Coastal Fury Boxset (1-3)

by Matt Lincoln

  Behind him, a figure of average height and build stepped down from the craft. The chopper’s side spotlight put them in silhouette, which prevented us from seeing more than the person’s outline. I got my phone out and turned the camera on, the right way this time. With a little digital zoom, I began to narrow in on the subject.

  Sudden gunfire from inside the building spooked my target, and they jumped back into the chopper. The craft shot into the sky, and the stocky goon stumbled out the door to yell at the sky. More gunfire spat out from the back, followed by shouts and more shots.

  I burst out from hiding and trained my gun on the guy out front.

  “Freeze,” I yelled. Most cliche thing ever, but it worked. “Not another step. Call your gang out.”

  Instead of following my orders, he shook his head and sprinted for the door.

  “Dammit,” Holm spat.

  We bolted for the door, but the suspect reached it first and got it shut when we were within feet of it. He got it in place and locked before we could do anything to stop him. The fight in the back had quieted.

  “Birn, Muñoz,” I called over my throat mic. I didn’t like that they’d gotten into it already without contacting me. “Do you copy?”

  My phone dinged, but I didn’t want to take either hand off my weapon. Behind me, Holm checked his and whispered over the mic so everyone on our team could hear.

  “It’s from Ramsey,” he told us. “‘Warrant online. Good hunting.’”

  A little late, but it’d cover our asses. Holm and I stormed the front door.

  19

  “Don’t you move!” I called into the dark interior. I turned on the flashlight mounted to my gun and, when no one shot at me, I peered around the door frame. “Let’s do this without getting anyone hurt.”

  All I saw was a dingy room with a rusty, industrial desk. I led in with my weapon ahead of me. Holm covered while I snuck over to the desk to check for surprises.

  “We’re getting activity near the back.” Birn’s tense voice came through my earpiece. “Are you in?”

  “We heard gunfire. What’s your status?”

  “Suspect went out for a smoke, spotted us. We got two suspects down and are going in.”

  “We just cleared the room in front,” I muttered. “At least four more.”

  There were two doors. I never liked Let’s Make a Deal, so I let Holm choose. He went to the door on the left, and I went to the one on the right. We turned the doors at the same time. Maybe it wasn’t the safest way to do things, but it was the quickest.

  “Mine’s locked,” Holm whispered.

  “Mine’s not.” I switched my light off and turned the knob.

  The door swung inward to a room with a dim, flickering light. I eased my weapon around the corner. A gun went off, and the bullet thunked through the wall above my head. A standoff was the last thing I wanted. I had to end it quickly, or it would end badly.

  My heart pounded in my ears as I took a knee. These paper walls wouldn’t stop a toddler’s fist, let alone a bullet. I aimed my pistol at the room’s ceiling. Two shots into the drop panels unsettled the bracing enough to bring half of it down. I took a deep breath, charged through the dust cloud, and bulldozed the closest goon. It was like hitting a tethered heavy bag at the gym. His weapon spun to the floor, and I moved back to hold my gun on him. Holm swooped in to pull a bead on the other suspect. Luci wasn’t in sight.

  “Where’s the girl?” I shouted.

  The guy I’d hit shook his head with a feral grin. He launched himself at me, and my bullet hit him in his right shoulder. Sadly, he was a leftie, and the hit barely slowed him down. He tackled me and tried to wrestle my gun away. I got my other hand free enough to deliver a punch to his side. It was weak because I didn’t have leverage, but it threw him off balance so that I was able to yank my other arm free of his pinion grip.

  A crash and grunts on the other side of the room suggested a similar tactic by Holm’s suspect, but I had to focus on my own welfare. My opponent was half a head taller and more muscular than when I was at my fittest. His fist connected with my jaw. I buried my fist into his solar plexus. He doubled over and fell toward me, but I rolled out from under and onto my feet.

  I thought I had him, but that hit knocked him too close to his handgun. He grabbed it and brought his weapon around to me. He fired one-handed, even as I put a bullet into his chest. The bastard dropped but still refused to give up the gun.

  “Drop it,” I ordered as I kept my gun trained on him. “We’ll get you to the hospital.”

  “Screw you.” His voice had lost its thunder, and blood bubbled from his mouth. “Go to hell.”

  He tried to lift the gun again, but he had no strength left. His eyes closed, and the blood stopped bubbling.

  Across the room, Holm had his guy restrained and was putting cuffs on him. The hired goon screamed and jerked away with only one wrist cuffed.

  “You killed my brother!”

  The Bajan’s eyes bulged. He screamed and yelled as he picked up everything he could reach and threw it at us.

  “Get a hold of yourself,” Holm yelled. “You don’t have to die with him. Tell us where to find the girl, and we’ll go easier on you.”

  “You killed my brother!” The goon screamed the four words louder and louder as he kept up his onslaught.

  We dodged empty cardboard boxes, reams of paper, maybe even a stapler or two. I didn’t want to shoot the guy, and I could see Holm didn’t either. Without his boss, he had no direction.

  “Kool-Man,” I tried. I prayed this was the right guy. “Hey, Kool-Man, listen.”

  At the sound of the name, he slowed. He blinked and shook his head. The room was almost clear of debris as his rampage died down, but then he spied something. Holm saw the pistol before I did, and he dove for it at the same second Kool-Man reached it. But the Bajan got to it first, and he pointed it at Holm.

  I didn’t have a choice, so I took the shot. Kool-Man’s head snapped back as the bullet exited out the back before the rest of his body crumpled.

  “Dammit!” I holstered my gun and rubbed my face as Muñoz and Birn crashed in through another cheap door. “We got these two. Did you see anything in the back?”

  Birn took a moment to take in the scene as Muñoz answered.

  “We took out two more in the back room.” She spat on the floor. “One of those cabrónes tried to knife me. I fed it back to him.”

  “The rest of the place is clear,” Birn reported. “Did you find Ramírez?”

  “Not yet,” I told him.

  “The locked door,” Holm pointed back the way we came. “We didn’t go in there.”

  I spun and ran out the door we’d come through. It was dead quiet, and I worried about what was behind that door. I kicked, and the latch gave on my first try. The door swung into a dark space. I felt along the wall for the light switch and flipped it on.

  Luci was trussed up and not moving other than the rise and fall of even breathing. I knelt next to her and removed the gag from her mouth.

  “Luci, it’s Agent Jackass,” I spoke as softly as I could above a whisper. “You’re safe now.”

  “Agent Jackass?” Holm echoed.

  I waved at him to shut up. Luci’s eyelids fluttered, and I backed away.

  “My friend Sylvia is here,” I told her. “Us guys are going to leave you alone if you want.”

  Muñoz knelt next to Luci and used a utility knife she’d found to cut the ropes. Luci blinked several times, but her eyes remained unfocused.

  “Emily?” Luci asked. “Quiero a Emily.”

  “Emily te está esperando,” Muñoz responded. “She’s at the hospital, Luci.”

  “She won’t go home until we bring you back,” I told her. “Did those men hurt you?”

  I expected Luci to flinch when she saw me, but she reached out instead.

  “I do not want to go back to that hospital,” she said. “Nowhere feels safe.”

  That sounded familiar.
Back when I helped Tessa Bleu hide from Cobra Jon’s lackeys, I took her to my houseboat. My official address was at a house I owned and rarely used, making the houseboat the ideal hiding spot. With Luci, however, I in no way expected her to accept such an offer. Not after all she’d been through. Unless…

  “Somebody call Director Ramsey to get things rolling on this scene,” I ordered. “I need to make a call to get Luci a safe space for the night.”

  As I dialed Emily, I realized hiding would be in her best interest also, given the threats made against her. We had no way of knowing whether Ramos had contacted the Trader or his proxy with Emily’s information. I hit “Send,” and she answered on the first ring.

  “Did you find her?” she demanded. “Is she okay?”

  “Yes, and yes.” I smiled at her audible sigh. “She’s shaken up and wants to see you.”

  “Of course. When will you be back to the hospital?”

  At that, I cleared my throat. “There are some safety concerns, and she’s refusing to return to the hospital. My place is more or less off the grid, but she needs to have someone there who makes her feel safe.”

  She didn’t answer for a moment. Tessa had jumped at the chance under different, but still dangerous, circumstances. Emily didn’t have that background, though, and I needed her trust.

  “Don’t you have safe houses or female agents?” she finally asked.

  “Normally, yes.” I stepped out of the building, away from the chatter around the scene. “But one of their people is a little too good with hacking computer systems. Our people are good, but I don’t want to risk it. Of all the people in the department, I’m the only one they won’t be able to find overnight, even if they do crack our files.”

  “Okay, okay,” she relented. “I need to get some things from my condo, and then I can meet you at your house.”

  “I’ll text you where to meet.” I had an idea, but I wasn’t sure how it’d play. “We have a female agent who’ll bring Luci, and the rest of us will be in shortly afterward.”

  “You people sure have connections,” Emily said. She sounded tired, and I worried that the day was catching up to her. “I’ll meet you there after I get some caffeine and my things. And don’t you dare call my dad to pick me up. I don’t like making him worry.”

  She ended the call, and I dialed a friend.

  “Mike’s Tropi—Oh, hey Ethan,” Mike answered. “Is everything alright? You’ve never called before.”

  “Yeah.” I rubbed the back of my head with my free hand. “Can I borrow you for a couple hours?”

  “Are there guns involved?” Damn, he sounded hopeful. “Or knives? I’m good with knives.”

  I laughed. “I’m afraid to ask, buddy, but yeah, there have been guns,” I looked toward Muñoz, “and knives tonight. We’re trying to keep a couple of witnesses safe.”

  “Say no more,” Mike told me. “How can I help?”

  We drafted a quick plan and called all parties involved.

  Between six fresh bodies and a repeat kidnapping victim, my case had gotten a whole lot messier.

  20

  Emily resented that a police officer was assigned to drive her to the condo she called home. Word was that Ethan arranged it to make sure nothing happened to her once she left the hospital.

  Other than her dad, Emily never relied on men to help her with anything. Not since the high school boyfriend who started out spoiling her and ended up using all the nice things he did as leverage when she didn’t want to go to bed with him. She’d won that argument, but he’d smeared her sterling reputation at school.

  Officer Pepper offered an umbrella after they pulled up outside the eight-unit building. Brief, summer showers tended to drench everything, so she accepted, if begrudgingly. Pepper shook off the umbrella and handed it to her as they went up the stairs to her second-story condo.

  “Just don’t shoot my cat,” she told Pepper as she handed him her key. “He’s an asshole and darts around like a maniac when I get home.”

  “Sounds like my kids.” Pepper chuckled. “Don’t worry. I’m sure everything’s fine.”

  Pepper unlocked the door and nudged it open. A light was on in the living room that Emily hadn’t used before leaving earlier that day. She froze and backed out the door. Had Smith’s people found her already? Pepper saw her face, and as he drew his gun, he waved her back out to the hall.

  Emily’s heart raced, and she felt like she was bracing against the door in Luci’s room again. Her eyes stung, but she refused to cry. This was her home, for God’s sake.

  “Hands in the air!” Pepper’s shouts rang out to the hall. “Hands in the air!”

  Emily knew she should wait, but she couldn’t. She ran inside to see who dared violate her home.

  “Emily!”

  She jumped and saw who was at the other end of Pepper’s barrel.

  “It’s my dad,” she told him. Her stomach lurched. “It’s my dad.”

  That was all she could manage to get out before she ran to the bathroom and threw up everything she had eaten in the past few hours. Somewhere outside the tiny room, Pepper spoke with her dad, and then her dad came in and sat on the edge of the tub. He pulled her hair back and into a ponytail to keep it out of her face, something he’d done for her with every tummy bug since she was little. And for a few hangovers after she’d grown up.

  Once her stomach settled, her dad passed her a cool, damp washcloth and rubbed her back until the shaking stopped.

  “Miss Meyer, the only other one here is a tabby cat,” Officer Pepper reported at last. “Mr. Meyer, I am so sorry about what happened.”

  “Better that than missing a threat,” her dad said. “I won’t tell anyone if you don’t.”

  “I appreciate that, sir, but I still have to write a report.” Pepper tapped the recording device that was attached to his uniform. “We take accountability seriously.”

  Officer Pepper typed out the report on his laptop while Emily told her dad all that had occurred at the hospital. His face got so pale she feared he might pass out.

  “Maybe you shouldn’t go to Barbados, Em.” He took her hands into his. “You’re all the family I have left. You’re my baby. I don’t think I could live in a world without you in it.”

  Emily blinked back a fresh round of tears.

  “I have to go, Dad. Nowhere is safe, so Luci and I may as well be with the best people possible, and that’s the MBLIS team.”

  “I wish I never told Agent Marston to talk to you,” he told her. “Your mom always told me I shouldn’t meddle in other people’s affairs.”

  Emily gave him a hug. “You are who you are, and I am who I am. Nobody will change that, and I don’t want them to.”

  “I may as well drive you to this place where you’re meeting the agents,” her dad said. “I’ll take the bus to the hospital tomorrow and pick up your car.”

  “I’m sorry, sir, but I really need to stick with her. If you don’t mind riding in the back of my car, I’ll bring you back after we drop her off.”

  Her dad’s lopsided grin appeared, and Emily had to chuckle.

  “You’ve always wanted to ride like a perp,” she pointed out. “But without the cuffs.”

  Thus agreed, they put her travel gear together.

  All too soon, Officer Pepper delivered Emily and her dad to a wooded lot inland. The driveway took them around back, where a tall, older man with a mustache waited in a cheerfully appointed lanai. He walked out and greeted them.

  “I’ll be damned,” her dad chuckled. “You’re the spitting image of Tom Selleck. That must be fun.”

  “Yeah, it was fun thirty years ago,” the man laughed. “Except for the autograph hounds who didn’t believe me. Anyway, I’m Mike.”

  He offered a hand, and her dad shook it.

  “William Meyer, and this is my daughter, Emily.”

  “Hello, Emily,” Mike said with a welcoming smile. “I’m sorry to hear about all that’s happened. Your friends will be here
soon.” He turned back to her dad. “Your name rings a bell. Are you in business?”

  “Yes,” her dad answered. “We run Coins and Things.”

  “Well, how do you do?” Mike’s grin widened. “I’ve heard good things about you.” He turned back to Emily. “I have a feeling you might like some of my collection. But first, let’s stow Emily’s bags on my porch.” He picked up her suitcase and opened the lanai door. “You, Miss Meyer, are in need of a mint julep. I have a standing policy that anyone who gets shot at gets a free mint julep, and I happen to have just the thing in my kitchen.”

  Emily wondered what led to such a policy, but she had a feeling she didn’t want to know.

  “I wasn’t shot at, exactly,” she said. “Not that I’d say ‘no’ to a stiff drink right now.”

  “You were around when the bullets flew, and you’re at my house now,” Mike insisted. “That’s close enough. I swear, though, those MBLIS people really will drive me out of business bringing me their witnesses. They usually haul them into my bar, but we thought we’d change it up a bit.”

  “I thought we made up for that by bringing you more business, old man.”

  Emily spun and found Ethan had rolled up in his Charger. The night frogs must have covered the sound of the tires on the gravel driveway. Another car, a black Charger, pulled in behind.

  Luci jumped out of the front passenger seat of the black car and ran over to Emily. They hugged, and Luci was slow to let go. The female agent who’d driven got out of her car and walked up to them. Emily saw a couple more agents in Ethan’s car. The men quietly got out but hung back with Officer Pepper.

  “I thought they would kill me.” Luci took a deep breath, and she summoned a fragile smile. “But they did not. Soon, we will fly to Barbados to make those pendejos pay for their sins.”

  Shadows beneath her eyes bespoke the horrors she’d endured for who knew how long, but she managed to have a softness that Emily wouldn’t expect to have survived. Luci had to be one of the strongest people she’d ever met.

  “We’ll do everything we can,” Ethan said. He then made introductions of his team. “These are the agents who’ll be going with us. Sylvia Muñoz and Lamarr Birn are also our pilots. I think everyone’s met Robbie Holm.