Wild Fire (48 page)

The leopard rushed forward, lightning fast, and grabbed his prey with extended claws. The hind legs were firmly on the ground as the suffocating bite was delivered. The cat’s canine teeth forced apart the two neck vertebrae, breaking the spinal cord.

Isabeau hadn’t realized she’d stopped and was staring while a hail of bullets struck just a few short yards from her. Conner grabbed her hand and yanked her into motion, practically dragging her to the greenhouse. When he tried to pull the door open, it was locked from the inside. He simply shot the lock and jerked it open, thrusting Isabeau behind him. He rolled in first, going right, clearing the room before he called to her.

Isabeau hurried inside and stepped behind him, trying to stay small and not make noise as he threaded in and out among the plants, making his way toward the back of the building. There was another door, clearly leading to a small room, probably originally a potting or tool room. There was the sound of a scuffle. A curse. A yelp of pain. Conner put his hand on the doorknob and slowly turned it.

Isabeau flattened herself against the wall at his gesture to stay back as he eased the door open. At once bullets smashed into the door and zipped past into the greenhouse. Conner kicked the door all the way open, standing to one side back behind the doorjamb. A very scared- looking man held a boy in front of him like a shield. Isabeau gasped. It was Adan’s grandson, Artureo.

Conner called out in the Indian dialect, his arm flashing up, gun extended. He pulled the trigger as the boy jerked to his right. The bullet took the man behind him dead center in the middle of his forehead.

“Nice to see you,” Artureo greeted. “You took longer than I expected.” He stepped over the body and waved to the other children to come out into the open.

Isabeau was proud of him. He’d taken leadership just as his father and grandfather had always done. He’d kept them calm and hopeful.

Conner frowned as his gaze swept the children. “Where’s the boy? Mateo?”

“She took him,” Artureo said. “Last night. She came in with one of the mean ones and they dragged him out of here.” He glanced at the other children and lowered his voice. “I think she suspected he was different. I followed them over to the water tower.”

“You followed?” Conner’s eyebrows shot up.

Artureo nodded. “Did you think we were just going to sit here and wait until she killed us? Or took the girls? She and the old man are devils. We’ve dug our way out of the tool room, but hadn’t figured out how to make it to the fence without being shot.”

Conner flashed him a grin. “Let’s get out of here. Keep them together, very tight. No talking. We’re going to make for the southernmost wall. Get them into the rain forest, Isabeau. Start on the trail. Rio and the others should be close behind you or already waiting for you.” He pushed a gun into Artureo’s hands. “You know how to use this?”

Artureo nodded. “My grandfather taught me.”

“I expect you to protect them. Isabeau, I’ll lead you out, but you take over when I get to the water tower.”

“I can do it,” Isabeau assured him, feeling slightly sick.

It was difficult to keep from staring at the dead body slumped on the floor, blood pooling around his head. So like her father’s death. She realized this was exactly how her father had died, only Rio had been the shooter, and her father had tried to kill Conner. Her stomach lurched at the memory and she pressed her hand there hard.

Conner’s fingers curved around the nape of her neck. His mouth brushed her ear. “Are you all right? Are you up for this? I can take you all and come back.”

She forced a smile. “I’m good. Let’s do it.”

Conner went first, breaking the padlock on the back entrance and cautiously opening the door to peer out. The yard was in chaos. The sound of gunfire was sporadic, but men ran in all directions. The main house had turned into a wall of flames, the fire burning ferociously. Heat poured off the roiling conflagration so that it was impossible to get too close to the inferno.

Conner found a niche inside a particularly thick bushy area and he waved to Isabeau. She sent Artureo first, and the teenager held hands with the youngest. They formed a chain with Isabeau bringing up the rear, hurrying as quickly as they could while hugging the walls of the building and staying in close to the hedges until they crammed like sardines into that small spot.

Isabeau looked toward the garden. Many of the trees and bushes were already on fire as the wind, mostly created by the fire itself, sent sparks flying through the air. Two bodies lay sprawled in the dirt, and the wheelchair was still tipped over on its side. She couldn’t help herself, she began searching above their heads for any sign of the leopard. The large cats preferred to be up high and often dropped down on the unwary prey. Systematically she searched the rooftops and trees. Her gaze landed on the water tower and she froze.

Conner signaled again and they followed the winding flowerbeds, staying low and stopping whenever Conner held up his hand. “Rio’s waiting by the wall,” he told Isabeau. He stepped out to get a better look at the terrain between the children and their destination.

“Conner!” Isabeau shouted a warning.

He ducked back into cover and looked up just as a bullet kicked up dirt inches from his foot. Imelda held a squirming Mateo in front of her, his feet right on the edge. “Get back, all of you, or I’ll drop this little bastard.”

“Isabeau, I’m going to shoot toward the tower and drive her back. Take the children and run as fast as you can for the rain forest. Get them over the fence. I’ve called up the others to help me here. Leonardo will guide you, Marcos and the children.”

Before she could reply, Conner was firing, the bullets carving chunks of wood from the tower around Imelda. She screamed, swearing, and stumbled backward, dragging the boy with her. Isabeau took off running and this time Artureo brought up the rear. She didn’t look back—or up—she just ran for the fence.

The high fence loomed in front of her far more quickly than she’d bargained for and at the last second she gathered herself and leapt for the top. Her body shrieked a protest, every muscle cramping. She might have missed on her own, but Marcos caught her outstretched arm and dragged her onto the thin plank that was the top. She forced herself to keep going, landing on the rain forest side, trying not to feel the terrible burning in her body. Leonardo jumped off and began tossing children to Marcos. The man caught each one with amazing dexterity, handing them down to Isabeau.

Conner didn’t dare risk a glance to see if Isabeau had made it to the fence safely. He kept up the volley of shots and then sprinted to the bottom of the water tower out of Imelda’s sight. Rio took up where Conner had left off, spitting bullets around Imelda to keep her away from the edge of the tower with the boy.

Once under the water tower and hidden from sight, Conner removed his shoes and stuffed them into the pack he always carried along with his weapons. He tied the pack securely around his neck and began to climb fast, staying inside the wooden structure for most of the way up. He used his enormous strength to take his body up quickly in an effort to get to the boy before she threw him over—because he knew Imelda was going to fling him off just because she could.

He heard the boy hissing like a small leopard cub and wondered if the cat would emerge to help the child. Imelda slapped at the struggling boy. She screamed suddenly and the slaps grew louder and more frantic. The boy must have hurt her. He heard a thud as she dropped him on the platform and began kicking him.

The sounds and smells triggered the leopard’s survival instincts. He felt his muscles begin to contort and he allowed it to happen, welcoming the shift, tearing his clothes off in strips even as he tried to keep moving upward. Just as he had almost completed the change, he heard Rio shout a warning and he looked up.

Mateo came hurtling over the edge, the boy’s face a mask of terror—that same look he’d seen on Isabeau’s face the night before. Conner leapt into empty space, completing the shift, his hands forming outstretched claws. The boy hit hard and cried out as the leopard’s mouth came around his body. Conner twisted in midair, righting his body, knowing they were high enough up that even his cat could be injured. He did his best to protect the boy as they landed. The shock went up his legs, but he kept his mouth soft and the boy high enough to prevent him from striking the ground. The moment he could move, he opened his mouth and Mateo dropped.

He turned back to the tower.

20

UNDER Rio’s covering fire, Elijah raced across the open yard to the water tower. Flames began to lick along the bottom of one of the legs of the wooden structure. Elijah scooped up Mateo.

“We’re rescuing you,” he said as the boy began to fight, hissing and spitting and digging sharp nails into Elijah’s arm. “That’s your brother, Conner, Mateo. He’s come for you. Your mother must have told you about Conner.”

The boy went quiet in his arms and peeked over his shoulder to see the leopard moving fast up the framework toward the top where Imelda crouched, shouting orders to her men in the hopes of taking command. It was impossible to make out her exact words over the roar of the flames, but her shrill voice was punctuated by the firing of a gun.

Mateo began to wiggle again. “I go help him,” he stated.

Elijah laughed. “You would. But not this time. He wants you in the forest taking care of his wife, Isabeau. He said to tell you to look out for her until he can get there. She’s got an enemy—a leopard. Only another leopard can protect her.”

The boy pushed out his small chest. “I can do it.”

“Let’s go then.” Elijah anxiously assessed the fire. In a few more minutes it was going to cut off their escape route. They had to go. He signaled to Rio that he was moving with the boy. He shifted Mateo to his back. “Hold on. We’re on the move,” he barked into his radio, not wanting his own men to accidentally shoot them.

The fire was becoming a larger threat than the erratic gunfire. Rio signaled to his men to follow Elijah and get out. They couldn’t wait any longer. He tried to warn Conner that the base of the tower was on fire, but the leopard had already made it to the top and was just beneath the platform. He didn’t want to give Imelda any warning of the cat’s presence, not when she seemed to have a small arsenal at her fingertips.

The smoke rolled into the air, turning everything grayish black, dropping visibility. It was helpful to Elijah as he took the boy out of the compound into the safety of the rain forest, but the smoke was nearly choking Rio. He covered his mouth with a handkerchief as he strained to see what was happening above him on the tower. He no longer could see Imelda, but she had to be aware of the crackling flames greedily rushing up the supporting legs of the tower.

THE smell of the fire was overpowering to the large leopard. Every survival instinct he possessed urged him to run for his life. The leopard snarled as the smoke stung his eyes, but he kept climbing, determined to put a stop to the gunfire as Imelda continued to fire into the hazy yard below her. Conner’s leopard dragged himself onto the platform in absolute silence.

Through the swirling clouds of billowing smoke, he could see the woman, lying on top of the tower, weapons strewn around her, an automatic gun sweeping the yard below with no regard for who she might hit. Below, the men broke under the assault, abandoning their tries to put out the fire, running instead to get out. The ground below was in chaos.

Imelda screamed at them, swearing and hurling curses, most directed at Elijah and Marcos. She must have believed that they had deceived her in order to take over her drug routes. It obviously didn’t occur to her that they had come to rescue the children. She swore vengeance and death to their families as she continued to shoot at anything that moved below her.

The leopard fixed his stare on her, focusing completely on his prey. He began the slow, freeze-frame stalk that took him step by slow step across more than half of the tower platform. He went to his belly and moved even slower, not making a sound as he neared her.

Imelda suddenly stiffened. She turned slowly, her eyes widening in terror. “Ottila. I would never tell anyone.” She lifted her hand, palm out, as if that would stop a charging leopard. “I’ll double your pay.” Even as she said it, she whipped up the gun, finger already on the trigger, spraying bullets across the platform as she tried to bring the weapon up into position against the leopard’s charge.

Conner felt the stings just before he hit her, one near his hip and one just grazing his shoulder, and then he was using his powerful legs for the spring, hitting her with the force of a freight train. Filled with loathing, he drove them both over the edge—the same one she’d thrown Mateo over. He heard the air rush from her lungs, felt everything break apart inside of her. Her mouth stretched wide in a scream, but the sound was torn from her, disappearing into the smoke.

It was much more difficult righting his body, somersaulting in midair. His back legs crumbled when he hit the ground. She landed hard, the sound like a pumpkin smashing and spilling contents across the ground. He crawled to her, using the cover of the smoke. She was still alive, her eyes wide, her body unmoving. She gasped. Wheezed. Fought for air.

The leopard put his giant paw on her belly. She tried to move, but with a broken back it was impossible. The leopard’s hot breath fanned her face. She stared at death, the long canines, the fierce eyes lost in a sea of spots.

“Conner!” Rio’s voice called out of the smoke. “Move!”

Shots could be heard in the distance, coming from the direction Isabeau had taken the children. He saw sudden recognition in Imelda’s eyes. Not Ottila. Fury burned. Hatred. Then, as his head moved closer and he drew back his lips in a snarl, fear. He delivered the killing bite, severing her spine, not out of mercy—he felt none—but with the knowledge that evil often found a way to survive and he wouldn’t permit it, not this time.