The Alpha Bodyguards Books #4-6

Chapter Thirty-Two

P aralyzed with disbelief for a second, I didn’t move.

Then I made for the front door.

Dane Marek came out of nowhere. “Let her go.”

“Fuck you.” I reached for the door. “The last time she got in a car with him, she almost died.”

He stepped in front of me. “But she didn’t.”

“Move,” I warned.

He studied me. “What does it matter if she’s married?”

My nostrils flared. “None of your goddamn business.” I was not my father.

“Try again.”

I didn’t give a shit about the rumors about him. Mercenary or not, I stepped up to him, toe to toe, eye to eye. “Last time I’ll say it. Move .”

“She is not your past.”

She wasn’t my future either. And now I was everything I swore I would never be. “Get out of my way, Marek.”

“Give me a reason to.”

Goddamn it . “I am not my fucking father!”

“Did you tell her?”

“Tell her what?” That I fucked up? That I was enraged she was in Talerco’s arms? That I wanted back inside her so goddamn bad, I couldn’t see a single thing except anger?

“That you want her.”

“It isn’t that simple,” I ground out.

“It’s exactly that simple.”

“Get out of my way .”

Stepping aside, Marek glanced out the window by the door. “We get what we deserve. Remember that.” He walked the fuck off.

I yanked the door open and flew down the front steps. I was across the drive and grabbing her as she was getting in Talerco’s car before I had a plan.

I didn’t think.

I didn’t calculate.

I didn’t measure every angle and scenario and compensate for variables.

I was turning her, taking her face in my hands, and I was crushing my mouth over hers.

I kissed her like I’d wanted to in the shower, and her shocked gasp gave me the in I needed. I devoured her mouth like I’d devoured her body, and goddamn it, I kissed her.

I fucking kissed her .

For two strokes through the maddening, infuriating, diabolical temptation that was all her, she let me.

But then she pushed me away, and the back of her hand wiped across her lips. “Too little, too late.” She got one leg in the car.

Reactively, I grabbed her arm. “ Genevieve .”

All of a sudden, Luna, Talerco and Ty were on me. Luna to my right, Ty to my left, it was Talerco who spoke.

Standing on the opposite side of his Challenger, he leveled me with a look. “Don’t make me come over there, Playboy,” he warned. “Let her go.”

Adrenaline fueling irrational thoughts, I glared back at Talerco. “Stand down.”

“You stand the fuck down,” Talerco countered.

“Enough,” Luna barked in Spanish.

I spun on Luna. “It’ll be enough when all of you mind your own fucking business.”

“That’s it!” Genevieve yelled, yanking out of my grasp. “Talon, take me home, now .” She got in the car and slammed the door.

Talerco eyed me before getting behind the wheel, cranking the engine and flooring it.

Luna’s hand landed on my shoulder. “Give her some breathing room.”

Jerking away from his touch, I glared at him. “This is none of your business. I stay out of everyone’s goddamn shit. I expect the same fucking courtesy.”

Expression neutral, Luna’s hands went to his hips. “You done?”

No, I wasn’t fucking done. I’d fucked her and she’d left, and my head was goddamn spinning, and I’d turned into every piece of shit thing I hated about my father. I wasn’t done. I was irate.

“Good,” Luna said, without waiting for an answer. “I got a lead on your SUV. Some Tres Angulos prick has it.” He rattled off an address. “Go with Ty and get my vehicle back.” Luna eyed Ty. “Don’t fucking kill anyone.”

“Too late for today,” Ty clipped. “Maybe you’ll get lucky tomorrow.” He glanced at the bloodstains still on the dirt driveway near where the gray van had been. “Might want to make sure Marek does something about that.”

Luna cussed in Spanish, but I was already walking to Ty’s SUV and yanking the passenger door open.

A few seconds later, Ty got behind the wheel and punched in the address Luna had given us. “So what’s the real plan?” he asked as he pulled down Marek’s driveway. “You really want to leave any potential witnesses and just retrieve the vehicle?”

My nostrils still flaring with every inhale, I didn’t comment.

Ty smirked. “Read you loud and clear.” He pulled onto the main road. “Wouldn’t be my first choice either.”

Fucking prick. “Don’t mistake my silence for consent to anything you say.”

“Whatever, asshole.”

His phone rang, and instead of answering on the car’s speaker system, he looked at the display. “Shit.” He yanked the wheel and pulled off the road. Slamming on the brakes, he threw the SUV into park, then swept across his screen.

A small boy appeared on the screen, his hands gesticulating.

“Hold on,” Ty said to the kid before balancing his phone on the steering wheel.

The kid gesticulated again.

“I said hold on. I’m in the car.” As Ty spoke, he also signed out his words in ASL.

The kid signed back.

“Why the hell are you up so late?”

The kid said something to him.

Ty started signing and speaking again. “I can’t pick you up. I’m at work, and hell is not a swear word. It’s a place.”

The kid said something back.

“Motherfucker,” Ty muttered under his breath. “Okay, fine, a dollar for the swear jar. Now, why are you up?”

Ty frowned as the kid signed back.

“Your mom always works nights. This is nothing new, little man.”

The kid rolled his eyes, then signed again.

“What?” Ty sat up straighter. “Where the hell is the babysitter?”

The kid signed again.

“She said that?” Ty swore under his breath, then started signing again. “You let her know next time I see her, I’m gonna kick her ass. And yes, ass is a swear word. Don’t use it with your mother.”

The kid let out a silent laugh.

Ty grinned, then got serious again. “Crawl back into bed, take your phone and play a game until you fall asleep. I’ll text your mother and let her know what happened with the babysitter, and in the meantime, I’ll get there as soon as I can. Is the front door locked? Did you use the chain?”

The kid nodded.

“Good.” Ty signed the word out as he spoke it. “I’ll come in the back door. Call me back if you get scared.”

The boy flexed his little arm, then signed.

Ty smiled. “I know, rug rat, you’re strong as hell and brave. Get some sleep.”

The boy signed the only thing I knew in ASL. I love you.

“Love you too.” Ty hung up and fired off a text before pocketing his phone and pulling back on the road.

My impression of him had done almost a one-eighty. “Your son?”

“None of your goddamn business.”

“He’s smart.” He signed twice as fast as Ty.

Ty eased off the gas and leveled me with a look. “My personal life’s personal, got it?”

More than he’d ever know. “Copy.”

We drove the rest of the way in silence, except for the GPS spewing directions. When we got close, Ty pulled down an alley behind a strip mall where half the storefronts were boarded up.

Glancing at the GPS one last time, he cut the engine and reached behind his seat. “A block over and half a block east. Looks like it’ll be residential.” He pulled two 9mms from the back seat. “My vote is a surprise approach on foot.” He rummaged around in a duffle behind my seat before coming away with two silencers.

“Fine.” I checked the magazine on my gun out of habit.

“Put your shit away.” Ty handed me one of his 9mms and one of the silencers. “Fully loaded.” He eyed me as he screwed the other silencer on his gun. “And untraceable.” He raised an eyebrow. “We cleaning house?”

My jaw ticked, and I holstered my own gun. Screwing the silencer on the gun he gave me, I glanced around the alley and the street beyond. Gang territory at night, there were no people out. “How untraceable?”

Dead serious, Ty looked at me. “‘Leave-it-at-the-scene untraceable.”

I didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him, but if anyone was going to have an untraceable piece, it’d be him. Without a word, I got out of the SUV.

Ty followed suit and locked the doors, then everything the Marines trained us to be kicked in.

Weapons drawn, sticking to the shadows, I led and Ty took my six. We covered the first block in under three minutes, and a minute later I had a visual on my Escalade in the driveway of a rundown, south Florida bungalow. A ratty screen door in place, the front door wide open, a TV was blaring from the house.

I stepped behind the vehicle and looked for the small indents on the passenger side where I’d fired rounds at the SUV five days ago. Even though the Escalade now had tricked-out rims, the circular dents were right where I’d shot at the vehicle. I looked through the windows on the off chance her purse would still be there, but I couldn’t see shit past the limo tint. As much as I hated to agree with anything Ty said, he’d been right earlier about not leaving any potential witnesses. That shit would follow Genevieve for life, and I wasn’t going to let that happen.

I nodded at Ty.

Shaking his head, he kicked the rims. “Fucking gangbangers,” he whispered. “They got no class.”

“Recon the west side of the house, I’ll take the east. Let’s find out what we’re dealing with.”

“Copy.” Ty took off toward the west side of the house.

Hunched over, I skirted the east side and checked all three of the windows. First room had four men drinking and staring at a TV. Middle window was dark, but I could see enough to tell it was an empty bathroom, and the last window was a kitchen with another guy at the stove.

I made my way back to the SUV.

Ty was already there. “Two bedrooms, one empty, two people fucking in the other.”

Damn it , a female. “Four men in front room. Three are on the couch, one’s on a chair, all facing west. Guns on the coffee table. A fifth man in the kitchen at the stove.”

Ty nodded. “We’ll breach the front door, and you take the first two on the couch. I’ll get the third and the guy on the chair. You cover the kitchen, and I’ll take the bedroom.”

“No.” He’d kill the female. “I’ll cover the bedroom, you take the kitchen.”

Ty smirked. “Just have to see them fucking, huh?”

“Screw you. You’ll kill the female.”

He looked at me like I was an idiot. “Cleaning house means cleaning house, not leaving a witness.”

“I’m not shooting the female.”

“You think women aren’t gangbangers? You’re gonna risk leaving someone alive who saw your woman’s shit? Memorized her address from her ID they stole?” He shook his head. “Fuck, dude. Get real.”

“We don’t know if they know anything, or if her ID is even in there.”

Ty snorted. “First, they’re all gang brothers, they talk. Second, there were two purses in the bedroom and this house doesn’t look a damn thing like a woman lives here. There’s a fucking dude at the stove, bro.”

I didn’t have time to argue.

Shouting erupted from the living room, and we were out of time.

Ty sprinted toward the house, and I followed. He paused for one second outside the front door to glance at me and mouth, three, two, one.

We moved.

Ty breached first, and I was in immediately after.

Except nothing was how it was a few minutes ago. All four men were on their feet grabbing for their guns, and the fifth guy was standing at the door from the kitchen into the living room, with a cell phone to his ear, yelling at the other men.

None of them had a chance.

Two double taps and a single shot later, all five men were dead on the floor.

The sixth man, pulling on shorts, ran from the bedroom, and Ty pulled the trigger.

A woman behind him started screaming.

Ty took aim.

“No!” I warned.

Ty pulled the trigger anyway.

A single shot to her forehead, and just like the others, she hit the floor.

“Goddamn it, Ty!”

He shrugged. “If I’m wrong about that purse, I’ll pay when I meet my maker.” He kicked the front door shut behind him then stepped over the dead couple. “I’m already going to hell.”

Jesus fuck .

“What color’s her purse?” Ty asked over his shoulder as he walked toward the bedroom.

I looked around at the bodies. “Yellow.” God-fucking-damn it .

Ty came back into the living room wearing a smug smile and holding up Genevieve’s purse. “Bingo. What’d I say?” He tossed it at me.

I grabbed it. “That you’re going to hell.” I did a cursory check of her purse. Wallet, ID, girl shit, it seemed to be all there, but no Escalade keys.

“In due time.” Ty scanned the living room.

“No Escalade keys. Was there anything else in the bedroom?”

“Besides a crack pipe and forty-o on the nightstand, not that I saw, but you can check.” He pulled one of the dead guys in the living room closer to the front door. “Give me your gun.”

What the fuck? “Why?”

He stepped over the guy and moved another one opposite of where he’d laid the first one. “C-Y-A.” Wiping his gun down with his shirt, he then put it in the hand of the first guy he’d moved and used the dead guy’s finger to pull the trigger twice before removing the silencer and leaving the gun in his hand.

“ Jesus Christ , Ty.” I stared at the two new bullet holes in the second guy’s chest.

“What?” He stepped around me. “Like you’ve never had to cover your tracks before.”

I hadn’t.

He took my gun and wiped it down and repeated the same process but with the second guy he’d moved, having him shoot the first guy.

When he was done, Ty shoved the silencers in his cargo pocket and surveyed his handiwork. “That’ll do. Now the kitchen.” Stepping over the guy I’d seen at the stove, Ty headed down the hallway.

I did a sweep through both bedrooms then made my way to the kitchen. “No keys.”

Ty absently looked around the kitchen. “They’re here somewhere.”

Shit. “Probably in a pocket of one of the dead assholes.”

“Check the guy who was in the kitchen first. He’s the oldest, my vote’s on him.” Ty pulled a dishtowel off the oven door and used it to turn the burner back on under a pan of food on the stove.

“What are you doing?”

“Insurance,” he muttered, looking through the cupboards. “Go find the keys.”

I went back to the guy from the kitchen, and in the second pocket I checked, I found the Escalade’s key fob. “Got it,” I called as I walked back to Ty.

“Great.” Pulling a fifth of tequila out of the cupboard, he unscrewed the top and started pouring it all over the counter and floor.

I jumped back to avoid getting that shit on my boots. “What the fuck?”

“Like I said, insurance.” Ty settled the empty bottle on its side on the counter and pulled the dishrag off his shoulder. Placing one end of the towel near the bottle and spilled liquor, he put the other near the open flame of the stove, then he glanced up at me. “Okay, ready?”

“That’s your insurance? Burning the place down?”

“You got a better idea?”

Fuck. “No.”

He smirked. “Hang out with me more and you might learn a few things, pretty boy.”

Asshole. “Just do it. We need to get out of here.” We’d already been here too long. Someone had probably seen us and tipped off the guy in the kitchen, or one of them had spotted us when we’d reconned. Either way, I wasn’t sticking around to find out.

Ty shoved the edge of the cloth just close enough to the flame, and the rag caught fire. “Aaand my work here is done.” He stepped back from the stove and turned toward the back door. Using his shirt like a glove, he opened it. “I love a clean break.”

“Until someone reports us to the police.”

Ty smirked. “In gang central? They hate the pigs more than they hate rival gangs. Trust me, if anyone did see us, no one’s gonna say shit.”

“There could still be trace evidence the cops find that links back to us,” I argued.

Ty stepped outside, holding the door for me to follow, then he closed it using his shirt so his prints weren’t on anything. “If that happens, Luna will cover it up.”

“He doesn’t interfere with police investigations.”

Ty laughed. Quietly, but he still laughed. “First, there won’t be an investigation. Dead gangbangers killing each other, same narrative, different day, end of story. Second, why the fuck do you think Luna keeps half of Miami PD on his Christmas list? Let me clue you in, pretty boy, it ain’t because they’re all bros.” He shook his head. “Shit, man.” He scanned the backyard, same as me. “I’ll wipe the front door down, you get the Escalade back to base. Stay pretty.” He tipped his chin and disappeared around the west side of the house.

I took the east, glancing in the kitchen window.

The fire was already across the entire floor and had ignited the carpet in the hall.

Keeping to the shadows, I made my way to the SUV and got behind the wheel. The interior smelled like cheap cologne and desperation. Cursing, I put the seat all the way back and glanced around for Ty.

No sign of him, I drove to Luna and Associates.