Mission Made For Two (24 page)

Dazed, she tried to move.
 
Jake’s weight held her down.
He groaned and pushed part the way off her
. 
Blood dripped down his forehead from a cut at his hairline.

He focused on her face.  “You okay.”

“Except for my shoulder.
”
  She grimaced. 
“Dislocated,
”
she said through clenched teeth.

Flores and his brother rustled in the front seat.  Sierra shifted, giving Jake more room to stand.  “Can you get the door open?”

It was strange looking up at the doors.  Jake stood and pulled the door lever.  It opened without trouble.  He helped Sierra to her feet, then grasping the frame of the Rover, hoisted himself up and out. 

Sierra wasn’t going to be able to do that.  She couldn’t make her hand work.  “Jake, you’ll have to lift me.”  God, she hated being weak like this.
Again.

He reached
in and using her good hand, she clamped onto his bicep.  He grabbed her beneath the arms.  The lift was excruciating on her injured shoulder. By the time her feet touched the ground outside, her face was bathed in sweat
and nausea roiled in her stomach
.

Flores and
Alfredo had also climbed out.  Flores had blood at his temple and a cut above his eye, his brother too had blood on his face.  But for the most part they were lucky they were all still in one piece.

Jake’s hand went to the side of her head. “You’re bleeding.”

She looked at him. “
You too, but i
t’s not my head that hurts.  You have to get my shoulder back in place.”

“And then we have to move
,” Flores said tersely.  

“Get our guns,” Jake instructed and pulled Sierra to the back of the SUV.  She saw what had stopped them. 
A tree.
  A row of them lined the road. 

Jake pressed her back against one.  “Take a deep breath.”  His mouth thinned as she obeyed and he gripped her arm.

She nodded. Jake pulled.  Tears sprang to Sierra’s eyes and she bit her lip hard enough to draw blood as she stifled the scream that fought to get out.  Her shoulder popped back in place.  Sharp relief accompanied it.  It still hurt like hell, but it was the kind of pain she could live with.

Flores and Alfredo joined them.
  He’d just lost three of his friends and the anger was etched in his face. 

“We head back toward the town,” Jake said.  “Diaz won’t set off grenades in the midst of all those people.”

The
y
all nodded and took off through the trees.  They’d driven probably ten miles from Flores’s home, but cutting through the trees would cut off half the distance. 

Sierra’s head was beginning to hurt now that her shoulder wasn’t throbbing so badly.  They were moving at a steady jog.  She touched the side of her head and her hand came away wet, but the cut didn’t feel that big. 

They came out of the trees at a road.  The whine of an engine rumbled
to their left. 

And right. 

They ducked back into the trees as two jeeps came within view.

Jake looked at Flores.  “You and Alfredo go back the way we came.  They don’t want you.”

More jeeps were coming.  Diaz had a
freakin
’ army.  Flores wanted to argue.

“Go, Flores,” Jake said again.  H
e slid the backpack off his shoulders
and slipped his hand in the side pocket.  He pulled out the compact with the tracking signal then handed Flores the bag. “Take this to the chopper. If it’s our help, then this is what they want.”

Flores took it and without another word, he and Alfredo disappeared into the darkness.

Sierra hoisted her gun on her shoulder.  Jake did the same.

A voice boomed over a sp
eaker as one of the jeeps halted.  “Come out and you won’t be harmed.”

She and Jake were out gunned.  She was glad they’d made love one more time
, since it would probably be their last
.  “Do you believe him?” Sierra asked.

“No.  But it might buy us some time.  If there are USOI agents in the area, they’re coming for us.”

“And if that chopper’s not our guys?”

He looked at her.  “Then I’m glad we made love one more time
,
”
he said echoing her thoughts. 
He leaned toward her and kissed her hard on the mouth.  “Don’t do anything stupid, okay?”

“You either.”

Throwing their guns down, they walked onto the road.  They were now at the mercy of a man who hated them both.

~***~

Sierra’s butt bone knocked against the bottom of the jeep as it traversed the road.  She and Jake were seated in the back across from each other, the
ir ankles
were tied
and their hands were secured behind their backs
.  When the soldier had jerked her around, she’d almost cried like a baby at the abuse to her already injured shoulder.
 

But she’d stifled that cry because, unlike Jake, these men would use any weakness they found, against her.

Jake’s eyes were narrowed, his expression pensive.  She wished she knew what he was thinking.  She’d interpreted the rapid Spanish the men had exchanged a
nd they were being taken to a house on the outskirts of the town
.

Their only hope at the moment was her compact.
She’d stuffed it into her boot.
If Trent had the cavalry near here
, they’d find them.  She just hoped it wouldn’t be too late.

The blood had dried on the side of Jake’s head, dirt streaked his cheeks and there was a bruise forming on his chin no doubt from the accident.  Still he was the sexiest man she’d ever seen. 

She chuckled, despite the situation. 

Jake looked at her like she had lost her mind.

She shrugged and whispered. “I was just thinking how sexy you looked and then how totally absurd that probably was.”

He shook his head, but his mouth lifted slightly.  “You’re brain works in mysterious ways, Sierra.”

“So, you have a plan B in case Trent and our guys don’t show up?”  She asked the question, though she really didn’t think he did.  It wasn’t his place to come up with a plan anyway.  She’d started this whole mess by coming down here on her own.

“
Working on it.
 
Just stay alert.  We may only get one chance to get loose.  I suspect we’re not dead yet because Diaz is hoping to retrieve what you stole from his safe.”

“Which you smartly sent with Flores.”

One of the men up front hit
the jeep frame with the butt of his rifle.  “No talk!”

Sierra looked back at Jake and wiggled against her constraints.  Her side was bleeding again.  She could feel
the wet stickine
ss of it
.
 

Jake wiggled some in front of her. Then all of a sudden
his hands broke free.  His wrists were bleeding and she wasn’t sure how he’d gotten loose, but it didn’t matter.  Moving slowly so the guys in the jeeps behind them couldn’t tell what he was doing, he leaned forward and worked the ties on h
is
feet loose. Then he loosened the ones on her feet. 

He couldn’t risk untying her hands, and alerting their captors.

Just like in the jungle, they seemed to have the uncanny ability to communicate with only a look. Sierra could see a pistol lying on the seat be
tween their two captors.  If he
could get it, they’d have a chance.
He nodded to her, basically telling her to be ready.

H
e sat back against
the side of the jeep and put his hands behind his
back.

They were entering a curve in the road, the sides lined with trees.  This might be the best place they’d have to get out as the curve was sharp enough to hide them from view at intervals from the jeep behind.

Jake nodded at her
.  As they entered
the first part of the curve, he moved.  H
e reached through the window, grabbed the gun, shot the guard riding shotgun in the head, and
the one driving in the knee.  The driver
howled and steered the jeep off the road.

“Hang on,” Jake
yelled as the jeep stopped abruptly
a
gainst a tree
,
throwing them both against the back
of the jeep
.
The slam into the jeep walls jarred her shoulder again, sending pain shooting down her arm.

One more bullet stopped the driver from grabbing his own gun.
They had only seconds.  Jake scooped her up and basically tossed
her
over the side of the jeep
.
 
He jumped
out behind
her and
steadied her, since her balance was off without the use of her hands. 
They slid down a hillside and started running
, Jake basically pulling her along
. Shouts behind them told them they didn’t have much of a head start.
Jake stopped them though. “We need to get your hands untied.”

S
he couldn’t run as fast as him with her hands behind her back and he knew it. 
She could hear their pursuers.  “Just leave me, Jake.
”

“I won’t leave you behind, Sierra
.
We’ve already discussed that.
” 
His words and fierce look made Sierra’s heart squeeze, but she also didn’t want to be responsible for him getting killed. 
This was even more serious than the jungle.

As quickly as possible he worked on her ties. A knife would make it quicker, but the guards had taken them when they’d been captured.  Finally he got it loose and she
pulled free. By that time, the sound of boots crunching through the forest was too close for comfort.

Jake
shoved her forward
, and pulled the gun he’d used on the guards from his waistband
. 
“
Go.
”

She
dodged trees, heading
east
, which hopefully was closer to help.
  Sierra concentrated on
putting one foot in front of the other as they climbed
a steep embankment. She still wasn’t a hundred percent and the blood seeping from her side, wasn’t
helping
her energy level. 

“I don’t hear them anymore,” Jake said as they stopped at the top.

“Surely they didn’t just give up,” Sierra said around sucking in deep gulps of air.

“Something’s up.”

“Something’s always up where Diaz is concerned.”

Jake looked at the woman besid
e him.  She was fighting
to stay on her feet.
She’d wanted him to leave her as if that was even a possibility.  He wanted to pull her into
his arms and kiss her until neither of them could think straight.  But now wasn’t the time.

“Sit a minute, Sierra. Let me check your side.”

She looked at him, her brown eyes sparkling in spite of the pain he knew she was in.  “You just want to get me out of my shirt again.”

“And your pants, but that’s going to wait until you’re in one piece and we have a nice comfortable bed.  Now sit.”

“Promise?”
  She asked and plopped on the ground as though her legs had just turned to jelly.

He lifted her shirt, which was sticky.  “Damn, I don’t think there’s a stitch left.  Using his teeth, he worked a hole in the bottom of his tee-shirt an
d pulled a strip it
.  Wadding it up, he pressed it against her side.  “Hold that.”

She looked up at him.  Her eyes were weary now that she’d stopped moving.  “What are you going to do?”

“
Just a little recon.
I’ll be right back.”

He didn’t give her a chance to argue with him.  It was too quiet in the trees.      

He circled back, keeping low.  Then he heard it and a smile split his face.  The cavalry had finally arrived.
    

A shower and clean clothes almost made Sierra feel human again.  Of course
,
Jake and Trent had both made her go to the hospital before she did anything else. 

The doctor had
put staples in her side,
given her a shot of antibiotics,
a bag of fluids
and a prescription.  He’d also
told her to take some time off. 

Not much chance of that happening until they found Diaz.