Mission Made For Two (22 page)

~***~

“What’s that?” Jake asked and tilted his head to the side.

She listened and heard a distance
whump-whump
. 
“A chopper.
  The question is whether it’s the good guys or the bad?”

Darkness had settled in about thirty minutes ago and they were hoping for a signal from Jake’s friend, Flores.      

“We’ll know soon enough.”  Jake grasped her arm and pulled
her
down and behind the tree.
  He extricated his night goggles and looked toward the noise. 

The chopper got c
loser to the tree line.  The ground started exploding around them.

“Shit!” Jake exclaimed and pulled Sierra tighter against him and
the
tree.

“Not the good guys,”
s
he murmured.

More bullets
ripped through the soft
ground and rattled the leaves around them.

“No and they have
to be using thermal equipment
to know our position.”

“We can’t stay here. We’re sitting ducks.”

“We’ll head e
ast around the perimeter. If we can make it to town, that should give us some cover. Diaz isn’t daring enough to shoot up an entire town.
”

Another burst of staccato gunfire echoed across the air.  Accept it didn’t rattle the trees.

“Wha
t the hell?”  Jake put the
goggles back to his face.  “The chopper’s turning.  Someone’s firing at it.”

Sierra peered around the tree. 
“USOI?”
 

More gun bursts sounded.  The chopper was firing adjacent
t
o their position.

“Could be.
  Come
on,
let’s move while they’re distracted.”

Jake had his finger on the trigger of the AK47 and Sierra had her pistol out.  T
hey started running.  Sierra had to stay close to
Jake, since he had the night
goggles and it was so dark now she couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of her face.

The gunfire
was a constant echo in the distance.  The small-town
police of
Cotui
would most likely not get involved
, unless things moved closer to town
. 

Jake halted suddenly and Sierra slammed into him. They both stumbled.  “Why’d you stop?” she asked around pants of breath.  Dammit, but she was still not a hundred percent. 

“That light out there
.  It’s flashing.”  He grasped
her arm.  “I think
its
Flores.” 

“And what if
its
not?”

He shoved the backpack into her arms.  “Hang onto this.  I’ll go, if it’s not Flores,
then
stay alive until help comes.”

He releas
ed her and took a step.  She clutched the material of his shirt. 
“Dammit, Jake.”

“You won’t recognize Flores.  It has to be me.”

She
hated he was right.  Leaning into him, she kissed him hard on the mouth.  “Two long flashes and two short ones if it
’
s your friend.”

Jake jerked his head in a nod and took off down the embankment toward the flashing light.  The chopper was still occu
pied.  It had flown farther west
, trying to avoid being hit.

Feeling helpless and hating it, she leaned against a tree and waited to see what happened.

If Jake didn’t come back…well, she wouldn’t even think about it. She was doing exactly what she accused him of. 
Doubting his abilities.
  He was as well trained as her and considering the fact, she was the one with the bullet wound in her side, probably more capable. 
Or at least more careful.

Sierra said a quick prayer and waited to see what would happen.

The seconds ticked by with excruciating slowness. 
Sierra held onto her rifle, clenching and unclenching her fingers around the metal.  Patience was important in any good mission and Sierra’s was in short supply.

A light flashed.  Two long, two short. 
Her fingers relaxed as she released a pent up breath.

Not wasting time, she took off down the embankment.  Gunfire still sounded to the west, w
hoever had fired at the chopper
was firing toward the trees, hopefully holding back any of Diaz’s men.

Jake waited for her outside
a Range Rover
.  A man sat
behind the wheel and another
in the passenger side.  She and Jake slid into the backseat.

“Sierra
Thayer
this
is
Cirilo Flores
and his brother, Alfredo.”
  At the brother’s name
,
he turned and looked at her, his expression stern, he nodded in greeting.

Flores hit the gas and the vehicle bounced over the terrain.  “Nice to meet you,” Flores said, his English near perfect.  “You have stirred up quite the hornet’s nest.”

“Thank you for coming to our rescue.”

The tire hit a deep rut and Sierra almost bumped her head on the roof, before landing on the seat with a plop. 

“Sorry about that.  And I owe
Señor
Harding my life.”

Sierra glanced at Jake.  His ex
pression was unreadable.  “Where are we going?”

“To my house,” Flores said.  “
Diaz will bring his men into the town, but they won’t be so brazen with their guns.”

“With any luck, Trent will have help here anytime,” Jake said.

Sierra leaned back in the sea
t
.  Enough time had gone by for USOI to have help in the area already. 
Unless, Trent was being very careful in deference to the leak.
 

Either way, Trent would have help here as quickly as he could manage. 

Jake wrapped his fingers around her hand.  “
You feeling
okay?”

She gazed at him and smiled. 
“Fine.”

His left eyebrow arched.

She rolled her eyes.  “A little tired and my side’s aching, but other than that, I really am fine.”

“When we get to Flores’s home, you can rest.”

Irritation bubbled up her throat.  “I will not be sent off to stay out of the way, while you big strong men make plans and protect me.”

“Sierra.”

“No, Jake.  Just because you have
male
help now, doesn’t mean I’m not a part of this.  I’m in this until it’s finished.”

Jake
heaved a sigh.  “So we’re back to you not admitting you’re
human?  You’ve been through a lot the last couple days.”

“And I’m fine. I just told you I was.”

“And you’re good at covering up what you’re really feeling.”

Sierra
removed her hand from Jake’s and
crossed
her arms over her chest.  “L
ook who’s talking.”

“Children,” Flores said from the front seat.  “You sound like an old married couple instead of partners.”

A
snicker
came
from Flores’s brother.

Sierra d
idn’t look at Jake.  She thought
they’d come to an understanding since escaping the airport, but obviously not.  He might think her capable, but still not as capable as a man.

At least the Rover
had moved onto a road now.  Lights from the town glistened in front
of them.  Not huge by American standards, but big enough to hide in.

The chopper had been neutralized by, she assumed, men loyal to Flores
.  How far would Diaz go to keep his little operation going and protect his source in the US?  He’d already gone pretty damn far.

Flores’
s house was a simple
,
square
,
structur
e with concrete walls.  Not fancy,
but functional.  The main room in the h
ouse held
a hodge-podge of
weathered furniture and a small television. 

They’d barely walked inside, when two more men came in behind him.  Flores asked them in Spanish about the chopper.  They told him that they’d sent it away.

Jake hadn’t said anything else to her since their conversation in the car about her ‘resting’ while the men took care of things.

Flores tu
rned to them.  “You two relax.  Staying out of sight is the safest thing you can do for everyone.  I’m leaving Alejandro out front on watch.  The rest of us will do a recon around town to see if we spot any of Diaz’s men.”

Jake nodded. After the men left, he plopped down on the worn sofa and scrubbed a hand over his face.  A moment of guilt assaulted her.  He hadn’t slept much the last several days.  While she’d been out of it from her wound and then the fever, he’d stayed on alert. 
Keeping them safe.
 
Keeping her safe.

“Why don’t you lie down for a while?” Sierra suggested, and settled into an arm chair.

“I wouldn’t be able to sleep.
”

“Do you think Trent got the signal?” They should have been here by now.

Jake shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck.  “If he did, he’ll have to be careful dispatching so as not to alert whoever is feeding Diaz information.”

Sierra stood and walked behind Jake.  She moved his hand and started massaging the taut muscles along the top of his shoulders and neck.  He moaned. 

She pushed her thumbs on either sid
e of his spine and applied
pressure.

“Where did you learn that?”
he asked, his head lolling forward. 

“I have to keep some of my secrets, Harding.”

“Is this a truce?”

Sierra chuckled.  “You better hope so since you’ve let me get my hands around your neck.”

Jake reached back and snagged her wrist, giving her a hard jerk.  She wasn’t prepared and fell
half-over the back of the sofa.  Jake pulled her the rest of the way until she lay across his lap.

Sierra laughed.  “
Hey, watch the side.”

“Oh, God, Sierra, I’m sorry.”  The look on his face melted any and all anger she’d felt earlier. 

She touched his cheek.  “I’m fine.  You pulled me over on my right side.  You are such a worry-wart.”

His expression turned pensive.  “About the people I care about, always
.”  He wrapped a hand around the back of her neck and drew her t
o him.  The kiss started as a gentle exploration before things got heated.

Sierra wanted more.  She wanted to feel him against her, feel skin, and trace the muscles of his chest.

Jake pulled away first, his breathing heavy.
  “Sierra, you’re still injured and there’s a man right outside the house,” he said and continued to stroke her cheek, his blue eyes
were
so deeply intense
,
she could fall into them and never come out.

She shifted, rubbing against the erection beneath her bottom.  “I’m fine, Jake
,
and there’s a bedroom with our name on it.  What if we don’t get out of here?  What if Diaz catches up to us before help comes?”  She grinned. “Do you really want to die without making love one more time?”

He smiled back. “You’re
irredeemable
. 
And quite convincing.”

His arm scooped beneath her knees and he stood,
cradling
her
agai
nst his chest.
  She did love those muscles.

Jake kissed her again
,
before heading to one of the
b
edrooms in the back.  She didn’t know whose room they
took, and she didn’t
care.  She wouldn’t think about how clean the bed was.

All that mattered
was being with Jake again.  He
entered the first darkened room they came to and hit the light switch.  A lamp came on beside a double bed covered with a red and blue comforter.
  It looked clean enough.
 

Jake
kicked the door closed, then reached back and locked it.
 

He lowered her to the bed,
treating her as though she was
a china doll.
Much different than their first time together.

Clutching the front of his shirt, she pulled him on top of her.  “I’m the same woman you were
with in
that hotel room, Harding. I won’t break.”
  She
rubbed
the dark whiskers covering his cheeks.