“You alright, man? You look like you’re about to blow a gasket.” Aaron patted Rob on the shoulder.
“Yeah, I just will never get the image of those young girls out of my mind.” He didn’t lie, that was bothering him. Hearing his words, Lola jerked her head to look into his eyes. Blue met bright grey and they held each other. Rob read the look of understanding in Lola’s eyes. He had to tell her the truth. But when was a good time to tell someone she was owned. They needed to clear the farm first, just to be on the safe side.
Chapter 11
“Go. Stop Number Eight. His payment didn’t go through. Bring back the girl. We will sell her to Number Six,” Ortiz ordered his three men armed with AR type 223 rifles. The men rushed out of the back door of the barn and looked for the men. They spotted Rob and his brothers as they were placing Lola into the backseat of their SUV. The men ran toward the SUV, but it started to drive away before they could catch it. They knew Ortiz would kill them if they didn’t retrieve the girl. If they failed their assigned task, they would each receive one bullet to the head, execution style. They doubled back and hopped into their SUV. The driver barreled after Rob and Lola.
The ride to the airport was torture: her leg brushing up against his every time they hit a pot hole sending jolts of energy through his body and to his groin. Mexico did not have the best roads. They had all of the travel documents needed in a bag in the backseat because failure tonight was not an option. Steve would have to fly the plane. They couldn’t very well walk in with a half-dressed Lola. “My Lola,” he growled under his breath.
Just then, Rob was pulled out of his thoughts by the unmistakable sound of gun fire. AR223 if he recalled correctly from his training. He wasn’t driving. Shit. He would prefer to be driving, to be in control, but he and Steve had the same driver’s training on outmaneuvering another vehicle. They had both been taught to drive defensively yet aggressively. Steve was doing a good job of maneuvering the big vehicle through the light traffic on the back roads.
The Cartel’s SUV wasn’t far behind. Each time the Cartel got close enough, they fired.
“Get down and stay down,” Rob ordered as he pushed Lola’s head between her knees. The sound of glass splintering into a million tiny pieces filled his hears. The Cartel’s bullet had connected with the back window. “Even better,” Rob thought. He pulled out his side arm, a SIG 226, and shot out the back window completely. Now he could engage the Cartel. He fired several rounds through the now windowless back. He aimed unsuccessfully for the driver. Bang! Bang! Bang! – The sound was loud and Lola covered her ears. With each shot, Lola jerked. She had never been exposed to anything, let alone a gun fight in a moving vehicle. Her chest caved inward and brought her body closer to her knees. She was flexible and had no problems tucking her head tightly between her knees. However, her body was trembling. Why were there people shooting at them? He bought her. What was going on? Rob brought the gun up and aimed it at the driver. The holes in these back roads were preventing him from getting off a good shot. He fired, but it went wide and to the right as the SUV bumped along the road. He brought his side arm up again. “Keep it steady, will you?”
“I’m trying, but these roads are a mess.” Steve sped up and tried to outrun the Cartel. He came into a small town and made a hard left onto a side street. The SUV made the turn, but Steve over corrected and wasted time by having to reverse before he could pull straight. He made quick work of correcting the trajectory of the vehicle, and his speed reached ninety miles an hour in no time. They didn’t, however, lose the Cartel. They were gaining on Lola and the men. Steve made a hard right into an alleyway.
“Shit. It’s a dead end. We’re going to have to hold them off,” Steve yelled out, as he brought the car to a stop. The Cartel’s SUV careened into the same alleyway and slowed to a crawl about one hundred feet behind The Unit’s SUV.
“Get on the floor,” Rob ordered a trembling Lola. Lola obeyed and got on the floor of the vehicle making her body as small as possible. Lola hid her face as she lay on the floor of the SUV. She began crying - fear and adrenaline coursing through her body.
The men got out of the SUV and stood behind open doors with guns aimed at the Cartel. The Cartel opened fire. Bullets zinged and whizzed by the men’s heads. The men were experienced in warfare and had no trouble keeping up with the fight. They fired back. The Cartel was out-trained and outgunned. They had three men; Rob had four, including himself. Rob didn’t understand why the men were after Lola, but there was no way they were getting her back. Rob aimed at the driver’s side window of the cartel’s SUV. Bang! – A carefully placed bullet landed right between the eyes of the man standing behind the door. Rob saw his body slump to the ground.
Whiz! Thump! – This time a bullet hit Steve. He staggered back into the vehicle grasping the wound. He lay back against the seat holding his right shoulder.
“Where are you hit, man?” Rob yelled over the gun fire.
“My shoulder. I’ll be fine.” Steve struggled, powering through the pain, back to his fighting position behind the car door. He only needed a moment to regain his composure. It sure hurt like a bitch.
They were going to have to draw the men out from behind their doors. And Lola would have to be the bait. Should he risk it? Would she ever forgive him?
“We have what you want,” Rob yelled to the men in the other vehicle.
“Send her out. We only want her,” an easily transparent lie.
“We need to see you’re serious. Lay down your weapons, and I will send her out.”
“No way! Send her out, and we call it a night.”
Rob leaned into the vehicle and brought his lips close to Lola’s ear inhaling his favorite scent. “Don’t worry. We will kill them before they have a chance to touch you again.”
“How much am I worth to you? How much did you spend on me?” Lola spat the words at Rob. Rob longed to tell her the whole truth, but now was not the time. He needed her to lure the men out from behind their car. He knew they wouldn’t kill her; she was too valuable to them.
“Listen, I don’t know if you can do this, but when the man comes to you, I need to you knee him in the balls as hard as you can. I need you to make him drop to the ground,” Rob pleaded into Lola’s ear. Lola looked up at him in confusion. He wanted her help? He seemed to realize she was conflicted, “Please. Just trust me. I’ll explain everything as soon as I can. Now, do you think you can do this?”
“My pleasure,” Lola grinned. Finally, she could take out the rage she had been feeling on a person who deserved it.
“Get up and slowly walk towards the other vehicle,” Rob motioned to Lola with his gun. He really didn’t like the look of fear in her eyes as she looked at him, nor did he like sending her into the direct line of fire, but he really didn’t have a choice if he was going to end this and keep Lola safe.
Lola stood on shaky legs. Rob ran a hand up and down her back trying to soothe her, but it wasn’t working. At his touch, she cringed and moved away. How was he going to make her want him after this stunt? Lola moved slowly, one foot in front of the other, stumbling, to the space between the two vehicles. Rob and his men stayed behind the doors. Lola had traveled about thirty feet when a man from the other vehicle came out and grabbed her by the arm roughly as he tried to hurry her along. But she remembered her mission, so she struggled and pulled against the man. He turned to face her, to tell her to move quickly, and when he did, she brought her right foot down hard on his left foot. Before he recovered from the pain, she drove her knee up and connected with his groin sending the man to the ground curled up in the fetal position. Thank God she was able to pull it off because it caused the last man to leave the cover of his vehicle. As soon as he stepped a foot from behind the vehicle, Rob aimed and fired, another between-the-eyes’ shot. Two for two tonight. He would call this a good night.
Seeing her chance, Lola took off running - to where she didn’t know, but she had to escape. Rob ran after her before she had a c
hance to take off into the dark night of some shanty Mexican town. He ran with all of his might. She was fast, but he managed to grab her by the arm, just enough to control her movements.
“You have to come with us. We will protect you.”
“Is that what you call it? I thought I did a rather fine job of protecting myself.”
Rob smiled. “You did. I wasn’t sure you could pull it off.”
“You don’t know me. I spend a lot of time at the gym training. Daddy’s orders,” she said as the adrenaline began to leave her body. She slumped into Rob. Rob could feel her muscles, her soft breasts, pressed up against his hard chest. He didn’t back away from her. He placed his rough, calloused hands on the soft skin of her arms. But as soon as she caught a whiff of his breath, she immediately cringed and backed away from him. Why was she distancing herself? Their connection had him humming. He was sure she felt it too. It was too strong, too base, too electric not to feel.
Aaron and Tony loaded the dead Cartel bodies into their SUV and reversed it out of the alleyway while Rob fixed up Steve’s shoulder. Thank God people minded their own business in Mexico. He knew interfering in the many drug gangs that littered the land could get one killed.
Rob’s former title in the Army was Special Forces Medical Sergeant. That meant he had a lot of practice treating emergency and trauma patients in the field during his five tours in Afghanistan. He was thankful for his expert knowledge set. For tonight, he just needed to do a quick bandage job on Steve, just enough to stop the bleeding. He would stitch him up when they got back to the plane.
Steve was out of commission, and Rob didn’t want to leave Lola’s side. How did he convince her he was the good guy when he still carried the guilt of not saving his Lizzie? There it was, his Lizzie.
Somehow, he had to convince himself he could protect Lola before he ever entertained the thought of being with her. Sure, being around her did something to him: something no one, not even his Lizzie, could do. He felt her, her presence, her being, at the very heart of his. The first step towards connecting with Lola was to show her he was the good guy. That he didn’t come there to own her per se, although she would be his. More than anything, he didn’t want her to be afraid of him. He felt a connection not even thoughts of Lizzie could stop. He had to explore it, if just to see if she felt it too. He didn’t know how he was going to accomplish that and hold onto Lizzie at the same time, but he had to try. This connection he felt for Lola was powerful, heady, soul-altering.
Aaron parked next to the private jet and for the first time that night, Rob heard Lola’s voice, soft and soothing. “Where are you taking me? What do you plan on doing with me? How much did you pay for me?” she asked in almost a whisper. She had no idea why the last question was so important to her except she rationalized the more money he spent on her, the better care he would take of her.
Rob let her questions go unanswered.
“Where are you taking me?” Lola asked again looking at Rob with a sadness that was breaking his heart.
“Home,” he said unable to keep the secret any longer. Her eyes widened in disbelief. She met his gaze for the second time that night. He reached out and grabbed her hand. The same energy that attacked him in the car was causing a tingling sensation to spread down his spine. “Let’s get you on board. You don’t need to fear me. I would never hurt you.” With a firm grasp of her hand, he led her to the steps of the airplane.
Chapter 12
Rob made sure Lola was seated in one of the comfortable chairs which surrounded a small table. He reached down and grabbed a hold of the seatbelt strap, buckling her into her seat. “Can I get you something to drink? Rob knew she was twenty, not quite old enough to drink. But, he rationalized, she had a rough few weeks. The nagging thought of whether or not he was good enough for Lola entered his mind. She came from a wealthy home. Sure, he made good money taking the high-risk jobs he took, but it was nothing compared to the lifestyle her father led.
“Don’t’ worry. I will be twenty-one in two months,” Lola reassured Rob before he approached the bar.
“What would you like to drink?”
“A vodka and tonic, please.”
“I won’t stop you, not after what you’ve been through.” He walked over to the small bar which adorned the right corner of the jet, placed four ice cubes in the glass, poured a healthy dose of vodka and a splash of tonic into the glass. He returned and handed it to her. He watched, mesmerized, as she brought the glass to her full, red, kissable, soft lips and parted them. She tilted her head back slightly, and he watched as she swallowed the drink. Just the sight enthralled him. Her perfectly tanned skin, the way her neck muscles moved to swallow the drink. He could picture those luscious lips wrapped around his cock. He longed to place his hand against her throat while she swallowed his seed, to feel her swallow all of him down into herself.
It was like she could feel his eyes on her, and she wanted to keep them there. She looked up at him through her eyelashes coyly. He was a very attractive man. He wasn’t much older than she. It was his devastating eyes that did her in. He was haunted in a way that called to her. His eyes were so expressive. She could tell this man had seen his share of pain. She watched his smoldering grey eyes watch her. She could feel a pull unlike any she had ever felt. She knew she was attractive, but she didn’t think a man of his caliber, who looked like he did, who rescued her and was taking her home, would feel the same about a twenty year old princess who led a very sheltered life. This was a man who had seen the world, good and bad. The worst thing she had ever experienced up until her kidnapping, was maxing out one of her daddy’s credit cards and going through the embarrassment of it being declined.
Rob moved past her to get to the window seat. He sat down and buckled his seatbelt. The plane would be departing any minute. It couldn’t take off fast enough for him. He didn’t want any more trouble from the Ortiz Cartel. Not when he was so close to completing the mission.
“Why are you taking me home?” Lola asked afraid of the answer.
“We,” Rob gestured to the other men sitting across from him already beginning to doze off to sleep, “work for Blackrain Security. It is a security company that handles jobs the government can’t or won’t. Your father hired us to rescue you. So when I say you are going home, I mean you are going home to your father.”
“What about the others? What about Dangani?” Lola asked as she looked down at her hands resting in her lap. She wanted to see them, to make sure they were okay. “Why didn’t you save them?”
“We were hired by your father to rescue you. You were the mission. Please believe me, I wanted to take out every mother fucker there, but I couldn’t risk you.”
“What will happen to them now? Will anyone even try to find them?”
“There gone, Lola. You have to let them go.”
“You don’t understand,” Lola said raising her voice an octave, “they are so young, so innocent.”
“I understand. Please believe me. It took everything in me not to shoot every man there tonight. I am sick with the thought of what is happening to them.”
Rocking back and forth in her seat, she whispered, “Me too.”
Lola became quieter, less animated than he had ever seen her. Trying anything he could to calm her, he reached over and touched her knee. “Your father is waiting to see you. He has been worried sick about you. You have to think about that. You can’t think about the others. You have to let them go.”
She didn’t want to let them go. She didn’t want to forget them. Swallowing hard, she did the only thing she could and vowed to pray for them every night and to never forget them. Rubbing the pain from her chest with her palm, she realized she didn’t even know their last names so she couldn’t locate their families. The situation was hopeless. Lola’s shoulders slumped forward as silent tears streamed down her face. What choice did she have? Her father had money. Of course, he would pay to have his princess tracked down and rescued. Still, the thought of
what the other girls were enduring made the tears fall harder, faster. She recognized that Rob was right. She would have to let them go. But nothing could stop her from praying for them every night and remembering them every day. She would talk to her father about organizing a foundation to stop sex-slave trafficking. And she would play an active role in stopping the human trafficking whether he approved or not.
Gathering her courage, Lola raised her chin and met Rob’s steel grey eyes. “I want to see my father. I want him to know that I’m alright. I don’t want him worried any longer than he has to be, but I don’t want to go home with him,” she sighed. If she went back to her father, he would never let his princess leave her tower again. “I can’t live with him again,” she pleaded. “After I get a chance to console him, can’t you take me back to my Cambridge home? I finally have my own life, and I want to keep it that way.”
“We can discuss that once we get back to Blackrain. From what I know about your father, he isn’t just going to let you go. He is going to expect you to have some kind of security detail. Especially after he hears how the Cartel came after us.” Rob wondered why the Cartel had come after them. He entered the correct account number for the wire transfer. He even entered his own account number to make up for the extra twenty-five grand it took to buy her. Maybe the Cartel got a hold of his name during the transfer and figured out he wasn’t Jim Ruffing? Still, if they got their money, what should they care that she is gone. Unless, the account numbers were dummies and her father never had any intention of paying that kind of money to rescue his daughter? He would find out when he got back to the office.
Stronger (The Unit Book 2) Page 7
