SEAL Team Seven Tyler: Book 4 (4 page)

Tyler

The fuckers filed out fast after that. “Hey, what fucking straws I don’t recall pulling shit.” Of course they were all ignoring me. I didn’t really mind but fuck, these women haven’t been right since we put them on lock. Lo, Con, and even Zak with their pussy whipped asses were too chicken shit to stay here with them all day so I got stuck, the fuck. We headed to Con and Dani’s place since it was her turn to make breakfast.

This was my favorite time with my family these days, when we were all together like this, just relaxed and happy. But somebody was trying to fuck with that happiness and I’m fucked if I’m gonna let them.

I kept my face blank so no one would guess at my mood as I bantered back and forth with them. I did my usual thing to bring down their wrath on my head, eating the last of Dani’s kickass cinnamon rolls. The banter and laughter was such that you would never guess that we were just discussing life and death.

Lo, Con and Zak said bye to their women with enough smaltz to make my ass twitch and the women acted like they were going off to war and leaving them behind. I held my favorite little person and rolled my eyes behind their backs while all the whining and cajoling started.

“You freaks heading out or not?” somebody had to get shit moving. It had been days since we’d been down to the job site and although we had a good crew of men and women working for us, nothing beat looking over your interest yourself.

They finally filed out leaving me with three disgruntled women. Susie and Davie were being allowed to go home because there was no danger against them that we could discern and their mom was starting to get antsy. Davie knew what to do if shit popped off and the compound wasn’t that far from their house.

I was surprised that Cord was okay with that shit, but he’d dragged poor Susie off to the side before leaving to lecture the poor girl to death.

I stole the baby again and tried to get her to say my name when the women finally quieted down with their shit. I knew whatever it was they were up to must’ve been serious because I actually got to keep the squirt for more than five minutes without one of them trying to wrestle her out of my arms. Spoke too damn soon.

“Ty we need your opinion.” What the fuck? All I saw was what looked like swaths of material and a fuck load of girly magazines and I broke the fuck out in hives. “Right, if you ladies need me I’m in my place.” They laughed at my ass when I hotfooted it away from them. Fuck if I was gonna spend the day surrounded. I was gonna go read baby Zak The Art of War or some fuck to pass the time.

It didn’t seem like I was in my place that long when I was alerted to movement at the gate. My first thought was of the girls before I checked and saw Candy and this other female that I couldn’t quite place but knew I’d seen somewhere before.

The zoom on their faces showed that they were both agitated and highly upset. I didn’t release the gate, but instead after ascertaining that they were alone I dropped the baby off with her mom and aunts and went out to meet them.

“Ladies?” I looked from one to the other as I stood just inside the yard while leaving them outside. Females or not, I wasn’t about to let anyone in that didn’t have clearance.

“Ty we need your help, where are the others?” Candy looked worried as fuck as she looked behind me for backup. That wasn’t her usual speed so my alarm started buzzing. She didn’t look hurt so I was assuming the danger whatever it was wasn’t immediate.

“You got me what’s going on?” I could tell from her level of stress, the way she wrung her hands, and the other woman’s tear stained face that some shit had gone down though. It had to be big for them to come here. I certainly wasn’t expecting what came next though.

“There’s been some trouble down at the hotel where Maria works.” That’s all Candy said before she stopped again and looked over my shoulder. What the fuck?

“What kind of trouble Candy?”

“Have you heard of Carson Stockton?” The name sounded familiar but nothing that jumped out at me. “He’s the big man around town, I’m sure you’ve heard of him.” Whoever he was the little maid Maria was scared shitless if the way she crossed herself and looked over her shoulder was any indication.

“I’ve heard the name, can’t say I know him though.” I remember hearing about some fat fuck who was supposedly the big man in town that everybody steered clear of. There’s always one in every town, especially one this size, but that was about all I knew about him other than a few rumors. “What about him?”

“He took someone, a girl, worked her over real bad and have her chained up in a hotel room down there. He says if anyone tries to help her he’s gonna do the same to them and theirs.”

Now hearing that shit already had my blood on slow boil, it didn’t matter to me who the ‘she’ was, any female being mistreated would’ve sent me on a mission to search and destroy. But hearing the next few words set my world on its ass. The emotion that gripped me in that split second of recognition would stay with me for a lifetime.

“Ty, it’s Victoria-Lynn, I’m sorry.” I didn’t really get what she was saying at first, but when her words registered everything started to dim. “What the fuck are you talking about?” I’d already started to move, but hearing that it was ‘her’, had stumped me for a hot minute.

Everything in me came down to that one moment in time. It was as if my whole life ceased to matter. Everything that I ever was, ever hoped for faded into nothingness at the implication of her words.

“You have to come quick Mr. Tyler she’s hurt really bad please.” Maria grabbed my arm in her distress and the look in her eyes scared me more than her words. I tried to process the information the way I always did when we were on a mission, told myself to treat it like any other Op, but that’s when I realized that I’d only been prolonging the inevitable.

That all those weeks I’d let slip by were for nothing. If I were a crying man that shit would’ve brought me to my knees, but I harnessed that shit and dug down deep. She needed me; that’s all I could think about as I put my shit in order in my head.

As much as I tried to shut down my emotions, the harder it was to do. I didn’t have time to get my brothers behind me. If the shit they were saying was true, then her life was in grave danger. I guess Maria had searched us out because she knew our reputation when it came to women, everybody knew, it wasn’t exactly a secret.

And Candy would know what it would mean to me personally. Even though I’d done my best to hide it, it looked like the only one I’d been fooling where she was concerned was myself.

I wanted to get to her ten minutes ago, was pissed the fuck off that it was going to take me the ten minutes or so to get to her. It’s crazy what goes through a man’s mind when his woman is in danger, your whole fucking program goes out the door.

There was shit I had to do before I could leave. I was on security duty today, looking after my sisters I reminded myself. Although the place had more security than the Pentagon, I wasn’t about to take any chances, especially not now with my niece in residence. I had to secure this shit before I did anything else.

All the girls were still on lock and Vicki had been here only the day before Ty, why isn’t she here? My conscience decided to fuck with me. I knew I shouldn’t have let her leave, not when everyone else was keeping their women close. Maybe if I hadn’t been such a dick she would’ve let my brothers talk her into staying.

When I’d first realized she’d gone I’d felt the loss, but I didn’t think for a second that she would end up hurt or I never would’ve let her go. I would’ve found an excuse to make her stay. Instead I’d hid my disappointment behind playtime with my little niece. Fucking chump.

I thanked Maria and Candy and let them head back out. Candy hadn’t been allowed to come back to work as yet, not until we can figure out what’s going on there. I’m still waiting on the right time to do the search without her knowing, don’t want to spook her unnecessarily lest it’s nothing.

We were still trying to figure out if she was the one being used in some way for the assholes to keep tabs on what we were doing. We didn’t want to show our hands by keeping her out, but we weren’t willing to take any chances. Not that we thought she was involved, we just had to figure the shit out. So we’d told her to stay home for the next day or so.

She had no idea why she’d been given the order, we’d just told her that one of the girls were sick and we were trying to keep the bug contained. It was hell keeping her away, especially after she heard about baby Zak, but she was good people, and she did as she was told. That’s the only reason my brothers actually let her come to work for us in the first place, because whether or not someone had found a way to use her, we trusted her.

So I wasn’t too worried about leaving my post and following them. It never crossed my mind that it might be a set up, but still, just to be on the safe side.

Since my brothers weren’t available, I went with the next best thing. I picked up the phone to make a call while I got my gear together. Shit, this was going to fuck with them too. Only a few minutes had gone by but it felt like hours instead. I knew I was racing against the clock because I had no idea what I was walking into.

I’d given Maria some instructions before she left to make shit easier since I was going in alone, but there was no guarantee shit would go as planned. I threw what I needed in a bag as I moved shit around in my head. I was fighting hard for calm but it was tough going. I knew a lot of that was my own guilt, there were a million questions going through my head as I listened to the phone ring before it was picked up.

***

“Vanessa, I need you on point, I have to make a run. No one in no one out.” I didn’t have time to explain things to her either but at least she had training, and she knew better after the last time than to let her sisters get her involved in shit. I heard my niece in the background babbling away before I hung up and for some reason that was able to give me a bit of that calm I’d been searching for.

My guts were in knots and I still refused to think, to let my mind wander to what-ifs. I was worried on two fronts. If there was one thing I’d learned in my years as a SEAL it was to look at a situation from all angles before heading in. It could very well be a setup, something to lure me away, but I had to take the chance.

It was a hard call, you never left your post for any reason, but this was Victoria Lynn, I had to go. I jumped in the Hummer, which was one of the safest vehicles on the compound. It was tricked out with every security measure known to man, and was our go to when we weren’t sure about what the fuck we were heading into.

I took only the barest essentials since there was no real time to grab much else. From the description the maid had given, the situation sounded dire at best. I tried to remember all that I’d heard about this guy, he was a developer or a real estate mogul or some fuck like that, but there wasn’t much else I knew. We’d been so wrapped up in this other shit with the trafficking that we hadn’t really had time for much else.

I did remember that most people in this part of town were afraid of the big guy. There were rumors about mob connections and people in high places owing him favors. I quite frankly could give a fuck. My brothers and I were already making strides to clean up our little slice of paradise; he was just one more piece of offal that needed to be dealt with, and until now, he hadn’t even been that high on the totem pole of assholes.

I had had the presence of mind to leave a hasty note for the guys so that just in case things went south, they would know where to look, and whose shit to fuck up. I purposely wasn’t calling them in on this, I needed to assess the situation myself first and I knew if I ran into him there he was dead.

I couldn’t do that shit if the boys were there, they’re like the fucking moral police and I knew they had the Tyler watch on since I’d lost my shit a few weeks ago.

I didn’t tell the girls where I was going, not yet. I didn’t want them getting any ideas, and it was a fact that these women did not take direction well. Better just go and handle the situation before they get any hair triggers about getting involved.

I hadn’t had time to change clothes, so the fatigues I’d worn to impress baby Zak were gonna have to do. And I did my best to hide my weapons even though this was a carry state.

Some of the people in my new hometown were still wary of me when they saw me coming. I couldn’t blame them. At well over six feet-two, tats climbing up the side of my neck, and muscles that looked like I chased steroids and pumped iron twenty four seven, I’m sure I was a sight they’d never seen before.

Some had even complained about the look on my face whenever I was out and about. I guess wearing a serious expression all the time gave people the wrong impression.

Too bad I didn’t give enough of a fuck to change that shit. People ought to not judge a book by its cover. Today though, I might prove them right. If anyone got in my way I was pretty sure I’d level the fuck without a moment’s thought.

I tried to keep it to the speed limit as I made my way into town, didn’t want to draw too much attention to myself, but every second was killing me.

When I did let myself think, I wanted to kick my own ass. I couldn’t help thinking that this was somehow my fault, that there was something I could’ve done to prevent this.

I’ve faced some shit in my life, went into hell knowing that it’s where I was headed. Never in my life was I as scared as I was as I drew closer to that little place in town.

***