Valeria cursed as the cuffs bit into her skin. Somewhere along the way she’d been zapped again and tossed into the trunk. Probably after she tried to bite Anthony’s carotid artery open. Normally this would be a good thing. There were lots of ways to escape being in a trunk. However, this time her mouth was taped shut, her arms were cuffed behind her, and her feet taped together.

It was hot, dark, and muggy in the trunk. She was on her left side, facing away from the taillights. Valeria was also lying on top of the spare tire and a couple of bulletproof vests. It wasn’t the most comfortable way to travel. She wondered how long she’d been with Anthony and where they were going. Her bet was back to his jurisdiction or into Mexico to be handed over to Manuel. Either way, it wasn’t good.

The car sped up and then slowed down. Valeria rolled uncomfortably from the back part of her left shoulder she was lying on to the front part of her shoulder, causing her nose to bump into the vest. What was going on? Then suddenly there was a loud bang and then there was the scraping sound of metal against metal. The tires of the car spun and suddenly she was flying as the car flipped.

---

Grant had driven close to one hundred thirty miles per hour since he’d gotten out of the city. He’d rejoiced when Anthony turned off the interstate and onto State Route 79. He’d sped through the mountains and along the small two-lane road on the desert side of the mountains as fast as he could. It had taken about an hour and a half to catch up to Anthony some one hundred fifty miles away on the deserted San Felipe Road. There was nothing around at night except dirt, tumbleweed, and foothills. The closest landmark they were approaching was Scissors Crossing, which was nothing more than part of the Pacific Crest Hiking Trial.

When they’d come to a straightaway and his headlights appeared in Anthony’s mirrors for the first time, Anthony didn’t do anything. Grant kept his emotions in check as he looked at the GPS dot on the phone. Valeria, or at least her dress, was still with Anthony. Grant sped up slightly to get a good look through the rear window. He only saw what he guessed was Anthony’s outline in the driver’s seat. As Grant pulled closer, Anthony sped up, but then slowed down as if allowing Grant to pass. Grant pulled into the opposite lane and slowly pushed the Bentley’s gas pedal so he could pull even with the car.

In the glow of the dash, Grant saw the sharp outline of a nose and thin face. The man looked to be in his mid-thirties and his tie had pulled loose while his sports coat rested on the passenger seat. The empty passenger seat. Grant looked into the backseat and saw nothing. Where? Grant slowed and looked at the trunk.

When Grant looked back at Anthony, a gun was pointing out the window. Grant swerved hard to the left, but the bullet ripped into his tire. There was only one way to stop Anthony now. He just hoped Valeria could hang on as he jerked the steering wheel to the right and drove the Bentley right into the side of Anthony’s car.

Grant held onto the steering wheel as metal crashed against metal. He pushed his car harder, sending the other car fishtailing off the road as Grant struggled to keep control despite having burst a tire or two. With a final ram of the crumpled Bentley into Anthony’s car, Grant held onto the wheel as smoke poured from under the hood before flames began to creep out. Through the smoke and flames, he saw Anthony’s back tire catch in the dirt and rock, sending the car flipping into the air. It all felt like slow motion. The back tire hit a low-profile rock, sending the tires closest to Grant swinging up into the air. Grant was out of his car running toward the wreck as the car settled with the tires pointed toward the sky.

Grant had his gun drawn and raced toward Anthony’s car as the front door was kicked open and a man crawled out. His face was burned from the airbag and his lip and nose were bleeding, but he was standing and he was armed.

“You picked the wrong guy to fuck with tonight, you asshole,” Anthony yelled until he saw the gun Grant had pointed at him.

“No, you picked the wrong woman to take.”

Grant watched as Anthony Gomez’s dark brown eyes processed what he was saying. He gave a small half laugh of amusement. “This is over Valeria? The bitch is dead and soon you will be too.”

The sound of grunting drew both men’s attention as a tussled Valeria wobbled to stand. The trunk had been thrown open during the crash and Valeria had rolled out as if the back trunk’s hood were a slide. Grant would have laughed if his heart weren’t so relieved to see her alive. Her wig was falling off, her breast was hanging out of her skewed top, and she was giving Anthony a death stare.

“Aye, she does look like death, but she’s mine nevertheless.”

Grant kept his eyes trained on Anthony as Valeria began a hunched bunny jump toward him. When she stopped next to him, he reached out without looking at her and ripped off the tape from across her mouth.

“Follar una carbra! Pinche pendejo,” Valeria spat in Spanish.

“Give me the handcuff keys, and I won’t let the lassie kill you,” Grant called out over Valeria’s constant stream of cussing. She was working her way through Spanish and heading straight into Gaelic.

“Who are you?” Anthony asked, not bothering to move to hand over the keys.

“Doesn’t matter who I am. It matters that you’re helping Manuel Hernandez, and you had Valeria fired from the DEA.”

“I don’t have time for this. I’m just going to shoo—”

Bang!

Anthony let out a scream as he fell to the ground. “Don’t talk about shooting someone, just shoot them,” Grant said, finally shutting up Valeria’s rant. He stepped forward, and as Anthony raised his gun to fire, Grant shot again. He may be trained to save lives, but Grant was trained to take them as well. He was an elite soldier trained to enter hostile fire and fight his way to the target.

However, a shot to the knee and a shot to the hand wouldn’t kill Anthony. Grant bent down and picked up Anthony’s dropped gun, then reached into the man’s pocket. He pulled out the key ring and walked back to where Valeria stood, shooting daggers at him.

“I wanted to shoot him.” If her arms weren’t cuffed behind her back, he figured they’d be crossed over her chest as she glared at him.

“I can’t let you have all the fun, now can I?” Grant was so relieved to see her safe. The agonizing drive, the fear she’d be dead when the car flipped . . . it was all too much. He lifted his hand to her face and cupped her cheek. Instead of pulling away, she leaned into it. “I’m glad you’re all right, lassie.”

“Thank you for coming after me.”

“I’ll always come for you. Now, let me get your hands free.” Grant stepped behind her and unlocked the cuffs. Valeria shoved up her skirt and Grant got a nice view of her ass.

Bang!

When Grant looked up, Anthony was leaning back against the car with a bullet to the head. A second gun was in the dirt on the ground next to his hand.

“Well, now it’s my turn to thank you. Are you hurt?” Grant asked as he bent and cut the tape from her ankles, trying not to ogle her exposed cheek. When he ripped the tape from her skin, she grunted with a mixture of pain and anger.

“Just stiff and pissed. I should have found a way out of this situation before it got to this point.”

“Sometimes you can’t do everything on your own. I thought we talked about this,” Grant said with a little smirk to let her know he was teasing.

“He was there with Manuel. Did you get him?” Valeria asked as she slowly stretched her neck and then her arms.

“I don’t know. I came after you. Lizzy and Dalton went after Manuel, Roland, and Sebastian. What is going on with them?” Grant asked as he pulled out his phone.

“I think Sebastian just joined Mollia Domini. They were asking him for money.”

Grant nodded. “They need someone to fund the operations since Alex shut down Manuel’s money outside of Mexico. We better duck.”

“What?” Valeria asked as Grant shoved her to the ground just as the Bentley exploded. Grant shielded her body with his as debris rained down near them. His body fit snuggly against her as the curve of her ass cradled his quickly growing erection—one he’d fought since the lass wasn’t his to have. She was in mourning, and he was a real arse for thinking of what he wanted to do with her naked body in this position.

“Well,” Grant said, sitting up and putting some space between them, “we need to start walking. My phone blew up in the car and the nearest town is seven or so miles away. We don’t want to be found here by anyone and have to explain why there’s a dead body.”

Valeria’s brow creased as she stared at him over her shoulder. She gave her head a little shake. “Then we better get going.”

Grant stood up and held out his hand for her. She placed her hand in his, and he pulled her up. She tucked herself back into the dress and looked at her spiked heels. “Here,” Grant said, holding out his hand for the shoes. “I can help with that.”

Valeria gripped his shoulder for balance as she took off each shoe. Grant attracted women who wanted to be rescued. Women with the girl-next-door looks and shy voices. Women who felt safe with him and women he felt safe with since they never asked for anything from him. Certainly never a woman who would shoot someone between the eyes. A woman who would demand everything from him because, while Valeria would deny it, she wanted love. He knew that because it was what he wanted deep down, too.

“Here you go,” Valeria said, handing him the shoes. No batting eye lashes, no simpering, so fawning over being rescued. That wasn’t Valeria’s style. For the first time, Grant felt as though he’d found his equal in every way.

Grant reached for the knife on his belt and set the shoe on a rock. He bent over and with a strong swing he chopped off the heel to one shoe, then the second. “Not the most comfortable but better than trying to walk on stilts.”

Valeria slipped them on and tried them out. “Thanks, Grant.”

Grant felt as if he’d been handed the world. He had a feeling she didn’t say that word often. “You’re welcome. Now, let’s go.”

---

“Where are they?” Lizzy asked as she scanned the sky from their stolen helicopter.

“They’re flying southwest toward Mexico. They’re south of the small town of Ocotillo,” Dalton replied as they flew across the western base of the Peninsular Range near Palm Grove.

“I see it,” Lizzy said, scanning the map of the area and looking closely at the GPS coordinates from the tracker on Sebastian. “They’re about twenty-five miles ahead of us. They’re over someplace called Jacumba Wilderness Area near the border.”

“If they get over the border, we’ll never be able to get to them. Manuel has protection everywhere.”

“Wait,” Lizzy said, keeping her eyes on the GPS signal. “They’ve stopped.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know,” Lizzy said, pulling up an image of the area. “It’s nothing. It’s a small mountain range about a mile from the border. Okay, he’s on the move. They’re moving into the mountains. They’re going slowly, so they must be on foot.”

“They’re trying to sneak across the border. We might be able to catch them.”

Agonizing minutes passed as Dalton flew closer to the targets. They ate up the miles as Lizzy readied a parachute. If they were in the middle of the hills, the helicopter may not be able to land and there was no way she would let that stop her.

“Lizzy!” Dalton yelled into the headset. “Where’d they go?”

Lizzy looked at the map on the phone. They were gone. There wasn’t even a blip of a signal anywhere on the map. “They were just there,” Lizzy said, pointing at their last location. “They can’t be gone.”

“Do you think they found the tracker?”

“They could have. Let’s find out.”

Dalton nodded his head as he headed for the last location.