Red Leopard (The Vistaria Affair Series) (35 page)
The fourth man was between Nick and the car. He had just brought his gun up to aim, shock slowing his movements. Nick spun to face him, bringing Pablo’s body around as a shield. He pulled the trigger for a fourth time.
The man fired anyway and the bullet thudded into the sand at Nick’s feet. The man fell over and lay still.
It was suddenly very quiet.
“Stay down,” Nick said, his voice flat. He turned, his gun still at the ready, checking all three of the rebels. His face was an expressionless mask, his eyes narrowed in concentration. Then he straightened and let Pablo’s body drop to the ground. He put another bullet in the man’s temple. He walked around to the other three rebels and did the same to each.
Finally, he moved to crouch next to Joshua where the older man lay on one elbow, his arm around Beryl, who had her face buried against his shoulder. “We’re okay,” Joshua said quietly.
Nick nodded and moved to Minnie. “Minnie?” He laid his hand on her shoulder.
She pointed to Harry and her hand trembled. “He was the one. He was the guy at the party.”
“I know,” Nick said soothingly. “I remembered his face.”
“It was he who nearly got Duardo killed—” She stopped abruptly and lowered her hand. She wrapped her arms around her knees. “I’m okay,” she said hollowly. Nick patted her shoulder.
He rose and came over to where Calli lay propped on her elbows. He crouched next to her and put the gun on the ground, then helped her sit up.
“Did I hurt you?” he asked. “When I pushed?”
“My pride, for a moment. God, Nick, I thought you were going to join them!”
“That’s what I wanted them to think. It’s the only way I could get them to relax and drop their guard just enough to give me the time I needed against four of them.”
“I still can’t believe you pulled it off.”
He dropped his gaze, as if he was suddenly ashamed. “I was tempted,” he confessed, his voice low. “For a moment I considered it.”
“That’s natural,” she said gently. “He offered you the one thing in your life that has meaning.”
“But the price was giving up the only other thing in my life with meaning,” Nick said, lifting his head again to look at her. “Pablo’s orders were to kill anyone trying to leave the country. He knew I had guessed what those orders were. I could see it in his eyes.” He got to his feet and helped her to hers.
But Calli was still trying to process his first statement. “What could possibly mean as much to you as Vistaria?” she asked, trying to quench the hope soaring in her.
He smiled. “You, of course.” He turned to look at Minnie. “At the end, Duardo understood it better than I did. Don’t sacrifice love, for there is no greater cause and you never get the time back if you let it slip away.”
Minnie smiled, but her cheeks were wet with tears.
Nick picked up Calli’s hand. “I won’t allow Duardo’s sacrifice to be meaningless.” He kissed her hand. Then he took her in his arms and kissed her properly but briefly, then let her go. “We must go. Now. I have to get you to the boat.”
* * * * *
Twenty minutes later they clattered onto an extended dock, running like crazy for a long sloop tied up at the end of the wooden pier, their bags and packs slapping against their legs and backs. Although they had not been challenged again, Nick took no more chances.
He grabbed the rail of the boat and vaulted over the side onto the decking. “Joshua, come with me!” he called as he pushed aside a pair of doors. He climbed down into the cabin.
Calli helped the other two on board and went below, to see what else needed doing. She found both her uncle and Nick standing at a radio, listening. Nick had the microphone in his hands, as if he had been speaking shortly before.
Nothing but harsh buzzing and static.
“What’s happening?” she asked.
“Shhh...” Joshua told her and shook his head, glancing at Nick.
The radio crackled to life and a tinny, distant voice sounded.
“
Soy arrepentido, Nicolás. Ha sido confirmado. Jose murió hace veinte minutos. Sobre
.”
“Ah, dammit...” Joshua breathed.
Nick grimaced and looked down at his feet. Then, after a second, he lifted the mike. “
Cómo
?”
The response lagged a bit. “
El fuego enemigo...No vuelva a la ciudad, Nicolás. Ellos estarán en el Palacio antes de interrupción de día...Usted tendrá que encontrar otra manera. Oye usted? Sobre
.”
Nick looked at Joshua and it seemed they exchange a silent communication, for he sighed and said into the mike, “
Sí, oigo. Sobre y fuera.”
He threw the mike onto the shelf beside the slim radio set and turned the radio off.
“I didn’t get the last part,” Joshua said apologetically.
“I didn’t get any of it,” Calli added.
Nick leaned against the shelf with his elbow, running his hand over his face. “Jose is dead,” he said. “He died twenty minutes ago. Enemy fire, they tell me, along with a hard warning not to go back to the city. They estimate the palace will be taken over by the revolutionaries by dawn.”
“I’m sorry, Nick,” she said softly.
“With Jose dead, you can’t go back,” Joshua said quietly. “You have to come to Mexico with us. Regroup there and get your bearings. Carmen is there, too. She must be told.”
Nick shut his eyes for a moment. “The fastest revolution in history,” he said.
“It’s not over until you say it is,” Calli said. “As long as you don’t quit fighting, it’s not finished.”
He looked at her and gave her a small smile, but it was almost a grimace. “Thank you,” he said softly.
Chapter Eighteen
The unnatural motion of the mattress beneath her woke Minnie from the shallow sleep she had achieved. She rolled onto her back and stared up at the bottom of the bunk above her. Scattered light off waves played on the painted wood, reflected through the porthole next to her. While she watched, the aching hurt and sadness came back, slipping over her like a pall.
“Duardo,” she whispered to the dark.
She deliberately recalled the last moments again, trying to acquaint herself with the fact, for it still did not seem real—as if someone would arrive very soon and explain that it was all a terrible mistake, so sorry, speak to our lawyers. So she lay there and remembered his words. Nick’s voice, as he translated them. The feel of Duardo beneath her as she lay against him for the few moments she’d had before they had taken him away—
Abruptly, she sat up and her head slammed into the bunk above. She held her forehead and rolled her eyes, trying to clear her mind and her sight, as a potent mix of excitement and horror burst through her. Mindful of her parents, who slept the sleep of the truly exhausted beside her, she whispered the astonishing fact just to herself, trying it aloud to see if it sounded as hopeful aloud as it seemed in her stressed-out mind.
“He was still warm...!”
* * * * *
Just after midnight they crossed into international waters, the graceful yacht skimming the waves with the spinnaker billowed out full, spraying iridescent foam aside with each crest of water.
Calli emerged from below decks where she had been checking on the family of three sleeping in peaceful berths. She was armed with hot coffee and wore a sweater she had found in a cupboard. Nick sat at the wheel, but rested only one hand on it. She handed him the coffee and he thanked her distantly. He seemed pre-occupied.
“We’ll be in Mexico some time tomorrow,” he said, taking a sip and dropping the cup into the swinging holder hanging from the console.
“What’s wrong?” she said softly. “Is it what Pablo said? You’re not running away, Nick. You’re just regrouping. We both know you won’t leave Vistaria to fend for itself for long.”
He shook his head. “That wasn’t what I was thinking at all,” he said.
“Then...?”
He glanced at her and she recognized discomfort in his expression.
“What?” she asked, a spurt of fear touching her.
“
La dama fuerte
,” he said softly. “I never asked you if you wanted this. If you wanted...me.”
“Oh,” she said inadequately.
“Calli, you’re never going to have a normal life with me. I can’t offer you a damned thing. Not even a nation to reside in. It’s just me. And I’m...” He took a breath, let it out. “I’m afraid it won’t be enough. I’ve done nothing but push you away, I know that. I’ve put you through, well, a war. But I want you to say yes. I want you to stay with me. Always.”
She considered this for a moment.
“The lady stays silent,” Nick murmured to himself, but she could hear the note of worry in his voice.
She gave a little laugh. “You’d better start teaching me Spanish, Nick. It seems to be the one thing I can’t teach myself out of a book.”
He plucked her from the deck, put her on his lap and wrapped his arms around her. Before she could gasp her surprise, he kissed her, and this time it was not a brief one. When he let her draw a full breath again, she said, “The wheel!”
“I am watching it,” he assured her, his voice low, deep, the way she remembered it from the first time they had met.
“Always, Nick?” she asked softly, not quite able to believe he wanted her to stay with him forever.
“Until the end, whenever that may be.” He cleared his throat. “Duardo said it best. Even if the end was tomorrow and we only have this day in which I can call you mine, I’ll take that. I will grab it with both hands and be proud and very grateful that you stayed.”
Book 2 of The Vistaria Affair Series
Black Heart
Facing the heart of the enemy.
Vistaria is controlled by the
insurrectos
and chaos reigns.
Minerva Benning (Minnie) is the only one who believes her beloved Duardo still lives and can’t convince anyone to help her find him. Nicolás Escobedo, the bastard half-brother of Vistaria’s assassinated president, is too busy trying to win back his country.
Calli, Minnie’s cousin and Nick’s lover, is busy learning to be the partner of a national leader.
When Minnie attempts to find Duardo herself she is captured by Zalaya, the head of the
insurrecto’s
intelligence and security.
Zalaya is a cool-headed man of secrets and strong appetites that he indulges fully with Minnie.
Despite the eye patch and cane, Zalaya looks like Duardo—especially at night when Zalaya coaxes Minnie to indulge herself with him.
Chained to his bed, she sees Zalaya’s control over Serrano, the leader of the
insurrectos,
crumble.
As the danger surrounding both of them grows, Zalaya’s manipluations and Minnie’s quest collide...and the results are fatal.
Black Heart will be available very soon!
___________
Book 3 of The Vistaria Affair Series
Blue Knight
A game of seduction where a mistake means death.
Held hostage by the
insurrectos
for weeks and forgotten by the world, Olivia has watched Daniel bed every women but her, who he can’t see. Daniel lives dangerously and is forced to use her window one night to avoid the guards. Naked and faced with a long-legged woman who doesn’t want him, his curiousity is piqued.
Under the hostile, suspicious gazes of the guards they begin a game of heated seduction where the stakes are so high, no one, not even their fellow hostages, must suspect there is a connection between them.
As Daniel teaches her how to defy the guards the tension between them, both sexual and personal, spirals until it threatens to shatter.
Olivia learns that Daniel is not quite who she thought he was. Now she is fighting for Daniel’s life, too, for if the
insurrectos
find out who he
really
is, then the man she has come to love will be instantly executed….
Blue Knight will be available very soon!
To Julie—who started it all.
Other books by
Tracy Cooper-Posey
Blood Knot Series (Urban Fantasy Paranormal Series)
•
Blood Knot
•
Blood Stone
•
Blood Unleashed
(Upcoming)
•
Blood Revealed
(Upcoming)
