Defending Raven (Mountain Mercenaries #7)(16)
And he’d be damned if he left her for even one more night.
He’d spent ten years not knowing where she was, not knowing if she was hurting or hungry, and now that he’d found her, he wouldn’t spend another night away from her if he could help it.
Dave said his good nights to the others and followed Ball up to the room they were sharing. The team had met outside in the parking lot to discuss what had happened in the barrio. No one was happy that Raven hadn’t agreed to come back to the motel, but they were somewhat mollified by the fact they’d return in the morning.
Black, Gray, and Meat, with Zara along to translate, were going to see Daniela first thing. They wanted to check out the neighborhood where her house was located and talk to her about what she needed in a clinic.
Ball tried to make small talk, to ask about Raven, but Dave responded only with a few grunts and shrugs until Ball got the message and gave up. Dave wasn’t ready to talk about Raven yet. Not until he figured out what the hell was going on. It was especially frustrating because he couldn’t use his computer skills to figure it out either. Oh, he had his computer with him, and all the connections he’d made over the years who would help investigate, but neither had helped him find Raven during the last ten years, and even though he knew where she was now, no amount of hacking or research skills in the world would help him win his wife back.
He had to talk to Raven, get her to open up about what was really going on.
He already knew more than he wanted to know about Roberto del Rio, the man he was now convinced had been behind his wife’s kidnapping. The asshole had an extraordinary amount of clout in Lima, and it wasn’t a secret that he ran a flourishing whorehouse. The police had raided his sprawling estate more than once, but every single woman they’d found in the past had sworn she was there of her own free will. Which didn’t prove anything other than they were either scared to tell the cops the truth, or the police were being paid off by del Rio. Both likely prospects.
Dave tried to take solace in the fact that Raven wasn’t at del Rio’s compound at the moment. But that didn’t make him feel much better about her safety. Not after seeing where she was living. He was well aware of how dangerous the roving gangs of men like Ruben were. Meat and Black were proof of that.
After they’d followed Zara and Meat into the barrio, Dave, Arrow, and Gray had scoped out the area during their long wait. There were several unsavory-looking men lurking around, and if he had to guess, Dave figured they were probably the same men who’d attacked Black and Meat when they’d been there on their last mission. He had no proof, but it didn’t take much guessing to know which guys were up to no good. None of the residents of the barrio would meet their eyes, and when they saw the young men, they either scurried off in another direction, or they disappeared into one of the poorly constructed huts that lined the alleyways.
Dave wasn’t leaving Raven, or the other women, unprotected for one more day. Raven might not want him there, but tough shit. Their mere presence in the barrio had brought unwanted attention to Mags and her friends. He wasn’t going to let anything happen to them, not on his watch.
Not only that, but he wasn’t completely sure Raven wouldn’t bolt. The look in her eyes that evening had said she wanted to be anywhere but in that hut. Dave hated it. He’d always sworn he’d never force a woman to do anything she didn’t want to do . . . but this was his wife, and he’d waited what seemed like forever to see her again. He wasn’t going to let her slip away and put herself in danger just to try to avoid him.
He waited until Ball was on the phone with Everly, and then said as he walked toward the door, “I’m going to grab a Coke from the vending machine. Want one?”
He hated tricking his friend, but he knew Ball wouldn’t allow him to go to the barrio by himself. And this was something he had to do. He might not be a former Special Forces soldier, but he also wasn’t completely helpless.
As Dave hoped, Ball merely shook his head, distracted by the conversation he was having with his girlfriend. Dave slipped out the door and into the stairwell. Within minutes, he was walking along the dark streets near the motel and headed for the barrio. He wasn’t scared in the least; he had too much pent-up energy to worry about someone robbing or attacking him.
In fact, he’d welcome the prospect.
But of course, since Dave’s arms were the size of most people’s thighs, anyone who was out and about quickly walked in the other direction after they caught a glimpse of him.
The barrio was quiet, the occasional smell of smoke from random fires wafting through the air. The sky rumbled with far-off thunder, but Dave didn’t think it was supposed to rain. He easily found the alley he was looking for. In the dark, everything looked the same, but he’d memorized where his Raven was.
He knew what he was about to do wasn’t exactly the smartest thing. He was alone, and Ruben or anyone else could come upon him and try to fuck with him, but with the way he was feeling right now, he almost wished someone would try something. He thought it was more important to let anyone watching know that the women in this shack were off-limits. That they were protected. He could hide in the shadows, but no . . . he wanted to be visible, so any local punks would think twice about harassing the women in the future.
He didn’t knock on the makeshift door. Didn’t bring any attention to the fact that he was there. He simply lowered himself to the dirt outside the hut he’d been in earlier that afternoon and lay down parallel to the doorway. He listened to the female voices talking quietly from inside the hut at his back, but didn’t hear Raven. For a second, he worried that maybe she’d left, but then she spoke. He couldn’t understand what she was saying since she was speaking in Spanish, but he’d know her voice anywhere. He’d dreamed about hearing it again. Raven teasing him about some inside joke between the two of them . . . or hearing her say she loved him.