Heart of Danger (20 page)

“Descriptions varied, but one thing that remained the same was the consistency of Hispanic male.”

She gasped. “You think Michaels had his wife killed and Diego’s men helped him? Then why would he have the money?”

Alex shrugged. “Diego Valdez has been getting a lot of drugs through to the States. Preston thinks maybe Michaels is on his payroll, favors for favors, money for loyalty.

“If he had his wife murdered wouldn’t that be enough for blackmail?”

“You’re on the jury who are you going to believe, an honest federal agent; or a drug dealing lowlife scumbag who has a bone to pick with said agent?”

She saw the point. It would be just as easy to say Diego Valdez went after Special Agent Michaels’ family out of vengeance of his own making and not because Michaels asked him to. If she were on the jury—especially knowing what she knew about the man now—she would side with the federal agent too.

They pulled into Alex’s driveway. She didn’t see the guys. She knew their car was in one of the garages. Alex’s place had two garages. One garage was a two car, and the other was a one car. She had picked on him about the need for two garages and he had told her he didn’t trust his girlfriends to park next to his baby so if they stayed over they parked in the one car. She had laughed at him, but she understood. From the complexity of his little car she could see why he would want to keep it safe.

“They’re here,” he escorted her inside. “Don’t worry.”

“I know they’re here. I can feel him.” She knew that sounded strange, but there was just something in the feeling she had when Alex walked her in through the front door that told her Micah was there. They could have gone in through the door in the garage, but Alex seemed determined to go in through the front door. She imagined it was because he knew people were watching, the good guys, and maybe even the bad guys, and he wanted them to know they were in the house. She could feel Micah watching her. She had that same sense of warmth that she had every other time she had looked up to find him watching her over the past couple of days. He looked at her like a man in love, not just in lust. She had wanted him for so long that she had to resist pinching herself to ensure she was awake and this was really happening; he was really her guy in the real world and not just in her dream world.

“So what do we do now?” They were securely locked inside the house and Alex was now dressed in his military camouflage and ready for battle. What was she supposed to do? They hadn’t exactly designated anything for her—maybe because they knew putting any projectile in her hand was a bad idea.

“Sit, relax, and when the shooting starts you stay where I put you.”

“And where are you planning to put me?”

“One of my work rooms. There are no windows so I won’t have to worry about somebody coming in through there. Now I know you can’t shoot, but I’m giving you a gun anyway.”

“Why?”

“Because if somebody comes through that door and it’s not one of us I want you to shoot.” He held up his hand to stop her protest. “Just don’t shoot one of us.”

She exhaled sharply. Her aim, her luck…and what if she screwed up? “Okay,” she accepted the weapon he was handing her. The weight was heavier than she thought it would be in her hand. It was smooth and sleek and silver with a striking mahogany colored base. He could tell her what kind it was, but it wouldn’t make a difference, she still wouldn’t have a clue because she didn’t know guns. Beyond that, it wasn’t important. What was important was what she needed to do to make that thing work.

“Take the safety off,” he helped her position the gun in hand and take the safety off. “Point and ease back on the trigger.” He showed her how to put the safety back on. She could do this. She knew she could.

“Aim, point, shoot.” She could do that—she hoped.

“Safety off, aim, point and shoot.”

She laughed. “Safety off;” she agreed.

“It’s getting late. The sun will be setting soon and I’m sure they’re going to make their move once it’s dark. So let’s get ready okay?”

“Okay.”

“Getting ready” meant stashing her in the appropriate room. She was so nervous and scared for Micah. If anything happened to him she would never be able to forgive herself. Alex had told her to relax so many times she wanted to scream, but she understood why he was telling her to relax. Her being jittery was not going to help matters.

When she heard the gunfire she felt her heart pounding in her chest. She could hear the shouting outside as if they were in the middle of a war. It sounded like a war with one loud burst of gun fire after another. God, had this been what they went through in Afghanistan? No, it was worse—much worse, she was sure of that, but at least there they had more people backing them up.

Through all the outside commotion she was able to hear the sound of the door knob wiggling. Somebody was trying to get in. Her first instinct was to hide in fear, but she couldn’t do that. These guys were helping her and now she had to help herself. “What would Kelly do?” She knew the answer to that. Kelly would be out there fighting with her man, not cowering in a windowless room. So instead of hiding she crawled out of her space underneath the work bench and she stood poised and ready to take the shot. Then she remembered, “safety off,” because she couldn’t do any damage with the safety on. “Make sure it’s not one your guys,” she told herself trying to calm her finger that seemed to be itching to just start shooting.

She took several calming breaths, that weren’t as calming as she would have hoped. She was ready; she had to be.

Micah heard the consistent pop, pop, pop of gunfire come from within the house and he nearly froze. But he couldn’t do that. He still had three more to take down and with the increase in urgency coming from within him he didn’t hesitate to take kill shots. He didn’t have time to shoot to wound. He had to get to his woman.

He was inside the house faster than anybody would have expected. He wanted to call out to her, but he wasn’t sure those shots had come from the gun Alex had told him he gave her. It could have been that one of Diego’s men got in and shot her. They were still missing at least two of them. Nobody had seen Ramón or Diego at this point, but he was sure they were there.

“You killed my best man,” he heard the heavily accented voice speak those words. “He was going to help me cut you up, Natalia.” He rolled her name across his tongue with the threat of his promise going with it. “Ah, ah. You do not get to play with the gun anymore. Put it down. I can shoot you before you get it pointed at me.”

She must have put the gun down because he heard Diego call her a good girl. Micah covered the distance, rounding the corner and expertly navigating his way to the room the voices were coming from and when he cleared the doorway, seeing Diego with a gun pointed at his woman’s head pushed him over the edge. “Over here.” His words caused Diego to turn sharply and in that moment he took the shot, straight to the head. The man wouldn’t bother anybody ever again. More importantly, Natalia was truly free.

“Micah,” she sighed as she leapt over the dead body blocking her way and threw herself into his arms. “I was so worried about you.”

He turned sharply at the sound behind him, ready to shoot if need be.

“Whoa!” Jet held up his hands, gun still in one hand. “Just me. I got my share.”

“Me too,” Alex stuck his head into the room before walking in smoothly.

“Has anybody seen Preston?”

“I’m here,” he growled. “I took a damn bullet in my shoulder. Rat bastards.”

Micah shrugged. “Sounds like you’ll live.”

“Yeah, well that’s more than I can say for the bastard who shot me.”

“It’s over?” Natalia looked between the men.

“I hear sirens, which means the cops are finally arriving to investigate all that gunfire and explosives,” Alex laughed. “Guess we should put down our weapons before some trigger happy cop accidently shoots one of us.”

“What about Michaels?”

“I sent the information Micah and I gathered to somebody I know I can trust. They should be picking him up,” Preston checked his watch. “Now actually.”

“So everybody is okay…except for Preston that is,” Alex winked. “You didn’t need to be so scared for us after all Natalia.”

“Yeah right! Preston has a hole in shoulder.”

“I had one in the other shoulder before I guess now they can match.” He said those words easily. Micah knew Natalia was probably wondering how they could take things in what seemed like such a light spirit, but they had survived worse and at the end of the day the only thing that helped them keep going was to take some comfort in the victory instead of whining over the injuries they sustained.

“He took a bullet in his leg too,” Jet chimed in. “And his butt,” he laughed.

“Hey! She didn’t need to know that.”

Natalia laughed hard. “I won’t even ask how that happened.”

“My wacky ex decided to play with the gun I was getting ready to clean and she shot me in the butt.” He was clearly still angry about that.

“Before or after she became your ex?”

“Before. I can’t stay with a woman who would shoot me in the butt,” he shook his head while Jet tried to patch up his shoulder until the ambulance and medical help could arrive.

“She was dumb as a door post, Preston. We never knew what you saw in her.” Alex chuckled.

Micah knew exactly what Preston had seen in her—she was hot and he was going through a hard time after losing out on a woman he thought he loved. She had had left him while he was deployed—or more like she had cheated on him and then sent him a Dear John letter overseas. Fortunately the one he was with now seemed relatively sane, and she was smart so that was a plus. “No chance of Freya shooting you in the butt, Preston.”

He snorted. “At least not by accident. If she does it will be because she meant to do it.”

Micah wrapped his arms back around Natalia. “You’re safe now,” he whispered in her ear. “He’ll never hurt you again.”

“I know. Thank you.” She placed a soft kiss on his lips. He wanted to take so much more than that one soft embrace, but with the cops coming to a screeching halt outside he figured now was not the time to go hot and heavy with Natalia. He could do that later, after he got her home, after she got some rest, then, and only then, would he take her to bed. “I am so going to have my way with you come morning.”

“Why wait? I am perfectly capable of all nighters.” She smiled deviously at him. “Unless you’re getting too old to keep up with combat and love making.”

“Oh you are so going to pay for that,” he mumbled.

“Make me pay in the bedroom, while I’m underneath that spectacular body of yours. When this is finished here take me home, Micah. Take me home and ravish my body completely.”

“That’s a promise,” he kissed her once more. He was going to take her right back to his bed, where she belonged and where he planned to have her every night for the rest of their lives.