Black Ops Brotherhood: Tightrope Part 18

"Very well done, Caesar. And the CBP agent?"

"At your request, I've aborted that mission. Reyes is back at the compound."

"Good. I have other plans. Continue with the current traffic and increase it over the next two weeks. We have a rather large s.h.i.+pment that I plan to send across soon. I need them as distracted as they can possibly be," he said as his secretary handed him a note. A single line in the message caught his attention. Item recovered. Waiting for your final orders. "Thank Eli for bringing Mora to me." He turned to his finance executive. "Give Eli Reyes a five-thousand-dollar bonus for a job well done."

Nacho walked out of the large conference room and into the warm summer day. As he walked through his flower garden, he inhaled and smiled in wistful regret. Despite the heat of the dry season, he demanded that his landscapers maintain the huge flower garden. It had been one of the few extravagant indulgences he allowed himself.

It reminded him of his precious daughter lost to him over twenty years ago. He recalled how she would skip through the rainforest gardens that lined the paths of their home in Panama and pick the flowers along the way. She'd been the most beautiful and perfect thing in his life. Everything he did and every penny he made was dedicated to his one and only child. He'd been determined to give her the best life he could possibly give her after her mother's untimely death in childbirth. He considered his little Anita a gift from G.o.d.

Nacho recalled every detail about his daughter as if she were still running in front of him. He used to enjoy the way her long blonde hair flowed down her back as she ran ahead of him in the gardens. Her smile rivaled the sun when she laughed, and it brought brightness and warmth into his day. Anita would pick flowers and place them on his desk with a note telling him she loved him before she went to school. He felt the familiar pang of sadness and loss when he thought about his beautiful baby girl and wondered how Minster Bakri was coming along with his information.

Entering the small warehouse that the gardens hid from the main house, he found the room and stepped inside. He glanced between one of his soldiers to the man secured by his wrists on a hook attached to the ceiling, his toes barely touching the floor. Nacho took a deep breath.

Why do people make me resort to being an animal? Why can't they tell me the truth the first time?

The man on the hook was battered, cut, and b.l.o.o.d.y. Juan Mora had been beaten and tortured for the last three days. They'd managed to keep him alive long enough to obtain the information Nacho needed. He walked around Mora as his soldier roughly grabbed the man's face and forced him to focus. Nacho noted that they'd removed one of his eyes during this brutal torture session.

"Why did you let them search my house in Douglas?" Nacho asked.

"I had no choice, they had a warrant."

The raspy answer forced him to listen carefully because Mora's vocal cords had been damaged.

"Where's my money?" Nacho asked.

"It was seized."

"Who was the officer in charge?"

"There were three new ones I'd never seen before. Two of them found the money and the heroin. The other was talking to the bosses. He was different."

"How so?" Nacho asked as he turned away and walked to a table in the corner of the room.

"Por favor, senor," the man pleaded as he sobbed.

"Where's the video from the house?" Nacho asked.

"I have it," Mora said with hope in his voice. "I've told them where to find it."

Nodding in affirmation, his man picked up a disc. He walked back to the prisoner and snapped his fingers. He had the beaten man lowered down and helped to a chair. Mora attempted a smile as best he could with his battered face. Nacho smiled in return as well as he walked around him, put a gun to the back of his head, and fired a single shot. He breathed deeply and glanced down at the blood that had splattered on his white s.h.i.+rt when the bullet entered the man's brain. He watched as Mora slid to the floor then put the gun back in its place on the table.

"Nacho, do you want me to find these men?" Eli asked, stepping inside the room. "You just got back. Let someone else go while you go see your family for a few days."

"Yes, sir," Eli said.

"Or is there someone special you'd like to go back and see?" Nacho asked with a knowing smile.

"No, sir, no one."

"You took a gamble making a deal for the agent we wanted to bring here, I believe the agent is female?" Nacho turned to Eli and smiled knowingly. "I think there is someone."

"My job comes first. I hate aborting a mission."

He glanced at the young man. Eli was a model soldier and perfectionist when it came to a mission, a young man after Nacho's heart. But there was nothing more distracting than throwing a woman into a man's path. And Eli had become a man clearly infatuated.

"I've been in love before. I know how you feel. Being separated from her is painful." Taking the towel from the hook next to the sink, he dried his hands after was.h.i.+ng them. He would need to change his s.h.i.+rt once he got back to the house before he returned to his office. "Believe it or not, I understand. As long as she's with you and quiet, you have my word she'll stay safe."

The young man nodded.

"Let me review the disc to see how much of a threat they are, then I'll let Caesar know if I need you to go back."

Sheriff Wright pulled up to the Macey ranch house and walked inside. He never knocked at the front door because it wasn't necessary. He and Wes Macey had been friends all of their lives. h.e.l.l, they weren't friends; they were brothers. Through thick and thin, they'd always had each other's back. Today could be the day it came to an end. He found Wes in his office in the back of the house sitting in front of the TV drinking his usual nighttime whiskey.

"Well? Did you talk to him?" Sheriff Wright asked.

"Not yet. I need you to fix this, Mason. I need Jax and Rio to get married because I need the Jensen ranch. I've been working on this deal for the last six months, and they're one of my last holdouts."

Mason Wright was appalled and didn't have the words right away to answer such an impossible and outlandish demand.

"Are you out of your mind? I can't fix this! In case you missed the news, Rio Jensen is a customs and border patrol agent. Translated, that means federal government. The f.u.c.king FBI is crawling up my a.s.s right now. You'll be lucky if your son doesn't see prison time for this!"

"You need to make this go away somehow. Talk to her and get her to drop that restraining order and the charges."

"Wes! You're not hearing me. That restraining order was signed by a federal judge in Tucson. It was filed on her behalf by the Department of Justice. She's a material witness in an active investigation in which Jax is a suspect. Rio couldn't stop this even if she wanted to. I can't make this go away. It's out of my hands! As a federal agent, if he goes near her, she has the right to use deadly force. She could kill him and walk away. You'd better find another way to get that d.a.m.n ranch."

"My contacts are putting some pressure on me to close this deal!"

Taking a step back, he knew he'd been right. Jax might not have been the one involved with Rio Jensen's kidnapping. By the beads of sweat that had just broken out on his friend's upper lip, Wes might have been the one who'd instigated this mess. It had been h.e.l.l throwing off the FBI from his last escapade with the Genovese family. It would be impossible to throw them off the trail of a cartel that'd kidnapped and almost killed a CBP agent.

"Wes, I have no idea who you're involved with, and I don't want to know. I will tell you this; if it's anything to do with the Montenegro cartel, then cut the ties. They think Jax is involved, and it won't be long before they start looking at the money trail, which will lead right back to you. If you want that land, marry Marissa Jensen yourself."

"That b.a.s.t.a.r.d husband of hers sealed that deal pretty tight. She has no rights to that land; the kids have it all. I need that land!"

"Then you ain't getting that d.a.m.n land, and you need to figure out something else. You need to talk to your son and get him another girlfriend, preferably one that doesn't carry a gun for a living."

Chapter 15.

1515 Santa Cruz St.

Bisbee, Arizona July 4, 2010/1440 Zulu Dan paced the kitchen while Rio made breakfast. d.a.m.n her! She hadn't budged about the reunion, and now the day had arrived. He'd tried everything he could think of to persuade her to go with him or at least go to the after party at St. Elmo's. No dice. She wasn't going, and that had been that. If this was her idea of control, they were about to have a problem. He didn't want to leave her alone right now because he couldn't shake the feeling that she was still in danger. Being at a party where he'd be distracted and without her wouldn't keep her safe. She turned, and he ran into her, making her almost drop the gla.s.s bowl she held.

"Danny! Go to the other room, or go for a run. Just get out of my way."

"Change your mind!"

"No!"

"I don't want to go without you. It's just a picnic after the parade today!"

"I'm going to the coaster race and the parade with you. I don't need to go to the reunion. Go. Have fun."

It was clear to him she meant what she said. He knew she genuinely wanted him to have a great time, but he didn't want to go anywhere without her, especially right now. Why couldn't she bend just this once? He grabbed her roughly and spun her around to face him.

"Go with me!" Schotzie stood and growled when he grabbed her. "Lie down!" he snapped at the dog.

The German shepherd sat and whined and looked between them uncertain about what to do.

"You're confusing her! What the h.e.l.l did you expect her to do?" Rio asked as she squirmed out of his grasp.

Dan turned and stalked to the bedroom and put on his running shoes. While tying his shoes, Schotzie came and lay at his feet. Rio had once told him that dogs, like people, had feelings. He recalled laughing at her because he didn't believe it. Now, as he caught a glimpse of the hurt and confusion in Schotzie's eyes, he wasn't so sure.

"Come here, girl," he called gently. During that same conversation, she'd also explained pack structure and how things work in the dog world. Schotzie had accepted him as one of her pack leaders, and he'd rebuked her just now. "I'm sorry. I'd never hurt momma," he said as he rubbed her neck affectionately. "Want to go for a short run with me?"

The dog yipped happily and licked his face. He walked to the front room and picked up the leash sitting on the table beside the door. Darkness hadn't faded out of the morning sky, but he could see the faint signs of the sun rising off in the distance as he started down the street. What he really wanted to do was run as hard as he could. It had been his way of getting himself into what he found out later was subs.p.a.ce. He would work out or run so hard that he could trigger the release of epinephrine and dump endorphins into his system giving him a sense of detachment from reality. His reaction to certain types of pain, he'd found, triggered intense pleasure in him.

That reaction to pain had helped him get through BUD/S and SQTs during the most grueling sections of his training. Instead of fighting it like the others, he welcomed the pain because of the high it gave him. When his mind got to the right place, he wouldn't feel the discomfort anymore, and he could push through. Afterward, when he'd finally been allowed to sleep or relax, he would come back refreshed and brand-new.

When he got to one of his first a.s.signments, he'd met Alex Richards, whom everyone called Doc, a nickname given to all SEAL medics. They'd been a.s.signed to the same tactical team that had been responsible for some heavy fighting in Iraq and became close friends. Alex noticed Dan's tendency to overdo his workouts and gave him the benefit of this observation after he'd hurt himself.

"Basically you're a pain wh.o.r.e. You like what it does to you," Doc said.

"What? No, I'm not!"

"Why wouldn't you? I know I do. It's like being on morphine. It relaxes the h.e.l.l out of you, and it's legal. No p.i.s.s test in the world will pick up on a drug that your body produces. You just need to be careful."

"Doc, I'm not a freak. I overdid this workout. Wrap it up so I can get back to business."

Doc took a step back. "So what if you're a freak? Who the h.e.l.l do you owe an explanation to? If you like it, do it. Just be careful, and learn to control it. Or find someone who can help you control it."

"What the h.e.l.l does that mean?"

Alex glanced off into the distance. "We're going on a field trip tonight. You'll find out something about me that very few people know and almost no one in the teams knows. It's a place we shouldn't be, so if you tell anybody on the teams about it, I'll kill you in your sleep."

They were stationed in Stuttgart, Germany. Later that night, Doc had opened his eyes to a world he never knew existed, BDSM. They'd gone to a private house in a nice area of the city. When they entered, they were greeted by a woman Alex seemed to know quite well.

"This is Lady Gretchen. She owns this dungeon, and she's a Domme. She trains Dominants as well as submissives. We were friends when she lived in LA."

"Alex was more than a friend. He was my mentor," Lady Gretchen said.

At first, Dan didn't know how to process what he'd been shown. So, he'd only watched the scenes play out in the dungeons of the club. It bothered him to be so attracted to this new world. Lady Gretchen had offered to work with him and train him. He had an idea where he fit in. Being a US Naval officer and a SEAL made him about as dominant as a man could get.

Something unexpected happened to him that night as he'd watched a scene play out between a Domme and a burly male submissive. Lady Gretchen explained that the man was part of GSG-9, Germany's elite SWAT team and special operations unit. He watched in fascination as she explained how it wasn't unusual for men such as him to want to be dominated as a form of release from the stress of what they did for a living. Her words reached him, and he instantly understood what hadn't felt right about her offer to train him, and he wondered if she'd seen it, too. He wasn't dominant. He was a submissive.

Knowing that Lady Gretchen's dungeon wasn't somewhere he should be, and discovering that he wasn't what people would expect, he wanted to get out of there and think. Instead of returning, he opted to read and study what submission meant for a man like him. He spent countless hours trying to understand what had drawn him in that direction. He'd searched memories of his childhood attempting to recognize what had made him that way and finally accepted that nothing had influenced him. It was just the way he was wired. Night after night as he read and studied, he recalled what he'd seen and hungered for what he saw and felt pa.s.s between the Domme and her submissive.

When Dan finally figured out a way to go see Lady Gretchen without putting his career in jeopardy, time had run out for him. He'd received orders to return home where he joined Captain O'Malley and helped build Special Warfare Group 5. So, he let it go, deciding that karma had intervened and kept him from a potentially disastrous decision. He didn't pursue the lifestyle because it was forbidden by the terms of his clearance. He couldn't go near a BDSM club much less be inside actively playing.

It didn't matter. He wouldn't have been comfortable there anyway. It had been Rio's face he pictured whenever he thought about his ideal Domme. For a long time, it bothered him that one of his best friends would come to mind during those thoughts and fantasies. When he saw her again, he somehow knew she'd be the only woman he could completely trust with this secret. She would be his first and only Domme. He made the decision that he would never explore his submission if this didn't work out with her.

The thought of his stubborn little Domme-in-training made him push harder. Schotzie tugging on her leash and barking distracted him as they ran up one of the neighborhood streets. Van McKay was loading up his daughter's coaster into a trailer. He and a few others from the station would be going to the reunion today. He stopped to see if he could help.

"Hey there! You're up early. Give me a hand." Van went to the opposite side of the trailer and tossed him one of the ends of the strap. "Is she going?"

"Nope. Nothing I can say or do will change her mind."

"d.a.m.n it, she must be dead set because you'd be the one person she'd do it for," Van said, shaking his head.

"She finally told me why she didn't want to go."

"Why?"

"It's that d.a.m.n planning committee."

Van tossed him another strap. "Well most of those gals did make her and Colleen's life miserable when they were in school. They're not as bad now that she's the boss of some of them, but they still pick at her when they can."

"I need to get her there."

"I hear you, but when she makes up her mind, it's set. If she says she's not going, she ain't going."

Rio washed the few dishes she'd used to make breakfast with a huff. Danny was dragging his feet on discussing how they'd stay together after his leave was over. She reasoned that maybe he wasn't as serious as he claimed, so she'd started the process of separating herself from him. While she didn't want to go to the reunion, she'd have done it in a heartbeat if she was certain about her future. It had been a mistake to get involved with him, and now, she'd begun sinking herself back into her lonely, isolated existence. Tears welled in her eyes at the thought because this time around, she'd be lonelier than ever.

The direction their relations.h.i.+p had taken had given her a sense of comfort she hadn't experienced before. She'd finally discovered what she'd missed for all those years, and it had completed her. Something she couldn't explain had become more powerful about this bond, and she sensed that if it was ripped away, it would leave a hole that couldn't easily be filled. The uneasiness that he would tear it all away and forget her again kept creeping into her thoughts. She should've known better. He'd never been serious about anything in his life. Why would he start now? The familiar pangs of disappointment and hurt shot through her, because it would be harder to let him go this time. It occurred to her how empty the house was right now, and she realized how empty it would be without him once he left again.

She recalled watching him and Davey leave for college and remembered the feeling of dread knowing it would be the last time she'd be able to see him every day. When she finally got home after helping them move, it seemed as if the tears never stopped. The memory of his off-handed comment shot through her and sliced her all over again. Blinking back tears, she inhaled and cleared her throat. When the door opened, Schotzie trotted into the kitchen and nuzzled her leg.

"Breakfast is ready." She didn't look at him.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

Danny leaned against the sink and watched as she scurried around the kitchen for a little while before saying anything.

"I know you really don't want to go today, but please reconsider, I don't have much time left, and I want to make it count."

"Danny..."