by Karen Anders
Emma closed her eyes and her sister’s voice caught on a soft sob. “He’s got him, doesn’t he? I should have told you everything. I should have asked for your help. But I was so scared, I didn’t want anyone to know. I just wanted that nightmare to go away. I thought he would take no for an answer and would leave us alone.” She covered her mouth. “What have I done, Emma? What have I done?”
After many explanations and many tears between the both of them, Lily finally went to sleep. Emma rose and backed away. Robin was standing at the door, his eyes riveted to Lily in the bed, slightly unfocused and...dazed?
She nudged him and he snapped his gaze to hers as if he’d been doing...or thinking something he shouldn’t.
“What now?” he asked.
“Now we get Derrick some backup. You included.”
“Emma,” he said, straightening. “I’m not leaving you alone.”
She grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the room. “I won’t be. Come on.”
NCIS Headquarters
Camp Pendleton, California
When Austin read the news coming out of Mexico, he closed his eyes. Derrick. Dammit. He knew it had been Derrick, although the report didn’t explicitly mention him. He knew something was up when he’d asked Austin to cover for him. When he opened his eyes, his boss was standing in front of his desk. She would have gotten the same report.
She slammed her hands down on the metal, everything reverberating. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Amber jump. She gave him a look that told him she’d read the report, as well. “Tell me I’m wrong.”
Austin thought he would go for an I-don’t-know-a-thing ploy. He looked her up and down. “Did I tell you how great you look today?” he grinned.
He looked over at Amber for support. She shook her head in a that’s-not-going-to-work way, then rolled her eyes heavenward.
“So, I think that color looks great on you. You’re rocking that...uh...red like a pro.”
She narrowed her eyes. Her voice laced with steel. “Beck...”
“So, Francisco Flores is dead,” he said in a dismissive tone. “One more scumbag out of commission. That’s a good thing.”
“Austin...”
“Okay, so Derrick may have been involved.” She growled and he held up his hands. “I don’t know.”
She let out a heavy breath. “Find him, Austin. I want to talk to him.”
Austin leaned back in his chair. This time his tone was worried and resigned. “I’ve already tried. He’s gone off the grid. He’s a ghost.”
“Son of a bitch.” Kai left and went up the stairs to TacOps. “I’ll be with the director.” The door slammed behind her.
His cell phone rang and he answered. It was Emma St. John and she had a plan. Austin’s tight chest began to ease. He motioned Amber toward the conference room. Once inside he put it on speaker. Emma started talking.
“You got that?”
“Yeah,” they said in unison and Austin smiled. “We hear you. We’re in.”
Jungle Near Bogotá, Colombia
If Derrick didn’t hurt so damn much, he would laugh right now. Lopez’s shipment team was in chaos after Derrick had continued his plan to make it look like Ortega was undermining Lopez’s operation. This was the third drug shipment Derrick had disrupted in a week. Word was going to filter back to Diego and it would have Ortega’s name all over it.
He hid behind a clump of palms and brush, the humidity making sweat run off him in rivulets. Sweating in the jungle was normal, but this kind of cold sweat wasn’t. He tilted his hand away from his side and looked down.
Okay, he was chewed up, but it wasn’t bad—except the blood running through his fingers. The bullet was still in there, just under his skin, and it might have skittered off one of his ribs, which would explain why he hurt so freaking bad. The jungle thrashed with Lopez’s men looking for him. He’d never been shot, and now that he had, he couldn’t recommend it. A friggin’ ricochet. Well, at least that tree had slowed the velocity of the slug.
That was good, but the blood...yeah, the blood was a problem. He’d lost too much. He’d slapped a quick patch on himself while fleeing, but that was an hour back, and he hadn’t dared stop long enough to really bind himself up.
On the plus side, his plot was going exactly as planned. He’d called in a crap-load of favors and his shady network had come through. He’d found Ortega within a week of hitting Bogotá, thanks to Flores dropping the intel that Ortega was in bed with Diego Lopez. Now all he had to do was evade eight armed men and get to Ortega’s estate before Lopez decided to take him out of the equation. The irrefutable evidence that Derrick had already planted and was now being whispered into Lopez’s ear would seal Ortega’s fate. Lopez would kill Ortega and neutralize the threat to Matty and his family.
All that was left was to get Matty out.
With the thought of the infant, Derrick unerringly went to the last time he’d kissed and held Emma. In their hotel room in Caliche before they’d ambushed Flores. What a hell of a way to spend a vacation with the woman he loved.
He closed his eyes, his throat tight. He could only hope he’d see her again long enough to place Matty in her arms.
He’d made a calculated error. He should have asked for help. Whether he wanted to acknowledge it or not, he was part of a team. NCIS was his family! The company, for all its faults, had given him the skills he needed to put this scheme in motion and he was doubly grateful for the training and the experience. Without this network, without these contacts, he would have been screwed. Matty would have been lost forever and Emma and Lily devastated.
“Hold it right there,” someone said in Spanish and he turned to find one of the men who had been pursuing him pointing his weapon, his black eyes shadowed beneath the brim of his baseball cap.
Derrick closed his eyes in anguish. He was a dead man.
The guy reached for him to jerk him to his feet, but one moment he was standing there and the next he was on the ground, his cap displaced and a suppressed shot to the back of the head—a professional shot.
Then he heard footsteps and he brought up his gun, but his hand was shaking badly right now. Robin grinned at him as he stepped over the dead man.
“What are you doing here?” Derrick said, his eyes narrowing, happy to see Robin, but pissed he’d left Emma and Lily unguarded.
“Hey, me, my sniper rifle, my 9mm and big ass army knife were in the neighborhood, and that’s a downright unfriendly tone, man.
“Who’s watching Emma?” Derrick snapped. “And, Lily?”
At the sound of Lily’s name, Robin got a look in his eye. “Even more beautiful than your babe. Even in a hospital gown, she looks like a fairy princess.”
“I will kick your ass, bullet wound or no bullet wound.”
Robin was too busy pushing Derrick’s hand away from his side and looking at said damage. “Ooh, that looks bad. Let’s get you some medical attention, compadre.”
“What?” Maybe Derrick had lost too much blood and he was disoriented, but there were still seven men out there hunting him. “Robin. Answer the question!”
He slipped his arm under Derrick’s shoulder and hauled him to his feet. Derrick gritted his teeth and almost passed out. “Some big dude named...Tristan.”
“Michaels? Amber’s husband?”
“Yeah, that’s the guy. Former marine sniper, could bend steel with his bare hands. I think they’re covered.” He helped Derrick to sit with his back pressed to a tree.
“Well, there’s still seven guys out there trying to do me harm. I don’t want any more holes in me.”
“Roger that. Put a sock in the hole that’s flapping right now. I’ve got you covered,” he said breezily. “I brought us some friends. More big dudes and one badass smaller dude. They insisted.”
Th
ree figures materialized out of the jungle and Derrick gaped. Austin Beck, Dexter Kaczewski and his brother Rock, in full tactical battle gear, surrounded him. Bristling with weapons and fifty-pound packs, they were a freaking active navy SEAL and two former marines.
Austin dropped his pack and set his rifle across it. He nodded to Derrick. “I’m going to whittle down the odds,” he said.
“Without any weapons?”
“No, I’ll be out in the dark with a knife.” Derrick watched Austin the surfer dude/egghead/hacker extraordinaire melt like a seasoned commando into the jungle.
“Derrick, you look like hell,” Dex said, setting his rifle next to the tree Robin had propped him against.
“Robin the Boy Wonder said you needed help, but was too bashful to ask.” Rock, a mountain of six five inches of muscle, crouched down. “Don’t you know, man, you’re part of the fam? We inducted you after you saved my brother and his wife, then saved me and my wife. We’ve got your back.” He raised his fist and Derrick bumped it.
Robin was working on Derrick’s side and when he saw the bottle, he wanted to protest, but it was too late. Robin poured on the disinfectant.
Oh, dammit, dammit, dammit. He took a sharp breath as fire burned in the wound and agony ignited in every raw pain receptor. If he hadn’t been sitting, his knees would have buckled.
“Come on, we’re in the presence of superheroes,” Robin said.
Rock patted Robin on the head. “He’s a good sidekick.”
“I’m nobody’s goddamned sidekick,” he ground out and cut off Derrick’s chuckle when he splashed more of the antiseptic into the wound. The son of a bitch.
“I’m not a superhero,” Derrick said.
“That’s right. You’re a secret agent man and a white knight, so buck up.”
This time Dexter crouched down. “Don’t worry, Derrick. We can kick his ass and you can rub salt in his wounds.”
Robin grinned and said, “I’m a lover, not a fighter,” right after he pressed a self-adhesive dressing to Derrick’s wound. This time he passed out.
When he came to, he was across Rock’s shoulders and they were heading toward a nondescript building. Austin, Robin, and Dex flanking them. There were no visible weapons, but he was sure all three of them were armed to the teeth.
Rock went through the door and as soon as the doctor saw them, he motioned them to the back. “This way, gentlemen.”
Derrick was sure there wasn’t one in this bunch, including him.
This was a discreet place to get a bullet wound competently seen to, the doctor a friend to every shadow and spook in this area. He asked no questions, took his pay and kept his damn mouth shut. He probed Derrick’s wound with forceps after numbing the area. Then he heard the sound of metal plinking into a metal dish. The doctor got to sewing him up. It was disconcerting to be sitting here in front of four men, almost buck-ass naked, well, except for the tiny square of cloth covering his groin.
He insisted on walking on his own when they left with painkillers and sutures holding everything together. In a small hotel, they holed up as Derrick laid out his plan.
After he told them how he was going to get off the estate with Matty, they looked at each other.
When they rose, Rock leaned over and said, “If I were you, I wouldn’t tell the mother or aunt how you got that kid out.”
Derrick grimaced, thinking there wouldn’t be much to say to Emma when he was done with this.
He dressed in a gardener’s outfit and pulled the cap low over his eyes. Grabbing the bag with his specialized gear in it, he gritted his teeth as he slung it over his shoulder.
“Are you sure you’re up for this?” Austin murmured from the open door of the van as they prepared to go over to Ortega’s rented estate.
“I have to be. Lopez is going to move on Ortega today. My intel is solid and I’m the only one who can get in. Wait for me at the rendezvous point.”
“Yeah, maybe you should pop one of those happy pills,” Robin suggested.
“I can’t. I’ve got to be mentally and physically sound to do what I have to do. I can endure the pain. It’s still mostly numb.”
Fifteen minutes later he drove up to the estate, showed them his ID and they let him through. He’d been working here for little over three days, casing the area and scoping out the best route to Matty. The nanny brought the baby outside just after lunch and put him in a playpen on the balcony that overlooked the valley below. The estate was set on a bluff, an excellent deterrent to getting attacked from the rear. It was fortified in the front with armed guards and dogs.
His phone vibrated. The voice on the line was terse and brief.
“He’s on his way. Fifteen minutes. Good luck.”
He silently thanked the CIA operative Robin knew in Colombia who was watching Lopez for him. It was now eleven forty-five, and all hell was about to break loose. He made his way with his bag to just down the stairs from the balcony. Matty was there, sitting up and playing with a toy. He set down the bag and pulled out the harness, quickly getting himself into it. He looked at his watch and then dashed up the stairs. He clipped the nanny on the chin with his fist and she dropped to the warm tiles.
Scooping Matty up, he set him into the specially made harness to hold the baby. He cooed and smiled up at Derrick as he made sure he was secure.
“Hold it right there,” Gilberto Ortega said, pointing a gun at Derrick. But he was sure the man wouldn’t fire.
“Set the baby down,” he said angrily, cocking a round into the chamber. “You won’t get off this estate alive.”
That’s where he was wrong. He didn’t see what was on Derrick’s back. As soon as he heard the automatic weapons at the gate, he watched Ortega’s face blanch and look behind him.
“You hear that, Ortega? That’s your destiny coming at you like a freight train. Your legacy ends here and Matty will never be a part of it. I’m going to make sure he grows up in the loving arms of his family.” At Ortega’s lack of focus, Derrick had been steadily moving to the edge of the balcony. As the sound of doors bursting open and more gunfire, Derrick launched himself off the rail backward and into open air. With one hand he supported the baby’s head and neck and with the other, he pulled the ripcord, gritting his teeth as the parachute opened. Over his shoulder, he saw Ortega jerk spasmodically as he was riddled with bullets. Below him the shots echoed across the jungle, sending birds flying and the chatter of monkeys to cease.
Derrick spied his team and his chest tightened. His team, his friends. Ignoring the pain scoring his side, he brought both him and Matty down for a smooth landing.
They were going home.
Chapter 18
They went back to the doctor, who checked the baby out as if it was a common occurrence in the jungles of South America for five hulking men to be toting an infant. The doctor pronounced him in fine condition and they headed back to the hotel room to pull up stakes and head home.
Once inside, Robin sniffed just as Rock said, “Derrick, you’re bleeding. If you pulled out those stitches...” he said, forcing him down on the bed. “Let me take a look.”
He grabbed one of the pill bottles and pulled out a bottle of water. “Take one.”
“I don’t—”
“The mission is over. We won. Take the freaking pill before I shove it down your throat.”
Derrick took the freaking pill. Rock had at least fifty hard-packed pounds and five inches on him. And he was wounded. They were out of the woods. It was a trip to the airport and a commercial flight out of Bogotá.
“What is that smell?”
Dex sniffed and wrinkled his nose. “That’s the little guy. Looks like he’s done his duty.”
Everyone laughed, except Robin. Then it dawned on him. “Oh, he crapped his diaper.”
“
Give this one a medal,” Rock said from the bed where he peeled away the old bandage and Derrick breathed around the agony.
“Looks good, just a little bit of bleeding. I’ll clean it and put on a fresh bandage, then it’s hasta la vista, baby.”
“Someone needs to change him,” Robin said.
“You do it,” Derrick growled. “Geez, you can topple governments, kill a man before he even knows he’s dead, blend into the shadows, assume new identities and con a person into believing you’re whomever you chose to be. I’d say you can change a diaper.”
“Yeah,” Dex said. “It’s not rocket science.”
“Dex, can’t you do it? You have a kid.”
“Ah, it’s good practice. You never know when you’ll need it in the field. Go on.”
“There are some in my backpack,” Derrick said. He’d been prepared for every contingency, right down to the diapers and wipes.
Rock shook his head, pressing a new dressing to his wound, but Derrick wasn’t feeling any pain now. Derrick chuckled, watching the panic on Robin’s face.
Dex piped up. “Just a heads-up. Watch out for—”
“Ah,” Robin groused as Matty set off a stream to splash against his shirt.
“Too late,” Austin chuckled, slapping Robin on the back.
The diaper change turned into a tactical operation as Rock left the bed to supervise and Dex barked orders. Austin sat down next to him.
“Kai’s pissed. She’s got that ‘he’s fired’ look. Man, I tried to cover up.”
“It’s all right. She has every right to fire me. I went off the grid. Twice. I’m a rogue agent. But now I see I should have trusted you all to have my back. I like being on this team. I hope I have a job when I get home.”
“Me, too.” Austin nudged his shoulder. “You are part of the team. Always have been.”
Derrick nodded.
“No, that’s backward,” Dex said, trying to shoulder his way in, but Robin muscled the bigger man over.
“Hey, don’t bogart the baby. I got this,” Robin said.