Javier (Alpha Heroes #12)

Chapter Ten

Missy

“Wake up the ladies,” Javier ordered as soon as we arrived at our camp. “Keep it quiet. Tell them to get ready to run. Get them to shape the ground under the poncho to look as if a couple of people are sleeping under the lean-to.”

“Got it.” I jogged over, shook the sisters out of their slumber, and relayed Javier’s instructions.

The women and I got to work. Javier got lost among the trees, then returned, leading the donkey that had scared the crap out of me. Leaving the sisters to complete the task, I tightened my backpack’s straps and rushed to meet Javier where he stood next to his ruck under the jacaranda tree.

“They’re on it,” I reported. “What now?”

“Take this.” He handed me the animal’s lead rope and busied himself transferring cartridges of ammunition from his ruck to his vest and pockets. “Go that way.” He pointed toward a dirt road visible beyond the trees. “Put the nuns on the donkey and move as fast as you can. Don’t come back under any circumstances. If I don’t catch up with you in the next twenty minutes, assume I won’t exfil with you and keep going.”

A frown tensed my forehead. “What do you mean?”

“You’ll walk due east until you hit the main road.” He un-velcroed his mission computer from his vest, brought up an electronic map with a route marked in blue, and traced his blunt index over the crooked line. “You’ll then parallel the road going south. Keep out of sight. You’ll veer here toward the border and park at the exact coordinates indicated in the screen. On this red blip.” He tapped the spot. “This should take you six hours, give or take. Someone will meet you there.”

“What if I can’t find them?” Anxiety bubbled in my chest as he slid the device into my leggings’ side pocket. “How will I know who they are?”

“Trust me.” He donned his tactical vest and fastened it in place. “They’ll know you.”

He shouldered his ruck, crossed over to the lean-to, and after conferring quietly with the sisters, dropped his backpack under the shelter. “Leave it where it is,” he tossed over his shoulder, stalking back to me. “Time for you to get moving.”

“But…” My chest squeezed with horror as the realization that he wasn’t coming with us hit me. “We can’t leave you behind.”

“We’ve come too far and worked too hard to let those fuckers screw up the mission.” He strapped on his tactical helmet. “ You are the mission. Getting you out. I can take care of myself. You’ve got your orders.”

“But I can’t—”

“Yes, you can.” He took a knee and tightened his boot laces. “If you don’t leave right now, you and your friends could die. I can’t allow that to happen. Do you read me, Angel?”

I don’t know what came over me. Fear. Dread. A profound sense of admiration for the warrior kneeling before me. I took his face between my hands, and in plain view of the nuns, planted a kiss on his lips.

“Catch up with us,” I whispered against his mouth. “That’s an order, Marine.”

“Yes, ma’am.” His lips took mine, a voracious, all-too-brief mauling.

When he released me from his mouth’s possession, I reeled from the sheer impact of his passion. For a moment, I was suspended in the most delicious dream, suffering from the after-effects of his real-life kiss.

“Saddle up, Angel.”

His voice startled me out of the haze. A glance at the nuns showed me that Sister Elsa wore her most serene expression, but if Sister Janet’s frown was any indication, I was going to have some explaining to do once this was over.

Javier stood up, clipped his carbine to the front of his vest, grabbed my shoulders, and turned me toward where the nuns waited for me.

“Go.” He gave me a gentle push. “Don’t look back and no matter what happens don’t come back here. Just… go.”

I put one foot in front of the other. The docile donkey followed my tentative footsteps. Since Javier had briefed the sisters on the urgency of our situation, they beckoned. As soon as I parked the animal, the nuns went to task trying to mount it. In any other circumstances, the sight would’ve been funny. This wasn’t the case today. They struggled a bit, but once seated atop the donkey, they urged me to hurry. I led the creature to the road, but could I really walk away and leave Javier behind?

Thunder grumbled in the distance. An ominous gust of wind rustled the grasses and the leaves, driving the night’s humidity deep into my bones. A chill rumbled through me, weighing down my strides and pulling on my heart as if it was attached to Javier with chains.

I couldn’t leave him behind and all alone to face my enemies.

I whirled around.

Javier was gone, disappeared without a trace.

It was as if he’d always been a dream and we’d never met in real life.

***

Javier

The fuckers docked their boat by the river mouth and stole south precisely as I’d predicted. Bunch of dicks. Trying to sneak up on me. Well, I was gonna teach them a lesson. You didn’t fuck with Javier Guzman.

Focusing my binos, I tracked their thermal images as they advanced toward the camp using the tall grasses and the tree line for cover. They were geared up exactly like the thugs that had attacked the compound, down to their KLT assault rifles and the PC-9 Zoafs.

These assholes were hyenas from the same pack.

Concealed behind a cluster of pines, I hooked my carbine to my vest and waited for the turd in lead with my blade at the ready. As he passed me by, I reached out, slit his throat, and left him behind, gasping and thrashing.

Sorry, Missy . I couldn’t spare this one if she was gonna stay alive. I needed a noisy death.

His friend came looking for him. These guys didn’t learn from each other’s troubles. I did a rewind and replay and sent him to chase his colleague in hell. I needed to give Missy enough time to get away and end the threat to her life.

I also needed to gather as much intel as possible for our team, mostly who, how, and why. Wiping my bloody knife on my pants, I moved to intercept the next group. Turds number three and four were flanking another fucker, ostensibly the leader, who was commanding from the rear, allowing his scouts to take the brunt of any attack.

Coward.

Neither the legendary Dashiell Dagger—my current CO—nor Phoenix Astor—my former CO—would’ve ever compromised the lives of his men for their own safety. Nix died for this very reason. To protect me. The least I could do was protect his little sister, no matter what it took. I couldn’t save Nix, but I would save Missy.

With a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder, the skies opened up, and the rain began to fall. I couldn’t get a good visual on the turd or his wingmen. The high-density droplets interfered with the infrared signal, limiting my binocular’s thermal range. I tucked the binos away.

Time to get up close and personal .

Moving low and slow, I inched closer to the enemy. The three remaining tangos huddled around their radio, trying to reach their scouts.

Bad news, mates. The number you have reached is no longer in service. Your scouts are fucking dead .

A closer look showed me the tangos, checking out the screen of a tablet. I couldn’t see the details but I spotted a moving balloon.

A tracking device?

My heart gave an extra kick. What were they tracking and how?

It was imperative for me to get my hands on that gadget. I was also gonna have to have a heart-to-heart with the leader of this sorry bunch. My decision had everything to do with our team’s efforts to learn more about the NWO and nothing to do with Missy’s request to spare as many lives as possible.

Poor Goofman . A snort echoed inside my head. The little witch has you caught by the balls—your blue balls, I should add .

Not a lie.

Remember, the good ones always bite the dust way before the bad guys .

Phoenix Astor’s death had taught me that.

The tangos moved forward, advancing in a tight cluster. It was as if they could sense the predator stalking them in the thunderstorm. The early morning darkness combined with the deluge to thwart my attempts at a quick takedown. From where I stood, I didn’t have clear shots. I went around them. The fuckers separated and scattered among the trees.

I caught sight of two, advancing in different directions, but I didn’t see the third merc. I peered into the rainy shadows. Where the fuck did the third turd go?

There you are .

The leader had arrived to our camp. After shouldering my carbine, I slid out my Glock and screwed on the sound suppressor. Creeping up, I studied my next target. He crouched by the lean-to, inspecting my ruck, having already discovered my ruse. He held his gun in his hand. He was alone.

Smelling a trap, I surveyed the stormy landscape, to make sure he was truly on his own. Shame about the thermal function on my binos being out of commission. I could use it right now. The other two mercs were nowhere to be seen. Neither was the tracking device I’d spotted before. A shot of adrenaline burned through my veins. Had the other mercs gone after Missy?

No time to waste. Move, Marine .

I came at the leader from behind.

“Hello, asshole.” I pressed my handgun to the back of his head. “Turn around, slowly, if you wanna keep breathing.”

The man gave up without a fight. He simply lifted his hands in the air and straightened on his knees. I snatched the handgun from his fingers and tucked it into the back of my pants. A glance showed me he didn’t have any visible weapons on him other than the Zoaf I’d requisitioned. A quick pat down confirmed my visual. This asshole relied on his thugs to do the heavy lifting.

He was about my height, built lean and sinewy, with narrow shoulders and a long neck. The rain washed over his features and plastered his shorn, canary-yellow hair to his skull. A large cow ring pierced his septum and hung beneath his bony nose. Perhaps most striking, a host of colorful tattoos were inked upon his features.

A pair of red and yellow coral snakes appeared to slide out of his tear ducts and slithered over his lean cheeks. A duo of boa constrictors in shades of green crawled around his neck. Another set of diamondback rattlers coiled at the top of each of his hands. The hooded cobra rearing upon his forehead flashed its deadly fangs, but it was the poison gleaming in his small, reptilian eyes that put me on notice.

“I was hoping we could talk.” The man had the gall to smile at me, an open mouth grin that didn’t reach his eyes but showcased his canines, filed into points that mimicked fangs.

The fucker had customized his appearance to intimidate others. He was quite the character. He could cut out his tongue, pierce his dick, and attach dumbbells to his balls for all I care. He wasn’t gonna intimidate me.

“Your name,” I bit out. “I want your fucking name, right now.”

“They call me Snake,” he said in a slightly nasally voice.

I snorted. “How fucking original.”

“Were you expecting name, rank, and serial number?” He pursed his thin lips into a mocking smile. “Not in the cards, Javier Gusssssman.”

I wasn’t sure if he was fucking with me, deliberately imitating a snake’s hiss, or if his slight accent influenced his pronunciation. I gave zero fucks about any of that. What I really wanted to know was, “How the fuck do you know my name?”

“We know things.” The man lifted a sharp shoulder. “Lots of things.”

“Why are you here?” I demanded, pressing my gun to his forehead.

“You know why.” He lifted his brow, a gesture that would’ve raised his eyebrows, if he had any. “I’m here for the same reason you are. I don’t mind fair negotiations. How much?”

I frowned. “How much for what?”

He curved up his lips. “For staying out of our way so we can do the job.”

“Yeah, no.” Was this guy on drugs?

“Don’t be so quick,” he counseled smoothly. “Think about it. Your life hasn’t been easy in the last three years. Your reputation precedes you. In our line of work, one must never dismiss an opportunity for profitable employment and upward mobility.”

He knew a lot about me. Whereas I knew shit about him.

“I can assure you that you and I are not in the same line of work.” I knew what the asshole was doing, using my past against me, rubbing my nose in the shit as if I were a mongrel he could retrain for his purposes. “Murder for pay? Not my thing.”

“You don’t get compensated to your potential.” He poked around for my weak link. “My employer can be most generous.”

“Speaking of your employer, who might he be?” It was a blatant attempt to get some intel out of the turd. “I might need his name and address, you know, to forward my references.”

“Oh, come on.” He giggled, a high-pitched, unpleasant sound. “You know who he is, and we know that you know.”

“Are we per chance talking about one Xao Li?”

“Give me a moment here.” Snake smiled and slowly lowered one hand. “Don’t shoot me yet, Texan.”

Fuck . He even knew where I came from.

The NWO had managed to insert a mole into our team during our first round. The mole had been a security breach that had cost us much and had provided our enemy with intel about our team, but the info dump ended when we plugged that hole and Dagger dispatched the traitor to hell. I was a lot of things, but a traitor?

Hell, no.

This time around, the NWO was shit out of luck.

“Nobody has to know that you turned a blind eye tonight.” Moving cautiously, Snake slid a cell out of his front pocket and offered it to me. “You can walk out with your head held up high and disappear. Or you can join us, if you wish. Name your price, type in your bank account number in the blinking box, and you’ll have deposit confirmation in two minutes.”

“Nah, not even tempted.” I snatched the cell from his hand, tossed it over my shoulder, and heard it plop down in the mud behind me. “Your employer kills his employees more often than not. You guys die at alarming rates. Your attrition rates are fucked up, dude.”

“We could use an inside replacement.” The man widened his vile smile. “My boss asked me to convey his invitation.”

“That’s a ‘fuck no’ and a ‘fuck you and your boss.’” I smothered the surge of rage that burned in the pit of my stomach. “By the way, where are your men?”

“I think you know the answer to that question as well.” He knocked his pointy chin toward the road. “They went after the high value target. That way.”

Shit .

My worst-case scenario materialized. The tangos had slipped away to follow Missy. My heart began to mark my urgency with harder beats. I’d always been cool during my missions, but in this moment, something shifted. The mission became personal and a cold hollowness spread through me.

Was this… fear?

Holy shit. I’d never felt cold terror like this in battle, not even as I laid wounded, in and out of consciousness in a makeshift foxhole with Nix Astor.

I forced my face into a blank expression. “They won’t find her.”

“Yeah, we will.” His certainty increased the icy hole expanding within, but I didn’t show him that. “She carries your comms,” he added casually.

I needed more info than that shitty crumb he threw at me. “So?”

“As you know, we’re well-funded and highly skilled.” Snake studied me with his chilling gaze, as though he still had a chance to persuade me to his cause. “We can hack, ride, or better yet, buy satellites as well as you can. We can also trace a signal and hack a mission computer with the best of them.”

Fuck me to hell and back .

That piece of shit Snake wasn’t boasting about the NWO’s funding and capabilities. Knowing someone from Tracker Team would likely be as close as they were to finding Missy, they must have found a weakness in our newly integrated Tak system, homed in on my satellite signal during my last transmission, and hacked into my location interface. This is how they’d tracked us across the lake and homed in on our little camp.

Mina and Omega had probably found evidence of this. It explained why they’d gone silent on me. The missing tangos were tracking Missy. I needed to get to her and fast, before death caught up with her.