Chapter 12
CHAPTER 12
Jacob barreled down the hallway, followed by his team. emerging into the open living area where half a dozen armed men stood guard over his friend, who wore the sleek black tuxedo intended for his marriage to another woman.
Jacob slid to a halt when he realized that not only was Hawk being held at gunpoint, but Kalea stood in front of him with another guard holding a wicked-looking knife pressed to her throat.
Camila stood in the middle of the room, dressed in a long white wedding gown, cut low in the front. She shook a bouquet of blood-red roses at Jacob and his crew. “Get back, or I’ll have my men kill them both.”
“You can’t mean that,” Casey burst into the room. “They’ve done nothing to hurt you.” Two men grabbed her by the arms. She fought to free herself, but they held tight.
“No?” Camila gave a bark of laughter. “You call a broken heart nothing?”
“You don’t love me, Camila,” Hawk said. “You’re in love with the idea of being married. You could care less if it was to me.”
“You’re wrong,” she said, her voice rising to a squeaky screech. “I love you, and you love me. That’s how it’s always been.”
“I don’t love you, Camila,” Hawk said. “You don’t want me to marry you. I could never love you.”
“You’ll marry me to save your precious prometida .” Camila jerked her head to the side. One of her bodyguards grabbed Kalea by the hair, yanked her head back and pricked her throat with the razor-sharp tip of his knife.
Blood oozed from the wound.
Hawk broke free of the man holding him and lunged toward Kalea. Three men converged on him and dragged him back in place. His face flushed a ruddy red, and his eyes narrowed to slits. “I could never marry a woman who is so desperate she has to threaten a man in order to get him to agree to marry her,” he said, his tone low, carefully enunciated and filled with rage. “Even if you made me say yes, you could never sleep at night. I’d kill you. And I’d take great pleasure in making you hurt.”
Camila’s eyes flashed. “You would not. You’re an honorable man. That’s why I chose you.”
Jacob stepped forward. “You want an honorable man…” He jabbed his thumb at his chest. “I’m an honorable man, a Navy SEAL, and I’m not scheduled to get married tomorrow.” He lifted his chin in challenge. “Why not marry me instead of Hawk?” Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Casey’s brow dip.
Camila scowled. “I am not in love with you. I will marry Hawk. We will be muy contenta .”
“We won’t be muy anything,” Hawk said. “What part of I. Don’t. Love. You do you not understand?”
Camila’s scowl switched to a twisted brow. She shook her head and turned back to Hawk. “You will learn to love me. I am very loveable. Is that not so, mis primos ?” She looked at her cousins.
They nodded, although their expressions never lost their fierceness and their grips remained tight on their captives.
Camila faced Hawk. “You will marry me.” Her chin lifted. “If you continue to refuse, I will have my men kill your friends, one at a time, until you agree. Starting with her.” She pointed her finger at Casey.
Jacob’s pulse leaped. With his men pointing their weapons at her men, and her men pointing at his team, it would be a blood bath should anyone let loose the first round. They had to keep that from happening. No one would win that fight.
He inched closer and spoke loudly. “Camila, you don’t want Hawk. He’s not nearly as manly as I am.” He pounded a fist to his chest. “I’m a decorated war hero. I’ve fought many battles and saved his life on so many occasions I’ve lost count. He’s nothing.” Focus on me , he willed her and her cousins silently as Hank, Reid and the Deltas slipped into the room.
“Why are you talking? You don’t even belong here.” She jerked her head toward him. “Kill him,” she said to her cartel minions.
The men who weren’t employed holding onto the captives turned toward Jacob and his team. Jacob’s team raised their weapons as well.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Jacob said. “If your guys shoot, mine will be forced to return fire. I’ll be the first to aim at you, Camila. Are you ready to die?”
All focus was away from the windows and the patio entrance.
Hank and his team chose that moment to slip through the door and inch closer to Camila’s men.
“Of course, I’m not ready to die. I’m getting married.” She patted her beautifully coifed updo with the veil affixed to the back. “But you forget…I have his prometida . My men would shoot her first. Hawk would not want his fiancée killed,” she smiled at Hawk, “would you, mi amor ? So, back to my demands. Hawk will say ‘I do’, or I will kill the other woman first. Then I will kill you,” she said, her finger now pointing at Jacob. “Then I will kill this woman he professes to love. If he truly loves her, and if he cares for his friends, he will agree to marry me.” She nodded to the man holding Casey. “She will go first.”
Jacob met Casey’s gaze. He wanted to go to her, to hold her and protect her from the man who held a knife to her throat. His heart clenched in his chest. He was almost afraid to breathe, lest the man slip and dig the sharp metal blade into her soft skin.
Casey gave him a hint of a nod and shifted her gaze to Kalea. “God, I wish I was in Panama.”
Kalea’s eyes flared. She returned her nod. “Me, too.”
Jacob frowned. Why would Casey say that at a time like this?
While his little wedding planner’s gaze connected with Kalea’s, she cocked her arm and counted silently, moving her lips. Three…Two…One . At the same time, Kalea and Casey jabbed their elbows hard into their captors’ guts, then stomped on their insteps, ducked, twisted and shoved their palms hard at their captors’ noses. Then they grabbed an arm and yanked the men forward fast, twisting their arms around and shoving them up between the men’s shoulder blades.
Everyone in the large room moved at once.
Jacob rushed toward Hawk and his armed captors.
While all attention was on Jacob, Casey and Kalea, Hank and his men moved in from behind. On cue, they swept in and took out the men holding weapons pointed at Jacob and his guys.
Jacob reached the man holding a knife to Hawk’s neck and punched his fist into the man’s kidney. The man loosened his hold. Maddog dove for the man on Hawk’s other side, hitting him like a linebacker going for the quarterback. He knocked him backward. The man let go of Hawk to save his fall. He hit the floor flat on his back. Maddog pinned him.
Hawk broke free, though his hands were still tied behind his back.
Jacob wrestled with the guy still holding the knife.
Levi and Rex took over for Kalea and Casey.
Shots were fired somewhere in the room.
With his attention on his fight to gain control of the knife, Jacob didn’t have time to figure out where the bullets had gone, or who might be injured. The man refused to let go of the knife.
Tired of wrestling him, Jacob pushed him backward across the floor until he slammed up against a wall. Then he beat the man’s hand into the wall until his hold loosened and he dropped the knife. Once the knife hit the floor, Jacob pulled his hand down, twisted him around by the arm and shoved his face into the wall. Quickly securing his wrists with zip ties, he knocked the man’s feet out from under him and sent him sprawling across the floor. “Move, or I’ll shoot you.”
The man remained on the ground.
Jacob looked around and froze.
Kalea was with Hawk, but Casey was being held at gunpoint by Camila.
“Stop this madness at once!” Camila cried out.
All fighting ceased, and every man looked toward her.
“Out!” she yelled. “If you don’t want this woman to die, you will get out of here. Now.” She shoved the barrel of the pistol against Casey’s temple and had her other arm looped around Casey’s throat.
“Don’t do it,” Casey said. “Get Hawk and Kalea out of here. I’ll be fine.”
Jacob’s heart swelled at Casey’s selflessness. At the same time, he clenched his fists. He wanted to shout out, No, Casey. You can’t do this. You promised me a date. But he kept his mouth shut, knowing that if he showed any affection toward her, Camila would use it against them.
Camila’s nostrils flared, and she looked down her nose at Casey. “You will not be fine. Not if I kill you.”
“You won’t kill me,” Casey said. “It’s not how you work. You have others do your dirty work. Killing might ruin your nails. And my blood will make a complete mess of your wedding dress.”
Jacob almost laughed at Casey’s logic. The woman held a gun to her head, and Casey was talking fashion? Only a wedding planner would say something like that.
Camila frowned. “ Madre de Dios. This is my wedding. I will not have you ruin it for me.”
“Face it, Camila,” Casey said. “You’re not getting married to Hawk,” Casey said. “Not now, or ever.”
“But he’s mine,” Camila wailed.
“ No. He. Is. Not. ” Casey emphasized every word, speaking slowly as if to a dimwitted child. “And you leave me no choice but to go to Panama.”
Jacob knew what was coming, even as Casey slammed her elbow into Camila’s gut.
The woman’s hand shook, the weapon went off, and Casey fell to the floor.
Jacob cried out, “Casey!”
Kalea left Hawk and threw herself at Camila, batted the gun out of the woman’s hand, knocked her off her feet and sent her flying across the floor, sliding on the fabric of her wedding gown. She came to a stop when her head hit the wall. There, she lay still, unmoving.
Jacob rushed toward Casey, who also lay still on the floor, blood dripping from somewhere on her head. He rolled her over in his arms to find she’d been hit near her temple. A bump was rising on the opposite brow, and she blinked up at him.
“Hey, beautiful,” he said, pressing his hand to the wound to stem the flow of blood. “Looks like you took a bullet for the team.”
“I did?” she said, her voice shaky.
His heart tightened in his chest. This woman had risked her life for them. “It’s just a flesh wound. You’ll have a battle scar with full bragging rights.”
“Good. I can put that on my resume.” She smiled up at him. “Wedding Planner. Willing to do anything for a wedding, to include taking a bullet for the bride and groom. That option will cost extra.” She chuckled and winced.
“How do you feel?”
“Like I got hit by a truck.” She struggled to sit up. “Kalea?”
“Is fine. She tackled Camila after she shot you. I think we need to recruit the two of you into the Navy. The SEAL teams could use people like you two. You’ll have to show me this move you call ‘The Panama’.”
Casey looked across the room at Kalea, held close in Hawk’s arms, and the other men of the team, herding the cartel into the room where Casey and Kalea had originally been held. “Is it over?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Jacob said.
She frowned, her gaze sweeping the room. “Anyone hurt?”
“Nothing but a few scrapes and bruises. And mostly between you and Kalea.” He brushed the hair back from her face. “You had me worried there for a minute.”
She looked up into his eyes. “You had me worried.” She turned her face into his palm. “I thought you were going to marry that crazy witch.”
“No way,” he said. “I go for the smaller, petite wedding-planner type.”
“Then what were you doing? Taking Camila for the team?”
He laughed. “I was distracting her while Hank and his team came through the back door.”
“Oh, is that what it was?” She leaned into him. “I guess that’s okay. I was beginning to question my sanity.”
He laughed. “ Your sanity?”
She nodded. “How could I fall for a guy who would marry someone obviously as crazy as Camila?”
Jacob’s heart skipped several beats. “So, you’re falling for me?”
She shrugged. “It’s not completely off the books.” She cupped his cheek with her hand. “You’re pretty sexy in a wetsuit and carrying a gun.” She leaned close and whispered in his ear. “And you’re even sexier in nothing at all.” She brushed her lips across his. “Any chance of that happening again?”
“Sweetheart, roger that.” He pulled her close and deepened the kiss until he couldn’t remember the last time he inhaled. He raised his head, drawing in a deep breath, then leaned his forehead against hers. “Now, all we have to do is get back to Oahu.”
Casey frowned. “You have a plane handy?”
“Not to worry,” Jacob said. “We’ll return by sea.” He rose to his feet, pulling her up with him.
“I didn’t bring a wet suit, much less a swimsuit.” She swayed when she was fully upright.
Jacob slipped an arm around her, holding her steady. “Not to worry. Our boat captain has a skiff he’ll bring ashore. We’ll get everyone back in time for the wedding.”
She smiled into his eyes and leaned up on her toes. “That makes me happy.”
He leaned down and claimed her lips. She felt so right in his arms he could kiss her all night long.
“If you two are finished sucking face,” Hank said, “we need to get out of here before Camila and her cartel thugs get free of their zip-ties and break down that door. I’ve radioed the captain. He’ll notify the authorities and send the skiff out to pick us up.”
Jacob raised his head to see that the room was clear of people and his team. Hank stood at the patio door. “Come on, we have a few hundred steps to get down to where the skiff will pick us up.”
“I’m ready,” Casey said.
He took her hand and hurried through the door and out into the most beautiful night he could remember. The stars shone so brightly that they didn’t need flashlights to find their way down the stone staircase.
When they reached the bottom, the first load of SEALs, Marines and Deltas had been ferried back to the boat, and the skiff was on its way back.
Hank glanced up at the structure above, his brow furrowed. “As soon as the skiff lands, get in. That door isn’t going to hold those men long.”
Jacob stood with his arm around Casey. They stayed close to the cliff, out of sight of the patio above.
Teller and Reid stood at the bottom of the staircase, holding their weapons at the ready in case the cartel members gained their freedom and came after them.
“Come on,” Rex murmured, his gaze on the skiff headed their way across the swells.
As the skiff slid up on shore, a shout sounded from above.
“Get in,” Hank said. “We’re right behind you.”
Jacob ran with Casey across the beach. Maddog had just turned around the skiff for a quick getaway.
Jacob helped Casey in, moving as far forward as they could get. Moments later, Rex, Logan, Teller and Levi dove in behind them. Hank and Reid brought up the rear, helping drag the skiff out into the water before they rolled over the side into the craft.
“Go!” Hank said.
Maddog gunned the throttle, sending the little boat skimming across the swells as fast as it could go.
Jacob leaned his body over Casey’s as they moved at what he felt like was an incredibly slow pace. He could hear the sound of gunfire over the rumble of the engine. If they didn’t get out of range soon, they’d be nothing more than target practice for the cartel; the rubber skiff would sink, and they’d all go down with it.