Chapter 7
“Didn’t you just leave, like, yesterday?” Brick asked when Spike entered the lodge at The Refuge with Tiny, Woody, Isabella, Angelo, and Reese.
“And why am I not surprised that you returned with four extra people?” Stone said with a laugh.
Spike would’ve felt bad, but he knew his friends were joking. The first thing Brick had done when he saw them enter was go to the kitchen and ask Luna and Robert to make a bunch of extra food for breakfast.
They’d landed in Dallas for their layover with no issues, but then had to deal with some red tape in order for Isabella and Angelo to enter the country.
But Tex came through again, and after some negotiating and a few emails back and forth, they were granted asylum and allowed to continue to their next flight to Santa Fe.
The sun had just come up, and even though Spike was exhausted, he was also wired.
Thrilled that Reese and her brother had agreed to come to The Refuge.
Isabella and Reese had wanted Woody to promise he’d go to the hospital the second they reached Santa Fe, but like Spike expected, he’d refused, saying a gunshot wound would cause more questions than he was comfortable answering.
He didn’t want to do anything that might bring attention to himself, or to Isabella and her brother.
So Spike and Tiny had done their best to clean and patch him up at the airport in Dallas.
He’d been lucky. While his arm would be damn sore for a while, the bullet had gone straight through and hadn’t hit any vital blood vessels or arteries.
Woody had always been a tough son of a bitch, and this proved that little had changed since they’d left the teams.
And his sister was equally tough. She was the reason they were all standing here now, in fact. If it hadn’t been for her having the truck ready to go, and her incredible driving ability, they’d all either be dead or back in that bunker, being held hostage.
They were escorted to one of the largest conference rooms in the lodge, and Reese and Isabella were now on the other side of the room being fussed over by Alaska and Henley.
They were sitting at a table, and Jasna, Henley’s daughter, was going back and forth from the kitchen, bringing water, plates and silverware, and some fresh-squeezed orange juice.
Robert and Luna would soon bring in breakfast, so everyone could eat before they headed to their cabins for some much-needed down time.
Angelo was sitting to the side of the room by himself, with his arms crossed, looking uncertain.
Spike hated not being able to communicate with the kid—because he had a lot of questions.
Questions only Angelo could answer. Nothing about what they’d all just been through made much sense, and Spike had a feeling Angelo would be able to fill in a lot of the holes.
“Want to give us a rundown of what happened?” Brick asked once the women were occupied.
It wasn’t that they were purposely trying to talk without the others overhearing, but they were used to keeping what they did on the down-low.
Not to mention, they didn’t want to upset Isabella and Reese by rehashing the close call they’d had.
“Woody? You want to start?” Spike asked.
His former teammate nodded. “As you know by now, I went down to Colombia because Bella called me in a panic. She said she thought the apartment was being watched, and she was scared, both for herself and Angelo. She’d been hearing rumors at work that certain people weren’t happy about her assignments with the government.
She feared either being kidnapped herself, or someone using her brother to force her to give up information about some of the clients she’d translated for in the past.” He ran a hand through his hair in agitation.
“I’d basically do anything for her. I’ve loved her forever, but we both made excuse after excuse as to why we wouldn’t work.
That didn’t keep us from calling and communicating on a regular basis.
“Anyway, I told Reesie where I was going and caught the next flight out. I went straight to Isabella’s apartment.
I didn’t see people lurking around, didn’t get the sense that anyone was watching.
I stupidly figured she was overreacting.
But clearly my instincts have dulled since leaving the military.
” He shook his head. “I had one perfect day and night with Bella before the shit hit the fan.”
Woody sighed. “The men who took us…they basically just walked right into the apartment. They knocked me around a little bit, but it wasn’t necessary.
I wouldn’t have risked Isabella’s safety by doing anything stupid.
We did what they asked without protest. They took all three of us to that house where you found us.
Locked Bella and me in one room, and put Angelo in the other. ”
“What did they want you for?” Pipe asked.
“I have no idea,” Woody said with a shake of his head. “That’s the weirdest part. They didn’t demand anything.”
“We found drugs in Angelo’s room,” Spike said quietly. “A lot. It’s how we found you guys. There was an address with the drugs.”
Woody’s eyes widened. “What? No. Angelo isn’t into that. Isabella’s warned him for years about staying away from the cartel recruiters.”
“I’m just telling you what we found,” Spike told him.
“Fuck!” Woody said, a dark scowl on his face.
“Woody?”
They all turned and saw Isabella standing near them, looking extremely nervous. Their plan to keep her out of the conversation had obviously failed.
“It’s okay,” Woody assured her without hesitation, grabbing her hand.
“I talked to Angelo at the airport in Bogotá. About what happened. He…he said he was recruited by the cartel,” she confirmed, her voice shaking.
“He swears he told them that he was not interested—until they threatened me. He was forced to courier drugs, but he did not do so, was trying to figure out a way to stop. He said he hid the drugs in our apartment instead of delivering them to the person he was supposed to…and that is why the cartel came to the apartment and took us.”
Everyone frowned. Spike resisted glaring over at the young man sitting against the wall. He understood being between a rock and a hard place…but his actions had ultimately gotten his sister and Woody kidnapped. And the outcome could’ve been so much worse.
“What happened when you got to that house?” Tiny asked Woody.
Woody sighed. “Not much. The only time we saw anyone was when they opened the door to bring us food and water…which wasn’t very often. I was still trying to figure out what I should do when you two showed up,” he finished, gesturing to Spike and Tiny.
“That doesn’t make much sense,” Owl said.
“When Stone and I were taken captive, we were immediately interrogated and tortured. I mean, it wasn’t as if they really wanted any information, they just wanted to make us suffer.
Get it on film so they could brag that they’d captured two American helicopter pilots. ”
Spike hating hearing about Owl and Stone’s captivity.
They’d gone through hell after their chopper was shot down while on a mission.
They’d been extremely lucky to be rescued, and they both knew it.
Their story had been plastered all over the news channels.
The entire nation had seen clips of them being tortured by their enemy.
“That’s what I thought,” Woody said. “I kept waiting for them to come in, separate Bella and I…and frankly, kill me. I would’ve been just another casualty of the war on drugs. But instead, they did nothing. Just left us alone.”
“Maybe they were using you guys to threaten Angelo some more. Using you as leverage.”
Woody sighed. “That does seem likely.”
“Does anyone else think our escape seemed a little too easy?” Tiny asked.
Spike had a feeling if Reese heard that question, she’d strongly disagree, but he’d been thinking the same thing.
Why was the house empty? And they’d been able to get all three captives out of that bunker without anyone noticing.
They’d been as quiet as possible, but had they been so quiet that none of the men around the corner had heard them?
He didn’t think so. If it hadn’t been for that truck full of men, they would’ve gotten off without anyone noticing… which seemed impossible.
“It’s like they let us go,” Woody agreed.
“Why would they do that when they made the effort to pick you up and lock you away in the first place?” Tonka asked.
“I don’t know that either,” Woody said with a frown.
“I’ve been thinking the same thing as Tiny,” Spike said. “Which was another reason I invited you all to stay here for a while. If the cartel had some nefarious reason to let you go without too much trouble, they won’t be able to track you here.”
“Do we think having Angelo here is going to be an issue?” Tiny asked.
“No!” It was Isabella who answered. “He knows what he did was wrong. And he was relieved to be rescued. He’s glad to be away from all of those people. There is no way he would do anything that might cause me harm yet again.”
“I don’t like the idea of bringing trouble to your doorstep,” Woody said.
Spike stared at his friend. “If you thought I was just going to drop you off back in Kansas City without a second thought, you don’t know me as well as I thought you did.”
“It’s just that, this place…hell, Spike, it’s called The Refuge. How much of a fucking refuge is it gonna be if drug cartel members come looking for us?” Woody asked.