32. Dax
DAX
As I went through the sequence to get the tank running and tested the few things I needed, Wes’s voice sounded in the headset. “Lowering ramp now.”
While I couldn’t hear anything outside of what was said through the headset, I felt the pitch change as the ramp lowered, tilting us at a downward angle.
“Loosening the winch to get you to the end of the ramp.”
It was great to have him give us a play-by-play since I couldn’t see much from my periscope and old-school green computer screen. This tank was much older than the one we’d been trained on, but on the plus side, there were fewer things to fuck up.
“You’re clear for airdrop in three… two… one. Airdrop is a go!”
There was a rumble as the tank was released from the straps holding it to the ramp, and then we were airborne.
When I’d researched this tank model, I found it was specially made to be airdropped out of a plane to where it was needed in battle.
This tank could also move through water as well if we needed it to, but I wasn’t foreseeing that happening.
“Brace for landing in three, two, one…”
While the tank might be built to be dropped out of the sky without any harm to it, I’m not sure we applied to that theory.
Everything had been padded around us to help with the landing but fuck did that rattle your teeth.
The sound the tank made as it landed right in the middle of the garden in Marco’s hacienda was deafening to us, even with noise-canceling headphones on.
I couldn’t imagine what it sounded like out there.
It took us a minute to pull ourselves together, but the sound of bullets ricocheting off the metal hull snapped us back into focus.
“We landed right where we wanted to be,” Void shared. “These fuckers have no idea what to do with us.”
“We know what to do with them. Use the machine gun,” Harper ordered, shocking the hell out of me.
Void didn’t need much encouragement on that suggestion, and soon a rain of bullets was mowing down all the men shooting at us from the top of the walls.
“Harper, where’s our best chance to make a hole for the others to join us?” I called.
“We need to turn around… we’re facing the back of the house. We need to do a one-eighty, then we can fire straight ahead,” Harper instructed.
With that order, we got busy destroying Marco’s house just like he did mine.
Unlike with me, though, I didn’t snoop through all his shit first. Nah, I didn’t give a fuck what he had in this place other than Alvaro.
We had a plan we made at the hostel for that if we got word none of the others found him.
“Tank team, we got word from Dante the takedown is finished. They got the parents but no sign of anyone else,” Cam relayed. “We are on the ground and headed your way. Meet us at the southeast tower?”
“Sure thing, we’re just making our presence known,” I shared, now facing the direction we needed.
“Load it up, Void, and make it big,” Harper ordered.
We’d had to look up the different options that Francois had been sent.
There was an armor-piercing, heat-seeking, incendiary, and just a really fucking big explosion.
This is the one Harper was looking for, and it would probably do the job nicely.
Void had the shell loaded and ready in record time as Harper made the last adjustments before yelling. “Fire in the hole.”
Through my small little view of the world, we all felt the tank rock as the shell hurtled out of the barrel and slammed into the building.
Seconds later, the shell exploded, and shrapnel flew everywhere, tinging off the hull of the tank.
Sending the tank forward, the tracks made their way over the rubble until we realized the shell hadn’t made it all the way through.
Backing up, we loaded another, and that one did the job.
“This is so much better than any video game ever made,” Void muttered, forgetting that everything we said went through the headset, making everyone laugh.
Once we were out of the house, we headed for one of the four watch towers on the property. “We’re in range,” Harper announced. “Let’s do a guided shell… that way I can make sure the trajectory is just right.”
“Angel, do you know how sexy you sound right now?” Ghost piped up.
“Nope, none of that when all of us have to listen to it,” I cut in before he could say anything more.
“Shell is loaded,” Void said. “We’ve also got incoming on the left that looks like some four-wheelers.”
“Let’s take out the bigger problem first, and then we can switch to the machine gun,” Harper suggested, and we all agreed.
This is why Harper and I fought for this pairing because we knew we could work fast and decisively.
While destroying part of Marco’s house was a delightful happenstance, our goal was to draw all the attention so when the rest of our team made it on the scene, it was already chaos.
The watchtower exploded and toppled down like it had been made of straw.
What was left of it caught on fire, and there were men on fire running, but they dropped seconds later, telling me our guys had arrived.
Interestingly enough, half the guys knew how to parachute out of a plane so they doubled up and dropped in, which is why they’d needed us to make the spectacular scene we did. Harper had the turret swinging around, allowing Void to use the machine gun while she kept them in his sights.
The hardest thing of this whole battle is we had no idea if Marco was here or how many men might be on the property.
The hacienda was massive, and I’m sure it probably had more hidden places under it that we couldn’t see.
Marco liked his games, so I wasn’t putting anything past him.
One of the biggest mistakes we could make now was to assume what was seen was all we were dealing with.
Hence, why we had Gator and Mutt coming as backup once they were done with the drug farm.
“Pedal to the metal, Dax. We need to take out the watchtowers before switching out,” Harper announced.
I’d been surprised at how fast this baby could go on flat land, and as we went, the other two dealt with the bigger issues while our men played hide and kill. Void wasn’t bothered that he was missing out since he was in here blowing shit up.
Second watchtower done.
On to the third—bam.
The area around us glowed in a haunting orange light as we took out the last watchtower, its flames adding to the atmosphere.
There wasn’t any time to take in the sights as Void unlatched the top hatch, and we all climbed out.
Jaxson and Ghost were already there on the hull waiting to take Void’s and my place.
Everyone agreed Harper could come as long as she didn’t get the fuck out of the tank while the fight was still going.
“You good?” I asked them.
“Just peachy, now get out of my way. I want to blow some shit up,” Ghost said gleefully.
Jaxson just smiled and gave me a thumbs-up. “The rest are making their way to the hacienda… seems they ran out of four-wheelers to send after us.”
“Works for me. Keep my best friend safe. It would really suck to have to kill one or all of you if something happens,” I commented and jumped off the tank.
Neither of them replied, but if something did happen, they would happily let me kill them for failing her like that.
Void thudded to the ground next to me, and we gave each other a look before we took off sprinting across the open space to the house.
Pulling free one of my guns, I screwed on a silencer, wanting to take people out but for them not to know what directions the bullets came from.
Void and I picked off a few people here and there, but to my dismay, there weren’t as many as we had anticipated.
Carefully, I navigated the rubble we left behind from our exit, and instead of going for the garden area, I turned right and went deeper into the house.
Pausing, I reached into one of the pockets of the utility belt and put in my earpiece so I could hear the others.
It was silent right now, making me instantly suspicious.
Void had my back as we moved through the rooms on the first level, but it was so fucking quiet. It was all wrong.
Checking the last bedroom, I entered and froze. There tied to a chair with a laptop on her legs was none other than motherfucking Kimber. Her mouth was gagged, tears streamed down her cheeks, and snot dripped from her nose, making her look absolutely pathetic.
Striding forward, I yanked down the gag and handed the laptop to Void.
“Well, what do you know? It’s the bad penny that keeps turning up in my life to fuck me over. You know I really should have just fucking killed you with the rest of the Blackjax for all the shit you pulled,” I snarled at her.
She sniffed like a damn damsel in distress. “Dax, please. I’m sorry really… I’m so so sorry for all of it.”
“Like I fucking believe a word you have to say right now,” I bit out.
Glancing down, I spotted my parents’ wedding rings around her neck threaded through a cheap silver chain.
Grabbing them, I snapped the necklace off her, making her flinch.
“How dare you fucking take these from me? What gave you the right to have something like this when you didn’t even fucking love my brother? ”
“That’s not true,” she shot back. “I loved Devin more than anything in the world.”
“Yeah, sure, keep telling yourself that,” I muttered and turned my back on her to face Void. “What’s the bastard got to say?”
“He was here,” was all he said then hit play.
A man’s face appeared on the screen, and I knew it was Marco by the unmistakable resemblance to Mariana. “Hola, senorita, I’m so glad you decided to drop by and visit my home. You certainly know how to make an entrance.”
In the background, I could hear shouting, gunfire, and the boom of the tank going off, so I knew this was real.
“I believe you know my nephew and my lovely sister,” Marco said, panning the camera to where they were battered and bruised on the ground.
“It would seem they have been sharing a little too much of the family history with you. They needed to be punished, but as of right now, they’re still alive.
If they stay that way, it’s up to you. You took out my helicopter, so I can’t leave, but you obviously have a plane.
I’ll let these two live if you get your plane to come back and land on my private airstrip.
Then I will disappear, and we can start our cat-and-mouse game again with you hunting me down.
So what will it be? Oh, I hope you don’t mind.
I left this message in the care of someone you knew.
Thought it best that you hear this from your family. ”
Hurtling the laptop against the wall, it shattered and dropped to the ground. “Where the fuck did he go, Kimber?”
“I don’t know. They never allowed me into certain parts of the house where they did business. To them, I was just a whore to pass around and use,” she wailed.
The sound of her tears grated on me, knowing she was just doing it to manipulate me. Marco needed her for information on me, but now that he got what he wanted from her, he was using her to get under my skin.
Tapping the earpiece sent out a signal to all the others that there was a problem and someone needed to answer me.
“Dax, what’s the matter?” Harper asked. “It’s dead out here, there’s no movement at all.”
“Fuck,” I swore, then turned on Kimber, slamming my fist into her face. “Tell me what I want to know, you useless cunt.”
The tears dried up, and anger filled her eyes, showing me the Kimber I knew well. “You fucking bitch, all of this is your fault, all of it. If you had just left everything alone, I wouldn’t have had to suffer like this all my life.”
“Yeah, I’m not going to let you sit there spewing that disgusting filth all over me,” I informed her. “Tell me where they went and why my men aren’t answering me, and I might consider letting you live. Otherwise, I wonder what it would feel like to be slowly crushed by a tank?”
Her face paled as she knew I never bluffed. I’d squash her like a bug without even batting a lash. Licking her lips, she swallowed. “There’s a tunnel with a track that will take you to the other location where they keep the drugs.”
“See, was that so hard?” I asked, patting her cheek with far more force than I needed. “Well, it seems I’m off to find me a tunnel.”
“Wait,” Kimber called. “You can’t leave me here like this.”
“You know what, you’re absolutely right.” Lifting my gun, I shot her right between the eyes. “That’s much better. No way she’s going to be causing me trouble now.”