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Kyle scrubbed his hand over his face and sighed. “Things between Natalie and I are…complicated.”
“Since when is anything with womennotcomplicated?” Gage asked.
“True that.” Scotty faced the front of the car again. “Relationships are tough. Just say you’ll think about it, yeah?”
“Fine. I’ll think about it,” Kyle promised.
“Okay, then.” Spencer chuckled. “Better than a flat-out no. So, what’s the plan, boss?”
“Brighton said they’ve got the GPS satellites tracking Arrieta’s movements, so at least we know where he is.” Kyle braced himself against the back of Gage’s seat as they jostled over a section of particularly rough terrain, then scrolled through the rest of the commander’s message before pulling up the schematics for the airstrip and passing it around to Scotty and Spencer. “Work with me on coming up with a plan for storming that bastard’s defenses. How many agents do you think they’ll have?”
“I’m guessing they’ll call in everyone from the field office in Atlanta. So ten, maybe twelve,” Scotty suggested.
“Yep.” Spencer turned to Kyle. “Are we doing dead or alive?”
Kyle sighed. Much as he’d like the exquisite pleasure of watching Arrieta’s life drain away, it was time to set aside his revenge and do what was right. He took his phone back and made a quick assessment of the task ahead of them. “Alive. Seems like the most expedient way to neutralize this threat is to use the one advantage we still have.”
“Which is?” Scotty asked.
“Surprise.” Kyle glanced up at the guys and grinned. “Spencer, once we get there, I want you to hug the perimeter. Scotty, you guard the airstrip itself. Gage, you’re with me. Looks like there’s a storage shed near the property. After we drop off these two, let’s head over there and see if there’s anything inside we can use. Any questions?”
13
“All agents in place. Over.”
“Wait for my orders.” Natalie clicked off the Bluetooth device in her ear and pulled her weapon. Now all they had to do was bring Arrieta in alive.
Ignoring the knot of guilt still coiled tight around her heart, she crept through the thick brush surrounding the runway, keeping a lookout for her suspect. Arrieta had ducked inside a small brick building near one corner of the property a few minutes earlier, but there was only one way in and one way out of the maintenance shed.
He could only hide in there so long.
She could only hide for so long too. Once this mission was over, she’d have to face what she’d done back at Williams’s house. Walking out on Kyle for the third time wasn’t something she was proud of, but making love with him had left her unsettled and unsure of how to proceed. They had different lives, different goals, different futures ahead of them. Didn’t they?
None of that seemed to matter, however, when they were together.
A low rumble sounded in the distance, and she glanced over her shoulder.
Must be a truck on the interstate. She refocused on the building where Arrieta was hiding. The door creaked open, and all her senses went on high alert. This was it. Her chance to catch her husband’s killer, to avenge his death, to put the painful past behind her and close out this assignment once and for all.
Arrieta darted out of the building and took off across the airstrip, headed for her Agency SUV parked nearby. Natalie cocked her trigger and burst through the brush, headed straight for Arrieta, gun raised and pulse pounding. “Freeze, asshole! Hands in the air where I can see them.”
He swiveled fast and aimed his weapon right at the center of her chest. “Say hello to your husband for me.”
The rumble Natalie had heard earlier grew louder and louder until it drowned out every other sound. Before either one of them had time to shoot, an ATV roared into view from near where her vehicle was parked and plowed straight into Arrieta, knocking him several feet into the air. His body landed yards away with a sickening thud, unmoving and unresponsive.
Stunned and still a bit disoriented from her near brush with death, Natalie stood numbly aside as Doug and the rest of the team of agents charged out of hiding and swarmed the area. Shouts and the screech of ATV tires filled the air. Slowly, she lowered her weapon and blinked down at the unmoving body of Miles Arrieta, the man who’d orchestrated Nick’s death, the man whose every movement had consumed every moment of her life for what felt like forever.
Part of her wanted to shout with joy that the bastard had finally been stopped.
The rest of her wanted to curl into a ball and weep for everything she’d lost and all the pain that one man had caused her and so many others around the world.
Kyle stopped his ATV nearby and shut it off, then came up beside her.
She struggled to find her voice. “Is he dead?”
“Still got a pulse,” Doug yelled. “Weak, but there.”
“Natalie, are you okay?” Kyle took her arm and guided her to the side of the airstrip. “I saw him aim for you.”
