Solitary Soldier

by Debra Webb

  Rachel scolded herself for getting sidetracked. She checked on Josh once more then padded down the long hall in search of Sloan. She smiled when the scent of fresh-brewed coffee tickled her nose. She found him in the kitchen staring out the window at the lingering pre-dawn darkness.

  For one long moment she could only stand there and look at him. His arms crossed over his chest, one lean hip propped against the counter. Her body responded to him instantly, growing warm and moist. His hair was loose around his shoulders, the tawny length tempting her fingers. He turned to look at her and her pulse skipped when that mesmerizing blue gaze collided with hers.

  The hint of a smile that touched his lips melted her bones. She was so in love with him. If she could spend the rest of her life right here with him, she would. All he would have to do is ask. But he wouldn’t do that. Though she had seen with her own eyes the tender moments he shared with Josh, he could never love him the way she loved him. Josh was Angel’s son, that was the cold hard fact. Rachel closed her eyes and turned away from what she knew would never truly be hers.

  “Is Josh okay?”

  Rachel jerked back to attention and produced a smile. She focused on his mouth, his hair, anything but his eyes. “Yes. His temp’s still at a safe level.”

  “Good.” He sounded distracted.

  The frown that claimed his features snapped her gaze to his. “Is something wrong?” she asked.

  He sighed as if contemplating whether to worry her with his concerns. “It’s Pablo. He should have been back long before now. There’s always the possibility that the Jeep broke down, but that’s not likely. He would have walked back or into town. He has a sister there that he could have gone to for transportation.”

  Rachel stilled. The hunger she had felt only minutes ago fled. “You think something has happened to him?”

  He leveled his gaze on hers. “I don’t think it, I know it. The only thing that would keep Pablo from coming back is someone putting him out of commission.”

  No further explanation was required. He thought Pablo was dead. The realization hardened like a rock in her stomach. Despair swooped down and tore at her chest.

  “What can we do?”

  Resignation clouded his angular features. “Nothing, but wait.”

  Rachel suddenly needed to be with her son. “I think I’ll…I’ll check on Josh.”

  Angel was close.

  She couldn’t be sure why she abruptly sensed that reality. But she could feel it. Some instinct that erupted out of nowhere. She had to get to Josh. The urge consumed her. When another of those odd chimes sounded she wondered if Sloan had gone outside to look for Pablo or if maybe he had finally arrived with the doctor.

  She stepped quietly into the bedroom, not wanting to wake her son. The French doors standing wide open captured her attention. Ice filled her veins. She flipped on the overhead light with numb fingers.

  “Surprise, Mommy!”

  Josh sat on the edge of the bed with a stranger. A woman. The long, dark-haired woman.

  “It’s the lady who gived me the bear from my daddy,” he explained happily. He frowned then. “But I forgotted him in the mountains.”

  The woman stood, her moves catlike, and expertly leveled her weapon on Rachel. “I think we should step outside, don’t you agree?”

  Josh looked from one to the other, his face still flushed with his fever. “Mommy?” Uncertainty filled his little voice.

  “It’s okay, sweetie,” she assured him.

  “Unless, of course,” the woman continued, “you’d like to settle this in here.”

  The woman was taller than Rachel, and thin. She looked every bit as menacing as Angel. Forcing herself to comply, Rachel started toward the French doors. “Outside is fine,” she urged. She had to keep Josh out of the line of fire. Whoever this woman was, she might be crazy enough to do anything.

  “Good thinking,” the woman cooed saccharinely.

  Rachel paused at the door and gave her son what might be his final smile from her. “Josh, you stay right here and Mommy’ll be back soon.”

  He nodded hesitantly.

  The woman shoved Rachel through the open doors and into the night air. “Move,” she snapped.

  “Who are you?”

  She shoved Rachel again, toward the center of the courtyard. “Shut up.”

  “Did Angel send you?” Rachel demanded, trying not to show her fear. She prayed Josh would not wander outside when she didn’t return quickly enough.

  “Oh, he sent me all right,” she sneered.

  Rachel turned around, making the woman pull up short. “Where is he?” Her anger kicked up, chasing away just a little bit of the fear. She was going to die anyway. “Was he afraid to come himself?”

  The woman laughed dryly. “I think you know better than that, little Miss Goody Two-shoes.”

  “Then why are you here?” If she was going to die, she at least had a right to know the reason.

  “Don’t you know? I came to kill you,” the woman said tartly.

  Rachel blinked. “Is that what Angel ordered you to do?”

  “Not quite.” She smirked. “I’m supposed to keep an eye on you, like always.”

  “Like always?” Rachel had never seen this woman before in her life.

  “Whenever Angel is on an overseas assignment, I keep an eye on you and the kid.”

  So that’s how he kept up with Rachel’s business and attempts to elude him, besides using the bank transactions Sloan had pointed out. “Are you his partner?” she wanted to know.

  She laughed again. “He doesn’t have a partner, honey. I’m Tanya.” She quirked a brow. “His lover.”

  “I don’t understand.” If Tanya was supposed to be watching their every move, why was she holding a gun on Rachel now? “Where is Angel?” Rachel insisted. “He’s not man enough to do the job himself?”

  She gave Rachel a knowing look. “You know as well as I do how much man he is,” she said pointedly. “That’s the problem.”

  Tanya wasn’t just his lover, she was his jealous lover. She wanted Rachel out of the way. This was crazy. Please, Rachel prayed, help Sloan keep Josh safe.

  “Angel will be here soon enough, but it’ll be too late for you, I’m afraid. I’m sick of hearing about sweet little Rachel,” Tanya said vehemently. “I want you out of the picture.”

  Rachel shook her head in disbelief. “He doesn’t want me, he wants Josh.” How could she think that Angel wanted her?

  “He wants you all right,” she argued, “in some sadistic way. He could’ve killed you long ago. I’m not risking that he’ll pick you over me when it gets down to the nitty-gritty.”

  “Then he doesn’t know you’re here?” The big picture cleared in Rachel’s head.

  Tanya waved her weapon. “I told you, I’m supposed to keep an eye on you until he gets here. But when he gets here I’ll just tell him that Sloan offed you, and that I took care of Sloan to save him the trouble.”

  “He won’t believe that,” Rachel countered, renewed fear rising inside her. “Why would Sloan want to kill me?”

  “Revenge, of course,” she said triumphantly. “Angel was seething after I told him about your little escapade in town yesterday morning. He even cut his time in Europe short. He’s coming in this morning, rather than later in the afternoon. I won’t have any trouble convincing him that Sloan went ballistic and killed you. And that he would have killed the kid if I hadn’t intervened. He knows how close to the edge Sloan is.”

  Rachel realized then she had overlooked one important detail. “How did you get in here?”

  She made a disparaging sound. “Pablo has a sister who lives in town. It was simple. He didn’t want to watch her die a slow and painful death so he gave me the code to get inside.”

  “Where is he?” Fury swept over Rachel, vanquishing her fear. This woman was just as evil as Angel.

  “Don’t worry your pretty little head about that,” she patronized. “Pablo’s beyond anybody’
s help now.”

  “You’re making a mistake,” Rachel warned. How long would it take Sloan to realize she was no longer in the house? Would Josh go to him? “Angel will figure out what you did.”

  “He’ll be too busy grieving,” she said with obvious disgust. “And raising his son.” She smiled, enjoying Rachel’s visible distress.

  Anxiety hurdling through her, Rachel went for broke. “Why can’t we come to some sort of mutually advantageous agreement?” There had to be some way to reach the woman.

  Tanya rolled her eyes. “Don’t be absurd. Why would I want to make a deal with you?”

  “If you let me and Josh go, I swear we’ll disappear and you’ll never have to worry about us again.” She mentally crossed her fingers. Surely the woman had a price. “I have money,” she added quickly.

  Tanya narrowed her gaze suspiciously. “I don’t need your money. I have money.” She shrugged. “Besides, Angel would only find you. You know that. You can’t hide from him.”

  She knew that better than anyone. “Look, leave my son and Sloan out of it. Your problem is with me.” The thought of Josh being taken by Angel and Sloan being hurt was more than Rachel could bear. She had already cost Pablo his life. She winced at the realization. “All you want is to get rid of me,” she urged. “Leave Sloan and Josh out of this.”

  Tanya laughed. “Oh, this is rich. You’re in love with the man. Did he tell you what Angel did to him?”

  The phone call. “It was you,” Rachel accused. “You played the tape.”

  “I’ll bet that freaked out the poor bastard,” she said proudly. “I thought the bear and the ribbon were pretty ingenious as well. The bear was an almost perfect match for the one his kid had.”

  “How could you do this?” Rachel searched the woman’s face, her eyes, for some glimmer of goodness. Cold, calculating evil stared back at her.

  “Easy. I had a good teacher. As soon as I discovered that you had come to Sloan, I rounded up Angel’s bag of tricks designed specifically to trip this guy’s trigger and followed you here.”

  Rachel felt sick to her stomach. Tanya actually derived pleasure from torturing Sloan. Would this woman be raising her son when Angel was off doing what he did? The thought made Rachel faint with panic.

  “Please,” Rachel pleaded, “there has to be a way to work this out.”

  “No more talking.”

  Tanya moved closer, she pressed the barrel of the weapon directly against Rachel’s forehead. Rachel squeezed her eyes shut and braced herself for death.

  “Time to send you where all good little girls go.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Drop it.”

  Sloan pressed the barrel of his Beretta a little harder into the back of the woman’s head. Everything inside him stilled in anticipation of her next move.

  “Be careful, Sloan,” Angel’s lover warned, “I’d hate to splatter her brains all over the place.”

  Dawn rushed across the desert, spilling its golden glow around them as the tense seconds turned to one minute, then two. Sloan turned off his fledgling emotions and adopted the no mercy attitude that had garnered his current hard-ass reputation.

  “You have some reason to believe that she means something more to me than bait for Angel?”

  Tanya stiffened. Uncertain. “I saw the two of you together. I know what she means to you.”

  Sloan eased closer in preparation of grabbing her by the throat. “You know what I showed you,” he said softly, his voice lethal, purposely seductive.

  She laughed a strained sound.

  An unexpected weight slammed into Sloan’s right leg, startling him. He jerked his gaze downward.

  Josh.

  Tanya picked that precise moment to act. She whirled around, Rachel clutched like a shield in front of her, the weapon pressed into her temple. Rachel’s eyes rounded in horror when her gaze lit on Josh. Sloan swore silently and forced his attention on Tanya. He couldn’t allow Rachel or anything she was feeling to distract him.

  “Excellent,” Tanya said with a sick smile in Josh’s direction. “Nothing like a little family reunion.”

  “Let her go.” A dead calm settled over Sloan. He took a bead right between Tanya’s green eyes. His finger itched to pull the trigger.

  “Back off, big boy, or she dies right in front of the kid,” she hissed through clenched teeth. “I came here to do her, and I ain’t leaving until it’s done.”

  Josh clung more tightly to Sloan’s leg. He could feel the child’s heart thudding in his chest. Sloan clenched his jaw and took aim at Angel’s whore.

  “You’ll die together then.”

  “No.” Rachel held up her hand stop sign fashion. “Get Josh out of here.” She moistened her trembling lips. “Please, Sloan, keep my baby safe. Just go.”

  Sloan squashed the emotions threatening to tear him apart. He shook his head slowly from side to side. No way in hell was he leaving her. “Not a chance.”

  “How touching.”

  The abrupt sound of the male voice made Sloan’s blood run cold.

  Angel.

  Sloan met that hellish black gaze. A flood of emotions hit him all at once, straining his hold on reality. Rage, pain, vengeance vied for his attention.

  “Angel,” Tanya said nervously. She released her death grip on Rachel. “I’m glad you’re here. I was just—”

  “Save it.” Angel’s weapon was trained on Rachel, but his gaze was focused on Sloan. “Drop your weapon or I’ll end it now,” he warned Sloan.

  Reluctant but certain that Rachel’s life depended on his cooperation, Sloan lowered his weapon. His eyes never leaving Angel, he crouched and placed it on the ground.

  Fury streaked across Angel’s face as Sloan stood, unarmed. “I’ve been on a damn plane all night.” He made a production of straightening his suit jacket, then smoothed a hand over the expensive fabric. “While you were here, playing house.”

  The best-dressed assassin in the world, Sloan suddenly remembered putting that in his report as he searched for Angel all those years ago. A lady’s man. A frigging madman. Hatred twisted in Sloan’s gut. Now was his chance. All he had to do was drop, snatch his weapon, roll and take his shot. He could kill Angel where he stood before he had a chance to react. But he couldn’t risk Rachel’s life. Or Josh’s. A ragged breath shuddered through Sloan.

  “Imagine my surprise,” Angel said angrily, his attention diverting to Tanya, “when I arrived earlier than planned to find you,” he glared at her briefly before shifting his wary gaze back to Sloan “poised to kill the mother of my child.”

  “You don’t understand,” Tanya argued, desperation rising in her voice.

  “Big mistake.” Angel shot her. Rachel gasped. Tanya staggered back, then crumpled to the ground knocking Rachel down as she went. Rachel shrieked and scrambled away from her. “Don’t move,” Angel ordered. Rachel froze.

  In that moment of distraction, Sloan snatched up his weapon and leveled it on Angel before he could regroup.

  Angel smiled, acknowledging the smooth move. “Well. Looks like the proverbial Mexican standoff. How appropriate.”

  Sloan knew Angel was no fool. He kept his weapon trained on Rachel, knowing her life would mean a great deal more to Sloan than his own. The desire to kill the sick son of a bitch burst inside Sloan like shattering glass. He could taste the vengeance, the victory. His finger snugged around the trigger. The memory of his wife and his son rushed through him, weakening his restraint. The sound of Josh crying quietly, his little arms still tight around Sloan’s leg invaded his senses, shoring up his resolve. He couldn’t make a move with Josh in the line of fire, no matter how much he wanted to.

  But the need to kill Angel pulled at him, like a powerful magnet. His body trembled with the effort of holding back the long awaited vengeance.

  Angel’s sinister smile widened. “Are you sure you want to do that?”

  “Yes,” Sloan rasped, his heart thundering in his ears. The desire was palpable
, a physical ache.

  Angel shrugged. “I only came here for my son.” He flicked a disparaging glance at Rachel who hadn’t moved a muscle. “I obviously can’t trust her to keep him safe and away from losers like you.” He leveled his confident black gaze on Sloan. “In fact, I’ll sweeten the deal for you, old friend—”

  “I’m not your friend,” Sloan ground out, the urge to kill so strong now he couldn’t draw in a decent breath. “I’m the man who’s going to kill you if it’s the last thing I ever do.”

  Angel laughed fearlessly. “No, I don’t think so.” He firmed his hold on the weapon aimed at Rachel. “It’s quite clear to me that you’ve tasted what she has to offer, and I certainly have no use for her. It’s ironic don’t you think, that I’ve kept her from men all this time, and then you’re the one to take her from me. But I’m a good sport. You keep the bitch, I’ll take the boy, and we’ll both be happy.”

  “Go to hell.”

  “Why don’t you tell me what it’s like there,” Angel returned. “I’m quite certain that you’re very familiar with the place.”

  “You’re dead.” Sloan braced himself for the recoil.

  Angel sighed dramatically. “If you kill me then you’ll never know what really happened to that sweet little boy of yours.”

  Sloan stiffened against the rage erupting inside him. “My son is dead.”

  Angel cocked his head and leveled a speculative gaze on him. “Are you certain of that?” He shrugged. “The body the police recovered could have been any child. After all, there wasn’t much left to identify. I doubt DNA testing was even possible considering the condition of the…remains.”

  Sloan blinked back the remembered horror. He would not allow Angel to distract him with lies. “The teddy bear was my son’s. And there were other details, other similarities.”

  “Well, now, that’s true,” Angel agreed. “But was the body your son’s? It could have been one belonging to a child listed as a John Doe in a morgue in Los Angeles. The size and approximate age were right. But when a body is burned that badly, it’s quite difficult to tell, don’t you agree?”