Hard Target: Elite Ops - Book One (30 page)

He closed his eyes against this new pain that went beyond a headache. An unfamiliar wave of nausea swept over him. He wasn’t used to the act of thinking making his head hurt. Some of his former DEA colleagues and Army buddies would think that was a riot.

“Where am I?” he asked, unwilling to inquire about Kat yet.

“Private Mexican clinic. You’ve got a major concussion and your ankle is broken, again. But it’s going to be fine.” Gavin might be sad, but his voice was strong. “You’ve been unconscious for almost twenty-four hours.”

“How did I get here?”

“Fisher called me after they dropped you in the square. Another team was already en route. They got to the fountain just as the ambulances arrived and helped fish you out of there. We had to move you from the original hospital in the area because we don’t know what the situation is with Rivera. It didn’t seem like a safe place to hang around, not knowing if he was alive or not.”

“What are you doing here? Is Kat—” Leland didn’t want to say dead. Instead, he said, “Gone?” And focused on Gavin’s expression. His friend’s eyes were so incredibly sad, and the lines bracketing his mouth were deeper than Leland recalled.

Gavin face was stoic as he nodded. “It was peaceful. She’s not hurting anymore.”

Leland started to shake his head, then stopped. His skull still couldn’t handle that motion. “I’m sorry,” he managed. “You didn’t have to come.”

How was Gavin standing it? Leland could see he was in pain.

“Don’t like it when my people get dinged up. I had to come check on you. Besides, Kat would have wanted me to.”

Gavin’s eyes turned dark again. “The vet clinic was compromised. We were sure it was Rivera’s men until Cesar Vega’s body was reported found in the rubble.”

“What happened?”

“Preliminary findings indicate chemicals in the clinic caught fire and exploded. I’m not sure that part was deliberate. It’s a coincidence that doesn’t feel like a coincidence. Nothing makes sense. We assume the attack was in retribution for Rivera’s compound, but it’s just a guess at this point.”

“What about Nick and the clinic folks?”

If possible Gavin’s eyes grew even more shadowed as he reached for a cardboard cup of coffee on the bedside table. “Not sure how they found out you’d all been there. Walters and his nurse have disappeared. We don’t know if they’re dead or alive, and we’ve no idea how Nick got out. I think some of the residents around the clinic must have pulled him out.”

“Is he going to be okay?”

Gavin shrugged and put the cup back down. “It’s touch-and-go. He was care-flighted to an ICU in Mexico City. Too unstable to move anywhere else at the moment. He hasn’t woken up yet.”

“Why are you here?” Leland’s mouth still felt cottony and dry. His cracked lips hurt.

Gavin shook his head and offered him more water. “I can’t leave you unprotected. Marissa has a team stationed around Nick, too, but you’re the one Rivera would be after if he’s still alive.”

Leland had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. How had they found them? Had Rivera’s SUV been LoJacked after all?

“Anna and Zach?” he asked, finally getting to the question he’d been wanting the answer to since he first opened his eyes.

Gavin smiled slowly. “I have a protection team on them as well. They never would have made it out if you hadn’t stayed behind. That much is clear. They flew straight to Dallas and got the transplant. Zach’ll be in ICU for a few more days, but so far so good.”

Leland had to clear his throat before he could speak. He was surprised but not dismayed at the emotion welling up inside. He’d known he was hooked on the boy and his mom. The rightness of that was a comfort.

“Max Mercado got out on bail three days ago and promptly disappeared. We’re fairly certain he’s back in Mexico by now.”

“What do you think will happen?”

“It all depends on Tomas Rivera’s status. The cartel is all about revenge. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be Max today. He screwed this whole deal for Rivera when he lost Anna in Cancun. But there were no other options for him once he got out on bail except running south, seeing as he’s most likely going to face some type of conspiracy charges here.”

“So, do you think Rivera survived?”

Gavin shrugged. “No idea. He’s a hard man to kill. Officials haven’t identified all the bodies from the scene at his compound yet. We do know his wife is dead.” Gavin’s eyes darkened at that last bit of information.

“When can I get out of here?”

“We’ll talk to your doctor. He didn’t want to move you again until you woke up, but I think he’ll let you go soon. You’re going to be on crutches again. Good thing your shoulder wound was only a grazing shot or you’d be stuck in a wheelchair for a while. As it is, getting around is going to be a pain in the ass, especially the first week or so. You’re probably looking at a month in the cast then back in the boot.”

Leland scowled. “Damn. Seriously?”

Gavin nodded.

More time in a cast and boot wasn’t all bad. Leland was feeling whiny and he knew it. He had no right. Especially not here with his friend who’d just lost the love of his life. Leland was lucky to be alive. “There are worse things,” he mumbled.

“Indeed,” said Gavin, the sorrow of that truth reflecting in his eyes.

“I don’t know how to thank you,” said Leland.

“Come to work for me. You can figure it out.”

“You sure you want me? You know what you’re getting, right?”

Gavin tilted his head and stared at him, a question in his eyes.

“I’m burned out. I’m not addicted, but I take too much Vicodin. Hell, it’s part of why I decided I couldn’t work for the DEA anymore. So there’s that, plus I don’t work or play well with others. I prefer to work cases on my own.”

Gavin smiled. “I knew . . . most of that. Truth be told, you were that way about working and playing with others when you came out of the army. But you’re also the best agent I ever trained at the DEA. Hang in there. We’ll sort this out.”

Leland closed his eyes, surprised at how much working for Gavin appealed to him. How much someone believing in his ability mattered. How much starting over meant.

Chapter Thirty-Four

A
NNA TOOK A
sip of scalding coffee and grimaced. Ten days here and the brew hadn’t improved one bit. She filled her cup anyway. Apparently, she was a slow learner and in desperate need of caffeine. It didn’t matter. Zach was going to be okay. For that fantastically happy news, she’d drink horrifically bad coffee the rest of her life.

She smiled at her sister seated in the ICU waiting area. Liz had been here since the transplant itself, watching over both Anna and Zach like the mother hen she was. Liz scowled at the man in the corner before glancing at Anna.

“How many of them are there?” she asked, no longer bothering to whisper. “I still don’t understand.”

Anna sighed. She wasn’t sure she did either, even with Bryan Fisher’s explanation. Marissa insisted Zach and Anna have protection until they figured out the situation in Mexico with Rivera’s men. Yesterday, Mexican officials had found what they thought was Tomas’s body. Still, several different AEGIS guards had remained on a twelve-hour rotation with her and Zach since they’d arrived back in Dallas.

Anna had told Liz all this, but her sister couldn’t seem to wrap her head around the situation. It was understandable. Zach kidnapped by a Mexican drug lord because the man wanted Anna’s lungs for his own ailing wife? Anna wasn’t sure she could have believed the story herself if she hadn’t lived it.

“If the man, this Tomas Rivera and his wife are dead, why do you still need protection?” asked Liz.

Anna took a deep breath and decided to try once again. “It’s complicated. They think he’s dead, but Marissa is waiting for the official coroner’s report to have positive confirmation. Even if he is dead, they want to know who’s taking over for him. Will that new person try and make Zach or me pay for what happened down there?”

“Well, who are
they
? The police? It seems as if they should be in charge.”

Anna laughed. It was the only thing she could do. It was that or beat her head against the paneled wall of the waiting room.

She’d gone to the police. Two days after Zach’s surgery, she’d left the hospital with one of her AEGIS bodyguards and gone to Dallas police headquarters where officers had listened politely for a frustrating two hours but offered her no solutions. The next day two agents from the DEA had shown up in the waiting area right after one of the limited ICU visiting times. After hearing her story, they had agreed that AEGIS was most likely her best solution for now.

It wasn’t that the local police and DEA didn’t believe her, it was just there wasn’t a lot that could be done at this point. The bad guys were dead or beyond the reach of the US government. AEGIS was better equipped and already in place, so she’d decided to table the issue with law enforcement until Zach was out of the hospital and home.

“I think we’ll be fine with AEGIS folks, Liz. They seem to have everything under control. Besides what’s wrong with having a lovely new guy to look at every twelve hours?”

Bryan and several very attractive men had been in the twelve-hour rotations. Did AEGIS have some kind of policy about only hiring handsome bodyguards? She hadn’t heard a word from Leland, even though Bryan had told her he was out of the hospital and back from Mexico.

God, she wanted to see him. Wanted to tell him . . . so much, about how she felt. It wasn’t just gratitude for what he’d done for her and Zach, although that had been huge. He’d saved her. He’d kept her from making the biggest mistake of her life.

But even that wasn’t why she needed to talk to him. She’d only realized as she was leaving Leland in that fountain square what he’d come to mean to her. He’d given her courage and hope to face whatever life was bringing—what she’d been missing her entire life, something Max had never been able to give her, even before their marriage fell apart. Leland had been willing to give up everything, to sacrifice his life for hers.

Why hadn’t he contacted her once he got home to the US? Had it all been just a job, an obligation for him with sex as a side benefit? She’d begged him to make love to her. Had he just been doing as she asked?

She felt churlish and ungrateful. She and Zach were getting a second chance. She really needed to get over this obsession with Leland.

Liz laughed, pulling Anna from that lost cause of a reverie. “Point taken. Have you heard from Max?”

Anna shuddered. Oh yeah, she’d heard. He’d sent a dozen roses the day after Zach’s surgery with a note.

“Rejoicing in the health of our son. So glad this worked out.”

It was creepy as hell, but there wasn’t anything to be done. Max was in Mexico. Police had a record of his crossing the border the day he was released on bail. Anna didn’t expect him back, although where he’d go south of the border was a mystery. Rivera or his replacement would likely have just as big a problem with Max as with her and Leland.

That was the only legitimate cloud on Anna’s horizon and, granted, it was large. But even her fears about Max and Tomas Rivera couldn’t dampen the joy she felt at knowing her son was safe and on his way to being well. She
felt
safe, for the first time in months.

She and Zach were starting over. She wasn’t going to think about missing Leland, the one person who’d stood by her when she’d had no one else. Even though not having heard from him stung. That he hadn’t been in touch to even check on Zach was painful. But she really had no right to expect that.

His “obligation” to her and Zach was over. She wasn’t sure why he’d ever felt obligated in the first place. She was just grateful he’d been there. If he wanted to see them, he knew where they were or could certainly find them with relative ease.

The next visiting hour was coming up. Anna finished her hideously bad coffee and prepared to walk back to the ICU. The AEGIS bodyguard met her and Liz at the doorway that led back to the patient rooms.

“Ma’am, my replacement will get here while you’re back with your boy. It’s an agent you haven’t met before. How would you like to handle that?”

“I can come out and meet him,” offered Liz. “I know we need to know who’s taking over for the evening.”

The striking young agent nodded. “I’ll let the nurse know when he arrives.”

W
EARING A BASEBALL
cap and shorts to accommodate his fiberglass cast, Leland hauled himself up to the ICU at Baylor. Bryan had dropped him off and Leland was grateful that he hadn’t had to park himself in the huge parking lot that showed the curvature of the earth.

He was sweating, but he wasn’t sure if it was from the exertion of getting around with his cast and crutches or if he was nervous about seeing Anna. It had been ten days since he’d rolled out of the Hummer and not even said a hurried goodbye in that fountain square.

Would she even want to talk to him now?

He should’ve called from Gavin’s cabin, but he didn’t want to apologize for what had happened in Mexico over the phone. After Gavin had gotten him safely back to the US, Leland hadn’t felt right leaving his friend to deal with Kat’s funeral arrangements alone. Gavin had dropped everything just hours after his wife had died to come get him. So he’d gone back to Gavin’s cabin and helped him pull all the preparations together.

At the same time Gavin had helped him without even realizing. His friend had kept Leland accountable as he went through those first days home from the hospital without prescription pain meds. Oh, he took big-ass doses of ibuprofen now, but there could be no more Vicodin . . . ever. Even with his injuries, he felt better and more clear-headed since before the Colton incident and his trauma there.

But it hurt to see Gavin so devastated. Standing by him now was the least Leland could do and the last, best way he could honor Kat. He’d finally mailed that resignation letter to his boss at the DEA with a copy to Ford Johnson. He was going to work for AEGIS. It was time for a new start.

Gavin’s grief had showed Leland just how much loving people made you vulnerable. Friend, child, or lover—there was no escaping it. If you cared for people there was always a chance you could have your heart eviscerated, no matter how hard you tried to keep it safe.