Alpha One (Shadow Agents #1)(23)
Author: Cynthia Eden

Gunner’s eyes narrowed to faint slits.

“El Diablo…he can do so much worse than muerte for me.” His shoulders shook. “Much worse.”

Logan released Juliana. “Don’t move.” He breathed the words into her ear.

Luis’s gaze flickered toward them. “That’s why he’ll have her… He knows you… Always understands his enemy—”

“We can offer you protection,” Logan said. He knew the drill. If you rolled on someone like Guerrero…yeah, you could expect one real short life. “Give you a new name, a new—”

But Luis was shaking his head. “I won’t betray him.”

Gunner hauled the guy to his feet. “When he finds out that we have you in custody, do you think that’s gonna matter? Guerrero will just assume that you sold him out. You’ll be finished either way.”

Juliana wasn’t speaking, just staring at Luis, and Logan realized—Luis was staring back.

“Little señorita, wish…I’d never seen you in Mexico,” Luis said. His hands were by his sides. He looked beaten, hopeless.

“I wish you hadn’t, either,” Juliana said. Her voice was angry, snapping. “I wish none of this had ever happened.”

“Sí…”

Logan glared at him. “You will help us to catch Guerrero.” Every instinct that Logan had screamed that this guy wasn’t an average flunky. He was older, with shades of gray spiking the edges of his dark hair. His eyes knew too much, had seen too much.

“No, I won’t help you.” Luis’s voice held no emotion.

Logan turned away from him, marched over and grabbed his cell. Sydney answered instantly. “What do you see?” he asked her.

A faint hum of sound, then “All enemy bodies are down. Perimeter is secure.” Her voice, calm, easy, belied the bloody nightmare that had to be waiting beyond the cabin.

“We need transport,” he told her, glancing over at Luis Sanchez. “We’ve got a live one in here.”

But Luis shook his head. “No, you don’t.”

Then he lunged forward, surging away from Gunner. Luis lifted his hand, and too late, Logan realized that when that man had been kneeling on the floor, when his hands had been at his boots…

He went for a backup weapon.

A glinting knife blade was grasped in Luis’s hands. Logan brought up his gun in an instant. “Drop it.”

Luis wasn’t charging with the weapon. Not coming to attack. But—“My daughter…I will miss her….”

Then, even as Gunner lunged for the guy, Luis shoved the knife into his own chest.

“No!” Juliana screamed.

Too late.

Blood bloomed on Luis’s shirt. His eyes widened. Not with fear or agony.

Relief.

Gunner grabbed Luis from the back. Luis’s fingers were still clenched on the hilt of the knife. His legs gave way, and blood sprayed around him.

“What’s happening?” Sydney screamed in Logan’s ear. And he realized that he had the gun in his right hand, and he was still clutching the phone in his left.

He stared down at Luis’s body. The man was a killer; he’d known exactly where to deliver the death blow.

“We won’t need the prisoner transport any longer.”

Luis was still alive, barely, but Logan knew he wouldn’t be for much longer. Logan shoved the phone into his pocket as he stalked toward the dying man.

Gunner had lowered him to the floor. He hadn’t tried to remove the knife. If he did…well, Logan knew Luis wouldn’t even have a few moments left to live then.

They had to get the man to talk, while he still could.

“Where is Guerrero?” Logan demanded.

“My daughter…” Luis said with a smile. “She’s…lovely…”

“Where is Guerrero?”

“He…won’t touch her…now…”

Because Luis had chosen to die instead of rolling over on his boss? Rage burned inside of Logan.

“So beautiful…my sweet…” Luis’s eyes flickered. “Marie…”

The man wouldn’t be telling him anything more.

Logan glanced at the other bodies. Then his gaze found Juliana’s. She was standing just a few feet away, her face too pale.

They found her already. How the hell did they do that?

Then he remembered the words that had tumbled from Luis right after he’d dragged the guy through the window.

The lover…think you’re keeping her safe?

How had Luis known that he’d been Juliana’s lover? He watched as Juliana’s eyes dipped to the dead men and she swallowed. Her shoulders rolled back as she tried to straighten her spine.

You’re the one killing her…leading us…right to…her.

He hurried forward and grabbed her arm. “Let’s go.” Syd would already have a cleanup crew en route, but this location was compromised. No longer the perfect trap, with the bait to lure Geurrero…

He’s the one setting a trap for us.

And Logan wasn’t going to just sit around while that man closed in for the kill.

But Juliana wasn’t moving. “Where? Where do we go? He’s going to find me. He found me here, after just a few hours and—”

He pulled her close. “Do you trust me?”

Her lips parted.

“Do you?”

Juliana nodded.

The relief he felt had his tense muscles aching. “Then let me get you out of here.” He couldn’t tell her his plans right then. More lies.

Would they ever stop?

He’d been lying to her since the first day they met, and those lies had torn a hole right through any dreams that he might have ever had.

The day Juliana found out the truth about him, about why he’d first walked into that diner to meet her…

It would be the last day she ever trusted him.

But he led her outside. Jasper already had an SUV idling near the porch steps. They jumped into the back, rushed away. The windows would be bulletproof, the vehicle’s body reinforced.

The SUV drove fast, hurtling down that narrow road.

“We’ve got backup on site,” Jasper said, his drawl barely evident. “Syd called in reinforcements. The road will be clear.”

It might be clear, but that didn’t mean Guerrero didn’t have someone out there, watching them, following them.

Guerrero had definitely taken the bait. He wanted Juliana, wanted her alive, because not one single shot had ever been taken at her.

And when a man like Guerrero wanted something…he didn’t stop.