Criminal Instinct (25 page)

Just a gentle brush of chilled lips, but there so much power in it that it made her chest tighten. Maybe he meant it as a goodbye, maybe he meant it as reassurance. She didn’t know.

But it was enough to tell her he’d forgiven her for her deceit. They’d moved on and were in this together, whatever the outcome.

Jonas stopped walking, and Ana peered up. Lights from the huge yacht highlighted the ship’s features. Sleek and long, it floated on the ocean waves.

This was it. Instinct told her the drugs were stowed on the ship.

As they made their way up the steps of the yacht, Ana spotted several more dark forms. One shifted into the light. He was armed with what looked like a large automatic rifle.

Her stomach trembled.

Things weren’t in their favor at all.

“They’re heading for the ocean,” Digit called out from the back of the van, excitement evident in her voice.

Miles rolled his shoulders. “We’re getting close,” he said to Jay, as he drove a mile behind Jax’s moving location.

“Yeah,” was Jay’s only answer.

Digit made herself useful by keeping tabs on Jax’s signal with a portable unit. This was the first time SIDE had used it out in the field, but she’d grasped the technology in less than five minutes.

Miles flicked a glance into his rearview mirror. “When all hell breaks loose, any one of you so much as step out of this vehicle to take a piss, I’ll have you on shit detail for a month.”

“You got it, Sarge,” Romeo said.

Skates cleared his throat. “I second that.”

Yeah, it was either bring them along or worry about them sneaking behind his back, getting themselves in trouble. Every one of them had taken Switch’s death harder than he expected. But he could understand after six months practically in one another’s back pockets, some kind of bond was formed.

After making their pact in his office that morning, something had finally changed in their eyes. All of them had been through personal hells, but it was the first time in the past six months he’d seen determination.

The first time he’d seen them as a real team.

Once that spark of purpose flickered to life inside someone, anything could happen. He should know. Charlie’s death had ignited the drive inside of him. Now he had to keep the team close to make sure they didn’t do something rash, something that would hurt the SIDE program as a whole.

DEA had a vehicle tailing The Black Dragons. There was a helicopter on standby, and so were a shitload of armed agents. SIDE was able to tag along, but Petry made it clear tonight was DEA’s show and no interference from Sarge’s team would be allowed.

His team, fine.

Himself, another matter.

He’d already lost one recruit. He’d do whatever necessary to get Jax out of there alive.

Ana squirmed within Jonas’s arms. “Put me down,” she said.

“No,” he murmured.

“I can stand on my own.”
Hopefully
. “You need to be ready for anything.”

He wouldn’t look at her, but he had to know she was right.

After a moment, he carefully set her down.

She flinched. The floor of the ship felt like ice under her bare feet. Luckily Jonas’s sweater hit her knees, covering most of her body as well as her injuries. She rocked with the rhythm of the vessel and shivered from the loss of his warmth.

Jonas held on to her arm. “Sit down.”

She gripped the handrail, stubbornly shaking her head.

Tyler had disappeared somewhere on the boat. At the helm of the ship, three men in suits held them at gunpoint. Each was strapped with weapons, two men in front, one at their back. The wind blew harsher on the ocean, pushing the fog overhead, giving shy glimpses of the moon.

Sucking in the cold air, Ana hoped the frigidness would make her senses alert. She didn’t know how long it had been since she’d eaten and she was weak from Tyler’s ruthless entertainment.

Abruptly, Jonas swung her around. He leaned down to her, brushing his mouth against her ear, and whispered, “If you see an opportunity to jump off this boat, you damn well better take it—”

He was jerked away by a guard. Ana reached out and clutched the railing.

Jonas stumbled closer to Kara and Brooks. An act. Likely part of his intent to get close enough to communicate more of his infamous orders.

Tyler strolled onto the helm with his twin Suits at his back like the secret service to the Commander in Chief. Something protruded from his arm.

“I’d like to share my next business venture,” Tyler called out. He reached for the bundle under his arm, a large bag of white pills the size of a small pillow. Ecstasy or PMA or both?

“You mean your deadly game,” Jonas called out, a hard-fought shiver rushing through his body.

Tyler smiled, his teeth flashing in the dim light. “A deadly game, indeed. You’ll never understand the rush that overcomes the senses when you have the power of life within your grasp.” He ripped open the bag. Pills fell, skittering on the floor. Taking a handful, he made his way toward Ana.

Tsking, he held her gaze. “The little street rat doesn’t look too well,” he seemed to murmur to himself. “You’ve lost your spunk, Ana.” His eyes narrowed. “Whatever you have inside you isn’t a pacemaker after all, is it?”

Ana trembled, forcing her lips to curve. “No. A digital tracking device. Any minute law officials will swarm the yacht and take your ass down.”

“Your sense of humor is annoying, Ana.”

Of course he wouldn’t believe her. Who would?

“Lucky for you, I’m a generous man. You have the choice of your demise. Either take these pills or take a bullet. What shall it be?”

Jonas stepped forward. Guns swung in his direction. “Go to hell, Tyler.”

“Jonas!” Kara screamed. Ray restrained her with a strong arm.

Ana stared into Tyler’s gleeful eyes. She glanced down at the pills. They looked the same as the ones Dolini had given her, white and stamped with a shoe with wings. If they were the dangerous amphetamine, PMA, a few hundred milligrams were fatal. Just as an overdose of Ecstasy could be. No telling how much of the drug was packed into each tablet. She would feel the first effects anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour. Her heart rate, her body temp, would skyrocket. If she took them, she’d eventually die—flying high, but dead all the same.

The irony of having a choice in her death when she’d been forced to follow orders on how to live was not lost on her.

The chills trembling through her body increased. “You’re out of your damn mind.”

“Tom, help her along with her decision.”

The Suit placed his rifle against the back of her head. Her heartbeat stepped up to overdrive. She didn’t dare glance at Jonas. She might have lost her nerve.

The pills were the lesser evil. No doubt they would check her mouth, make sure she swallowed every one and that she kept them down. But at least the delayed reaction would buy her time.

Time for what, she wasn’t sure.

Slowly, she reached out for the pills.

And all hell broke loose.

Gunshots exploded into the night.

The gun at her head dropped away as the Suit fell dead at her feet.

Jonas moved so fast he was a blur of motion. He took out Tyler in a full body tackle. Pills scattered.

A splash of water. Ana whipped her head toward the sound. Kara was gone. Ray fought hand-to-hand with an armed guard, both struggling for the weapon.

More gunfire. Distant shouts bellowed into the night.

The other Suit fell.

“Get down!” Jonas shouted, wrestling with Tyler.

She finally hit the floor.

Right into a pool of something warm.

Her stomach turned as she raised her hands.

Blood
.

“Son of a bitch!” The Sarge jerked the van to an abrupt stop in front of beach dunes. He tightened his bulletproof vest and pulled his gun out of his hip holster and a shotgun out from under his seat.

“I knew we should have followed closer. Now my man’s down there in the middle of a goddamn war zone!” He swung open the door and ran toward the action with Jay right beside him.

Bullets flew over Billy’s head as he ducked behind a crate. His heart stampeded with pure adrenaline. Bodies were everywhere. Lying on the ground, floating in the ocean.

He ran a hand over his face to keep the sweat from dripping into his eyes. The muffled
whoop
of a helicopter hummed from far away.

DEA. They’d taken their sweet time coming to the rescue. He scanned the area around him. He was on the top deck, near the end of the yacht. He’d snuck on with Garcia while Black Dragon members charged Tyler’s ship, shooting anything that moved.

His gripped tightened on the AK-47 machine gun.

Where the hell was Tyler?

The coppery odor poured over Ana’s senses like a smothering cloak. The scent crawled down her throat. She gagged and scrambled back, slipping on the slick surface. Lukewarm liquid seeped through her fingers. Her stomach rolled in one long motion. Sweat broke across her upper lip.

The blood.

All over her.

Oh God, oh God.

Not again
.

Shouts and gunfire echoed distantly. Everything sounded muted. Surreal.

“Ana!”

Her chest squeezed. Her throat closed.

“Get off the boat!”

A few feet away, as through a haze, Jonas fought someone on the deck of the ship. Tyler, on all fours, crawled toward Ana’s side of the boat.

Breathe.

But her lungs wouldn’t listen. Her body felt beaten.

The man on Jonas held a handgun near his face. Jonas pushed against the weapon.

A helicopter flew overhead. She heard the muffled turn of the blades. Spotlights glided over the ship.

“DEA. Cease fire now! Drop your weapons!”
A voice reverberated in her head. Or was that around her…?

Jonas overpowered the man, flipping their positions.

By sluggish degrees, she turned toward Tyler a good distance in front of her. He pulled himself to his knees. His figure wavered. He held something in his hand.

Gun
.

He would go for Jonas.

Frozen in the puddle of cooling blood, she envisioned Jonas gone. Killed. A man who had broken through the barrier she’d built around her heart. A man who had risked his life to come to her aide.

Her chest squeezed tighter, hurting. Her head was shaking no, as if she could just deny the possibility it would ever happen. But God, she knew his death was possible.

Jonas couldn’t die. Not by Tyler’s hand. Not by anyone’s. Not because of her.

Gripping onto the railing, she struggled to her feet, gasping for oxygen. Her legs were like rubber, and her wet grip slid against the cold rail. She pushed the sickening sight of blood out of her mind. The ocean waves rocked the ship and crashed against the side. Wind wafted against her face, clearing the terrible scent.

Tyler was on his feet, a dead body between them. More blood smeared across the deck.

Ana’s heart hammered.

Jonas was still fighting the guard.

It wasn’t about her life any longer. It wasn’t about staying out of jail.

Tyler lifted the gun and aimed it directly at Jonas.

Her fear magnified. Everything inside her screamed.

She sprinted across the body, feet gliding through wetness, straight for Tyler.

Jonas slammed his fist one last time into his attacker’s face before the man was pulled off.

The biker loomed above him. “Where the fuck’s Tyler?”

“Drop your fucking weapons!” SWAT uniforms stood a few feet away in the direction of the helm of the ship. Their guns arrowed straight on Jonas and the biker.

The biker cursed, releasing his Uzi, and turned to face law enforcement.

A wild scream pierced the air. They both jerked their attention toward the right railing.

Tyler whipped a gun toward Ana right before her little body rammed into him. Two shots rang out as their struggling bodies fell over the edge.

“No!” Jonas was on his feet running without remembering getting up. Shouts blasted behind him.

He hopped onto the rail, caught a glimpse of flailing arms in a sea of black, and jumped.

Searing waves of liquid ice poured over him, prickling straight through his bones. Jonas swallowed and coughed up salty water. Spotlights slid through the darkness.

Blinking stinging water out of eyes, he yelled, “Ana!”

The helicopter overhead drowned out his voice.

There.
A light skimmed over someone going under. Jonas dove, pumping arms under the crashing waves. Kicking, swimming, heartbeat pounding.
Please God, let me find her.

He caught the flailing figure.
Tyler
.

Tyler clawed at him, pulling him under.

Shit. Jonas shoved at him. The water worked against him. “Son of a bitch! Ana!”

“
Dead
,” Tyler sputtered.

Jonas rammed a fist into Tyler’s nose.

Tyler sank, then popped back up gasping for air.

Jonas worked his arms and legs to stay afloat. Life preservers rained down from the ship. Divers jumped into the ocean.

Tyler pushed away from Jonas and leeched on to the floating device. The spotlights glared down on them, making it more difficult for Jonas to see.

He spun around, treading in the chilled depths. “
Ana!”

“I killed her—just like I killed your father with heroin!” Tyler laughed. “I win, Saven! I fucking
win!
”

A roar of denial burst from Jonas’s mouth. He spun toward Tyler. The beast that had been passed to him from his father raged within him. He didn’t fight it—didn’t want to—he embraced it.

Make him pay.
For the lives he took, for the havoc he wreaked on his family. For destroying part of him.

For Ana.

He threw himself through the heavy erratic waves, using every bit of strength to swim to Tyler. He allowed his anger to push into the dark recesses of his mind, to feed the screaming, furious pain inside of him.

A beam of light flashed past him, traveling over Tyler’s head. Jonas caught a flicker of something pale being swallowed under the rough waters.

He halted suddenly, and then sunk.

As he burst back through the surface, spitting out liquid, his pulse went to override. His fury was swallowed by hope. He scanned what he thought was the direction he’d seen the form, but he saw nothing but divers. And then…something moving in the darkness.

He dove again, swimming forward.

Someone pulled his arm. A diver. He kicked away, growling inside his head.
Nothing
would stop him from finding her. Swimming. Turning. Stretching his arms out. He gulped for air. “Call to me! Ana! Call—my name!”

His lungs burned, his breaths were choppy.

And he bumped her.

Dear God
.

Wrapping an arm around her, he flipped her to her back. Was she shot? Her skin was chalky under the glare of the light, her bruised eyes closed.
Sweet Jesus
. Someone pulled Ana’s limp form from his grasp into a small boat, then gripped his arm. He held on to the side of the vessel, his teeth chattering.

Don’t you die, Ana
.

Someone loomed over her, performing CPR.

“One-one-thousand, two-one-thousand—”

Then he heard it.

Ana heaving up water. Coughing. Gasping.

Tension poured out of his body. Hands gripped his arms and pulled him up inside the boat. His body was numb.

He squinted at his rescuer. “You.”

“You’re going to be all right,” Ana’s boss told him.

Darkness swallowed him.

Her heart pounded, pounded. Her body shook.

“What’s her name? Okay. Ana? Ana, can you hear me?”

A light flashed into Ana’s eye.

She was lifted and carefully set onto a stretcher. Someone placed an oxygen mask over her mouth and nose. Faces blurred before her.

Sarge. Jay-man.

Glimpses of the SIDE team.

Doesn’t make sense
…

A needle pricked into the bend of her arm.

“Talk to me, Ana.” A young guy loomed over her. EMT.

“Ye-yeah,” she finally pushed out. Oh God, her throat felt scalded.

“Good, good. You’re going to be all right.”

She tried to pull her mask away. “Jonas,” she murmured.

The EMT sat next to her. “You’re doing great. Keep the mask on. Your lungs and throat are probably sore. You may have tenderness on your chest from the resuscitation. Just breathe normally. We’re on our way to the hospital.”

Warm blankets surrounded her.

“Tired,” she breathed. Fatigue weighed every part of her.

“Just close your eyes.”

She obeyed with one thought in her mind.
Jonas
…