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A resulting groan registered from the ground. The split shot beneath the water, and a frenzy of bubbles escaped to the surface. Every cell in his body ordered him to move. What’d started as a hairline fracture widened until Baker had to swim to keep from getting sucked down into the cyclone forming in the middle of the pool.
Water drained within seconds, and he stabbed his toes into the wall for leverage. Only he wasn’t fast enough to get out. Pain splintered through his broken wrist as he tried holding on to the edge with both hands to avoid getting sucked into the black cavern nine feet below. “Jocelyn!”
His fingers weren’t strong enough to hold his weight.
And he slipped.
Chapter Eight
She could give up cookies, but she was no quitter.
Jocelyn pumped her legs as hard as she could. Cacti and scrub brush tore at her soaked pants and threatened to bring her down, but she had to get the SUV.
It was the only way to warn Socorro of what was about to happen.
Tremors radiated out from where Marc De Leon’s compound used to stand. The entire cliffside was about to slide into the canyon and wipe out Alpine Valley with it. They had to evacuate. She clamped a hand over the wound in her shoulder to distract herself from the pain, but it was no use. The bullet had torn through muscle and tissue and left her with nothing but a craving to numb out. She couldn’t. Not now. Not again.
The SUV came into sight as she charged full force along the dirt road that’d once lead to the compound. Her head pounded in rhythm with her shallow breathing. She was almost there. She was going to make it. Jocelyn might not have been able to save her husband from the suffering and agony, but she could save those people down there.
Hitting the lock release on her keys, she slowed as the headlights failed to light up. She’d gone into the water. The mechanism had most likely shorted out. She pushed herself harder. Every second it took to get word back to Socorro was another possible life lost when the cliff crumbled.
“Jocelyn!” Her name tendriled through the focused haze. That voice. She knew that voice. It was enough to stop her short of the SUV and turn back to the flaming remains of the house.
“Baker?” A war raged behind her breastbone. He was alive! Within reach if she retraced her steps, but that need to bury the pain of not being there for her husband at his last moments held her incapacitated. Seconds distorted into frozen minutes as the ground crumbled beneath her feet. The cliff was failing. And it would take Baker with it if she didn’t do something. Jocelyn cut her gaze to her SUV. It was right there.
But she didn’t have time to warn the people of Alpine Valley and get to Baker, too.
“I’ll make the choice easy for you.” A fist rocketed into the side of her face. “You don’t get to save either.”
She hit the ground. The wind was knocked out of her as rock and dirt infiltrated the hole in her shoulder. She tensed against the kick headed for her rib cage. Her attacker’s boot ricocheted off her kneecap and sent her body into overdrive. Jocelyn shoved upright with one hand. Hugging her injured arm close, she swung with the other. But missed.
“You’re a fighter, aren’t you?” The back of the bastard’s hand swiped across her face. “Can’t even be put down by a bullet. I’m impressed but in a bit of a hurry.”
Momentum spun her to one side. Blood bloomed inside her mouth where her teeth cut into the soft tissues of her cheek. It took longer than it should have to recover, but she’d already been running on fumes. Adrenaline would only take her so far.
“Who the hell are you?” She stuggled to keep her balance.
“I’ve gone by a lot of names. Your chief of police called me a ghost.” The dark silhouette with his back to the flames advanced. “But to my friends, I’m simply a craftsman.”
The Ghost. The same bomber who’d killed Baker’s sister?
“Your friends.” She’d trained her body not to shut down in the face of danger, but the numbness was already starting to kick in. It cascaded from her fingers into her chest and blocked her ability to stay in the moment. And without that, she was nothing. “Sangre por Sangre.”
“I’m curious. What made you think you’d be enough to take on an organization who pays back any strike tenfold in blood, Jocelyn?” he asked.
He knew her name. Had most likely researched her and her team. Read about her past. “Is that what this is? Payback for a Socorro operative destroying the cartel’s headquarters?”
“That’s a little above your pay grade.” He turned his back on her, heading toward the compound. To finish what he’d started with Baker? “For now, walk away while you still can.”
“The cliffside is about to collapse. Hundreds of people are going to die if we don’t warn them to evacuate.” Piercing pain burned through her side. The stitches. She must’ve torn them sometime in the last few minutes. Something warm and wet battled with the chill of pool water in her waistband.
“Blood for blood, Jocelyn.” The bomber barely angled his head over his shoulder as he strode away from her. “The warning is right there in the name. Go home. You’re going to need your strength before I’m finished.”
Jocelyn dug her thumb into the bullet wound. Her nerves took care of the rest, sending feeling and another shot of adrenaline through her. She couldn’t let any more innocent lives pay for her mistakes. Couldn’t let Baker die. The weight would crush her.
“No.”
She lunged. Grabbing for the bomber’s shoulder, she dropped to both knees as he swung to face her and slammed her good elbow into his gut. He took the impact better than she’d expected. Right before arcing his fist into her face.
