Linda Kay Silva - Delta Stevens 3 - Weathering the Storm (25 page)

Dice had remembered.

“Don’t even think about it, Officer,” Dice said, pointing an Uzi he seemed to produce from nowhere. How had she missed it?

Delta cut her eyes to the door, but the thin man had already slipped in front of it. He, too, had his gun trained on her. Rubin slowly rose from his chair, his expression bitter. “Apity you weren’t on the up-and-up. It could have been fun working with you.” Delta shrugged. She had to think fast or she was as good as dead. “Kill me and you’ll be signing your own death warrants.”

Rubin smiled. “A bold try, Officer—”

“Stevens. Delta Stevens.”

“Officer Stevens. But don’t insult my considerable intelligence by bluffing. There is no back-up waiting for you. We’ve seen to it that you aren’t wired, and there’s little chance of anyone in this motel hearing you if you scream. So I suggest you cooperate and make it easier on yourself.”

Delta looked over at Dice, who glared harshly at her. Pure hatred flowed from his eyes like laser beams. “I been dreamin’ about meeting you again for a long time, bitch. Now, my dream is gonna be your worst nightmare.”

Nightmare? This was no nightmare. This was a moment when Delta would discover whether she had used up all her miracles. Standing in the desert, with a madman threatening to violate her body before destroying her, Delta realized that her worst nightmare was about to burst through the plane of reality, and she was going to have to face it alone. What had began as an attempt to right the scales after Helen’s death had turned into a bad dream, only Megan wasn’t there to wake her up.

No one was there. Delta had made the ultimate gamble and it looked as though that gamble was going to transform into the supreme sacrifice. If she was going to buy it here in the desert, she was not going alone. Raising her foot in the air to attempt a leg sweep, Delta stopped in midair when something incredible happened. In the click of a second hand, Dice’s chest exploded, spewing blood and flesh fragments onto Delta’s face. The look on his face was one of incredulity. Someone had blown his guts out and he took one step backward before dropping to his knees and falling face first in the sand. Dead.

Without so much as a moment’s hesitation, Delta pushed him aside and grabbed the Uzi with both hands.

“Asshole,” Delta muttered, as she reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. Every piece of evidence she could gather would be important if she could stay manage to alive. Whoever had blown a six-inch hole in Dice was still somewhere in the desert.

The car, Delta thought, Martinez was still waiting at the car. She carefully picked her way across the desert so that she would approach the car from the opposite direction. If she could kill Martinez and get the keys to the car, she was home free.

Free.

God, she was so close. Maybe she hadn’t run out of miracles after all.

Moving from shadow to shadow, until she was about thirty yards from the car, Delta slowly inched her way forward. Still leaning against the car, his cigarette now extinguished, stood Martinez, head bowed as if he’d fallen asleep.

Odd, Delta thought. Had Martinez killed Dice and then come back to the car?

Slowly, quietly inching her way still closer, Delta dropped to a soldier’s crawl to eliminate her silhouette. From where she was, it didn’t appear as if Martinez had been the one who shot Dice. Martinez’s gun was nowhere to be seen, and he just stood there, not looking out at the desert or even smoking a cigarette. By the angle of his head, Delta thought he might be reading something. If he didn’t kill Dice, hadn’t he at least heard the shot?

Suddenly, Delta shivered. Someone else was in the desert with her, someone who wanted all three of them dead. No witnesses, no bodies, nothing. Maybe she wasn’t as free as she thought she was.

Picking up a rock, Delta tossed it close to the car and waited for Martinez’s reaction. When he didn’t move, Delta crawled closer. Something wasn’t right.

Ten feet from the car, Delta squinted through the night and finally saw the reason for Martinez’s lack of response: someone had slit his throat from ear to ear and from chin to sternum. His head hung on by the vertebrae alone. Whoever had killed him was a natural killer. And they were probably looking for her right now.

Looking around from her position in the sand, Delta decided to chance it. She needed to get the hell out of there and she’d have to have a car to do that. Sliding foward, she crawled underneath the car and pulled Martinez’s body down into the sand.

Methodically checking all of his pockets, Delta searched his bloodied clothing for the keys.

Maybe they’re still in the car, Delta thought, wondering whether she should risk coming out from under the car. After all, she did have the Uzi. If she could just get in the car and—

“Looking for these?” came a voice even deeper than Martinez’s. Delta looked out from under the car and saw a pair of army boots. The car keys landed silently in the sand right between the pair of size twelve shoes. “Don’t shoot, Delta. It’s us.” From nowhere came the tiny voice of a woman.

A woman? Looking again at the army huge army boots, the picture became very clear. “Sal?”

Abruptly, a small face lowered to Delta’s and smiled at her. “In the flesh. You gonna come out now?” Then the face disappeared. “Josh, help her out from there, will you?”

A pair of large hands reached underneath the car and pulled Delta out. She was still gripping the Uzi.

“It is you! Thank God. What the hell are you doing here?”

Sal reached into her pocket and pulled out a pair of keys to unlock the handcuffs Dice had put on Delta earlier. “You want to go get the Jeep, Josh? We need to get out of here in case they sent anyone else to check up on those two bozos.”

Josh nodded and took off into the darkness.

“Jeep? Sal, what’s going on? How did you know where to find me?”

Running her small hand over the bump on Delta’s forehead, Sal smiled softly. “All in good time. Right now, we have to finish this business.” When Josh pulled up in the Jeep, Sal took Delta’s arm and pulled her from the Honda to the Jeep before handing the Honda keys to Josh. “Both bodies.”

Josh nodded and picked up Martinez’s corpse as easily as if he were picking up Sal.

Delta was suddenly exhausted, and the events happening around her seemed to be happening in fast motion. “Sal, I don’t understand.”

Getting in the Jeep, Sal reached into the glove compartment and pulled out an ice pack. “Here,” she said, bashing it against the dash. “Put this on your forehead.”

Delta did as she was told and waited in silence as the Honda returned from the direction of Dice’s body and started up the ridge. Sal started the Jeep’s engine and followed.

“We had nothing else to do, and Connie thought you might need more back-up than just her and Tony.”

“Back-up? You and Josh were my back-up?”

Sal nodded, pulling out a pack of gum and offering a piece to Delta. Suddenly, there was a loud explosion, and Delta realized that the Honda had gone end-over-end off the edge of the ridge in a mass of flames.

Sal stopped the Jeep and peered over the edge. “It’ll take the boys in blue a long time to figure out what happened to those creeps.” Sal pulled the car up a bit and waited for Josh to come running back.

“All taken care of, boss. Two crispy critters in the trunk of a burned out Honda. The car went right into the gulley. Could be days, maybe even weeks, before anyone finds them.”

Sal grinned. “Great.”

“Sal...” Delta said, gingerly placing the ice pack on her forehead. Her whole face hurt. “Would you mind filling me in? Just how is it that you followed us without any transmitting devices?”

Josh hopped in the backseat and handed something to Delta. They appeared to be square binoculars. “Take a peek through these babies.”

When Delta brought them to her eyes, everything in the desert was illuminated. She could easily see the road, cacti, and even a rodent scurrying across the dunes.

“Incredible. But that doesn’t explain—”

“It’s a night scope. It actually lets you see in the dark. We were able to follow you from quite a distance on this shitty road without having to turn our headlights on.”

Delta lowered the scope from her sore face and shook her head. “Did you follow me to the motel?”

“Actually, we got lucky on that one. Connie wanted us to stay out of sight, like she did, but Josh and I decided that our fatigues looked too obvious for anyone to be concerned about us. No one would ever believe that two people dressed in jungle fatigues would be tailing them.”

Delta looked at them both. Sal was right. “Good point.”

“So Josh and I moved closer. Good thing, too, because we just barely caught you getting into that Honda.”

Delta lightly touched her burning forehead. A small egg shape protruded from below her hairline. She imagined her face was one large bruise. “And Connie? Where is she?”

“We radioed to her what was going down and she arrived at the motel only seconds after we did. Connie sent us after you while she and Tony registered in the room next to the bad guys.”

“She sent you?” For a moment, Delta felt hurt that Connie didn’t come after her herself.

“Yep. She made it clear your life was in our hands and told us to do whatever we had to do to protect you. She mentioned something about gathering evidence while the place was still hot. Or something like that.”

“And all this time I thought she’d be frantic.”

“I’m sure she was. When they escorted you out, Tony started out of the hotel room, and Connie pulled him back in. She and Tony were going to see if they could listen in and find out where they were going next.”

“Why didn’t Connie tell me about you two?”

“It was a last minute detail. Actually, she came to me for the night scope, and Josh and I volunteered to help out. Delta, Josh was a point man in ’Nam. You know, the guy who went first to set off traps and spot snipers.” Sal beamed with pride. “He’s very good. A couple of white-collar crooks could never beat him. Connie made the right choice.”

Delta reached across and touched Sal’s arm. “Thank God she did. I thought I was history back there.”

Sal grinned. “Naw. Connie knows how to look after her own. You’re family to her, Delta, and family takes care of each other, huh, Josh?”

Josh nodded.

“So what happened once we left the motel?”

“We followed you out here, drove up to the ridge and put that ass-wipe who was going to kill you in the sights. End of story.”

Josh proudly held out an AK-47 assault rifle with a folding metal stock. By the looks of it, it was probably one he had used in Vietnam. “Josh shot him?”

Sal shook her head. “Nope. I did.”

Delta was stunned. “You?”

Sal nodded. “Josh had to take the big guy out first. I was to wait until his cigarette went out and then take out that other prick. Pretty good piece of shooting if I say so myself. Daddy would have been proud. He took me to the range all the time before he shipped out. Looks like all those years of practice finally paid off.” Sal adjusted her cap. “Guess it was my turn to save a life. Dad would be proud.”

Delta was shocked. This petite woman wearing army fatigues had saved her life by calmly squeezing a powerful round through the chest of a man she didn’t even know. “Sal, I don’t know what to say.”

“Don’t say anything,” Josh said, touching Delta’s shoulder. “Like Sal told ya, family takes care of each other.”

Delta leaned back, letting exhaustion roll over her like a small wave. She had come, she thought, millimeters from dying, yet she was plucked from death’s grasp by two people who hardly knew her. The thought made her dizzy. Or was that from the bump on her head?

“Sisterhood is powerful,” Sal said, glancing in the mirror at Josh.

“Yeah,” Josh said, spreading a blanket over Delta’s lap. “Just like brotherhood.”

Closing her eyes, Delta leaned her head back on the headrest and fought the fatigue creeping through her body. As images of the night flashed before her, Delta inhaled slowly and released the last of her fear.

“It wouldn’t have been right,” she said through sleepy lips.

“What wouldn’t have been right?” Sal asked as she drove over the winding road.

“For me to die in the desert.”

Sal nodded. “Because it wasn’t your time?” Delta grinned. “No. Because I’ll be damned if I’m going to die wearing a goddamn dress.”

When Delta, Sal, and Josh finished telling their tale to Connie, she pulled Delta to her and hugged her tighter than she ever had. “Thank the goddesses you’re okay.”

“Okay? Have you taken a close look at my face? Megan will go ballistic when she sees it.”

“Megan will just be happy to have you home in one piece. I certainly am.”

Delta looked into Connie’s eyes and smiled. Her face ached and she had a pounding headache, but she was alive. “I owe my life to you, Chief. If you hadn’t thought everything through...” Delta stopped and shuddered. Just the idea of Dice’s hand on her gave her the chills.

“It’s okay, Storm,” Connie whispered, running her hand through Delta’s hair. “The edge was just a little sharper this time. You might have thought you were going off half-cocked, but that’s not something I’d ever let you do. You’re too important to me.”