by Keta Kendric
***
“No, you are not going to Texas,” I said to Megan in the calmest voice I could muster. We had made it back to the safe house, and she was packing that damn backpack again, stuffing clothes in there despite my protests. She wasn’t listening to a goddamn word I was saying to her. She was preparing to go with my team to rescue Aaron from that damn ranch they were likely torturing him on.
“I’m going. If it weren’t for me, he wouldn’t be there,” she said.
Damn, she was hardheaded as hell. I got that she was tough. Given the shit she’d been though, she had to be. But she wasn’t trained for combat and would only get in the way.
“I can wait in the car. I’ll stay out of the way,” she said, using that low, innocent-sounding voice.
It was like she knew what I’d been thinking. However, I had the impression she only wanted to go so she could find a way to trade herself for Aaron. When it came to this woman, I was at a loss, trying to figure her out. But, if there was one thing I was beginning to understand, the bond between her and my cousin was endless.
“No. Stay here where it’s safe. I promised Aaron that I’d keep you safe. Staying your ass here in Florida is the safest place you can be.”
“I’m going,” she said with finality. She slung that damn purple backpack over her small shoulder after throwing her cute little chin up in defiance.
I closed my eyes and prayed for the patience I knew I didn’t have. How did Aaron do it? I wasn’t the least bit equipped with enough patience to deal with a woman right now. Not when I had important shit to do like kill people and find my cousin. I turned to walk away, and she followed.
“Fuck, Megan, stay. Heel. Sit. Fucking listen. What did my cousin do to get you to listen to him?”
My boots thumped loud against the floor, and that little, hardheaded-ass woman was still following me. She was going to follow me straight out the front door if I didn’t stop her.
I turned and shoved her until she fell back onto the living room couch. “You can’t go. You are not going.” I started firmly like a father discipling his child.
She looked at me like I was the small one. Like I wasn’t the big mean man standing over her. I easily outweighed her by a good hundred pounds, but she didn’t seem to give a damn.
She leaned forward, glaring up at me. Those big brown eyes held mine. “You’re going to have to tie me up or kill me to keep me from going. If you don’t take me with you, I’ll find another way there.”
She spoke in such a quiet easy tone it was difficult to believe she was volunteering to be a part of a group that was preparing to travel halfway across the country on a mission to likely kill a large number of people. And worse, she could be one of the ones who ended up dead.
Shark entered the living room with an unreadable expression on his face. “Take her,” he ordered. “She’s survived among us for months. Guns, blood, and bodies don’t scare her. She’s like a fucking cancer that can’t be killed, one you just learn to live with.”
Megan didn’t take offense to Shark’s statement. Shit, she looked as though she wanted to thank him for saying it. I waved my arm for her to stand. “Come on. Stay in the fucking truck when we get there and don’t get in the damn way.”
She nodded her head and followed so close behind me, the lip of her tennis shoes scraped the back of my boots a few times, ensuring I didn’t leave her. When I glanced back at my uncle, he was shaking his head, and I couldn’t tell if he was frowning or smiling.
Chapter Twenty
Ansel
“D, I hope you don’t mind me calling you.” I spoke into Aaron’s phone.
“No, man. But, if you’re calling me from Aaron’s phone, that means he’s dead or they got him.”
“They took him. We think we may have the place, but on the off chance that the motherfucker we tortured was lying, we would like to make sure they took him to the place he specified in Texas.”
“Texas? They took him to Texas?”
“Long fucking story, D. You know as well as I do they’re going to try to torture information out of him. I’m sure you know Aaron is not going to give them what they want. We are going to attempt to extract him before they kill him.”
“Fuck! Are you anywhere near there yet?” D asked.
“No. We just hit the highway. It’ll take us about seven or maybe eight hours to get there. As far as we could gather, he’s on a ranch outside of Chantil, Texas. It’s a small town that’s not supposed to have too many outlying properties. Is there any way you can find and pinpoint the location for us?”
“I’m already on it,” D answered. “I’ll call you back.”
Click.
I rode shotgun as Scott drove. Megan and Marcus sat in the back. I had two dirt bikes strapped to a trailer we were hauling behind one of the two vehicles we’d stolen. We’d stolen two SUV’s from the last place anyone would expect them to be missing from; the police impound yard. We didn’t want to take the chance of using our own vehicles, just in case something went wrong and the enemy got a hold of them. One trace of our VIN numbers would give them more information on us.
Wade followed us in the second stolen vehicle. He’d brought along my twin cousins, Jake and Jackson. The twins stayed as high as the clouds in the sky, but when it came to anything combat related, they were all in, no matter how dangerous or deadly the threat.
About halfway through the drive and as soon as we crossed the line from Mississippi to Louisiana, D called me back. “I found the place. They have Aaron in some type of barn out behind the main house. Did you bring the laptop?” D asked.
“Yes. I’m turning it on now.”
“I’m sending you the satellite feed,” D said.
Scott took his eyes off the highway to glance at me as D talked on speaker. I scanned the feed that started to cover the laptop with keen eyes.
D’s voice came back over the line. “This damn place is guarded like a fucking fortress. It’s about fifteen miles out from the town, far enough that they likely don’t get visitors unless they are invited. The property sits on acres of wide-open land. There are four buildings: the main house, a barn, and two other smaller shacks. The closest woods are nearly three miles out, so it’s going to be hard to sneak up on them.”
Fuck, kept repeating through my mind. They had strategically placed themselves in an area that they knew would be hard for their enemy to infiltrate. They would see us coming for miles around, even at night. How were we supposed to sneak into a place that had been stealth-proofed?
“To make matters worse,” D said. “They have the watchful eyes of about ten guards and cameras all around the place.”
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” I shouted, filling the cab of the vehicle with my heated words.
The five men with me were tough, but if this place was protected like D was saying and if they saw us coming from miles away, there was no damn way we were getting in there.
“Let me see if I can come up with something,” D suggested. “I’ll call you back.”
“Okay. Thanks, man.”
How in the fuck were we supposed to get my cousin out of that place?
***
I studied the feed on the laptop so hard that my eyes started to burn. But, the information I’d gained from watching the activities that went on at this place said a lot. There were ten guards, the hired mercenary types, strategically placed at certain locations, with automatic weapons in their hands or strapped to their backs. I’d watched them switch shifts, which meant there were at least twenty of them.
They operated like the crew we’d dealt with in Florida. The one named Sorio was who they were likely protecting, along with a few other civilians. It seemed like this place was some type of safe house for DG6. I made out the one I assumed was Sorio. He didn’t look any older than me, so the assumption that he was Carlos Dominquez’s son was likely the truth. If that were the case, I somewhat understood his desire to want Megan dead for killing his father. He wanted to avenge his
father’s death if for no other reason than to say he’d done it.
I’d watched who I assumed was Sorio along with his wife or girlfriend sitting on the porch while a maid served them food and drinks. The woman had her back to me, so I couldn’t see her face. The grainy feed didn’t give me a clear picture, but I watched them intensely. They paid no attention to the armed guards that swarmed about the place, likely used to them.
The most shocking revelation was the sight of a kid. A boy, no older than ten, played in the front yard near the fence where the guards were located. He tossed a football around with no one to toss it back to him.
The house was two levels high, but there was a separate guard tower that sat a level higher than the house. It was one large square-shaped room that stood on thick metal support beams and constructed of mostly wood—a lookout tower that allowed them to see for miles around. There were large viewing binoculars affixed to tall tripods pointing north, south, east, and west.
D had been right, they guarded this place like a fucking fortress. But, they had no idea the amount of determination I poured into a situation when I needed to succeed. I was going to get my cousin back if it killed me. The one thing the Texas bunch didn’t count on was that none of us gave a damn about dying.
Scott, Marcus, Wade, and the twins knew or at least understood and accepted as much. I was sure that Megan knew and accepted it too. The low hum of the vehicle idling down alerted me to the fact that we were close to the ranch. The woods D had identified surrounded the back and east sides of the house.
The trees were wider spread here. Some of the leaves had browned and started to thin. These woods weren’t as thick and plush as the areas we were used to in Florida. Nearly three miles of wide-open space was what we’d have to travel to reach the property.
D informed he’d caught a glimpse of Aaron when he’d managed to take over one of the guard’s smart watch. Although D had confirmed that he was inside the barn, I hadn’t spotted Aaron yet on the laptop feed, but there were hints that led me to believe he was exactly where D had said he was. The maid I’d seen had taken food inside and exited the barn quickly. The guards posted at the front and back entrance of the building also confirmed that they were likely holding a prisoner inside.
I hadn’t seen Sorio enter the barn yet, and we had no idea what they’d been doing to Aaron for the sixteen hours it had taken us to verify the location information, prepare, and travel to Texas.
Since it was after seven o’clock in the evening, we were going to lay low, strategize, and plan. We all gathered around the laptop, attempting to come up with a plan that would get us over a three-mile hike to the ranch without being spotted.
We couldn’t come up with anything that didn’t result in us being picked off until we were all dead. Even my idea of using the 50 Cal to take out the tower and using snipers to cover us wouldn’t work. There were too many holes in each plan. There were too many areas not covered and too many ways for us to all die. A fucking suicide mission.
We’d been going nonstop since the day before, so we took turns resting and keeping an eye out on the group we hadn’t figured out how to overtake yet. Just as I was about to doze off in the front seat of the stolen SUV with the laptop sitting in my lap, Aaron’s phone buzzed.
“Hello?”
“Hey, I think your plan to use the 50 Cal and snipers might be the way in. But you’re going to need at least three more snipers.”
What the hell was D talking about? He knew we didn’t have but two sniper rifles—mine and Aaron’s.
“Dax, Gavin, and I will be there in about six hours. You remember the four areas we identified where they have static automatic weapons posted? Four snipers to hold those positions and the 50 Cal to take down or keep that damn tower busy could work. Use the dirt bikes to get across the three open miles while the rest of us keep the soldiers busy.”
Closing my eyes, I let D’s plan run through my brain. He remained silent on the other end, allowing me to think. I gripped my chin, my gaze pinned on the phone I spoke into. “How are we going to get snipers and the 50 Cal close enough without being seen to affect the areas we need to hold?”
D chuckled. “We are going to blind them. Well, at least half blind them. I can take out their surveillance equipment easily. They will be left with the same long-range sight equipment and night gear that we will be using. It will even up the fight. Plus, we are bringing ghillie suits.”
“Did my cousin ever tell you that you’re a fucking genius?”
D laughed at my comment. “You know how your cousin is. He doesn’t issue compliments. But, that fucker will send you a box or a bag of money out of the blue in a heartbeat.”
I laughed, thinking about my cousin’s ways.
“I’ll call you when we’re close,” D said.
“Appreciate it, man. See you later.”
My mind fell back to my cousin. Aaron didn’t spend money like me. I bought houses, cars, clothes, and jewelry, took exotic trips, and rented yachts and private planes. Aaron didn’t do shit but ride and work on his motorcycles in his spare time, make money for the MC, and stir up trouble occasionally.
I was sure Aaron’s ass was sitting on a ton of money because he rarely spent any. It was nothing for him to stuff a brick or two of cash in one of those big-ass indestructible security envelopes and send that shit. He’d done it to me three times. His way of saying thanks, I guess.
You either liked Aaron or you didn’t. If you didn’t like him, you wanted to kill him, but if you liked him, you’d be willing to kill for him. If you loved that bastard like me, his father, the MC, or Megan, you’d go to hell for him.
His relationship with Megan had shocked the shit out of me because he’d never shown care or concern for anyone except family and the MC. Even now, as I glanced over the torn black upholstery at Megan lying across the back seat of the vehicle, I had a hard time believing she’d made such an impact on him. After being around her and finding out about her past, it still stumped me that he would fall for her to the point that he was willing to go to war over her. It meant that he considered her just as much family to him as I was.
And Megan was about as bad as Aaron. Hard to figure out, but so far in love with my cousin that she was willing to hand herself over to one of the most dangerous gangs in the country. After having been through the hell she’d suffered as a teen, after having been hiding from the group for nearly a decade and knowing the types of shit they could do to her, none of it had deterred her from her quest to save Aaron.
Chapter Twenty-one
Megan
The whirr of an engine and the snap of twigs breaking under tires assisted in pulling me from a sleep that I was sure wasn’t doing me a bit of good. My elbows dug into the hard upholstery of the leather seat when I forced myself up. My blurry vision focused on the shadowy face of Ansel glancing back at me from the front seat.
He tilted his head, eyeing me like I was some creature he needed to study.
“That sound you hear, it’s Aaron’s friend, D, and two others he served in the military with. They are coming to help us rescue Aaron.”
I sat all the way up and dropped my feet to the floor. After pulling my gaze away from Ansel’s, I craned my neck around, interested to see these friends of Aaron’s. No headlights meant they were using night gear to trek the tree-lined path.
It wasn’t lost on me that most of them seemed to have figured out that their newest adversaries, DG6, were chasing me. Now, that they’d captured Aaron, I was sure that DG6 had officially become the number one enemies of the August Knights. I was quickly learning that this MC was much more capable, smarter, and willing to lay down their lives for each other than I would have given them credit for.
“Stay here,” Ansel said as he threw his door open and exited the vehicle. Ansel didn’t have to tell me to stay inside the vehicle. I was reluctant to show my face because I didn’t want the men looking at the reason that Aaron was in this mess in the first place.
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After rising to my knees, I squinted to get a better look at the three guys that had exited a dark-color SUV that had pulled up close to the vehicle Ansel and his men stood next to. I could tell, even in our dim setting that they’d exited the vehicle with cautious movements.
Their shadowy figures indicated that they all appeared to be as tall and fit as Aaron. Ansel and his men remained in place at the open hatch of the SUV behind the one I was in. They’d unhooked the trailer carrying the dirt bikes from the back of the vehicle and parked the vehicles back to back. They stood statue-still as the men inched closer to them.
“Nice to meet you, man,” I heard Ansel say as he reached out and shook hands with who I assumed was D. From my view inside the truck, they were all tall, dark shadows. At certain angles, I could make out a few features, but nothing that gave me a clear picture of these guys.
“This is Dax and Gavin,” D introduced the other men.
After brief greetings were exchanged among the men, they gathered at the back of the SUV behind me and conducted a strategy session. I stayed put inside the vehicle, but it didn’t stop me from cracking the window further so I could listen to their plans for retrieving Aaron from a ranch full of hired killers. Discussions about 50 Cal machine guns, sniper rifles, guard towers, and most importantly, Aaron being in the barn, came up.
“There is a woman and a kid here too, so beware. I’m a motherfucking nightmare when I need to be, but I don’t harm small children. I don’t hurt women either…well, unless they want me to.” The group laughed at Ansel’s comment about women. It even made me crack a smile. I remember Aaron had commented that Ansel led an unusual sexual lifestyle.
After the men spent hours planning their operation, a significant amount of time was spent gathering, snapping, and clicking together all sorts of equipment. Amid all the snapping and clicking, the man I was certain was D said, “I’d like to meet Megan if you don’t mind.”
