by Jeff Abbott
“It’s just that kind of day,” Galo said with a tight smile. “Sam, you got a sister? You know how it is.” Galo winked at me. His shock at my unannounced appearance seemed to have passed and he’d decided, I suspected, that the quickest way to find out what he wanted to know about me was to be my new best friend.
“It’s okay, hon,” I said. “I get it. Actually we met because Cori didn’t hire me. I bid on a job for one of her charity functions and I got outbid.” I smiled affectionately at her and she smiled back, nervousness dancing behind her eyes. “So I asked her to coffee to see if I could bid again on another job, and…well…we liked each other.” I cracked a smile at Cori.
“I guess you’ll get the contract,” Galo said.
“Not so far,” Cori said. “Having seen what it’s like to work with people you care about, I actually think Sam may not work my charity’s events.” She gave me a sweet look and I smiled back at her. I guessed it was somehow a jab at her brother.
I shrugged. “I can live with that.”
Galo seemed to study her words like they hung in the air. “Cool,” he said. “Sam. It’s nice to meet you. I’m just surprised Cori didn’t mention you.”
“Like I said, we’ve all been keeping secrets.”
He flicked a smile.
Cori said, “Sam, it’s a family get-together this weekend. But I wasn’t invited. So when I arrived here at the hotel—which our father partially owns—the concierge called Papa and he sent Galo to come…fetch me.”
“Are we intruding on a private time?” I could imagine the burnt man saying: “When you enter the maze is as important as how you enter it. Avoid times of heightened suspicion. Don’t ever seem to be a coincidence.” I was breaking the rules left and right.
Galo’s phone rang. He glanced at the screen and excused himself, a few feet away.
“What’s going on?” I whispered.
“What I just said. Family meeting, shutting me out.”
“Does this have something to do with the ten million I heard you mention to Steve?”
She gripped my hand. “Don’t mention that. Please don’t.” She bit at her lip. “Look, I’m going with my brother. You need to fake stomach cramps or a migraine and stay here.”
“Yeah, that’s gonna happen.”
Galo got off his phone call. His smile was dim. “She’s brought you to meet the family. I’ve set it up so you can. Papa can’t wait.” He glanced between the two of us.
“Just because you don’t bring someone special home to meet Papa,” she said, “doesn’t mean I shouldn’t.” Her arm went around me. “Of course, I bother to date. To meet new people.”
Galo made a noise. She was making some kind of verbal jab at him that I couldn’t read, old business between them. Siblings love to complain about the other’s choices. My brother and I had been the same way. I tried not to dwell on those memories. I missed Danny terribly. We’d each been all the other had in our nomadic childhoods, our parents busy with their work.
“So, Sam. Since my questions sounded like an interrogation to my little sister, I’ll turn it around. What has Cori told you about her family?” Galo asked.
And then this felt like the tightrope, the point where the wrong word would truly get me in serious trouble. I could feel the shadow of the burnt man on my shoulder, watching me, coaching me.
“Enough to know maybe I should stick close to her.” I made my voice a little challenge. Not intimidated. Not diplomatic. Not particularly smart, given the delicacy of the moment. Blustery, full Chevalier.
The hospitality faded. “Has Cori made you think she has some reason to be afraid of her own family?”
“No.”
“I would hate for you to think so poorly of us. Cori’s upset over a very minor issue.”
I held up my hand. “Hey, I don’t want to cause a family squabble. I’m here for Cori, not trouble. Really, this was the free weekend I had, I didn’t mean to cause trouble.”
“Galo fixes every problem,” Cori said. I could hear bitterness in her tone. “Doesn’t every family have a fixer, and don’t you get fed up with them now and then?”
Galo ignored her and studied my face again. “Sam. Would you excuse me and my sister for a moment? Get yourself a drink at the bar.”
Cori didn’t release my hand. “I don’t think so. Tell Ricky we’ll leave in a few, Galo. We’ll see you at the car.” She stood and basically dragged me along with her, away from him, into the casino.
“That went well,” I said. “Do they even know that you were targeted by the Colombians…?”
She ignored me. “Do you already have a room?”
“Yes. Why are you and he at this hotel? At this casino?” It had to be about the chip.
“I told you, we own part of it,” she said in a rush. She let go of my hand. “You cannot stay. You cannot. We’ll tell them you got sick, that you ate bad food on the plane…”
“Cori!” Galo called across the bar. He held up a phone. “Papa’s called again, he wants us back at the house and he sounds impatient. Let’s go.” He cracked a smile. “C’mon, Sam. Meet the family. As Papa just said, ‘Let’s have a look at you.’”
“Sounds great.” It actually sounded foreboding. But I smiled. I took Cori by the hand and she stumbled after me as I followed Galo.
18
THE JOB WAS already going badly. No backup, having to tell Cori the backstory in public, where I could screw it up, going into the countryside, away from the city, no idea what I’m facing.
Her fingers entwined with mine, Cori sat next to me in the backseat of the limo, apparently theirs, not hired. Galo sat across from us. When we climbed into the limo, Ricky was there, having abandoned his jacket for a blazer. I assumed he was armed. He glanced at me but gave no sign of recognition. He closed the doors and got into the driver’s seat.
“Who’s this?” Ricky asked. He didn’t offer the deference of a typical employee.
“Cori’s got a boyfriend,” Galo said. Ricky watched me in the rearview as we headed into the snarl of San Juan traffic.
“Congratulations. You make a nice-looking pair,” he finally said. I might have detected a hint of sarcasm. Did he recognize me from Or? Dark there, but how dark?
Galo brought out a smartphone and began tapping at it. He glanced up at me once and I thought I heard the very soft click of the phone taking my picture.
“The last name is Chevalier with a c and an h. Do you need me to spell it for you?”
He cracked a smile. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“You just took my picture.”
“No, my phone makes all sorts of odd noises. It’s old and crappy.” He glanced up at Cori. “That’s a hint, you know, my birthday is coming up.”
“The way you’ve acted, like I’m really going to buy you a gift.”
“I think I’m being very welcoming, Cori. I bet I look totally charming next to Papa and Zhanna.” He smiled at me, like we were sharing a joke.
I suspected he was e-mailing my photo and my name to his father. Get me checked out. If I made a big fuss, I might look like I was a threat. If I was just a boyfriend, then I needed to be just a boyfriend.
I’m saving your life, she’d said with a kiss. She wouldn’t be kissing a guy she hired to protect her, a bodyguard. Not the new Steve, if one of them was behind Steve’s death. I had to be a boyfriend. Not a threat. Just here for her.
Cori put her head on my shoulder.
“You didn’t fly out this morning with Cori, Sam,” Galo said.
“I caught a ride on a FastFlex cargo flight,” Cori explained. A little too quickly.
“I was tied up on a job until late,” I said.
“And I like surprises,” Cori said. “You know how much I like surprising you, Galo.”
Galo put away his phone and I got the sense her words somehow scalded him. An old sibling grudge, an unfunny joke between them. “And you know how much I hate surprises,” he said. “No offense, Sam.”
<
br /> “None taken.”
“What did you do before you hired yourself out as a bodyguard?” Galo said. “Is there such a thing as bodyguard school?”
“I worked in Europe.” I didn’t elaborate. “Before that I was home in Canada. In the Army, then I was out.”
“And what did you do in Europe?”
“Nothing exciting. The transportation business.”
“What a coincidence,” he said, as if it wasn’t. “That’s our business.”
“I worked for people on a much smaller scale than FastFlex.” I could feel Cori’s gaze on me, wondering how much I knew about her family, what facts I might throw out, where I might trip.
“You took a room at the resort?”
“Yes. I thought it best in case I needed to give you all family time.” Or myself an escape hatch.
Cori shifted under my arm. “I’ll have your things sent to the house.”
“No, I think I’ll keep the room,” I said. “I don’t want to overstay my welcome.”
“Are you sure we haven’t met before?” Galo said. “I think I know your face.”
Oh no. I shrugged. “Do you ever go out to nightclubs?”
“Now and then.”
“I often have to work security in the crowd at some of the bigger ones, if a client is there.”
“Like Miami Beach?
“Often.” And I wondered if he was remembering two nights ago, a French young woman joining his table because I was half a couple making out at ours. I was really regretting those kisses with Justine. But they’d seen dozens of faces at Or. Right? Would they remember me?
“Galo,” Cori said. “Be nice.”
He smiled like he didn’t want to be nice. Something major was going on here with this family, and Cori wasn’t invited. And then suddenly we were. It could only be to keep an eye on us, to suss me out and see if I was some kind of threat. Galo fixes every problem, Cori had said. I was definitely a problem.
“Zhanna’s the family party animal,” Cori said. “You’d probably see her at a nightclub.”
“This is your sister?” I asked.
“Stepsister,” they said in unison, stressing the “step.” “Not a blood relation,” Galo added, as if I didn’t understand the concept.
“But more like our father than either of us are. Funny how that works out,” Cori said.
“And you two are half-siblings, right?” I asked.
“Yes. Papa was three times married, three times a widower,” Galo said. “He’s unlucky in love.” The same words I’d thought. Or…something worse.
“So three children, counting Zhanna?”
Silence all of a sudden. “Four. I had a brother, Sam. A twin. I hadn’t mentioned him to you before. He died a few years ago.”
It was a mistake. I’d forgotten about the lost twin for just a moment, caught up in the conversation. She should have said, “Don’t forget Edwin,” and Galo might have thought nothing of my slip. I could see the sudden doubt in Galo’s stare at her, then at me. Edwin was a detail she would have shared with a serious boyfriend.
I squeezed Cori’s hand. She looked at me and she was a very good actress because she looked like she really regretted not having told me. “It’s painful. Very.”
Behind the windows the tropical landscape unfolded as we took Highway 22, toward the western coast of the island. The mention of family deaths made everyone go silent for a few minutes.
“I’m guessing Cori’s either complained plenty about our stepsister,” Galo said, “or said nothing.” It was a first attempt at seeing what she’d told me.
“She’s said very little about you all,” I said before Cori could answer.
“Well, that’s a relief,” Galo said, and in other circumstances it might have been a joke.
“Zhanna is a lovely name. Am I pronouncing it correctly?” I asked.
“She’ll be sure to find fault with it even if you say it perfectly,” Cori said, and she and Galo both laughed and for the first time, really, they looked like brother and sister.
“She’s Russian. Zhanna is Russian for Jane,” Galo said.
“Don’t refer to her as a stepsister; she hates that. She hates that she doesn’t have the Varela blood,” Cori said. And then she and Galo said, together: “Jealous Z,” like pronouncing the word “jealousy,” and then they laughed.
“Galo, do you work for your father?” I asked. If he was going to interrogate me, it was only right I return the favor.
“Yes. I’m the chief operating officer of FastFlex.” Then he gave his sister a meaningful smile. “How much has she told you about this weekend, Sam?”
“Nothing, except,” I said, truthfully, before Cordelia could answer, “this was the weekend for me to meet everyone.”
Her hand tightened on my knee.
“It’s family business. A summit meeting of sorts. It’s awkward because Cori doesn’t work for the family business, so she wasn’t asked.” His smile stayed steady on me.
“I’d be happy to keep her distracted,” I said. I could almost see Cordelia wince out of the corner of my eye. I didn’t care about being on Cori’s good side; she was stuck with me. I wanted to lessen Galo’s suspicions.
“Well, we might ask you to take Cori back and have fun at the casino. On us, of course.” Yes, I thought, after you’ve checked me out and convinced yourself I’m not a problem.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Cori said. “So stop talking like I’m not here, boys.”
19
WE NEXT TOOK a rural highway and then some private roads, and at the top of a small mountain there was their island home. The house was grand. Beautiful stone, a cross between a Mediterranean villa and an old Spanish castle. The house commanded a view of both the ocean and the surrounding hillsides, not far from the surf town of Rincón on the northwestern coast. The sky above it was clear and blue. Fortress Varela, the island version. We drove onto a driveway, past a large automated gate. We all got out and I looked around, smiling like the slightly callow guy who has just realized how truly rich his girlfriend is. I let the look linger on my face, sell my basic harmlessness to them.
Ricky drove the limo away from us and parked near a four-car garage, then walked back to us. A couple of youngish guys who looked like they doubled as bodyguards followed him from the garage and said hello to Galo and Cori and looked at me with a quick assessment. They wore holsters under their lightweight jackets.
“Your family gatherings include guards?” I said to Cori. I laughed, a little nervously.
“Today’s does,” Ricky said. “I need to search you.”
“What is this?” I said to Cori with a half-smile of surprise.
“Ever since my brother was kidnapped,” she said, “my dad is very security-conscious around people he doesn’t know.”
“Kind of useless to search me now. You should have done it before I got into the car,” I said to Ricky. Very Sam Chevalier. He greeted my logic with a sour frown.
“If I found something I didn’t like,” Ricky said, “I wouldn’t want to deal with you in public, in front of a nice hotel. I’d deal with you here. Where no one is at.”
“Watching,” I said. “We’re actually all at here right now. And they are watching.” I made my smile friendly. I need not appear too bright.
“Scaring me with grammar,” he said.
“I’m just exact,” I said.
“Exactly a jerk,” Ricky said.
“Ricky, that’s enough,” Cori said, but he ignored her and glanced at Galo. A sign. Maybe, that Ricky was loyal first to Galo, not the family.
“You watch too many movies, Ricky,” Galo said, breaking the tension.
I obligingly raised my hands. He patted at my wallet but didn’t ask me to remove it. Then his fingers brushed at the two rectangles of plastic in my front pocket, probing with his fingers. He didn’t reach into my pocket. “Two keys to my hotel room,” I said, in a low voice. “Don’t tell Cori’s dad.”
“Give me
a key,” he said.
“What is going on?” I said to Cori. “You’re kind of freaking me out.”
“It’s okay. They need it to get your bags and bring them here,” she said.
Wrong, I thought. They could have a hotel employee bring my bag down before we left the hotel. What they want to do is search my room. Which is exactly why they hadn’t let me bring my bag along. They had an excuse. She laced fingers with me. “Don’t mind.”
“I said I’d keep the room. I’ve paid for it.”
“Daddy will reimburse you. Galo wants you here.”
They want me close to watch me. Not allow me to come and go from their compound. I’m a prisoner. Excellent. I’m inside. The burnt man would be so proud.
“All right.” I slid the key—it was a bit thinner than the rectangular casino plaque—out of my pocket and handed it to Ricky. The casino chip stayed where it was.
Then I saw her. The dark-haired pixie from the bar with the furious eyes, who’d mimed cutting a throat. She stood on the large stone porch that led up to the home’s grand entrance. She wore a business suit instead of a dress of slinky silk. Dark jacket, pants, a creamy white shirt. She looked, somehow, more dangerous. More seductive. She was like a flame, the kind that could make you forget a good woman like Justine or Cori for a moment and ruin your judgment.
“Zhanna.” Cori kissed her stepsister’s cheek, Zhanna did likewise. It was ritual, I thought, not warmth. “This is Sam Chevalier. My new boyfriend. My stepsister, Zhanna.”
I stuck out my hand and for a moment she studied it as though unfamiliar with the custom. Then she took it, shook it, let me go. As though my fingers were soiled.
“Hi, Zhanna,” I said. Her gaze went over my unsubtle clothes, my hair, my gaudy watch.
“I’m delighted to meet you, Sam. Cori has said absolutely nothing about you.”
“Same here, Zhanna,” I said. It was calculated, that moment, being undiplomatic.
I speak fluent Russian and pronounced her name correctly but she said, “No, it’s Zhanna.”
I repeated it exactly as she pronounced it.
