“It should work out just fine. They took the bait, and a few of their friends will die with them,” Sergio added. The man holding Adelina’s arm stuck her with a needle.
“Hey, what are you doing?” she yelled, and Raymond caressed her cheeks, as he held her face between his hands. “Rest, my love. By the time you awake, you’ll be in my bed, and we’ll work on consummating this relationship.” She shook her head. “No. I don’t want you.”
Raymond squinted his eyes and held her gaze with one so intense, despite the weird way her body was suddenly feeling, she knew he was angry.
“I am your master now. Your lovers are dead, and so is the only family you’ve ever known. Defy me again, Adelina, and you will you die.”
She blinked her eyes, as his words sunk in, and then she closed them as the sound of the rotors moving faster echoed in her head. They were taking off. There was no one to save her. Thoughts of Bryer and Kaitlin dying in a fire brought tears to her eyes, and a pain to her heart despite the drugs they injected into her.
She closed her eyes, and pictured her men.
Jett, Flynn, I love you. I’m sorry.
* * * *
“What the hell are you all doing here?” Cash asked, as he, Zane, Jett, Flynn, Al, and the others arrived on the scene near a seaport filled with storage containers. There were federal agents asking witnesses if they had seen a woman and a child. The place was huge, and now their women showed up. Toni, Tia Rose, Chiara, Chastity, and Toni were standing there looking just as angry as all their men. Just then the men started trying to get them to leave, but they refused.
“Listen, this place is huge, and we don’t have a lot of time. Let us help you. We can explore and look around, too,” Chiara stated.
“But what if you get lost?” Zane asked.
“What if there are traps set up?” Nash added.
“What if we don’t get to them in time and those traps do them in?” Toni added.
“Fuck!” Jagger stated, and then he and Hudson took Tia Rose’s hand and led her toward an area to explore. Nash and Riker took Chastity’s hand and led her in the same direction.
“You guys, go that way, along with some of our security team. I don’t want a bunch of civilians alone snooping around. Our men are trained for this, just like the federal agents are,” Cash commanded. Emerson and Stone took Toni’s hand and walked with Cash, Zane, and Chiara.
* * * *
Jett and Flynn were walking with Cash and Zane. “We need to get to them. Where the hell could Raymond have taken Adelina?” Jett asked as they came across another set of storage containers.
“Hey, we just spoke to two dock hands. They said they thought they saw a van speeding out of here about twenty minutes ago. It came from these three set of containers,” one of the agents yelled to them. Flynn gave the thumbs-up.
“Let’s do this. Be careful to look for any traps,” Flynn stated.
“Chiara, you remain right here, at a good distance,” Cash told her.
“What? No, I want to help, too.”
Zane grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her up against his chest.
“Honey, you do as I say or tonight’s punishment will have lasting effects.” He squeezed her ass and looked down into her eyes with a firm expression. Jett chuckled. He was going to give Adelina a hell of a spanking for running off trying to save her sister and nephew without a word or a phone call to them.
As he thought about that, he remembered that he hadn’t checked his phone in a while. They were in agent mode for the last two hours.
Al’s team moved in quietly and carefully. The moment one of the team raised his hand for everyone to stop, Jett felt his stomach harden into knots.
“What?” Cash asked.
“It’s wired. C-4 fucking everywhere. It’s a trap.”
“They’re in there. That sick motherfucker set up enough C-4 to kill them and us,” Flynn stated.
“Can you disengage them safely?” Zane asked.
“It’s going to take some time, sir.”
“Shit,” Flynn replied.
“Let’s do this right. He expected us to go in all gung ho. This asshole is really starting to piss me off. I swear, I wish you guys had taken him out back in Columbia,” Zane stated.
“Believe us, we wish we had, too,” Jett said.
“Do you think Adelina is in there?” Flynn asked.
“Let’s hope so. But it doesn’t really make sense. He wanted you two dead. He wants to hurt you and he also wants to hurt her. He could have set this up to kill us all. To end it all,” Cash stated as the others arrived on scene, too. The team was gathering the things they needed to disarm the C-4, and their friends were coming closer.
“Take them back. You guys don’t need to risk your lives or your women’s lives. We’ll go in first,” Flynn told them. Everyone was silent a moment. Cash, Zane, Hudson, Jagger, Emerson, Stone, Nash, and Riker gathered around them, with their women right beside them.
“We’re all best friends for life. That means in good times and in bad, we’ve always been together,” Zane told Jett and Flynn.
“When Toni needed help, you guys were there for her and for us,” Stone told them.
“When we needed your help with Chastity and her situation, you guys were there for us,” Nash told them next.
“You had our backs when we needed your help, too,” Cash said.
“And you guys were there for us during the crazy shit we went through with Tia Rose. There’s no way we’d leave you now,” Hudson said.
“We’re going to help you get your woman. This family of ours, as untraditional as it is, will have a happy fucking ever after,” Stone stated as he raised his voice.
“Hell, yeah!” Chiara added, and the other women added similar comments. They all chuckled and Jett and Flynn just shook their heads.
“All clear, we think,” the security team leader said, as another two men began to unlock the storage container.
As the doors creaked open, Kaitlin and Bryer ran out toward them.
“Run! Run, there’s a bomb inside, the door triggered it,” she screamed with Bryer in her arms.
Al grabbed Bryer from her and another security guy grabbed Kaitlin and they all started running.
“Adelina? What about Adelina?” Jett yelled as he stopped where he was.
Kaitlin stopped and turned despite the fact that security guy was pulling her along.
“She’s not in there, Jett. He took her with him. It was a setup. Run. Please, God, just run!” she yelled at him.
They must have looked like a bunch of crazy people as they booked it as far as they could from the container. Just as they thought they were at a safe distance, an explosion rocked the entire pier. The containers exploded, black smoke erupted in a cloud above the scene and fire immediately roared in the surrounding area. There were fuel tanks everywhere.
“Keep going. All the way to the parking lot, past the fenced-in entrance,” Al yelled back to them. By the time they all got there, they were gasping for air, and some of them fell against the fence and the cars. Sounds of sirens filtered through the air, as men working on the pier ran along with them and to safety.
“Goddamn him!” Jett yelled as he gripped the fence and shook it, feeling the anger pour from his body. Flynn grabbed his arms.
“Calm down. We’ll get him.”
“No, we won’t. He won, Flynn. He fucking won. We have no idea where the hell he took her or even how to find him. He’ll hurt her, take out his revenge on her, and then kill Adelina.” He shook the fence again, and then released it and kicked it.
“Tell him, Mommy. Tell him what the guy in the van said on the phone.” Bryer’s little voice broke through the anger Jett was feeling. He turned around to face his friends, his brother, and the little boy he had only just begun to know. A child who endured one of life’s most challenging fights and succeeded. He was strong. Bryer was a fighter.
“What is he talking about, Kaitlin?” Flynn asked her.
“In the van, Sergio was talking to Raymond on the phone. He was supposed to meet him at a heliport somewhere. They were taking a helicopter to a ship, and then taking Adelina with him to Venezuela.”
“Venezuela? Holy fuck. Get on that, Al. Find out where every nearby heliport is from here. See how many copters took off, and at what times. Have the feds look into the coast guard finding that ship. I need everyone on this pronto,” Cash stated firmly.
“Holy shit,” Flynn said to Jett.
Jett felt someone tugging on his jeans. He looked down and into the big brown eyes of Bryer.
“Yes?” he asked, as he lowered to one knee. The little boy was absolutely adorable. He had big brown eyes, dirty-blond hair cut very short, and a very serious expression.