Heart of Danger (18 page)

“Then make him go for it. You know I’m right about this.”

“Sadly, you are. But if we do this, we’ll do it at my place.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m in the mountains of Hill Country and the only way to my place is up the only road in—the front road. The back of the house has a sizable rocky cliff that they’re not going to be able to climb, and if they do we’ll be ready for them. They’re going to have to come up the front, or at least try to sneak in using the wooded areas. I can have everything set up for alerts, traps, my flash bombs…we’ll be better prepared there. There’s less threat of casualties when the bullets start flying.”

She nodded. His plan made sense too. She was thinking her place, that way nobody would have the threat of getting their home shot up because of her, but Alex’s place was the safer location. One way in also meant one way out, but she knew these guys; they wouldn’t be looking for a way out. They were going to be looking to eradicate Diego Valdez and his men from this world.

“If we need to make a fast exit ourselves?”

“I’ll have it worked out. I know my property and I know these men. We’ll get you out if it comes to that.”

“And you’ll come with me, yes?”

“We finish what we start, but one of us will get you to safety.”

“Alex, I don’t want to lose any of you.”

“And you won’t,” he winked at her. “Now, I was serious about strip twister.”

She threw her head back and laughed. “Not a chance…although you would be the one naked. I have impeccable balance.”

“I’m pretty good myself,” he countered.

She had been doing yoga with her mother since she could walk, then she did Pilates; she definitely had balance down to a science. Her lips spread with a devious grin. “Hmm…”

“Never mind,” he held up his hands in surrender. “You’re actually considering it which means you know you can win. I’ll be in my skivvies and you’ll be fully clothed.”

“True.”

“I’ll have to find somebody else to play with.”

“Your girlfriend perhaps.”

“We broke up.”

“When? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“We broke up the day I got that call about you. I didn’t tell you because you had enough to worry about.”

“I’m your friend and you know I’m here for you. You cared about her…”

“But she didn’t care about me. I found her in bed with somebody I thought was my friend. I went to her place to let her know I was going to Australia. I had my key and I let myself into her place. I didn’t expect to see what I saw, but I did. I ended it.”

“I’m sorry, Alex. You lost your friend and your girlfriend and I wish you had talked to me. I’m always here for you no matter what’s going on in my life.”

“That’s your problem, Natalia.”

She sat back in the chair, completely floored by his statement.

“You always think about everybody else before you think of yourself. My problem is needing to find a new woman at some point; trust me when I say that pales in comparison to your troubles. You need to start putting yourself first for a change.”

He was right. She always did what everybody else thought was best. On some level it’s why she stopped playing with the orchestra. Her mother could have easily found another youth ensemble to let her play with, but she thought it was such a bad idea that Natalia continue with an orchestra because the next conductor might be the same as the last, that she told Natalia she didn’t want her to play, and so she stopped playing. She hadn’t told Micah sooner how she felt, partly out of fear for how her heart would take it if he didn’t feel the same, but the other part was that she feared what it would do to the office dynamics if she did say something. Would the guys feel a need to walk on eggshells around the two of them, or pick between the two of them. Honestly, had things gone awry she would have been the one who had to leave and Preston would have been the one who had to call her into his office and tell her to go.

“I think you may be right,” she smiled to let him know she wasn’t angry with him. She saw his shoulders relax. “Have a seat and talk with me.” She patted the chair and watched as he sat down. She had some of the best friends in the world; and she was grateful for that.

“Did you find her?” Diego felt his temper threatening to break.

“Not yet,” Forester Michaels wanted that money, Diego was sure of that. “I can’t find where the guy I think she’s with lives. They’re all very secretive on location and my guy watching the office hasn’t seen too much activity there lately. But I have something for you.”

“What is it?” If it wasn’t going to get him to Natalia he didn’t want it.

“A funeral.”

“Yours?” Diego let the threat come through in his tone.

“Her friend’s,” he said quickly. “Two days from today they’re having a memorial service and I know she’ll be there.”

“And that helps me how?”

“You can have one of your men follow her when she leaves the service. Of course you’ll have to do it from a distance. Plant one of them, they’ll follow and let you know where she’s staying.”

Diego tapped the blade of his knife against the granite counter top. That was a good idea, but he would need to find a way to have her followed without being seen. He couldn’t bring too many more people in on this because the more people he had to pay to work for him, the more likely one of them would get sloppy and tip off the wrong people. “I will wire the money to your account today—only half of the money, Special Agent Michaels. The other half will come to you once you hold up your end of the bargain on safe passage out. I do not want to see any of your feds showing up at the airstrip.”

“They won’t,” he assured him. “You’ll get out without incident.”

“Good,” he disconnected the call. This was going to come together, but not as swiftly as he wanted. Two days. He would have to wait two days, but at least he would have her back. He smiled just thinking about all the things he would do once he got her back to Colombia. She was making him work harder than any other woman had made him work. He liked that about her, but she still had to pay, and pay dearly, for her escape.

“Hell no!” Micah felt so angry he thought he might actually hit his friend. “This is what you called us all here for—to discuss using Natalia as bait!”

“I know it sounds crazy…”

“You think!” What was he thinking? How could he even suggest it? There were at least a thousand things that could go wrong. Maybe Alex was willing to risk it, but he wasn’t.

“It was my idea, Micah. Don’t be angry with Alex. Just please hear him out. I think it’s a good plan, and I trust you all to keep me alive.”

Micah shoved his fingers through his hair. There was no way. There was just no way he was going to let this happen. He watched as Natalia slowly approached him. “No,” he stepped back because he wouldn’t let her try to sweet talk him into changing his mind.

“Please listen,” she reached out and caught hold of his hand. He tried to snatch it away from her, but she held on tight. She brought his hand to her chest and held it center. “They are going to come after me.”

“And I’ll kill them.”

“And it would be better if when they did you were all prepared, and together. If they ambush you I know you can shoot and fight, but I can’t shoot and my fighting skills are practically zero. There will be too many of them and only one of you, but if you’re all in one location, with all your toys set and ready to use, then maybe we can get them all without any of them actually getting even remotely close to me.”

He knew she was trying to appeal to his logical side. In all honesty she made sense. Having the enemy come to them and fighting them on their own turf with their own terms set in place was a smart and logical decision. But it meant putting her in harm’s way and he just couldn’t. So many things could go wrong and she could end up dead.

“I know it’s dangerous, but I trust you; all of you.” She looked to them. He could tell she really meant those words. He just didn’t want to risk it.

“She makes sense,” Jet interjected his opinion. Micah wasn’t happy about that. Were they all going to out vote him on this.

“Listen to me, Micah,” she continued to hold onto his hand. “I think this is the best way. I’m not saying I’m not scared, but…I’d rather do this our way than his.”

He pulled away from her and paced the room angrily. This wasn’t what he wanted. It was a dumb idea and it shouldn’t have ever been on the table. But then he realized, it wasn’t a dumb idea and had it been anybody else he probably would have suggested it himself. “I don’t like this.” He shook his head trying to calm his temper. “If we do this you follow our lead.”

“Of course,” she looked at him as if he were crazy to even think that she wouldn’t.

“And you stay where we put you.”

“I can do that.”

“And you don’t get yourself captured or killed.”

“That would definitely be high on my priority list, Micah. I’m not looking to visit Colombia again—ever, and I don’t want to die.”

He exhaled sharply before growling out his willingness to follow the plan. Preston had already agreed that it was a good plan the moment Alex suggested it. Micah was the last holdout. He couldn’t lose her. That was the one thought in his mind right now that he couldn’t lose her. “So I’ll drive us to the funeral and then Alex will take you back to his place. We all seemingly go our separate ways, but we’ll be in our designated locations by dusk.” He talked it out just to hear the plan once again. He didn’t like the idea of having her out of his sight for even a few minutes. “What if something goes wrong and they ambush you on your way home?”

“That’s always a possibility,” Alex admitted. “But I’m trained and prepared, you know that.”

Just because he knew it didn’t mean it made the present situation easy to take.

“I think we should go to a late lunch after the service Alex.”

“What do you need to go to lunch with him for?” Micah looked between the two of them, uncertain of whether or not Alex and Natalia once had a fling or not.

“Because if anybody is following us they’ll follow us to lunch and that gives you all time to get to his place, stash your car in one of his garages and get into position.”

Why did she have to make sense? “Leaves too much room for an ambush. Go to the post service gathering instead.”

“I can’t,” she shivered. “I just can’t.”

“Natalia…”

“No. I can’t do that. It’s going to be hard enough seeing everybody, all of her friends and colleagues and her family, for just that brief hour of the memorial I can’t go back to their place and be surrounded by all the people who…I just can’t.”