Page 29 of Saved By the Marines (Soldiers Of Misfortune)

The main difference between us, however, was the choices we made. The three of us had decided to work on behalf of our government instead of against it. In some alternate reality, it was possible we might have ended up working for some scumbag slumlord. The ability to hand out a death sentence was inside of us. We were just as dangerous as the men sitting on chairs in front of us. More so right now, since we had the upper hand.

“Where is she?” I asked.

“Fuck off, pendejo,” Salazar snarled.

“We don’t have time for these games.” I drew my own Ka-bar and walked over to his partner. I stuck the tip of the blade into his left eye. His scream was loud enough to send the jungle into a frenzy. The sound of monkeys echoing the harsh bellowing of the man under my blade made it sound like they were in the backyard rather than in the trees surrounding the clearing.

My blank gaze landed on Salazar. Nothing I did in here mattered to me. The only thing that made any difference was finding Bailey. I wouldn’t mourn the deaths of these men. Their torture wouldn’t keep me up at night. They’d made the mistake of touching what belonged to me. For that, they’d pay in blood. “Where. Is. She?” I punctuated each word with the twist of my knife.

“Dios Mio! You fuckers are insane!

I withdrew the blade and brought it to the man’s right eye. “There are plenty of places to stab him before he’ll die of blood loss. Then it’ll be your turn. Take comfort in knowing that everything I do to him, I will do to you even slower.”

The half blind man broke like shattered glass. “She’s gone! She’s gone!”

“What do you mean she’s gone?” My words were measured and cool. A whirlwind of emotion threatened to take over when he said ‘gone’. Gone as in sold? Gone as in…not alive? I couldn’t bring myself to say the words. A cold sweat broke out on my brow as I waited for the answer.

I moved the knife away from his eye and placed it under his chin. I turned the blade so that the tip was pressing against his gullet and put just enough pressure to move his head up. He looked at me with his remaining eye, whimpering desperately. Blood ran down his cheek as he fought for words. “She…She…”

“¡Silencio, Paco!” Salazar screamed.

They were sitting side by side, so I barely had to reach when I brought my knife hand across Salazar’s face, slicing him from forehead to lip. It was a shallow wound, but enough to have blood pouring from it. He hissed in pain. A small bit of satisfaction warmed me. When it came down to it, once we found out Bailey’s location, we’d be done here. Which meant they’d get the quick deaths they were probably praying for. Or at least Paco was. Salazar still seemed to be under the impression someone was going to save him. He was wrong.

“Paco,” I said with a toothy smile, turning back to the man who was being more forthcoming. “Paco, mi amigo, what do you mean she’s gone?” I knelt down so I was eye level with him. I placed my hand on his shoulder and gave it a sympathetic squeeze.

See buddy, we’re all friends. You can trust the man that plucked your eye out.

“She…she ran off. Into the rainforest. We were getting ready to go after her when you showed up. We saw her on the camera. She ran east.”

“Is that all you know?”

“¡Si! ¡Si! Yes, that’s all.”

“Thank you, Paco.” I jabbed my knife into his chest. He looked down at the hilt, blinking at it as though in a daze. His body was quickly shutting down, preventing him from reacting more than that. I’d aimed for his heart. It was kinder than he deserved, I was sure of that, but he’d held up his end of the deal. I was a man of my word, even if the agreement hadn’t been spoken out loud. Plus, we were short on time. His head slumped forward as the life faded from his body. It had only taken seconds.

Salazar was another matter. Not only had he refused to give us the information we wanted, but he was currently struggling in his bonds.

“Kip, you head back to the Jeep and bring it back. Jas, go search the wood line to the east and see if you can pick up her trail.” They both nodded and ran off.

I stepped in front of Salazar. Despite his cut and bloodied face, he had rallied and now had that look of arrogant defiance. He really thought he was going to get through this. I was impressed. It takes a special kind of arrogance to think that way. It meant breaking him would be so much more satisfying.

Keeping my expression blank, I stared down at him. I’d nearly dropped to my knees with relief when Paco had said that Bailey was not only alive, but had managed to escape. I didn’t have the luxury of giving in to the emotion. Not until we found her. Then I could revel in it. I let the cold seep in, the thing that slithered around inside of me whenever I needed to do something unpleasant, but necessary.

“Why did you take her?”

“Money,” he sneered. He was doing his best to bolster his false bravado, but he was beginning to tremble. Blood pouring down your face had a tendency to bring one to reality. He was facing his death and, whether he wanted to believe it or not, today was his last day. His last hour. He decided to go all in. “The Senator's daughter is worth big money on the open market. I could sell her to a dozen cartel or terrorist networks to be ransomed. I could sell her to…other markets, pretty as she is. Some men have a fetish for politicians' children.”

My temper broke at the thought of her being sold off as a sex worker. No one would ever fucking touch her that way again. No one except us. I brought my fist around in a haymaker and caught his jaw hard enough to send teeth flying out of his mouth.

The bastard just laughed. It was the laugh of a maniacal fucker. The laugh of a dead man determined to have the last word. “Such pretty hair, so long. I bet you could wrap your hand around two or three times, really get a good grip on the little bitch!”

In the far recesses of my mind, the tiny, rational piece was screaming at me to stop. That he had more information, not to kill him yet. He might have other partners, moles in the embassy, a buyer already lined up. I needed that info.I need his blood more.That rational bit was locked up, silenced by my insatiable rage and the untouchable coldness. He had insulted Bailey, disrespected her to a point beyond reproach.

He sat there, swaying on the chair, with blood covering his face, mouth wide open in laughter. It was like the fear had flipped a switch inside him and he’d lost his ever loving mind.

I shoved both my hands into his mouth, pushing down with one hand and pulling up with the other. The screams were overridden by the cracking and tearing as I literally ripped his jaw off. I grabbed his head with both hands, and with a twisting and pulling motion I spun his head around until it was pointing at his back, completely breaking his neck.

I stepped away from his limp and lifeless corpse and walked outside. My chest rose and fell with deep pants as I fought to get myself under control. This was what happened when I lost my temper. My enemies weren’t safe. It didn’t matter if they had a part to continue playing, I’d end them, and would later refuse to feel bad about it.

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