“Shit!” Randall said.
When the men went up the ramp, their backs were to Hunter and Randall. Both glanced north of the pier to the beach where the three vehicles and the men waited for the boats.
The seas were getting rougher, and Hunter thought one of the boats was going to capsize end over end as it rode out of a trough and the next wave lifted the stern so high it looked like the boat was vertical, then it wallowed and crashed down again.
John was trapped in the bushes, in plain sight as the men walked Ariel up the ramp. If one of them looked his way, it would be over. He saw Ariel continue to talk to them, keeping their attention on her and away from him.
A movement caught his attention and he saw Hunter and Randall hurry forward to reach the side of the Quarterdeck Restaurant. They moved to the corner, then Randall glanced beyond the edge of the building to the ramp. He jerked back when seeing them.
The two men maneuvered Ariel away from the pier walk and under a large overhang. One of them moved behind her and touched the point of a Knife to the skin over her kidneys. “Take off the clothes.” She grabbed the hem of her green dress and pulled up to take it over her head.
The man leaned his M4 against the wall and put the knife in its sheath, then ran his hands over her bare waist. The second man said “Hey, I want some of that, too.” He leaned his rifle next to the other one and said to Ariel, “Get the rest of it off, starting with the bra.”
Ariel’s hands shook as she moved her hands to her back.
Randall glanced around the corner again, and then heard Ariel scream. He ran forward, and Hunter was beside him going all out. Both had their pistols drawn when they spotted Ariel and the two men.
Randall struck the man fondling Ariel’s breasts so hard his feet left the floor. Randall followed him down and pushed the barrel of his pistol into the man’s cheek, raising the skin enough to show his teeth.
The second one was kneeling behind Ariel and pulling down her underwear when Hunter snap kicked him under the chin. The man’s head flew back as three broken teeth flipped through the air like Chiclets. He was out before the back of his head bounced on the concrete floor.
A movement behind them caused Hunter and Randall to turn with their pistols out.
It was John. “God-o-mighty, am I glad to see you,” Hunter said, then hugged his neck.
Randall said, “You okay?”
John said, “Thanks to Ariel.” He went to the woman as she dressed, “You saved my bacon, you know that?”
Hunter checked the M4s, picked up one. She ejected the double magazine and examined the bullets. “Every other round is a tracer.” She reset the clip in the rifle and said, “We still have a lot of bad guys out here.”
John said “Dessaline and Bazin? Are they here?”
Randall said, “The end of the pier, doing something with a third boat.”
“What about the others by the cars on the beach?”
“They’re on the sand waiting for two boats to land. They know Hunter and I are here, but it seems the boats are more important to ‘em.”
Hunter said, “I can mess their plans up a little.”
John said, I want the two at the end of the pier.”
Randall said, “They aren’t alone. There are four or five others, Young Anson and Jean Claude are there, too.”
John said, “They’re not getting off the pier.”
Hunter said, “I’ve got these guys on the beach.”
“There are six of them, too.”
“I have the high ground and protection with these walls. They have no place to hide, other than their cars. All they can do is run away.”
“They can drive away.”
Hunter tapped the rifle, “No, they can’t.”
Randall grinned, “You’re pretty sure of yourself.”