by Donna Young
“That’s just it, Cal. You made the choice and left me none.” Julia shook her head, suddenly tired. “Can I ask you something?”
“What?” But the word came out exasperated.
“Did you tell your mom about the contract on her life?”
Cal studied her for a moment. “Yes, I did. I told both my parents together.”
“I just wanted the same consideration,” she said sadly.
“Julia.” Frustrated, Cal swore. “There is a big difference. My father is retired military. He had a right to know in order to protect his wife.”
“So it makes all the difference. Them being married,” Julia concluded.
“It does,” Cal replied. “They had each other to worry about.”
“I guess my problem is that I thought we had each other, too.”
Cal frowned, but didn’t reply. There didn’t seem to be anything left for him to say.
“Julia?” The voice was little more than a whisper. “If we are going to rescue my mother, we must hurry.”
“I’m sorry, Argus.” Julia placed her arm around the boy. “You’re right, of course.”
“You are not going to rescue anybody,” Cal ordered.
“We have a solid plan, Cal.”
“I can get us in, señor,” Argus said. “I could have freed Jason a long time ago, but did not have a way of getting him out of the villa and away from here. My father has too many men. Too many people at the airports and in the city.”
“So how has that changed?” Cal demanded.
“Julia said you are here to rescue Jason. While you are doing that, we can find my mother and leave. No one will be interested in us, they will be searching for you. If we are asked, my mother can tell them she is worried about a possible shooting and is taking me to the mission.”
“And Julia?”
“We can hide her in the car very easily,” Argus reassured him.
The boy was smart. Cal had to admit, it was a sound plan, but far more risky than if Julia and Argus left right away.
“I’m not going to risk your life or his, Julia,” Cal said. “Argus, can you draw me a map of the villa? And show me where your mother’s rooms are on it?”
“Yes, sir. But it would be much easier if I showed you.”
“No, not this time, son. I need you to take Julia back to the mission. I’ll bring both your mom and Jason there.”
Julia stepped between the boy and Cal, then nodded toward the corner. “Is there paper and a pen you could use, Argus?”
“I don’t know,” the boy said slowly, then glanced from her to the books.
“Please try, while I talk to Calvin a moment.” Julia pulled on Cal’s hand for emphasis. “We’ll be right outside.”
“All right.” Argus frowned, but stepped over to his corner.
When they reached the shadows just beyond the door, Julia pushed the door closed and turned to him. “Cal—”
“No.” His eyes snapped to hers. “I will not risk a ten-year-old’s life. I don’t care if he’s Jason’s son or not.”
“Jason told me differently. He said you wouldn’t care about the boy. You would use him any way you needed to gain control of the MONGREL. He told me your code name was Thanatos. The God of Death.”
Cal stilled. “Did you believe him?”
“I believe your code name was Thanatos. I never believed you would consider killing a ten-year-old boy.”
“You told me once that you trusted me, Julia.” Cal grabbed her shoulders and pulled her close. “Trust me now to handle this.”
“I don’t know, Cal—”
The door slammed shut, hit by the wind.
Startled, Julia frowned. “I thought we closed the door—”
Cal swore. “Argus.”
They quickly searched the darkness, but already knew the young boy was gone.
“What was he thinking?” Julia worried.
“I’m sure he decided it was taking us too long to save his mother. And that he could do a better job,” Cal said and returned to the muted light in the chamber. He pulled his gun out of its holster, checked the clip.
“We’d better follow him.”
“We?”
Cal gave her a curt nod. “Just stay close, or I’ll give you bloody hell when we’re done with this.”
DAMIEN STRAVOS HAD MORE THAN enough time to enjoy Rosario’s charms.
She’d worn a white flowing sleeveless dress that skimmed her curves and showed off her ample bosom.
While he himself did not do cocaine, he made sure that it flowed free in the living room where they drank their wine.
“Where is your husband, Rosario?”
“He’s been called away on business but should be back later tonight. I am truly sorry, Damien, that he is not here and that you are stuck with me.” Her lips moved into a pout that set Damien’s blood on fire.
“No, no. I understand that your husband is a very busy man. He must be gone a lot, with all his business dealings and such.”
Rosario raised a delicate brow. Did this man really think she was that gullible? The pig.
He sat there with food on his shirt, and good wine in his belly. That’s all he would get from her tonight.
Damien licked his lips. He’d had enough. Cristo had made it clear what kind of entertainment he was going to get tonight. Unfortunately, Rosario, while putting on a nice show, was not living up to Damien’s expectations.
“Lock the door, Rosario, and then come sit,” he suggested, then patted the couch cushion next to him.
Instead, Rosario walked over to the bar on the other side of the living room. “Would you like some more wine?” She held out the decanter.
“No, I’d like to stop playing games.”
Rosario shrugged and filled her glass.
“What games, Damien?” She placed the decanter back in its place. “I thought we were having a nice conversation,” she commented, her lips moving into her blandest smile before she took a long swallow of her wine.
Damien reached her in four quick strides. He grabbed her arm and drew her in for a kiss.
“Stop.” She jerked her head away. Wine sloshed between the two of them.
Damien’s grip tightened. “Enough! Lock the door and we’ll finish what you’ve started.”
Rosario struggled to get away. “I would like you to leave.”
“Before the evening is through? I don’t think so.” The captain laughed harshly. “Your husband negotiated you as part of the shipment, Rosario. I intend to exact my payment tonight.”
With his free hand, he gripped her hair and yanked her head back until her lips were only inches from his.
“I am not responsible for Cristo’s deals or debts,” Rosario bit out.
“But you are responsible for your son, are you not?”
Rosario stilled. “What do you mean?”
“Maybe you will reconsider your position tonight once I tell you that I know Argus is not Cristo’s biological son.”
“That’s a lie,” she said, but fear shook her voice.
“The doctor that delivered your son is a very good friend of mine. A friend that doesn’t hold his liquor very well,” Damien taunted. “He told me Argus needed a full transfusion at birth because the blood type of his mother and father were incompatible. He also told me you paid him an extremely large amount of money not to tell Cristo about the blood transfusion.”
“Go to hell.” Rosario threw her drink in his face.
Enraged, Damien crushed his mouth to hers. But when she struggled against him, she’d miscalculated his strength. His arms tightened, locking around her like two steel bands.
Desperate, she bit down hard on his lips and immediately tasted his blood.
Damien howled and slapped her across the face. Pain exploded across her eyes and through her jaw, sending her onto the floor.
He stepped back and wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. Blood smeared his skin. “I didn’t want to play rough tonight. Br
utality might turn on men like your husband, but it normally isn’t my style. But if you insist—”
“No,” Rosario said softly. She hung her head, let the tears come to her eyes. “I’ll take care of your needs tonight, Damien.”
“That’s better,” he admonished. His chest puffed up with masculine pleasure. He reached down, grabbed her elbow and helped her to her feet. “I’m glad you see it my way.”
“You left me little choice.” She stepped back and used a nearby end table for support. “If we’re going to do this, at least lock the door like you first suggested. So there are no more interruptions.”
“Of course, my dear.”
Rosario waited for him to turn away, then she slid the drawer open and pulled out Cristo’s small pistol. Surprisingly, her hands weren’t shaking.
She thumbed off the safety, praying that there were bullets in the gun.
“I’ve had a change of heart, Damien.” When the captain turned back around, she raised the pistol and pointed it at his chest. “I’m calling this deal off.”
Slowly, she squeezed the trigger.
Chapter Twenty
Rosario’s scream hit the air. On its heels came another gunshot. Argus raced out of his father’s study and into the sitting room.
A man lay at the foot of the couch. Blood soaked the white linen shirt. The man’s dead eyes stared at the ceiling.
“Mama!”
“Stay there!” Rosario ordered when her son came into the room. “I’m okay.”
Blood ran down her chin, covered her chest. Whether it was hers or the man’s, Argus couldn’t be sure.
But she managed, with effort, to straighten. Then slowly she walked to her son. “Argus, your father is going to be furious when he gets here. I had to…stop his business associate. The captain got drunk and attacked me.”
“Are you all right?”
“Yes, yes,” she said and glanced nervously up at the open doorway. “I have to tell you something quickly. And you have to trust me, mijo. I promise I’ll explain more to you later. But right now, you just need to listen. And don’t ask your questions.”
Argus nodded.
“I need you to free Jason Marsh from the cell downstairs.”
“The key is gone.”
Rosario reached between her breasts and pulled out the key. “I took them from your father’s desk earlier this evening. I was going to set him free myself.”
“But how do you know Jason?”
“He was my friend, long before he was yours,” she said, then quickly knelt in front of her son. “Listen to me, Argus, and try to understand. Your father is a very powerful man and he desperately wanted a son to rule his empire with. So much that he was going to kill me and find another woman to take my place when I could not get pregnant. I suspected that it was your father who could not have babies, so I decided to get pregnant by another man. To save my life. That man was Jason.”
“What are you saying? That Jason is my father?” Emotions tripped through him, confusion, relief, fear…joy. He’d dreamed of this very thing. Of Jason being his father.
“Yes,” she replied and gave him a long hug, squeezing almost too hard, but Argus didn’t mind. Somehow her arms around him stopped his chest from hurting with fear.
“I don’t regret what I did, because God gave me you. But I do regret making you stay here and pretending that a monster like Cristo Delgado was your real father.”
She stood then. “I need you to go now. Help Jason out of the cell and then go with him. He will take care of you until I can meet up with you again.”
“Come with me, Mama.” He tugged on her hand, his voice filled with fear.
“No. I need to keep your father distracted, to give you both time to escape.” She kissed his cheek and took another quick hug. “Go. Now.”
“But, Mama—”
“Please.” Rosario deliberately softened her throbbing lips into some kind of smile. “I love you, mijo. It will all be over soon.”
“I love you, too.”
Argus took one last look at his mother and ran from the room.
Rosario turned toward the captain, her mind already on what she was going to tell her husband.
Suddenly, two hands gripped her neck, forcing all the air from her chest. She clawed at the hands, desperate.
“I heard everything you told your bastard son, Rosario. What do you think I should do about it?” Cristo whispered in her ear as he pulled her back against his chest and tightened his grip. “You think you will go unpunished for your sins, my dear?”
SOLARIS STUDIED THE SCENE before him. The cell had been washed down. Jason Marsh, too. Although the stench still remained, its potency had lessened considerably.
Solaris grudgingly admired the unconscious man on the floor. He’d struggled at first, with a dislocated shoulder and quite a few broken ribs. But Solaris managed to push a tranquilizer down his throat and knocked the operative unconscious.
It was probably a good thing, too. The giant glanced at his watch. He’d been there for several hours, but his mind had not been on catching Argus in the act. Somehow his gut instinct told him that the boy would show up tonight.
Even so, his thoughts had been on Rosario and her dinner with Captain Stravos.
“Jason?”
Solaris straightened from the wall. He heard the soft tap of feet nearby.
When the boy walked past, Solaris simply reached out and grabbed him by the cuff of the neck.
“What are you doing here, Argus?”
“I—”
When the boy didn’t respond, Solaris picked him up slightly onto his toes, just to put a little fear in him. “Answer me.”
The boy’s chin tightened, his mouth flattened into a stubborn line.
“Leave the boy alone, you son of a bitch.” The words were raw, slurred, but the threat was there.
Jason moved slowly to the cell bars. Sweat ran in rivets down his face from fighting the drug.
Solaris lessened his grip, but did not let the boy go. “Why don’t we end this tonight, Marsh? Tell me where you’ve hidden the MONGREL.”
“Let me out of here and I’ll end it,” Jason sneered. “Why don’t you take on me instead of the boy?”
Jason glanced over at Argus and froze. “You’re covered in blood. Are you hurt?”
Argus looked down at his shirt and saw the red splotches. Still shaken, he answered without thought. “It’s my mother’s. Hers and a friend of my father’s, Captain Stravos. He attacked my mother. She shot him with her pistol. He’s dead.”
“Are you sure?” Solaris demanded.
“Yes,” Argus answered, but leaned away from the rage in the giant’s face. “She is waiting for my father in the study.”
“Damn it, Rosario.” Solaris bit out the words under his breath. Suddenly, he dropped Argus to the floor. “Get the hell out of here, boy.”
Then Solaris disappeared in three long strides through the passageway.
“Let’s go, Argus,” Jason urged, holding up his wrists, exposing the shackles. “Do you have the key?”
Startled for a moment, Argus stared at Jason. “Yes. My mother told me to help you, then ask that you keep me safe. She thinks that my father…I mean, that Cristo will try to kill me.”
“Cristo?” Jason repeated, suddenly realizing. “Your mom told you, didn’t she?”
“That you’re my father? Yes,” Argus replied softly. He turned the lock and opened the door. “But we must help my mother, Jason.”
“We will, I promise,” Jason answered. The boy unlocked the shackles and let them drop to the ground. Jason rubbed his wrists to get the circulation back. “Where is Julia, Argus?”
“I don’t know. I left her with Calvin at the cemetery. I think he knows I am your son, Jason.”
Jason swore. “Okay. First, I’m going to get you out of here. Then I’ll come back for your mother. She would want it that way.”
“I’m not going without her.” The boy’s chin st
uck out, determined. “You promised.”
Jason took a step, his legs trembled. He locked his knees and grabbed for the concrete wall.
“And you cannot do this without me,” Argus argued.
“Then I guess it’s a good thing I’m here,” Cal said from behind them.
Chapter Twenty-One
Cal placed Jason’s good arm around his shoulders.
Julia grabbed Argus. “Are you okay, sweetheart?”
“Yes, but my mama—”
“We heard,” Cal said. “Like…your father told you though, we need to get you safe first. Julia will stay with you while we go back for your mother.”
“Solaris is already on his way,” Jason said.
They met very little resistance going back out of the villa. Most of the men were out searching for them across the grounds and outside the compound.
Within moments, they reached the edge of the courtyard where the shadows masked their presence.
“What now?”
“Back through the cemetery,” Cal stated. “Right?”
“Yes,” Argus said. “By the crypt.”
“All right, but we move fast.”
Suddenly, floodlights shattered the darkness, blinding the group.
Julia automatically hugged Argus to her side.
“You’re not going anywhere, I think.” Cristo stepped out from behind them. “I’ve waited a long time for this.”
Cal felt a sharp jab in his spine. “Drop the gun, West,” Solaris said, his voice a mere rasp of air.
Cal tossed the gun to the ground.
“That was a quick change of plans,” Jason sneered.
“Shut up.” Jorgie shoved him to the ground, kicked him in the stomach, doubling Jason over into a fetal position. But Cal noticed Jason did not cry out in pain. He didn’t give Jorgie the satisfaction.
“Not quick enough for Rosario it seems.” Solaris kicked Cal’s pistol out of reach of both men.
Julia heard the underlying derision in the giant’s tone and immediately understood.
Rosario was dead.
Argus stiffened beside Julia. He, too, understood. “My mother?”
“Dead,” Cristo said with no inflection in his voice.
