In the Air Tonight (39 page)

Not much had changed in fourteen years. These days, Reid’s accent had mellowed—only when he was tired or angry did the deep drawl emerge—although Reid himself hadn’t mellowed at all.

These days, Kell was still trying to balance the genes of his grifter parents by not caring for too many damned people while still using those skills to their fullest. He used to work jobs for Delta Force so highly classified that they didn’t exist on paper and their existence would be denied to anyone outside of the men performing the task. Now he was out of the Army and doing black-ops missions that were still as highly deniable—and just as deadly.

This one was no exception. Six days in the hot Mexican sun and cool nights reconning for the perfect opportunity was neither fun nor safe, but it was necessary.

Juarez was a city of heaven and hell, depending on what you were looking for. The land surrounding it was a target rich environment for illegals, slave traders, drug runners and the like—their last chance before they had to try to cross the official border.

The man they were after had no need to crossl; his empire was a million-dollar enterprise and he worked out of Juarez and lived in a mansion in the hills.

That man was their payoff and he was finally here, about six klicks away, driving at a normal rate of speed so as not to catch the attention of cops or robbers. But Kell knew this was no simple nightly joyride.

His belly tightened, as it always did at the height of the chase. “Two in the cab—Rivera riding shotgun, his bodyguard at the wheel,” he confirmed, and why was Rivera sitting up front?

Kell shifted, waited until the car closed the distance and focused in on the backseat.

No way—they couldn’t be this damned lucky today. “It’s Cruz.” Which was a jackpot … except for the tall blond in ripped cargo pants and a tank top showing underneath a loosely buttoned denim shirt running along the side of the road at top speed toward Cruz’s car, trying to stay out of sight and not exactly succeeding.

Kell might have to be the one to tell her that her time might’ve just run out.

Hi, couldja run in the other direction, because you’re about to blow a carefully planned op out of the fucking water with your sweet swinging hips
, and yeah, he needed a woman, and soon.

Just not this soon.

“Problem,” he muttered.

“Take care of it,” Reid growled through the earpiece from his position down the small embankment, the way he’d been growling this entire trip.

Yeah, sure,
take care of it
. “Who the hell runs around Mexico all by themselves at night like this?”

“Idiots. And operatives,” Reid answered.

She was no operative and Kell would soon find out about the idiot part, but he suspected whatever or whomever she was running from wasn’t what this op needed.

“It’s a woman.”

“We are dealing with the Mexican Cartel, Kell, not trying to get laid.”

“Speak for yourself,” Kell muttered, and Reid cursed at him and the next thing he knew Reid was coming toward him and it was easier not to argue. Kell was usually the control freak in these situations,
always had been, and since Reid was typically out of control, it all worked out.

But since Reid had nearly died on the last official op he was on, the roles had reversed. Kell had gone off looking for revenge like a one-man killing machine and it had taken a long while to reel himself back in.

Some days, he felt as if he’d never left the jungle, wore his knife on his arm both in the shower and while he slept, refused to let his guard down and generally felt as though he’d come unhinged and couldn’t be put back together properly. What’s more, he didn’t want to be. Running wild suited him, suited the missions he would be running for the foreseeable future.

It also made Reid nervous as hell, but Reid had been doing that to him for years, and payback truly was a bitch.

“I can take the shot,” Reid said, and the car was just the right distance for either man to do it … except the woman running directly at them had blown that.

If nothing else, they didn’t want any witnesses, and she’d sped up when she’d heard the sound of the car. But if he was honest with himself, the frightened woman seemed to bring out a chivalry in him he no longer wanted.

“Abort,” Kell said sharply and Reid cursed again as he hustled toward him in the dark. They’d been waiting for hours in position, sanctioned by two governments to take out Rivera.

But Cruz … that would’ve been a hell of a get.

A pipe dream now, since the woman was on target to run directly into him in less than five seconds.

Shit. He scrambled up just in time for her not to trip over him. He caught her against him, instead, and she started fighting him, clawing and kicking, and he nearly lost his balance and rolled down the small embankment.

Fortunately, Reid steadied them both, and she stopped fighting for a second, enough for Kell to get a hold on her.

“Who the fuck are you?” Kell snarled in her ear, using cruelty to suss out whether or not she was a plant … and that made the woman struggle harder. He smelled the fear on her and decided that she was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, and his grip loosened a little.

Whoever she was, she might as well be wearing a KIDNAP ME sign, and so what to do with her now wasn’t even a question—they couldn’t leave her here. She was prey for just about anyone in this country, including himself.

“Car. Down,” Reid said, and dropped. Kell did the same, had the woman on the ground in seconds, a hand covering her mouth as the car with Cruz flew by, spilling light over where they’d stood seconds before.

She was pushing against him and trying to bite his hand as Reid was telling him, “We’ve got to follow—catch them around the hill.”

It was risky … just the kind of mission Kell liked, but not with the add-along of a freaked-out woman. One who’d ruined their perfect shot by simply running in front of their target.

One who was someone else’s target, and Kell couldn’t risk her getting hurt if she was innocent.

To that end, he directed his next words to her. “Who are you running from?”

He took his hand from her mouth so she could answer, but she didn’t. He rolled off her and helped her to her feet. It was pitch black and she didn’t have NVs, so she was lost. She was breathing hard, her bag was on the ground somewhere by Reid’s feet and when she didn’t answer, he grabbed it and started to rifle through it, looking for ID.

Nothing. No wallet or passport or money. Just a change of clothing, a key to a motel room and a brush. And a loaded, illegal handgun—a quick swipe with his thumb had found the roughness where the serial number had been ground off and Kell swiftly unloaded the chamber and pocketed the bullets without her noticing, since she was now staring at Reid, who was muttering and cursing to himself while he checked maps on his phone. Kell handed her the bag and she focused her attention back on him.

She took it, wound it around her shoulder and, finally, she managed to speak. “Please—I need help. A ride …” She stopped talking, put her palms on her thighs and leaned over, trying to catch her breath.

“Do we look like a taxi service?” he asked. “What the hell are you doing out here alone?”

She ignored the question. “I need to get to the border now.” Fear kept her voice tremulous and her body shook from both it and the exertion.

“Not happening.”

Her breathing wasn’t getting any easier. “Please,” she said again. “I … need to know …”

“Honey, we have no time for manners—spit it out,” Kell told her.

“Are you … the good guys?”

He looked at Reid and then back at her. “That depends on whose side you’re on.”

She didn’t ask any more questions and seconds later, he heard the low rumble of an oncoming vehicle. “More company.”

“Ours? Or for her?” Reid asked even as he scanned with the NVs, and it really didn’t matter at this point because Kell hated this shit, did not need some girl—woman, whatever—needing his help when he was in the middle of an op.

Worst timing ever. And it took a lot to be able to say that.

“For … me.” She sat herself on the ground, drawing in harsh breaths and close to hyperventilating—and he and Reid hit the floor too. He pushed her down, lay over her for camouflage as the old truck rumbled by slowly, surveying the side of the road. Kell caught a glimpse of NVs before he put his head down and let them pass.

When the truck was far enough down the road, he moved so he was crouching over her and that’s when he noticed the bloodstain on the shoulder of her shirt. He tried to rouse her, but she’d passed out sometime after hitting the ground.

“She’s in shock,” he told Reid. He carried her over to the Jeep and put her in the backseat, checking under the denim shirt she wore and finding a flesh wound—a nick from a flying bullet. Reid was next to him, passing him a gauze pad to stop the bleeding until they could get to safer ground.

She remained curled up on the seat—her breathing was calmer now, but she was pale.

Kell turned to Reid. “We have a major problem—those guys were mercs.” He could recognize them as well as anyone, being one himself.

“Beyond the fucked-up op and this woman?” Reid glanced between Kell and the woman currently passed out in the Jeep. “And it seems like they want her badly—so what the hell did she do?”

“That’s what we need to figure out.”

“First, we need to get the fuck out of here,” Reid said calmly. Too calmly, which meant … “Incoming.”

As bullets flew overhead, they dove into the Jeep, Reid in the driver’s seat and Kell in the back, giving the woman cover with his body and his rifle as Reid skidded along the rocky sand back road toward safety.

Kell turned to try to get a glimpse of who the hell was firing, managed to get off a couple of warning shot from his own rifle but didn’t bother trying to do more damage—because why waste ammo when you were firing into the dark—but even with the NVs, he could barely make out anything in front of his face.

“Could’ve just been kidnappers or drug dealers …” Or men trying to cross the border. Or any number of random occurrences that were oh so popular in this part of the world.

“We’re clear,” Reid said, but he didn’t slow down, nor did he head right to the safe house.

Kell stared down at the sleeping woman cradled in his lap and wondered what they’d gotten themselves into this time.