Alpha One (Shadow Agents #1)(47)
Author: Cynthia Eden

Juliana was still staring at Logan. Keep looking at me, baby. Don’t look away. Everything’s okay.

“Or we have option two…” Guerrero walked behind Juliana and the blade moved to her right shoulder. “I start hurting her, and you talk, Logan. You talk…and I make her pain stop.”

Logan’s teeth ground together.

Guerrero sighed. “You think I don’t know about the EOD? Those agents have caused plenty of trouble for me and my…associates over the years. I know I’d enjoy some payback time.”

Too many would.

“You talk, you tell me about the agents, where I can find them, any aliases they have, and I’ll make Juliana’s pain stop.”

The ropes were cutting into Logan’s flesh. Thick, twisted, they held him so tight.

“Tell me, and I’ll make her pain stop.” The blade dug into Juliana’s arm. Her teeth sank into her bottom lip, and Logan knew she was trying to hold back her cries.

He’d never loved her more. “Let her go.”

Guerrero bent near her ear. His lips brushed over the delicate shell when he asked, “Where’s the evidence, Juliana? What did you do with it?”

“We…lied to the reporters,” she whispered.

“Where is it?” he pressed.

Juliana shook her head.

Logan marked Guerrero for death. He stared at him, knowing this was one target that wouldn’t be brought in alive. “You made a mistake,” Logan told him.

Guerrero yanked that bloody blade from her flesh. Juliana’s shoulders sagged.

“You should never have brought me in alive.” Guerrero had let him get close, and Logan definitely intended to kill El Diablo.

“So tough.” He lifted the blade again, and drops of blood fell to hit the floor as he turned back to Juliana. “Now, where were we?”

“Mexico,” she said, voice trembling.

The guards weren’t looking at Logan. They were focused on Guerrero. On Juliana. There was eagerness on their faces.

They liked the torture.

Guerrero was still crouched near Juliana’s side, his mouth too close to her ear. “What about Mexico?”

“Why didn’t you just…torture me then?”

“Because getting under your skin was half the fun.” His fingers slid down her arm, sliding over the blood. “You’ve got such lovely skin.”

“Guerrero,” Logan snarled.

“She does, doesn’t she?” Guerrero murmured. “A beautiful woman.” Now the knife rose to her face. “But you won’t be that way for long.”

Logan’s vision bled red. He heaved in his chair.

“I don’t think you wanted to hurt…me.” Juliana’s fast words froze Guerrero—and his knife. “We talked in Mexico for so long. Had you done that before? Ever gotten close with…someone like me?”

“I’ve lied to more men and women than I can count.” He glanced at his knife. “Pain tells me what I want to know. But sometimes, lies are easier.”

“And less bloody,” Juliana whispered, swallowing. “Because I don’t think…I don’t think you wanted blood. I don’t think…you wanted this life.”

“This is the only life I want.”

Juliana shook her head. Her eyes weren’t on Logan any longer. They were on Guerrero. “You told me… You said you weren’t perfect…. You said I didn’t deserve what was happening to me…. You meant that, didn’t you?”

A muscle flexed in Guerrero’s jaw. Juliana kept talking, pressing her point as she said, “You didn’t want to kill me then. That’s why you kept me in that room…why you talked to me for so long.”

“I was using you, getting intel from you. Keeping you alive long enough to make the senator squirm.”

“Was John all a lie? Or was he…was he the man you could have been? What happened…” she asked him, speaking quickly, keeping the man’s focus on her and keeping that knife off her body, “to change you? Why did John die…and El Diablo take over?”

“Because only the strong survive.” A flash of pain raced over Guerrero’s face. “I learned that lesson when I walked in my mother’s blood.”

Juliana flinched at that revelation.

Then Guerrero straightened, moving back a bit from her. “It’s a lesson you’re going to learn now, too, Juliana.” He frowned down at her, seemed almost lost an instant, then he said, “I’m sorry…” and lifted the knife to her face.

Chapter Twelve

Juliana braced herself, knowing that there was nothing she could do to stop that knife from cutting her face. She wouldn’t scream. She’d hold back the cries no matter what.

The knife pricked her skin. The pain was light, the faintest press, but she closed her eyes, knowing what was to come.

But then she heard a choked cry, the thud of flesh on flesh, and her eyelids flew open even as the knife was ripped away from her skin.

Logan had leaped from his chair. The ropes were behind him, some still dangling from his wrists. He had Guerrero on the ground and he was punching him again and again and again.

Guerrero’s men seemed to shake from their stupor, and they lunged for him.

“Logan!”

His head whipped up. His eyes were wild. She’d never seen him look that way before. His control is gone. “Behind you!” But her shout was too late. One of the guards, a big guy with thick, curling hair, plunged his fist into Logan’s back even as the other raced forward with his knife.

Juliana shoved out her feet, tripping the man with the knife. The weight of his body sent her crashing to the floor. Her chair shattered, and it felt as if her wrist broke, but Juliana twisted like a snake, moving quickly, and thanks to that broken chair, she was able to get out of the ropes.

She rushed to her feet. The guards were both attacking Logan now. One had a knife, but before he could attack, Logan just ripped that knife out of his hands. Then Logan knocked that guy out with a flash of his fists.

The other guard froze, glanced down at his buddy. She could feel the man’s fear. But…Logan was bleeding. His body shuddered. The fool must have thought that was a sign of weakness.

He went in for the kill.

Logan stepped back, half turned and caught the man in a fierce grip.

“Wrong move.” The whisper came from right beside Juliana. She jerked, but Guerrero already had her. He grabbed her, his arms wrapping around her from behind.

“Juliana!”

She didn’t waste time looking at Logan. She hunched her shoulders and dropped instantly from Guerrero’s grasp, just like Logan had taught her. Then she drove her elbow back into Guerrero’s groin. He groaned and stumbled back.