That was the break Kinkaid needed.
As flames billowed through the barred window, and rocks rained down on them, Kinkaid lunged for Rosas and shoved him to the ground. He grabbed for the gun as he rolled behind the man. When Pérez fired his weapon, Kinkaid returned fire. And the only protection he had was Miguel Rosas. He heard the bullets as they riddled the man’s body. And when he could, he shot back. He saw the drug boss stagger when he put a hole in his chest, but in the chaos, Kinkaid didn’t know what happened.
He felt a punch in his shoulder, but kept shooting. Estella screamed and cringed in a corner, covering her head. When Kinkaid heard her, he got to his knees and shielded her from fire. And Guerrero had used the fat body of his boss to cower behind. Everything happened in slow motion.
Bullets ricocheted off stone, splintering wood and spraying shards of rock into the room. And when another blast shook the foundation, and the roof started to crack and break free, Guerrero had had enough.
“Let’s go . . . let’s go. Now!” The man urged his boss to move. And when the big man stumbled, Guerrero grabbed him by the collar and pulled him into the corridor, making a run for it. His motivation wasn’t difficult to figure. Guerrero had no weapon. Pérez had taken it.
Guerrero had no choice but to get his boss moving, the man who was big enough to use as a human shield. And with the hacienda coming down, if they didn’t get out now, the odds were they’d be buried alive where they stood.
“Move it! Now!” Guerrero yelled.
Kinkaid stood and looked for Estella in the haze of black smoke and suffocating dust. When he found her, he knelt beside her.
“Are you okay? Can you move?” When the girl nodded, he said, “We have to get out of here.”
But it was too late. The minute Kinkaid had the girl on her feet, heading for the only way out, the roof caved in. He pulled her back and put his body between her and the falling rock. It was all he had time to do.
“Get down. Cover your head.” He shielded the girl as best he could. Every stone that hammered his body sent a shock wave of pain through him. And after a brilliant burst of light blinded him, his body went limp. He fought to stay conscious, but lost his battle.
Darkness swallowed him whole.
Chapter 14
Outside the Pérez Estate
4:10
A.M.
“The whole place is a house of cards, ready to come down. Heads up, people.” Over his com unit, Garrett warned his men as they walked through the fallen stone wall at the entrance to the hacienda. They’d split into three-man teams and spread out, making tougher targets.
“Anyone who finds Martini One, sing out.”
When the UAV had stopped firing, Garrett and his men breached the perimeter and went hunting for survivors. Most of Pérez’s men had split, running for the foothills. And there had been only the occasional skirmish between his men and those still hiding within the walls of the estate.
The UAV flew wide circles around the vast property. Soon, the drone would have to leave. Once Mexican authorities detected the battle, they’d have to evade capture. The longer they were there, the greater the chance of them getting caught, but Garrett hadn’t found Kinkaid or Alexa yet. No matter how one-sided the attack might have been, any victory would be tainted if Jackson and Alexa had been killed in the assault.
And if he didn’t have enough to worry about, what Alexa had told him about Donovan Cross had disturbed him. What was Cross up to? And who was backing him for the number one slot? One man couldn’t do it alone. He had no doubt that Cross had help, but how far would Garrett have to go to protect his back? Returning to his old life, as head of the Sentinels, might be dangerous, especially when he had no idea who had supported Cross in his apparent attempt at a takeover. Someone within the Sentinels had made it easy.
“Found something. Over here.” The voice of Hank Lewis came over his earbud, a much needed distraction from the conspiracies filling his head. When Garrett looked for Hank, he saw him waving in the glow of the burning hacienda. By the time he got to him, Hank was kneeling near a large pile of rubble, holding something in his hand.
“Found Martini One’s com unit.” Hank held the gear up toward the light and showed it to Garrett. “She didn’t respond because she couldn’t.”
Finding her com link didn’t mean she was alive. Her body could be under the pile of stones at their feet, but since they hadn’t secured the compound, Garrett couldn’t divert his men into a rescue mission for one agent. As he saw it, he had only one option.
“Put a team on this spot,” he told Hank. “Have them trade off. Two men dig through this pile and one stands guard. Call out if they . . . find her.”
“Will do, sir.”
Garrett didn’t want to think that Alexa was dead. She was a force of nature, a strong, intelligent woman who was a borderline adrenaline junkie. She thrived in his world, living on the razor’s edge of danger. Imagining her dying before he had taken his last breath was something he couldn’t handle. Even though he gave his order to Hank, it pained him to pretend he could conduct business as usual.
Loving her had been the reason he’d let her go. Neither of them had functioned in their jobs the way they should have. When the success of the mission should have been top priority, they each layered on the added complication of caring what happened to the other. They took unnecessary risks to protect one another, real over-the-top stuff like her risking her career and her life to come looking for him in Mexico.
So when Garrett had seen an opportunity to end it, he had let her find him with another woman, someone who didn’t matter and could remain discreet. Although it had killed him to hurt Alexa that way, he had seen the writing on the wall and knew it was in her best interest to dump him so she could find a better man.
Quitting Alexa was the hardest thing he had ever done. And he’d failed at it. Now it would take all his concentration to focus on the rest of his mission, when all he wanted to do was find her.
But from the look on Hank’s face, the man had more bad news.
“My communications guy just got a call from our handler,” Hank interrupted his misery. “He’s picking up chatter with the local police. They know we’re here, and they’re coming out to investigate. We’ve run out of time, sir.”
Garrett stared across the compound. The Sentinels had survived for as long as they had because of their secrecy. He wouldn’t break that code.
He knew what he had to do, but he didn’t have to like it.
Before the last missile blew apart the main residence, Alexa had zeroed in on the prison cell she had seen from the outside. One corridor, partially belowground, had fit her memory of its location. But after the blast, the destruction had been devastating. Whole sections of the roof had collapsed, and flames lit the night sky. Clouds of dust made it hard to breathe, but she pressed on, aiming her MP-5 into every dark corner. With slow, deliberate steps, she made her way through the debris.
When she heard a moan ahead, and the sound of footsteps echoing down what remained of the stone hallway, she moved faster.
She peered through the dust and smoke and saw movement. The faint silhouette of a man caught her eye. She wanted to yell out, but she had no idea if the man was Kinkaid or the enemy.