Javier (Alpha Heroes #12)

Chapter Four

Missy

“Ye’re mistaken, ye gowl.” Sister Janet stepped up, her accent even thicker now. “There’s no such person here as yerself mentioned.”

“Now, Sister, I know you’re trying to protect Missy, but you shall not lie.” The man waggled a big finger in the air. “Or have things changed since I went to Catholic school?”

That flirty, sexy smile. Holy heavens. It had the potential to make me stupid. Apparently, it wasn’t only me. Sister Elsa’s lips pulled up as if she could hear the teasing in his words, and I watched with an open mouth as Sister Janet returned his grin as if she, too, was fangirling him.

“Ye’re a handsome devil.” Sister Janet pointed at him with his umbrella. “That’s fine so, if ye went to Catholic school then ye know God will not permit ye to harm an innocent.”

“I’m not here to harm you.” His gaze shifted to me. “You do know there’re government soldiers coming. Right?”

“We’re apprised,” Sister Janet informed him briskly.

“The sooner you get out of our way, the sooner we can leave,” I stated in my haughtiest tone, channeling my sister Thena. “We don’t need your help. Stand aside.”

“Hot damn.” He widened his grin. “Spoken like a true Astor.”

My throat closed. I felt unmasked, exposed before him. My thoughts raced. It took me all of sixty seconds to remember the main events that had led me to this moment. I’d been living in fear of being found for a long time, since I’d fled the Astor world, the places where I grew up, and my past, where every “friend” had a money-driven agenda, and my father wheeled and dealed with my life as if he owned me.

To him, my existence was just another tiny cog in his obscene money-making machinery, a nearly worthless bargaining chip in the scope of his enormous fortune. I was also his verbal punching bag. He enjoyed crushing my spirit and imposing his will on me and my sisters. Because of him, three years ago, I’d walked away from my beloved sisters and fled.

I wasn’t going back to him.

My fears of being found had been compounded last week when the orphanage had been ordered to close and the order had been expelled from the country. Those same fears had turned to terror when I’d been tipped in the most unlikely way about the end of our missionary activities here.

In the last few days, we’d rushed to evacuate the children and the other nuns from our little mission to avoid trouble, but Sister Elsa had been weak with a fever and Sister Janet had volunteered to stay with her until the rain relented. The sisters had been so kind and protective of me. I feared they might get lost or hurt along the way. I’d stayed behind to make sure they made it to safety.

The decision had almost cost me my life and theirs. Heck, considering the contentious warrior before me, we were still in danger. If something bad happened to my friends, it would be my fault. I also stood to lose my freedom. Things were looking really crappy for me.

“We’re very grateful for yer help,” Sister Janet ventured, glancing at the blood on the ground and making yet another sign of the cross. “As our benefactor, we shall pray for yer soul, but we have a long journey ahead, and we must get on with the good Lord’s work.”

“You can pray for my soul all you want, Sister, but I doubt it’ll make a damn difference.” Javier shrugged. “I’m gonna go to hell no matter what.”

“Oh, honey, bless your heart.” Sister Elsa turned down the corner of her lips. “You can’t be sure about that.”

“I’m sure as fuck, Sugar Pie,” he tossed out. “As to you, Angel, it’s go time.” He glanced at his watch again. “We are T-minus twenty-five. You’re coming with me, right now.”

“I don’t think so,” I shot back. “As far as I know, you could be like those brutes that attacked us, an assassin yourself.”

“You’re right, I could be,” he admitted. “But I’m not.”

I crossed my arms, lowered my chin, and defied him with a glare. “And I should take your word for it because…why?”

“Because of this.” He tapped the big rifle now strapped to his vest. “If I wanted to murder you, I would’ve used this for the kill shot and you would have been dead a while ago. Less trouble and more bang for my money, pardon the pun. So.” He shook his head. “Not an assassin.”

“Good point,” Sister Elsa piped up. “I think he’s telling the truth.”

“What are ye, now, a fecking truth detector?” Sister Janet snapped.

“Quit being ugly, you Irish Bubba,” Sister Elsa shot back. “I’m a good judge of character and you know it.”

I ignored the sisters’ banter and kept my glower on the man. “Maybe you’re just saying stuff so that you can drag me back to my father.”

“There we go now.” Sister Janet jumped in my defense’s bandwagon. “Maybe yer here to kidnap our cailín and take her back to her mean old man.”

“Or,” the man suggested in a most annoyed tone. “Maybe I’m here to help you, like I’ve said a trillion times.”

I stood my ground. “Prove it.”

“We have friends in common.”

I studied his face closely. “Who?”

“Dashiell Dagger, for example.”

My jaw dropped. “You know Dash?”

“Do I know Dash, she asks me.” He tsked, teasing me and the nuns with another spectacular grin.

“Who is this Dash person?” Sister Elsa furrowed her forehead.

“And how do yerself know him at all?” Sister Janet demanded, squinting at him.

“Dashiell Dagger is Missy’s brother’s best friend and her sister Thena’s main squeeze,” Javier answered accurately. “I work for him.” He shifted his gaze to me. “I also know your sister Thena. She sent me to find you.”

I gaped. “ Thena sent you?”

“Affirmative.”

The brick stuck in my throat made it impossible for me to articulate the hundreds of questions suddenly assailing my brain. My sister’s beautiful face flashed before my eyes and a deep sense of longing tugged at me. I so wanted to believe the man before me.

“We need to hustle.” Javier motioned impatiently. “The shit’s about to get hot.”

It struck me that, even though the situation was dire, he was asking me to go with him instead of just snatching me by force like others had tried to do when I first ran from Father. I knew Javier—sort of—from my dreams. Not that I would ever admit that to anyone. Perhaps most importantly, he’d said Dash and Thena had sent him to find me.

Could it be true?

Before I left the Astor world, Thena had broken up with Dash. After my brother Nix died, their relationship—and our family—had gone to crap. Could it be true that they’d reunited and sent this man to search for me?

“I need to talk to Thena.” I pointed at the earpiece hanging from his vest. “Call her.”

“Sorry.” He shrugged his big shoulders. “No signal at the moment. Enemy territory, danger of being tracked, blah, blah, blah. But your sister did say that, if I came across you, you might need proof.” He unzipped one of the pockets of his cargo pants, pulled out a folded piece of paper, and handed it to me. “Thena had to keep this anonymous, in case it fell into hostile hands. I hope you’re a fast reader. It’s either chop, chop or bang, bang, so I suggest chop, chop.”

I sideswiped Javier with a surly glance, unfolded the paper, and skimmed the small paragraph. The four lines written in my sister’s perfect calligraphy punched straight through my heart.

We’re the merry sisters,

Berry merry sisters.

Hang on, hold on,

And don’t let go.

I lifted my eyes to his face, blinking off the burn of tears. My childhood’s beloved rhyme. The rose-hued linen paper. The discreet scent of Thena’s jasmine perfume wafting from the page. Everything pointed to one fact.

“She wrote this,” I breathed. “It’s true.”

“Of course it is.” He shifted on his boots impatiently. “Can we go now?”

I had to ask. “Is Thena okay?”

“She’s fine,” he said. “More on that later.”

“You blockhead.” I waved the paper in the air. “Why didn’t you show me this upfront?”

“’Cause we’re in a fucking hurry and I thought you’d have the fucking good sense of fucking trusting me. I also assumed you’d accept that we’re sitting ducks and should be hoofing it outta here, stat. I had no reason to think you’d be this stubborn,” he added. “They told me you were the easy sister.”

My face ignited, and I aimed the full power of my glower at him. “What the heck?”

“No, no, I didn’t mean in that way.” He waved a hand in the air. “I meant that I was told you were the baby of the lot. You were supposed to be the young, sweet, agreeable sister.”

“Ye may be a feek, but ye’re not the brightest bulb, are ye now?” Sister Janet’s stare bounced between us as if she were watching a tennis match. “Ye’ve got disaster in ye.”

“Every time he opens his mouth, he’s a wreck in progress,” Sister Elsa agreed.

I clenched my jaw and glowered some more at him.

“What?” Javier stared at me. “It was all in your profile.”

“Maybe I was all those things in the past.” I’d already failed to defend myself from the dead brutes and fainted in front of this stranger who’d sprang right out of my dreams. No more Mousy Missy for me. “But I’m not that person anymore. You can stick your freaking profile where the sun doesn’t shine.”

“Oh, boy.” Sister Elsa grimaced.

“Hey, lad?” Sister Janet tugged on Javier’s sleeve, looking like a tiny hamster standing next to a Kodiak bear. “Have ye considered that perhaps herself was sweet and agreeable until those devils and yerself showed up, have ye?”

I nodded furiously. “What she said.”

“You don’t gotta fear me, Angel,” he teased me with a wink. “I’m totally safe… for you.”

“Stop winking and grinning at me,” I snapped. “While you’re at it, stop it with the angel thing, too. I’m not your freaking angel!”

“And here I was trying to be friendly.” Javier scratched the shade of his beard. “Operation Angel is the code name for this mission. It now means I get you out of here.” He unhooked his carbine from his vest, checked his watch, and started toward the fence. “T-minus twenty. Let’s get the feet working.”

I had lots of questions that needed answers, but time was short. I made my decision. Escape the government soldiers first, then figure out the rest. I gestured for the nuns to follow me.

As I hurried toward the fence, I snatched my little veil from the ground and stuffed it in my pocket. I also picked up my backpack and slid it on. “Where are we going?”

“You’ll see.” He turned to face the sisters, but he kept walking backward, hugging his weapon to his chest. “I suggest you two hit the trail as hard as you can.”

“Have you lost your freaking marbles?” I stopped in my tracks and perched my fists on my hips. “Do you really think I’m going to leave them behind?”

“Didn’t you hear the part about we’re in a hurry and gotta move?”

“They can’t go out there alone,” I pointed out the obvious. “I stayed behind to help them across the border and take them to their convent in Costa Rica.”

“Very noble,” he said, now framed by the bougainvillea. “But totally stupid.”

“Hey!”

“Just saying.” He held the rent in the fence open for me. “I’m not big on altruism. The best intentions kill you the fastest. Good people die way before mean motherfuckers.”

“You’re an arrogant prick,” I bit out between my teeth.

He lifted a hand in the air. “Yes, and?”

“If you want me to come with you, then they’re coming with us.”

“My mission is to extract you, not them,” he said. “We gotta set a fast pace and they would slow us down. No offense, sisters.”

“None taken,” Sister Elsa said.

“Well, meself is offended,” Sister Janet grumbled. “But perhaps the lout is right and ye ought to go with him. On account we’re being persecuted, and he knows yer sister and all.”

I glowered at Javier. “I’m not leaving without them.”

“You had to make it complicated.” If he rolled his eyes any harder, they might just fall out of his head. “We can be the A Team and get out of here fast. Or we can be the B Team and get out slow as fuck.”

“I choose the B Team.”

“Okay, fine,” he relented. “But don’t get used to throwing your tiny weight around. I’m in charge of this mission. Do you copy?”

I squared my shoulders. “Either they’re coming or I’m not.”

“Come on, ladies.” He knocked his head toward the hole in the fence. “I’ll take you to the border.”

“Not to the border,” I said. “To the convent in Costa Rica, where they’ll be safe.”

“Are you trying to get me fired?” A deep groove formed between his eyebrows. “The rules say I’m not even supposed to make contact with anyone other than you.”

“You don’t strike me as a guy who follows the rules,” I returned. “You also don’t strike me as a coward capable of leaving behind two innocent nuns who need your help.”

“Ouch.” He clutched his vest over his heart. “That hurts. There’s a lot of sour to your sweet, Angel.”

“To the convent,” I stressed to the stranger who wasn’t really a total stranger. “And we’ll need to talk.”

“We’ll talk, after we reach safety and not before.” Moving quickly, he shouldered Sister Janet’s bag, strapped it to his ruck, and turned to Sister Elsa. “We gotta put some distance between us and those fuckers—sorry—I mean, thugs. Would you mind if I give you a ride for a couple of clicks, Sugar Pie?”

“Very well.” Sister Elsa inclined her head and folded her cane. “You’ve got a foul mouth but a good soul. I trust you.”

“Glad someone around here does.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me.

It was my turn to roll my eyes at him.

He leaned his brawny shoulder into Sister Elsa’s middle and carefully lifted her from the ground. “I’ll try my best, but I can’t promise a comfortable ride.”

“Bless your heart,” Sister Elsa drawled, dangling from his shoulder with admirable ease. “Your best effort is all God asks of you.”

“Come on, Cherry Tart,” he motioned for Sister Janet to follow.

“Why is she Sugar Pie when meself is Cherry Tart?” Sister Janet demanded.

“Because cherries are tart and so are you.” With Sister Elsa in tow, he ducked and crossed to the other side of the fence, where he stood to one side, holding the wires out of the way.

“Oh, well.” Sister Janet moved forward. “I suppose there’s no need to quarrel about dinner when the house is on fire.” She stepped through and motioned to me. “Come on, child. God provides fer the faithful.”

I wasn’t sure if the category included me.

“Angel?” Javier lifted his gorgeous eyebrows at me, etching three deep furrows on his forehead. “Am I gonna have to shoot our way out of here or are you gonna spare me the firefight?”

I glanced at the blood stains and gulped. No more shooting. No more death.

I took in the place that had hidden me from the world—and my father—for almost three years. It was now deserted. Soon, it would burn, like the life I’d built here. I knew. I’d seen the compound aflame in my dreams, just like I’d seen Javier even before he showed up.

This dreaming thing was new and scary, not to mention weird as heck. I had no explanation for it. Maybe I had a brain tumor. For now, I forced my legs to move. Uncertainty squeezed my chest as I eased my way through the tear in the fence, making sure I kept my distance from the man who electrified my skin every time we touched.

He slid a handgun from its holster and handed it to me. “Just in case.”

“No, thanks.” I grimaced in disgust. “That thing kills people. I don’t do guns.”

“I do.” Sister Janet took the gun from Javier, chambered a bullet, and started up the hill, leaving me with my mouth hanging. “Come on, wains. Crack on.”

“I like that nun.” Javier grinned and gestured toward the hill with the carbine he held in one hand. “Ladies first.”

I tackled the hill with Sister Janet ahead of me and Javier and Sister Elsa behind me. The man I’d seen in my dreams had never hurt me, but then again, I hadn’t been dreaming for long and I didn’t know what to make of the darn dreams. Craning my neck, I stole a glance at Javier Guzman’s handsome face as he climbed the hill at a fast clip. I had a feeling that my dreams were leading me astray. Or worse, to disaster.