Chapter 19
Jaxon stood with his back against the six-foot tall stone wall surrounding the mansion that Rome had taken Chey to.
“Everybody got the plan?” He said into his com. “We get Chey and Mack and let the authorities take over after that. Take out who ever you need to, but Chey and Mack are the priorities.” With those words the security lights around the house went out and all of the team switched to their night vision.
Jaxon took the lead through the front and Burt and his team came in through the back and immediately saw a guard to the right and made quick work of him with his assault rifle. The long foyer had several rooms on both sides and as they passed each room members of the team broke off to clear it. Jaxon stayed straight down the foyer into the main living room. There were several men searching for a source of light and trying to get their bearings in the dark.
Jaxon hit a man in the back of the head with his gun and the other marines followed his lead, up ahead was a large door, that’s where Burt and his team were going to be coming in any second now. The stairwell to the right is where Jaxon was headed, the sooner he found Chey and the baby the better. He sprinted up the stairs up to the second floor and sprayed his bullets on unsuspecting men fumbling through the darkness. As he came to the first room he burst through the door and did a sweeping search only to find it was empty. He did the same for the next three rooms and found four men in the second and two in the third. He said a silent prayer that the fourth room would be the one that housed Chey and Mack.
The moment he stepped in he knew this was it; straight in front of him was a huge sleigh bed with decorative pillows across the top. He could make out a piece of lingerie lying across the bottom of the bed as though it was set out for someone to wear after a bath.
“I think this is the place,” Burt said with a whistle.
“Watch my back I’m going to check the closet,” Jaxon said moving further into the room. There was a door to the far left and to his immediate left. He moved to the closest door and pushed it open to find a large walk in closet full of male clothing. Then he moved to the next door and pushed it open he quickly side stepped the plunger that was thrown at him and caught Chey as she fell forward. She struggled in his arms trying to fight him off. “Chey, it’s me,” he whispered urgently.
“Jaxon?” she said freezing all movement. He could still feel her heart beating frantically with her back pressed flushed against his chest.
“Yes, it’s me. Where is Mack?” he asked.
“He took her,” she said. “He let me feed her and then told me to bathe and he took her.” He could hear the tears in her voice.
“It’s okay,” he said turning her around and wrapping her in a tight hug. “We’ll find her. Burt, I want you to get her out to the rendezvous point...”
“What? No,” Chey protested. “I’m not leaving this house without my daughter.”
“You aren’t leaving this house at all,” A voice said in the dark. Chey looked around trying to locate the voice, but Jaxon swept the room and saw exactly where it was coming from. Antonio stood in the doorway holding what Jaxon assumed was Mack. A gun pointed firmly in his and Chey’s direction. Jaxon moved so that Chey’s body was sheltered by his own.
“Boss I told you,” Rome said coming into the room with his gun drawn. The moment the words left his mouth the lights came back on bathing the room in a soft light. Jaxon and Burt removed their night vision gargles.
“Those would be the emergency backup lights that run on a separate breaker,” Antonio explained without being asked.
“You should have killed her and found someone else.” Rome complained.
“Shut up Rome,” Antonio said. “I don’t harm what’s mine until I have a reason to. Chey come to me and you and I will walk out of this room. I’ll ignore the way he touched you just now.”
“I don’t think you heard me the first time,” Jaxon said. “She’s not going anywhere with you and I don’t think you’re going anywhere either.”
“My daughter would say differently,” he said pointing the gun at the blanket he held in his arms. “How do you think a bullet would affect a baby this small? She only weighs about ten pounds. She’d bleed out much faster than a grown man or woman don’t you think?” Jaxon heard Chey take a shuddered breath behind him.
“Stop and think before you do anything. There are three guns trained on your head. You even twitch and you’re a dead man.”
“I drop, the baby drops, we both die and I don’t think Chey would forgive you for that, would you Chey?” Antonio said with a smile. “I have a question, who was better in bed, this marine or the dead one?”
“If we are going to go comparing things like bed prowess, why not let us settle this like men?” Jaxon said. “A man would be willing to fight for what is his and I believe you think Chey is yours.”
“Chey is mine and she’ll be properly punished after you leave.”
“We fight,” Jaxon said. “One on one and whoever wins takes the baby and Chey. No guns just hand to hand combat.”
“What if I win?” Antonio asked.
“You get the girl and the baby.”
“That’s not enough,” Antonio said. “I’ve got it. You’ll watch me punish her. You seem to have the misconception that Chey has a choice to be with someone other than me, but I’d be glad to correct the mistake.”
“If those are your terms,” Jaxon said.
“Boss you can’t be serious,” Rome said, without hesitation Antonio turned around and shot him in the leg. Rome fell to the floor clutching the wound and screaming. “Are you crazy?”
“Don’t ever question me,” Antonio said simply. Then he turned back to Jaxon and motioned for him to put down his gun.
“I hope you don’t mind, but my friend over there is going to hold on to his weapon, just to make sure your friend doesn’t get any ideas.” Jaxon said lowering his gun to the floor. “Chey go take Mack.”
“Yes, Chey come and get our daughter,” Chey walked cautiously over to Antonio and reached for the baby only to be backhanded. “You’ll learn not to disobey me.”
“Hand over the baby,” Jaxon said through clinched teeth. Antonio handed the baby over to Chey who moved to stand next to Burt. Antonio put down his gun and stepped forward taking a fighting stance with his left foot forward.
“You ready Marine?” Jaxon didn’t answer he just stepped forward taking his own fighting stance. Chey closed her eyes saying a prayer that Jaxon would win the fight. Burt looked at his watch; he knew that soon cops would swarm the place, cleaning up the rest of the mess for them and that it was important that they not be there. This operation wasn’t anywhere close to being in the books.
Antonio made the first move swinging his left arm in a sucker punch; Jaxon blocked the blow and came back with a leg kick. Antonio grunted, but didn’t fall and came back with a high kick only to have Jaxon respond with a flurry of punches. They backed away from each other and started circling again, both men were breathing hard and it was hard to tell who was winning.
Antonio came forward and landed a kick to Jaxon’s side and followed closely by an uppercut, Jaxon spun around and spit the blood out of his mouth. He hadn’t expected Antonio to be able to fight this well. He’d thought this would be easy and he could get Chey and Mack out quickly. He had only a few more minutes to finish this before the cops showed up. Jaxon threw a right hand punch that landed square across Antonio’s jaw. Antonio swung back but instead got caught by a quick left followed by a right hook that landed right against his temple with such force that he flew into the wall causing an indent where his body landed. The next thing he knew Jaxon was there with another flurry of punches. Finally Jaxon took a step back to see if Antonio was going to attack again. He heard a loud crack and felt the burn of a bullet in his side, another crack sounded and he saw a gun fall from Antonio’s hand. He stumbled back and Chey was there trying to catch him. They both fell to the ground.
“Burt, get her out,” Jaxon said.
“I’m getting us all out,” Burt said lifting Jaxon in a fireman’s carry. “Leave no man behind and all that jazz.”
November 8, 2011, Annapolis, MD
Chey smoothed her hand over Jaxon’s hair and watched him sleeping. She’d been scared bringing him to this stranger’s house, but Burt had assured her that this was the best option. This was an old medic from a few years back and if anyone could keep Jaxon alive, Layla Montgomery was the one to do it.
“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” Layla said to Burt. His arm snaked around her waist.
“You did it because you love me,” Burt said. Layla rolled her eyes and elbowed him in the stomach.
“It was never a question if I loved you,” she said moving closer to the bed. “It was if you loved me.” Burt took a deep breath. He’d told her many times that she was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, but she’d placed an impossible ultimatum on the table and when he hadn’t immediately folded to her demands, she’d broken it off.
“No, love was never a question,” he said.
“Hey Burt I think he’s waking up,” Chey said touching Jaxon’s cheek.
“Please tell me that someone got the license plate on from the truck that hit me,” Jaxon mumbled. Chey smiled.
“We blew it up,” Chey said smiling down at him.
“Does the fact that you’re sitting next to my sick bed, mean that you’ve forgiven me?” he asked with a smile.
“You did save my life and the life of my child and that’s got me feeling all kinds of merciful.”
“I promise it won’t happen again,” he said with a smile. “You can always count on my promises.” She leaned down and kissed him and he reached up holding her to deepen the kiss. “Mack?” she smiled loving that he’d already taken to calling McKenzie by her nick name.
“She’s fine, sleeping in the next room.” He looked over her shoulder.
“Nice to see you Layla, thanks for patching me up.” Layla rolled her eyes.
“Don’t make this a regular thing. I’m not in the service anymore.”
“That makes two of us,” Jaxon said ignoring Burt as he waved his arms in warning.
“Oh, why did you get out?” Layla asked. Burt cleared his throat.
“Why don’t we let these two have a moment,” he said knowing Jaxon’s answer would get him in trouble. Jaxon smiled, and winked at Chey. He watched as Burt pulled Layla out of the room.
“Are you trying to get Burt in trouble?” Chey asked.
“I think it’s his turn,” he said cupping her cheek.
“His turn?” Chey asked.
“You’ll see,” he answered, and then he pulled her back down for another kiss, knowing that he’d never break one of his Steele promises.
THE END