Deadly Spurs (4 page)

“West,” the brisk but deep and sexy voice said into the receiver. Shit, she was reacting to another human's voice, the only answer for the shivers that ran up her spine.
See what happens when someone is deprived of social interaction for long periods, they go mental
she laughed to herself.

“
Uh…hello? This is Arden Plane, my brother was on Team TEN, and I need help,” she whispered hoping he would understand what she was saying and not hang up on her. If he thought she was nuts, maybe she should go to the nearest mental ward and check in.

“
Hang on, miss, let me get a pen and paper so I can get this down. Sorry, I'm on leave, but the Commander briefed us all a few days ago,” West replied and she waited and looked around.

She heard rustling.
He was in bed, shit
.
Don’t think about it—don’t think about it or she would need a cold shower if she did.
Her imagination was running in overdrive. Maybe because she had been without a boyfriend for months, maybe because she felt lost and alone, or maybe because she liked the way his voice soothed her and made her feel like everything was going to be fine.

His sexy voice came back over the phone and she felt
like she was seriously going crazy, a stranger's voice was driving her mad. Hell, he could have one eye and a parrot on his shoulder and she would still think his voice was something wet dreams were made of.
Damn, think! You have a situation
.

“
Okay, sorry, now what was your name?” the man asked softly.

She took a deep breath and spoke clearer this time, knowing she was going to have to give information to someone who would listen was really the motivator. Arden
silently threw up a prayer of thanks. Maybe finally something was going to go better in her life.

“
Arden Plane,” she said firmly.

She heard a chuckle and blushed
. He obviously thought she was a bit of a loon, one minute whispering the next practically yelling in his ear.

“
Who is your brother?” West asked.

“
John “Dagwood” Marse,” she said with a slight tremble in her voice, she cleared her throat and then said stronger, “He was part of Team TEN and was killed on a mission last year.”

She heard him mutter in her
ear, not exactly sure what he said, she asked, “Sorry, was I supposed to answer that, 'cause I didn’t hear it.”

“
No, sorry, I just knew Dag, and I'm sorry. I didn’t know he had a sister. My name is West Trete, uh “North” is my call sign, use either,” the man said softly and she felt the tears gathering, every time she thought of John, it was always the same reaction. The tough, hard exterior had been firmly in place, she refused to mourn her brother, which is not what he would have wanted. He always said, if something happened to him, he wanted a huge subway sandwich loaded to the gills, and a bunch of beer for his wake. No one was allowed to go to the funeral, he handled it privately, even she had no idea where he was buried. It was the way he was, and she respected his wishes, until a few months ago, she found that she couldn’t move on until she saw where he was laid to rest. She needed to feel the connection one last time between her and her brother. Until then, she had no closure, which was why she called the family support number to begin with.

Of course, they had called a few times before, checking on her, seeing if she was dealing,
then a month ago she was sent a message to check into the family support, and all hell had broken loose. She kinda figured at this point, she had been stupid to call before she had a chance to think through it. Probably because the real family support was trying to help her find John’s grave. But so far, they had hit a brick wall, and she had hoped the message was an indication of a light at the end of the tunnel. She had been so wrong.

“
Well, we were it, brother and sister,” she sniffled. “Listen, I am in a real mess here,” she started, “I need help. Since I called into the family support, there have been goons everywhere until I had to go into hiding.” She could almost feel the wheels turning in his head but he shot out a question, before she had a chance to think.

“
Where are you?”

Arden paused
she had to trust someone. “In my Hummer, in the bayou, hiding.” She laughed.

“
WHAT?!” he yelled into the phone and she pulled it back and looked at the offending thing with a frown.

“
Really? Like I don’t have too much to worry about, now I could possibly be deaf thank you very much,” Arden said snarkily.

“
Sorry, I'm just worried. If they found you and you weren't there, then they are still looking, a Hummer has a beacon on it,” he said slowly.

“
I am not sure what you mean,” she said.

“
Hate to tell you, darlin', but most people don’t drive Hummers in the bayou,” he drawled and she felt her face heat up in embarrassment. Of course, they didn’t, in fact, the only vehicles she had seen in the last few days were beat up trucks.

“
Well they haven’t found me, I move every day, now what are we going to do about it?” she asked in frustration.

“
Listen, tell me where you are I will come to you,” he reasoned and she shook her head like he could see her.

“
Fine,” she said and began to tell him exactly where to find her. After promising to be there in an hour, Arden hung up the phone and pulled her laptop across the seats. She needed to check in and her phone was a hotspot so the computer worked. Powering up everything, she waited not realizing that her location was being tracked through the IP address she was sending out.

West was driving as fast as he could without killing himself. After speaking to the Commander who at first thought he was responding to the recall they sent out five hours ago, he was stu
mped.

He initially called the call center at the base,
then was sent immediately to the Commander when he explained the situation.

“
North?” his commander said and West laughed, that was his call sign, his buddies thought it was funny calling him ‘North’, but when he found out they were referring to his sense of direction, which was spot on every time, he stopped arguing.

“
Sir,” West said and grabbed his car keys, they were going to have to talk while he drove. He wasn't wasting one more second of time while Arden waited for him.

“
Listen we have a situation here. We recalled everyone on leave for a reason…our SEALs are in danger. All of them, retired and current. Something fucking weird is going on and we need all hands on deck to get it sorted out,” the Commander said.

“
Yeah, I know the situation, our comm guy already called to warn me. I will do what I can to help but, sir, we have an issue right here. A woman named Arden Plane contacted me. She said she was Dag’s sister and someone is following her,” West said and explained further.

His commander was silent until he
was about to tell him where he was meeting her and then he interrupted. “Wait, don’t tell me. I don’t need to know where she is as long as she is safe. I will amend your orders for now. North, you are officially assigned to protect this woman. Call back when she is secure and let me see what the guys from TEN want to do. This is their problem as well.”

West nodded, he knew about
the whole situation, whoever the assholes were that were trying to kill them, they had a huge surprise on their hands if they couldn’t already figure it out. It was a suicide mission for whoever came after a SEAL. West and his team would do whatever it took to help, once a SEAL always a SEAL.

He hung up th
e phone and then thought as he drove, he needed back up. They could run for a while but in the long term, they needed somewhere to go. If the Commander didn’t have a plan, he would have to take it into his own hands. The places he could think of weren’t places he would take a woman.

West pushed down the pedal on the gas and sped up. He needed to get to her and it didn
’t have anything to do with his orders. When he talked to her on the phone, West felt a weird pull to her. Even if he hadn't been assigned, he would have found a way to help her.

Arden
closed the lid on her laptop, she hated she couldn’t let her boss know what was going on, but she refused to bring him into this mess. No, she needed to trust in West Trete, and the rest of them. If she could find a phone number she would call. Maybe he would know how to get in touch with the guys from Dag’s team. She had a feeling this was something she was going to have to tell them.

Arden turned, hopefully she had time to clean up and make herself presentable. It was sad and
scary what she looked like in the review mirror. Hell, even the freakin' dog at the station took one sniff of her and backed away.

She crawled into the back seat, her windows were all tinted so no wandering person could just see in, and the SUV was big enough she shouldn
’t have to worry about someone looking in unless it was the Swamp Creature. She laughed to herself, of course, she would think of the only movie Dagwood and her loved to watch on Friday nights when the weather sucked.

Her bag held everything she needed to clean up
. Arden pulled out the last set of clean clothes, and underwear she had packed, the wet wipes, and her extra strength deodorant. Damn, she swore as she undressed and began to wash herself off, she was going to have a nice long bath with no interruptions when she finally got to a hotel. Then smelling her clothes, she added a new wardrobe, a spa day and a fucking shopping spree at Victoria's Secrets to her list. These assholes didn’t know who they were dealing with right now. If she were to be face-to-face with the bastards, she would kick them in the nuts, and give them something to cry about.

She kicked open the side door when she was done and used her water to brush her teeth.
Good lord she felt like shit
. Probably from sleeping in a Hummer for six nights and seven days. Well it was over, she refused to even think about having to do this one more night.

The sound of an engine turned her gaze to the entrance to the road she had parked on. Hopefully it was West. Arden waited and
then the SUV with black tinted windows pulled to a stop about a hundred yards away from the front of her vehicle. Maybe he was trying to make sure she was comfortable enough for him to approach but this didn’t feel right.

Arden eased back into
her Hummer and then locked all the doors and slowly crawled back over to the driver seat, thank goodness her car was as big as it was. The SUV was lower and she shimmied so whoever it was wouldn’t know she was moving to the driver seat. Once there she paused, what the hell was she doing? Arden knew she was feeling paranoid.

Peeking over
the dash she saw there was still no movement in the front of the SUV, after squinting her eyes she realized she didn’t even see the driver that she had seen moments ago when he pulled up. Where the fuck was he? She cussed to herself in her head.

Slowly she pushed herself up a little more so she could see the area around the Hummer
. He had to be thinking she was nuts at this point, certainly there was that possibility since she was wondering that herself a few minutes ago when she had been bathing with wet wipes, but there was her being dirty from hiding in her Hummer for seven days, and then there was down right gross if she hadn’t washed up.
Where is he?
she wondered and looked out the back window, and still didn’t see him.

As she turned around,
thankfully the morning sun was at the right angle, she saw the flash of metal and ducked quickly before she heard the first shot.
Fuck, he was shooting at her? Why in the hell would he do that? She called him for help, not to kill her.
She covered her head and waited while she heard the rapid shots breaking her front windshield.
Fucker
.

She finally focused, he had a gun, well so did she. Moving quickly, Arden opened her dash, and grinned. Dag took her to buy her first gun, she remembered her
hesitation. However, he started her off small, a lady's gun, he called it, but it fit her fine. Dag took her to the shooting range and made sure she knew how to use it. Surprisingly enough, Arden found she enjoyed the release shooting a weapon into a silhouette of a man on the target more than she would have thought.

When her brother died, he left her a Beretta, one she knew she could
handle. Over the last few years, Arden had become quite the shot, with many different styles of guns. The guys at the range liked to challenge her to a competition and of course, she would never pass over beating a guy who thought he was all that. These assholes had no idea who they were dealing with. How dare they shoot out the window of her baby. Did they know how much those cost to replace?

There was a pause in the
firing, she could hear two men shouting at one another in another language.
What the fuck? Had she pissed off a country now?

“
Hey, assholes, you need to back off. I am armed and pissed, I don’t want to hurt you!” she yelled loudly and heard the two men laugh, and it wasn’t a nice one. She shook her head and became enraged when she heard a clip being secured in a gun.
Fuck this, they couldn’t do anymore damage
.

“
Pricks,” she muttered and flung open her door to distract them and sat up quickly taking aim. Two shots, two hits, both in the leg. The men both dropped screaming and she got out of the Hummer and ran to grab the guns they dropped.

“
Damn it, see what you made me do?!” she screamed and then looked back at her car and grumbled. “Now I need a new paint job, and look at those holes. What the fuck is your major malfunction?” she said, then jumped and raised her weapon when she heard another car as both men cursed at her, and they hobbled to their car even though she was yelling at them to stop.
Damn it, she couldn’t shoot an unarmed man
.

West turned
onto the dirt road where Arden was supposed to be according to her last GPS signal. He didn’t want to tell her that her phone was the beacon he was referring to, he needed her to stay in one place until he got there. Now, hearing the gunshots, he knew he was too late.
Damn it, the poor woman was probably freaked out and cowering waiting for him to get there…if she was still alive that is.

Pushing on the gas, he pulled into the fray with his gun out and ready to kick some ass. He paused for a second before jumping out of his truck and yelling.

“Freeze!” he said and then frowned.

“
Really? Freeze? That is the best you can come up with?” Arden laughed at him and he groaned. She had shot both men who were almost in the car, bleeding, and cussing. “I did all the hard work, you round them up, Scooby.”

“
Seriously? I came to save you?!” West yelled.

Arden lifted an eyebrow at him and then shrugged. “
Ohhh…poor me, I am hiding behind the rock, save me…save me!” she cried.

West rolled his eyes and then heard the click of a gun loading.
Shit, he had been distracted. Diving for Arden, he pulled her behind his truck and covered her head. She struggled against him, trying to raise her gun.

“
Fuckers, I was nice to them and shot them in the leg, and they do this? Where is the gratitude?!” she screamed and West held on to her tight to keep her in place as the driver and passenger emptied round after round of bullets into his truck, the tires went first, followed by the engine, and then he smelled gas.
Fuck a duck, they were going to have to get the hell out of here.

“
Hummer key?!” he yelled when the firing stopped, they were reloading and laughing.

“
Huh?” Arden said lifting her head in confusion.

“
Keys! Now!” he yelled and pulled her behind him and ran for her SUV.

“
Ignition,” she screeched.

West threw the woman in the
driver’s door and pushed her ass until she fell into the passenger seat upside down and cussing.

Grabbing the
key, he started the Hummer and put it into drive before the first bullet flew. West grinned, rammed the little SUV, and wanted to pump his fists at the crunch he heard. It wasn’t the Hummer—it was theirs. Backing up, West floored the gas and they took off in a shot, clearing the corner and racing toward civilization before they heard his truck blow.
Damn, he loved that truck
, West thought and shook his head.

Arden turned upright and then began to yell. “
What the hell was that?!”

“
My truck,” West said grimly and then waited for her to scream some more.

“
Awww…that sucks,” she cooed and he took a chance and looked at her staring at him with sympathy and understanding in her eyes. “She was your baby, I know, look what they did to mine, windshield and bullet holes. My mechanic is going to be pissed when he has to repair all this.”

“
Bipolar much?” He laughed.

“
What? I know how it is for guys, all my ex's were the same, wax on—wax off. I am just saying I understand,” she growled.

“
How many ex’s we talking about here?” He laughed.

“
None of your business.” Arden sniffed and turned to look out the window.

“
It was your phone,” he said quietly. “I am sorry, I should have warned you to turn it off and leave it there and then leave the area.”

“
Shit, I knew it!” Arden yelled and slammed her hands against the dash. “I was totally going to do that, but I didn’t want to go into another store smelling like rotten cheese.”

West looked at her
wide-eyed.
Was she serious?
he wondered and then shook his head. He listened as she rambled on and on about the training Dag had given her. He felt a moment of satisfaction that she wasn’t a shrinking violet. In fact, now that he looked at her, West knew why he had a hard-on the moment he met her. It just took his brain a bit to catch up with his body.
Damn, she is hot
. He turned down roads and moved around, especially when she threw out her phone in a fit of rage, he did the same. Assholes probably had his address already if the registration was left intact after his truck exploded.
With his luck, it would be the only thing left untouched
. They needed to get lost, and stay lost until he could contact the Commander. Until then, they were stuck together.

“
I'm hungry,” she whined and looked longingly out the window. West pressed his lips together so he didn’t laugh aloud again. She had gone from a raving lunatic, to sympathetic and back again. Now she was whining.
Yeah, this assignment was gonna be fun.

“
Give me a half hour, with no complaints and I will pull over. We just need to get lost, now,” West said.

“
Not to hard here, did you know that any given road in the Bayou leads you to a quaint little town, were everyone knows your business. Hell, they probably know mine as well.” Arden laughed.

“
Once I find a place we will eat and talk,” he promised and then he gripped the steering wheel, hoping like hell the two idiots were blown up with his truck. It would be a win-win situation.

After a half an hour of driving and silence
, West finally found a place to pull over. He was watching Arden process everything that happened. She had gone from alert to looking like she needed a nap. Her adrenalin high was over and she was crashing. It would be best if she went to sleep while he got them to a safe place.

He pulled into a drive-in restaurant
wanting to laugh aloud because he didn’t think they still had them. The covered spaces and waitresses' rolling around on skates made him want to grab his phone and take a picture. His buddies would never believe this. When they were overseas once, he saw an old drive-in place that looked like it was straight from the movies, they had gotten a kick out of it, and since then they have taken pictures of quirky restaurants they had come across.

Arden perked up and looked around and
then turned to him, “Do they have chocolate malts?”