Heart of Danger (Special Ops) Read online

  Micah wondered if Alex had a thing for Natalia. They were close. She laughed and talked the most with him. He was the one she listed as her emergency contact, and he was the one, out of all of them, who seemed to have just as much anger as Micah had right now. They were all angry, but the anger Micah felt coming off of Alex was the anger of a man who cared more deeply than just employee relations for Natalia. It had been his idea to have her go out to the bar with them that night. It had been he who offered to take her home and for a brief moment it seemed Natalia was more willing to go with Alex than she was with him. Had he not shut Alex down it would have been Alex who spent the night on her couch.

  Preston and Jet fell back to another hidden position, leaving Micah and Alex on the ground closer to the estate for now.

  “I have to ask,” Micah surveyed the area once again. “Is there something between you and Natalia?”

  Alex snorted. “Air Force didn’t make you too smart when it comes to people did it? She’s in love with you, fool. She’s been falling in love with you for the past eight years. It wasn’t my place to tell you. I figured the two of you would figure it out eventually, but when it all hits the fan sometimes covering over the sweet stuff isn’t so important anymore.” He fell back and Micah followed him. They stood a better chance at staying concealed until night if they weren’t as close to the estate as they were now.

  Alex’s words flittered through Micah’s mind. Natalia was in love with him. He hadn’t seen that. He didn’t know. And maybe what hit him the hardest was that he was happy about it. He wanted her to be in love with him—why? Why would he want that when she was Natalia the employee? She wasn’t his type, yet he wanted her to be his type. He shrugged off the thought. In a lot of ways she was actually his type. She was smart, loyal, honest…those were traits he wanted in a woman. Those were the important things, not the physical, but he had a habit of focusing on the physical a little too much. And if he really opened his eyes here he would admit that she was a physically attractive woman. He remembered how she danced that night, and all the sensations he had while watching her do it. He groaned.

  “Save it for when we get her home,” Alex mumbled as if he knew the thoughts going through his mind. “She’ll need somebody; you and I both know what it’s like to be captive, but we don’t know what it’s like to be…”

  “Yeah, I know,” he didn’t want to voice the words either. They didn’t know what it was like to be violated the way they were sure she had been. They were too late to save her from that, but they wouldn’t be too late to save her from being prisoner in Diego Valdez’s estate for the rest of her life—however long her captor would allow that to be. They had to save her.

  As the daylight hours started to fade they were all getting antsy. This was their most important mission ever and if they screwed up the consequences would be irrevocably horrific. Micah knew he wasn’t leaving without Natalia which meant if he failed it was up to the other three men. He didn’t gather any of them would take a fail on this either which meant they were leaving with her or they would all be dead. If they all died then she was stuck in that hell for the rest of her life. Neither option was suitable in his mind. They would not fail. They could not fail.

  “Game plan one more time,” Preston softly called off his planned method of attack and they all successively gave the plan A, plan B and plan C options. They moved closer to the estate, getting ready. The moment it was dark enough, when the guards outside dropped to a minimum, they would make their move. Night scopes ready, weapons ready, their plan—ready to execute. But then they saw her, dressed in a long fitted red dress and sky high stiletto white shoes. She looked good enough to eat. Micah tried to shake the thought from his mind. He had no right to be thinking those thoughts, not to mention the fact that it was piss poor timing.

  “Dinner out on the patio tonight, huh;” Jet mumbled. “Should we implement part of plan C here?”

  “Not yet,” Preston kept his voice low. “We don’t want to get her shot. Wait for it, men; we’ll get her out of there.”

  They sure as hell would, and that was the only thing Micah needed to know. He had enough bullets to kill anything that moved and proved to be the enemy. He was not leaving without Natalia and he was not going to let her spend another night in that bastard’s home.

  He noticed she wasn’t really eating. She was pushing food around on her plate, pretending to cut up the pasta as she went. She was plotting something, and he wondered what.

  “Who’s the new guy?” Alex’s question drew Micah’s attention away from Natalia and over to the patio door.

  “Not sure.” Jet mumbled. Clearly it was somebody worth Diego getting up to speak with. A few exchanged words and he saw Diego walk back over to the table and he was close enough to hear him tell Natalia she had to come inside.

  “I’m not finished yet,” she gestured to her plate.

  “I can’t risk leaving you out here by yourself. You might run away.”

  She laughed one of those faulty laughs he had heard before when somebody was picking on her about something, he couldn’t remember what exactly now, but he knew it had hurt her. She had tried to laugh it off, but he could still tell she felt the sting of the words.

  “Where am I going to go? Seriously, it’s dark. I don’t know where I am or how to get out of here. I’m in an evening dress I can barely walk in let alone run in, and these shoes! Five inches does not make for running shoes.”

  “Hmm…true,” he said. “Okay, you may finish your meal, but Ramón here will stay with you.”

  “Okay,” she said nonchalantly. What was she up to?

  Diego disappeared into the house. “Prime moment,” Micah whispered. “Can we take him out?”

  Before he could get a response he heard Natalia speaking again. “I dropped my fork. Could you ask the kitchen man for another one please?”

  “I don’t…”

  “Oh come on. I’m hungry and I can’t eat with a dirty fork.”

  Ramón shrugged. “Okay, but don’t go anywhere.”

  “Where am I going to go?” Her tone was so innocent that she seemed like a non-threat. The moment Ramón stepped into the house he saw Natalia slipping off her shoes and then she made a run for it. She was coming straight toward them. When she reached his sheltered position he reached out and grabbed her, placing his hand over her mouth to stifle the scream.

  “Shush now, it’s me.” Micah felt her settle in his arms and he removed his hand from her mouth.

  “Micah; you came for me.”

  “We all came for you. But we need to move now.” She wasn’t wearing shoes and that was going to make navigating the surrounding jungle difficult for her, but she would do it and he knew she would. They weren’t too far away when they heard Ramón sound the alarm. “Well, I guess they know you’re gone now,” he said as he pulled her along and tried to make her keep up. She hadn’t been kidding about that dress. It was wrapped so tight around her ribcage he doubted she could breathe easily.

  “We’re almost there,” he told her as she started falling behind. “We need to move faster.”

  “I can’t breathe,” she gasped.

  He shouldered his weapon and then lifted her over his shoulder and ran with her. They had to get to their vehicle and then to their plane which was hidden on one of Preston’s friend’s stretch of property. They could make it. They just had to keep moving. With the enemy at their back, and freedom at their front, there was no stopping now. Stopping would mean failure and failure was not an option.

  When they made it to their covered army jeep they took off like bats out of hell toward the makeshift airfield, boarded their plane and didn’t even hint at relief until they were in the air and clearing Colombian territory. They still had a ways to go before they reached American air, but at least they had Natalia, they were in the air and they were headed home. That would have to do for now—but the burning desire to shoot the bastard Valdez dead was still raging within him.

&
nbsp; Chapter Eight

  Natalia rested her head on the plush leather seat of the company’s private liner. She closed her eyes and tried to block out the images of her memory that were assaulting her. She could still see Kelly dying on the ground. Maybe that’s what hurt her the most. It wasn’t that she had been taken prisoner, although that was beating down on her too, but losing Kelly was like losing a piece of her own heart.

  “We need to talk,” the deep timbers of Preston’s voice lulled her to recognition of the present circumstances. They were all sitting in their respective swivel airplane seats and they were all facing her. They were waiting for her to say something, but she didn’t want to talk. She wanted to forget everything. She wanted a time machine to magically transport her back to before it all went south so she could change things; so she could save her friend.

  She exhaled slowly as she opened her eyes to find four dangerously serious men staring back at her. “Thank you for coming for me; for finding me.” Her voice was so soft it seemed foreign to her. She was soft spoken anyway, but this; this voice was barely a whisper.

  “We would have never left you there and you know it,” Micah’s voice was deep and angry. Was he angry with her?

  “I can’t pay you all for this, but I can…I can work some overtime or something.” They got paid for rescue missions and she was fully aware of how much. That plane was not free, the fuel was not free, and the pilot was not flying out of the goodness of his heart. Julian Childes, the pilot, had been in the Air Force directly under Preston’s command and that’s why he took on the assignments that required the private plane. He was like the fifth member of their team, only he wasn’t officially on the books. He was still enlisted, but once he put in his papers Preston had told him he would have a permanent job with them, if he wanted it.

  “We didn’t do this for money,” they all agreed. “We did this because you’re family. Nobody messes with our family.”

  She forced a smile. “Thanks.”

  “And you’re taking some time off from work.”

  “I don’t need time. I…” She stopped speaking the moment Preston held up his hand.

  “You need time and you’re taking it. There’s no negotiating that fact. You don’t have to worry about income as you’ll have the time off paid.”

  “I would rather work.” She didn’t need time off…not much anyway. She needed to see Kelly’s mother. God; did she even know that Kelly was dead? Of course she must have, she told herself. The company must have alerted all of the emergency contacts, or the embassy or somebody.

  “You’re taking the time off,” Micah nearly growled. “Now, when we get you back we’ll have a doctor look you over.”

  “I don’t need a doctor. I mean he kind of hit like a girl…except for that punch.” She shivered remembering the way his fist connected with her stomach.

  “He…he had you for a while, Natalia. We know what a man like that does to a woman like you.”

  “He didn’t.” They were thinking he had raped her and he hadn’t.

  “You don’t have to lie to us, honey. We’ll be here for you.”

  Had Micah just called her honey? “I’m not lying. He didn’t touch me last night. He said he wanted me to be fully alert for what he planned to do to me. He was planning to take me tonight. It’s why I knew I had to find a way to make a run for it. I wasn’t counting on the dress with what feels like a built in corset.” She tugged on the dress a little.

  She wasn’t a big woman by any means, but this dress felt two sizes two small in her waist area, as if it were a big boa constrictor squeezing the life out of her. She couldn’t wait to get it off, to get a shower and get into her own clothes and burn this dress as if that would let her burn the memory of what happened to her.

  “They killed Kelly. Those men; they killed her.” She felt the tears escape her eyes. She was trying not to, but she was doing it. She was crying.

  Micah reach forward, unhooked her seatbelt and pulled her onto his lap, cradling her in his arms as she cried. His hand held her head to his chest so lovingly and softly that it made her cry harder.

  “It’s okay now. You’re going to be okay. You’re safe. I know that won’t bring your friend back, but you’re going to be okay. Please know that,” he placed a soft kiss on her forehead before relaxing against the back of his chair and holding her to him.

  If she could stop the sobbing she would, but she had been holding it in for too long. She didn’t want to give her captors the pleasure of knowing they had broken a piece of her so she held in the pain and the sorrow that threatened to consume her. She couldn’t hold it in any longer.

  “We’re going to get you home,” Alex sat forward and took one of her hands in his. “There are a lot of questions the Australian and American governments are going to need answered, but we’ll help you through it.”

  Jet took her other hand in his. They were all trying to provide her comfort, to reassure her that she was in the company of friends; of family.

  “I don’t even know how it happened,” she admitted. “I mean it happened so fast. We were just hiking to our location and our guide turned around and told us about the wild life and what to watch out for. He kept walking backwards and he kept using that same loud Aussie voice. He had us laughing one minute and the next, when we cleared the brush and hit clear land we saw the men and the guns. I think we all knew that nothing good was going on, but when we tried to backtrack they turned their weapons on us and they made us come closer,” she shivered. “And Jagger, our guide, he tried to tell them we were just on a tour and we were just going to hike, but they didn’t care. They shot him and then they just,” she gasped for air as she tried to speak through the tears. “They just started shooting and they shot Kelly in the heart,” she couldn’t talk about this, but she had to. The words just spilled out.

  “I thought they were going to kill me too, but they didn’t. They said Diego Valdez liked dark women and they were going to give me to him.”

  “Aw, honey;” Micah seemed to hold her a little tighter. “Are you sure he didn’t…he didn’t hurt you? You can tell us if he did.”

  “He didn’t…not like that, not in the way you’re thinking. But he would have if you hadn’t come for me. I wouldn’t have been able to find my way out of there. I still would have run even knowing that I might not make it. I don’t know how far I would have gotten. And if he had managed to recapture me I know he would have made me pay. He wasn’t a man who made threats; he made promises, and he had already promised me of what he would do if I didn’t do as he said.”

  She felt her body trembling again. She knew she would survive this, but right now she just needed a few minutes; some time to get her head on right and then she could process the event. She could process what she needed to do in order to heal. She kept thinking of Kelly lying on the ground, bleeding, knowing she was going to die and that there was nothing she could do to save her. She felt as if she should have been able to do something more than just kneel next to her and press on the wound as if trying to stop the bleeding would keep her friend alive. Knowing that she hadn’t died instantly, that she had taken a few more breaths and suffered…that knowledge was almost too much to bear.

  “How will I tell her mother,” she wondered out loud.

  “She already knows Kelly’s gone.”

  “She knows she’s dead, but she’ll want to know what every parent wants to know; she’ll want to know if she suffered. And I don’t know if I can handle that.”

  “I think she probably knows she died quickly. The bullet hit her heart—”

  “But she took a few more breaths,” her soft voice was audible, but she doubted the brevity of the situation could be conveyed in the weakness of her tone. “I kneeled next to her body and I saw her eyes pleading with me, and I saw those last few breaths and that moment when her body gave up and her eyes closed and she was…she was gone,” she cried.

  “Oh, honey I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry,” he pulle
d her closer to his chest, as if she could get closer than she already was. She placed her hand, the one that Jet had released, on Micah’s chest and clutched the fabric of his shirt in her hand; clinging to it as if clinging to it could make the ache in her heart go away.

  The flight back had been a mix of silence and comforting words. The landing had gone smoothly and getting back to her place had been a welcome change. The guys hadn’t left her. Jet and Preston had taken the equipment back. They had said they were going to write up their reports. Usually she typed those up for them, but they had given her the mandatory leave of absence from work. Micah and Alex, however, were not willing to leave her. When Preston and Jet returned they brought with them a change of clothes for their friends and Micah showered in her bathroom while Alex showered in the second bathroom.

  She had to meet with an agent to discuss things, so she did that. They put her on a video conference with an Australian investigator. She told them everything she could and they seemed content with that. “That’s all we’ll need,” the investigator had told her. She was thankful for that. She just wanted to go home and start the healing process, but she had one thing left she had to do. Not only were her parents on their way home from Italy, their second honeymoon vacation had no doubt been cut short the moment they found out what happened. Preston had made the call to them, telling them not to worry that he would bring their daughter home and true to his word he had. They were on their way so she knew she would have to be available to them, but she also needed to go talk to Kelly’s mother, her father too, but she knew that Miriam would have the most questions out of all of them.