Linus’ days were numbered. As soon as The Agency could piece the evidence together to tie him to the crimes he committed as Albatross, they’d move in for an arrest. He didn’t want April or Archie anywhere near Casa Linus when that day came.
Not that he had much say in what April did with her life, but if he could help her from afar, he’d do it.
A brown pelican landed on the end of the floating dock and staggered to the side like a drunk sailor before it gained its balance. It lifted its head and swallowed the fish in its throat pouch. Jonas’ stomach grumbled, reminding him it was nearly lunchtime, and he’d only munched on a bag of Twizzlers on the flight to Marathon International. If Wexler didn’t show up soon, Jonas was going to catch his own fish and fry it up.
“Agent Smith. Thanks for waiting. I was held up by a traffic accident on the A1A.”
Jonas watched his handler come down the sand covered stone steps. Wearing a hibiscus button down, chino shorts, and mirrored sunglasses, he looked like a stereotypical tourist.
“You have the PRIM I see.”
Jonas had placed the titanium case on the nearside of the dock when he’d arrived.
Agitated by Wexler’s arrival, the pelican let out a hoarse squawk and took off. Jonas didn’t blame him. The overpaid babysitter rubbed him the wrong way too. Not to mention, he’d kept the news about April’s pregnancy from him for the past five years.
Jonas took three steps, hauled back his fist, and punched Wexler in the face. The handler landed on his back in the sand, his gold rimmed shades askew. Blood trickled from his split lip.
“Are you crazy? No, you don’t have to answer that. You are crazy.”
“Why didn’t you tell me April had a kid?”
“I didn’t know.” He sat up and righted his sunglasses.
“Bullshit. You know everything. This is why you warned me to keep to myself. You didn’t want me to find out, because you knew I was the father.”
“I suspected, but I couldn’t be certain. You should be thanking me. I saved your ass from being exiled or worse.”
“I was exiled to friggin’ Siberia!” Jonas loomed over him, hoping he’d stand up so he could knock him on his ass again.
“There’s no need for violence.” Wexler put up his hand in defense. “You are absolutely right. I should have told you, and I’m sorry. I have a little one of my own now, and I would do anything to protect her. I want to make it up to you.”
“How?”
“I’m sure you were wondering why I asked you to meet you in this particular place?”
“It crossed my mind.”
“It was the best way to get you close to Key West without tipping off Philip Linus.”
“I’m not going back there. My job is done. Find someone else to finish it.” Jonas headed for the stairs.
“Our surveillance team recorded a telephone conversation Linus had with April earlier this morning.”
The serious note in his voice made Jonas stop and turn around. “And?”
“He’s taken your son and wants the PRIM in exchanged for the boy’s life."
The first time Jonas got the wind knocked out of him, he was ten years old and he’d fallen out of a tree. As he struggled to suck in air, his chest ached and he’d panicked, thinking he would never breathe again. He’d since learned to sit up straight and breath slowly and deeply until his diaphragm started working again. This time, however, his breath was gone, and he didn’t think he’d get it back.
April wouldn’t stand by and do nothing. She would move heaven and earth, and face the devil himself to get her son back.
If anything happened to her or their son—
No. He couldn’t go there.
Wexler climbed to his feet and dusted sand off his shorts. “Linus wants the PRIM, but, of course, we can’t give it to him. With your skills though, I have faith you’ll find another way to rescue the boy.”
Jonas nodded. “You’re right. I can’t give Linus the PRIM, but just in case I don’t have any other choice…” He hauled back his fist and punched Wexler in the face again, this time with more power, and knocked him out cold.
Jonas hotwired a speedboat and made it to Key West in record time. He slipped past the two guards who patrolled the southwest corner of the Linus estate and let himself into the pool house, where he took a moment to make the call he’d been dreading.
He dialed the number and put his ear to the phone.
“Hello?” Molly answered on the second ring.
“It’s Jonas. Can I speak to April?”
“Thank god you called! Philip Linus kidnapped Archie and is threatening to hurt him if we go to the police. He wants something called a PRIM. Anders went to Casa Linus to try to reason with him, while Jimmy attempted to sneak inside the house, but that was over two hours ago and they haven’t come back and won’t pick up their phones.”
Getting Archie out alive was going to be difficult enough, but now he had his brothers to rescue too? He didn’t expect much from Anders, but Jimmy was too smart to get caught. What the hell happened? He muttered a curse. “Where’s April?”
“Right here.”
There was a brief silence as she handed the phone over. Then April soft, sweet voice touched his ear. “Hello?”
“April.”
“Jonas, they have—”
“I know. I’m on the property. I’m going to get him back.”
“My father threatened to kill Archie if I don’t give him the PRIM.” Her voice waivered on the word kill. “You can’t go in there alone. I can help you.”
“It’s all right, babe. I know what I’m doing. I’ll get him back.”
“Anders, Donovan Mika wrote me a letter. He claims my father thought he was having an affair with my mother, but they were just very good friends. Instead of confronting them about his suspicions up front, he slowly poisoned my mother to death. Donovan said he tried to make Hope leave Philip, but she refused to believe her husband would ever hurt her. She was wrong. My father’s doctor told her she had inoperable brain tumor and she believed him, but Donovan never did.”
“Who do you believe?”
“Why would Donovan go through so much trouble to make something like that up? He even sent me a copy of her sealed autopsy report. It says she had high levels of arsenic in her body when she died, and there’s no mention of a tumor.”
“I’m really sorry, babe.”
“Oh, Jonas, if he was capable of murdering my mother, he won’t hesitate to hurt Archie. Please tell me you have the PRIM with you?”
“No, but if anything should go south, I left it in the place where we first met behind the Coke machine.” He sat back against the palm thatched wall and rested an arm on his knee. “April, when this is over, we need to talk about Caracas. I’m sorry I left the way I did.”
There was a long silence at the other end of the line. “Please be careful and bring my baby home.”
Jonas shut off the phone and tucked it away before he left the pool house. Thick tropical foliage around the pool fence blocked the cameras, and a blind spot by the gate gave him a clear path to the main house. The security team put too much emphasis on patrolling the perimeter of the estate and got lazy when it came to the grounds themselves. They relied too heavily on the cameras, but never bothered to fix the weak spots. Linus was probably keeping the boy locked up in his bedroom on the second floor. His brothers were a different matter.
If they were still alive— No, Linus might be a narcissist, but even he wouldn’t murder a world class country music superstar on his estate and risk drawing that much media attention to himself. Jimmy, on the other hand, was a world class pain in the ass. He might be a goner.
Entering through the rear servant’s entrance was risky, but it was easier than trying to pry open a window in the broad daylight. Linus was very particular about his privacy, so there weren’t many cameras in the house. The one on the backdoor was easy to disable and wouldn’t cause that much alarm as employees were
constantly disabling it when they went out for a smoke.
Jonas kept his head down as he slipped into the hallway. Staying close to wall, he reached up and unplugged the ethernet cable.
“Oh, hello.”
He nearly jumped out of his skin. Spinning around, his hand went to the hilt of his knife.
The pretty maid smiled shyly at him. “Were you able to fix it? Daniel unplugged it because he was late for work again. Please don’t tell on him though. He’s working two jobs, but only through Christmas.”
Jonas shrugged. “I won’t tell.”
Her worried expression dissolved into a sunny smile. “Thank you. Have a great rest of your day. My shift’s over and I have the next two days off.”
“Elise,” he said, glancing at her name tag. “Do you happen to know where Mr. Linus’ guests are waiting? They have some questions about security.”
“I’m not sure, but they could be in Mr. Linus’ office. We weren’t allowed to clean the east wing at all today even though the family isn’t in residence at the moment.”
“The boss isn’t back from his trip?”
Elise shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“Thanks again. Enjoy your time off.”
Jonas took the servant’s staircase to the second floor and made his way to Linus’ study. When another maid came toward him carrying a load of laundry, he stepped into the shadow of a large potted palm. A few feet away from Linus’ office, he slipped into the next room and waited for a clue as to what was going on behind the closed door. After ten minutes, when no sound came from the room, he made up his mind to find out.
Steeling himself for anything, he picked the lock and opened the door.
Jimmy and Anders sat on the floor with their backs against Linus’ big mahogany desk. Their hands and feet were hog-tied in front of them.
“Well, at least you’re not dead,” Jonas said, slipping a knife from his harness.
“It’s a trap, Jonas,” Jimmy said. “Get out of here.”
“Relax. They don’t even know I’m here.”
“That’s what you think.”
“Can I make a suggestion?” Anders turned to Jimmy impatiently.
“No.” Jimmy and Jonas said at the same time.
“We got this one, brother,” Jimmy explained. “You’re out of your element.”
Anders scoffed. “I reckon the only thing you got is rope burn. Same as me.”
“Have either of you seen Archie?”
“Nah,” Jimmy said, “But I heard someone say a maid is looking after him.”
“And how about Linus?”
“They brought me here to his office to wait for him.” Anders shifted, trying to get comfortable. “About five minutes later, they dragged El Kabong in here and hog-tied us both. If he would have listened to me and waited until I had a chance to talk to Linus—”
“What’s done is done, Baba Looey.” Jimmy extend his feet toward Jonas. “Quit wasting time and cut us loose.”
Jonas crouched beside Jimmy and slipped his blade under the thick nylon rope and began to saw.
The sound of a helicopter approaching the house caught Jonas’ ear. He stood to peer out the front windows. The glass rattled as the aircraft skimmed the roof heading for the backyard.
“Jonas!” Anders shouted the warning.
A guard stood just inside the open door. “Intrude—”
Jonas flung his knife and planted it in the guard’s voice box, cutting off his shout of alarm.
Two more guards charged into the room and lunged at Jonas.
April paced the length of the bar, past the concerned faces of her friends and back again. Jimmy decided to make the renovated dive bar he co-owned with his brother Anders home base for their operation before they’d left nearly four hours ago. April had never been in Dixie’s Bar and Grille when it was so quiet she could hear the clock tick on the wall above the cash register.
Sue, the bar manager, and her chef husband Oscar occupied two bar stools. Sophie sat on another between Juan and Carly, who had come by for moral support about an hour ago. Molly was home watching her children and Sophie’s daughter Charlie.
April had a very bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, and not knowing what was happening was making her crazy.
“Mama, why don’t you sit?” Juan patted the empty stool next to him. “You’re gonna wear the points on those stilettos to nubs.” Fresh out of the hospital, he was taking it slow, but doing remarkably well.
“I tried to sit still, but I can’t.”
“I can make you a cup of chamomile tea, if you’d like?” Sue offered. “That might sooth your nerves a bit.”
The front door opened, and Captain Tom hobbled in. The crusty, gray-bearded sailor was an old friend of the Ostergaards from when they were boys growing up in Gulf Shores, Alabama. He’d been a fixture in Key West since he retired from captaining a fishing boat more than a decade ago.
“Captain Tom,” Oscar called to him, but it was a faint echo of the cheerful greeting he usually got when he showed up for his daily pint.
Earlier today, he’d driven Jimmy and Anders’ to Casa Linus. Nobody had expected him to come back alone.
Sophie slid off the bar stool and rushed him. “Where are they?”
“Alive, I think. I saw Jonas in an upstairs window. The room that overlooks the courtyard.”
“My father’s study,” April said.
“Then Linus arrived by helicopter, and must have spotted my car near the end of the drive, because I had to hightail it out of there when some of his goons came around to check things out. I’ll be frank with you, this is a bonafide shit show.”
“We have to do something.” April’s hands curled into fists.
“If only there was some way to get inside unnoticed.” Juan crossed his legs, unintentionally mirroring Sophie and an idea popped into April’s head.
“I have an idea,” she spun around, “but I’m going to need your help.”
When Juan realized she was talking at him, he sat up a little straighter. “Me?”
“It might be dangerous. Are you feeling up to it?”
Juan tsked and put a hand over his heart. “Mama Kitty, this Puerto Rican already proved he can take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’. I’ve got your back, girl. Bring it on.”
Sophie grabbed April’s arm. “I’m going with you.” The worry in her eyes reflected April’s own inner turmoil.
April nodded. “Captain Tom, I’ll need you to drive the getaway boat.”
“Count me in too, lovely.” Carly slid off the stool and smoothed her skirt. “But what does one wear on a commando mission?”
Juan raised his arm like an eager first grader. “Ooh, ooh. I know the answer to that.”
He failed her. The first chance Jonas got to prove to April he could protect their son and he failed them both. He cursed and tugged hard at the thick rope binding his wrists to his ankles. After straining for a moment, he lost his balance and fell into his brother Jimmy.
“Get off me, Squirt.”
“F-U.” Jonas squirmed into a sitting position again and leaned back against the desk.
“This is your fault,” Jimmy grumbled. “If you would’ve kept your paws off April—”
“Mind your own damn business.”
“How can I, when I’ve been yanked tits-deep into yours?”
“Will you two shut your traps,” Anders snapped, finally breaking his silence. “I’m sick of you bickering like a couple of old biddies.” He hadn’t said a word since the two guards jumped Jonas, hog-tied him, and planted him in between his two brothers. “My wife is at home seven months pregnant with twins. She doesn’t need this kind of stress. If anything were to happen to her or those babies, I don’t know what I’d do.”
They all grew quiet.
“Why did you come then?” Jonas had to ask, because he had no idea why Anders was even there.
“Because April and Archie are family. I thought of her that way even bef
ore I knew it was true.”
“I came along for shits and giggles,” Jimmy said, but they both ignored him.
A boulder settled on Jonas’ chest making it difficult to breathe. He couldn’t tear his gaze away from Ander’s stern profile. When he was a boy, he loved to watch his big brother do stuff. Play sports, talk to girls on the phone, lift weights, it didn’t matter. Nobody was as perfect as Anders Ostergaard and Jonas idolized him, until one day his big brother left for college and never looked back. When he eventually did return, it was to bail fifteen-year-old Jonas out of jail. He didn’t need Anders’ fancy lawyers or his lectures, he needed his brother, but Anders never got that and it led to a rift as wide as the Amazon river. Deep down, Jonas hated letting Anders down, but Anders had let him down too, and Jonas resented his brother for that. Family was supposed to have each other’s backs, but Anders had turned his squarely on Jonas.
Until now. “Thank you for trying to save my son.”
Anders shrugged. “That innocent little boy is my godson. I couldn’t let anything happen to him.”
The weight on Jonas’ chest grew heavier. “I failed him.”
Anders shook his head. “No, you didn’t. You came back. Despite being sucker punched with the news you had a four-year-old kid you didn’t plan for, you pulled yourself together and did the right thing. It’s more than I did for my own son at your age. I was selfish and stupid back then… Anyway, I’m proud of you.”
Jonas’ heart slammed against his rib cage. The sincerity behind his brother’s words made his throat grow thick with emotion. He swallowed hard.
“We’re going to get out of here,” Anders said with all of the confidence Jonas had once worshiped. “You’re going to save your son, and you’re gonna love being a father to that beautiful little boy.”
Jonas shook his head. “I don’t know how to be a father.”
“None of us did.” Jimmy leaned into the conversation. “Charlie might have her mama’s stubborn streak and her daddy’s smart mouth, but we haven’t misplaced her yet and only forgot to feed her once or twice. You figure it out as you go along.”
Anders balked. “You’ve got one child. How do you forget to feed her?”
Passion Punch Page 25
