Dangerous Enforcer (OSI Dark Ops #6)
CHAPTER ONE
Lucia Santos dropped the dishrag into the soapy water and ran toward the sound of a child’s bloodcurdling scream. By the time she closed the distance between the kitchen and the front door, Blanca Calabretta was already grabbing the old baseball bat she kept in the nearby coat closet.
“Mamita’s coming, Violetta!” she shouted.
As a mother, Blanca instinctively recognized the sound of her daughter’s voice.
She was fifty-seven years old and barely five feet tall, but she bolted out that door like a trained warrior, ready to protect her child, no matter the cost to her personal safety.
Without thinking, Lucia followed her, and the second she stepped out the door, she came upon a terrifying scene.
A man had his arms wrapped around Violetta and was dragging her across the grass toward a car waiting nearby. The passenger door was open, and the engine was running.
She was only twelve, but she fought him with everything she had. She kicked, clawed at his arms, and tried to squirm from his grasp. Realizing his hold was too strong, she opened her mouth really wide and bit deep into his forearm.
He howled and lost his hold on her.
Violetta scrambled away from him and ran toward Lucia.
His face was red with fury, and he stalked toward them, cursing with each step.
Lucia wrapped herself around Violetta and shielded her from the horrible man who’d tried to steal her away from everyone who loved her.
She glanced over her shoulder.
Blanca held the bat high overhead, moved up behind him, and closed the distance between them. Then, with all the strength and ferocity of a mother bear protecting her cub, she brought the bat down right in the middle of his back.
“GAAAHHHH!” He arched his back in pain and dropped to one knee. “You old bitch!”
Blanca was preparing to swing the bat again, and he shoved up off the ground.
He noticed people coming out of their houses, curious about what was going on, then ran to the car and dove through the open door.
“Go! Go! Go!” he yelled.
The front tires spun and finally gripped the asphalt, and the door swung shut as the car tore off down the street.
Lucia held Violetta close. “Are you okay, honey?”
“Yeah, I’m just mad he got away.” Violetta’s tears and the way her body trembled were a powerful contradiction to her tough words.
As the youngest of the eight Calabretta children, she’d learned how to hold her own.
But this wasn’t speaking up for herself to her older siblings.
She’d been innocently playing with her new remote-control jeep—something she’d bought with her own money—and a stranger tried to take her right from her own front yard.
An act made more brazen by the fact there was a large group of friends and family at the house for a barbecue.
Blanca dropped her makeshift weapon on the driveway and dashed over to her daughter.
Lucia released the girl, stepped out of the way, and they embraced.
“Are you okay, my nina preciosa?” Precious child.
Violetta nodded, then buried her face against her mother’s shoulder and cried.
Mark Collins, a detective with the sheriff’s department and Blanca’s son-in-law, ran out the front door. “What the hell happened?”
“Someone tried to grab Violetta.” Lucia pointed. “He jumped in a car and went that way.”
He pulled his phone from his pocket and ran down to stand in the middle of the street. But the car was no longer in sight.
Blanca’s guests began pouring out onto the front yard. More curious neighbors filtered out of their houses to stand on their front porches or driveways, interested to know what all of the excitement was about.
Lucia desperately needed to see her own child and began scanning the crowd of people gathered on the front lawn. She was only eight and so small. Then, she heard her voice before she saw her.
“What happened to Violetta?” Isabella carefully weaved her way through the people.
Lucia ran to her, dropped to one knee, and hugged her.
“We’ll talk about that later.” For right now, she just needed to hold her own nina preciosa.
What if it had been Isabella?