Last Hour till Sunrise: Chevalier Protection Specialists, #2

1

Jackson, Wyoming

T arget incoming. The voice of her team leader came through the phone in the cup holder.

DEA Special Agent Lucia DeSoto glanced at the passenger-side mirror of the BMW they’d been using for the duration of this undercover operation. Now it smelled like old cheese.

Copy that. Simon, the ATF agent in the driver’s seat, was a decent guy. She’d known him a few months, since she joined the multiagency task force. He had a wife, but in Lucia’s experience marriage didn’t always mean a guy knew how to treat other people with respect.

In the back seat sat Bill, older than her and Simon. One of those old school guys who thought every time a woman was part of a mission that she should use her feminine wiles to get the job done.

Lucia was pretty sure she had none of those, whatever they were. She’d be entirely more inclined to shoot someone to get the job done. Whether that was Bill, or the target.

This particular target? She would shoot him any day. Todd Lydell was wanted on suspicion of several counts of weapons possession, sexual assault, drunk and disorderly, and one case of elder abuse. So basically, he was a scumbag.

There he is. Simon flashed the headlights.

A red truck angled toward them. Lucia strained to see inside. Two guys, maybe more if the back seat is occupied. Lydell and a couple more.

Keep it tight, the team leader said. Once you get out of the car, we won’t be able to hear you. Assistant Director Pierce Campbell liked to state the obvious, and give unnecessary instructions.

Copy that. Simon glanced over at her.

She didn’t meet his gaze, but felt the pull of her lips. Some semblance of a smile. Really all she was capable of, when she considered there wasn’t much to smile about.

Lucia studied the warehouse district in this part of Wyoming. Pretty generic, with no surveillance cameras. Little police presence. It was the perfect deserted spot to have a Sunday night meeting.

DeSoto? Campbell barked her name.

Yes, sir? She had a feeling she wasn’t going to like this.

"We already know he has a thing for you. It might not be your forte exactly, but if it comes down to a win on this op? Face the fact you might have to make friends with this guy. So maybe try and smile a little."

Someone snorted—whether in the car with her, or on the other end in the surveillance van, she didn’t know.

They weren’t close by, because Lydell was super uptight about his meetings, but they were near enough to help if things went wrong. She’d be uptight as well if she was the number two guy for a man who ran a compound the feds hadn’t been able to breach in any of their attempts. Short of ramming the door down, there wasn’t any hope of getting inside to see what was really going on in there.

Lydell’s boss, Franklin Burgess, ran the compound like it was a cult. Recruiting locals—men and women. Advertising himself as an ecowarrior, he came across more like a religious leader. The men were trained in weapons as though there was a war to fight on American soil.

And the women…

Lucia didn’t want to dwell on that too much. Not with a guy like Lydell as second-in-command.

The assistant director had set up a couple of hidden cameras around the parking lot. If things went sideways, the rest of the team would move in.

Yes, sir.

What else was there for her to say?

Lucia reached up to touch the necklace she usually wore, but it wasn’t there. She’d left it in her backpack.

The temporary tattoo on the inside of her forearm was her only attempt to blend in with guys who sold stolen weapons.

Make the buy, Campbell said. That’s enough to get Lydell in custody. We’ll get him talking.

Lucia wasn’t sure of that, but he sounded confident enough, and it wouldn’t be her problem.

If you can find out what else they’re up to at that compound, all the better.

Nearly ten thousand acres? Bill shifted on the back seat, and the car rocked. He ain’t up to nothin’ good behind that fence.

Satellite footage hadn’t shown much. A few buildings clustered at one end, lots of people moving around. Men, mostly. The bulk of the land was overgrown with trees and hills. This part of Wyoming wasn’t super populated anyway, but with the reputation Burgess had established for himself, the feds needed to know what he was up to.

Simon cracked his door. Let’s go.

The two of them walked together to meet the occupants of Lydell’s truck. Bill followed behind—the muscle who kept his head on a swivel. She and Simon were the brains of the operation they’d presented to Lydell. Out-of-towners big in Denver, ready to get a foothold in the local business here.

Lydell approached. He’d been in the passenger seat like her, so she kept to Simon’s right so the number two guy wasn’t in front of her.

The guys he’d brought with flanked him.

They all dressed the same. Jeans and boots, T-shirts worn like they were a uniform. One had a leather vest on. All three had a few days growth of facial hair, and Lydell was in serious need of a haircut.

Hey. Simon lifted his chin.

Lucia said nothing. Guys like this didn’t need her butting in. Feminists might want to assert their womanhood, but that only put you in the middle of all the attention. In Lucia’s line of work, that wasn’t a good thing. Not with guys who had rap sheets like these did.

Lydell motioned with his head at the back of the truck. Get the case.

One of his guys broke off and grabbed a long storage case from the bed of the truck. He hefted it onto the hood of the truck, and Lydell flipped the latches.

Simon moved to look inside. He whistled. AR-15s. ACOG rifle scopes. Couple of sniper rifles. M16-A4. This is prime stuff. He glanced at Lydell. Do I have to worry about it being hot?

Military surplus.

Lucia said, So you stole it from the army.

His lips twitched, and not in a good way. He looked at her. She wanted to look away, but that would be conceding defeat, and this guy wasn’t going to best her. He had to see her as strong, despite the fact he thought he had power over her. He might be a predator, but she wasn’t vulnerable prey.

Where we got it from is our business. Lydell took a step toward her.

It had been so long since she’d had a romantic relationship, the dance was foreign to her. She knew enough to know this wasn’t him attempting to woo her. Far from it. Attraction was just another way for him to assert his dominance.

Her boss had been right about one thing. Making it clear he had no shot wasn’t going to win them any points. In fact, it could tank this whole operation.

Lucia shrugged one shoulder, drawing his attention to the fact the skin there was bare. Literally her entire plan to distract him involved wearing a tank top. Plus the fact doing that made it clear she wasn’t wearing a wire was a double bonus.

At least he hadn’t decided to pat her down.

She’d have pulled the knife in her boot. She said, No skin off our nose if it’s stolen. Military stuff isn’t exactly top shelf, though.

This is. Primo product.

Yeah? She lifted her chin. He was a lot closer now, but she didn’t give away the knot in her stomach. What if I was interested in other product as well?

Diversifying?

Just feeling out the local market. Who knows what sells? She motioned to the crate. This stuff is for protection. What have you got that’s for fun? She smiled and tipped her head to the side.

He erased another couple of inches between them. Come back to the compound, and I’ll show you.

She wouldn’t have been surprised had he grabbed his crotch to emphasize the sentiment. She lifted her brows. The last guy you did business with who made it to the compound didn’t come out.

You know about that?

She wasn’t going to tell him what she knew about the two Canadian men he’d transacted with a month ago. They hadn’t been seen or heard from since they visited the compound. Lucia doubted they were still alive. Fifty square miles was a lot of space to bury a body or two.

She’s not going anywhere with you, Simon said.

Lydell didn’t move his gaze from her. The skin on his forehead flexed. He didn’t like that. He had every intention of taking her, somewhere. Somehow.

We’ll take the gear. Lucia folded her arms. The invitation can wait for another time. We’re still new here. You’re an unknown.

Simon clicked shut the latches on the case and slid it off the hood.

Lucia turned back to the car and started walking.

A block away, right where the surveillance van was parked, an explosion rocketed into the sky.

Andre?

The asphalt on the highway, scorched by Texas heat even at night, streamed under Andre at eighty miles an hour. Tethered to the underside of the eighteen-wheeler, he held on with one hand. With the other he reached out and planted the small charge on one end of the axle.

When it blew, it would take out the front right tire.

Hey, Andre? The voice buzzed against his earpiece.

He adjusted his grip and took a second charge from his vest, reached out, and affixed it to the axle on the left side. Kinda busy, Badge.

The voice came again through his earpiece. What’s brown and sticky?

Andre let out a sigh. A stick.

Ah, man. You’ve heard that one. Badger paused for a second. Judah, Google another one.

Their British teammate responded, Google it yourself. I’m busy not crashing this SUV and leaving Andre to get run over.

Guys. Zander, their team leader, only needed to say that one word. The authority in his tone brought a silence Andre was grateful for.

Andre said, Two minutes.

You said that two minutes ago, Eas reminded him.

Badger erupted into laughter. It’s always the quiet ones.

Andre worked his way to the back tires and placed two more small charges of C4 on the underside of the semi.

Half a mile and they’ll be turning the corner, Zander said. After that we’ll be in view of the US–Mexico border. I don’t want to end up on any traffic cameras or surveillance video.

Zander didn’t tell him to hurry it up, he merely gave Andre the facts he needed. That level of respect from his boss was something Andre had earned over the last ten years of their friendship and working together. Now they were no longer Delta Force, but a private security firm, there were more than just army guys on their team.

Zander and Badger had served with Andre.

Judah was a former Marine in The Royal Navy, and Eas had a background no one knew—one that meant the Asian man always wore a mask. He couldn’t show his face to anyone but them, and then only when they were tucked away in a safe house or on a mountain with no one else around.

Andre didn’t envy Eas the trouble he would have when whoever was hunting him showed up at the door.

But the rest of the guys and Andre would be there when it happened.

Just not Isaac.

Andre.

At Zander’s prompting, he pushed away thoughts of the teammate who had betrayed them a month ago. He figured that might just be what happened when you trusted someone who was a former spy. They knew how to lie to everyone.

Andre unclipped himself from the underside of the truck. I’m coming out.

Judah said, Roger that.

Andre grasped the underside of the truck with his gloved hands, feeling the heat in the engine through the padded material. He lowered himself toward the ground and felt the second before he made contact with the road.

Strapped to his back was a reinforced sled, though Andre refused to call it that. This was anything but fun, considering he was about to shoot out from under the semi like a bullet. He also refused to call it a shield, but only because that had been Badger’s suggestion. Too many Avengers movies and wanting to be Captain America.

Andre was going to buy him the costume for his birthday so he could dress up like the guy he idolized.

Andre thought he was more like the Winter Soldier than Cap, but what did he know?

The reinforced aluminum hit the ground for the second time, the first being when he’d moved from the SUV—at that time in front of the semi—underneath it. Now he shot out the back to where the SUV rumbled along behind.

Attached to the underside of the SUV was a mechanism based on the arresting gear from an aircraft carrier, the wire that caught a landing fighter jet. But the fact of the matter was that no matter how well the contraption Badger had rigged up worked, this was still going to hurt.

Andre saw a brief flash of the night sky, then he was under the engine of the SUV. The aluminum shield on his back screamed against the asphalt. That was something they had to know for next time, because the noise alone could give him away.

He went all the way under the SUV and out the back, thanks to Judah’s driving skills and a desire to not run Andre over on the highway in Texas. He’d specifically used all those words.

Andre used both hands to grasp the cable. The SUV swerved a fraction, and the motion shot him sideways a few feet, toward the rumble strip. But he managed not to flip over onto his face. That would be a very bad idea. He’d crashed a motorcycle once and gained road rash all down one arm and one leg, despite the protective clothing he’d worn. Not a good day.

Sorry, sorry, Judah said.

Despite the British accent, Andre didn’t exactly feel reassured by the apology coming through his earpiece.

The back of the SUV opened, and Eas’s masked face came into view. He hit a button, and the cable began to retract. At the same time Zander lowered a ramp onto the highway. When he was close enough, Zander and Eas hauled Andre off the ground, up the ramp, and into the SUV.

Eas hauled the ramp in and shut the door.

Andre said, Someone hit the button.

We can give you a minute. Zander glanced at him.

If you give me a minute, I’m going to use it to barf. So let’s just do this. Andre rolled over and pushed up to sitting. He grabbed his weapon and readied it.

Zander reached out and squeezed the back of Andre’s neck. We’ll send Badger next time.

The idea of that made Andre grin, while in the front passenger seat Badger erupted into a series of arguments and Judah, in the driver’s seat, started laughing.

Zander cut him off, a slight smile on his face. Hit the button, Ry.

The team leader always used Badger’s real name if he could. Andre knew it was so the kid felt more connected to who he was, rather than the person he became when he operated. The identity he’d chosen. A jokester, versus the kid they’d met the first day he graduated from Delta Force training.

Andre figured the guy could be whoever he wanted to be, for whatever reason. If he needed to hide behind a different personality the way Eas disguised his identity with a full face covering, that was entirely his prerogative.

Three, two, one. Go. Badger hit the button on his iPad on the last word.

Just before the bend in the highway, a bang as loud as a small firework bumped the semi a few inches off the ground. All four charges detonated at the same time, disabling the truck but causing no damage to what was inside.

Nice.

Judah hit the brakes as though he hadn’t been aware the semi was about to stop. He pulled to the side of the highway behind the truck and stopped close. Just some ordinary citizens rendering assistance to a broken-down trucker.

Except that they all wore protective clothing and climbed out of the SUV carrying weapons.

Judah and Zander headed down the left side of the semi. Badger and Andre took the right, and they cleared the front seats.

The passenger immediately reached for a weapon to fight back, as he realized what was happening here. Zander’s side erupted with gunfire at the same time Badger and Andre took out their guy.

They returned to the rear of the truck, where Eas stood guard. There was no other traffic on the road this time of night. But there could be, soon enough.

Zander said, Let’s get this done.

Eas used a bolt cutter to get through the padlock on the back of the truck and pushed up the door. It rolled up and back with a clatter, revealing a single crate strapped down in the middle.

Finally, the missing nuclear warhead they had been tracking for the last few weeks was in their grasp.

After they’d found radioisotopes in an Estonian warehouse, they’d been doing some digging. A scientist had been kidnapped and forced to write a computer program for a targeting system. Could he also have been required to build a bomb before he was murdered? Maybe there was another specialist in play.

Badger hopped up onto the back of the semi and strode to the crate. He used a multitool from his pocket to pry open the corner of the lid. He threw it aside.

There’s nothing in here but bags of rice.

The manifest said rice, but a whole lot more than one crate. Zander looked ticked.

So the nuke isn’t in here, and we were wrong about everything? Andre didn’t like the sound of that. Where on earth was the warhead?

Judah said, Back to square one?

Even Eas let out a noise of disappointment.

Andre gritted his teeth. Things hadn’t been going all that well for the last month, despite Zander at least being happy with his life now.

After Isaac’s betrayal, and the arrest of the former head of the Department of Clandestine Service, none of them had much motivation. A warhead was enough to get them all back on missions.

Pack it up, Zander said. Let’s get going.

2

Wyoming

Everyone shifted to look at the source of the explosion. Except for Lydell, who kept his gaze on Lucia. She didn’t take her attention from him either. Not when he would surely do something behind her back.

What are you doing?

This had to be him. Lydell was in no way surprised about an explosion in the vicinity of the surveillance van. It didn’t indicate anything good. Even his two guys hadn’t been all that surprised.

They knew what was going on here.

She was about to ask him again when Simon spun around. Let’s go, he demanded.

Thankfully in the confusion he didn’t mistakenly use her real name. Lydell didn’t need to know who they really were. If they managed to get out of this and figure out what was going on their cover stories with Burgess’s people were intact.

Simon said, We’re out of here. This is crazy town.

Lydell pulled a gun from inside his jacket and shot Simon.

His body jerked, and he hit the ground.

Lucia couldn’t hold back the flinch. She took a step back, ready to leave—whether Lydell thought he was going to allow this, or not.

She took another step back.

Bill swung around. He glanced at the three men surrounding them. What the⁠—

Lydell shifted his gun to her other colleague and pulled the trigger again.

Lucia turned and made a run for it. She had her own weapon but doubted she could kill all three of them before they shot her. She had only one choice left.

Get to a defensible position, then take them out.

She ran as fast as she could toward the car they had shown up in. Simon had left the keys in the ignition. If she could get there, she could⁠—

Arms banded around her, their legs tangled, and she started to trip. Lucia went down with two hundred pounds of redneck on her back. Her jaw slammed the concrete, and she cried out.

Her gun skittered across the ground.

He shifted and grabbed her hands, pulled both behind her back, and secured them with something that felt like a plastic tie. It cut into her skin.

She kicked out with her legs but couldn’t make contact.

Her head swam and bile rose in her throat. She could smell gunpowder from the two shots. The blood that had spilled on the gravel. Tears filled her eyes.

He lifted his weight off her. Lucia shifted enough she could twist her shoulders and reach back, down to her boots. She pulled a knife free of its sheath and scrambled to her feet, holding the knife behind her back.

Lydell pointed his gun at her. But he wasn’t going to kill her.

Lucia twisted the knife and cut her hands free. She held up the blade in front of her, ready to use it on anyone who thought they were going to touch her.

These men had killed her two colleagues and possibly the rest of the team as well. What she didn’t know was why.

If Lucia was the only one left, then she had absolutely nothing to lose.

She ignored the niggling thought that she was in denial, lying to herself about having no connection to another living soul on this planet. If her colleagues were gone, there was one person who might shed a tear over her.

One.

Maybe for a second, before he went on with his life. Then again, probably not considering how things had ended a lifetime ago.

Life was about the here and now. The same way she had been living for fifteen years. Day to day, keeping her head down and doing the best she could to make up for everything she had done.

But now things were going bad. Both her colleagues were dead, and backup was possibly not coming at all. This might get a whole lot worse before it got better, but relying on herself and all that was in her was what Lucia did.

She didn’t have backup in her life.

If anyone was going to get her out of the situation, then it was her.

Like I said. She faced down Lydell. What are you doing?

He motioned with his gun and said to his men, Take the knife and make sure she has no other weapons.

If there was a risk that any of her task force would come and fight for her, Lydell didn’t seem exactly bothered by the threat. She wanted to ask if they were all dead, but his guys were coming toward her.

She stared them down. You think you’re gonna touch me?

The first one grinned. The other one had an expression on his face that wasn’t much better.

Try. That one word was her invitation and a threat all wrapped up in one. But they were going to find out what she was made of in a second if they kept coming.

Lydell chuckled. As amusing as that would be to watch, we don’t have time for it. He closed in on her until the barrel of the gun touched her temple.

Lucia hissed as the heat seared her skin. It was still hot from being fired twice.

She had no choice but to surrender the blade to these guys and stand still while they patted her down. Checking for weapons, and copping a feel at the same time.

She glanced at Lydell. He wasn’t going to see her back down, or submit. It just wasn’t in her nature.

He grinned at her.

So all this is about me?

The minute I met you, I knew there was something between us. He closed in on her then, the gun still touching her head. And when I want something, I get it.

I hate to break it to you, but you’ll be disappointed. She lifted both hands, her palms empty. You see, I’m kind of a wet blanket. Everyone says so.

At least, she figured they did behind her back. She didn’t exactly socialize with her colleagues, not beyond the odd birthday party or Christmas gathering. Even then she left early. Being around people was a recipe for disaster when she would rather be at home online, playing any one of a number of games she’d been leveling up on for the last ten years. New games just didn’t hold the same appeal. Not when she would have to start all over from level one.

Lucia wasn’t a level one kind of girl.

You can be whatever you like. It doesn’t matter. Lydell lifted his free hand and ran a finger down her cheek. I’ll get what I want anyway.

A shot was fired in the distance, probably from the rooftop where surveillance had been stationed.

One of Lydell’s guys fell to the ground, a bullet in his chest.

He grabbed her wrist and pulled her unerringly toward his vehicle.

Another shot fired. The bullet pinged off the side of the truck.

He ducked his head and pulled open the front seat, shoving her in before he climbed in after her.

The other guy with him ran for the truck as well. Lydell hit the gas and pulled out before he could reach the passenger door.

Another shot missed the tire.

If this was one of her colleagues, they wouldn’t shoot the man left behind. They would capture and question him.

She turned and looked out the back window. The second Lydell stopped, or even slowed the truck at all, she would shove the door open and get out.

He could shoot her. She wasn’t going to go with him.

The reality that this could turn real bad, real quick stayed with her. Just like the idea that the one person who maybe cared about her might shed a tear.

She started to turn back to the front when Lydell swung out his arm and slammed his gun into the side of her head.

Any hope of making a run for it evaporated then and there. Pain ricocheted through Lucia’s skull, and she heard herself cry out, unable to stop the sound from breaking free of her throat.

I’ll never be able to get out of this.

That thought was like a mantra echoing in her head as he drove the highway for an hour.

After a bumpy thirty minutes along dirt roads, over a train track, and alongside a river Lucia could see glint in the moonlight.

Lydell took the winding roads like a madman, and with every mile she thanked God that he wasn’t pulling over to a quiet inlet where he could get