Defending Raven (Mountain Mercenaries #7)(68)

“Approaching from the east,” another voice said in his ear.

Dave didn’t even bother to look around for the other approaching pairs. Ro and Arrow were stationed by the front wall of the barrio, watching for trouble in whatever form it might arrive and guarding their flank. Black and Ball were each paired with one of their Peruvian counterparts and were converging on the hut, along with the others.

Dave had tunnel vision as he stared at the piece of metal pulled across the opening to the hut. He prayed harder than he’d prayed in his life that David was inside . . . and was all right. He knew from Ruben’s interrogation that he’d been knocked around by del Rio, and remembering that made Dave’s hands fist. He wanted to kill anyone who dared hurt a little kid. His little boy.

“Easy, Dave,” Gray said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Hang on for three more minutes.”

Dave nodded and watched as Black and his Peruvian partner walked silently up to the shack. On a count of three, Black pulled the metal back, and the other man burst inside the room.

Ball and three other Peruvians followed close behind them.

There were some loud words spoken in Spanish, but no screams of distress or fright. Dave wasn’t sure if that was good news or bad. Within seconds, he heard Black say, “Clear,” through the radio, and Dave was moving before he’d even thought about it.

He followed close behind Gray, and they squeezed into the already very crowded one-room hut.

Glancing around the room, Dave saw it was fairly typical as far as living quarters in a barrio went. Dirt floor, tubs used as a sink, dirty dishes, a bucket being used as a bathroom.

As he took in the room in a split second, his gaze stopped on the iron stake in the floor with a chain attached to it. He followed the chain . . .

And inhaled sharply when he saw a pair of small blue eyes staring at him from behind a large box.

He knew about the chain from Ruben’s interrogation, but seeing it firsthand, and knowing it was his child attached to that chain, made him almost lose his mind.

Keeping his temper in check by the skin of his teeth, Dave strode over to the stake in the floor and, using brute strength, pulled it up and out of the hard-packed dirt. His muscles strained, but within seconds, the chain slipped off the bottom of the stake and fell to the ground with a loud clang.

He dropped the stake and turned to the child. To his surprise, instead of having to coax the boy out from behind the box, the child was already standing next to it. He had messy, dark hair and a bruise on one cheek. He was wearing shorts and a T-shirt and was covered in dirt. And Dave had never seen anything more beautiful in his life.

Then the boy shocked the shit out of Dave, and everyone else in the room, by holding up his arms and shouting, “Papá!”

Instinctively, Dave took a step forward and reached down to pick up the little boy. “David?” he asked.

The child smiled, even though it was a little unsure. “Where’s Mamá? Did you find her too?”

“He speaks English,” Black said in surprise.

“Raven said she’d taught him,” Dave heard Gray explain.

“Yeah, but I thought he probably just knew a few words here and there,” Black replied.

Dave tuned them out, all his focus on the boy in his arms.

“Your mom’s safe. We’re going to take you to her now. Are you all right? Do you hurt anywhere?” Dave asked.

David shook his head. “No, Papá. I’m okay now that you’re here.”

“How do you know who I am?” Dave asked, as Black came forward with a pair of bolt cutters to cut the shackle off the little boy’s leg.

“Mamá told me what you look like. The second I saw you, I knew. She said we were lost and that you were looking for us and that one day you’d find us. I was scared when del Rio came and took me from my home because I didn’t know how you’d find me. But you did!”

Dave wanted to cry. Wanted to sit down in the dirt right then and there and bawl like a baby. Raven had talked about him to her son. Had told him what he looked like and reassured him that he was looking for them.

She’d had no reason to believe she’d ever see him again, and she certainly had no idea if he’d accept David because of how he’d come to be born, and yet she’d still told her son that he was his papá. The intensity of his emotions was almost too much to overcome.

He examined the little boy and couldn’t get over how much he looked like his mom. From his blue eyes to his black hair, he was a mini Raven. He looked healthy enough, although a bit too skinny for Dave’s liking. He wanted to put him down and run his hands over his little body to make sure he wasn’t hurt anywhere, but he literally couldn’t bear to let go of him for even the few minutes it would take to examine him.

Black finally got the shackle cut off David’s ankle, and Dave felt the boy’s little legs wrap around his waist and squeeze. His arms came up around his neck, and he held on tight. Almost desperately. Dave wrapped both his arms around the precious child and held him even closer to his chest. He might not have been there for the boy’s first four and a half years, but he’d damn well be there for the next fifty.

David’s eyes widened as he moved his little hands to one of his papá’s biceps and squeezed.

“They are as big as the trees in my yard!” he exclaimed.