Chapter Eighteen
The Floating Cabin
In The Swamp.
Evening
T here was no time like the present to interrogate an asshole, and the bleeding one, plus the sketchy one, were about to have very bad evenings. They had knowledge, and The Hunters needed what they knew.
So, Clint was up first, and he ended up being the easier one of the two to break.
Imagine their surprise when Maura only had to ask a single question, and the man began singing like a canary.
It was crazy.
Truth be told, all of their interrogations needed to be this easy.
What was the question?
Oh, it was simple enough.
“Mr. Rust, what the hell is going on that would put you in this position?” Maura asked.
The man looked about ready to crawl out of his own skin. He was shaking, and he was absolutely terrified.
Granted, mercenaries just shot up his cabin, and both sets of people had found him rather easily.
Someone was bad at hide-and-seek.
Clearly.
Without any more provocation, Clint Rust spilled his guts.
“I was in Afghanistan bedded down with a military envoy from Great Britan.”
They waited.
“The sole point was to help keep the peace there, and to back up the Afghanistan military against the Taliban. The head of operations there had an account where he could pull money to pay off the Afghanistan troops if they got the idea of defecting or bowing to the Taliban.”
So far, he wasn’t telling them anything they hadn’t found out from Elizabeth. They really hoped he had more than this, or they wasted a trek into this god-forsaken hellhole.
The man next to him who was bleeding warned him to keep his mouth closed.
“Shut the fuck up, Clint. You’re not supposed to talk about this!”
Because she knew the man wouldn’t be helping them, just by how he was trying to stop Clint, she handled it.
Maura pulled out her gun and shot him in the head.
Point.
Blank.
Then, she pointed at Clint.
“If you want to end up like him, fuck with me. I’m wet, I’m cold, I’m pregnant, and I’m not in the mood for this bullshit.”
Then, she pointed at Jagger.
“And honestly, neither is my husband.”
Jagger just glared at him.
Oh, well, that seemed to work.
Clint didn’t hesitate to keep talking.
“When the upper leadership was taken out in a firefight, the code was up for grabs. A bunch of us worked for The BlackStone Group , on the DL.”
Zayn growled.
“So traitors.”
The man shrugged.
“I was in the Sandbox risking my goddamn life for thirty thousand a year. If someone was going to give me more money to be there, I was taking it. I had to live too. My life was worth more than that. You all know the government pays soldiers shit.”
Well, he was right there.
Unless you were some special elite team, you didn’t make squat.
Oh, you could die for the country, but you couldn’t be given a decent paycheck.
That’s why Marines took harder jobs.
To provide for their families.
“Anyway, the code went missing. That pissed off Von Donore. He wanted that code in the worst way. I think he had the leadership ambushed.”
Well, that was more than likely.
“Elizabeth, are you hearing all of this?” Maura asked the woman back at base.
“Copy,” she said into Maura’s earpiece.
Because he didn’t want to die, the man kept talking.
“We had to find that code. Then, one day, word got out that Hemmingway took the code so that the Marines and soldiers there wouldn’t be betrayed to the Taliban. He took the code so Von couldn’t pay off the bad guys.”
Well, someone was a hero.
“So, we killed him.”
Zayn went to punch the man in the face, and Jagger stopped him at the last second.
“Down, big guy. We need him to talk, not eat his teeth,” he said.
“Fucking piece of shit traitor,” he said. “I lost friends there. I lost brothers there. I was shot there! And you fuckers were screwing with the enemy?”
It took him, Raphael, Gunny, and Ivan to hold Zayn back. In fact, they had to sit on him, and keep him on the ground, and still, he fought.
Someone was angry.
“Keep talking, or they’re letting him up,” Maura stated.
The man did.
“Von called for the man to die. He wanted that code back, and Hemmingway wouldn’t play. So, he set it up that we all went up on a mission. We killed Hemmingway.”
They stared at him.
He began crying.
“We killed Hemmingway. He was a good dude. He was just trying to be a good soldier. Willy, Trent, and Ty were up with us in the helicopter. They were going to kill him there. He fought, and they broke his neck.”
Jesus.
H.
Christ.
“Are you getting this, Elizabeth?” she asked again.
“Oh, I am,” she said. “The military inquest on this is going to be funsies.”
They were aware. The US military tolerated a lot, as long as it wasn’t betrayal. That was a one-way trip to Guantanamo or Leavenworth.
Because fear was motivating, Clint kept singing like the desperate canary he was.
“Von said that he had to have gotten the key out of Afghanistan after spending the last few years looking for it there. So, the wild goose hunt began. They assumed he shipped it home. We went to his parents’ house, and we killed them.”
No one said a word.
They were all afraid of stopping him. Oh, well, Zayn said plenty, and most of it ended with ‘er’ .
Mother fucker.
Cock sucker.
There was no doubt he was angry.
“We left the bodies there, and saw that Hemmingway had a twin brother. At that point, I was done. I didn’t want to be part of this. The whole thing wasn’t worth the money, so when we got Stateside, I disappeared. I didn’t want to be a loose end, and I didn’t want to kill here. I didn’t want to kill at all. I wanted to be a hero.”
Newsflash.
He wasn’t.
Not.
Even.
Close.
Maura could hear Elizabeth on the com, and she was asking one important question.
“Who were the parents?” she asked since they didn’t have any info on Hemmingway.
Oh, they knew he was on the list of killed platoon members, but they’d only investigated the living ones.
To track Von Donore.
“The Duke and Dutchess of Gordon,” he said, without missing a beat.
The whole group paused.
What the fuck?
Nobility?
A bunch of American and British soldiers were killing nobility in an attempt to cause mayhem on both sides of the ocean?
Jesus.
This just got trickier for everyone.
Elizabeth wasn’t saying anything, but Maura could hear her making a phone call.
Why?
She wasn’t sure.
“When we got here, I needed an out. All I know is that they are going for Hemmingway’s brother. They think he has the crypto key, and he’s their next target.”
Well, then, they had to get to the man’s brother.
ASAP.
If they couldn’t find the key in Afghanistan or Britian, it had to be with the man.
“What about your buddy, Charlie Hancock?” she asked, knowing they didn’t have a big list of people to track down.
Granted, this one helped immensely.
The man shrugged.
“I don’t know. He bugged out the same time I did. We both wanted nothing more to do with this. Von Donore is insane. He has so much money, but he’s insulted that someone stole from him. He’s killed a whole family, and is after the last living member. That’s crazy.”
They were focused on the other missing Marine since they had to cover their bases.
“Does he have a baby momma?” she asked, already knowing the answer to that.
He nodded.
“I think she lives in New Orleans . He doesn’t say much about her, but he said if he ever had to lay low, they had a good relationship, and she’d let him crash there.”
For her sake, they all hoped that wasn’t the case. With Von Donore on the prowl, the last thing that woman needed was to harbor a target.
She’d die.
“They’ll kill her and the child,” Jinx admitted. “We have to get to her and get her somewhere safe. Charlie can kick rocks for being a traitor, but that baby…”
They all knew.
That was something they could stop, so they would.
Maura tapped her com.
“Elizabeth, we won’t get out of here quickly. Can you go with Rogue and Remmy, and maybe head to the woman’s house,” she asked.
She didn’t answer at first.
It took a second.
“Sorry, I’m trying to get someone to head to the Duke and Dutchess of Gordon’s home. I have a friend in the UK. As for your request, we can head out.”
The second she said it, someone was NOT happy.
Ivan protested.
“You keep your ass there, Crazy Train. You are NOT to leave that bunker without Marines all over you!” he warned.
She laughed.
“What? I can’t hear you,” she admitted.
Oh, Ivan was pissed.
“I swear to God, if you leave that bunker, I’m going to make your life hell. Do you hear me, Elizabeth Renee LaRue Whitefox-Leonard-Blackhawk?”
She snorted.
“Did he just whole name me? Look at that. We’re not even knocking boots and he’s getting testicular.”
Ivan was red.
“I mean it!”
She just laughed.
“I’ll take a mercenary and a CIA spook. We should be good,” she said.
Oh, this was bad, and Ivan knew it. Elizabeth had two Russian spies after her thanks to taking out Alexsandr Dominik, and they’d pissed off Thomas Bernard.
Now, he had a headache.
“We gotta get back. I can’t let the deputy director run amuck. She’s a danger to herself, and everyone else.”
Clint’s eyes went huge.
“The deputy director?” he asked. “As in…?”
Maura nodded.
“Congrats, Clint. You got on Elizabeth Blackhawk’s radar, and the government is onto you douchebags. You have to be a certain kind of scum to make her hired hit squad take you out,” she said, meaning them.
“Oh, Jesus,” he muttered.
It was clean up on aisle traitor, and they were about to take care of the mess.
Clint Rust.
The mess had a name.
Because it was time, Maura focused on him.
“You let them kill people and take money that was needed to secure and protect our soldiers?”
He began crying.
“I made a mistake,” he said. “I’m sorry. Let me make it up to everyone.”
Oh, hell, no.
“Let Zayn up,” she said, and the Marines got off of him. The second they did, he was up, and he unloaded a whole clip into the man.
The.
Whole.
Clip.
His body did a jittery dance as he was hit over and over again with bullets.
Was it overkill?
Absolutely.
Did he deserve it for all the men who died?
Hell, yeah.
When he was done, she was curious.
“Feel better?” she asked.
He growled.
“Not until I take out all the fuckers who were part of this. We have to take this asshole down, and burn The BlackStone Group to the ground.”
That was the plan.
Looking at her watch, she knew this was going to take time.
“Merry, anything on a location for Von Donore?” she asked. “We need it.”
“I’m working on it. It’s not as easy as Googling his name,” she stated.
They got it.
They were annoying their tech.
“We have to head back,” Maura said. “We have to figure out all of this, and see who is after who next. If the doctor has the code…”
They knew who was in some serious shit.
“Let’s take the boat,” Jinx said. “We just disabled it. It’ll run fine, and we won’t have to take a bleeding Jagger into the water to chum it for gators.”
Maura sighed and shook her head.
“I can’t take him anywhere,” she teased.
He stared at her.
“Really? Seriously?”
It made her laugh.
Oh, she knew who was trouble in their group, and mostly, it was the ladies—but they got shit done, so…
“Come on,” she said, as Zayn carried Clint Rust out, still tied to the chair, and tossed him into the water.
The asshole they’d absconded from the attack followed him in. It looked like traitor was on the menu.
As they headed out, they got into the boat that was anchored to the dock.
“We need to blow this place up,” she stated.
That’s when Zayn saw the propane tank.
“I’ll handle it,” he said, as they all got onboard, and he got his rifle ready to take it out.
As they headed away from the cabin, he got ready and took his shot. The whole building blew up, and the smoke filled the sky.
Pieces of wood rained down on the swamp, and that was another job done.
For now, though, The Hunters had to get moving. Von Donore and his assholes had a head start.
For them, there was one question left.
Who the hell was the doctor?
And they needed to find out.
The dude was a deadman walking.
* * * Hunters * * *
New Orleans
Minutes Later
Heading Out
Oh, it was a good day in her world.
Why?
Elizabeth was off the leash.
It was rare that she was able to walk around without a babysitter. Granted, she had Remmy, Boone, and Rogue with her, but they were more partners in crime than babysitters.
And she was living for it.
Truth be told, she was very much like a Hunter. She liked walking around in secrecy, raising hell. Maybe that was why she kept coming back here.
It was fun.
Now, she was in a sleek sports car, zooming through the streets like she had not a care in the world.
Oh, she did, but for now, not so much.
How much trouble could they get into anyway? They were just going to a woman’s home to look for her baby daddy.
When she laughed, Rogue shook his head.
“You’re enjoying this way too much,” he admitted.
Oh, she was.
Why?
She never got to be free. Those days were long gone, and Elizabeth missed them.
Anonymity for her was a dead thing.
She was one of the most recognizable people in the world, and it sucked.
Big.
Time.
“I can’t help it. I’m living for this. No Marines, no husbands…”
The second she said the last word, her phone rang, and she realized she manifested this destiny.
The husband destiny where they lost their shit.
“Oh, fuck,” she muttered. “I put it out in the universe, and now, they know. I swear to God, they have my tits and ass LoJacked.”
Rogue actually laughed.
Yeah, that sounded about right.
Boone looked over her shoulder to see the phone so he could figure out which one was hot on her ass.
“Which one is ‘the hot Native’ ?” he asked when he saw that was what she called this husband.
She sighed.
“It’s going to be Callen—the worrier.”
In his defense, there was likely a good reason he worried about his wife. She was, after all, out in NOLA with mercenaries, rolling around without a babysitter.
Answering the phone, she was in for a little surprise. It wasn’t just Callen.
No.
He conferenced in all of them.
Ethan.
Gene.
Chris.
Well, this threw a bucket of water on her fun. There was no doubt why they were ganging up on her. There was only one person dumb enough to poke her with the husbands.
Her bodyguard.
“Let me guess. Ivan the terrible can’t keep his piehole shut,” she stated.
The men sighed.
Yeah, she heard each one.
“Elizabeth, do I need to turn this jet around and head back?” Ethan asked, going there. “Here I was, going to have a nice little vacation with Gene, and we get a text from Ivan saying you’re without a bodyguard and in New Orleans . I know that can’t possibly be right.”
She protested.
“Uh, one, I’m a grown ass adult, and last I looked, I was the best one at NOT getting hurt. Chris was hurt last.”
“HEY!” he said. “I was in a car when Saint and Raphael were abducted. That was not my fault. Don’t point this at me.”
Well, she had other things then.
“Oh, well, then, how about when Ethan was shot in the…”
Her husband shut that down.
Blackhawk wasn’t playing.
“Go back to the bunker.”
That wasn’t happening.
“I’m firing Ivan when I see his short little ass. Mark my words, and no, I’m not going back. I’m actually WORKING when none of you are. So calm your tits. I’m not alone.”
They didn’t buy that.
“Who are you with?” Gene asked, also feeling a little freaked out that she was alone. He was regretting leaving her there because now, Ethan was stressed.
She told them.
“I’m with Rogue, a FREAKING MERCENARY , Remmington, who was once my boss and a CIA spook, and I’m with Boone, an ex-cop. Between the four of us, there are about seventeen guns and a bazooka in the goddamn car. What could happen? How qualified does a person have to be to keep me safe? We trust The Hunters all the time. I’m with three. Come on, guys. Calm down.”
They got quiet like they were texting behind her back to privately talk.
“If one of you doesn’t send me that group chat, I can tell you who won’t be having fun with me for a good year. Ethan will be the only one getting laid, and that will only be because I don’t control Gene’s dick!”
Ethan actually laughed.
Until Gene was to the point.
“Uh, I won’t be having sex because you’re my boss and I’m scared shitless of you.”
Well, that worked in her favor.
Ethan was curious.
“Gentlemen, do you have her?” Ethan asked. “I mean actually have her? Because once the Crazy Train starts rolling, it seldom has brakes.”
Callen added to that.
“Because we know where you live, and fund your missions.”
Remmington laughed.
“We’re going to talk to a woman who had a kid with one of the Marines. She’s safe. What’s going to happen? Do none of you know what she’s like? Guys, she survived in Columbia undercover for weeks. I think she can handle visiting some dude’s baby momma.”
Okay, he had a point, but they still worried. She was the center of their world.
Maybe she did have this.
Ivan had texted in a panic, and they’d gone down the fear rabbit hole with him.
It was good to see she was safe, and she wasn’t out there alone, after all.
“Okay, carry on,” Ethan said. “I won’t come back.”
She didn’t like how they tried to coddle her.
It was annoying as all hell.
“If you come back, Ethan Jackson Blackhawk, I’m leaving with Gene, and you’re sitting your ass home. Do you know how hard it was to get you both free from work on short notice? Gene’s boss is a dick, and didn’t want to give him time off.”
Gene couldn’t help it.
He laughed.
Why?
She was his boss.
“Love you, Kitten,” he said.
Elizabeth was to the point.
“I’m good. I have to go, guys. We’re almost there. Love you, and see you in DC.”
Then, she hung up before hearing if anyone else was okay with her doing this.
All of the men in the car laughed.
“We hate when a wife does that,” Boone said. “Just so you know.”
She shrugged.
“Yeah, and I hate when four men gang up on me, and think they can tell me what to do when I’m perfectly fine. I’m in body armor, I’m armed, and I’m literally just going to talk to a woman. What’s she going to do? Throw her kid at me and run?”
They didn’t go there.
They knew Elizabeth. She might like it if someone tossed a kid at her.
“That’s the house,” Rouge said, as they parked down the street a bit.
The light was on, so that was a good thing. Maybe there would be someone at home. Now, they just had to get in and out without anyone seeing them.
“Okay, let’s head inside,” she said. “Remmington and I will go to the front. You two sketchy men head to the back to get access.”
That worked for them.
Thankfully, it was later at night, and dark out. That would work to their advantage.
When they reached the door, they heard the other two at the back of the house talking over the com.
“We’re going in,” Rogue said, after he got the lock open.
Elizabeth went to knock on the door, drawing attention to the front door for anyone inside.
Only, that’s not what happened.
The door opened slightly.
Uh-oh.
In her world, that never was a good thing, and she was suspecting the worst-case scenario.
Why?
She could smell a very familiar smell.
BLOOD.
She’d done this way too many times with there being a bad outcome from it too.
Remmy knew too. Their body language changed, as they prepared to go inside.
“We have a problem,” she said, pulling her gun, and making Remington do the same thing. With the toe of her boot, she pushed the door in, and walked into a fucking bloodbath.
On the floor, there were victims.
A man.
A woman.
And a baby.
Oh, God.
They even killed the baby.
It was one of the most horrific things she’d ever seen, and that was saying a lot. She was betting the mercenaries tortured the child in front of the parents to get the code.
A code they likely didn’t have.
There were moments she hated her job and this was one of them. The baby couldn’t be any older than Willa, and they tortured her.
“Jesus Christ,” Remington said, unable to look at the dead bodies. He’d walked in on his own child’s murder, and this didn’t help.
When he stood there, frozen, she needed to know.
“Remmy, are you good?” she asked. “I can do this alone. You can head out.”
Yeah, no, he wasn’t good, but he wasn’t letting her out of his sight.
Why?
She was in danger.
“I’m good. Let’s do it.”
Honestly, he gave her credit. She was either so desensitized by what she saw, or she was the toughest person he ever knew.
As a once parent, he couldn’t stomach this.
Not.
At.
All.
Together, Elizabeth and Remmington cleared the room, and warned Rogue and Boone of what they’d found.
“The whole family is dead,” she stated. “What we suspected happened. They found Charlie and took it out on his child and baby momma.”
Only, before anyone could say anything else, the worst thing happened.
In the front yard, through the windows, she saw blue flashing lights.
Immediately, she knew they had a problem. It was going to be bad for her and Remington, but worse for the mercenaries.
The cops in this town were aware of The Hunters.
“Get out of here, Rogue and Boone!” she warned the two men who had the best chance of getting the hell out of there. “Call my boss,” she added, hoping they heard.
Why?
They were about to be boned good.
So much for staying under the radar.
“Copy,” Rogue said, just as the front door went crashing in and she and Remington were being held at gunpoint.
“You’re under arrest!” some cop shouted, seeing the dead bodies on the floor as he made one hell of an assumption.
And Elizabeth knew one thing.
This was exactly how this could go bad and get worse.
This.
Right.
Here.