Free Fall (Free Fall Vol. 2): (Loving Summer #7: The Donovan Brothers #4) (2 page)

            I
shook my head and raised my hands. Damn, I forgot to call ahead to let them
know I was coming in a silver Audi.

            “Listen,
put your guns down.  It’s me, Andrew Knight.”

            “Like
hell you are,” the leader said.  It was my good buddy and co-founder, Kenneth
Stone, Chair of Operations. I was CEO, and he was the first employee I hired.
“Andrew Knight would never be caught alive wearing a silver fur coat and flip
flops.”

            “Well,
Buddy,” I said, “There’s always a first time.”

            “Oh
man,” Kenneth burst out laughing, putting his guns away, and signaling for the
rest of the guys to put away their guns. “The look on your face. Heck, the look
you have on…” he burst out laughing again.  “Priceless.”  He came towards me,
and we gave each other a man’s hug. “Good to have you back, Boss. When we lost
touch with you, and your phone wasn’t picking up, we went searching for you.
Found you were in the hospital recovering from a near-fatal head bash, and
thought it was better for you to be there until you got better.”

            “Nonsense,”
I said. “You would have pulled me out already and hired a private team of
physicians and nurses to tend to me. Why didn’t you?”

            Kenneth
looked sheepish for a moment. “Because Andrew, the surgeon who operated on you,
you knew her personally, and well, I thought you’d want to stay there to be
close to her.”

            “Damn,
you knew that much, yet she still got taken by The Dragon. Come on guys. What
do you know about this? Anything?  I just escaped from the hospital to find
her.”

            “We
didn’t know she was taken,” Kenneth said.  “She seemed to be going in to check
on you every couple of hours.”

            “When
was the last time you saw her checking on me?” I asked.

            “According
to our cameras, she visited you just this morning.”

            “Couldn’t
be,” Rachel spoke up. All the men’s eyes were on Rachel, because she got their
attention, but also because she was Rachel Donovan, and gorgeous. My men were
hot-blooded guys after all.

            I
could even see tough as stone, Kenneth Stone, look at her admiringly.  If I
wasn’t Rachel’s proud older brother I would be knocking all those guys’ heads
for looking at my sister like that, but in a way, I also wanted Rachel to
finally find someone, and quit waiting around for Astor to notice her all these
years. Yes, as much as I lied to Rachel about not being around to see her and
everyone grow up, I had been around, keeping tabs on my family, only in different
identities.

            And
I knew how it was with Astor and her, and I knew it was time for her to move
on.

            “There
is no way Summer could have been there this morning. I would have seen her
since I was there all last night and this morning watching Na…um, Andrew.”

            “That
camera which was outside my door,” I said, “The play must be on a loop so it
seems she kept checking up on me every so often.”

            “They
caught onto us,” Kenneth said.

            “She
didn’t show up to the rehearsal or wedding days ago, so she was already missing
for a while,” Rachel said.

            I
was already making my way to my private quarters, while Rachel and the guys
waited outside. I headed to my large closet, where I threw on new clothes and
strapped on some guns. I looked in the mirror. Despite a large bandage over my
head, I looked bright-eye and energetic. Thank God, I still look like myself.
Otherwise, I’d have to get surgery to change looks, too.

 I
cleaned up a little, and put on my high-tech boots. Light as a feather, but
heavy duty, weather resistant, silent, aerodynamic, and had a compartment to
stash a dagger. My newest design waiting for a patent, also from Andrew Knight
Industries.  I walked out to the waiting group.

“I
put her in this situation. I’m heading out to find her myself.  You,” I said to
Rachel, “stay here at the Compound with Kenneth and the guys. They should keep
you safe…especially since the camera caught you escaping with me. They have a
feed to that camera so they know you’re with me.”

            “Boss,
what about us?”

            I
looked at the two tough-looking guys who trailed The Dragon from Hong Kong. 
“Hector and Luis. Glad to see you made it here fine. Come with me. Get armed
and meet me at the garage. We’re going to do what you guys have been waiting
for…we’re going dragon hunting.”

Chapter
2

Summer

I
don’t know how he could detect how much I
cared for Nat, but he did, and now I was waiting for the blow, but instead, he took
his hand from my chin and trailed his it down to my breasts again, which was
left bare and hanging from his last visit there.

“As
I said before, you have beautiful breasts,” he said. “You should show more of
it…” he unbuttoned one button and moved to the next, further making my breasts
fully available to his hands.  “I have a weakness for breasts,” he licked his
lips. “Hell, I have a weakness for every part of a beautiful woman,” he said
looking me up and down before tearing open my blouse, letting the buttons fly.
“I can see why Nat Donovan tried to hide you from us. Your beauty is the kind
men fight wars over, and I can tell you could drive them to wars.”

“Oh
really?” a woman’s voice shrilled from the doorframe of the room. A gorgeous
woman with far too much makeup and overdone hair sauntered in. Her body was
near perfection, like a Barbie doll’s figure. Dark hair with hazel or was it
green eyes, that was filled with hate as she looked from me to the man
straddling me.

“Eddie,”
she crooned, “I missed you. Why didn’t you show up at the Blue Room? I waited
and waited. I even bashed that man’s head in with a pipe.  That man who was
trailing you. I left him for you, but you didn’t show up so I had to go service
another client.”

“Brandi,”
Eddie said, “You know I don’t work that way. I don’t need a woman like you to
take down my foes. I meet and fight them face-to-face. Like a man. Not bash him
from behind when he is unarmed and unsuspecting.”

“I
was only trying to help you. He was asking all kinds of questions about you, so
I figured you’d want to get rid of him.”

My
blood burned hot. This bitch was the one who bashed Nat’s head in?  I was so
angry, I wanted to go up to her and strangle her. 

But
she had already moved up close to us, looked me in the eye with a menacing
challenge.  She shoved me aside and pulled “Eddie” as she called this giant of
a man to her, running her hands all over him, kissing him, and began unzipping
his pants while she got down on her knees and began sucking him. “You’re so
hard for me,” she crooned. “I knew you’d missed me.”

“I
was already hard when you barged in on me and Ms. Jones here,” Eddie said. “I
would’ve like to continue where I left off with her…”

He
moved away from her, and came towards me, his eyes looking dark and hungry.

“Eddie,
I’m your girl, not her,” Brandi said.  “I’m the one you want to fuck. I’m made
for you.” She pulled him away from me and wrapped her legs around his waist,
hiking her skirt up to revealed her naked bare bottom.  She slid onto him, and
began riding him hard while he held onto her. 

I
had to look away. 

I
enjoyed sex and wasn’t a prude, but what this woman was doing and how she
didn’t care she was doing all that to Eddie, right in front of me, was
something I thought she should be doing elsewhere. But I also caould’t stop
wanting to look. It was almost acrobatic how she was hanging onto him, while he
was holding her arms, trying to keep balanced while she rode him switching
positions every so often.  He backed himself to a wall eventually while she
kept vertically riding him. I couldn’t believe my eyes how acrobatic this
Brandi was. Is that what they do at the Blue Room, some kind of gentleman’s
club it seemed?  Is that where Nat had gone?  I almost didn’t want to think
about why he was there, without feeling a tinge of jealousy. Was this girl
having sex with him too before she betrayed him and attacked him? 

Whatever
Brandi was doing, Eddie was having a hard time resisting.  He was thrusting as
hard as she was riding him, and both of them was covered in sweat by the time
they climaxed. I felt a bit ashamed for watching them have sex right in front
of me, but at the same time, I couldn’t help getting aroused. I felt they were
getting aroused just having me watch him, too.

When
they were done, he tried to pull away from her, even shooting me a look that
seemed apologetic.  Why he was, was beyond me. He seemed like the type of man
who would revel in having wild abandon sex in front of a woman he wanted to
seduce. Again, he tried to walk away from the woman he just fucked, but she
grabbed onto him and went down on her knees, pulling his crotch to her.  She
filled her mouth with his girth and was enthusiastically sucking him in and out
of her, to the back of her throat. Wow, that woman could give a deep throat
blow job like I’ve never seen, and Eddie had to stop in his tracks to enjoy
it. 

He
closed his eyes and was clenching his hands while she ate him for what seemed
like hours. When he tried to pull away from Brandi, the more enthusiastically
her head bobbed up and down.  He finally pull her face away long enough to say,
“Brandi, I told you, I’m not serious about you. Go find someone else who wants
to be. Stop degrading yourself please.”

“I
don’t care,” she said, ignoring what he said and held him tighter while she
sucked him harder.  I could hear her moaning as she seemed to enjoy herself,
and then groaning as Eddie pulled out of her mouth, turned her backwards and
plunged into her from behind, going until he was spent. 

            “I
knew you didn’t mean any of that, when you could still fuck me like that,
Eddie,” Brandi said.  “You’re still my man, and I’d like to keep it that way.”
She shot me a menacing look that was supposed to scare me, but all it did was
made me feel sorry for her desperation.

            It
was clear she was in love with the brute; and it was clear he wasn’t in love
with her. 

            “Now
go back,” Eddie said to Brandi. “And don’t ever try to fuck me in front of
anyone again. Have some class and dignity. Now go. I’ve got business to take
care of, and I don’t want you here to see it. It could get ugly.” He glanced
over at me, and my heart began racing.  Oh God, please protect me, I pray
silently, as he push Brandi aside and began walking towards me.

Chapter
3

Nat

I
was heading towards the garage with Hector
and Luis when I felt a strong rumbling on the ground, and the crack of concrete
as the ground started shaking. Could it be an earthquake?  I was in Los Angeles
after all. A large boom  filled the air, and made me jump as a blast of fire
exploded in one of the data storage buildings. 

“Nat!”
Rachel was running towards me followed by Kenneth, who had pulled out his gun.
“We’re being attacked. Some men…”

“The
Dragon’s men,” Kenneth said, running up to me.  “I recognize the dragon tattoos
on their arms. They found our location. Must’ve followed someone here, and now
they’re trying to break down each unit.”

“Alert
everyone there’s been a breach in security and to take down those men. They are
armed and dangerous and must be stopped.”  I looked at Hector, who was one of
my best trackers and told him to find the leader of the group. He nodded and left,
while I took Luis and Rachel to head over to the part of the compound that
exploded.

“The
explosion came from that area,” Rachel said, pointing to the far right end of
our compound.

I
gritted my teeth. Damn. That was where my team had stored the most recent data
containing evidence of The Dragon’s involvement with some of the biggest crimes
the crime ring hatched.  Everything was encrypted and double encrypted so no
one, not even in my group, could read the data. I made sure of it myself by
doing the encryption for it.  I had to assess the damage. Myself. See if and
any of that evidence survived.  But I had to do it myself.

I
told Luis to keep Rachel safe. To take her to my private quarters where the
walls were bullet-proof, and there were surveillance set up outside the
perimeters so once you’re in, you could set up the alarm system easily with a
touch of a button. I hugged Rachel and said, “Rachel, I’m going in to assess
the damage. Could be dangerous, but none of these guys would know what to look
for except me.  Plus,” I leaned in close to whisper in her ear. “Not even my
guys know what’s in there. And I like to keep it that way.  Go with Luis, who I
can trust with my life. He’s the silent but strong type, and hide out in my
quarters. It’s the safest place here.” I pulled back and took out one of my
guns from my back holster. “Here. I know you know how to use this. Dad taught
us how to shoot a gun years ago in case we ever needed to for protection. Now’s
the time for that. Keep close to Luis until I get back. Okay, sis?”

“Okay,”
Rachel said, taking the revolver.  “I’ve been practicing, especially for those
action adventure movies I’ve been dying to get a role in.  So, yeah, I’m handy
with this. Don’t worry, Nat. Just go do what you have to do.” She hugged me
tight, and said, “Keep safe.”

I
hugged her again and nodded at Luis who led her to my quarters, which I knew
for sure, she would get a kick out of since it was probably the most decked
out, luxurious, highest security place on the planet. Over the years, and
through my travels and adventures, I’ve accumulated a lot of interesting stuff,
including a fine taste. I was sure Rachel would appreciate how much effort I’ve
took to build up my quarters and this compound.  Inside my quarters, to help me
keep my sanity over the years since leaving Summer and my family, was a section
that was a re-creation of Aunt Sookie’s Malibu Pad. Complete with the video
games. Summer and Rachel’s room, and the room Drew and I shared growing up at
the Pad.

It
was my sanctuary, while the men had the zen gardens, waterfalls, and koi ponds
in the courtyard.  For the amount of dangerous work we do, we all needed
something like this to keep us grounded, to remind us of our humanity, and who
we are.  In our line of work, dealing with the crazies sometimes who operated
on a whole different wavelength of the brain than no one in the world, but who
had the power to destroy hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions or billions of
people; we keep our sanity by grounding ourselves with what makes us human.

For
me, it was remembering Summer, Aunt Sookie, summers with Rachel and Drew at the
Pad.  For others, it was feeling the primal human desire and pleasure of
fucking a warm tight woman – as most of my guys are young, strong, and virile…even
walking testosterones.  Still for some in my group, it was getting close to
nature, meditation or prayers, or the belief in a higher authority or cause.

Here
at my compound, the headquarters for Andrew Hocking Knight Industries, I
provided that and more.  Here, I built my own security company, patterned after
Donovan Dynamics, which I helped build with my father, but with ex-military
heroes, under-the-radar technology wizards, and real badass toys and gadgets.
This was the Donovan Dynamics I wanted to build. These men at my compound, who
were Execs by day at the corporate satellite office in Newport Beach, were
hand-picked and chosen for their intelligence, experience, loyalty, and
commitment.  These men were ex-Seals, ex-MMA fighters, ex-law enforcement, and
even ex-CIA and FBI. 

They
were combing through, sweeping our compound for the intruders who somehow
managed to breach our security.  Because this place was our sanctuary, the
breach was even more personal. If found, my men would show no mercy to the brutes
who snuck in and planted that explosive.

I
took out both my guns from my shoulder holsters and proceeded cautiously to the
unit that had exploded. Entering the large warehouse-like room, it seemed the
explosion was targeted, meaning someone had planted the bomb right on a
particular piece of equipment so the explosion doesn’t destroy the entire
space.  Or was it because they didn’t have a bomb big enough for this space?

Either
way, it was a clean job, with barely anything else destroyed or taken. There
was a brief fire, but the sensors installed in this place, set off the
extinguishers – not water which would destroy paper and our computer systems in
here, but steam from dry ice which would extinguish the fire upon contact.   

There
was a hole through one of the walls, where the explosion tore through, which
led to the outside of the compound. The fence in back had been breach, wire-cut
through, so whoever did this could plant the directional bomb right on the
wall. So this was how they did it. 

Smart
and even genius in its simplicity.

I
did a mental assessment of everything in this space. The servers, the data in
those servers, and their exact location. What was in the space that was
targeted, was what concerned me. As I thought, it was the most recent find in
the warehouse in Kowloon. The servers that belonged to The Dragon.

I
looked around the space.  Every single one of those servers were gone. Nothing
else was touched, as though The Dragon’s men didn’t want to destroy the
evidence to the other crime ring bosses.  Whoever did this knew which servers
belonged to the Dragon, and was capable of hauling them away. They were large,
each one probably weighing 200 to 300 pounds so…I looked outside the hole of
the wall, and lo and behold…

“Stop!”
I shouted, pointing both my guns at the three men dressed in black jumpsuits
and black baseball caps hauling the last of the servers with a dolly, into a
Budget moving truck. 

They
looked like movers, but I recognized one of the faces.  Jorge Domenico, The
Dragon’s kid brother.  He was on my list to take down, too.

I
couldn’t believe my luck in seeing him up close and personal.

Without
saying another word, I shot him.

I
didn’t intend on killing him, but wounding him, and the shot went through his
shoulders, knocking him back and away from the server.

His
men, who were helping him move the server, stopped in their tracks, pulled out
their guns and began shooting at me. I ducked back behind the warehouse wall,
crouched down and began firing at the men. Careful not to hit the server they
were ducking behind.

Jorge
got up, had his hand on his open wound and tried to get into the driver’s seat
of the truck, but I shot again, hitting him in the leg. The kneecaps, which
knock him down. I knew that was even more painful than the shoulder wound.

A
bullet whizzed pass me, grazing my shirt and getting me angry. How dare they
come into my sanctuary and shoot at me on my own property. I shot straight at
the one who nearly hit me, straight in the shoulders and knocked him down. Then
I shot the other man, who had just fired at me, and ducked. His bullet missed
me but hit the wall of the warehouse, embedding itself into the wall.

That
got my fire going.  When his shots ceased, I looked out again and saw him on
the ground next to the other guy. He was bleeding all over the ground. I
must’ve hit him with my shot. I ran out to the moving truck, past the men on
the ground, and looked inside the truck. Five servers were lined inside, but
Jorge was nowhere in sight.

I
called Kenneth, but he was already walking through the open wall of the
warehouse with a few of my men.

“Take
these guys and question them. They must know where The Dragon is holding
Summer.”

“I’m
going to go find the Little Dragon, who escaped. He’s wounded in the kneecaps.
He couldn’t have gone far.”

“Right,”
Kenneth said, pulling the men up and handcuffing them. 

“Make
them talk,” I said, looking at them both and giving Kenneth a hard look. “No
one can think they can waltz into our place, take what is ours, shoot at us,
and think they can get away with it.”

“Be
happy to,” Kenneth said. 

I
saw the look in the eyes of the two men, and knew just by saying that, they
were going to sing like birds once we start interrogating them.

I
pull Kenneth aside and said, “Call me as soon as they spill. No time to spare.
I’m going after The Dragon now.”

“You
know where he is already?” Kenneth asked.

“I
have a hunch, but with the Little Dragon wounded and trailing blood, I’ll get
real close.” I leaned in, “And get those servers out of the truck and into my
quarters. Rachel and Luis are there, but put them in my lab. I want to
personally go over them myself when I get Summer back.”

“Gotcha,”
Kenneth said. “Want to take some men with you? The Dragon will be well-armed
and guarded.”

“I
know, but I need all the men here. They might strike again, and I want you all
to be prepared. Whatever The Dragon is looking for, he wants it bad. He even
sent his kid brother for it. He’ll be back. Be prepare for them.”

I
saw Hector walk out of the warehouse, looking at the hole and back again with a
bewildered look.  He couldn’t believe the audacity of those bastards too, I
could tell.  I motioned for Hector to come over. “You’re coming with me,” I
said.

“Where?”

“To
get The Dragon.”

“Finally,”
Hector said.

“Here’s
my backup,” I said to Kenneth.  “Keep me posted on the interrogation, and what
else comes up.”

Kenneth
looked worried. “You and just one man against the whole gang?”

I
grinned. “I’ve done it before, Ken. And I’ll do it again. Trust me. I’ve got a
plan.”

Before
doubting Kenneth could question my judgment again, I pulled Hector with me and
began walking.

“Wait,”
Hector said. “We’re not taking a car?”

“Nope,”
I said. “Don’t need one. We’re doing this on foot, and you’ll find out why soon
enough.”