So far, losing their hunter didn’t appear to be something that was happening.
Time to do something about that.
“He’s stalking us,” Drew said quietly.
“Yeah, that’s the conclusion I’ve come to, as well.”
“Makes me think the man’s either a former Ranger or a SEAL.”
“It was Ramos who ordered my kidnapping,” Julia said. “The man who took me told me that much.” Julia sat up just a bit, and Dev adjusted his hold on her.
“He thought I was Peter’s woman—though I have no clue where he got
that
idea. Anyway, the guy—”
“Juan,” Drew said.
“Pardon?”
“Adam found out the man who took you is named Juan Pecos,” Dev said. “He’s from Dallas, with a long list of ‘crimes suspected of,’ but no charges. Believe it or not, he actually put in a couple of résumés at some of the businesses in Lusty, likely covering his ass in case he was spotted and questioned as to why he was there. Anyway, it didn’t take Adam long to trace who he was, or to uncover the fact that he’s tied to the Ramos Cartel.”
“Huh. Even when he got chatty he didn’t give me his name. Anyway, Juan thought he’d be better off ransoming me to my family than turning me over to Ramos. He seemed to believe Ramos’s organization was falling apart on him.”
“That would explain why Ramos didn’t trust him,” Dev said. “He probably had some sort of homing beacon put on his car. When it became clear he wasn’t heading for the border, Ramos sent his goons after him.”
“But my point is, if it’s Ramos who’s behind this, how does he rate getting former Rangers or SEALs on his side?”
“There are a number of former soldiers who’ll sell their talents to whoever has the money to pay the tab, kitten.”
“Oh, of course. Mercenaries. I should have thought of that. Sorry, I think my brain is a bit fogged.”
“You think?” Dev heard the laughter in his voice. Drew reached over and ran his hand down her back. Then he met Dev’s gaze.
Dev had no trouble reading the look of concern on his best friend’s face. He looked around. “Let’s take that rest here, why don’t we?” Dev said.
Drew lifted Julia off him and set her on the ground. Trees dotted the area, blowing in the increasing breeze. They’d gone past the area they had scouted, past the first pick-up zone. Ahead, he knew, the land leveled out and the vegetation became less plentiful.
There’d be fewer places to hide from their pursuer. They’d be out in the open, virtual sitting ducks, unless Dev could do something about it.
Enough was enough. Dev was tired of this guy playing games with them. He was pretty sure, but not positive, that a single man followed them.
He’d never get better odds. The time had come to end it, one way or another.
“You’re the better tracker,” Drew said, his voice quiet. Dev understood he was trying to avoid alarming Julia. Unfortunately their woman seemed to have very good hearing—not to mention a very smart brain.
“What’s going on?” Though Julia’s tone was far from panicky, Dev could hear the edge of tension in her voice.
“We need to get you out of here—or at the very least let you get some rest,” Drew said. “Dev’s going to backtrack and take care of our tail.”
“You mean kill him?”
Neither he nor Drew answered her. Instead, Dev said, “I won’t be gone long. It shouldn’t take me more than an hour.”
“Storm’s coming faster than the forecasters predicted,” Drew said. “I’ll call in and let Adam know we have her. But I don’t think we’ll be flying out of here anytime soon.”
Julia proved just how all right she was just then. She sat forward, touched Drew’s hand, and said, “Have them check the old settlement maps. There might be a line shack, or something, not too far away where we can wait out a storm.”
“Good thinking,” Drew said. “I’ll keep the call short, though, just in case our friend back there has more than his gun and a flashlight with him.”
Dev squatted in front of Julia. “I’ll be back soon, baby doll.”
“You’d better be, buster, or you’ll answer to me.”
Dev grinned.
God, I love this woman
. He said, “Yes, ma’am.” Unable to resist, he leaned forward and placed his mouth on hers. The kiss was hot, deep, and over way too soon. He looked up, met Drew’s gaze. When his brother nodded, Dev got to his feet and headed out.
It didn’t matter how prepared he was, or how badly he wanted to win this upcoming confrontation. He knew, as he always knew, there remained a chance that he’d fail, that he’d make the ultimate sacrifice.
Each mission undertaken had been executed with the full knowledge that failure was always a possibility. So, too, was death. He’d left letters behind each time, “to be opened in the event.”
Dev pushed aside the morbid thoughts and focused all his mental energies on the task at hand. Crouched low, his step light, he made his way back in the direction from which they’d traveled, his senses on high alert.
Their tracker had been keeping about a half mile back, matching his pace to theirs. Dev didn’t think the man would be expecting one of them to backtrack. Still, he varied his course, going wide and to the left, so that he could go around him and then come up behind the bastard.
After twenty minutes, Dev changed direction, completing the arc that should put him behind his quarry. Sure enough, within just a couple of minutes, he had proof he was on their stalker’s trail. There on the ground just ahead of him, he could make out a footprint that didn’t belong to either him or Drew. The man had been careful, he’d give him that, for he mostly left no tracks at all. He was good.
Dev was better.
Dev’s mind quieted as all thought ceased, and he became hunter, a warrior, reacting to sight and sound and instinct, scenting his prey, closing in. Careful, quiet, he eliminated the distance between him and the man who’d stalked them.
Closer now, he could make out a shape. Then something in the way the man moved, in the way he crouched and looked at the ground called to a memory not very old.
Son of a bitch
.
Dev took just two more steps, and knew by the sudden stiffening of the man ahead of him, that he’d heard the sound.
“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you, Talbot.”
Connor Talbot froze, and lifted his hands so Dev could see them. “May I turn around?”
“Slowly.”
Talbot did so, and then slowly shook his head. “Fuck, Wakefield, the last thing I want to do is wind up on the wrong end of a JSOC op.”
“Drew and I are on leave from the Joint Special Operations Command, so you’re not. But it’s worse than that. The woman Pecos grabbed wasn’t Alvarez’s woman. She’s mine.”
“Oh, shit.” Talbot exhaled heavily. “This has just been one giant Charlie Foxtrot from the word go,” he said.
“Yeah, it’s a cluster fuck, all right.” Dev’s instincts warned caution. Something was going on here. He had the distinct impression that things weren’t quite what they appeared.
“I wondered when I began to follow you. I had my suspicions when I realized I was following a couple of pros. That’s why I held back. Things just weren’t adding up.”
Dev tilted his head to one side. “Maybe we should talk.”
“Yeah.” Talbot motioned with his hands, and Dev nodded. He lowered them slowly, then squatted, and kept his hands dangling in front of him in plain sight. “Maybe we should.”
* * * *
“Let me have a look at you.” Drew sat cross-legged in front of her, a penlight in his hand. He’d taken some things out of his knapsack. Julia recognized disinfectant when she saw it. She supposed she was due a little field dressing of her wounds. Since they’d surprised her outside of the shack just as she’d slithered out the window, there’d been almost no time to see to anything but making tracks.
“It really does look worse than it is.” Even so, she dutifully closed her eyes and let Drew have a look at the small cut and goose egg–sized lump taking up space on her forehead.
His touch gentle, he used one finger to trace the edge of the cut. Julia realized he was trying to determine if it felt hot to the touch, signaling possible infection.
“Does it hurt anyplace else, kitten?”
His voice matched his touch, and she wanted to hug him and do whatever she could to make him feel better. She thought it quite possible her injuries hurt her lovers more than they hurt her.
“Just a little bit, where the seat belt grabbed me when my car was stopped by the tree—and where my breasts had to squeeze out that window back there.” She wasn’t going to tell him that basically, she hurt all over. But she figured she’d better fess up to the shoulder strap injury, and the breasts. The way it hurt there had to be bruises, and possibly scrapes. He and Dev would be sure to see them on her as soon as they got her naked.
Delicately, Drew worked her T-shirt up and then off her so he could get a look at her chest. His slight hiss confirmed her suspicion that her head wasn’t the only spot on her body sporting black-and-blue patches.
“Jesus, kitten. I
ache
just looking at you—and not just because I want you.”
Julia could hear the anxiety in his voice. They’d gone to so much trouble to rescue her, and even now Dev was risking his very
life
for her. How could she ever repay that? Easing their worry about her seemed the least she could do. “It really
does
look worse than it is, darling. I promise you.”
Drew tilted his head, and she wondered if he was going to call her on her little white lie. But then he turned and looked over his shoulder into the night.
“Baby doll, didn’t anyone warn you that your nose would grow if you told a fib?”
Julia felt all the tension drain out of her. Dev’s voice preceded him out of the darkness, and then he was there, with them, alive and unharmed.
“You’re back.”
Well, of course he’s back
. Julia shook her head at her own inanity, and then closed her eyes as that small action stirred her headache anew.
“Yes, I’m back. Now, let’s finish fixing you up.” He got down on the ground between her and Drew, then looked at the other man. “What’s the word on a ride out of here?”
“Actually, it will be a ride if you want to leave sooner rather than later, because the chopper is grounded,” Drew said. “The storm’s moving fast, but only expected to last overnight. I told them since we’re safe, we’ll wait out the weather. We’d end up getting home about the same time, either way. The helicopter ride will be shorter and less jarring for Julia.”
“I agree.” He reached out and examined her head wound himself, using his fingers on her chin to tilt her head so he could have a better view.
It took all of her effort to bite back her smile. They were both trying not to let her see how shaken they were by her injuries.
“Did the good sheriff come up with some place we could wait out the storm in relative comfort, or do we build a shelter ourselves?” Dev asked.
“There’s supposed to be an old, abandoned barn about a half mile to the northwest. Morgan checked Everywhere Earth, and the structure was still there as of the latest satellite photo taken last year.”
“Strange place for a barn,” Dev said. “This whole area looked decidedly barren of civilization when we tracked in.”
“Not so strange,” Julia said. “At about the time my ancestors were founding Lusty, this area was part of an enormous staging area, where ranchers would come from the East and the West to combine their herds to drive the Chisholm Trail, taking their cattle to market. There were line shacks and shelters sprinkled throughout here to accommodate the large assemblage of human and bovine visitors.”
“I guess you can’t be that concussed if you’re able to pull obscure facts like that out of your brain,” Dev said.
“Concussed? No, at least I don’t think so. But I am tired. Can we sleep, soon?”
“Let’s finish this, then we’ll find that barn,” Drew said.
Dev gently held her chin while Drew uncapped a small bottle that had an eyedropper. “Crap, this is going to hurt, I just know it,” Julia said.
“Sorry, kitten.”
Well at least he didn’t try to placate me by denying it
. Julia closed her eyes and curled her hands into fists. Drew used a piece of gauze to sop up any liquid that tried to run down into her eye. It stung like a son of a bitch. Determined to be stoic, she bit her bottom lip and didn’t make a sound.