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Again, she had to wonder why. Juan had to live in Venezuela when the team and Jack had gone. Why would he jeopardize his job and his life for a few Americans? Easy peered down the stairs.
“Be careful. Don’t shoot Shark. It’ll just make him mad. Oh, and Juan, either.”
“Right. No center mass.”
“Si,” Easy said. “Otherwise shoot the hell out of anyone else.”
All this shooting talk wasn’t exactly making her feel comfortable. She was determined to protect herself, but she wasn’t exactly keen on hurting people. But they were giving her no choice. She wasn’t going back to that prison. And she wasn’t going to let them hurt Easy either.
The sound of the front door getting kicked in made Easy smile. “The local authorities should be here any minute. We’ve worn out our welcome.”
He started down the stairs, and she kept close behind him. When they reached the bottom, they ran down the servants’ hall where all the doors were closed. At the end, Easy paused again. Then the door opened, and Shark and Juan were there.
Shark one-armed Easy and said, “Easy, brother. It’s good to see you in one piece.”
“Same.”
Shark turned to her and said, “Crazy Choos.”
Without missing a beat, she said, “Shark.”
Juan smiled at the exchange and nodded to her. “It’s good to see you looking much better,senorita. Very pretty.”
She patted his arm. “Thank you…and just in case I don’t get a chance to tell you. Thank you for everything you did back at El Helicoide. You made it a little bit more bearable.”
He nodded.
“Cut the chit-chat, Juan.” Shark said, “Take Crazy Choos out to the garage and get that car started. Then we’ll go around and try to stop them as they bust through the doors we’re going to open.”
The moment they went through the door, Juan pulled her down behind the kitchen counter and he started moving on all fours. She looked anxiously behind her. She didn’t like being separated from Easy. But the two SEALs probably were worth all the guards after her. She put her faith in the fact that Shark wouldn’t let anything happen to Easy. She clearly was aware that Easy had been in way more danger than this, but his drowning on that yacht had to be relegated to the back of her mind for now. She barely had a chance to absorb what had happened to him, and those nightmares of his were tough to watch.
Gunfire erupted over their heads and Juan stopped moving. She had no idea why she should trust him. This could all be a ruse to get her back and win favor from his boss. But there was something about Juan, something that reminded her of Easy and Shark. Had he once been in special forces too?
It surprised her that, halfway around the world, she would find in a complete stranger the kind of kindness her dad had talked about. Jack heard screams and bodies dropped. More gunfire and a shot plunked into the wood right between them. Air hissed between her teeth, and she slammed her eyes shut for a few seconds, her heart racing.
But they popped open at the next second when Juan grabbed a handful of her shirt and pulled her across the short open space, then to the door to the garage.
He reached up and opened it as bullets raked across the kitchen, hitting the large fridge. Things inside exploded and food ran out of the bottom.
Before she could think about how it was such a waste, he pulled her through into the garage and closed the door behind him. At a crouch, he wound around the cars, heading for the gray Mercedes.
When he reached the door, he rose. “Juan,” someone called behind him and he whirled.
“Hey,amigo,” Juan said.
“You find her?”
Juan didn’t say a word, just looked down at her, then back up at his pal. “Yeah, I found her,” he said, then brought up his gun and pulled off a couple of rounds. From where Jack was kneeling, she heard a body fall and lay still. It wasn’t lost on her that he had the same exact form as Easy and Shark. Yep, Juan had been special ops all right.
Okay, so this guy was fully on their side.
Juan swore a blue streak in such rapid Spanish, even she couldn’t catch all the words. She heard a slight hissing and saw that Juan’s former colleague had shot out one of the sedan’s tires. They weren’t going anywhere in this vehicle.
Inspiration hit her hard.
She rose and started for the beautiful, pink Boxster.That sports car was a better choice anyway. It could turn on a dime, corner on a rail, and could outrun anything in this garage.
“What are you doing, Jack?”
