Hard Target: Elite Ops - Book One (31 page)

Leland was ready to risk that vulnerability with Anna. In Mexico, he hadn’t realized he was in love with her till it was too late. To not tell her now would only be compounding that mistake because he’d finally figured it out. With the right person, love is worth the risk.

They’d met under extraordinary circumstances—stressful, life-threatening circumstances. Not anything conducive to starting a relationship or life together. Still, he had to find out how she felt. Even if she didn’t feel the same way, not knowing was worse than not telling her.

The L-shaped ICU waiting area was practically deserted with a sparsely decorated Christmas tree at one end and a guy hunched over on his cell phone with his back to the room in the opposite corner. Obviously someone who’d been camped out here for a while, multiple cardboard coffee cups littered the table beside him.

Leland wondered where the AEGIS guy was since Gavin had mentioned they had men on round-the-clock guard duty with Anna and Zach. The sign at the entryway to the waiting area indicated that he’d arrived at the tail end of visiting hours.

He grabbed his own cup of coffee, dumping enough powdered creamer in the tar-black liquid to turn it white and kill the hideous taste. Then began the interesting process of getting the not-so-freshly-brewed potion to a place where he could sit. He picked up an eight-week-old news magazine from the counter in front of him and, after a feat worthy of Cirque du Soleil, he got the coffee cup to an end table and sank into a deep leather couch.

One thing to be said for an ICU waiting area, they usually had comfortable sofas, if not the most current reading material or Starbucks-grade caffeine. Getting comfortable with his cast was a challenge. He finally ended up propping his leg on the coffee table in front of the couch.

He glanced at the large clock on the wall, and five seconds later Anna walked out of the air-locked doors talking over her shoulder to another woman who looked startlingly similar, most likely the sister she had mentioned. Anna was checking her ringing cell phone.

“I’ll be right back. This is the insurance company. Can’t dodge their call.” She laughed as the doors closed between her and the woman who looked like her slightly older twin.

From under his baseball cap, Leland took a moment to study Anna before he said anything. She looked tired but peaceful for the first time since he’d met her. There was something different in her eyes.

She hadn’t seen him yet and he was still trying to figure out how to start the conversation as she answered her call. “Hello. This is Anna Mercado.”

She spoke quietly into her phone, but the man hunched behind her in the corner jerked his head up and turned to look straight at her back, pulling a Taurus .38 Special from under his jacket. Leland did a double take. It was Antonio, one of Rivera’s guards. Leland had last seen the man on the steps of the mansion, shooting at them as he and Nick drove away.

Forcing his eyes back to the stale news on the page before him, Leland pulled the old magazine up to shield his own face further. He had a Sig Sauer 9mm, but it was tucked into an inside waistband holster, a bitch to get to from his current seating position. There was no way to reach it without leaning way forward with his heavy-as-lead cast and calling attention to himself.

Where the hell was the AEGIS guard?

Antonio still hadn’t noticed him and stood with the Taurus, moving toward Anna from behind. He ignored Leland, most likely assuming he was a patient’s family member and no real threat with his cast and crutches. Unaware of the danger, Anna was looking in the opposite direction from Rivera’s man as she talked on the phone.

Her gaze lit on Leland and, despite his hat, recognition dawned in her eyes just as Antonio grabbed her arm and shoved his .38 Special in her face. She stopped talking, completely focused on the weapon. Her eyes grew wide with fear.

“Come with me,” Antonio ordered in a barely audible undertone.

Frozen in place, Anna stared at Leland until Rivera’s man pulled her to his side and pressed the barrel to her temple. “Move now.”

Leland had a front row seat to his worst nightmare. He couldn’t reach his weapon without alerting Antonio, so he sat dead still, studying his two-month old magazine as if he’d heard and noticed nothing.

“Move faster.” Antonio roughly steered her forward by keeping the revolver pressed to the side of her face.

“What do you want with me?” she asked softly, her eyes never leaving Leland’s. Fear was evident in her voice, but her eyes were calm.

Jesus. They’d been here before, only Leland had been the one holding a gun to her head. Three steps from the doorway she stumbled, pulling away from Rivera’s man. Whether she was doing it on purpose or not, the timing was perfect.

Keeping his gaze lowered under the brim of the cap, Leland took the opportunity to lean forward. Pushing his nose practically to his knees, he slid his gun from its holster under cover of the news magazine.

“Don’t move.” Antonio saw the movement but not what Leland had done. Rivera’s man pointed the Beretta but never made eye contact. Instead, he stared hard at Leland’s cast before moving Anna closer to the emergency exit.

The door to the stairwell opened and Leland’s sick sense of déjà vu was complete when Max and his bodyguard Emilio stepped into the ICU waiting area.

Anna stopped and stared from one man to another, obviously stunned by their appearance and the weapons in their hands. Emilio carried an AK-47 and Max had a Beretta 9mm.

Leland kept his head down, trying his best to become invisible with his magazine and cap. Still, he knew that Emilio had his assault rifle pointed directly at him.

“Just stay right there and you’ll be fine,” growled the huge bodyguard.

Leland nodded, knowing the man was lying. But he wasn’t about to look up and give away his identity.

“What are you doing here?” Anna asked. Her voice sounded surprisingly strong considering the circumstances.

“Paying penance,” said Max.

“Penance for what?”

Max’s mouth twisted in a sarcastic smile. “For you, my darling wife. And the incredible fuck-up you caused in Mexico.”

“You’re blaming me?”

“Rivera’s complex was blown to hell, deliberately. Rivera’s wife is dead. No one’s taken responsibility. The question is, who orchestrated it? Vega would be the obvious culprit, but he’d hardly target Tomas’s wife—his own sister—no matter how deep their disagreements. So that leaves you and your DEA ‘friend’ as the objects of his wrath for now.”

Rivera’s alive?
Leland kept his eyes lowered, forcing himself not to respond to that bombshell.

Anna faced Max, never giving a hint that she knew Leland was there. Perhaps she didn’t think he could do anything given the circumstances.
Trust me, Anna. Just one more time
.

The Tequila King kept talking, never looking Leland’s way since Emilio had him covered. Thankfully, Max wasn’t recognizing him either, assuming Leland was a clueless bystander.

“Rivera’s out for revenge. I screwed up, and he can’t think of a better way to make me pay than to have me carry out the sentence.”

“Sentence?” The quaver in her voice sounded like true apprehension, but Leland wasn’t sure if she was acting, stalling or both.

“Rivera doesn’t need your body anymore, but he absolutely wants your life.”

“What good comes from killing me?”

“Rivera has his revenge, and I get my life back—my business, my sanity. Unless I kill you, my ass is on the line. So it’s really not a difficult decision.”

“But I’m the mother of your son.” She didn’t so much as flick her eyes toward Leland. Still, he knew what she was doing.

That’s good, Anna. Keep him talking and focused on you while I figure this out.

“If I was willing to give you up to Rivera in Mexico, I’m certainly willing to give you up now. You don’t get it, do you? I don’t need you anymore. When he was sick, Zach needed you and you were an excellent caretaker. But my boy has a new heart. He no longer needs you as his nurse.”

That the man was saying this as his son lay in ICU a few feet away seemed the height of ironic stupidity, but Leland had never thought Max could be accused of brilliance. He could, however, be accused of intense cruelty—as proven by his plan to force Anna into being a donor.

Rivera’s home being targeted deliberately made no sense, but cartel violence rarely did. As to why Rivera would want Anna dead, that was perfectly clear.

Cartels were notoriously vindictive. Making Max do the deed was the most efficient way to make the Tequila King pay for his screw-up, while at the same time keeping him beholden to Tomas Rivera as long as the cartel leader deemed necessary. It also had the added benefit of sticking the knife into Leland without actually doing him physical violence.

Even without the bugs in their suite, Rivera had ascertained Leland’s feelings for Anna. What better way to get his revenge than to have the woman Leland cared for killed? The torture would be particularly exquisite if Leland were to see a recording of the execution.

No doubt the ubiquitous security cameras in the hospital were documenting everything going on here. Max Mercado would never be able to legally set foot back on US soil again without being put under the jail. And Leland, being in law enforcement, would watch that tape over and over as he sought to avenge the woman he loved. Despite what Max was saying, this execution was more about Rivera making Max and Leland pay than Anna.

During Max’s rant, Emilio had lowered his weapon slightly while Antonio loosened his hold on Anna.

Leland glanced down. The 9mm was invisible under the magazine pages but he wasn’t going to be able to stand and shoot. He would have to aim from his seat on the sofa. Behind the news magazine he pointed the Sig at the guard as Max spoke.

“This is personal for Rivera—for me as well. For my family and my business it’s all extraordinarily personal. You were never the right woman for me.” Max gestured toward the exit with his gun. “We’ll finish this in the stairwell, not here.”

Antonio shoved Anna again, glanced down at Leland, and finally stared into his face. His eyes widened. Leland saw the exact moment the man recognized him.

Antonio tried to turn his revolver back to aim at him, but he was too late, and it cost him. Leland’s blast was deafening as blood and brain matter spattered behind Anna.

Before Rivera’s man had slumped to the carpeted floor, Leland was pointing his weapon at Emilio, dropping him with a second shot as the bodyguard pulled the automatic weapon up but fumbled with the trigger mechanism.

Leland turned to Max and found himself staring down the barrel of his Beretta. It was an intimidating gun, but The Tequila King was no cartel member and apparently had limited weapons training. Gone was the cool business executive.

Instead, Max’s hands were shaking and his eyes darted back and forth between Leland and Anna. “Drop your weapon,” he demanded.

Leland took a deep breath and calculated the risk. He’d been here too many times—a target in the crosshairs with innocent bystanders on the line. He came to a decision and ejected the 9mm magazine cartridge, keeping eye contact with Max as the ammunition hit the carpeted floor.

Leland started to lower the Sig. There was still one bullet in the chamber, but Max assumed he’d been disarmed completely when the magazine cartridge dropped.

Leland had been counting on that. He didn’t hesitate. Max did.

The shot echoed around the room.

Max slid to the floor beside his dead bodyguard, a neat bullet hole in his forehead. Gunpowder and blood perfumed the air as Anna stood staring at Leland. This was not how he’d envisioned the scene when telling her his true feelings.

For a moment the waiting area was completely silent. Then chaos erupted. Two nurses and a man Leland assumed was the absent AEGIS bodyguard burst from the ICU. His gun was pointed directly at Leland’s head.

The woman who’d been with Anna on the other side of the door was behind them, and she started screaming when she saw the three dead men on the floor. Security guards from the hospital were suddenly everywhere.

Leland was still sitting, but now his hands were in the air and empty. He’d dropped his Sig to the floor beside the crutches after shooting Max.

“He’s with me!” Anna moved to block Leland from the guard’s aim, shouting over the erupting pandemonium. Other than three drops of blood on the shoulder of her sweater, she’d escaped the carnage.

The guard dropped his arm, recognizing Leland wasn’t a threat.

“You’re here,” she murmured, ignoring the uproar as she stared down at him.

“I couldn’t stay away.” He had a strange sense of having been here before, like the night they met in her Best Western hotel room surrounded by the police.

He reached for her hand and pulled her down beside him onto the sofa, where they both sank further into the buttery soft leather. He pulled back to stare into her blue eyes before burying his face in her hair and wrapping her in his arms—so damn grateful she was alive, he couldn’t speak.

Her hair smelled the same way it had when he’d woken up with her that morning almost two weeks ago in the AEGIS office guest room.

“What was this about?” she asked.

“Rivera. Revenge.”

“Is it over?” She pulled back from his embrace to scrutinize his face.

He wasn’t going to lie to her. “Not completely. But for now, yes, it’s over. This was about Max paying, not you. You’re safe. I’m sure Rivera would still like a piece of me, but no one’s going to hurt you or Zach.” Not while he was around. He’d do his damnedest to make sure no one ever hurt her again. He kissed her as she slid her arms around his neck.

“What would I do without you?” she asked.

“You’re never going to have to find that out.” His voice was steady, but his heart was pounding.

She cocked her head to the side, studying him and continuing to ignore the cacophony around them. “I was joking,” she said.

“I wasn’t.” He released his hold on her as she settled deeper into the sofa. He held his breath and hoped it was a good sign that she wasn’t getting up and running away.