Raising a Cowgirl by Jana Leigh
“Shit,” LC said when Boyscout repeated what was said. “We need to get control of this now.”
“They have a list,” Raider said.
“A list of what?” Ice demanded.
“People whose life they want revenge on,” Raider whispered.
“Fuck a duck,” LC said. “Who is on there?”
“Everyone—and anyone who will effect—you. You need to look,” Raider said.
“Change of plans, it has to have something to do with the team, we need all of our old mission reports. Someone somewhere has found out who we are,” LC snapped, then paused next to Marie’s body, touched her face, and smiled. “Goodbye, darlin', will be seeing you in my dreams,” LC said and stormed out of the room.
One by one, they all said their goodbyes, touching Marie and vowing to find Sammi. The pressure grew in Master Chief's chest until he and David were the only ones left in the room.
“She was like my little sister,” Gage whispered, leaned over, and put his cheek on her forehead. Gage could feel her surrounding him, wrapping her arms around him and comforting him. Then he felt Ted touching her cheek while keeping a hand on his shoulder.
David stood silently as Gage dealt with his emotions. Finally, Gage stood, wiped his eyes, and looked at David with determination. “We need to get to the bank, and then find Sammi.”
David nodded and they walked out of the room.
Chapter Seven
Jolie read in horror at the news on the front page of her laptop, ‘Body Found of a Woman Beaten and Tortured’ it read. Marie, she knew it. Now what the fuck was she going to do? Marie wouldn't tell her specifics so she had no idea what was actually going on. She said it had something to do with Ted and that was it.
She needed a plan. Sammi woke up and was laying on the floor next to her, fed and changed, happily grabbing at the toy that hung above her. The angel had no idea she had lost both her parents in one short year.
Jolie would not allow her to go into the system. She knew what could happen there, babies were lost. Not Sammi, she had promised Marie and she would be damned if she let her down.
She had money saved. She just had to access it. Calling her job, quitting, and disappearing were the only options. Unless she called the phone number and trusted the men Marie had told her she could.
Jolie cried as she rose from the floor and went to gather her purse. She wiped her eyes and thought she could grieve later, when they were safe. Right now, Sammi’s safety was paramount.
She picked up her phone and stared at the number with determination. Marie said she could trust them, she only hoped her friend was right.
The phone rang and Jolie bit her nail with worry as she listened to the ring. One…Two…Three… just about ready to hang up and call back later after she made arrangements, she startled when a brisk voice answered the phone.
“Master Chief,” he growled.
“Uhh…Hi,” she stuttered and closed her eyes, dumb.
“Who is this?” the man demanded.
“Marie gave me your number,” was all she said and the man began to bark orders in the phone at her.
“Where are you? I need your address. We are on our way,” the man said.
“Well, I am not sure about you coming here,” Jolie said hesitantly.
“Fuck that, we will find you,” the man glowered in the phone and Jolie frowned down at the receiver in her hand.
“Gimme that,” another voice said and she heard another man talk to him. “You are scaring the shit out of her. Ma’am? Sorry about that. My name is Sheriff David Conner, I am with Master Chief Gage Loman. The other team members are in the area as well. Please, we only want to help.”
“Where is here?” she asked suspiciously. How were they here this fast?
“San Diego, we want to get you and the baby to safety and we can't do that unless you tell us where the hell you are,” David said patiently.
She bit her nail again and paced, thinking.
“Hello?” David said.
“Yes… sorry. My name is Jolie Trime, I was a friend of Marie's, and until I am sure Sammi is safe, I will be going with her,” Jolie said and waited. She could hear the two men whispering and she held her breath, it was a deal breaker. When she heard him agree she said, “I am at a hotel across from the main gate,” she whispered and then held her breath.
“We will be there in fifteen minutes, there are two of us. Be ready to leave ASAP,” David instructed and she nodded. His voice made her feel marginally better and she looked around the room. Jolie had not unpacked much, hoping that they would have only been here overnight.
“We will be ready,” she promised and hung up the phone.
David and Gage had been at the bank, splitting up with the team to get things completed quickly. Alex, Thane, and Ice, were getting the records they needed. Slone and Voodoo were making calls to everyone. And Lobo was arranging shipments.
When the call came in, they grabbed the contents of the box, and ran out. David just rifled through the papers and found the will, declaring Gage the godfather and appointed guardian. They needed to sign paperwork to take Sammi.
“You know, you could have been nicer.” David laughed.
“Yeah, well I'm not really in a nice mood right now,” Gage growled.
“Well get in one, you don’t want to scare the woman holding Sammi, we need her to cooperate,” David said.
“Fuck, I don’t need cooperation. Once I have Sammi, whatever her name is can go back to her life,” Gage said.
“Okay, well that is not what she thinks, so let's play nice so the cops aren’t called and we end up very publically at the station trying to sort this out.” David laughed.
“Fine, I will be nice. But I am not going to like it,” Gage said and stared out of the side window of the car the Commander arranged for them. The Ensign driving ignored them.
“Real grown up,” David drawled.
“Shit, I am so far out of control right now, I don’t know which way is up,” Gage admitted. “The only thing I do know is that I have no clue who this woman is. She was not in Marie’s life before, so she doesn’t know any of us. She should have called right away when Marie asked for help. Maybe we could have talked her out of meeting with those animals." Shit, his anger was being directed anywhere he could in order to remain in control.
“Whatever, our objective is to get Sammi and get her home,” Gage said.
“Agreed,” David said. “But we can’t ignore the fact that Jolie Trime could be in danger herself since she is taking care of Sammi. She may know something that will help us. We are going to have to take her with us. At least for a few days,” David reasoned.
Gage swore under his breath and then nodded reluctantly. “Make the call. We don’t have time to waste, we go, and the others follow. Four tickets out here, ASAP.”
“Got it,” David said and picked up the phone and began to make arrangements with the others, he explained the situation and everyone agreed they needed to get Sammi to safety, now.
They pulled up to the front of the hotel and told the Ensign to wait. Gage looked around, seeing if he could spot anyone or anything to indicate they were walking into a trap, or worse, whoever the fuck killed Marie had already found Sammi.
David did the same, making a point of walking slowly to the front of the hotel. His phone received an incoming text. David held up the phone to Gage and nodded. The plane they needed to be on left in an hour. They needed to move.
With deliberation, Gage walked into the lobby and pointed to the house phone. Briskly he called the room number where Jolie Trime was staying and waited. The lobby was empty but for the front desk clerk who was doing busy work. David asked for the house phone and he was directed to the other side with a smile.
“Hello?” the woman answered and sounded frightened. Something in his gut tightened as he thought of her being afraid and leaving her behind. No, they were not leaving her.
“Lobby, flight leaves in an hour,” G
“On my way. Elevator one,” she replied and he heard Sammi make a noise and he grimaced.
David and Gage stalked to the elevators and waited, sweeping the lobby with their eyes and narrowing a little when they saw four men enter and walk to the front desk. Gage nodded in the men’s direction and David walked slowly to the side of the desk, he picked up a brochure and turned so his back was to the men, but he could still hear.
“Hi, my wife checked in here two days ago. She said to get a key at the front desk when we arrived,” the man said smoothly with some sort of accent that David could not place.
“Of course, her name?” the desk clerk said.
“Jolie…Jolie Trime.” The man smiled.
The clerk nodded and frowned at the screen. “I am sorry, she has no husband listed.”
“No worries just let me call her and she can tell you,” the man said smoothly and picked up his phone.
David walked away and whispered to Gage as he passed, “Jolie.”
“Fuck,” Gage swore and looked around the lobby. They were alone, no weapons, no back up, and nowhere to go but out the front door past the front desk.
“Darling,” the man crooned loudly into his phone and said, “You forgot to tell the front desk about my arrival. Can you speak to him?” He nodded and smiled before handing the phone to the desk clerk.
At the same time, the elevator dinged, Gage and David eyes snapped to the door. A tall brunette, gorgeously lithe and innocently looking exited the elevator, with Sammi in her arms—not talking on a phone.
Gage had a moment before the men would notice her and the baby. “Honey, over here!” he yelled and pointedly looked Jolie in the eye, she looked startled and frowned. Shit, she had no idea.
Gage pulled David slightly and both of them walked to where she was standing with a baby bag, a purse, and a gym bag. Before she could even protest, Gage swept her into his arms removing Sammi and handing her to David who quickly took her and walked to the front and out the door before the other men could react.
Gage lowered his mouth to the surprised lips and kissed her quickly before she said something. He felt the snap of electricity when their lips met and jerked. Leaning back, he looked at the gorgeous green eyes, and full lips of the woman who only stood a few inches shorter than he did. She looked confused and stunned, his eyes narrowed before whispering quietly, “Front desk, four men, walk with me quickly.”
Jolie nodded and put her head down and followed, looking out of the side of her eye to see who had been looking for her. None of them looked familiar. Gage pulled her behind him and just as they reached the door, the front desk clerk said loudly.
“Hey, that is Ms. Trime. Who is this on the phone?” he said confused, and Jolie gasped and lifted her head when the men turned quickly to follow the finger that was pointing in her direction.
“Get them!” one of the men yelled and Gage ran.
Jolie scrambled behind him as she heard what sounded like a bunch of firecrackers going off, until she felt something hit her arm.
Chapter Eight
Diego stood staring out his window waiting impatiently for word that something right had happened. The idiots had bumbled the first mission, killing the woman, but they had found a business card of a woman who had suddenly called into work. His men had the best money could buy of resources in the United States, no one could hide from him.
Although he wished the woman had cooperated and given them the information they needed. No matter, she had felt his wrath. They all would.
His phone rang and Diego grinned. They had found the child. “Yes,” he said darkly into the phone, keeping his men afraid of him was the only way he could maintain control from where he was located.
“Sir, we miscalculated,” his man said.
“What do you mean—you miscalculated?” Diego barked into the phone.
“We found the woman, she logged into her computer from a hotel. When we arrived there were already two men there waiting for her. We had to improvise, but they were prepared. One of the men took the baby, and the other one protected the woman. We shot and hit the woman, but they escaped,” the man said reluctantly.
“So you left a mess?” Diego growled.
“No sir, we killed the clerk who could identify us, took the video, and got out of there. The cops were arriving when we left. We are clean,” the man said.
“You had better be or I will kill you myself. Now, I have a backup plan because I had a feeling that you were going to fuck this up. Fall back, and let me call the appropriate people. I can’t afford for anyone to tie me to this mess yet. They will come for me before I reach my goal. Wait for my call,” Diego ordered and hung up the phone.
One good thing, he did have a backup plan like his father always taught him. He would not fail his father—revenge was at hand.
Diego picked up the phone and called in a favor from the scum who owed him money. His men could not be caught when they had already established a cover. He would have to use mercenaries. The one he was thinking of would sell his own mother if he could.
Part Two
A Family Comes Together
"I know we could both go on with our lives and we could both be fine, but I've seen what we could be like together and I choose us."
Unknown
Chapter Nine
Jolie slowly became aware of her surroundings. She remembered the pain in her arm, and the two men she had never met before yelling. Then she looked down and saw the blood and it was all over.
Jolie didn’t do well with blood. She grimaced as she moved. Her arm was wrapped in something, holding it close to her chest, and she heard rumbling. She was in a car.
“Where?” she licked her lips and whispered.
“We are going to the airport. Here take this, it's something for the pain,” a voice said.
“No, Sammi?” She struggled to open her eyes.
“She is here, and fine. We need to get you both to safety. We don’t even have time to stop. Take the pill, I will wake you,” the voice said and she nodded opening her mouth. Her arm hurt so badly, but she could feel the safety surrounding her. They would take care of her.
“Hey darlin', wake up,” a voice said to her and she moaned.
Shit, the pain was worse. What the hell had happened?
She licked her dry lips again and said, “Where?”
“We are landing at a small airfield on a friend's spread. We have someone waiting for us to check you out,” the voice said and she opened her eyes.
They were unfocused, she blinked several times trying to clear the cobwebs from her brain. What the hell had they given her?
When her eyes finally focused a little, she was staring into the most beautiful blue eyes she had ever seen on a man. His piercing stare held her gaze as he grinned. Holy shit, she wondered if he was aware that his face was so gorgeous. Full kissable lips, dark hair, and a strong chin and cheekbones. Hell, she was freaking dreaming. Plus, this was not the same hunk that grabbed her and kissed her in the hotel lobby. He was just yummy, too, although he had blonde hair and blue eyes. They were like sexy bookends, she thought and wanted to giggle.
“Awe, you are cute,” she whispered and tried to raise a hand to the man's face, but yelled when she felt the pain coming from her right arm. That brought back the memories of why she was there.
“Sammi?” she croaked and tried to sit up.
“Gage has her,” the man pointed to the large man sitting in the chair across form them in the small airplane who was sleeping with the baby’s head on his chest.
“Okay, who are you, and what the fuck is going on? I know Marie is dead, I saw the news reports. What have we gotten into?” Jolie demanded still struggling to sit up. “And help me up!”
The man laughed but helped her. “My name is Sheriff David Conner, that's Gage Loman, he is godfather to Sammi.”
“And where the hell has he been while all of this was going on?” she said, feeling guil
“Uhh, sorry, those are the flight attendance spare hose, they are clean,” David said weakly and she rolled her eyes.
“At this point, I don’t think I should worry about that. I am pretty sure I should be worrying about who was trying to kill me,” she said dryly.
“Oh right,” David said flustered when she realized he had still been staring at her silk covered breast. Well, at least she had clean underwear on.
“Spill it,” she ordered and waited. Gage began to speak without opening his eyes from across the cabin. His sexy low grumble flowed over her as she tried to figure out what the fuck was going on.
“How about you tell us first?” Gage said and peeked open one eye, not moving so he didn’t disturb Sammi, who was snuggled in his big arms.
“Oh?” she said in surprise. “Marie called me on Monday morning from a pay phone at a gas station, said she needed to talk to me privately. I am a Social Worker at the VA, and I told her to come in and we could use a conference room because she seemed worried about people seeing us. She agreed, and when she arrived, she was in a panic. At first, I couldn’t understand what she was saying. She was talking about a phone call, and being watched. Seriously, if I had not known she was the most levelheaded person I know, I would have thought she was going crazy. Anyways, she told me someone had contacted her. Threatened both her and the baby unless she met with them. Something about Ted’s job. She refused and they sent her a text message of her on the phone talking to them. Marie had no idea what they wanted, but she said she had a bad feeling. She wanted Sammi away when she met them, in case they tried to hurt her. I tried to get her to call the police and the Commander, but she said they told her they were monitoring her calls and following her. She had an appointment at the VA for counseling and told them she had to keep it or the Commander would be notified. They agreed, but she had to go to them directly after the appointment. She did exactly as they said, called her boss, and took leave saying she needed to take care of something. When she came over, she brought the baby’s bag and gave me a phone number with instructions. I was supposed to leave, check into a motel, and wait. I did what she said to the letter, and then I saw the news when she didn’t contact me on the disposable cell she brought with her. It was crazy, I knew I should have called someone, but she was desperate. I agreed and here we are.