Hatch

I glanced down at my phone currently blowing up and scowled. "Fuck!"

"What?" Doom asked.

"Give me a sec." I dialed Maisie and she answered on the first ring. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"Curly’s taken Poppy."

"What the fuck?"

"I got a call from Willow. Gator’s on the warpath because Curly and Roach are working with the Dixie Mafia, and have taken Poppy somewhere."

"Goddammit!"

Curly and I had been recruits together, and we’d only had one major fight the entire time I knew him. The fight was over my ex-wife, and I wished to god I’d let him have her. She was a lying whore of a woman who tried her best to ruin me.

Apparently, Curly still held a grudge.

Maisie was sobbing now. "Hatch, you have to find her."

"I will, baby. Stay by the phone."

"Okay," she rasped, and hung up.

"What’s up?" Doom asked from his place, hunkered behind a seawall.

"Curly’s the mole. Sounds like he’s got Roach with him too."

Doom rose to his feet. "What the fuck?"

"He’s got Poppy," I said distractedly as I dialed Booker’s number.

"Hey, man."

"Find Curly," I ordered. "I want to know everything about that asshole, including his exact location. He’s got Poppy."

"Fuck. I’m on it."

Booker hung up and I texted Doc. I debated texting Devon... if he was distracted, everything could go to shit, but if it was me and Maisie was taken, I’d want to know.

Before I could debate further, Doc responded: We know about Curly. Keep Sparky out of it for now.

"The fuck?" I snapped, and glared at Doom. "Did you know about Curly?"

He shook his head. "No way, man. If I did, he wouldn’t be walkin’."

"Goddammit!" I dialed Gator, my blood boiling as I waited for him to pick up.

"I don’t know nothin’."

"You fuckin’ know somethin’, old man, so you better start talkin’," I ground out.

"All I know is Curly took Poppy somewhere. I figured he was the mole, that’s all I know," Gator said.

"You keepin’ Willow locked down?"

"Fuck yeah, I’m keepin’ Willow locked down," he snapped. "Gonna have a conversation with her about keepin’ her goddamn mouth shut, too."

I dragged a hand down my face. "Damage is done, Gate. We can address that shit when I get my girl back, yeah? Go easy on Willow."

"You deal with your kin, I’ll deal with mine."

I sighed. "Yeah, man, I hear ya."

Gator hung up and I hit the tracker app on my phone. Poppy’s phone wasn’t on, and the last time it was on was about a mile away from the compound (in the middle of the freeway). Which means, Curly must have destroyed it.

"Fuck!" I snapped just as my phone buzzed. It was Booker. "What did you find?"

"Curly’s about a mile from the harbor. He’s headed right for you."

"Okay, man, we’ll be ready."

I hung up and gathered the Dogs around, filling them in, including Agent Dalton Moore. Dalton spoke into his sleeve, giving the two sharpshooters on the roof further instructions.

I jabbed a finger toward the agent. "Curly’s mine. I kill the mother fucker. No one else."

"Not gonna let you kill a man, Hatch," Dalton said.

"If it comes down to it, I will end him to protect my daughter, hear me?"

"It won’t come to that," Dalton said.

I kind of wished it would. I desperately wanted to get my hands around the asshole’s neck. I sent Doc a text, filling him in on the plan, meaning he and the rest of the guys were on their own for a bit.

"Incoming," crackled over Dalton’s radio and I moved toward the entrance of the docks, but Dalton laid his hand on my shoulder. "Let’s wait and see what we’re dealin’ with."

"Fuck that," I snapped.

"At least stay out of sight."

I gave him a nod, but if Poppy was hurt, I wasn’t promisin’ anything.

Devon

We stood with guns drawn before Agent Kahler gave his final instructions, "Don’t make a move without me, stay close, and don’t discharge your weapon unless you absolutely have to."

I nodded, and we made our way down the narrow corridor leading to the stairwell. I was right behind him, watching our six, as we climbed the stairs toward an open hatch leading to the ship’s upper deck. As soon as we reached the top of the stairs, two gunshots hit the deck, inches away from the hatch. Kahler immediately returned fire on the shooter, whom I couldn’t see due to my position.

The shots from Agent Kahler’s Glock were nearly deafening within the confines of our steel enclosure, and my ears were suddenly ringing at a volume level I’d never experienced. I’d spent my entire life around loud exhaust pipes, bar bands, and plenty of guns, but the sonic impact of those shots was far more brutal than anything my eardrums had encountered up to this point.

"Ah, fuck!" I doubled over in pain, my hands now tightly cupped around my ears.

"Are you okay?" I could barely make out Kahler’s muffled words over the din of gunfire and the unrelenting banshee scream in my skull. "Are you hit?" he yelled.

"No!" I yelled back. Agent Kahler nodded before fully popping out of the hatch and firing off two more rounds.

After a few tense moments, Kahler took a step back into the stairwell. "Okay, he’s down. It looks like we’re clear. I’m betting the last guard is with the girls."

I was doing my best to read his lips, as he was no longer shouting, making it difficult to make out his words. "Stick close to me," he said before leading us onto the deck.

We made our way to the area where the containers were stacked. The Iolanta was not very large as far as commercial shipping vessels were concerned and this cargo load was light even for a ship of this size. There was only a dozen or so containers in total, and we easily spotted number nineteen, located just where Captain Vasili said it would be. Likewise, there was an armed guard standing directly in front of it, just as Agent Kahler predicted. We crouched down behind a row of barrels, located about twenty-five feet from the container.

"There’s the last guard. You stay right here and I’m going to go take him out. When I’m sure the coast is clear, I’ll signal you and we’ll get the girls out of there."

Once again, I nodded in compliance, and Agent Kahler disappeared into a dark alley between two containers. The ringing in my ears, combined with the constant motion of the choppy seas, was starting to take its toll. My head was on fire, and the pounding of my heart was drowning out what little I could still hear. It took every ounce of concentration I had to stay focused on the remaining guard, who was standing directly in front of the container’s entrance with his back to the door. His thin frame, armed with an AK-47 assault rifle, stood motionless as he manned his post.

From out of the darkness, I could see Agent Kahler slowly approaching the guard who seemed totally unaware of his presence. Just as he reached the guard, a single shot rang out, immediately dropping Agent Kahler to the deck.