Make Them Pay

by Allison Brennan

  She opened the bottom drawer; it slid on a metal rod. That would be far more useful than a pen. She got down on her knees and spent far too much time getting the drawer out, then another twenty minutes trying to pry the rod out, until her fingers were sore and she cut one nail to the quick.

  “Dammit,” she muttered. What a waste of time.

  Time is all you have, Lucy.

  She sat up against the desk. She realized how much she relied on her vision for everything—she felt helpless. Her sight wasn’t just to see where she was going but also to investigate. To look at a room and find clues. To read people, their physical reactions to questions, if they averted their eyes, had a tell, were planning an attack. She wasn’t locked in a room, but she was still a prisoner.

  In the past, being a prisoner would have caused full-out panic. But after the minor panic attack last night when she first regained consciousness, she was more angry than scared.

  Finally, she got up and made her way back to her room, then carefully stepped past her door, searching for the stairs. She kept one hand on the wall. Even though she was expecting it, her foot stumbled at the first stair and she nearly fell. She sat down heavily and used her hands to judge the length and width of the landing. She was about to stand up when she realized that was foolish—there was no railing to hold on to.

  She scooted down the stairs on her butt, one at a time, like a crab. She would have laughed at herself if she weren’t so angry at Liam and Eden for putting her in this position. When she reached the bottom, she used the wall as leverage and stood up.

  The downstairs definitely felt bigger, airy. There wasn’t a lot of light, though—the windows may have been shuttered, blinds closed, or obscured by trees. Maybe that was for the best, so the house would appear empty.

  Her second step forward, she tripped over a single stair and fell down to the tile floor.

  “Shit!” she exclaimed.

  Don’t make assumptions, Lucy.

  She heard a vehicle and froze. It wasn’t close, and in a few second the sound faded. But that meant there was a road nearby. The sound was faint, the road could be far off, but it was close enough that when her sight returned she could reach it. It gave her some hope.

  She focused on what she could hear. For the longest time, it was only silence; now she made out the sounds of the house. One of the toilets ran intermittently. A refrigerator hummed. Outside it was still, quiet, but she heard birds periodically. A dog barked twice, then nothing. No voices. Another car passed on the far-off road, disappeared.

  Lucy breathed easier and moved toward the sound of the refrigerator.

  She didn’t trust the food that Liam brought. He’d drugged her once, why wouldn’t he drug her again? She was hungry and thirsty but didn’t want to eat anything that wasn’t in a wrapper or closed bottle.

  The kitchen might also hold potential weapons. She found the counter and quickly determined that there was nothing on the counter—no butcher block for knives, no glasses, no scissors. She searched the drawers. They were all empty. Did anyone actually live here? Had they hidden all the utensils suspecting she’d search the house?

  She opened the refrigerator and felt around. There were water bottles in here; she took one out, listened carefully as she opened it … the plastic ring broke.

  She drank the entire bottle in two long gulps.

  Lucy inspected the kitchen with her hands. It was very small. A table and two chairs had been pushed against a short wall. There was another door. It opened, to a pantry. Very small with shallow shelves. Carefully, she felt around. Canned food. A unopened bag. She squished it—chips? Cereal? She opened it, smelled. Salty corn. Tortilla chips. She tried one. Not bad. She sat at the table, ate, and considered her options.

  They weren’t many.

  Find a better weapon.

  Search for a phone.

  Locate a hiding place … just in case.

  Wait for Liam to return.

  Believe Liam will call Sean and tell him where I am.

  She had no control over the last two, but she could definitely inspect the house. The longer she used her other senses, the more valuable they became. She heard voices—very distant, possibly carrying in the still air, words here or there. Sounded like a work crew, possibly on the road. She heard more cars … not a freeway, but maybe every five to ten minutes another car drove by. Somehow, that was comforting. She wasn’t in the middle of nowhere. She should be easy enough for Sean to find if Liam had told her the truth.

  She finished the bag of chips, drank a second bottle of water, and continued her search.

  * * *

  The three of them were standing inside a ten-foot-by-ten-foot tent they’d set up at a clearing near the narrow path that would take them into the canyon. Dante’s bodyguard, Philip, had procured basic equipment, but if they found what they were looking for they might have to bring in heavy machinery.

  Philip and Dante had also handled the trade last night—the rest of the bonds for the final piece of the puzzle, as well as buying Liam’s and Eden’s freedom from a nasty Russian organized-crime gang. Everything had gone exactly as they planned. Except for bringing Lucy Kincaid along for the ride, Eden thought, but she agreed with her brother—they hadn’t had much of a choice.

  Philip was staying behind at the airstrip. There were still other problems he had to take care of, and besides, this hunt for the San Saba treasure was for the Romeros and the Rogans.

  “Gabriella should be here,” Eden said to Dante.

  Eden missed her old friend. Gabriella was a year older than them, but there had been a time—before Gabriella fell in love, before her fiancé was murdered—when the four of them had been inseparable. Eden missed that friendship. Gabriella had been one of the few real friends she’d had because Liam didn’t trust most people. Who could blame him?

  Dante glanced at her. “You know she can’t.”

  “I still don’t understand. She got her revenge, she should be with us.”

  “I told you it’s complicated. She’s fine, just has to lay low.”

  Dante looked worried, and that meant something was up and he wasn’t sharing the details. His speech last night about Kane and Sean and what Eden did and didn’t know about her baby brother bothered her.

  “I wish Mom and Dad were here,” Liam said. “And Uncle Carlo.”

  “I talked to him last night,” Dante said. “He gave us his blessing.”

  “We’ll give him part of the treasure,” Liam said. “It’s only right—he’s the only one who had faith in us.”

  Dante said, “It’s going to take us over an hour to get to the site—we need to get going. We have to leave by seven p.m.—I don’t want to walk this path late at night.”

  They were in the mountains northwest of Tampico. The church was located on a plateau in the valley between two steep mountains. At one time it had been easily accessible, but an earthquake and landslides had destroyed the dirt road from the east. Now the only way to reach the area was through a treacherous path on the western slope.

  Everyone had their own water and rations and tools. Liam carried the maps. They left the tent up—they were miles from civilization. They’d had to park nearly a mile down the mountainside because the road was too narrow.

  There hadn’t just been a church in the valley—there’d been an entire village of nearly one hundred people who had perished in the earthquake. Those who’d survived moved away.

  They walked in silence. Though much of Mexico was a desert, so much of it was beautiful—hidden pockets of paradise that most people never saw. They’d driven up here from dry, scorched earth, but the mountain was covered in green. It was cooler here; plants, including trees, grew at this elevation that were not seen thousands of feet below. They were south of one of the least-populated protected reserves in Mexico, which was more jungle-like terrain—here there were more pines and oaks—but because of the moisture, they had ferns and extensive plants and birds. It was stunning.


  It would be beautiful, Eden thought, if she weren’t so worried about poisonous snakes and bugs and spiders. She wasn’t a fan of camping, and she definitely wasn’t a fan of wild animals. There were jaguars in these mountains. Liam had promised her he’d researched the area and the jaguars were to the north, but she didn’t buy it. He often lied to her to put her at ease.

  So she focused on the flowers, the fresh air, the narrow path. Liam led the way; she and Dante walked several feet behind.

  “Is Gabriella really going to be okay?” she asked quietly.

  Dante didn’t say anything for a long moment. They heard water but couldn’t see where it was falling. The forest was noisy—quite different from the house where they’d left Sean’s fiancée fifty miles southwest.

  “She will be,” Dante said after a few moments. “Greg was the love of her life. He was a good man. He didn’t deserve what happened.”

  “What did happen? She never told me, just that he’d been murdered.”

  “You don’t want to hear this, Eden.”

  “I do.”

  Dante sighed. He took out his water bottle and sipped, put the lid on tight, and put the bottle back on his belt. He was definitely comfortable out here. While Dante enjoyed luxuries, good food and drink, he was far more comfortable walking in the middle of the jungle than she and Liam.

  “Greg was a US soldier turned mercenary. He and his team had been hired to track a fugitive in Mexico—a mid-level drug runner who’d killed a US federal agent. The US government was working through diplomatic channels, but you know how these things are.”

  “Not really. It’s why Liam and I always avoided taking jobs down here. It’s far more violent.”

  “Perhaps, but I love much about this place. It’s not all violent. The people are wholesome. Real. It’s not how you see it on television or in the movies. Yes, there is violence. Yes, there are gangs and drug cartels who control certain territories, and there are corrupt police and politicians. But Mexico is a big country. There is far more harmony than not. You just have to know where to look for it.” He smiled wistfully, shook his head. “Anyway, Greg and his team were ambushed. He was shot and his men tried to retrieve him, but he was taken. Tortured by Samuel Flores.”

  “That’s horrific.”

  Dante didn’t speak for several minutes as they walked up a steep part of the trail; then as they started back down the path, sheltered by overhanging trees and tall ferns, he said, “Do you know much about Ms. Kincaid?”

  “I don’t want to know anything.” She glanced at him, eyes narrowed. “What?” She didn’t want to have this conversation, but it seemed Dante was going to push in his own subtle way.

  “I’m no saint. Neither is my sister. But there’s a certain … diplomacy, for lack of a better word, that I’ve preserved since we’ve made Mexico our home. I’ve had a lot of autonomy to work down here. I earn a good living. Not completely on the side of the law, but I pick and choose my associates carefully. One of the reasons is because of Greg—Gabriella has many friends through him. Including Jack Kincaid.”

  Eden stumbled and Dante caught her elbow. “Oh, God, this is just getting better and better.”

  “All I’m saying is that I wish you’d called me before you made the decision to transport Jack’s little sister into hostile territory. When I tried to talk to Liam about it yesterday, he wouldn’t even listen to me. Does he have another reason for taking Lucy?”

  “No,” Eden said. But she really didn’t know what Liam had been thinking. Liam had been so angry, so volatile, since he found out that Kane had been the one to betray him. And he’d always disliked the Kincaids, who had usurped his and Eden’s positions at Rogan-Caruso. Yet he couldn’t possibly be using Lucy for anything else. She hoped.

  But, Eden acknowledged only to herself, she could be blind when it came to her twin brother.

  “She’s safe where she is,” Eden said.

  The path turned sharply right and had walked for several hundred meters when suddenly they broke into a clearing. A waterfall fell to the right, and they could see the valley on the left. It was stunning.

  She realized then that Liam hadn’t called Sean.

  “Liam, hold up.”

  He stopped, irritated. “What?”

  “You didn’t call Sean.”

  “So?”

  “You promised you’d call him and tell him where Lucy was.”

  “She’s fine where she is. I’ll call him tonight.”

  “You told her he’d be coming for her—really, Liam, you have to call.”

  “I’m sure there’s no cell coverage here.”

  Dante cleared his throat. “Liam—buddy, what’s your plan here?”

  “You know the plan!” He ran a hand through his hair. “Look, I’ve been thinking—what if Lucy tells him about Tampico? And then he and Kane track us down here? I know Kane has resources, he might figure out where we went. I don’t want to deal with them until we have the treasure in our hands.”

  “That wasn’t the plan,” Dante said.

  “So? Little Miss Federal Agent is just fine in your house, Dante. If she wanders, whatever happens is her own damn fault.”

  Eden grabbed Liam by the arm. “Dammit, you promised you would call!”

  “Lucy will get over it.”

  “You promised Sean. Or did you forget leaving that note and phone in his safe? He’s probably sitting there waiting for your call. It’s nearly noon. Don’t do this to him—he’s still our brother.”

  It was clear that Liam didn’t want to call him. “Fine,” he finally said, “but if they fuck with us, my moratorium on violence is over. This is our heritage, Eden, it’s everything we have wanted since Mom and Dad died, and I’m not going to let Kane screw it up again.”

  Eden watched as Liam took his phone out. She had to make sure he called Sean—what if he tried to trick her?

  Liam was acting more obsessed than usual. She didn’t lie to herself—Liam was no saint. Neither was she. They were exactly what Noah Armstrong had called her six and a half years ago: thieves.

  But Liam was her brother, and she would stand by him. He showed her the phone, then walked to the edge of the path for better reception.

  “Everyone who has searched for this treasure has died or lost something valuable,” Dante said quietly. “I don’t want to lose you, Liam, or my sister.”

  “You can turn around now,” Eden said. “I have never seen Liam happier or more excited. He’s been on this journey since our parents died. This is important to him—to all of us.”

  “I’m not going back.” His eyes sparkled. “I may have doubts that the gold is there, but I know in my heart the ruins are. The history alone is worth the risk.”

  “That is one thing we can agree on.”

  Dante followed her gaze to her brother. What was he thinking? That Liam was willing to risk Lucy Kincaid’s life over this?

  Or was that the plan all along?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Noah helped Jack’s caretaker, Ezra, fuel Sean’s plane and check the systems while Sean talked to Jack. Noah meant what he said—he was joining them. Not just because of Eden, but because Lucy and Sean were his friends.

  Noah might not like many of Sean’s methods, but the one thing he’d always admired about him—Sean’s saving grace—was his honor. Something neither Liam nor Eden had in their wheelhouse.

  Sean walked over. “Jack is less than thirty minutes out.”

  Ezra, who couldn’t be a day under eighty, nodded and said, “Eat.”

  Sean shook his head.

  “Sean,” Noah said.

  Nate came over with a paper bag. “Ezra made sandwiches.” He handed them out. “Now or in the air, Rogan. We need fuel just like the plane.”

  Noah stared at him. “Dunning, you’re not going. This is a personal decision for me, but I’m not letting another federal agent cross the border.”

  “I got my orders from higher up.”

  �
�I know you’re close to Kane, but you don’t work for him.”

  “No, sir, I work for the FBI. To my knowledge, Rick Stockton outranks you. He told me that no matter what you did or where you went, I was to protect you.”

  “I don’t need your protection, Dunning.”

  “Take it up with Stockton. Sir.” Nate took a bite of his sandwich, then smiled at Ezra. “Good stuff, thanks much.”

  “I’ll load the ice chest,” Ezra said, and went back to the plane. But instead of food, he packed the ice chest with guns.

  “Nate, you’re at just as great a risk as I am,” Noah said. “The fewer federal agents south of the border, the better.”

  “I’m not going as a federal agent, and neither are you.” Nate took out his wallet and badge and put them on the worktable. He then removed his service weapon and put it with his badge. “I suggest you do the same.”

  Nate was right—now the guns Ezra was loading into the plane made sense.

  Sean paced. He didn’t want to eat. He didn’t want to do anything but get in his plane and find Lucy—then hunt down his brother and beat him to a pulp. But he took a bite of the sandwich because both Noah and Nate were watching him. He didn’t need either of them on his case or telling Jack he was messed up.

  He was messed up, but he would have it together. He had to.

  The phone in his left pocket rang.

  Liam.

  He pulled it out and answered before it rang a second time. “It took you long enough! If Lucy so much as breaks a nail, I will kill you.”

  Sean’s heart was racing, but he forced himself to remain calm. Took a deep breath. Let it out. Turned away from Noah and Nate. He didn’t care if they heard the conversation, but Sean needed to remember every word.

  “Sean,” Liam said, “you know I would never hurt your little girlfriend.”

  “You’ve made a huge mistake, Liam. Where is she?”

  “Sean, you’re being an ass, and I don’t know that I want to tell you anything. She’s safe where she is, maybe I should just let you sit and fume and realize that this isn’t me, this is Kane.”