Luke figured they probably had twenty-four hours before they needed to make a move. He was wrong.

After Mia fell asleep in his arms, he dozed, leaning against the headboard. Yeah, he was tired and really ought to pull out the hide-a-bed in the next room, but he had a lot to think about. No matter how innocent the girl in his arms looked, he’d been utterly gobsmacked to find that damned GPS unit. Sure, she didn’t understand why he needed to get her out of the hacienda while he left the others behind, but he’d been right. They all had family around Guadalupe y Calvo. It was dark. He could bet every single one of them made it out of there as long as they knew how to be quiet and keep their heads down. Besides, Luke wasn’t on assignment to be a Good Samaritan. His job was to put an end to Morales’ reign of terror, full stop. In the past fortnight, Mia had provided as much if not more intel than he’d collected in months. He needed to keep her safe, and he could damned well guess she didn’t have anyone to run to.

His head had lolled to the side when he heard footsteps in the corridor. Not civilian footsteps plodding along aimlessly, but carefully placed steps meant to make little sound. Luke’s skin prickled like it did when he was about to spring into action.

With his next breath, the footsteps stopped.

Luke sprang into action, rolling with Mia onto the floor. As the door burst open, she bucked beneath him, squealing. He snatched a glass from the bedside table as he whispered in her ear, “Stay down. Understand?”

She froze, nodding her head once.

The floor squeaked in the adjoining room.

At a crouch on his knees, Luke peered over the bed. The muzzle of a rifle inched into view. The roar of his breath rushed in his ears. His heart hammered. The perspiration on his fingers made the glass slip a fraction. He tightened his grip and waited.

He had one chance.

He couldn’t blow it.

The gunman’s hand came into view.

Luke’s arm tensed, ready.

A little further.

With his next blink, he caught a glimpse of the gunman’s face, straightened and hurled the glass, hitting the shooter in the center of his forehead. Stunned, the man tottered then fell to his back.

“Shit!” another voice cursed.

While the muzzle of number two’s rifle jutted around the corner, Luke dove onto Mia, covering her with his body. The rifle erupted in repeating fire while fluff rained down around them. Squealing, she covered her head as the shooter started around the bed.

“Wait!” Luke yelled.

Silence rang in his ears. “You want the girl alive?” he asked.

“Si.”

“What?” Mia whispered, squirming.

“Trust me,” he whispered so quietly, he barely heard it himself. But he took the sudden quietening of her body for her assent.

In a bold move, he stood, pulling Mia with him and shielding her with his body. “This Sheila’s been nothing but a pain in the ass.”

“You are the pain,” she spat.

Keeping her at his rear, Luke assessed his opponent. Hard features, beady eyes, but he held his gun too low. Any trained soldier in a combat situation would keep the rifle secured against his shoulder. The problem? Bullets still killed whether they were fired by a punk or an expert.

Luke took a step nearer, far enough to clear the end of the bed.

“That’s far enough,” said the goon, his trigger finger twitching. “Hand her over.”

“No worries, mate.” He cracked a smile, watching the man’s trigger finger in his peripheral vision. “Come now, girly. Time to go back to your master.”

Mia said nothing as she allowed him to lead her toward the shooter.

As soon as the punk’s eyes shifted, the gun lowered a bit more. As he released a hand to grab Mia’s arm, Luke pounced.

The gun fired, ripping a line of bullet holes through the wall as he twisted it from the man’s grip. The thug came around with a left hook. Luke bobbed and weaved under the strike, landing an uppercut to the jaw. The shooter lost his balance with the force of the punch, exposing his temple.

That’s all the invitation I need.

Gritting his teeth, Luke slammed the rifle’s butt into the man’s head, dropping him with the single blow.

“We’re leaving now,” he said as he pulled a clip of ammo from the punk’s belt. “Stay close behind me.”

Mia stepped over the gunman’s legs. “D-do you think there are more?”

“Never assume there’re not.”

He checked the hallway before leading her down the fire stairs and out the hotel’s rear door. He scanned the cars in the lot and saw no one—no idling engine—nothing suspicious.

The faint sound of sirens screeched in the distance.

“Keep your head down and make a beeline for the car!”

***

Luke took it slow driving out of town. He was pretty sure the two thugs he left back at the hotel were still alive, but if he was caught, there was every chance he’d end up in an American jail while Garth worked a mountain of red tape to get him out and that couldn’t happen.

“Go faster!” Mia whipped around, looking out the rear window.

“We’re more likely to be pulled over if I do.”

She plopped down in her seat. “I thought you were going to hand me over.”

“I told you to trust me, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, but—” She swiped a hand across her mouth, her eyebrows drawing together.

“But what?”

“After I…you know. I thought you wanted to be rid of me.”

“I can’t say I wasn’t aggro. In fact, I could have turned you over my knee and given you a good hiding.”

She chuckled—a nervous chuckle. “You’d do that?”

“I didn’t, did I?”

“No.”

“But I thought about it.”

She chuckled again. This time, more readily.

“What?” he asked.

“I like that you care.”

“Because I wanted to spank you?”

“No. Because you wanted to and didn’t.”

“You’re bonkers.”

“Maybe I am.” When they passed the turnoff for the airport, she shifted in her seat and pointed to the exit. “Aren’t we going to get the plane?”

“Two reasons we’re not. First, it needs jet fuel to get off the ground. And second, it has been quarantined, and I can swear on a stack of Bibles we’d be detained for the little shootout we were just a party to.”

“Oh.” She sat staring out the windscreen for a moment. “Then where are we headed?”

Luke tapped the GPS displaying on his phone. “Colorado, I reckon. But I need to call the boss first.”

He drove for about an hour before he rang the CO.

“Talk to me.” Garth picked up on the first ring.

“Got you on speaker, boss. We ran into a bit of trouble at the hotel in Las Cruces.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“Padrino’s goons. Had to make a run for it.”

“How the hell did they get to you so fast? I thought you said the hacienda was under attack.”

“He has people everywhere.” Luke looked over at Mia. She had her seat reclined and her eyes closed, but he didn’t think for a minute she was sleeping. “Hold on, I need to pull over.”

“Where are you?”

“Heading north on Interstate Twenty-Five.” Luke took the exit, stopped the car and muted the phone. “Stay here.”

He didn’t wait for her to respond, he pulled out the keys and walked far enough away not to be heard. Yeah, it might be the dumbest move of his career, but if he didn’t come clean, Garth would see right through him. He told the whole story about Mia’s abduction, the crown of pain, and topped it off with how he’d caught her with El Padrino’s tracking device. “She was terrified. On top of that, she thought she couldn’t trust me because I left the hacienda without saving everybody’s bum.”

“Jesus Christ.”

“She didn’t know the device was in El Padrino’s packet. It was a lack of judgement, sir. She’s been brainwashed, I’ll admit, coerced into believing she can’t go anyplace in the world where Vincent Morales won’t find her.”

“God damn, if she hadn’t provided so much intel for the bank accounts, I’d tell you to put her on a slow boat to Antarctica.”

Luke winced. “I don’t think we need to do that, sir. But we do need to put her somewhere she won’t be found.”

“How about her family? Have you located them?”

“I haven’t had time, but that’s the first place Morales would look.” He swiped a hand across his mouth. “There’s only one place on the planet she’ll be safe.”

“Ayers Rock?”

“ICE.”

“Are you fucking nuts?” Garth bellowed. “What about a highly secretive clandestine organization do you not understand?”

“It’s the only thing that makes sense. You said yourself she’s provided top shelf intel. Most of her life she’s been living with the most sought-after drug lord of our time. She’s young. She made a mistake.”

“She made a major fuck-up.”

“I’m not saying she doesn’t need to be watched, but she’s smart—an incredibly fast learner. And she’s our greatest conduit to the heart of the Morales Cartel.”

“Fox, you’re insane.”

“Maybe, but you want to bring Morales down, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So do I. So does she. And when he’s behind bars, she might even be able to breathe.”

“I’m still not convinced.”

“All right. What do you suggest? I’ve got no other place to take her. No place where she won’t be looking over her shoulder at every step.” Luke stopped and paced while silence filled his ear. “Garth?”

“I must be out of my mind.”

Luke let out a breath he felt like he’d been holding for an hour. “Thank you, sir.”

“But you’re responsible for her. She puts one strand of hair out of place and I’ll come down on her like a swatter on a fly.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I’m routing a transport to Tinian airfield—it’s nothing more than an abandoned dirt strip, north of Albuquerque. Latitude 35.838, Longitude 107.335.”

“Roger that. Over.”