Vengeance (SSU Trilogy Book 1)

by Kier, Vanessa

  When he passed behind a group of soldiers standing with their weapons pointed at Percone’s house, Mark whispered loud enough to carry, “Andros is in the neighbor’s house behind you.”

  He didn’t wait to see if the men understood English. With the patches of jungle separating each house, he figured he had enough cover to make it safely to the end of the street. There was bound to be some place down there where he could hide until Alvarez and his men went away.

  Then Mark would go after Dr. Nevsky’s daughter and the chip.

  #

  Alvarez paced along the dusty street. How had it come to this? Over three decades of work building his empire. He had wealth. Power. Respect.

  And a bevy of fools working for him. This is why he needed the chip. To make soldiers that obeyed without question and without mistake.

  He had come so close tonight to achieving his revenge against Niko. But no, the imbecile soldiers had poured bullets into the house and were even now checking to see if Niko and the man named Percone were dead.

  And his guard had just informed him that Madalena and the girl had escaped.

  “The house is empty, sir!” The commander’s voice carried clearly across the walkie-talkie.

  Alvarez wasn’t too proud to admit relief. He wanted to be the one to kill Niko. And if both Percone and Niko died before he questioned them, no one would be left to tell him how to find Nevsky’s microchip. He needed the data on that chip.

  “Search the neighboring houses,” Alvarez ordered. “They can’t have gone—”

  “Un momento, por favor.” The commander spoke to someone on his end of the walkie-talkie. “Your pardon, Jefe. We have reason to believe the men are in the house to the left of Percone’s. What do you want us to do?”

  Alvarez began to smile.

  A disturbance at the end of the jungle caught his eye. Several soldiers headed toward him holding a furiously struggling Jenna Paterson between them.

  Alvarez laughed. Was this not fate? Niko and the girl back under his control. Madalena was still loose, but she would soon be recaptured. She knew nothing of jungle survival.

  “Bring me a megaphone and the belt of the widest man in your group,” Alvarez told the soldier nearest him.

  Then he activated the walkie-talkie. “Commander, this is what I want you to do.”

  #

  Niko was trying to find a way to access the crawl space under the house when Alvarez’s voice came across on a megaphone.

  “Nikolos! Look out the window, hijo. Your brother is dead and I have the Paterson girl. If you want her to stay alive, you will give me the chip.”

  Niko froze. Alvarez had spoken his worst nightmare aloud.

  He sidled up to the window and risked a quick glance outside.

  Jenna was on her knees in front of the crime lord. There wasn’t enough natural light and she was too far away from the streetlight for him to tell if she was hurt. But as he watched, Alvarez tugged on something and Jenna’s head jerked back, her hands scrabbling at her neck.

  Shit. Alvarez had some sort of leash around her neck. Niko’s fingers clenched into fists, a poor substitute for the murderous bellow he fought to contain.

  A single bullet broke through the side window and thudded into the wall several feet from Niko.

  Right. Time to go before they lost their patience and turned this house into a sieve.

  He dropped into a crouch and moved carefully away from the window. Only when he reached the windowless kitchen did he stand. It was the only room he hadn’t searched for crawl space access.

  Whether he found it or not, he had to leave the house. Now.

  #

  Jenna took a deep gulp of air as Alvarez relaxed the pressure on the belt he’d fastened collar-like around her throat. She let her hands drop down to her sides as if they were useless. She didn’t want to remind Alvarez that he hadn’t bound her. He seemed to think cutting off her air was enough.

  Only, she had a small throat. And thanks to the stiffness of the belt, it could only tighten so far. Even at its tightest, the belt didn’t fully cut off her air.

  The crime lord shifted his weight from foot to foot and tapped the end of the belt against his thigh as he waited for Niko to respond to his ultimatum.

  Jenna mentally crossed her fingers, hoping Niko was gone.

  A pebble dug painfully into her right knee. She moved her leg so that it was slightly more comfortable. Alvarez’s men hadn’t been gentle with her when they dragged her out of the jungle, and she could feel the sting of new cuts and reopened old ones. Her head felt like the venue for a kettledrum competition, but at least there was no nausea or double vision. She tensed and released all her muscles, readying them to act if the slightest chance of escape presented itself.

  She wondered where Madalena was now. The older woman had wanted to let the soldiers take her, instead, but Jenna had nixed that idea.

  “Alvarez continues to underestimate you,” Jenna had explained. “If you’re still free, he won’t think he’s in any danger.” Madalena had protested, but Jenna’s final argument had won her over. “Niko will take less risks with me captured. He knows I can handle myself.” And he doesn’t love me like he loves you, she’d thought. He won’t risk death for me.

  Now that she was here with Alvarez, Jenna began to see too many flaws in their plan. She was so nervous, it was easy to appear defeated and weak.

  She forced herself to take another breath, shuddering as if she still couldn’t breathe properly. As she did, she took note of her surroundings.

  There were a dozen soldiers arranged in a loose semi-circle around the neighbor’s unfenced front yard. All the men held automatic weapons. Alvarez stood behind his two bodyguards, so that he was shielded from anyone inside the bungalow firing a weapon. From her position on her knees, Jenna had an excellent view of the pistols and knives hanging from the bodyguards’ belts. If only—

  “Nikolos, answer me or I will have to hurt the girl.” Alvarez jerked on the belt, arching Jenna’s neck back until the top of her head touched his thigh. Her fingers scratched at the skin on the back of his hands, but he only laughed.

  “Percone isn’t here. It’s just me.” Niko’s voice, thick with anger, carried clearly across the heavy silence. Oh, God, no! She’d needed him to be safely away.

  Alvarez released the pressure on the belt, letting Jenna sag forward.

  “Ah, but Nikolos, I have word that you indeed have Señor Percone inside with you. Send him out and I will release the girl.”

  “Percone is dead. He didn’t know anything about the chip.”

  “I know better than to believe you, my friend. Shall I demonstrate what will happen to Señorita Paterson if you don’t cooperate?” Alvarez held out his hand to the man closest to him. “Knife, please.”

  As the bodyguard unfastened his knife, Alvarez released his hold on the belt and used his knee to shove Jenna to the ground.

  But Jenna used her momentum to fling herself against the legs of the man in front of her. As he fell, she fumbled for his pistol. She’d just managed to pull the weapon free from its holster when the military truck at the end of the line exploded.

  The soldiers closest to the trucks hit the ground.

  Thank you, Madalena!

  Jenna tightened her grip on the pistol and rolled under the truck closest to her. She yanked the belt from around her neck and tossed it aside. Then she started belly-crawling under the line of trucks toward Alvarez’s limousine.

  Chapter 35

  Niko slid out from between a pair of fan-shaped palmettos at the side of the house. The boards under the kitchen sink had been loose and yielded easily to his tugging. From the crawl space he’d worked his way to the front of the house, where he’d yelled back at Alvarez. The quick-witted soldier who’d come to investigate a voice that sounded too close to be from inside lay unconscious, tucked into a patch of shadow.

  The man’s uniform was too loose on Niko, but the pistol and combat knife were
just right.

  Unfortunately, the ammo clip for the automatic rifle was empty and there wasn’t a spare. No problem. He’d just walk up to one of the trucks and help himself to as much ammo as he needed.

  As he stepped onto the street, the truck at the head of the line exploded. Niko ducked and turned his face away, but kept moving. Most of the soldiers in the yard stayed on their feet, with only the soldiers near the trucks hitting the ground.

  It wasn’t exactly the help Niko had been hoping for when he’d sent a 9-1-1 call to SSU headquarters a short while ago, but he’d take what he could get.

  The soldiers didn’t stay down for long. A group of them climbed to their feet and raced left toward the burning truck. One man made a beeline for the cab of the truck behind the wreck, hustling to move the vehicle out of the way before it caught on fire.

  Flanked by his bodyguards, Alvarez ran between the second and third parked trucks.

  Something slithered from underneath the third truck to the fourth and last truck on Niko’s right.

  Niko blinked and refocused, sure he must have seen wrong.

  Shit.

  Jenna slid out from the shadows under the last truck and took up a shooting position behind it, aiming toward the jungle.

  Niko couldn’t see what she was aiming at, but there was only one target here she’d be interested in.

  Alvarez.

  And the second she shot him, Alvarez’s bodyguards would return fire.

  He raced toward her, sending fervent prayers up to every god his ancestors had ever worshipped.

  Please don’t let her die!

  Because he wasn’t going to make it in time to save her.

  #

  From the shelter of the jungle, Madalena watched Alvarez flee toward his limousine. She still had one grenade left from the two she and Jenna had stolen off the soldier they’d ambushed in the jungle. But she didn’t want to use it.

  She’d prefer to kill Alvarez with the soldier’s pistol she carried. A knife would be more appropriate, but she knew she’d never get close enough to use it.

  Alvarez and his bodyguards reached the limousine. The men yanked on the door handles but the doors stayed shut. One of the men thumped angrily on the roof of the car. The other shouted into his walkie-talkie.

  Madalena’s lips curled in a smile. Locking the limousine had been a brilliant move on Jenna’s part. With the limo being bulletproof, the men couldn’t break in.

  Jenna emerged from behind the last truck, pistol up.

  “No!” Madalena whispered. “Alvarez is mine! What are you doing?”

  Jenna fired.

  Alvarez jerked back, then slid slowly to the ground. His bodyguards turned as one, weapons up.

  Jenna dropped, but not fast enough. Madalena saw blood burst on the shoulder of Jenna’s t-shirt.

  Then hands reached out from under the truck and pulled Jenna to safety.

  Madalena stared at Alvarez, unable to believe he was—

  His head moved.

  Madalena moved along the interior edge of the jungle until she was almost directly next to the limousine.

  “Help me to my feet.” The raspy voice was Alvarez’s.

  “Jefe!” His bodyguards stood close to their boss, sheltering him with their bodies as they lifted Alvarez to his feet.

  “Where is that imbecile with the keys to my limousine?” Alvarez demanded.

  “He is coming, Jefe. He was hurt by a piece of metal from the explosion.”

  A group of soldiers approached the limousine at a run.

  Madalena scooted away from the limousine. When she was across from the second truck in line, she pulled the pin on the grenade she held and threw.

  The grenade landed under the rear of the truck.

  As it exploded, Madalena sent up a brief prayer. Please let me succeed in killing Alvarez.

  She was ready to die. Ready to see her long deceased husband. But not until she’d gotten revenge on his murderer.

  Madalena crossed herself, checked that the gun she held was ready, then stepped out of the jungle.

  #

  “Jaime Alvarez!”

  Niko’s head jerked up and knocked against the underbelly of the truck. Was that Aunt Madalena’s voice?

  Nah. Couldn’t be Aunt Madalena. He had to be hallucinating. Still, he scooted forward to get a better view.

  But all that was visible was Alvarez and the limo.

  A line of bullets strafed the street in front of the limo. The bodyguard standing immediately in front of Alvarez went down. The other guard pulled Alvarez to the ground and shoved his boss under the vehicle. Bullets slammed into him and he slumped to the ground.

  Beside Niko, Jenna groaned and stirred. The bullet had hit the front of her shoulder. He’d stuffed his handkerchief against the wound to help stop the flow of blood, but she needed medical attention. Soon.

  Her eyes fluttered open. “Ni-ko,” she breathed.

  “Shhh, querida. Don’t let the soldiers hear you.”

  “Love…you…” Her eyes closed.

  His fingers leapt to her throat. The faint pulse he found barely reassured him. Where was the damn rescue team? Jenna needed help.

  “Stand up and face me, Alvarez,” the familiar female voice shouted. “It is time for you to pay for your sins.”

  Niko shook his head. Dear God, it was his aunt. She walked out of the jungle holding an automatic weapon like a female Rambo. Her dark hair formed a tangled wave around her scratched, blood-stained face. Her cream silk blouse and rust colored linen pants were torn and stained.

  “Hold your fire!” Alvarez’s voice crackled over every walkie-talkie.

  Niko heard grumbling from the soldiers moving up beside the truck.

  Shit. As soon as Alvarez gave the order, Aunt Madalena was dead.

  Niko thought fast, but no matter how many of the soldiers he took down, he couldn’t save her. Not from where he was. The pistol he had simply didn’t have the range.

  And if he fired from here, the soldiers would see Jenna.

  He wouldn’t put her in that kind of danger. So he crawled away from her.

  Once he was out from under the truck, he stood up, hoping his uniform would allow him closer access to Alvarez.

  “I do not answer to a whore!” Alvarez’s defiant voice was muted by the bulk of the limo above him.

  Madalena fired again. But the bullets didn’t reach far enough under the limo to hit Alvarez. The crime lord was inching his way backward, toward the opposite side of the limo and the freedom of the jungle beyond.

  Niko used Madalena’s shooting to disguise the discharge of his own weapon. Several of the soldiers fell. The others turned to face this new threat.

  Keeping his head down, Niko pushed through the group of soldiers, muttering in Spanish. “Imbeciles. Do none of you have any sense? You don’t have to shoot the woman to contain her. She is paying attention to no one but El Jefe.”

  Hoping his aunt would recognize him in time, Niko walked toward her. When he was close enough, he began speaking to her in Greek. He figured that would get her attention even if she didn’t recognize him in the faint dawn light. She might not be as fluent as she’d been when Uncle Tasi was alive, but her note the other day proved she still retained some understanding of her late husband’s native language.

  “Aunt Madalena. Don’t shoot. It’s Niko. I’m going to grab you and pretend I’m taking you prisoner. When I tell you to, run into the jungle.”

  He lunged for her.

  “No!” Madalena screamed as Niko’s arms went around her. “He’s getting away.”

  Alvarez had reached the other side of the limo and was on his feet, bolting for the jungle. Madalena aimed the butt of her weapon toward Niko’s crotch. He turned aside, but the blow landed on his wounded thigh.

  He loosened his grip and Madalena slipped free. “I’m sorry, Niko,” she murmured. “I love you, but this is something I must do.”

  “No!” Niko grabbed for his aun
t, but caught only air. Then his injured leg collapsed, sending him to the ground.

  Madalena ran toward Alvarez, firing.

  “Jaime Alvarez! Do not run away, you coward. Face your death like a man!”

  Niko pushed to his knees.

  The soldiers opened fire. Bullets cut across Madalena’s body, leaving a trail of red. For an instant his aunt seemed to hang suspended in the middle of the street, before collapsing gracefully onto the pavement.

  Niko closed his eyes on a sharp wave of grief. Ah, his brave, strong aunt. He’d failed her again.

  Rest in peace, Aunt Madalena.

  From the direction of the beach there came a barrage of gunfire and the distant thrum of helicopter rotors.

  Alvarez stopped his retreat and moved toward Madalena’s body.

  Hell, no. That bastard wasn’t touching her in death. He’d done too much of that in life.

  Niko moved to intercept the man. He held his right hand up to his ear and kept his head turned away from Alvarez while his lips moved as if issuing orders into a walkie-talkie.

  They reached Madalena at the same time. Niko hoped the sounds of fighting growing closer meant that help had arrived.

  Otherwise, he was about to join his aunt.

  Niko looked left, into the crime lord’s face.

  Alvarez stopped in surprise. “Ah, Niko.” The start of a malicious smile was cut off when Niko grabbed him and shoved his pistol against Alvarez’s temple.

  “Tell your men to lower their weapons and lie facedown.”

  “No. You won’t shoot me, Niko. Your honor won’t allow it.”

  “Really? You’re that certain, you’ll risk your life on it?” Niko jammed the nose of the pistol harder into Alvarez’s temple. Right now, the mix of grief and anger inside him was demanding he kill Alvarez.

  “You, with the gun! Release Señor Alvarez or we will kill the girl.”

  Niko tightened his grip on Alvarez. Jenna lay on her belly in the street, three soldiers aiming their weapons at her head. Her eyes were open, but Niko couldn’t tell if she was alert enough to know what was going on.

  Niko’s mind processed scenarios, but every one came up with a bullet in Jenna’s head.