John looked back and said it in Spanish.
Her mind raced, possible scenarios going through her head. She had basic self-defense skills, but if the guy put a bullet in her side, even though they were in Mexico City, depending on the ammo he was using she likely wouldn’t survive it.
She had to get the gun pointed away from her long enough for John to disarm him, or distract Gregor so she could draw her own gun. Gregor at least switched to holding on to her right arm instead of keeping his right arm around her.
As they neared the hotel, India hoped she hadn’t just made the stupidest mistake of her life.
Chapter Thirty
They walked through the cool, quiet lobby, orders and intel being tersely traded back and forth in India’s ear between Papa and his men as the three of them stepped onto the elevator car.
From out of nowhere, a woman’s frantic call in Spanish. “Hold the elevator, please!”
As Gregor turned, forcing India to turn with him, Pandora bounded onto the elevator with them, smiling broadly at them. “¡Gracias!”
“Three,” Gregor told John.
John reached out and punched the button. Pandora brightly grinned and punched the button for the fourth floor. Then, excusing herself, she stepped out of the way of the door and behind Gregor.
That’s when India nearly burst out laughing.
“That warm blade you feel against your jugular right now, motherfucker,” Pandora said in a voice that sounded far too vicious to belong to the sweet woman India had spent time with, “is sharp enough to slice right through your spine. You put the gun down, slowly. And let go of her. Or everyone ends up a chalk outline, including you.”
At first India thought Gregor wasn’t going to do it. Then he pointed the gun away from her, releasing her arm as well.
India spun free, her back against the corner of the elevator as she drew her gun and shoved it in his face.
She hoped no one else saw how badly she was shaking. “Fucker,” she muttered. “You picked the wrong damn woman to grab. This is just not your day, amigo.”
John took the gun away from Gregor and held it on him.
Just because she could, India kicked out, catching Gregor in the nuts. “That’s for being a shitty-ass weasel,” she said.
The man collapsed to his knees, wheezing and clutching his balls while John chuckled and quickly frisked him for any other weapons or hidden mics.
“Clear,” John said out loud. “Clara and Pandora safe, target…neutralized.” He let out a snicker. “Poor bastard.”
“Meet us on four,” Papa ordered.
When the doors started sliding open on three, India reached over and repeatedly punched the door close button until they slid shut again.
Fortunately, no one had been standing there waiting for it.
When they slid open on four seconds later, however, several Drunk Monkeys had weapons trained in the doorway.
They let Pandora and India exit the elevator first. Then the men dragged Gregor out of the car and down the hall to a room. Lima was already there, opening the door for them.
Papa entered a moment later. “Good work.”
“You owe me twenty bucks,” Lima gasped, jabbing a finger in the air at him. “Bull-fucking-shit I can’t fucking sprint anymore.” He leaned forward, hands on his knees and heaving for air.
India guessed he’d sprinted up the stairs after running to the hotel from the plaza.
Papa grinned. “Good work. You probably broke their fastest check-in record, too.” To the radio he said, “All clear, everyone else come up.”
They quickly had Gregor trussed up on the floor in a hogtie, a piece of duct tape over his mouth.
Moments later, Tango, Doc, Yankee, and Oscar stormed through the room door with Robert.
Yankee grabbed India by the arms and shook her. “What the hell do you think you were doing?”
“Back off,” Papa ordered. “She just saved our fucking operation, her and Pandora both. Good thinking, ladies. Both of you.”
The women stuck their tongues out at their men.
Papa turned to Lima. “And you owe me twenty bucks for his mic going out in the middle of an operation. That means we’re even.”
Lima straightened and winced. “Sorry, sir.”
They quickly retrieved Gregor’s room key and ransacked his quarters, bringing all his stuff with them so they could go through it.
Including his laptop, which they handed over to a recovered Lima. His partner, Quack, was videotaping the prisoner, while Echo took still pictures.
“So who is your contact?” Papa asked. “And who is the handler above him?” He ripped the tape off Gregor’s mouth.
“Fuck you,” Gregor said. “You don’t know who you’re dealing with. There are bigger events at play here than you could ever—”
Papa punched him in the face, splitting the man’s upper lip. “You know the drill, colonel,” he said, flexing his fist. “You going to go down easy or hard?”
Gregor sneered. “Fuck you.”
Lima’s hands flew over the captured laptop’s keyboard. “Got it,” he said. He plugged a portable drive into the computer. “Let me change his sat-link ID key first. Then I’m going to mirror and wipe.”
“We’ll toss it later,” Papa told Lima, “once we’re away from here. Also, get the numbers first, then kill his sat-phone and the burner he had. Bubba can run the accounts from his end and obtain any phone numbers he contacted.”
Robert took care of that task for them, copying the info down before yanking the batteries and then stomping on the devices until they were crushed.
“Oh, he’s got some online accounts.” Lima tapped some more. “I’m going to need more time to go through these.”
“Send it all to Bubba,” Papa said. “Let him deal with it. We don’t have time for that right now.”
“Roger roger.”
Papa knelt next to Gregor. “Last chance.”
“You’re the good guys,” he sneered. “You won’t kill me.”
“The hell I wouldn’t,” Pandora snarked from where Doc and Tango were still reassuring themselves she was okay.
“Ditto,” India said, raising the gun again. She hadn’t holstered it yet, preferring to keep a firm grip on it unless directed otherwise.
Oscar reached over and gently pushed her hand down so the gun pointed at the floor, away from anyone.
“There is a new world coming,” Gregor said. “Sinners like you won’t be a part of it.”
“Oh, come on,” Pandora said, brandishing her knife at him. “Let me have a crack at him, Papa. Please?”
“I could castrate him,” India suggested. “Not like I haven’t done it several times before.”
Both Yankee and Oscar gawked at her. She didn’t think it was her imagination that both men, along with several other Drunk Monkeys, looked a little queasy, and maybe even protectively clenched their thighs together.
“What?” she asked. “It’s a local punishment in Colima for sex offenders. Public castration or death, their choice.”
“I think,” Oscar said, “that I could have gone the rest of my life without hearing those words come from your mouth, babe.”
“Ditto,” Yankee said.
“Sounds good to me,” Papa said, unfazed. “Cut his pants off.” He ripped off another piece of duct tape from the roll and slapped it over Gregor’s mouth.
Two men produced knives and started cutting Gregor’s slacks off him as the prisoner frantically struggled against the ropes binding him.
Papa turned to India, grinning. “You are definitely a worthy addition to our team, Clara. Remind me to sit down with you later when we have more time and discuss what other ‘special talents’ you possess.”
India finally holstered her gun and took Pandora’s knife from her, walking around to stand where the now thrashing man was being held down by several of the Drunk Monkeys.
“This is gonna hurt you a lot more than it’ll hurt me,” she
told Gregor, turning the knife so it glinted in the light from the windows. “Because it won’t hurt me a damn bit. You sure you don’t want to talk? Because, you know, I don’t have any local to pump into you. This is gonna sting like a motherfucker. And if you move around too much while I’m doing it, I’m liable to accidentally nick something. Or cut something else off.” She snapped her fingers. “Oh, that reminds me.”
She turned to Papa. “Anyone got a lighter? I’ll need to cauterize the bleeding since I don’t have sutures. I guess we can use duct tape to seal his scrotum when I finish. And we might want towels to keep blood off the carpet.”
Gregor’s eyes went wide as he screamed against the tape covering his mouth and frantically shook his head back and forth.
Papa finally reached down and ripped the strip of tape off Gregor’s mouth. “Then talk, or she does it.”
“He’s a fucking two-star, okay? Major General George Macaletto. Someone you do not want to fuck with, if you know what’s good for you. I don’t know how to contact the people with the money. He does that. It’s not about the money anyway. It’s about doing what’s right for this goddamned country for a change, okay? You weren’t talking to me, you were talking to him. He’s the one who brought me in. He made all the arrangements and sent me to see what you knew.”
“And to kill the messenger once you found that out, right?”
When Gregor hesitated, India leaned in and reached toward his relatively small cock, as if she were going to pull it out of the way.
“Yes!” he shrieked, shifting his hips away from her. “All right? Yes! I was to get the information out of the messenger, dispose of him, and get my ass back to Washington. Okay?”
Papa shook his head. “Macaletto. Son of a bitch. I would not have suspected him of anyone. So he groomed you and brought you into this, huh?” He nudged Gregor with his foot. “Am I right?”
“Yes, you’re right. So you all might as well give it the fuck up now, and maybe you won’t get killed.”
Pandora stepped in. “You fuckers would keep everyone from getting the vaccine if we hand the scientists over, and we’re not letting you do that.”
“Everyone doesn’t deserve the vaccine! Most of you people aren’t anything more than animals anyway, and you deserve to die in the—”
Pandora kicked him in the side of the head, knocking him unconscious. “My sister and brother-in-law have kids, you fucker.” She looked at Papa. “Can we castrate him now? And can I help? Please?”
Tango caught her arm and dragged her away from the prisoner.
Papa looked at India and tipped his head toward Gregor. “He okay?”
India checked his vitals and lifted his eyelids to check for dilation. “Probably just out cold. Maybe a concussion.”
“Got it,” Lima said, looking up from the laptop. “Done. Bubba confirmed receipt of the info.”
“Did you guys wipe down his room?” Papa asked.
“Yes, sir,” Alpha replied. “Like he was never there.
“We’re not going to get anything else out of him, are we?” Pandora asked.
“No,” Papa said. “Nothing but more rhetoric. I don’t think he knows anything else anyway. Not if Macaletto is his handler. Macaletto would have been very careful not to let Gregor know too much to protect his own ass.”
“Dammit, I really wanted to castrate him,” India griped. “Especially after he pulled the farking gun on me.”
“We’ve gotten everything out of him that we’re going to get,” Papa said. “Castration, while fun for you, won’t be helpful in this situation.” He stared down at the man. “Sonofabitch, we have a second mole, and someone he’s reporting to.”
Then he leaned down, grabbed the man’s head, and twisted.
Hard.
India heard the soft, sickening snap and knew immediately what that signified. Her medical brain kicked over into control.
That was the C1 or C2 vertebrae.
Papa then held his hands around the man’s throat for a moment, his fingers pressing firmly on both sides of Gregor’s neck, against the carotid arteries, an easy choke hold since Gregor, unconscious and now with his spine broken, couldn’t fight back.
After a moment, Papa released his hold and sat back. India leaned in and took Gregor’s pulse.
Nothing.
“That’s it,” she quietly said.
Papa stood then turned to focus on her. “Is this going to be a problem?” he quietly asked. “Because it’s going to happen from time to time. Especially when we’re dealing with bad guys trying to kill us.”
She returned Pandora’s knife to her, hilt first. “No,” she pouted. “But I really wanted to castrate him.”
Papa laughed. “Too much blood, sorry. If we’d had a hideout here where we could have done it outside, I would have let you go to town on him. You know, I’ve always heard nurses were sadists at heart. Men, I think we just found our official interrogator.”
* * * *
Papa ordered the women and their men to head back to Colima while they took care of the body.
“I still haven’t gotten the stuff I need for the clinic,” India told him. “I really don’t want to waste the trip. Especially since things might go downhill fast if Kite gets loose in the city.”
“Fine, you can do that. Then head back to Colima, no stops.”
“It’s going to take me a few hours.”
Papa looked at Doc. “Keep me posted should you run into trouble, and keep me updated on an ETA.”
She pointed at Gregor’s body. “What are you going to do with him?”
“We’re smart guys. I’m sure we’ll think of something.” He turned to Alpha. “Go find housekeeping and get one of their laundry carts.”
While they were upstairs, one of the other men had moved their SUV to a spot on a side street next to the hotel. Doc produced the keys and, in silence, they all piled in.
That was when the shakes hit India.
“Where to?” Doc asked, looking at her in the rearview mirror.
Yankee had ended up in the backseat with her, Tango in the middle seat with Pandora, and Oscar in the front passenger seat. After giving Doc directions to get back to the main highway to take them to the other side of the city, India leaned against Yankee.
Yankee put an arm around her, holding her close as he rested his chin against the top of her head. “You ever do something like that again,” he said, “and no order from Papa will keep us from spanking the hell out of you. Do you understand me?”
She nodded, tucking her face against his chest as she struggled to hold back her tears.
“You, too,” Tango echoed, directed at Pandora. “I wanted to snatch you back by that beautiful red hair of yours when I saw you running into the hotel after them.”
“Hey, I knew he wasn’t going to expect it. One of you guys, he would have made you immediately.” She smiled. “No one expects the girl. I knew with the hat and the Spanish that he wouldn’t have time to recognize me before I took him down.”
India looked up and reached over the seat to tap Pandora on the shoulder. When her friend turned, India made a fist.
Pandora grinned and fist-bumped her back. “Hey, I think I’ve come a long way from getting abducted in grocery store parking lots,” Pandora said.
“And in hotel parking lots,” Doc added, shooting a glare at her through the rearview mirror.
“And I was almost free by the time you rescued me. Five more minutes, I wouldn’t have been there.”
“Five more minutes, and you might have been trying to bite a guy who was blue,” Tango sternly corrected her. “Don’t forget that part of the story, babe.”
“Yeah, well, at least I was trying to get free.”
India managed to pull herself together to get them to their first stop. Yankee and Oscar went inside with her while the other three remained in the SUV. They made her other four stops, filling every spare space in the SUV with supplies, including medication. Then they grabbed an
early dinner before hitting the road back to Colima. As the sun set over the western horizon, India felt herself dozing in the security of Yankee’s arms.
Yeah, she figured she could pretty much handle anything if those two men were always at her side.
Chapter Thirty-One
India had never been so glad to get back to the clinic and locked in her bedroom as she was when they returned from Mexico City a little after midnight that night. There was about five seconds of frantic clothes-removing before the three of them were naked and in the shower, the men running their hands all over her body to convince themselves she was okay.
“Maybe you should stay here in Colima,” Oscar said. “It would have killed me if you’d gotten hurt.”
“See?” Yankee said. “When we first got here, that first morning we were standing watch at the farm, I told you I had a feeling something was going to happen.”
She poked them both in the chest. “No backsies. Papa already said I was one of you, right?”
“Indy,” Oscar said, “you could have—”
“Have what? Been killed? I’ve got news for you, that could happen here if the cartels ever decide for another try in this region. Or if that damn volcano just up the road erupts and wipes us out. Or an earthquake could hit and knock this building down on top of my head. Hell, I could get a bad fajita over at the Hernandez place and die of food poisoning. You are not going to make me stay behind when I have a chance to do some real good for the whole damn world. You think I’m staying behind, think again. I’m leaving with the group, with or without approval from you two.”
“Okay, okay,” Oscar said.
“Now knock that bullshit off and let’s finish our shower so you two can take me to bed and fuck my brains out. Hard and fast and nothing fancy.”
They were eager to comply. Except once they were dried off and back in bed, Yankee flipped her onto her back and buried his face between her legs, making her moan. Oscar took care of that by shoving his hard cock between her lips.
Ooohh yeah.
Yankee only made her ride one orgasm out before he cl between her legs, fed his cock into her cunt, and started fucking her hard and fast.