Wild Card

by Lora Leigh

  “You have a ten-minute head start. Run wherever the hell you want to.” He chuckled. “We like to make things interesting. We’ll give you ten minutes then head out for you.”

  Ten minutes. Noah felt the amusement welling within him. Stupid motherfuckers. They were giving him ten minutes?

  “We usually give our prey a little longer,” Gaylen announced amid the laughter that echoed around him. “But we just plain don’t like you. So we’re going to make it harder for you.”

  Noah looked out over the valley. Half an hour wouldn’t seem like much, unless a man knew the area as well as Noah did. He’d played in the national park, camped in it, hunted in it. He knew it like the back of his hand. Half an hour would have seen him well on his way to the Malone ranch. Ten minutes would see him almost back to Sabella’s location.

  “You don’t talk much, do you, boy?” Gaylen observed in amusement. “Savin’ your breath, are you?”

  Noah smiled. It wasn’t in amusement, and for the first time, Gaylen was beginning to look just a little nervous.

  Gaylen grunted, irritated now as he looked at the face of the watch he wore. “Ten minutes, cocksuckers. Get moving.”

  Chuck hobbled at a near run for the gully. Noah stood and stared back at Gaylen as the other man lifted his brow and laughed in his face.

  “Watch your back,” he told Gaylen. “Watch it close. Because I’ll be there.”

  Gaylen laughed as Noah turned, stared around at the unlit vehicles, and hoped to hell Tehya was able to track some of the bastards with the satellite. They needed proof. Just in case he let one of them live.

  Then he ran. Less than ten minutes. He needed to get to the gully and prayed to God the team had had time to get in place.

  He could feel the sights on his back. Someone wasn’t going to wait. He could feel it. He dug his feet into the hard clay dirt and pushed harder, running for the gully and throwing himself into it as the first shot rang out.

  The bullet sliced across his bicep and stung like hell. The flesh wound was going to bleed like a son of a bitch. He hit the rocky gully hard, the heavy stones that filled the dry ravine bit into his ribs, a barely noticeable pain before he was on his feet and moving along the shallow crease in the land.

  He could hear the laughter behind him, engines gunning, the roar of a dirt bike or two. They were fully loaded, technologically advanced, and well planned. They had done this time and time again. This would be their last time.

  “Gotcha.”

  Nik caught him as he rounded the ravine five minutes later.

  “Hold in place. Clint is moving ahead and jumping the gully into the trees as they start moving. Reno is imitating Leon and Macey is pulling him out of harm’s way. We have you covered.”

  “I have to get back to the cavern.” He flicked an irritated glance to where Nik was tying off the wound with camo bandaging.

  “Weapons.”

  A rifle was shoved in his hand then a handgun. He tucked the smaller weapon into his belt and cradled the large one.

  “Knife.” Motors were revving as Nik handed over his own Russian-made military dagger.

  “They put more guards on the canyon,” Nik told him. “You have five to take out. I can’t cover you there but Jordan and the sheriff are moving on that position. They’re a little behind schedule. Seems there were some added eyes posted at the road leading out here. They had to slip around them.”

  “Get that fucking agent out of here.” Noah accepted the information as he heard a horn sound behind them.

  Whoops sounded and vehicles were moving out.

  “Comm.” Nik shoved an earpiece in his ear, leaving Noah to adjust it.

  He could hear the team now.

  “Wild card in place,” he said carefully.

  His code name, the mission code name, and the source they were after. That source was Sienna, and killing a woman wasn’t a preferred action, but what he had seen in that cavern wasn’t a woman. It was a disease.

  “Wild card move and secure ladybird.” Reno’s command came through the earpiece. “All sources in place and pulling from your position.”

  “Go.” Nik slapped him on the back, picked up his own weapon and moved out.

  Staying under cover wouldn’t be easy. He had to work his way through the shallow gully back to the canyon and then along the cliff wall without being seen. The point was to keep the majority of the militia in the field as a few took out the command center.

  Jordan and Noah were the few, and Jordan was running behind.

  “Wild card, eye in the sky has you,” Tehya said into the link. “You have two bogies coming up, thirty-five meters to your left, twenty-two to your right. Proceed with caution.”

  Noah stayed down, using the vocal directions Tehya laid out as the background chatter and directions given by Reno and Clint pounded in his brain.

  “Cycle one down,” Clint reported, his voice filled with glee despite the quiet nature of his voice.

  Noah slid out of the ravine under cover of the pine and juniper growing along the bank. The bogies were behind him. On his stomach, he crawled the distance to the next pass, making certain to keep covered.

  Once he reached the cliff face he was on his feet, crouched and working his way behind the cover of boulders, trees.

  “Bogie in the cliff,” Tehya reported. “I have heat across the canyon, positioned to spy your direction. Use extreme prejudice if needed.”

  Kill if needed.

  Not yet. He wanted everyone in that cave nice and complacent.

  “I need distraction,” he murmured.

  There was silence on the line.

  “Distraction coming in.” Micah’s voice came across the line. “Be ready to move.”

  There was a flash of movement at the mouth of the canyon.

  Noah watched as the sentry turned, shifting position and allowing Noah to slip into the mouth of the cave.

  “Insertion achieved.” Tehya reported his position to the group.

  “Clint, twelve meters to your left, duck and cover,” Kira directed. “Ian, slide that hot ass of yours out of the way, you have a bogie moving in.”

  “Hot ass?” Reno’s voice was muffled amusement. “New code name?”

  There was muffled laughter in his ear as Noah edged through the narrow entrance and into the natural hall that had been carved through the inside of the cliff.

  The contacts adjusted slowly as he made his way toward the command center. He could hear the radio squawking, reports coming in. Like the team Noah was with, each man in the militia hunting party was wearing a personal communications device.

  They were tracking two “prey.” Whooping and yelling when they disappeared then cackling in glee as they reappeared.

  “They’re giving us a run, boys,” the judge yelled in fanatical pleasure. “Woo-wee. We’re gonna run their asses down.”

  “This is taking too long,” Sienna bitched, her voice strident and filled with displeasure. “Gaylen said it would go fast and we could have fun.”

  Mike laughed at her statement, but Noah could hear the nervousness in it.

  “They usually catch one of them by now,” Sienna snapped. “Come on, Mike. Just hold her down. I won’t hurt her too bad, I promise. I’ll just show her how good I can be.”

  There was a whine in Sienna’s voice.

  “She doesn’t look so agreeable.” But there was lust in Mike’s voice. “If I do that, Sienna, you gotta help me hold her mouth open while I come in it.”

  “Oh yes,” Sienna hissed.

  Sabella was silent. He could hear her breathing, hard, rough.

  “Oh, I wish that Noah Blake could hear her once we start making her scream,” Sienna drawled.

  Noah palmed the dagger Nik had given him with one hand, cradled the rifle in the other arm.

  “Jordan and Sheriff Grayson are moving in. Be advised, wild card, you have friendlies coming in,” Tehya reported.

  “Sienna, don’t do this. Don’t make Noah ki
ll you.”

  He heard her voice then. It struck through his soul with the fear in it.

  “Keep begging me,” Sienna panted then. “Oh yeah, Bella, I want you to beg while I eat your pussy and Mike comes down your throat.”

  Noah didn’t think so.

  He stepped into the cave.

  Mike had a single second to whip around with the gun he was holding. Noah let the knife fly, burying it in his shoulder as Sienna screeched and came flying at him.

  Sienna was easy. He didn’t even have to put any power in the punch to her jaw and she went down. But when she fell she tangled in his feet and Mike came roaring at him.

  He’d torn the dagger from his shoulder, rage burned in his brown eyes, flushed his face. And he could fight. He and Nathan had always sparred together. The other man might have gained some paunch, but he was maddened, enraged. Noah felt the gun at his back slip out to the floor in a distant part of his mind.

  Mike’s arms wrapped around Noah, threw him into the cavern wall as he heard Sabella’s cry echo through the stone room.

  He took the first blow to his kidney, let Mike land another in his stomach, then he moved. He threw his elbow into the other man’s throat, knocked him back. Mike’s gutter-fighting abilities had improved. He threw a kick back that Noah dodged, but the pure rage in Mike was nothing compared to the cold brutal ice that filled Noah.

  He ducked, rolled, gripped the fallen knife in his hand, and as Mike came back at him, Noah wrapped one arm around the other man’s shoulders and felt the crunch, the slice of the blade as it pierced Mike’s chest and ripped into the heart.

  Mike froze. His eyes widened as he stared back at Noah.

  “Nathan Malone,” Noah whispered back, just loud enough for Mike. “I warned you, years ago. Don’t touch what’s mine.”

  Something flickered in Mike’s eyes then. Regret. Fear. He wasn’t certain. Mike’s hand lifted, his lips formed his name as blood dribbled from the corners and he slid slowly to the floor.

  Where Noah faced Sienna and the gun she held on him.

  “I’ve killed before.” Her nose was bleeding, her green eyes were deranged.

  Drugs. He could see it now, saw the evidence of it. Fucking junkie.

  “I don’t want to kill you, Sienna.” He was aware of Sabella, pressed into the corner of the wall, watching the scene in fear and pain.

  What he had put her through, no woman should have to experience. His death. His return as another man. Seeing everything that she believed was safe and secure in her world falling apart around her.

  “But I want to kill you, Noah Blake.” She sneered, sniffed as tears fell from her eyes. “You killed Mike.” She grimaced then screamed. “Where the fuck will I get my coke from now, you son of a bitch?”

  He shook his head. “Prison beats dead, Sienna.”

  She sneered at that. “And wouldn’t the high-and-mighty fuck-turd Rick just love seeing me in prison. That son of a bitch. He’s going to be next and he just doesn’t know it. You won’t get out of here.” She waved the gun for emphasis.

  Noah heard the comm activate at his ear. “Deck be appraised, command center compromised. Take out objects.”

  Noah’s lips tightened.

  From the radio at the corner the first gunshot sounded.

  Sienna’s eyes widened.

  “Fuck! Fuck! Where did they come from? Where did they come from?”

  Terror filled her face. The gun shook in her hand.

  “I’ll kill you!” she screamed back at Noah.

  “You have a one-shot chance,” he told her, opening his arms. “Go for it.”

  She smiled, coke-bright eyes glittering as she turned the gun on Sabella. Sabella’s fear raged through the room, silent, filled with the rasps of her breath, the terror she was holding inside.

  Noah tensed, jumped as the shot rang out and Sabella screamed. And Noah cried out, “Bella.”

  He landed against her, driving her back against the wall, tightening in preparation for the bullet that didn’t come.

  He jerked around to see Jordan and Rick Grayson in the entrance. Rick’s weapon was drawn, and Sienna lay stretched out on the floor, blood massing beneath her neck.

  The sheriff stared down at his wife, his face expressionless, his eyes dead, as he bent and picked up the rifle Noah had dropped. He turned and left the cavern as Noah quickly cut Sabella’s bonds.

  “Noah. Oh God. Noah.”

  His arms were around her, holding her to his heart.

  “I knew you’d be here,” she whispered, her fingers digging into his chest, holding on to him as he closed his eyes against the hard core of agony that resonated inside him. “I knew, Noah. I knew you’d be here.”

  He kissed the top of her head as Jordan stepped forward.

  “Take her home,” he told his uncle.

  Jordan nodded. “Rory’s there too, and Grandpop. I’ll stay with her.”

  “No!” She jerked back, stared up at him.

  Her eyes were like thunderclouds. He’d never seen them like that. Shock and fear filled them. Her face was paper white. Her body shuddering.

  “Don’t you leave me!” She gripped his shirt and tried to shake him, tears falling from her eyes. “Don’t you leave me, Noah.”

  His head lowered. He touched her lips with his and knew this woman held the best part of him. The memories of the husband he had been, the man he had been. He couldn’t destroy that. He refused to.

  He pushed her to Jordan slowly, loath to let her go. To release her. Knowing that releasing her was the only way to save the memories she held.

  “Don’t you leave me!” She screamed the order, eyes blazing, her lips trembling as tears fell and hysteria threatened to overwhelm her. “If you leave me, Noah Blake. If you don’t come back when this is over, don’t bother coming back at all.”

  He touched her cheek. Ran his thumb over her lips. “You’re the best part of me,” he whispered. “Always remember that, Sabella. The very best part of me.”

  Before she could grab him, hold him to her, he pulled away, grabbed one of the rifles Mike had laid on the table across the room, and left.

  Nik was wounded and the militia members were scattering like rats on a sinking ship. It was time to contain them. It was time for death to take its toll, and Noah was the hand that would deal the devil’s deck.

  He strode from the cavern, her sobs in his head. He shouldn’t have had to hear her crying for him. It sliced through his senses, through his control, but not the ice that filled him. Every man in the militia Gaylen had brought together had threatened his wife. Risked her life. Risked her world. They wouldn’t have the chance to do it again.

  Sabella let the tears stop. She pulled out of Jordan’s arms and stared at Mike Conrad’s and Sienna’s dead bodies. The cave stank of death, of blood. She pressed her hand to her stomach, to her child.

  “Take me home.”

  Noah had left and a part of her knew he wasn’t coming back. She wanted out of here. She didn’t want her child exposed to this scent, to the atrocities that had been committed in this cave, any longer. She swore she could hear the screams of the innocent people who had died here recently.

  Sienna lay in her own blood. Her slender body was stretched out on her stomach, her long hair covering her face. Sabella knew she would have to deal with the fallout on this one soon. She had loved Sienna like a sister. Trusted her.

  “Sabella.” Jordan said her name softly. “You can’t talk about this.”

  She held her hand up, silencing him. “I know the line. I was married to a SEAL. Remember?”

  Jordan nodded slowly.

  “I don’t know shit,” she whispered tearfully. “Not a damned thing. Now take me home, Jordan. Take me home before I lose my mind.”

  From the radio the screams of the dying could be heard. Orders to run, to ambush, curses and cries echoed through the cave as Jordan gripped her arm and they made their way out.

  Outside, firelight flickered in the d
istance. Gunfire. The echo of shots sounded, overly loud, causing her to flinch as Jordan helped her into the black SUV he and Rick must have arrived in.

  She stared into the night as she buckled up. She held on and rocked with the vehicle as Jordan raced from the canyon. He was barking commands, though she couldn’t see a radio. She glimpsed an insert at his ear though.

  “Nik, get your ass out of there,” Jordan was ordering. “I don’t give a shit if you’re a reincarnated berserker. Haul ass!” Then he cursed.

  Nik. Her mechanic. She crossed her arms over her stomach and turned her face to the window beside her. And she cried. As they hit the small dirt road that led back to the main interstate, she let her tears fall, and she let the past go.

  Her husband was dead. The man in his place wasn’t coming back. She had seen it in his eyes, felt it in his touch. But this time, Sabella wasn’t alone.

  She touched her stomach, closed her eyes. This time, she had a part of that love to hold on to. Their child.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Jordan took her home.

  Sabella waited in the living room, curled up in the same chair she had sat in the day Jordan and Reno had arrived to tell her of Nathan’s death.

  She wasn’t crying. Her head was pillowed in the corner of the wingback, Grandpop Rory had wrapped a quilt around her then pulled his chair close to her and held her hand.

  For hours he just sat there. Until Jordan and Rory went into the kitchen and the silence stretched between them.

  Finally, Grandpop sighed deeply. His age-ravaged face was filled with sadness, with grief, as he patted her hand.

  She lifted her eyes to him. Blue eyes. Wild Irish blue eyes. She wondered if she would ever be free of them.

  “He loves you,” he said softly. “He always loved you, girl. From the day you showed up here, till the day he came back.”

  Her lips parted in shock as he made a little shushing motion. “We’ll not tell them.” He nodded to the other room. “They know, but what we know is between us. Right?”

  She blinked back her tears.

  “When I lost my Erin, I couldn’t go with her.” His voice became hoarse, tear filled. “I felt her death in every corner of my soul. But I had Nathan and Rory, and Grant, well, he changed over the years, I guess. Someone had to watch over my boys.”