by Anthology
“I’ve got this,” Joaquin murmured.
The stranger released him, stood, and focused on checking his weapons, “Do it before he takes your phone then delete it when you see it sent.”
Casually, Joaquin took out his phone and shot Marianna the text, hoping like hell she wouldn’t ignore it. Once he got confirmation it successfully went through, he deleted the message.
“Garza! What the fuck’s taking you so long?”
“Good luck, man,” Joaquin said as he walked off.
* * *
The Bluetooth application announced an incoming message over the speaker:
Text Message from Joaquin Garza: Some guy named Val said to tell Mac Val red wing. Don’t ignore, pass it on. Urgent.
“What the fuck?” she said aloud.
Reply to Joaquin Garza: What the fuck? Send now?
“Shit!” she muttered under her breath. “Delete that. Replay last message from Joaquin Garza.”
The Bluetooth app replayed the message and she kept driving, deciding to ignore the message; it had to be some kind of mistake. The app was repeating it all wrong because it didn’t make sense. And who in the hell was Val? As she tried to piece the message together it suddenly hit her just how Mac and this Val were connected. She made a beeline for a McDonald’s right before her turnoff to the freeway that would take her to the south harbor area. As she pulled out her phone, she read the text for herself. There was no mistake. Val, Mac and the message red wing were all there. How in the hell had Joaquin come into contact with… Lars?
If Lars had given Joaquin this message then something was very wrong. But how? She shot a text message to Mac then pulled back into traffic. As she got on to the entrance ramp of the freeway, her phone rang.
Incoming call from Mac, the app announced
“Answer call.”
“Marie? Where’s Val?”
“What the hell kind of code did he send you?”
“Where the fuck is he?”
“I don’t know. He left early this morning and I haven’t seen him since. And by the way, that son of a bitch has some explaining to do. I—”
“Stop fucking around. Val’s in trouble. He’s in some deep shit right now, so what did he tell you before he left?”
“All he said was he’d call me on his way back. Mac did you know—”
“Where are you?”
Marianna hesitated, “I’m going to meet an old friend.”
“The hell you are! Turn around and come back. Lars is warning us. There’s danger and he needs help,”
In the background, she could hear Mac shouting orders as he barked at her over the phone. The dire straits of Lars’ situation and the sense of imminent danger hit her like a tidal wave. Her stomach tightened into a knot, and her mouth went suddenly dry. There was no way in hell she was turning back now. She had to get to Joaquin and maybe even Lars if possible. Lars being in danger almost made her panic. She pressed the accelerator harder. South harbor was only a few minutes away. All sorts of scenarios played out in her head, and they all ended with Lars lying in a pool of blood on the pavement, and somehow she knew the Black Widow was at the root of it all—again.
To lose a second love to the Black Widow choked off her breathing.
“Mac, I’ve gotta go,” she said as the port district came into view.
“No! Marie! Don’t—”
Ending the call, she glanced at her GPS. Four minutes and less than a mile to her destination.
“Hang on, Lars. Please, baby, hang on.”
* * *
“Where is she?” Jimena demanded as she stormed through the building. “She was supposed to be here,”
“She’ll be here, don’t worry. I got confirmation from Ghost, and you’ll be here to watch it all,” Her companion said.
Jimena pulled out a pearl-handled .38 Special from her bag. “I just might do it and save some money.”
A loud shot rang out and hit the concrete floor near her. The impact of the bullet so near caused tiny chunks to spray her legs.
“Hey! Pendejo! What the hell do you think you’re doing? I could get hurt!” she yelled.
“Maybe we shouldn’t make him mad.”
“I’m the one paying! But okay, I’ll be cool.”
The pair made their way to the table and took a seat. The very same table where he’d prepared for this meeting, one last mission. He recalled a mission he and Mac had done in Afghanistan, operation Red Wings II. They’d gone in to recover the dead Navy SEALs and Army Spec Ops pilots that had died three weeks before. They’d also recovered a lone survivor, a Navy SEAL who’d been helped by Afghanis friendly to coalition forces. It had been a hollow victory; good men had died only for the enemy to retake the territory not even a month later. Red Wing had become a distress call reserved for the most urgent of situations for the surviving spec ops fighters. He prayed that Mac had convinced Marianna to turn around. He glanced at his watch. He still had ten minutes before he would pull the trigger and then finally be done with his career in special operations. A picture of Marianna flashed into his memory and brought a slight grin to his face.
Focus, dumbass. He adjusted himself and looked through into the scope. The slight groan of the door to the back of the building made him move his sights to the area and wait. The pair sitting at the table heard it, too and stood. To his horror, Marianna slowly emerged from the shadows with a pistol in her hand, aiming as she walked forward.
“Fuck!” he whispered harshly.
Lars stood and quickly made his way down. Fuck timetables! He had to neutralize this situation as quickly as possible to save Marianna.
13
“Mira qué lindo. Just like he said it would happen.” Jimena said, smiling and with a certain degree of surprise in her voice.
Marianna swallowed hard, “Where is he?”
“Who? The man who called you here? He’s long gone with my money, the only person here is the man who’s going to kill you for ruining my business.” Jimena took out a cigarette, and the man with her rushed to light it. The pulse pounding in Marianna’s ears was making it hard to hear. “You’ve cost me a lot of money, mi hija.”
“Fuck your money and fuck you. I want to know where he is!”
Jimena took a long drag, and as she blew out the smoke, she pointed at Marianna. “Now you die,” She looked to someone behind Marianna, “End this once and for all.” Marianna heard heavy, ominous footsteps behind her but couldn’t turn around. The Black Widow smiled knowingly, “Like a rat in a trap.” Turning her gaze to the person beyond Marianna, she said, “I’m done talking, kill this bitch!”
Someone grabbed Marianna, disarmed her, and pressed her weapon to her head. When she looked down, her heart skipped a beat, and all of the blood in her body drained to her feet. She’d caught a glimpse of her captor’s forearm partially hidden by a rolled up sleeve. The marking was one of a kind, and one she’d traced her fingers over it so many times as he held her close. Her body went ice cold at the implication of what had just happened to her.
“Hello sweetheart,” a deep voice rumbled in her ear. “I tried to tell you this would end badly.”
The gentle, quiet, voice that had conveyed security and healing, and had coaxed her into the coils of the Shibari ropes was gone. Now it was devoid of emotion and was taunting. The shock of such a betrayal was incomprehensible, so much so she felt as if this was a horrible dream, and at any moment, she’d wake to him holding her, gently urging her to wake.
Slowly, his hand crept over her chest and around her throat. The movement caused her to forget for a second that she’d been his prey, and he’d been toying with her all along. The familiar touch did something to her, reminded her of the reverent way he’d take his time tying her. The way he held her always made her close her eyes and give in to the bliss of his soft, gentle touch.
“Listen to me and do exactly as I say.” The warmth of his breath next to her ear sent a cold chill down her spine. With everything happening
as fast as it was, she almost didn’t hear him but his low commanding voice compelled her to pause and listen.
When he spoke, he touched her the way he did when he had her naked, tied, and blindfolded. His soft, firm voice made her focus and pay attention to his next command. Just as then, he’d stripped her of anything familiar and rendered her helpless. A small part of her refused to believe he’d been so calculating and callous, but the cold investigator in her shut the foolish notion down. She’d never taken anything at face value and trusting Lars had been a mistake that would cost her her life. She’d been blinded by his sensitivity and strength; he’d made her believe he needed her just as much as she needed him. He squeezed her throat making her stiffen.
“Trust me, Marie,” he murmured so only she could hear.
He’d never hurt you; he loves you. Trust and believe. The childlike trust that Lars had drawn out of her fought to be heard. Something deep inside awoke and responded to his plea for trust. Her psyche listened just as it had when she’d been helpless to do anything but listen.
He’d left her no choice. She had to trust him one last time.
His grip on her throat slackened, and as in tune as she was to his touch, she believed for a split second she was safe again. Deciding to grab the lifeline he’d just thrown her, she hoped like hell he intended to lead her out of darkness, and it wouldn’t bite her in the ass.
“When I let you go, run. No matter what you hear, run the same way you came in and don’t look back. Do you understand me?”
Her instincts told her not leave him, and she tried to tell him she wanted to stay. She’d come here to save him because she loved him and didn’t want him hurt or worse. Instead, the words got stuck in her throat and all she could manage was a croak. “Lars—”
With a powerful toss, he spun her out of his arms and towards the door. She heard Jimena scream and the action of several things happening at once but even in all the chaos she heard his voice loud and clear,
“Run! NOW! ”
Not thinking twice, she took off running as fast as she could. She heard shots ring out, and the deafening bang gave her feet wings. She made it to the end of the building and turned the corner, where she ran into what seemed like a brick wall. She got tangled in a strong grasp, and she fought and kicked at whoever the hell was now blocking her escape.
“Marie! Ow! Stop fighting. It’s me! Mac!”
“Mac? Lars—” She tried to frame the words in her terrified state. The Black Widow would never forgive him, and if Lars didn’t get some help soon, he’d end up dead, just like Luc. Desperately, she fought to catch her breath to explain his dire situation and control the violent shaking that had taken over her body.
“Where?” Mac roared as he shook her.
“There…” She pointed toward the building from where she’d escaped.
“Keep her safe,” Mac said handing her over to one of the men in black with him, “Todd, Ray, take the back. Mike, Jerry, let’s take the front.”
* * *
Lars took the cup Mac handed him and waited while Mac took a seat behind the desk. This had been the longest night of his life. He was exhausted and emotionally drained. Mac took a sip and looked at him in that this better be fucking good way he did when he was Lars’ platoon leader.
“Val, I’m trying real hard not to judge right now because I trust you. Can you please tell me what happened?”
“No. I can’t.”
“You’re fucking with my family, so I’m giving you five seconds to tell me why you set Marie up the way you did.”
“Mac, don’t push. You don’t have a need to know.”
“Stop that sneaky shit. Ain’t no one listening right now.”
Lars took a drink and snorted, “You know better than that. Someone’s always listening.”
Mac cocked his head. “I thought you said you were retired?”
“I never said that, you did.”
Mac picked up his handgun and pointed it at Lars. “Motherfucker, Marianna is my family, and I take it real personal when someone puts a gun to her head. I let you into my home, my business, and I trusted you with Marie. You’d better come up with something pretty fucking quick.”
“Shoot me, Mac. You’d be doing me a favor.”
His future was very uncertain at this point. Too many witnesses to a deep black operation, and his commander had disappeared with the bodies, and who knew what other evidence of his change in the plan.
“I might, but I ain’t killing you, not yet anyway.”
Lars took a deep breath and exhaled. He took out his duty and personal cell phones, and dismantled them. Mac took out his and did the same. Lars set his cup down and motioned to Mac to stand. He walked over to the desk and unplugged the landline phone as well as the computer on the desk. He’d shielded this room when he first took over managing the club so he could be sure it was relatively private when he talked to his handler. If Jones kept his word, Lars would be officially retired from government service in three weeks. It was enough to be debriefed from this last mission and process out of the military.
“Now what the fuck is this all about?”
Lars resumed his stance and picked up his cup of coffee. “When I got back from my last tour in Afghanistan, I had orders to Langley waiting for me. I reported in and was told that I would be on a special surveillance op until further notice. Six months ago, I got three kill orders, one for the woman you found dead in that building, and the other two were for her sons. The surveillance team I was assigned to found out that woman had put out a contract on a reporter from Austin. They were able to intercept and convinced one of her contacts to help her set up the hit.” Mac’s features darkened with dangerous anger but he remained silent. “That was when I got tapped. I was the hit man. They wanted their tango bad, so they told me if this reporter got in the way then I had permission to get her… out of the way.” Mac closed his eyes. “When I figured out who she was, I came here. I was only planning to be here until I figured out what Marianna really meant to you and Dessie. When I found out, I asked Randy Jones to tip off the DEA agent working with her so she would stop. I didn’t know Jones would use her for bait. When I found that out, I tipped you off. The last thing I wanted was for her to get hurt. I didn’t intend for you to find out why I was really here, and I sure as hell never planned on getting involved with her.”
Mac leaned back in his chair and set his cup down. “Well you did.” He exhaled and ran his fingers through his salt and pepper hair. “How do you plan on explaining this to her?”
Lars closed his eyes, threw back his head, and blew out a lungful of air. “I don’t know.”
“Well you’d damn well better come up with a plan because I’m sure she has a shit ton of questions you can’t answer. Do you have any idea what kind of damage that’ll do?” Lars shifted his gaze to his feet, “I know you well enough to know that Marie wasn’t your dominant, so stepping into the Shibari room with you required a huge leap of faith on her part. It also required the kind trust you have to have when you’re in a firefight, you’ve got to know your battle buddy’s gonna have your six and you have to have his.” Mac paused and Lars was sure it was to let the gravity of what he was saying sink in. When Mac spoke again his voice was cold and hard. “That’s the level of trust you’ve violated with the lying you’ve done. This is almost as bad as Luc dying,” Mac shook his head, “in some ways it’s worse.”
When Lars got a glimpse of the hurt in her eyes before she ran away, his heart sank. He knew he’d done some damage but as Mac described the extent of it, it made Lars dizzy and sick.
“All right, I get it—“
“No, I don’t think you do. You need to talk to her, but whatever else you do, you need to try and make this right.”
After the way Mac had laid things out for him, he seriously doubted Marianna would consent to be alone in the same room with him, much less speak to him. And how the hell would he explain? This was something he couldn’t talk about
. The only reason he tried to explain to Mac was because Mac knew how to keep a secret. This mission was beyond top secret and would get him put in a dark hole if anyone uttered a word about it. Nevertheless, he had to find a way to make her understand.
The drive to Marianna’s condo seemed like the longest in his memory. He gave serious thought to what he would say and how he would explain. As he got closer, he felt he had a handle on his explanation, which made him feel at least somewhat better. When he arrived, he noticed her car wasn’t there. He was at a loss as to what to do. Should he go looking for her? Should he let himself in or should he just wait outside? He had a key so he went inside.
When he reached the door and pushed the key into the lock, he suddenly felt lost, as if he’d just been dropped from the sky into the wrong location with the wrong coordinates. He went into the kitchen and turned on the light. The bright LED lights made him blink a couple of times and reach for the less bright light over the stove. He pulled out a beer from the fridge and stood in the dim kitchen. It wasn’t very long before he heard the door open. He slowly walked out toward the sound of her steps. It took only a few steps to meet Marianna. He watched a range of emotions come over her—relief, fear, hurt, and then anger as she rushed toward him.
“You son-of-a-bitch!” she snapped as she lifted her hand. He caught her wrist and stopped her before she made contact.
“Marianna, let me explain.”
“Explain! What the fuck do you plan on explaining? You tried to kill me!” She tried to jerk herself away, but he held on, knowing how unpredictable she could be.
He responded more calmly then he felt. “No, I didn’t. Listen to—”
She cut him off. “You knew that woman! And you knew how I felt about her! There is nothing to explain. You two were in this together!”
“That’s not true—”
“You lied to me! You betrayed me! Get the fuck out! ” She screamed as she tried to pull herself away.
