Securing Zoey

by Susan Stoker

  “You will be our spokesperson with the authorities,” he declared.

  Gillian shook her head, but no words would come out. She didn’t want anything to do with this. She wanted to huddle in a corner and be invisible.

  The man leaned into her, and his body odor assaulted Gillian’s senses. He smelled like sweat and onions, and she forced herself not to gag. “You have two choices,” he said calmly. “Be our spokesperson or die.” Then he let go of her arm and stood back. He lifted his rifle and placed the barrel against her forehead. It was hot and felt like it was burning a hole right into her skull.

  Swallowing hard, Gillian whispered, “I’d be happy to talk to whoever you want.”

  His lips quirked upward in an evil, satisfied smile as he lowered his weapon. “I thought you might.” Then he grabbed her arm again and shoved his way between terrified women and children and hauled her to the area reserved for flight attendants where they prepared food and drinks for the passengers.

  He pushed her down, and Gillian gladly scooted until her back was against the side of the plane. “Might as well get comfortable, we’ve got a bit of time before we get to Caracas,” the hijacker told her.

  Gillian closed her eyes, but she couldn’t block out the sounds. Women crying, the hijackers threatening passengers, even the occasional shot from one of the guns. People were dying all around her, and Gillian was utterly helpless. She hated the feeling, but knew there was nothing she could do if she was going to live through this except try to stay calm and do as she was ordered.

  Trigger grimly flipped through the folder of information he’d been given before he and the rest of his Delta Force team got onboard the flight to Caracas, Venezuela. Two days ago, a flight heading from Costa Rica to Dallas had been hijacked and flown to the South American country.

  Now the plane had been parked on the tarmac for almost forty-two hours, the hijackers waiting for their demands to be met.

  The group claimed to be associated with the Cartel of the Suns. It was an organization allegedly headed by high-ranking members of the military forces of Venezuela, as well as some of the most influential government employees as well. They were involved in the international drug trade. Not too long ago, only a few years, the nephew of the first lady of the country had been arrested for trying to smuggle eight hundred kilos of cocaine from Venezuela to the United States for the cartel.

  Trigger didn’t give a fuck about the drugs or about the man the hijackers were attempting to free from prison. Hugo Lamas was a border patrol agent in Venezuela who’d been imprisoned earlier that year for taking bribes and allowing millions of dollars’ worth of drugs to pass through his checkpoints.

  What Trigger did give a fuck about was the remaining twenty-four American citizens on the plane. Twelve women, ten men, and two children. He was also worried about dozen or so citizens from Costa Rica, Mexico, Canada, Japan, Columbia, Panama, Nicaragua, and India onboard.

  The entire Delta Force team thought the demands were bullshit. There was no way the Cartel of the Suns cared about one border patrol agent; not enough to hijack an entire plane. But at the moment, Trigger didn’t care about politics or what their real agenda was. All he cared about was figuring out how to get onto that plane and take out the assholes who thought it was okay to terrorize others.

  Reports from Venezuela were that bodies had been dumped out of the plane onto the tarmac. The hijackers weren’t fucking around. They weren’t just threatening to kill people, they’d already done it. And with every hour that passed, more and more lives were in jeopardy.

  The Deltas were called in to assist because they specialized in close-quarter rescue missions. These kinds of missions weren’t Trigger’s favorite. The chance of people getting hurt was extremely high. And he hated knowing people would most likely die in order for them to get to the hijackers. It was likely the assholes would use innocent civilians as shields to try to survive.

  “What are ya thinkin’?” Lefty asked.

  Sighing, Trigger turned to his friend and teammate. “I’m thinking this stinks to high heaven.”

  Nodding, Lefty agreed. “I know. It doesn’t add up.”

  “Nothing adds up,” Grover chimed in. “I mean, the Venezuelan government hates the US. And with all the rumors that they’re heavily involved in the Cartel of the Suns, why would they call us in to kill their own people?”

  “Unless this group isn’t their own people,” Brain said.

  Everyone nodded.

  “That makes sense,” Trigger said. “They could be pissed off that someone hijacked the plane using their name, and they want to send a message.”

  “But at what cost?” Oz asked.

  “They don’t give a shit about innocent lives,” Doc scoffed. “They don’t care about anything but staying in power and making money. They don’t care about their own countrymen and women starving and suffering, why would they care about a bunch of foreigners?”

  “And I have no doubt they invited us in so if things go sideways, they can blame us,” Lucky added in disgust.

  Trigger ran a hand through his hair and sighed in agitation. “It doesn’t matter why we’re going, just that we do whatever it takes to get as many people as possible out of this alive.”

  The rest of the team nodded in agreement.

  “What’s the latest intel?” Trigger asked Brain.

  The other man flipped through his notes and said, “It looks like they’ve got one of the passengers communicating with the negotiator.”

  “Smart. That way we can’t use voice-recognition software,” Lucky said.

  “Right,” Brain agreed. “They also don’t seem to be in a huge hurry. They’ve done the usual thing—bring us food and water or we’ll start killing passengers—but otherwise, they just seem to be hunkered down and waiting.”

  “For what?” Grover asked.

  “No clue,” Brain replied.

  “Who’s the passenger?” Trigger asked.

  Brain shuffled some more papers before he said, “FBI majorly pulled through and got us some info on the American passengers. One is Gillian Romano. Thirty years old, single, event planner from Georgetown, Texas. She checks out clean. Five-seven, blonde hair, green eyes, a hundred and eighty-five pounds. Got her undergraduate degree from UT-Austin and worked a series of entry-level jobs before starting her own company about four years ago. Both parents are living and are still together, they live in Florida. She was in Costa Rica for seven days, apparently in charge of a big shindig put on by Pillar Custom Homes out of Austin. I’m guessing, by the numbers in her bank account, she wasn’t paid nearly enough for all the shit she did, if you ask me, and the guests all left the day before she did.”

  “You think she’s in on this somehow?” Lefty asked.

  “No,” Brain said immediately. “I’ve got some of the transcripts of the calls she’s had with the negotiator, and she’s way out of her league. She’s doing as good a job as she knows how, but the asswipe she’s been talking to definitely hasn’t helped.”

  “We taking over negotiations?” Doc asked.

  “Fuck yeah, we are,” Trigger answered for Brain. He’d also seen the transcripts. Gillian Romano was scared out of her mind, but she wasn’t an idiot. She’d done all she could to keep the hijackers calm and to get the passengers what they needed to be comfortable. He supposed her skills came from being an event planner.

  “We’re landing at the same airport, on the one runway they’ve still got open,” Brain informed them. “But we aren’t allowed to step foot off the airport property. The government doesn’t want us in their country, and especially not out wandering around.”

  “Assholes,” Oz said under his breath.

  “So what’s the plan?” Doc asked.

  Trigger cleared his throat. “Get there. Get the asshole off the phone with Ms. Romano and see if we can’t pull as much information from her as possible. Ideally we’ll pose as delivery men for supplies. We’ll take out the hijackers and get the pa
ssengers to safety.”

  Grover chuckled. “Well, that sounds easy…not.”

  Trigger didn’t even smile. “It won’t be. We all know it. Those assholes could get tired of waiting. Most likely this is all a red herring, and they’re a diversion from whatever their real agenda is. We have to stay on our toes. Trust no one. They landed in Venezuela for a reason, but whatever that is doesn’t matter until those passengers are safe. Understand?”

  Everyone immediately agreed. Their mission was hostage rescue. Nothing else. It was up to the CIA, FBI, DEA, and whoever else was involved to figure out the reasons behind the hijacking.

  But even as the team fell silent, lost in their own thoughts about the upcoming mission, Trigger couldn’t help but feel uneasy. Everything felt off about this op. And getting into an airplane undetected was impossible. Innocent civilians were going to die, there was no getting around that fact.

  And that made Trigger think about Gillian Romano. Just by reading the transcripts, he could tell she was smart. She was doing her best not to panic. He admired that. Not a lot of hostages he’d dealt with over the years kept as level a head as Gillian was. And while he hadn’t heard her voice and couldn’t read her emotions through her words, he could tell she was still scared out of her mind. And for some reason, that bothered him.

  It was stupid. Trigger had no idea what she looked like or who she was as a person. She could be a harpy, or a vain chick only concerned about how many selfies she could post on social media. But for some reason, Trigger didn’t think so.

  Maybe he’d been hanging out with Ghost and his team for too long. Maybe he’d been wishing a bit too hard that he’d find a woman he could love and cherish as much as the other team cared about their women and families. He couldn’t deny he was ready. At thirty-seven, he felt as if his life was passing him by. He wanted what his friends had.

  He wanted someone to be there when he got home after a hard mission. Someone he could laugh with, completely let down his tough façade with, and who could make him feel as if the dangerous job he was doing was worth it.

  But he’d always thought he had plenty of time. But now he was closing in on forty years old. That wasn’t old by any stretch, but Trigger still couldn’t help but feeling as if life was passing him by.

  Shaking his head, Trigger tried to get a grip. In the middle of an impossible op, which would most likely end in the deaths of way too many people, was not the time to start thinking about his love life…or lack of it.

  Pushing the inappropriate personal thoughts out of his head, Trigger did his best to formulate a plan. He knew he’d be the one taking over for the negotiator. He was good at what he did, and the rest of the team would scope out the plane and get as many details as they could about how they could storm the plane.

  We’re coming, Gillian, Trigger couldn’t help but think. Hang on just a bit longer, we’re comin’.

  * * *

  PRE-ORDER THIS ONE TODAY!

  Shielding Gillian

  Also by Susan Stoker

  * * *

  SEAL of Protection: Legacy Series

  Securing Caite

  Securing Brenae (novella)

  Securing Sidney

  Securing Piper

  Securing Zoey

  Securing Avery (May 2020)

  Securing Kalee (Sept 2020)

  * * *

  Delta Team Two Series

  Shielding Gillian (Apr 2020)

  Shielding Kinley (Aug 2020)

  Shielding Aspen (Oct 2020)

  Shielding Riley (Jan 2021)

  Shielding Devyn (TBA)

  Shielding Ember (TBA)

  Shielding Sierra (TBA)

  * * *

  Delta Force Heroes Series

  Rescuing Rayne

  Rescuing Aimee (novella)

  Rescuing Emily

  Rescuing Harley

  Marrying Emily (novella)

  Rescuing Kassie

  Rescuing Bryn

  Rescuing Casey

  Rescuing Sadie (novella)

  Rescuing Wendy

  Rescuing Mary

  Rescuing Macie (novella)

  * * *

  Badge of Honor: Texas Heroes Series

  Justice for Mackenzie

  Justice for Mickie

  Justice for Corrie

  Justice for Laine (novella)

  Shelter for Elizabeth

  Justice for Boone

  Shelter for Adeline

  Shelter for Sophie

  Justice for Erin

  Justice for Milena

  Shelter for Blythe

  Justice for Hope

  Shelter for Quinn

  Shelter for Koren

  Shelter for Penelope

  * * *

  Ace Security Series

  Claiming Grace

  Claiming Alexis

  Claiming Bailey

  Claiming Felicity

  Claiming Sarah

  * * *

  Mountain Mercenaries Series

  Defending Allye

  Defending Chloe

  Defending Morgan

  Defending Harlow

  Defending Everly

  Defending Zara (Mar 2020)

  Defending Raven (June 2020)

  * * *

  SEAL of Protection Series

  Protecting Caroline

  Protecting Alabama

  Protecting Fiona

  Marrying Caroline (novella)

  Protecting Summer

  Protecting Cheyenne

  Protecting Jessyka

  Protecting Julie (novella)

  Protecting Melody

  Protecting the Future

  Protecting Kiera (novella)

  Protecting Alabama’s Kids (novella)

  Protecting Dakota

  * * *

  Stand Alone

  The Guardian Mist

  Nature’s Rift

  A Princess for Cale

  A Moment in Time- A Collection of Short Stories

  Lambert’s Lady

  * * *

  Special Operations Fan Fiction

  http://www.AcesPress.com

  Beyond Reality Series

  Outback Hearts

  Flaming Hearts

  Frozen Hearts

  Writing as Annie George:

  Stepbrother Virgin (erotic novella)

  About the Author

  New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author Susan Stoker has a heart as big as the state of Tennessee where she lives, but this all American girl has also spent the last fourteen years living in Missouri, California, Colorado, Indiana, and Texas. She’s married to a retired Army man who now gets to follow her around the country.

  She debuted her first series in 2014 and quickly followed that up with the SEAL of Protection Series, which solidified her love of writing and creating stories readers can get lost in.

  If you enjoyed this book, or any book, please consider leaving a review. It’s appreciated by authors more than you’ll know.

  www.stokeraces.com

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  susan@stokeraces.com