Hot Extraction: SEALs, Marines, and Infantry - A Military Romance Boxed Set

by Kathryn Thomas

  “Reckon that’s the cartel?” Leo asked.

  “Why else would anyone go down there?” Matt said.

  Leo shrugged. Longdraw was one of the numerous dirt roads in the area that weaved in and around the canyons but ultimately went nowhere except to abandoned mines or watering tanks for cattle.

  “Well lookee here, fella’s. Looks like we have some brothers,” Fitz said with false bravado just as the sound of Harley engines reached them. “Got three on bikes and the ‘burban.”

  “Not a setup then,” Matt said with a kick at the dirt that stirred a small cloud of dust.

  “How are we going to know which vehicle has the drugs?” Copper asked.

  “It will be one of the Fords. Why transfer them?” Leo said. “My guess is the Explorer, but we’ll follow which ever one doesn’t head back out in the desert.”

  While Fitz continued to watch Copper and Matt glanced at each other and shrugged. “Sounds like a plan,” Copper agreed.

  Dust cloud coming this way,” Fitz said less than ten minutes later.

  “Let’s roll, boys,” Leo said as he turned toward his Tahoe. “Tell us which way they go,” he added to Fitz.

  “You sure you don’t want me to come along?” Fitz asked, never pulling the field glasses down.

  “Not this time. There is no way we can get down there before they turn onto 170. We need to know which way to go to catch up. Besides, if we three can’t handle it, this whole plan is doomed.”

  As Fitz watched, the other three men piled into their trucks and SUV and roared away down the dirt road. They had at least a five minute drive to reach highway 170 and then another five minutes to get back to Longdraw. If the drugs turned East, they were going to have to haul ass to catch up with them.

  Leo was hammer down on 170 toward Longdraw when his phone rang. “Go Fitz.”

  “They went East, all six vehicles.”

  “Copy that, Fitz,” Leo said as he buried the throttle and the Tahoe surged ahead.

  “Kick their ass, Leo.”

  “Count on it,” he said before he tossed the phone into the passenger seat.

  It took them fifteen minutes of hard running before they caught the Explorer heading North on 118. Leo had to guess when they reached 118 without catching them, so he had turned North because that was the direction he had followed the drugs before and South went nowhere likely.

  They followed the explorer until they were about halfway to Alpine, and smack in the middle of the big nothing that is South Texas. Leo picked up his phone and dialed Copper. “You ready?”

  “Give the word.”

  “I’m going to get in front. Let Matt know. When I see one of you come up alongside, I’ll start slowing down.”

  “Copy that,” Copper said then hung up.

  Leo juiced the Tahoe, running down the Explorer and whipping around it to get in front. One nice thing about the big nothing, it made passing easy and reduced the risk of trying to stop the Explorer. He had just pulled back in the front of the Explorer when Copper’s F150 pulled out as if to pass, then began to pace the SUV. Leo began to brake, gently at first, then harder. As he watched the Explorer made several moves to escape, but Copper held his ground as the four slowed. When the driver of the Explorer realized he had no way out, he tried to bail out into the desert, but Matt floored the throttle and rammed him in the right rear, spinning the SUV out and sending it circling into brush.

  Leo skidded to a stop and jumped out of his Tahoe, pulling his mask on as he did and grabbing his gun. The three men approached the SUV their gun at the ready, moving in quickly and smoothly in a combat crouch. Leo fired a short burst into the two tires on his side to prevent the SUV from escaping and then three more into the windows, shattering them to make sure the driver knew they weren’t fucking around.

  Gigolo pointed a pistol at them, the gun dancing from one man to the other, but when none of them wavered, he held the gun pointed up, both hands visible in surrender. Without saying a word, Matt hauled Gigolo out of the SUV and drove him to the ground.

  “You’re making a big mistake!” Gigolo snarled before Matt hit him on the back of the head with his gun butt. Not hard enough to knock him out, but hard enough to make his point. While Matt watched Gigolo, and Copper watched for visitors, Leo opened the rear hatch. He had a rush of panic upon seeing the empty space, but then lifted the floor to reveal something other than the spare tire in the well. Picking up one of kilo bricks, Leo stepped from behind the SUV and whistled shrilly, holding the brick where Matt and Copper could see it. When Matt drove his gun butt into Gigolo’s head this time, Gigolo when face down in the dirt and was still. He stood over the man a moment before he kicked him solidly in the ribs. When Gigolo didn’t move, the shouldered his rifle and move to the back of the SUV.

  “Help me get this in the Tahoe before someone sees us,” Leo said as he trotted to his SUV with two bricks.

  As Matt tossed the bricks to Copper, who then tossed them on to Leo in easy underhand tosses, he stacked them in the floor of the passenger seat. If he got stopped with thirty kilos of cocaine in his truck he was fucked, but it was a risk he had to take. In less than five minutes after they boxed Gigolo in, Leo was slamming the door on his SUV.

  “Make sure that thing won’t run again,” he said as he hurried around the front of his truck. “And get his phone so he can’t call for help.”

  As Copper and Matt set to work making a mess of the Ford, Leo turned his truck for home, making damn sure he didn’t exceed the speed limit.

  Forty minutes later he pulled to a stop in Grande Heights. It was Sunday and nobody was working, which suited him fine. He couldn’t get the drugs out of his SUV fast enough. He crawled into the backhoe and started digging. In ten minutes he had uncovered the big concrete drain basin he had “borrowed” and buried the week before. Hooking onto the basin with a length of chain, he lifted the large concrete box out of the ground enough that he could toss the drugs into it. He then lowered it back into the hole and buried it again. Now it was just another patch of turned earth in a construction site. So much so that he once again marked the spot with a wooden stake so he could find it again.

  ***

  Jamie heard the garage door go up and was practically dancing in the kitchen when Leo stepped in. He seemed unhurt and upbeat and she relaxed a little. “How'd it go?”

  “Smooth. Gigolo is going to have a hell of a headache.”

  She released the breath she was holding and moved in to hold him. “Thank God. You were gone so long I was starting to worry. I was afraid to call because I didn’t want your phone to ring at a bad time.”

  “Nothing to worry about. We did it by Ron’s own book and gave him a taste of his own medicine. I have to tell you, it felt good to stick it to Ron.”

  “Good. I hope he gets everything he deserves.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll see to it he gets everything that is coming to him.”

  “I know you will. And I want to be there when you do.”

  “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said then smiled evilly.

  ***

  Over the next few weeks they made two more hits on shipments. Jamie’s network of eyes and ears in the club ran deep and they had two more women openly join the effort to turn the club. The club was rife with conflict. At first Ron thought it was the Cuervo Cartel that was making a play for them, but that soon gave way to suspicion and accusations within the club when no one was killed. After the third hit Allen and TC joined the new cleaning crew, brought into the fold by their women.

  Their stories confirmed Matt’s, Copper’s and Fitz’s. Ron was out of control and suspicious of all those around him, making threats and isolating the rest of the club even farther. For all practical purposes the club was no longer functioning and all but the ten or eleven men that Ron had in his inner circle were staying in the club only out blind loyalty to Ron.

  The men try to convince Leo to found a new club, confident that the remaining members
would jump to the new club, but Leo was resolved. Founding another club would mean open warfare with Lima 6, and he didn’t want that.

  On the fourth intercept they jump Lima 6 and the cartel at the exchange point, four of the cleaning crew popping up out of the desert in Ghillie Suits and masks, killing the two cartel members and one of Lima six as they went for their guns, and then holding everyone else at gunpoint until the other two members could arrive.

  ***

  Later that evening Leo’s phone rings while he is standing guard in He’s Not Here. “Leo,” he said after he read the display.

  “I just got back from an all hands meeting of the club,” Matt’s cheerful voice said, “and guess who is coming to dinner?”

  Leo couldn’t help but chuckle. “Who?”

  “The club is being paid a visit by the Prieto Cartel tomorrow. Seems they are disturbed by recent events.”

  “That’s a real shame,” Leo said with a huge grin.

  “Yeah. I think Ron has some ‘splainin’ to do.”

  “Good for him. I—” Leo paused as the door opened and Lundergrund walked in. “I gotta go. I’ll call you back later,” he said before he killed the call and pocketed the phone.

  “Back again? Who did you bring this time, the dog catcher?” Leo asked as he took her arm and escorted her out to the parking lot so she and Jamie wouldn’t tangle again.

  “This is your last chance to get out of this with your ass in one piece,” she snarled as she shook his hand off. “The Prieto Cartel is going to be paying a visit to Lima 6 and I am going to take them down.”

  “So what do you need me for?”

  He watched her fume a moment. “I don’t know when or where.”

  “Ah! So what you are saying is, this is my last chance to save your ass? What’s the matter, Lundergrund? DEA wanting you to pull another rabbit out of hat like you did with Carlos?”

  “Goddamnit, Leo! This isn’t some stupid fucking game we’re playing here.”

  “No, no it’s not. But you come in here, close down Jamie’s bar with bullshit accusations, roust me around and make threats. So tell me again why I should want to help you?”

  Lundergrund pursed her lips. “Because you and I want the same thing. We want to stop the flow of drug into the US.” She paused a moment, then continued. “Look, DEA and Border Patrol have known all along what Lima 6 was doing. We also know the club has turned and is helping run the drugs. But we are spread too thin to be effective. To be honest, DEA looked the other way when you were hijacking the drug shipments into the country.”

  “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

  “No. Of course you don’t. But the fact is, we let you do what you were doing because, well, you were doing what we couldn’t. But then something happened and Lima 6 turned. I told the DEA that I could turn you, and the club. But you got tossed out on your ass. Now, you’re just part of the problem. It would be so much easier if you would just tell me what you know. I know you still have contacts in the club. I know about those little confabs you have been holding with Copper, Fitz and those other two. Let me help you take down Ron and the rest of Lima 6. Tell me when the meet is scheduled and I can bag them all at once. No one will know it was you that informed.”

  Leo considered the offer. It was tempting, but he didn’t trust Lundergrund to not shiv him and the rest of the guys if it got her what she wanted. “And if I refuse?”

  “I will take you down with the rest of the club. Then who will take care of Jamie? Her brother is dead, her dad barely knows her, and you will be in jail pulling twenty to life for murder and transportation of drugs. I like you Leo! I’m trying to help you here!”

  “Seems to me if you could do all this, we wouldn’t be standing here having this conversation.”

  “Make no mistake, Leo. Having your help will make my job easier, and I will get my bust sooner. But I am building my case now. Eventually I will have enough evidence to put you and the rest of your gang away for a very long time. Think about it.”

  Leo smiled. “Sorry, officer Lundergrund. I would like to help, but I really don’t know what you are talking about.”

  Kary Lundergrund stared at Leo for several long seconds. “You may be a good looking guy, Leo, but you’re stupid as shit. Fine. Have it your way. But when I drop the hammer on you, I’m going to enjoy busting your balls.”

  “Hell hath no fury…” Leo began then trailed off with a smile.

  Lundergrund grinned back. “That’s right, and I suggest you remember that.” She turned to go. “Oh, and Leo,” she said as she turned back, “just so you know, I’m making this same offer to Ron Terrill. Maybe he will be a little more… cooperative. Especially if I tell him about the little meets you five have going. I wonder whatever you could be talking about?”

  Leo felt his blood run cold but he kept his face neutral. “Do what you have to, Lundergrund. I’m sure Ron is just as anxious to get in bed with the Feds as I am.”

  “Depends on what I offer him, don’t you think? I can be very persuasive.” Lundergrund give him another nasty smile then turned and swayed to her SUV.

  “What did that bitch want?” Jamie asked when Leo returned to the bar.

  “She’d desperate. She knows that the cartel has a meet coming up with the club. Something I found out just as she walked in. That means she has a mole in the club or the cartel. But she doesn’t know when or where and she offered a deal.”

  “So it’s the same old shit.”

  “Yeah… except this time she said she was going to offer Ron immunity for information.”

  “That bitch,” she hissed in fury. “It would be just like him to take it and screw the club.”

  “Yeah. That worries me too. We don’t have much time. But there’s more.”

  “More?”

  “Yeah. She knows about the cleaning crew. Or at least knows of it.”

  “Fuck,” she breathed.

  “Yeah. She said she is going to use it as a lever with Ron. Worse, that means we are under surveillance, at least part of the time, or our phones are tapped.” Leo paused a moment as he thought. “It’s probably our phones that are tapped. She thinks there are only five of us, not the six, so that means her information isn’t completely accurate, but it’s close enough. It’s a wonder the DEA hasn’t busted all our asses.”

  “That fucking bitch.”

  “Yeah. I used to think she was just a pain in the ass, but now… this is some serious shit. Send a text to the guys and tell them what is going on. I need to find out from Matt what we can do to get some secure communications again. We need to use some sort of code or something.”

  “Yeah, okay,” she said as she reached for her phone under the bar. They were so close, but events were beginning to spiral out of their control.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “You’re sure this is secure?” Leo asked as he played with the app Matt had installed on all their phones.

  “As secure as can be made. The NSA could probably crack it, but it would take time. It will be well beyond what that Lundergrund chick could do in any reasonable time.”

  “So we are down to text messages for exchanging information?” Copper asked. “That sucks. I can’t type worth shit.”

  “We’ve noticed,” Matt said with a perfectly straight face.

  Copper made a sarcastic smiley face as he give him the middle finger.

  “How did the meeting with the cartel go?” Leo asked. He was the odd man out and hadn’t heard because they didn’t trust their phones.

  “Don’t know,” Fitz said. “Everyone here is frozen out, Leo. But they didn’t kill Ron, so I guess he convinced them it was the Cuervo Cartel or something.”

  Leo drummed his fingers in the table. “I guess we are going to have to convince them otherwise.”

  “How?” Matt asked.

  “Next intercept, I think we are going to have to show the cartel who is actually hitting their drug train.”

  “How are you going to pr
event that from getting back to Ron?” Allen asked.

  “We won’t be able too. But if we hit the cartel after Lima 6 leaves with the drugs, then the information will get to him from the cartel. And who do you think they are going to believe? Their own people or Ron telling them he had nothing to do with it. Especially since he is already under suspicion?” Leo explained.

  “And the drugs?” Matt asked.

  Leo scrubbed at his face. “Copper, do you think we can handle it if we break into two teams? Four on the cartel and two on the drugs?”

  “I think that is stretching us too thin. We can barely stop the trucks with three. I don’t know how we would do it with two.”