Alpha One (3 page)

Three bullets. Then...silence.

“Got ’em,” Texas said just seconds before she heard the crash. A screech of metal and the shattering of glass.

The van lurched to the left, seeming to race away even faster.

Juliana looked up. Her eyes had adjusted more to the darkness now. She could almost see Logan’s features above her.
Almost
.

“Uh, Logan, you can probably get off her now,” that same drawling voice mocked.

But Logan didn’t move.

And Juliana was still barely breathing.

“Missed you.”

The words were so faint, she wasn’t even sure that she’d heard them. Actually, no, she
couldn’t
have heard them. Imagined them, yes. That had to be it. Because there was no way Logan had actually spoken. Logan Quinn was the big, strong badass who’d left her without a backward glance. He wouldn’t say something as sappy as that line.

Backbone, girl. Backbone.
She’d survived her hell; no way would she break for a man now. “Are we safe?”

She felt, more than saw, his nod. “For now.”

Right. Well, she’d thought they were safe before, until the gunfire had blasted into the back of the van. But Texas had taken out the bad guys who’d managed to follow them. So that had to buy them at least a few minutes. And the way the woman was driving...

Eat our dust, jerks.

“Then, if we’re safe...” Juliana brought her hands up and shoved against his chest. Like rock. Some things never changed. “Get off me, Logan,
now.
”

He rose slowly, pulling her with him and then positioning her near the front of the van. Juliana was trembling—her body shaking with fear, fury and an adrenaline burst that she knew would fade soon. When it faded, she’d crash.

“Once we get out of Mexico, they’ll stop hunting you,” Logan said.

Juliana swallowed. Her throat still felt too parched, as if she’d swallowed broken glass, but now didn’t seem the time to ask for water. Maybe once they stopped fleeing through the night. Yes, that would be the better moment. “And...when...exactly...do we get out of Mexico?”

No one spoke. Not a good sign.

“In a little over twenty-four hours,” Logan answered.

What? No way. They could drive out of Mexico faster than that. Twenty-four hours didn’t even make—

“Guerrero controls the Federales near the border,” Logan told her, his voice flat. “No way do we get to just waltz out of this country with you.”

“Then...how?”

“We’re gonna fly, baby.”

Baby.
She stiffened. She was
not
his baby, and if the guy hadn’t just saved her, she’d be tearing into him. But a woman had to be grateful...for now.

Without Logan and his team—and who, exactly, were they?—she’d be sampling the torture techniques of those men in that hellhole.

“We’ll be going out on a plane that sneaks right past any guards who are waiting. Guerrero’s paid cops won’t even know when we vanish.”

Sounded good, except for the whole waiting-for-twenty-four-hours part. “And until then? What do we do?”

She felt a movement in the dark, as if Logan were going to reach out and touch her, but he stopped. After a tense moment, a moment in which every muscle in her body tightened, he said, “We keep you alive.”

Chapter Two

Her scream woke him. Logan jerked awake at the sound, his heart racing. He’d fallen asleep moments before. Gunner and Jasper were on patrol duty around their temporary safe house. He jumped to his feet and raced toward the small “bedroom” area they’d designated for Juliana.

He threw open the door. “Julie!”

She was twisting on the floor, tangled in the one blanket they’d given to her. At his call, her eyes flew open. For a few seconds, she just stared blindly at him. Logan hurried to her. She wasn’t seeing him. Trapped in a nightmare, probably remembering the men who’d held her—

He reached out to her.

Juliana shuddered and her eyes squeezed shut. “Sorry.”

His hands clenched. The better not to grab her and hold her as tight as he could. But this was a mission. Things weren’t supposed to get personal between them.

Even though his body burned just looking at her.

Faint rays of sunlight trickled through the boarded-up window. Sydney had done reconnaissance for them and picked this safe house when they’d been planning the rescue. Secluded, the abandoned property was the perfect temporary base for them. They could hear company approaching from miles away. Since the property was situated on high land, they had the tactical advantage. They also had the firepower ready to knock out any attackers who might come their way.

And with that faint light, finally, he could
see
Juliana. She’d changed a lot over the past ten years. Her long mane was gone. Now the blond hair framed her heart-shaped face. Still as beautiful, to him, with her wide, dark eyes and full lips. She was still curved in all the right places. He’d always loved her lush hips and breasts. The woman could—

“Stop staring at me,” she whispered as she sat up.

Hell. He
had
been staring. Like a hungry wolf who wanted a bite so badly he could taste it. Taste her.

She pulled up her knees and wrapped her arms around them. “Is John dead?”

Logan didn’t let any expression cross his face. Here, he had to be careful. The team wasn’t ready to reveal all the intel they were still gathering.
Another reason we aren’t slipping out of Mexico yet.
They could have gotten her out faster, but his team didn’t like to leave loose ends behind. So a twenty-four-hour delay was standard protocol for them.

“I searched down that hallway,” he told her, and he’d found the room they’d been holding her in. Seen the ropes on the floor near not one, but two chairs.
John had been there.
Only, no one had been in the room by the time Logan got there. “I didn’t find another hostage.”

“They got him out?”

He didn’t want to lie to her. “Maybe.” He’d been trained at deception for so long, sometimes he wondered what the truth was.

He took a slow step toward her. She didn’t flinch away. That was something. “Did they...hurt you?”

She touched her cheek. He could see the faint bruise on her flesh. “Not as much as they hurt John. They’d come in and take him away, and later, I’d hear his screams.”

Another slow step, almost close enough to touch. “So they took you, but they never questioned you?”

“At first, they did.” She licked her lips. Now wasn’t the time to notice that her lips were as sexy as ever. It wasn’t the time, but he still noticed. He’d always noticed too much with her.

Not for me.
Why did he have a problem getting that fact through his head?

They were thrown together at the moment, but once they got back to the United States, they’d be going their separate ways. Nothing had changed for him. The senator’s daughter wasn’t going to wind up with the son of a killer.

And now he was a killer, too.

Logan glanced down at his hands. No blood to see, but he knew it stained his hands. After all these years, there was no way to ever get his hands clean. Too much death marked him.

He was good at killing. His old man had been right about that. They’d both been good....

Too
good.

Logan sucked in a deep breath.
Focus.
The past was buried, just like his father. “So when they were...questioning you...” The team needed this info and he had to ask. “Just what did they want to know?”

Her chin lifted. “They wanted to know about my father.” She paused. “What did he do this time?” Pain whispered beneath her words. Logan knew that Juliana had long ago dropped the rose-colored glasses when it came to her father.

As for what the guy had done this time...

Sold out his country, traded with an arms dealer, took blood money and thought that he’d get away scot-free.
A normal day’s work for the senator. “I don’t know,” Logan said. The lies really were too easy. With her, it should have been harder.

She blinked. “You do.” She stood slowly and came close to him. Juliana tilted her head back as she looked up at him. At six foot three, he towered over her smaller frame. “But you’re not telling me.”

Being the guy’s daughter didn’t give her clearance. Logan was on Uncle Sam’s leash. The job was to get her home safely, not blow an operation that had been running in place for almost two years.

“What did you tell them about the senator?” Just how much did she know about his dark deeds?

“Nothing.” Her eyes were on his, dark and gorgeous, just like he remembered. “I didn’t tell them a thing about my father. I knew that if I talked they would just kill me once they had the information they needed.”

Yeah, they would have. He hated that bruise on her cheek. “So you didn’t talk, and they just left you alone?” Her story just didn’t make sense. Unless Guerrero had been planning to use her as a bargaining tool and the guy had needed to keep her alive.

For a little longer, anyway.

Juliana shook her head and her hair slid against her chin. “When you found me...they’d taken me into the torture room.” She laughed, the sound brittle and so at odds with the soft laughter from his memory. “They were going to
make
me talk then. The same way they made John talk.”

But they’d waited four days. Not the standard M.O. for Guerrero’s group. All the signs were pointing where he
didn’t
want them to point. “This John...what did he look like?”

“Tall, dark...late twenties. He kept me sane, kept me talking all through those long hours.”

Yes, Logan just bet he had. But “tall and dark” could be anyone. He needed more info than that.

“You get a good look at his face?” Logan asked.

She nodded.

He offered her what he hoped was an easy smile. “Good enough that you could probably talk to a sketch artist back in the States? Get us a clear picture?”

A furrow appeared between her eyes.

“We’ll need to search the missing-person’s database,” he told her.
Liar, liar.
“A close image will help us find out exactly who John was.”

She nodded and her lips twisted. “I can do better than meet with your sketch artist.” Her shoulders moved in a little roll. “Give me a pencil and a piece of paper, and I’ll draw John’s image for you.”

He tried not to let his satisfaction show. Juliana was an artist; he knew that. Sure, she usually worked with oils, but he remembered a time when she’d always carried a sketchbook with her.

She’d always been able to draw anything or anyone...in an instant.

“We’ll want sketches of every man or woman you saw while you were being held.”

Now her shoulders straightened. “Done.”

Hell, yes. This could be just the break they needed.

“I want these men caught. I want them
stopped.
”

So did he, and Logan wasn’t planning on backing off this mission, not until Guerrero was locked up.

The mission wasn’t over. In fact, it might just be getting started.

He turned away from her. “Try to get some more sleep.” They could take care of the sketches soon enough. For the moment, he needed to go talk with his team to tell them about his suspicions.

But she touched him. Her hand wrapped around his arm and every muscle in Logan’s body tightened. “Why did you come for me? Why
you,
Logan?”

He glanced down at her hand. Touching him was dangerous. She should have remembered that. He’d always enjoyed the feel of her flesh against his far too much.

With Juliana, only with her, he’d never been able to hold back.

Maybe that was one of the reasons he’d run so far. He knew just how dangerous he could be to her.

“The senator came to our unit.” Yes, that was his voice already hardening with desire—just from her touch. “He wanted you brought to safety.”

“Your unit?” Her fingers tightened on him.

He gave a brief nod. “We’re not exactly on the books.” As far as the rest of the world was concerned, the EOD, or Elite Operations Division, didn’t exist. The group, a hybrid formed of recruited navy SEALs, Rangers and intelligence officers from the FBI and CIA, was sent in for the most covert missions. Hostage retrieval. Extreme and unconventional warfare. They were the ones to take lethal, direct attacks...because some targets had to be taken out, no matter the cost.

“Does your unit—your team—have a name?”

Not an official one. “We’re called the Shadow Agents.” Their code name because their goal was to move as softly as a shadow. To stalk their prey and complete the mission with a minimum amount of exposure.

They always got the job done.

“My father really came to you? How did he even know you were—” Her hand fell away, and he missed her touch. Close enough to kiss, but never close enough to take.

It was the story of his life.

“He didn’t come to
me
for help.” The senator had nearly doubled over when he’d seen Logan sitting across the desk from him. “He came to my division, the EOD—the Elite Ops Division.” Because the FBI had sent him there. The senator still had power and pull in D.C., enough connections to get an appointment with the EOD.

Juliana shook her head. “I didn’t think he’d try to get me back.” A whisper of the lost girl she’d been, so many years ago, trembled in her words. Lost...but not clueless.

She knew her father too well. The mission to Mexico hadn’t just been about her. And if Juliana knew the full truth about the trade-off that had been made in that quiet D.C. office, she’d realize that she’d been betrayed by them both, again.

As if the first betrayal hadn’t been hard enough for him to stomach. For years, he’d woken to find himself reaching for her and realizing that she’d forever be out of his hands.

But she’s not out of reach right now.

He turned fully toward her, almost helpless, and caught her chin in his fingers. “I was getting you back.” Logan recognized his mistake. He was letting this case get personal, and that was the last thing he should be doing.