Courage (Blackstone Book 4)

  COURAGE

  Blackstone Series, Book 4

  J.L. Drake

  COURAGE

  Copyright © 2020 by J.L. Drake.

  All rights reserved.

  First Print Edition: October 2020

  Limitless Publishing, LLC

  Kailua, HI 96734

  www.limitlesspublishing.com

  Formatting: Book Pages By Design

  ISBN-13: 978-1-64034-901-8

  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

  For anyone who needs a little hope.

  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

  Epilogue

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  John: Blackstone member, twin sister almost died.

  Sloane: …You’ll just have to wait and see.

  Frank: Blackstone contact for the Army, lives in Washington, DC, Mia’s father.

  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.

  Mike: Agent at Dusk but originally from Shadows. Scary-looking teddy bear, covered head to toe in tattoos.

  Catalina: Mike’s wife and daughter of a cartel family. Mother of Gabriella.

  Keith: Member of Blackstone. Secretive. Savannah’s “big brother.” Husband to Lexi and father to Brandon, Jr.

  Lexi: Keith’s wife, Brandon AKA B’s mother.

  Mark: Best friend to Cole Logan, Blackstone member. Uses humor to escape the pain from his past. Married to Mia, has twin boys.

  Mia: Mark’s wife, nurse, Frank’s daughter, mother of twin boys (second round of kids to enter the Blackstone team).

  Abigail: Mark’s adopted mother, Cole’s childhood nanny, and now house aide. Dating Doc Roberts.

  Doc Roberts: House doctor, kind soul, snappy dresser, dating Abigail.

  Dell: Member of Blackstone, lives at Shadows.

  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.

  Steve Chamness: Team North Rock.

  Kids

  Olivia: Savannah and Cole’s daughter.

  Liam and Ethan: Mark and Mia’s twins.

  Brandon, Jr.: Keith and Lexi’s son.

  Gabriella: Mike and Catalina’s daughter.

  Blackstone Code Names

  Cole: Raven One

  Mark: Raven Two

  Keith: Beta Seven

  John: Fox Two

  Mike: Delta Six

  Prologue

  Location: Southern México

  Coordinates: Classified

  John

  Thirteen Hours Ago

  “Raven One!” Chamness from Team North Rock screamed over the radio. “What’s your ETA?”

  “Drop me down in the middle,” I commanded and signaled for the chopper to dive to the right and pull a quick turn. Flashes of fire lit up the gray sky as we roared toward the battle. The blades whipped the water around, which made our visual blurry. Cole’s mouth was moving, but he was on a different channel, so I moved my attention to Mark and Keith and saw they were ready to rappel when I was. Mike slapped my shoulder and signaled he was good to go. I glanced at Cole, who stood and gave a quick nod to move out.

  I threaded the rope through one hand, while the other held another section behind my back. I leaned out into the air facing the chopper with the rope secured around my waist and pushed off with my feet, then let gravity take control.

  We plummeted toward the unknown.

  The zip of the rope heightened my senses, and I was psyched as my feet hit the ground. I quickly unclipped my gun and held it to my eye to line up the scope.

  One.

  Two.

  Three.

  Four.

  I counted as each of my teammates landed next to me. Once the fourth hit, we spread out like ants to our next posts. Our orders were to shoot first and ask later. Our hunt was to locate the missing rookie who had gotten separated from North Rock eight days ago. We didn’t mess around when one of our own was in trouble.

  “Fox Two to North Rock One,” I whispered into my comms. “Landed and are in position.”

  Mosquitos and raindrops filled in the dead space of time while we held tight, crouched down below the thick terrain. We scanned the tree trunks to see if they’d morph into a human shape and listened carefully to try to catch even a whisper through the rainfall.

  Mark held my stare as we both wondered where the other team was and how many were even left standing. Thirty more painful seconds passed, and we heard Chamness’s voice.

  “Follow the route as planned but come up the west side.” The radio clicked off, but we froze when he clicked it again. “I’ve lost visual on three. Something isn’t right here, boys. I feel it.” Three pops in the background had us racing across the ground. The wind was wild, and the rain matched its intensity. Thankfully, we were dressed all in black, which allowed us to jet across the open field and not be seen. Most of our survival gear was stitched into the fabric of our suits. In case of captivity, it was hard to spot, often overlooked as it was in our pants, and those were normally left on.

  We had no time or warning. We had gotten the call and left.

  It had been called in as a level five extraction. The worst kind.

  As Shadows faded into the back of my mind, thoughts of my family weighed heavily on me. Something strange passed through me as I scanned the forest, a shiver that burrowed deep down in my bones. It left an aftershock I knew would still be there days later. I had a bad feeling that this mission would be lifechanging.

  This was a very different mission for us. We weren’t looking for a kidnapped victim. No, somehow the tables were flipped, and we now seemed to be the prey.

  Cole signaled for me to move to the right as we slowed our pace and muted our steps. Once we were back under the protection of the shrubs and trees, we started to hunt our target.

  “Twenty-nine red fires,” Chamness commanded for us to move into formation. It
was one of our many code words we used just between Blackstone and North Rock.

  We formed a U shape, weapons raised as we closed in on the enemy.

  Pop! Pop! I blinked back the moisture and took out two men who darted in front of me. Cole shot three, and Mike choked out another.

  Six down.

  Suddenly, the wind changed direction, which set the hair on my neck on end. It was almost as if Mother Nature had given us a warning that more was coming. Just like out of a nightmare, a wall of men stood up, and a rocket launcher, pointed in our direction, came into focus.

  “Run!” I shouted, and we ran like hell. The blast hit hard, and I was thrown at least fifteen feet. Heat and debris smothered my body like a blanket, then…Whack! I hit a tree trunk and fell with a thud. Something hot licked my side, and I fought to keep my vision clear.

  I rolled onto my back and began to go through my mental checklist. I slid my hand down my body, thankful that it didn’t seem too bad. It hurt like a bitch, but it was just a deep graze.

  I twisted hard and, with a heave, stood to locate my team. Three bullets hit a tree, and bark went flying around me. I hunched down and raced through the shrubs to where I’d spotted Cole. Mark and Mike joined us while Keith checked in a few feet away.

  “Good?” Cole asked, and I gave a nod. I knew adrenaline alone would block the pain. “Good,” he repeated and pulled out his map and started to give orders.

  With a new plan of action, we pulled ourselves together and split up. We knew how to do this; we were Blackstone. We began using the technique we were known for and started to pluck the bastards off one by one. We ambushed each of the bastards. We were shadows in the night, unseen and deadly.

  The boys disappeared into the brushes when I had to stop to reload. Suddenly, something hard hit me between the shoulder blades, and my gun was cut free from my body. My breath shot from my lungs. I swung around and blocked the next hit from one of them. I rammed my knee up and inward into his chest. He fell back, and I took another hit to the upper arm.

  Damn! There were more of them.

  Again, I whirled and blocked the next blow, but this time with my elbow. Blood and rain mixed together as my attacker’s cheek split. He fell back, and another two approached. I sagged to find my footing and wondered why they were going for hand-to-hand combat and not using their weapons.

  “Keep this one alive,” one of them muttered. “We need to film it.”

  I snapped my knuckles and held my hands out, ready to fight. They both launched, and I did my best to stay alive.

  I popped one in the face, twisted, and broke two ribs on his left. I got two punches to the gut while that happened, but I still had enough energy to break the asshole’s arm and drive the palm of my hand in to snap his nose.

  Pop! Pop! I ducked but slipped on the wet ground and fell backward down a steep cliff. I tried desperately to claw at the mud for something to hold on to, anything that would stop my race toward God knew what. I hit a rock and started to flip rather than skid. Colors blurred together with the sounds, and my head raced to keep up. Automatically, my hand went for my gun in my thigh holster. Shit, it was missing.

  Something smacked into me hard, and I came to a screaming halt. I whipped out my calf pistol and swung around, jamming it in someone’s face. I blinked as I too was staring down the barrel of a gun. A millisecond later, the fog cleared, and I focused on the face behind it.

  “What the fuck are you doing here?”

  Chapter One

  John

  His chest rose and fell and, given his ratty look, I guessed he’d been in the woods for a while. I lowered my gun but didn’t tuck it away.

  My mouth flexed uncomfortably as I did a check on my body. Everything seemed to be working.

  “The fall got you pretty good,” he huffed.

  “Yeah.” I squeezed my eyes shut as a jolt of pain plowed through my skull. I sighed and forced myself to focus on him. “Wanna tell me what you are doing in the middle of the desert, Brick?”

  He shrugged. “Deal went south. Just using the woods to hide until morning.”

  “Seems convenient.”

  “Could say the same about you.” He tried to light a cigarette, but it was too wet. “Fuck!”

  I knew there was definitely more to the story, but I left it alone.

  We lowered our voices when we heard someone talking.

  “We need to get moving.” I checked my clip as we kept low and started to make our way around the hill. We needed to find higher ground.

  The mud was thick, and Brick’s sneakers were slowing him down. This painful pace wasn’t going to cut it. We needed to get higher now.

  I pressed my fingers to my comms. “Fox Two to Raven One.” I waited for Cole to come in as Brick took a moment to stop.

  A crackle broke through the earpiece. “Fox Two to Raven One. If you can hear me, click your com.”

  Again, static.

  Shit.

  “That can’t be good,” Brick muttered.

  “We need to get up there,” I said more to myself and shielded the rain from my vision to inspect the mountain. “Come on.”

  He grunted but followed. He slipped a few times, and I had to wait for him to continue to climb.

  “Follow in my footsteps, so the mud isn’t as thick.”

  He tried, but his Vans were filled with sludge.

  Fifty-six minutes later, we made it to the top of a ridge where I could get my bearings.

  “You ever think of working out more?” I smirked, and he tossed me the finger.

  “I work out, just in different ways.” He chuckled, but his eyes widened, and I felt the danger before I saw it. I whirled around and jammed my fist straight into the guy’s nose then punched him in the throat. He fell back, and his head slammed into a rock.

  Quickly, I ripped his weapon free and handed it to Brick, who admired the AR with a silent whoop.

  The fat guy moaned, and blood drained from his nose, but it would be a while before he’d wake fully.

  I cut his jacket off and tossed it out of my way. My knife had sliced his shirt too, and when I rolled the bastard over, I caught sight of some ink on his forearm.

  Seven. I memorized the number and the design then went back to removing his weapons.

  Taking off my watch, I flipped it over and bit the back of it off. Cole had added two different tracking devices inside the watch, one for us and one if we needed to monitor someone else.

  “Watch my back,” I ordered Brick, who stood and scanned the cliff.

  Carefully, I removed the tiny device and used my knife to cut into the tongue of the fat bastard’s sneaker and tucked it neatly inside. I patted his pockets and felt a thin wallet.

  Dammit, no ID.

  I improvised instead. Removing one of his credit cards, I pressed his thumb onto the plastic and slipped the card into a baggie in my side pocket.

  “Hey!” I hit Brick’s shoulder to grab his attention. “Time to go.”

  “Yeah.” He waited for my lead.

  “Do you have any idea how far you’d been walking since you saw a road?”

  “Maybe forty minutes.” He turned around like he was finding the direction he came from. He started to climb higher to another part of the cliff. “Look, there.”

  I squinted through the rain that was finally tapering off, and sure as hell, there was a road.

  “That’s pretty good.” I was impressed.

  “Well,” he followed me to the edge, “this ain’t my first rodeo, my friend.” His fake drawl made me grin.

  Carefully, I dipped low and scanned the area. There was the road a few miles out, but what was more appealing was the gas station off in the distance.

  “How good are your knees?”

  Brick shook his head, confused. “You want, like, a zero to ten here or…”

  I ignored his sarcasm and pointed to a bush.

  “See that bush?”

  “You mean that cactus?”

  “Su
re.” I dropped my voice when someone shouted from behind us. Company was coming. “When I say jump, jump, and once you land—”

  “You mean once my knees shoot up into my chest? That’s, like, thirty feet down.”

  “Correct. Pull them out and run southwest and meet me at that gas station.” I pointed it out to him.

  “And where are you during all of this?”

  “I’ll be running parallel to you so if we get seen they’ll have to split up.” I moved closer to the edge and planned out my moves step by step.

  “Ready?” I turned to Brick, who was now beside me.

  “No.”

  “Too bad.” I gave him a nudge, and he dropped off the ledge. He landed awkwardly and shot me the finger before he jumped up and scrambled across the terrain and into a gully.

  I glanced back at the fat man, as his noises were getting louder.

  Easing my body over the crumbly rock, I balanced my weight on my fingertips and dropped straight down. My knees absorbed the impact, and I landed without a sound. I kept low as I raced across the clearing and slipped into the tree line and blended with the brush.

  I kept my eye on Brick. He was a distance ahead of me, and we both ran like cheetahs through the brush. Low ground was not my comfort zone, and we could be attacked at any moment. I constantly scanned my surroundings, mentally calculating each move. I imagined myself like a human spring ready to bend to whatever Mother Nature had in store on this run.

  The road came up fast, and I waited for Brick to cross and disappear into the ditch. Once he was out of sight, I did the same, nearly taking his shoulder off as I landed next to him.