Chapter Twenty-Five
The street was now filled with people.
A fire truck—with no lights or sirens, just a tanker and three men—rolled up to put the fire out. The car that had ignited the explosion was on its side, where it had landed after careening into a pump.
I blew out a slow breath to calm my heart rate.
It was there I realized that my breaths were finite.
Yeah, baby, and I’m gonna be mad if you lose yours tonight.
I exhaled again.
Where the hell are you, Catarina?
I caught a heat signature through my scope.
A second later there was another. Two figures running.
From this distance I couldn’t see faces, but they were definitely women.
A third figure came around the structure.
My finger gently pressed down, taking the slack out of my trigger, and paused.
Mason was wearing a chem light. I didn’t see the hot spot from the stick.
I fired.
The woman in the back looked behind her. Faced front and continued to run but lifted her arm. The second woman was Cat. I watched Mason round the building the women had come from and pick up speed to catch up to Cat and Calista.
I lost sight of the women first, then Mason. I let out a sharp whistle to let Pete know I was coming down. I got one in return. By the time I made it off the roof, Pete had moved to the front of the grocer. Catarina and Mason were flanking Calista Ventura as they jogged across the street.
Pete did not delay in ordering, “We gotta move.”
“She won’t go back to the hotel,” Catarina announced, but did not stop until she walked directly into my arms.
Smart woman.
“You good?”
“How much trouble am I in?”
Together you make the sword. Two shields cover front and back.
I blew out a breath.
“Next time, can you at least take your goddamn phone and wait until I can cover you before you take off?”
Catarina jolted, then she relaxed into me. “Yeah, honey.”
“That’s not an option,” I heard Pete say.
“I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but I was the one who jumped out of a car to escape. I think I get to say where I’m going and where I’m not going. And I don’t know who any of you are.”
It was like Calista hadn’t spoken when Pete asked Mase, “Were there any boats down at the dock?”
“Yeah.”
“Fuck,” Pete sighed. “Let’s go.”
Calista’s shoulders snapped back, her chin jutted out, and she all but growled, “Again, really grateful for the assist, but I’m not going anywhere—”
“Tom Washington sent us,” Pete explained.
“She already said that,” Calista said as she pointed at Cat. “But who are you, and how do I know I didn’t escape one hell just to walk into another?”
Mason looked thoroughly offended. I wasn’t all that pleased at the inference, but to be fair, the woman didn’t know us.
“I’m Catarina. This is Jack, Mason, and Pete.” Cat pointed to each of us as she announced our names. “Tom went out of his way to track us down in Honduras to ask us to find you and get you safe. You’re obviously important to him—”
“You mean my father was important to him,” she corrected. “He doesn’t think I know what my dad did for him, but I do.”
“Just a suggestion,” Mason started. “Can we please finish this conversation someplace else that’s not on a street next to a burning gas station with bad guys roaming around? We’ve had a good run, but I’d prefer not to get shot at anymore tonight.”
Calista’s gaze was parked on Mase, but the sound of screeching tires pulled her attention to the road.
Obviously she’d made her decision when she declared, “I’ll shoot you if you try—”
Mase jerked his head down toward her hand. “Hate to be the one to tell you this, but you’re out of ammo.”
“Shit.”
“Once we’re on the boat, I’ll reload your magazine,” Mase offered.
“How do I know you’re telling me the truth?”
Mason shrugged. “You don’t. You’ll just have to trust me.”
That was rich coming from the untrusting Mason.
“Let’s go,” Pete ordered.
With a kiss to the top of Cat’s head, I stepped away from her.
“Where’s my bag?”
“Gone.”
“Bummer. My burner was in there. Now I need a new one.”
I gritted my teeth.
“I think I might vomit,” Cat complained.
“For a badass, you sure do have a weak stomach.”
Cat was sitting with her head between her legs. This time I couldn’t make any excuses for her. At the speed Pete had us at, the boat was barely rocking.
“Almost there,” I told her.
“What happened back there?” Pete asked.
“Which part?” Calista returned.
“Start with how you escaped the hotel.”
“Carlos had me at the hotel. He had two guys with him and a woman. One second I’m tied to a bed, they’re watching TV, the next second the door’s kicked in and four men come in. They shot Carlos, the woman, and his pals. Then one of them untied me and dragged me out to a car.”
“And you jumped from the car?” Pete continued to question.
“Yep.”
“You jumped from a moving car?” he asked again.
“Yeah, after I punched the guy next to me in his dick and took his gun.”
Catarina lifted her head, turned to look at Calista, and smiled.
“I think I like you. That is, when you’re not pointing a gun at my head.”
What. The. Fuck.
“Come again?”
“Don’t worry, it was a misunderstanding. We worked it out.”
My eyelids drifted closed.
I tried and failed to pull up Lincoln’s wisdom.
My hands balled into fists.
Catarina reached over, peeled back my fingers, and laced hers through mine.
“Your palm getting twitchy?”
She thought she was being cute.
For once, she was not.
“Twitchy doesn’t cover it,” I growled.
“Do you have any idea who those men were?” Mason picked up the interrogation.
“No. And no one spoke.”
Well, that was unhelpful.
“Where are you taking me?”
“There’s an airport in Tortuga—”
“Carlos has friends there. Before one of them took us to the dock and gave him a boat, we were at a house near the water. I counted fourteen men there. Two of them came with us to the island.”
The cousin.
Pete slowed the boat as we neared the peninsula of the mainland.
“Jack, check and see if there are any airstrips north.”
I took out my phone and pulled up the map.
“Nothing. We’d have to go thirty miles south of Tortuga. It’s a dirt runway.”
“Not enough gas.”
“Tortuga it is,” Mason decided.
“We’ll pull into the bay and check it out. We could anchor and stay on the boat. Shep said our ride would be here in an hour.”
Catarina groaned at Pete’s declaration.
“Gotta learn to embrace the suck, Kitty Cat,” Mason unwisely remarked.
“I swear on all things holy if you come at me with any more Navy SEAL sayings, I’m tossing you overboard.
The only easy day was not yesterday. I’m already someone special, and I don’t need to not back down from sharks because I’m never getting into shark-infested waters.
I’m woman enough to admit I’m afraid of them.
But if you want to test the waters and take a swim, by all means, buddy, keep talking. ”
Mason smiled at Cat, then he turned his attention to Calista.
“Hand me your mag. I’ll reload it.”
“Seriously?”
“I’m a man of my word.”
Calista dropped the mag out of the pistol and handed it to Mason.
With nothing but the sound of the engine and the waves lapping against the hull, I blew a breath.
Cat was sitting next to me.
Safe.
But I was still reddening her ass the first chance I got.