Second Chance SEAL(132)

I clenched my jaw but nodded. “Fine. The shipment is in the back.”

“How’d you do it?” he asked. “How’d you grab it?”

“Easy enough,” I said. “I figured out where they hid it by paying off one of their guards. Then I hired a few guys, killed the watchers, and loaded it up. Easy.”

Merton laughed and looked at Arlo. “Hear that, Arlo? Easy. Fucking easy.” He shook his head. “This guy is a fucking asshole. Right, Arlo?”

“Sure,” Arlo said.

“So, Travis, or whatever your name is, you stole from the Caldwells, got our shit back. Congrats. Are we supposed to be square now?”

“We are,” I said. “Those were the terms of the deal.”

“Here’s the problem. I think you’re an asshole, and I don’t like giving assholes what they want. So I’m changing the deal.”

I took a deep breath. “To what?” I asked.

Merton laughed. “This fucking guy. You just ask, ‘to what’? What a crazy asshole. Right, Arlo?”

“Right,” Arlo said.

“The deal is this: I’m taking the shipment, and then I’ll let you live. Your girl here, though, she’s fucking mine. She owes me money, and that isn’t going away.”

I had to play this right. I couldn’t let them get suspicious.

So I turned and punched the guard to my right in the face. He dropped like a fucking anvil.

I turned to take on the next one, but the guards were on me in a second. I fought hard, trading blows, but in the end I let the guys take me down. Meanwhile, Merton was laughing his ass off, enjoying the show.

Once I was down, with boots on my head and back, guns in my face, Merton walked over to me. He bent down, grinning at me. “See, asshole? You don’t win. I fucking win.” He straightened up. “Take the girl. Get the keys. Let’s finish this.”

One of the guards fished through my pockets and found the truck’s keys as another moved away. Arlo, Merton, and Hoyt walked toward the truck’s cab as the men moved toward the container.

“When we’re gone, kill this guy,” Merton said to the gun thugs still standing over me.

“Got it, boss,” one of the two thugs said.

I watched from the ground, patient, biding my time. I’d have a chance to make a move, and soon, but right now wasn’t the time. I had to be patient, even though these gun thugs were ready to murder me at any second. My heart was beating fast, but I had to use that energy, embrace the chaos.

I was trained for this. I was in my element.

Arlo, Merton, and Hoyt started to climb up into the cab. The other thugs went around back, and I watched as they began to pull open the back of the container.

Seconds away now. The doors were opening, and they weren’t going to find drugs and guns inside.

They were going to find death.

Shots cracked out suddenly. The two thugs standing over me dropped to the ground, a bullet in the skull of each.

“Got ’em,” Gage said in my ear. “Move.”

I grabbed one of their guns and was on my feet instantly as all hell broke loose.

The Caldwells waiting in the back began to blast their guns, mowing down the thugs. They didn’t stand a chance. They weren’t ready, for one, but they were vastly underequipped for another. They hadn’t expected a bunch of automatic rifle-toting killers to come spilling out of that truck.

I moved toward the other side of the truck where Hartley was being held. I caught sight of the guard stepping away from her and put a bullet in his skull. He collapsed to the ground, dead.

Hartley ran toward me and pressed herself against me. I pulled her away from the truck, finding cover behind a large support pillar as the gunfight continued.

The three men in the cab began to climb down. Arlo made a break for it, but I put a bullet in his knee. He dropped to the ground, screaming in pain. Merton caught sight of me and began firing his weapon at us. I pushed Hartley back into cover and returned fire, not shooting to kill, just trying to keep him busy.

Then it was all over. Almost as fast as it had begun, the Caldwells swarmed out of the truck, killing every last member of the mafia. Arlo was lying in the middle of the ground, screaming in agony, as Janey and her people slowly circled around Hoyt and Merton.

I moved out of cover and touched my earpiece. “Okay,” I said. “Good shooting. Keep your eyes out, though. Out.”

“Roger that.”

Hartley pressed up against my side. “Is it over?”

“Almost.”

We stood to the side as Janey Caldwell faced down that bastard Merton.

“You?” he asked, shocked. “The fucking Caldwells?”

“That’s right,” Janey said.