Midnight Target

  “Don’t say no yet,” Conley blurted out. “Just take some time to think about it.”

  But Liam had never been one to lead anyone on. “I don’t need to think about it, Joey. Truth is, I didn’t break it off because it was moving too fast. I mean, it was, but that wasn’t the main reason I ended it. I don’t feel the same way about you as you do about me. I don’t see a future for us.”

  Conley cleared his throat again. “I see.”

  “You’re a great guy. An amazing friend. Kev is lucky to have you. I’m lucky to have you. But . . . you and me . . . it’s not in the cards.”

  There was a short silence, followed by an awkward laugh. “Hey, it was worth a shot, right? I know I would’ve regretted it for the rest of my life if I didn’t at least ask. Risks, right? Sometimes they pay off, sometimes they don’t.”

  Their footsteps slowly moved away from the door. Their voices grew fainter.

  “. . . heading back this way after your op?”

  “Yeah. Still got some family shit to deal with and I can’t leave Kev in the lurch . . . help him find a replacement . . . don’t think I’ll be working here anymore.”

  Conley laughed. “. . . always knew this wouldn’t be long-term for you.”

  “. . . suppose it isn’t.”

  Their footsteps retreated. The corridor went silent.

  Sully took a breath and leaned his forehead against the door.

  Fuck.

  Liam and Conley would probably be mortified if they found out he’d overheard their exchange. Hell, a part of him wished he’d never heard a damn word of it.

  Every single thing they’d uttered was branded into his mind now. He had a goddamn ocean of emotions swirling inside him and he couldn’t even begin to dive deep enough to make sense of all of them.

  Chapter 33

  Salana, Guatana

  She was nervous. Her hands were sweaty, just like Eminem had rapped about. The ham sandwich she’d eaten on the plane felt like a lead weight in her stomach. Why had she eaten anyway? That was stupid.

  Oh right, because Ash said she should. Ever since they’d left for Boston, she’d done everything he’d told her to do because she was so damn grateful that he’d taken her with him. That he’d included her.

  “How’re you feeling?” he asked now.

  They were still on the jet that Benicio had chartered, but it was sitting in the hangar of a private airstrip. Any second now, the transport Rivera was sending for them would arrive. Cate felt like throwing up when she thought about having to leave the safety of this plane.

  “I’m nervous as hell,” she admitted.

  “Me too.” He rubbed his hands down her arms. “You’ll be with Benicio and the tangos but we’re always behind you. Okay?”

  She nodded, her head bobbing up and down a little too manically. “Are you sure I should take the weapons?”

  At Ash’s insistence, she had a small pistol tucked inside her boot and a knife at her waist. The waist one was intended to be found; Ash maintained that if Rivera’s goons found the blade, it might stop them from searching the rest of her.

  “It’s worth the risk,” he said briskly. “If they confiscate them, so be it, but if they’re careless at all, at least you aren’t completely defenseless.”

  “How far behind will you be?”

  “Two clicks. No more.”

  Clicks. Short for kilometers. She made herself do the math. “A little over a mile, then.”

  “That’s right. Let’s go over what you’re going to do when you get there.”

  “Stall for as long as I can so you can get into position,” she recited obediently.

  Liam, Sully, and Ash had drilled this plan into her during the six-hour flight from Boston to Guatana City. According to Benicio, there would be one driver, along with a high-ranking member of the Rivera cartel. The two goons would take her and Benicio to meet Rivera.

  Cate was supposed to plant a small GPS signaling device inside the vehicle. Using that, the men would follow behind, radioing the directions to the rest of the team, who’d flown to Guatana to assist them. The goal was to surround the building where Rivera was located, kill him, and extract Cate without harm. Extractions were something Morgan’s team excelled at. They hadn’t lost a “package” yet, Ash had assured her.

  She just prayed to God that the streak continued, at least for today.

  “That’s right,” Ash said again. He smiled gently. “You’re brave, sugar. Kinda stupid, but brave.”

  She had to laugh. “Thanks.”

  His hands fell to shackle her wrists. “Be smart today. Take as few risks as possible. I know that Rivera likes to spar with you, but be careful you don’t take it too far. I’d rather have you be alive and cowardly than dead and brave.”

  “Why are those my only two options?” she joked.

  The grip around her wrists grew tight to the point of pain, but she didn’t care. She was just happy to have the contact. Ash had come to her room last night to say good night, but he hadn’t stayed long and he’d looked so troubled that she hadn’t asked him to. And now she was afraid of saying the words that had hovered on her tongue and swam in her blood since the moment she’d met him. But she was also afraid not to say them.

  She peeked at the back of the plane where Liam and Sully were standing, pretending not to notice the drama unspooling in front of them.

  Ash’s lips curved. “Smart and brave, then.”

  The smile gave her courage. “I’ve been afraid before, but not about this. I know you won’t let anything happen to me. And I want you to know—”

  “Don’t.” He cut her off before she could finish her sentence. “Save that thought for when it’s all over. But you’re right, sugar. As long as I’m alive, no one will touch you.”

  “It’s time,” Benicio interrupted, crossing the luxurious cabin toward them. “Shall we go?”

  He held out a hand toward the open door of the private jet. The stairs had been attached and at the base of the metal staircase Cate saw a Land Rover with two black-clad men standing at attention in front of the vehicle. One was bald and the other had a head full of thick, curly hair. They both had submachine guns slung across their chests with a sash full of replacement magazines.

  She wasn’t ready. God, she wasn’t ready at all, but she had to go. She leaned forward against Ash’s broad chest and borrowed as much strength as she could. Then she nodded to Benicio.

  “I’m ready.” But at the door, she turned back to Ash. “Do you know why I kept that pen?”

  He shook his head.

  “Because you gave it to me.”

  “Cate, I—”

  This time it was her turn to cut him off. She pressed her fingertips to her lips and blew him a kiss before disappearing through the doorway.

  She imagined that the walk down the stairs was like walking the plank on a pirate ship. There was only doom at the end. She tried to regulate her breathing, counting each inhale and exhale, each step forward.

  In front of her, Benicio’s shirttails flapped as he strode toward the Rivera men. Overhead, the clouds hung low and the smell of rain was thick in the air.

  A few feet away from the car, Benicio stopped and held up his wrist to display the bloodied rose. The two men did the same.

  Semi-hysterical laughter burbled in Cate’s throat. She supposed that was their secret handshake and was tempted to make fun of it, but she held her tongue. See, Ash? I’m being smart instead of a smart-ass.

  “This her?” the bald one asked in a vaguely insulting manner.

  “It is. Pretty, isn’t she?” Benicio continued walking toward the Rover. “But you can’t touch her. She belongs to my father.”

  “After he’s done, then.”

  Benicio merely shrugged. “You’ll have to take it up with my father.” He opened the door t
o the backseat and gestured Cate forward.

  The bald man made a sound that could have been either an agreement or a fuck-you as he climbed into the passenger seat. The curly-haired thug slid behind the wheel and two seconds later they were driving away.

  Cate resisted the urge to bolt out the opposite door and run back to Ash. The Rover was stripped down inside with a glass partition between the front and the rear seats. It wasn’t anything like the luxury vehicles they were billed to be in the US. Here they were prized for their off-road capabilities, which worried her. They wouldn’t need an all-terrain vehicle if they were meeting somewhere close to civilization.

  “Where are we going?”

  Benicio peered out the window. “Salana,” he replied, as if that told her anything. She’d never heard of the place.

  “Where’d your father get those guys?” she asked mockingly. “Soldiers-R-Us?”

  “They’re ex-Guatana special forces. Rodrigo, the bald one, has over two hundred kills. He’s one of my father’s favorites. I hear that his favorite thing to do during sex is choke a woman. Sometimes they live, sometimes they die.” He shot her a smarmy grin. “He prefers when they die.”

  For some reason, Benicio’s taunts actually chased some of her anxiety away. Benicio was a man so weak in power that he was betraying his own family, running to a bunch of American mercenaries to hire out a hit on his old man because he couldn’t do it himself. His only weapons were his words.

  Cate leaned against the door. “You guys are going to run out of prostitutes if you keep killing them during sex.”

  “Possibly, but where there are drugs, there is a never-ending supply of women. Or boys, as some like . . .” He paused. “I understand your Mr. Ashton was pushed out of the military over a young boy.”

  Horror shot through her. What? He had to be lying. Cate didn’t know why Ash had been discharged other than honorably from the Marines, but if that was the rumor, she knew with absolute certainty that it wasn’t true. Ash lived his life with rigid honor. He would never, ever touch a boy.

  “You need to work on your intelligence network. They’re giving you bad information,” she informed Benicio.

  She crossed her arms at her waist to hide the fact that she was pulling a button from her pants pocket. It popped off easily and she let it fall down into the well between the seat and the door. No one seemed to notice it. The tangos in the front didn’t stop, and Benicio was too busy staring at the passing countryside.

  Together, they watched as the city faded in the distance. And the farther they got away from the city, the worse the roads were. The Rover bumped around for another hour and a half before Cate spoke again.

  “Where are we?”

  “Home, querida,” Benicio mumbled, his face still glued to the window.

  The paved road gave way to a dirt lane big enough for only one vehicle. She wondered how Ash and everyone would be able to get through here without being spotted. The sparse jungle foliage on either side of the vehicle didn’t provide much cover.

  Finally, the Rover came to a stop at a clearing. A large tree-covered hill loomed in the background. Dark clouds hung low over the hills, casting ominous shadows that made Cate shiver.

  In front of her, she counted about a dozen buildings, some of which were just lean-to structures composed of bundles of thin logs bound together to form walls and sheets of corrugated metal resting against each other like two playing cards.

  Her hand itched for her camera because the whole scene would’ve made a breathtaking picture, with the lush green peaks and foreboding sky serving as a backdrop for the dilapidated village.

  “Your father is here?” she asked in surprise.

  Before his “death,” Rivera had been known for his posh lifestyle. Had he really been hiding out here in this abandoned village for the past three months? It would definitely explain why no one had seen him.

  The door opened. Baldy, the sex choker, dragged Cate out of the backseat. Benicio exited on the other side and walked slowly to the center of the clearing, where a small depression in the ground was filled with rocks, discarded wood, and ashes. Baldy pushed Cate forward, his gun brushing against her arm.

  Damn it. She was supposed to delay them so that the team could get into position but Baldy’s pace was quick, his strides lined with purpose.

  Taking a breath, Cate pretended to stumble. But the man simply hauled her upright and then half dragged, half carried her next to Benicio, who balked loudly.

  “She’s my captive,” he snapped. “I’ll be the one to bring her to my father.” He tugged her out of Baldy’s grip with enough force to bring a sting of pain.

  “I thought you were supposed to be more gentle with the merchandise,” she muttered as she pulled her arm free. She peered up at the ominous sky. “Think we can get on with this? It’s going to rain soon.”

  Benicio looked around uncertainly before turning to her. “Stay here. I’ll go see where he is.”

  He stepped forward, while the two goons remained behind her, hands on their submachine guns, feet braced shoulder width apart. It felt creepy with them at her back. Hopefully Ash had a red dot trained in the middle of each of their skulls.

  Discreetly, Cate examined her surroundings for somewhere to hide if the shooting started. The best place would be behind the engine block of the Rover, but that meant she’d have to run directly past big men with guns. The shacks would provide almost as little coverage as any of the trees, so her best bet seemed to be to just sprint to the jungle.

  Her gaze traveled to Benicio, who was approaching one of the shacks. When a gust of wind whipped his shirt up, Cate caught sight of the dull black metal of his Glock. She quickly revised her plan. She would grab the unholstered gun first, and then run like hell for the jungle.

  She inched closer to Benicio’s back and nearly slammed into him when he suddenly stiffened. “What’s wrong—”

  The question died on Cate’s lips when Camila Rivera stepped out from one of the larger structures.

  “Mama!” Benicio cried in surprise.

  He held his arms out for an embrace but Camila stopped out of reach. She wore red from head to toe, a scarlet slash against the darkening backdrop. Her face was utterly expressionless.

  Meanwhile, her son stood awkwardly, holding his arms wide for a beat too long before lowering them to his side. “I’ve brought her,” he announced, hastily pulling Cate forward.

  “Do you remember this place?” Camila asked quietly.

  Benicio nodded. “Grandmother was born here.”

  “Your father too,” Camila reminded him. “He was born of the dirt of this village and it was only through his relentless hard work that he was able to move beyond this life. He did it all for you and your brother.”

  Good God. Was she going to have to listen to some twisted rags-to-riches story before Camila led them to Rivera? As surreptitiously as possible, Cate glanced around, trying to pinpoint the locations of Ash and the team. She saw nothing but trees, scraggly bushes, and dirt.

  “Yes. Yes.” Benicio was nodding. “I know the story.”

  “He was tired. The business was exhausting him and we thought one of you could take the reins and give your father the rest he deserved.”

  Cate was getting a headache from the effort it was taking to keep from rolling her eyes. Because killing people to run a more efficient and profitable drug business was so terribly taxing? She could think of a thousand things that were more stressful than being a murderous, amoral drug lord.

  “We did our best,” Benicio said weakly. “I know Father believes I failed him.” He cleared his throat and jerked a finger in Cate’s direction. “That’s why I went to Boston and captured this whore for him.”

  Be smart and safe. As Ash’s advice echoed in Cate’s head, she clamped her teeth around her tongue so she wouldn’t say anything that would piss
the two of them off, at least not until she had a gun in her hands.

  “But how,” Camila said, and it wasn’t a question. “How did you, my weak son, manage to capture this girl? A girl whose father operates one of the most dangerous mercenary teams in the world.” The older woman looked around. “Where are they hiding?”

  Benicio shifted uncomfortably. His hand dropped to his side, pushing the back of his jacket up. Cate rose on the balls of her feet, ready to spring forward.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Benicio lied.

  Camila’s pretty face took on a sad expression. “If you would be honest with me, I could save you.”

  “Mama—”

  “But I see that honesty is just another one of the traits you lack.” She waved a hand toward the tangos. “Now I feel like my only option is to ask Rodrigo to execute you.”

  Benicio’s eyes widened.

  Cate saw the danger before Camila did, probably because Camila believed her son was weak. But the boy surprised his mother, whipping out his gun and spinning around with shocking speed to release a flurry of shots at the guards behind him.

  It happened so fast that the two goons didn’t even have time to shoot back. Their bodies jerked from the force of the bullets, dropping to the ground.

  Oh boy. Shit had just gotten real.

  As adrenaline spiked in Cate’s blood, all the training Jim and Noelle had provided her kicked in. In one swift motion, she crouched to her knee and pulled the gun from her boot. The pistol was small, which meant its accuracy would suck, but Camila was only about twenty feet away, offering a short-range target that even Cate, who was more used to shooting photos than guns, could manage to hit.

  Benicio rose slowly, his shirt spattered with blood.

  Crap. One of the guards must’ve gotten a shot off.

  “Mama,” he said softly, staring at Camila.