Hide and Seek (16 page)

“Tell me something we couldn’t already guess on our own,” John ground out harshly. “You never heard a name? All this time you’ve been giving them intel on the program and its operatives, you never used the power of your gift to look behind the curtain?”

“Tried,” Kyle murmured. “Couldn’t do it. Couldn’t get through.”

“What do you mean, couldn’t get through?”

“Hit a wall. Every time I tried to see who it was...” His shoulders went up in a feeble shrug. “A wall went up, like I was being blocked.”

“Why would you do this?” Lisa asked, heartsick and disgusted despite his apparent remorse. “How could you betray your friends? People trusted you, Kyle. I trusted you, too. You’ve betrayed us all.”

He looked at her, regret heavy in his expression. “They promised me things. They gave me things... money, girls, expensive toys. Everything I asked for.”

John growled now. “You traded people’s lives for all that shit, Talon. What did it get you in the end? Look at you. You traded your fucking soul.”

Pain swam in his dull gaze. “I know that now. I know... a lot of things now.”

“Do you know about the dream?”

Kyle looked up at John, stricken. “The explosion.”

“Fuck.” John and Alec exchanged a troubled look. “What about the guns? The kids?”

Kyle frowned, shook his head. “I don’t know what you mean. There’s only the fire. Only heat and flames. Then... nothing. The fire... it destroys everything.”

John scowled, studying him. “You don’t see the gun cabinet with three rifles in it? Or ten kids playing basketball?”

“No. None of that.”

“What’s it mean?” Lisa asked, seeing John’s confusion and distress. “If Kyle’s vision is different, do you think he can help you and Alec make sense of what you’re seeing?”

“I don’t know, but I think we need to find out.”

Alec’s sharp curse at the window drew their attention. “We don’t have time to sit and chat about all of this right now. We’ve gotta get the fuck out of here.”

“Yeah, we do. But we can’t leave Talon behind.”

“Like hell we can’t,” Alec replied. “He betrayed us once, Ranger. What says he won’t do it again?”

“We’re going to have to take that chance. We’re not leaving him behind.”

Lisa’s heart ached with tenderness for what she saw in John’s eyes as he spoke. He loved her, but he loved her brother, too. He wouldn’t give up on Kyle, no matter how heinous the betrayal. She reached up to touch his smooth-shaven cheek, needing to feel his warmth. She needed him to know how much this gift meant to her. “You’re a good man, John Duarte.”

He pressed a quick kiss to her palm. “You can tell me all about that once I find the keys to those cuffs and we’re out of here.”

He stalked over to the dead attendant and started searching the body.

“Come on, man,” Alec warned from his post at the window. “The clock is running out. We got guards at the far end of the corridor now. I hear a lot of boots heading this way.”

“I used you, too, Lisa.” Kyle’s voice was so quiet, she almost didn’t hear him. She looked down at her brother and smoothed his limp hair from his face. “When I came to see you on your birthday... I left something important with you. Thought I’d come back for it one day... my backup plan, in case I needed a way out of all... this. Too late for me now. Maybe you can use it now instead. You and Ranger and Stingray.”

Lisa frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“The bracelet. Find Fox. Give it to him. He’ll know what to do.”

“I don’t understand.” She glanced at her gift from him and shook her head. “Who’s Fox? What’s my bracelet got to do with any of this?”

John came back with the keys and started unlocking Kyle’s restraints. He saw her confused face. “What’s wrong?”

There was no time to answer. He likely wouldn’t have heard her anyway.

In that same instant, security alarms started blasting from all directions in the building.

~ ~ ~

“Haul ass, everybody! Shit just got real.” Alec’s shout was barely audible over the ear-splitting whine of the building’s alarm system.

Keys in hand, Duarte went to work freeing Kyle from his restraints. As he leaned over his old friend to uncuff his wrist, Kyle’s urgent voice grated near his ear. “Forget about me, Ranger! I’m beyond anyone’s help. Just get Lisa to safety. She’s all that matters.”

“We agree on that,” Duarte told him. “But she’ll never forgive me if I don’t try to save your sorry ass, too. Now, get up. Let’s get the fuck out of here!”

The unlocked restraints fell loose, but getting Lisa’s brother to his feet posed even more of an obstacle. He was shaky on his legs, whether from the prolonged torture he’d obviously endured or the narcotics his handlers had addicted him to, Duarte wasn’t sure.

On a curse, he wedged his wounded shoulder under Kyle’s arm and hefted him into a run across the room. Lisa was right on the other side, doing her best to hold her brother up as they made their way to the door.

Alec yanked it open, but held them back as he peered out to the corridor. Security lights flashed like strobes all along the L-shaped corridor. Over the blare of the alarms, men’s voices sounded from nearby, shouting orders to one another, getting closer by the second.

“We’re gonna need cover,” Duarte said. “Lay down some smoke and bullets. Lisa and I will get Talon out to the vehicle.”

Alec nodded. “Right behind you, brother.”

With his pistol held in one hand, he dug into his vest pocket and pulled out one of the backup items they’d brought from Zapata’s tackle box. He pulled the pin on the small smoke grenade and let it loose, tossing it toward the far end of the corridor. Another one followed, both erupting in a billowing shield of thick white plumes.

Kyle was finally moving on his own, but his steps were sluggish as Duarte ran for the receiving bay exit with Lisa and him. Behind them in the corridor, Alec fired off a spurt of gunfire into the smoke to hold back the approaching crowd of security personnel. It wouldn’t hold them for long. They’d bought themselves precious seconds at most.

Duarte grabbed Lisa’s hand as Kyle dropped behind. Even though he’d do his damnedest to save her brother, Duarte wasn’t about to let go of his woman. “Come on, baby. We’re almost there.”

Duarte swung a glance behind them as they neared the exit. Alec had just emerged from the smoke, his long legs carrying him swiftly toward the group. But Kyle wasn’t moving anymore. He’d stopped completely, watching Duarte sweep Lisa farther away from him, toward their escape.

Alec barked an order at him. “Move it, Talon! Those assholes are gonna be on us in two seconds.”

Kyle slowly shook his head. “I’m not going with you.”

Duarte had his hand on the opened exit door when he realized what was going on. Lisa realized it now, too.

Halfway to freedom outside, she pivoted to look back at her brother. Her voice cracked with panic. “Kyle, what are you doing? We have to get out of here!”

His regret-filled gaze found her through the drifting smoke and rising commotion in the corridor. “I’m sorry. I can’t go with you.” He looked to Duarte. “You always told me you’d look after her if I wasn’t there to do it.”

“And I will. No matter what.” It had been a battlefield promise to his brother-in-arms. Now it was an unbreakable vow to the woman Duarte intended to spend the rest of his life with, if she’d have him. “You don’t have to worry about her. She’s my life now. But you don’t have to do this. Come with us.”

Lisa let out a soft, despairing cry. “Kyle, please. Don’t do this. Come with us.”

His eyes were tender on his sister. “You be strong, baby sister. Be happy.” He wrenched his gaze away from her to look at Alec. “Give me your weapon, Stingray. I can hold them off long enough for you all to get away.”

“Jesus Christ,” Alec hissed. “It’s suicide and you know it.”

Kyle didn’t flinch. “I can’t change anything I’ve done. I can’t expect forgiveness. Let me do this. There isn’t much time.”

Alec cursed again and swung a questioning look on Duarte. Neither man was eager to give their friend permission to die.

But Kyle didn’t wait for it. He wrenched the pistol out of Alec’s hand. “Go. Get her out of here now!”

And as Alec ran to catch up with Duarte and Lisa, Kyle Becker walked to the exit behind them and jammed it closed. Then he turned and strode away, vanishing into the roiling clouds of obscuring white smoke.

~ ~ ~

Sounds of gunfire exploded the instant he walked away.

“Kyle, no! Come back!” Lisa knew there was no stopping her brother from doing what he felt he had to, but the anguish of watching him disappear from sight—from her life this final time—broke her heart wide open.

There had been no time to convince him to stay.

No time to mourn his loss now that he was gone.

She would never understand how he’d been seduced into betraying the program he’d sworn to serve and the people who served along with him. But that had been a choice he’d admittedly made freely.

As was the price he chose to pay today.

“Come on, sweetheart. We have to go.” John’s voice was soothing in the midst of her grief. Calming in the midst of the chaos that still surrounded them.

And as they ran through the darkness and climbed back into the waiting vehicle, his arm around her was warm and strong.

John’s love was a comforting shelter as Alec sped them all away from the building...

Away from the carnage inside.

18

As the sun began to rise a few hours later, Duarte walked out onto the oceanfront patio of Diego Zapata’s heavily secured Miami mansion. Lisa was there, looking out at the horizon.

She’d been at his side most of the night since their arrival at the estate and through his gunshot wound treatment by Zapata’s personal physician, who’d been summoned for a discreet house call long after midnight.

Lisa had stayed with Duarte the whole time, but she’d been quiet, reflective. Mourning her brother in private. Almost in shame. He’d wanted to give her all the time and space she wanted to process Kyle’s death, but the need to be near her was more than he could bear. Especially after all they’d endured—and narrowly survived—tonight.

He walked up without speaking, his footsteps the only sound as he crossed the stone tiles to where she stood. She knew he was there, neither of them needing words right now. Duarte placed a kiss in the curve of her neck and shoulder.

He held her in front of him for a long while, both of them watching the sun come up. Listening to the waves breaking against the shore. Finally, Lisa let out a soft sigh.

“Do you think you’ll ever be able to forgive him?”

He couldn’t give her anything less than honesty. She’d always have that with him now. “I don’t know if I can. His betrayal cut deep. Cost lives. The damage he’s done to Phoenix by helping our enemies could be irreversible.”

“I know,” she murmured quietly. “I’m sorry, John. For what he did. For the fact that I didn’t want to believe you and Alec that Kyle might be capable. I’m... sorry.”

He kissed her soft skin again, breathing in her sweetness. “What your brother did tonight to help us get away,
that
was the old Kyle. The one I knew. That was the friend I could always count on. The one I miss already.”

She turned in his loose embrace. A fat tear slid down her cheek. He swept it away on the rough pad of his thumb, then leaned down to press his lips to her forehead. “I’m sorry for what you’re going through. I never wanted you to get hurt. Christ, I hate like hell that you’re hurting like this now.”

“I hurt because I loved him.” Her breath caught as she spoke. “I hurt because I always will love him, despite what he’s done.”

“I know, babe.” Duarte stroked her lovely face, his heart squeezing tight at her capacity to feel, to forgive. To love so unconditionally. He could only hope she might feel that way for him one day. He’d devote his life to proving himself worthy of her love.

“Do you hate him, John?”

He frowned, shook his head. “I can’t hate him. Because for all his betrayals, he also brought you back to me.” He brushed his lips over hers in a reverent kiss. “Stay with me this time, Lisa. It won’t be white picket fences and fairy tales, but I love you. Wherever I am, I want you in my life. Forever, if you can stand it.”

She smiled. “There’s nowhere else I want to be. There never was.” She kissed him now, long and slow and deep. “I love you, John Duarte.”

He growled, pleasure and relief pouring over him. “Christ, I like the sound of that. I want to hear you say that every day for as long as I live.”

She laughed softly, but her eyes were full of emotion. “I love you.”

They were still kissing when Alec cleared his throat behind them. “Are you two going to be making out every time you’re within a yard of each other?”

Duarte grunted, smiling against Lisa’s mouth. “Get used to it or get lost.”

Lisa put her fingers to her wet lips and glanced in Alec’s direction. “Everything all right, Alec? How are you doing?”

“I’m cool,” he said, ever the nonchalant one. “I just spoke with Mr. Zapata. We can stay here at the mansion as long as we need to. Obviously the safe house isn’t the best choice, and anyway, it’s in bad need of housekeeping.”

Alec strode over and glanced out at the early morning for a moment. “You know, that was straight up heroic, what Kyle did last night. I doubt we’d have made it out of there cleanly, if at all. He probably saved our lives.”

Lisa smiled sadly. “I only wish he’d had the chance to tell us more. I know he regretted what he’d done. He said he tried to get away. He didn’t want to help them anymore.”

“Too late for that,” Duarte said. “Whoever’s behind this isn’t playing games. They’ve got a plan and they’ll stop at nothing to achieve it.”

“I think Kyle knew that, too.” She frowned, going pensive now. “He said something strange to me... that he left something important with me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Some kind of backup plan, he said. He left it with me the last time he came to see me.”

“On your birthday,” Duarte recalled.