AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He pulled himself up higher. “No.” He swore softly. “Yes,” he growled low.He went to swing his feet to the floor, winced, and had to breathe around the excruciating pain.
“Easy, don’t. You still need to rest.” Juan came forward and lifted his feet back on the bed.
“I can’t let her leave.”
“She’s not going to leave,” he said with a wry shake of his head. “That girl has it bad for you,amigo.”
“I’ve got to get her to that rendezvous.” He couldn’t think about his feelings for Jack right now. He wasn’t being rational and that had to stop. Through the rest of this op, he had to think like a SEAL, not the man who—
He refused to finish that thought. There were times to be vulnerable, then there were times to be a ruthless, gunslinging son of a bitch. He was good at it.
“Oh, I see. You have it bad for her, too.”
Easy narrowed his eyes at Juan.
“Okay, okay, take it down a notch.” Juan held up his hands. “I’m on your side. I know what Ramos is capable of, and he has an obsession for Jack.” He threw the apple core in the trash. “I’ve got to go back and help Shark. We’ll keep tabs on Ramos and let you know. She has to get out of this country,rapido. Even then, I’m not sure she’ll be safe.”
“I’ll worry about that bridge when I get to it,” Easy said. “Right now, I’m all about extraction. I have orders, and I’m going to follow them.”
“Just be careful not to burn any bridges with her. She was unpredictable at the prison, but she’s…changed, is more focused, unruly. She’s come into her own. You need to do what you do best. Charm her.”
“Yeah, easier said than done when it comes to Jack.”
Juan blew out his breath and fist-bumped him. That was about all that could be said.
* * *
Kyle Nost stoodoutside the market where Rosa Montoya did her shopping. He felt like an idiot as he popped another antacid, his gut churning. He’d done everything Uncle Mitchum had asked of him, his part in getting rid of Jack Devers as culpable as Falk and Raymond Clary. But it was Kyle and Ray who had been negotiating with that dangerous character…Ramos. The moment he’d seen Jack’s picture he had agreed to imprison her and make sure she disappeared, especially at the sum Falk was paying him. Falk hated Jack, more because she’d rejected him than the fact that she was smarter than all of them put together. Falk knew that she wouldn’t rest until she got her due, and Kyle, in his deepest of weaselly hearts, knew she had been shafted by PAY-TV. But he wasn’t worried about climbing the ladder on other peoples’ backs, he just didn’t want to get caught. He wanted that promotion, the transfer to New York, that sweet office, and to head up a department of his own. All that hinged on whether or not he could get Rosa to talk.
Falk had insisted that he get information out of Rosa, but the housekeeper didn’t really like him. Yet he suspected she knew where Jack was right now. Fucking Ramos with all his resources couldn’t tie down one woman.
A blue, beat-up Chevy sedan pulled into a parking spot and Rosa got out of the car. He waited until she entered the market, then he crossed the street and went inside. She pulled out her shopping buggy and started toward the produce.
She picked up a bunch of broccoli. Kyle’s stomach churned some more. He hated broccoli. With deliberate precision, he jammed his cart into Rosa’s. Startled, she turned to look at him, her mouth thinned.
“Rosa? What a surprise. I didn’t know you shopped here.”
“Kyle,” was all she said as she set the broccoli into her cart.
He subtly shifted his cart in front of hers to stop her from leaving. “How are you holding up?”
She stared at him. “About what?”
“You know.” He smiled as benignly as he could. “Jack’s disappearance.”
Her eyebrows rose, nothing but judgment on her face. “The one you and your company did nothing about?”
“That’s not true. We were working on getting money together for a ransom.”
“Is that so? It took you three weeks to get a ransom together?Por favor, don’t pull my leg.” She was a tough one, this Venezuelan, but he guessed she would have to be to get out of that country in one piece. “I guess you’re off the hook now. Jack will be on her way home soon.”
“That is good news. She’s out of Venezuela. I know that everyone at PAY-TV will be so relieved to hear of it.”
Her mouth tightened. “No, not yet, but soon.”
She was close-mouthed about Jack, dammit, but his whole future hinged on getting this information. “You’re from there…from Venezuela, right?”
“Yes, I immigrated from there four years ago.”
