CA 46.5 Operation Second Honeymoon Read Free Page A

gate. The darkness was too thick now to see the gunmen, but their shots had come from that direction. Staying low, he scrambled for the doorway. A third shot plowed into the earth next to him. He dove for the floor inside the monastery. The echo of another shot followed him inside.
    "I've slowed the bleeding," Victoria called out. "His pulse is still strong."
    Lucas pushed to his feet and moved toward the sound of Victoria's voice. By the time he reached her side, his eyes had adjusted to the darkness well enough to make out hers and Salvadore's forms.
    "How bad is it?" Lucas knelt beside the man's still body.
    Victoria held her cell phone over the man's exposed abdomen. The dim glow from the screen provided sufficient light for Lucas to see that the entrance wound appeared low enough not to have hit a lung or his heart, but it could have hit other major organs that could prove life threatening.
    "Judging by the exit wound," Victoria said quietly, "I'm hopeful. The head wound was the biggest source of the bleeding." The light roved upward. A plug of his scalp was missing but the bullet appeared to have only grazed his head.
    Lucas placed a hand on his wife's arm. "Find a place to hide. Do what you can to keep him alive." The rooms and corridors they had explored on the tour they'd taken reeled through his mind, but he couldn't recall a particularly good hiding spot. "I'm going up to the bell tower. I don't have enough ammunition for a proper defense but I'll hold them back as long as possible. I can try to pick them off one at a time if they come over that wall."
    Victoria touched his face, her trembling fingers trailing across his jaw. "Be careful,
    Lucas. We still have much to do."
    He couldn't see the fear in her eyes but he could hear it in her voice. He grabbed her and kissed her hard and fast. "And we'll do it all," he promised.
    He and Victoria had known each other for more than thirty years. He didn't have to spell it out to her. They were in trouble. Whatever these bastards wanted, leaving survivors would not be a part of their plan.
    The narrow winding steps that led to the bell tower were uneven and crumbling. Lucas stumbled twice before reaching the top. Moonlight melted down the walls surrounding the monastery. The sallow glow allowed him a degree of surveillance. He'd fired four shots, leaving eleven in the clip. He reached beneath the hem of his trouser leg and touched the bulge in his sock. A second clip waited there. It wasn't much but he was damned glad he never failed to prepare for the unexpected even after retirement. And even on vacation. The training was ingrained far too deep.
    Victoria hadn't been pleased when he'd met with a private arms source after arriving in Mexico. Since traveling by air with weapons was near impossible, he'd armed himself upon arriving. They couldn't travel via the Colby Agency jet because it would have nullified their carefully arranged plans to remain anonymous. It wasn't a perfect world and unfortunately such steps were necessary. If he'd had any doubts, this ambush proved his analysis.
    A shadow passed the gate. Lucas took aim. "Come on, amigos." He hadn't gotten a good look at the two men, but he felt relatively certain they were Hispanic. Americans, whether traveling on business or for pleasure, were often targets of kidnap-and-ransom schemes. Evidently someone had seen through the security precautions Lucas and Victoria had taken and thought they were good targets.
    A woman's image flashed through his mind. He shook off the idea. He had to have been mistaken. If she was even still alive. Why would she be here? And if somehow she were, she had no bones to pick with Lucas. She had provided intelligence to him from time to time, for a price. They had shared a brief physical encounter. End of story. This ambush would have nothing to do with her.
    Another image elbowed the woman from Lucas's thoughts. Keaton. Fury boiled to an instant simmer in Lucas's gut. Victoria would