Eduardo fought close by Saxton, throwing stars and knives at assailants. Several men were flanking him on the right, he had to move. Moving from his position left Saxton vulnerable. Each time he tried to fight his way back, gun fire held him down. Men were closing in on him from every side. Tonda, too was pinned down by gun fire. Fear gripped him, leaving a helpless feeling as he pulled his gun, shooting at as many as he could to keep them at bay. It did little good. Blakemore was surrounded. He wanted to call out to him, but that would only distract him. In a desperate attempt, Eduardo prepared himself to make a run for it to get to Saxton’s side.
The patio doors opened to a bare footed Odessa Blakemore, running out of the door, both guns firing, taking men down. “On your six baby,” she yelled doing a one handed cartwheel, shooting, tumbling, sliding and coming up next to him, standing back to back. In unison, they fired, mowing down everything in their path.
Saxton looked over his shoulder, seeing Eduardo sitting there watching them. He yelled out, “Eduardo, stop fooling around and get moving!”
Eduardo was too busy grinning as he watched the Blakemores in action. He gave a mock salute as he shot one man in the chest who ran up on him.
“Oops, so sorry. I wasn’t supposed to kill you. Too bad, you are dead now,” he said to the man’s limp body.
On the back porch, Uncle Dusty’s arm ached as he tried to cock the gun. He was too slow as a bandito climbed over the side of the back porch, hitting him in the head, knocking Dusty unconscious. Slowly, with ease, he made his way to the door, opening it to find a grey haired woman sitting at the kitchen table.
“Abuela, it is not safe for you here,” the bandit said to Grandma Patsy.
The site of the barrel of the gun coming up from under the table was too much of a surprise for him to react fast enough as she pulled the trigger, putting a bullet in his chest.
“It’s not too safe in here for you either asshole,” Grandma Patsy said.
“Ms. Patsy, get out of the kitchen,” Ryanne said reaching for her.
“I got one of them fuckers,” Grandma Patsy said.
“Good for you. Get moving old lady,” Ryanne yelled.
By the time she got Patsy to the other side of the kitchen, a dark haired man was also standing there, watching her. She watched in silence as he took a piece of fruit from the bowl on the sink, biting into, allowing the juices to dribble down his chin as if he had all the time in the world. She remembered him. Alberto...Albertos...Albratoss...Albertossy!!!!
“You are far lovelier than the last time I saw you. There is no knife for you to hold to my huevos this time, Señora Delgado. However, I can see why Eduardo changed our entire way of life so that he can spend his nights in comfort wallowing like an over fed pig between your legs,” the man said.
Ryanne still had not spoken.
“You wish to be silent this time, when the last time we met, you had so much to say. Showing off in front of the cartel with your fancy little tricks. No fancy tricks will save you this time. I am going to hurt you and like it. You do not wish to beg for your life?”
“My life is in no danger,” she responded.
“Really, I will have you on this floor, then gut you, leaving you splayed open to haunt Eduardo every time he closes his eyes. This way, he shall see, just like his last wife, how he failed you as well. Then I will take your daughter, raise her and allow my men to use her from the moment she gets her first buds on her chest,” the man said.
No reaction showed on Ryanne’s face as Yuńior came around the corner and stood next to her. She attempted to push the teen behind her.
“I will not stand behind a woman,” Yuńior said.
“Look at you, trying to sound brave like your father. I do have a few men who like young boys, maybe I will...,” Albertossy began. His words were halted by Yunior’s knife in his thigh.
The bandit raised his gun only to be met with another knife in his hand. The metal of the weapon clanked on the tile floor as the bandit fell to his knees. Yuńior threw another knife, then another, followed by a third. Slowly he walked over to the man.
“I am nothing like my father,” Yuńior said. “He would kill you quickly. I prefer to allow you to live with a very painful recovery so that you will have time to contemplate your stupidity. If you do survive the venom entering your blood stream, you will be forever indebted to me, for sparing your life. So you are correct, in that aspect. I am nothing like him.”
Ryanne stepped towards him, but Yuńior pointed for her to go through the door to a hiding place. A burly man bounced through the door, coming at her step son. The gun she’d taken away from Patsy was in her hand as she raised it, firing three shots, dead center, two shots to his chest and one to the man’s head. Yuńior looked at her impressed, but it was too late to stop the shot, which caught Jason in the stomach as he came around the corner, running to the kitchen from men chasing him through the patio double doors.
The bullet came from a bandito on the back porch. Ryanne fired at him, while Yuńior pulled a knife from the bleeding bandit on the floor, chucking it into the chest of the man chasing Jason. Ryanne wailed loudly at the sight of Jason bleeding on the floor bringing Dora from the room at the sound of her child’s cry. Two towels in hand, she came out twirling the fabric ready for a fight, only to find they were needed to stop the bleeding in Jason’s abdominal cavity.
“If I die, please make sure my hair looks good,” he said with a stiff smile.
The gun fire had slowed as Connard came through the back door. The look on his face at Jason bleeding on the floor crumpled him, as he tried to gather him in his arms.
“Call a doctor, something, help him. Jason, don’t you die on me,” Connard commanded him. “Don’t you die on me!” The tears running down his face as blood saturated the expensive white shirt, tailored pants and custom leather shoes. None of it mattered as the man he loved was bleeding out.
“Move,” Marianne shouted as she came around the corner with a doctor’s bag. She dropped to her knees beside Jason, pulling away the towels, observing the wound. “He shall live.”
Donning surgical gloves, she made quick work of checking the cavity for damaged organs. Marianna clamped off the bleed, stitched what she could in the few minutes available. “Get him out of here,” she yelled.
She yanked off the gloves, picked up two guns, heading out the back door, shooting and mowing down whatever was left standing. Outside, a helicopter flew overhead as men on repel lines lowered themselves to the ground. Marianne knew the colors. They were Castanza’s men.
The cavalry had arrived, but the battle was over.
Odessa charged through the double doors, “Kevin? Where is Kevin?” She asked looking about frantically.
“I’m here ‘Dessa,” he said.
“Carlos?” she called out.
“I’m here Mrs. Blakemore,” he said, coming in next.
Saxton came through the door next, followed by Big Sarge, and Bobby Ray. Groans could be heard from the back porch as Bobby Ray rushed outside to help his brother to his feet and bring him inside.
“Where is my Papa?” Yuńior asked, running out the door to be halted by the massive form of Miguelito Castanza.
Saxton raised his weapon, but Carlos put his hand on the barrel lowering it.
“Tío Alberto, donde es mi Papa?” Yuńior asked frantically looking over his Uncle’s shoulder out the back door.
“I am here Yuńior,” Eduardo answered coming through the front door.
Decorum be damned, the young man ran to his father, throwing his arms around him, in tears of relief. He held his son close, giving a light kiss to his head.
“Yuńior, compose yourself. You are the Fer de Lance, you strike often, but remain strong,” he told his son.
“I know Papa, I’m sorry,” he said. He stepped back, pulling his hands away which were covered in blood.
“Whose blood is this?” Yuńior asked, confused.
“Mine,” Eduardo said as he collapsed on the f
loor.
Chapter Eighteen – Who Presents this Child
Sunday Morning– Las Tierras
They all sat in the small church, witnessing the christening of Isabella Riesel Trodat Castanza Delgado. Wrapped, bandaged, butchered and bruised, each thankful to be alive, grateful for the blessing of young life, but pleased in the saving of old ones. Nuestra Señora de Las Verdes was an old church, but one which had served the villagers and the Delgado family since the 18th Century. Over the years, it had been expanded to include a school with a nursery. Today, it welcomed the newest Delgado to the church as her parents stood side by side.
Isabella cooed and kicked as the cool drops of water touched her forehead. Her godfather, Tondanamańco Velez Contońa Sergio stood next to her father smiling down at her. A bandage wrapped around his head from the bullet which had bounced from his thick skull. It broke the skin but did not pierce the bone. The impact of the bullet knocked Tonda to the ground, giving him a sizeable goose egg on the back of his head. Her father, bandage around his arm from the knife fight with an enthusiastic young man, had lost a great deal of blood, but passed out more so from lack of eating and low blow blood sugar.
Marianna Lupe Sergio Morales, stood next to Isabella’s mother. Her lip split, a front tooth missing and an ugly black eye, smiled down at the beautiful child as she agreed to serve as godmother. She and Ryanne had become good friends. Marianna even held Ryanne’s hand, dabbling a cool cloth to her forehead when she brought the baby into the world.
The remainder of Isabella’s family sat in the pews. Her grandparents, Kevin Sr. and Dora Trodat held each other as the drops touched her tiny forehead. Her aunt Odessa and Uncle Saxton, by marriage, held onto her cousins, remembering not too long ago when they two had witnessed the christening of Austin and Robbie Blakemore. Their grandparents were also present along with their great grandmother, Patsy Sterling.
Isabella will hear tales of this day for years to come from her Uncle Kevin Jr. and Uncle Carlos. Her big brother Yuńior, would miss most of the next two years of her life as he spent a year traveling incognito with Gunther, seeing the world. Gunther sat sulking in the corner pew of the church because he had been given the weekend off and missed all the action. She would hear stories as she grew up of the adventures of her big brother and Gunther who liked to fight.
Other stories would also be told of her brother Andres, who grew up to be a lady’s man, often doing everything their Papa told him not to do and staying in trouble. Her brother Micah, who had arrived with her great Uncle Miguelito, sat in the pews counting the grooves in all the columns while Angel napped comfortably in Yuńior’s arms.
It wasn’t the perfect family, but it was all that she had. Her mother would often tell her that is what love was about, acceptance. In her later years, she would also learn to understand the true meaning of clarification. Something her Uncle Kevin Jr was having trouble dealing with, especially after her father found out what he’d done to Julianna. That was another story.
Today, her only job was to look cute and drool. She was the connector. The one little person who tied all three families together. Born a Delgado, but first cousin to the Blakemores, and would be groomed to become The Lady of the Land. Mara’s daughter would grow up at her side, a cousin, who would be her best friend, and the one person who never left her side. A protector, trained by Marianna, to also be her body guard.
That too, is another story.
Chapter Nineteen – Home, Sweet Home
Monday Evening - Houston, The Busy B
Saxton Blakemore leaned back in the tub, holding Plucky, his favorite rubber duck as he soaked sore muscles in hot water laced with Epsom salts. Ironically, this time last week, he questioned what had happened to his swashbuckling life of danger for breakfast, bullets for lunch and covert ops for dinner.
“Screw that,” he said slipping further into the water. His nice quiet life was fine by him. The most exciting thing he accomplished around here was pulling an animal from a birth canal.
His hands rubbed across his taut abdomen, feeling the muscles, squeezing for fat. He’d lost more of the latter working on the ranch every day and the reduction of sneaking out for fatty greasy meals. Often he’d suggested his wife take some lessons with Ralph the Chef, and she refused. The good thing about this weekend, seeing her sister, she noticed how much Ryanne’s husband bragged about his wife’s cooking. He hoped it would inspire her to want to cook dinners for them in their kitchen for family meals as their children got older.
“Saxton, baby, are you okay in there?” Odessa called.
“Yep, be out in a minute,” he said.
“Take your time. Let me know if you need me to wash your back,” she said.
He grinned sheepishly. “No, but you can come wash my front,” he yelled back.
“How about I dry your back when you get out,” she retorted.
Splashing water was heard and he raised himself from the tub pulling the cord to release the chain, draining the water from the large soaking tub. Grabbing a towel, he entered the bedroom soaking wet the bubbles still clinging to his chest hairs.
“That sounded like a sexy invitation,” he said to her, coming at her fast.
Odessa clamored across the large bed, trying to escape, but he caught her by the arm, pulling her to him, collapsing on the bed. Love filled his heart as he gazed into her eyes, kissing her deeply. “I love you so much Odessa,” he said, choking up on the words.
“Saxton, are you okay?”
“No, there was a moment last week when I questioned being at home every day, running this ranch. Then on Saturday, when I was pinned down and they were all coming for me...Eduardo couldn’t get to me and I thought for a minute there that was going to be it,” he said. “Then you came for me, guns blazing, barefooted, pink panties showing as you did a one handed cartwheel laying down a suppressive fire. I swear I have never seen anything so absofuckinglutely sexy in my entire life. You came to save me.”
“I will come to save you every single damned time Saxton Blakemore, you are stuck with me,” she told him.
“That is something I can handle every day,” he said.
The children slept soundly as they lay on the bed, simply holding each other. Thoughts danced about her head as she recapped the weekend with her sister. She had learned so much, yet there were gaps. Who were the men who attacked Eduardo?
How did the Uncle know to show up with back up?
Was it a move by the cartel to remove Eduardo from power?
“Stop it,” Saxton said to her.
“What?” she tried to ask innocently.
“You are trying to calculate all the weird variables of the Uncle showing up with back up. The men in green camo, who sent them, is your sister safe, why did they come...and the rest. I will tell you why they came. Some men don’t want to walk in the light. They like the dark seedy underside and he doesn’t want to be a part of it. He took most of the businesses legit and some of them are trying to fight it. Most he’s kept under control but I feel bad for them.”
“Why are you feeling bad for those men?”
He snuggled closer to her, unfastening her pajama top. He said softly, “Because those who came for Eduardo, in his home, with his family, have embarrassed him. They also wounded him. He is like a little pissed off snake. He is going to keep striking until they kill him or he kills them.”
“That son of his is no joke either,” Odessa added.
“No he is not. At times you can see a kid in him, at other times you can see a hardened man, with spurts of compassion. I only hope he keeps it,” Saxton said.
“I do know what I would like you to keep,” she said.
“What is that Mrs. Blakemore?”
“Keep being badass,” she said with a giggle. “I never get tired of watching you mow down bad guys with both barrels blazing.”
“Yeah, this easily could have been my last time,” he said.
“It wasn’t. We live to fight another day.�
�
Saxton’s phone rang. He frowned trying to catch it before it woke the kids then his sexy time would be gone and he would have to wait. It had been a long weekend and he was happy to be home and decompress.
“Blakemore,” he said in a hushed tone in the line.
“Stop whispering in my ear Blakemore, I am not your brother or the turd burglar,” Eduardo said.
Saxton gnawed his lip. “What the hell do you want Eduardo?”
“A thought came to my head that I have played with for a little while. I think I have what is the word....ah yes, the jealousy,” Eduardo said.
“Jealous of what?” Saxton asked.
“You and Odessa, you went on vacation with Victorio. You went on a cruise in the Caribbean. I cannot remember the last time I went on vacation. I want to do this...,” Eduardo said.
Saxton sat straight up in the bed.
“I want to do the vacation. The holiday. I want to spend a week in the sun, spending money, shopping with Mrs. Blakemore, yadda, yadda, American nonsense stuff,” he said. “I won’t wear the tacky clothes though. I can’t do that because I am a bad muther....”
“Shut up! Just shut up. If you want to go on vacation—Then go,” Saxton said bounding to his feet.
“No, Blakemore. I am saying, we should go on holiday, the four of us, without the children. Adult fun time,” he said. “I have a yacht.”
“So does my Dad and I don’t use that either,” Saxton said.
A Weekend with the Blakemores (The Blakemore Files Book 8) Page 14
