by Cassie Miles
Jack assumed that Rojas had threatened Danny’s family and friends. He must have told Danny that if he caused trouble, his loved ones would suffer. “I can arrange protection for—”
“No.” Danny was adamant. “The less they know, the better.”
Jack agreed. He had a new respect for the deputy, who was willing to sacrifice himself to keep others safe.
The other voice came on the phone. “You’d be wise to listen to Danny. Contact no one else.”
“Understood.”
“Come to the house. You know where it is. And bring the girl.”
To do as he said would be suicide. “I want a different meeting place. Neutral ground.”
“You have no right to make demands.”
“I’m the one you want,” Jack said. “I assume I’m talking to Gregorio Rojas. Am I right?”
“Continue.”
“If you don’t get your hands on me, I’ll testify at that trial in Chicago. And your brother will go to jail for the rest of his life. You want me. And the only way you’ll get me is if you agree to a meet.”
There was a long, very long, pause. “Where?”
“I’ll call you back in fifteen minutes with the location. Bring Danny. If he’s hurt, the deal is off.”
Jack disconnected the call and turned off the phone. As he strapped on the tool belt that had been modified to a holster, he turned to Caitlyn. “How long will it take to get to your house?”
“If we move fast, fifteen minutes. What are we going to do?”
“I need for you to think of a meeting place for the hostage exchange. Somewhere secluded.”
He climbed through the slit in the rocks and reached back to help her. The sun had dipped behind the mountains, and the forests were filled with shadow. Though Jack would have preferred waiting for at least an hour when it would be pitch-dark, he knew they didn’t have that option. They needed to strike quickly. He started a mental clock, ticking down fifteen minutes until the next phone call.
Rojas had the advantage of superior manpower and weapons. Jack’s edge was his mobility and his instincts. And Caitlyn. If Jack had been alone in the forest, he would have wasted precious moments figuring out where he was. She knew the way through the trees and back to her cabin. She leapt from rock to rock. In unobstructed stretches, they ran full out. They were at the long slope leading down to her house within ten minutes.
At the edge of the trees, he crouched beside her. “Good job.”
She accepted his compliment with a nod. “I don’t see any light from my cabin. Do you think Rojas left a man there?”
His henchmen weren’t clever enough to leave the lights turned off. The federal marshals were another story. They’d know better than to betray their position by making themselves at home.
He figured that the marshals would want to distance themselves from the hostage situation as much as possible. They probably weren’t at the safe house with Rojas, which left them free to search.
Thinking back to his time in custody, Jack remembered three marshals. Two of them, including the guy with the Texas twang, had been on horseback at the cave. Where was the third man? Hiding in Caitlyn’s cabin? In the barn?
“How do we do this?” she asked.
“Give me the car keys.”
“I’m driving,” she said. “I know my way around this area and you don’t. It’s logical for me to be behind the wheel.”
Logical, but not safe. He didn’t want her to be part of the action, but leaving her alone and unguarded in the forest was equally dangerous. “What if you freeze up again?”
“I won’t. Not while Danny’s life is in danger. I know what’s at stake.”
There wasn’t time to argue, and she was right about knowing the territory. “We’ll slip down the hill, run to your car and get in. If we’re fired upon, keep your head low and drive fast.”
She nodded. “It’s been fifteen minutes. You should call them back. The best meeting place I can think of is the old cemetery by Sterling Creek. It’s a half mile down a road that nobody ever uses.”
“Don’t need directions.” He took out the phone. “They won’t agree to our location anyway.”
“How do you know?”
“Apparently, I’ve done stuff like this before. I’m sure that Rojas will want the advantage of choosing the location.”
His phone call took less than a minute. As he predicted, Rojas refused to come to the cemetery and insisted that they use a deserted ranch house. Jack ended the call by saying, “That’s too far from where we are. I’ll get back to you in ten minutes.”
“Wait,” she said. “You need to tell them more. They’ll hurt Danny.”
“Not yet they won’t.” He shoved her phone into his pocket. “Follow me down the slope. If the third marshal is in your house, he might start shooting. That’s your signal to run back to the cave and stay there.”
“What about—”
“No more talking.”
He started down the hill, keeping to the shadows as much as possible. A twig snapped under his boot. There was no way to muffle the sound of their footsteps. He compensated by moving swiftly. If they got to the car before the marshal had time to pinpoint their location and react, there was a good chance that they could get away clean.
He dove into the passenger seat. Caitlyn was behind the wheel of her dark green SUV. She cranked the key in the ignition and they drove away from her cabin.
No shots were fired. There was no sign of pursuit.
Instead of being relieved, Jack’s suspicions were aroused. The marshals were up to something. He was damn sure that Rojas used a threat to Danny’s family to get him to cooperate, and he was equally certain that the three traitorous marshals wouldn’t allow a bloodbath. If the feds had any hope of protecting their butts, they had to turn the tide in their direction. They needed to look like heroes.
Jack expected the marshals to throw him under the bus.
In the meantime, he and Caitlyn had to get Danny away from Rojas. She was doing her best, driving like a Grand Prix master on the narrow, graded road.
“New car?” he asked. The interior still had the fresh-from-the-showroom smell.
“I’m leasing for a year.” Her eyes riveted to the road ahead. “She handles well for a clunky SUV.”
“She?”
“All my vehicles are female,” she said. “This one is kind of sedate. I’m calling her Ms. Peacock because she’s green.”
He figured that Ms. Peacock had all the bells and whistles, including GPS mapping and a locator. She wasn’t the best car to use for a getaway. “How long until we get to the safe house?”
“At normal speed, twenty minutes. I can do it in fifteen.”
“Make it eight,” he said.
She shot him a quick glance and juiced the accelerator. “You got it.”
When he made the next phone call, his goal was to keep Rojas on the line for as long as possible while they made their approach. Timing was essential to the success of his plan.
Jack had no intention of meeting Rojas at an alternate location. He wanted to be in position for an attack when they were leaving the safe house and not expecting to see him.
After he and Rojas bickered back and forth, Jack said, “I’ll agree to a meeting at the place you named. It’s going to take us forty-five minutes to get there, but Caitlyn knows where it is.”
“Forty-five minutes, then.”
“And I’ve got a couple of conditions,” Jack said. “First of all, you can’t harm Danny. I need your word of honor that you won’t touch him.”
“Done.” Rojas was terse.
He was lying. Rojas had as much honor as a snake. Jack lied back to him. “I trust you, Gregorio. We can handle this hostage exchange without bloodshed. Here’s how it’s going to work.”
Speaking slowly, Jack rambled through a complicated plan to trade himself for Danny, while Caitlyn careened around a wide curve. They passed the entry gate for the Circle L Ranch and a f
enced meadow populated with a herd of cattle. The road narrowed slightly and went through a series of hairpin turns before opening up into a straight line. They were nearing the intersection with a main road.
He talked to Rojas about being set free on a plane to Costa Rica. “And you’ll never hear from me again.”
“Yes, yes. Whatever you want.”
“Well, then. We have an agreement,” Jack said. “I’ll see you in about forty-five minutes.”
He disconnected the call and turned to Caitlyn. “How far are we from the safe house?”
“Within a mile.”
“Nice job, Speed Racer.”
“You should see me in a Hummer.”
This woman had been to war. She knew how to handle herself when she wasn’t disabled by fear. “Cut your headlights. Get as close as you can without turning into the driveway.”
She nodded. “What do we do when we get there?”
“You park the car and stay with it. I’ll get close and grab Danny. We’ll run back to you.”
When she turned off the headlights, she had to slow her frantic speed; there wasn’t enough daylight to see the road clearly. “What if something goes wrong?”
“It won’t.”
Not if he could help it.
Chapter Ten
After her mad race on the twisting gravel roads, Caitlyn was dizzy with emotion. Excited by the speed. Angry about Danny’s capture. Grateful that she’d made it to the safe house without careening into a tree or spinning off a hairpin turn into a ditch. Apprehensive about what might happen next. Adrenaline surged through her veins. Her skin prickled with enough electricity to power a small village.
With fingers clenched on the steering wheel, she eased her green SUV into a hidden spot behind a stand of pine trees and killed the engine. Jack had told her to wait. She was unarmed; there was nothing she could do to help rescue Danny.
While embedded with the troops, she’d been in this position before. Watching as the soldiers prepared for a mission. Hearing the determination in their voices. Knowing that some of them would not come back.
But she wasn’t an observer anymore. This is my mission. My friend is in danger. It would have been reassuring to have a combat helmet and ballistic vest to gird for warfare. Not that the clothing or the weaponry made a difference. Being battle-ready was a state of mind that came from training and experience that she didn’t have. Though she’d been to war, she was a civilian.
If saving Danny had depended on writing a thought-provoking essay, Caitlyn would have been helpful. But in this situation? Jack knew better than she did.
She fidgeted in the driver’s seat. From where she was parked, she couldn’t even see the house. She needed to move. If she didn’t take action, the tension building inside her would explode. After turning off the light that automatically came on when the door opened, she quietly unfastened the latch and crept from the vehicle. She approached the barbed-wire fence surrounding the property.
The waning moon hung low in the night sky, but there was enough starlight to see Jack as he darted through the tall brush toward the low, flat ranch house. He stayed parallel to the one-lane asphalt driveway that was roughly the length of a city block.
At the house, Rojas and his men made no attempt to conceal their presence. In addition to light pouring through the front and side windows, the porch was lit. To the right of the house was the horse barn and corral. The black SUV that had earlier visited her house was parked outside. And two other sedans, probably rentals. How many men were inside?
She paced along the fence line, then returned to her SUV, then back to the fence. Squinting hard, she saw Jack as he disappeared into the shadows near the house. He moved with stealth and confidence. In the natural order of things, she figured Jack was a predator. A dangerous man. The only reason he kept himself hidden was to surprise his prey.
But how could he possibly take on Rojas and his men with nothing more than a tool belt and two bullets? These men were killers, violent and sadistic. She’d read the news stories about the cartel crimes in Mexico. They were as brutal as the Afghani warlord she’d interviewed. Her mind flashed terrifying images. Memories. She had seen the mutilated corpses. Stop! I can’t go there. I can’t let myself slip into fear.
Amnesia would have been a relief. Jack was lucky to have his past erased, but she wouldn’t have wished for the same fate. Not all her memories were bad; she’d had a happy childhood. There were many proud moments she never wanted to forget, like the first time she’d seen her byline in print and the thrill of tracking down a story. And Christmas morning. And her sixteenth birthday. And falling in love. Closing her eyes, she forced herself to remember a wonderful time.
Sunset on a beach. Palm trees swayed in the breeze. She held hands with a tall, handsome man as they walked at the water’s edge. The cool water lapped at her bare ankles. She looked up at him and saw…
Jack! Shirtless and muscular, the scars on his torso were landmarks to the past he’d forgotten. His grin teased her as he leaned closer. Before they kissed, she opened her eyes.
The night surrounded her. She wanted Jack’s embrace. To be honest, she wanted more intimacy than a simple kiss. If they got out of this alive, she would make love to him. Together, they’d create a memory—a moment of passion that was destined to never be repeated.
His destiny was set. After he testified, he’d disappear into the witness protection program. Even if that hadn’t been the case, she really didn’t see herself in a long-term relationship with a former member of the Santoro family.
She tucked a hank of hair behind her ear and stared toward the house. Why were they taking so long? They had to leave soon to get to the meeting place.
She wished Jack had explained what he was going to do, but she couldn’t blame him for not outlining his plan. There hadn’t been time to discuss options. And he really couldn’t count on her for backup. Not after she’d frozen when fired upon. That wouldn’t happen again. It couldn’t.
Though she trembled, she felt no fear. Anger dominated her mind—white-hot anger. Tension set fire to her rage. She wanted to yell, not whimper.
Consciously, she fed the flame. She despised Rojas and his men, hated the way they victimized Danny and threatened his family. Their cruelty outraged her. She wanted justice and retribution for every criminal act the cartel had committed.
Her anger ran deep. There had been times—while she observed the troops—when she had wondered if she was capable of killing another human being. At this moment, she felt like she could.
The front door to the house opened, and she heard voices. A man stepped onto the porch. He was too far away for her to tell much about him, but she didn’t think she’d seen him before. Had Rojas called in reinforcements?
From her vantage point outside the barbed wire, Caitlyn mentally took the measure of the distance between her SUV and the front door to the house. It was over a hundred yards, maybe closer to two hundred. Jack had told her to wait until he rescued Danny and they ran to the car. That plan wouldn’t work if Danny wasn’t capable of running.
She needed to bring her SUV closer.
FROM THE EDGE OF THE house, Jack watched a young man with a buzz cut saunter across the yard between the front door and the vehicles. His path led past the place where Jack was hiding, but Buzz Cut didn’t notice him. This guy was oblivious. He flipped car keys into the air and caught them. His casual manner indicated that he wasn’t a decision-maker but somebody who obeyed orders. Rojas must have sent Buzz Cut to bring the car around to the front door.
Using implements from the tool belt, Jack armed himself. The claw hammer was in his right hand. A screwdriver in the left. Though Buzz Cut carried a gun in a shoulder holster, Jack’s weapons were also lethal. Not many men survived a hammer blow to the skull. Not that he intended to kill this guy. Not unless he had to.
A memory flashed in his brain.
Keeping a half-block distance, he tailed the man with fiery red hair. The ba
stard walked with his chest out and his arms swinging as though he was king of the world.
Pure hatred churned in Jack’s gut. In his pocket his hand held a serrated-edge switchblade, illegal in this state. With one quick slash, he could sever the redheaded man’s carotid artery. Within four minutes, the man would bleed out.
There were too many witnesses on the street. The timing wasn’t right. Revenge would have to wait.
Jack shook his head to erase the memory. The past would have to wait; he needed to be one hundred percent focused on the present.
From quick glances through the windows of the house, he had counted seven men, including Rojas and the big guy named Drew, who was nursing his injured leg. He couldn’t tell if any of these men were the federal marshals, but he didn’t think so.
Danny was slumped over in a chair with his wrists tied to the arms. The black hood that covered his head counted as a positive sign. Rojas was making sure that the deputy wouldn’t see too much.
Jack figured that Rojas and his crew would leave soon so they could get to the meeting place first and set up an ambush. They wouldn’t be expecting an attack here. Since there were seven plus Danny, they’d need two cars.
When Buzz Cut pointed the automatic lock opener at the black SUV, Jack decided to make his first move. He could eliminate Buzz Cut and take his weapon without anyone being the wiser. Stepping out of the shadows, he sprinted toward the SUV.
By the time Buzz Cut realized that he wasn’t alone and turned around, Jack was on top of him, looking into his eyes, seeing his disbelief and surprise. With the hammer tilted sideways, he swung carefully. The glancing blow was enough to knock Buzz Cut unconscious but not hard enough to shatter his skull. He’d live.
Grabbing the gun from the holster, he hauled the young man into the shadows beside the horse barn and returned to the black SUV. Jack slid behind the wheel and drove to the front door, where he left the engine running while he slid out the passenger-side door and waited on the opposite side of the car.
Two other men lumbered from the house. Both were stocky and muscular. They were gorillas, not the kind of guys you’d want to meet in a dark alley. Walking toward the other car—a dark sedan—they argued.
