Mission Made For Two (26 page)

Sierra tossed both her guns to the floor
,
and the knife strapped to her thigh, the
clank of metal hitting concrete resounding off
the walls.  Jake followed suit
. 

“Good, girl,” Diaz said.  “Now walk toward me.”

Sierra should have been scared.  She wasn’t.
She was still too pissed
, especially after seeing all the children downstairs he’d either bought or stolen.  Like pieces of property he had planned to sell them off. 

And she hadn’t missed the older children, both boys and girls. 
Teenagers.
  She knew how few people wanted to adopt children that old.  The thought of what they would be sold into sickened her.  Diaz sickened her.

Sh
e stopped several feet from the man
.  The barrel of an assault rifle pointed at her head.  She wore a
flack
jacket, but it did nothing to protect from the neck up.

“
Take off your earpiece,” he said.

She reached up and removed the small wire. 

“Hand it here.”

She dropped it on the floor and stompe
d it.  There was no way in hell
she was giving him a way to hear what was going on with the other men.

He jerked her toward him and hit her across the chin with the butt of the gun. “You bitch.”

White hot pain shot through her jaw and the s
kin across her chin split open.  This mission was certainly leaving her
w
ith more than her fair share of scars. 
Just as she recovered,
he
wrenched her around, snapping her hands in handcuffs behind her back.  Then
he pushed her toward a door. 
Another stairway.
 

“And Harding,” Diaz called.  “I won’t hesitate to put a bullet in her pretty head.”

“Diaz has Sierra,” Jake said into his headset. “He bargained for her.”

Trent let loose a string of expletives that were only rivaled by the ones Jake wanted to say.  “She’s got her tracking device on.”

Another voice,
this one tied into headquarters
sounded in his ear.  “I’ve got her.”  The voice was Andy’s.
  “I’ll guide you, Jake.”
 

“
Ten-four
,” Jake sai
d.  “I’m going after her.”

He didn’t wait to he
ar
whether Trent agreed or not.  He moved across the large space, weaving between crates.  He entered the stairway cautiously and looked down. It was clear.

Zach’s voice sounded in his ear.  “I’ve got Diaz and Sierra in my sight.  Damn, he’s keeping her perfectly in the way.  I can’t get off a shot
without risking her
.  They’re heading for the
Land Rover out back
.”

Jake wanted to order them to shoot the tires, but if Diaz felt cornered, he’d kill Sierra just for the fun of it.

Jake came around the side of the building, just as the
vehicle
with Diaz and Sierra
,
sped off. 

As much as he wanted to control the situation, he couldn’t.
  And now when he’d been the one to give the okay for Sierra to come on this mission, he may have signed her death certificate.

Everything inside him went cold.
 
  

~***~

“What do you hope to accomplish, Diaz?” Sierra asked, reaching for a calmness she didn’t feel. 
This mission had been the most unpredictable mission she’d ever worked and she wondered if her luck was finally up.
Eight years in the field, but would she see a ninth?

The cold of the handcuffs rubbed her already sore wrists. They’d just scabbed from the rope burns
she’d gotten as she’d fought against her bindings a few days ago
.  She hated being restrained like this.

He glanced at her as he drove.  “You and Harding have screwed up everything.”

“Yeah, well, that’s our job.”

His fist connected with her cheek.

Sierra laughed, even though it hurt like hell.  “What a big man you are?
 
Go ahead, hit a woman.
One whose
hands are restrained at that.
”

His hands tightened on the steering wheel.  “You will not be laughing soon.”

He glanced in the rearview mirror.  He was worried despite his words.  He should be. She had no doubt Jake wasn’t far behind.
Even if she died, Diaz would die too.  If she knew anything, she knew Jake would make sure of it.

Diaz drove them to a small airstrip.  She couldn’t get on a plane with him.  “Why not just end it here, Diaz?” she asked as he stopped the car.

He glared at her. “I’d love to, my dear.  But I’d hate for my plane to get shot down.”

“Even if you get out of here, and even if you kill me, you won’t be able to escape.  They’ll hunt you down no matter where you go.”

“When you have enough money, you can buy a new life
.  No one will find me if I don’t wish it.”
  He looked at her, a cruel smile on his lips. “And kill
ing you
will be my greatest pleasure.
But don’t think it will be quick and painless.
”

A chill snaked over her skin at his words. 
Tortured was one thing, but
Diaz wouldn’t stop at simple torture. She’d set that up when she’d flirted with him in Santo Domingo. 

He shoved his door open and stalked around to her side.  Sierra wasn’t getting on that plane.  She knew Jake was somewhere near and possibly some of the others by now.
  She’d rather Diaz shoot her now anyway, then rape and beat her.
 

She pulled her knees up, ready when Diaz opened her door.  Swiveling, she kicked him hard in the gut.  The air rushed out of his lungs and he stumbled backwards.  She was out of the car in an instant.

Before he could lift his gun, she kicked his hand
.   B
ones crack
ed
. 

He cried out and the gun clattered to the concrete.
“
Puta
!”

She kicked him again, this time in the ribs.
  She connected hard, but his hand clamped around her ankle. With her hands behind her back,
she was off balance
.

Sierra went down on her butt
and slammed backwards, her head connecting with the concrete
. The impact
numbed her body.  She couldn’t move and
Diaz was on top of her.
His hands circled
her neck. 

She
shook off the lethargy, knowing her life depended on it and bucked.  Her knuckles scraped
on the pavement beneath her. 

Diaz’s
large hands squeezed.  Blackness
encroached
her vision as she fought.  Somehow she found enough strength to roll, dislodging his grip.  She kicked out,
and
caught him in the groin.

He uttered swear words in Spanish.
Sierra sucked in a huge lungful of air, then another
, shaking off dizziness and nausea
.  She needed to get back to her feet.  As she scrambled awkwardly up, Diaz crawled toward his gun.

Sierra caught him in the chin with her boot, snapping his head backward.

She followed it with another hard blow, then another.  He went down, his cheek slamming into the ground.

It was only then that she heard the footsteps.  She didn’t have to turn to know who’d she see, but she did anyway
and dizziness swamped her
.  Jake ran toward her, followed by Zach.  Now that help was here, Sierra went to her knees. 

Jake had come.
His face hard and angry.
 
Probably pissed at her as usual.
But she didn’t care, because it was finally over and s
he was pretty sur
e she was going to pass out.

~***~

Sierra woke up, her head in Jake’s lap.  His large hand smoothed her hair back.  The lines around his mouth were deep with his frown.  “What took you so long?” she croaked.

A headache the size of Mount Everest
pounded behind her eyes and
hurling was still a real possibility.

“
We couldn’t take a chance he’d shoot you
.”

She tried to smile, her face was numb.  “He underestimated me, as usual.”

“Yeah, I guess he did,” Jake said, his voice weary.

“I’m ready to go home.”

“We’re going.
”
  He smoothed his hand over her forehead again. It felt so good. 
“The chopper will be here in a minute.  I’m getting you
to a hospital first
, while Trent and the others finish up here. 
There’s a lot
to be sorted.”

Sierra closed her eyes again, because the sunlight was hurting her
head
. 

“Sierra.”
  Jake shook her shoulder.  “You need to stay awake.”

“I am
awake,” she said, but her words sounded a bit slurred to her own ears.

“Come on, open your eyes.  Look at me.”  Jake stroked her chin.

She forced her lids open, not an easy task.  Sleep tugged at her
like a long lost friend.

“That’s my girl,” he said.

She wasn’t sure if anyone had ever said that about her before.
She looked into the blue of his eyes, thinking again how mesmerizing they were. 
“I’m not a girl,” she mumbled.  “I’m a woman.”

“Yes, I know.  How could I forget that?”  His fingers traced her cheeks. 

“That feels good.”  She swallowed a wave of nausea.  “I think I’m going to be sick.”

“Take a deep breath. It’ll pass.  You have a knot that size of a grapefruit on your head.  If Zach hadn’t dragged Diaz off, I probably would have killed him.”

“You should have.  He’s a snake.  He’s worse than a snake,” she said.  “Are we still in Bolivia?”

Her thoughts seemed jumbled all of a sudden.

Jake’s brows drew together even harder. “Yes.  The chopper hasn’t come yet.”

“I hit my head on the pavement.”

She was rambling, but she couldn’t help it.  Images were flowing through her brain.  Images of Jake in that dirty warehouse in South America, looking like hell, yet so determined. 

Images of Daniel in Miami, of his smiling face.  Images of him lying on the floor, his skull shattered. 
Then Jake, lying on top of her.
 
His strong body filling her, holding her.
  Her mad race on the
jet ski
.

“Did we get Diaz?” she asked again, her brain fuzzy.

“Yes, sweetheart.
He’s gone. You took him down.”

“Good,” she said and her eyes closed.    

Vaguely, Sierra registered the sound of an approaching chopper.
The next several hours
were a blur.  She was pretty sure she’d puked in Jake’s lap on the chopper ride home.

Lights and sounds invaded the daze she was in.  She’d hit her head on other occasions, even had concussions, but she’d never felt this bad.

Finally, blessed darkness took her.

~***~

Jake sat beside her bed.  Her breathing was even, her chest rising and falling at slow intervals.  He’d resorted to praying not long after they’d arrived at the hospital. 

The blow Sierra had taken to her head had been hard enough to cause her brain to swell.
He’d known it was bad even before
the doctor started talking about surgery to alleviate the pre
ssure
if she didn’t respond
.
She’d been rambling, asking the same questions over and over. 
Head injuries were never anything to mess with.

The fact she’d been able to take down Diaz, even after she’d sustained it, testified to her
spirit
.
She was one gutsy woman
.  Tougher than most men he knew and too stubborn to ever admit defeat.

He picked up her hand and rubbed the back of it.
Her knuckles had scabs from her fight with Diaz.

The last forty-eight hours had felt like an eternity.  The doctor’s had finally lowered her medication to allow her to wake up
, but she hadn’t yet.  He needed her to. He wanted
t
o see those beautiful, intelligent eyes.
 

Squeezing her hand, he spoke.  “Come on, Sierra.  You need to wake up now and talk to me.”