Armed And Dangerous (The McKinnon Legends - The McKinnon American Men Book 2) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Acknowledgements

  Copyright and Disclaimer

  Contact The Author

  The Book Shelf

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Epilogue

  Preview - Bones of Contention - Book 3 The McKinnon Legends The American Men

  Feedback and Thank You

  Acknowledgements

  I would be remiss in failing to thank those in my life who had faith in my dream.

  Anne, Donna, and Tom - Thank you for the suggestions and feedback.

  To my Husband - Thank you for supporting my vision and being my partner through life.

  Copyright and Disclaimer

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Contact The Author

  [email protected]

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  The Book Shelf

  Titles By Ranay James

  The McKinnon Legends

  Book One – The McKinnon, The Beginning – Nic

  http://htwww.amazon.com/dp/B009Q78PQO

  Book Two – Unfinished Business – Connor

  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AKXO2B0

  Book Three – Shades of Grace – Cullen

  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B1YQNFK

  Book Four – Of Purest Blood – Gage

  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CHQI58O

  Book Five – The Missing One – Decklyn

  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EADBPNO

  The McKinnon American Men

  Book One – Whisper In The Dark – Robert

  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FRW6B5E

  Book Two – Armed and Dangerous – Mason

  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GPD0HNQ

  Book Three – Bones of Contention – Josh

  Vampires of Nirvana

  Part One : The Descendents of Cain

  Book One – Apartment 42 – Slade

  Book Two – The Queen’s Heart – Chase

  Book Three – A Garden form Eden – Micah

  Book Four – Second Son of Cain – Asher

  Part Two – The Queen’s Enforcers

  Book Five – Guarding Anna’ – Cade

  Book Six – Jade’s Paradox – Alexander

  Part Three : The Queen's Avengers

  Book Seven – The Reluctant Queen – Garrick

  Book Eight – Blood So Sweet – Garrick

  Book Nine – The Beast Within – Maddox

  Armed and Dangerous

  The McKinnon American Men

  Book Two

  By

  Ranay James

  Prologue

  “Mamma, Mamma!” Ten-year-old Jesse sobbed helplessly over her mother's slain body. “Someone help us, please!” she yelled over the waves of the blue Pacific Ocean. The grisly scene was incongruent with the peaceful, tropical setting of the Panamanian coastline.

  Emilio Del Torres, Panama’s most feared drug and crime boss discovered his mistress thanks to Jesse’s cries for help. Jacqueline Bassett-Vozarosa lay sprawled facedown in the sand, her body in the surf line just past the secluded private cove of Del Torres’ beachfront villa on the Pacific side of the mainland.

  Emilio pulled his lips tightly past perfect teeth. “There will be hell to pay for this,” he reasoned. Jacqueline was an American citizen with a small child. She was his girlfriend. Even more importantly, she was the wife of his enemy. “Diego, take the boat out and let her body go past the reef near the wall. No mistakes, understand?” Emilio pointed at his second in command. It pained him to do this, yet he saw no other alternative. Should her body be found on his turf, the war resulting would be bloody.

  “No!” Jesse screamed as Del Torres pulled her away from the lifeless body of her mother. “No, you can’t just dump her! I thought you loved her,” she sobbed.

  “I do, but not enough to go to jail for a murder that I did not commit. Diego, go! And you, come with me.” He jerked Jesse up by the elbow and dragged her screaming away from the beach and to the villa where he locked her away in her room.

  Jesse kicked him in the shin, earning her a backslap which sent her to the floor of her room.

  Jesse glared up at him. “You bastardo. Just you wait until my family comes for me. You will be sorry,” the little girl vowed.

  “Shut up before you go join your mother.” He needed to think. This was not going to end well unless he planned very carefully.

  She seethed at the man who would dare dishonor her Mamma. She was a McKinnon and family meant everything. Her father and Cousin Mason would save her. There was never a question in her mind. She pulled out her cell the minute the door of her new prison slammed shut and called her father.

  “Daddy?” Jesse whispered as she crawled under the massive canopy bed, using the dust ruffle as a shield from prying eyes and to muffle their conversation.

  “Baby, what’s wrong?” Josh McKinnon, Sheriff of Martin County Texas, felt his insides twist. His paternal instincts went int hyper drive. There was something terribly wrong.

  “I need you to come get me,” she softly begged.

  Josh heard the tiny sniff on the other end of the phone. He knew his daughter. She was a trooper. If she was crying there was something definitely wrong. Physically or emotionally his child was not on even footing, and he was certain his ex-wife was fully to blame.

  “Of course. Where are you, and where is your mother?” Josh wondered.

  “I’m in Panama, Dadd
y. Puerto Escondido.”

  Holy Shit, Josh thought.

  “Alright.” He took in a deep, calm breath. He did not want Jesse to think he was angry with her. "Go get your mother right now, baby. I want to speak to her,” he demanded softly. He was seething, but he would never let her hear it. If he ever got his hands around his ex-wife’s throat, he just might kill her, he thought.

  “Mom is dead. Julio shot her and left her on the beach,” Jesse confessed in a single rush of breath.

  “Oh, jeez, baby.” That stopped him short. He may not love Jacqueline or even like her, but she was his daughter’s mother and he had loved her at one point. “You sure? How do you know?”

  “I saw it happen.” Her voice was distant, flat, and totally detached. Her mind had taken hold to shield her heart purely out of self-preservation.

  Josh closed his eyes. He fully understood the emotional ramifications this day would hold for both of them. “How?” He almost hated to ask her to relive it. However, he needed answers if he was to get her safely home.

  “Julio shot her for kissing Emilio Del Torres. Please, Daddy, please come get me.”

  His ex-wife had defied a direct court order by taking his child out of the country. Look where it had gotten them. Her husband had shot and killed her right in front of Jesse’s eyes, leaving her a captive to one of Central America’s most dangerous criminals. The child would never be the same. If he managed to get her home alive, he would hire the best doctors that money could buy to straighten this out emotionally for her.

  “I’m scared,” her small voice penetrated Josh’s thoughts.

  He wanted to cry. He felt and heard the pathetic emotion coming through the phone. His baby was all that mattered to him, and she was in a fight for her life.

  “I know you are, just hold tight, Baby Girl. Help is on the way. Now, I need to ask you a few questions, and it is very important you think clearly. Can you do this?”

  “Yes.” She took in a deep breath. She understood that she was his eyes and ears on the ground. The more she could tell him the better her chances would increase of survival.

  “Can you tell me how many men are there with him?”

  “I don’t know, maybe fifteen to twenty.” She crawled out from under the bed going to the window to see if she could see anything helpful. “They have lots of big guns and cameras,” she said while noticing the surveillance equipment for the very first time. “The wall surrounding the area is taller than our house and it is pink. Who paints an outlaw's house pink?” She asked while shaking her head,

  “Dogs, Jesse, do you see or hear dogs?”

  “No. The housekeeper has a little dog, but she keeps her in the back locked in her room. She is really old and deaf, too.”

  “The housekeeper or the dog?” Josh needed to be absolutely clear.

  Jesse laughed softly. “Both, actually.”

  Good, Josh thought. She still has some sense of humor. That would have to carry her through.

  He was happy to hear that there were no dogs. Dogs complicated things. However, until he got a visual he was not going to assume that the dogs weren’t there. A fortress without dogs was unusual.

  “Where are they holding you, Jess?” Josh was already dialing his cousin Robert for reinforcement.

  “I’m in Emilio’s house. We got here late yesterday afternoon.”

  “Are you sure?” Josh asked needing to be absolutely sure where she was held.

  “Yes.” Jesse knew her father well enough to know the next question and answered before he even asked. “I’ve been here before, Daddy.”

  Josh pinched the bridge of his nose. Damn it, why had Jesse kept this from him? He guessed she did not want him jumping feet-first into it with his ex-wife. He was not going to make a bad situation worse by scolding her for keeping this from him. She needed reassurances, not lectures.

  “Do you have a guard, baby?”

  “No, I don’t think so, but I am locked in my room on the second floor.” Jesse cringed. Her dad was smart. He would catch what she was confessing without coming right out and saying it.

  “You have been there enough to have your own room?” Josh was quick to pick up on the inference of that comment just as Jesse knew he would.

  “Yes, Daddy, please don’t be mad at me,” she begged, understanding that had she been honest with him, she might not be in the jam she found herself.

  “I’m not mad. At least I'm not mad at you, and it is futile to be angry with your mother at this point. So listen to me very carefully. I know you are scared, baby, but you have to hold it together for me. Can you do that, Sweat Pea?”

  “Um huh,” she nodded her head. She was not going to disappoint her daddy. She was a McKinnon, and McKinnons were made of strong stuff.

  “In two days, put your hat in the window of the room you are currently held.” He knew she never went anywhere without her ball cap. He was banking on this trip not being any different.

  She quickly unpacked her Texas Rangers baseball cap and vowed to keep it with her all the times as she tucked the bill into the back pocket of her jeans. She would be ready.

  Josh’s stomach was churning. His child was in grave danger, and he understood going in with guns blazing would only get her killed. He hated it, but this was going to take time, and it would take some strategic planning. Translation: it would be several days before he could go in and bring her home. Jesse understood.

  Damn his ex-wife! Josh could kill her himself for what she had done to their child if she were not already dead.

  And damn himself for not smelling a rat when she came to get Jesse in a hired car.

  “Just don’t panic, Jess. I’ll rally the troops. I will be there as soon as I can, promise.”

  “Daddy, please bring Cousin Mason. He is just crazy enough to get me out of here and keep us all alive.”

  Josh raised an eyebrow, surprised at her request, but could not have agreed more. Mason was a daredevil of biblical magnitude. However, he was smart, cunning, and experienced, and if Jesse trusted Mason to help him get her out, then so would he.

  “You understand it will take us a couple of days to plan and get there?”

  “Uh huh.”

  “Save your battery. I want you to check your phone every afternoon at four o'clock your time. I will send you a text with the numbers 2233 when we are close. If someone happens to see it, tell them it is our text code for ‘everything's good.’ Do you understand?”

  “Yes, Sir.” She nodded bravely.

  “I love you, Jesse, more than life itself. I’ll get you out, I swear. You believe me?” Josh wanted her to feel positive and reassured that she would come out of this alive. She would never be the same, but she was going to live and he would deal with the emotional fallout later.

  “Yes, with all my heart.” And Jesse did believe. This family took care of their own laying down life and limb for each other. They always had and always would.

  “Ok, I want you to delete all your messages and phone logs now. I don’t want him realizing you have contacted me.”

  “Ok, Daddy. I will do that as soon as we hang up. Just hurry as fast as you can.”

  “I will get you out, Jesse, if it is the last thing I do.”

  “Don’t make me an orphan in the process, ok? I love Aunt Shelly, but she makes me wear a dress to church.”

  Josh smiled in spite of it all and prayed her wearing a dress was her only inconvenience after this event.

  Jesse did as she was told and deleted all sent and received messages and calls. She sat back for the long wait and only then did she cry.

  Jesse thought about how she had come to this.

  She knew her mother was having an affair with Del Torres. She had seen them together regardless of the fact her mother was married to another man just as wicked if not worse.

  Beautiful and sophisticated, Jacqueline Bassett-Vozarosa thought to play the ends against the middle between two drug kingpins. Secretly, her mother had loved the danger
and drama brought into her life being sandwiched in between two powerful men. She was married to Julio Cesar Vozarosa, a Columbian ‘businessman’ worth millions due entirely to cocaine and illegal weapons. Even as young as she was, Jesse understood who her stepfather was and why her daddy had custody of her. Until she called her father, he had no idea her mother had taken her out of the country for a long Labor Day weekend.

  Fortunately, her mother had just given her cell phone back the night before. She had taken it to keep her from calling her dad before they left the United States. Her mother did not know her father had added the international calling to their cell plan for emergencies such as these.

  Del Torres had been her mother’s latest affair, one in a long list of many. Jesse knew her mother was insecure and hid those insecurities behind a mask of expensive clothing, makeup, and jewelry. She had never been without a man in her life and as far as Jesse could tell, her father was the only one her mother had ever married who was worth anything.

  Her mom had divorced her father for the money Vozarosa could give her, and she had become a very rich woman in the process. In Jacqueline’s mind, money equated to security, and Jacqueline was a very insecure woman. This was something Jesse could not understand. She could comprehend that she was in deep trouble, and if her father did not send help soon, she could be joining her mother for eternity.

  Chapter 1

  By kidnapping Jesse, Del Torres thought to use her as leverage against his enemy Julio Vozarosa. He had grossly miscalculated by thinking Vozarosa would be forced to give up territory in northern Columbia in exchange for the life of his stepdaughter. She was, after all, the only one who witnessed Vozarosa killing Jacquline.

  He quickly discovered Vozarosa could not have cared less about the girl. Jacqueline discovered that same fact about herself just a little too late. In spite of the fact she was beautiful, she was quite expendable.