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

by Kathryn Thomas

  “And the ones joining, they know what they are getting into? They know how dangerous it is going to be?”

  “No. Probably not. We couldn’t give them a lot of detail without giving away the game. I told them that I wasn’t going to be part of the cartel and was working on an idea to take the club back. That is all they know.”

  “We need to give them an out, Copper. Some of those guys have families.”

  “Yeah. I know. When we bring them all together, we’ll give them a taste and see who wants to bolt before we let them know this is your plan. They’re good guys, though. I think they will stick.”

  “If we have thirty guys, this might just work.”

  Copper smiled slightly. “It has too. This is the end game, Leo. We either end it here and now or the club is lost. You know the cartel isn’t going to let anyone just walk away. That’s not how they operate. So the only way out is your way. I think they will see that.”

  “Call a meet for Sunday afternoon. Have everyone that is in meet here. Let’s roll the dice and see what happens. The sooner we can get this done the better. I don’t want the cartel tightening their grip on the club and seducing anyone with piles of money.”

  “I’ll set it up.”

  “It probably would be best to send Kat away until this is all over. I’m going to try to send Jamie away.”

  “Good luck with that,” Copper said with a snort.

  “Yeah. She probably won’t go, but I have to try. In fact, it would be best if all the old ladies disappeared for a few days in case this goes badly.”

  “I’ll see what I can do. I don’t see Kat leaving. She doesn’t back down from anyone.”

  “Yeah. Jamie’s the same way. But we need to try. At the very least we should gather them all together where they can watch out for each other. Jamie has a gun, does Kat?”

  “Yeah. I suspect some of the others do as well.” Copper scratched the side of his face. “Maybe we can get them to go to Alpine for a day or two. Pitch it as a protection detail. What do you think?”

  “It’s worth a try.”

  ***

  “No! No fucking way!” Jamie shouted.

  “It’s just for a day or two and—” Leo began again.

  “I don’t give a shit! I’m not going! This is my town and my business, and I’m not fucking leaving! So you can just forget it!”

  “But Jamie, we can’t protect you and the rest of the women and do what we need to do.”

  “If a few of the women want to come stay at my place, they can, but I’m not leaving.”

  “You’ve done your part. There is nothing else you can do.”

  “Doesn’t matter. I’m not leaving you here and running off with my tail between my legs. We are in this together, so where you go, I go.”

  “Jamie! For once, be reasonable!”

  “Listen to me, Leo. I love you, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to Alpine while you are down here risking your life for the town. So unless you are going to leave behind enough guys to make sure I can’t leave, there is no way you can make me stay in Alpine.”

  Leo fumed. He couldn’t say he expected this conversation to go any different, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. “You know if we fail they will come for you?”

  “I know. But if you fail, you will be dead, and I can’t bear the thought of losing you too. So if they come for me, they had better be ready because I will kill every one of those mother-fuckers that I see until I am dead. I don’t want to go on without you. I just don’t. So the best way to protect me is to not fail. You had better come back to me, Leo.”

  He looked into her eyes a moment and read the hardness there. There would be no changing her mind. “Fuck. Fine. You can be a real pain in the ass sometimes, you know that?”

  “Yeah? Just wait until you see me pissed off.”

  Leo barked out a short laugh. “No. I don’t believe that is anything I want to see.”

  She softened slightly. “Smart man. Now that this is settled, how are we going to protect ourselves? The women and families I mean. How about we all gather at the bar when it goes down? It’s big enough to hold everyone and with the parking lot, we will know if anyone is coming before they are close enough to be a threat and we can be ready for them.”

  “There are a lot of windows,” Leo pointed out.

  “Yeah, which means it will be easy to see if anyone is coming. Think about it, Leo, how will they know we are all there? And if they come for just me, won’t they be in for a surprise welcome? I have my pistol and shotgun. Leave us a few more guns and we should be able to hold them off until the cops arrive.”

  “You’re sure you won’t go to Alpine, or maybe Fort Stockton and be with your dad?”

  “Nope.”

  “Shit. Okay. I will make the offer of the use of HNH when we meet Sunday. Hopefully most of the women will be smarter than you and get out of town.”

  Jamie grinned at him. “Uh-huh. Let me know how that goes. These are biker babes. They don’t run.”

  “Yeah,” Leo murmured. “I’ve noticed.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  “Okay, Copper, we’re all here,” Danny said. “How did you swing Jamie into letting us use her bar? I thought she hated us.”

  “Ron and his merry band of elves are still pretty high on her shit list, but she wants us to take Lima 6 back and she is willing to help.”

  “And Leo? He’s okay with this?”

  “Yeah, I think so. We’re still waiting on one more member. So while we wait, everyone knows why we’re here, right?”

  The assembled men rumble in understanding.

  “If anyone wants out, now is the time. Once this operation gets underway, there is no turning back. What we are going to tell you is going to put your lives at risk. Not only that, but the women of the club should get out of town. We can’t protect them from the cartel. If we fail, anyone close to us is likely to die. Have I made myself clear? This is certainly the most dangerous thing that we, as Lima 6 brothers, have ever done, likely the riskiest mission any of us have ever undertaken. So if you want out, there will be no hard feelings.”

  Copper waited and no one moved. “Okay. There is one more thing. I want you to hear him out. Leo!”

  Leo and Jamie stepped out from her office.

  “Him?” Danny shouted coming to his feet. “This is the other member? The fucker that sold us out to the feds and brought all this shit down on us?”

  Leo stopped a dozen paces away and waited to see which way the winds were going to blow.

  “Just hear him out!” Copper shouted, trying to get control of the situation.

  “I can’t believe you’re working with this asshole!” Greg roared. “Fuck this! I’m outta here.”

  “Shut the fuck up!” Copper roared over everyone. “And sit your ass down! You think this some kind of fucking game?”

  “He fucking sold us out to the feds! I should shoot the bastard now!” Greg said pulling his sidearm.

  Leo turned, shoving Jamie into a crouch to put his body between Greg and Jamie as Fitz grabbed Greg’s weapon and twisted it from his grip before putting it to his head. “You don’t want to do that,” Fitz hissed. “That goes for the rest of you fucks! I’ll kill the first mother-fucker that pulls another weapon!”

  Jamie pushed Leo off of her. She was about to kick the entire lot out of her bar, the ungrateful pricks, when Leo grabbed her arm and pulled her back, shaking his head no.

  “What the fuck is going on here, Copper?” Ripcord asked reasonably. “Why is he here?”

  “Because he is the one that is pulling our collective asses out of the fire. Just listen to what he has to say.”

  The room is quiet for a moment. “Well? What of it Leo? What have you got to say?” Ripcord asked.

  He pushed Jamie behind him, silently telling her to keep her distance. “First, I’m sorry Copper didn’t tell you that I would be here. I asked him to keep my name out of it.”

  “Because I wouldn’
t be here with some limp dick fed rat,” Greg snarled.

  “Yes. That’s the reason. But you’re wrong. I never sold the club out.”

  “You didn’t deal Carlos to the feds?” Greg challenged.

  “I did. But I didn’t roll over on you, and Carlos didn’t either. If he had, we would be having this conversation in jail. Carlos only passed information along to me. He didn’t know what we did with it, though he must have suspected.”

  “Why did you do it?” Ripcord asked.

  “Because it was the right thing to do.”

  “Bullshit! The club voted. Weren’t you always the one that said the votes were binding?” Greg sneered.

  “Yes. But we didn’t uphold our end of the bargain. We agreed to pull Carlos out when he called in exchange for information. That was our deal, and we reneged. But there is more. We didn’t even use him after we screwed him over. He knew nothing of the vote. Ron hadn’t even told him. Why? Because he didn’t need him. Carlos called me wanting to know why we hadn’t contacted him to pull him and his family out. I told him of the vote, that we needed his information. He didn’t know what I was talking about. That is when I became suspicious of Ron. If Carlos wasn’t feed him the intel, who was?”

  “So you pulled the snitch. Why did you give him to the feds?”

  “Because he needed protection. Him and his family. I didn’t trust the club to do it. So I dealt him to the feds for his immunity and a path to citizenship. It’s the deal we promised him in the beginning.”

  “You just decided to do this, on your own, without talking to the club? You’re no better than Ron,” Greg said. Several heads were nodding in agreement.

  “Yes, I did. Because I didn’t know who I could trust. The club was going bad. But I put some feelers out and I brought in several members of the club. Do you remember the cartel hit a few months ago? Those were my men, men that had joined me to try to take the club back. Men that saw where Lima 6 was going and didn’t want to have any part of it, just as I didn’t.”

  “What do you mean, ‘your men?’ Danny asked.

  “We were planning a coup. We were going to take the gavel from Ron and get Lima 6 out of the drug business.”

  “How many of those killed were ‘your men?’”

  “All of them.”

  “All of them?” Ripcord asked.

  “To a man, and not one man more.”

  “Wait a minute! Ron said it was a cartel hit. None of us did it.”

  “It was. I saw the mark myself. But doesn’t the surgical precision of the hit raise some interesting questions? How did the cartel know to hit? That suggests intel from within the club, doesn’t it? Did anyone here know we were moving against Ron?”

  Leo waited, but nobody answered. “Somehow Ron found out and called in the cartel.”

  The room is quiet for a moment. “Bullshit! I don’t believe it! You have any proof?” Greg demanded.

  “No. But that is why you are here. I have a plan to get that proof and get Lima 6 out of the drug business.”

  “How’s that?” Danny asked.

  “I’m going to kidnap The Investigator and make him a deal.”

  The room erupted into bedlam as Copper, Fitz and the rest of the cleaning crew tried to calm everyone down.

  “You’re crazy as a shit-house rat!” Greg shouted once some order was returned to the room. “You’ll get us all killed.”

  “Look what he has done with just us six,” Copper said. “He has practically crippled Lima 6’s ability to move drugs.”

  “By putting the crosshairs on us!” Greg shouted. “He doesn’t give a shit about anyone but himself.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong,” Copper said quietly. “He never gave up on us, even when he had every right to. He tried to tell us. He saw this coming before anyone else did. In the board room we didn’t back him up and look what it cost him, what it has cost us all. But he never gave up on the club. We gave up on him.”

  “But this is crazy as shit! If we hit the cartel head on, they will wipe us out!” Greg cried as he jumped to his feet again. “Can’t you see that?”

  “I’m in,” Fitz said quietly.

  “Same here,” Allen added a moment later.

  “I’m ashamed that I didn’t back him in the first cleaning crew, but I’m behind him now. I want to take Lima 6 back from the cartel, and Leo is the one that will show us how,” Matt said. He then got up and walked to Leo’s side, Fitz, Allen, TC and Copper following him.

  “We’re all in,” Copper said firmly. “What each of you has to decide is, are you part of the problem or part of the solution.”

  Jamie stepped out from behind the men. “Before you make up your minds, I want you to think about something. Think about how you want to be remembered. Do you want to be remembered as the group of men that saved the town not once, but twice, or do you want to be remembered as the bunch of thugs that brought the drug problem back to Vallecito de Grande? Some of you have wives and kids. Other just old ladies. Do you want them living and growing up in a dying town infested with drugs and violence. Some of you remember Vallecito when it was that town. But look at it now! We are not only alive, but thriving! You saved the town once. I’m asking you to help save it again. Be our heroes again.”

  Jamie motioned behind her to new cleaning crew. “These men, these six men, are like our gallant knights. They are brave, strong and loyal. Join them! Be our knights once more. Be respected and admired, not loathed and hated. Do the right thing. That’s all I ask. Just do the right thing.”

  She took a half-step back and snuggled into Leo’s side. It was all up to them now. If they weren’t swayed, all their lives were likely forfeit. But she had made her plea and hoped it would be enough.

  They waited and Leo broke out in a nervous sweat. Jamie had made a hell of speech, but it had fallen flat. No one else was going to join. “Don’t hurt Jamie. She has nothing—”

  “I’m in,” Danny said interrupting Leo, then rose to his feet and joined the six men.

  “Me too,” Ripcord said a moment later, also rising and walking over to now seven men.

  Several more rose as they voiced their support and moved to join Leo. There was a brief pause as the remaining men looked at each other and then rose as a group, save one.

  “What about it, Greg? Are you with us? We could use you,” Leo said softly.

  “Please, Greg. Be our knight again. Please,” Jamie said.

  Greg glared at Leo a moment then relaxed into a grin. “Fuck it. Why not? Lima 6 is so fucked up now, how can it get any worse?” He rose to his feet. “But if you are fucking us, I’ll kill you.”

  “I can’t allow you to do that,” Leo said as he broke into a grin. “I promised that to Matt when he joined. You can kill me after he does, though.”

  Copper gently pulled Jamie from Leo’s loose embrace. “That was quite a speech you gave there. Thank you. I think you were probably the reason they joined.” He pulled her a bit farther away so Leo couldn’t hear over all the well-wishing that was going on.

  “I want to tell you I’m sorry for everything. I should have been there for him, and I wasn’t.”

  She kissed him gently on the cheek. “But you’re here for him now. That’s what matters.” She looked over her shoulder to Leo and he looked as happy and upbeat as she had ever seen him. “Getting his club back is probably the best thing anyone could have done for him. So thank you, Rich. Thank you so very much.”

  “You’re quite the gal, Jamie. Leo’s a lucky man.”

  “Be sure you tell him that every chance you get,” she teased, but then sobered. “He’s a good man. I’m lucky to have him.”

  “Yes he is, and I promise you that I will kick him in the ass if he ever forgets what he has.”

  “I’m going to hold you to that,” she replied with a grin then stepped back from Copper. “Hey, you bunch of losers! It’s Sunday, but will anybody call the cops if I give you a beer on the house?”

  The chorus of
no’s nearly shook the ceiling and Jamie grinned in delight. She was breaking the law, and could lose her license because of it, but right now she didn’t care. Lima 6 was back in business and that called for a celebration.

  ***

  “You said you were going to bag the head cartel guy? How do you plan to do that?” Danny asked as the reconstituted Lima 6 sat around a group of tables and sipped their beers.

  “With this many men? Go straight at them. Find out when and where the cartel is going to be and hit them hard. Then we bag the HMFIC—”