CHAPTER SIX
The hunters had arrived too soon. No way should have they already been at the cabin.
The Shadow Agents hadn’t even had a chance to leave their trail of bread crumbs for Guerrero yet. They weren’t ready for his attack.
They shouldn’t have underestimated the man’s resources.
A bullet tore right through the door next to Logan. He barely heard the thunder of the weapons, and he wouldn’t let himself look back at Juliana. He didn’t want to see the fear in her gaze.
He had to focus to get the job done. To protect her.
Kill or be killed.
Logan wasn’t in the mood to die.
Not wasting any bullets, Logan took aim only when he had a target. When he had a target, his bullet slammed home, taking down another one of the attackers.
Logan panned for another mark.
Another one hit the floor.
They should have stood the hell down when he told them to. Logan’s breath rasped in his lungs. Adrenaline had tightened his body, pumped through his blood and amped him up for the battle.
He’d always enjoyed the battles, but this time, with Juliana’s life on the line, the tension edging through him cut sharper than a knife.
From his vantage point, he saw when the next man rushed through the cabin’s front door, but Logan didn’t squeeze the trigger this time.
Gunner was the man in his sights.
Gunner’s gaze swept around the room and he gave a low whistle. “Three down…all in the heart.”
Kill or be killed.
Logan didn’t open the door. “Clear?”
“Yeah, yeah, we’re clear, Alpha One.”
He finally glanced back at Juliana, but instead of the fear he’d expected to see burning in her eyes, the woman just looked mad.
Her fingers tightly clutched her gun, and he wondered…would she have used it, if she’d had to do the job?
As far as he knew, Juliana had never hurt another soul in her life. And shooting at another human, being ready to take a life, that was a line many couldn’t cross.
Logan opened the door. I never saw that damn line. The kills had come too easily for him.
Monster.
He knew what he was, even if Juliana didn’t.
A weapon. A killer. An assassin. Senator James had been right about him after all.
Now Juliana had just seen up close and personal how dangerous he could be. Her left hand reached up and curled around his arm. “Are we safe?”
He glanced back to the outer room. Gunner was checking the men. No point in that. They sure weren’t moving.
His nod was grim.
Then Logan opened the door, making sure to keep his body in front of Juliana’s, just in case. “What the hell,” he began, voice lethal, “just happened?”
No way should those guards have gotten this close. Guerrero’s men weren’t even supposed to know about the location, not until they’d set up a more secure perimeter, but…
“We got slammed,” Gunner said, staring at him with narrowed eyes. “Explosives, artillery…they came prepared, but we still managed to take them all out.”
So they had. His feet crunched over the broken glass. The cabin was shredded, windows busted. The front door was ripped from its hinges and bullet holes lined the walls.
He’d loved this place once. It had been a sanctuary, courtesy of his stepfather. A place to lick his wounds.
A place to share with Juliana.
Not any longer.
Logan bent next to one of the fallen men. With Juliana so close, he hadn’t been able to take any chances. Kill shots. If the men had survived, they would have just kept shooting at him.
“Tell me you have someone alive outside,” Logan said, not glancing up. If they had one of Guerrero’s men in custody, they could try to make him talk. The problem in Mexico was that too many there were too afraid to talk to authorities—really, to those who hadn’t already been paid off by Guerrero. The guy wasn’t called El Diablo for nothing. People feared him because he could bring hell to their lives.
“The ones still breathing turned tail and ran.”
Figured.
Logan’s hold tightened on his gun. This was just—
He heard the whisper of cloth almost too late. A rustle of sound that shouldn’t have been there. He glanced up at the broken window and saw the barrel of the gun pointing toward him.
Logan started to lunge to the side even as he brought up his own weapon, but then something—someone—slammed into him, knocking Logan to the floor.
His bullet blasted out, still heading for its target. A man screamed even as Logan grabbed for…
Juliana?
She’d been the one to knock into him. He twisted her, shoving her body behind his.
Gunner had already made his way to the window. He flew out with his hands, breaking the gunman’s wrist and sending the weapon tumbling through the ground.
Logan’s gaze swept over Juliana. Okay. She’s okay.
He pushed her back and rushed to his feet. In the next instant, Logan was at Gunner’s side. Logan grabbed the now-moaning man and dragged his sorry hide through the window.
Gunner kicked the man’s discarded weapon a good five feet away.
Juliana had risen to her feet now. She still had her gun out—and aimed right at the moaning man.
Blood streaked down his face. He glanced up at her, and his lips twisted in a sneer. “You’re…the one…”
Logan put his own weapon under the man’s chin. “Where is he?”
The man’s gaze, a dark brown, turned back to Logan. His sneer stretched. “The lover…think you’re keeping her safe?” A shake of his head. “You’re the one killing her…leading us…right to…her.” The man’s voice was raspy. As Logan stared at him, he could see the jagged scars from an old injury that crossed the man’s neck.
“No one’s killing her,” Logan growled. “You can be sure of that.” He shoved the man back. He had to. The temptation to attack was much too strong.
Logan positioned his body near Juliana. He didn’t want her to see what was coming, but he couldn’t let her leave. Not with the chaos outside. What if Gunner was wrong? What if there were more men? Gunner hadn’t known about this one….
Gunner had shoved the man down to the floor, got him on his knees, and Gunner’s weapon rested at the back of the man’s head. “Who sent you?” They already knew, yet the question still had to be asked. They needed the man to confess.
But the bleeding man just laughed.
“Tell us,” Logan snarled.
The man’s laughter slowly faded. He tried to tilt his head to see Juliana, ignoring the gun pressed so close to him as if it truly weren’t there. “Ah…little señorita…he’ll keep coming for you.”
Logan felt Juliana’s hand tighten on his arm. “Your voice… I remember you.”
Then she lunged forward, trying to get to the man. Logan caught her around the waist and hauled her back.
“You were there!” Juliana yelled at the kneeling man. “That first night in Mexico, you were the one who took me…. You kept saying…little señorita! I didn’t see your face, but your voice—I’ll never forget it!”
He didn’t move. Juliana sure did. She twisted and fought like a wildcat in Logan’s arms. He snatched the gun from her hand and held her as tightly as he could.
If Juliana really could tie this man to her kidnapping, and they could link him to Guerrero, make him talk…
“I know your voice….” she snarled.
The voice was distinctive.
“I know you,” Juliana said. She had stopped fighting, for the moment. Logan wasn’t about to make the mistake of letting her go. The woman could just be trying to trick him.
Their captive’s head had lowered. His shoulders sagged inward a bit.
“You work for Diego Guerrero,” Gunner charged. He’d never once relaxed his stance. “And you’re going to tell us everything we want to know about your boss, unless you want to wind up like your friends.”
“Who are you?” Logan wanted to know. They’d start with a name and tear the guy’s life apart, link him to Guerrero. Find the man and then—
Their captive’s head tilted. He actually lifted his chin and shoved the back of his head against Gunner’s gun, as if daring the other man to shoot. “Mi nombre es Luis Sanches.”
Logan nodded. Okay, now they were—
“Muerte no me asusta.”
Logan’s body tensed. Death doesn’t scare me.
The man’s head shoved against Gunner’s weapon again. “Do it! Kill me!”
Gunner’s eyes narrowed to faint slits.
“El Diablo…he can do so much worse than muerte for me.” His shoulders shook. “Much worse.”
Logan released Juliana. “Don’t move.” He breathed the words into her ear.
Luis’s gaze flickered toward them. “That’s why he’ll have her… He knows you… Always understands his enemy—”
“We can offer you protection,” Logan said. He knew the drill. If you rolled on someone like Guerrero…yeah, you could expect one real short life. “Give you a new name, a new—”
But Luis was shaking his head. “I won’t betray him.”
Gunner hauled the guy to his feet. “When he finds out that we have you in custody, do you think that’s gonna matter? Guerrero will just assume that you sold him out. You’ll be finished either way.”
Juliana wasn’t speaking, just staring at Luis, and Logan realized—Luis was staring back.
“Little señorita, wish…I’d never seen you in Mexico,” Luis said. His hands were by his sides. He looked beaten, hopeless.
“I wish you hadn’t, either,” Juliana said. Her voice was angry, snapping. “I wish none of this had ever happened.”
“Sí…”
Logan glared at him. “You will help us to catch Guerrero.” Every instinct that Logan had screamed that this guy wasn’t an average flunky. He was older, with shades of gray spiking the edges of his dark hair. His eyes knew too much, had seen too much.
“No, I won’t help you.” Luis’s voice held no emotion.
Logan turned away from him, marched over and grabbed his cell. Sydney answered instantly. “What do you see?” he asked her.
A faint hum of sound, then “All enemy bodies are down. Perimeter is secure.” Her voice, calm, easy, belied the bloody nightmare that had to be waiting beyond the cabin.
“We need transport,” he told her, glancing over at Luis Sanchez. “We’ve got a live one in here.”
But Luis shook his head. “No, you don’t.”
Then he lunged forward, surging away from Gunner. Luis lifted his hand, and too late, Logan realized that when that man had been kneeling on the floor, when his hands had been at his boots…
He went for a backup weapon.
A glinting knife blade was grasped in Luis’s hands. Logan brought up his gun in an instant. “Drop it.”
Luis wasn’t charging with the weapon. Not coming to attack. But—“My daughter…I will miss her….”
Then, even as Gunner lunged for the guy, Luis shoved the knife into his own chest.
“No!” Juliana screamed.
Too late.
Blood bloomed on Luis’s shirt. His eyes widened. Not with fear or agony.
Relief.
Gunner grabbed Luis from the back. Luis’s fingers were still clenched on the hilt of the knife. His legs gave way, and blood sprayed around him.
“What’s happening?” Sydney screamed in Logan’s ear. And he realized that he had the gun in his right hand, and he was still clutching the phone in his left.
He stared down at Luis’s body. The man was a killer; he’d known exactly where to deliver the death blow.
“We won’t need the prisoner transport any longer.”
Luis was still alive, barely, but Logan knew he wouldn’t be for much longer. Logan shoved the phone into his pocket as he stalked toward the dying man.
Gunner had lowered him to the floor. He hadn’t tried to remove the knife. If he did…well, Logan knew Luis wouldn’t even have a few moments left to live then.
They had to get the man to talk, while he still could.
“Where is Guerrero?” Logan demanded.
“My daughter…” Luis said with a smile. “She’s…lovely…”
“Where is Guerrero?”
“He…won’t touch her…now…”
Because Luis had chosen to die instead of rolling over on his boss? Rage burned inside of Logan.
“So beautiful…my sweet…” Luis’s eyes flickered. “Marie…”
The man wouldn’t be telling him anything more.
Logan glanced at the other bodies. Then his gaze found Juliana’s. She was standing just a few feet away, her face too pale.
They found her already. How the hell did they do that?
Then he remembered the words that had tumbled from Luis right after he’d dragged the guy through the window.
The lover…think you’re keeping her safe?
How had Luis known that he’d been Juliana’s lover? He watched as Juliana’s eyes dipped to the dead men and she swallowed. Her shoulders rolled back as she tried to straighten her spine.
You’re the one killing her…leading us…right to…her.
He hurried forward and grabbed her arm. “Let’s go.” Syd would already have a cleanup crew en route, but this location was compromised. No longer the perfect trap, with the bait to lure Geurrero…
He’s the one setting a trap for us.
And Logan wasn’t going to just sit around while that man closed in for the kill.
But Juliana wasn’t moving. “Where? Where do we go? He’s going to find me. He found me here, after just a few hours and—”
He pulled her close. “Do you trust me?”
Her lips parted.
“Do you?”
Juliana nodded.
The relief he felt had his tense muscles aching. “Then let me get you out of here.” He couldn’t tell her his plans right then. More lies.
Would they ever stop?
He’d been lying to her since the first day they met, and those lies had torn a hole right through any dreams that he might have ever had.
The day Juliana found out the truth about him, about why he’d first walked into that diner to meet her…
It would be the last day she ever trusted him.
But he led her outside. Jasper already had an SUV idling near the porch steps. They jumped into the back, rushed away. The windows would be bulletproof, the vehicle’s body reinforced.
The SUV drove fast, hurtling down that narrow road.
“We’ve got backup on site,” Jasper said, his drawl barely evident. “Syd called in reinforcements. The road will be clear.”
It might be clear, but that didn’t mean Guerrero didn’t have someone out there, watching them, following them.
Guerrero had definitely taken the bait. He wanted Juliana, wanted her alive, because not one single shot had ever been taken at her.
And when a man like Guerrero wanted something…he didn’t stop.
Come for her yourself. Come and face me.
Because Logan wasn’t the type of man to ever stop, either.
* * *
SHE DIDN’T KNOW how long they drove. She didn’t really care. Juliana sat hunched in the car and saw the image of a man taking his own life flash before her eyes.
That man—Luis—had been so afraid of Guerrero that he’d killed himself instead of betraying his boss.
Logan hadn’t so much as flinched.
During the ride, he’d been on the phone beside her, talking to the mysterious Mercer and demanding explanations. He wanted to know who’d leaked their location.
But every now and then, she could feel Logan’s eyes on her. And she could have sworn there was suspicion in his gaze.
Why?
The vehicle slowed. Juliana blinked and glanced around even as the engine died away. “Another safe house?” she whispered, and yes, she’d put too much emphasis on safe. At this point, she didn’t think anyplace was safe. Guerrero was going to keep coming.
The man could track like no one she’d ever seen before.
“Not exactly,” Logan said. His voice was guarded, carefully emotionless. In the closed interior of the vehicle, she was too conscious of his body pressing next to hers.
Had she really been moaning in his arms just an hour or two before? That memory seemed surreal. The death, the violence—that had been reality for her.
Then Logan opened his door. She turned away and shoved open the door on her side and rushed out into what looked like a parking garage. A deserted one.
Jasper was by her side, waiting. “You all right, ma’am?” he asked.
He actually seemed worried. More worried than Logan. Juliana nodded.
“It’s for your safety,” Jasper said. “It might hurt, but…”
Wow. Hold up. She lifted a hand. “What’s going to hurt?”
Jasper pointed to the left. Juliana turned and saw a redheaded woman in a white lab coat heading her way. Her gut knotted and she asked, “What’s going on?”
“Just a small procedure,” Jasper told her. He even put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a little stroke. As if that was supposed to be reassuring. “To make certain that you stay safe.”
“So far, I sure haven’t felt safe.” Her own words snapped out.
Jasper winced. “This isn’t the way things were planned. No one should have found out about your location, not so fast, anyway. We were going to wait until—”
“Jasper.” Logan’s snarl shut up the other EOD agent. Jasper rocked back on his heels.
But it was too late. He’d said too much. Suspicion rolled within Juliana. “Tell me that he’s wrong.” He wasn’t wrong. She knew it, but denial could be a fierce beast.
We were going to wait.
Wait and then leak her location to Guerrero? Wait and set a trap for the arms dealer, using her as the unknowing bait?
But Logan didn’t speak; the doctor did. “I’m ready for her in the operating room. The implant can be placed immediately.”
Implant? Juliana shook her head and backed up fast. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anyplace for her to go, and her elbows rammed into the side of the SUV. “I’m not ready for you, lady.” The doctor could just back off.
The redhead’s lips thinned. “Do we need sedation for the patient?”
“What?” Juliana wasn’t sure her voice could get higher than that startled yelp. “I’m not your patient! Stay away from me.” Her gaze found Logan’s. “You asked if I trusted you.” First at that run-down hotel, then back at the cabin, in the middle of all that death. “I said that I did, but Logan, you’ve got to give me something here. Tell me—tell me that you weren’t using me.”
He still didn’t speak. Maybe because he’d finally stopped lying.
It was Jasper who reached for her. “Come inside with us, Juliana, and I’ll explain what’s going to happen.”
“It’s a simple enough procedure,” the doctor said.
Juliana felt her face flush. “Lady, I just came from a bloodbath, okay?”
Now it was the doctor who backed up a step.
Good for her.
Juliana ignored Jasper’s outstretched hand. Her gaze locked on Logan. “Did you set me up as bait?” Her breath caught in her throat as she waited for his response.
“Yes.”
That breath froze in her lungs.
“No,” Jasper said in almost the same instant. “He didn’t.”
Her gaze darted to him, saw his lips tighten as he told her, “We did. Our EOD team had its orders. Logan didn’t have a choice, still doesn’t.”
That was a fat line of bull. “There’s always a choice.” She rubbed her arms, chilled. She was standing there barefoot, wearing shorts and a T-shirt. She smelled like death and Logan’s touch seemed to have branded her skin.
How wrong was that?
“Not always,” Logan said. She became aware of the others then, men who’d been hanging back in the shadows. Armed. Wasn’t everyone in the EOD always carrying a weapon? “My goal is to bring in Guerrero.”
Her laugh was bitter. “I thought the goal was to keep me alive.” So much for thinking she ranked high on his priorities.
And damn it, she caught a flash of pity in Jasper’s eyes. Not what she needed to see right then. Her chin shot up.
“It is,” Logan growled. Then he looked around at their audience and swore. In the next instant, he was pulling her toward the double doors on the right. Juliana was marching on his heels, more than ready to clear the air between them.
His palm slammed into the door and then they were inside a small hallway. More guards were assembled. Logan turned to the left and pushed open the door that led into what looked like a small waiting room.
Or an interrogation room. Her gaze darted to the wall on the right. A wall that looked as if it was just a mirror, only, she’d seen walls like that on television shows. Two-way mirrors. “Where are we?”
“Government facility. Off-the-books.”
Wasn’t just about everything off-the-books these days?
“I’m not… Hell, it’s not about using you.”
At his outburst, she spun around. “You were going to lure Guerrero to that house! Dangle me in front of him as bait!” She was so angry her words came out rapid-fire.
“I was—am—going to keep you under guard. We have to take out Guerrero. You’re not going to be safe until he’s in custody or until he’s dead.”
Her breath panted out. “You should have told me the truth.” She felt as if Sydney was the only one giving her real insight into what was happening. Yes, they all wanted Guerrero stopped, she understood that. But did they have to lead her around like a lamb to a slaughter?
He shook his head. “There are some truths you don’t want to hear.”
That did it. Juliana shot across the room and jammed her finger into his chest. “Don’t.”
His brows rose.
“I’m not a child, Logan. I’ve handled death, disillusionment and betrayal just fine for years.” Handled it and kept going. She wasn’t going to break, not now and not ever. “So don’t make decisions for me. Don’t hide the truth from me.” Her father had done that for the past ten years. “Just…tell me.”
His gaze searched hers, then he gave a slow nod. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
Damn straight he should be. And sorry wasn’t going to cut it for her. “Sydney told me about Gunner’s brother. About how Guerrero was responsible for the attack that killed him.” Her breath heaved out. “I get that your team has a personal stake in this, all right? I get it. But we’re not just talking about your team. We’re talking about my life.”
His eyes blazed.
“Talk to me.” Now she was the one giving orders. “Tell me what’s going on.”
His nod was brief. Then “You’re in a government medical facility, one that was set up to assist agents in tracking their witnesses.”
She realized her finger was still stabbing into his chest. Juliana dropped her hand. “Tracking them how?”
“A small chip is implanted just under the skin. With that chip, we’re able to track a person anyplace that he or she goes.”
Anyplace. “You mean in case Guerrero gets to me—”
“He won’t—”
She waved that away. “If he gets to me, this chip is going to help you follow me.”
His jaw clenched. “Yes.”
Suspicion made her push because the trust she’d had…it was brittle. “Are you going to let his men take me…act like I’m protected but really ease back so they can grab me?”
His eyes chilled.
But she kept going. “Then you can just follow my tracking signal—what, some kind of GPS?—all the way back to Guerrero. You can get him. Get what you want, and hell, maybe all I’ll have to do is get tortured or killed so you can bring him down.”
His hands wrapped around her arms and Logan pulled her against him. “That’s not going to happen.”
“Promises, promises?” The taunt snapped out. “Because I don’t think I can trust you on this, Logan.” The pain from the past struck out at her. “I trusted you before, remember? We were going away together. I was there that night. Ready to leave everything I knew behind. I was there for hours.” She couldn’t hold back any longer. “Where the hell were you?”