Chapter 2 #2
Hunter hurried toward the dark sedan parked beneath the bright glow of a streetlight. He rounded to the passenger side and slid in. Stone liked to drive, which was fine with him. It left him free to look around.
As Stone backed out of the parking space, Hunter brought up the GPS coordinates on his cell phone and locked in directions.
“If she’s on the run, these coordinates could be old news,” Hunter said. “Sent two hours ago, a lot could have happened in that timeframe.”
“Right,” Stone said. “But it’s all we have for now. If Kyla gets any more information, she’ll pass it on to us. In the meantime, we go with what we have.”
Hunter nodded and stared through the windshield at the road ahead.
Since it was the middle of the night, the traffic wasn’t bad. However, he could imagine the same roads during the day being packed.
It didn’t take long until they arrived at the bridge crossing over to the island of Miami Beach.
Before they reached the other side, Hunter could see flashing lights ahead on the outgoing side of the bridge.
“It’s a roadblock,” Hunter said.
“If they’ve blocked this bridge, the others will be similarly blocked,” Stone noted. “If she’s still on Miami Beach, getting her off will be hard.”
“By road,” Hunter noted.
“Right.” Stone nodded.
A spotlight shone down from overhead as a helicopter flew by.
“Do you get the feeling we should step back and maybe stay out of this?” Hunter said. “I mean, we could be aiding and abetting a murderer. What’s the jail time for someone who does that?”
Stone shook his head. “I don’t know. But I’m not getting warm fuzzies about this whole situation.”
“Me either.”
“But if we don’t go in, Kyla will.” Stone’s jaw hardened. “I can’t let her get anywhere close to this circus.”
Stone slowed as they drove onto the island and turned in the direction the guidance system indicated.
At one point, a police car blocked the road.
Hunter touched the button on the side of his cell phone, making the screen go black.
As they neared the roadblock, a policeman stepped up to the window and shined a flashlight into the car. “Out kind of late, aren’t you? License and registration, please.”
Stone blinked up at the light shining into his eyes.
“Coming from the airport. Our plane was delayed. We just want to get to our hotel and call it a night.” He reached into his back pocket, pulled out his wallet, flipped it open and removed his Montana driver’s license.
He handed it to the officer along with the rental car packet lying on the dash.
Adrenaline pumping hard through his veins, Hunter leaned across the console, careful not to let his handgun and shoulder holster show beneath his jacket.
He adopted an innocent glance and asked, “What’s going on?
Why all the police and roadblocks?” He figured he knew what was happening but wanted confirmation of how difficult this particular extraction might prove to be.
“A man was murdered a couple of hours ago. We’re trying to catch who did it.” He handed Stone his license and the rental documents. “You’d do best to go straight to your hotel and lock the door.”
“Yes, sir,” Stone tucked his license into his wallet and slipped it into his back pocket. “Thank you for your service.”
The police officer nodded and stepped back.
Stone drove away. “It’s going to be sticky.”
“No shit.” Hunter brought up the map on his cell phone. He had a bad feeling about the mission. But Stone was right. If they didn’t get her friend out, Kyla would do it herself. All eight months pregnant of her.
Hunter was thankful he wasn’t burdened with a headstrong fiancée.
Not that Stone was complaining. In fact, Stone had never been happier to be saddled with a female. The man had a lot going on with the startup of the Yellowstone branch of the Brotherhood Protectors, recruiting talent and converting the old barn behind his father’s lodge into their headquarters.
Add a relationship with a former assassin, who was now carrying their baby…
Hunter shook his head. His friend was a prime candidate for a heart attack or a nervous breakdown.
No thanks.
Life was simpler when he didn’t let himself get roped into a relationship. Especially with a high-maintenance woman who couldn’t take care of herself. Been there. Done that. Had the scars to prove it.
Hunter had tried marriage. Once. Liz had been beautiful, charming and so very needy.
She hadn’t been able to figure out how to function on her own.
When he’d deployed, she’d blown up his messages with how difficult it was to live alone.
She’d solved her problems by sleeping with another man while married to Hunter and living off his paycheck.
It wasn’t until after their divorce that he’d realized he wasn’t the least heartbroken. How could his heart be broken when he’d never really been in love with Liz? He’d never allowed himself to love her.
Why?
Two reasons.
The first being, he hadn’t felt worthy of her love or anyone else’s.
Second, he hadn’t let her get close. He wouldn’t commit to emotions that deep, never wanting to feel the pain he’d felt when he’d lost his high school sweetheart due to his inability to save her. Hunter blamed himself for Sarah’s death.
History. The past belonged in the past. Hunter focused on the map and the street in front of him. They were on the main drag with all the hotels lined up on one side and the beach behind the hotels.
Hunter leaned forward. “Slow down. We’re getting close to the coordinates.”
Stone eased off the accelerator.
Hunter pointed to a driveway that was the service entrance to one of the hotels. The coordinates were for somewhere down that driveway.
Stone drove past the driveway and parked in the shadowy corner of a 24-hour pharmacy parking lot.
Hunter stepped out of the vehicle and joined Stone, walking along the sidewalk back toward the driveway like two guys on their way back from a nightclub, heading for their hotel.
When he neared the driveway, Hunter turned in and slipped into the shadows.
Stone followed.
He’d gone several yards, moving silently, when he spotted a dark silhouette also moving among the shadows heading toward the back of the building.
For a moment, he thought it might be the woman they’d come to get.
When the figure rounded the corner of the building, starlight revealed the figure was not that of a woman but a man wearing dark clothes and a hooded jacket.
“You see him?” Hunter whispered.
Stone came up behind him. “Yeah.”
The man was heading in the same direction they were.
His gut telling him the guy was after the same objective, Hunter picked up the pace.
If Kyla’s friend was at the coordinates she’d given them, she wasn’t far away. They needed to get to her before the guy ahead of them did.
The man disappeared through a stand of bushes.
Hunter left the shadows, ran for that row of shrubbery and slid through a gap, emerging into a manicured walkway winding between palm trees, leading from the hotel to the beach.
Starlight found gaps between the palms, illuminating spots among the trees and decorative plants.
Their guy was ahead of them, heading toward a small hut located at the end of the garden area and the beginning of the beach behind. Paddleboards leaned against the hut wall. Lounge chairs, kayaks and beach umbrellas were stacked in neat rows.
Stone touched his arm and pointed to the opposite side of the garden area. Another shadow, too big for a woman, moved slowly through the palms.
They had more company, and Hunter had yet to see any sign of the woman they’d come to collect.
The man ahead of them approached the hut and walked among the stacks of lounge chairs and kayaks. The one on the far side of the garden closed in on the hut from the other side.
When the guy didn’t find what he was looking for, he turned toward the boards leaning against the building.
Something moved behind the paddleboards.
“She’s there,” Hunter whispered.
The guy in the hooded jacket must have seen the movement at the same time and lunged forward.
Hunter raced toward the hut, praying they reached the woman in time.