Chapter 31
Hush
Iwas trying to bite my tongue. This was Seek’s show, but I hated that we were out here in the middle of monsoon season. No. I hated that she was out here. It didn’t seem to matter that I knew she could handle herself. Daphne had been able to also. There was no fighting mother nature.
It was hard to deny the urge to drag Seek back to her truck and get her the fuck out of this desert. Shoving my hands in my pocket, to keep them from doing just that, I began searching the ground.
The dogs were running around, sniffing, while we all tried to pick up the trail that disappeared a few feet back. We looked around for about twenty minutes when the wind picked up. A sharp look at the sky showed clouds building.
Seek met my gaze and gave me an apologetic look. She knew every minute of us being out here was a test to my patience. She stiffened when Auron began barking. Her eyes widened and she called out, “He’s got something!” She shook her head in disbelief. “He’s actually got something. Let’s go!”
She took off running after her dogs, leaving us cussing and scrambling after her.
“No one said anything about running,” Joe said, puffing next to me.
“Told you to quit smokin’,” I replied, while keeping an eye on Seek. I didn’t catch what he grumbled in response because I was already speeding up to catch up with my daredevil woman. I’d be impressed with her stamina if it were any other situation.
I caught up to her just in time to catch a flash of color on the other side of a thick grove of mesquite trees ahead of us.
Snagging her arm, I pulled her back and held a finger to my lips.
The dogs had stopped barking and she held up a hand, calling them back to her without ever having to utter a word.
I motioned for the guys—who were all coming up on our asses—to slow down and be quiet.
I pulled up the back of my shirt, revealing my pistol.
I didn't draw it, not yet. Just making sure it was accessible. We crept forward, using the trees as cover. My gut was telling me we didn’t want to go sprinting forward.
As soon as we got closer, I saw that my instincts had been right. They were finely tuned from years of dangerous missions in the Marines. I clapped my hand over Seek’s mouth, dragging her back against my chest, to quiet her gasp.
There were three men out in front of us, digging a grave. I had a feeling it wasn’t the only one out here. We were miles from the dirt road and in the middle of nowhere.
On the ground near the grave was a woman. Her hazed over eyes and stiff posture told me she was already dead. There was a line in the sand coming from the west. They’d dragged her here, and recently. That explained why Seek and the cops hadn’t found anything earlier. They hadn’t been here to find.
The little girl struggled in the arms of one of the men.
Her sobs were silent as tears poured down over her cheeks.
By the looks of it, her mom had been dead for at least a day.
The thought of what this little girl had seen made anger flare up inside my soul.
These men were going to die by our hands.
It was the least they deserved for killing the woman and putting her daughter through this.
I put my lips next to Seek’s ear. “You stay here.” Waiting until she nodded her agreement, I watched the men.
Rifles were slung over their shoulders. They were far outnumbered but could still put up a fight.
We had the element of surprise on our side.
That would help keep us safe, but they were about to have a really bad day.
Letting go of Seek, I turned and motioned for half our men to go left with Riptide, and I’d take the rest to the right.
We could use the mesquite grove as cover while we flanked them.
I drew my pistol, and the rest of the men did the same.
We split up, and I gave Seek one last look.
She was holding her dogs’ collars to prevent them from blowing our cover by going toward the people they’d been searching for.
I was grateful she had so much control over them.
Both dogs were silent, waiting for her command.
There was worry and fear there in her eyes.
She was tough, and had seen a lot. This was new to her though, and all too familiar for me.
I winked at her, trying to ease some of her fear.
Creeping around the grove of trees, we made no noise.
Every one of us were highly trained—all in different areas—but we knew how to sneak up on a man.
Just like we all knew how to take lives. Moving as one, we crept into position.
Holding up my fist, telling the others to pause, I watched as the two men began to dump the body into the grave they’d dug. Now was the perfect time since they weren’t holding shovels and were busy with maneuvering the body.
I raised my gun up, sights out front, and ran out of the brush.
The startled look on the men’s faces morphed into anger.
They were mad that we’d caught them and that pissed me off.
Thinking that you could kidnap and kill a woman and her child without any kind of consequences was far beyond my scope of reality, but clearly not theirs.
We were all yelling, barking directions at them. It took every ounce of control I had to not shoot them on sight. Seek was watching, and so was the child. We had to try to keep it from becoming a blood bath. The men froze, hands creeping toward the sky, except for the one holding the girl.
“Let her go,” I snapped at him and his hands jerked away, setting her loose.
She ran and dropped down onto her knees near her mother. Like an amateur, I turned my head to watch the girl. It was enough of a distraction that the men used it to pull their guns.
I cursed and ducked as bullets began flying between the men who were running away from us—and shooting as they went—and my guys returning fire.
There wasn’t enough cover out here for this, nothing for us to hide behind.
Worse, there was nowhere for Seek or the girl to go where they could be safe.
Our best bet was to chase the men, forcing them away from the area and into one where we didn’t need to worry about a stray round hitting the girls.
The others must have had the same thought because they charged after the men. Looking around, I met Seek’s gaze before following. She’d know to get the girl and stay put. I had to trust in her.
We sprinted after the men, catching up after a short time. They split up, running through another mesquite grove, forcing us to do the same. It wasn’t the best plan for them since we outnumbered them. Butcher, Toxic, and I took the guy who ran off toward the west.
I slowed as we came up on an area that had another thick spot of mesquite. We stopped and listened. There were no sounds of crashing brush and the man wasn’t in our line of sight anymore. I nodded over to the trees and the others nodded in agreement.
“Come out without your weapon and maybe we won’t kill you,” I called out.
Butcher gave me a look of disbelief. “What? Why the fuck not?”
“Butcher,” I growled, trying to shut him up. Of course I was lying. Had they surrendered before shooting at us they might have lived, though unlikely. Now? We were going to bury him in that fucking hole he’d dug as a fuck you to him and his friends.
The man replied by sending a barrage of rounds at our heads.
We dove out of the way and I bellied my way over to a Saguaro cactus.
It wasn’t the best thing to hide behind since it’s trunk went straight up seven feet in the air before its arms branched out, but I didn’t have many options.
I motioned for Butcher and Toxic to get the guy’s attention and waited, eyes boring into the thick vegetation he was hiding behind.
There. Movement behind the trees told me where he was.
I aimed in and squeezed the trigger. Once.
Twice. The movement stopped. We crept in from opposite sides.
By the time we found him, lying amongst the low level bushes surrounding the trees, he was already gasping for breath. Blood poured from his chest and mouth.
“Fuck,” I muttered. “Hey, can you speak?”
His panicked eyes met mine and all that spilled from his lips was an unintelligible glugging sound. He was drowning in his own blood.
“Should I put him out of his misery?” Toxic asked.
“Fuck that,” Butcher replied, grabbing the man by the ankle as he began dragging him back toward where we’d left Seek, the girl, and the grave. “Let him suffer. I doubt they made that woman’s death an easy one.”
I fell in step beside him in total agreement.
Somewhere along the walk back the man died.
None of us were going to shed any tears for him.
I was just pissed that I’d nailed him with a death blow.
It would have been better to get some information out of him.
Like where they’d come from? There weren't any other vehicles around and no roads to access this area. So where had they brought the woman and girl from? All I could hope was that one of the other two were still alive. Though, knowing my brothers they wouldn’t be.
Looking up at the sky, I muttered another curse.
The wind was blowing the storm Butcher had warned about directly at us.
It was going to start pouring any minute.
It wouldn’t matter so much as long as we stayed out of the washes.
Those were what filled up and ran the risk of flash flooding.
With these larger clusters of trees in this area I knew it got plenty of rain.
There were more than a few washes that carried the water to these parts.
I was anxious to get back to Seek and picked up the pace. Butcher started bitching since he was the one dragging the body, until Toxic picked up the other foot and helped him drag the guy.