Chapter 11
Alana made it outside the kitchen only to find herself in a driveway that led around the side of the sprawling house.
Dusk was settling in around the house, but the stars had yet to make their appearance in the sky to light her path.
She clung to the shadows of the mansion, though the white stucco would probably silhouette her body against it.
She bent low and moved close to the bushes and small trees planted close to the building.
Her heart hammered in her chest, but she couldn’t let fear rule her.
She’d come this far; she wouldn’t let them recapture her and take her back to Delgado.
He might grow tired of dealing with her and kill her outright.
Without her, he wouldn’t have a bargaining chip to lure Chase to his assignation at La Casa Loca.
Then again, Chase wouldn’t know she was dead and would show up anyway.
He wouldn’t give up on her if he thought there was any chance of saving her from Delgado.
No, she had to stay alive, get the hell off the compound and find her way back to Cabo San Lucas to stop Chase from showing up at midnight.
As she approached a corner, she heard men’s voices. She dropped to her haunches beside a yucca plant and froze.
A shout sounded behind her, and a man burst through the door of the kitchen she’d come out of moments before.
Alana swore beneath her breath. She recognized the man she’d hit over the head with the bucket and locked in the cell below. She shrank lower in the shadows and prayed he wouldn’t see her.
Two other men rounded the corner she’d almost gone around and ran toward the shouting man. They spoke in rapid Spanish.
While they were occupied, Alana crawled behind the yucca plant on her hands and knees to the corner of the building, took a deep breath and slipped around it.
Then she scrambled to her feet and ran for the compound wall.
Her pulse beat so hard against her eardrums she could barely hear anything else.
She made it to the wall, and no one was shouting.
No footsteps sounded behind her. But there was nothing to climb to get over the top.
She moved amongst the bushes along the wall until she reached a trellis covered in bougainvillea vines and blossoms.
Heart pounding and breathing ragged, she dug her feet into the trellis and climbed, her hands and face scraped by the branches. After she’d made it only four feet up the trellis, hands gripped her around her hips and jerked her from her perch and back to the ground.
Alana dropped to her hands and knees, rolled onto her back and leveled a kick at the man’s groin.
He cursed in Spanish and doubled over, giving Alana time to crab-crawl backward.
She flipped over and launched herself away from the man, only to run headfirst into another.
This one caught her around her middle and crushed her against him, pinning her arms to her sides.
She couldn’t get enough leverage to kick him hard, and she couldn’t wiggle her way free.
He held onto her so tightly that she could barely breathe.
The man spoke in Spanish to someone else and then carried her, kicking and writhing, to the front of the house, where he tossed her to the ground.
Alana rolled and sprang to her feet, ready to run. One glance around made her freeze in place.
Lights shone down on her from the corners of the house. Four men pointed rifles at her, their fingers on the triggers, ready to shoot.
Raul Delgado emerged from the house and descended the steps to where she stood, a handgun pointed at her chest. “Go. Run for it. I have no use for you. You have caused enough trouble.”
“You want me to run so you can shoot me in the back.” She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. “If you’re going to shoot me, do it now. I want you to look into the eyes of the woman you’re about to kill.”
Delgado’s eyes narrowed. He raised his handgun, pointing it at Alana’s face.
“It would be a shame to destroy such a pretty face.” He lowered the weapon, and his lips curled into a sneer.
“I have much better use for one like you.” He nodded toward the man closest to him.
“Tie her up and put her in my bedroom. And when I’m done with you,” he leaned close to Alana’s face and sneered, “my men can have you to do with as they will.”
Alana’s stomach roiled. These men were animals. She’d die before she let one of them rape her—especially Delgado. As the man approached her, she bunched her muscles, ready to fight with every last breath.
Chase and Trevor positioned themselves at one side of the compound while Carson and Gina worked their way around to the back.
Up until they were within a couple of yards of the compound, Chase had kept an eye on the guard on the roof.
That man’s attention seemed to be on the front of the house and the road leading up to the compound.
The truck headlights were within a quarter mile of the gate and closing fast.
Chase’s cell phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out, cupped his hands around the screen and read the text.
Carson: Ready
He texted back.
Chase: Go
A loud explosion erupted.
Trevor bent and cupped his hands.
Chase stepped into them and reached for the top of the wall. He dragged himself up to the top and lay low until he was sure all was clear. The guard on the roof had moved to the rear of the building to check out what had caused the explosion.
Chase reached down, grabbed Trevor’s hand and helped him scale the wall. Once they were both on top, Chase slipped over the side and dropped to the ground.
Men shouted nearby.
Chase focused on his main goal—find Alana. “Go help Carson and Gina secure the gate. I’ll look for Alana.”
“You need someone on your six.”
“I can move better alone,” Chase said. “And they need the help. The sooner Hank and his guys get inside, the better off we’ll be.”
Trevor nodded. “On it.” He ducked into the shadows and moved around the side of the house toward the front.
Alone, Chase tried to think like Delgado. If he had Alana here, where would he keep her? Chase was about to slip in through some French doors when his cell phone vibrated in his pocket.
He dug it out, hid in the shadow of a bush, cupped his hand around the glowing screen and read the message. His breath caught in his throat, and his heart skipped several beats. The message was from Trevor.
Trevor: She’s out front
His gut instinct was to run around to where Trevor was and confront whoever had Alana.
Thankfully, reason followed close behind instinct, giving him pause.
If Alana was out front, someone held her prisoner or at gunpoint.
He could do nothing to help her if they shot her in front of him.
Delgado would know this and demand he throw down his weapons and give himself up.
Chase squelched his urge to confront Delgado and entered the house through the French doors.
He hurried through what appeared to be a study with bookshelves lining the walls.
As he came to the front foyer, he spied a man carrying a submachine gun heading up a staircase.
Chase watched as he cleared the landing above and ran to the end of what sounded like a hallway.
Based on the pounding of footsteps, the man raced up more steps.
Chase checked all directions and then ran up the staircase to the second floor. He turned the direction the other man had gone and found another set of steps at the end of a hallway. These steps were narrower and appeared to lead to the roof.
Easing up the steps, he rose to the top of the building where the roof had been turned into a patio. Two men stood looking over the edge of the stucco wall down to the ground in front of the house.
Chase emerged onto the patio and crept forward, one quiet step at a time.
Shouts from below captured the guards’ attention and held it.
Walking stealthily, Chase closed the distance between him and the two men.
When he reached them, he grabbed both of their heads and smashed them together as hard as he could.
Neither man saw him coming and, apparently, hadn’t expected to be attacked on the rooftop.
Too stunned to fire, they staggered. One fell to his knees and toppled over.
The other reeled and lifted his weapon. Before he could fire, Chase hit him in the side of his head with the butt of his weapon.
The second man dropped to the ground, out cold.
Chase peered over the side of the patio to the front of the house, where Raul Delgado stood in the light shining out from the front entrance. He held Alana in a headlock, a handgun pointed at her temple. Four of his men stood around him, weapons at the ready.
Beyond the front of the house, the driveway curved through manicured gardens to the gate, not visible from where Delgado stood. The delivery truck sat in the gateway with no guards in sight.
Shadows slipped along the inside wall of the compound.
Hope stirred inside Chase.
Hank and his team had arrived and breached the compound's walls.
Chase hoped they weren’t too late to keep Delgado from killing Alana.
His jaw set in a firm line, he balanced his rifle on the edge of the patio wall and aimed at Delgado’s head.
The man was far too close to Alana. If Chase got a clear shot, he’d take it.
However, with Delgado’s other men lined up around him, he might only have time to kill Delgado.
The others could turn their weapons on Alana and take her down before Chase or the rest of the team could do anything about it.
Delgado spoke to his men in short, clipped tones. All but two of them turned outward, and the others moved closer to Delgado, using their bodies as shields to protect their boss.
One of the two men at Chase’s feet stirred. Chase slammed the butt of his weapon onto the man’s head and returned his attention to the drama unfolding in front of him.