Page 77 of Her Reluctant Hero
Maybe he would hate her afterward for making him choose.
She couldn’t care. She had to stay alive, had to get away, had to stick with Alex until she found her son. That was more important than anything else.
Isabella could see the lights of a city glowing ahead. Which city, she didn’t know, but they were approaching civilization.
And anonymity. The realization chilled her.
Danes would ditch the SUV, or it would blend in with others, and he’d put her back in Santiago’s custody. Her only hope was that Hector would be there too and that she would survive Santiago’s wrath to raise her son.
Before they reached the outskirts of the city, Danes turned right, onto a long narrow stretch of road. She felt the car hesitate, as if he’d eased off the accelerator, as if he was having second thoughts. She wouldn’t have another chance.
“Santiago will kill me,” she murmured, hoping she could appeal to his human nature but hearing the hopelessness in her own voice. Of course, if he had a conscience, would he be doing this? “Can you live with that?”
“I’ve lived with worse.”
She swallowed the tears she’d held back for days. “All I want is to raise my son. Please, you have to turn back.”
He cast her a disgusted look. “Those tears may work on Shepard, but they won’t work on me.”
Just the mention of Alex’s name was another kick in the gut. She wouldn’t see him again. Would he find Hector for her and keep him safe? Or would he forget about her? No, he was too honorable. He would get to her son because he was a protector. He would punish himself for not protecting her.
She dropped her concern for Alex the moment Danes rounded a hangar and she saw two black SUVs parked at odd angles around a small plane, headlights blazing through the dusk. Even with the six men in silhouette in front of them, she recognized the stocky shape of Santiago Saldana.
Alex snatched up the phone the minute it rang. Thanks to Julian tracing Danes’s GPS, they were tracking the man and Isabella, who had started out about forty-five minutes before him. With his foot to the floorboard, Alex had been able to make up most of that time before he contacted Danes and alerted the older man.
“Where are they?”
“A private airfield west of Miami. You should be close,” Julian said. “We’re at the base now, getting a chopper out. Don’t go in on your own.”
Alex snapped his teeth together. Going in alone was against everything he’d been trained to do, but one thought was foremost in his mind. “He has Isabella.”
“You don’t know what you’re walking into. Wait for us. We’ll be there in half an hour.”
“That’s too late.”
“Saldana won’t be there.”
Julian thought that was what worried him? Of course he did. What else did Alex care about? Julian didn’t know what Saldana had done to Isabella. He only knew Saldana was the mission objective.
“He’ll get away.”
“Better he get away than you get dead. We’re at the helo now. Wait.”
Alex folded the phone and tossed it on the seat beside him before accelerating. The hell he would.
Good thing Danes had such a firm grip on Isabella’s arm, because her knees could barely hold her when he dragged her from the truck to come face to face with her nightmare. She was shaking all over, unable to hide her weakness. Had she learned nothing from Alex? With that thought in the forefront of her brain, she forced her chin up as Santiago took three deliberate steps toward her.
Only a few months had passed since she’d seen him, but he’d lost weight, and gravity dragged at the loose skin of his cheeks and jaw. His dark eyes appeared sunken, the skin around them baggy and lined. Still, his body was powerful, broad shouldered, stocky, his hands wide and strong and capable of inflicting pain at the slightest frustration.
She swallowed hard and did her best not to flinch from his gaze. “I want to see Hector.”
“I do not care what you want. You have caused me too much trouble, wasted too much of my time looking for you.”
“I didn’t ask you to look for me.”
He took another step. His expression was relaxed but his eyes were hard, flat. She knew that look and cowered against Danes despite herself. He didn’t move away or shake her off, oddly, though he stood stiff when Santiago flicked his gaze to the bigger man then back to her.
“You belong to me.”
