Hide and Seek (14 page)

“Get in the weapons vault. Go now!”

“What? No. I’m not going to leave you—”

“God damn it, go!” His pistol still gripped in his right hand, he tried to lift his left one to push her into motion. Pain lanced him from his injury, but he ignored it. “Don’t worry about me. Go while you have the—”

Words dried up in his throat. Because at that same moment, the light from a red laser sight hovered on Lisa’s forehead.

The bastard holding the weapon on her stood behind Duarte now. His feet moved silently except for the crunch of broken glass. She saw him now, too. Lisa’s eyes went wide in the darkened room.

The bad guy held steady as he stepped farther inside. “Set the pistol down, motherfucker. Nice and slow. Push it out of reach.”

That fiery red dot was the only reason Duarte laid his gun down. If Lisa hadn’t been in the room—if she hadn’t been a trigger squeeze away from death right now—he would have told the asshole to get fucked and forced him to eat a lot of lead.

But fear had a stranglehold on him so long as she was in danger. The risk was too great. He shoved his weapon away.

“Lisa Becker,” the gunman said. “You need to come with me.”

Duarte braved a look over his shoulder at the man in night raid tactical gear and infrared goggles. No doubt about it, the team was military. Or former, more than likely.

“Stand up now, ma’am. My orders are to bring you in alive. Don’t make me hurt you.”

Duarte growled at the thought. “Who the fuck are you? Who sent you?”

The guy ignored the questions. “On your feet and walk to me, unless you want me to pop your boyfriend here.”

Like hell he would. Duarte’s fingers itched to reach for his pistol, but Lisa was already starting to comply. “Okay, okay. Please... don’t hurt him.”

Beneath his night-vision glasses, the gunman sneered. “He killed our captain. I ought to blow his fucking head off, but that’s not what I was hired to do. Now, move it, lady.”

Lisa got to her feet. “What do you want with me? Where are you going to take me?”

As she spoke, she inched almost imperceptibly backward, toward the far wall, her hands trembling at her sides. Her steps were hesitant, carrying her farther out of his reach.

He had to make a move. He had to chance it, or watch her end up in enemy hands. Not gonna fucking happen.

Outside the house, a sudden hail of gunshots blasted in the night.

He saw Lisa’s hand reach up along the wall in the instant her assailant’s head flinched toward the sound. She hit the light switch.

Hell yeah, clever girl.

Duarte rolled for his pistol at the same moment.

The room lit up, blinding after so much darkness. Especially for the asshole in the infrareds.

Duarte had his gun in hand and fired two rounds into the bad guy’s torso. He aimed to injure more than kill, because despite his fury, he knew he needed answers more than revenge. He’d have time for that later—on this man and whoever contracted him and his comrades to come after Lisa.

“John!” She ran to him as he came up on his feet and kicked the assailant’s rifle away from him.

The gunman writhed on the floor in anguish. Outside, silence had fallen. Alec appeared in the great room a second later. He glanced at the mortally wounded attacker as if eyeing fresh roadkill, all of his concern on Duarte and Lisa. “We’re clear outside. Lost Emilio, one of the guards. Another one got clipped in the leg. Everyone good in here?”

“John’s been shot,” Lisa said, her face stricken with worry.

He gave a dismissing shake of his head. “Shoulder wound. It’s nothing.”

Alec grunted. “Hell, I’ve self-dressed worse scrapes than that after a wild weekend. We’ll get you sewn up.”

Duarte wasn’t concerned with his own injury right now. He let go of Lisa to stalk over to the gunman who was still thrashing and groaning on the floor.

He aimed his pistol at the guy’s bloodless face. “If you want to keep breathing, I suggest you start talking.” But shit... even as he said it, he could see it was already too late for the man. They would have a few minutes at most to question him before he bled out. “Who are you working for?”

Defiant eyes glared up at him. He spoke around a wheezing moan. “Wouldn’t tell you... if I knew...”

Duarte chambered a round. “Who hired you? Who sent you after Lisa Becker? Trust me, asshole, I’ve got more time to do this than you do.”

“Don’t know who. Don’t... care who it is.” The guy coughed, a wet, raking sound. “Cap knew... he’s the only one... They only talked to the captain.”

Fuck.
At Alec’s questioning look, Duarte gestured to the body slumped over the window sill in the great room. “The one who clipped me in the wing.”

The talking dead man gave a raspy chuckle. “Too bad you killed him...”

“Yeah, it is. Too bad for you.” Duarte put the nose of his nine between the guy’s eyes. “Where were you going to take Lisa? What were the orders once you had her?”

His eyelids drooped as he struggled to breathe in and out. They weren’t going to have much time to do this. “Thirsty. Need... some water.”

“Answers first.” The drink wasn’t going to do him any good anyway. “What were your orders? Where were you taking Lisa?”

He licked his dry lips. “Temporary drop-off point... Someone was gonna collect her and... pay us for the job...”

Lisa made a small noise in the back of her throat, no doubt as sickened as Duarte was to hear there was a price on her head.

Duarte looked over at Alec, before glowering back down at the dying soldier. “I figured you for former military. That’s obvious. So, you’re fucking mercenaries?”

“Hell no.” He scowled, or maybe it was a wince. “Private security... hired about a week ago.”

“To do what, exactly?”

“Tail her. Report her movements...”

“You assholes broke into her house, planted the GPS trackers on her.”

No need for confirmation, but the man nodded. He closed his eyes, his breathing labored. “Three days ago... orders changed. Supposed to close the net, bring her in.” He groaned, face pinched with pain. “Shoulda been a one man job... Tate, our guy on task... he went missing, lost contact...”

The guy Duarte and Alec encountered at the cabin, no doubt. “So then what? What were the orders?”

“Get the girl... take out anyone in the way.” A violent shudder swept over the man. His color was bad, deathly white. “Jesus... so cold in here... water now... please?”

Duarte gave a tight nod and gestured for Alec to help him out. “Where was the drop-off point?”

“Don’t know.” He gave a weak shake of his head. “Jensen... he was supposed to report in. Text his contact...”

Duarte relaxed his hold on his pistol. No need for force anymore. His subject was getting more forthcoming now that death was pulling him under. “Jensen. He’s your captain?”

“Yeah.” The guy’s eyes rolled back in his head, lethargy settling over him. “Is he... Do you think he’s gonna be okay?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Duarte answered grimly. “Tell me about the drop-off arrangement. Captain Jensen texts his contact and lets them know you have Lisa Becker. Who’s waiting for her at the drop? I need a name, a description, anything.”

He got no answer, just fading light in the unfocused gaze blinking up at him. Damn it. Futile or not, Duarte kept his questions coming. “Does the word Phoenix mean anything to you? Your captain or anyone else ever mention it to you or the other men? What about Kyle Becker or Talon? These names, do any of them sound familiar?”

Alec returned with the water, but there was no point. The dying man’s breathing had slowed drastically now. When he closed his eyes, Duarte knew they wouldn’t open again.

As far as intel went, they still didn’t have much. “Whoever’s waiting for that all clear from the captain is going to know something’s wrong pretty damn quick here.”

Alec stared at him, and Duarte could practically see the wheels turning. “So let’s give them the all clear.”

“I know where you’re heading with this and I don’t like it.”

Alec pressed his case. “Their captain was the only one in contact with whoever hired them. Except, oops, he’s dead. Hazard of the job. So we tell them that. We call in the all clear like we’re part of the surviving team, we get the drop location, and we bring this fucking fight to their doorstep.”

Duarte wanted nothing more than to follow this lead to wherever it took them. But the plan wasn’t without problems. “Calling in the all clear and getting the drop location is one thing. They won’t let us near the doorstep when they see we’ve come empty-handed.”

“No, they won’t,” Alec agreed. “They’ll demand proof of life. We’ll have to show it to them.”

Alec’s sober expression made a curse explode out of Duarte. “No. No fucking way. Leave her out of this.”

“We wanted to see what was on the other end of this hook, Ranger. This is our chance.”

“With Lisa as the bait? Fuck you very much, Stingray. I should kick your ass just for suggesting—”

“Alec is right, John.”

When he glanced at Lisa, he didn’t see fear or confusion in her eyes. He didn’t see any of the things that were riding him at the mere idea of bringing her into the fray.

No, he saw a fortitude, and a bravery that staggered him.

“The only way we’ll get close—the only hope we have of getting to the truth about any of this—is by giving these assholes what they want. If that’s me, I need to know why as much as you do.” She drew in a breath, then pushed it out on a resigned sigh. “If this will get me closer to the truth about Kyle, whatever that truth ends up being, I need to know that now, too.”

He wanted to refuse her outright. Hell, every fiber of his being rejected the idea with violent repugnance. Not that she would have let him overrule her.

And damn it all to fuck anyway, he knew she was right. They might only have one shot at this, and they needed to take it while they had the chance.

Duarte went to her. The fact that she was unharmed after tonight’s attack eclipsed even his cold need for justice. It was a fierce relief he wouldn’t even attempt to hide. That she would willingly walk right back into battle terrified him, but it also made him love her all the more.

And yeah, it was love choking his heart right now.

Not halfway, like he’d been from the day he met her. Nothing halfway about anything he felt for her. He was all in, and he couldn’t let his miserable past or current enemies stand in the way of what he hoped to have with this woman.

My woman.

He lifted her beautiful face with the tips of his bloodstained fingers and kissed her. Heat zinged through him, everything he felt for her burning brighter than ever in the wake of this ordeal and the one that still lay ahead.

When their lips parted, Lisa’s gorgeous hazel eyes glimmered with determination. “No more running. No more hiding. Not for either one of us, John. If you’re in, then so am I. Together.”

Fuck, yeah.

This was his woman.

This was their fight.

This was their future, waiting on the other side of whatever went down tonight at the drop location.

Pulling her close, he kissed her again. Then he turned to Alec. “Let’s go do this.”

16

An hour later, Lisa sat in the backseat of a moving Escalade beside John. Alec was at the wheel, speeding them toward the appointed drop location somewhere north of Miami.

After regrouping at the island house, the three of them motored back to Marathon Key in the raiding party’s Zodiac. The big black SUV parked near the shore woke up and unlocked when John clicked the remote they had taken off the captain’s body back at the house.

The plan was to arrive at the drop-off point looking every bit the part of two security team survivors returning with their prize. To that end, John and Alec now wore the bloodied tactical gear and black fatigues of the dead. They were both clean-shaven with fresh buzz cuts that completed their transformations to startling effect.

Looking at John Duarte now, Lisa couldn’t help but recall the stony, hard-to-read Marine she’d first met on her visit to Camp Lejeune.

He’d owned a piece of her heart then, but now what she felt was far beyond that white-hot crush she’d had on him. Seated next to him now, with his strong hand idly caressing her arm and his serious brown eyes holding her with such intense affection, her heart ached with devotion.

Three nights ago, she couldn’t have imagined her life would be entwined with his again. Now she couldn’t imagine her life any other way.

All they had to do was survive tonight.

“We’re about ten minutes out from the drop location,” Alec advised from the driver’s seat. “Time to suit her up, Ranger.”

“Right.” John’s deep voice was quiet, sober. “Jesus, I hate like hell to do this.”

Lisa put her hand over his. “We have to make it believable. That means me, too.”

A tendon ticked in his smooth-shaven jaw before he bit off a low curse. He reached into a duffel bag they’d retrieved from the Zodiac. Inside was a dark hood, zip ties, and duct tape. He pulled them all out and set them on the seat.

Then he reached into another duffel that contained weapons they’d taken off the dead security team and a few more items he and Alec had collected from the cache back at the house.

John held a large semiautomatic pistol in his hand. “This one is unloaded,” he said. “I took the magazine out, and you can see there’s nothing in the chamber either.” He pulled the slide back and put his finger inside to show her it was totally empty. “Shit. I didn’t notice this until just now...”

“What’s wrong?” Lisa asked.

“This gun. It’s a SIG Sauer. Nine-millimeter.”

Alec glanced in the rearview mirror. “The weapon in our premonitions was the same model.”

“Yeah,” John said. “Same one.”

Hope bloomed suddenly and brightly in Lisa’s breast. “Maybe that’s what you saw in the vision, then? Oh my God, John... Maybe that’s what you and Alec both saw. You holding the gun on me, not someone else.”

He stared at her for a moment, considering. “Yeah. That could be it.”

“This is our exit,” Alec said from up front. “We’re five minutes to go-time, guys.”