Hard Target: Elite Ops - Book One (24 page)

Leland understood a mother’s love was sacrificial, but this had nothing to do with love. Rivera was perverting the relationship. Leland had always known the man was a sadist, but blackmailing Anna into giving up her life for his wife was beyond obscene.

And Max, the fucker, had arranged it all. Leland had no doubt this was how Max was having his “debt” to Rivera forgiven. He and Anna hadn’t even talked about that part of the obscenity. He couldn’t imagine the betrayal she must be feeling.

Leland’s jaw ached from clenching it so hard.

Anna slid her hands back to his waistband. “Stop thinking. I don’t care about cameras. Do you?”

He shook his head. Cameras and bugs be damned. Of course he’d make love to her. That was no hardship.

He’d wanted her pretty much since he’d seen her in that Best Western hotel room. He just hadn’t wanted to admit it. Now he’d do anything for her, except allow her to abandon hope and give up.

He studied her a moment longer before he kissed her. How could he convince her? How could he show her that life was the only choice? There was a way to save Zach without sacrificing Anna. She just had to give him more time to come up with the plan.

His lips were at her cheek again. “We’ve got to stall. Nick and the AEGIS team will be here. They won’t just leave us.”

She tilted her head to look in his eyes.

“How will they even know where we are? You don’t have the GPS locater anymore, do you?”

He leaned in, kissing her to cover his answer. Let her think he was concerned about bugs. He kissed her now because he couldn’t stand not to.

“The GPS was tucked in my boot. Cesar’s girl didn’t find it when she searched me. I activated it when his people met us in the jungle.”

He kissed his way to her jaw and ear. “Nick and Marissa are on the way or may even already be here. We’ll meet up and fly Zach immediately to Dallas.”

He saw the protest growing in her eyes and heard himself talking faster. “You said the doctors were going to install temporary measures, a pump, to buy Zach more time. He can have that heart pump by tomorrow.”

She shook her head, bumping his chin with her nose. “Even if we flew out of here in the next hour, Zach could end up in the same place health-wise after we install the LVAD.”

He stepped back. “God, Anna, you have to at least try. You can’t just give up. Sacrifice your life? Zach wouldn’t want that. How will he live with that?”

He pulled her to him, unable to accept that she was considering such a final course of action.

She swallowed audibly. “He’ll know that he was loved beyond measure. Please, try to see this from my point of view. What if you were in my place? Wouldn’t you give your life for your child’s?”

She had a point. He knew she did. What would he do if their positions were reversed? It was sobering to think about.

In his work with the DEA he’d put himself in danger for others many times—for the people he worked with, for witnesses. But that had always been a consequence of the situation—in the heat of a firefight, part of his job.

He’d never volunteered to walk into a room and calmly sacrifice himself for a witness or another agent. Was there someone he would give his life for? No questions asked?

“Please don’t fight me, even if you don’t understand my reasoning. I can’t do this and battle you, too. I’m going to see my son and tell him goodbye. If you care about either of us, help me. Help me do this right.” She stared at him unblinking, begging him with her eyes to stop fighting her.

He loosened his hold on her, unable to believe she was still willing to go through with the donation even with the possibility of rescue on the way. He couldn’t stop her.

She tried to pull him closer. “Hold me. I’m scared. I need you to help me get through this.”

But that was the thing. If this went as she planned, she wouldn’t survive. She wanted him to keep her strong while she died.

He couldn’t say what he was thinking. That if things went as she planned, she wasn’t going to make it through. The truth was too cruel. Instead, he took a deep breath and drew her to him as she laid her head against his chest.

He wouldn’t let her down. Still, this was what he’d feared most, especially since the Colton catastrophe: someone innocent needing him, someone counting on him, and his failing them, their dying anyway.

But Anna was choosing to die.

The thought made him furious and desolate at the same time. He’d stop fighting her for now, but he wasn’t giving her up. He couldn’t.

Even if she hated him for interfering later, he wouldn’t allow her to sacrifice herself when there were other options. No matter how it looked to Anna, there were ways out of here.

“Make love to me,” she whispered against his chest.

He nodded. Maybe it was a betrayal when he was planning to stop her from going through with the procedure, but he couldn’t say no. Gliding his hand down her naked back, he pressed her closer to him on the counter. His heart was beating so fast, she could probably feel it against her cheek.

“I don’t care about the cameras,” she reassured him. “I need you.”

She slid her hands under his shirt. Her fingers were cool against his skin and he winced.

“Sorry,” she said, helping him tug the shirt over his head. “You have on too many clothes.”

Amazing. She was able to tease him at a time like this, when her world was falling apart.

If she could do it, he would too.

“Too many clothes, huh?”

“Well, yeah.”

“We can fix that.” He reached for the fastener on her skirt as she reached for his belt buckle again. He moved her hands away from his waist and she leaned forward, pressing her lips to his shoulder. He sucked in a breath when all that soft bare skin hit his chest. A light, flowery fragrance clung to her despite the fire, smoke, and rain they’d endured over the past twelve hours.

He broke contact with her only to slide her skirt and panties down those long legs, then she was back in his arms. He wanted to taste her.

She trembled as he skimmed his fingers along the slope of her breast. He took one of her nipples in his mouth and felt it pebble against his tongue. He followed her when she leaned back toward the mirror.

Circling her waist with his hands, he inched his fingers along her spine. A drop of condensation rolled down the glass behind them. He saw the tanned skin on the back of his palms contrasted against her ivory back.

The fog became thicker and his breath grew heavy from the steam. The counter was the perfect height as he pressed himself to her core. She moaned and lifted her hands from the marble to unbutton his cargo shorts.

Her hand brushed against his erection and he hissed in a breath. When she moved her fingers inside the elastic waist of his underwear, her hands were no longer cold but warm, inquisitive, and boldly competent. He wanted to inhale her as he kissed the top of her collarbone.

He was hard. She pulled him from his underwear and slid the briefs and shorts down his legs while he gripped her hips, moving her to the edge of the counter.

He was about to slip into her when he stopped and stepped back, keeping one hand between her legs. Her eyes widened as he opened the well-stocked guest drawer to the side of her.

“You don’t have to do th—”

He interrupted her with a kiss, not wanting her to say he didn’t need a condom. No matter what she thought, this wasn’t the last time they were making love. He wasn’t going to let her die here in Rivera’s makeshift clinic.

He tore open the wrapper and she helped him cover himself, then he was pressing into her wet heat. She made a primal sound, deep in her throat that almost undid him.

Holding her to his chest, he pulled back as she wrapped her legs around his waist and he was deep inside her again. Pushing harder, wanting to imprint himself on her. To show her that her life was vital to him. With every kiss, every touch, he wanted her to know how important she was, how strong she was. How she couldn’t leave this life without fighting.

They were both sucking in ragged breaths of oxygen, like they were running a sprint. He could feel her spiraling out and tightening around him. She cried out her release as he poured himself into her.

A steamy fog continued to rise around them. He held her to his chest, not wanting to let go. Leaning into the counter with her in his arms, he breathed in the scent of her. She might despise him later for this, for what he would do to stop her. But for now, she was his.

A voice in his head warned that these kinds of feelings could make him defenseless. Caring was risky and vulnerability always led to pain. He didn’t have to look any further than Gavin and Kat to see the emotional Armageddon love invited.

He buried his nose in Anna’s hair and dismissed the worry. At the moment, what did it matter? Emotional risk paled in comparison to their current physical danger.

If this didn’t go like he planned, they could both be dead before the end of the day.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

T
HE KNOCK ON
the door came an hour and a half later. Startled despite knowing the summons was imminent, Anna was dressed and lying on the bed in Leland’s arms. They hadn’t talked anymore of Rivera’s plan. Instead they’d showered together, making love on the bench seat in the high-tech spa in deference to Leland’s ankle. He’d taken off the boot before getting in under the spray and she’d actually smiled when she saw the GPS tucked down inside the padding.

The stitches in her arm got wet, but she’d assumed it didn’t matter at this point. Leland had made her forget the wretched circumstances, even if just for a little while. Steam and fog had completely filled the glass enclosure before they’d turned off the water and returned to what they assumed was a bugged suite.

While they’d been otherwise occupied, breakfast had been delivered. Bountiful plates of eggs, sausage, and pastry under silver domes were waiting for them, like room service in a luxury hotel. Food held no appeal for Anna, but she’d tried a couple of bites of toast and managed an entire glass of orange juice.

Ever mindful of the cameras and recording devices, they’d eaten in relative silence before lying down together to wait on Rivera’s summons. Anna knew Leland wasn’t okay with what she was about to do, but he wasn’t fighting her anymore. Instead, he’d held her tenderly as she’d closed her eyes and rehearsed in her mind how she would tell Zach goodbye.

It was time. Surprisingly, Anna felt a surreal calm as Antonio rolled the tray out of the room and she rose from their bed. Her vision was fuzzy around the edges, almost dreamlike. Holding Leland’s hand, she followed the guard down the long hall and spiral staircase. In her new dress and kitten heels, she was dressed for a garden party instead of a painful goodbye.

They met Rivera in the same open-air living area they’d been in earlier. The sky had clouded over outside, and the wind blew a decidedly chilly breeze into the room. Anna idly wondered who took care of closing the glass-panel walls when the weather turned nasty.

Rivera wasted no time on preliminaries. “Are you ready to see your son?”

Leland squeezed her hand. “Yes,” Anna nodded.

Rivera led them through the living room and across the grand entry to a set of utilitarian stairs. They travelled two flights down before arriving at a large pressurized door at the bottom of the staircase. Here the air was noticeably cooler.

“We have to seal our medical clinic and filter the air for the operating theatre.” Rivera spoke as if he was giving a tour, not like he was taking Anna to see her son for the last time.

Downstairs the look of the décor changed from luxurious antique-filled mansion to sterile modern clinic. Everything about the architecture was like a real hospital, down to the bare walls and fire alarm at the stairwell’s entrance.

A large desk with a raised counter was midway down the hall where two women in scrubs stood, speaking with an older man in a white lab coat. Two recessed doors were across the hall from this mini nurse’s station with another door near the stairs. Rivera stopped at the desk.

“Dr. Morales. This is Zach’s mother, your donor.”

The older man glanced up from his records to make fleeting eye contact. He was speaking in Spanish to the nurses but changed to English when he addressed Anna.

“Do you have any questions about your son’s procedure?

Anna had dozens of questions. They were all acting as if this were a typical situation with a living organ donation. But when it all came down to it, she only had one concern.

“Please don’t tell Zach about my being the donor heart before the operation. I understand he’ll find out afterward, but before the . . . procedure, please don’t tell him it’s mine.”

The doctor nodded. “Yes, I agree that would be best. We’ll put him to sleep before we bring you into the operating room. I have a couple of family history questionnaires for you—some information about Zach that we need. Would you rather answer them now or after you see your boy?”

Anna swallowed. That sense of surreal calm she’d felt earlier had fled. Already she could feel her heart rate increasing. She wasn’t going to be in any coherent shape after she saw Zach.

“I’d rather take care of it before I see him.”

Morales handed her a clipboard with two sheets of questions and indicated she could sit in the chair beside the desk. She sat and began to check off the answers.

This part seemed familiar. She’d filled out volumes of paperwork over the past twelve months and answered many of the same questions. Despite the insanity of the moment, this was normal. She felt herself calming again.

The nurse asked if she could go ahead and take her blood pressure. Anna nodded. Now would be better. Her heart rate was only going to go up as they proceeded. Her blood pressure was high, but no one commented. Rivera and Leland stood by without speaking as the nurse undid the blood pressure cuff.

Anna finished the questionnaire and the nurse took the rest of her vitals. Leland moved to stand beside her and put his hand on her shoulder. She couldn’t look at him.

She knew he didn’t understand, but she had to do this. It was Zach’s only sure chance. She didn’t want to argue with him anymore, yet she knew if they were left alone he’d have plenty to say.