Rickard looked for the man, but couldn’t immediately see him. Maybe Jimena had killed him and he was on the ground, or he’d fled back out the door. He turned back to Jimena, just as she brought her Sigma around toward him.

It would have been more fulfilling to use the ceramic blade, but he was no sentimental fool. He fired. One-two-three bullets in a close group. Every one of them struck the target: Jimena’s chest. She was flung back against the pillows and her mouth opened with a rush of air and blood forced from her lungs. Then her head dipped and she didn’t move again. The Sigma fell from her limp fingers, bounced once on the mattress then clattered to the floor on the far side of the bed. In the brief moment that he paid her any notice, Jimena looked at peace. Bitch!

Rickard came to his feet.

He looked to the door. Beyond it he could hear the rattle of a machine gun. The fight now sounded like it was in the house. That, of course, was the least of his concerns. Joe Hunter was much closer by. He just couldn’t see . . .

Hunter came up over the top of the bed, a SIG-Sauer in hand. He looked unharmed and wholly intent on killing.

But Rickard wasn’t one to stand around and wait for death.

They both fired at the same time.

Chapter 36

36

Jimena Grajales hated me with every atom of her being.

The instant she saw me in the doorway the switch on her sanity flicked over and hit meltdown.

It kind of blew my chances of saving her life.

Sounds crazy, I guess, but even as I realized the true identity of my enemy, I couldn’t dredge up the minutest grain of enmity toward her. She’d been terribly wounded, had lost her child, and it was all because I hadn’t had it in me to shoot when I had the chance. As misguided as that was, it wasn’t so surprising that she hated me so much. She’d ordered the other members of the hit team killed, had extended that order to include their families: I should have hated her equally. But I didn’t. All I saw was a horrifically injured woman grieving the loss of her baby boy. In that moment I’d have given up my life to save hers.

Then she began shooting at me.