Her Dominant SEAL (Midnight Delta Book 9) Page 10

  “You mean she’s not making it because it’s my favorite?” Drake asked.

  “It is?” Piper asked.

  “I’m pretty sure. It depends. Does she still put Fritos in it?”

  “Yep, and she’s going to melt some Velveeta cheese on top.”

  “Then it’s still my favorite,” he said as he followed her into the kitchen.

  “Lunch is ready,” Trenda said.

  “Karen’s asleep, but I’m hungry.”

  “Then let’s eat.” Drake took down bowls, and Trenda filled them with chili. He took them into the dining room. He was gratified that Bella even let him hold her during lunch without requiring payment.

  It was when he was helping put dishes in the dishwasher that his phone rang. “I’ve got to take this,” he said as he saw it was Aiden.

  “Hey, where did you go? It was longer than an hour.” Drake said as he answered the phone.

  “I needed to check on something. I’m at the gate, let me in.”

  Drake couldn’t decide if he was irritated or curious, so he decided to go with curious. He went back towards the security console and checked the screen. He saw both Evie’s car and Aiden’s SUV. He pressed the button to open the gate.

  He went outside as the senior chief was getting out of his SUV. He watched as Aiden went over and opened Evie’s car door and put out his hand to help her out. She shoved it out of her way.

  “Did you two come together, or is this just a happy coincidence?” Drake asked.

  “There isn’t anything happy about this,” Evie said as she plowed past him up the stairs and slammed into the house.

  “So, is she why you had to leave the house? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “You had your hands full.” Aiden’s eyes were icy blue as they stared at the door of the chalet.

  “You found something, didn’t you?”

  Aiden’s head whipped around to stare at him.

  “Your Goddamn sister forgot to mention that her erstwhile employers aren’t in town this week. I don’t give a shit if they were fucking Medal of Honor Delta Force members, they can’t do her a damn bit of good if they aren’t there with her, can they?”

  “What made you think to go to her place?”

  “When you called and told me what had happened at Karen’s place, I called her. When I asked to talk to Blake or Jim, she said they weren’t available. That’s when I knew her story had holes. She tried to get me to believe that they were both out on a supply run at eight a.m.”

  “Goddammit! What did you find when you got there?”

  “Luckily, nothing, other than the fact that she’s working herself to a fucking crisp. While Eva was cleaning rooms, I broke into the office and helped myself to some information stored on the hotel computer system.”

  “Contact information?”

  “You got it in one,” Aiden confirmed, his smile grim. “Jim and Blake are in Australia for his brother’s wedding.”

  “She just sat at breakfast and lied her ass off.” Drake shook his head in disbelief.

  “Yes, she did,” Aiden agreed grimly. “When I spoke to Jim, he said to call somebody named Larry, and he would be able to arrange coverage in Eva’s absence.”

  “Was there any trouble at the hotel?”

  “Other than the fact that your sister damn near took my head off with a mop? Nope, there was no trouble.” Aiden’s face lost some of its icy demeanor as he looked up at the chalet. “Did your sister play softball?”

  “She always swang for the bleachers,” Drake affirmed.

  “But seriously, Avery, we need a strategy session. Eva told me you were out scouting the other night. What are we up against, do you know?” Aiden asked as they walked up the stairs.

  The door swung open. “Yeah, Drake, what are we up against?” Evie stood there glaring at the two of them.

  “Using the surveillance equipment, little sister?”

  “It’s the only way I’ll find out what’s going on.”

  “What an entire crock of bullshit. You could ask. And what’s more, if you wouldn’t lie, I’d treat you like an adult and share information with you. But no, you have to go off and put your life at risk. What the hell were you thinking, Evie Lavender?” Drake didn’t realize he had her in his arms until she was wriggling to get away.

  “I have bills to pay!”

  “I’d give you money.”

  “Let’s move this inside, children.” Aiden herded them through the large door into the warm house.

  “Jim and Blake depended on me. When they’re gone, I manage the hotel. No matter what you think, I’m not just the maid!” Her chin jutted out.

  Aiden laughed, and Drake looked at her like she’d grown a second head. “Good God woman, you’re never going to be ‘just a’ anything.” Drake thrust his hand through his hair and heard smothered laughter, he glanced over and saw Karen was awake and grinning from her spot on the sofa. It was good to see her looking so much better than she had before her nap.

  “Fine, maybe I was being overly sensitive. I’m done now. Let’s move onto the strategy part of the conversation.”

  “Little girls who lie don’t get to listen while the adults talk.” Drake’s head whipped around because Aiden didn’t sound like he was teasing. He was still pretty pissed.

  “Who died and made you God?” Evie demanded.

  Fwheeeehooo

  All heads turned toward Karen, and her fingers were still in her mouth as the sound of the whistle faded.

  “Damn. That’s loud.” Evie grinned.

  Trenda, Piper, and Bella came out from the hallway. “Who whistled?” Trenda asked.

  “I did,” Karen said looking slightly embarrassed.

  “Well, it’s perfect timing. The second round of lunch is ready.” Trenda smiled. “Piper can bring you a bowl of chili, I’m going to put Bella down for a nap.”

  “Then we can have our strategy meeting,” Evie said.

  Aiden sighed. “As long as there’s information, I’m in.” He watched as Trenda walked upstairs with his niece, then he noticed Karen struggling to push up from the couch. “Where do you think you’re going, Miss Eastman?” he asked.

  “I’m not going to eat out here when there’s strategizing going on in the other room.”

  “We’ll all eat in here, so you’ll be involved.”

  Chapter Eight

  Piper sat on the floor with her back against the couch, her head close to Karen’s shoulder. She had a notebook and pen in her hand. “I can take notes,” she offered.

  “Thank you.” Aiden smiled.

  Fuck, what were they running, a sewing circle? What was it that his friend Declan always said? Bunnies, rainbows, flowers, and shit. Maybe if he thought about that, he wouldn’t be pissed off that they were having a strategy session with his high school sister taking notes. Drake immediately felt bad for his thoughts. He needed to cut down on his caffeine intake.

  “My first note is that Miss Eastman has to remember to go to the doctor tomorrow.” She smiled over her shoulder at Karen.

  “Our dad’s a fucking lunatic asshole who needs to die. Write that down, Piper.” Evie motioned to Piper’s pad of paper.

  “Don’t listen to her, you only notate things that are constructive.” Karen’s prim little teacher’s voice made him hot, how wrong was that?

  “Well, what’s constructive, the fact that you got beaten up by two lowlifes? What did they want from you, Karen?” Evie demanded.

  Karen shot his sister a mutinous expression.

  “Enough, Eva. We need to talk about what we know, like who the players are.” Aiden held up his hand when she opened her mouth. “I got it, your father is a player. We need to know all the others. We need to know their motives, and we need to know what they’re planning.” Evie slumped down in her chair.

  “I saw two different men in front of my house, and the sheriff,” Trenda volunteered.

  “Trenda, can you describe the first man? The second man, the one I ta
lked to, is no longer an issue,” Drake said.

  “When he got out of his car to relieve himself, I saw that he was big. Bigger than even you, Drake. His car was an old station wagon.”

  Drake knew exactly who she was talking about. “Piper, write this down. I saw four men outside Mom’s house. One was the guy Trenda’s describing, one was the guy I shot, one had tattoos, and there was another guy who seemed to be directing traffic.”

  “Directing traffic?”

  “He’s not the leader, Huey and our dad are running the operation,” Drake ground out.

  Piper was writing everything down as she shuddered.

  “What’s wrong, Piper?” Karen asked as she touched Piper’s shoulder.

  “I hate him.”

  “Stand in line,” Trenda said.

  “He’s a fucker,” Evie bit out.

  “Thank God I put Bella to bed,” Trenda said.

  “Every couple of months he’d come and tell Mom some story about how he was working on getting Dad a new trial. She’d buy it hook, line, and sinker. As soon as his car would pull up, I leave out of the basement door, or my window if I had to,” Piper explained.

  “I pulled some of the records before I came out here. It looks like there’s a Judge Comey as well as the sheriff who are mixed up in all of this, am I right?” Aiden asked.

  “Our beloved cousin has quite the operation,” Evie said bitterly. “I don’t know how he’s managed it, considering the fact that he’s dumber than a rock.”

  “Turns out that Dad had more pull from prison than we imagined,” Drake explained. “I just don’t know what they’re dealing, do any of you? Is it all meth?”

  “One of my friends works at the hospital, in the last year there has been a spike in heroin overdoses,” Trenda said.

  Drake thought back to his dealings with the drug cartel in Mexico. Just what kind of shit was his family involved in? Meth labs were one thing, but if they had brought in the drug trade from over the border, they were crazier than even he had given them credit for.

  “It’s time I had a talk with dear old dad,” Drake said.

  “He’ll just have you arrested,” Trenda protested.

  “Sheriff’s gone on Tuesdays. He’s in LaFollette with his mistress,” Evie said.

  “Huh?” Drake zeroed in on his sister. “How would you know something like that?”

  “I have my sources. Trust me, Delmar will not show up tonight. That’s not to say one of his minions won’t.”

  “Trenda, give me your phone.” Drake held out his hand. He scrolled through the numbers until he found their mother’s and he dialed, and put it on speaker.

  “Trenda! I’ve been worried sick,” his mother began.

  “Hi, Mom.”

  There was a long pause.

  “You bastard,” she finally screeched. “What are you doing with Trenda’s phone.”

  “Let me talk to Dad.”

  He heard some mumbling.

  “Drake, you in town boy?”

  “I want to talk to you. Alone. Do you have the guts?”

  “Fuck you! I’ll wipe you off my shoe. Name the place. Name the time.”

  “Go to the old water tower. Take Mom’s phone. If I see that you’re alone, I’ll show myself. You have one hour.”

  “You better not chicken out on me, Boy.”

  The phone went dead.

  “You can’t go alone!” Trenda cried.

  Aiden and he chuckled. Karen gave him a considering look. Piper was pale, and he saw her eyes filling with tears.

  “Hey Tinkerbell, it’s going to be fine.”

  “He’ll trap you. Don’t go,” Piper begged.

  “Piper, look at me.” Karen stroked her hair, and Piper turned to look at her teacher. “I didn’t know much about what your brother did, but I did a little research. Honey, he’s equipped to deal with anything. And I saw him take down the two men at my house in thirty seconds. I feel sorry for anyone who messes with him. He knows what he’s walking into. He’ll be fine.”

  Having Karen reassure Piper was much better than anything he might have said. Then Karen looked up at him, and he saw her look of quiet admiration. It made him feel ten feet tall.

  “Do I need to write anything else down?” Piper asked quietly.

  “Nope, now it’s a matter of getting him kitted up.” Aiden stood and tilted his head towards the stairs.

  Evie followed them part way up the stairs. “You’re going with him, right?” Evie asked Aiden.

  “No.”

  “This place is a fortress. Drake needs back-up,” she protested.

  “He doesn’t.” Aiden continued up the stairs, and Drake followed.

  “Asshole,” Evie muttered under her breath.

  “I heard that,” Aiden said.

  “You were meant to.

  ***

  It had been a light run, three miles over the hill from the back edge of the old drive-in theatre to the water tower. The foliage was dense, but he could easily spot the Escalade in the clearing. His father was in the driver’s seat. Now to determine how many of his friends had come to play.

  It amazed him just how prepared Senior Chief Petty Officer Aiden O’Malley had been. His suitcase had more gifts than a piñata, including a light shell all-weather jacket Drake was now wearing. It was a little tight, but it made moving around much easier. Drake found three men within ten minutes of having spotted the Escalade. He was ninety-nine-point nine percent sure it was everyone, but now he would find out if he was right.

  As he got closer to the one furthest away from the clearing, he recognized a body type that could have been his twin. Fuck, it was another Avery. As he got closer, he realized it was Huey’s son, Harmon. Well, it would make it simple, Harmon had always been scared of him.

  The younger man didn’t notice Drake until his arm was around his neck and a knife was pointed under his nose.

  Harmon dropped his rifle on the ground.

  “Is that you, Drake?” the man whimpered.

  “Hey, Cuz.”

  “You’re not actually going to cut me, are you?”

  “You weren’t actually going to shoot me, were you?” Drake shoved him to the forest floor with a knee to his back. He pulled out the zip ties Aiden had so kindly provided and tied Harmon’s wrists.

  “Ow! Not so tight.”

  “You be quiet, or I will cut you, and you won’t like where.”

  Harmon twisted and tried to kick at him. “Oh, for God’s sake, stay still,” Drake said quietly, “otherwise I’ll just knock you out, and I don’t want to do that.”

  “Please knock me out. Daddy’s going to be pissed when he finds out you caught me.”

  Harmon was right, Huey would be. “Okay, I promise to beat you up some to show you put up a good fight if you tell me how many others are in the woods.”

  “Two.”

  “I count one,” Drake lied.

  “Keith’s up a tree. You musta missed him. He’s got a crossbow.”

  “So, were you told to kill me?”

  “I wasn’t going to, I swear. I was just going to wing you.”

  “That was mighty nice. But after I was shot up and you brought me to visit our fathers, what would happen?”

  Harmon looked away from Drake. So basically, he was a dead man walking. How nice to know his family loved him. “I think I need to really help you, Cuz. I don’t want your dad mad at you, so I’m going to have to put on a really good show. What’s more, I think I need you out of the game for the next few days.”

  Drake pulled out the roll of duct tape from his backpack and slapped a slice over Harmon’s mouth. “Now just remember, I could have shot you in the kneecap, but since you were only going to wing me, that doesn’t seem fair, now does it?” Harmon’s eyes went wide with terror.

  Drake cut him out of the zip ties so he could smash his hand down onto the forest floor, then grabbed his rifle, made sure the safety was on, and slammed the butt of it into his cousin’s hand, satisfi
ed when he heard bone crunch. He pulled out another zip tie and refastened his hands, ignoring Harmon’s groans of pain.

  He pulled the rifle over his shoulder and went on to the next target.

  Since his little family confab with Harmon, the one in the tree was now taking a piss from one of the limbs. Like that wouldn’t be noticed. Obviously, Huey and his dad weren’t hiring the best and the brightest. Drake picked up a rock and aimed for his back. The man screamed as he went spread-eagled into the forest floor, dick first.

  “Keith!”

  The third man came thundering through the underbrush to his friend. Again, proving that Huey’s hiring practices left something to be desired. Drake used the butt of Harmon’s rifle on the yeller’s head and watched him drop like a stone next to his friend who stank of urine.

  “Don’t kill me,” pee-boy begged.

  Drake surveyed the damage, his leg was a compound fracture. The guy he’d just hit would be out with a concussion. Unfortunately, none of these three were the tattoo guy.

  “How many guys does Huey have working for him?”

  “A lot?”

  “Keith, I need a number,” Drake said patiently as he zip-tied the man’s hands.

  “I’m Harmon’s friend. I don’t know about his daddy’s operation.” He pointed to the unconscious man. “He does.”

  Drake took that man’s rifle and Keith’s cross bow. He was collecting quite the little arsenal. He pulled out more duct tape and placed it over both men’s mouths. He didn’t need his dad given any sort of advanced warning that he was coming for a chat.

  One hundred yards from the clearing, he got a bad feeling. He used the binoculars to check on his dad. The Escalade was gone

  He took out Trenda’s cell phone and called his mother’s number. It picked up on the first ring.

  “This Drake?”

  “Hi Dad, thought we had a date.”

  “Heard a ruckus in the woods. Thought it might be wise to skedaddle.”

  “Thought you were going to come alone. After all, we were just going to talk.”

  “Hell, Drake, if you just wanted to talk, you’d do it on the phone. I hear you have some pretty fancy training. Heard you were one of them there SEALs.”

  Drake rubbed the back of his neck.