Target in Range (Ranger Ops Book 5)

by Em Petrova

  Jess took a seat immediately and snatched up a headset. For a few minutes, information was scattered. He was hearing police reports of two felons who’d escaped the court during the ruckus of evacuating. They’d believed them to be accounted for, but now realized they were in the wind. Authorities were on the manhunt right now, and he could only think of Avery somewhere out there.

  No sooner had he thought this when Cav’s voice projected into his ear. “Man, I just saw your girlfriend.”

  “What?” Jess clenched his fists on the desk. “Where?”

  “She’s here at the court, part of the search for the escaped convicts.”

  “Jesus Christ.” Now that he knew Avery’s whereabouts, he didn’t know if he wanted her anywhere near it. And the Municipal Court had a bomb they hadn’t yet located, and that put Avery in a path of danger.

  “She’s okay, Jess. She says she loves you.” Cav made a kissy noise.

  That ripped a laugh from his lips. “Thanks, Cav.”

  Intelligence began to trickle in alongside reports. He analyzed the source of a call between one of the men known to be connected with Moreno. The chatter increased, and he and the other agents were working hard to decipher it all. Jess’s mind was verging on the point of overload. He passed one call that seemed less important off to another agent.

  Downs paced back and forth, but Jess ignored him, tuned into what he was listening to.

  With an ear on a conversation, he stared at the last message they’d intercepted from Moreno. Now that Jess had broken the code, he was able to clearly see it. But maybe there was another layer, something he’d missed the first time around, a message that told of the threats to Austin, that might have been avoided if Jess had taken more time…

  His mind was torn between the Spanish in his ear and the words on the paper, when it hit him.

  Hand shaking, he lifted the pen and scribbled the words underneath the ones he’d already deciphered from the message days ago.

  He got to his feet. “Colonel Downs.”

  He halted mid-pace and strode to Jess. He put the paper into Downs’s hand. “This points to Moreno. It’s as I suspected when we discovered he’d been entering the US. He’s not just a middleman—he’s heading this group.”

  Downs read the message and his head snapped up, gaze piercing Jess. “Do you know where he is?”

  “In the US, sir. I believe he’s in Austin executing this plan right now, and the strike mentioned in Mexico is a dead end to throw us off his tail. He’s taken our interference personal—we’ve…” he mulled words on his tongue to describe Moreno’s mindset, “embarrassed him. He believed his codes uncrackable, and we’ve wounded his pride. This is all a warning.” He waved a hand toward the windows and the city beyond that was under threat.

  “Monet. Someone is on here asking for you.” The agent tapped her headset.

  Jess’s heart slammed his chest wall, thoughts of Avery thick in his mind. He dropped to his seat again and switched channels.

  It wasn’t Cav telling him that Avery had been hurt, thank God.

  It was Moreno himself.

  Chapter Eleven

  Reggie turned to Avery, his face grim as the report came in.

  The felons had brained one of the prison guards with a heavy bookend, dragged his unconscious body into a coat closet and taken his weapon. Which meant the manhunt for two armed and dangerous escaped convicts was on.

  Avery and Reggie were to remain where they were, on patrol outside the Municipal Court, keeping everybody well away from the building while the bomb unit worked to deactivate the explosives they’d finally found on-site.

  She felt tired and grubby, and if she thought too long on Jess, she’d add heart palpitations to that mix, so she shoved thoughts firmly away.

  Several feet off, Reggie stood like a brick wall, prohibiting the press, which was still trying to fight their way through to question authorities about the explosives, at bay. At least the damn news chopper had been grounded.

  So far, most of the problems had come from panic and the pure stupidity of the public. Thank God nobody had actually been injured from explosions, and the city blocks surrounding the areas were mostly cleared.

  “The hospital’s on overload,” Reggie said. “So many people hurt from being trampled. Delilah was called in as triage nurse.”

  Avery nodded. “At least you know where she is.”

  He compressed his lips and nodded. “When will you hear from your man?”

  Avery’s heart leaped at the thought of him. After seeing the van roll up and the Ranger Ops team hitting the sidewalk in full gear a little bit ago, she’d nearly dropped over with shock. Then she hadn’t seen Jess and had taken off running to them.

  Cav had intercepted her, taken the time to talk to her and fill her in on Jess’s role. He was somewhere nearby, working on intelligence. She wished to hell she could see his face, just to make sure he was all right. So many times she’d seen him return home bruised and battered, bleeding even.

  Of course she knew his work was dangerous. But she’d feel better if he was with the rest of his team. Together, they were an unstoppable unit.

  “Holy shit! There’s our man!” An officer took off running.

  She and Reggie looked up, assessing the situation in a blink. She took off sprinting, Reggie a step behind. A man ducked behind a building, his prison yellow clothing sticking out like a beacon.

  She powered faster, pumping her arms. She needed to catch this guy and stop the manhunt, which would free up officers out searching for him instead of protecting their city.

  Her burst of speed pulled a surprised gasp from Reggie behind her. “You’re faster than you were, Aarons.”

  All that training had done some good then. Now if only the other steps she’d taken to get back her badge were just as successful, she’d be a happy woman.

  Weapon drawn, she got the convict in her sights. “I got a shot!”

  “Take it!”

  Here it was. The parking lot scene flashed into her mind. She hadn’t made a mistake then and she wasn’t now either.

  She aimed and fired. The man fell, and his fellow escapee threw himself forward, striking a huge, heavy sign outside the door of a business. Avery jumped out of the way in the nick of time, but she heard Reggie holler.

  The other cops were upon them, two jumping on the man she’d just shot down and three more flattening the other convict onto the pavement.

  Avery jerked her head around, looking for Reggie. When she saw him lying beneath the wood and metal sign, her heart gave a lurch. Lunging forward, she was a hundred percent totally prepared for a rescue.

  Reggie lay twisted to the side, his leg bent at an odd angle.

  She reached for his neck and felt for his pulse.

  His eyes popped open. “I’m not dying, woman. You don’t need to use that CPR bullshit on me.”

  “I need an ambulance over here,” she called into her walkie-talkie as her partner glared up at her.

  “I’ll be fine. Just call ahead and tell Delilah that she’s gonna be seeing me real soon.”

  “Reggie, just stay calm. You’re bleeding and I don’t want you going into shock.” Avery noted the bone fragments projecting through his upper thigh. “Lie back now and relax. The medics will only take a minute.”

  “Call Delilah.”

  “I will. I’ll tell her not to worry, okay? That her husband’s just as much of a stubborn ass as ever.”

  He flashed a weak grin. “Guess you’ll be on traffic cop duty by yourself now, Aarons. Looks like I’ll be laid up a while.”

  * * * * *

  Jess was aware of utter silence around him.

  “This is Special Operative Jess Monet on the line.”

  “I know you’ve been listening to my calls,” the man said in his heavily accented English.

  “Moreno. You know we don’t negotiate with terrorists. But it’s not too late to do the right thing.”

  “I have done the righ
t thing.” He was gaining confidence that he had the upper hand here, but Jess had to keep him off-balance.

  Sweat broke out on his brow, and a bead slithered between his shoulder blades. What he was about to say would lure out the worst in Moreno, but it had to be done.

  “Why did your wife take her life?”

  Jess’s question was met with complete silence. He waited for the telltale click on his end that meant the line was disconnected. But he never heard it.

  “My wife has nothing to do with this.”

  “Sure, she does. She took her life because of what you were involved in, didn’t she? After that first bombing back in Mexico City, she found out what you were doing and decided she couldn’t remain married to a man like you.”

  “You know nothing of my wife or my life,” he bit off.

  “Don’t I? I’ve read reports. I know she came from a small town, she grew up poor. She married you for love, but you turned quick, didn’t you? You had to make money in some way, and you turned to selling intelligence. What I want to know is who else is involved? I want the names of the men who follow you.”

  “I refuse to discuss any of this. It is too late to stop it, and all your people are in peril.”

  “You think you can lead these men, that they’re loyal to you. You’re wrong. They aren’t your friends and wouldn’t bat an eye at seeing you dead. Or your children.”

  “Listen, you bastardo.” Evil seeped into his words. “It is you who will be dead.”

  “Know what I think?” Jess went on.

  “No, I do not care to.”

  “I believe there’s a bigger target, that these bomb threats were a diversion for something larger. You know what it is.”

  A laugh followed, and Jess brought his fingers up to pinch the bridge of his nose. That code… Was there a third layer? Perhaps what he’d given Downs just now wasn’t the entire message.

  “Moreno.” Jess pitched his voice low. “Your children, Lalia and Brayan.”

  “You know nothing of my children.”

  “But I do. I know they favor torta de tres leches. And you gave Brayan a new bicycle for his ninth birthday. Lalia is growing up so fast, interested in music and wearing her hair different.”

  More silence.

  “Moreno. I’ve got a daughter as well. She’s growing up and I haven’t been there enough for her either. Both of us still have time. Father to father, tell me how to stop this.” Jess’s words poured out in Moreno’s Spanish tongue.

  “I cannot do that.”

  “Your children deserve to grow up with their father. And not the father you have been these past years since Maria’s death either—a good man. Now tell me, Moreno, do you have the power in your hands to stop this attack?”

  Another laugh, this one dry and brittle.

  “Moreno. If you stop this, we will provide safety for you and your family, even your caretaker and your cook Juanita.”

  He sucked in a breath.

  “We will get you all to safety and see you’re protected. New names, new lives.”

  “We don’t need any of that. We don’t need your help,” he rasped.

  Jess was getting to him, he knew by the strain in his tone. “But Maria would want it. Isn’t this what you should have given your wife before she found herself trapped with a man who was choosing the wrong side and took her own life?”

  Moreno let out a few whispered words that Jess couldn’t exactly make out.

  He opened his mouth to press on him some more, but Moreno cut off.

  The line was dead.

  Jess shot to his feet, hands fisted at his sides. “Someone get me the last ten communications from Moreno,” he barked out.

  A flurry of activity took place, as the other agents typed away. In moments, they had everything up on Jess’s computer monitors. He stared at each. “C’mon, you son of a bitch. Show me what you’re hiding.”

  The letters and numbers scrambled in his brain, but one broke free. Then another.

  “Jesus Christ.” He looked up at Colonel Downs, who hovered over him, forehead wrinkled in strain.

  “What is it, Monet?”

  “It isn’t what’s on these screens. It’s what Moreno whispered just a bit ago. He was talking to someone else, but I caught it.”

  “If you can put a stop to this, I’m listening,” Downs said.

  Jess stood. “It’s the airport. Stop all flights coming in and going out and start evacuation immediately.”

  * * * * *

  The waiting room of the hospital where Reggie had been taken was packed wall to wall with people. Reggie’s wife Delilah clutched a paper cup of coffee she never took a sip of. It was just something to occupy her hand while they waited for news on Reggie, who was in surgery.

  Ever since Avery had heard his compound fracture had been critically close to his femoral artery, she’d felt like she could use something much stronger than coffee. But she was trying to hold it together for his wife’s sake. As a nurse, Delilah knew far too much about the dangerous situation her husband was in.

  Avery rested her hand on Delilah’s shoulder, making her look up. “I’m going to step outside and try to make a phone call, okay? I’ll be right back.”

  She nodded, and Avery moved away. As she looked at the faces of the people who were waiting to hear about the condition or whereabouts of their loved ones, she felt very small for worrying about her own life. The whole mess with the review and the board who couldn’t get their act together and just make the decision on her case seemed so inconsequential in the face of… well, all of it.

  Heart burning out of her chest with fear for the man she loved, Avery couldn’t bring herself to care if she lost her badge anymore.

  She stepped into the night. Lights from the hospital cast streaks across the pavement. The emergency entrance was still jam-packed with ambulances and squad cars. She moved away from it all, down the sidewalk until she reached a solitary lot where the physicians parked.

  Bringing her phone up, she saw the battery was nearly dead. It was the longest day of her life, but she couldn’t breathe until she heard Jess’s voice.

  Ever since news had hit that the airport had been the real target all along and that a small private aircraft carrying enough explosives to take out thousands of people traveling at the time had been discovered on the runway, she’d known exactly where Jess would be.

  She ran her fingers through her disheveled hair and dialed his cell. Of course it didn’t go through. He didn’t have his personal phone on him.

  Tilting her head back, she looked at the clouds, where the Air Force was patrolling their skies. She still couldn’t breathe easy even knowing they were being watched over. Not with Reggie in surgery… and Jess out of arms’ reach.

  Just then, her phone buzzed, and she saw the number belonging to Madison’s mother. She yanked the phone to her ear.

  “Madison?”

  “Yes, it’s me. My dad just called me. He’s safe. He’s all right!” Her young voice projected into Avery’s ear.

  Suddenly, Avery’s knees felt wobbly. She thought she might sit down hard right there in the parking lot, but she braced a hand against the nearest car to hold herself upright.

  “I just heard from him. He’s—”

  Her phone blipped.

  Avery drew it away from her ear to stare at the screen. “I think he’s calling me now! I’ll talk to you as soon as I’m off the phone with him, okay, sweetie?”

  Avery ended the call and switched over. She didn’t even open her mouth to say hello, when Jess’s voice projected into her ear.

  “Baby.”

  “Oh my God. Jess!” Tears sprang to her eyes.

  His voice thickened. “Fuck, it’s good to hear your voice.”

  “I know. Where are you? Are you safe?”

  “Yes. It’s over. We’re en route back to HQ. Where are you?”

  “The hospital.”

  “Shit. Are you all right? What happened?”

 
“It’s my partner, Reggie. There was an accident, and he’s in surgery.”

  “Jesus Christ. Thank God you’re okay, though.”

  Her heart ached to be with him.

  “I have to get back inside and comfort his wife. Until Reggie’s out of surgery and I know he’s okay, I can’t leave the hospital.”

  “I’ll come to you.”

  “You don’t have to. You must be exhausted and—”

  “I’ll come to you,” he stated again.

  She pushed out a teary sigh. “I’ll be waiting. I’m so glad you’re all right and that this is over. Please tell me it’s really over.”

  “It is.”

  Her throat closed off. “Moreno?”

  There was a beat of silence before Jess spoke. “I did my job.”

  Her throat closed. They both had.

  “Gotta run, baby. I’ll meet you at the hospital.”

  “Jess, before you go.”

  “Yeah?”

  “I love you so much.”

  * * * * *

  The condo was dead silent, dark and the perfect place to seduce his lover.

  Avery traced her fingers over Jess’s brow, her heart glowing in her eyes. He cupped her beautiful face in his hands, leaning near to let his lips hover just over hers.

  Her bare flesh seared against his, her nipples hard peaks against his chest and her toned abs cradling his hard cock. It hadn’t gone down in hours and hours, and he could no longer chalk it up to the adrenaline rush of battle. He just couldn’t stop wanting her.

  Catching her lips beneath his, he closed his eyes and inhaled the sweet scent of her shampoo and pure woman.

  “Wanton woman,” he whispered between nibbling kisses. “Needy woman.” He pulled away and lifted her, laying her out on the mattress.

  She stared up at him with desire burning on her face. Without hesitating, Jess slipped down between her thighs and dragged his tongue over her soaking pussy folds.

  “Delicious woman.”

  She shuddered.

  Slipping a finger into her tight sheath, he lapped a path up to her clit and sucked on the small, hard nub. Her hips bucked off the bed, and he clutched onto her hip with his free hand, holding her in place while he kissed every inch of her.