Against the Law (20 page)

“Sí, es mi madre.”

“I don't want to stay here,” she said returning to English. “I want to go home.” And then she started to cry.

Antonio's lips curled in revulsion.

“You do not want her,” Santos said, gripping her small
hand in his. “Give the child to me. A pretty little girl with skin as soft as petals and eyes like a cat…she is worth a lot of money. Let me have her. Let us deal Weller the final blow.”

She cried harder.

“Get her out of here. For now, take her to my mother. I will decide what is to be done with her later.”

“You need to finish what you started. Word will get out that you are soft.”

Antonio snorted. But he didn't like to think it might be true. And he liked to reward his men when they pleased him, as Santos did.

“In a day or two, I will give you my decision.” He waved them away with a flick of his hand. “Now, take her away. I cannot abide a crying child.”

Santos just smiled.

 

They grouped together in the main room of the abandoned office. The afternoon was gone, the sun sinking rapidly behind a mesquite-covered hill to the west, the men growing restless to get underway. Walking over to one of the boxes on the floor next to the counter, Dev reached down and pulled out a Ruger P95. He checked to be sure the clip was loaded, walked back and pressed the pistol into Lark's hand.

“You know how to use this. It's basically the same as the one you fired in L.A. Montez will be staying here with you.” Not that Dev liked it. But Montez's job was to fly the chopper and they didn't need him for that until tomorrow night. In the meantime, Dev needed someone to stay with Lark. “Take it just in case.”

He felt her faint tremor as her fingers brushed his and she took hold of the pistol.

Turning back to the weapons, Dev took the Browning 9 mm that Cantrell had brought with him in mind, stuffed the silencer that went with it into his pocket, picked up a fixed blade Ka-Bar knife from another box and shoved it into the sheath he had strapped to his leg.

Cantrell carried a Glock .45 with a custom handgrip. His jaw flexed as he walked over and picked up an M-24 sniper rifle, a gun that matched his area of expertise. Montez, Riggs and Clive followed, each man arming himself with a handgun, an automatic weapon, ammunition and miscellaneous personal gear.

They wouldn't carry the flash grenades till they made their assault on the compound tomorrow night.

Dev looked the men over as they checked their weapons. “Remember, tonight all we're after is intel. If we get what we need, tomorrow we go in.”

He checked his wristwatch. “Wheels up in an hour.”

The men muttered their agreement.

Johnnie Riggs grinned.

A
s Lark followed Dev out of the building and into the cool desert air, darkness settled thickly around her. There was only a sliver of moon, but a brilliant mist of stars sprayed across the black night sky.

Ahead of her, dressed in full camouflage, his feet in worn combat boots and his face streaked with black grease paint, Dev paused at the edge of the work yard. He looked like no one she had ever seen before and yet he was more familiar than anyone she had ever known.

He glanced up, spotting her as she drew near. She felt his eyes on her, intense and slightly brooding.

“You look worried,” he said.

“I'm trying not to be.” But he was right. Her stomach felt tied up in knots. “I don't suppose you're planning to let me go with you.” She knew the answer. On this kind of a mission, she would only be a liability.

“Not a chance. Besides, all we're doing tonight is gath-
ering information. We won't be bringing Chrissy out until tomorrow.”

She didn't argue. She had learned to pick her battles. Tomorrow night she was going with them. Nothing in the world was going to keep her away.

“Is there anything I can do till you get back?”

“Just keep an eye out. We aren't expecting trouble, but you never know. If something happens, Montez is here and you've got a gun. Don't be afraid to use it.”

“I'll do what I have to. It's you I'm worried about.”

He reached out to her for a moment, cupped her cheek. Lark felt a soft little tremor.

“Nothing to worry about. Not tonight. We'll keep our distance, just get close enough to set up our equipment and see what's going on inside the house.”

She prayed he was right. But Alvarez lived in a veritable fortress and he was ruthless in the extreme. If they were spotted, his men wouldn't hesitate to kill them.

A chill swept through her that had nothing to do with the cool desert air and she shivered.

“You're cold.” Dev drew her back against his chest. “You ought to go inside.”

She turned, slid her arms around his neck and looked up at him. “I don't want to go inside. I wish we were somewhere else, someplace we could make love.”

She felt his muscles tense. She had seen the way he looked at her. All day, he had watched her, following her movements with fierce intensity and a hunger he couldn't quite hide. Bending his head, he settled his mouth very softly over hers. It was a tender, gentle kiss, but the ten
sion in his body told her how much it cost to hold himself back.

“God, I want you,” he whispered between nibbling kisses. “You have no idea how much.” His tongue ran over the seam between her lips and she parted for him, allowing him entrance. His kiss turned deep and hot, wet and fierce, and Lark kissed him back with the same intensity.

Dev was breathing hard and so was she when he broke away. He ran a hand through his hair. “We can't do this. Not right now. I need to keep my mind on the mission and I can't if I'm thinking of you.”

“You're right, I'm sorry.”

His mouth edged up. “I'm not.” He kissed her briefly one last time. “You might want to wipe the grease paint off your nose. It's a dead giveaway.”

She grinned, used the tail of her khaki shirt to erase any telltale smudges. Her grin slowly faded. “Promise me you'll be careful.”

“I'm always careful.” He tipped his head toward the building they used for shelter. “We need to get back.”

She nodded. It was time to go.

Lark told herself everything would be all right.

But the chill returned just the same.

 

An hour passed and then another. The men were gone and she was too restless and worried to stay inside. Montez was around somewhere but she hadn't seen him and the solitude and the waiting were beginning to wear on her nerves. She had to get out, breathe some of the clear night air. Outside, in the wide expanse of the
vast desert landscape, her worry wasn't so palpable, so consuming.

She walked for a while, making random circles in the flat, open work yard, kicking gravel, picking up stones and tossing them away. Finally she found a broad low boulder, sat down and stared into the darkness.

“So…you are nervous. You worry for the little one?”

Lark recognized the soft Spanish accent, turned and looked up at the handsome Latino. She hadn't heard Rafe's approaching footsteps. But these were those kind of men.

“She's only four. I can't imagine how frightened she must be.”

He studied her face in the moonlight. “
Sí,
I am sure you ache for the child, but for now your worries are for
him.
”

It was true. It was Dev who dominated her thoughts tonight, Dev whose life at this moment could be in danger. But her feelings were none of Montez's business. “I'm concerned about all of them.”

He sat down on the boulder beside her, pulled cigarette papers and a small pouch of tobacco from the pocket of his shirt and began to roll a smoke.

“Why don't you just buy them?” she asked.

He poured some of the tobacco onto the paper, licked the sides and twisted the ends. “I do not wish the nicotine to own me as it does so many others. But I enjoy the pleasure once in a while.”

She had seen him smoke only one time before, after they had eaten some of the MREs—Meals Ready to Eat—that Cantrell had brought with the supplies. Montez
pulled the drawstring on the pouch and stuck it back in his shirt pocket. She watched as he lit the cigarette with a match he struck on the rock, drew in a lungful of smoke, then let it float around him as he breathed slowly out.

They sat in silence for a while.

“Cantrell knows what he is doing,” Montez said. “The men will return.” He took a last draw on the handmade cigarette and flicked it away. Lark watched the burning tip arc up and disappear into the darkness.

She got up from the boulder and stood staring into the night, wondering if the men had safely reached their destination. Wondering if they would find Chrissy or if all of this had been in vain.

She felt the heat of Montez's body as he came up behind her. She stiffened as his long dark fingers rested gently on her shoulders, felt his warm breath as he lowered his head to the side of her neck.

“Hey!” Lark jerked away before his lips found their target. “I have no interest in that.” She turned to face him. “Or in you.”

He chuckled softly, a deep rumbling sound. “I thought perhaps I could take your mind off the Ranger.”

She made no reply. She couldn't stop thinking of Dev, wouldn't be able to rest until he was safely returned.

“You are in love with him?”

She looked up. Rafael Montez wasn't as tall as Dev, but he was taller than she was. “What I feel for him doesn't matter. We lead different lives.”

“I see.”

She wondered if he did. Those penetrating black eyes seemed to see things other people missed.

“If I ever found a woman as brave and strong as you, as beautiful and desirable, I would bind her to me and never let her go.”

She lifted an eyebrow. “And just how would you do that?”

A wide, white grin flashed in the darkness. “That is easy,
chica.
I would make love to her as no man ever has. I would drive her mad with desire for me and she would never look at another man.”

She laughed. The man could be charming.

She thought of Dev and how good it was making love with him, how she always seemed to desire him. Perhaps Montez was right and it was already too late. Devlin Raines had branded her as his and she would never get over him. She belonged to him and no other man would do.

And yet when this was over, there was no doubt he would walk away.

“We should go back inside,
querida.
” The softly spoken endearment floated over her.

She looked up at him, at the smooth dark skin and the thick black lashes rimming his heavy-lidded eyes. He was incredibly male, undeniably sexy. And yet she felt not the least stirring of attraction.

For the first time Lark realized how hard she had fallen for Dev. And that when their time together was over, it was going to break her heart.

 

The mission that night began smoothly. Which made Dev nervous. In his experience, when things went too well, trouble lurked just around the corner.

But Cantrell had done his job and before their arrival at the mine, had located a narrow dirt road, more a trail that led to the top of the mountain overlooking the compound. The grounds and house, a replica of an Italian villa, sprawled over half a dozen acres a mile below. Despite the red tile roof and ornate decorations, the place looked more like a prison than a home.

And it appeared to be nearly impregnable—except for the deep ravines cut by flash floods into the jagged mountain behind it. Those ravines would provide them with cover and access they needed to reach the wall around the house.

Leaving the Jeep on the road facing downhill in case they needed to make a hasty escape, they began their descent. Silently cursing the spiny cactus that choked the ravine and keeping a close watch for rattlesnakes, they stayed out of sight near the bottom of the arroyo.

It was dark but still early. They needed to get their equipment in place while Chrissy was still awake so they could detect her whereabouts—if she was actually inside the house.

At two hundred yards above the wall surrounding the compound, still high enough they could see over it, they climbed to the edge of the arroyo. Using a pair of night-vision goggles, Dev made a thorough sweep of their surroundings. No patrols in the area. They couldn't see anyone but the guard in the tower and a guard who occasionally made a pass around the base of the wall.

Cantrell set the parabolic microphone up on a tripod and the listening began. Clive, Johnnie, Trace and Dev headed farther down the ravine to get close enough to use
the infrared thermal imaging camera and plan the route they would be taking when they left tomorrow night.

When they were near enough, Dev settled in a spot close to the edge of the arroyo. Lying flat on the sandy earth, he flipped open the video screen on the infrared camera and began to skim it slowly over the buildings inside the walled area around the house. Trace moved off in the darkness, making his way farther down the hill to test his laptop security intrusion software.

“You were right, Hambone,” Dev said low and soft to Johnnie as he studied the images on the screen. “That building on the left is a barracks. About ten warm bodies inside.”

Johnnie quietly cursed.

Dev moved the camera over the rest of the outbuildings and grounds, catching the image of another five men, then turned the camera toward the house.

“Lots of folks inside,” Dev said. They were close enough to see the outline of people in the different rooms of the villa, but it was hard to tell if the person was male or female.

Dev zeroed in on an area with a row of smaller rooms that looked like it could be the servants' quarters. Larger rooms that appeared to be bedrooms were in another part of the house. Sure enough, in one of those bigger rooms, two small images moved around next to a larger, broader outline.

“Could be one of them is the girl,” Johnnie said, peering over his shoulder.

“Could be,” Dev said.

Clive crawled up just then. He'd been timing the
outside guard's rounds. “Guy's a little irregular, but it looks like he's making a sweep every twenty minutes. Be a little tight, but we should be able to get in and out before someone misses him.”

Dev just nodded.

Clive looked down at the small glowing images on the video screen. “That her?”

“Can't tell for sure. We need to know what Cantrell's been able to hear.”

They finished their surveillance just as Trace returned. He gave them a thumbs-up, indicating his software was going to work, and they started back up the mountain. At two hundred yards, they met up with Cantrell, who packed up his gear and silently joined them. They didn't speak until they reached the Jeep.

“How'd it go?” Dev asked.

“Lots of voices,” Jake said. “Some interesting information on Alvarez. It's all recorded. You can listen when we get back.”

“Anything for sure?” Dev asked.

“Alvarez has one helluva staff. Sounded like two different women were giving them orders. I'm pretty sure there are at least two kids. They were talking back and forth but they were both speaking Spanish.”

“Could you tell if one was a girl?”

“I'm pretty sure one of them was. She was saying something about a kitten, but like I said, she wasn't speaking English.”

Dev's chest expanded with relief. “Chrissy's bilingual. And Lark's promised to get her a kitten.”

“Bingo,” Johnnie said.

The men tossed their equipment into the back of the Jeep and jumped in. Cantrell slid behind the wheel and Dev climbed in beside him. Trace jumped into the back. Jake let the vehicle roll a ways down the mountain, then fired up the engine and drove back toward camp.

They had what they needed. Unfortunately, the compound was even more heavily manned than any of them had believed. It didn't matter.

Tomorrow night they were going in.

 

They filed back inside the building, tired but ready to do what they'd come for, all but Riggs, who had volunteered to stay and watch the compound.

“As soon be here as sleepin' in that rusty old building,” he grumbled. But the truth was they needed someone to stay and watch, to be sure their intel hadn't changed when they got there tomorrow night.

Back at camp, Dev spoke briefly to Lark, then led her over to Cantrell, who stood near the battered wooden table. “Play that recording for me, will you, Jake?”

“You got it.” Cantrell set the equipment on the table, then worked with his digital recording gear to bring up the sounds he had captured on his parabolic mic.