Her Dominant SEAL (Midnight Delta Book 9) Page 7

  Drake shook the older man’s hand, appreciating his steady blue gaze. “How much trouble are you in?” Aiden asked.

  Drake looked behind him and saw Piper watching them carefully from the couch. He answered the other SEAL in a low tone. “I’m still assessing, but it’s not good. My dad got out of prison seventy-two hours ago, he and some cronies are trying to snatch my sixteen-year-old sister, who’s inside. I can’t say much in front of her, but she’s going to get suspicious if we stay out here too long.”

  Aiden blinked once, then said, “Am I helping you with the bad guys, or am I babysitting?” When he saw Drake hesitate, he shrugged. “Seriously, it doesn’t matter which, I’m here to help.”

  “I know the lay of the land, right now if you can make sure she’s safe, that’s what I need.”

  “You’ve got it. Let’s go in so you can introduce me.”

  As soon as they walked in the door, Aiden’s entire demeanor changed. Drake watched the amazing transformation as the hardened warrior became the smiling Irishman in the blink of an eye.

  “Piper, I want to introduce you to a friend of mine, his name is Aiden O’Malley.”

  Piper was still sitting on the couch, but now she was curled up against the arm. It was clear she was trying to make herself look small. Aiden was as big a man as Drake, and he went and sat down on the ottoman and smiled at Piper.

  “Hi, is that a calculus book I see on your lap?” he asked.

  “Yes.” She smiled shyly.

  “Holy hell, Girl. That is pretty impressive. Do you actually understand that stuff?”

  She peered over at Drake, who nodded. She looked back at Aiden. “I need help sometimes. I have a teacher who tutors me. It’s coming easier because of her.”

  “You know I’m going to be staying here while Drake goes out. Do you have any questions you want to ask me while Drake is still around?”

  Drake saw Piper’s fingers relax on her book. It was a good sign. The damn Irish charm was working, thank God. He’d hated the idea of leaving her with a stranger, but he didn’t have a choice. He needed to go handle the asshole who was hanging around Trenda’s house.

  “Drake said you work together. Are you a SEAL, too?”

  “Yes. I’ve worked on a couple of assignments with his team. Of course, my team is better,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.

  Piper laughed quietly.

  “His team isn’t better, don’t listen to him. There is no team better than Midnight Delta. He’s been lucky to serve with us.” Drake slapped Aiden on the back, causing Piper to laugh even more.

  “His team is pretty good, I’ll grant him that. I’m getting kind of hungry. Piper, have you had lunch yet?” Aiden asked.

  “I can make something,” she immediately volunteered.

  “You keep working on that calculus. Just point me to the kitchen, and I’ll rustle up something for the two of us to eat. Drake, if you’re lucky, there might be some leftovers when you get back.”

  “I’ll show you where everything is,” Drake said as Aiden stood up. Aiden stopped at the coffee table where more of Piper’s books sat.

  “Piper, are you studying Othello?”

  “I will be, that’s one of my Granny’s books.”

  “I love that play. Maybe we can discuss it later,” Aiden said.

  “That’d be great.” She grinned at him over the back of the sofa.

  The two men continued toward the kitchen.

  Aiden opened the refrigerator and poked around. “So where are you off to?” he asked as he pulled out a block of cheese and butter. He then zeroed in on the pantry.

  “My sister, Trenda, has someone watching her house. It’s freaking her out.” Drake looked at his watch. “If I’m not back in four hours, you should expect my sister Evie to arrive. She drives a jeep and has a smart mouth.” Drake watched as Aiden found the bread and cans of tomato soup.

  “How many sisters do you have?” Aiden asked.

  “Six.”

  “Are all of them going to end up here?”

  “I wish.” Drake watched as Aiden emptied the soup into a saucepan. “But not all of the girls live in town.”

  “And the guy watching Trenda?”

  “I’m pretty sure he’s a prison buddy of my dad’s. Aiden, he’s managed to pick up some real winners from Pikeville. I spotted one with a swastika tat last night. My dad was into the meth trade before he got put away twelve years ago. The sheriff is in on this too. All in all, you’re walking into a shitstorm.”

  Aiden looked up and grinned. “Hell, Drake, my birthday isn’t ‘til next month, you shouldn’t have.”

  Drake laughed. “This is serious.”

  “Shut your mouth. I understood you. We’ve got some down-home ugly going on. I get it. I think you’re just too close to the subject because it’s your father who’s the bad guy and your sisters are targeted but think about what we’re normally up against.”

  Drake let out a sigh. Aiden was right. Five guys who were so stupid that they’d actually served time? If his sisters weren’t involved, he’d normally be handling this blindfolded. “You’re right.”

  “Of course, I am. I’m older and I outrank you. Get it through your head, in this relationship, I’m always going to be right, and you’re always going to be wrong.”

  “Fuck you,” Drake said without heat.

  “Go see about Trenda. I’ve got to get Piper fed.”

  “About Piper,” Drake started.

  “She and I are going to discuss the merits of Othello.”

  Drake continued to stand in the kitchen.

  “Are you still here? We’ll be fine together. Did anybody ever tell you that you worry too much?”

  “It’s in the job description,” Drake said.

  “Which one? SEAL team member or big brother?”

  “Both.”

  Chapter Five

  He looked at the GPS on his phone and swore. Really? Trenda had to live at the end of the road next to the empty field? For fuck’s sake. It’s amazing that they had only watched the place for the last two days. Wait a minute, that wasn’t true, three days ago their dad had ransacked the place. Trenda was as defenseless as a baby bird.

  It was easy enough to spot the car that was scaring poor Bella. Drake parked three houses away. It was overcast so he might not be immediately spotted as he got out of the car and walked toward the asshole in the beige four-door. Even if he was spotted, what was the problem? Nobody was expecting him to be back in town.

  As he meandered up the side of the road, he made sure he kept the jerk in his sights, which was easy enough to do. He had his head resting against the driver’s side window, staring at the house. Obviously, his job was to intimidate Trenda as well as to keep watch. If the man had a brain in his head, he’d be occasionally checking his six, after all, the rearview mirror was right there.

  Drake watched in stunned amazement as the guy actually pulled out binoculars in plain sight and looked over at his sister’s house. Was he out of his mind? Again, he did that without turning around, totally unconcerned that somebody might be watching him. When Drake got beside the car, he noted the doors were unlocked. The guy just made it easier and easier. Drake pulled out his gun and had the backseat door open, and his gun pointed at the guy’s head faster than he could drop his binoculars.

  “What the fuck?!”

  “Don’t make a move and you might live to see tomorrow,” Drake growled.

  He turned his head, trying to get a look at Drake. Meanwhile, Drake was disappointed to see that he wasn’t one of the men from the other night. Damn, that meant that he wasn’t going to be cutting the herd as much as he’d hoped.

  “Who are you?” the braindead idiot asked, his voice trembling.

  Drake shook his head in pity. “I’m Drake Avery, Trenda’s big brother.”

  “You’re not supposed to be here,” the man whined.

  “Well, I am. Now, who are you?”

  “Fred.” Drake rolled his e
yes and waited.

  “What? I told you my name,” the skinny guy finally eeked out.

  “Your last name, you asshat.”

  “Oh, Sanders. Fred Sanders.”

  “Now, I want you to tell me all about yourself. Starting with how you met my father, what kind of relationship you have with the sheriff, and how you ended up in this car scaring the piss out of my sister’s baby girl.”

  “I’m not scaring no baby.”

  Drake held onto his gun with his left hand and with his right, he reached over the front seat and wrapped his big hand around the man’s scrawny neck. “You wanna re-think your answer?”

  The man wheezed. Both of Fred’s hands came up to try and yank Drake’s iron finger’s away from his throat. It was no use. Finally, he gave up, his eyes bulging.

  “Nod if you’re going to answer my questions.”

  The man gave the best nod he could under the circumstances. Drake dropped him back into the front seat of his car.

  “Prison. I knew your old man from prison. We done time together a couple of years ago.”

  “He got ahold of you awfully fast considering he just got out three days ago.”

  “Huey. Huey called us. He told us ole Norville was getting sprung. He rounded us up.” Great, it was a family affair. His dad’s cousin Huey was in on things. He’d always hated that fucker.

  “Who’s us?”

  “Us.”

  Drake punched him in the back of the head.

  The man let out a loud yell. “Are you trying to kill me?” he asked as he tenderly touched the spot where Drake’s fist had landed.

  “That was a love tap. Give me names.”

  “I don’t know everybody.”

  The guy was a moron, Drake wanted to hit him again just to see if it would jumpstart his brain. “Give me the names you do know,” he gritted out.

  “There’s Al, he did time for trying to steal a car. But it was an unmarked police car a block away from a police precinct. He’s none too bright.”

  “That must mean he’s dumber ‘n dirt if you’re noticing.” Fred looked confused. “Go on,” Drake prompted.

  “Leslie is a man, even though he has a girl’s name. He don’t like it when we try to call him Les. He got beat up a lot in prison. I personally think he liked it. Getting beat up, that is. Then there’s Snake. He’s with the brotherhood.”

  Drake thought he knew what he was talking about, but he wanted to be sure.

  “What brotherhood?”

  “You know, the Aryan brotherhood. He’s a Nazi. He says next month he’ll have more guys coming.”

  Fuck.

  “Why is Huey so hellbent on recruiting guys to help my father?”

  “It’s the other way around. Norville tells Huey what to do. Your dad and his cousin used to own this town. Huey’s been trying to keep things together, but Norville says he’s going to own the county with all his contacts.”

  “How does the sheriff figure into all of this?”

  “Snake told me that he doesn’t want to get his hands too dirty, he just wants kick-backs, so Huey’s been paying him and a judge off.”

  Drake swallowed hard to keep the bile down. Just what kind of family tree had he fallen out of? And where the hell was Huey hiding out, because he sure as hell hadn’t been at the homestead last night.

  “Where you from, Fred?”

  “Kentucky.”

  “This your car?” Drake could see the man consider lying. He knocked him on the same spot on the head.

  “Ow. That hurts. It’s my aunt’s car.” Drake would bet anything that his aunt didn’t know Fred had it.

  “Fred, you’re going to head back to Kentucky tonight. If I see your ass in Tennessee again, I’m going to kill you. Do you hear me?”

  “Huey’ll kill me if I leave.” Drake set down his gun on the backseat, leaned over the front seat, grabbed him by the throat and used the thumb of his other hand to dig into the goose-egg on the man’s head. He was gratified by Fred’s scream.

  “I’ll go. I’ll go. Please stop.” Drake waited a moment, then he felt tears hit the hand that was holding onto Fred’s throat.

  “Give me your gun and I’ll let you loose,” Drake promised.

  “I don’t have one.”

  Drake dug in harder.

  “It’s in the glove box.”

  What a dumbshit. He’d had his gun where it wasn’t readily available.

  “Open the driver’s side door and get out of the car when I let you loose, Fred. Then go to the hood of the car and assume the position.”

  “I’ll do anything. Just stop hurting me.”

  More tears hit Drake’s hand. He released Fred and prayed he wouldn’t make a play for the gun in the glovebox. Not that he’d have a problem subduing the asshat. Nope, he just wanted Fred to be conscious and able to drive back to Kentucky in the next ten minutes.

  Fred opened the car door and was soon pressed spread-eagled over the hood of the car. Drake leaned over the front seat and pulled Fred’s pistol out of the glovebox. He then got out of the car and frisked Fred and found a switchblade in his boot.

  “Pop the trunk of the car,” Drake directed, wanting to see if there were any more weapons.

  The smell of body odor assaulted him when the trunk opened.

  “My God man, haven’t you heard of deodorant?” Drake demanded. It had been rank in the car as the man sweated, but the pile of dirty laundry made him gag.

  “I was going to go to the laundry-mat,” Fred defended himself.

  “Just get home to Kentucky and burn your clothes, you can’t save them. If I see you here again, you’re going to be the first one I target. Are we clear?”

  Fred nodded.

  “Say the words. Are we clear?”

  “Yes. I’m leaving town now. Can I have my gun?” he asked, proving just how stupid he was.

  Drake shook his head and pointed to the open car door. “You’ve got one minute for me to see taillights. Otherwise you’ll be wishing Huey was here.”

  Fred stood there looking at him.

  “One, two, three,” Drake started counting, and Fred scrambled towards the driver’s seat. He hit his knee against the door. Once again, Drake had to listen to him whine. Fred gunned the car trying to get it to go. It was obvious the parking brake was on, but that didn’t stop him from continuing to press on the accelerator. God, he’d be lucky to make it out of Sevier County, let alone back home to Kentucky. Finally, Fred figured out his problem and the car lurched forward, and he did a fast U-turn. It had taken longer than the allotted time, but Drake always gave extra consideration to the chronically stupid.

  He turned to his sister’s house and saw the curtain in the front room window flutter. He took out his cell phone. He didn’t want to be knocking on Trenda’s front door without her knowing who it was. Not under these circumstances.

  As soon as she picked up, she was talking. “I saw the show. Come on inside. But take it easy. Bella’s not used to men.”

  Drake wasn’t worried, he was good with kids. Hell, Sophia’s little half-sister, Louisa, loved him, and she was a year younger than Bella. This was going to be a piece of cake.

  ***

  “Trenda, has she been a-b-u-s-e-d?” he asked, spelling out the last word.

  He watched as his dark-haired sister sighed.

  “No. It was the men who ransacked the house. She’s been trembling ever since. Before that, she hadn’t been around men, so this sent her into a tailspin.” Trenda Jean hugged her three-year-old daughter even closer, keeping Bella’s face pressed against her neck, so the child didn’t see him. “I’ll be back soon. I’m going to get us packed.”

  He nodded and watched as the next oldest Avery child took her little girl with her down the hall. He got up from the loveseat where he had been sitting and looked around the living room. There were pictures all over the place. Each and every one of his many sister’s accomplishments were depicted on these walls and shelves.

  He
saw where Maddie had come in second in a piano recital. Zoe had won the hundred-meter dash in high school. There was a team picture of Chloe’s softball team when they made it to State her senior year. There were pictures of Piper in her high school play, and a newspaper clipping of Evie when she had collected the most money for the local food pantry.

  Just as he was walking by the Wall of Honor, he saw a shelf with a picture of his football team. It was his team from high school when they had made All State Champions. He’d played fullback, and had won MVP that last game. Then he saw a picture from when he was in fourth grade. Great, it was one of Mom’s famous bowl haircuts. The woman would literally take one of her mixing bowls and put it over his head to cut his hair, and Trenda had that picture up for everybody to see. Thank God, his mother had never done that to any of the girls. Of course, they just had to run around with their hair pinched tight into braids that would hang down to their butts. Drake chuckled to himself. How many times did he have to beat on some kid who had pulled his sister’s braids?

  Drake wondered where Bella’s shelf was. Surely there had to be a spot with all things Bella. He headed into the kitchen to look for something to eat. As soon as he got to the refrigerator, he found Bella’s shrine. Damn, she was a cute kid.

  He felt a smidgeon guilty for so easily dipping into his sister’s refrigerator. But for God’s sake, it was Trenda’s fridge, and he was hungry. He grinned when he found some ham. Then the Good Lord Above was shining down on him, because he found potato salad as well. He opened the Tupperware container and found it was made with mustard. It was the family recipe. Fine. Mom was screwed up and an accomplice to a madman, but boy nobody could beat her potato salad. He fixed himself a plate and ate standing up at the counter.

  “No! I don’t wanna!” Bella yelled from down the hall. Well, so much for being shy and introverted. She had the Avery girl temper, Drake thought as he heard his niece.

  A harried Trenda walked into the kitchen. When she saw Drake, her eyes sparkled.

  “I made brownies for you yesterday.” She nodded to a tin foil covered plate.