by Trish Loye
Could they possibly know it had been her last night? Had she blown her cover with Pérez somehow?
She started to ease back down the hall when two of the men came out of a treatment room. Sweat smeared the dirt on their faces and stained their shirts. These guys had been searching the jungle.
“Yes.” Ian’s voice became more clipped. “Apparently they lost a woman in the jungle last night. She’s injured and needs their help.”
They were looking for Anna.
Which meant they hadn’t found her body yet. Quinn frowned. She had to get rid of these men and find Anna, or confirm her death.
Pérez’s lackeys strode past her. One went to the kitchen, while two stormed up the stairs. The fourth went toward the back door off the end of the hall.
She froze. It hadn’t been long enough. Would he see Marc leave her room?
“Hey!” she yelled.
None of the men stopped. The guy at the end of the hall threw open the door and stepped outside. He didn’t shout or shoot anything. That had to be a good sign. Unless Marc was still upstairs. The other two men disappeared into the upstairs hallway.
Quinn took a bare second to debate and then raced upstairs after them. If Marc hadn’t gotten out in time, he’d need a helping hand. They threw open Ian’s door and went through his room, checking under his bed, in his closet, and in the bathroom. She used the time to open her own door and peeked inside.
Marc wasn’t there. Or he was hiding in her bathroom…
“Move,” the short barrel-chested man said in Spanish.
“This is my room.” She tried to be indignant, but really just wanted to warn Marc. “I’m going to tell Pérez about this.”
“Go ahead, puta.” The taller man laughed, showing a gap of two missing teeth. “He’s the one who told us to search here.”
Shit.
The men pushed past her. One went to the closet, and the other looked under her bed.
The weapons!
But Pérez’s man just huffed and stood. “You look pale, puta.”
Fuck, what was her problem? She schooled her features into irritation, just what her cover persona would be feeling. “I’m pissed off.”
“Perhaps there something you don’t want us to find?”
“Yes, my stash of porn.”
“You aren’t funny.” Gap-tooth went to the bathroom door. “It’s not proper for a woman to speak like that.”
“Neither is looking in my bathroom.”
He studied her for a minute, gripped his AK-47 and stepped into the bathroom with the rifle leading the way. A moment later, she heard the shower curtain whipped open. Her breath caught, but no shots came.
Marc must have made it outside.
Pérez’s man came out, slinging his weapon over his shoulder. “Someone said they saw your jeep out late last night.”
“Then someone must have been drinking,” she said in a bored tone. “We were here all night. Why don’t you run back to Pérez now?”
He turned to his barrel-chested friend. “Take the others and go check outside. I don’t trust her.”
A zing of alarm shot through her, but she squashed it. Marc was a soldier. He would know how to take care of himself. She had to trust that.
She shook her head at Gap-tooth. “Whatever. I have work to do.”
“Not so fast, puta.” His smile turned sly. “Pérez told us to bring you back. He wants to…question you.”
“Fuck that.” She strode to the door. She would not go to Pérez’s compound to be questioned. She’d seen what questioning had done to Anna. She’d kill these men before she’d let them take her.
Gap-tooth got to the door first. The fucker was faster than she’d expected. He slammed it shut.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“While my men search the jungle, I find I have a few moments of free time.” His gaze traveled up and down her body. “I think you should entertain me.”
“You’re going to want to let me out of here.”
“Oh, I will.” He licked his lips. “After you’ve been nice to me…and my men. We deserve a treat for all the hard work we did last night.”
She stepped clear of him, so she had room to move. She should try to talk him out of this, but she was tired and pissed. “Go fuck yourself.”
He rubbed himself through his pants. “That’s not what I was planning.”
7
The man’s voice lowered when he said, “I think you should entertain me.”
Marc stiffened. It was obvious what the man wanted, and Marc wasn’t in a position to do anything to stop him without giving himself away.
He lay on the flat roof, just above Quinn’s open window, hidden from view as long as he stayed on his stomach. Below, the three other guards stood talking and eyeing the jungle that they’d been told to search. Bits of their conversation reached his position, and most of it was about whose turn it was next with the doctor.
Marc’s gut clenched and his muscles tightened. That would not be happening while he was around. He reached for the edge to swing himself down and into the room when one of the men turned back to face the building. Marc ducked his head.
He could kill all the men easily, but he couldn’t be sure he’d manage it without one of them calling it in first. Injured, with limited ammo, and on the run was not a scenario he liked.
Come on. Turn back around.
Below, Quinn told the man to fuck himself. Marc shook his head. Did she not know how to de-escalate a situation? That would only fire up an asshole like the one in the room with her.
A scuffle and a grunt sounded.
It sounded as if the asshole had called Quinn’s bluff. A cold calmness flowed over Marc. A killing calm. He’d deal with the three below after he’d killed the bastard in the room. He gripped the edge of the roof and flipped himself over and into the room. He landed heavily on his right leg, but his left still threatened to buckle under him. The pain sucked his breath away.
A shout outside told him he’d been seen, but it didn’t matter. No way was he going to let Quinn, an innocent, be hurt by these pricks.
His eyes widened as he took in the scene before him. Quinn stood over the limp body of the fourth man. She scowled at him and pointed outside. “They’ve seen you now. What were you thinking?”
She was berating him? He straightened. “I was thinking I was helping you.”
“With him?” She arched an eyebrow. “I can handle one man.”
This woman wasn’t who he thought she was. “Military training?” he asked.
“Self-defense classes,” she said quickly as pounding footsteps on the stairs sounded through both the door and window.
“They’re surrounding us,” Marc said.
“Cover the window,” Quinn ordered. “I’ve got the door.”
“Do you have…”
She pulled a Glock 19 from her bedside table and calmly loaded a mag. She glanced at him. “‘Cover the window’ means watch it for someone coming in.”
He moved to a position where he could see out the window without being seen. “I know what cover the window means,” he muttered.
She didn’t say anything, just crouched down to the side of the bedroom door and aimed her weapon at it.
She knew what she was doing, he admitted to himself before concentrating on the two men with rifles who ran along the balcony toward their window. He pulled the trigger on his Sig Sauer.
Once.
The first man dropped like a rag doll when the bullet took him in the head. The second one stopped, his mouth open. Then a snarl crossed his face and he leapt toward the window.
Twice.
“Tangos down,” he said.
The door burst open and a man ran in gun first, eyes drawn to his friend’s body on the floor and then to Quinn. She hesitated. Her gun was aimed at the man but she didn’t pull the trigger. She must have frozen.
Shit! Marc swung his weapon toward him, but the man had already sighted on Q
uinn. Marc would be too late.
Quinn’s gun barked once. A clean shot. The man fell back and lay sprawled in the doorway, dead.
Who the fuck was this woman?
Quinn stayed crouched for a moment, her gun leveled at the doorway. No one else came in the room.
“In the future, you can’t hesitate.” Marc checked out the window before he looked back at her. “I know it’s hard, but these are seriously bad dudes we’re dealing with. Don’t feel guilty.”
Don’t feel guilty? He obviously thought she was inexperienced at killing and that only worked in her favor. She could play into what he thought and also give him the truth. “I…I wanted to give him a chance. If he’d backed off, then I would have let him live.” Which was true. Just because she knew how to kill didn’t mean that she did so indiscriminately. If she’d learned anything in her time down here in Colombia, it was that the men who worked for Pérez varied. Some were bad dudes, but most were just family men, ex-rebels who wanted a paycheck to feed their families. And Pérez was the only game in town.
“That’s taking too much of a chance with your own life.” Marc yanked the bottom drawer of her dresser open and grabbed his webbing.
That explained why Pérez’s men hadn’t found it.
Marc appeared to be bugging out. Should she grab her go-bag? She debated for half a second before she decided to get it. The need for it outweighed whatever this man thought. Besides, after she got rid of him, she was going to look for Anna. Either Pérez’s men hadn’t found her body yet, or she was alive and needed help. Quinn couldn’t leave without knowing.
She walked to a spot by the window and pried at one of the wide floorboards.
“What are you doing?” Marc asked. “We need to get out of here in case there’s another crew of those guys outside.”
The board came loose and she pulled out a small backpack. Marc’s eyes widened and then narrowed. He opened his mouth to question her, so she asked one of her own. “Didn’t you do the same thing with your second shot? I heard the hesitation.”
He studied her for a moment and she wasn’t sure he was going to answer her question.
“That’s different,” he finally said, still eyeing her go-bag. “I have experience. You’re a freaking medic.” He paused, and his gaze caught hers. “Aren’t you?”
He suspected. But it didn’t change anything. She would take him to his RV and then go look for Anna.
“Of course I am.” She strode out the door. He’d have a tough time keeping up with his leg. And asking questions she didn’t want to answer. “I just also happen to know how to use a gun.” She trotted down the stairs, outdistancing him easily. He cursed as she went into a backroom. Time to put her plan into action. “Ian! It’s safe! Get in here!”
Ian darted from the front of the building. He squeaked and held up his hands when he saw Marc with his gun at the bottom of the stairs.
“Stop scaring him,” Quinn said.
Marc scowled at her before he turned to Ian. “It’s okay. I’m here to help.”
Ian just nodded, his Adam’s apple bobbing once before he ran into the room. Marc took up a post just outside the door, his back to them as he watched the back door and the hall to the front. He’d be listening to everything they said.
Metal shelving lined the walls of their storage room. Most of the shelves were filled with medical supplies, but one set also held food. Quinn opened a spare backpack and shoved bandages and supplies into it. Enough to last Marc and Ian a couple of days.
“Who’s he?” Ian pointed at Marc.
“He’s the man who’s going to get you to the embassy. You’re leaving in two minutes, Ian,” Quinn said. “Get your essentials now.”
“What? Why?” Ian looked baffled.
“Are you kidding?” Marc said at the same time, whirling to look at her. “You can’t stay here.”
“I’m not staying here,” she told Marc, which pacified him for the moment. She looked back at Ian. “There are three of Pérez’s men dead upstairs and a fourth who will wake up and want revenge. Pérez will send more men. They’ll kill us next. We have to leave.”
“You killed them?” Ian’s face went white.
She pressed her lips together. “I had to.”
“But—”
“This is happening, Ian,” she said. “If you stay, you die.”
He shook his head violently. “But…I didn’t kill anyone.”
“Guilty by association,” Marc said.
Ian just stared at him. “Who are you?”
“He’s an American soldier,” Quinn said. “He’ll keep you safe until you get to the embassy in Bogotá.”
“Again,” Marc interjected, “it sounds like you’re thinking of staying. Tell me you’re not one of those go-down-with-the-ship types.”
She bared her teeth at him. “I said I was leaving, and I am.”
“Good,” he snarled. Then he stepped toward her. “You’re leaving with us. Not on your own.”
“You can’t tell me what to do.”
Ian held up his hands. “Wait. You want me to go with him, but you’re not going with him? What’s going on?”
“Yes, Quinn,” Marc said, his voice calm. But his gaze radiated enough menace that Ian stepped back. “What’s going on?”
“I have to do something first. Then I’ll be leaving the country. I’ll be right behind you.”
“Are you doing something crazy?” Ian asked.
“So it’s not just me who thinks you’re crazy.” Marc crossed his arms, his large body blocking the doorway.
Something in her snapped. “Listen, if it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t be in this mess. So just shut up and do what you’re told.”
“Me?” Marc’s voice rose. “I’m responsible for these assholes?”
“If you hadn’t been seen, then we wouldn’t have had to shoot them.”
“I was rescuing you!”
“I didn’t need rescuing!”
“How was I supposed to know that?” Marc yelled. “You told an asshole with a gun to fuck himself!”
“Uh, guys…” Ian held up his hands. “I’m not sure this is helping.”
Quinn swung back to the pack and shoved some bottles of water into it, barely suppressing her scream of frustration. The sooner she got rid of this Neanderthal, the better. Then she could track down Anna.
The thought of the injured woman lying in the jungle cooled her ire. Please, God, let her be alive.
“I have a suggestion,” Ian said. “Why don’t we all go our own ways?”
Both she and Marc swung to him. “What?”
Ian took a step back. “I think I might be safer on my own. I didn’t kill those men. You two did. I’m just a doctor.” He pointed at Marc. “I don’t know him and neither do you, Quinn.” He pushed past Marc and into the hall. “I’m going to pack a bag and leave, but not with either of you. I’m taking the pickup.”
“Are you sure?” Quinn asked, respecting his decision.
Ian nodded. “I’ll drive straight to Bogotá.”
“Call me when you make it to the embassy,” she said. “So I won’t worry.”
He nodded and left the room.
That left her, Marc, and a thick, hot silence.
She zipped up the pack she’d been stuffing and threw it at Marc. She shouldered her own. “You can take the jeep. If you take the road north out of town, you should make it to the highway ahead of Pérez’s men.”
He crossed his arms and blocked the door like an immovable wall.
“Get out of my way,” she said.
“Where are you going?” His calm tone didn’t fool her.
“We don’t have time for this,” she said. “We have to get out of here before—”
“Then tell me what you’re going to do,” Marc insisted.
If she told him that she was going to look for Anna, he’d want to come with her, which would be a pain if she found the agent. On the other hand, two of them looking would find her fas
ter. And Anna needed to be found if there was a chance she was alive.
She sighed. “I’m going to look for the woman.”
“Woman?” His brows drew together. “You mean the one the soldier said had died?”
She nodded, her teeth gritted. There would be no way he’d leave her side now. “Pérez’s men were looking for a woman. I have to assume it’s her.”
His head tilted as he studied her. “Why?”
Why would she assume this if she didn’t know it was a fact? She shrugged. “What other woman would they be looking for?”
“I meant, why do you want to find her?” Suspicion laced his voice.
“Because the soldier thought she was dead,” she said, falling back on her cover. “If she’s alive, then she obviously needs my—our help.”
His shoulders relaxed and he nodded. “Then let’s get out of here.”
The agent could be alive. Marc needed to let Cat and the others know. And his partner was a do-gooding, ex-Army medic. He’d rather do this on his own, but right now, Quinn was the only connection to the soldier who’d taken Agent Anna Bishop from Pérez. He suspected the soldier had made off with Bishop. That made Quinn his only lead to getting her back.
Quinn drove the jeep back to the jungle outside of Pérez’s walled compound. Marc sat silent. Bishop had been too injured to move when he’d seen her last. He didn’t think they’d actually find her alive in the dense wilderness. The soldier had either gotten her out, or they’d find her body.
Fuck, this op was a complete shit show. He needed more backup than a headstrong medic who wanted to save the world.
She brought down that guy pretty quick on her own.
So she knew a martial art. Big deal.
She also knew how to use a gun, killed a man with it and most importantly, it hadn’t seemed to faze her.
Though she had hesitated too long before taking the shot, at least for Marc’s comfort. His fingers tapped on the doorframe of the jeep. The dichotomy of a medic and a trained soldier wasn’t new to him, but there was something more to Quinn that he couldn’t put his finger on.
“What’s got your knickers in a twist?” Quinn glanced at his fingers.
