Alpha One (22 page)

But she stood back and watched the lights vanish.

Jasper was behind her. He had barely let anyone see his injured shoulder. He’d just growled, “Back the hell off.”

That was Jasper.

She swallowed and hoped the mask she usually wore was back in place. “You ready to hunt?” she asked him. Not waiting for his answer—she already knew what it would be—Sydney yanked out her phone, punched in the code.

The GPS screen lit up instantly.

Got you.

Because Guerrero might have taken Logan and Juliana, but they were going after them. They would get them back.

And Guerrero would get exactly what he deserved.

* * *

G
UERRERO BROUGHT HIS
blade against Juliana’s throat. “You have proven to be so much trouble...”

“Then maybe you should have just killed me in Mexico.”

Logan blinked, surprised by the rough words that had tumbled from Juliana’s lips. No, no, she didn’t need to be antagonizing a killer. Logan wanted Guerrero’s anger directed at him.

Not her.

The blade bit into her flesh. A rivulet of blood slid down her pale throat. The lights were on now, too bright, too stark. “Maybe I should have,” Guerrero agreed.

“But then, you knew you’d never get your hands on that evidence!” Logan snarled at him. “And your house of cards would fall on you.”

Guerrero looked up at him. “I’m beginning to think that evidence doesn’t exist.” But he lifted the blade from Juliana’s throat.

Logan’s heart started to beat again.

But then the goon on his right shoved his blade into the wound on Logan’s side. Logan clenched his teeth, refusing to cry out as the blade twisted.

“I mean, if Juliana had the evidence, if she knew anything about it...she’d say something...
now,
wouldn’t she?” Guerrero asked, glancing down at the blood on his blade.

“Stop!”
Juliana screamed. “Stop hurting him!”

“Oh, but we’re just getting started.” Guerrero nodded to his henchman, and he shoved that blade in even deeper.

Logan’s hands fisted and he yanked against the ropes. “Have your...fun...” he rasped. “When I’m free...I’m...killing you.”

“Promises, promises,” Guerrero muttered.

“Yeah, it’s a...promise.” One he intended to keep. Guerrero and his torture-happy guards weren’t getting away.

The knife slid from his flesh. Logan sucked in breath, but he hadn’t even brought it fully into his lungs when Guerrero waved his hands and said, “Cut off his fingers.”

“No!”
Juliana lurched forward in her chair, yanking against the binds that held her. “Don’t!”

Logan braced himself. The guard came around him and—

Logan kicked out with his feet. Idiots. They should have secured his legs. One kick broke the hand of the guy with the bloody knife. The weapon flew away. He caught the other guard in the knee and there was a solid crack that made Logan grin.

He stopped grinning when Guerrero put his knife to Juliana’s throat once more.

Guerrero glared at him and said, “Always the hero...”

The guards scrambled back to their feet. They lurched forward as they came for Logan again, only this time, they stayed away from his legs. One slugged him in the jaw. The other grabbed his fallen knife and charged at Logan.

That’s right. Focus on me. Leave her alone.

“Stop!” Guerrero’s order froze the men.

And Logan realized...Guerrero was still focusing on Juliana. He’d grabbed her hair and tangled it around his fist. That knife was pressed against her throat, and Juliana’s eyes were on Logan.

There was fear in her stare. But more, trust. Faith. She thought he’d save her.

I will.

There was more emotion burning in her eyes. But he didn’t want to let himself believe what he saw. Not then.

Guerrero yanked back hard on Juliana’s hair. “You both have information that I want. She has my evidence.”

“I...don’t,” Juliana gritted. A tear leaked from the corner of her eye.

“And you...” Guerrero’s eyes narrowed on Logan. “You’re EOD.”

Logan shook his head. “What the hell is that?”

The blade dug into Juliana’s skin. “Don’t lie, agent,” Guerrero snapped. “I can see right through lies.”

Oh, right, because he was clairvoyant? No, just your standard sociopath.

“My men have been digging into your life. Ever since Juliana here was so helpful in sharing her lover’s name. A SEAL, but you’re not working in the field any longer. At least, you’re not supposed to be.”

Because he was with a new team now and had been for the past three years.

“The pieces fit for you. The more I dig, the more I know.”

Guerrero’s eyes reminded him of a cobra’s watching his prey, waiting for a moment of weakness so he could strike.

Come on. Strike at me. Leave her alone.

“The EOD has dozens of teams in operation.”

Guerrero’s intel was good.

“I want to know about them all. Those agents...their names...their lives. I can sell them all to the highest bidder.”

And there would be plenty of folks willing to pay. “Don’t know about them.” He tried for a shrug, but the ropes pulled on his arms. “I’m just an ex-SEAL who did a favor for a senator.”

Guerrero’s laugh called him on the lie. “And after the senator died, you stuck around because...?”

“Because I asked him to!” Juliana tossed out before Logan could speak. “I was scared. After the explosion at the cemetery, I asked him to stay with me.”

She was protecting him.

But Guerrero wasn’t buying it. “He took out my men at the cabin. Eliminated them in an instant.”

“What can I say? Once a SEAL...”

Guerrero lifted the knife from Juliana’s throat. His eyes were on Logan’s arm. On the blood that dripped to the floor. Logan wasn’t moving, not making a sound.

“Trained to withstand anything, were you?” Guerrero asked.

Just about.

“She wasn’t.” Then he put his blade just under Juliana’s shoulder, in the exact spot the guard had sliced Logan’s arm. “So when I start cutting her, I bet she’ll scream.”

He sliced into Juliana’s arm.

“Stop!”
Logan roared.

Juliana gasped but made no other sound.

Guerrero frowned. “Interesting...”

“No, it’s not.” Rage was choking Logan. “Get. Away. From. Her.”

Guerrero lifted his knife. “Juliana, I believe you were wrong about him. I believe your lover does care...and he’s about to show you just how much.”

Juliana’s eyes met Logan’s.

“Two things can happen here,” Guerrero said, and there was satisfaction in his voice. “One...I start cutting her, and she breaks. She can’t handle the pain—no one ever can—and she tells me where I can find my evidence. I mean, she has it, right? That’s what she told the reporters.”

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.

Not such easy prey, am I?
Not this time, she wasn’t.

Logan rushed past her and crashed into Guerrero. They both hit the ground, rolling in a ball of fists and fury.

The second guard...he was still moving, trying to crawl for the discarded knife.

Thunder echoed outside.

Juliana grabbed the chair that Logan had been tied to. She lifted it as high as she could and slammed it down onto the guard’s back.

He stopped moving then.

Juliana spun back around. Guerrero had a blade in his hand. A blade he was driving right at Logan’s throat.

Juliana screamed and ran forward.

Logan grabbed Guerrero’s hand, twisted it back and shoved the blade of the knife into Guerrero’s throat.

A choked gurgle broke from Guerrero’s lips.

“Told you,” Logan growled, “you never should have brought me in alive.”