your phone on you?”
“No,” he said. “Sometimes I just don’t want to be connected.”
“Got it,” he said.
“How are you two getting along?”
“Well, Shelly’s back here in California, and we’re looking for apartments right now,” he said. “She’s looking for a job but not pushing it.”
“I wouldn’t push it either. Her last job was a bit of a killer.”
At that, Shane snorted. “You think? They did give her a nice severance package though, hoping that they wouldn’t get sued for the lack of security. But, all in all, we’re doing great.”
“Perfect,” he said.
“What about you?” Shane asked.
“Yeah, I’m back, normal, recovered,” he said. “I had a few days of rest.”
“That’s good.”
“Just a check-up call?”
“Well, I would invite you over for a barbecue,” he said, “but …”
“But?” Diesel walked to the small balcony and stepped out. He was just on the outskirts of San Diego, and the smog was not too bad today, but it was pretty muggy. “So, you got a job for me or what?”
“Well, it’s not me who’s got a job for you. The Mavericks do.”
“My own job?” Diesel asked in surprise.
“Yeah, if you’re up for it.”
“Any reason I wouldn’t be?”
“I’m not sure,” he said. “How do you feel about scientists?”
“No different than any other person. Why?”
“Because a specialist, an epidemiologist, has been kidnapped.”
“And that’s a Mavericks issue, why?”
“She was working on a new cure for a virus. Apparently China is looking to have the cure for themselves, and she is their best bet.”
“Is it part of that H1N1 that’s terrorizing Asia?”
“It’s one of the offshoots of it,” he said. “Anyway, she went missing twelve days ago.”
“Why are we getting called in so late?”
“Because her family didn’t report her missing.”
“What family would that be?”
“Her brother, who lives with her. When he finally did call it in, nobody really believed him because he was drunk.”
“Great, so how believable is her disappearance?”
“We checked the street cams, and two Asian males clearly escorted her, as soon as she left her home, into a black car.”
“And?”
“It went to the Chinese Consulate. However, the consulate says nobody arrived.”
“Did you show them the video?”
“Yes, but they say the car isn’t theirs, and honestly the camera doesn’t go clear onto their property.”
“So what are the chances that she was even taken by the Chinese?” he asked. “It’s pretty easy to blame them by taking her to that location but then sneak her off somewhere else.”
“Yes, it’s quite possible,” he said, “which is why you’re being called in for it.”
“And what’s the problem?”
“Well, I think at the moment she’s on a Chinese warship.”
“How did we go from the Chinese Consulate not having anything to do with her kidnapping to finding her on a Chinese warship?”
“Well, it gets better than that,” he said. “Her last sighting was on a Chinese junk boat.”
“Where?”
“Off China’s coast.”
“That’s not making any sense.”
“Nope, we’ll fill you in as you go,” Shane said cheerfully.
“Go where?”
“To the last sighting of her. How are your language skills? Like Chinese, possibly Vietnamese?”
“Terrible,” he said. “I suck at it, but things always work out.” As they spoke, he was already pulling out a duffel bag and packing up his clothes. He heard a vehicle outside and shook his head. “Are you telling me that that I’m leaving right now?”
“Aren’t you packed yet? You should have started when I first called.”
“I might have, if we hadn’t been talking about you guys and a barbecue that you owe me,” he said. Nonetheless he was packed within minutes.
“Make sure you’ve got your passport.”
“I’ve got it,” he said. “I still don’t understand why this scientist was kidnapped.”
“Well, she’s got a scientific background for one. She’s a renowned epidemiologist for another, and she’s got some
head start on a cure for this … this virus.”
“That’s great, but then somebody wants her for a lab, right?”
“Well, that’s what we’re hoping for, but, of course, it could just as easily be extortion.”
“And we don’t know.”
“Well, that’s for you to find out,” he said. “In the meantime, we’re still tracking her movements. Please bring her home.” And, with that, Shane went to hang up.
“Wait,” Diesel said. “When am I leaving?”
“I thought I made it clear that you’re supposed to be packing.”
“Not only am I packed, I’ve locked up my apartment, and I’m standing outside.”
“Oh, well, do you see the little red car parked in front of you?”
He looked at the parking lot and found it. There appeared to be no driver. “Yeah?”
“The keys are under the floor mat.”
“Where am I going?”
“Head to the Coronado base. You’ll take a bit of a convoluted route.”
“Why is that?”
“Because the Chinese government says they don’t know anything about it, yet they’re obviously involved. So we’re staying under the radar.”
“Hey, that’s … We’ve still got to get there fast.”
“Yep. Don’t worry. You’ll get there fast. Your flight’s leaving in about forty minutes. Make sure you’re on it.”
And, with a laugh, he hung up, leaving Diesel to hop into the little red Mustang and to hurtle toward the airport on the base. He didn’t know whose car this was, but it was a hell of a way to leave town.
And, with that thought uppermost in his mind, he hit the gas and went forward to whatever life would bring.
Chapter 1
Diesel Edwards stood on the surface of the destroyer and watched the land approach.
When Shane had said Diesel would be flying really fast, Shane had meant it. Diesel hadn’t quite expected his flight to be this fast, but he’d taken a base flight and was even now sitting on the destroyer, as they came upon the Chinese coast. The Chinese government wasn’t happy to have them as close as they were and had put out their own navy ships.
“Where to from here?” he muttered to himself. He pulled out his phone and the material he had on file. Eva Langston was still missing, and nobody had seen any further signs of her.
The latest intel found her disembarking the junk boat onto a vehicle traced to a lab just outside of a major Chinese port city. After that, she disappeared.
He figured she had been moved into some secret Chinese government lab, where they hadn’t let her out, so her face would not be picked up by facial recognition off any street cams or satellites. Diesel would go to the last-known location and see what he could find.
As he stood here on the destroyer, someone spoke from behind him.
He turned in surprise and watched as Jerricho Hickory walked toward him. “Jerricho?” He reached out a hand and shook the other man’s hand.
With red hair and a bright grin and enough freckles across his cheekbones to make him look like a fourteen-year-old, Jerricho was every bit the big capable seaman Diesel knew well. Besides, at six-two and two hundred pounds of lean mean fighting machine, no one could mistake Jerricho for an adolescent anymore. “What are you doing here?”
“Well, I might say that a Maverick called me.”
At that, Diesel’s eyebrows shot up. “Shit, really?”
Jerricho gave him a lopsided grin. “Yeah, really,” he said. “I just arrived. I saw a ship come in on the other side. I wasn’t exactly sure what that was about.”
“I landed on the other destroyer,” Diesel said, “but I’m here now.”
“I think we’re taking off soon too,” he said, as he turned to look back at the helicopters getting ready.
“Yeah, I hear that as well,” he said. “I’m ready to go.” He looked at him and asked, “How’s your Chinese?”
“Not bad,” he said. “How’s yours?”
Diesel winced. “Actually I suck.”
“Maybe that’s why they asked me to join in for this one?”
“Maybe, I’m glad to have you here regardless. Been a long time.”
“Well, let’s go see what kind of damage we can do.” Just then a shout came behind Diesel. He raised a hand in acknowledgment, turned, and snatched his duffel bag. He looked at Jerricho. “You ready?”
“Always,” he said, “you have to be in this business.”
“Isn’t that the truth,” he said.
The two raced over and boarded the Black Hawk helicopter that would take them closer to their target location. This US Black Hawk supposedly looked like the Chinese version. Diesel hoped so, for the safety of them all. It would be a short trip, which helped them too. As soon as they landed, the two disembarked and disappeared into the streets.
“That was pretty easy,” Jerricho said. “If we had landed and had to report to somebody, that would have taken us forever.”
“Definitely an advantage of this new system,” he said. “We report to nobody.”
“I like it,” Jerricho said.
“I mean, that’s why the Mavericks name,” he said. “None of us are particularly good at following authoritarian orders anymore.”
“I follow the orders that make sense,” Jerricho said, “but lately it just seems like some of the brass aren’t making any sense at all.”
“If they don’t have boots on the ground or haven’t had in a long time,” Diesel said, “it’s pretty hard to accept some of the stuff that they tell us to do. I wasn’t quite ready to quit, but I was thinking about it when I was approached.”
“Same here. I was trying to figure out what came next. I’m not sure that this is even the answer as much as, right now, this is what’s next,” he said. “I did hear talk about bigger jobs with the whole teams.”
“I think there are bigger jobs with multiple members. These are all smaller jobs with two men,” Diesel said. “But, if we need more manpower, of course, more men are available. The issue is that sometimes you need six or eight guys to do a job.”
“Got it,” he said. “And I’d be okay with that, as long as I respected the guys I was with.”
“And that’s always the answer,” Diesel said. “The last thing we want is to have somebody we don’t trust on the team when we’re out on a mission. And, if we haven’t worked with them for a long time, it’s pretty hard to find trust for them.”
“Exactly.”
They disappeared into the sights and sounds of the city.
“I don’t even know why Shanghai was chosen,” he murmured. “I would have thought the kidnappers were somebody other than the Chinese government. You know? Like, maybe to say another country did the kidnapping and then maybe took her here, if that was the original plan,” Diesel said.
“But it’s a little too obvious that China’s involved.”
“Meaning that somebody is trying to make it look like China?”
“Well, China is the easy bad guy, isn’t it?” Jerricho said.
“True enough.” Diesel thought about it for a moment and then said, “Well, we have to figure out who’s behind it for the scientist to be safe after her rescue. But, at the same time, I don’t think that’s today’s issue as much as it is finding her.”
“Maybe, but then we also have to make sure that we can get her safely away, and that might require finding out just who is behind all this.”
He nodded. “Suggestions?”
“I’m not sure how the information flows among the Mavericks, but we need intel, and we need it now.”
“Not only do we need intel,” he said, “we need some weapons.”
“That I can arrange,” Jerricho said with a grin.
“Legally?”
“Are you asking for that?”
“Hell no,” he said. “I just need to have what I need to have.”
“So give me a list of what you want,” Jerricho said.
“I can do t
hat, as soon as I stop walking long enough to write it down for you.”
They headed toward their hotel and arrived shortly. They quickly registered, moved upstairs, and, once inside, searched for bugs. They tried not to take too long about anything, knowing that their progress would have been watched throughout the city. And Diesel sat down with a pen and paper and quickly jotted down what he thought they would need. Then he ripped off the page, handed it to Jerricho, and asked, “How’s that?”
“Perfect timing,” he said, looking at his watch. “We’re almost at the dinner hour.”
“Right. I haven’t eaten. How about you?”
“I’ll place an order for this stuff,” Jerricho said, lifting the list. “And I can pick up food at the same time, if you want.”
“Perfect,” Diesel said. “I’ll start ordering intel.”
“You didn’t already?”
“I did and got a lot of it, but you’ve got me thinking more about who’s behind it,” Diesel said. “So let’s see what else we can come up with.”
And, with that, Jerricho walked out of the hotel room.
Diesel logged into the Mavericks chat box, while he thought about Jerricho’s connections and how this might be very helpful in the job. And then how the hell did the Mavericks know about his connections? Diesel grabbed his encrypted cell and pressed a Speed Dial button. As soon as Shane came on the line, Diesel asked, “How did you guys know about Jerricho?”
“He’s been on the radar for a while,” he said.
“Makes sense, I guess. He seems to be the right person for here.”
“His stepmother is from China,” he said. “She took over his care when he was really little. So he’s fluent in their languages, and he’s been to China, particularly that area, for many years.”
“Well, his expertise will be welcomed,” he said. “Otherwise I’d be skulking through the shadows.”
“Skulking through the shadows is what we do best,” Shane said.
“That’s the truth,” he said. “I’m wondering about something that Jerricho brought up, as to who’s behind this. If it were the Chinese, wouldn’t they have used another party to kidnap her?”
“They’re getting bolder, and they’re getting a little more aggressive with that thumbing their nose attitude,” Shane said, “so I wouldn’t count that out at the moment. It took a lot to dig down and to find her current location—a random sighting at a Chinese harbor as she was moved onto land. We didn’t have a solid confirmation at the time, but we do now.”
