Delta: Revenge (31 page)

She breathed in the scent of death, not ready to die and not wanting her obituary to stop at only a few decades of life.

The ground rumbled. Gravel shifted from the top of the walls, letting tiny pieces of rocks break loose. She heard them hit the ground. Another rumble sounded. More wall dust and dirt loosened, some stinging her eyes.

Shit, they were on the side of a damn cave or mountain. Was this an earthquake? It could be a mortar attack or the repercussion of an explosion.

But the tremors didn’t return. An eerie quiet hung as she listened and waited for the big one, an assault that would tell her they were being attacked. Then the walls would crumble and cave in, crushing her to death, pinning her into the ground. That would be much worse than a beheading—slow suffering and suffocation. Then there’d be no reason for her name to be in the news, not that she wanted fame, but she wanted justice and attention on the causes she had risked herself for over the years.

Sitting statue still, Sophia closed her eyes and listened to the roar of silence.

Not another sound.

Click.
And then she heard the tiny whir of something slowing down as though a quiet engine or a fan had been running and she had only just realized it.

Now
it was silent.

Her skin prickled as she anticipated Mother Nature as well as the ACG. The lights went black. Her eyes went wide, waiting and watching for the rush of men with cell-phone cameras pointed her way to blast through the door, swinging machetes, ready to slice her neck in the name of a YouTube video.

Or… a trickle of hope teased her. Had her dad pulled strings, made favors, paid a ransom, or asked Delta?

There was nothing more. No rattles. No shakes. No falling dust to sting her eyes. Just Sophia alone in the dark. How many seconds had passed? Maybe minutes?

She’d been alone for hours with someone checking on her every day, she figured. They threw in enough food to keep the hunger pangs and headaches away. Maybe she was cracking up. Solitary confinement could do that. The lights were out. She wasn’t imagining that. Tremors and shakes could be a delusion—or, given the part of the world they were in, maybe just everyday life.

She took a sad breath. Nothing. It had been nothing. Her hopes had jumped, and her overactive—or maybe bleary—imagination had taken over. Now all she had to do was sit in the dark and wait to die.

The walls rumbled. They shook. The dust sprayed. The rocks crumbled. Surprised and scared, she twisted and fell. Disorientation wracked her. The blackness surrounded her as she fell onto the dirty floor. Her shoulder and cheek hit. Her elbow too. A wave of pain mixed with nausea sliced through her, and vertigo hit hard. She didn’t know up or down. Her mind could confirm that her butt was on the ground, but her—

A close and loud boom struck. More dust and dirt rained down. The noise came the way of the exterior door, and then
her
door nearly bowed with the force of a knock.

“Clear, paixão. I’m coming for you.”

“Javier!” She clawed to push off the ground, away from the door, but wanted to be closer to his call of safety.

A heartbeat later, a dull thump sent the door swinging off its hinges, and footsteps came toward her. All was dark—no flashlight, no sign of who it was—but hard hands wrapped around her. His face was covered with goggles, his head and neck not visible. But it was Javier. His glove-covered hands and weapons-strapped body pulled her close and swept her up.

“Oh,” she moaned as her stomach turned and her eyes pinched at the sudden movement. “My head.”

“It’s okay. You’re okay.” With her still held to him, they moved fast. “Target acquired.”

Her body jostled, and her stomach lurched. Voices blurred in her mind. Quiet but forceful updates and orders. She was the target. They’d acquired
her
. She was going to survive as long as they did. They always did. Always. So said Colin, and she believed in Javier.

Pops of distant gunfire echoed, and Javier never stopped moving but kept straight on his path, strong in his intentions. The man did not waver. Two of his teammates flanked him, and they returned fire. She jumped and lurched into him, but Javier hauled ass.

They exited a long tunnel into the night, and cold air hit her. It had to be freezing, but her system was so shocked by the sting of frigid breaths that she forgot to shiver. Javier was covered in gear and body armor. She couldn’t feel his warmth or his muscles or the curve of his body holding hers, but she remembered it all, and from the inside out, she could feel her very survival becoming more certain.

Javier had saved her and Hana in Honduras.

He’d saved her from the ACG.

He’d taken care of her the night of her wedding.

He cared for her. Her eyes leaked, tears streaming down her face and biting in the cold. Harsh wind blew over them, and it took the night to pass for what felt like eternity before they came to a harsh stop. He dropped to one knee, propping her on his thigh, and tore off his headgear, pulling off the hat that also covered his face. He buried himself into her neck, holding and hugging her as though he’d saved mankind.

Her fingers threaded into his thick hair. The very essence of Javier Almeida captured her, surrounding her in a feeling of certainty and protection. She couldn’t guard her heart from him, couldn’t stay away from what he dreamed of. If he wanted to traipse the globe, searching for cartels to kill and criminals to bring to justice, that was fine. If he came home once every third op, that was fine. As long as it meant he was coming home to her, their definition of reality could be whatever they wanted it to be.

She clung to him, embracing his warmth, loving how he made her world safer.
Loving
him.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

His arms tightened, and his cheek nuzzled against her neck. “
Estou com muita saudade de você.
”

“Whatever that means, me too.” She kissed the top of his head and let the world drift away when he gathered her back into his arms and hustled to a lowering stealth chopper.

One, two, three, four of them hopped in behind her. The helicopter teetered and lifted, bumping her against Javier. The adrenaline high of an operation was in the air, and quietly, they whispered that it was a success. They stripped gear off their heads and leaned back for deep breaths. Her heart still pounded, and from somewhere in the helicopter, she heard a familiar voice.

“Target safely stowed. On our way to rendezvous.”

They dipped down, and her eyes lolled in her head. While Javier was holding her, a hand reached out and touched her cheek. Her eyes opened. “Colin.”

He briefly smiled, his worried eyes saying more than he would ever voice. “Always have to make a scene when you need an exit.”

She laughed quietly. “Always.”

Javier didn’t speak, and he never let go. They lowered down, and he deposited her in front of her father at the closest US Air Force Base.

With a nod, she was left alone. Javier, Colin, and the other men walked away as ordered. Javier had promised they’d be together as soon as they could, but her arms needed him at that moment. Instead, she was encapsulated in her father’s well-meaning hug.

“I love you.” The words weren’t meant for how her father took them, and she cried inside, missing the man who had to go back to his job and hating that she hadn’t told him to his face what he deserved to hear.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Outside Javier’s door, Sophia stood, her fist raised, ready to knock, but did not know what to say. The ordeal had its ugly hold on her, and even if she pretended to be unaffected, she was traumatized. But that wasn’t why she needed to be there. She needed him to take her, hold her, make love to her, and kiss her until the night melted to morning. She needed to be in his arms as though that were the key to her heart’s next beat.

The door cracked, and she stepped back. “Um, I… hi.”

“You okay?” Javier asked as though he knew how long she’d waited outside, trying to manage her thoughts.

She nodded, awkwardly dropping her knocking hand and unsure about what she wanted to say. Rehearsing would’ve been a good idea. Though when she thought of words she wanted to share, all she could feel was an all-encompassing need—for him. For more. For life. For
everything
.

“Come in.” He backed up, holding the door for her.

His face was clean shaven. The T-shirt that stretched across his chest could’ve been painted onto his canvas of muscles. Even his jeans hung on his hips, as if he were the poster boy for sexy—in sheer, utter, absolute perfection. But more than that, her heart sighed when she drew closer.

“Thanks.” Overwhelmed by the flutters in her stomach and desperation in her mind, she took a step inside the motel room. Her shoulder brushed his chest as he moved to shut the door, making her skin shiver. The spark zinged down her neck, sizzling to her fingertips, but her mind fell apart.

Yes, Javier was tall, dark, and handsomer than her wildest dreams. But he was also her savior. She was alive because of him. Sophia turned—not thinking—and she sobbed, collapsing against the protective cocoon of his body.

His strong arms wrapped around her. The door clicked shut, and he pulled her tight into a hug, soothing her with foreign-tongued whispers she didn’t understand.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean…”
To break down and fall apart?

Javier hushed her, walking them to the bed. “It’s fine.”

“No.” But the cathartic release of tears and renewing sense of his touch was exactly what she needed. Just him.

He sat down, holding her to his chest. “Sophia. It’s okay.”

“God.” She sniffled and wiped her cheeks. “All I do is cry around you. It’s pathetic.”

He gave an almost nonexistent headshake. “You’ve had a few shakeups. But we’ve had a few perfectly normal weekends when you weren’t getting kidnapped.”

Her face twisted.

“Okay, no jokes.” Two of his fingers pressed under her chin, lifting her gaze. Fiery dark eyes held her, reassuring her. A calm eased through her, and he smiled softly. “You’re safe now.”

He was the reason she could agree to that. “Colin said you walked off a Primeiro Comando job.”

He nodded.

“For me?”

“You’re more important.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead, letting his lips linger and drag to her temple, and his thumbs swept away the last trails of tears. “Because I had to find you.”

She melted into him. “Thank you.” But it was
I love you
that tickled the tip of her tongue.

Javier pulled her to his chest and lay back on the bed. Their arms entangled. Their legs twisted together. She could breathe. The heavy weight in her shoulders and the knot in her throat were transformed from on the edge of losing it to enjoying her very own heaven. Her eyes slipped shut, and the faint smell of his cologne made her warm inside. He surrounded her without smothering, raised her up from the fear she didn’t realize had clawed her down.

“Open your eyes, Sophia.”

She did, and he was beautiful. Handsome. Protective. Everything a man needed to make a woman swoon. And Javier did it unintentionally. He studied her as though inspecting her soul. Sophia leaned forward, eyes still open and gaze locked, until her lips met his. It was sweet, sensual, and soft, but he conveyed it as undiluted power.

Her tongue went to the seam of his mouth, and he breathed in deeply, opening for her kiss and wrapping his arms tighter around her.

Javier pulled her to straddle his hips. “I missed you.”

Her hands cupped his cheeks. “Missed you, too.”

“Don’t stop kissing me, Soph. Don’t stop at all.”

He held her close and let her lead. She savored the velvet stroke of his tongue and the way his strong hands smoothed across her back.

“Promise.” Drunk on him, she let the world slip away. Her palms ran down his neck, and she leaned back to tug his shirt up. Javier pulled the cotton tee overhead, and when he was bare chested, she dropped her kiss to the tattooed malin over his heart.

Despite undressing, it was her tree tattoo that Javier kissed. “Do you know what this looks like?”

Sophia let her tongue linger on the malin’s lines. “The obvious. A tree.”

“A Brazilian nut tree.”

She smiled, drifting her tongue to the end of the arrow, and her soft touch turned to a scratch. “Is that a real thing, or are you making that up?”

“Real.” He kissed her forearm. “You didn’t know that.”

“No.” Her teeth scraped the inked flesh, then she licked his muscle and kissed it.

Javier groaned as her fingers explored the ridges of his abdominal muscles. Her tongue ran over the hard disk of his nipple, and he eased her onto her back. His bare chest rose above her, his hands on both sides of her head, caging her as she stared at him. “If I had lost you…”

“You wouldn’t.” She shook her head. Underneath him, she struggled to tug her shirt off, only briefly losing sight of his intensity when her shirt went overhead. “You won’t.”