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CHAPTER EIGHT

Her brain struggled to stay awake. She was so tired.

The vibration of an engine shook through her as Charlie stared up at the ceiling of the SUV. She’d tried replaying the moment everything had gone wrong, but it was just a waste of energy. Her attacker had won. In the end, she hadn’t been strong enough.

Now Granger and Zeus were at risk.

Her father’s life was in danger.

And she would be forced to do something terrible for the cartel.

Her frame bounced along the back seat of the vehicle, absorbing the uneven terrain. Every shift aggravated the pain in her body. The bruises were already pulsing. Her face most likely looked like a jar of spaghetti sauce. She could taste the blood at the back of her throat. And she had…nothing left.

Charlie twisted against the rope secured around her wrists. Seemed drug cartels knew better than to use zip ties. Too easily broken. The rope would take time for her to get through. Especially when she couldn’t keep her eyes open.

After everything she’d fought to leave behind, the past refused to stay where it belonged. What had been the point of running? Memories she promised never to recall surged forward with the slightest effort. She didn’t have the strength to stop them now.

That night had changed her life. And taken the lives of four others. She knew their names, had memorized their faces. She’d attended the funerals, out of sight, despite the risk of Homeland Security or her family learning she hadn’t been caught in the explosion. She’d learned about the families they’d left behind and worked two separate jobs to send them money every month. It’d been the least she could do to help replace the income they’d lost after the attack. Though it could never be enough.

She’d seen Granger at every single one of the services to pay his respects, and his stoic grief had felt contagious and deep and uncomfortable. At times, she’d imagined that grief had been for her, and it’d taken years to convince herself that Sage was right. That she’d been foolish to believe he wanted her for anything more than a resource. His confidential informant. The nights they’d spent together—the secret rendezvous—had most likely been surveilled and authorized by Homeland Security, and she’d gone right along with it for the chance of having something for herself. Something nobody in her family knew about, something that made her more than a soldier.

I was in love with you too.

Had he really said that? It was hard to remember as the pain in her face and head peaked. The burning sensation in her calf told her the bleeding from the bullet had stopped but that she wouldn’t get far if she managed to escape. Swirls of shapes danced behind her eyes. The kind that warned her she was about to fall asleep.

But she couldn’t.

Because she believed him when Granger had said he’d loved her. That he’d been searching for her. That he knew without a doubt she hadn’t died in that explosion. He was out there, looking for her right now. Risking his and Zeus’s lives for her in the middle of a forest fire. Not only against the people who took her but the terrorist army determined to bring down anyone associated with the US government. And she was just going to give up?

No. Granger deserved better than the woman who’d run at the slightest obstacle in their path all those years ago. She wasn’t that person anymore. And she wasn’t afraid.

“I’m going to be sick.” Charlie fought against the momentum of the vehicle and coughed up the acid lodged in her throat onto the floor.

“Hey! I’m going to have to clean that up.” Her abductor turned in his seat as she lost the contents in her stomach. The SUV’s course deviated, and he jerked the wheel back in place.

She pulled at the rope around her hands to test the slack. Grainy fibers scratched at the thin skin there, but she managed to create space. Enough to slide one of the seat belt buckles between her wrists. If she pulled with enough force, there was a chance the metal could cut through the rope. “Stop the car. Please. I don’t feel well.”

Charlie started coughing again, ducking her head between the edge of the back seat and the rear of the front. Her abductor hit the brakes, and she had to plant her shoulder to keep from sliding to the floor. Only the SUV hadn’t pulled to a complete stop.

Her abductor’s swollen gaze moved to the rearview mirror. Blood crusted around his nose and face, and a small thread of victory charged through her. For as much damage as he’d done to her, she was pleased to see she’d gotten a couple shots in. The SUV lurched forward and exceeded its previous speed, as though he’d spotted something closing in. Or someone. “I recommend you swallow whatever comes up. We’re not stopping.”

For the first time, Charlie realized the interior of the SUV was darker than usual. No light coming from the instrument panel. Nothing ahead. They were driving without headlights. To make an escape. “Granger.”

He was alive. He was coming for her.

The drugging effects of trauma dissipated slower than she wanted, but they were receding, second by second. Granger wouldn’t be able to see the SUV as long as the headlights remained off.

If she wanted out of this in one piece, she’d have to earn his attention.

Charlie angled herself a few inches off the back seat. Her ribs screamed for relief, but she couldn’t think about that right now. The rope caught against the empty seat buckle, and she pulled at it with everything she had left. Which wasn’t much, but the threads were already coming apart. Holding her breath, she kept her gaze on the driver and tried again. Another bit of rope unraveled. At this rate, she’d secure the use of her hands after her abductor delivered her to the cartel.

She gritted through the pain flaring through her upper body. She could do this. She had to do this. For the sake of all those people who would pay the price if Sangre por Sangre won. Lightning struck behind her eyes as the last of the rope broke free. Feeling surged into her hands, and she took her first full breath since being hauled into the vehicle.

The driver wasn’t going to stop. He wasn’t going to slow down, but throwing herself from the vehicle was sure to finish the job he’d started back in those woods. She couldn’t wait until they arrived wherever the hell they were going either, and the longer she thought it over, the less chance she’d have of escape.

This had to happen now.

Where Granger still might be able to get to her.

Charlie slowly brought her hands in front of her so as not to attract the driver’s attention, keeping under his visual radar. Her breath shook through her as she considered the consequences of her next move. It was going to hurt. If she survived. Untwining the sections of rope from around her wrists, she reworked the longest piece between both hands.

And launched forward.

She hooked the rope around the driver’s seat and over her abductor’s head. He grabbed for the stranglehold she had on him, but Charlie used his own seat to protect herself. The fibers dug deep into his skin as gasps escaped. A part of his brain knew to keep one hand on the steering wheel while attempting to lighten the weight on his throat with the other. But his automatic need to leverage his weight into the seat floored the accelerator. They were speeding up. In complete darkness.

The rope cut into her hands. Just a few more seconds. She didn’t want to kill him. She just needed him unconscious. Her abductor let his hand drop away from the steering wheel. The vehicle slowed without his constant pressure on the accelerator. He was losing consciousness.

Relief loosened the hold she had on the rope. It was going to work.

Her abductor pulled a blade. He sliced through the rope at his neck. His loud gasp punctured through the interior of the car.

Charlie fell back in the seat with nothing but two pieces of severed rope in her hand. The vehicle charged forward, pinning her to the seat, but she couldn’t give up. She had to get out of here. She dove for the front seat.

The blade came up to meet her.

Hot steel sliced through her sweat-drenched shirt and across skin. Charlie fell into the passenger side door. She kicked at her abductor’s wrist. The blade slammed against the opposite window with a crack. The window shattered, spewing tiny shards of glass into their seats. She kicked at him again. “Stop the car!”

But he wasn’t listening. The driver blocked her next strike.

She went for the keys and knocked the steering wheel.

Shapes took form ahead through the windshield.

Rock formations.

They were driving straight into the side of a mountain.

“Look out!” Charlie grabbed for her seat belt and locked it in.

The driver’s face lit up with panic.

Just before impact.

The SUV slammed into rock. The whole world turned upside down as the back of the vehicle vaulted upward. Charlie braced herself against the dashboard. Seconds seemed to turn into minutes as glass cut through the inside of the car.

The impact jolted through every cell in her body as the ceiling caved in. Metal screeched and ripped apart under the cutting edge of the rocks. The vehicle rolled. Once. Twice. The windshield cracked but held its own. Pain and nausea took control as the SUV jumped the formation and jerked downward into some kind of ravine. Gravity seemed to have lost its hold with each flip.

Until they weren’t moving at all.

The SUV groaned as it settled. Charlie reached one hand out, looking for something to hold onto, but nothing seemed to be where it was supposed to be. The seat belt cut into her hips and shoulder, locking her in place upside down. She was conscious enough to realize she was still alive. That she’d survived, but the pain… Her body was trying to shut down to manage the trauma. Sooner or later, she wouldn’t be able to fight it.

The smell of gas permeated her senses.

The fuel lines… They must have ruptured. She had to get out before any of the hot engine parts sparked a fire. Pressure built in her head as she reached for the seat belt latch. It released. She dropped shoulder-first onto the warped and torn metal ceiling with a cry. Tears burned in her eyes as she fixated on the passenger side window. It’d lost its shape in the crash. It wasn’t big enough to crawl through. She’d have to find another way.

Charlie caught sight of the driver. Dead or unconscious, she didn’t know, and she didn’t want to find out. She forced her body between both front seats and clawed into the back. The cargo area had been saved. She could get out through there.

Every movement aggravated a deep pain she’d never experienced. Blinding and strong. But soon she’d made it to the cargo area. She tried the latch, but it wouldn’t release.

Smoke filtered through the vents from the front of the vehicle.

She turned. Just as the SUV’s engine caught fire.

* * *

Granger flipped the driver of the third SUV onto his back and took aim. “Where is she? Where is Charlie Acker?”

The soldier relaxed against the desert floor, laughing. “You’ll never find her, mercenario . Sangre por Sangre owns her now.”

“Like hell they do.” Henry Acker fisted the driver’s shirt and hauled the soldier up, slamming him against the car. “I’m going to give you three seconds to tell us where my daughter is, amigo, or you won’t live to see the sunrise. Got it?”

“I’m willing to die for my cause,” the cartel soldier said. “If you’d kept your end of our deal, you daughter wouldn’t have to die for yours.”

“What deal?” Granger closed the distance between them, both Socorro operatives and their K9s doing the same. The pieces were starting to fit together. Slower than he wanted, but sure all the same. “What the hell is he talking about, Acker?”

“Nothing.” Contained anger slipped into Acker’s eyes. “There is no deal. He’s lying to stall us from getting to Charlie. That’s his job. To slow us down.”

“I don’t have time for this. Scarlett, watch them.” Granger shoved Acker away from the cartel soldier and confiscated the old man’s weapon. He whistled for Zeus, and the dog targeted Henry Acker. The bull terrier latched onto the man’s pants and dragged the patriarch to the ground. Zeus ripped and pulled back and forth.

“Get your damn dog off me!” Acker tried escaping the K9’s hold, but it was no use. He kicked at the ground with both feet. Nothing but Granger’s command would set the dog to release.

Scarlett and her Dobermans stood guard on the three drivers meant to distract them.

Granger stood over Acker as fear laced every aged line in the man’s face. Zeus could kill him if Granger deemed it appropriate, but right now, all he wanted was the truth. “Tell me about the deal you made with the cartel.”

“There is no deal!” Acker struggled for freedom, but Granger wasn’t finished with him yet. “I’ll kill you for this, Morais. Every single one of you.”

“And our little dogs too. I’ve heard it all before,” he said. “Zeus, want to play your favorite game?”

The bull terrier’s mouth curled into an excited smile as his tail started whipping back and forth. Zeus followed direct orders, launching his entire weight across Acker’s torso. The old man’s resulting groan for breath was enough to trigger an automatic inhale in Granger.

“Let’s try that again, Acker.” Granger crouched beside Charlie’s father. “What deal did Acker’s Army make with Sangre por Sangre ?”

“Support. I agreed to supply them with manpower and weapons,” Acker said.

“To do what?” The answer was already there, waiting for him to come to the realization himself. “You were going to attack the state capital building, weren’t you? That’s what was on those blueprints Charlie stole. All the notes you’d made. You and the cartel were going to raid the biggest government building in the state in an attempt to reestablish Sangre por Sangre ’s cartel. That’s what this is about. It’s a power grab.”

“No.” Acker fought to breathe, but Zeus’s massive weight wasn’t going anywhere. “It’s not the capital building they’re interested in. That was just the first step.”

“You put your daughter’s life at risk for your own greed, Acker.” The accusation burned hotter than the fire they’d just escaped. He pointed a hard finger into the man’s chest. “Whatever happens to her, that’s on you, and I hope you live with that guilt for the rest of your life.”

“Granger.” Scarlett penetrated his peripheral vision.

“Not now.” They were so close to answers. He and the rest of Socorro had run Sangre por Sangre into the ground. This was the final piece they needed to eradicate the cartel’s influence for good.

“Granger, look.” Scarlett’s insistence was enough to break his focus on Acker.

He shoved to his feet. And caught sight of a fire in the distance. Instinct kicked him into action. What were the chances of two fires set in the middle of nowhere? His gut said whatever was going on had something to do with Charlie. That she was out there. That she was still alive. “Zeus, car.”

The bull terrier released his prisoner and raced for the car. The K9’s back feet slipped on the frame of the SUV, but he managed to get himself inside. Granger hauled Henry Acker to his feet and practically shoved him into the back of Scarlett’s SUV. “You’re staying here. I might’ve used Charlie in order to do my job all those years ago, same as you, but there’s a difference between us. I’m the one who’s trying to protect her now.”

A flood of grief and shame replaced the anger that’d flared in the patriarch’s expression, but Granger wasn’t the person to offer anything comforting. This entire night had led to one goal: bringing Charlie home safe. “I’m going out there.”

“You have no idea what you’re going up against,” Cash said.

“I’ll be fine. There aren’t enough of us to detain these drivers and keep Acker from doing something stupid.” He dropped the magazine from his weapon with the touch of a button and counted the rounds left inside. Slamming the mag back into place, he holstered the sidearm on his hip. “Get what you can out of Acker. Tie him up if you have to. Stopping Sangre por Sangre from whatever they’re planning is all that matters.”

“Be careful out there.” Scarlett stepped back, hugging her rifle to her vest. “We’ve got things covered. Just go do what you have to do.”

Granger nodded goodbye and climbed into the driver’s seat of his SUV. In seconds, he and Zeus were charging toward the glow of the fire. Because that worked out so well the first time.

The K9 whined from the front seat as Granger hyper focused on the fire less than a mile out.

He scrubbed his hand between Zeus’s ears, but there was nothing he could do or say to neutralize the acidic worry in his stomach. “I know. We’re going to find her. I promise. We’re all she has left.”

The thought of Charlie suffering alone had him bringing the SUV to its top speed. There was nothing but scrub brush, Joshua trees and dirt out here, but something had happened. Smoke filtered through his SUV’s vents the closer he came to the fire. Only there was no visual sign of a source.

He carved the headlights along the rock formations guarding a drop on the other side. Chunks of metal and glass reflected back. Holy hell. Granger slammed his foot against the brake, nearly tipping Zeus into the front console. He shoved the vehicle into Park as dread pooled at the base of his spine. “No, no, no, no, no.”

Granger shouldered free of the SUV, not bothering to close the driver’s side door behind him, and ran for the wreckage. Glass crunched beneath his boots. The scent of gasoline filled his lungs. A single vehicle had rammed into the rock formation and tipped into the dried-up ravine. And now that car was on fire. “Charlie!”

She didn’t answer.

Granger couldn’t wait for his training to warn him about going into a deadly situation without knowing all the details. If she was down there, she had mere seconds to get out before the whole thing blew.

Flames crawled around the engine block and shot up into the sky. Fortunately, there was nothing out here to catch fire. Not like the woods around her childhood home. But an accelerated fire would explode if it reached the gas tank. Gravity pulled him down the incline to the bottom of the ravine.

Smoke had filled the interior and blocked out the windows. She was here. She had to be. Zeus’s bark from the top of the hill echoed along the floor of the riverbed. The driver’s side window had been pulverized, but there was no sign of a driver.

Granger checked each of the other windows, but it was too hard to see inside. The doors were stuck, too damaged from the accident. Unholstering his sidearm, he protected his face from the flames lashing out from the front of the vehicle. “Hold on, Charlie. Just hold on.”

Granger slammed the butt of his weapon into the back driver’s side window. The first strike merely cracked the glass. He tried again. The second shattered the protective layer, and a rush of smoke billowed into his face. “Charlie, are you in there?”

Black smoke cleared enough to give him a view of a single hand resting between the cargo area and the back seats of the SUV. Unmoving. Granger was already trying to rip the door off its hinges. The car refused to budge. “I’m coming for you. Hang on!”

He rounded to the back of the vehicle and brought the butt of his weapon up. There was a chance the glass windshield would slice through her clothing on impact, but Granger didn’t have any other choice. He rammed the metal against the glass. Then again. And again. The glass was stronger here. Pain cut through his rib cage from the bullet graze, taking some of his strength. He was running out of time.

Zeus’s incessant barking wouldn’t let up. Every concerned sound notched Granger’s nerves a level higher until he couldn’t focus on anything but getting to Charlie.

He threw everything he had into the next strike.

The glass finally gave up the ghost.

Granger used the barrel of his weapon to knock the rest of the glass around the edge of the frame free and reached inside for the hatch. And pulled. The cargo door hydraulics kicked into gear, and he dove inside.

Dragging Charlie’s lean body by both ankles, he hauled her over his shoulder and ran for the incline up to the rock formations. The bullet graze in his side threatened to rip wider, and a growl of pain escaped his throat. The fire was spreading along the SUV’s frame. He had to move.

A hiss reached his ears.

A split second before the vehicle exploded.

Glass, metal and fire split in a thousand different directions. The pressure fanned out, and Granger was forced to dive for the side of the incline. He’d only made it half way to Zeus’s position above. Right in the explosion’s path. Curling around Charlie, he used his body as protection against incoming debris and fisted his hands into the dirt on either side of her head.

Heat fanned up the back of his legs and spine, but he wouldn’t let any of it touch her. Ever. The fire seemed to suction back in on itself after another minute, and cool air filtered across his skin.

“Granger?” Her voice sounded so weak compared to the woman he’d found barricaded in her safe house.

Granger held the weight of his upper body away from her, staring down at the bloody damage she’d sustained fighting for her life. “It’s okay. I’ve got you. You’re safe.”

She brought her hands up as the fire reflected off the glimmer of tears in her eyes. “The driver. He took me. He wants to use me to help the cartel. He wants me to do something awful. Tell me you have him.”

Driver? Granger had checked the vehicle. “Charlie, there was no driver.”