Freedom (Blackstone Series Book 3)
FREEDOM
Blackstone Series, Book 3
J.L. Drake
FREEDOM
Copyright © 2019 by J.L. Drake.
All rights reserved.
First Print Edition: September 2019
Limitless Publishing, LLC
Kailua, HI 96734
www.limitlesspublishing.com
Formatting: Limitless Publishing
ISBN-13: 978-1-64034-769-4
ISBN-10: 1-64034-769-0
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
DEDICATION
To the North Little Rock Police Department SWAT Team, for all the fun and laughter you brought to my readers and me, as you blended fiction with reality.
Thank you for protecting the line of good and evil.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Mike: Agent at Dusk but originally from Shadows. Scary-looking teddy bear, covered head to toe in tattoos.
Catalina: …you’re just going to have to read to find out.
Charlotte: Mike’s little sister and Catalina’s best friend.
Keith: Member of Blackstone. Secretive. Savannah’s ‘big brother.’ Husband to Lexi and father to Brandon, Jr.
Lexi: Keith’s wife and Brandon, Jr.’s mother.
Cole: Owner of the safe house in Montana called Shadows. Fell in love with a picture of a victim. Found, saved, and married Savannah. Leader of the Blackstone special ops team.
Savannah: Held for ransom in Tijuana, Mexico for seven months. Saved by Blackstone, married Cole Logan, has a daughter named Olivia, lives at Shadows.
Mark: Best friend to Cole Logan, Blackstone member. Uses humor to escape the pain from his past. Married to Mia, has twin boys.
Frank: Blackstone contact for the Army, lives in Washington, DC, Mia’s father.
Mia: Mark’s wife, nurse, Frank’s daughter, mother of twin boys (second round of kids to enter the Blackstone team).
John: Blackstone member, twin sister almost died.
Abigail: Mark’s adopted mother, Cole’s childhood nanny, and now house aide. Dating Dr. Roberts.
Dr. Roberts: House doctor, kind soul, snappy dresser, dating Abigail.
Davie: Member of Blackstone, specializing in diving. Lives at Shadows.
Denton Barlow: The American from Broken who was obsessed with Savannah, wore gold- tipped cobra boots.
Trigger: Scary as hell, president of the Devil’s Reach Motorcycle Club in Santa Monica.
Tess: Trigger’s old lady.
Brick: Trigger’s VP of the Devil’s Reach, Tess’s best friend.
Rail: Member of Devil’s Reach, a tad metrosexual.
Morgan: Member of Devil’s Reach, Sergeant at Arms, bartender.
Gus: Trigger’s uncle.
Zay: Trigger’s half-brother he never knew he had.
Crawford: New Dusk member.
Team North Rock:
Steve
BT
Greg
Danny
Beast
Mike
Ryan
Kids in order they arrived
Olivia: Savannah and Cole’s daughter.
Lopez Twins: Names will be revealed in this book.
Brandon, Jr.: Keith and Lexi’s son.
Blackstone Code Names
Cole: Raven One
Mark: Raven Two
Keith: Beta Seven
John: Fox Two
Mike: Delta Six
Crawford: Hawk
PROLOGUE
Location: Tijuana, Mexico
Coordinates: Classified
Mike
“Mark!” I screamed through the roar of the storm. “Move to your three o’clock!”
He dipped down and rolled into the gully, while I slammed a bullet into the neck of the sniper perched in a nearby treetop. I snatched his ammo bag from where it landed at the base of the tree and raced to catch up as we headed for the next checkpoint.
“Delta Six,” Cole’s voice broke through my ear, “ETA?”
“Five…” I heard a snap from behind me and twisted to scan my surroundings. Rain poured off my helmet in a sheet, so I tilted it to break the curtain.
“Delta Six, repeat,” Cole ordered.
I knew I wasn’t alone, so I clicked my radio two times slow, then three fast to alert them that I couldn’t respond.
Mark suddenly showed himself. As soon as his eyes met mine, he knew something was up. He moved to my side and lifted his gun.
“Anyone?” he whispered.
“I’m thinking four.” Every sense in my body was on high alert. Rain pelted our battered bodies and smeared our war paint into different patterns across our skin. No matter how bad the elements were, I trusted my gut to guide me and alert me of any danger.
Mark’s shoulder tensed when something caught our attention. “Seven o’clock.”
“You feel it?”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “We need cover.”
We were sitting ducks against this cliff. The only cover we had was the rain coming down like a waterfall around us.
This isn’t good.
“Cover me,” I grunted to Mark, and he gave me a quick nod. “Raven One,” I called to Cole.
“What’s going on?” I heard him huff like he was on the run.
“We have company.”
I caught a flash of red and lifted my weapon again. “I see you.”
“I see three.” Mark chewed on his gum. “I want to spray.”
I waited until I locked in my targets before I agreed with the only option we had left.
“One.” I took a breath and thought out my path. “Two.” I blinked to free my eyes of water. “Three!”
Bullets sprayed across the forest. The sound broke through the thunder, and the flash of gunfire joined in with the lightning. We were storm, nature, and man working as one to take out the scum who dared walk this Earth. This was vengeance; this was freedom. I could feel the adrenaline flowing through me, and it felt right.
Two thick ropes dropped behind us, and we wrapped our wrists around them and waited for the signal to start climbing.
“Delta Six and Raven Two, go!” Keith yelled over the radio. We didn’t miss a beat as we turned, flipped our guns onto our backs, and started to climb up the slick rock wall.
A year ago, Cole had us training up on the pea
k at Shadows. We had to climb a sixty-foot rock wall with a fire hose blasting in our faces. It was grueling, but it prepared us for moments like this. Our muscles screamed and our lungs fought for air, but we made it to the top and raced to catch up with the others.
“We have twenty minutes left before our window closes,” Cole informed me. We had lost an extra thirty because we got separated at the lake’s edge.
We fell into formation and headed back to the boat. I noticed one of the hostages had lost a shoe and was struggling to keep up.
Not having a moment left to spare, I scooped the woman and slung her onto my back. She wrapped her arms around my neck and buried her head into my shoulder. With my size and strength, I knew she wouldn’t slow me down.
Keith had the younger woman by the arm. Her face was white with fear, and she shook from head to toe.
Pop!
Pop!
Pop!
The sound of gunfire quickly grew closer, and we knew someone had tipped off our location.
Shit!
“Start the motor!” Cole screamed into his radio just as we hit the sand. We jumped into the boat, and John revved the engine.
We flung ourselves flat in the hull as their bullets flew, and we could hear them striking the boat as we sped clear.
We slowly sat back and took a moment to breathe once we knew we were far enough away.
The extraction, although well planned, went south fast when we were only able to secure the mother and one daughter, Luna. Elena, the second daughter, had been moved unexpectedly, and we couldn’t locate her. We had to go before we were exposed and lost them all.
Salvador and his men hit us as we headed back for the boat.
“No! Mija!” Martina had her daughter’s head on her lap.
“Oh, shit.” I ripped open my pack then did the same to Luna’s dress. I started to pack the cork-sized hole that gushed blood.
“Please!” She covered my bloody hands and made me look up at her. “Please save her!”
“I’m going to try,” I reassured her, but I could tell by the color of her daughter’s skin she wouldn’t make it long.
We had made a deal with Martina that we would get her and her two daughters out, in exchange for information on Salvador’s operation. Martina had been deep inside Salvador’s life for eight years, but once her daughters started to get old enough, she knew something needed to change. She took a huge chance when she made contact with our brother unit, North Rock, to ask for help. As I watched Luna and thought of Elena, I knew it was not good. Not only had we failed them, but the information we so desperately needed on the cartel would have to wait.
Luna didn’t make it back to Dusk.
CHAPTER ONE
Mike
The music was loud, and the place was packed. It definitely wasn’t my comfort zone, but the guys wanted to blow off some steam after the last trip. So here I was, towering over most everyone, in a dance bar. I stood in the corner and watched people’s faces for any sign of aggression or for any sudden movement that could possibly mean a fight would follow. I had an urge to manhandle someone, and that wasn’t good. Maybe I’d just been spending too much time with Trigger. In his world, the law was just a word and not something to follow.
Oh, that reminds me.
“Cole.” I signaled for him to follow me. I led him outside to the poorly lit patio where a bouncer checked kids’ IDs.
“What’s up?” He downed a bottle of water and tossed it into a can.
“I just spent some time with Trigger.” I saw and understood Cole’s discomfort with the topic. He knew Trigger and I had a past, and he made the effort to respect that. It was important for me to keep my friendship with him. Cole knew Trigger and I were a lot more alike than most realized.
“How’s he doing?”
“Good. I know he carries his uncle’s death on his shoulders, but he’ll bounce back.”
“Mm,” Cole grunted. None of us were shy on the topic of death.
“He gave me this.” I handed him the scrap of paper. “It’s the location of Salvador’s summer house.” Cole smiled wryly at my description. The summer house was where Salvador kept his drugs and where his crew cut and bagged it for distribution.
“How legit is this?” He pulled out his phone.
“If Trigger gave it to me, it’s legit.”
Cole nodded his agreement and held his phone to his ear. “Tell him thanks.” He hit my arm and headed down the road for some privacy. “Frank, I’ve got something for you.”
I sagged against the cool bricks and closed my eyes, needing a moment to shake off Luna’s death. Now the hunt for her sister was that much larger. Poor Martina was a mess when we’d left her at the safe house.
Fuck the cartel!
My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I thought about ignoring it. It wasn’t until the fourth buzz that I gave in.
“Hello.”
“Hi, Banner.” My mother greeted me with my childhood nickname. “Are you still coming by tomorrow? You never answered my text.”
Damn! I rubbed my head and tried to slip back into this life. It was hard to go from scaling cliffs and scoping out a kill to doing laundry and attending your sister’s birthday party.
“Sorry, Mom.” I turned my back to the bar door. I had completely forgotten about my sister’s birthday. “Yeah, I’ll be there. Four, right?”
“Okay, good.” She paused. “What’s wrong?”
“Just a hard week.”
“Well, you come by and let your mama take care of you.”
I grinned like a child. No matter how old I got, she still loved to care for me.
“Are the rest of the boys coming?”
“Mark mentioned about leaving a day early, but I think he just wants to find an excuse to get out of his son’s friend’s birthday party.”
“Well, you tell Marky he’s more than welcome. We always have extra food.”
“I will.” I chuckled. I knew all I had to do was mention a barbecue and Mark would be game. “Love you.”
“Love you more, Banner. Night.”
I slipped my phone back in my pocket and began to head inside when I heard someone softly curse behind me. I turned slowly to find a girl on her phone. The lighting was poor where she was standing, so I couldn’t get a good look at her face, but her long, lean legs under her black skin-tight dress did catch my attention. Her sexy curves had me moving closer.
“You need to call me back, Javier.” Her Hispanic accent was there, but you could tell she had spent a lot of time learning English. “And I want the camera back that you stole!” She brushed at her hair like she was upset. “You just…I need to know where you are.” She dropped her arm and swung around but jumped as she saw me.
“Sorry.” I raised my hands to show I wasn’t a threat. I’d learned through time that even when I was trying to be kind, people saw me as scary. “Didn’t mean to eavesdrop.”
Her shoulders sagged as she sighed. “It’s fine,” she said, trying to be nice. “Just a shitty night.”
“I hear ya on that one.”
Her gaze shot up to mine, and I saw the fire that smoldered behind her hazel eyes. She squinted and seemed to really look at me for the first time. For whatever reason, she reined herself back, and the embers faded from those eyes. I found myself wanting to fan the flames so I could see it again, but I left the thought alone.
“Rough night with your mom?” She snickered.
I couldn’t help but laugh at that. She must have spotted me when she left the bar.
“You always listen to other people’s phone calls?”
“I could say the same about you,” she shot back. “You were in my spot.”
“Spot?” I stepped a little closer, feeling like it was all right to do so, before I leaned my weight into the pole and hunkered down.
She tucked her phone into her tiny purse and folded her arms like she was chilly. “Yes. It’s one of the only well-lit spots around this dive of a bar. The
place creeps me out.”
I nodded. She was right. The place did cast a lot of shadows.
“So, imagine my surprise when I go to step outside and see you,” she dragged her finger in the air, gesturing up the length of me, “in my spot chatting away to your mother.” She couldn’t help but smirk again.
The look on her face told me she was intrigued by me, and I kind of enjoyed that.
“Well, you’re in the one percent that didn’t turn away screaming.”
“You exaggerate, but why would I scream?” She seemed genuinely curious.
I held out my arms so she could get a good look. “What do you see when you look at me?”
She paused as she took me in. “I don’t know you.”
“I know, but first impressions matter, so tell me what you see.”
“Okay.” She stepped a little closer, which drew her into the light. My stomach twisted when I took in her slim body, long dark-brown hair that curled to the bottom of her back, slender legs, and a face that made my world tilt for just a moment.
“Stand,” she commanded like she took it seriously. There was about a foot of space between us when I pushed away from the pole and slowly pulled myself up to full height. She kept her eyes locked on mine as I towered over her and let her take in my mountain-of-a-man appearance. To my surprise, she didn’t react. She only twisted her mouth like she was thinking.
“So?”
“What is it that you do?”
“Army,” was all I offered.
“I see. So, a protector?”
I liked that answer.
“I wasn’t aware you could have tattoos, scruffy hair, and a five o’clock shadow,” she touched her chin, “when you’re in the Army.”