Page 13 of Ruby

“You ready, beautiful?” Tank asks when he see her.

“Yes.” Ruby stares up into his handsome face. “I really appreciate you giving me a lift. My feet are killing me. It’s been a long day.” Tank slides his hand down her back, letting it rest near the base of her spine. He leads her out the door, Jose locking it behind them.

Once again, he opens the door for her and lifts her up into his big truck, buckling her belt. They make the drive to the shelter with ease. When they arrive, he parks in the back shutting off the truck. He reaches into the back seat pulling a bag out to place on the console between them.

“I’m sure it’s cold by now,” Tank says as he pulls a glass container with a plastic lid from the bag. She can see a large helping of cheesy goodness inside. Her eyes flick up to his face to see he’s smiling broadly at her. “I take it by the expression on your face that you like lasagna.” Ruby nods eagerly. She doesn’t care if it’s cold or not. It’ll still be delicious. Tank places it back into the bag. Then he pulls a Ziplock bag filled with buttery looking rolls. Her eyes widen, and he chuckles as if delighted by her response. “I also brought you a salad to go with your meal. Maybe you can warm the lasagna up in the cafeteria?”

“Yes, I can.” Ruby reaches for the bag. She’s actually starving. The breakfast they’d shared this morning has long since left her. She could’ve eaten at the diner, but they’d been so busy today she hadn’t taken time to eat anything. When she’d taken her breaks. all she’d wanted to do was prop her feet up and rest her legs a few minutes. Food was the last thing on her mind. “Thank you for being so thoughtful. I appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome, beautiful,” Tank replies. “Hang on. I’ll come around and walk you in.” Ruby waits for him to open her door and help her down. He walks with her to the door but doesn’t try to follow her inside. “Do you work tomorrow?” he asks as she starts to open the door.

“Um…yeah,” Ruby answers. “I have the late shift again.”

“I’ll come the diner tomorrow night,” Tank declares. “Give you a lift. You’ll be exhausted after being on your feet for so long.” Ruby tries to protest, but he continues, “I remember you said you didn’t want to go out with me, but I hope you’ll reconsider. You don’t have to decide this minute. Take some time and think about it. That’s all I ask. In the meantime, we can be friends, right?”

Shoot! How can she say no to him when he’s being so kind and sweet? She presses her lips together to stop the automatic no she should say. Instead, she takes a deep breath and nods. “All right, Tank, I’ll think about.” She doesn’t finish the sentence, though. The part where she has to tell him the answer will still have to be the same. She won’t put him at risk from the demons chasing her.

12

TANK

Tank wakes early the next morning hopeful Ruby will decide to give him a chance. He showers and readies for PT on base. He meets Straw at the top of the stairs, who is leaving Ellie’s room. Straw checks in on her every morning before they leave. It’s like he just needs to look at her to be sure she’s still in her bed. Tank wants to do the same, but Straw has already closed her door. He doesn’t want to wake her this early in the morning. She’d never go back to sleep, and Abigail would Tank’s hide for waking her up so early.

“She all right this morning?” Tank jerks his head in Ellie’s direction.

“Yeah,” Straw replies. “Sleeping like a baby.” Both men smile, thinking of the little firecracker. She’s been such a breath of fresh air to both men. The things they see and do on missions are the average citizen’s worst nightmare. Hell, Tank even has nightmares from time to time over that shit, but Ellie has helped to soothe that in them, at least a little. Giving them a glimpse of the world through her eyes that aren’t tainted with death and destruction.

They arrive on base to see other members of their team assembling to begin their day. Every morning the team meets early for physical training to keep themselves in top condition. Tank enjoys working his muscles, keeping himself fit. Many guys complain about the long runs and hikes they do, but Tank thrives on them. It gives him time to let his mind work through any problems he is having in his life. He’d planned out much of the remodel on the house he and Straw have while running. During runs, his body knows what to do on instinct. This frees his mind to work out also. Working through his problems.

As he runs the last mile for the day, he’s hoping that Hawk will have heard from Tex. He needs to find out what Ruby is so afraid of so he can eliminate the threat, clearing the way for them to be together. He senses she wants to get to know him better but whatever she’s running from prevents her from giving in to her desires. He slows to jog the last few yards before walking to cool down. The team heads to the gym to finish up before their first meeting of the day.

After completing his workout, Tank showers again and changes into his uniform in record time. He wants to catch Hawk alone to ask about Tex. He enters the conference room after checking Hawk’s office and finding it empty. He isn’t disappointed. Hawk is again sitting at the conference table going over some intel. He looks up as Tank enter the room.

“Good morning, Tank,” Hawk says, closing the file he’s been reading through. “Tex sent a text this morning. He hasn’t been able to gather anything on Ruby Cox.” Hawk pauses giving a pointed look. “It’s as if she doesn’t exist.” Tank stares back at his C.O. This isn’t really news. He’s suspected that she doesn’t want to be found, so likely Ruby isn’t her real name. Feeling defeated, he drops into a chair. He’s going to have to convince her to trust him enough to tell him about herself and what she’s hiding from. “Stop looking like your dog died,” Hawk commands. “He’s still looking into it. He said if you can get a picture of her, he’ll run some facial recognition software, looking through multiple databases including social media sites. Maybe he can find something.”

“Sure, I’ll see what I can do,” Tank replies. He’s planning on catching up with her again today under the guise of working on the fundraiser. He’s downloaded some of the songs she’d mentioned at the meeting the other day. He found some Pentatonix renditions of a couple of the songs and two versions ofLearning to Fly; one being the classic Tom Petty version and another by a couple of folk artists, Colin and Caroline. He’s hoping to coax Ruby into singing for him.

Other members of the team begin filing in the room, and they get started on their day. Another briefing on the drugs and guns flooding New York state but still no solid intel. This op will have to wait until they have better information. A knock on the door interrupts the meeting. An ensign with the Navy enters when Hawk barks, “enter”. The young woman takes in the men in the room and swallows hard. She lifts her chin, straightening her back and walks to the front of the room. After saluting her superior officer, she leans in to whisper something to Hawk. She hands him a zip drive and with another curt salute, exits the room.

“Hang on a second guys,” Hawk says as he attaches the zip drive to his laptop. “It seems we have a new, more pressing matter on our hands.” He loads up a file that contains pictures of a small compound in the Columbian jungle. Hawk’s jaw begins to twitch as the images appear on the screen. Tank suspects Hawk is remembering the place where they’d found Charlotte several years ago. She’d been held hostage for months by some really nasty people. Those people were associated with the cartel running guns, drugs, and sex trafficking operations. Their team along with a SEAL team from San Diego had been tasked with intercepting a large shipment of weapons before they could reach U.S. soil.

When they raided a compound, the men holding Charlotte had fled in jeeps taking her with them. In an effort to escape, they’d thrown her from their moving vehicle onto the jungle path right in front of the Humvee Hawk and several members of their team were riding in. They’d managed to stop right before running her over. Though not part of their mission, Hawk had taken her back to their encampment and made arrangements to get her out of the country, clear of harm’s way. In the long run, Hawk saved Charlotte, and the two fell in love. They have a beautiful blended family with a total of six children, three adults and three little ones. The twins, Jessie and Joshua are about to begin kindergarten with Ellie, and Lilly is in preschool. Tank feels for Hawk as they stare at the screen. He can feel the rage at what Charlotte had gone through in that hellhole radiating off Hawk. The whole team, at least the ones who’d been there, feel the same. She’d been beaten, starved, then thrown out like trash. None of them would ever treat a woman in such a way. It’s deplorable. Tank wishes they could kill the asshole again. He’s brought out of his memories when Hawk clears his throat before giving them the low down.

“So, looks like the cartel we helped take down several years ago has managed to reorganize under new leadership.” Hawk hits a button, and the picture of a tall Hispanic man with straight black shoulder length hair, a trim mustache, and goatee appears on the screen. “This is Arturo Guerrero or as his men call him “Bear Warrior”. The man is ruthless, killing his way to the top in less than three years. Since taking over the group two years ago, he’s made connections throughout South America and even North America. His latest plans include a trip to Mexico City where he’ll be meeting with Jesus Cano a member of the Sinaloa Cartel a.k.a. “The Federation”.

It’s believed Guerrero is trying to make an alliance with the Federation, giving them more territory in Columbia. The Federation has been taking over many of the smaller cartels with ease. They’ve aligned themselves with high-ranking members of the Mexican government by giving intel on the small operations. Once the Mexican government shuts the small operation down, the Federation moves in and takes over the area. The Mexican government gives the appearance of making headway in the war on drugs but isn’t in a blood bath with the wealthy, well-armed cartel.”

Tank ponders. What are they supposed to do with this information? It’s not like there’s anything to be done about the large cartel when they’re supported in part by the Mexican government. Hawk turns to give the team a hard look.

“If Guerrero is successful in gaining the support of the Federation, it will mean another increase in drugs and weapons flooding across our borders. We have credible intel he has a large shipment of drugs ready to be delivered to the Federation for distribution in the U.S.” Hawk pauses for a deep breath before continuing, “Another complication in all of this is Guerrero was in the U.S. last month, meeting with well-known members of the Colombo crime family in Brooklyn, New York. An informant inside their organization has reported that Guerrero is working on connections to get his drugs and guns on the streets of New York City, Buffalo, and into Canada through the local mob affiliations. He supposedly met with several factions, but the Brooklyn meeting is the only one that has any credible insider information. There are rumors that Guerrero has promised to help Giovanni Russo locate a missing person, but it’s all speculation, at present. Informants are keeping their eyes and ears open and will report information as it becomes available.”

“That’s all very interesting, but what’s all this have to do with us?” Worm asks. Many of the team members also look curious.

“I’m getting to that,” Hawk grumbles. “It means that we are going to Columbia to stop a shipment of drugs from reaching the Mexican border. We do not want Guerrero making friendly with the Federation. We need to shut this shit down, and hopefully the Federation will take out Guerrero for fucking up the delivery. We’ll be taking two teams, Deadeye, your team is tasked with seizing the drugs. Ranger’s team will be working to eliminate their manufacturing facility, while a SEAL team is going in to extract a believed hostage.”

“Fuck!” Ace exclaims. “This is going to be a major undertaking. There’s so much going on it has disaster written all over it. When is this supposed to happen? Please tell me we’re not being sent without proper recon first?”

“Calm your ass down, Ace.” Hawk glares at him. “The shipment isn’t supposed to be ready for about a month. We will be sending both Team 1 and Team 2 to Columbia for recon. Part of you will scope out the compound while the rest will divide into two groups gathering intel on the route the shipment is supposed to take and to see if you can get eyes or any information on the hostage.”

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