Alpha One by Cynthia Eden Page A

Mexico, you were the one who took me.... You kept saying...little señorita! I didn’t see your face, but your voice—I’ll never forget it!”
    He didn’t move. Juliana sure did. She twisted and fought like a wildcat in Logan’s arms. He snatched the gun from her hand and held her as tightly as he could.
    If Juliana really could tie this man to her kidnapping, and they could link him to Guerrero, make him talk...
    “I know your voice....” she snarled.
    The voice was distinctive.
    “I know you, ” Juliana said. She had stopped fighting, for the moment. Logan wasn’t about to make the mistake of letting her go. The woman could just be trying to trick him.
    Their captive’s head had lowered. His shoulders sagged inward a bit.
    “You work for Diego Guerrero,” Gunner charged. He’d never once relaxed his stance. “And you’re going to tell us everything we want to know about your boss, unless you want to wind up like your friends.”
    “Who are you?” Logan wanted to know. They’d start with a name and tear the guy’s life apart, link him to Guerrero. Find the man and then—
    Their captive’s head tilted. He actually lifted his chin and shoved the back of his head against Gunner’s gun, as if daring the other man to shoot. “Mi nombre es Luis Sanches.”
    Logan nodded. Okay, now they were—
    “Muerte no me asusta.”
    Logan’s body tensed. Death doesn’t scare me.
    The man’s head shoved against Gunner’s weapon again. “Do it! Kill me!”
    Gunner’s eyes narrowed to faint slits.
    “El Diablo...he can do so much worse than muerte for me.” His shoulders shook. “Much worse.”
    Logan released Juliana. “Don’t move.” He breathed the words into her ear.
    Luis’s gaze flickered toward them. “That’s why he’ll have her... He knows you... Always understands his enemy—”
    “We can offer you protection,” Logan said. He knew the drill. If you rolled on someone like Guerrero...yeah, you could expect one real short life. “Give you a new name, a new—”
    But Luis was shaking his head. “I won’t betray him.”
    Gunner hauled the guy to his feet. “When he finds out that we have you in custody, do you think that’s gonna matter? Guerrero will just assume that you sold him out. You’ll be finished either way.”
    Juliana wasn’t speaking, just staring at Luis, and Logan realized—Luis was staring back.
    “Little señorita, wish...I’d never seen you in Mexico,” Luis said. His hands were by his sides. He looked beaten, hopeless.
    “I wish you hadn’t, either,” Juliana said. Her voice was angry, snapping. “I wish none of this had ever happened.”
    “Sí...”
    Logan glared at him. “You will help us to catch Guerrero.” Every instinct that Logan had screamed that this guy wasn’t an average flunky. He was older, with shades of gray spiking the edges of his dark hair. His eyes knew too much, had seen too much.
    “No, I won’t help you.” Luis’s voice held no emotion.
    Logan turned away from him, marched over and grabbed his cell. Sydney answered instantly. “What do you see?” he asked her.
    A faint hum of sound, then “All enemy bodies are down. Perimeter is secure.” Her voice, calm, easy, belied the bloody nightmare that had to be waiting beyond the cabin.
    “We need transport,” he told her, glancing over at Luis Sanchez. “We’ve got a live one in here.”
    But Luis shook his head. “No, you don’t.”
    Then he lunged forward, surging away from Gunner. Luis lifted his hand, and too late, Logan realized that when that man had been kneeling on the floor, when his hands had been at his boots...
    He went for a backup weapon.
    A glinting knife blade was grasped in Luis’s hands. Logan brought up his gun in an instant. “Drop it.”
    Luis wasn’t charging with the weapon. Not coming to attack. But—“My daughter...I will miss her....”
    Then, even as Gunner lunged for the guy, Luis shoved the knife into his own chest.
    “No!” Juliana