Jana Leigh (9 page)

“
Damn it, Jabo is gonna get his ass shot, just you watch,” Sassy complained.

“
Who are they looking at?” Brin asked and turned to make sure Marcus was still sleeping in the cradle Vince had supplied.

“
Who knows, probably a hillbilly from the next township, they get all worked up about stupid shit, someone probably killed a gator in the wrong swamp,” Sassy said bored.

“
Does this happen often?” Brin said, looking at the woman who didn’t seem to care that everyone outside of the room was carrying a gun and looked ready to kill.

“
Bout once a week.  The boys over in Splendid, the next town over, seem to think they own everything on the south side of the road.  Well, not true, Virgil, Ray, and Sam’s swamp tours run that side of the road.  Every once in a while, one of the gators gets caught in the boats and they argue about boundaries.”  Sassy shrugged and checked on her son.  When she was done, she waved to the pile of packages on the bed.  “Wow, look at all this stuff, have you opened anything?  Jabo put all of ours in the back of the truck already.”

Brin looked over her shoulder distractedly, “
No, Grant was making a list for me to send thank you notes though.  I don’t even know these people and they gave me all this.”

Sassy snorted, “
That’s 'cause you and your men are the talk of the town.”

“
Men?  What?” Brin said, finally tearing her gaze from the front.

“
Girl, don’t play coy with me.  I saw the way they looked at you, they are one hundred percent off the market right now, has all the women in town in a tizzy.  They have been trying to set Grant up for months.”  Sassy laughed.

“
No…I mean, Jessie is the father of Marcus, but that is it,” Brin argued.  “I am a MOTHER!”

“
Please, like moms don’t do the nasty every chance they get.  Heck, Jabo argued with the doctor for an hour about the whole six week thing,” Sassy said.  “With two of them, I swear you are going to be running in circles to keep from being tempted by those two.”

“
Oh no, they both look at me like someone who they have to take care of.  I mean first, we have Jessie who I only slept with once, and got pregnant—I am more of an obligation to him.  Grant was someone nice who picked me up on the side of the road.  Plus, he is Jessie’s friend.  They are just trying to keep Marcus and me safe.”  Brin laughed nervously.  Sassy was saying what she was thinking, what she was hoping.  Ever since the mention of ménage relationships, Brin had this crazy fantasy about both men.  What it would be like to be loved by two men, those two men.

“
Brin, you have lost your ever lovin' mind?  I have seen the look in both men’s eyes.  Besides, Grant is leaving his practice to come with ya’ll,” Sassy said and Brin turned back to the window in enough time to see Jessie and Drake walk to the edge of the road and yell something to the men in the car.

West and Tha
ne stood outside of the morgue.  They wanted the details of the death of Arden’s parents.  So far, they had been stonewalled.  But with one small phone call, all of the avenues seemed to open up for them.  Thane was really glad that on one of his last missions it had been to save the daughter of a Senator who happened to be representing this great state.

When someone said, "I owe you one”
Thane filed it in his head.  Before this was all done, he figured he would have called in all of his favors and then some.

“
We are supposed to meet the head coroner.  From there we will see if we can get into the house,” Thane said and West nodded.

“
I have a few guys ready and they are more than willing to help.  We also have eyes and ears on the locals to see if there is any chatter about something big going down here.  Someone ordered this, and these guys were too stupid not to talk.  They always talk,” West snorted and Thane nodded.

“
They want the recognition,” Thane said.

“
Yeah, bragging rights goes a long way around here.  Plus, if these people had a territory, someone is going to take it over.  Their operation was too big,” West said.

Thane snorted and shrugged.  “
Kill one roach and another one follows.”

The two men walked into the small building that housed the Houston morgue.  It was slightly colder inside, but held an almost stifling heavy antiseptic smell that made both men breathe shallowly.  A guard sat at the entrance of the morgue.  Both
men showed their IDs and waited while the guard called back to someone.  It only took a few minutes for a harried man to appear wearing doctor's scrubs.

“
Gentlemen, if you would follow me,” the doctor said.  “I was told to give you as much information as you need, there is some question the case is federal and not local?” 

Thane grunted a response, refusing to tell the man
they were skirting a tight rope of legalities.  Sure, the Commander had gotten the okay for the investigation, but the FBI would be taking over soon.

“
How were the victims killed?” West asked.

“
Both of them were tortured.  The male victim had all of his fingers broken, and his tibia was shattered.  Multiple stab wounds that wouldn’t kill anyone but cause a lot of pain.  The female victim was raped and beaten for hours.  These are their personal belongings that were brought in,” the doctor said and then went on to give them detailed causes of death, but what it boiled down to was they were tortured and then their throats slit.

After examin
ing the rest of the evidence, the two men went to the police station where they were given a rundown of the investigation.  It appeared that Arden’s parents were killed by a drug cartel, which didn’t really make too much sense since they were not involved in running drugs—they were involved in guns.  The police said it was a cut and dry case and the suspects were being taken into custody later in the day.  They set up a sting operation to capture them. 

Thane and West spoke quietly as they walked out of th
e station.

“
It is too pat, the evidence was just there?  I don’t think these guys make those kind of mistakes,” Thane said, looking around the street.

“
Yeah, we need to find out who hired the assholes,” West said.  “Let me make a few calls.”

“
I will call Alex and the others to let them know what we found.  We should go to the house and see what else we can find,” Thane said and West nodded.

No one believed that Team TEN was being targeted by the drug cartel, why would they be?  Very few people knew that Ard
en had taken a flash drive when she ran away from home.  The contents of the drive were only just discovered, and according to the documents, Arden’s parents were involved in using their relief organization as a front for gunrunners in the Middle East somewhere.  Thousands of military weapons had made their way into the hands of people targeting the United States.  Some of the missions Team TEN had completed may be connected.  They just weren’t sure how, they were random missions that should not have been connected, but it appeared they were. 

Thane called Alex to give them an update.  “
We are going to the house next, so far it is the same as the reports.  They are saying there is a drug connection.”

He heard Alex sigh, “
Yeah, Gage is calling a few people at the FBI he has contact with and seeing if he can find out some information.  We are going over the thumb drive right now.  There are a few names that are popping up, but so far they are either incarcerated or dead.”

“
Any of them connected to our missions?” Thane asked.

“
A few, but they were big ops, I can't imagine why we would be targeted, none of them were solely our mission,” Alex said.

“
Keep us updated, West is calling some of his contacts as well, maybe if we shake enough trees, something will fall out,” Thane said.

When he hung up the phone, West was frowning and writing in his small notebook.  “
What?” Thane asked.

“
Do you know a Joel Lipit?” West asked.

“
Brian’s brother, he works for the FBI.  When we came back he came to the hospital to see Drake, they were friends.  Why?” Thane said.

“
He is missing.  Last indication was he was working on a case related to the cartel in question.  Last week he reported in that he was getting close to blowing the cartel out of the water, and now he is missing.  They said he was last seen in this area.  His partner is going to call me back in a few,” West said.  “They also said if we are going to the house, people are watching it, so we are going to have to be careful.”

“
Who is watching?” Thane said with an ominous tone.

“
They aren’t sure, but they have picked up a few signals in the neighborhood, people trying to tap into the police chatter.  Maybe we should call in a few guys to help us,” West said.

Thane looked at West and nodded.  “
Make the call, if you need to delay our going to the house, let me know.”

“
Hang on, let’s grab some lunch, and see what is going on,” West said and Thane nodded. 

In an hour, they had four SEALs and three FBI officers helping them to get into the neighborhood without being seen by the men who were watching.  Apparently the word on the street was that it was not the cartel who ordered the hit, they were paid by a po
werful man, one that apparently had a hard on for Team TEN.

They were approaching the house of Arden
’s parents from three directions.  One from the south, the north, and the west.  One of the cars watching the house was parked on a side street to the east, and West and one of the men from Team TWELVE were circling around and coming up behind the car.  Their intention was to capture and interrogate the men. 

Thane and two of the FBI agents were going to the house while the others were checking to see if they
could locate where the hacking signals were coming from.  They all wore ear wicks so they could communicate, which was a good thing considering what happened as they approached the house.

Thane looked up and down the sidewalk, making sure there were no th
reats before they pulled up the police tape and walked into the courtyard of the mansion. 
The place is enormous, and an eyesore,
thought Thane.  He could not imagine the down to earth sweet woman Arden was growing up here.  It didn’t fit, which is probably why she left.

“
We are going in, status?” Thane said quietly.

“
Two targets, one on the phone while the other has binoculars trained on you.  Approaching from the back,” West whispered.  They needed answers, and hopefully these two men were going to finally give them the man they needed to make all of this go away.  West and Mason had talked before he left; they wanted Arden to have peace from the past.  Her parents were not what they seemed, and West was going to find out what they were hiding.

Thane liste
ned and heard his friend move.  Maybe they would actually get some answers.  That was his last thought as an explosion ripped through the property and flung Thane and the other men back across the street.

West heard and felt the explosion a block away.  T
he doors to the car they were approaching were flung open.  No one had time to react, it was as if they knew West and the others were coming because they opened fire before either of them had a chance to react. 

West felt the first bullet enter his hip, s
pinning him to the side, and the second tore through his back. 
Fuck
, West thought and fell to the ground, his last thought before losing consciousness was of Mason and Arden, they needed to be protected. 

Jessie and Drake watched as the man across the street in the driver seat talked on the phone and stared at them intently.  Jesse refused to break eye contact with the asshole that looked like he was trying to intimidate them.  Grant stood to his left and Jabo stood to Drake's right, both with shotguns looking menacing. 

The SEAL wished for a minute
that the men in the SUV would be able to see who was really protecting Brin.  He could feel his fallen teammates as they stood behind them for back up.  He could almost picture Mark’s menacing face daring the strangers to make a move.  He felt himself relax, they were here, and they would let him know what needed to be done.

“
Never let them see you blink,”
Mark whispered in his ear and Jessie wanted to shake his head.  It was something they used to say to each other. 
“Nothing will happen to Brin and Marcus, I will make sure of it.  They have another plan anyway.”

Jessie felt relief at his dead friend
’s words, but if his friend would actually have been standing there next to him, he would have felt so much better. Then he could bitch slap him for being cryptic.  But fuck it, none of that was ever going to happen.  However, he drew strength from the fact they were watching his six though.

“
He is making a point,” Jessie said.  “Letting us know they know where we are.”

“
Maybe we should make our point,” Jabo said and Jessie heard the click of a round being loaded.  “You know, we don’t fuck around with no one.”

“
I think he is getting that,” Drake smirked as the man narrowed his eyes and said something into the phone.

“
The passenger is reaching for something,” Grant said and lifted his gun in defense.

“
Hang on,” Jessie said when the driver hung up the phone and started the SUV.  They could see the passenger throw something out of the window on the side, and as the SUV pulled away, the driver motioned with his hand like a gun and pulled the trigger.  He spun away as he was laughing.

“
Fucker,” Jessie said and walked across the road and looked down.  There was a picture of Brin and the baby coming out of the hospital, there was a red circle drawn around Brin’s face.  “We need to get everyone out of here, Brin and the baby are on lockdown until we leave.  Jabo, we need to ask for some help.”

Grant looke
d over Jessie's shoulder grimly.  “Damn it,” Grant said and looked at Jabo.  “We need more than help, call in the boys.”

Jabo laughed and whistled loudly over his shoulder.  “
Hell, ya boys, call my brothers.”

Jessie turned and looked at Grant with a confus
ed look on his face.  “Brothers?”

“
Never met a more crazy bunch of men,” Grant admitted.  “We will be covered until the morning.”

Jessie looked toward Drake, then rolled his eyes to the sky and shook his head.  Where the fuck were they?

Thane’s ears were ringing, he rolled on the ground trying to think enough to take stock of his body, did he have any injuries?  He shook his head, it had to have been a trap…
West,
he thought and began yelling into his microphone.

“
WEST!” Thane yelled and rolled to the side and saw the debris surrounding him that was on fire.  The men he had been walking with were moaning and rolling as well.  Shit, he could hear popping noises in his ear, and wondered for a second if he was hearing things because it sounded like gunfire.

“
West?!” he yelled again.  When his friend didn’t answer, Thane knew something was wrong.

Thane struggled to get up off the ground and heard sirens in the distance, someone
must have called it in already, but then an explosion this big would have been felt for quite a few blocks.  He looked at the burning building and shook his head before staggering in the direction that West was.  He had to get to him.

It seemed to take ho
urs for him to reach the end of the corner, though he was sure it was only a few seconds but when he rounded the corner and saw the men lying in the street, Thane yelled in frustration. 

“
No!” he screamed in agony. 
I will not lose another one
, he thought and ran for the first man.

It was "Slider", the man from Team TWELVE, Thane groaned when he felt no pulse.  Moving quickly, he went to West who was lying on his stomach.  At first Thane was sure he was dead, seeing the pool of blood around his body, but h
e saw a slight rise in his back and Thane turned West to his side slowly, making sure his body was as still as possible.

“
West, man, can you hear me?” Thane said desperately.  They lost one.  They couldn’t lose another.

His friend groaned and whispered, “
Arden.” 

Damn it
, Thane thought.  “Hang on, man, help is coming.”  He looked around desperately and saw the flurry of activity coming to help, people from houses, and police.  They needed to get here quick or West wasn’t going to make it.

“
Over here,” Thane called and waited while the EMTs ran for him.  “He has been shot twice, once in the back and once in the hip,” he said and held on to West as the men began to assess him.

“
We need to get him to hospital, he is losing too much blood,” one of the men said and they quickly got him strapped to the board and were moving.  Thane felt like he was in a fog, everything happening around him seemed to run in slow motion.  A police officer held out his hand and asked him to explain what happened.  Thane shook his head and followed the gurney as it was loaded in the ambulance.

“
I am going with him,” Thane said firmly.

The police officer had followed them and argued, “
No, you need to answer some questions.” 

Thane turned and looked at him, thankfully one of the FBI me
n came up at that time and said loudly, “Let him go, I will answer all your questions.  Thane, I have people meeting you at the hospital for protection.”

Thane only nodded and he jumped into the back of the ambulance and leaned his head against the wall an
d they screamed away.  What the fuck was he going to tell Mason and Arden.  Thane had failed once again to protect the men in his unit.

Diego smiled as he hung up the phone.  At
least one of the missions had gone off without a hitch.  They had killed one and injured another in their quest to make sure the documents, and the message was deliver to the other.  All in all a good day.

He intended on flushing them out, and he was going
to do it this way.  Make them come after him, and when they did—Diego and his men would be waiting.  It was brilliant, and if he killed people along the way, it was a bonus.  Creating havoc and causing pain was his favorite pastime. 

“
Sir, your mother wants to know if you are available for a few dinner parties while you are here?”  His second in commanded asked from the doorway.

Since his arrival, he had been playing the role of his life.  The Americans were so stupid, they allowed him through their borde
rs just because his mother was an Ambassador.  His mother, ha, like she was a harmless old woman.  What his little brother, and the public failed to see, was the cast iron bitch behind the scenes.

“
Tell her I would love to,” Diego laughed.  He would love to be wined and dined by the people he was certain he was going to destroy.  He wondered if they would be shocked when they discovered that he was the one behind all of this.  “And where is my brother?”

“
He is in the office of that woman,” his man said.

Die
go frowned.  The liaison, his brother had been spending way too much time in her office lately.  This would never do.  First, he needed to deal with this Team TEN, then he would worry about his brother. 

They would come to him.  Diego laid a nice breadcru
mb trail, and soon the players would all be right where he wanted them.  In only a matter of days, they should find the little present he left in the hotel in Houston. 

All of it would tie right to where he wanted it to, San Diego was going to be a hole i
n the ground when he was done.