SPY IN THE SADDLE (15 page)

“Put your hands in the air.”

He gave a superior smile. “You American law enforcement. You have no jurisdiction here.”

She nodded at the rifle. “This gives me enough jurisdiction for the moment. Hands in the air.”

He complied, keeping the smile on his face even as his gaze hardened to frozen steel.

She stepped closer and searched him, took a small pistol off him and stuck it into her waistband. “Don’t move.”

She sidled over to the desk and lifted the phone, dialed Jamie’s cell, her gaze darting back and forth between the phone and Yo Tee.

Jamie picked up on the third ring.

“Hey, it’s me.”

“Where the hell are you?” he snapped when he heard her voice. “Everyone’s looking for you. Is Shep with you, dammit? Are you hurt?”

She filled him in, in as few words as possible, and gave her location, requested backup, then hung up. The team would have to negotiate their next step with the Mexican government, but that was their task now. She had plenty of items on her own to-do list, the two at the top being keeping Yo Tee secured until the team got here and stopping his men from killing Shep downstairs.

She handed the phone to Yo Tee. “Call your men and tell them to bring my partner up here.”

He didn’t move.

“Fine, then we’ll go to him.” All she wanted was to hole up in some defensible position with Shep and Yo Tee until the team arrived.

“Where are the people you’re planning on smuggling across the border?” she asked as she considered her options.

“I don’t know what you talking about. All I know is U.S. government agent broke into my place of business held me at gunpoint. Neither of my governments be happy about that. I’m Chinese-Mexican and respected businessman in both countries.”

“That’ll end soon,” she promised. “Where are the terrorists? Are they here? In this building?”

His lips narrowed; hate flared in his gaze.

She couldn’t have cared less about his feelings. “Have they already left for Galmer’s Gulley?”

He couldn’t keep the surprise from his face when she mentioned the location, confirming the intel Shep’s team had gathered. Good to know they were on the right track.

“I don’t know what you talking about,” he told her.

“Where are the chemical weapons?”

“We make paper here,” he said, as cocky and superior as could be. “You crazy woman.”

She wanted to shoot him.

She’d shot people before, but never without reluctance, never unless it was the last resort, in an effort to stop them from harming others. This was honestly the first time she wanted to put a bullet through an unarmed man’s kneecap.

Short of doing violence, she didn’t think she was going to get him to talk, and maybe not even then. But Shep’s team could handle that, she decided, when they got here. This wasn’t the right time and place for an interrogation anyway, not when his men could burst through the door any second.

She scanned the room, then scanned Yo Tee. “Take off your belt.”

“You want my pants off.” He sounded amused now. “That against some American law. You so very politically correct all the time.”

“Your belt. Now.”

He shrugged and took off the belt then tossed it to her.

She walked around him, keeping the gun aimed at his head. “Hands behind your back.”

He complied after a moment of hesitation. “My men kill you as soon we leave this room. You know. Why not talk reasonable?”

She bound his wrists together with the belt, kept the long end to hold him like a dog on a leash. “You’ll walk in front of me. Out. Now. Move.”

He did, walking to the door leisurely, then out into the entryway. He looked at the dead man lying on the floor and kicked him in the head as they walked by him, apparently dissatisfied with his service.

The hallway still stood empty. Good. She moved forward. “To the staircase.”

“Your people can’t come here without authorization from my government. Diplomacy takes long time. Days. You think you hold an entire factory with single gun that long?”

“I’m not the type to give up.”

He took his time walking down the hallway, but they reached the stairs at last and started down. “Bravery a noble thing. Courage my people much appreciate. But a difference between bravery and stupidity.”

She held the gun on him. “Let that be my worry.”

“You and your friend get free leave, a car and suitcase full of money. You go wherever you want. You never have to go back across border again. You live happy long life down south on nice beach. Better than dying today, eh?”

“I’m not planning on dying.”

But just as she said that, half a dozen armed men poured out into the staircase down below. From the way they all swung their rifles around to aim at her, it looked as if she might not get a choice in the matter.

She couldn’t get to Shep this way. She couldn’t get anywhere if she was shot. So she yanked Yo Tee back. “Come on!”

She ran back toward his office with him while the men rushed up the stairs behind them, shouting. She fixed her gaze on the office at the end of the hallway and did her level best to reach it, even with Yo Tee resisting. The steel security door would offer more protection against siege than anything else she’d seen so far in the building.

She had about a minute to reach it.

Chapter Twelve

Shep lay on the floor, all bloodied, waiting for them to be done with him, focused on protecting his body rather than trying to fight his way through a wall of armed men. Six, he could have handled. Twelve, he couldn’t. And he was determined to stay alive so he could help Lilly escape from here. So for the moment, instead of fighting, he did his best to appear limp and lifeless.

They weren’t here to kill him; they were just taking their anger out on him. At some point, they’d be finished.

The tactic worked. When shouting rose from somewhere deep inside the building, most of the men ran to whatever new alarm had been raised.

Only two remained, each holding their rifles on him.

He kept his eyes open only a slit, playing the part of a mortally injured man to the hilt. Not that difficult when he was in a world of hurt. He gave a weak groan and shifted, the move taking him maybe a foot closer to the bastards.

Then he drew a slow breath, filling up his lungs. And then the next second his right hand snaked out, grabbed the nearest rifle barrel even as he vaulted to his feet and shoved the man into his buddy, twisting the rifle away from him in the same movement.

The men were on the floor and Shep on them now, with ruthless efficiency. He didn’t want gunshots, didn’t want the others to come rushing back, so he bashed in the armed man’s head first, then his buddy’s as the bastard tried to roll away from him. They stayed down, the both of them.

Shep pushed to his feet, grabbed both rifles then ran through the door and followed the sounds of angry shouting all the way to a staircase. On the floor above him, he could hear men rushing up the stairs. He had a fair idea why. Since Lilly had gone to the roof and was probably on one of the top floors, it was fair to assume that she’d been spotted.

He kept close to the wall and ran up after the men. None of them were looking back down. They were all focused on something above them, pushing each other out of the way to reach the top faster. Shep pushed as hard as he could, trying to catch up without being noticed.

Gunshots were ringing out by the time he reached the first floor. He was the only person in the staircase now; the others had gotten up all the way and pushed out of sight on the third floor, the gun battle intensifying.

He ran up silently, as fast as he could, a rifle in one hand, the other slung across his shoulder. He needed to reach Lilly before it was too late.

He didn’t care if she was here to assess his team. He just wanted her to stay alive.

He loved her. It became crystal clear the moment she’d disappeared through the window. He’d somehow, in the space of three days, fallen in love with Lilly. Whether or not they could ever have anything serious between them was the question.

He pushed the thought away.
Not now.

But soon. Whatever her true purpose was for being with his team, they’d have to talk about it and sort all that out. But it wasn’t going to change how he felt about her. He ran forward to save her.

He only slowed when he reached the top floor and spotted twenty or so armed men crowded at the far end in front of a steel security door, banging with their rifles, trying to break it down. They weren’t making much progress. The door looked pretty heavy-duty.

He had a feeling Lilly was behind it. Smart woman. One of the reasons he’d fallen for her.

He squeezed off a round of shots at the men, then ducked behind cover as they shot back.

He didn’t know how many he’d hit, but he knew that whoever was left uninjured would be coming for him. He swung both his rifles over his shoulder, ran back down the stairs and jumped through the first open door he saw on the second floor, locked the door behind him, ran to the window. Then out he went without hesitation, wanting to be out of sight by the time they broke the door down.

He needed to go up, to Lilly, but the window directly above him was closed. Smashing it in would have given away his location, so he looked to the next one, just a few feet over. The glass pane stood open a crack.

He maneuvered that way, his cowboy boots not exactly meant for climbing like this, slipping more than once. He hung on with everything he had. Failure was not an option.

When he reached the windowsill, he grabbed on tight and pulled himself up to look in. Another empty office. Maybe Yo Tee had the factory on shutdown for today, to get ready for the transfer.

He hung on with his right hand while opening the window wider with the left.
Okay. Deep breath. Focus.
Now would not be a good time to slip.

He didn’t. He pulled himself up and in.

This office was a mess, chairs turned over, the drawers on the filing cabinet hanging open. Bullet holes dotted the walls. Looked as if Yo Tee might have had a disagreement with one of his managers.

Disagreement in the ranks was rarely good for business. Or for your health, if your boss was the Coyote.

Shep moved to the door and could hear people talking at the far end of the hallway. Some of the men had run off to chase him, but others had remained at that steel door, still trying to figure out how to get in. And they’d be watching their backs this time; he wasn’t going to be able to take them by surprise again.

His next move was a risky one, but he had to make it anyway.

He filled his lungs and burst out into the hall, firing at them as he went. Six men shot back at him, barricaded behind four bodies, those he’d taken out earlier.

He shot down one more before he had to pull back in.

He glanced at his left arm where a bullet had ripped through his skin. Nothing serious. The injury was nearly identical to Lilly’s. They’d have matching scars to commemorate their misadventures. Provided they lived.

Five men remained at the end of the hallway, and the other ten or so who’d run downstairs to find him would be coming back now that they’d heard the gunshots. They were likely to figure out that he’d outsmarted them and doubled back somehow.

The small office he occupied was not a good defensible position, the door made of inch-wide simple wood, nothing to hide behind that would stop bullets. So out the window he went again.

Man, he hated this part.

He didn’t have any phobias, but he wasn’t a fan of heights. He went on regardless. The first thing he’d learned in this job was that as soon as a person let fear stop them, they were dead.

He didn’t try to get into the next room or the one after that. He climbed handhold by handhold all the way to the end so he’d be outside the room with the steel door at the end of the hallway.

He looked in carefully, not wanting to get his head blown off in case Lilly took him for one of Yo Tee’s men.

She was in there, armed to the teeth, crouching behind a makeshift barricade of desks and chairs, facing the door. Yo Tee sat tied to a chair with his own belt in the corner.

When Shep rapped on the glass, she swung around, her rifle aimed. Her eyes went wide when she recognized him.

“Let me in.”

She hurried over. “You okay?” She looked at the blood on his arm as she opened the window.

“It’s nothing. You?”

“We’re trapped. But at least I called reinforcements.”

Of course she did. While evading a band of armed killers and capturing one of the biggest crime bosses south of the border. She was nothing if not efficient. He grinned at her. “I decided to forgive you if you promise to get out of this mess alive.”

She raised a questioning eyebrow. And when he said nothing more, she nodded. “Okay. Fine.”

Being in the same room with her made him feel a hell of a lot better, but they weren’t out of the woods yet. “There’s a pretty big group of armed thugs in front of the door.”

“How many?”

“Fifteen or so. There were about two dozen. I took a few out.” He glanced at Yo Tee. “I think he shut down operations and has just enough security here with him to set up the transfer.”

She shot a dark glare at the Coyote.

He knew what she was thinking. They were both well armed. Between the two of them, they could probably break out of here and get to a truck. But they couldn’t risk Yo Tee getting killed. The bastard had to stay alive long enough to be interrogated.

Gunfire sounded outside.

She shot him a questioning look.

He shook his head. “Can’t be the reinforcements yet.” Not enough time had passed for that.

More gunfire came. And this time it was clear that the steel door was getting hit. Yo Tee’s men had decided to shoot the door down to rescue him.

Shep glanced back the way he’d come, at the window.

She followed his gaze. “Can’t go that way.”

She was right. They couldn’t go through the window, not with Yo Tee resisting.

But the door wouldn’t hold long. The men outside were firing round after round into the lock. While it was a reinforced steel door, it wasn’t strong enough to stand up to this kind of siege.

Shep grabbed Yo Tee, chair and all, and dragged him to the corner to the left of the door, where at least the first volley of bullets to come through couldn’t hit him. He pulled a bookshelf away from the wall a little so the man wouldn’t be immediately visible when his lackeys broke in.

He gagged the man just as the door gave a mighty crack.

“Get in the other corner,” he ordered Lilly, a plan forming in his head.

Lilly did as he asked, wedging into the office’s corner behind the door, where she wouldn’t be seen when the outer steel door finally broke down.

Shep lay down in the middle of the room, pulling Lilly’s makeshift barricade on top of him until he was buried under furniture. He hoped that, at least at first glance, the room would look deserted as the men pushed their way in. A moment of confusion, a second of pause was all he needed.

The steel door shook. They were ramming it, probably lined up shoulder to shoulder, hoping to snap the damaged lock. Still, the steel didn’t give.

But the brick wall did, cracking and crumbling, releasing the lock.

The door banged open. The shouting stopped then restarted again as the men ran across the empty outer room into the office, jumping over the knocked-down pile of furniture on their way to the open window.

“Where are they?” more than one shouted in Spanish.

“They went down. Outside,” one of the men shouted.

They’d see Yo Tee in a second, as soon as they turned. So Shep rose, kicking furniture off him, aiming at the men who had nowhere to run, no place to hide.

Lilly sprung from behind the door, slamming the wood into the faces of a handful of stragglers, knocking them back. She opened fire as the door swung open again, backing toward Shep until they were shoulder to shoulder. Neither of them removed their fingers from the trigger until there were no more enemies standing.

They were both breathing hard, both bleeding and injured when the gun smoke settled, but alive—a miracle. The carnage in the room was incredible, the bloodiest destruction that could be achieved in just a few minutes.

Yo Tee was on the ground, on his side. He’d pushed his chair over to keep down. He was staring at them wide-eyed as if they were crazy people.

Lilly went to straighten him. She pulled the gag from his mouth.

“Work for me,” he said in a shaky voice. “I make you both millionaires.”

“No thanks,” Lilly told him.

Shep moved to make sure all the men were down for good. He didn’t want to be surprised by a bullet to his back.

Satisfied that none of the men would pop up for a surprise attack, Shep moved closer to Lilly to look her over. Her clothes were ripped and she had some scrapes plus a serious flesh wound, but it didn’t look as if any vital organs had been hit. She was standing up, not holding any body parts, a good sign.

“Hey.” She was scanning him for injury in return. “You know where to buy a lottery ticket around here? I’m thinking this is our lucky day.”

He grinned at her. He wanted to take her into his arms more than anything. But they weren’t done yet.

He walked up to Yo Tee and rested the barrel of his rifle against the man’s forehead. “Where are the men that you’re sending over the border?”

Lilly moved to the door to watch for any possible newcomers. She had her weapon ready to greet anyone who might be ill-advised enough to come after the others.

“I don’t know what you talking about,” Yo Tee said, his dark eyes filled with hate.

Shep held his gaze. “If the last few minutes taught you anything, it should be that I don’t play nice.” He wiped his hand on his pants, leaving a crimson stain, then shrugged. “Blood never really bothered me.”

Yo Tee looked away first.

“Are they coming here to be put in the back of trucks tonight?”

They could be arriving even now, in which case a reception committee would have to be set up for them. Although, if Shep’s luck held, they wouldn’t come until after his team had gotten here.

“There’s no easy way out of this now,” he warned Yo Tee. “There’s only the hard way and the harder way. Trust me, if there’s anything you can tell me now, it’ll save you considerable grief when the rest of my team gets here. They’re even worse at playing nice than I am.” He paused, then he moved close enough to crowd the man. “When are your buddies arriving here?”

Yo Tee gave a superior smile. “They come and gone. You too late.”

He looked cocky and pleased with himself enough to make Shep think he might not be lying.

“When?”

“The first day news came about extra attention on the border. As soon as patrols stepped up and crackdowns on smuggling started.” He looked damn proud of himself, sticking his chest out. “My men got them across without trouble. They been in U.S. for weeks.”

Shep grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled him half off the chair. “Where are they now?”

The man stared into his eyes without flinching. “They paid me. They didn’t share plans with me.”

Shep watched him, inclined to believe the words, yet something about the man’s body language was off, something in the way his eyes darted.

He lowered his gun as he turned back to Lilly. “Better call off reinforcements. No sense in more people coming. It’d be better if we grabbed a truck and drove back across the border on our own. Nobody would even know that we’ve been here. Might as well avoid an international incident if we can.”