Blackheart's Treasure, page 1
Blackheart’s Treasure
Book 1 in the Blood Moon Series
Gail Koger
Copyright © June 2021 by Gail Koger
All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this e-book ONLY. No part of this e-book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without prior written permission from Gail Koger. Please do not participate or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized copies.
Image/art disclaimer: Licensed material is being used for illustrative purposes only. Any person depicted in the licensed material is a model.
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Cover Artist: Limabean Designs
Published in the United States of America
This e-book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events, existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblances to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Contents
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Books in the Coletti Warlord series
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my parents.
Prologue
My name is Tammy Sue Wilson. Sometimes I think I’m a changeling. I mean, how did I end up with honey blonde hair and topaz eyes? Dad’s Irish, complete with flaming red hair, green eyes, and a fierce temper. Mom was a full-blooded Cherokee with mystical powers. She died in a car accident when I was four-years old. To my father’s disappointment, I never inherited her talents. Nope, all I got was the knack to know when someone was lying and the uncanny ability to track and find missing people or lost objects.
Daddy dearest is the infamous militia extremist General Jonathan Wilson. My father was the commander of an elite Marine Raider unit until he butted heads with the Pentagon. After he was kicked out of the Marines for insubordination, he promoted himself to General, bought three hundred acres of heavily forested land in northern Idaho and built Fort Bravo. To finance his budding military empire, the General took me treasure hunting. Over a five-year period, I found ten million in lost gold. Needless to say, the General now has a lot of toys to play with. To my dismay he began recruiting way too many gun-toting crackpots. Was this the first step in his dream of global domination? God, I hoped not.
When I turned eighteen, the General decided to run me through his elite boot camp. Which included advanced weapons training, battle drills with live fire and how to disable or make improvised explosive devices. Dummy me, I still wanted the abusive ass’s approval and aced the course. Did the General praise me for achieving marksman status or for being rated as an expert in hand-to-hand combat? Nope. The bastard dragged me onboard his prized Blackhawk helicopter and flew me to a wilderness area in the Kaniksu National Forest.
“Get out.”
I looked around. “Here? We’re a good sixty miles from the nearest town.”
“Seventy miles,” the General corrected. “You have two weeks to find your way back to the base.”
“And if I don’t?”
“You failed your survival test and I’ll have to reevaluate your usefulness,” the General stated coldly.
I stared at him for a long moment. Had he ever loved me? Did he even care if I lived or died? “I’m not one of your fucking soldiers. I’m your daughter.”
“Are you?”
“Wait. What?”
“You don’t look like me or your mother. Dola had too many secrets and I think you’re one of them.”
Which would explain why the General had deliberately destroyed every record of my mother’s existence. All I had been able to find online was a single picture of her. “So, why didn’t you do a DNA test on me?”
For a fleeting second, madness glinted in the General’s eyes “And let the world know I had been cuckolded? Not a chance.”
Horror knotted my stomach. “Did you kill my mother?”
“It was a tragic accident,” the General replied blandly.
“Why did you keep me around?”
“You were an asset.”
“Were?”
“You constantly question my orders and I have no idea where your loyalty lies. My soldiers believe one hundred percent in what I’m trying to accomplish. Do you?”
Hell, no. I sidestepped his question. “I have some issues with the way you treat the women under your command.”
“Discipline must be maintained.”
“Sexual harassment is never appropriate,” I countered.
“Captain Cadwaller reported you were undermining his authority with the female recruits.”
“I stopped Billy Bob from raping Cadet Henderson,” I snapped. “Which I reported to you, but you just blew me off.”
“Cadwaller is an honorable officer and the recruit denied he touched her inappropriately. He also said you were demeaning my oath of allegiance.”
“Oath of allegiance?” I scoffed. “It’s more like a cult manifesto.”
His hand dropped to his pistol. “Get out!”
Holy shit! Daddy dearest was a hair’s breadth away from putting a bullet in me. I scrambled out of the helicopter and backed up.
“You have a choice to make. You’re either with me or you’re not.” The General tossed a small backpack at my feet. “You have two weeks to decide.”
The helicopter kicked up a whirlwind of dust and leaves as it shot into the air. I didn’t need two weeks. I never wanted to see his ugly face again, but I didn’t think he’d let his treasure seeker go so easily.
I picked up the backpack and looked inside. A flint for starting fires, a fishing line, a thermal blanket and a first aid kit. No weapon of any kind or food. It was a good thing I had my trusty boot knife.
I looked around. There was a creek at the base of the mountain, so water wasn’t a problem. Yet. I had about three hours before the sun set. It might be May, but the temperature dropped into the thirties at night. My camo sweatshirt and jeans wouldn’t keep me warm for long. I needed to build a shelter and start a fire.
An itchy feeling grew between my shoulder blades. Shit! Trouble was coming. A big, gorilla of a man stepped out of the trees wearing battle gear. Well, if it wasn’t my nemesis, Billy Bob Cadwaller. I really didn’t like the shit eatin’ grin on his face.
“The General has finally seen you for what you really are.”
“And what’s that?”
“A fucking traitor.”
And he drove all the way up here to tell me that. How special was that? Why the General had made him his second-in-command, I’ll never know. He wasn’t that bright and couldn’t keep his dick in his pants. “At least I’m not a thief.”
“Thief?” Billy Bob stiffened.
“Yeah. For the last six months, you’ve been siphoning off money from the munitions account.”
“You can’t prove that.”
“Can’t I?”
Billy Bob drew his pistol. “Doesn’t matter how you found out. You won’t be telling anyone. The penalty for treason is death. I’m gonna gut shoot you and leave you for the critters.”
I gave myself a mental head smack. Way to go. Piss off the armed idiot. “You think the General doesn’t know you’ve been stealing from him? He’s giving you enough rope to hang yourself.”
“That’s a lie!” Billy Bob bellowed, rushed toward me, and tripped. One minute he was upright, the next he was tumbling head over heels down the mountainside. With a loud smack, he belly-flopped into the swollen creek and was swept downstream.
Whoa! I needed to buy a lottery ticket before my luck changed. I picked up Billy Bob’s pistol and frowned. Didn’t this creek turn into a river with a series of waterfalls?
The silence was broken by a man screaming bloody murder.
Yep. Billy Bob was in for one hell of a ride. Following his tracks, I quickly located his muddy high-rider truck. My good fortune held. Dumbass had left his keys in the ignition. I had two weeks before the General came looking for me. I started the truck and headed down the mountain. Thank God, I had been planning m y escape from Fort Bravo for some time now. I had a go-bag stashed in Smelterville, Idaho with everything I needed to start over.
Chapter One
I ditched Billy Bob’s truck in Twin Falls, Idaho and purchased an old Ducati motorcycle from a potato farmer. Over the last year, I had bought myself several new identities on the dark web. I even added anonymity software to my laptop. It should have blocked any attempt to track my computer. Yeah, right. I underestimated the General’s resources. Daddy dearest hired himself a CIA hacker. How did I know that? He called my new burner phone and told me. He gave me three days to return to Fort Bravo or he’d put a million-dollar bounty on my head. He also informed me he was going to file a police report for grand theft. Turned out Billy Bob was an excellent swimmer and he promptly blamed me for the missing money. Of course, the General believed him. To make matters worse, the Bitcoin accounts I had opened no longer existed.
Out of sheer desperation, I drove to Nogales, Arizona. Two years ago, while I was hunting lost gold on the Tohono O’odham reservation, I had stumbled across a dying old man someone had dumped in the desert. I gave him water and took him to the nearest hospital. The old guy’s son turned out to be Vicente Morales, the head of the Penaloza Cartel. After interrogating me for five hours, he had a contract drawn up granting me one favor. Be it money, drugs, cars or having someone offed. When I decided what I wanted, all I needed to do was present the contract to him and my wish would be granted. Sure, it would. Morales kinda reminded me of an evil genie. I knew without a doubt, his offer had a penalty clause attached to it. I thanked him politely and got the hell out of Nogales. I quickly put the document in a safety deposit box in Tucson and forgot about it. Until now. Would Morales keep his word? Or would he simply kill me?
Using my talent, I crossed the border into Mexico and tracked Morales to an upscale bar called La Chiquita. Ugh. He was tongue-fucking a half-naked dancer.
Did I really want to do this? No, but the alternative was death or a short, miserable life hunting treasure for the General. I marched up to Morales and tossed the contract on the table. “Remember me? I’m the woman who saved your father’s life. I’ve come to collect the reward you promised me.”
To say Morales was a bit irritated would be an understatement. I tried not to flinch when a gun was jammed into the base of my skull. I should have known he’d have a bodyguard.
The jerk picked up the contract. “How do I know this is real? That doesn’t look like my signature.”
The goon with the gun snickered.
The dancer shouted something nasty in Spanish, threw her drink in my face and flounced off.
Bitch! I didn’t dare wipe at the alcohol dripping down my face. “You said you would give me anything I wanted for saving your father’s life. Or was that a lie?”
Morales gestured to the chair across from him. “Sit.”
I sat.
“You have brass cojones.”
“Necessity has made me a bit reckless. I’m being hunted by a dangerous man, and I need a new identity.”
“Lover? Husband?” Vicente inquired politely.
“Neither. My stalker is General Jonathan Wilson. He’s a militia extremist who’s building his own army in Idaho. I decided not to join his organization and he didn’t take it well.”
His eyes cold with menace, Morales said, “After you rescued my padre, I had you investigated. You are the General’s daughter.”
“That’s open to debate. He sic’d a CIA hacker on me and the identities I bought off the dark web are worthless. I was told your counterfeit IDs are impossible to spot and your website can’t be hacked.”
“Miguel’s IDs are a work of art and very expensive,” Vicente said.
Dammit! Was he trying to weasel out of our deal? “More expensive than what I’m owed?”
“Yes.”
My shoulders slumped. I was down to my last fifty dollars and a lotto ticket. Calling him a lying welsher would only get me an unmarked grave. Hopefully, the General hadn’t posted the million-dollar bounty yet. Time for a tactical retreat and some treasure hunting. I stood. “Give my best to your father.”
His thug blocked my retreat.
“My padre died a year ago.”
I closed my eyes briefly. Why had I thought this was a good idea? “Sorry for your loss.”
“I know about the bounty,” Morales said.
A sigh escaped me. “Let me guess. You’re going to turn me over to him?”
“No.”
“No?” I was sure he’d jump at the opportunity for some easy money. “Why?”
Rage contorted Morales’s features. “The General raided one of my warehouses in Juarez and took what didn’t belong to him. You are going to help me get my property back.”
“Did it happen on May 5th?”
“It did.”
I was a dead woman walking. “Your weapons are at Fort Bravo. Getting in won’t be easy. The base is heavily fortified. The perimeter fence has eight-gun turrets with 50-caliber machine guns and some nifty remote-controlled weapons are hidden in the trees. To make things even more interesting there are surveillance cameras, sensors, and drones. Plus, all his soldiers are extremely trigger happy. How many men are you willing to lose?”
Morales scowled. “The General has an escape tunnel.”
“He probably does, but I never found it.” Think. Think. Think. What was daddy dearest up to? A map of Mexico flashed across my mind. Bingo. “The only intel I can give you is the General is planning on hitting the black market called Tepito in Mexico City.”
“When?” Morales demanded.
“I don’t know. The General doesn’t share his battle plans with me.”
An evil smile curled Morales’s mouth. “It doesn’t matter. We will be waiting for him.”
“Good luck. You’ll need it. The General’s a master of tactical strategy.” I gestured at the door. “Can I leave now?”
“No.”
A cold chill slithered down my spine. I was so fucked. “I can’t get you into Fort Bravo. When I ran, the General immediately changed all the gate codes and if he considers me a threat, he won’t hesitate to kill me.”
“I have decided to help you disappear.”
Seriously? I studied his aura. Whoa! He was telling the truth. “Why?”
“Not being able to find you will drive the General crazy. Crazy men make mistakes,” Morales answered.
“The General has a nasty temper. Make him angry enough, and eventually, he’ll screw up.”
“That is the plan.” Morales’s gaze roved over me. “But to succeed, we need to change your appearance and you will need a suitable job.”
“Okay.” Dying my hair wasn’t a problem. “My job skills are a bit unique. I can fly a military drone, drive a tank, repair any type of weapon, and I’m a whizz at accounting.” Which is how I found out Billy Bob was a thief.
“My cousin, Hector, works for the City of Tucson. I will have him find you a suitable job.”
Relief surged through me. “Thank you.”
“My men will be watching you,” Morales growled. “If I discover you have lied to me, you will not like the consequences.”
“I’m not lying. I want nothing to do with the General and his army. All I want is a normal life, but that won’t be possible until the General is stopped.”
One corner of Morales’s mouth twisted up in amusement. “As Maria Sandoval you will have a very ordinary life.”
“Sandoval? Are you serious? I can’t pass as Hispanic,” I protested.
“Once my sister is done with you, even the General won’t recognize you.”
Chapter Two
I gaped at my image in the mirror. A black-haired stranger stared back. A spray on tan turned my pale skin bronze. A perm had transformed my long, straight tresses into a curly, kinky mop. Morales was right. No one from Fort Bravo would recognize me.
The new job? I was now a traffic enforcement officer otherwise known as a meter maid. For a friggin’ fourteen dollars an hour, I got to walk around Tucson in the 110-degree heat and write parking tickets. My swell uniform made me look like a prison matron, and my only weapon was a can of mace. How long would it take for the spray on tan to melt off?
My Ducati motorcycle had mysteriously disappeared. When I asked Morales about it, he just smiled. “Do not worry. Along with the job, I am providing you with an apartment and a vehicle.
