Tempted Into Danger

by Melissa Cutler

  “Hooyah,” Ryan said, withdrawing his Ruger. “You can take Leo or Nico, but Enzo’s mine.”

  Diego lined up Leo Chiara’s head in his sights and positioned his finger on the trigger.

  In the distance, a helicopter sounded in approach. Leo turned to look, giving Diego a perfect shot. Before he could squeeze off a round, three naval vessels swerved to a stop in the water outside the yard. Two armored vehicles crashed through the chain-link gates.

  The helicopter he’d heard hovered overhead, almost blocking the sound of guns being drawn behind them. Ryan and Diego spun around.

  “There’s nowhere to run,” said a man dressed in ICE agent gear. “Drop your weapons.”

  * * *

  In the heat of the moment, Vanessa never guessed the ICE agents she turned to for help wouldn’t allow her to accompany them on Diego’s rescue. Not only had Agent Montgomery and the others been impervious to her rants and demands, but they actually told her that what happened next didn’t pertain to her.

  Like hell it didn’t.

  She told them as much, and that was when two agents bullied her into a windowless room on the second floor and left Agent Montgomery to interview her.

  He battered her with question after question about her time with Diego from the minute the safe house delivery was aborted to the minute she walked through the ICE attaché office door.

  She answered the best she could, leaving out the shift in her feelings, their connection and the love she’d found with him. Their time together was too precious to share with a stranger during an interview in a sterile room, and anyway, probably wasn’t allowed between an agent and the person he was protecting.

  In turn, she pestered Agent Montgomery to check in with the team sent to retrieve Diego and Alicia. He refused. Pestering soon turned into begging, as fear for their lives became an oppressive weight over her heart.

  An hour into the interview, a call chimed on Agent Montgomery’s phone. Her breath caught in her throat. Was this the call that was going to tell her if Diego had been rescued unharmed, or the call that would tell her they’d arrived too late?

  She clamped a hand over her mouth, waiting.

  After a few clipped words, he ended the call and looked her way with a thin-lipped smile.

  “It’s time to go.”

  “What?”

  He stood and smoothed a hand over his tie. “ICE’s private plane is ready. We’re getting you out of the country and into protective custody in the U.S. before the Chiaras get a lead on you again.”

  She dug her fingers into the arms of the chair. “I won’t leave without knowing if Diego and his crew are safe.”

  “Miss Crosby—”

  “Don’t tell me it’s none of my business. Those people saved my life. Agent Santero, he’s...” What could she say? That he was the most honorable, capable and loving man she’d ever met? That he taught her how to be brave or that he was the love of her life and if anything bad happened to him a huge part of her would die, too? “I owe him everything.”

  His expression turned patient. “I haven’t gotten word on his status yet. As soon as I do, I’ll pass that information to you, but I have an explicit command from way over my pay grade to get you on a plane right now. If you won’t come with me willingly, I’m going to have to subdue you—and I really, really don’t want to do that.”

  He opened the door and swept his arm across the threshold in invitation.

  “It’s safe here. Why can’t I wait here for Agent Santero?”

  “Because if you’re right and Agent Alderman is working for the Chiaras, this building isn’t secure. He has all the access codes, knows every entrance and exit. For all I know, he’s bugged this room. The codes and locks will be changed and the office swept for bugs, but that requires time. Your life is worth more than taking such a risk.”

  It was odd, hearing him echo Diego’s argument against her returning to the bank. Numb at her lack of options, she stood, swaying in place. “Will I ever see Agent Santero or his crew again if they’re rescued alive?”

  “I don’t expect so, ma’am.”

  She had his personal voice mail number and his real name, so she could theoretically find him once she was in the States, but that wasn’t good enough. She’d finally found a man worth chasing after, and she wasn’t about to let him slip through her fingers without a fight.

  Which meant only one thing. She was about to do something that was either really courageous or really stupid.

  She waited until they were in the alley behind the building, then reached into her concealed holster.

  She’d never held a gun on another person, and now that she was, she didn’t like it. At all. But she wasn’t getting on the plane without knowing whether Diego was alive or dead, and if he was alive, she wasn’t going anywhere until she told him she loved him face-to-face, as she’d vowed in the voice mail message to do.

  Agent Montgomery held his hands in front of him, palms out, and cast worried eyes at her trigger finger. “You don’t want to do this, Miss Crosby.”

  The gun bobbed in her hand. She steadied her grip with the other hand and tried to recall the body positioning techniques Diego had taught her. “You’re right. I don’t. But you don’t understand. I’m not getting on that plane. I’m not leaving Panama without seeing Agent Santero, and I’m not going to let you stop me.”

  She walked backward toward the main street, praying for a taxi to drive past at the exact right time. Agent Montgomery followed at a distance, his eyes never leaving her trigger finger.

  “Do you think he’d want you to put yourself in danger like that after all he did to keep you safe?” he said, stepping closer.

  No. He’d be furious with her, but she couldn’t think about that now. She raised her hand to hail a cab.

  Agent Montgomery took another step closer. “The U.S. and Panama military have launched an offensive at the location you told us the Chiaras’ submarine sale was taking place. The only intel I’ve gotten is that artillery fire has been exchanged. If you got in the middle of that, you’d distract the soldiers from their mission and might jeopardize a lot of men’s lives. Including Agent Santero’s.”

  She closed her eyes. Damn it. He was right, and she hated him for it.

  “I promise you, when I learn more, I’ll tell you immediately.” His hand touched her arm. “But right now, you have to trust me to keep you safe.”

  His words were so similar to Diego’s, her heart contracted. Diego, you’d better be okay. If you’re alive, I’ll find you and I won’t stop looking until I do.

  She let him take the gun from her hand. With an arm around her shoulders, he guided her back to the alley and into the waiting car.

  * * *

  It hadn’t been tough for Diego and Ryan to convince the ICE agents of their identities. Their badges and reputations took care of that. The worst part was standing in the sun as the agents who’d found them coordinated with their bosses and got approval for Diego and Ryan to participate. Freakin’ Feds and their chain of command. By the time the details were ironed out, the boathouse raid was pretty much over.

  They jogged into the heart of the action anyway, though it was too late to do any good. Although, when Diego thought about it, he had to acknowledge that a lot of good had already been done.

  In the center of the crumbling wood boathouse sat a submarine like a giant bullet in the water. American navy soldiers stood on top of it, preparing to breach. The narco-traffickers would’ve used it to pump millions of dollars’ worth of drugs into the U.S. Seizing the watercraft made it that much harder for the bad guys to do their jobs and kept up the good fight in the drug war.

  On the wooden dock surrounding the submersible, the Panama army had lined up more than a dozen men against the wall at gunpoint. Men who would no longer threaten
the innocent. He returned his focus to the submersible as a frail woman in tattered clothes and snarled hair was being helped out—and she looked to be the first of many.

  You did it, Vanessa. You helped save lives and made the world a safer place today. I hope you can see that right now.

  He lowered his gun and closed his eyes as impotent rage pulsed through him. Vanessa might’ve helped make the world safer, but it would be a far bleaker place without her.

  “Agent down! Agent down!” It was Ryan’s voice.

  Diego whipped his head to where Ryan knelt on the ground above a woman’s body. He ran as fast as he could and dropped next to Alicia. Her eyes fluttered open when Ryan pressed his fingers to her throat.

  Diego reached for her hand as relief swept through him. The bullet wound in her chest looked bad, but at least she still had a chance to make it out of this hellhole alive. A slim chance, given her blood loss, but he had to have hope. “Medics are on their way, Alicia. Hang in there.”

  A noise bubbled up from her throat like she was trying to speak.

  A pair of medics pushed Ryan and Diego out of the way. They staggered back to give the men room to work.

  The boathouse was crowded and getting more jam-packed by the moment.

  “Let’s get out of here and figure out where they’re holding the Chiaras,” Ryan said. “I want to see the looks on their faces when they get cuffed and hauled to the slammer.”

  Agent Dreyer and a handful of armed agents and officers were positioned near the chain-link fence, standing guard over two prisoners—Leo and Nico Chiara.

  “You’re missing one,” Diego said to Dreyer. “Where’s Enzo?”

  Nico laughed. “Sorry about your girl. She was a pretty one. Would’ve looked good under me, no?”

  His tenuous control snapping, Diego rushed Nico and crushed his fist into the scum’s face. He raised his arm to strike again, but a hand clamped around his wrist.

  “That’s enough, Agent Santero,” Dreyer said. “Vincenzo Chiara isn’t here. Never was, by the looks of it. We’ve got the place surrounded—land, sea and air. He wouldn’t have gotten past us. Mark my words, we will catch up to him and bring him into custody.”

  Ryan sniffed. His face was stone-hard, but Diego had known him all their adult lives and he read the rage behind the calm. Ryan scanned the horizon, like the scumbag might’ve levitated as a means of escape.

  Diego looked out over the ocean, too, struck by the finality of the moment. He’d failed in every way. Under his care, Vanessa died. He’d held her safe in his arms that morning, the first woman he’d ever loved. He’d told her to trust him...and he’d ushered her straight to her death. Then he’d failed at vengeance. He’d even failed Ossie. The realization leeched the rest of the fight out of him like a bad adrenaline crash, filling his limbs and heart with lead.

  All he had left to do was quit ICE. He wasn’t worthy of the title or the badge.

  Ryan’s hand settled on his shoulder and squeezed, offering his support. But would Ryan understand what he was about to do?

  “How did you find us?” Ryan asked Dreyer.

  Diego was only half listening as he felt in his back pocket for his badge.

  “Vanessa Crosby.”

  Diego’s hand froze. He shook his head. “The RioBank explosion... Vanessa was...” His stomach lurched. How could he say it when he couldn’t even think it without wanting to puke?

  “She’s not dead, if that’s what you were going to say. She walked through the ICE office doors an hour ago and told us you needed saving and that she knew where to find you.”

  Ryan maintained a hand on Diego’s shoulder. And it was a good thing because Diego swayed on weak legs. Like a wuss. Like a man who hadn’t spent the past seventeen years looking the Devil in the eye.

  “Is she okay?” Ryan asked.

  Dreyer grinned. “Not a scratch on her.”

  Diego didn’t remember how it got started, but the next thing he knew, he was nodding like crazy. She was alive. She’d thought he was in danger and had tried to save him. Holy crap.

  It took a few tries to find his voice. He swallowed, still nodding like an idiot. “Where is she?” he croaked.

  “On a plane with Agent Montgomery. Headed for the States to enter protective custody.”

  The wheels were spinning in his head, but they weren’t going anywhere. ICE was moving her out of Panama that fast? For what purpose?

  Then it hit him. It didn’t matter why. All that mattered was stopping that plane from taking off. Because if he didn’t see her, didn’t touch her with his own hands right the hell now to prove to himself that she was alive and well, he was going to explode—and it wasn’t going to be pretty.

  “Call the pilot. Hold the plane.”

  “Too late for that, Agent Santero. The plane’s probably on the runway already. Besides, your part in this operation is done. Agent Montgomery will take over Miss Crosby’s protection from here.”

  He met Ryan’s gaze. Ryan tipped his head toward the ICE helicopter sitting in the shipyard parking lot. He felt the life come back into him, the clarity of purpose that came with a new objective.

  “Hey, Dreyer, who’s piloting that chopper?”

  “Agent Vance. Why?”

  But Diego was already at a dead run. “Because he’s going to need a ride,” he called over his shoulder. “I’ve got a plane to catch.”

  In the air, he got on the radio. “This is Agent Diego Santero. Patch me through to Aaron Montgomery, stat.” Good thing Montgomery still owed him for saving his girlfriend last year in Mexico because it was time to collect.

  Chapter 22

  Diego touched down on the edge of a private government runway, as close as he could get to the jet in position for takeoff. The passenger door was still open, the stairs out. Montgomery had come through for him.

  Sighing and laughing with relief, he sprinted the distance to the plane. Montgomery appeared in the doorway and sauntered down the stairs, his arms crossed and a look of annoyance on his face.

  “Let me get this straight,” Montgomery said. “You went after the Chiara brothers—hijacking my mission, mind you—without calling it in and without backup, like you’re some Wild West vigilante. And then you stole a million-dollar military helicopter.”

  Diego stopped moving. He scanned the windows, searching for a glimpse of Vanessa but seeing nothing but the reflection of the sun. “Yeah, so?”

  “So...I have explicit instructions not to let you on this plane.”

  He couldn’t keep his eyes on Montgomery. They kept shifting to the doorway, waiting for Vanessa to appear.

  “She’s in the cockpit, talking to the pilots. I didn’t tell her you were coming.” Montgomery set his hands on his hips. “Give me one good reason why I should go against direct orders to help you.”

  He wasn’t in the mood for a chess game. All he wanted was to hold Vanessa in his arms. But if Montgomery wanted to get snitty about things, Diego could too. “That girlfriend of yours I rescued last year, what’s-her-name, are you two still together?”

  Montgomery’s eyes narrowed. Yeah, he got the message. He held up his left hand and wiggled his gold wedding band. “And a baby, too.”

  “Congratulations.”

  His eyebrows did a quick up and down. “What is it you want with Vanessa Crosby?”

  Diego drilled him with a long, silent look.

  Aaron flinched first, snorting. “It’s like that, is it? I would’ve never guessed that for you.”

  They were getting way too close to touchy-feely territory for Diego’s taste. When the hell was Vanessa going to emerge from the cockpit? Tamping his impatience, he answered, “I don’t have to tell you what that’s like. You know the script.”

  Aaron whistled. “Do I ever. You thin
k you’ve got it all figured out, then someone comes along and you realize all those things you thought mattered don’t mean jack anymore.”

  Diego huffed. That pretty much covered it. “You going to give me trouble, or are you going to let me see her now?”

  Aaron made like he was giving it some serious thought. Jackass.

  The cockpit door opened. And then Vanessa was there, alive. A strangled sound erupted from her throat when she saw him. She clamped a hand over her mouth and stood trembling in the doorway.

  The world fell away. There was nothing except her and his need to hold her close and never let go again.

  Aaron blocked his passage up the stairs with his body. He pressed a hand on Diego’s chest. “We’re even now.”

  Diego flicked a look in the other man’s direction. “Yeah, we’re square.”

  Aaron moved out of the way and finally, finally, Diego was up the stairs and pulling her against him. It was the best feeling in the universe to bring his arms around her body and smell her and feel her warmth.

  He moved them farther into the plane while she cried into his shirt, hard but quiet.

  Montgomery kept his distance but set a box of tissues on top of the stewardess station. The gesture evoked within Diego a memory of the day he and Vanessa met, how they’d joked about him keeping tissues in his utility belt. Her spark of toughness and humor in the face of danger had touched something inside him, some part of himself he’d let languish for too many years. Even then, he was starting to figure out how special she was—how perfect she was for him. He pushed away the tissues and hugged her tighter.

  What he needed to do was articulate everything she’d come to mean to him, so she’d know without a doubt. He never could seem to say the right thing to her, but today that wasn’t going to be a problem. This, he could handle.

  He tightened his arms around her and put his cheek against hers, his lips next to her ear. “I love you.”

  And, damn, it felt good to say.

  She turned her face in and nuzzled his cheek. “I love you, too.”