Cynthia Eden - Alpha One

Three fast blasts of thunder—gunfire. Only, those shots came from the van. The men weren’t just waiting to be targets. They were taking out the shooters after them.

Three bullets. Then … silence.

“Got ‘em,” Texas said just seconds before she heard the crash. A screech of metal and the shattering of glass.

The van lurched to the left, seeming to race away even faster.

Juliana looked up. Her eyes had adjusted more to the darkness now. She could almost see Logan’s features above her. Almost .

“Uh, Logan, you can probably get off her now,” that same drawling voice mocked.

But Logan didn’t move.

And Juliana was still barely breathing.

“Missed you.”

The words were so faint, she wasn’t even sure that she’d heard them. Actually, no, she couldn’t have heard them. Imagined them, yes. That had to be it. Because there was no way Logan had actually spoken. Logan Quinn was the big, strong badass who’d left her without a backward glance. He wouldn’t say something as sappy as that line.

Backbone, girl. Backbone . She’d survived her hell; no way would she break for a man now. “Are we safe?”

She felt, more than saw, his nod. “For now.”

Right. Well, she’d thought they were safe before, until the gunfire had blasted into the back of the van. But Texas had taken out the bad guys who’d managed to follow them. So that had to buy them at least a few minutes. And the way the woman was driving …

Eat our dust, jerks .

“Then, if we’re safe …” Juliana brought her hands up and shoved against his chest. Like rock. Some things never changed. “Get off me, Logan, now .”

He rose slowly, pulling her with him and then positioning her near the front of the van. Juliana was trembling—her body shaking with fear, fury and an adrenaline burst that she knew would fade soon. When it faded, she’d crash.

“Once we get out of Mexico, they’ll stop hunting you,” Logan said.

Juliana swallowed. Her throat still felt too parched, as if she’d swallowed broken glass, but now didn’t seem the time to ask for water. Maybe once they stopped fleeing through the night. Yes, that would be the better moment. “And … when … exactly … do we get out of Mexico?”

No one spoke. Not a good sign.

“In a little over twenty-four hours,” Logan answered.

What? No way. They could drive out of Mexico faster than that. Twenty-four hours didn’t even make—”Guerrero controls the Federales near the border,” Logan told her, his voice flat. “No way do we get to just waltz out of this country with you.”

“Then … how?”

“We’re gonna fly, baby.”

Baby . She stiffened. She was not his baby, and if the guy hadn’t just saved her, she’d be tearing into him. But a woman had to be grateful … for now.

Without Logan and his team—and who, exactly, were they?—she’d be sampling the torture techniques of those men in that hellhole.

“We’ll be going out on a plane that sneaks right past any guards who are waiting. Guerrero’s paid cops won’t even know when we vanish.”

Sounded good, except for the whole waiting-for-twenty-four-hours part. “And until then? What do we do?”

She felt a movement in the dark, as if Logan were going to reach out and touch her, but he stopped. After a tense moment, a moment in which every muscle in her body tightened, he said, “We keep you alive.”

Her scream woke him. Logan jerked awake at the sound, his heart racing. He’d fallen asleep moments before. Gunner and Jasper were on patrol duty around their temporary safe house. He jumped to his feet and raced toward the small “bedroom” area they’d designated for Juliana.

He threw open the door. “Julie!”

She was twisting on the floor, tangled in the one blanket they’d given to her. At his call, her eyes flew open. For a few seconds, she just stared blindly at him. Logan hurried to her. She wasn’t seeing him. Trapped in a nightmare, probably remembering the men who’d held her—

He reached out to her.

Juliana shuddered and her eyes squeezed shut. “Sorry.”

His hands clenched. The better not to grab her and hold her as tight as he could. But this was a mission. Things weren’t supposed to get personal between them.

Even though his body burned just looking at her.

Faint rays of sunlight trickled through the boarded-up window. Sydney had done reconnaissance for them and picked this safe house when they’d been planning the rescue. Secluded, the abandoned property was the perfect temporary base for them. They could hear company approaching from miles away. Since the property was situated on high land, they had the tactical advantage. They also had the firepower ready to knock out any attackers who might come their way.

And with that faint light, finally, he could see Juliana. She’d changed a lot over the past ten years. Her long mane was gone. Now the blond hair framed her heart-shaped face. Still as beautiful, to him, with her wide, dark eyes and full lips. She was still curved in all the right places. He’d always loved her lush hips and breasts. The woman could—

“Stop staring at me,” she whispered as she sat up.

Hell. He had been staring. Like a hungry wolf who wanted a bite so badly he could taste it. Taste her.

She pulled up her knees and wrapped her arms around them. “Is John dead?”

Logan didn’t let any expression cross his face. Here, he had to be careful. The team wasn’t ready to reveal all the intel they were still gathering. Another reason we aren’t slipping out of Mexico yet . They could have gotten her out faster, but his team didn’t like to leave loose ends behind. So a twenty-four-hour delay was standard protocol for them.

“I searched down that hallway,” he told her, and he’d found the room they’d been holding her in. Seen the ropes on the floor near not one, but two chairs. John had been there . Only, no one had been in the room by the time Logan got there. “I didn’t find another hostage.”

“They got him out?”

He didn’t want to lie to her. “Maybe.” He’d been trained at deception for so long, sometimes he wondered what the truth was.

He took a slow step toward her. She didn’t flinch away. That was something. “Did they … hurt you?”

She touched her cheek. He could see the faint bruise on her flesh. “Not as much as they hurt John. They’d come in and take him away, and later, I’d hear his screams.”

Another slow step, almost close enough to touch. “So they took you, but they never questioned you?”

“At first, they did.” She licked her lips. Now wasn’t the time to notice that her lips were as sexy as ever. It wasn’t the time, but he still noticed. He’d always noticed too much with her.

Not for me . Why did he have a problem getting that fact through his head?

They were thrown together at the moment, but once they got back to the United States, they’d be going their separate ways. Nothing had changed for him. The senator’s daughter wasn’t going to wind up with the son of a killer.

And now he was a killer, too.

Logan glanced down at his hands. No blood to see, but he knew it stained his hands. After all these years, there was no way to ever get his hands clean. Too much death marked him.

He was good at killing. His old man had been right about that. They’d both been good….

Too good.

Logan sucked in a deep breath. Focus . The past was buried, just like his father. “So when they were … questioning you …” The team needed this info and he had to ask. “Just what did they want to know?”