The Assassin’s Billionaire Bodyguard
Chapter 49

Cam Torres dressed in camo in the early evening hours with the sunset behind him was a sexy beast and Isabella had to remind herself more than once he was not her fiancé on this mission. He was her commander but damned if she didn't want to throw him behind a tree and have her way with him. Only once since they'd approached the giant house in the middle of nowhere had he treated her differently with the guys motioning for her to get behind him. She had done it but kicked the back of his knee when nobody was looking and gave him an angry look. Now she was nearing a clearing with Erik ahead of her and Sly off to her left. They were coming towards the driveway of the house. They had not parachuted in since they had been able to drive most of the way in from their rendezvous spot. Cam had contacts everywhere and had favors called in. They had a chopper waiting for them once they grabbed this douchebag. They wanted him alive, which was something Isabella didn't understand, but apparently the DEA wanted to charge him as a signal to others they were going to replace them all and bring them to justice.

She saw Cam's fist rise telling them to halt. This was also something new. Instead of the constant banter of her crew while in the field, this team was damn near silent. They didn't talk to each other unless Cam decided to give a verbal command through their earpieces. She went with it but found the quietness strange to endure.

She looked around almost bored as the sound of music playing coming from the mansion echoed out over them. Somewhere to the rear of the house, Gideon and four men had surrounded back exits.

Something caught Isabella's eye towards a shed in the distance and she tilted her head as she studied it intently. Cam was watching her. She motioned she wanted to check it out and he shook his head. He motioned at Sly to go and she rolled her eyes. She spoke under her breath as Sly stepped past her, "I'll bet a hundred bucks the shed holds a secret tunnel into the house. If you drop a grenade in it, you're cutting off an escape hatch."

Cam obviously heard her through their communication devices, "negative, do not drop a grenade anywhere. We are supposed to be sneaking in and out. We aren't here. Get him quietly, get him out."

"He's seriously going to escape," Isabella thought to herself at his curt command

Sam's voice from wherever he was perched cut in, "you have company coming in on your right down a footpath from the house. I think they know you're there."

Three guys emerged immediately to Erik's right and as he turned to face them, Isabella engaged. She was supposed to be watching his six and so she did her job. She and Erik made short work of the three men, and he nodded appreciatively at her. She pulled their walkies off once she heard someone on the other end ask if they caught the infiltrators and stomped on them. "They know we're here."

"Did we miss a camera?" Erik asked her seriously.

"I don't know but somehow they know. Either your source was leaky, or we missed something on the path in. Maybe someone in the village we passed through called ahead." She made a face, "this feels bad." Erik nodded at her, "agreed."

"Stick to the plan," Cam's voice cut into their conversation. "Get him and we get out. Do not engage unless we have to."

"This blows," she whispered at Erik who rolled his eyes at Cam's instruction.

They continued moving forward as Sly's voice cut in, "the floor of this shed is metal, like a trapdoor and it's big enough for a car to come up. Clearly there are hydraulics, and I can hear the humming of the electricity under." Cam looked at her curiously as if questioning how she knew. Gideon's voice cut in, "you got one of those in your shed Sweeney Todd?"

"No, but I know someone who does," she thought of Sabine's place. They'd had way too much fun installing it. She paused, "do you have anything you can jam the hydraulics with? Keep the doors from opening up?"

Cam motioned at Erik to go help Sam sabotage the exit and for her to get closer to him. The sound of a gunshot caught her ear and she immediately dropped to the ground. She looked at Cam who also dropped. "You hit?" He shook his head, "statuses everyone?" Everyone affirmed they were good and accounted for.

The sound of a man's voice called out, "I don't know who is out there, but I've just killed your little spy. Now come out before I simply open up the machine guns on the entire jungle."

"Sounds like the DEA's source got caught," Cam made a face. "We were supposed to bring him in safe."

"Let me walk out," Isabella said seriously. "He's less likely to shoot a girl, mostly because he'll be confused. Sam can take a kneecap on him."

"f**k no," Cam made a face at her as if she were stupid. "Stick to the plan."

"Fine, but can I at least go in the house and beat someone up. This is dull."

"I know you and your team like to go in and annihilate everything in your path but it's not how we work. We grab him and we go."

"Ugh," Isabella grunted her disproval.

The drug lord's voice called out again, "you have ten seconds before I turn the machine guns on the jungle. Ten," he began counting backwards.

Cam pointed at her to round the house to the side, "go."

Cam was so meticulous he didn't leave anything to chance. His panties were likely in a twist because of the escape hatch not being in the plans the DEA's source had given them. Isabella considered her fiancé was a control freak and didn't like things left open for any possibility other than what he instructed. Now he was wondering what else had been left out. She made her way to the side of the house, easily avoiding the view of the three men who were looking exactly where she had left Cam laying in the brush. She pushed up a window and crawled inside as the sound of rapid fire on the jungle echoed around. She tried not to think if he was in the line of fire.

Isabella dropped to the floor and looked around, replaceing herself in a bathroom. "How the hell do they get marble tile all the way out here?" she whistled lowly. She ducked behind the door as someone stepped into the room. The sound of Cam demanding to know where she was echoed in her ear. She whistled lowly again and the man, preparing to take himself out of his pants to use the toilet turned in surprise. She punched him square in the nose. He fell to his knees, and she twisted his neck. Cam's insistent voice was in her ear, and she gave an impatient snort, "Jesus, boss, you told me to check for security. I'm checking for security. Also, one more down. Do you guys keep tally's or just go willy-nilly?"

"State your position," Cam's voice was furious.

"In a bathroom standing over a dead guy with his d**k out," she half-laughed. "What a way to go." "You're in the house?"

"Yes." She wrapped a towel around her fist and gently smashed the mirror over the sink. "It's a really nice bathroom. Too bad I have to break it." She squatted down and opened the door a crack and slid the mirror out. "I really wish I had my camera, but this will do," "What the hell are you doing?" Gideon's voice cut Cam's off.

"Causing seven years bad luck," she quipped smartly, "I'm concerned your intel was off on the layout since you missed the shed thing. Main floor has one set of stairs. Your psycho who just fired his machine guns into the woods like a nutjob, is standing about fifty yards in front of me down a long corridor. He has two men with him. At the top of the stairs is at least one-armed t**t waffle. None of them seem too concerned about us being here. Maybe your drug lord's intel is as shitty as what you got from the DEA." She paused as she adjusted the mirror to catch more of the main floor.

Obviously, she took to long to speak, "Isabella!" Cam's voice cut in, "get the hell out of there."

She spoke again, "across the hall is a dining room, eating place. Team of eight maybe nine. One woman serving them. She looks rather unhappy. You said I'd have no girls to rescue," she chastised Cam as she watched one of the men slap the woman's a*s. "Someone just slapped her. Please can I kill him?"

"There are ten men in your immediate area? Get out of there now."

"It's only ten," she countered.

"You can't take ten men out on your own," Gideon growled in her ear. "Stay put til we get there."

"You're kidding right? Dude, I work with a team of five. This is nothing." She pulled her mirror back and quietly closed the door and locked it. "This sucks. Also, the dead guy is covered in his own piss. I hate when they do that."

"Now I know why she had the nickname Deadpool," Sam's voice cut in, "she never shuts the f**k up."

Isabella grinned at Sam's words knowing he was smiling as he spoke.

Nearly a minute passed before Cam's voice was hot and angry, "where the hell are you Iliza?"

Now he remembered to use her code name, she thought sarcastically. "In the bathroom. I was told to stay put until the big guy gets here. Also, big guy, you're taking an awfully long time, I'd have cleared the house by now."

"The chopper will be here in four minutes for extraction. We have him on the front steps, let's keep him there," Cam ignored her comment, content she was safe in the bathroom. "f**k, he's gone back inside. He must think he killed whoever was out here."

"You do have a person on the inside," Isabella taunted him. She listened at the door, "he's telling the team in the dining hall to pack up. They're moving to location two because they've been compromised. He also is giving instruction to kill everyone in the village." She made a face, "I really don't like this a*****e."

Someone pounded on the bathroom door, instructing whoever it was in there to hurry up as they were leaving.

Gideon was in her ear telling her he was at the back entrance.

"Awesome," she grinned and pulled the door open to the man who was knocking angrily for his friend to come out. He had his fist up to pound on the door again and she snapped up and caught him in the throat with her fist. "Hey, it's the guy who hit the girl." She announced to anyone listening, "sorry boss, he has to go." As he dropped to his knees gasping over his broken trachea, she used her blade and slit his throat stepping over him.

Gideon rushed into the hall through what must have been a kitchen, and he pointed at her, "you and I are going to have words."

She motioned to a panel closing under the stairs where their subject had likely disappeared. "Pretty sure you want to go drag him out first. He went through a secret panel under the stairs. Probably going to try to drive out the shed." She looked around as Gideon pounded on the wall. She leaned against the frame of the bathroom door casually, "there's probably a control on the side table." She casually lifted her sidearm and fired at a guy at the top of the stairs sending him crashing down. "Do you want me to go up and make sure it's all clear or are we really just going after one guy and his mini-army?"

As the men who had come in with Gideon entered the room from various locations and Cam strode furiously through the front door, quickly followed by Sly and Erik, she waited for Gideon to respond.

"Oh my god it's like working with f*****g Neanderthals," she pushed past one of Gideon's men and found the trigger for the door panel and watched it slide open, "use your heads. If you've cut off the underground exit, then the only option for this guy is to hole up underground or to come back up guns blazing. Had you collapsed the tunnel instead of just locking it, he'd be back already. Instead, we either must go in and drag him out or wait for him to come back. Extraction is now two minutes out. What are we doing?" She lifted her gun and fired over the head of one Cam's men at a guy who had gingerly poked his head around a corner near the top of the balcony.

As the man on the top of the landing screamed after being shot in the eye, Erik's "nice shot" echoed in their ears.

"Someone needs to go clean up whoever else is up there. Also, there's a girl crying in the kitchen, and I hate when they cry," Isabella made a face. "It makes me angry and violent." Erik snickered.

"Get the girl to a car. She can drive herself to the next village. There's three or four cars out front," Cam said to one of Gideon's men. "We'll go in and drag the fucker out."

"They have assault rifles," Isabella said. He gave her a look warning her not to argue with him, "Hey I want to go in too, I'm just saying, they fired an AK on the forest because they "thought" someone was there. If they see you, it's going to be full on gunfire." Cam motioned to her, "you, go with Erik and Sly, clear the top floor, replace Sam and Marvin, then meet us at the chopper. We'll be there."

"Aye, aye captain," she saluted him mockingly and turned and went up the stairs calling out to him, "Don't get yourself killed down there. I'm not adopting your kid." She heard his grunt of acknowledgement. She knew why he was sending her upstairs instead of down and it had everything to do with the same intense fear she had watching him disappear into the darkness of the underground bunker. Watching someone you love attempt something stupidly dangerous was excruciating.

The sound of gunfire caught her ear and everything in her wanted to run down and make sure he was okay. She saw Erik pause and she pointed up the stairs, "you have a job. Do it." She followed him and Sly. Three more guys were upstairs, obviously expected to hold the fort down until their leader escaped. They made short work of them and then ensured the rest of the house was cleared.

Walking out the front door, they found Marvin, who had put the girl in a car, racing back as if he were going to follow the others underground and Erik shook his head, "we're going to get Sam and meet the chopper. Orders. Go."

The chopper was in the field, and Isabella tried her best to control the urge to run back to the house and go looking for Cam and Gideon, but they were only two minutes late. At the four-minute mark she looked to Erik. The chopper pilot was tapping his wrist. Erik looked to her, "one more minute and we go back."

She nodded once and swallowed the lump in her throat. Suddenly Isabella turned her back and jumped into the chopper. She'd seen Cam, Gideon and the other three men dragging the target through the field and there was no way she was letting Erik see her cry tears of relief.