Page 4 of Colombian Chemistry

I held his gaze and slowly shook my head.

“Fuck this gringo,” the short one said, looking to his leader for permission to take me.

With the jut of his chin, the tall one gave him the go-ahead. I fought to keep the smile from spreading across my face.

The two of them came at me simultaneously, each reaching into their waistbands and pulling out their guns—FN Five-seveN pistols. Fast, accurate, and each held twenty rounds if they hadn’t fired any yet. And I always knew to assume every gun had a full magazine. Not that it mattered, though. They wouldn’t get an opportunity to use those bullets on me.

I waited for them to make their move. The short one was impatient. He’d go first. The moment he lifted his gun at me, I’d take it from him and use the butt of the weapon against the side of his head to render him unconscious. By the time his body dropped, I’d fling that gun to the second man, and a clean hit would drop him too. That just left the big guy, and I could have him on the ground before he even had a chance to reach for his weapon.

Bing, bang, boom. Problem solved.

As predicted, the short one lifted his gun. I shot forward with the speed of a viper, twisting it from his hands and dropping the magazine out to the ground. His shocked eyes locked with mine just a second before I smashed the empty gun into his temple.

One down.

As his body crumpled, I spun on my heel, launching the gun like a hatchet at an ax-throwing contest. The black weapon somersaulted through the air and collided with the sweet spot right between his eyes. He dropped like a ton of bricks.

Two down.

I leaped across the space separating me from their stunned leader, and with the swipe of my leg, I took out his, sending him with a grunt to the ground. He landed with a thud, and I hopped on top of him in a second, my hands wrapped tightly around his throat. My heart jumped once in my chest from excitement as I squeezed tighter, ignoring his attempts to dislodge me. It had been years since I’d snuffed the life out of a target and watched the light leave their eyes. I’d forgotten how much I’d missed it until I saw the familiar look in his eye... one I’d seen countless times. The look of a man who knew he was a dead man. And he would have been if that was my goal.

Don’t kill him. No bodies. Too many potential witnesses.

It took all of my resolve to loosen my grip from the neck of the degenerate who certainly deserved his fate, but I eased my reluctant fingers from his throat. He took one huge gasp of the air I’d denied him as I locked eyes with him one last time, then I swung the side of my hand against his neck. It took only a second before he was knocked out too. God, I loved that damn vagus nerve. Fast, effective, and non-lethal.

After a quick glance around to make sure all three men remained unconscious but breathing, I pushed myself off his limp body and turned my attention to the girl.

She stood paralyzed with fear, staring at me, her blue eyes wide and unblinking. In the light, I could get a good look at her, and as I did, I felt something strange in my chest.

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.

My heart rate sped up as I soaked in the sight of her... something that hadn’t happened in as long as I could remember. Adrenalin no longer surged through my body after everything I’d seen and done. But now... now I felt that unfamiliar surge of something coursing through my veins.

Long, blonde waves cascaded down over her shoulders, ending just on top of her full breasts. Her heart-shaped face looked effortlessly beautiful with minimal makeup, and she didn’t need a drop more. Her beauty was natural. Innocent. She looked soft and sweet as she stood terrified, clutching the fabric of her light pink sundress.

“You... you saved me. A-again,” she finally muttered.

Her voice snapped me back to the senses her beauty had stolen from me. I cleared my throat. “Yeah. You really need to stop getting yourself into these situations. Once is usually enough to send tourists racing back home. You’re clearly unlucky here, so I wouldn’t go for three times. Grab your passport and get the hell out of here.”

I glanced down at the remnants of my groceries and started picking up what was salvageable.

“I can’t go home. They broke into our place and ransacked it. My passport is gone along with my money and wallet. I don’t even have an ID to show anyone I’m a US citizen.” Her voice trembled with the words.

My brow furrowed as I froze on the ground. They ransacked her place? Took her passport? And this was the second time they had attacked her in two days. None of this could be a coincidence. Apparently, she wasn’t some unlucky lass in the wrong place at the wrong time... twice. She was being targeted.

I looked at the men again and focused in on the matching tattoos they all had on their right hand. Jaguar heads.

Reyes de la Selva. The Jungle Kings. All three men were members of the new, and quickly rising, Colombian cartel. The Jungle Kings had only been on the map for the past few years, but they’d risen to the top of the cartel food chain in record time. They were highly funded, highly armed, and apparently highly focused on this one American woman.

But why? Why this woman? This woman who wasn’t my problem, I reminded myself.

I pulled my bottle of unbroken milk off the ground and dusted it off. “They ransacked your hotel?”

“Our house... my dad’s house. And I can’t find him. He’s missing.”

“You live here?” I stood, then turned to face her. “I’ve never seen you before.”

Even though I asked the question, I knew it was impossible she was a resident of this tiny town of less than five hundred people. I’d made sure I learned every face of every resident here, and I paid attention to anyone new who moved in. This woman’s face was unmistakable, and there was no way she’d moved into my town and I hadn’t heard about it. It had been three months since anyone new moved here, and it wasn’t this woman.