Garrett’s Destiny by Anna Blakely

Chapter 20

“Falcon, man…if you don’t marry that woman, I will.”

Garrett looked Bones square in the eyes and said, “Oh, I’m marrying her.”

Right after he found the son of a bitch who took her and killed him and whoever had just hit her. Because he’d recognized the sound of flesh hitting flesh and had heard her soft moan of pain right before the phone call abruptly ended.

Whoever you are, you’re a dead man walking.

“Goddamn right, you’re marrying her.” Bones grinned from ear to ear. “Seriously, man. That was some impressive shit right there.”

The former Marine was right, and the others in the group agreed. Avery had impressed the hell out of all of them with her quick thinking and cool demeanor.

Most women, hell most people he knew who’d been abducted twice in as many weeks would be falling apart well before now. But not his Avery.

Avery, the woman who’d been scared to climb down a fucking ladder, had not only jumped from a moving truck, she’d also just passed along vital intel that would help in her own location and rescue.

And she’d done it in brilliantly.

If he wasn’t already head over ass in love with the woman, that moment right there would’ve done it.

“You guys there?” Shadow’s voice came over the speaker in the center of the table.

“We’re here,” Owens answered her. “Tell me you’ve got something.”

“I’ve got something,” the mysterious woman answered. “A whole lot of somethings, actually. Sending you her coordinates now.”

Their phones dinged simultaneously with the incoming location. Just as Avery had said, she was back in the DR.

“Property belongs to one Emilio Garcia.”

“The presidential candidate slash drug lord we talked about a while back?” Garrett frowned.

“Yep.” Shadow confirmed. “And the phone call your girl just made originated from his personal residence.”

The room erupted in several what-the-fucks and groans.

“Shit.” Apollo shook his head and looked at Garrett with concern. “If that’s true, we’re going to need more manpower than the four of us.”

“He’s right.” Digger chimed in. “If Garcia is as bad as they say, he’s going to be armed to the teeth. If Avery saw six guards, plus him and another one working closely with him, there’s bound to be at least six more on the other side of the property.”

“But Tac-Ops Two and Three are both still out of the country working other shit,” Bones pointed out.

“Which is why”—Owens entered the room—“I’ve already got another team gearing up to meet us there.”

“Which team?”

“Remember the Delta Force guys who helped us with hostage transport?”

“Ghost and those guys?” Garrett piped up.

Owens nodded. “Just spoke with Colonel Robinson. He’s given them the green light to head back to the DR to help us get Avery back and take down Garcia once and for all.”

“Hell, yeah!” Bones cheered. “I liked those guys.”

Garrett did, too. And while he hadn’t expected to be working with them again so soon, he was more than willing to have an extra set of guns. Especially if it meant getting Avery the hell out of there and bringing her back home, where she belonged.

“Let’s gear up, boys.” He stood and headed for the door.

His teammates followed. But when he got to the door, Garrett stopped and turned to face them. Taking precious seconds Avery didn’t have, he addressed the entire group as one.

“In case I forget to say it, thank you. Avery, she’s…important.”

“We know, brother.” Apollo squeezed his shoulder. “She’s with you, that makes her one of us.”

The flight back to the DR was the longest of his entire life. Garrett kept watching his phone, praying Avery would call again. Not that he really expected her to after the way their brief conversation had ended.

He felt heartsick knowing there was a chance they wouldn’t get there in time. He wasn’t blind to that fact, and his years in the Army and with Tac-Ops had taught him to be realistic. But he’d also seen miracles happen and people who should’ve died in the worst of ways make it out with barely a scratch.

So, Garrett focused on that. He counted on that. Because for him, with his Avery, there was no other choice.

As promised, the Delta team was armed and ready by the time they got to the rendezvous site. They were positioned a mile out from Garcia’s property line.

Since they’d only worked together briefly before, and that was just a simple hostage transfer, Owens had provided them with basic intel on each operative prior to boarding the plane to come here.

Garrett and the others knew each man’s call sign, rank, field specialty, and training. But because this was an op—the most important one of Garrett’s life—they gave up precious seconds so Ghost could run through a quick introduction before they headed out.

Gotta know who has your six, and which six you need to cover.

“Let’s get to it, so we can get what we came for and get the hell out.” Ghost took command of the conversation. “This fine-looking gentleman is Hollywood.” He pointed to the dark-haired operative to his right. “The big guy to his right is Beatle, next to him are Fletch and Blade, and that big guy over there is Truck. And this”—Ghost slapped the chest of an extremely tall man on his left—“is Coach.”

“Will there be a test afterward?” Bones feigned concern. “’Cause I’m better with faces than names.”

The group chuckled at the man’s joke, but Garrett was too hyped up to laugh.

“All right,” he took over. “Now that introductions are over, let’s go over the op one last time. This one needs to be perfect, gentlemen.”

“Copy that.” Ghost gave him a nod. “You lead, we’ll follow. And trust me when I say, every man on my team understands exactly where you’re coming from on this.”

“He’s right.” Trucks deep voice rumbled through the warm night air. “We’ve been where you are, brother, so we know what’s at stake.”

Coach chimed in next with, “Our orders are to treat this as your op, but we’re also treating your girl as if she were our own.”

Hollywood, Beatle, Blade, and Fletch each gave him a solemn nod. It was all the confirmation Garrett needed.

From this point on, these guys had their backs. More importantly, they had Avery’s.

After running through the plan one final time, the two teams began their trek through the Dominican countryside.

Dressed in black to keep with the night’s cover, they wore protective helmets and night vision goggles, bullet resistant vests, and gloves. Between the ten of them, they had enough firepower to take out a small village.

By the time they reached Garcia’s mansion, they realized that was exactly what they would have to do.

“Delta, you positioned and ready?” Ghost asked his team through the coms.

“Affirmative,” each man responded to their team leader.

The next voice over the coms was Digger’s. “Falcon, Ghost, and I are taking the front. Coach, Blade, and Fletch have the rear. Beatle and Bones, you good to go on the east?”

“Affirmative,” Bones responded for both men.

“Hollywood and Apollo, you good on the west?”

“Ready to rock and roll, boys,” was Apollo’s answer.

Ghost turned to Garrett. “You ready?”

Garrett pushed down his fear for the woman he loved and nodded. “Let’s do this.”

With his next breath, he took out the men standing guard by the front door with two succinct shots. At the same time, the others eliminated their marks, clearing the way for both teams to approach the residence without detection.

Thanks to Emilio Garcia’s obvious arrogance, the man believed he was so untouchable, he hadn’t bothered constructing any type of barrier between his mansion and the trees surrounding the property.

A dumbass move on his part, but it sure made their jobs a whole hell of a lot easier.

Moving in, Garrett, Ghost, and Digger took out three more men standing post toward the corners of the house. Almost as one complete unit, the two teams worked together to bring him that much closer to Avery.

Garrett was still kicking himself for not telling her his true feelings sooner. But if he got to her in time, if she was still in that house and she was alive…

It’s the first damn thing I’m going to tell her.

Making as little noise as possible, the team entered the dark residence with ease. Garrett had noticed two lights on when they’d still been outside. One on the main floor, far west corner, and one on the second floor toward the center of the house.

Thanks to Shadow’s computer genius, she was able to send them blueprints of the home prior to taking off in Charlotte. That’s how Garrett and the others knew the lit room on the bottom was Garcia’s personal office, and the room upstairs with the light on was a guest bedroom.

If he was a betting man, which he normally wasn’t, Garrett would say Garcia was in his office, and Avery was in the top bedroom.

But again, he wouldn’t assume any of this. None of the men would. There was too much at stake to make assumptions.

The residence was surprisingly quiet with six tangos standing guard inside. On their end, Garrett took out one with a quick snap of the neck, Ghost used his KA-BAR to eliminate another, and Digger used a suppressor to take out the third with relative silence.

From the coms, they knew that Coach, Fletch, and Blade had taken care of any threats coming from their end. Within minutes, the ten men had met each other in the grand foyer.

Using hand signals alone, Ghost and Digger communicated with the others silently. Following the plan, Ghost, Garrett, and Digger headed upstairs via the main staircase. Apollo, Blade, Coach, and Fletch headed down the hallway toward Garcia’s main office, and Hollywood, Beatle, and Bones took the second set of stairs at the far east side of the house.

One by one, the rooms were cleared. Even the two that were lit up.

With each new door they came to, Garrett felt his heart would fly out of his chest. And with each empty room, he was met with disappointment.

The house was empty. No sign of Avery or Garcia.

“Fuck!” Garrett lifted his night goggles and stared back at the others. “Where the hell are they?”

“I don’t know.” Ghost shook his head. “We’ve checked every last inch of this place, inside and out. There’s no sign of them any—”

An engine roared to life from the east side of the property.

Son of a bitch.

“The fuck?” Bones scowled as all heads turned in that direction.

Headlights filled the foyer, and Garrett was thankful they’d already taken their night visions off.

“They must’ve been hiding in one of the vehicles,” Blade stated the obvious. “We looked as we walked past, but…I don’t know. We must’ve missed them, somehow.”

“He’s not getting away,” Garrett started for the nearest door.

He hadn’t come this far…gotten this close…only to lose her, now.

“Garcia must’ve heard us coming,” Blade pointed out the obvious. “He’s using her as fucking leverage!”

The one silver lining in this unexpected turn of events was that Garrett knew, even without having seen her, that Avery was still alive.

If Garcia had killed her, they would’ve already found her body. The only kill they’d found that wasn’t one of theirs was a man floating on his back in the pool.

And from the look of things, he’d been dead several hours.

All ten men ran in the direction of the headlights. They got back outside just in time to see an SUV spinning around and speeding off.

With the moonlight shining through the back window, Garrett caught a glimpse of Avery’s terrified face staring back at him. Her hands were pressed against the window, and she was screaming his name.

“Motherfucker!” he growled.

“Here!” Hollywood yelled from the driver’s side of another SUV. “Dipshit left the keys in the ignition!”

As luck would have it, it was an Escalade. Seating capacity of seven, but enough room in the back to squeeze three more.

Sending up a quick prayer of thanks, Garrett sprinted toward the running vehicle. He didn’t bother to see who was following him. He already knew.

His team. Ghost’s team. He trusted them all to have his back.

Since Hollywood was already behind the wheel, Garrett jumped into the passenger seat while Digger, Fletch, Ghost, Blade, and Coach filled the seats.

Lifting the back hatch, Beatle, Apollo, and Bones hopped in and held on tight, their legs dangling over the back bumper as Hollywood spun the vehicle around, spewing gravel as they went.

“Where the fuck does he think he’s going to go?” Apollo asked.

“Who the hell knows?” Hollywood put the gas to the floorboard and drove like a boss. “Wherever it is, he won’t get far.”

The chase continued for several minutes. The men tilting side to side as Hollywood maneuvered the SUV along the same path as the vehicle in front of them.

At one point, Garrett feared they’d lost them, but his fears were put to rest when they turned a curve and spotted Garcia’s taillights once more.

“There’s a river up ahead,” Ghost informed them. Looking down at his phone, he added, “A big one.”

“Bet the fucker’s got a boat,” Bones piped in from the back.

Garrett’s gut tightened with fear. If Garcia got Avery on that river, she was dead.

Sure enough, five miles and a shit ton of burned rubber later, they pulled into a parking lot near an impressive boat dock at the river’s edge.

Garrett was out of the SUV and running toward the shadowy figures before Hollywood had a chance to put the damn thing in park.

Weapon up, he yelled at Garcia and the other man with him to stop. They didn’t.

Dragging a fighting Avery with him, Garcia continued down the long, wooden path as the other man turned and opened fire.

“Garrett!” Avery screamed his name as the shot went wide.

“Shut up!” Garcia jerked her around like a rag doll.

Garrett’s jaw clenched, a murderous rage filling his veins with ice. He’d never wanted to kill someone more than he did in that moment, but he couldn’t risk it.

The way Garcia was holding her put her directly in his line of fire. And if he did try to take the shot and hit her instead of Garcia…

Put that shit away, man. She needs you to be the trained operative you are.

His subconscious was right. Pushing everything aside, Garrett let his emotionless operator mask fall over him.

Garcia made a sudden turn, he and Avery disappearing between two docked boats. The other man got off three more shots before vanishing behind them.

With a quick assessment of the layout, Garrett made a last-minute decision. One he prayed wouldn’t cost him everything.

While he and the others continued dodging Garcia and the other hidden man’s flying bullets, he hopped onto one of the nearby boats and silently climbed to the top. He spotted Garcia and the other man in seconds.

They were forcing Avery onto the large yacht next to him. One with too many fucking places to hide. He needed to take them out now, before they got her inside.

“I’ve got the guard,” Apollo’s low voice came through the coms.

A second later, a shot rang out, and the man who’d been protecting Garcia fell.

One down, one to go.

With Garcia in his sights, Garrett did a lightning-fast assessment of the situation to determine whether or not he was good to shoot.

He wasn’t.

Fuck! “Hold your fire,” he spoke only to the teams.

With his gun at Avery’s head, Garcia pulled her toward the back of the boat near a section with no railing.

“Put your weapons down, or she’s dead!” the once-powerful man yelled.

Garrett was already off the boat, his boots hitting the wooden dock before the man had uttered the first word of his threat.

“Let her go, Garcia!” he ordered. “It’s over!”

“No! It’s not fucking over! I’m going to be this country’s next president!”

“No, you’re not.” Ghost appeared beside Garrett.

With the other men surrounding him, supporting him, Garrett tried reasoning with Garcia one last time.

“Look around you, Emilio. There’s only one way this ends, and that’s with you dropping your weapon and letting Avery go.”

“No.” Garcia held onto his fucked-up reality. “She’s going to get me my money! She owes me that money!”

Garcia filled a fist with Avery’s hair, causing her to cry out. Barely resisting the urge to kill, Garrett allowed himself to really look at her for the first time since finding her again.

She was scared to death, and her left eye was nearly swollen shut. But she was staring back at him with more faith and love than he ever deserved.

Garcia shifted his feet, the move giving Garrett a different angle than before. A better angle.

His heart gave a hard thump inside his chest.

“I’ve got a clear shot,” he spoke low enough Garcia couldn’t possibly hear him. With those five words, he let the others know of his plan.

To Avery, he asked, “Do you trust me, baby?”

Without a second’s hesitation, she answered with a shaky, “Y-yes.”

It was all he needed to know.

Clearing his mind and calming his breaths, Garrett aimed his weapon, slid his finger to the trigger, and said another prayer as he emptied his lungs and took the shot.

The bullet hit Garcia between the eyes. He started to fall backward, and for a split second, Garrett thought his moment of terror was over.

Then he heard Avery scream and realized the dead man’s fingers were still tangled in her hair.

As Garcia fell over the edge of the boat, he took Avery with him.

“Avery!”Garrett sprinted down the dock and dove into the water after her.

He was ready to drown if it meant saving her. But it turned out that wasn’t necessary.

She’d already saved herself.

“Garrett!” Avery coughed as she swam toward him. “Oh, my…God!”

“Avery!” He grabbed hold of her and squeezed her so hard he was surprised she didn’t break.

“Is it over?”

“Yeah, baby.” He closed his eyes and held on tight. “It’s over.”

Remembering his earlier vow, he pulled away just enough to tell her, “I love you.”

Water dripped from her long, wet eyelashes as she stared back at him in shock. “What?”

“This isn’t even close to how I imagined saying that to you for the first time, but I don’t want another second to go by without you knowing. I’m in love with you, Avery Webb. And I want to spend the rest of my life showing you just how much.”

“I love you, too.” She started to cry but then stopped herself. Brushing several wet strands from her face, she said, “Wait. Did you just ask me to marry you?”

Garrett smiled. “Yeah. I guess I did.”

“Just making sure.” She pressed her wet lips to his. “And the answer is yes. A million times, yes!”

The audience neither realized was there, clapped and cheer with congratulations. But Garrett paid them no attention. He was too busy kissing his fiancée.

Hours later, after dealing with the local police, again, Garrett and the others were finally free to go.

Thanks to the unlimited connections Owens had, including the U.S. president, both Tac-Ops and Delta had been cleared of any wrongdoing. In fact, they’d been assured the unnamed special ops teams who worked together to protect the people of the DR would be dubbed heroes in tomorrow’s papers.

But Garrett didn’t care about any of that. The only thing he cared about was that Avery was safe, and they were on their way back home.

Ghost and his team were also on a plane, although they hadn’t said where they were headed, and Garrett knew better than to ask.

He did exchange numbers with the Delta leader, because yeah. Once you’ve shared an experience like the one they’d just had, that created a certain bond that you never really wanted to let go.

With a heartfelt thanks and a promise to invite them to the wedding, Garrett had said his goodbyes to the special ops badasses, and the two teams had parted ways.

“I knew you’d come for me.” Avery’s soft voice rose from where she lay against his chest. “I knew, if anyone could, it would be you.”

“I’ll always come for you, baby.” Garrett kissed her on the top of her head. “Although, I have to say, I’d love it if you never got kidnapped again.”

“Same.” She chuckled before whispering, “It’s amazing the difference a day can make, huh?”

“Yeah.” Garrett had been thinking the same thing.

He’d woken up yesterday happier than he’d ever been. Then in the middle of it all, his world had been torn apart. But by the end, with the help of his friends—both new and old—it had been sewn back together.

And now it was stronger than ever before.