As they neared the vehicle, movement caught Rio’s attention. He dropped like a rock, instinctively positioning himself over Grace. His men reacted, forming a barrier between Rio and the potential danger.
“Don’t shoot. I have business with Rio.”
The words reached Rio’s ears, and every hair on his nape prickled with apprehension. He eased Grace onto the ground and then jerked a thumb at Diego. Diego dropped to hover over Grace while Rio rose, his gun up, pointed at the man in the distance.
“What the f**k are you doing here, Hancock?”
This w
as bad. Worse than bad. Hancock being here in these mountains could only mean one thing. Titan was after Grace or at the very least had been sent to recover her.
Fuck.
CHAPTER 8
EVEN though Hancock didn’t so much as twitch, Rio kept his gun up as he circled warily to get a full view of the other man. Hancock watched coolly, his arms loose at his sides as if sending Rio a clear message that he wasn’t a threat.
Which was pretty damn funny because anyone who ever thought someone from Titan wasn’t a threat was deluding themselves. Rio should know. He’d been one of them for ten years.
He’d lived and breathed those shadows. He knew what Titan was, what they were capable of. What their purpose was. They weren’t black or white. They were so gray that it was easy to get lost in the different world they lived in. A world where there were no rules and the law didn’t apply.
He and Hancock had served together. Rio had saved Hancock’s life in what would be Rio’s last mission with Titan. Rio had walked away, never looked back. He hadn’t wanted to look back. Only now his past was staring him right in the face, and he had the sinking feeling that past and present were on one hell of a collision course.
“What are you doing here, Hancock?”
But he knew. He knew exactly why Hancock was here, but he wanted to hear it from the man himself. And then he was going to let Hancock know that it would be a cold day in hell before he ever touched Grace.
“Put down the gun, Rio. I’m armed but you’d have me before I could ever draw. I’m packaged up. See?” He held up his arms so Rio could see the strap of the rifle and the pistol that was holstered just below his armpit.
“I like my gun just where I have it. Now talk.”
“I’m repaying a debt. You get a free pass. This time. My job is to bring Grace Peterson in regardless of how. My team is at least two miles away. They’ll stay there until you’ve had time to move out.”
He lifted his head a notch so he stared Rio in the eye.
“Next time? All bets are off. I’ll bring her in even if I have to go through you.”
A growl rose from Rio’s throat, and it took everything he had not to lunge at the man he’d once called friend.
Then he turned sideways to look at where Grace lay on the ground, broken and so very fragile. Then he stared back at Hancock. “Take a good look, Hancock. See what you’ve done. Is this what it’s come to now? Preying on innocent women?”
Hancock didn’t so much as flinch. “It’s a job. Just like all the other jobs. You know the drill, Rio. Don’t act like a f**king choir boy. You may have joined up with Captain America and crew, but it doesn’t change a goddamn thing about who you were and where you came from. Your hands are just as stained as mine, and you’ll never wipe them clean. I owe you. You saved my life. That’s the only reason why you’re walking out of these mountains. Don’t make the mistake of underestimating me or of ever thinking I’ll look the other way again.”
Rio took a step forward. Then another. Until he was nose to nose with Hancock and could feel the other man’s breath on his chin. His voice was cold, so chilled that it made the air around them seem warm. “You don’t need to underestimate me. You stay the hell away from Grace Peterson. I’ll take you out, Hancock, and I won’t have a single regret.”
“Guess we know where we stand. I’m coming after you, Rio. This’ll be your only warning.”
Hancock took a step back, turned and then melted into the trees, gone before Rio could say or do anything further. As questionable as Titan ma [e a a sy be, they had a code and they lived by it. It would have been easy for Hancock to take a stand. Make a grab for Grace. He could have pinned Rio and his men in the mountains. With an injured Grace, it would have been next to impossible for Rio and his men to escape, at least not without getting themselves or her killed.
But Hancock was a hard-ass bastard who had a code of honor even if it was a twisted sense of justice. Rio had saved his life once and now the debt was paid. Not only had Hancock looked the other way, but he’d tipped his hand and let Rio know who was after Grace.
He only wished to God the information made him feel better.
He turned back and hurried to Grace, his jaw clenched.
“What the f**k was all that about?” Terrence demanded.
“Not now, T,” Rio said in a clipped voice. “We need to get the f**k out of here before Hancock decides he’s been charitable enough for the day.”
Alton and Browning quickly set to work padding the bed of the truck with a bedroll. They even took their shirts off and laid them across the sleeping bag in an effort to give Grace as much padding as possible.
Terrence and Diego lifted Grace from the ground, and Rio hopped into the back of the truck, leaning against the cracked window. Next, Grace was carefully laid on the bedroll and Rio covered as much of her as possible. Her hair was an issue. Long, black as night but dirty and tangled from her ordeal. He tucked as much of it as he could behind her neck and arranged one of the shirts over her head so she wasn’t visible. Not that it mattered, really. Hancock and Titan knew where she was and they sure as hell knew what she looked like. There was little need in concealing her. They just needed to get the hell out.