Dangerous Ground 3: Blood Heat (5 page)

“Get your cuffs out.”

“They"re on the girl.”

“Oh? Agent Brent. Take your cuffs out and walk over here. The right side of the car, please.”

“My right or yours?”

Nemov chuckled. “I like you, Agent Brent. You are of a pragmatic nature. As is Nemov.”

Will walked around the front of the car, passing Hedwig, who was crying quietly. He joined Taylor in front of the sawed-off shotgun.

Taylor didn"t look at him. Will clenched his jaw against the protest, the explanations. In the end there was nothing to say, no excuse, and—for him—no choice.

“Cuff yourself to your partner.”

Still not looking at Will, Taylor shoved his arm forward, offering the lower part of his forearm.

Good thinking, MacAllister.

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Josh Lanyon

But it was a no-go. Nemov said, “Uh-uh. I know that trick. He has skinny arms, your partner. Make sure the cuff is tight around the wrist.”

In stony silence, Will snapped the cuff around Taylor"s bony wrist. Will clicked the metal circlet around his own wrist, joining them.

“Keys to the handcuffs?”

Will handed them over.

Nemov smiled at Taylor. With tight, quick movements, Taylor used his free hand to pull his ID out and awkwardly remove the key from behind his badge.

“You are the wily one, yes? Not so wily as Nemov, though.” Nemov took the key with every appearance of good humor. “Throw the car keys as far as you can. And do not throw like a little girl.”

Taylor gave Nemov a baleful look, felt around for the keys in his Levi"s, dangled them fleetingly in front of Nemov"s long nose, and then hurled them with ferocious energy across the yucca and Spanish bayonet. They glinted as they fell like a shooting star.

“Nice. You play baseball, I bet. All right, milaya moyna. Time to go.”

Footsteps dragging, Hedwig came slowly around the car.

“Just do what he says,” Will told her. “You"ll be okay.” He felt he was speaking as much to Taylor as Hedwig.

“Listen to Agent Brent. He is a smart man.”

Will couldn"t seem to tear his gaze from Taylor"s averted face.

“Start walking,” Nemov ordered. “I will be right behind you.”

Hedwig stumbled past them and started up the increasingly muddy dirt trail.

Nemov said quietly, “Now, my young friends, you find out what teamwork is really about. Take my advice. Forget about Kelila Hedwig. If anyone asks, tell them you followed a cold trail. She was gone by the time you found Ramirez"s. No need to wreck your careers over this, you will agree.”

A pulse jumped in Taylor"s temple, but to Will"s relief, he restrained himself.

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31

Nemov backed away, keeping the shotgun trained on them until his tall figure dissolved into the darkness. They could hear his quick stride down the road as he followed Hedwig.

Taylor swung on Will. “What the hell were you thinking?” he half whispered.

“For God"s sake, Will. You
surrendered
your weapon—”

“I know what I did.”

“You let him take our prisoner.”

“I know.”

“You allowed him to take you hostage.”

“I know.”

Will"s quiet response seemed to confuse Taylor. He peered at Will through the rain-swept gloom. “I don"t get it. Help me understand.
How
could you do that?”

Will shook his head.

Taylor"s voice rose again. “Goddamn it. It"s not only against agency policy and training, it"s against common sense.”

“I don"t need to hear this from you. Not right now.”

“Will…” Will could practically see the wheels turning. Taylor said, “He was
not
going to shoot me.”

Despite Will"s determination not to defend his decision, he heard himself arguing, “You don"t know that. My instinct is he
would
have shot you. Maybe he wouldn"t have killed you, but he was ready to shoot you.”

“Then you"d have shot him, right?”

It took a second to work past the sweeping obliviousness of that. “Right. You"d
still
be dead.”

“Your way, we
both
could have been dead. And the girl too. It"s totally against policy, and you damn well know it.”

“Don"t
you
throw policy at me.”

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Josh Lanyon

“Anyway, there"s no way he"d have shot a federal officer.”

“Of course not. That
never
happens.”

“For Christ sake, Will. The fact that I got shot once—”

“
Twice
.” Will said fiercely, “I"ve seen you take a bullet
twice
.”

“You didn"t even see it the first time!”

“What the…? Like that makes a difference? I saw the
result
, Taylor. I saw you lying there in what looked like a lake of your own blood. I saw you choking, trying to breathe with a hole in your lung.”

The anger drained out of Taylor. “Will,” he said helplessly. “You"ve got to let it go. We"ve talked about this. You can"t make decisions in the field based on my safety.”

He was right. About all of it. Which was one reason Will had never wanted their relationship to move from friends to lovers. But that was ancient history. They
were
lovers, and there was no going back from it. Not for Will. Not now.

“Like you wouldn"t have done the same goddamned thing?”

Taylor"s expression—what Will could see of it—was decidedly weird. “No. I wouldn"t have.”

He could hear the rain pattering off the stiff material of their vests. “You don"t—” Will stopped. “Look. This
isn’t
the time.”

The rumble of a car"s engine drifted across the distance.

“Come on.” Will started to move in the direction Taylor had thrown the car keys. “I hope you took time to pick a landmark.”

Taylor didn"t budge, and the steel tether yanked Will back. He whipped around, his temper suddenly soaring. Maybe it was true that there was nothing he feared as much as losing Taylor, but for one blazing instant, he was ready to kill his partner himself.

If Taylor saw his anger, he gave no sign. He said mildly, “I didn"t throw the car keys.”

Dangerous Ground 3: Blood Heat

33

“What? I saw you.”

“I threw my own keys, not the rental car keys.”

Will stared at him and then, surprising himself, started to laugh. “You"re kidding.”

Taylor shook his head. He reached into his pocket, dragging Will"s hand along as he wiggled his fingers, feeling for the rental keys. The denim was stiff and already wet through from the rain, making the body beneath seem warmer than ever. Warm. Alive. No, Will could not regret any decision that kept Taylor living and breathing. Even if that decision ultimately cost him Taylor.

“Got "em.” Taylor held the plastic fob up triumphantly.

“Nice going.” Will meant it.

“Thanks. You can pay for the rekey of my house.”

Will ignored that. “Now we just need to get rid of the bracelets. I"ve got an extra set of handcuff keys in my luggage.”

“Back at the hotel? How"s that"s going to help?”

“Hey, I"m open to suggestion. Unless the suggestion is you want to shoot the cuffs off.”

“It works in the movies.” Taylor was moving along the road, searching for his pistol. Will was forced to follow.

“I hope you"re kidding.”

Taylor grunted. He squatted down to retrieve his pistol, and Will was forced to squat too, watching as Taylor dusted off the clumping sand.

“Nice of him to leave us these. We"d have a hell of a time explaining how we
both
lost our pieces.” Taylor shoved the pistol into his shoulder holster.

“No kidding.” Will met Taylor"s eyes. “Hey.”

Taylor was silent.

“Just so you know, if I have to be shackled to someone, I"d choose you. Every time.”

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Josh Lanyon

He saw the glimmer of Taylor"s teeth as he curled his lip in something that was not exactly a smile. “Just a wild and crazy romantic, aren"t you, Agent Brent?”

“Yep, little man, I am.”

Taylor gave him a friendly shove, and they both nearly overbalanced.

Maybe the camaraderie was a little forced, but it helped ease the strain between them. Dusting off their hands, they went to retrieve Will"s weapon.

He found his SIG Sauer P229 a few feet from the car. Wincing at the thought of grit working its way into the mechanism, he wiped away as much wet and sand as he could with the tail of his T-shirt. He reholstered the pistol with a feeling of relief.

“I lost my pen,” Taylor said. “Do you have yours?”

Will felt around, handed his pen over.

Taylor held it up. “I can"t
see
anything.”

“What is it you need to see? Because unless you"re planning on writing your resignation, we need to get out of here pronto.”

“I know. Let"s get in the car.”

“Uh, don"t we need to change the tire first?”

“First we need to get out of these cuffs, but I have to be able to see what I"m doing.”

“What
are
you doing?” Will inquired as they unlocked the car. Taylor crawled in first, followed by Will, who slid beneath the wheel. The pine tree-shaped deodorizer swayed gently, its artificial scent mingling with that of wet clothes and desert rain.

“I"m going to make a shim and pick this lock.” With his free hand, Taylor reached up and turned on the dome lamp. Pallid light illuminated his face. For a second, Will stared at him, stared at a face he knew as well as his own: the wide, long-lashed green eyes, the full, sensual mouth, the silver streak in the dark hair starting to curl with the damp.

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35

Unaware of his scrutiny, Taylor was busily taking the pen apart, prying the silver clip from the body. “Hold your wrist up.”

“I don"t recall lock picking as part of my FLETC training.”

Taylor grinned faintly as he slid the piece of dismantled pen between the teeth and the mechanism of the cuffs. There were goose bumps on his brown, thinly muscled forearms. The tip of his tongue touched his upper lip. Will felt an inappropriate longing to pull him into his arms and hold him for a moment.

Possibly more than a moment. And possibly do more than just hold Taylor. But definitely inappropriate.

Taylor levered the shim, wiggled it, pushed, and the teeth of the lock, thrown out of alignment, clicked over. The cuff opened. He smiled broadly.

Will rubbed his wrist. “Nice job, MacGyver.”

“Thanks. Now me.” He frowned, trying to crane his head to see the lock mechanism properly.

“Someday you"re going to have to tell me where you learned some of these esoteric skills of yours.”

“Boy Scouts.”

“You weren"t in the Boy Scouts.”

“True. I knew one or two, though.” He spared a wink for Will. “Hold that cuff out of the way.”

Will obeyed.

It took a little longer, but in another minute or so, Taylor too was free.

Will expelled a long sigh of relief. They were back in action. Hopefully not too late to fix this fucked-up operation. “Let"s get that tire changed.”

Taylor tossed the broken pen into the cup holder. “Roger that.”

“And then,” said Will, yanking open the car door again, “we"re going to knock that goddamned giant off his goddamned beanstalk.”

36

Josh Lanyon

Chapter Four

The rain lashing out of the darkness and streaming in rivulets down the windshield looked white-blue in the artificial glare of the headlights. The wipers could barely keep up. Ahead of them, the narrow road was a winding, slick ribbon of night. The hills around them were shapeless black bulk.

Eyes intent on the muddy road ahead, Taylor was glad Will had elected to drive. He"d rarely seen worse weather conditions outside of Japan. “God almighty.

What is with this rain? It"s summer.”

The car lagged as Will shifted into a lower gear. “We"re in the mountains. And July is the rainy season.”

“Great. On the upside, they can"t be making much better time than we are.”

Will, his attention on the winding road ahead, grunted.

Taylor glanced at the dashboard: 3:18. It was beginning to feel like the longest night in his life. He refocused on the screen of his BlackBerry GPS—essentially useless at the moment thanks to the lack of steady signal. Happily he could still read a map, and the BlackBerry was at least serving as a light for his navigating.

“Sierra Blanca Regional Airport is northwest of here. It looks like it"s just over an hour.”

“Okay. What am I looking for?”

“West Smokey Bear Boulevard.” He looked up from the map to stare at the nightmare landscape swinging past as Will sped along the canyon road. “Jesus, I believe it. It"s like the Black Forest through here.”

“City boy.”

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37

Taylor acknowledged it without resentment. “You know, no way is Nemov going to try and drag her on a plane. He can"t depend on us not going for help.”

Will threw him a somber look. “No?”

“Okay. Maybe he can. But I still don"t think he"s going to make for the airport.

Not the local airport anyway. I think he"ll go for one of the larger, busier airports.

Somewhere he"s guaranteed a direct flight to Los Angeles.”

Will mulled it over. “Agreed.”

“So…Albuquerque? He"s going to travel back roads for as long as possible. At least till he"s sure he"s lost us.”

“
If
he"s taking her to LA. He could have been lying about that. Maybe he"ll take her back to Denver.”

“True.” Taylor hadn"t considered that possibility and wasn"t any happier for having it pointed out.

Will"s jaw clenched still tighter, but he didn"t respond. Watching him, Taylor said, “Listen…if this all goes south—or further south—I"ll take full responsibility.”