Chapter 8
When Angel helped her into the backseat of Cowboy’s Jeep and then climbed in front, Maya didn’t need any further hints their tryst was over. Stunned by how quickly he’d turned from ardent lover to cold operative, she huddled in the back, sucking deep breaths into her tightened chest.
Neither man gave her a second glance as they trained their gazes on their surroundings. She supposed it was all a part of the training, like turning on a light switch. Still, she could have used a little reassurance to help soothe her fears—even if that reassurance was a lie.
They pulled away from the house, and she stared back at it. She hadn’t noticed what a dump it was from the outside when she’d entered it or she might have hesitated. Probably a good thing.
“Keep your head down in back. Folk’s be watching for a woman,” Cowboy said, as his vehicle bumped along the poorly maintained road.
She scooted lower, noting when they left town when wood shacks with tar-papered roofs gave way to dense forest.
They’d barely left town before a large black SUV sped into view on their tail. “I think we’re being followed,” she said, darting up in the rear seat to glance behind them.
“They’re with me, sunshine,” Cowboy said, glancing in his rearview mirror.
Which didn’t exactly leave her with warm and fuzzy feelings, but since Angel wasn’t concerned, neither would she be.
He remained faced forward, his gaze going to the jungle encroaching on either side of the road, or trained straight ahead as they careened around sharp curves.
Since she knelt on the floorboard, she had to brace herself with her hands against his seat and her feet against a door to keep from rolling. Her stomach grew increasingly nauseous.
“You doin’ okay?” Cowboy’s gaze met hers as she glanced to the rearview mirror.
There was concern in his eyes, but she shook her head. “Don’t worry about me. Definitely don’t stop.” I want out of here. Away from Angel. The way he’d turned off the minute Cowboy arrived had felt as though he’d thrown cold water over her skin.
She’d been a diversion. Nothing more. Convenient since she’d thrown herself at him. He hadn’t had to work up a sweat to get her into bed.
Not that she regretted a minute of the experience. Being with Angel only firmed up her mind that she was ready for more than vacation flings. Ready for something deeper and more meaningful.
She braced against another steep curve.
Angel touched the ear bud he’d put in before they’d left the safe house. “We’ve got company ahead. And whatever you do, Maya, keep your ass down.”
So she couldn’t peek, and by both men’s stiffened actions, she guessed there was trouble in the road. As Cowboy slowed his vehicle, Angel pulled his gun and held it between his legs, pointing it toward the floorboard.
Maya flattened herself against the floor and held her breath.
“Get ready, Maya,” Angel said under his breath. “As soon as we stop, get ready to hop out to our right. Run for the trees; I’ll be right on your ass.”
The Jeep stopped. Maya fumbled for the door latch and opened the door, sliding out and running as soon as her feet hit the ground. Behind her, she heard shouts, and then shots exploding in the air. She glanced back, saw that two large trucks had been turned sideways in the middle of the road. Knowing this was what Angel had feared, she didn’t need the shove of his hand to speed up.
When men in camouflage stepped out from behind the trees in front of her, she screamed, but they moved past her, thankfully, to engage the men who’d set up the roadblock.
A hand gripped her arm. “Don’t stop now,” Angel said, tugging her so she had to run faster or risk falling. When they were well past the edge of the forest, he halted and pushed her down behind a tree.
They were far enough from the road they could hear shots, the rapid reports from an automatic weapon, and more rustling as men poured from the trees to enter the fight.
The gun battle may have only lasted a couple of minutes, but it felt far longer as she hunkered down, Angel crowding her against the tree with his knees as he stood with his weapon held, ready to shoot.
Leaves rustled beside them, and a man with a rifle and a nasty sneer stepped out of the trees beside them.
Angel whipped around and pointed his handgun, but the other man shot first.
Blood blossomed outward from a wound in Angel’s shoulder. His hand opened, dropping the handgun to the jungle floor. His anguished gaze went to her as he leaned sideways and fell.
The sneering man stepped closer and raised his weapon again.
Maya lunged for the gun on the forest floor, fell on her back in front of Angel, and aimed at the man, pulling the trigger.
He jerked, his eyes widening and falling to the hole in his chest, and then dropped to his knees, pitching face first to the dirt.
“Great shot,” Angel rasped beneath her.
She rolled off him, dropped the gun, and leaned over him, her hands pushing against the wound in his shoulder to staunch the blood seeping from his body. “I was aiming at his head.”
Angel chuckled then grimaced.
Footsteps approached but she didn’t dare let go of his shoulder. A hand touched her back.
“We’ll take it from here, ma’am,” a man in camo said, kneeling beside her.
At that moment, her heartbeat steadied. At last, everything fell silent. In the distance, she heard a sound that sent her heart racing again—the whomp-whomp-whomp of propeller blades in the sky. She glanced up and saw the broken outline of the helicopter through the trees.
Angel touched her arm. “Maya, get back to the road.”
“Not without you.”
“I’ll be fine. You have to go. Now.”
Her mouth formed a thin line. “I can’t leave you like this.”
“Just go.” He got an elbow beneath him and leaned up, although by his wince the effort cost him. “Baby, please. They won’t let me bleed to death, but you have to go.”
“You’re coming with me, right?”
Brows wrinkled, Angel shook his head. “I still have work to finish.”
“But your cover’s blown.” She pointed her chin at his shoulder. “You’re in no shape to stay.”
“We have the cocaine to retrieve. I have to stay, Maya.”
Maya’s face screwed up; her mouth trembled. “I won’t see you again, will I?”
Angel shook his head, his expression hardening.
Her chest tightened, and she fought back hot tears, but lifted her chin. “Thanks…for saving my life.” She wanted to say more, but tightened her mouth to keep from blurting things he didn’t want to hear. Still, she couldn’t leave without one last attempt at thawing his reserve.
His lips formed a thin line.
That didn’t deter her. She leaned closer and kissed that thin, hard line. “I don’t believe this is it,” she whispered fiercely. “That we’re done. Not for a minute.”
Angel’s expression remained set, but something in his green gaze seemed to soften. “I have to finish this.”
“Damn you for being a stubborn man.” She kissed him again, tears flowing freely, obscuring her sight.
“Ma’am.”
She glanced up at another camouflaged man, his face darkened with green and black paint.
“We have to go.”
Shooting one last glance at Angel, she slowly withdrew her hands.
The man beside her shoved a bandage against Angel’s shoulder.
Angel’s gaze was steady, then flicked to her escort. “Go. Carry her out if you have to.”
The man beside her grabbed her arm and pulled her behind him. She tried to keep her gaze on Angel, but tripped. The forest swallowed up her last sight of him.
Again, she was moving at a rapid pace. When they broke through the brush at the side of the road, her stomach lurched. Bodies were being piled into a pickup truck bed by more of Cowboy’s team; Cowboy himself held a mike as he watched the sky.
Her gaze followed his. A helicopter hovered above them then set down in the road.
Already, some of the men were running for the bird, bent at the waist, and climbing inside. The man beside her grabbed her hand. “Time to go.”
She glanced back to the jungle one last time, hoping with all her heart Angel would be fine and that one day, she’d see him again. The man beside her whipped an arm around her back and pushed her forward toward the bird.
With the blades whipping the air, she blinked to keep more tears at bay. She’d wait until she was alone, and then she’d let them come. For now, she had to believe what she felt was so strong there was no way the emotion wasn’t returned.
At last, she admitted to herself, that she’d fallen in love with the big, gruff man. She only hoped Angel wasn’t so stubborn and set on his course he didn’t recognize he was equally in love with her.
Angel squinted at the sun rising on the horizon. Two weeks had passed and his arm was out of the sling, and he still felt the pull of the stitches in his shoulder. They itched like fire. But he was heading home. First, to D.C. to finish his debriefing, and then onto a new assignment. And he had choices. Which meant the agency was happy with him.
The cocaine haul topped six hundred pounds. That, and the destruction of Calderon’s factory, proved enough of a coup to smooth over the fact he’d blown his undercover assignment.
He stood on the tarmac at a private airstrip, awaiting a ride back to the States on a Cessna. Cowboy stood beside him, dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and cargo shorts. His bags sat beside Angel’s.
“For a while there, I wasn’t sure we’d make it out with our asses intact,” Cowboy drawled.
Angel grunted and jerked his chin toward his shoulder. “Speak for yourself.”
“That little scratch? Worth a medal, maybe,” he said, grinning. “Why the long face? We’re heroes.”
Angel aimed a glare at his friend. “We barely got out of there. If we hadn’t turned Yanez’s daughter too, we’d both be stuck at a desk.”
After they’d retrieved the shipment, they’d descended on the training camp, extracting Maria Cortez, who as it turned out, had no love for her father. The only reason she’d returned was because he’d cut the purse strings, ending her dream of finishing up a doctorate stateside. She’d agreed, with the promise of a fully funded scholarship and new identity, to provide them the intel they needed to take down Yanez’s operation.
They’d been damn lucky everything ended so well.
“So what are you going to do about your woman?” Cowboy asked, his blue eyes alight with mischief.
“None of your damn business.”
“Sure it is. I feel kinda responsible, having aided your hookup.”
Angel blew out a deep breath and gave him another glare. “Maya is home. Safe. The last thing she wants is me showing up on her doorstep and reminding her of her jungle nightmare.”
“You didn’t see her face when she left.”
Angel held still. Wanting to hear more, but damned if he was going to ask.
“She saved your life. Doesn’t she at least deserve a thank you? And you’ve got her suitcases, her purse. Want to trust all that to the mail?”
“I know what you’re doing.”
Cowboy’s eyebrow quirked. “Is it working?”
Angel felt a smile tug at the corners of his mouth. “Again, whatever I decide, it’s none of your damn business.”
“I’m the one who stayed outside while you two got it on at the safe house. Let me know I wasn’t wasting my time.”
“We never made any promises.”
“She loves you. She’d have stuck it out to the bitter end if you hadn’t ordered her out of there.”
Angel remembered the anguished look on her face as she disappeared into the trees. “She’s gutsy.”
“And smart. Damn good-looking. I might have to deliver her stuff, if you don’t.”
“I’ll handle it,” Angel growled.
Cowboy narrowed his eyes, then grinned. “Bet you will.”
The buzz of a plane’s engine sounded above them. Angel glanced up, glad as never before to be heading home. He still had paperwork and briefings to get through, but nothing would keep him from seeing whether the spark he’d kindled with Maya was still alive.
More than anything, he regretted he hadn’t told her he loved her. A woman like that deserved the words. All he’d given her at the end was the hard edge of his stubborn pride. Sure, he hadn’t known how things would go down, or whether he’d be free any time soon to pursue this thing between them. But she’d deserved to know how he felt.
Angel had faced battles and certain death, but facing one slim woman with large, doe eyes and a stubborn tilt to her chin scared the crap out of him.