His Last Request (Slow Uploads)

            From Chapter 14:

The music on the radio cut off and a reporter came on, “This just in, The Tennessee Grill has just been held up by five men with guns demanding the whereabouts of a certain woman whose name has not been released for safety reasons. Once again, The Tennessee Grill has just been held up by five men with guns. Negotiators are on the scene now and they are trying to persuade the men to release the hostages. Stay tuned. We will keep you advised.”

            Marta stared at Garrett. His face was a mask of fury and she asked softly, “Isn’t that the place where we told Tank, Clint, Bailey, Steven, and Oscar we were going?”

            Carrick’s voice was barely above a whisper, “One of those five is the traitor, and they may have just gotten a lot of people killed.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Chapter 15

            Jeffery Adams, or “Trax” as he was known to his friends, managed not to kick the seat in front of him on the plane, but just barely. He was absolutely furious and he couldn’t even attempt to get ahold of Garrett to make sure the rest of his former squad was okay. He’d been watching the local station when the news of the holdup interrupted his show.

            He leaned his head back and tried to collect his thoughts, sending prayers upwards as he thought about his friends. He’d known Garrett since BASIC and he hated that they’d drifted apart since their last op together, but he was happy to be on his way to see his old friend. Now, someone was out to get his buddy’s girl, and that just wouldn’t do. He shook his head and shot a look over to Franklin Peterson.

            “Psych,” as his friends called him, had chosen to take classes to become a psychologist specializing in military-related issues when his time with the Navy was up, so that he could to be more available for his aging mother and father. During his last op with Garrett and the others, he had been hit in the leg by enemy fire, shattering the femur on his right side. It had taken multiple surgeries and nearly a year of other treatments for Franklin to heal, and it had taken another three years for him to be satisfied that he was back in good shape.

He was thirty-two with dark brown hair and eyes, and he could read people better than most could read a book, so when he caught Trax looking at him, he knew right away that something was very wrong. He asked, “What has you so worried? Was there something on the show that bothered you or have you thought of a glitch in our plans, because I think they’re pretty solid.”

Jeffery leaned toward his friend and whispered, “Gunmen have hostages at The Tennessee Grill – that restaurant that Garrett was talking about taking his girl to. He never told me if they were going to use it as the decoy or the real place, and now I’m concerned and I can’t use my phone.”

“It was the decoy, but if there are gunmen there, then we should be able to narrow the list of suspects considerably, providing of course, that there is only one mole, which I am not prepared to assume,” Franklin whispered back.

Colton Smith, known as “Colt” for his name and his lightning-quick mind, asked from across the aisle, “What are you two old ladies gossiping about?”

Colt was twenty-eight, five years younger than Jeffery, and had dark brown hair and blue eyes. He had met the woman of his dreams while on leave four years past and had decided to settle down with her and become a martial arts instructor when finished his time with the Navy. After the attack that earned him a medical retirement however, she had left him, stating that she just couldn’t be with a man who couldn’t use his legs.

Such a cruel blow could have easily caused him to become bitter, but his friends had been there for him at every opportunity and they had shown him that they thought no less of him for his injuries. With support, prayer, and hard work, they had helped him put his life back together, and Garrett had promised– before Caleb’s wreck – that he would want him to work with them as soon as things settled with Alexandria at the ranch.