“Hannah?” Tuck tapped his earpiece. “Hannah, can you hear me?”
He listened, but all he could hear was silence.
“Can anyone else hear Hannah or the others?” He looked around.
“Hannah, can you hear me, sweet-cheeks?” Danny crooned into his mic.
When there was no answer, he turned to Tuck and shrugged.
“I don’t suppose there’s much we can do about it now.” He shook his head. “We’re less than two minutes out.”
“Don’t take your foot off the gas!” Tuck instructed. “This part of the route will probably be as quiet as a church, and the last we heard was that Luciana’s men were firing rocket launchers. It won’t take too many of them to bring the house down completely.”
Tuck watched Danny handle the vehicle as well as any professional driver, as he dodged the last few cars before turning and heading west beyond the outskirts of the city.
A couple more turns and he was in a quiet road, with just an occasional secluded gate telling you that there were probably large and very private dwellings beyond.
Danny took the final turning and Tuck pointed ahead.
“Three hundred metres ahead on your right. The gate is off by the sounds of things, so you can swing straight in.” He turned to the rest of the guys, with half a smile. “Locked and loaded?”
Marcus grinned at him, holding his assault rifle in front of him.
“It’s been almost a week since the last time I fired this thing.” He chuckled. “I hope I can remember how it works.”
“Just remember…” JT pointed at Marcus’s rifle. “The thin end goes at the front pointing away from you, before you pull the little trigger thing.”
“Aww boss.” Marcus smiled. “It’s just like old times, what with you schooling us n’all!”
“Asshole!” Danny murmured. “I guess I’ll have to whoop your ass today, seeing as I don’t have Matt here to beat. It’s not even a fair competition. For you, that is.”
“Don’t even go there!” JT warned. “Just for once, I’d like to go on a mission without having to listen to the two of you bickering like children.”
Tuck braced himself as Danny turned the vehicle hard right, heading through the gates at nearly forty miles an hour.
As soon as he and the vehicle straightened up, he could see the truck and Lucky’s men out front, just like Hannah had described.
They pulled up fifty metres away, and immediately they stopped, everyone piled out and started firing at Lucky’s men crouching behind their vehicles.
Tuck glanced at Gregor’s house and was stunned to see that most of the front had been blasted away, and you could see straight into the middle bedrooms, one of which, if he wasn’t mistaken was the room Gregor had set Tulli and her sisters up in.
It only took a few seconds for Luciana’s men to switch to the other side of their vehicles, as it became obvious that nobody was firing at them from the house any more.
As more cars piled through Gregor’s gate, Tuck saw the rest of the Stalwart team arriving and waved them around to the side of the house to where it seemed a large number of Luciana’s group was still intent on doing as much damage as possible.
Tuck started firing again and noted with satisfaction that there only seemed to be four of Lucky’s men left returning fire.
Boom!
Jesus! The rocket hit the only part of the front wall still standing, and the whole front, along with a huge section of the roof slid down and hit the driveway with a crash.
Tuck prayed hard that Gregor and his men had long since retreated to the basement.
He glanced towards Danny and waved to get his attention.
“The guy with the RPG must be behind the big truck.” He hissed.
“On it!” Danny crawled past him and along to the end of the cars.
Tuck watched as Danny lay on his belly, trying to look under the vehicles. He crawled a little further before stopping and looking under the car again.
When Danny turned back with a grin and gave him a thumbs-up, Tuck figured he’d found what he was looking for.
Ten seconds later, from his position laying flat on the ground, Danny let off a flurry of bullets. The yelp and groan that immediately followed was evidence, if any was needed, that he had hit his intended target.
He turned slightly and lined up his sight again. Tuck held his breath for a few seconds until Danny fired again.
This time it was followed by a scream and the loudest wail, as a string of curses followed.
Danny crawled back to Tuck and smirked.
“If you will sit on the floor behind a vehicle, you should always try and sit in front of the wheel if you don’t wanna get shot in the ass!” He explained.
Tuck winced.
“And the first guy? The one with the rocket launcher?” He wondered.
“If he doesn’t bleed out, he sure as fuck won’t walk again.” Danny growled. “When you repeatedly fire at a house with a rocket launcher, knowing damn well that there are people inside, you gotta be prepared to take what you get. Forgive me if I don’t feel like shedding any tears for the guy.”
“Fair enough.” Tuck shrugged. He wasn’t in the mood for sympathy either. “How many left?”
“Maybe one or two still shooting at us?” Marcus pointed to the middle vehicle, from where they could hear the occasional burst of gunfire. “Don’t know where the idiots are aiming though. I don’t think they’ve even hit the cars yet!”
JT scrambled to his feet, keeping his head ducked low.
“Keep them busy and pinned down.” He instructed Marcus, Charlie, and Tuck. “Danny? You’re with me.”
Tuck’s jaw dropped at being given an order by a subordinate, but then he grinned. JT wasn’t acting as a Captain, undermining Tuck’s rank of Major. JT was just doing what JT always did. He met things head on, from the front.
Tuck copied Danny’s idea of lying on the floor, wincing at the rough gravel that bit into his skin.
Damn, but he was feeling old these days! Old and delicate! Shit! He was never going to admit that to anyone.
He pulled his rifle up and looked through the sight. He could just about make out the tires of the vehicles opposite, but the men had obviously learned not to stand or crouch where their feet were visible.
Marcus pointed to the end car, the one furthest from where JT and Danny were headed.
“I’m gonna make that one go boom!” He grinned. “Cover me!”
Shit! Tuck rolled his eyes.
Charlie and Tuck let off a volley of shots, aiming at the tires of the Mexican’s cars. If they’d figured out how easy it was to incapacitate a man by shooting at his feet, Tuck sure as hell didn’t want them able to return the favour.
As he watched the tyres blow out on the middle car, he heard the rat-a-tat of bullets from Marcus’ weapon, followed by a huge explosion as he must have hit the gas-tank, the force of the blast lifting the car almost ten feet in the air.
Tuck glanced from the exploding car back to the truck, to see JT and Danny ducking behind it for cover. Danny was the first to recover himself, standing straight with his hands on his hips, and a look on his face that said, “What the fuck?” better than any words could have.
Tuck pointed towards Marcus and shrugged, letting Danny know that the pyrotechnics were nothing to do with him. Charlie was just grinning his ass off.
Danny shook his head in disgust and carefully opened the door of the truck.
As he climbed in, and crawled across the seats, JT used the doorway and seat as leverage to climb up onto the roof.
Tuck held his breath as he watched his friends get themselves into position, and then at some unheard and unseen signal, Danny flung the opposite door open and leaned out, just as JT leaned over from the roof.
Several flurries of gunfire followed before JT sat up and waved.
“All clear.” He yelled, as Danny climbed out of the truck on the far side.
Charlie and Marcus jumped up, cautiously sliding around the cars as the sound of gunfire could still be heard from the other side of the house.
As he walked around the burning husk of the end vehicle, he spotted the bodies of seven or eight cartel members.
Danny was crouching down next to the guy whose feet he’d shot off. The man actually looked like he was still alive.
“Where’s the boss-lady?” Danny asked, his voice as hard as Tuck had ever heard it.
“Fuck you, asshole!” The man rasped.
JT leaned in and checked the guy’s pockets for ID. Pulling out his wallet, he reached inside for his driving license.
“Jesus Vega.” He passed it to Tuck. “That would be Lucky’s brother-in-law. That’s so sweet that you were fighting for her family’s honour.”
Vega coughed a laugh, then groaned in pain.
“Lucky’s family have no honour.” He spat. “She was supposed to be here, so I could kill her myself. It’s so easy to get shot in the crossfire.”
“So, where is she?” Danny asked.
Jesus’s head started to roll.
“Where is she, asshole?” He repeated.
“Other…” He spat up what seemed to be blood, and Tuck noticed the deep red stain on his shirt. “Other place…”
With that, his head lolled to one side, and blood streamed out of the corner of his mouth.
Danny stood up, nodded to the house, and picked up his weapon.
“She must be on the other side.” He pointed. “They’re still in a gunfight around there. We’d better go and give them a hand.”
They started to run around the building, but as they reached the corner, there was an almighty boom, and the ground around them shook.
“Get back!” Tuck shouted, as the wall above them started to crumble.
The five men immediately backed off, giving the house a wide birth as they continued their run, watching as the wall collapsed, taking the roof and several rooms with it.
Beyond that there was a wall of flame, and then the sight of the rest of the Stalwart guys standing on the far side of the property.
Tuck ran towards them, his weapon still pointing towards any potential threats.
As he approached Brandon and Tony, he saw a pile of rubble move and Zach’s blond head appeared.
“What the hell happened?” He reached down to pull his nephew up.
Under the dust and grime, Zach broke into a grin.
“One minute they were shooting at us, and the next they fired an RPG at the house from close range.” He pointed. “Judging by the explosion and the flame, I’m guessing they hit the gas line going to the kitchen.”
“Are any of them still alive?” Danny looked around.
“They were all huddled in that area behind the vehicle.” Tony pointed to a pile of rubble. “I really don’t think they were expecting such a big explosion!”
“Wait! There’s a vehicle under that lot?” Marcus looked amazed. It was almost flattened.
“Yeah, and about half a dozen Mexicans.” Zach nodded. “I don’t think they’ll be doing much breathing.”
With half a building on top of them, Tuck doubted it too. At least the building had blown out. That meant there was less to move to get to Gregor and his men in the basement.
Tuck looked up as he heard sirens in the distance. The police and Feds had finally made their way in through the gates. The first man out of the Fed’s SUV was Cole Arthurs.
“Gregor and his men should be safe, down in the basement. I think the access point is in the north east corner. You need to get a fire crew in here and get them out.” Tuck instructed, relieved when Cole nodded and immediately got onto his radio.
“Did anyone see Luciana anywhere?” He turned back to his men.
Zach shook his head.
“I’m pretty sure she wasn’t on our side. I thought she was on your side of the house.” He shrugged.
“I didn’t see any women, and I think I saw everyone they had.” Brandon agreed.
“So, where is she?” Tuck looked around his friends, who all looked as surprised as he did that she wasn’t there for the show.
“I’m gobsmacked she’s not here.” JT admitted. “She’s come all this way to get revenge for her father’s death. Why would she not make sure she was here to enjoy it.”
“Maybe…” Danny seemed reluctant to say the words. “Maybe she’s not here, because the person responsible for her father’s death isn’t here, either? Maybe that’s why the communications equipment went dead?”
Tuck’s heart beat so hard it almost cracked a rib.
“Candy!” He breathed. “This was all a smokescreen. She’s going after my wife!”