Page 19 of Vaquero
Chapter Seven
Still on the ground, Julio eased away from Meg and Dom. The little guy would make it now. He was certainly in good hands. “I have to leave. Stay here,” he told Meg even as he fingered both ears to make sure his weren’t bleeding. Fortunately, no. He’d been deafened, but he’d be fine.
‘Wait for me’begged to be spoken, but this was not just another deployment, and Meg was not the woman he needed to beg forgiveness from. She was a foreign aid-worker, not his wife. Not even a girlfriend. All she needed from him was a way back to the States for her kids.
He shouldn’t have kissed her, though. Like Meg, he didn’t know what came over him. Other than he’d been alone for too long, and lonely men tended to lose their souls after too many years of solitude and suffering.
But that was a warrior’s lot in life, and he’d accepted his fate long ago. There’d been no one in his life to come home to for years now. Even when Julio’d succeeded in rescuing the woman he’d loved from Domingo Zapata, she’d still chosen suicide over living with him and Tomas. That bitter pill lay lodged in Julio’s throat. As much as Bianca’s death had broken his heart, her final act of selfishness pissed him off more.
He’d been to counseling to come to grips with that last slap in his face. Too bad it hadn’t helped. The anger never went away. Neither did the loss of his only child.
The only thing all that counseling changed was understanding that healing took time. With every step Julio walked now, he began to realize that Bianca had deserted Tomas when they’d been imprisoned by Zapata. That was why Tomas died. He’d needed someone to hold him and shield him then, but Bianca had readily confessed she’d been so frightened of Zapata’s vitriol, that she’d thought nothing of her son. Only of herself.
Which at first, made sense, and Julio had accepted everything she’d said as truth. She had been traumatized. But so had Tomas. How could a mother be too frightened to acknowledge her baby son’s emotional needs? That was what Julio couldn’t comprehend. Bianca had been the only one with Tomas, yet she’d been too scared for herself to comfort her only child? Her one-year-old baby?
Madre de Dios!That was what ate at Julio now. He couldn’t understand how any woman could betray her child like that. The thought of sweet Tomas all alone in that damp, dark bunker where Julio had finally found them…Dulce Madre de Dios!The terror Tomas must have endured. The loneliness! Despair for things he couldn’t change consumed Julio as he began to truly understand the shallow depths of the woman he’d thought he’d loved. The thought of that baby crying himself to sleep, maybe crying for his Daddy…
Dios!Had Bianca ever loved either of the men in her life? And here he’d been willing to follow her into the unforgiving Pacific. “Why?” he railed at the heavens now. “How blind was I?”
Simple answer. He’d been blind like a lovesick fool. And he knew it. Only Bianca hadn’t really loved him. Or his son. Only herself…
The relentless assassin called Heartache that had religiously tracked him these last five years breathed its cold, rotten breath down the back of his neck today. He was a marked man. Someday, Heartache would get him killed. Not that he was afraid of dying. Not now that he’d lost Tomas and finally understood his wife. A man with nothing to lose became a different kind of warrior. Bottom line, Julio refused to invite Meg any deeper into his life. She didn’t need the heartache.
But instead of meek compliance and a poor-me sigh of perceived feminine martyrdom from her, he got, “Like hell, you’re leaving. I’m going with you.”
Julio would’ve argued, but he’d been hit with a full dose of the emerald fire in Meg’s bright eyes. Took his breath and stopped his heart. Made him realize that she was not passively aggressive. She didn’t play games like his wife had. Meg said what she wanted, when she wanted. She might even be good in bed.
In bed?Angrily, he shoved that stupid notion right out of his head, not sure where it came from. He wasn’t looking at Meg through any romantic lens. She wasn’t his type, and she didn’t need to see what he meant to do to Zapata and his men, either. This was a day of reckoning. Domingo’s baby brother was going to die. So would anyone who got in Julio’s way.
“I need you to stay here, Meg,” he told her sincerely, hoping she’d at least hear him out. “When this is over, I’ll be bringing other children back with me. They’ll need food and water, baths, maybe doctoring. They’ll be scared. Someone who cares about them has to be waiting for them, ready to comfort them.” He wanted to say, ‘For Tomas’ sake.’ But he didn’t.
“You don’t think I know that?” she bit out, glancing across the camp at Craig and Marta, Joseph and Fernando, no doubt mentally assigning that chore to them.
Julio didn’t dare suggest that she couldn’t possibly handle two difficult rescues in the same day. He knew that, despite her physical condition, Meg would fight to get the villagers’ kidnapped children back just as hard as she’d fought for hers. Remembering her down on her hands and knees, crawling to get to Dom a moment ago, confirmed her determination. But Julio didn’t need a physically challenged soldier on this operation, either, especially Meg. He wouldn’t be able to stop worrying about her.
“I see your heart, Meg Duncan,” he told her honestly. “I do. Just like Dominic sees your heart. But he needs you more, Mum. Please, let me do this dirty job for you and your kids. Stay here and fortify the camp while I’m gone. Arm as many as you can. Be prepared in all things.”
Man, he wanted so badly to kiss her again and do it properly this time. But he didn’t. Julio pulled back, once and for all. Their one kiss was their last. To end Zapata, he had to get moving. Jerking his sat phone up from the compact ammo bag at his belt, he thumb dialed Sullivan.
Meg glanced away, probably mad at him because she thought she’d been dismissed.
“Sullivan,” McQueen bit out. “About time you checked in. How’s Mr. Zapata?”
“Still breathing, sir,” Julio replied evenly. “Transportation is different here, but I’ve finally made contact with Former Army Corporal Meg Duncan.”
“Meg? He’s a woman?”
Julio nodded though Sullivan couldn’t see him. Yes, Meg was all woman.And how.“Yes, sir, Corporal Duncan is female. Requesting immediate airlift for five adults, nine children. Possibly more by the end of the day. Oz knows I’m here. He’s already moved his operation. I suspect he’s burying evidence.” Evidence, as in bodies.
Meg shot him a look as Sullivan promised, “On its way. When do you anticipate initial contact?”
Julio looked to the columns of gray ash and smoke still lifting heavenward. “Soon. He just set off an explosion near my location. I’m on my way to end him now.”
“Good. Have Duncan get everyone ready to travel while you’re gone. They’ll need to move fast once the bird shows. I’m sending Night Stalkers. They’ll deliver a team of Rangers to your location. This’ll be quick and dirty.”
Exfils on the run usually were. That Sullivan could tap resources like the US Army’s 160thSpecial Operations Aviation Regiment, declared the man’s incredible influence at the Pentagon.
Humbled, Julio sincerely offered, “Night Stalkers. Helos. Yes, sir.”
