Heated Pursuit

by April Hunt

  She’d always known there was a chance she’d have to let him go, but not like that. Not before she had a chance to tell him how she felt, and not because he was trying to bring back her family.

  Finding the one thing people dreamed of finding and having it so viciously taken away—ripped away from her by both Collins and Fuentes—was inhumanely cruel. With Rachel, they’d taken her family, and now they’d taken her heart.

  A rush of anger yanked Penny’s arms toward the large shadow sitting behind the helicopter controls, but the handcuffs anchoring her to the chopper door kept her from throttling Collins in the seat next to her.

  A moment after he navigated the helicopter to the ground, the agent slid her a knowing smile. “Sorry about sending you to dreamland, but it’s the nature of the business.”

  “If you’re so sorry, how about you take these off?” She jiggled the cuffs. “I mean, plastic ties and handcuffs? Isn’t that a little overboard?”

  “My sources tell me you have quite the lively spirit, and I couldn’t take any chances. It’s the same reason I had to leave your friend behind.”

  Logan. “I swear to God if you hurt him, you haven’t even begun to see lively.”

  “Lucky for him, I didn’t have time to inflict too much damage—just enough to make sure he’s incapable of following us.”

  “Why?” She choked on her words. “Why are you helping a man like Fuentes? He’s hurt so many, and if Freedom gets out to the general public, he’s going to hurt so many more.”

  “Money. It can buy a man anything. A tropical island. A new life. I can buy myself a high-end whore instead of one of Fuentes’s fucked-up space cadets. Maybe I’ll have Fuentes make you part of my payment, huh?” Collins scraped the back of his hand down her cheek. “Just you, me, and a little bit of Freedom to make sure you don’t try swimming away with the dolphins. What do you think of that?”

  When his hand neared her mouth, Penny bit into the fleshy part of his hand, a brassy move that earned her a stinging slap across the face. It was worth seeing the bastard bleed as he exited the chopper and came around to the other side. Still anchored to the grip bar, she spilled onto the ground when he flung open her door.

  “Get the fuck up.” Collins uncuffed her, but the plastic ties still cut off the circulation to her fingers. He fisted her hair and yanked her back to her feet before giving her a hard shove forward. “Now move it.”

  Penny locked her jaw against the sting of tears. No way in hell was she giving him the satisfaction of knowing that anything he did to her hurt.

  A warehouse structure loomed in front of them, half-hidden by the surrounding wildlife. It looked eerily like the building Rafe and the team had entered, but this one wasn’t spewing flames and ash.

  Collins pushed her into a stumble. Just when she would’ve face-planted to the jungle floor, a set of arms caught her midfall. Relief her head had been spared another blow disintegrated the second she looked into Marco Fuentes’s eyes.

  “Hello again, Señorita Hanlan. I believe I told you that we’d be running into each other again.” Marco’s smile left Penny cold.

  “Why the hell are you here?” Collins demanded. “And where the fuck is Fuentes?”

  “I’m afraid Diego won’t be able to make it to the meeting. There’s been a slight shift in family dynamics.”

  “He didn’t tell me about any changes.”

  “And he won’t either—because he’s dead.”

  Collins looked taken back for about five whole seconds. “This better not interfere with my payout. I performed a service that doesn’t come cheap.”

  “And your brand of services is no longer required. Consider this your termination letter.” A single gunshot reverberated off the tree line, and Collins dropped to the ground less than three inches from Penny’s feet. Once again, she found herself in the sights of a gun, this time Marco’s. “Now that I’ve dealt with that unpleasant business…with me, mi bonita.”

  “Is this the part where you tell me if I come willingly, things will go much easier?” Penny asked brazenly. What the hell did she have to lose? Her only chance of getting out of this alive was if she pissed him off enough that he made a mistake.

  “I wish I could tell you that you’ll enjoy your stay with us, but I’d hate to lie.”

  Marco grabbed her restraints and tugged her into the warehouse. Every few yards, he placed his finger on another electrical scanning pad. They went deeper and deeper into the building. Each hall looked the same, some leading to dead ends while others led to another set of long corridors. It was the jungle version of Fort Knox, far beyond the warehouse it looked to be from the outside.

  “What makes you think you can get away with this?” Penny asked.

  “Because I already have…with a shit-ton of explosives. Poof! No more Alpha Security. Beautiful, wasn’t it? The explosion? So much destruction, so many bodies.” He turned, catching her look of horror. “Ah. Don’t worry, mi bonita. I assure you that your mourning for your Rafael has an expiration date. Once you’ve had your first few tastes of Freedom, you won’t feel a thing. You’ll be blessedly…empty.”

  Hearing Rafe’s name fall from the man’s lips brought the fire in her gut straight out her mouth. “Go to hell.”

  Bells chimed with the impact of a second slap, and with it came the metallic taste of blood. Penny didn’t care. She spat into his face.

  Marco didn’t so much as flinch as he calmly wiped the offending spittle away. And then he was in her face, close enough for her to gag on the stench of his cologne. “You are going to pay both for your interference and for that of your little boyfriend. Now that my father’s out of the way, I’ll make everyone pay and pay dearly.”

  At her look of confusion, Marco’s lips slid into a ruthless smile. “Didn’t see the family resemblance until now? Being the son of one of Diego’s whores didn’t warrant me climbing too high in his esteem, but look at me now. Now I’m the one in control. I’m the one with all the power.”

  When a nearby door buzzed open, he shoved her through it. “You’ll stay here until I can deal with you appropriately. I suggest you use your time wisely because I haven’t figured how much of it you have left.”

  The door slammed shut, leaving her with nothing but a dim light from somewhere in the corner of the room. But it wasn’t until she heard the loud clank of the lock slipping into place that Penny’s resolve turned liquid.

  Rafe’s scent still clung to her clothes. His touch still warmed her skin. But he was gone. Forever. Fat tears poured down her cheeks, and the more she pictured his face, the more that dropped in a torrential downpour.

  He’d believed in her. He’d taken a chance on her. He’d shown her that some risks were worth taking—no matter the cost. And she wasn’t going to let him down. Fuentes—either of them—would not break her. Lifting her shoulders, she wiped the dampness from her cheeks and took a deep, fortifying breath.

  “P-Penny?”

  At the soft whimper, Penny’s attention whipped to the back of the room. Shadows clung to the corners, but even in the faint light, the bodies were impossible to miss. Ranging in ages from midteens to younger adults, nearly a dozen women stared back at her. Rumpled and dirtied, their clothes hung off their frames like rags on a hanger, and they all looked to be of Miskito heritage.

  Except one.

  Red hair, slightly more muted than Penny’s own, stood out from the mass of brunettes. Rachel’s lean runner’s body was gone, leaving behind paper-thin skin and protruding bones that couldn’t have weighed an ounce over a hundred pounds.

  “R-Rachel?” Penny stared in disbelief.

  Tear streaks marred Rachel’s dirt-encrusted face. She stepped forward on spindly legs, and they gave way, crumpling her slight frame to the floor. “Is that really you? Or am I imagining you?”

  Rachel’s tears spurred Penny from her frozen state. She flew across the room. A few of the women scattered nervously in all directions as she dropped to her knees in front
of her niece. “I’m here, Rach. You’re not imagining me. I’m here. For you.”

  Penny brushed a lock of auburn hair from Rachel’s face. At the sight of her once vibrant, jubilant eyes turned dull and blank, Penny’s heart shattered into a million pieces.

  “You shouldn’t have come,” Rachel’s soft voice murmured. “You should’ve left me here, Penn. Now we’re both dead.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Militia guards stalked the periphery of Fuentes’s real warehouse, badass submachine guns propped on their shoulders. They worked in pairs, monitoring the comings and goings of the worker bees loading and unloading supplies to and from a line of waiting cargo jeeps.

  Furious didn’t begin to describe how Rafe had felt when he and the team returned to the Mocoron base to find Collins and Penny gone and Logan just coming out of a foggy stupor. Murderous maybe, not simply furious.

  The only thing that had kept Rafe from flattening the former sniper to the ground a second time was that Logan was beating himself up good enough for the both of them—and that he’d had the foresight to place a GPS tracker on Collins when the bastard hadn’t been looking.

  Thanks to Logan’s quick thinking, the team was able to follow Collins’s and Penny’s footsteps, despite their three-hour head start. Three fucking hours. A lot of shit could happen in that amount of time, but Rafe couldn’t let his mind drift in that direction. He was going to get Penny back—safely—and nothing and no one could help the fucking bastards who got in his way.

  No one had ever believed in him like she did. No one had ever challenged his thoughts and beliefs, or his actions, like she did. A five-foot-two-inch temperamental sprite single-handedly made him realize that everything he thought he didn’t want or wasn’t worthy of was his for the asking—and that he deserved it.

  And then he walked the fuck away.

  He was a moron. An idiot. If he didn’t get his ass kicked on this op, he’d have one of the guys punt him so damn hard their boots would bruise his fucking tonsils. And then he’d tell Penny that he loved her so much that when he pictured her not in his life, he damn near had a panic attack.

  He didn’t just love her. He was in love with her, hard and deep, and for the first time in his life that didn’t scare the fuck out of him. What did scare him shitless was the thought of losing her…of being too late.

  Yeah, he didn’t deserve just a beating. He deserved a fifty-caliber bullet to the ass.

  Every minute they waited for the go signal, the more Rafe’s nerves went apeshit. “Stone, I need to get in that building right the fuck now.”

  “We’ll get you there, brother. I promise,” Stone said over the comm link. “SEAL-one, you ready?”

  Vince’s voice rumbled through the mic. “All’s primed and hot. T minus five for some fireworks, kids. Hold onto your boots.”

  With the clock ticking down, everyone verified their positions and points of entry. Rafe’s muscles tensed, ready to get his woman back where she belonged. With him.

  As the ground shook with the first ka-boom, monkeys shrieked into the night. Gun aimed, Rafe took his first step toward the bunker, then his second. When two men jumped in front of him, putting themselves between him and the woman he loved, he fired off his first rounds.

  * * *

  Every shake of the walls pierced a new round of blood-curdling screams through Penny’s eardrums. “It’s okay! It’s the cavalry, ladies. Ayuda. Help.”

  Penny prayed she hadn’t just lied. Panic hovered at the ready, just below her seemingly cool façade, but she held it at bay. Barely. There was no way in hell she’d desecrate Rafe’s name or the entire team’s sacrifice by turning into a blubbering mess now.

  Either Marco really pissed someone off or by some miracle, the guys survived. Thinking of Rafe, Penny’s heart shuddered. Common sense told her there wasn’t any way he lived through the blast, but her heart and her gut disagreed. If anyone could defy the odds, it was him. But regardless if he was behind the thunderous chaos happening outside the compound or not, Penny wasn’t going to let him down.

  The walls shook again, this time swaying the flickering lights above their heads. Penny was too focused on toning down the new wave of screams to notice that behind her, the locked door groaned open.

  “Penn,” Rachel whispered in warning.

  Penny spun around, instinctively shifting in front of Rachel and the girls, and prepared to do whatever she needed to do to keep them from more harm. But it wasn’t Marco. Carlotta, wide-eyed and frantic, stood in the open doorway while she stole quick glances over her shoulder. “Come. Now.”

  Penny stayed in position in front of Rachel, mildly surprised the other woman had finally come out of her drug stupor. “Come where? How do I know you’re not leading us into a trap?”

  “You don’t.”

  Penny shoved away all the emotional what-ifs and concentrated on logistics. Staying meant imprisonment, Marco, and quite possibly a life worse than death. If they ran, they at least had a shot of escape. Heck, she survived the jungle one time already. A second time would be easier, right?

  Another thundering boom dusted ceiling plaster onto their heads and solidified her decision.

  “Give me your hands.” Carlotta produced a knife from the small of her back and gestured to the plastic ties still wrapped around Penny’s wrists.

  Sweat peppered Carlotta’s forehead and her hands shook as she freed Penny from the restraints. Some people would’ve said she looked nervous, but knowing where the brunette had been, Penny recognized it for what it was—withdrawal.

  “This way.” Carlotta ushered them out of the room.

  Gunfire, alternating between high-pitched pops and rolling tap-tap-taps, grew louder the farther down the hall they ran.

  “Hurry.” Carlotta stopped in front of a scanner. Lifting her shaking hand to the screen, it denied her entry twice.

  “Here. Let me,” Penny offered, gently holding her hand still in front of the scanner.

  “Th-thank you,” Carlotta murmured softly.

  “No, thank you.” Penny let out a sigh when the pad beeped green and the door unlocked. “Do you have any idea who’s outside?”

  “Your friends.”

  Penny did a double take. She only had one set of friends in this jungle. Her heart nearly tripped over itself with hope that Rafe had risen from the debris and come for her. Despite the near impossibility of it, the image made her usher the women faster.

  “Just keep going,” she reassured the crying women. “We’re almost there. I promise.”

  Penny ushered the last girl past when she got a brief hit of Marco’s expensive cologne. A moment later, his corded arm wrapped around her neck. One by one, the girls screamed, their panicked crying turning the corridor into pure chaos.

  Penny mentally prepped her head for another blow and flung it back, satisfied when the crunch of bone and string of profanities had Marco relaxing his grip.

  “You dumb, fucking puta,” Marco roared. Gripping the back of her neck in a harsh hold, he propelled her headfirst into the wall.

  Blurry colors burst in front of her eyes in a starry pattern. She struck out, the heel of her hand connecting with the bridge of his already deformed nose. But with her head spinning, the impact teetered her balance sideways.

  “Move and they die!” Both the threat and Rachel’s sharp cry made Penny freeze.

  Two of Fuentes’s thugs dug their guns firmly into Rachel’s and Carlotta’s temples.

  Marco wiped at his bloody nose and smiled. “Risking your life for these drug whores wasn’t a smart move, mi bonita. And trust me—your life is most certainly at risk.”

  Another loud boom shook the foundation. “Sounds as if I’m not the only one. No one told you that Alpha isn’t that easy to get rid of, huh?”

  His cold eyes flattened along with his smile. “If by some miracle your former protector is alive and well, I’ll make certain that you’re not. When I’m done with you, your hero won’t want to to
uch you with a ten-foot fucking dick.”

  “And you think I’m just going to come with you?”

  With a nod from Marco, the man holding Rachel tightened his grip on her throat. Small gasps escaped from her mouth as her fingers clawed at the man’s arm.

  “Don’t!” Penny cried. “Stop!”

  “Only you can stop it.” Marco’s smug smile made her sick to her stomach. “It’s your choice.”

  The man holding Rachel hostage lightened his grip—barely.

  “Don’t do it, Penn,” Rachel softly pleaded. Tears fell in heavy rivulets down her face, matching Penny’s. “Don’t. Please. I’m not worth it.”

  There was no choice to make. Penny had come to Honduras prepared to do anything to get Rachel back. This was it. Though Rachel’s tears flowed even harder, Penny’s slowly dried. She sent Rachel every ounce of strength she had with a single watery smile. “You’re worth it and a lot more, Rach. I love you. So much. Be smart. Help is on the way.”

  “No!” Rachel screamed.

  “Smart choice.” Marco’s fingers dug into Penny’s arm and dragged her in the opposite direction.

  She counted four turns and six unmarked doors until they stopped in front of the seventh. With a buzz and a snap, they were inside. Penny’s heart dropped.

  Sterile and cold, the large room looked like a sadistic version of Frankenstein’s lab. But it was the sight of the dentist chair from hell that rolled her stomach. Her feet skidded on the slick floor as Marco dragged her closer, but with her head still woozy, her attempts to pull away were feeble ones.

  After one strong backhand across her jaw, Marco poured her into the chair and easily cinched the leather restraints around her wrists.

  “There’s no point in struggling,” he said smugly. “Even though your friends are knocking on my back door, it’s too late. It’s too late for you, too late for your country. As we speak, Freedom is already on its way to your shores.”

  “You’re harming people who don’t deserve it, not to mention that you’ll soon be too dead to enjoy any profits,” she smart-mouthed back. As if summoned, another loud boom shook the foundation.