Hard Target (39 page)

"He told me you two had been asking about Chayo. He was afraid for my privacy."

"What does the ambassador know about him?" Dawna knew the answer to that question. But she had to hear it from Lucy. And not just for the body mike she wore.

"He knows everything. But still he was willing to give me a second chance. You can understand that, can't you?"

Dawna nodded. "He gave you another chance after you were released from the mental hospital, didn't he?"

"Of course he did. After I'd spent four long years in that institute, he was still willing to hire me. Everyone advised against it, but he wanted me to have that second chance."

"You ruined your second chance, Lucy."

"I did not! I've had twelve, long years to think about this and four of them in a nice, quiet institute, where they even offer extra education. I learned Spanish because I knew I'd need it."

Lucy threw off the plastic bag she carried, revealing Tay's Glock. By now, Dawna was not more than four feet from her. She thought of the Mountie above her on the roof, and she thought of Lucy. The plastic bag plopped to the ground between them, spilling out cat treats.

Poor, psychotic Lucy. She shouldn't have to die while Chayo was still at large.

One of the cats leapt down from the short wall, distracting Lucy for a moment. Dawna lunged for her, throwing up her arms in a sweeping motion to knock the gun from her hand.

Both of them slammed into the dirt. Dawna heard Lucy's breath leave her lungs in a single, hard woof.

The gun skittered over the dust. All of the cats scattered. Straddled on top of the squirming Lucy, Dawna slapped the woman's hands over her head. "Stop it, Lucy, it's over."

In a single motion -- a painful motion considering her shoulder -- Dawna flipped Lucy and dragged her hands down to the small of her back.

Multiple sets of footsteps pounded toward her. As several officers secured Lucy, Tay reached Dawna, yanking her up.

"What do you think you're doing, Rambo? She could have killed you. I thought you were properly trained, woman!"

"I am," she panted from the exertion. "I saw an opportunity and took it. Andy's man would have taken her down, but she doesn't need to die."

"Why not?" Lucy screamed up at them. "What do I have to live for, anyway?" Her face twisted in fury. "I lost everything! My husband, my son, my sanity. I had nothing after Chayo killed my Joseph. Nothing!" She struggled, but the police held her fast. "I didn't even have the comfort of knowing that Chayo was in prison. He didn't just kill Joseph, he killed my whole family!"

She drew in a deep breath. "I wasn't even allowed to contact my son. They took him away. Out of the country, just like Chayo." She was sobbing openly. "They stole him and changed his name. All I had left in me was revenge." She stilled and stared up past Dawna.

Turning, Dawna saw the ambassador striding toward them, his
escoltas
hurrying to keep up. She groaned and muttered to Tay as she tossed out her hand in the older man's direction, "See what I have to protect? And HQ doesn't think I can do it well enough?
They
should try protecting him."

Tay nodded.

"Ambassador," Lucy cried out, between the two of them. "Dennis! You know what I've been through." Her voice turned pleading. "Chayo ruined my life, my family! And where is he, now? No one can find him. Justice will never be served. Never!" The last word broke with a heavy sob.

"Is this why you wanted to come to Bolivia?" Ambassador Legace asked. "To find him and kill him?"

"I didn't know where he was, but I knew he had to be here somewhere."

"Then you found him working here."

"I didn't recognize him at first. I never got the opportunity to face him after he killed my husband. They whisked him out of the country too quickly. At first, I thought he
was
Ramos. He had the right story, which was that he'd found good work after he was released by the old government."

"How did you figure out he wasn't Ramos?"

Lucy straightened. Her jaw set, her shoulders went back with pride. "Joey found out. He's smart, just like his father was. He found me, didn't he? He has my looks, but his father's brains."

His expression grim and sad, the ambassador peered at her. Tay watched her, too. Yes, that was the curious familiarity he'd seen in Joseph. He resembled a younger, male version of Lucy. "But why did you try to kill me?" the ambassador asked.

"The tea wasn't meant for you. It was to scare off Dawna. Only scare her off. She's strong, young and in good shape. I knew she wouldn't rest until she had all her answers. I thought if she got sick, I could finish with Chayo, and everything would be done. I couldn't rely on Juan anymore."

Cabanelos. "Certainly not after you'd killed him." Tay said. "And what did Cabanelos do to you, that you needed to kill him?"

"He wanted to help. He knew the real Miguel Ramos, and didn't want him to be forgotten. He and all the others who suffered under the old regime."

Dawna frowned, but Tay spoke up. "Cabanelos called out for his wife, but he wasn't married. Was he calling out for you?"

"I said I'd marry him. He wanted to start a new life away from here. I convinced him we should go to Sucre and be married by a government official. Fool. He kept calling me his wife. But I needed his skills, so I agreed to marry him. He taught me about explosives and tried to shoot Chayo that day he was smoking behind the embassy."

Tay nodded to himself. Just as he suspected. "But something went wrong. You had planned to frame Cabanelos and return to Canada and disappear."

"He got cold feet." she snapped with a sneer. "He wouldn't kill Chayo, and talked about forgiveness and stupid things like that. So I made him some tea and some food and told him to go back to his village for a while."

Tay folded his arms. "Yeah, all the things high in potassium."

Lucy looked away. "They were only foods he liked. He'd told me he had a heart condition, so I knew he wouldn't be strong enough to handle the potassium. He was too weak, and returning to the mountain would be hard on him."

"Did you kill Chayo, too?"

Her expression indignant, she lashed out, "I told you! I can't find him! But, yes, I wanted to kill him. Kill him three times, one for each of us."

The ambassador took a step closer to her. "Only your husband died, Lucy. You could have kept going."

"No! I died, too. And so did Joey. He struggled for love so much. He worked so hard in school, hoping to find the love I couldn't give him. You're a parent, you understand."

"But he found you again." Wheezing himself from the altitude, Dennis Legace shook his head. "You could have started over."

Dawna glanced up at Tay. When he caught her gaze, he held it. She swallowed, remembering the disappointment in Tay's eyes when she refused to answer his proposal.

Her lungs hurt. It was tough enough to draw in a deep breath without her shoulder adding to the pain. But she'd remained as silent as Andy Bonner and one of the local
policia
as they took Lucy away. The ill Mountie appeared to be doing better.

Dawna studied the dust on her clothes for a moment, before brushing down her pants. She couldn't look at Tay, not yet.

Someone touched her arm. She looked up to find the ambassador there. "I'm returning to Cochabamba, now. That sick Mountie and I have had enough of this altitude. And so have you."

"I'll be leaving shortly, sir."

He flicked a short look at Tay. "Not without talking to him, I hope. But turn off your mike first."

Dawna reddened, and fumbled with her mike. It was wired in tight under her vest.

Tay was at her side. "Let me help."

Standing still, feeling Tay's warm hands guide the mike out of her vest, she watched everyone keep their distance. No wonder. They'd heard everything Tay had said.

But they weren't going to hear her words. She spun around and covered the tiny black mike with her hand. "Tay?"

He looked up.

"Um." She wasn't sure where to start. Her thoughts of the two of them were mixed up, jumbled with her compassion for Lucy. "I don't know what to say. When you told me you loved me, I believed you. I even trusted you'd come back for me. But I really wasn't sure and it was hard to push away all those doubts...."

She shifted her weight. Tay said nothing, but in one comforting move, took her hand and pulled her close.

"Tay, I was scared. I knew you wouldn't desert me, but I think I was scared for myself." She finally found the courage to peer into his eyes. "Except now, listening to Lucy, I don't want to be like her. Revenge and bitterness ruined her life. Chayo didn't. I know she's unbalanced, but she ruined her chances for happiness. And I don't want to be like that."

He held her hand, and she looked down at where the cuts made from the jagged steel in the basement were now healing. "You're not," he said.

"I wanted to prove to the whole world that I was good at my job. I thought you were there to stop me."

"I was supposed to. But I've never regretted anything more, Dawna."

"I know you didn't have a choice, and that you couldn't explain it to me, either." She crept closer, hesitantly toying with his bullet-proof vest. "I don't want to ruin any chance I have at happiness. And you're the only person who can make me happy. Is that proposal still available?"

He drew her into his arms. "You bet it is."

She clung to him, needing his body to be close to hers. Needing him, she admitted to herself. "In that case, I accept. I love you, Tay. But I haven't got a clue how we're going to work this marriage out. I still have two and a half more years left here. And you have two jobs..."

"We'll work something out. Trust me." He bent his head and kissed her.

She gave herself over totally to the kiss, totally to the trust.

And totally to the love.

Epilogue

Dawna threaded her way through the crowd, peering carefully to see if she could spot Tay as he entered the airport.

This time on a commercial flight, Tay would meet her at the civilian airport, a modern building with an arched roof, all new and bustling with such a variety of people. The throng of new arrivals poured in from their walk along the tarmac from the airplane.

There was Tay! Dawna shoved up her hand. He'd only been gone for five weeks, but to her, it had seemed like a year. It didn't matter this time, he was returning as the Military Attaché Advisor. A fancy title, created by Dennis Legace, to set up a continual military presence here.