Hot as Hell (17 page)

were Benrabi and MacLean. Since she’d been extremely lucky at cards tonight, it was a sure bet.

Keely let out a wispy “ssh” and moved away from the bottom of the dimly lit stairs and into the

Stygian darkness of the basement’s main room.

Gradually, Dawn’s eyes adjusted. They stopped in front of a wine rack-covered wall. Keely

pulled out one bottle and a section of the wine racks opened to reveal a door made of what looked to

be steel and had a key-pad security lock.

Dawn murmured in a low, non-carrying tone. “In a rental?”

Keely’s grin showed white in the relative darkness. Then she turned and entered a code on the

pad. The steel door opened into a dark room with only a
whoosh
. They entered and automatic lighting

came on.

Keely shut the door and the lock clunked solidly.

They were safe.

Keely moved to a set of security monitors and fired them up. Looking over her shoulder while

typing rapidly, she said, “This is why we rented the place. It’s owned by a wanna-be dictator from one

of the Mexican coastal states. He’s very security conscious.”

“You mean this house is owned by a drug cartel leader?” Dawn said. She didn’t know who else

would have the audacity to want to be a dictator in Mexico.

“Yep. But he’s in jail right now,” muttered Keely as she typed on the security system key board,

pulling up camera feeds and reprogramming the cameras to do whatever it is the small computer

genius wanted them to do. “So he doesn’t need it. His estate manager was happy to take money

under the table. What El Jefe doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Ahh, there you are, you frick-fracking

douchebags.”

Dawn looked over Keely’s shoulder. MacLean, Benrabi, and some of the biggest, ugliest thugs

she’d ever seen in her life stood in the great room she and Keely had just vacated. The men looked

around and appeared to be angry their quarry had managed to escape them.

Yay for Team Keely and Dawn.

“Can you get audio on those cameras?” Dawn asked.

“That’s what I’m working on,” Keely replied, a pissed tone in her voice. “Darn it, El Jefe was an

el cheapo. No wonder he always gets caught when he hides out at his properties. His system needs a

new sound card for the upgraded software I downloaded when we arrived. Okay, this is the best I can

do.”

“Where… they…?” Static cut out some of Benrabi’s words. “…perimeter… no… contact.”

Perimeter?

“Bollocks, they have even more men outside.” Dawn looked at Keely. “Can you pull up the

outside cameras?”

Keely nodded and displayed multiple exterior feeds on the monitor array, then began keying in

commands while muttering to herself.

Dawn peered at the outside video images as they appeared while trying to decipher what the

bleeding hell Benrabi and MacLean were saying.

MacLean spoke, “Armando… search … here somewhere—”

Keely muttered, “Woot! Fixed it.” The audio feed cleared up and MacLean’s words were now

crystal-clear.

“—look under beds and in closets. They’re small women and could hide where a child might.”

Several men ran off.

“Child?” Keely sounded pissed. “Did he just compare us to children? What a frick-fracking jerk.

I’ll show him who’s a child when I gut his ass.” She angled her head toward a large case on a chair. “Ren

and I brought some extra toys…”

Dawn opened the case and laughed with delight. “Ooh, mine.” She pulled out a really nice

blade with its own sheath and strapped it to her other thigh. Like Angelina Jolie in
Tomb Raider
, she

now had a weapon on each thigh.

Going back into the case, she cooed, “Oh, look, a dart gun.” She gave Keely a thumbs up. “Just

what I need for the silent take-down of bleeding arseholes.”

Strapping on a bum bag, Dawn placed the dart gun, a supply of tranquilizer darts, and an extra

clip for her gun and some bullets for a reload, if needed, inside it. “It’s like Christmas and my birthday

all rolled into one, and the only better gift would be to tell me there’s a back way out of this room so I

can go outside and play pin the dart on the arseholes in the garden with my trusty dart gun.”

Keely giggled. “Like an Aruban version of
Clue
. You’ll be delighted to know there is.” She pushed

a button on the desk. To their left, a door slid open, revealing a tunnel with LED floor lighting.

“While you go and litter the landscaping with bodies, I’ll use the land-line and call the Aruban

national police and have them patch me through to Ren.”

Dawn frowned, her hands planted on her hips. “Why didn’t you call first thing? When our

military guards didn’t report into their headquarters on time, all hell probably broke loose. Our men

are probably racing here and will walk into a trap.”

“Bull-hockey.” Keely picked up an old rotary dial Princess phone and dialed 911 for police

emergency. “Our men aren’t stupid. They know we’ll do the smart thing until they get here.”

“Well, I should hope so. But still, please let them know we’re all right as soon as possible. Sam’s

got to be going stark raving bonkers.” Dawn looked at Keely’s tablet. “Will I be able to see the outside

camera feeds on that tablet of yours?”

“Yes.” Keely pulled up a screen and then handed it to her. “The red icons are the camera

locations. Tap on one and you’ll see the live feed. You can use night vision or not, depending on the

area lighting. The cameras also have infrared sensors.” She demonstrated how to switch between

night-vision to infrared and back.

“All the mod cons. Thanks.” Dawn put the tablet into sleep mode to dim the screen after locating

her first target’s exact position.

“Be careful,” Keely said. “I’ll try to work around their audio jammer, so put on one of the

headsets.”

Dawn snagged one out of the case and put it on, making sure it was ready to receive.

“I’ll contact you once I get the com system working again.” Keely cursed at the phone she held

to her ear and disconnected, then dialed “0” this time. “God, the frick-fracking emergency line is busy.

Um, operator… yes, police emergency… yeah, I’ll hold.”

Keely looked at Dawn and fluttered her hand. “Shoo. Go. Take out bad guys. Then get your ass

back here PDQ so Sam doesn’t kill me for putting you in danger.”

Dawn snorted. “I’ll be careful, mum.”

Keely shot Dawn a middle finger as she spoke into the phone, “Yes, I’m still here. Don’t you

people understand what a frick-fracking emergency means?”

Moving into the tunnel, Dawn made her way up and out. She could smell the ocean on the

night air, which was still warm from the heat of the day, and the exotic blooms from the formal gardens

surrounding the house. El Jefe, whoever the fuck he was, had a lot of money to waste on watering

subtropical rain forest plants in what was a subtropical desert climate.

The escape tunnel exited behind an artfully designed rock wall that was further camouflaged by

Jacaranda shrubs in full bloom. Dawn paused. While still hidden in the shadows of the tunnel opening,

she sheltered the tablet’s screen with her body and rechecked the guards’ positions.

Her first target hadn’t moved and was only ten meters away, by the pool house. The dumb

ass was smoking a cigarette. Even if she hadn’t seen his image on infrared, she would’ve smelled the

smoke as it wafted on the light breeze. She wrinkled her nose against the pungent scent that smelled

like camel dung.

Sliding the tablet into her bum bag, she pulled out the dart gun and loaded one dart and tucked

an extra one into her knife sheath. She stalked her prey, using the abundant foliage and shadows to

cover her approach. Every sense on high alert, she pictured every possible thing that could go wrong

and how she’d counteract the situation if something did. The worst-case-scenario would be if the

tranquilizer didn’t work quickly and the man cried out. She needed to get close enough so she could

cover his mouth as he went down.

Risky? Yes. But she didn’t want him shouting and bringing his mates into the mix.

As she approached, the low-level lighting in the pool area gave off enough light for her to see

the guard clearly. Stopping behind a large fern about three meters away, she waited for a second or

two to see if the man had heard her approach. He didn’t move and continued to act as if he were on

vacation rather than guard duty. His assault rifle was carelessly slung across his back. His focus was

straight-ahead— and on his cigarette.

All in all, she wasn’t impressed with the first of Benrabi’s security guards. If the others were this

lax, she’d be back in the safe room in no time.

Don’t get cocky, Dawn. All the cocky bitches get killed in the movies
.

Just as she was about to move from behind the fern and take the smoking guard down, he

received a call over his radio. His Arabic wasn’t a dialect she recognized, but she got enough of the gist

to know this was a routine report and he wouldn’t be missed for a while after she took him out. Her

lucky streak was still going strong.

From the outside camera feeds, as far as she could tell, there were only four exterior guards.

If she could neutralize them, her Marine, Ren, and Conn would have a cake walk in their infiltration of

the estate. She had no doubt they were already on their way, so she needed to get to work.

The guard clicked off his radio and resumed smoking. She tip-toed behind him and when she

was less than a meter away, she took aim and shot him in the neck. He inhaled sharply, reached for the

dart, and then dropped to the ground.

She’d have to compliment Ren for buying a highly potent tranquilizer. Still, she was cautious

when she bent over to make sure the man was completely out.

His breathing was slow and he didn’t react when she touched him. Luckily for her, he had a

couple of sets of flex-cuffs which she used to restrain his hands and ankles, then she used his headdress

to gag him. She removed a knife she found and hid it under some bushes with his rifle. Before she left

him, she ground his still-burning cigarette under the heel of her flip-flops.

One down, three to go.

She reloaded the dart gun, then checked the tablet and moved to the next unsuspecting prey

by the garage area.

Chapter 14

Sam pulled the Rover into a driveway less than fifty yards away from the entrance to the private

road leading to the rental. He turned to Ren, “What’s the plan?”

“God, I love my wife.” Ren grinned like a loon as he swiped off a call he’d received mere seconds

ago on his phone.

“Hell, we know that, man,” Sam said, “but she’s in danger. Why are you smiling?”

“She and Dawn noticed their guards were down so they went to the safe room in the basement

before the house was breeched. They’re okay.” Ren laughed. “There’s no way those fuckers can get

into that safe room. The drug lord who owns the estate built it to withstand WWIII and the zombie

apocalypse. Plus, I also stocked the room with some extra weapons, just in case.”

“Thank fuck.” Dawn was safe. Sam turned to high-five Conn who sported a shit-eating grin on

his face. “That means we can go hunting without the girls getting caught in the crossfire.”

“Um, well, not quite.” Ren’s voice wasn’t quite as exuberant as before. “Our gals aren’t sitting

on their so-fine tushes, waiting for their men to rescue them.”

A sick feeling hit Sam in the gut. “Where are their tushes… exactly?”

Ren gripped Sam’s shoulder and squeezed. “Keely’s in the safe room monitoring Benrabi,

MacLean, and five other men as they search the house. She’s blocking them from accessing any of the

estate camera feeds and trying to take down their audio jammer so she can feed us intel directly.” He

sighed. “But Dawn’s sneaking around outside, eliminating bad guys so we don’t waltz into a clusterfuck.”

“Shit… fuck… damn.” Sam hit the steering wheel with each curse, before stopping to take in

Conn and Ren’s commiserating, but somewhat amused expressions. “She didn’t think two former spec

ops Marines and one Navy SEAL could handle a bunch of third-world tangos and a former DIA desk

jockey?”“Guess not, buddy.” Conn patted him on the shoulder. “Let’s go see what your little woman has

left us to do.”

After one more muttered curse, Sam exited the driver’s side. He ran to the back of the vehicle

to meet up with Ren and Conn. The three of them pulled out body armor and weapons and swiftly

loaded themselves up.

“We’ll head for the outside entrance to the safe room,” Ren said. “Keely said by the time we get

there, Dawn should be back inside. She’s tranquilizing the perimeter guards and then cuffing them.”

Sam heard the respect for Dawn’s actions in Ren’s voice. Damn, his woman was a warrior, and

he’d be sure to let her know how proud he was of her … once she was safely snuggled in his arms.

They set off for the estate at a quick jog. As they made their way toward the back of the

sprawling house, they ran across two of the guards Dawn had taken down. They were semi-conscious,

bound hand-and-foot, gagged with pieces of their own clothing, and disarmed.

Conn shot Sam a wide grin.

Sam shook his head and chuckled silently. Yeah, Dawn would’ve made a damn good spec ops

Marine.Ren gave them a hand signal to hold up, then he scouted ahead. Sam and Conn hunkered down