Page 4 of Maddog

“Everyone off the bus, now!” A male voice speaking in heavily accented Spanish shouted over top of all the screams and cries. There was more commotion as people moved down the aisle in a hurry, shoving and tripping over each other.

The weight on me shifted and I realized the person who had fallen on me was being dragged away. I fought to clear my head, to push through the hazy fog that had settled over my brain. The rapid pounding of my heart echoed in my ears while my chest constricted in panic.

I forced myself to open my eyes, wincing as the harsh sunlight hit me where it shined in through the broken bus window. When I could focus, I saw a pair of rough boots in front of me in the aisle.

I didn’t dare move. The man standing in front of me dragged me roughly to my feet and shoved me toward the back of the vehicle where the rear door was open. I stumbled forward and tried to brace myself to jump to the ground, but I was shoved, landing with a cry in a heap.

“Get up, bitch.” Again, I was manhandled, the guy dragging me to the rest of the group and shoving me hard. I tripped and went flying into the people in my party. I’d lost sight of Andrea and Chris, but figured I needed to worry about myself at the moment. Chris would take care of Andrea. If not, I’d do what I could, but I had to face the fact that I might not be able to save her. Or myself for that matter.

Around me, the chaos continued. The air was filled with the terrified screams and pleas for help. The heat felt like it intensified tenfold as fear and adrenaline coursed through me. I tried to stand but found myself dizzy and disoriented, falling back onto the ground. When I rubbed my face with my hand, it came back sticky. Blood streaked my fingers and the palm of my hand, but I didn’t think it was my blood. Which was when I remembered the person who’d fallen on top of me.

My gaze found the bus as they rolled a body out the back and onto the dirt road. Men were speaking Spanish to each other. Though I knew some Spanish, I couldn’t keep up with these guys. They gestured to the dead girl they’d shoved out the back of the bus, obviously upset for whatever reason. One of them was angry, the other on the defensive, but I couldn’t catch what they said.

“Get down! Get down!” I was certain that was the bodyguard with Chris. When I turned my head toward his voice, the large man had shoved Chris into the dirt. He had a small handgun out, tracking the guys who’d attacked us but not firing. The bodyguard seemed to be reluctant to shoot anyone and was more than a little scared. From the looks of things, he was panicking as much as everyone else.

One of the attackers turned to when the big guy yelled, aimed, and shot. I jumped as brain, blood, and bone splattered over the dirt road. Chris gave a terrified yell at the same time everyone else screamed, but didn’t move to get out from under the dead guard. I saw Andrea huddling at the front of the bus next to the tire. She screamed, covering her head with her hands and tucking herself into a ball.

During the chaos, all I could do was sit there and gape at everything happening. It was like I was frozen to the spot. My limbs were heavy and everything felt like it was happening in slow motion. I shook my head, trying to clear it and get my wits back.

“I said get down on the ground! All of you!” This guy spoke unaccented English, unlike the others who seemed to only speak Spanish. He was the one who seemed to be calling the shots. He had a confident stature, straight-backed and unflinching in the face of the chaos he caused. His jet-black hair provided a stark contrast to his icy blue eyes that were scanning the area for any signs of rebellion. A thin line of sweat trickled down his temple, but he made no move to wipe it away. In his hand was a semi-automatic, the sight of which sent chills down my spine.

No one defied him, myself included. I stayed put, my hands out in front of me, shaking like a leaf. A frightened whimper left me and when the guy turned my way, I ducked, keeping my hands up and prayed he wasn’t looking to kill us all. Didn’t these types of things usually end up making ransom demands? We were being kidnapped. Right?

“Muévelosa todos aquí. Mantenlos a todos juntos.”He gestured to all of us in a sweeping gesture with his arm. I thought he said he wanted us all in the same area. Kind of like he was corralling us to better keep us contained.

Andrea still huddled in front of the bus, visibly trembling, a look of abject terror on her face. Chris was still underneath his dead security detail. The gun the guard had dropped when he fell lay next to him, well within Chris’s reach. I thought Chris might reach for it, but he didn’t even try to move. For a moment, I was afraid he might be dead. Of the fifteen in our group, five had been killed. Much as I thought he was a creep, I didn’t want him dead.

There were seven men around us, all of them armed with automatic rifles. All of them pointed at us. Someone pulled Andrea up by her hair from where she huddled at the front of the bus and tossed her in our direction. She stumbled and fell before crawling the five or six feet to me where I huddled. I reached for her, pulling her to me and wrapping my arms around her while she sobbed, as terrified as I was.

The conversation among our attackers was acacophonyof rapid-fire Spanish. They were obviously arguing, but my brain couldn’t translate quickly enough. The guy in charge scanned those of us who were left. Two of his men pulled the bodyguard off Chris and shoved Chris into the group of us. I thought Andrea might go to him, but she stayed with me, looking around her fearfully.

The leader stared down every one of us, studying all of us intently. Turning his gaze toward me, he paused. A chill ran down my spine as I huddled with Andrea on the dusty road, my throat dry as I tried to swallow.

I could feel his gaze on me as I stayed as still as I could, keeping my head down so he didn’t think I was challenging him. My only thought was to keep myself as safe as possible until Jax came for me. Because I knew it would be Jax who came for me. My heart pounded in my ears and still shook uncontrollably, but it was only a matter of time.

Chapter Three

Jax

When I got Holly home safely, I was gonna blister her ass. If Wrath had spanked her more as a child instead of coddling her because of her cancer, she might take her safety more seriously. And yeah. I get why Wrath coddled the little princess. I coddled her too. And despite my bravado now, I’d continue to fucking coddle her. Why? Because the thought of losing Holly for any reason made me want to lose my Goddamn mind.

Mechanic gestured toward the screen where he was tracking Holly. “She’s not moving.” Since he’d landed our Osprey as close to Holly’s position as he reasonably could given the size of the aircraft, we’d been following her movements and heading steadily in her direction for the better part of an hour. The Phantom Badger we were using was loaded to capacity with men and equipment. Which was to say, me and Razor and some serious hardware.

Holly’s group had been headed toward a small village about six hours south of Rodadero. Which was bad. With the heavy traffic from Rodadero and Santa Marta to the U.S., there had been increased drug traffic south of Rodadero. The whole general area was considered very high-risk for traveling. ExFil had been hired to extract more than one goodwill mission.

“Have they reached their destination?” Razor was native to the area. He studied the screen from our end same as Mechanic did back at the Osprey. “See if you can zoom in. There’s a dirt road in that area they should be following to the village. It’s been a couple years, but that road is in exactly the wrong spot if they want to live.”

“Yeah.” I snagged a weapons vest and shrugged into it before checking my sidearm. “Bettin’ they’ve been stopped.” My vest had several extra clips as well as some grenades. “How far are we from her, Razor?”

He shrugged. “We can get there in the Badger in less than five. They’ll hear us, but as long as they’ve been stopped, that might be a good thing.”

I gave him a crisp nod. “Let’s move. Mechanic, have Iron and Tank ready in case we come back hot.”

“We expectin’ trouble, Jax?” Razor spoke softly, raising an eyebrow.

“With Holly?” One side of my lip curled up in a half grin. “Always.” I was trying to lighten the mood, but the truth was, my insides were screaming at me to get to her. I wasn’t as seasoned as some of the guys in Black Reign, but I’d done my time with Special Teams. The most important lesson I learned was to always trust my instincts. It had saved my life more than once. Now, I was counting on it to save Holly’s.

The ride took less than five minutes. Even before we got there, we could hear gunshots. Normally, Razor would have stopped before we got too close so we could scout the situation, but that wasn’t happening.

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