CHAPTER TWO
The sun announced the arrival of another day with her pink and golden rays brightening the grays of pre-dawn. ZQ and JJ pushed wagons of explosives and ammo to the helicopter. Steelhead was behind them with an armful of AK-47’s. Titan carried a box of helmets equipped with infra-red night goggles and high-tech communication gear. They were loading the bird.
Dust’s gray Mustang kicked up a cloud of dirt as it barreled in the long lane to the ranch house. He parked next to Titan’s classic ’68 Corvette Stingray. Titan scowled. “He better not have scratched my car.”
“Hell, man, he’s fifteen feet away from it.” ZQ whistled to get Dust’s attention. “Park closer to that piece of shit ՚Vette.”
“Don’t you get me started. You know how I take care of that classic.” His freckled face scrunched up even more.
Steelhead was laughing. “Why don’t you buy a pickup to drive around in, especially when you come here to play with the real men?”
JJ elbowed Steelhead. “Better yet, a compact. Easier on fuel. You know he needs all his change for that gel he puts in his hair.”
Titan ran a beefy hand acrosss his stiff red curls. “A compact? Can you see this impressive body squeezed into a fuckin’ compact?” His voice rose with righteous indignation.
“Oh God, the poor vehicle would tip on two wheels and try to run that way once your lard ass got in it.” JJ pivoted and slapped a palm to the side of the black hawk, as he hooted in laughter.
“Yeah, well you can kiss this lard ass, you bald sombitch. Ever since ZQ’s mom raved about how much you look like Shemar Moore with your head shaved and that bitty mustache, we haven’t seen a bit of your ՚fro.”
JJ ran a hand over his head. “What can I say? Ashley likes it and that’s all that matters.”
Steelhead stopped what he was doing and stared at JJ. “Are you two getting closer? Is she overcoming her PTS enough to open up to you?”
“It’s slow, brother. I want her, so I can’t rush her after the hell she went through in Syria.”
Dressed in a tan t-shirt and camo pants like the other guys, Dust jogged toward them carrying a duffle bag. His mobility with his prosthetic leg had improved drastically. ZQ remembered the day he’d brought the young man home from the Navy Medical Center with a dose of self-pity bigger than the storage compartment of this aircraft.
ZQ’s gaze swept over the land he loved and knew so well. Hills and rangeland that had been in his family for generations. He was proud of that. This ranch had become a healing place. He was damn proud of that, too. Some former military had traveled on once they were ready to face the real world. A few stayed on the ranch and worked. Others found homes in the nearby close knit community of Warrior Falls. But all of them had regained a part of their soul here.
So many service personnel needed quiet places like this for the therapy of working with animals and healing in a small town environment. Less noise, less congestion, less stress to hurry.
JJ, a man of color, was the first to arrive at Eagle Ridge Ranch. He’d rolled in on an old Harley with Nance riding in a sidecar, wearing a helmet pretty as you please.
Dust came straight from the medical center, hobbling on his prosthetic leg, using a crutch and asshole deep in self-pity until he met the woman who would become his wife. He was an architect with a snarky sense of humor.
Steelhead wouldn’t even talk when he finally showed up. At the time his dark blond hair was shaggy and so was his beard and mustache. Now he wore his hair almost to his collar with his mustache and beard closely trimmed. After a lot of fighting, he was finally using his prosthetic arm. He’d worked hard to get his fingers to work independently. He’d married his physical therapist, Gina, who took care of all the folks at Eagle Ridge, including ZQ’s mom’s arthritis.
Red-haired Titan handled his internal scars better than most. He tried exercising his demons away by driving like the hounds of hell were on his tailpipe.
All of them and more were ZQ’s brothers-in-arms. He could cuss them out one minute and laugh with them the next. But he’d take a bullet for them without a second thought. And that included Ashley who was like a sister to everyone, except JJ. She’d been a mess when ZQ brought her here; she acted out because she was afraid of everyone, especially if that person was a man. Her healing was taking a long time.
Nance was sniffing and whining around the boxes.
“What’s up with her?” Dust tossed his bag in the back.
JJ put his hands on his hips. “Baby girl wants her vest on. She knows she’s going to work and wants her uniform.” He pushed aside some items and retrieved Nance’s K9 Storm Body Armour.
Once Nance had her Kevlar vest on, she pranced around proudly. She went to ZQ first, knowing he was the boss of this outfit.
“A-tten-tion!” he yelled and she stood firm and proud, ears pointed, tail erect. ZQ wanted to laugh. God, he loved this dog. He stepped around her, tugging on her vest here and there for effect. She never moved nor made a sound. “At ease. Get to work with JJ.” She licked ZQ’s hand once and leapt into his arms.
“We didn’t take her along when we did rescue work during the flooding of Hurricane Harvey and again for the aftermath of Irma. I don’t think she’s got over the two times we were gone without her.” Dust petted the dog. “You’re going with us today, aren’t you, Nance?” She jumped into Dust’s arms and whined.
Her handler, JJ, had evidently had enough. ZQ knew he was fairly strict on being Nance’s alpha. He tapped the side of his leg and commanded her to heel. She obeyed and he slipped her a treat.
ZQ stood straight and folded his arms. “I couldn’t tell you men everything on the phone last night. So I’ll fill you in now. An old military buddy of mine, Grey Holden and his girlfriend, ex-cop Athena Madero, run a mercenary group called the Omega Team. Most of their men are out on a mission which is why they’ve asked for our assistance.”
A collective “Hoo-rah” rose from the four men.
“Athena’s best friend, Ivy Rosemoor, an Assistant District Attorney is missing. She was hot on the trail of leaders of a drug cartel. Grey and Athena are afraid Ivy’s been taken to Cartagena.”
“If she’s not already dead,” Steelhead added.
ZQ nodded. “Yeah, that makes more sense to me. Why drag her down there? Grey said he’d have more info us when we get to Tampa. I’m figuring they’ve turned up something.”
The helicopter was full and ready for liftoff at the time ZQ ordered. His mother sent along three warm apple pies and two jars of homemade plum jam for Athena. A bag of apples were shoved in her son’s hand. She stood at the open door, the revolving blades whipping at her white hair and issued orders through blue lipstick that matched her blue robe. “Three damn whole pies better make it to Tampa or I won’t bake another thing for the men in this helicopter.”
Nance belly-crawled to ZQ’s Mom and licked her face.
“Oh no, of course I didn’t mean you, sweet Nance.” She cupped the dog’s muzzle and kissed it several times. “You take care of my boys, now. I’m going back to bed. I’ve been up since three.” She waved and plodded toward the house.
Nance barked once in reply. Then she sat straight, blue lipstick smudges over her face, all proud of herself as JJ lifted off and shot his dog a dirty look. “You old suck-ass, you.”
The dog bared her teeth and growled. She was known to toss down some attitude, too.
Halfway to Tampa, they made a stop at a small airport for fuel and restroom breaks. JJ and Nance went for a short run to limber up and empty the dog’s bladder. ZQ walked around munching an apple. JJ turned on a faucet and washed off Nance’s face. Most of ZQ’s mom’s blue lipstick was gone when they jogged back.
Before he allowed his team to board the bird, ZQ led them through a series of warm-up stretches, jumping jacks, twenty-five pushups, twenty more with a clap included, and a rapid walk to cool down. Once they were all in the helicopter, ZQ took over in the cockpit as pilot.
While they flew closer to Florida, JJ talked Nance into allowing him to remove her Kevlar. The temperature was rising and the dog was panting harder. When he handed her a bowl of water, she lapped it down with one paw firmly on her gear. She didn’t want anyone taking it from her.
Grey had emailed ZQ coordinates of a landing area in a fenced parking lot owned by a friend. He landed the bird close to a silver Suburban and a white van. Grey and Athena jumped out and waved in welcome. After introductions were made, weapons, ammo, and gear were transferred to the back of the vehicles.
“This is Nancc. I’m her handler, JJ. She got us through the hells of Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, just to name a few. She found Dust and pulled him from a pile of rubble when an explosion took part of his leg. In an ambush, Steelhead lost most of his arm and Nance lost an ear, doing a belly-crawl to get to him. She’s earned our respect.”
“Will she bite me?” Athena looked suspiciously at the dog.
ZQ, who’d been listening, sauntered over. “Just pet her on the head and tell her she did a good job. Thank her. She’s a sucker for praise.” He grinned. “Then hug me. I’m a sucker for hugs.”
Athena laughed. Grey threatened to beat his ass. Warmth flooded ZQ’s soul. There was nothing like seeing old friends again.
“Thanks for all this,” Athena said. Grey told me you’d creep through hell to help us. Means a lot.”
“Tell me about her. Ivy, isn’t it? Give me a sense of what she’s like while we drive to your place. Explain how you two know each other.”
As they sped toward Grey and Athena’s home, she talked. “Ivy and I met outside the courtroom after she’d lost a case. She was leaning against a wall with this pissed off expression. You know, as if she’d like to rip a drinking fountain out off the wall and pound it up the judge’s ass.” Athena glanced at ZQ and grinned. “My kind of woman. Friends from the start. She doesn’t take shit from anybody. Which might have gotten her into trouble.”
“How so?”
“She was researching some mid-level drug suppliers. Told me she was zeroing in on the major kingpins in Cartagena, Columbia. The Muñoz cartel.” Athena braked for a traffic light, pulled the scrunchie from her dark ponytail and smoothed some errant hair back before wrapping the fabric covered elastic around the thick mass. The light changed and she took off.
“See, Ivy and I have lunch together every Thursday to catch up. She was obsessed with this case, ZQ. Obsessed to the point of being reckless with her own safety. I kept warning her.” Athena shook her head a few times. “But she was determined to catch them.”
ZQ wanted a sense of the missing woman’s personality, of how she thought. Athena’s description was helping. “Does she win most of her cases?”
Athena nodded. “Oh, yeah! She always struts into court, prepared to the eyeballs, ready to do her level best.”
“Her job must take up a lot of her time. Is she married?”
“No. She moved here about four years ago. Alone. Pregnant. Once she spoke about a special guy who went missing from her life. How he’d hurt her by doing that.”
“Bastard.”
“Yeah well, some men aren’t always as standup as you think. Ivy told me being pregnant was the last thing she expected. She just figured her physical symptoms were from the sudden loss of this guy she was crazy about. That her emotions were playing havoc with her body, you know? Since then she’s sworn off men. A shame, really, because she’s a beautiful woman.” Athena pulled in a long driveway and into a garage. “Here we are.”