Chapter 14
Aman stepped out of the trees. “Don’t move!” he screamed, aiming an assault rifle at Gemma’s chest.
Dallas fought the overwhelming urge to shove Gemma behind him. He didn’t dare move and risk getting her shot. His hand flexed on her abdomen, keeping her back against his front. She slowly wedged her arm between her back and his waist.
What the...?
“Drop your weapon and bags,” the man commanded in English with a Spanish accent. “And raise your hands.”
Dallas kept his gun raised and nodded. Slowly, he leaned down, keeping Gemma pressed to him, and tossed the gun to the dried leaves on the ground. The man stepped forward and kicked it out of reach.
“You too!” he bellowed.
Gemma’s hands snapped into the air.
Dallas peeled off his backpack and Gemma did the same. “Who are you?” The demand rushed from Dallas’s mouth.
The man wore cargo pants and a gray T-shirt. He looked local. Two more men stepped out of the trees, one from the same direction the first man had come, the other came from the right. The one behind the leader had a shaved head and the other wore a baseball cap. The man in the hat pointed at Eli’s feet and mumbled something in Spanish.
The leader scoffed. “You saved us a bullet.” He stepped forward and nudged Eli’s boot. “You can thank your friend for alerting us to your whereabouts.”
Questions burned through Dallas’s brain. How the hell had Eli figured out who was after him and Gemma when they didn’t even know?
Gemma’s back trembled against his chest, forcing him to lower his blood pressure. These men had shot down their plane. Any second, they’d put them on their knees and blow their heads off. The image of Gemma crying for her life flashed through his mind, sucker punching him in the gut.
He had to distract them until he could come up with a plan. “Do you know Eli?”
The man spit something on the ground, likely chewing tobacco. “We’re looking for the woman who bombed my boss.” He nodded at Gemma. “She matches the picture. There’s a hit on her head and anyone caught with her. Worth twenty-five thousand US dollars.”
Dallas’s stomach dropped. Holy shit. These were Silas’s men.
Dots clicked into place in his mind. The same must have happened for Gemma because she inhaled sharply. “I didn’t set off a bomb. I swear.” Her voice didn’t shake, but it carried a veiled note of hysteria.
“No?” The leader took a step forward. His gun rested on an angle across his body, and he cocked his head as if he hadn’t heard her correctly. He dug into his pocket, pulled out a package of cigarettes, and shook one stick into his hand. He put the end in his mouth and lit it. After sucking, he let out a puff and zeroed in on her as if deciding whether he wanted to keep her alive.
The man’s gaze slid over Gemma’s body, and Dallas’s temper went through the roof. He’d die before he let them touch her.
“Perhaps we could make an exchange for your life.” The leader flicked his cigarette. “It’s a lot of money to pass up, however.” He held out a hand, letting his gun hang from his neck. “You understand.”
Sweat rolled down Dallas’s face and touched his upper lip. Fuck, he needed to do something quickly.
The man with the baseball cap said something to the leader in Spanish, diverting his attention. As the men talked, Gemma’s voice reached his ears, but he couldn’t make out what she was saying. Leaning closer to her shoulder, he nudged her raised elbow with his.
She turned her face toward him. “My back,” she hissed, before returning her attention to the men.
He frowned. Drawing his head back a few inches, he glanced at her shoulders. What was she talking about? He dropped his gaze to her ass. At the small of her back sat Eli’s gun.
Yes.
The man with the shaved head gestured to Eli’s body then to them, his voice getting more and more heated. Dallas’s muscles jumped with the need to attack. Things could turn quickly if he didn’t do something now. He brought his face a little closer to Gemma’s shoulder. “On the count of three, dive west... behind that tree.”
She gave one sharp nod.
“One,” he wet his lips.
The leader yelled something in Spanish at the other man.
“Two.”
Gemma tensed in front of him, her body radiating fire.
“Three.” He snagged her gun as she darted for the tree.
The men lifted their weapons. Dallas fired two shots at the leader and he went down. The bald man shot at Dallas, but the bullet smacked into a tree, exploding bark into the air. The man in the baseball cap, to the right, ran into the trees.
Crack!
Dallas dropped to his knees and shot the second man in the legs. He fell like a stone as a sharp cry of anguish exploded from his lips.
He stood and fired again, this time getting the guy in the chest and throat. A quick look at the leader revealed his glassy stare at the sky. Dead.
“Come on!” Gemma cried, waving to him from the tree.
He bent to pick up the gun he’d surrendered and stuffed it into the waistband of his pants. Then he ran for the leader and swiped his weapon. After scooping up their backpacks, he met Gemma at the tree.
Her hands slapped his chest, and tears soaked her cheeks. “Are you hurt?” she choked out, running her hands down his sides.
After passing her Eli’s gun, he cupped her head and kissed her forehead. “No. But one of the men is still out there. He ran into the trees and I didn’t get him. We need to move.”
She pulled away. “The vehicle. Maybe the keys are in it.”
He caught her hand. “Let’s go.” Dallas towed her through the dense foliage, making a path that was U shaped—away from the direction of their shoot-out and then back toward the road.
Gemma squeezed his hand as if she anticipated the third man would jump out any second. Dallas took wide steps, his feet gingerly touching the leaves and tree roots. A stumble or snap of a twig would alert him. Sweat poured down his face. Each constrained step used up more and more of his energy. The foliage got thinner. He stopped at the line of jungle before the road, keeping out of sight.
The shrill ring of a satellite phone pierced the discord of the jungle noises.
Gemma shook his arm. “He’s not far.”
He tugged her to his side. “I’m going to get close to the vehicle and see if the keys are there. Wait here and watch. If I give you the signal, run to the jeep. We don’t have much time.”
Her throat bobbed and she nodded. He broke away from her and moved over the road. The sound of the man’s voice carried over the trees. He spoke loudly on the phone in Spanish, his voice pitched and irate.
Dallas darted quickly over the dirt, placing all the weight on the balls of his feet and keeping his gun pointed toward the jungle. The beige jeep had no doors or roof. Reaching for the ignition, he touched the keys dangling there. He spun toward where Gemma stood and motioned for her to come as he lowered their bags into the back seat. She broke through the trees, her eyes trained on the jungle to her right. She held the gun between her palms, pointed at the earth. And damn if she didn’t look sexy as hell doing it.
She reached the passenger side and slid her ass into the seat. “Hurry.”
Dallas climbed into the driver’s seat and shifted his gun to his left hand. “Get down. He’ll come out shooting as soon as I start this.”
She gripped the dash and nodded. Ducking, she covered the back of her head with her left hand, the gun still nestled in her right palm. “Go!”
He turned the ignition. The engine roared to life and shook. He shifted into drive and slammed his foot down on the gas. Faint shouts erupted behind him. A glance over his shoulder told him the man was still in the jungle.
His body rocked side to side as the jeep bumped over the uneven terrain. A bend in the road was coming up...
Shouts ripped through the air behind them. Dallas glanced over his shoulder again to see the man running down the road behind them, lifting his gun.
“Stay down!” Dallas yelled, as he ducked.
Bullets pelted the jeep. Gemma let out a scream as he rounded the bend. The pinging of metal on metal ceased.
“We’re out of sight,” he said to Gemma, calling over the drone of the motor.
She lifted her head a few inches and looked behind them. “He’ll chase us.” Her skin was pale, her eyes wide with fear.
“Yeah, but we’ll lose him soon.”
He rounded another bend. The more distance he put between the shooter and them, the more the cinching of his chest muscles eased. He lifted his arm and wiped the channel of sweat from his forehead. Placing the large gun on his lap, he relaxed his shoulders.
Gemma straightened, sitting back in the seat. Her hair trailed over her shoulder, and she rested her palm on her breastbone. She took several deep breaths. “Well, this sure beats walking.”
He grunted and flicked his gaze from her to the road. “That it does. But a whole lot of things have changed.”
She scooted closer to him on the bench seat. “It sounds like Silas survived the blast,” she mused. “How did he know about me, though?”
Dallas lifted a shoulder. “They probably had surveillance in the hotel, figured out where you were in the minutes before the bomb went off.” He glanced at her again.
She closed her eyes and slid her palm to her abdomen. “Charlene had me confirm the room Silas was in. That’s the last thing I did before I made it out back.” She opened her eyes and shook her head. “But my reservation was under an alias. They—”
“Doesn’t matter. They found you the same way I did. If they have access to facial recognition, they could have pulled up your legitimate passport for your real name.”
He cursed and slammed his palm against the steering wheel. What had Eli told the men working for Silas? Eli had known his name. He could have mentioned who was traveling with Gemma.
That meant they might be after him too.
And all his contacts were now compromised.
They were stuck.
***
Gemma’s shoulders achedwith every bounce of the vehicle. The hard lump of her gun pressed into the small of her back, reminding her that they had to be vigilant on the road. All this time she’d suspected the CIA was after her. But this jumbled things entirely. If Silas had put a hit on her head in Colombia—and maybe even in the surrounding countries—she wouldn’t get far. And every step she took would endanger Dallas.
This was all her fault.
She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around her midsection.
If Dallas hadn’t been at the hotel. If he hadn’t traced her through the street cameras and found her in the city. If she’d just stayed in Cali...
You’d be dead, dummy.
Great. Not only was she completely responsible for endangering Dallas’s life, she was also lodged between a rock and a hard place.
“You’re quiet,” Dallas said, swinging his gaze to her for a beat before jerking his face back to the road.
Her stomach knotted, and she forced a tight smile. “Just glad we don’t have to walk. We’ll be hours ahead of schedule now.”
He let out a sigh. “Who would have thought getting caught by those men would be a blessing? We should run into my brother’s guys any minute now.”
Another ball of anxiety swirled in her gut. “Do you think it’s safe? I mean, Eli was supposed to be a trusted contact. If there’s a hit on my—our heads, then surely these men know we’re sought after. They could switch sides, like Eli did.”
Now she didn’t just have to worry about being shot and killed. Given the salacious glint in the leader’s eyes, she also had to worry about being raped or gangbanged to death. And what would they do with Dallas while they had their fun with her? Kill him or make him watch. She shuddered, and panic fluttered against her solar plexus.
Dallas nodded, his expression grim. His eyebrows were pierced together, and his jaw as solid as stone. “That’s true. The guys picking us up are getting paid ten grand American. Not nearly as much as Silas put out. I can offer more, but I don’t have that kind of money on me.”
She wet her lips. Relying on people they had to negotiate their survival with wasn’t exactly ideal. Her stomach grumbled. “Can we stop? I wouldn’t mind having a bite.”
He nodded and pulled to the side of the road then cut the engine. She reached into the back, dug into her backpack, took a chug of water, and then ripped open a protein bar. Dallas did the same.
“How’s your leg?” Dallas asked.
Even though she was wearing pants, she looked down at where the injury was. “Hurts still. But for the most part I forget about it.” She cleared her throat and swept her gaze to the long stretch of road ahead. “I’ve been thinking. We should go our separate ways when we get to town.” She could only murmur the words, as if her body was rejecting what was coming out of her mouth.
He raised his eyebrows and dusted off his hands before stuffing the protein wrapper into his bag. “Yeah? Why’s that?”
“Because all this happened because of me. You’re in danger because of me. If you hadn’t taken me with you—”
“You know exactly what would’ve happened.”
She rolled her lips together. “Yeah, and both of us don’t need to die. I’m the one they want.”
He snorted and sucked back more water. Screwing on the cap, he shifted so his foot was back on the gas pedal. “Who said I plan on dying?”
She rolled her eyes. “No one really plans on it, Einstein.”
He started the engine. “I won’t force you to do anything, Gemma. But either way, I’m in this with you. My face is just as wanted as yours. We’re stronger together.”
She rubbed her thumb over the pads of her fingers and tears stung her eyes. He wasn’t wrong. But if something happened to him, she’d never forgive herself.
“Think about it, will ya?” He pulled onto the road, and she leaned back in her seat.
Her chest burned with unspent tears. She needed a bed and she needed to be alone. The deep desire to curl into a ball and cry nearly took over, but she’d do no such thing. Not until she had her own space, away from Dallas. She wouldn’t become a shriveling mess at his feet.
Too much had happened in the last couple of days. It’d been nonstop since the explosion. Running for her life and trying to keep one foot in front of the other while not falling stupidly head-over-heels for a guy she couldn’t be with. A guy who wanted more than sex once a year but also didn’t want a relationship. Because his illegal career was too important.
A pulsating throb spread across her forehead. If they didn’t get out of here soon, she’d lose her mind. A glance at the bright sun through the narrow break in the trees over the road showed that it was late afternoon. Where were the guys they were supposed to meet? Had they passed them? She settled back in her seat and closed her eyes. Maybe she’d wake up when—
“There they are.” Dallas’s sharp, hesitant words made her jerk her gaze to the road.
She sat forward and clutched his forearm. The vehicle, a large black suburban, swerved and parked on an angle across the slim road—blocking them from passing. The doors opened and three men with assault rifles stepped out, and one more remained in the front passenger seat.
Terror paralyzed Gemma. Part of her screamed to run and dive into the jungle, the other part kept her planted to the seat. She gulped as they stormed toward the vehicle.
Dallas’s hand moved across the assault rifle he’d swiped from the leader he’d shot. “Stay put,” he barked.
All the feeling left her face as Dallas leapt out the open door.