This Cradle Won't Fall (The American Soldier Collection 18)

“What?” she asked when Pierce released her lips.

He ran his hand over her ass and gave it a tap.

“Your soldiers are resourceful,” he said and winked, then suckled against her neck. She held onto his big muscles and then pulled back.

“Oh wait. We were going to do some more training in self-defense. I was getting good at that stuff,” she said.

“We can teach you at home. In the bedroom,” Pierce told her.

“In the bedroom?” she asked, pulling back.

“Oh yeah. Very complex and sneaky tactics,” Lou said and then slid his hand under her shirt and to her breast, cupping it.

“Lou!” she exclaimed and they all laughed.

“My kind of training. Good idea, bro. Let’s move,” Tex said and they gathered their things and headed out. Vye shook her head and felt her cheeks warm, but she held onto Pierce’s arm, hugging him as Frankie joined them. Something told Vye there would be no painting getting done tonight at all.

* * * *

Bailey, Turbo, Brady, and Cobra arrived at the apartment building just as Grisha arrived. They weren’t the only ones there tracking down Murdock to a woman’s apartment. Creagan, Nuvon’s main security guy, was there, and so were a bunch of police and paramedics.

They got out of the SUV at the end of the block after pulling up alongside Creagan’s SUV.

“What’s going on here?” Turbo asked Creagan, but Creagan looked right at Grisha. Bailey listened and just kept his mouth closed. These men were intense. Creagan was a mean-ass-looking dude with a scar down his cheek.

“Grisha, you didn’t need to travel so far for this. I have it covered,” Creagan said to him.

“I’m here. What do you have?” he asked.

“Two men who did some work for Nuvon had access to inventory lists and such. They did some side work for the boss. My associate, she came across some information and we were just coming by to check this lead when we came upon the scene,” Creagan said.

“Where is your assistant and what did you find out?” Grisha asked in a thick, Russian accent.

Creagan looked down the block and Bailey noticed a very attractive woman with straight, long brown hair walking toward them. She was dressed in a slim-fitting black business dress that hugged her figure. She looked classy and confident until she seemed to lock gazes with Grisha, and then she shyly looked away and pushed her hair behind her hair before she approached.

“What did the cops say?” Creagan asked.

She looked at Grisha and nodded, like she knew who he was and showed respect for him. Then Creagan squinted like that pissed him off, but that was just Bailey’s observation.

“A woman, Gay Colon, was beaten and knocked unconscious after some men broke into the apartment. Nothing was stolen, but the place was ransacked like they were looking for something. The one detective mentioned her only having family in Texas and that they were looking up a woman named Ella Brazzos. That’s all I got.”

Bailey looked at Cobra and knew that it was Tex’s woman’s aunt who’d been beaten up.

“When did this happen?” Bailey asked. The woman looked at him.

“When?” Grisha asked, eying her over.

“Two days ago, they think. They aren’t sure. The woman is in bad shape,” Anastasia said.

“Bailey, Tex’s girlfriend, this is her aunt’s place and she was involved with Murdock. You better contact Tex. If this happened two days or more ago, and he knows we’re all onto him and his buddies, he could be heading to Texas or already there,” Turbo said to Bailey.

“This is fucking crazy. Can this Tex guy and your friends handle Murdock and his buddies?” Grisha asked.

“They’re soldiers. Special Forces, and this dick abused and is after their woman. What do you think?” Bailey asked, then picked up the phone and called Tex, explaining the situation and the fact that they didn’t know how long her aunt had been hurt and alone in the apartment, but they assumed it was days.

Chapter Ten

They were all enjoying the town festival and the picnic they set up around all their friends. They’d picked a nice spot by the sheriff’s department that had both shade and sun. Everyone was there—Laverty, Ford, Ghost, Evan, Lois, baby Connor, and the kids. Their dads, John, Bane, Scott, and their wife, Dora. Valentina and her men and the kids, as well as their other friends.