LEIF (Blake Security Book 3) (13 page)

KARLI

Three days had gone by since the barbecue and since I’d seen Leif. It was funny how I’d spent the past four years only thinking about him when I was forced to—and now suddenly I couldn’t seem to stop. I was afraid now that the feelings I think I might have for him were simply gratitude, but Sylvie has been working overtime to convince me that the timing was finally right for us to be together. Leif was actually keeping his distance better than he ever had in the past and that was the other thing that worried me. Had I just gotten so used to the back and forth and up and down that Leif and I went through for all these years that I didn’t know how to live “normally” without it? It’s been literally years since I’d had a real relationship. The longest stretch of time that I’d dated a man since I met Leif was two months. My track record was horrible, as was his. I had to ask myself why either of us thought this would work.

              “Mama, can we go see Leif today?” Hunter asked me that every day. For the first couple of days, I just told him that Leif was recuperating and needed his rest, but today I supposed it wouldn’t hurt anything to see if he minded if we stopped by.

              “I’ll call him and see how he’s feeling,” I told him. He picked up my phone off of the table where I was working on my laptop and handed it to me. I smiled and shook my head at him. I pulled up Leif’s number and pressed call. It rang four times before he answered it. He sounded out of breath and kind of far away. “Hey, are you okay?”

              “Karli! Hi.”

              I chuckled. He’s so damned cute. “Hi Leif. Are you okay?”

              “Sure, yeah, I’m fine. Are you okay? Is Hunter okay?”

              “We’re fine. Hunter misses you. He wondered if we could come and visit you today.”

              “Oh…um…wow…”

              “It’s okay if you’re not up for company, we’ll understand.” Hunter made a face at me. I stuck my tongue out at him and he laughed.

              “I’m always up for your company and Hunter’s. It’s just that I’m not home right now.”

              “You’re not home? Where in the world are you?”

              “Florida.”

              I sat up straight in my chair. “What the hell? What are you doing in Florida?”

              “I’m working a case.”

              “I thought Blake told you that you couldn’t go back to work yet. Did your doctor sign off already?”

              “Not exactly.”

              “Oh Leif, what are you doing? You’re going to hurt yourself.”

              “Nah, Tyler had a break from the case he was working. He’s helping me.”

              “Leif…” It wasn’t my place to say anything to him, but damn I was worried about him running around the country in his condition.

              “Yeah?”

              I sighed. “Please be careful.”

              “I will. Tell Hunter I promise to call back as soon as I get back into town and maybe we can go to the batting cages or something, that is if you don’t mind.”

              “I don’t mind, but Leif really, please take care of yourself.”

              “I will, Karli. I promise.” He hung up, and I sat there for a second staring at the phone. Where had these feelings that were stirring in my core suddenly come from? Had they been there all along? Just knowing he was out of the state made my chest hurt. I missed him, and I was suddenly aching to see him.

              “Mama, what did he say?”

              I looked up at Hunter’s pretty blue eyes. “He’s out of town, baby, on a case, but he thought you might like to go to the batting cages with him when he gets back. That sounds like fun, doesn’t it?” As I was talking to Hunter, I saw Abrahem step into the room. It was his day to watch Hunter and I. He’s a lot quieter than Ryder or even Leif, but on the occasions that he and I had sat and talked, it was apparent that his quietness probably came from being so above average intelligence that he lived a lot of his life in his head. I smiled at him, and he smiled back.

              “That does sound like fun,” Hunter said. “Will he be back tomorrow?”

              “I’m not sure, baby. He said he’d let us know.”

              He sighed. “Okay…can I see if Bobby can come spend the night tonight?”

              “No, you both have school tomorrow…and Mama has work. Why don’t you go get your workbook and work on your letters?”

              He wrinkled his little nose, but he left to get his workbook. As he passed Abrahem, the big man reached his hand out and ruffled Hunter’s hair. He watched him go up the stairs and then stepped further into the room and said, “Did I hear you right about Leif? He’s in Florida?”

              Damn, I didn’t know if he wanted anyone to know that might tell Blake. “Um…well…” I’m a horrible liar. Abrahem came over and took the chair next to me.

              “I’m not going to do anything to hurt him or get him in any trouble. He’s my friend. I’m just a little worried about where his head is at.”

              “He’s in Florida, yes. He didn’t tell me where in Florida or what he was doing there, but he said that Tyler was with him.”

              Abrahem had one of those faces that was impossible to read. He always seemed to be in a neutral mood, and his face always seemed to hold a neutral expression. He did take his phone out of his pocket and start typing things into it. After a few minutes, he closed out whatever program he was in and pulled up a number. He had the phone to his ear, but I was close enough to him that I could hear Blake’s voice. “Yeah Abe, what’s up?”

              “Leif is in Florida.”

              “The hell you say?”

              “Miami, and Tyler is with him.”

              “Fuck. Text me his exact location?”

              “You got it.”

              “I’m going to kick his stubborn ass.”

              “I figured you would.” Abrahem disconnected the call and started typing out a text message.

When he finished sending that I said, “I thought you weren’t going to do anything to get him into trouble. Blake sounded pissed.”

              Abrahem shrugged. “Better a little lecture from Blake than another bullet hole. This time the shot might hit him in his big head.”

              I shuddered at the thought. “True,” was all I said to Abrahem before I left the room and sent Leif a text that said,
“Please come home in one piece. I know it’s been more than a year since you told me that you loved me and things may have changed…but just so you know, I love you too. P.S. Blake is on his way and he’s pissed.”

About ten minutes went by before I got one back that said,
“I will. I still do. Whoop! Whoop! She loves m
e
  P.S. I’m Blake’s favorite, so we’ll be okay. TTYL Whoop! Whoop!”

I smiled and shook my head, and then I did something that I hadn’t done for a very long time, I said a prayer. I asked God to please bring him home safely. Not only had I only recently realized that I was honestly in love with him, but I knew that Hunter was as well…and losing Leif would break his little heart.

LEIF

              Tyler and I lay on our bellies in the wet sand and looked through our rifle scopes at the gigantic Spanish-style house in front of us. Palm trees surrounded a lush, green yard, and ficus plants grew out of gigantic ceramic pots placed artistically around the outside of an Olympic-sized swimming pool. The house was a dark tan color, and right in the center of it was a huge set of oak double doors. On either side of that was a large window. Tyler had his scope trained on one and I had mine on the other.

              “Anything?” he whispered.

              “Nope, not yet. You?”

              “Nope. Are you sure they’re here?”

              “I’m sure they live here. I’m not sure they’re home.”

              “I thought you called.”

              “I called her cell phone.”

              “What the hell good did that do?”

              “It pinged off of a tower about three miles from here.”

              “Oh, okay. You know a lot of rich people never go into the kitchen.”

              “My eyes are on the dining room and the sitting room on the other side of it.”

              “Okay.” Tyler was easily bored, and he didn’t do well with stakeouts. It was why Blake kept him on assignments like the one where he got to dress up and play MC member. Every job I had in the army required patience, so I was pretty good at waiting. Karli was proof of that. Of course, she was also proof that I was a lonely, desperate, pathetic, obsessive weirdo…but I’d rather focus on the positive. “I’ve got something,” Tyler said suddenly. “A middle-aged woman, Latino, with her hair up in a big bun. She’s amply endowed on top and bottom and dressed in some kind of maid’s or cook’s uniform. The uniform is a brown dress and tan shoes like waitresses and nurse’s use.” Tyler was so damned good at this. It was the reason I put up with his impatience during stakeouts. He was so perceptive about people that he could tell things about them based on their appearance alone. “The woman looks relaxed, like nothing out of the ordinary is going on in the house. She’s taking meat in a big white package out of the refrigerator. She put it on the wooden cutting board, and now she’s rubbing it with salt, or something. I’m guessing that she’s the cook.”

              I chuckled. “Brilliant deduction, Sherlock.”

              “Don’t get smart with me, or I won’t tell you that there is now also a little boy in the kitchen. He’s about ten years’ old, dark hair and skin, dark eyes. He’s sitting on the wood floor driving a little red model car. He’s dressed a little more formally than most ten year olds might be. He’s wearing a starched white dress shirt and black slacks with black leather shoes.”

              “Enrique.”

              “Looks like him. He’s got a bodyguard in tow, but the guy looks a little bit relaxed. He’s sitting on one of the stools at the island, looking at the newspaper.” Tyler took out his phone and typed in a code. “The cameras are disabled. We have fifteen minutes before the system alarms. Are you ready to move, or should I re-enable them?”

              I took a deep breath. Was I ready to do this? I closed my eyes for a second and pictured Karli and Hunter’s faces. I opened them and said, “I’m ready.”

              “Let’s move then.” Tyler started his army crawl toward the back of the house. I started out after him. The sand was wet and gritty, and by the time we reached the yard, we were both covered in it from head to toe. It felt good to belly up onto the soft, green grass. We continued to crawl until we reached the cement. We stopped there, and Tyler looked at his phone again. “Nine minutes,” he whispered.

              I nodded and finished my crawl up to the back door. I stood up then, out of sight of the big windows. Tyler stayed where he was. I took another deep breath, and then I knocked. A few seconds passed before the door was pulled open by the big Columbian bodyguard. I didn’t let him get it all the way open before I kicked it in hard and knocked him back. Tyler and I had been surveying the house for a day and a half. We were ninety-nine percent sure that this guy was the only one here during the day. The drug lord had come to depend way too much on his state-of-the-art security system. It was a system invented, designed, and built by men in the U.S. Army. Tyler just happened to be one of those men.

              The big guy went for his gun, but before he could get it out, I was standing over him with mine pointed down at his head. Tyler appeared behind me, and I let him take over listening to the man cuss us in Spanish. I made my way into the kitchen where I found the cook and the little boy were huddled together in the back of the pantry.

              “Enrique, my name is Leif, and I’m not here to hurt you, but I do need something from you.” The little boy looked at me with a pair of the largest brown eyes I’d ever seen. The guilt of frightening him was gnawing at my conscience.

              “What do you want?” the cook asked in a thick, Spanish accent.

              “A photo. The three of us are going to take a selfie together with that newspaper over there, so if you’d be kind enough to come out please.”

              The little boy looked at the cook. She looked at the gun in my hand. I didn’t have it pointed at them, but I’m sure it was threatening nonetheless. She turned back to Enrique and nodded. He cautiously got up and so did she. They both followed me into the kitchen. I picked up the paper and handed it to Enrique. “Hold it under your chin for me facing this way.” The little boy did as I asked. His hands were shaking. I felt like shit. “Stand there on the other side of him,” I told the cook. “Here, hold this.” I handed her my phone and then I stepped behind them. “Enrique, keep your eyes forward, okay?”

              “Okay.”

              I raised the hand up that I was holding the gun in so it would be visible. I tried to tell myself it would be more effective if it was pointed at someone, but I just couldn’t do it. “Take the picture,” I told the cook. She held up the phone with a shaky hand. I already had the camera pulled up. She held it up and pushed the button in the center. “One more,” I told her. “Make sure you get in there with us, and this.” I indicated the gun. She held up the phone and looked into the screen as she took another photo. When she was finished, I held out my hand and she placed the phone in my palm. I took a step back and told her and Enrique, “Thank you both, you did that perfectly. I have to go now.” I gripped my phone and went into the other room where Tyler was still standing with his gun trained on the bodyguard.

              “You got it?” he asked.

              “Yep.”

              “What do you want to do with him?”

              I looked down at the man on the ground. He didn’t look scared; he looked pissed. I reached into the deep pocket of my camo pants and fished out a roll of duct tape. As I bound his wrists together and then his feet while Tyler kept the gun trained on him, he spit and spewed Spanish profanities at us both. When I had him bound tightly, I said, “Don’t forget to tell your boss how easily we walked in and out of here, okay?” He spat again, and I dodged it, barely.

I looked at Tyler and he said, “We got about forty-five seconds.”

              “Then we best get out of here.”

********

              I was on the plane back to New Orleans when I got the first call from Blake. Then I got a text and another call and then another text. By the time the plane touched down, he’d called ten times and sent as many texts. From the sound of his voice and the tone of his texts, he was more pissed at me than usual. As soon as we cleared the tarmac, he was the first person I saw. He had his arms crossed and those steely gray eyes trained on my face. He didn’t even look at Tyler, which was good since he was only here to help me. When we got close enough, Blake said, “Have you lost your freaking mind?”

              “No, sir. I’m just trying to put an end to the terror that family is living with.”

              “And you decided to take your best buddy and go do that all by yourself, huh?” He looked at Tyler then and said, “Aren’t you supposed to be at a clubhouse meeting or something?”

              “The crew was delayed getting back from their trip up to Arizona…”

              “Not my point. I gave you an assignment because I’m your fucking boss—not this pimple-faced kid.” I snorted out a laugh before I thought about it. He turned his glare on me and said, “You think this is funny? Is this a game to you? Does that hole in your shoulder and the one in your back not cause you enough pain? You looking for more?”

              “I’m sorry, boss. I wasn’t laughing at you or the situation. I just haven’t had a zit in a really long time, and I’m not that much younger than the rest of y’all. Tyler did me a favor. If you’re angry with anyone, it should be me, not him…sir.”

              “Oh don’t worry, I’m angry all right. I’m angry because when it comes to that woman and her son, you can’t seem to follow orders to save your life. I’m angry because the two of you could have gotten your fool heads blown off down in Florida without backup. I’m angry because you two seem to think you’re lone rangers all of a sudden, and that’s not how my company works. We’re a team—damn it—and like it or not, I’m in charge of that team. You answer to me, Sergeant Major Thompson and Staff Sergeant Petit, or you find yourselves another place to fucking work. When you go off half-cocked like this on some super-secret mission that even your boss isn’t privy to, you put the entire team at risk. You’ve run the risk of pissing off a drug cartel and making every one of us sitting targets.”

              I hadn’t thought of it that way. I didn’t want my friends hurt or killed because of something stupid I did. I simply wanted Karli and Hunter and their family to be safe. That was never going to happen as long as Guzman is holding some kind of grudge. “I’m sorry, Blake. I didn’t think about it like that.”

              “That’s your problem, Leif. You never think with your head. You’re impulsive and you act on emotion alone. That’s more dangerous than not acting at all.”

              I nodded. “You’re right. I’m sorry. Please don’t hold this against Tyler, I’m the one to blame for this ‘experiment.’”

              “So what the hell were you doing in Miami? Guzman is still in jail in Louisiana.”

              “His son is in Miami.”

              “His son, the nine year old?”

              “He’s ten now, and yes, him.”

              “What the hell did you want with his son?”

              “A photograph.”

              “A photograph? What kind of photograph?”

              “I just want him to know that he is not as untouchable as he thinks he is. He thinks it’s okay to terrorize this family by killing their dog and having their little boy kidnapped. He thinks that while he’s here doing these things to my family…I mean, to Judge Morrow’s family that his is sitting safe and pretty in Miami. I simply wanted to show him how easily we can access that place that he thinks is a safe haven for his kid.”

              “And you didn’t trust me enough to tell me about this plan before you took off to implement it like two teenagers home alone for the weekend with the keys to Dad’s car?”

              I sighed again. My shoulder hurt like hell and my upper back felt like it was on fire. My head was pounding. “I’m sorry, Blake, honestly. I do trust you, and you’re right. We should have talked to you about this first.”

              “Give me your phone.” I handed it to him and he pulled up the picture of Enrique, me, and the maid. He stared at it for a minute and then asked, “Who is his mother?”

              “Her name is Valeria Hernandez. She’s from Cuba, and according to what Tyler and I were able to figure out, Guzman only lets her see the kid one Saturday a month.”

              “Is this the only kid he has?”

              “Yeah, that he claims anyways.”

              “Go home. I’ll go see Mr. Guzman and make sure he gets your point.”

              “You sure, boss?”

              “You questioning me again?”

              “No, sir, grateful you’re not firing my ass.”

              “Who said I wasn’t? Both of you get out of my sight before I decide to do it right now.”