From within the house came the rattle of a machine gun. The noise snapped me out of my confusion.

And I knew.

Luke Rickard was not only a murderer. He was a rapist and misogynist. He was also a control freak beyond any I’d ever come across before. Rickard, I believed, had come here to exact retribution for some perceived slight against his twisted ego. Maybe Calle had dispensed with his services following his failed attempt at ruining me, and this was Rickard’s way of showing his dissatisfaction at the “betrayal.”

Didn’t matter.

Whatever his reason for turning up at Calle’s place, he was here now. My hunt for him had just been offered a great boost I’d never expected. And regardless of the fact that he was embroiled at the center of a power war, I had a chance at nailing him. It was time to get down to killing the bastard.

After that thought followed immediate action. I stood up, ready to follow Rickard through the broken window, then had to duck as tracer rounds zipped by my head. Bullets knocked chips of wood from the pile and I screwed my eyes tight to avoid being blinded by flying splinters. The smell of sap competed with the stinging burn of heated wood to overwhelm my senses.

Retreat wasn’t in my plan but I’d no option. I ran at a crouch away from the woodpile toward the far corner of the building, then ducked around the side. I could see the rear end of one of the vehicles, but there was no sign of any of the attackers. Whoever had been shooting at me must have been farther away. Making it to the front corner of the house, I searched for targets. Men bobbed up and down behind the shielding trucks and Jeeps, but none of them was paying me any attention. The shots fired my way had to have been random. I backtracked to the woodpile.

Glancing back up to the cleft, I could see Juan Charles leaning out from the rocks, his face a pale blob against the deep-green shrubbery. He’d moved further across from where I’d left him and Nunez, and was now in a position to offer covering fire. He gave me a thumbs-up signal before leaning into the stock of his assault rifle. I nodded and then ran full pelt for the shattered window. Now the tracer rounds zipping over my head were heading in the other direction.