the Boss is through with her.”
He rapped sharply against the door of the van. “Ahmed! Come out here.”
To Lexie’s horror, a huge dark haired bearded man emerged from the drivers’ side of the van. He was easily six feet tall, but more than his height it was his girth that terrified her. He weighed at least three hundred pounds of solid muscle. To her practiced eye, his predatory movements confirmed a consummate fighter. She’d already sized up the blond man and gauged the strength of the coward holding the gun. Until she saw the giant tank sized man emerge from the van, she’d given herself two to one odds. When the big man circled the van and opened the sliding side door, she groaned. The two to one odds against her had now become ten to one. But, she admitted, she’d always been an optimist. More likely it was a hundred to one.
The blond haired man barked out orders in Pashtu. She didn’t understand the language, but had heard it spoken many times by the men Anthony had introduced her to. The large swarthy man nodded at her in agreement, his puffy lips curved in a lascivious grin. He didn’t need to speak. The lust flashing in his eyes was a universal language, one that she’d heard all of her life.
The blond turned to the man holding her.
“Vadim, you go with Ahmed. I’ll stay here and meet with Bella, make sure she has assigned all the girls.” He jerked his head at Lexie with a lewd grin. “Remember, no touching until the Boss is through with her. Given the size of those tits that may be a while.”
Vadim answered the blond in English. His heavy accent sounded like Russian.
“Is that wise, Mahmoud? Many people saw you with her. Once they know she is gone, you will become a …a, what do they call it? A person of interest.”
The blond seemed to reconsider then shook his head. “Don’t worry. I’ve spent the last five years fooling people who should know better.” He spat on the ground. “These ignorant Americans. They still think all of us look like Ahmed. They forget. Their soldiers and the Russians fought over our land for decades. Stealing our wealth, our customs, raping our women. You and I, Vadim, men like us, are the result of their pillaging.”
He sneered at Lexie. “Look how easily I fooled you. And you are supposed to be smart. But, then why should you not believe a soldier in your fucking army? Your brother did. Men from the lowest privates to four star generals think I’m a fucking hero. Of course having the protection of the Boss helps. ”
Lexie glared at him. Anger surged, replacing her fear, galvanizing her. “So you are a traitor? To our country? To your own country? You betray your country for what? Drug money? A coward’s money? With whores on the side?”
Mahmoud stepped forward. His eyes blazed with demonic hatred. He drew his hand back and slapped her hard across her face. The ferocious blow knocked her to the side. Lexie saw stars and tasted the blood in her mouth.
The blow had one unintended result. It knocked her loose from Vadim’s grip. In the split second that followed, Lexie ducked away from the gun at her neck and stomped with all her strength on Vadim’s foot. His shocked scream and the satisfying crunch of bone meeting the steel plate on her boot heel confirmed the success of her strike. At the same moment, she drove her fist into Mahmoud’s solar plexus, driving him back. With a fierce warrior shriek, she spun in a circle using the momentum to land a brutal kick at his ribs. Again, unsuspecting bone met her weaponized boot heel and he staggered back, howling in pain.
Taking advantage of their confusion, Lexie spun again and drove her elbow into Vadim’s shoulder, knocking the gun from his hand. It skittered across the graveled pavement. Sensing rather than seeing Mahmoud surging toward her from behind, she ducked and rolled from between the men, slithering across the ground. Mahmoud plowed into Vadim, knocking him flat on his back. Lexie scrambled for the gun, but with a roar Mahmoud threw out a long arm and captured her ankle. Viciously twisting it, he dragged her toward him, his face flushed with fury. Lexie put her hands behind her shoulders and with all her strength arched up. In a move that had flattened fighters twice her size, she drove her foot up under his chin, a ferocious strike that shattered his jaw and likely his nose. He fell to the ground with a crash, blood pouring from his nose and mouth.
Lexie leapt to her feet seeing an enraged Vadim barreling toward her. Rather than backing away, she shrieked her warrior cry and did a back flip, once again using the momentum to drive her heel into his oncoming shoulder. Agonized pain mixed with fury flooded his face. His shriek as he came toward her was as fierce as hers. Hearing a roar that could only have come from Ahmed, Lexie jumped to her feet, then crouched in a defensive position facing the two enraged men. Their combined weight was five times hers and their fury was as dark and passionate as hers. She prayed to every god that she’d ever known and prepared to spring forward. Her warrior cry stuck in her throat when strong arms grabbed her from behind and tossed her high in the air. She flew through the air at least five feet and landed with an oomph in arms as strong as those that had thrown her. It took her a full five seconds to recognize that the man who caught her was Clint and that the roar she heard was not Ahmed, but Jake. She looked up in time to see Ahmed drive Jake backwards, knocking him to the ground. With an animal grunt, the enormous fighter buried her would be savior under three hundred pounds of solid muscle.
Chapter 25
To his dying day Jake would not forget the sight of Lexie in the dark alley captured by three trained killers. Seeing the gun pressed in her neck, he waved Brady and Clint back. Moving noiselessly, they crouched behind him in the doorway waiting for a break. He knew one false move and Lexie would be dead. In stunned admiration, his heart hammering in his chest, Jake saw her break free from between the two men kicking the gun across the ground. In a move he had never seen before, she drove the blond haired man to the ground with a kick to his jaw that possibly killed him, but definitely broke more bones in his face and jaw than the fucker knew he had.
The two men left standing were so intent on attacking her that they didn’t see him and Brady approach. Taking advantage of their focused attention on her, he flew from the shadows with a roar. Grabbing her from behind, he threw her to the safety of Clint’s strong arms and came face to face with the largest mass of human muscle he’d ever faced.
Thrown to the ground, buried under the crushing weight of the huge man, Jake managed to free one hand. He dug his thumb into the pressure point behind the fucker’s ear. Taking advantage of the fleeting moment of paralysis in his opponent, Jake thrust the giant to the side and rolled to his feet. Surprisingly, the massive man moved as quickly and easily as Jake did. They circled one another warily, waiting for the first move. In a brief moment of recognition that only men trained to kill understood, Jake sensed they both knew only one of them would survive. Knowing that in all his life he’d never had more to live for, Jake eased into that hallowed physical and spiritual space honed by years of relentless training and countless hours of meditation, the place where nothing but sheer killing might remained.
Jake feinted to the left, evading the huge fist aimed at his gut. He slammed his elbow into the man’s ribs at the same time, bringing his knee up sharply into his groin. The responding roar of fury was deafening. Encouraged by the blinding anger in the man’s eyes, Jake spun through the air driving his heel into his shoulder, aiming for the joint. The resounding shriek of rage confirmed that he hit it.
For what seemed like an eternity, but was only minutes, he jabbed, kicked, parried, and evaded the fierce fighter whose skill was almost equal to his own. The difference was the flying leaps that he and Anthony had crafted in grueling sparring matches. His additional advantage was his coolness in battle. Long ago, he carved out a sacred place where he fought, a place that didn’t allow anger, only resolve. Through the years, it became his most powerful weapon. The groaning man rose up on his hands and knees. As he came toward him, Jake saw the flash of the blade. He wasn’t surprised. There’d never been a question. One of them would die.
Lexie huddled in Clint’s strong arms, watching Ahmed attack Jake. Her heart pounded so hard that she was sure it would burst through her chest. Ahmed was too big, too strong, and an accomplished fighter. Afraid to watch but more terrified to look away, she forced her eyes forward. Little by little, astonishment replaced her terror. Jake was quite simply the most amazing fighter she’d ever seen. He was like a fierce tiger in the wild. Lithe, lean, stunningly agile. He leapt from place to place. Often, his feet and body cleared the top of Ahmed’s six foot frame,
