Page 67

WES

T he guard had to be the most incompetent fool ever assigned the task of guarding . And to think they gave him the responsibility of handling a fucking hellhound on top of everything else. I shook my head, stepping lightly as I followed behind Javier and Matias.

We were lucky.

It could have all gone horribly, but instead, we had no trouble.

Apart from the mutt that looked as though it was on the verge of turning on its owner, the officer seemed none the wiser.

The explosives were set. The mechanism for remote detonation was ready, stashed in Matias’s pocket.

We were almost done. As long as Mara was able to upload the virus, we would walk out of here and drive to the extraction point.

Done.

Game set.

Except…

It was too freaking easy.

I’d been on hundreds of missions to know that nothing ever went smoothly. There was always something you hadn’t accounted for, something you didn’t know popping up as a surprise .

When I saw Mara’s face plastered on the damn screen, I thought that was it.

That she would be recognized and our cover blown.

Instead, nobody seemed to notice her. Perhaps it was a result of spending a lifetime in her brother’s shadow.

Perhaps she was too good at being unseen, even while standing in plain sight.

And something about that pained me, because I didn’t want that for her.

I didn’t want her to be nothing but a masterpiece no one recognized.

And yet today, I was grateful.

Because today, it meant we lived.

We marched down the hall, the door I left her at coming into view. And when I was several yards away, I watched as that door opened, revealing my promised, her back facing us. In one hand she gripped her bag as the other closed the door behind her.

“Hey,” the soldier called out to her.

Mara stiffened. Her whole body rigid as unyielding stone.

“Where’s Marty?” the guard asked.

Marty must have been the female officer. His question was a good one. Why was Mara unsupervised?

A wave of heat consumed my chest. I slowed my steps, coming to a stop. Instinct came to life within me, telling me we were moments away from something going down.

Mara answered, never turning around but turning her face so that her profile could be seen. “She’s still inside.”

“Why the hell is she still inside and you’re out here?” the guard asked. The hound emitted a deep, low growl.

It was instinct that told me to grab my stunner. Instinct and years of training that guided my hand into my bag while my eyes remained fixed on Mara.

The guard reached for his sidearm. Pulled it out. Held it to his side. Aimed it at the floor. “Turn around, technician.” He loosened the leash on the hound .

Matias and Javier stopped, hands at their side as though they were getting ready to throw down. My hand buried itself in the bag. Rummaged for my weapon—stunner or Glock, I didn’t give a fuck. Felt the grip of one and wrapped my fingers around it.

“I said, turn around now !” the guard yelled at her.

Aimed his lethal weapon at her.

Only a handful of feet away.

Mara began to turn.

I pulled out my weapon—a gun. Lethal. I didn’t care. He would die along with his damn mutt.

She wasn’t afraid. Her eyes were bottomless, brimming with courage but free of fear.

At that moment, I fell in love with her all over again.

Her uniform was ripped across the chest. The first sign I had that there had been trouble. But her mission jumpsuit remained intact. She might be bruised underneath, but no blood stained her white technician uniform.

The man halted. “What the hell—”

The sound of a bullet pierced the air.

Smoke rose from a barrel.

And a body hit the floor…just as Matias yelled out, “Mara!”

***

MARA

The hound lunged at me before I could make a sound. Snapping jaws came at my face for the second time today, and the only thing I could do this time was block.

WHAM !

My body hit the floor, but this time, I didn’t get the chance to kiai, and the wind was knocked out of me. Pain shot through my chest as I gasped, my lungs aching for air.

BANG, BANG!

The hound fell limp on me, crushing me under his weight. Boots shuffled, and then the mutt’s body was lifted off me. I gasped again, air finally giving me reprieve, and then I was coughing, rolling on my side. Hands gripped under my arms and helped me to my feet.

“Are you okay?”

I looked to see Matias grabbing my shoulders and searching my face desperately. I coughed. “I’m fine. I promise”—several shallow breaths—“everything’s fine.”

A hand landed on my shoulder and spun me around, and before I could see his face, I was buried into his chest. All it took was one deep breath, and I was filled with the scent of eucalyptus and rain, mixed with the slight tang of saltiness from his sweat.

Wes.

I wrapped my arms around him, grateful for these few seconds of solace as my heart slowly returned to a normal rhythm, one less fierce and overwhelming. His arms held me tight, and I felt him kiss my crown and then rest his cheek on my head.

“Damn it, Mara,” he muttered. “I thought I was going to lose you just now.”

I closed my eyes and smiled. “It wasn’t my turn, I guess.”

Another kiss on my head. His heart pounded just as swift as mine moments before.

“We got to go, prima.” Javi reached for my forearm, tugging on the sleeve of my uniform.

God, I didn’t want to let go. Because no matter how casual I was trying to be about this, my life was seconds from ending only moments before.

I wanted nothing more than to be wrapped up in Wes’s arms for as long as humanly possible, and from the way Wes gripped me, I suspected he wanted the same thing.

Reluctantly, I released him, and he did the same.

“Are you hurt?” he asked, scanning the length of me.

“No. The hound ripped up my uniform, but he didn’t get past the bodysuit.” I looked at myself, noticing that the white fabric was now splattered with red. Confused, I looked around.

Where the hell did that—

Understanding clicked into place as I saw blood creeping along the pristine white floor, flowing out like sludge from the mangy body of the hound.

Wes shot it. I saw him shoot the soldier, but I only heard when the second and third shots were fired, too busy trying to keep jaws from tearing off my face to notice anything else.

“The moment anyone sees her, we’re toast,” Matias said. “There’s no way they’re not going to notice the blood on her.”

Pounding.

The sound of booted feet hitting the tile in rapid movement.

“Incoming,” Javier said, whipping around, pulling out his stunner and firing down the hall just as the guard from the elevator rounded the corner. He dropped—dead weight hitting the floor in a heap with a thud. “And now he’s not,” Javi added.

“Matias’s right,” I said. “If anyone sees me like this, I’ll blow our cover.”

Wes’s eyes blazed, jaw clenched, and his entire body a display of firm smooth lines. He looked at the fallen soldier, and then the other, and then he set his gaze back on me. “Not if you look like one of them.”

“What?” I asked, pinching my brows.

Javier chuckled. “Así es como me gusta…that’s how I like it.” He cocked his head at me. “Is Lady Marty bloody? Or just stunned?”

“Stunned.”

Javier’s gorgeous, smug smirk graced his face. “Then let’s turn you into a REG officer, cousin. And then let’s get the hell out of this place.”

** *

“This thing looks like a tent on me,” I groused.

As it turned out, Marty was not a dainty woman. She was at least five inches taller than me and had twice the cup size in breasts. Everything hung on my frame as though I was a scarecrow, just two measly wooden poles nailed together with fabric hanging limp.

“I look ridiculous,” I added as I rolled up the second pant leg.

Matias covered his mouth with his fist, suppressing a laugh.

“You look fine,” Wes assured. “It doesn’t need to be perfect. Just enough to get us to the van.”

Javier popped his head into the computer room from outside. “We need to get moving pronto or we’re going to have company.”

The grin on Matias’s face was wiped clean as he cleared his throat. “He’s right. We’ve been here way too long. We’re lucky no one has radioed in looking for these guys yet.”

Wes narrowed his eyes. “We’re fine . She’s almost done. Help de la Puente watch the hall.”

For a second, it was like being back at the rebel camp with Wes and Matias at odds with one another once again. But the bristled look fell off Matias quickly as he shot me a wink. With a roll of his shoulders, he moved out.

Finishing the pant leg, I stood, feeling the waistband hit my hips, caught by Marty’s belt. “Nervous?”

“No,” he said too quickly.

I almost laughed at him. “Liar.”

He looked at me then, a sea of amber glittering in his eyes. “How about we argue about this when we get home.” That bite in his tone…the classic snap…Wes was worried.

I stepped up to him, placed my palm over his heart and felt the solid beat.

Rhythmic. Steady. Firm .

“I love you,” I whispered.

His eyes flared, as though kerosine had doused the flames of a well-tended fire. Pressing his forehead to mine, he whispered back, “ Please… don’t die today.”

“None of us are going to die today, Wes. We’re all making out of here alive.”

“Pst! Primita!” Javier whisper-yelled at me, heading poking in from the doorway once more. “We’ve got to go now !”

Wes took my hand and led me out the door.

The hallway was still quiet—three bodies littering the floor as blood painted the tile red.

But my mind was still stuck in the computer room as we jogged down to the elevator.

I was still thinking about Wes’s fear. His plea for me to stay alive.

And in that moment, I absolutely believed that we were going to live.

I had unwavering faith that all four of us would be wrapped in the arms of our lovers tonight, enjoying the creature comforts of safety and a warm bed.

If only I knew then that it wouldn’t end that way.

If only I knew then that someone wasn’t going to make it out alive.