Vengeance (SSU Trilogy Book 1) (29 page)

Niko propped his shoulder against the door. “I think I’m capable of coming up with a disguise good enough to fool Chale and his men for a couple hours. And Jenna’s never been to Acapulco before. I can’t take her on a tour of the town, but the restaurant has always been neutral territory. I wouldn’t have suggested it if I thought she’d be at risk.”

“And the cuts on her feet?”

Niko scowled.

Jenna waved her hand in the air. “Hey! I’m right here, guys. Rafe, my feet don’t hurt that much. As long as I don’t do too much walking, I’m fine to go out. But Niko, you need to heal. You should stay here.”

“I’ve already got Rafe fussing after me. I don’t need you doing it, too,” Niko snapped. “If you don’t want to come, don’t. I’m going out, anyway.”

Rafe grabbed his brother’s good arm. “Excuse us a moment.” He pulled Niko into the bedroom and shut the door.

“What the hell are you doing?” he demanded in Greek. “Alvarez’s men saw Jenna last night. Even if she’s safe from attack inside the restaurant, what happens when you’re in transit on the street?”

“I’ll get her a wig. Trust me, I won’t let anything happen to her.”

Rafe clapped him on his bad arm and Niko flinched.

“Right. Like you’re strong enough to protect her.”

Niko flung off his brother’s arm and stepped forward until their noses almost touched. “I survived Chale’s attack. I’ll keep her safe.”

Dammit, the truth was he wanted more time with Jenna and the plane delay was giving it to him. As soon as they found her brother, she’d return to her life and he’d never see her again.

Was it so bad to want to show her a good time before they parted? She’d been through a lot since he met her. He didn’t want her memories of him to be all bad.

Yet, at the same time, he’d hate himself if he took her out tonight and something did happen to her.

He walked over to the window, pulled back the curtain and glared at the night. “Look, I-”

His cell phone rang.

Grateful for the temporary reprieve, he checked the caller id and flipped it open. “
Dígame.
”

Carlos responded with an excited babble. It took Niko two tries to get the man to calm down enough to be understandable. When he did, Niko listened intently.

“Okay,” he said in Spanish. “Don’t let him leave. I’ll be there in ten minutes.” He closed the phone, slipped it into his jeans pocket and grabbed his pistol from under the pillow.

“Where are you going?” Rafe stood in front of the door with arms crossed, as if he’d stop Niko from leaving if he didn’t like the answer.

Jesus, you’d think Rafe was the big brother here. “Out. One of my informants is in a bar with a man who works at Alvarez’s place up the coast. He’s shaken enough by recent events there to be talkative.”

“You think that’s where Paterson is being held?”

“Yeah. Alvarez has places here in town, but they’re small and more exposed. He owns a fortress in Ixtapa that’s built on a cliff with dungeons below. Perfect for holding and torturing prisoners.” Niko walked over to the closet, pulled out his suitcase, and removed an extra ammo clip from the false bottom. “I didn’t expect to get confirmation on Paterson’s location so soon. The Ixtapa place is one he owned when I worked for him. I know it well. If the info’s valid, then we might actually get Paterson away from Alvarez before he gives up the chip. And get Aunt Madalena free at the same time.”

“You want backup?”

Niko shook his head. He picked up the dented Kevlar vest and put it on, figuring it was better than nothing. “Stay here with Jenna. Keep her busy, so she doesn’t try to follow.”

“She’d be a lot happier if you stayed with her and I went out. You shoulda seen her when you called in the 9-1-1. She was all set to go charging after you. I think she’s got it bad for you.”

Even though it was all wrong, warmth still spread behind Niko’s breastbone at the suggestion Jenna might care for him. Jesus. He felt like he was in junior high and had just been told the most popular girl in school liked him.

Niko shook his head to snap himself back to reality and slipped the ammo clip into the pocket of his windbreaker. He strapped a small throwing knife to his calf and put a switchblade in the other coat pocket. The pistol went into its shoulder holster.

“Jesus Christ, Niko. You’re arming yourself like you’re walking into Armageddon, yet you refuse backup. Are you insane?”

Niko’s lips lifted in an uncivilized smile. “After the past two days, you really need to ask?”

“Yeah, well, that didn’t work out so good for you, huh?” Rafe stepped up to Niko, put his hands on either side of his face, and placed a kiss of benediction on his brother’s forehead.

“Stay safe, brother mine.” The left side of Rafe’s mouth quirked up into a half smile. “I don’t wanna be the one telling Mamá you’re gone.”

More touched by his brother’s concern than he cared to let on, Niko nodded brusquely. “I’ve got to move.” He took the coward’s way out, barreling out of the bedroom and through the living room without looking at Jenna.

“Back in a bit,” he threw over his shoulder, yanking open the door. As he stepped into the hallway, he sensed Jenna coming to her feet.

“Hold on, Jenna,” he heard Rafe say. “Let me explain.”

#

Glancing up from his seat at the end of the bar, Niko bit back a groan as he recognized the men entering the room. They were dressed to blend in with the regular crowd of taxi drivers, cooks, and other low-income workers, but Niko had worked with SSU agent Enrique Gonzales before and recognized the man even under his stained coveralls and grease-spattered baseball cap.

“Damn it, Rafe,” Niko muttered. “I told you I could take care of myself. I’m not a damn greenhorn.”

He caught Gonzales’s eye and the man gave a slight shrug before joining his companions at the bar.

Niko leaned closer to the man sitting next to him, straining to catch his mumbled words. Something about the dogs and a man who’d lied to
El Jefe
…nightmares…screams…the sound of flesh being ripped by canine teeth.

Whoever the poor son-of-a-bitch had been, it wasn’t Paterson. Niko tried to steer the conversation in a new direction, asking questions about other guests of Alvarez. But the man was obsessed with the dogs and was too far into his cups to pay much attention to Niko. He was just a poor cook’s assistant and desperately needed to talk through the horror.

Christ. He wasn’t the man’s shrink, already.

Then the man said something that made Niko’s head turn. “What was that?”

“At least this time he didn’t make the woman watch.”

“What woman?”

“His mistress. So beautiful. Like an angel, she is. But very sad.” The man shuddered. “I think
El Jefe
hurts her. And sometimes he forces her to watch what he does to the men.”

Hallelujah. He finally had a confirmation of Aunt Madalena’s location.

“And now there’s
el gringo
.” The man’s hands shook as he tried to pour the last of the tequila into his glass. “I had to bring the guards their dinner one night and I heard him screaming.” Giving up on the glass, he tilted his head back and poured the liquid straight from the bottle into his mouth. But the tequila must have hit the wrong passage, for the man leaned forward, coughing most of the liquid out onto the bar.

Niko’s fingers itched to shake the man back to sense. But he forced himself to wait quietly until the man was finished coughing. Then he prompted, “And
el gringo
?”

“I hear his screams also in my dreams.
El Jefe
wants something from the man, but the man, he claims he doesn’t have it.”

So Paterson was still holding out. Good.

Niko’s companion grabbed a napkin and started mopping up the mess he’d made. “The pay is more than I ever dreamed,” he muttered. “But for such nightmares as it brings me, I do not think I can continue.”

“Are there any other prisoners?”

The man shook his head. “Only
el gringo
.”

Although it was entirely possible that the man was a plant from Alvarez, Niko had no choice but to trust him. “If you help me free
el gringo
and the woman, I’ll find you another job where Alvarez can’t hurt you.”

The desperate hope in the man’s eyes hit Niko with the force of an accusation. All the man wanted was a decent life for him and his family.

Niko had no right asking the man to risk death. But he was going to use the man anyway.

Chapter 23

“You’re a good brother,” Jenna said, referring to Rafe’s telephone call to Ryker requesting backup for Niko. “Watching out for him.” Even though they both knew Niko wouldn’t appreciate the gesture.

“Of course,” Rafe said. “I’ll do anything to keep him safe. But you understand, don’t you? You love your brother. That’s why you want to be the one to bring him in. To find out the truth about the night your family was attacked and make sure your brother is treated fairly.”

Jenna glanced away, afraid Rafe would read the truth in her eyes. Love Kai? Yes, once she’d loved and adored her older brother. She would have done anything for him. Even when he’d stopped coming home so often, she’d still believed he was the kind, honorable man she knew.

I won’t ever let anyone hurt you again, Jen-shine.
She’d been maybe five or six, Kai almost eleven. Her brother held her in his arms, protecting and comforting her. Two boys had pushed her off the ladder to the playground slide. Kai had punched both of them and they’d run off, crying.

Until the night of the attack, Kai had still been her white knight.

“Kill them.”
Kai’s voice, followed by his laughter.

Even now, she almost cried at the injustice. How could he do that to them? How
dare
he?

He didn’t deserve to live. Not after his betrayal.

She touched her tongue to the cyanide capsules resting against her back molars. One capsule for her, one for Kai, in case she didn’t have the strength to use her knife. Then it would be over. Justice served. Her family at peace.

No more pain.

Jenna fought to control her breathing and willed her fingers to stay relaxed at her sides instead of curling into fists.

“Jenna?”

She jumped. Dammit, she had to get away from Rafe before he picked up on her mood. “I’m tired,” she said with a shrug. “I think I’ll take a bath and climb into bed.”

He nodded. “I’ll make sure we don’t disturb you when Niko comes in.”

“No! I want to know when he’s back.”

Rafe’s smile said he understood what she hadn’t said, that she cared, but all he said was, “Okay.”

She felt like a coward, running away to the bathroom. But she’d felt off-kilter all day. Unfocused and edgy. Between her frustration at losing Kai, and her worry about Niko, she needed to relax. Maybe a long soak in the giant tub would do the trick. While she waited for it to fill, she sorted through the bottles of bubble bath and jars of bath salts lined up neatly on a shelf under the window.

Before the attack, she’d loved using light, floral bath gels, the more feminine the better. Since the attack, she’d only used cheap bar soap.

Tonight though, something propelled her to indulge herself. She lingered over the task, giving serious consideration to her choices before finally settling on peach bath salts.

The water foamed as she dumped in a generous helping of the fine crystals. On another shelf she found an inflatable pillow, a small radio that also played soothing nature sounds, and some scented candles. It felt decadent to indulge in such luxury, but as she slipped beneath the hot water, she closed her eyes in ecstasy.

Oh, she’d needed this.

And why shouldn’t she treat herself? In a few days she’d be beyond such needs. Condemned prisoners got a last request. Why shouldn’t she?

She set the radio to play ocean waves, then leaned her head back against the pillow and let the hot water work its magic. As her muscles softened, her mind started to drift back to last night and the feel of Niko’s hands on her. Of the heat of his mouth against her neck.

Had her body always been that responsive to such light caresses? Or was it just Niko? She couldn’t remember.

A little jolt of panic tightened her skin. The doctors had assured her she had no memory loss, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t remember how she’d been with other lovers. She knew there’d been pleasure, but not how much.

She reached up to scratch an itch on her nose, and found her face wet with tears.

They’d done this to her. Kai and the other men who’d murdered her family had stolen everything pleasurable from her. Turned her into a woman too afraid to remember even the good times in case it led to more pain.

For just a moment, she let anguish flow through her, grieving for something she hadn’t even realized she’d lost. Then she pushed the sadness away and focused on the eternal ebb and flow of the ocean waves on the radio. Slowly, her tension melted and her mind drifted.

As an experiment, she traced her hands over her body—cheeks to breasts to belly—to see if she still had the power to arouse herself. At first nothing happened, so she did it again, letting her hands move of their own accord, discovering places that when touched sent the first tendrils of pleasure through her.

Her skin became extra sensitive. With each inhalation small waves lapped at her breasts like a lover’s mouth. She shifted her legs, trying to find a more comfortable position, and the water surged against the juncture of her thighs. Her back arched and her legs parted slightly, searching for some forgotten sensation.

She slid her hands down under the water and touched herself, imagining Niko’s fingers sliding against her folds. Picturing his mouth on her instead of the push of the water.

Sensation built, slowly, like the gentle hug of a long missed friend. So welcome, tears burned her eyes again.

A cold draft skirted across her skin, pulling her out of her sensual haze. Her hands stilled.

“I…ah…um…Sorry. I thought you were in bed already.”

She turned her head. Niko stood in the middle of the bathroom. His jaw hung loose and his eyes were fixated on the center of her body. A quick glance down at the water confirmed that the bubbles had dissolved, giving Niko full view of where her hands rested.