“I doubt you came alone, am I right?” he asked, ignoring her. “Should I go look for your friend? The person whom you entrusted with your life to prevent you from falling to an ugly death?”
“I came alone,” she lied, flinching as his free hand went to her ear. He removed her comm and tightened his fist around the little device.
Carter pushed back upright and handed it to one of the men in the room who materialized as if on cue before disappearing back into the shadows.
“Why am I here?” Rory repeated, this time with more oomph and through gritted teeth.
“Because I need your help,” he tossed back casually.
“I would never help you,” she rushed out.
“You think I would just let you go?” His body was ramrod straight, but his arms remained casual and relaxed at his sides. “Many would offer up their firstborn to get their hands on you, especially to turn you over to the one man that—”
“I’m not that—” she interrupted, only to have him quickly cut her off.
“You are that . . .” Carter let his words trail, and his chest lifted and fell with a deep breath. His Texas roots clung to his tone, and he made no attempt to hide his accent as she had.
“Then what do you want from me?” she whispered, hating the touch of weakness that now seeped through her tone.
“You should quit before you die.” His words were blunt and still rang with a hint of coldness despite his odd request. “If he, or anyone for that matter, discovered your identity, you and your entire family would be killed as retribution. You must know this.” His hands dipped into his pockets. “Someone will find out who you are. They will get to you as I have done tonight.”
“Why do you care? You’re a criminal.”
“Life is all about perception.” He tipped his head to the side, his expressive eyes softening. “But we can help each other.”
“I don’t need your help.”
“Doesn’t look that way from where I’m standing.” Carter paused. “Before he gets to you, you’d be wise to quit. Do something different. Something no one would suspect of you. Because he will find you. Come for you. And kill everyone you love. That is a promise.”
And like the crack of a whip to her back, which she’d also experienced before, his words cut into her, brandishing a mark. “So, you brought me here to save me?” she asked, not buying this for one minute. “You trying to earn your way into heaven? Reclaim your soul?”
“No one can save my soul, and no, I’m not that nice.” He let go of a deep breath, his chest falling with the exhale. “If you choose to continue this dangerous life, that’s your death wish. I can only offer my suggestion. But I do need your help.”
“And if I don’t help you?” Her chin lifted in challenge.
“Then perhaps I’ll give you to the man who wants you even more than I do.” Carter was a dangerous, shadowy criminal, but looking into his eyes, part of her believed he wouldn’t kill her.
She gulped, digesting her reality. Analyzing the situation. The truth of the here and now. Chills dashed up her spine, which was damp with sweat beneath her hoodie.
She squeezed her eyes closed, the memory of Chris, a man she barely knew, springing back to mind for some reason.
She could use that former special operator for a save right about now.
I’m not ready to die. But if she made it out of this alive, would she be able to turn her back on everything she’d worked so hard to achieve?
How many times had she tried to walk away only to come back?
Her mission whispered to her at night.
It pulled.
It pleaded.
It urged her back when she had tried to walk away out of fear.
Rory’s heart beat wildly, and she slowly opened her eyes and lifted her chin to peer at Carter towering before her like an impenetrable wall she’d need to scale to get to her freedom.
One more swallow, and then she asked in as confident a voice as possible, “What is it that you want me to do?”
Chapter Two
Santa Ana, El Salvador - Six Weeks Later
“Doing God’s work today, brothers. Taking a man like him off the streets,” A.J. said over comms from his position as he swept the exterior perimeter, taking out any tangos attempting to flee the compound.
“Damn straight.” Chris continued to move down the hall inside the home, then stepped over the body of an enemy he’d taken out with his Sig Sauer 9mm ten seconds after entry. “First floor secure.”
Echo Five set a hand on Chris’s shoulder, and Chris stopped at the base of the staircase. “Preparing to check the second level,” Finn alerted the team.
Chris and Finn went upstairs, their khaki-colored boots moving almost soundlessly on the wood floors as they stealthily ascended. The team had practiced their infil plan several times before spinning up for the mission today, so while they’d anticipated every next step, they just didn’t know how many enemy targets would be waiting for them.
They hadn’t been able to put a drone overhead for thermal imaging given the clear, sunny skies.
“The HVT is secure.” Echo One delivered the good news over comms after Chris and Finn cleared five of the six rooms upstairs. No one had been inside. “What’s your vantage point, Bravo Four? Am I clear to move to the exfil site with the package?” he asked Liam, who was the sniper on overwatch for the op. They didn’t normally conduct missions at 1500 hours, but CIA intel gave them a two-hour window to make their move.
The CIA had sat on intel about their target’s location and activities for almost two months but were only giving Chris and his men hours to procure him. During daylight, of all freaking times.
Today’s high-value target was the particular kind of evil that always made Chris regret orders he be returned alive. Chris preferred a slow, painful death for predators like Alvin Santiago, a human trafficker.
Generally speaking, to take down a bad guy, you had to think like one. Which could be tough, especially regarding a fucker like Santiago.
“This is Bravo Four,” Liam said, his Australian accent hidden by the blip of static that cut over the line. “I’m clearing a path for you now. Give me thirty seconds.”
The pop of gunfire sounded in the air. The sting of bullets outside gave Chris and Finn the cover they needed for a surprise entry into the last room in case any bad guys were waiting on the other side of the steel door.
Steel? Chris turned the knob. “Deadbolt.” He looked back at Finn, who motioned to the floor below them.
“I’ll grab a key off the guard downstairs. Whatever is in this room must be important. Or whoever,” Finn said in a low voice before starting down the hall.
Chris brought his back flat to the wall and gripped his firearm in a ready position as he waited for Finn’s return. Eyes on the staircase, the only access point to the second level.
“Your path is now clear,” Liam told Wyatt.
“East side is all good, too,” Roman, Echo Four, announced.
“You’re good to exfil. No incoming outside the compound,” A.J. added.
“Echo Three. Five. What’s your status?” Wyatt asked a moment later.