CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY

“JJ, get over here! April’s phone was turned back on,” Rex said urgently.

The entire team—minus Eagle, Cole, and Meat, who were up in a helicopter searching from the sky for any sign of where Ryan might’ve holed up—was just south of Bailey, Colorado, in a cabin that Tex had procured for their use. They were antsy and amped up, waiting for the smallest clue as to where to start looking for the man who’d kidnapped the women.

Since April’s phone last pinged, they hadn’t had any further indicators. While they thought Ryan might’ve gone into the mountains, they didn’t have a good place to start looking, as the wilderness stretched for hundreds of miles in every direction.

“Where?” JJ asked impatiently as he watched Rex click on his keyboard. “Here in Bailey?”

“No, a tower about twenty miles south of us. There are a few towers between here and there, but her phone is pinging off the last one before cell service is lost because of the mountains,” Rex said. He pulled up a map and turned his computer toward the other men, who’d quickly gathered around him. He pointed at a spot on the map that was literally completely green.

“Let’s go,” JJ said, standing up straight.

“Hold on,” Gray said urgently with a shake of his head. “We need a plan. We can’t just rush into the jungle like greenhorns.”

“Our women have been gone for three days!” Chappy snapped. “Probably scared out of their minds. We need to go get them now!”

“I know, but seriously, we’ve lived in Colorado for years. There’s nothing out there but steep ravines that’re easy to fall into and tons of wilderness. As far as we’ve been able to find out, there aren’t even any trails.”

“He had to have gotten them there somehow,” Bob said. “He couldn’t have force marched three pregnant women through the wilderness.”

“Good point,” Blake said.

“Let’s get in touch with the guys in the helo and let them know. They can tell us what they see from the air,” Ro suggested.

“And while we’re waiting, we can head in that direction. Go as far as we can in the vehicles before we need to hike,” Smoke agreed.

“The more I think about Bob’s point, the more I agree,” Cal said. “There’s no way June could hike very far in her condition. And I’m guessing none of the women have proper shoes on to be walking around the forest.”

“You think this asshole cares about any of that?” JJ asked.

“No. But he has a plan. And if he’s too far off the beaten path, he wouldn’t be able to execute said plan as well.”

JJ’s head spun. Cal and Bob were both right. They were thinking much clearer than he was. He needed to start behaving like a Delta, a team leader, and less like a man who was desperately worried about the woman he loved.

“Right. So turning the phone on wasn’t a mistake,” JJ said. “He turned it on wanting us to know where he is.”

“Definitely,” Chappy said with a nod.

“Call it,” Rex ordered. “The phone. See if you can talk to this Ryan guy. See what he wants.”

JJ immediately reached for the phone in his back pocket—and it scared the shit out of him when it started vibrating in his hand before he could even unlock it.

Looking down, he saw April’s name on the screen.

Adrenaline shot through his system as he took a deep breath. He activated the recording app before answering the call.

“Justice here,” he barked.

“Jack? It’s me.”

The sound of April’s voice nearly brought him to his knees. As it was, he sank into the chair someone shoved at him.

“Are you all right? Are you hurt?”

“We’re okay. But Jack, I need to tell you—”

He interrupted her, wanting to make sure she was truly all right before going any further. “No, love, are you all right? Did he touch you? Hurt you? It’s been three days . . . I . . .” His voice cracked, and JJ did his best to gain control. “Talk to me, sweetheart.”

“I’m okay. We were in the trailer for nearly all of that time. He took me out just once to let me call you, but we’ve all been in the trailer since. We had some food and water. It wasn’t until we stopped for the last time that we even saw him again.”

“Did he touch you?”

April hesitated—and a red haze fell over JJ’s vision. He didn’t need to hear the words. He knew the asshole had put his hands on his woman.

“I’m okay,” she insisted. “But you need to listen. Please!”

“He’s dead,” JJ told her. “I told you what would happen to anyone who dared put their hands on you.”

“Fine, Jack, but can you shut up and listen to me already!?”

JJ heard someone snicker, and remarkably, his own lips twitched. His April was fierce. And he couldn’t love her more. “Sorry. I’m listening.”

“Right, so he drove a black pickup. A smaller one. I’m sorry, I don’t know what kind it was or the license plate, but he had a white trailer hooked to it, one that opened in the back. He had it locked while we were in there, so we couldn’t get out. We didn’t stop much, and never for longer than it might take to get gas, so I think he’s probably loopy from lack of sleep. I didn’t see anyone he might be working with, only him.”

Rex’s fingers were flying over his keyboard, typing all the information April was giving them, either to pass it on to someone or so they could review it without replaying the recording.

“That’s good,” he told her.

“Yeah, but it’s not,” she went on. “We’re in a cabin. I have no idea where. There are trees all around it, and he nailed the door shut, so we can’t get out.”

“What about windows? Can you get out that way?” JJ asked, interrupting her.

“There are two, but they’ve got boards over them as well. I’m guessing he probably nailed them up before we got here.”

“What about peeling up the floorboards?” he asked.

“Jack!” she exclaimed in irritation.

“What?”

“We can’t get out,” she said firmly. “One, because June is having her baby. Like, right now. And secondly, because he told us he’s surrounded the place with explosives.”

The room around JJ was so silent, he could hear the blood rushing in his ears. “What?”

“Bombs. IEDs. Things that go boom. We had to walk on a very specific path to even get to the cabin. He’d marked it with pink circles, but he picked them up after he nailed the door shut. And that’s not all,” April said.

“What else?” JJ asked, his mind churning, trying to come up with a plan to rescue April and the others.

“He said he put a big bomb under the cabin itself,” she admitted, her voice quiet now. “That he would blow it up if you guys got anywhere close.”

“Fuck!” someone said behind him.

“He could be bluffing,” JJ said almost desperately.

“I know. But he did throw a rock to prove that he wasn’t lying about the stuff around the cabin,” April said. “The rock wasn’t even very big, and it still detonated something in the ground.”

“All right. What else?” JJ didn’t feel like himself. He felt as if he were floating, watching himself talk on the phone from high above.

“He blames you guys for the death of his brother in the raid, when you were rescued. I tried to tell him that you guys couldn’t have killed him because you were in no shape to do much at all, given how badly you were tortured, but he kind of lost it and wouldn’t listen. He’s been planning this for years,” April told him urgently. “He wants you to watch us die, then he plans to kill you.”

JJ wasn’t surprised at her words. He and the others had already pretty much decided that whoever this Ryan person was, he had to be connected to one of their missions, and Tex had hit the nail on the head with the male-relative scenario. Irrationally, he thought it was unfair that it turned out to be something they hadn’t even done themselves, but that didn’t matter.

“That’s not going to happen.”

“I’m scared,” April admitted in a barely there whisper.

“I know, but you’re doing so good,” JJ soothed. “How’d you get your phone back?”

“He gave it to me,” she admitted. “He wanted me to call and warn you.”

JJ’s back straightened. Whoever Ryan was, he was conceited as hell, and it would be his downfall.

“I didn’t want to call,” April admitted, voice shaking now. “I didn’t want to lure you to your death.”

“No one’s dying,” he told her firmly. “Trust me.”

“I do.”

“Good.” He heard one of the other women speaking in the background, and then April said, “The others need to talk to their husbands.”

JJ didn’t want to hand his phone over, but his friends deserved to talk to their wives. “Okay, but don’t hang up when they’re done. Come back to me.”

“I will.”

When JJ heard Marlowe’s voice on the other end of the line, he handed his phone to Bob.

He tuned out his friend as he tried to figure out how to manage this impossible situation.

“You think he’s still there?” Gray asked quietly from next to him.

“Absolutely. He’s desperate for revenge. He’s gonna want to see his hard work and plans to fruition.”

“I agree,” Gramps said.

“But . . . he still doesn’t know about us,” Black said with a small grin.

“That’s right,” Nathan agreed. “He’s expecting the four of you, and that’s it. Maybe some local cops or something. He’s not expecting sixteen additional well-trained men . . . I mean, I’m not exactly in the same league as most of you, but I can hold my own,” the tall, almost nerdy-looking man said with a shrug.

“Stop, Nathan,” Blake scolded. “I’d choose you over any ole former SEAL.”

“Hey, careful,” Black bitched.

JJ let them blow off steam with their banter for a moment before getting serious. “You’re right, Nathan. You guys are our best advantage. Chappy, Cal, Bob, and I can go in, make sure his attention is on us, before you take him out.”

“You don’t want to be the one who ends him?” Bull asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I don’t give a fuck about him now. He’s nothing. A coward who’s deflecting blame for his brother’s actions onto us. Hear me clearly—all I care about is my woman’s life. And Carlise, Marlowe, and June. They’re my priority. As long as they’re safe, I don’t give a shit who kills Ryan. I just want him gone.”

Everyone around him nodded in satisfaction.

“I’m thinking we can take out this asshole without too much issue, especially since he’s not expecting us, but how are we getting to the women?” Smoke asked.

“Before he’s able to blow the cabin—that is, if it’s even on a remote,” Ball said.

“It could be on a timer,” Ryder agreed.

“If that’s the case, we need to stop messing around and get to that cabin,” Bull said.

JJ was glad to hear the concern in the other men’s voices.

“April did say that they were in that trailer, and when they were let out, they were at the cabin, so that tells us we were right, Ryan did drive pretty much straight to it,” Ro said.

“Which means there are roads. That will make it quicker to get there,” Ball agreed.

“But what road? What cabin?” Smoke asked.

The back-and-forth between all the men felt useful. Familiar. It was what he and his team did when they were on a mission. And since JJ knew without a doubt that the four of them weren’t on top of their game, were more worried about their women than anything else, it was a relief to have these men at their backs.

“June?” Cal said in such a broken, tortured voice, everyone turned to look at him. He was holding JJ’s phone and had it on speaker. His knuckles were white, his hand was shaking, and his eyes were shut as he spoke to his wife.

“I’m . . . okay . . . the girls . . . are here . . . Max is gonna . . . be okay too . . .”

It was obvious June was in a lot of pain and it was taking effort for her to talk.

“I love you guys. So much,” Cal said.

“We . . . know . . . just think . . . when you get . . . here . . . you’ll get to meet . . . your son.”

“June, I’m sorry! I’m so sorry I’m not there! I just—”

“No!” June barked firmly, cutting him off. “Why would I . . . want you . . . here . . . looking at my . . . stretched out . . . hoohah? Besides . . . you’d . . . probably pass out. April’s . . . got this . . . under . . . control. If you . . . think she’s . . . gonna let anything . . . happen . . . to her nephew . . . you don’t . . . know her.”

Cal let out a pained half sob, half chuckle. “Right. You’ve got the best support group I could want around you right now.”

“Damn . . . straight . . . I . . . do. I think . . . I’m gonna go . . . have a baby . . . now. Don’t get killed, Cal. I’ll be pissed . . . if you . . . do.”

“I love you, Juniper.”

“I love you too. Go . . . kick . . . some ass.”

They all heard a thunk, as if June had dropped the phone, then an anguished, muted scream echoed throughout the room.

Every single man froze at hearing the pain in June’s tone as she struggled to have her baby.

Cal was shaking even harder when Chappy took the phone from him and handed it back to JJ.

Feeling sick, JJ brought it up to his mouth. “April?” he asked.

“Hey, I’m sorry, but I can’t talk. I need to . . . June . . .”

“It’s okay. I understand. You’ve got this, April.”

“I don’t have a choice,” she said, and JJ hated hearing the fear in her voice.

“I’m gonna deliver Max,” April went on. “Then I’ll help you guys as much as I can. There’s a hole in the door, and I can be a lookout or something.”

It was so like his mother hen to want to be everything to everyone. “We’ve got this.”

“Jack, I can help,” April insisted.

“I know you can. And I’ll call when we get there. Okay?” JJ said, wanting to soothe the terror underlying the forced calm she was trying to project. If looking out that damn hole in the door would make her feel as if she was helping, he’d gladly let her.

“Okay. Be safe, Jack. You have to make an honest woman out of me.”

JJ stilled. “You want to marry me?” he asked.

“Duh,” she said with a small huff.

“You’re taking my name,” he informed her.

She laughed, and the sound was a little less forced this time. “I am?”

“Yup.”

“Hoffman is my maiden name. It’s not his.”

“Don’t care. You’ll be April Justice before the week is out.”

“Kill Ryan, don’t die, get us out of here, and I’ll be April Justice before tomorrow is gone if you want,” she vowed.

“Done. Now go deliver our nephew. I’ll see you soon.”

“Love you, Jack.”

“I love you too, April.”

The phone went silent as she clicked off the connection.

“Smooth, man,” Rex said with a grin on his face. “I never would’ve thought insisting she take your name would work in a million years, but damn if it didn’t.”

JJ’s fingers tingled. He wasn’t sure if it was because he was holding his breath or because of the surplus of adrenaline coursing through his veins, but it didn’t really matter. He was going to marry his woman. Sooner than later.

“Meanwhile, I was transmitting info to Meat in the chopper, and he’s already found the cabin,” Rex said.

“What?” Chappy gasped.

“Where?” Bob barked.

“How does he know it’s the right one?” Cal asked, a bit more composed after his emotional conversation with June.

“He said there’s a black truck connected to a trailer sitting on a dirt road less than a mile from the cabin. He thinks April was right and this guy’s not bluffing. The dirt around the cabin is disturbed, as if he’d been digging in it,” Rex said.

“Burying mines and IEDs,” Gray said grimly.

“Looks like it,” Rex agreed. “I’ve got the coordinates. There’s no sign of the Tango, but he’s there, I’d bet my life on it. I’m thinking we can get within two miles or so of the cabin, then go in on foot from there. We can split up, surround the area. You four can act all incompetent and get his attention. Once the rat comes out of his hole, we’ll take him out, then figure out how to get the women to safety.”

JJ’s stomach rolled at that. If the cabin was surrounded by explosives, and if there really was a bomb under the cabin itself, there was no telling how much time they had. And with every tick of the second hand, JJ felt the urgency ramp up more and more.

“Let’s go,” he said firmly.

The Ace Security crew, Silverstone, and the Mountain Mercenaries all headed for the door. Everyone had looks of concentration on their faces, aware of what was at stake.

JJ turned to his team and took a deep breath.

But it was Cal who spoke. “June’s having my baby. She went into labor in a bloody trailer. Not in a sterile hospital surrounded by doctors and nurses, and without the damn epidural we’d planned so she wouldn’t be in pain. And it’s too early. Max isn’t supposed to be born for another few weeks.”

“He’ll be okay,” JJ told him.

“I know,” Cal said in a surprisingly firm tone. “Because she’s got Carlise, Marlowe, and April with her. But that doesn’t mean I’m not mad as all bloody hell. He’s stolen this from us. Sharing the experience of our first child being born. Something we can never get back.”

“I don’t mean to eavesdrop,” Rex said from the door. Everyone else had left, but he’d lingered, obviously overhearing their conversation. “I’ll personally kill him for you. Slowly. Painfully.”

Cal studied the man. From what they understood from the others, Rex wasn’t Special Forces. He’d been in the Army, but only for a short time. He wasn’t the first person JJ would guess was willing and eager to kill in a roomful of men who’d done just that in the past. Then again, he’d been through more pain than any one man should ever have to cope with. Not knowing where his wife was, or even if she was alive, for ten long years. He now had her back, along with a son he didn’t know she’d had while in captivity, and both were thriving.

“I’d be much obliged,” Cal said formally. “As would the royal family.”

Rex smirked. “I don’t want anything to do with that, no offense.”

“None taken. There are many days when I feel the same,” Cal told him.

The two men nodded at each other, then Rex disappeared through the door.

“While we’ll always be Delta, today, we’re just four men who will do anything to get back the women we love,” Chappy said quietly.

“The protector, the royal, the hero, and the lumberjack,” Bob agreed. “I’ve heard our women call us that more than once. And I want to be my wife’s hero . . . again.”

“You already are,” JJ told him. “And you’re definitely a protector,” he told Chappy. “Cal will always be June’s royal prince. And I’m happy to be a simple lumberjack,” JJ said, feeling prouder at that moment to be exactly who he was than he could remember in a very long time. “We’ve got sixteen badass men on our side; let them do the hard work. Our only priority is that cabin. Understood?”

“Ten-four.”

“Yes.”

“Absolutely.”

JJ didn’t think he even needed to say that, but the last thing he wanted was one of them to get lost in their anger toward Ryan. He needed their focus on the cabin. On figuring out how to reach the women and get them out safely.

He had a feeling that was going to be the hardest part of this mission. Not neutralizing the kidnapper. Not figuring out where he was hiding or waiting for him to show himself. Not worrying about whether he planned to take them out with a sniper rifle—which JJ doubted, because that would be too fast, and this asshole wanted to see their faces. Wanted to see their pain when they thought their women would die.

No, those explosives worried JJ more than anything else. One wrong step, one wrong move . . . hell, with some bombs, just disturbing the ground too much could make everything blow. They needed to be calm and methodical. Let the men they’d called for help take out Ryan.

“Let’s go get our women,” JJ said.

Without another word, the four men turned for the door.