Personal Target: An Elite Ops Novel (29 page)

“Your father.”

“What about my father?” The cold feeling Nick had had when talking to Ernesto Vega at the oasis earlier washed over him once again.

“It’s interesting. Your father didn’t quite see it coming either.” Juan laughed and stared into Nick’s eyes. “No one’s ever told you, have they? And you’ve never suspected?”

Nick felt his brow furrow. “Suspected what?”

Juan stepped closer now that Nick was completely secured. “Your father’s car didn’t go off that embankment accidentally.”

“What are you saying?” At last, Nick would hear the truth spelled out whether he wanted to or not.

“He was helped.”

Nick shook his head. “What are you saying? Who
helped?”

“Your father wouldn’t go along with the program. He worked for my employer, but he didn’t realize that my boss worked for a cartel. Things were set up through a series of shell companies, and Reese Donovan managed those holdings in the U.S. Even though the scheme wasn’t terribly complicated, he didn’t realize until too late that he was being used to launder cash.”

Nick shook his head again, but Juan kept talking.

“Donovan examined things too closely, asked too many questions about the holdings, the partners. Car accidents are ridiculously easy to arrange. I should know.” Juan smiled, but his expression was cold.

Something clicked as Nick listened. This bastard was confessing to the murder of his parents. The thought took Nick’s breath, and he fought to regain his equilibrium.

“My father never worked for a cartel,” said Nick, but the words lacked conviction. With Juan’s declaration, so much about Reese Donovan’s embezzlement that hadn’t made sense before, suddenly did. Paperwork that had been confusing, even when Nick thought he knew all the details. Papers he had looked at just a few days ago.

Juan raised an eyebrow. “Technically, that’s true. Your father never worked for a cartel. But the evidence showed he was embezzling funds from his law firm’s clients. In reality, he was working for someone else within your U.S. government, trying to figure out who was behind all the shell companies. When my superiors found out, they wanted Reese Donovan dead.”

Nick fought against the turmoil in his gut as his thoughts raced.

“And they had orders,” Juan added.

“Orders from whom?”

Juan shrugged. Now he was the one who shook his head. “It doesn’t matter any longer. I think I’ve proven that I can make anyone look guilty.”

Nick just bet he could. He swallowed the anger and moved slightly to focus on Jenny in the BMW.

Juan followed his gaze. “If you want to make this easier on her, you’ll do as I say.” He and the other gunman herded Nick ever closer to the edge of the bridge but never came near enough for Nick to disarm them.

“Sidi M’Cid is beautiful. It’s also known for its suicides.” The other man’s Glock was pointed toward Nick’s face as Juan kept talking. Both men had their backs to the BMW. “You’re going to jump. Now. No one will question it. You’ve been acting so erratically lately. You’ve been depressed, recovering from painful injuries. It’s understandable.”

“You’re insane.” Nick didn’t plan on jumping, no matter what Juan said. The man was certifiable.

“If you jump without a fight, we won’t rape the woman before we kill her.” Juan slipped the Beretta into his waistband at his back. He seemed to like inflicting pain, and Nick braced for what he knew had to be coming. Juan was now close enough for Nick to touch, but the other guy was still pointing a Glock at his head.

“Fuck you,” Nick mumbled, and got another shot to the kidney from Juan. If he survived this, he’d be peeing blood for a week. He straightened and took a shallow breath. “Why would I do that?” he asked.

“My word is good, even to you. You’re going over the side, whether you jump or we put a bullet in your chest and push you over the edge.”

Nick shook his head then stopped for a moment, at least giving the impression he was considering the option. It wasn’t hard to fake devastation. He must look like hell with all the blood on his face. His vision was blurry from the headshots he’d taken earlier, his nose felt swollen to twice its normal size, and every breath was painful.

God, this was it. He and Jenny were well and truly screwed. No cavalry was going to ride in. He’d been set up from the beginning. He still didn’t know by whom, but despaired to think it could have been someone at AEGIS. For about two seconds he considered doing as Juan asked, but there was just no way. He wouldn’t give up, even if it would save Jenny pain at the very end.

“Not going to take me up on it?” Juan pulled the Beretta from his waistband. “That was how I got your father to cooperate. I promised not to hurt your mother before I killed her. No one could blame a man for wanting the woman he loves to have a painless death, if death is truly inevitable.”

Nick had thought he’d heard every revelation about his parents’ deaths, but the hits just kept coming, and this last blindsided him. He tried to take a deep sip of air but couldn’t breathe beyond a shallow gasp. The overwhelming rage made him dizzy.

This scum-sucking son of a bitch had killed his parents and was now boasting of how he’d done it? If Nick focused on that, he wouldn’t be able to function. He had to think.

He tried breathing through his nose but couldn’t get any air past the blood. He wasn’t sure if it was the knowledge of what his parents’ last moments had been that had him so shattered or if he had a broken rib.

What would it be like to know you were about to die with the person you loved most in the world? To look into their face for the last time. Would you be sorry you’d loved them to begin with?

No, you’d only be longing to have had more time.

He turned his face toward Jenny again.
Dammit.
This was not going to be the last time he looked at her.

“Why her?” Stalling for time, Nick motioned to the BMW with his head.

Juan smiled but didn’t turn around. “This was never about her. It was always about you. She just ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. And after that, there was no escape.”

It was always about you.

Nick wanted to howl, even as he felt the stonework of the bridge at his hip. Ernesto had said that, too, but Nick hadn’t picked up on it at the time. He should have known. Putting the people he cared about in danger was always his biggest fear.

Juan and his gunman stood side by side, again both aiming their weapons from point-blank range at Nick’s head. Nick stared down the barrel of the Glock, then the Beretta. Strangely, he felt no fear, only regret for the time he wouldn’t have with Jenny. For the danger he’d put her in without realizing it.

He gazed out over the gorge and took another step backward along the edge of the railing. Juan had the expectant look of a child on Christmas morning.

Nick looked to Jenny one last time. He loved her. He knew that now.

He’d wanted a lifetime with her. He wasn’t giving up and quitting. He’d done that once before when he’d thought he’d lost her. Giving up then had been the biggest mistake of his life.

He gathered himself, preparing to wade into the two men and the bullets. Seventy feet down the bridge from Juan and his gunman, the BMW engine revved again, louder this time. Before they could react, the front bumper was ramming into both men at an angle.

It happened in less than five seconds, but the world took on a surreal, slow-motion camera effect as Nick stumbled backward beside the railing and fell to his knees on the concrete. The side of the car’s grill hit the bridge’s steel-and-iron wall, forcing the railing to give way. The two men were catapulted in what seemed like a circus stunt, up and over the side of the railing into the empty space below.

It was several hundred feet to the bottom of the gorge. One of the men screamed all the way down, but Nick couldn’t have said which one it was. When it was quiet again, he tried to stand, but he couldn’t with his hands cuffed behind him. All those shots to the head and body had slowed him down to the point where he still wasn’t clear on exactly what had happened.

The sides of the bridge were shoulder-height, but the car had practically scooped Juan and the other man over the edge.

The bumper was crumpled and one of the front wheels hung precariously off the bridge, but the BMW still looked drivable. The man who’d taken Jenny to the car earlier slid out of the vehicle shouting at her. Ignoring him, Jenny hopped out on the passenger side and ran toward Nick.

“What the hell, woman? You can’t just put your foot over mine on the accelerator. We could have gone over the damn edge!”

Who was that? The voice sounded so familiar.

“But we didn’t, Hosea.”

Nick heard Jenny’s voice clearly and stared, unsure he’d understood correctly.
Jenny had saved him?
Who was this man with the cigar in the side of his mouth?

Jenny’s hands were on Nick’s face, then at his elbows, pulling him up from the concrete.

“Get in the car.” The man motioned to Nick, even though he stood alongside the broken railing as if he were rooted to the spot. “I’ve got to get you and your crazy
chica
out of here.”

The man Nick assumed was Hosea pointed to the other men racing from the barricades on the city side of the bridge. “They’ll be here soon.”

Jenny pulled Nick away from the broken railing toward the BMW’s backseat. Her eyes were huge. He was still in a little shock himself that she’d driven into Juan and sent both men tumbling over the edge.

Nick hustled into the backseat, wincing as he sat down. Jenny climbed in beside him and sawed through his plastic cuffs with a pocketknife from the empty front passenger seat. Hosea raced to and from Nick’s abandoned Mercedes to the driver’s side of the BMW. He held two key fobs in his grasp.

“That should slow them down,” Hosea muttered, sliding behind the steering wheel.

The Mercedes Nick had driven onto the bridge was blocking the narrow roadway, and with no keys the vehicle was likely to be there for a while; hotwiring it would be next to impossible without a lot of time.

“You’re Leland’s contact,” said Nick, still feeling as though he was playing catch up.

“Hosea Alvarez. We’ve spoken on the phone.” The man nodded his introduction and slammed the BMW into reverse. “We’ll shoot the shit when I get us out of here.”

Nick snorted a laugh and grimaced at the painful sensation breathing caused in his chest. It made sense this smartass would be a friend of Leland’s. One scary three-point turn later, Hosea was zooming off the bridge and headed for the hills outside Constantine.

Chapter Twenty-Six

“Y
OU OKAY?
”
ASKED
Jenny.

Nick stared at her, unsure how to answer. His family history had just been rewritten. He was no longer the son of a man who had driven off a hundred-foot embankment and embezzled from his clients. His parents had been murdered. His father was most likely set up to take the fall for something Nick didn’t yet understand.

When those truths sank in, Nick’s thinking about a lot of things would change. He still had questions, the first one being: Who had ordered his parents’ deaths?

If Juan was to be believed—and that was a big “if”—Reese Donovan had been working for someone within the government. According to Leland, Nick shouldn’t trust anything Juan Santos had said, but why would the man have lied if he’d thought Nick was about to die on that bridge? It made no sense to tell a lie when the truth would do.

For Nick, knowing his father was innocent of embezzlement would affect how he saw himself and his future, even in the uncertainty of this moment. He could already feel the change starting inside.

So he said the only thing he could in answering Jenny’s question. “I feel good.”

She took in his battered face and body, looking at him as if she feared for his sanity. “Are you sure you’re not overstating the ‘good’ part?”

Nick shook his head. “Nah. I’m really . . . I’m gonna be okay.” And he meant it, for the first time in a long time.

He had no idea where they were headed, and his head was still reeling from the turn of events and the pot shots Juan and his men had taken at him on the bridge. He was trusting a man he’d never met, a man who was the confidential informant of another man he probably shouldn’t be trusting—but was—to get them to safety. There were no other options right now. He leaned back in the seat and realized he wasn’t breathing too well.

“Where are we going, Hosea?” They were a long way from being home free. “Leland claims you can walk on water with your contacts here. Can you get us out of the country and back home, or at least into Europe?”

Hosea caught Nick’s glance in the rearview mirror and grinned. “Absolutely. That I can do. If you don’t mind me saying, you’re not looking so good. Would you like me to find you a doctor first?”

Nick sighed, and
damn
, it hurt. He definitely had a cracked rib or two. “If you can do that, I’ll tell everyone about your miraculous abilities.”

“Prepare to be amazed.” Hosea laughed and moved the unlit cigar to the other side of his mouth. “But keep the accolades to yourself.”

“You got it.”

The rocky sides of the mountain walls flashed by. Hosea was driving fast, putting as much distance as possible between them and Constantine.

“Where are we headed?” Nick asked again.

“The coast. It’s about sixty miles from here. Skikda, specifically,” said Hosea.

Nick leaned his head back against the seat, happy to let someone else be in charge for the moment. His head was swimming. Now that the adrenaline rush was over, he was well and truly wiped.

Jenny grabbed a bottle of water from a cup holder and prepared to clean his face.

“Just a minute.” Nick had one more thing to do before he shut down, even though he was still bleeding onto his shirt. He pulled his “borrowed” phone from his pocket and texted Leland.

Have Jenny. With Alvarez. Lost the other women and their trail in Constantine.

That last weighed heavy, but there was nothing he could do. Even if he knew where the women were, he was in no shape to help them.