“He hated Floyd,” Oscar said. “Still does.”
“What brought this to the surface again?” Dane asked Oscar.
“Luis was in Haiti. I didn’t ask Floyd if he’d seen him, if Luis had confronted him, but my bet is that they ran into each other.”
“So you think Luis put Floyd up to avenging Maria’s death by coming after me? Then he finds out about my partnership with Shana and joins in with the Tavares people because he knows they have a grudge against both of us?”
“That’s the size of it.”
Dane thought for a beat. “I don’t think Luis has that much sway with Floyd.”
“There’s also the money,” Oscar said.
“Did Floyd need the money?”
Oscar shrugged. “He’s coming along on retirement age.”
Dane smiled. Oscar gave him a warning squint back. David scoffed. No need to remind Oscar he was further along on his way toward retirement age. Well past it, by some standards. If Dane ever felt like he was getting too old for this racket at thirty-nine, he thought about Oscar. Maybe Oscar ought to be on his mind more often. Except Dane didn’t think of this racket as something he could retire from. It was his essence—who he was. Same as it was for Oscar.
“Let’s get out of this godforsaken place,” O’Keefe said.
Dane didn’t want to tell him this was one of the most civilized missions he’d been on outside the country.
“We need a plan to ensure Floyd is going to follow us,” Shana said. “I don’t even care so much about Tavares—law enforcement has that family on their radar for other things. But if we don’t get Floyd now—he’ll get away with everything.” She folded her arms across her mighty magnificent chest and Dane’s blood surged, bringing body parts to life that had no business being part of this mission.
“He’ll follow us.”
David said, “He might be tempted to cut his losses and run. We should have a plan to make sure he doesn’t get out of town without Tavares knowing about it.”
“Floyd will want to cover his tail with the CIA,” Dane said. “He doesn’t want them chasing him any more than he wants the Tavares people on him.” Dane paused and he had everyone’s attention, but he looked at Shana. He didn’t have a plan in his head, but he knew he could brainstorm one with some inspiration.
“Floyd will ideally want to blame our death or disappearance on Tavares and keep himself clean. He wants the money, but he also wants revenge of his own. He needs to come away clean, to wrap up his career, put his last payday together, and get his revenge.”
“Are we sure he’s not doing this under duress?” David asked. “It’s a big leap for a CIA man with a long career to suddenly turn rogue and start killing his colleagues and working with the people he’s been working to shut down all his life. Are you sure his motivation to take you down is strong enough?”
Dane should have known he wouldn’t get away with the shortened version of the background to this mission and Maria’s death. He took a controlled breath, a mind-clearing breath, and spoke.
“Floyd figures I deserve to be taken down. I’d taken down his mistress. Or so he believes—he has to believe it to prevent feeling his own guilt. Maria didn’t get arrested, or captured or outed, but killed. I’m not going to lie and say I had nothing to do with it, that it was all on Floyd—”
Oscar interrupted, “I didn’t see it that way.”
“But Maria was only his mistress, not his mother,” Cap said. “And it’s years later now. Is he motivated by her loss or motivated by a threat—maybe from Luis?”
Dane let the question hang in the air. Oscar knew all about it. He knew more about Floyd’s relationship with the woman than Dane did. He also knew about how a loss could eat at a man, bit by bit over the years, if a man weren’t careful.
Oscar spoke up. “Floyd’s relationship with Maria was more real than his relationship with the CIA.” He looked at Dane before continuing. Dane didn’t blink.
“Maria was a native of Columbia, brought up poor. She was running a high-end brothel when Dane and I met her, but the rumor was that Floyd set her up. She was also a drug mule and had a large bank account. I’m fairly certain it was a joint account with Floyd. They were business partners. She got caught in a setup by the ATF when Dane worked with them. Dane was undercover but Floyd knew him, so Maria knew he was undercover. We all had to trust her and she turned out to be very trustworthy. Dane posed as a customer and she gave him the inside intel on the time and place the cartel members would be there.” Oscar stopped. He firmed his mouth, reined in some emotion before he continued. Dane braced himself.
“Dane hadn’t warned Maria about the exact time of the takedown. Floyd apparently hadn’t warned her either. Maybe they both assumed the other would.” He stopped again and looked at Dane, expecting him to add his commentary, his version. Dane didn’t want to speak, but they all waited. In a contest of silence, he wasn’t sure who would win this time. His conscience or his soul or maybe the heavy thudding of his heart that felt like it was building to an explosion prompted him.
“I was supposed to meet with her earlier in the day. I would have warned her then. It had to be done in person. It wasn’t the kind of thing I could broadcast on the phone or in writing or by messenger. Floyd asked me to cancel the appointment. Said it was over since the takedown was that night. He hadn’t relished my role. Maria didn’t have clients—not since she’d been in charge of her own business. And as far as I could tell not since she took up with Floyd.” Dane didn’t say that he felt Floyd’s jealousy, that the situation had caused more tension between them than anything else, and they wouldn’t have liked each other under any circumstances.
“I knew Floyd was meeting with her. He should have warned her—maybe he did. Maria was a singular woman. She had her own mind and loved the excitement, yes, but she felt deeply about the cause. Maybe she felt guilty about consorting with the cartel men. She hated them. They paid her well, but they also threatened her and her women.”
“So you think she might have stayed, knowing the takedown was happening?” David asked. He didn’t show much, but Dane saw the skepticism in a minor twitch of his eyebrow.
“Yes. I was surprised she was there when we raided. I tried to get to her, but…” His cool exterior was about to disintegrate and expose the turmoil inside. He squeezed his eyes shut. He took a long shuddering breath and vowed that was all the emotion he would show.
“She had a weapon—I have no idea where she got the Glock—maybe from Floyd. She tried to fight alongside the ATF and shot one of the cartel men when that man raised a gun. His gun was aimed at my head, I was told. She had no intention of hiding or pretending to surrender. Someone shot her down. No one could ever figure out where the shot came from, whether it was a cartel thug or if she got caught in the crossfire because the volley of gunfire that followed her shot was fierce. I had my weapon on full automatic as I surged in her direction, but I never got there. She had fallen and I became engaged with a man with a knife.”
The silence in the large place sounded unnatural. Dane tried not to pant, but he couldn’t stop the sweat streaming down both temples now and between his shoulder blades. The only sound he heard was the pounding of his pulse in his eardrums. Oscar moved, changing his weight from one foot to the other, then spoke.
“Floyd heard about it—and so did I—the next day from several sources. He knew of Dane’s role, but what had really bothered him was that Maria had made herself a target by shooting a cartel member to save Dane.”
Oscar didn’t say that Maria had had a thing for Dane and had trusted him.
And that Dane had used that for his mission. That’s what Dane lived with. What he tried to forget.
Floyd thought Dane had tried to steal his woman. It didn’t matter that he was wrong.
“Why now? Why would he wait all this time?”
Dane said nothing.
Oscar shrugged. “I think it’s been simmering a long time, but my handler
is a supremely practical man. Made him good at his job. He could put a lot of terrible things from his mind and continue operating.
“But the instigation of Maria’s brother combined with the gift of opportunity handed to him by the Tavares brothers and the timing—time to retire—would all fall into place in his mind. It would be the exact convocation of elements to trigger action. He is a patient, well-disciplined man. I could see him waiting for the elements to line up.”
No one said anything. Floyd’s motive was almost secondary at this point. But Dane agreed with what Oscar hypothesized. It was identical to his own best theory.
“So Floyd bided his time and nursed a grudge against Dane Blaise,” Shana said. “But he knew Dane was a dangerous man with many friends, so he didn’t play his hand. He also knew Dane didn’t trust him.
“When Floyd ran into Oscar and he learned that I was with Dane, that set Floyd off. He could give Dane a taste of his own medicine.” She stopped. She didn’t say the words, but he thought them. Floyd could take him down and hand Shana over to Tavares, exacting a revenge worse than murdering Shana would be.
Dane said, “He plotted the setup by using Oscar’s phone without his knowledge.” He paused. No one spoke. Shana watched him. He continued.
“Floyd figured he could get a payoff and have Tavares shoot me for him in exchange for Shana. Maybe he would fake his death at the hands of the Tavares organization and take off with half the money to some island. Or maybe he’d kill Henrique Tavares, chase the rest of them off, and become a CIA hero. And keep all the money.”
David cleared his throat. “Meanwhile you foiled his plans when you and Shana escaped. Now he needs you to stay in Rio to get another chance at you. He’s trying to keep you here with the lure of Oscar.”
“You and the rest of the posse are another wrinkle in his plan. He needs to find out what we know and potentially take us all out.” Dane turned to Shana.
She spoke before he did. “We’re going home now.”
“While the getting’s good.” He held her green eyes with his.
“He may be able to run to an island to escape legal action by the United States government—officially,” David said. “But I’m not sure the CIA plays by the rules unofficially. I’ve heard they have some kind of internal protocol to take care of their own problems. Either way, it’s certain he’ll be in trouble with the Tavares people. They would hunt him down and extract their revenge. We’ve seen firsthand that they have long memories.”
Dane said, “Floyd’s best way out is to follow us to Martha’s Vineyard with Tavares and company and blame whatever happens on them—after he kills them and preferably they kill as many of us as possible—and to keep any evidence against him to a minimum. He’ll have a plausible case that he was coerced into it.” Dane let the acidic aftertaste of his words pass, swallowing hard as if it would help.
“Whatever we do, I don’t want Floyd Parker to get away with this,” David said. “Worst case, if Floyd doesn’t follow us back to Martha’s Vineyard, we go after him.”
Dane smiled. “I have time.” Then he looked at Shana, “And by ‘we,’ David means he and I. Maybe Acer and Oscar if they’re game. That’s it.”
“I think we can do better than that,” Shana said. She stared at Dane and he knew she was concocting something, but he was ahead of her.
“You’re right. We’re not leaving things to chance. We’ll make sure they follow us.”
Chapter 14
“How?” O’Keefe asked.
The sun was setting. A sliver of the fading light came through the far door. Dane looked at David and O’Keefe. “You stay behind. Acer can take Oscar, Shana and me back in his bird.” He turned to Acer for confirmation.
“We’re all set. We we’ll be able to take most of cargo—”
“We should leave the weapons behind for David and O’Keefe. They may need them. They’ll make themselves visible and leave a message without seeming to leave it purposely. They’ll make sure Floyd and Tavares both think we have the goods on them, that David and O’Keefe have been left behind to babysit them and the rest of us went stateside to turn in a report. We’ll say that we’re expecting the CIA and ATF will be coming back to get them.”
“How about we hint to Tavares that we’re planning to get Floyd to trade evidence on them in exchange for a lighter sentence?” Shana said. “Isn’t that how the feds do things?”
Dane nodded. He got that hot burst of pleasure in his gut that rose through his throat like a magic bubble. He’d swear it was pride and hoped to hell it didn’t show on his face. Shana should be the last person to know he felt pride on her behalf—he had no right. Evidently his heart didn’t care about rights.
David said, “It sounds wonderful. How do you propose we go about it?”
“We know where Tavares lives and we have Floyd’s number. I suggest the direct route. Go where you know they’ll see you—get them to follow you. Check in at a hotel and leave something behind that they can decipher. Like the imprint of a note on a pad of paper or something—don’t make it too tough.”
“How about if we leave a cell phone behind?” O’Keefe said.
“Too obvious,” David said. And the note on a pad of paper is too obvious.” “Leave the phone in the trash with some texts on it and take the battery out. Let them put a battery in it and find out that way. Not a no-brainer but not too difficult. Make sure they know we’re headed back to Martha’s Vineyard and have an appointment with the governor in forty-eight hours to make a report for a case. Mention that the governor is out of town for forty-eight hours and that he’s our boss on this and is in contact with the CIA,” Dane said.
“And we play it that we’re still here watching them?” David asked.
“Works for me,” O’Keefe said.
Dane nodded around the room. He got to Shana, who had her game face on. He didn’t know what she was thinking and it was as unusual as it was uncomfortable for him.
“It’s a plan then.” He addressed Shana, “Unless you have any objections or anything to add?”
She smiled one of those self-satisfied gotcha smiles—probably because she enjoyed causing him discomfort.
“No,” she said and went back to her game face.
Oscar moved to where he stood almost between Dane and Shana and said, “I forgot how masterful you are at planning, Mr. Legend. You were a good second in command to the general back in the day, I’m sure.”
“Second to Peter John Douglas?” Acer grinned. “Don’t let him hear you say that. It be the truth—but one of those unspoken truths,” he added.
Shana avoided his glance now. He could feel some kind of rosy heat emanating from her. Wouldn’t it be ironic if it were that same kind of unearned pride he felt about her? More likely it was irritation at the legend reference.
“Never mind. File outside. David, take Acer’s truck back and stay at the Sol Ipanema Hotel on the beach. It’s not far from the Tavares, Inc. office.” Dane dropped back behind Acer and Shana. He stood in the door blocking David and O’Keefe behind him and turned to talk to David.
“Get the message to the Tavares family that Floyd helped us escape back to the United States—that he gave us advance warning that their men were coming after us so we could get away untouched.” Dane took a deep breath. “Extra insurance to sow dissension between them.”
“Our priority is Floyd Parker over the Tavares organization then,” David said.
“Like Shana said, the Tavares family has other people prioritizing them. Floyd has us. And we are not going to let him go.”
“I’m with you,” David said. O’Keefe nodded. Then all three of them proceeded outside. Dane wasn’t sure about O’Keefe, but he was counting on David Young to keep him on mission. He joined the others in Acer’s helicopter. Dane squeezed in next to Shana with Oscar up front and watched David and O’Keefe climb into the truck and leave. Acer went through his takeoff checklist. Once the rotors whooped to life, Dane put on the headphones i
n front of him, but no one was talking. They were short a pair of headphones and Shana went without.
Dane put his arm around her. She didn’t pull away. Maybe she couldn’t pull away. He decided he could afford to take shameless advantage for the duration of their trip. Once they returned to the beach shack, reality would hit them hard with the shambles of the shack and their relationship. For now they were suspended above it all, apart from the real world. Flying through the air where he could enjoy the warmth of this woman and not worry about anything. He closed his eyes.
“You can lie against me,” he mouthed. She read his lips. He made the suggestion seem simple, normal, and reasonable. The frog-like jump in her chest was not reasonable. But it was all too normal a reaction for her since she’d met Dane. In the year she’d been with him on and off, her palpitations hadn’t relented.
The frenzy of excitement like an electrical short circuit she felt had grown more intense if anything. Like right now.
Shana’s excitement went to waste within five minutes of leaning into Dane’s hot hard comforting wall of muscle. She felt him relax into sleep, felt his warm moist breath against the back of her neck. For now, she decided, things could be simple between them and she rested.
All Dane’s senses awoke with a flood of sensual stimuli dominated by the soft feel of Shana’s curves, the scent of her hair, the tickling of her hair against his face. His first urge was to pull her closer against him. The best part of him was ready—but the sound of Oscar calling his name shut down the urge. At the same time, Shana moved away and stretched. He pressed his back against the door and felt the hard cold metal against his back and the cool air around him. The ache in his thumb and the soreness in his jaw exploded along with aches and pains in every muscle and joint in his body.
Beachcomber Trouble Page 14
