On top of that worry, Greyson was also thinking about his wife and son. By now, she should be done with the interview, and working on the case.
That terrified him.
Leaving her was difficult at best.
Yes, she had Chris protecting her, and a Russian traitor riding shotgun, but that didn’t give him that warm and fuzzy feeling.
It freaked him out.
Yeah, they had to get their asses moving.
“How far is the cabin ahead of us?” Greyson whispered, keeping his voice down. The sun would be setting soon, and that would mean using lights to navigate.
That would make them easy to track.
“About an hour’s walk,” Heath whispered. “We’ll have to go to night vision soon,” he stated.
“You brought it?” he asked.
Heath stared at him like he was a little short of a few cards from his deck.
“Uh, yeah.”
Greyson could kiss the man.
“You didn’t?” Heath added.
It made him laugh.
“No. This isn’t my thing. I’m out of practice, son. I’ve been out of the military for a long time.”
“Clearly.”
Dimitri was scanning the area, and he couldn’t help but think back to his time on the mountain as he was tracking his brother.
It was all kinds of ironic that he was tracking Poppy this time. She’d followed him, and he was returning the favor. Then he was going to toss her ass over his shoulder and get her off this Godforsaken mountain.
To kill her himself.
Without warning, Heath stopped them.
“What?” Greyson asked.
“We have two sets of tracks going up,” he offered, pointing them out to the other two men.
They crouched and checked them out.
“Could one be Poppy’s?” Greyson asked. “What size shoe does she wear?”
“An eight,” Dimitri said, checking the tracks. When he put his hand out, he could see that the people wearing the shoes were bigger, and the tracks were deep.
This wasn’t her footprint.
Not a chance.
“It’s going to be men, and they’re carrying gear,” he stated, pointing out what they both knew. “Plus, they’re hustling it and running up the hill.”
They knew that there was only ONE cabin at the top of this incline.
Poppy’s.
They weren’t her tracks, so that meant one thing.
Their head start—thanks to Blackhawk—didn’t buy them any time at all.
“At least we know that there are two of them,” Greyson said, as they began moving quicker up the mountain. “This helps us out.”
And it did.
Already, all three ex-soldiers knew what was going to happen at the top. They didn’t doubt that one of the men would flush Poppy out, and likely Claude Black would make the kill.
This wasn’t good.
Time was not on their side.
“He’s a solitary predator,” Dimitri said, keeping his voice low. “There’s only one reason he would take a partner. Claude has someone because he has studied her. Poppy is familiar with camping and the woods. He knows that if she gets into the trees, he’ll need help to cut her off.”
That was the worst-case scenario.
“It’s okay. We’re almost there,” Greyson stated, as they moved up the incline. He saw movement off in the distance and pulled his binoculars.
Bingo.
They weren’t alone, and neither was Poppy from the looks of it.
“We have a man. He’s carrying a sniper rifle,” he said, knowing why. Yeah, Claude wasn’t bringing her back to his boss. Poppy wasn’t leaving the trees.
“How much further?” Dimitri asked.
“It’s a half a mile.”
They had to keep pushing. The men ahead of them had split off, and that meant they were going to hit the cabin from two sides. Poppy would be a sitting duck.
Greyson knew what they needed to do.
“Heath, go with Dimitri. Get to that cabin, and make sure you keep her safe. I’ll get into position.”
“Maybe I should do that,” Dimitri stated.
“She’s going to be scared. You need to get her to stay calm and let me do my thing.”
Greyson knew the truth. This was exactly what he did in the military. If he could get around this guy, and behind him, he could give them cover from one side. If he could do that, they’d have a better shot at getting out.
There was no cell coverage, and there was no way that the two men could call for help. Claude Black was a trained killer. He was going to take someone out if he could. Having cover from behind him might save his life.
Dimitri knew how dangerous that was.
Greyson, on a good day, needed a bodyguard. Now he was going out into the trees with only a sniper rifle and unaware of the lay of the land.
For him.
While he was pissed at Poppy, he didn’t want her hurt. Greyson’s sacrifice was not missed. “Thank you,” he said, holding out his hand.
Greyson took it.
“Brother.”
Yeah, they were.
Still, Greyson had to be realistic.
“Don’t thank me yet. This has a five percent chance of working,” he admitted, “and a ninety-five percent chance of it going to shit.”
They were aware.
Still, they had no choice.
“When you get her home, yell at her for me,” Greyson stated. “And if this goes bad…?”
He hated to say it, but he needed to make sure.
“Take care of my son!”
Before Dimitri could say anything else, Greyson pulled his hood over his head to disguise himself, shouldered his sniper case, and was off into the woods.
The other two men kept moving, trying to make up time and catch up.
They hiked as fast as they could, guestimating which direction the second man would take to get to Poppy’s cabin. They traversed right up the middle of the path, trying to take the shortest route to her.
At this point, it was about making up ground. Time was not on their side. Dimitri was impressed with the man beside him. While Heath was a brick shithouse, he moved light on his feet and kept up with him easily.
Yeah, he’d been a Marine.
Not far in front of them off in the distance to their left, they could hear birds taking flight.
There was someone over there, and nature was giving them a heads-up.
Perfect.
From knowing where Greyson was tracking the man on the right, they could gauge a safe route.
Well, here went EVERYTHING.
After ten more minutes of climbing, the sun was down, and the light was gone. From here on out, they were working blind.
Luckily, and unfortunately, they had the light from the cabin up ahead. If they had it, so did the two mercenaries after Poppy.
Silently, they took position in the trees.
Checking out the surroundings, around the cabin, they could see the best routes to and away from it.
The place was close to the tree line. There was very little clearing, and that wasn’t a good thing. One wrong move, and they were screwed.
If they could see the killers, the killers could see them too.
“How do you want to do this?” Heath offered, barely speaking above a whisper. “I say we go in, knock her out, and carry her down.”
Dimitri stared at him.
“That’s the woman I love.”
“And do you want her to live? Or do you want her to fight and get us killed?” he asked. “Mr. C has to take a shot, in the pitch dark. The only way he’ll make it at this time of night is if he has a light source. Are we burning the place down? Exactly how attached are you to her?”
He.
Was.
Horrified.
“You’re a lunatic. What part of ‘woman I love’ wasn’t clear enough? She’s been through plenty. No knocking her out, no shooting her, and
no burning anything down.”
Heath shrugged.
“Pussy.”
Dimitri would have laughed had it not been so damn dire. He knew Heath was right. Greyson, or any sniper for that matter, needed a clear shot. There were trees, and there was now five percent light.
That was it.
The odds were not going to be good.
This was going to be a ‘hail Mary’ pass if he ever saw one. Their fate was in Greyson’s hands. Dimitri really hoped the man hadn’t exaggerated what he’d done in the military. If he had, it was likely Poppy was dead.
Then, so was Dimitri.
“I’ll go in,” Dimitri stated. “I’ll go in through a window. Can you give me some cover? Maybe toss a rock at the door and make some noise to draw her to the front of the cabin?” Dimitri asked. “I need to get her toward the front so I can sneak in. I don’t want to get shot. She’s likely armed.”
Heath could do that.
What choice did they really have? It wasn’t like they could go to the door and knock. It might get them shot. The two men would escalate it if they knew they weren’t alone.
“On it.”
They broke off, and Dimitri stayed within Heath’s line of sight. He needed to so the man could make the distraction at just the right time.
At the bedroom window, he signaled Heath. It was all clear inside, and he could pop the lock.
It didn’t take long.
Dimitri heard the sound of three rocks hitting the front of the cabin.
He moved fast.
It was time to end this.
NOW.
And before Poppy got hurt.
Inside, she was sitting on the couch and reading a book. It was quiet outside the small cabin, and that was one of the reasons Poppy had headed toward the woods.
She loved it there.
There was nothing better than being in the middle of nowhere, with no people around.
She could enjoy the silence and feel safe.
In a tent, she’d worry about wildlife, but in a cabin, with a locked door, she’d be perfectly safe.
She did have a gun.
Bears were pesky food hunters, and now that it was going into hibernation season, she didn’t want to share her limited rations with a hungry bear. That would mean hiking down, hitting town, and coming back.
That was too stressful for her.
Out in the world, Poppy felt like there were eyes on her. She could feel the creepy feeling of someone watching her, and she didn’t like it.
Was it paranoia?
Yes.
Was it needed?
Absolutely.
It was hard not to be scared. After all, she’d been raped by a man who killed her mother and sister. She’d been violated in her own home. After the hospital, she knew Jeffrey Raye would come for her.
She knew it.
So, she would hide as long as she could, and regain her strength and tenacity.
As she flipped the page of her book, she heard the sound of something hitting the front porch of the cabin. They were so loud in the silence of the twilight.
Poppy actually jumped.
Crossing the room, she peeked out of the window. On the front porch, she saw three rocks.
What?
How?
That freaked her out.
They weren’t there before, and she was nowhere near where rocks could fall and land under a covered porch. Unless birds were now throwing them at her, she had a problem.
Moving fast, she stayed away from the windows to stay safe. There was no doubt what was going on. That dormant cop instinct kicked in along with the need to survive.
Someone was out there watching her. She’d been found. There was no other rationale.
Poppy’s heart pounded in her chest and fight or flight kicked in.
She needed to escape.
She needed to get out of there.
Her go-bag was in the room, ready to be grabbed at any moment. All she needed was her boots beside her bed.
Racing into the room, she didn’t get two feet inside the door when she was grabbed and forced against the wall.
She began screaming and fighting for her life. It was like the whole rape all over again.
Only this time, she’d rather die.
It wasn’t easy, but Dimitri struggled to contain Poppy. She was hopped up on adrenaline and fear. He had to worry about her feet getting him in the balls, her nails to the eyes, and her gun.
Regretfully, he had no choice.
He slammed her into the wall.
Finally, she was trapped.
“Babochka,” he hissed in her ear, knowing that would register quicker. “It’s me,” he added.
She stopped struggling.
“Dimitri?” she whispered, hope filling her.
“Yes, we have two gunmen outside this cabin ready to kill you. Someone put a hit out on you,” he said, keeping them away from the window. Until they figured out if it was Lipton or Raye, it didn’t matter.
Dimitri had to keep her focused. As of that moment, her screaming might have alerted someone.
Her heart thumped.
“He’s going to kill me yet,” she whispered and began crying.
They both knew who she meant.
Jeffrey Raye.
Something staggered Dimitri. This was not the Poppy he knew.
This was not the tough cop he’d watched face down a man who was trying to destroy her. She’d been damaged.
“We have to get you out of here,” he said, knowing that the window was the best way out.
Until he saw movement out there.
Well, fuck.
This was exactly what he didn’t want to happen, and it looked like they were going with extraction plan B.
Setting her free, Dimitri grabbed her boots and her hand. Then he pulled her into the main part of the house where a bullet couldn’t go through one of the wood logs.
He noticed how frail she looked.
Poppy had lost a good chunk of weight, and her ass. Gone were the sexy womanly curves, and she looked like…a skeleton.
“I’ll get you out of here.”
She had never been so happy to see him in all of her life. In that minute, she noticed that he, too, looked exhausted and weighed down by what she’d done.
“I’m sorry, Dimitri,” she whispered. “I’m sorry.”
This was NOT the time.
“We’ll discuss that later. Now we have to…”
He didn’t get to finish.
The door to the cabin crashed in, and there stood a man he recognized.
It was Claude Black.
Dimitri moved in front of her.
“Drop it, Dimitri,” he stated. “Mr. Raye said you’d come here for her. You’re part of the problem. That’s why you’re contracted to die too.”
Well, fuck.
No one ferreted that out before they made this plan. Well, at least they knew for sure who had hired him. It looked like this might not be about the whole ‘bodies in a bag’ thing after all.
“You can’t have her,” Dimitri stated. “She’s mine, and we are walking out of here.”
Claude laughed.
“Maybe that was lost in translation,” he stated. “Maybe you didn’t understand what I said. Drop the gun, or I’ll have my associate take a shot.”
Here was the issue with doing this at night in the woods. They couldn’t be sure where the other guy was or who, exactly, was outside the cabin?
Was someone in a sniper’s nest?
Dimitri had to trust his team.
He dropped the gun onto the couch but kept his body in front of Poppy—just in case.
The second the gun had left his fingers, Claude Black took the shot. He fired one time, hitting Dimitri in the chest. The impact caught them off guard, and Dimitri flew backward and to the ground.
Poppy screamed.
“Oh, you’re a pretty one,” he said. “I’m going to enjoy this,” Claude offered.
She backed away but didn’t move toward Dimitri. The gun was pointed at her.
“Let’s have a good time. Mr. Raye said I could fuck you stupid and have some fun.”
She couldn’t let that happen.
Poppy needed to protect herself and see if Dimitri was dead. He wasn’t moving.
As Claude Black went to close the door, there was another shot.
This time, it didn’t hit Poppy.
Instead, Claude’s head exploded.
Poppy dropped down and crawled toward Dimitri to check on him. When she touched his chest, she found his body armor. Well, thank freaking god for that.
He moaned.
Heath came hustling into the cabin, slamming the door behind them to offer some protection.
Poppy grabbed a gun and he slid to a stop.
“Woah! It’s me!” he stated.
She lowered it the second she recognized the man who worked for Greyson Croft.
“We have to get down,” he stated, hitting the lights. He crawled across the floor.
“Is he bleeding?” Heath asked.
“No, I think he hit his head when he went down. I don’t feel any blood,” she stated, pulling up his shirt. In the faint moonlight, they could see the bullet embedded in the military grade body armor.
“The last guy is going to come for the house,” Heath stated. “That person is going to think that shot came from in here,” he said, pointing at the dead assassin. “We need to wait for it.”
Poppy didn’t understand.
“What are we waiting for? We’re trapped in here. We’re sitting ducks.”
Dimitri began waking up.
It was clear that she thought it was just him and Dimitri trying to save her. Well, she was in for a surprise.
“Greyson is out in the trees. He’ll keep watch until the guy makes an appearance.”
That didn’t offer her much reassurance.
“He’s a freaking rich guy,” she stated. “You couldn’t bring the Marines?”
He stared at her.
“Listen up, sweetheart. I’m going to say this with love and truth. If you didn’t run like a child, we wouldn’t be in this mess,” Heath stated.
She stared at him in surprise.
“I’m all about being nice, but this is a shitfest. I’m sorry the man hurt you. I’m sorry you were violated, and we tried to stop it, but you ran, and this is what happens when you play stupid games. You get stupid prizes.”
No Justice_A Croft Mob Family Book Page 17
