Vengeance (SSU Trilogy Book 1) (44 page)

Niko picked up Percone and followed, hoping the noise Tonelli made wasn’t loud enough to carry over the sound of the ocean and the rattle of chains as the heavy tailgates of the trucks lowered.

Niko squeezed in between two tightly-placed palms, then froze as he heard the unmistakable thud of booted feet hitting the ground.

Shit. It sounded like a damned army was disembarking. Niko increased his speed. There was only one person who would send such force.

Alvarez.

Niko reached the side of the neighbor’s house. “Tonelli,” he whispered.

“Inside. The place is deserted. There’s an open window to your left.”

Niko lifted Percone to Tonelli, then pulled himself through the window. A moment after Niko closed the window, a team of twenty soldiers surrounded Percone’s house.

“Wha—?”

Now the man woke up. Niko clamped his hand over Percone’s mouth and bent down so he could speak into the man’s ear. “Eduard Percone?”

Percone nodded, his eyes wide with fear above Niko’s hand.

“You know who Jaime Alvarez is?”

Again Percone nodded.

“We’re in your neighbor’s house because Alvarez’s men have surrounded your place. If you want me to keep you alive, you’ll tell me the location of Dr. Nevsky’s microchip.” Niko knew this wasn’t the best place to question the man, but in case Percone didn’t make it out alive, Niko needed the directions to the chip.

Niko lifted hand enough so that Percone could talk. “Whisper,” Niko ordered.

“I—” Percone’s frightened eyes moved from Niko to Tonelli and back again.

“We’re with the U.S. government,” Niko reassured him. “You need to give us the location before Alvarez tortures it out of you.”

For a minute, Niko thought he’d gone too far and Percone was going to faint from fear. But the man swallowed heavily and stammered, “He gave it to his daughter, Susana. I overheard a telephone conversation he had with a surgeon. Nevsky wanted reassurance that the chip had been implanted in the woman during some routine operation she was having done. She—”

The staccato sound of automatic weapon fire tearing through the house next door cut Percone off.

Shit. It wouldn’t take them long to realize Percone’s house was empty and start searching the surrounding houses. Niko had to get the man out of here.

He turned around. Tonelli crouched over Percone. His hand swung out and Niko dove out of the way as a silenced bullet sliced the air inches from his head.

What the—?

Niko returned fire but Tonelli was already halfway out the window.

And Percone was undeniably dead. Killed at close range by a bullet through the heart.

Chapter 34

Alvarez’s limousine pulled to a stop across from Percone’s house. Streetlights illuminated soldiers lined up in the road, spraying the house with bullets.

Alvarez leapt from the vehicle before it came to a complete halt. Two of his bodyguards followed, the third, the one sitting across from Madalena, stayed behind on Alvarez’s order.

“Why are you shooting?” Alvarez screamed at the commander. “I need Andros alive!”

Jenna met Madalena’s bleak eyes.

No. She would not accept that Niko was dead. Not before—

She shook her head.

Madalena gave her a sad smile and inclined her head slightly toward the door. Then she reached up to her blouse with her bound hands, and began to undo the buttons as she crooned in Spanish to the guard.

The guard stared glassily as the tops of Madalena’s breasts were revealed. He licked his lips. Madalena held out her wrists, and as if in a hypnotic trance, the man untied her.

Once she was free, Madalena laughed, then grabbed the man and pulled him into her for a kiss. Behind the man’s back, her hands indicated for Jenna to run.

But Jenna’s stomach turned over, remembering the feel of the Russian’s body pressing her against the hallway in Moscow. She couldn’t leave Madalena in the arms of the guard. She just couldn’t.

The man was so focused on devouring Madalena he didn’t notice when Jenna grabbed his pistol off his belt. Madalena tightened her embrace, holding the guard immobile while Jenna slammed the pistol butt into the back of his head. He grunted, then slumped against Madalena. Just to make sure he didn’t wake up soon, Jenna hit him on the temple as well.

Madalena pushed the man to the floor and wiped her mouth. “Why didn’t you leave?” she snapped. Her eyes darted to the window, but Alvarez and his men were still focused on Percone’s house.

Jenna held out her hands for Madalena to untie. “I know what it’s like to have a man you despise touch you intimately.” Her voice trembled. “We’re not in such danger that you need to make such a sacrifice.”

Madalena’s expression warmed into sympathy. “It is okay. For me, sex is nothing but a tool. There is no feeling, bad or good.” She flicked her eyes behind her.

“The driver got out to watch the excitement,” Jenna told her. “We’re alone.” She knelt beside the guard and quickly searched him. His pistol, knife and a flashlight went into her pockets. With Madalena’s help, she used the cord that had bound the women to tie his hands and feet. She stuffed his handkerchief in his mouth, then reached for the door handle. “Let’s go.”

Because the military trucks were parked in the middle of the street, the limo driver had been forced to park on the right side, at the edge of the jungle. The door swung open, revealing a patch of sandy pavement maybe two yards wide between them and the safety of the jungle.

“Imbecile!” Alvarez shouted. Jenna heard a shot, then an angry murmur from the soldiers that was quickly cut off by a scathing reprimand from Alvarez.

“You!” Jenna heard Alvarez order. “Take some men and search the house. Bring me anyone found alive.”

“When you hit the ground, roll into the vegetation,” Jenna said, peeking over the tops of the front seats to make sure no one was looking in their direction. “Then get as deep into the jungle as you can.”

Madalena nodded.

Jenna gave Niko’s aunt a little push. When Madalena’s foot disappeared into the thick tangle of vegetation, Jenna hit the switch to activate the door locks, then slid onto the ground and gently shut the door. She tested to make sure the door couldn’t be opened, then followed Madalena into the jungle.

Although dawn lightened the horizon, under the trees it was still pitch dark. “Madalena?” Jenna whispered.

“Here.”

Jenna wriggled forward until her hand met Madalena’s arm. Then she pulled the guard’s flashlight out of her pocket.

“What now?” Madalena asked. “We cannot just run away.”

“No. We have to make sure Niko is all right.”

“And Alvarez has to die,” Madalena vowed.

Jenna nodded and their eyes met in a moment of understanding. Then she turned off the light, trying to orient herself. When she was sure she knew which direction to head in to stay parallel to the road, she turned the light back on.

“This way,” she said, crawling on her belly. “I have a plan.”

#

Mark Tonelli slipped out of the neighbor’s house. He had the information he needed. Percone was dead and with him the danger of anyone else learning of Nevsky’s daughter.

Bad enough that Andros knew. If he couldn’t find a way to stop the man, the CIA would end up racing the SSU to find the daughter.

He should have known that even at close range Andros wouldn’t be easy to kill. He didn’t even think he’d wounded the man, dammit. Andros’s shots had forced him into retreat, but he wasn’t done yet.

When he passed behind a group of soldiers standing with their weapons pointed at Percone’s house, Mark whispered loud enough to carry, “Andros is in the neighbor’s house behind you.”

He didn’t wait to see if the men understood English. With the patches of jungle separating each house, he figured he had enough cover to make it safely to the end of the street. There was bound to be some place down there where he could hide until Alvarez and his men went away.

Then Mark would go after Dr. Nevsky’s daughter and the chip.

#

Alvarez paced along the dusty street. How had it come to this? Over three decades of work building his empire. He had wealth. Power. Respect.

And a bevy of fools working for him. This is why he needed the chip. To make soldiers that obeyed without question and without mistake.

He had come so close tonight to achieving his revenge against Niko. But no, the imbecile soldiers had poured bullets into the house and were even now checking to see if Niko and the man named Percone were dead.

And his guard had just informed him that Madalena and the girl had escaped.

“The house is empty, sir!” The commander’s voice carried clearly across the walkie-talkie.

Alvarez wasn’t too proud to admit relief. He wanted to be the one to kill Niko. And if both Percone and Niko died before he questioned them, no one would be left to tell him how to find Nevsky’s microchip. He needed the data on that chip.

“Search the neighboring houses,” Alvarez ordered. “They can’t have gone—”

“
Un momento, por favor.
” The commander spoke to someone on his end of the walkie-talkie. “Your pardon,
Jefe
. We have reason to believe the men are in the house to the left of Percone’s. What do you want us to do?”

Alvarez began to smile.

A disturbance at the end of the jungle caught his eye. Several soldiers headed toward him holding a furiously struggling Jenna Paterson between them.

Alvarez laughed. Was this not fate? Niko and the girl back under his control. Madalena was still loose, but she would soon be recaptured. She knew nothing of jungle survival.

“Bring me a megaphone and the belt of the widest man in your group,” Alvarez told the soldier nearest him.

Then he activated the walkie-talkie. “Commander, this is what I want you to do.”

#

Niko was trying to find a way to access the crawl space under the house when Alvarez’s voice came across on a megaphone.

“Nikolos! Look out the window,
hijo
. Your brother is dead and I have the Paterson girl. If you want her to stay alive, you will give me the chip.”

Niko froze. Alvarez had spoken his worst nightmare aloud.

He sidled up to the window and risked a quick glance outside.

Jenna was on her knees in front of the crime lord. There wasn’t enough natural light and she was too far away from the streetlight for him to tell if she was hurt. But as he watched, Alvarez tugged on something and Jenna’s head jerked back, her hands scrabbling at her neck.

Shit. Alvarez had some sort of leash around her neck. Niko’s fingers clenched into fists, a poor substitute for the murderous bellow he fought to contain.

A single bullet broke through the side window and thudded into the wall several feet from Niko.

Right. Time to go before they lost their patience and turned this house into a sieve.

He dropped into a crouch and moved carefully away from the window. Only when he reached the windowless kitchen did he stand. It was the only room he hadn’t searched for crawl space access.

Whether he found it or not, he had to leave the house. Now.

#

Jenna took a deep gulp of air as Alvarez relaxed the pressure on the belt he’d fastened collar-like around her throat. She let her hands drop down to her sides as if they were useless. She didn’t want to remind Alvarez that he hadn’t bound her. He seemed to think cutting off her air was enough.

Only, she had a small throat. And thanks to the stiffness of the belt, it could only tighten so far. Even at its tightest, the belt didn’t fully cut off her air.

The crime lord shifted his weight from foot to foot and tapped the end of the belt against his thigh as he waited for Niko to respond to his ultimatum.

Jenna mentally crossed her fingers, hoping Niko was gone.

A pebble dug painfully into her right knee. She moved her leg so that it was slightly more comfortable. Alvarez’s men hadn’t been gentle with her when they dragged her out of the jungle, and she could feel the sting of new cuts and reopened old ones. Her head felt like the venue for a kettledrum competition, but at least there was no nausea or double vision. She tensed and released all her muscles, readying them to act if the slightest chance of escape presented itself.

She wondered where Madalena was now. The older woman had wanted to let the soldiers take her, instead, but Jenna had nixed that idea.

“Alvarez continues to underestimate you,” Jenna had explained. “If you’re still free, he won’t think he’s in any danger.” Madalena had protested, but Jenna’s final argument had won her over. “Niko will take less risks with me captured. He knows I can handle myself.” And he doesn’t love me like he loves you, she’d thought. He won’t risk death for me.

Now that she was here with Alvarez, Jenna began to see too many flaws in their plan. She was so nervous, it was easy to appear defeated and weak.

She forced herself to take another breath, shuddering as if she still couldn’t breathe properly. As she did, she took note of her surroundings.

There were a dozen soldiers arranged in a loose semi-circle around the neighbor’s unfenced front yard. All the men held automatic weapons. Alvarez stood behind his two bodyguards, so that he was shielded from anyone inside the bungalow firing a weapon. From her position on her knees, Jenna had an excellent view of the pistols and knives hanging from the bodyguards’ belts. If only—

“Nikolos, answer me or I will have to hurt the girl.” Alvarez jerked on the belt, arching Jenna’s neck back until the top of her head touched his thigh. Her fingers scratched at the skin on the back of his hands, but he only laughed.

“Percone isn’t here. It’s just me.” Niko’s voice, thick with anger, carried clearly across the heavy silence. Oh, God, no! She’d needed him to be safely away.

Alvarez released the pressure on the belt, letting Jenna sag forward.

“Ah, but Nikolos, I have word that you indeed have Señor Percone inside with you. Send him out and I will release the girl.”

“Percone is dead. He didn’t know anything about the chip.”

“I know better than to believe you, my friend. Shall I demonstrate what will happen to Señorita Paterson if you don’t cooperate?” Alvarez held out his hand to the man closest to him. “Knife, please.”