“I sent off pictures from the boat we found, and the dead guy to have intel run all the information,” Oliver replied, as if he’d picked up on my thoughts.
“So why are you paying off the coroner?” I asked.
“I’m not paying him off. I’m paying him for intel,” Oliver answered.
“Intel that links with the Dominican Republic?”
“Intel that links with underground activity. The guy has a network of people. We should hear something back from him in a few days,” Oliver explained.
“And here I thought you were just an ass-kicking, gun-toting badass. Guess appearances really aren’t everything,” I said, feeling a surge of hope roll through me, adding, “Do you know how odd it is to hear Spanish come out of you? It’s a little off putting. Especially since you look like Mr. Clean.”
Oliver snorted and handed his phone over to me. “Call Jared and let him know that Eli needs to be relocated.”
I brought Jared’s number up and asked, “Relocated to where?”
“Haiti,” Oliver replied. “It’s time for him to head back to his Red Cross outpost for a while.”
“And Alex?” I asked.
“Have Jared get with Cole. Alex needs to be moved back to the States and into Garett’s hands until this is over.”
The call with Jared was quick since it was hard to hear over the wind. His last words to me were, “He’ll find her, Josh. If you believe anything… believe that.”
I handed Oliver back his phone, put my back to the ceaseless wind, and asked, “Why is it time for Eli to head back to his Red Cross outpost?”
I could understand putting Eli in place so that we had someone close in case we needed them. But to send Eli back to the Red Cross didn’t make much sense.
“Works better to keep him undercover that way. No one will suspect a Red Cross volunteer talking to various locals. Makes it easier for him to get intel in and out without becoming suspicious,” Oliver answered, adding, “Plus, there’s someone Cole is interested in bringing on, and she’s already in Haiti.”
I wasn’t sure it had ever really hit me the enormity of what Cole Enterprise was until that moment. It wasn’t just one mission and done. It was an ever-constant change of circumstances. Each mission leading to the next, or overlapping with another one. Nothing was ever over even when it was over. Something would wrap up while something else was in full gear. None of our lives would be complacent, or even our own. We’d go where we were told. Do what we were told from now until we were too old to do it anymore.
No wonder Ella and Trent had made those plans so long ago. Not many people could live like that for the rest of their lives.
What Ella said about the plans her and Trent had made came back to me. Could he have taken her to Chiloe Island?
There was only one way to find out.
“I think I have another lead for us to follow,” I said, telling Oliver about Ella and Trent’s plan of running away.
He listened, sighed, and then nodded, saying, “Take the wheel for a minute while I get a hold of my contact and give him the information.”
I moved into place as he asked, “You’re sure that’s the name of the island?”
I gave a quick jerk of my head and gripped the wheel so tight my knuckles turned white.
What if Oliver’s contacts couldn’t find any trace of them? And if they did, what then?
Ella had become important to me. Our relationship was unlike any I’d ever thought to have. And what was it exactly that we did have? There was chemistry. A simple look from her was all it took to start a fire inside me.
It had been like that since the moment I met her when Oliver brought her to Alabama. She’d been different then… before her world was turned upside down and shaken. Her reality jolted when she found out Trent wasn’t dead after all.
Trent… just the thought of him had me seeing red. Or maybe it was green. The feeling of jealousy was a new one for me. And I found I didn’t quite like the bitter taste of it. And what right did I have to be jealous? She was his wife first. They’d shared a life together long before I came on the scene.
What I did know was that from the moment I laid eyes on her, I knew I was lost. What made that happen? To see someone for the first time and think my God, it’s you, as if you knew their soul—an instant connection that told you to stop looking for the other half of yourself because they were standing right in front of you.
But she wasn’t mine. Not really. Any claim I had on her was no more than one of friendship.
Did she feel anything at all? She had to have felt something or else she never would have shared herself with me.
I snorted at the thought. What are you a poet now?
People can have sex and not be in love. It happened all the time.
And Ella didn’t love me. She couldn’t. Not when she was still in love with her real husband. I saw who she’d become after learning he was alive. I saw the shadows that haunted her. She loved him deeply, and would probably love him until her last breath. I was no more than a warm body and someone she trusted enough to turn to when her feelings got too heavy and she needed an outlet.
Knowing it, and accepting it was a whole lot harder to handle.
CHAPTER 32
ELLA
I had to give Victoria a few bonus points for either being stupid or brave, because she had no idea who she was dealing with as she squared off with Trent.
She had no idea the danger she’d put not only herself but Allyson in as well. Trent wasn’t a man to take threats from some high-maintenance girl who thought the world would come to heel when she snapped her fingers or stomped her foot. I almost felt bad for her.
“Izzy, what the hell is going on?” Allyson asked again, pinching the inside of my arm in her firm grip as we both watched Victoria and Trent.
“That’s what I’d like to know. How did you find me?” Trent asked, turning to keep all three of us girls in his sight.
Victoria laughed and then sauntered across the room. “It wasn’t hard to follow you. Although I will admit I wasn’t expecting you to fly, so that took a little longer to work past, but here we are.”
“I thought I made it clear that you were never to contact me again,” Trent said.
I shivered hearing the tone of his voice. Anger bubbled in my veins knowing that Trent had sought her out to put his plans in motion.
Victoria merely smirked, unaware of the danger she was in. But I knew. I also knew that if she didn’t stop talking, he’d silence her forever. Then again, he’d silence her anyway just so there weren’t any loose strings. It was just a matter of when he did it.
“The way I see it, you have no say here,” Victoria said, looking past Trent and giving a slight tip of her head.
There was no mistaking the sound of a gun being readied to fire. I came up from the couch, hands reaching for my own weapon I always carried, but coming away empty handed because there was no weapon.
Allyson whimpered behind me. I could hear her fear over the rushing sound of my own blood in my ears. The bottoms of my feet pulsated waves of pain, and try as I might, I couldn’t completely ignore it. I couldn’t give in to it either.
I pulled Allyson to my side, shielding her with my own body, and spoke softly, turning my face into her hair to hide the movement of my lips. “Behind you is a hallway. There’s a bedroom four doors down on the left. Get inside it, lock the door, and don’t open it until I tell you to.”
“What? No,” she said, tightening her hold on me.
“Yes,” I said, wedging my elbow between us. “Trust me.”
“No,” she snapped. “I’m not hiding like some sort of coward.”
I grabbed her and spun her around, forcing her toward the hallway, leaving my back wide open.
Allyson slapped at me. “Let go, Izzy.”
“Yes, Izzy… let go.”
I whipped around to find the end of a snub-nosed derringer in my face. One might look at the gun and think it was a
toy, but it was as real as any gun out there. And as close as Victoria was to me, just as deadly.
I stepped back. Hand behind me, I got a grip on Allyson’s shirt and pulled her against me, off-balancing her before I shoved her backward, spun to the side, and narrowly dodged the first bullet fired.
Allyson was sprawled on the floor. I could see her, eyes rounded with fear, but I couldn’t do anything other than draw Victoria away and keep her focus on me.
“Nice gun. Where’d you get it? Toys -R-Us?” I asked, baiting her.
Her eyes squinted, and I dove to the side again as the gun went off. Victoria had a tell, and I almost laughed in relief.
A scuffle broke out behind me. As much as I wanted to see what was going on, I kept my eyes on Victoria. Trent could handle himself… he was a big boy. Or maybe I’d get lucky and whoever was stupid enough to try and take him on might succeed in taking him out before I could.
“He came to me, you know,” Victoria said, humming in appreciation at the sight behind me.
“Why did you bring Allyson here?” I asked, ignoring her ploy to upset and confuse me.
“He came to me in more ways than one before I agreed to help him,” she added.
“Why did you bring Allyson here?” I asked again, moving enough to keep my eye on both Victoria and Trent.
“He’s drives a hard bargain, but it was so worth it,” she said, moving a step closer. “Poor man… so lost without his wife. He’d give anything to be with her again.”
I cringed hearing the innuendo in her voice, but what gutted me the most was watching him go stone faced when I turned enough to look at him.
“You slept with her to get to me?” I asked, unable to hold back the question.
Victoria giggled. “I assure you, there was no sleeping involved.”
There was a part that lived inside each of us most people didn’t even know existed because it was so well hidden… like a sleeping monster. And when it was unleashed, it was like calling up the most-heinous beast you couldn’t even imagine and setting it free.
Victoria, caught up in her own little game, didn’t know what was caged inside of me, or how close it was to breaking free. How could she? Her intentions were purely for the sake of her own benefit. Her idea of getting what she wanted hadn’t been carefully crafted, or even skillfully thought out.
She might be holding a gun, but it was all she held.
I lunged for her, and as I knew she would, she panicked, firing off a random shot without aiming. The bullet grazed the side of my arm. I felt it rip my flesh, but the pain wouldn’t come until much later. It wouldn’t come until I locked the beast away.
Her neck, slim and willowy, broke just as easily as a sapling branch. When her body hit the floor, I stepped over it and made for the other threat in the room.
She was one of the girls Victoria had with her the day she’d confronted Allyson. There had been two of them, yet she was the only one there. That meant the other girl had been sent to handle something or someone else.
The girl took a step back, shifting into a fighting position. I’d enjoy kicking this one’s ass.
My fist shot out and connected with her stomach as her knee caught me in the kidneys. Both blows restricted to minimal impact because we were too close to cause any real damage.
She fought dirty, grabbing a fist-full of hair and using that to swing me. I hit the wall hard enough that my teeth clicked together and I tasted blood.
Trent hadn’t stepped in, choosing instead to let me take care of what he probably thought was a minor inconvenience. One problem already handled, he’d wait and be the cleanup guy when it was done. And I… I would be the murderer twice over.
With those random thoughts coming, I should have known I was tiring. In the heat of a fight, the last thing I needed to notice was what someone else was thinking. When the numbness wore off and clarity took the place of rage was the moment I had to finish what I started or lose.
I wasn’t about to lose.
The other girl looked as bad as I felt. Bruised and bleeding with her chest heaving, she ran for me again, veering off at the last second and snatching something up from the floor.
Victoria’s gun came up eye level, and I dove to the side as it went off.
I hit the floor rolling, and then scrambled to my feet, ready to dodge another round.
“It’s over,” Trent said, adding, “She’s dead, and now, so are you.”
There was a gurgled response, and then something heavy hit the floor.
A choked cry came from the other side of the room, and I realized Allyson hadn’t done like I told her, or maybe she had, but was compelled to find out what was going on in all the commotion.
I stood on legs that threatened to buckle and limped around the island bar that separated the kitchen and the living room just as Trent moved closer to Allyson.
“If you ever cared about me at all, you’ll leave her alone,” I said, feeling the overwhelming urge to cry.
He stopped cold, looked back over his shoulder at me, and then snapped his focus back to Allyson. “Why did she bring you here?” he asked.
Allyson’s hand came up to cover her racing heart as she backed up a step. Her lips moved, forming words, but no sound came out. It was as if she’d been struck speechless.
He stepped closer, caging her in. I wasn’t going to make it to her in time to stop him.
“Answer me!” he demanded, the side of his fist smashing against the wall right next to her head.
She flinched and dropped to the floor, hands going over her head.
Trent hissed through his teeth and stepped back.
I moved between them and knelt beside her. When my hand touched her shoulder, she cried out with a shudder. “No, please… no.”
“Ally, it’s me. It’s me… you’re all right. Everything’s going to be—”
Allyson was ripped away from me. Trent’s hand held her by her throat, bringing her up on her tiptoes.
I lunged toward him as he reached behind his back. With one fluid motion, his gun was pointed under Allyson’s chin. “Try something stupid, Isabella, and I’ll end her too.”
“Jesus, Trent… what the hell is the matter with you?” I asked, desperately looking to see something of the man I knew in his eyes.
“If you want her to live, she better start talking,” Trent demanded.
“Can you at least lower the gun?” I asked.
The gun came away from her chin, but he kept it in his hand. “I want answers, and I want them now.”
It was a tight squeeze, but I wedged myself close to Trent and grabbed his wrist, putting pressure on it. “Let go of her throat. She’s not going to run away from you.”
He let go of Allyson and slammed me against the wall, his arm pushing against my windpipe as he said, “You have thirty minutes to get every detail from her, or she dies.”
CHAPTER 33
JOSH
It was as if she’d slipped off the face of the Earth. Oliver’s contacts kept in touch when one area was cleared and they were moving onto another, while Oliver and I set up a mobile base camp on the Dominican Republic west coast in the city of Punta Cana. So far Oliver’s contacts had eliminated The Turks and Caicos Islands, Inagua Islands, Cuba, and the stretch of islands that ran from Haiti all the way to Grenada.
“You’re sure they didn’t make it to Chiloe Island?” I asked.
“My contact has gone over every square inch of that island. They aren’t there,” Oliver said, leaning over a desk scattered with maps, scraps of paper, and a metal compass.
I picked it up, pressing the metal tip to the pad of my thumb. “I remember using one of these in school. Never thought there’d be much use for it other than it being something to poke holes in my papers with.”
Oliver snorted as he shuffled maps around and said, “Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.”
“So, what are all these lines?” I asked, tossing the compass on the table and leaning over the map
folded to show patches of islands and a part of South America.
“Fuel calculations,” Oliver said, sitting back with a sigh.
“Any word on the plane?” I asked.
“There was a few located, so it’ll take some time for them to be checked out,” Oliver answered, sounding as fatigued as I felt.
“Meanwhile, days are slipping by and we’re no closer to an answer than we were before,” I said, trying my hardest to keep my anger in check.
Oliver grunted. “We’re not dealing with just anyone here. We’re dealing with someone who’s been well trained.”
Oliver’s phone chirped with an incoming call, and I swear I felt my heart seize.
I watched his face for any sign of change as he answered the phone, but he was unreadable.
“Where?” Oliver asked a second later.
My palms broke out in a sweat as I waited for him to get off the phone. My nerves danced in anticipation listening to his clipped questions until he hung up.
“Summer is in Cap-Haitin, Haiti. Eli’s with her now questioning her. So far, all he knows is that it was someone called Victoria.”
My heart slammed to a stop. The ex-stepsister. Of course.
“She said she was able to escape, but had to leave Allyson behind in order to get help,” Oliver continued as he moved across the room. “She didn’t go far though because she was afraid to let Victoria out of her sight.”
“Did she say if there was anyone else with Victoria?” I asked, remembering the two girls who’d stood behind her as she’d threatened Allyson and Summer.
“There were two other girls with Victoria, but something happened to one of them. Eli said he thinks Summer might have done whatever she needed to do to escape.”
“Meaning Summer might have possibly killed one of the other girls?” I asked.
“Maybe. Or one of the other ones could have turned on Victoria. Eli is still piecing her story together, but there was something interesting that Summer told him,” he said.
“And what’s that?”
All We Are (The Six Series Book 5) Page 17
