72 Hours Read online

  She opened her mouth to ask him, but Gallagher beat her to the microphone. “Showtime.”

  They were in the air within seconds, skimming along almost silently, just over the water. Grace did a final check of her gear—gun, harness, D-ring and rope—then stepped out onto the skid while Alex did the same on the other side.

  Training. Planning. Balance. Above all, timing. The adrenaline settled into a steady beat through her veins, like bass reverberating through a cheaply-constructed apartment building. The Aussies knew how to do it right—face first, meeting the enemy head on with guns blazing.

  There was a constant, low chatter on the headset as Gallagher and Carmen monitored the live feed. The angle was vital—they had to keep the toilet out of the line of fire. The hope was that if the orders to take Rossi alive were overridden by the survival instinct, they’d shoot high, aiming for the helicopter which wouldn’t be there but a few seconds.

  Mere moments later, the visualization was over and the real thing began. Gallagher brought them in low and fast.

  “Go!”

  Grace stepped off the skid into the air, heard shouts and the short, controlled bursts of Alex’s gun while she counted off. One-one thousand…two-one thousand…three.

  She lifted the hand controlling the rope, catching it in the D-ring and jerking to a stop. One-one thousand. Through the corner of her eye she saw Danny emerge from the outhouse, looking up.

  Two-one thousand. She released, free-falling to the ground.

  “Clear!” Alex shouted.

  “Mommy!”

  She hit the dirt running. The rope slid free of the D-ring and she swung her assault rifle back on its strap and scooped up her son. His arms and legs curled around her and she was moving again.

  “Go five!” Alex said into her headpiece.

  She pivoted to her five o’clock without breaking stride. There were more shouts…more shots. Too many. Shit. She was off-balance with Danny’s weight straining her shoulders, but she pushed forward.

  “Building, two…go!”

  She corrected to two o’clock and saw the door. “Hold on really tight, baby!”

  As Danny strangled her, she reached down for the gun with her right hand and brought it up over their heads. She hit the door hard, pivoting her body as she sailed through and spraying the room with bullets. Splinters bit into her back as she slid with her body curled up around Danny’s, still firing. Two men dropped.

  The door slammed behind Alex and he dropped to the floor next to them. “You do know how to make an entrance, sweetheart.”

  Grace barely heard him. She peeled Danny away from her and checked him for injuries, hardly noticing the tears spilling over both of their cheeks. He was dirty and had a couple of scratches, but nothing a shower, some hydrogen peroxide and a couple of Band-aids wouldn’t cure.

  “That was so cool!” he said, squirming under her kisses.

  Her chest was still heaving and her muscles still screaming and there was no way in hell she could have heard him correctly. “Cool?”

  “He said you could do stuff like that, but I didn’t believe him. I mean, you’re like just a mom. So I told him there was no way.”

  Grace looked over at Alex where he’d gone to watch through the windows as their foes tried to come up with a plan. He raised an eyebrow at her, clearly sharing her thoughts.

  “Who said that, honey?” she asked Danny.

  “Ricky. He said he was an old friend of yours and that you all used to do stuff like this all the time. And that nobody was going to hurt me and I might get to see it before I go home.”

  Ricardo Escobar. She took a deep breath before answering him. Whatever the dead asshole walking had told her son, it was helping to keep his trauma to a minimum and she didn’t want to blow it. But knowing the man had talked to her son—breathed the same air—had her aching to kill the bastard.

  “He’s not really a friend of mine, honey. He’s a bad man and he took you, and we came to get you back.”

  A spray of bullets tore up the flimsy wood over their heads and Grace threw herself over Danny. She shielded him with her body as they crawled toward the back of the room, where piles of wood and junk would offer him more protection.

  He was shaking now, and his eyes told her he’d finally realized this wasn’t as cool as he’d first thought it was. “I want to go home, Mommy.”

  “I know, baby. You curl up here and I’m going to go talk to Alex and see if he’s got a plan yet, okay?”

  He nodded and Grace made her way back to the front of the room, staying low. “How’s it look?”

  “Gallagher says they’re moving toward us, but they’re concentrating on the rear of the building. The boats are back there, so they must think we’ll make a break for them. But he found a place he can put the bird down. The longer we sit here the higher the chance of the helo getting taken out or reinforcements arriving. But it’s risky…”

  Grace was quiet. While Gallagher zoned out to plan his or the team’s moves, Alex talked himself through the process. He always had, and her ability to hold silent and trust his judgment had been one of the reasons they’d worked so well together.

  “The helo’s just through that grove and over the knoll,” he continued. “You run for it on foot while I lay down cover fire. Blow away anything that moves—just get Danny to that helo and Gallagher will take care of the rest.”

  Icy fingers of fear strangled Grace’s heart. “Oh God…”

  She couldn’t decipher his look through the veil of tears suddenly blurring her vision. “I can’t do it, Alex.”

  “What the…now isn’t the time to go soft on me.”

  “Soft, you—” Grace stopped and took a deep breath. God willing, she could yell obscenities at him later. “The helo’s almost a quarter mile from here, at a dead run. He’s too heavy for me. I barely made it here. And he’s never been a fast runner.”

  He was silent while she paused to swallow…to breathe. “I’ll have to holster my gun. You’re strong enough to carry him and fire. There have been shots from that direction. We have radio contact now, but if Gallagher goes down, you can fly Danny out of here. I can’t. And you may be the guy to go through the door with, but I’m a better shot.”

  “Grace…shit.”

  Grace pressed the balls of her hands to her eyes, trying to stem the flow of tears. She had to be calm for Danny. If he struggled…

  “You’re his mother. You need to leave with him,” Alex said. “I can’t tell him his mother took bullets for him. Don’t ask me to do that, Grace. Anything but that.”

  The pleading note in his voice twisted her heart, but there was no other way. “I’d rather he live with the father he doesn’t know than die with the mother he does. Take him out of here, Alex. Please.”

  He considered her words silently before nodding, and relief and terror blew Grace’s mind apart for a moment. She crawled back to the tiny space where Danny huddled in the shadows.

  His face was ghostly white, and his eyes liquid with fear. She pulled him into her lap, knowing he would feel her tremble, but unable to stop herself from holding him.

  She whispered against his hair. “You have to go with Alex, baby. You’re going to fly on a helicopter to a safe place, okay?”

  “No, Mommy.” He buried his wet face against her breast, and she squeezed him.

  “I’ll see you in a little while, baby. I…I promise.”

  He lifted his head, blinking away his tears. “Pinky swear?”

  Grace thought she would choke to death on the tears she fought back, but she linked pinkies with her son. “Pinky swear.”

  “Okay.”

  “It’s going to be very scary, honey, but Alex is strong and smart and you need to do whatever he tells you without arguing. That’s very important, okay?

  “Okay.”

  She knew the clock was ticking, but she ran her fingers over Danny’s cheek. She memorized his face, the tear-filled blue eyes. His brave little smile with the g
ap where his front top tooth had just fallen out. The freckle on his left temple.

  “I love you, Danny.”

  “I love you, too, Mommy. Bunches and bunches.”

  One final hug, and she pulled him toward the front of the room. With his hand enveloped by hers, she could feel her son jerk every time Alex fired a shot, but she couldn’t stop to comfort him now.

  Alex tried to give Danny a reassuring smile, but Grace could see the uncertainty in his eyes.

  “Devlin has sealed instructions for…for Danny’s care,” she told him, using every bit of her willpower to sound calm.”

  “I’ll get the boy on the helo, then I’m coming back for you.”

  “No, you—”

  “We’ll find another way out, and…”

  Grace pressed her fingers to his mouth. “Just get Danny to safety, Alex, and at least give me the knowledge he’s with you. I trusted you once, and please…God, don’t betray me again. Let me believe in you.”

  He lifted her hand from his lips, kissed her palm, then pressed it to his chest. She could feel his heartbeat, steady and sure.

  “I’ll see our son safe, Grace. But I will come back for you.”

  Grace stood on her toes and kissed him. She couldn’t express her feelings—her gratitude and fear—with words, but she could make him feel it.

  Alex growled deep in his throat, and pressing his hand to the back of her neck, devouring her mouth. Then he let her go. “Make yourself ready.”

  She closed her eyes for several long moments, breathing deeply. Telling Danny goodbye was going to break her heart, but she had to be ready. No crying. No curling up in a ball. She had to be ready to lay down cover fire.

  Danny’s pinky slid around hers again, and she smiled down at the most amazing thing that ever happened to her.

  “I’ll see you at the safe place, Mommy.”

  She bent down and kissed him hard, then forced the word “go” through her throat.

  In the blink of an eye, Alex had Danny over his shoulder. He let loose a spray of bullets, then took off at a dead run.

  One last look at her son’s terrified face, then a movement in the trees. She aimed, fired, then fired again at a muzzle flash.

  Grace heard herself scream. It was a primal sound of maternal outrage and fear, and she couldn’t say if it actually came from her mouth, or only her mind. She didn’t care.

  She killed two quickly, and a third would need either a good doctor or a priest, but she didn’t leave her post. There had to be more, and she could do nothing until she knew Danny was safe.

  “Helo, come in,” she said into the headset over and over, but her only response was silence.

  Seconds passed and she moved out into the clearing, running at a low angle toward the trees. A click sounded to her right and she turned, registered the threat and fired, dropping the guy without even pausing. They should be in range of Gallagher’s cover fire by now, but she kept on—not rushing, but scanning constantly for threats.

  “Package intact and on board,” crackled over her radio just as she threw herself to the left, rolling and firing at the target who’d fired a split second too late.

  Gaining her feet, she saw the new threat almost immediately. A man stood at the edge of the grove, lifting a hand-held rocket launcher. She screamed, jerking his attention away from the mechanism and then she fired. She fired again and again until the gun did nothing but click and the body didn’t even twitch on the ground.

  Then she broke through the trees and saw it—the flash of a black helicopter streaking away toward the horizon. Relief stole the strength from her legs and she sank to her knees in the sand. The sob that had been trapped in her throat broke free and she barely heard the gunshot behind her.

  * * *

  “She’s still taking fire,” Gallagher shouted into Alex’s earpiece.

  He jerked up on Danny’s harness one last time, trying to ignore the terrified eyes and the trembling lower lip. Danny was safe and that’s all that mattered. There would be times for hugs and kisses and reassurances later. What was important now was making sure those reassurances came from the boy’s mother.

  “Make a circle and drop me off-shore,” Alex ordered. “I’ll get her and we’ll take one of the boats out.”

  “Negative.”

  His head came up from the repelling harness he was inspecting. “Negative? What…did you just tell me no?”

  “Negative is no, affirmative is yes. Geez, Rossi, and all this time I thought you were a pro.”

  “I’m going back for her, you son of a bitch. If I have to hold a gun to your head to get you to bring this tin can around, I will.”

  “Look. You’ve got a scared kid back there and an agent sitting on poison back in the hotel. And you run the joint. I’m the only expendable personnel on board this bird.”

  Alex shook his head. “I’m not leaving her behind.”

  “No, you’re not. You’re sending me in after her and you trust me with your life so you’d damn well better trust me with hers. And I promised her she could trust me with her kid. I guess that means not letting his…you get killed, too.”

  Alex dropped the harness with a sigh. The damn beach bum was right. As much he wanted to rescue her himself, that wasn’t what was best for Danny and he slid into the co-pilot seat. “Give over control and get ready.”

  Gallagher clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Dude, if this goes bad…get the boy a dog and name it after me, okay?”

  “We’re all going to have a long talk about insubordination when this is over.”

  “I hope so, man.”

  “Bring her back,” Alex said, leaving whether she’s alive or not unsaid.

  A final handshake and Gallagher moved back in the bird, checking his weapons and the harness. Alex heard him speak quietly to Danny, but he couldn’t hear what his best friend told his son.

  His son. That was his boy back there, pale as a ghost with his little hands clutched in his lap. And what the hell would he say to him if Grace didn’t make it? He was a total stranger to that boy.

  As Sean Devlin, he’d received the sealed package detailing the arrangements she’d made regarding her son in the event of her death. He’d assumed the documents left custody of the child and all of her possessions to her parents. Now he wondered. Was there a letter in that packet addressed to Alex Rossi? Or would she have even gone to her grave without revealing her secrets if Danny hadn’t been kidnapped?

  ‘Yo!” Gallagher called to him from the open hatch.

  Alex tamped down on the questions and focused all of his attention on flying the bird. He came around and concentrated on coming in to the island low enough and slow enough to allow Gallagher to repel down and release the harness over the water without being low and slow enough to be a good target. Ideally, any men left alive on the island wouldn’t even know there was a man in the water.

  It went down smoothly and Gallagher came though the headset seconds after hitting the water. “Go!”

  And he went. Leaving two of the three most important people in his life behind.

  Chapter Six

  He’d known she was alive. Gallagher had been in contact several times since he’d dropped into the water. But not until Grace appeared at the end of the long hallway flanked by Gallagher and a military guard did he allow the relief to come.

  She was smiling, no doubt anticipating the reunion with Danny. But she was favoring her right leg slightly, and she’d changed her shirt. He could barely discern the faint outline of a bandage on her upper arm. A minor flesh wound, Gallagher had reported, but he still shuddered at the thought of the nightmare that could have been.

  Even favoring her leg, Grace moved like a cat. An exotic and lethal cat with very sharp claws. He was willing to risk the scratches and when she was near enough, he grabbed her and pulled her into his arms. Her hands snaked around his neck and he just held her for a long moment.

  “Don’t ever make me leave you behind again,” he whisper
ed against her ear.

  “I don’t intend to.” She pulled away and smiled up at him. “Where’s Danny?”

  “Down the hall. Your parents arrived about fifteen minutes ago.”

  A shadow passed over her face. “I suppose they’ve been filled in.”

  “We tried to be vague about the details, but they’ve been with Danny for ten, so…”

  “Great.” She shrugged, then winced a little. “I guess I should go and supply the last pieces of the puzzle.”