Code of Control (25 page)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Juan charged
into the bedroom early the next morning, caring little if they might have been
in an uncompromising position. He quickly gestured to the roof. “Helico`ptero.”

Nolan jolted
upright but his ribs had him falling to his back. “Fuck!”

Charlotte
practically flew off the bed. “Is it Cha’rpa?”

At the mention
of Cha’rpa Juan shook his head. “No.” Two seconds later, he ran from the room.

She turned to
Nolan. “If not Cha’rpa, do you think it’s Devon?”

“Only one way to
find out, just as soon as I catch my breath. Juan scared the crap out of me.”

“And you don’t
think he scared the crap out of me?”

He tried to
smile, but pain kicked into overdrive again, breaking him into a sweat. He
spent the next few seconds cussing while Charlotte helped him to his feet and
carefully maneuvered him to the door. A night’s rest should have done wonders.
All it did was convince him he was getting too old for this line of work. He
created
OSHIT
to protect the innocent from the bad. Its countermove was
taking away his money, draining his reserves, and getting his body beaten to a
pulp.

Juan frantically
rushed back into the shack, gesturing toward outside.
“Cinco hombres!”

“Cinco
hombres?” Nolan asked.

Juan
nodded. “Si`. Cinco hombres vestidos de camouflage.
Si`?”

Charlotte turned
to him. “It’s got to be Devon and the Team.”

“Let’s hope so.
I don’t have any strength for dealing with Cha’rpa.”

She gave him a hurried
kiss and a bright smile. “You’ll find the strength, if need be. For the record,
you’re not old, just broken. Try to remember that.”

Nolan chuckled, yet
to do so hurt like a bitch. “Did I not tell you I break easily?”

“No, you did
not, but this time I will let such a ruthless lie slide.”

Sudden short
breaths drew out more perspiration. Juan then grabbed a gun from a small closet.
Nolan seeing this, he urged the man to put it away, but Juan refused.

“Cha’rpa,
no. El hombre es malo.”

“Si`” Nolan admitted.

Yes, Rual was
evil. He would throw no argument into this pot, but when the inexperienced
tended to handle a gun, and Juan clearly looked inexperienced, the wrong
individual generally received the bullet hole. He did not want it to be either
him or Charlotte, or Juan’s pregnant wife to get hurt in the crossfire.

A few seconds
later, they could hear the helicopter’s blades slowing down. He, Charlotte and
Juan went to the door. Five men were standing in the center of the village,
guns raised, all dressed in military fatigues. Devon was in the middle of the
lot, surrounded by a few others from Tactical Team 2,
OSHIT
’s better
operatives.

Juan’s eyes were
glued on Devon. He then turned to Nolan, his curiosity likely hitting its peak.

Nolan gave him a
half-hearted shrug, but he put the poor man out of his misery. “Hermano.” Anyone
with eyes could tell Devon and he as carbon copies of the other.

“Ah, si`.
Hermano.”

Charlotte
corrected this.
“Hermano gemelo.”

“Si`,”
Juan chuckled.
“Si`.”

Devon rushed
forward, lowering his weapon. The other men kept theirs rose, scanning the
perimeters.

“Do you have any
idea how hard it was to find you?” he said, sending a smile and hurried nod of
recognition to Charlotte.

“Do you have any
idea how much I want to punch you in the face…but can’t?” Nolan warned his
twin.

Charlotte
stepped into this argument. “What is wrong with you?”

“Me?” Devon
gasped.

“Yes, you!” she
yelled at his face. “You could be burying your brother instead of rescuing us.
Did that ever cross your mind when turning rouge?”

Devon turned to
Nolan. “Is she always going to be like this?”

This must have
pissed Charlotte off because she took a quick step forward and damn if he did
not have to do everything in his power to hold her back.

“Charlotte,
honey…”

She whipped
around, her fury now turned onto him. “What?!”

“Let it go, for
now. We can deal with him later.”

“Later might be
too late. I might be calm by then,” she warned, returning to face Devon. “I
trusted you. Hell, your brother trusted you! What is wrong with you?”

“Can we please save
the berating for when we have you out of here? We have a real mess on our
hands. Let’s go.” He signaled for his men to double back to the helicopter, his
team knowing what to do, and why. When he turned around, he finally noticed
Nolan was not following orders that quickly. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Nolan bit back
what he really wanted to say to his brother. There were ears and eyes and he did
not want to get into a fistfight with Devon in front of the men. “Your good
friend decided to break my ribs. That’s what the hell is wrong with me.”

“You’re holding
your wrist, not your ribs.”

“My wrist came
from falling out of airplane, you moron. I can only do one thing at a time.”

“Christ, bro, wrist
and ribs? Getting too old for this shit?” Devon said, grinning much too widely
for a hurt man to let it go in one ear and out the other…at least without
retribution.

“I’ve been too
old for this shit for a very long time,” he replied. “And I dare you to remind
me of it…bro.”

“Would you two
have your little tea party on the helicopter? I want to get the hell out of
here and back on American soil before Rual finds us,” Charlotte slipped into
the pot.

Devon turned on Charlotte.
“That might be a little difficult, sweetheart.”

She growled at his
face, asking, “Why?”

He looked
sheepish when anwering. “We did not exactly get permission to cross the
borders. We sort of stole the chopper, too.”

“Stole a
helicopter?” she yelped. “How is that beneficial to any of us?”

“Who did you
steal it from?” Nolan interjected, groaning under his breath; his brother’s
recklessness—or stupidity—hitting an all-time high.

“Um, from Rual.”

“Jesus Fuck! Are
you insane?”

Nolan could not
imagine the amount of red tape he would have to deal with, or the favors he
would have to call in to get them across borders. Never mind what they were
going to do with a helicopter that did not belong to them and was likely more
than recognizable in the air.

“Hey, it was
either steal it or drive one of their vehicles through dense jungle. A chopper
works so much better, so let it go, bro. Injuries or not, I’m with Charlotte.
The sooner we are on American soil the better for all.”

“What about
Rual’s money…and the heroine?” Nolan asked, his gut tightening. “He’ll come
looking for you, or should I say looking for me until he has both in his possession.”

“It’s been taken
care of,” Devon said. “Money-wise, that is.”

Nolan was not
going to budge unless his brother told him the truth. “And the heroine?”

“I gave that to
the DEA. It’s their deal now, not ours.

“Might I ask how
the money aspect was taken care of?”

“Well, we sort
of blew up Rual’s compound. I’m certain he has better things to worry about than
if we stiffed him money he was never going to get his hands on in the first
place.”

“Blew it up?
How? Why?” Charlotte inquired.

Devon glanced
her way. “Why? Easy enough answer, sweetheart. Cha’rpa doesn’t like thieves.
And how was by sharpshooters holding M-80’s and consequently hitting a full tank
of gas on each of their vehicles. So bloody damn much fun. You should try it
sometime. Real adrenaline rush to the innards.”

“Thanks, but no
thanks. I’ll stick with simple hacking of computers if you do not mind,” she
perused.

“Suit yourself,”
Devon said, helping Nolan toward the helicopter by sharing his shoulder. They
made it there safely, no mishaps. Juan then made certain no one followed,
pointing his weapon toward the treeline. Once seated, Nolan held out his hand
to Juan before they took off. “Take care, Amigo.”

Juan smiled.
“Hay formas de un hombre sanar su Corazon,” he said, jerking his head toward
Charlotte waiting her turn into the helicopter, helped by Devon, who then sat in
front of them, putting on a headset.

Nolan smiled at
Juan. Yes, there were many ways for man to heal his heart.

Darting a
hurried glance at an incredibly beautiful woman seated next to him, Charlotte clamping
on her seat belt, she tipped her head and his eyes met up with hers. Damn. The
jolt to his insides staggered him. For one brief second, he knew exactly what
needed doing. He was going to convince Charlotte to give up the control toward everything…and
stay with him on a permanent basis. To hell with any estranged partnership. He
was going to put every ounce of his strength into making his and her
partnership into something no one could break, something real.

It took a
beating and near death experience to shake out the commitment phobia from his
soul, but he was not going to let fate’s hand touch that wheel anymore.

Charlotte
grabbed his arm, the ghosts of his thoughts whisked away. She jerked her head
toward the duffle lying on the helicopter floor—a very recognizable duffle. The
same duffle Rual had tossed at his feet, filled with the twenty million dollars
he’d brought in exchange for an operative that had never been missing. All a
ruse to get him here, backfiring in the face.

He rushed a
glance at Devon, who had his back turned to them, then returned his attention
to her. Her lips pinched tight, she looked as if assessing the situation too.

“Do you think…”
she started, her voice barely heard over the roar of the helicopter blades.

Nolan set his
finger to her lips. “I’m not going to think about anything unless he tells me. And
I’m not going to ask him about it now, either.”

She leaned closer
to him. “But it is your money, Nolan.”

“No. It’s
OSHIT
’s
money and Devon will have to deal with me when the time comes.”

“Why don’t you
just ask him how he got his hands onto it? I know it’s killing you to know.”

Thankfully, five
men including his brother were conversing into their headsets and could not
hear this, the pilot taking off from the ground, clearing the canopy with ease.

“I’m not going
to ask him, Charlotte. End of discussion,” he ground out, clenching his jaw. “If
he does not tell me what I want to hear, I might have the urge to throw his worthless
ass out of this helicopter and that would be murder. When I do punish him for
all he has done to me—to the both of us—I don’t want witnesses.”

She leaned away
from him, crossing her arms. “Stupid plan, stupid reason, likely an unrealistic
outcome,” she said hotly.

“Don’t care if
you think it’s stupid. At this point, my head is firmly set on getting medical
attention, little else. Besides, I did not ask for your opinion, now did I?”

This time, she
turned and glared—hard.

It was the
cutest thing he had ever seen. Therefore, he could not help but lean toward her
and kiss her in front of the men. Of course, Devon had to turn around at the
exact moment of lip-to-lip contact, making a snide remark about it.

“Get a room,
would ya? This is not the time or place, bro.”

Charlotte drew
back, licking her lips, balling her fists on her lap. He was mildly surprised
she was not clinging for dear life anything attached to the inside of the helicopter.
Still, he knew what was coming even before she said it.

“We will get a
room, once we get home,” she commented dryly. “The door to that room will be firmly
locked, no perverted, meddling brothers will ever be able to enter it
unexpectedly, and it sure as hell won’t be in fucking Iowa!”

Nolan flinched,
not because of her heated opinion of Iowa. Riding in a helicopter was pushing
each of his pain reserves into the realms of the Sahara Desert. He never hurt
this much before, and he hoped to hell the ride out of here was aiming itself toward
the nearest hospital. He would not put it past Devon to prolong his agony out
of spite.

“What is wrong
with Iowa?” he inquired, clenching his jaw.

Her smile came
quick. “It’s too far away for what I have planned.”

“Planned?”

“Yes, Nolan
Morgan, planned.” She reached for his face, drawing it down to hers and giving
him a kiss to melt the skin off his toes. When their mouths parted, her eyes
glassy, he was feeling the growing bulge between his legs, double-time. He did
everything he could to keep it down and out of sight from the men. Brave but
naughty, she then made the endeavor to fake a response nearly impossible when
she set her hand closer to the
General
, inching her fingers toward the
center of his thigh. A mad grab for her wrist prevented further embarrassment.