He complied, slipping the handbag off my arm after he took the bag with the milk. I hadn’t even realized I was still holding it.
My father led me to the door, the pressure of his grasp on my wrist increased. He opened the door and dragged me into the foyer. We took the stairs all the way down to the garage, where a black SUV was waiting.
The General, my father’s most trusted man, opened the back door. He smiled at me, though it was menacing, as I climbed inside the vehicle. My father sat next to me, and Carlos slid into the front passenger seat. My father never let go of my wrist, and though I knew exactly what he was doing, exerting his dominance, it made me want to scream.
I’d failed already at step one of the plan, because I’d been unable to stall him. But he believes you’re happy to go home with him. The thought gave me strength to keep going.
“Say goodbye to New York, Camila. It’s too bad none of your so-called friends could be here to see you off.” He didn’t sound sorry in the least, his words sending my brain into overdrive.
My father’s power only went so far in the United States, but as soon as he had me back in Nicaragua, it would be nearly impossible for me to escape. The life and all the people I loved would be stolen from me. It had been a long time since Daniel and I had fully practiced the rest of the plan, but I prayed it was still in place.
“Papa,” I said, schooling my voice to be soft and demure, as much as it pained me.
His answering smile was serene. “Yes, my Camila.”
“As you can see, I’ve done well for myself. I have a safe deposit box with a substantial amount of cash, gold, jewelry, and a few other valuables in it I’d like to retrieve before we go.”
“We’ll send someone for it once we’re home.” He had plenty of money, but he always wanted more. I needed to play to that.
“It’s in a bank for high-end clients. The only way to get into the deposit box is with my handprint and eye scan,” I said.
“Define substantial.”
I had my father’s attention. “Roughly twenty.”
“Thousand?” he asked, as if I’d suggested we make the detour for fifty cents.
“Million,” I corrected.
His brows shot up, his beady eyes filling with greed. “How did you get that kind of money?”
“I learned from the best.” I patted his leg.
“Twenty million in valuables won’t fit inside a safe deposit box.”
“Did I say box?” I asked casually. “I meant vault. The rare paintings need a special climate to preserve them.” Well, if they’d been real, they would have.
“Why aren’t they hanging in your home?”
I flashed him a surreptitious smile. “These aren’t the kind of things one leaves lying around in the open.”
He studied me, eyes narrowed as he interpreted my unspoken meaning. My father always loved what he wasn’t supposed to have.
“If you are lying to me…” he warned.
I vehemently shook my head. “I have never lied to you, Papa. Never.” Strangely enough, that was the truth. “Why don’t I call them? You can dial.”
“Carlos,” my father growled, and Carlos dug his phone out of his pocket.
I recited the number from memory, the action automatic, giving me a sense of calm and control. Carlos put it on speaker while I confirmed with the woman at the bank I would be there shortly.
Carlos ended the call, and my father gave a satisfied grunt. “Give the General the address.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Stone
The milk was slightly cooler than room temperature.
She couldn’t have been gone too long. But one second was one too many.
I paced to the window as I dialed Daniel. Ashes stained the cream rug near her chair. I could barely breathe.
“Hey, man. You guys calling to rub in how good your dinner is?” Daniel answered jovially.
“She’s gone,” I choked out.
“What do you mean ‘gone’?” His voice turned deadly in an instant.
“Her purse, phone, and keys are here,” I choked out. “Milk’s on the coffee table. Ashes on the floor.”
“Where. Is. She?” he grated out, his frustration evident through the phone.
“If I knew, I wouldn’t be calling you,” I snapped.
“Fuck!” he roared. “How long since you’ve seen her?”
“This morning,” I said, frantically pacing the living room floor.
“When did you last hear from her?”
“I forgot my phone today. That’s why I came by.” I switched to speakerphone. With fumbling fingers, I scrolled through the missed calls and texts. “Fucking Zegas.”
“What does he have to do with this?”
“He called and texted so many times, I didn’t see the text from her.”
“When did she send it?”
“About forty-five minutes ago.” My knees went weak when I read it. “Her brother is here. Oh God.”
“What?” Daniel shouted.
“Her father knows she’s alive.”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” He shouted the obscenity over and over. I heard something break on the other end of the line. “Vivian!” he called.
“Is he here to take her back?” All I knew of her brother was from Muriella’s memories of him from childhood. By now, he could be the same kind of monster as her father, or worse.
“What’s going on?” I heard Vivian ask.
“I think Muriella’s father has her.” Without giving her time to answer, he spoke to me again. “Keep your phone by you.”
“Of course. How do I find her?”
“I’ll let you know when I have something,” Daniel said brusquely, and then I heard dead air, indicating he’d ended the call.
I shoved my phone back into my pocket and stared at her things on the sofa. If she’d had her phone, we could have tracked her, maybe pinpointed her location. She could already be out of the city, even headed out of the country, for that matter.
I picked up her phone, sliding my finger across the screen to unlock it. There was an unsent text message containing what appeared to be GPS coordinates. Immediately, I sent them to Daniel before plugging them into her tablet on the coffee table. A satellite photograph showed a lush green environment, and upon zooming in, I saw a long dirt runway. Around it were stables, a large house, and land that went on for miles.
Another few clicks and I discovered the coordinates were in Nicaragua.
I sprang to my feet, unable to sit there and do nothing. As I was about to dial Vivian, Daniel’s name flashed on the screen.
I answered it before there was half a ring. “Those coordinates are in Nicaragua,” I blurted.
“I know, but I don’t think they’ve left the city yet. Muriella used her credit card about an hour and fifteen minutes ago at the market down the street.”
I prayed to God he was right.
“There’s a key to my apartment in the junk drawer in Muriella’s kitchen,” Daniel went on.
“How about on her key ring?” I snatched them up and rushed toward the door.
“That’ll do.” He hesitated, and I jogged up the stairs. “How familiar are you with firearms?”
“I grew up on a ranch in Texas. If you’re insinuating I don’t know how to shoot, I’ll be pissed off at you later when it’s a more convenient time.” I tried every key until the right one finally turned.
“The alarm code is 101407.”
I punched it in and slammed the door behind me.
“In our bedroom closet on Vivian’s side, there’s a safe built into the wall. Behind her clothes.”
Once in the closet, I shoved at the hangers. They scraped against the wooden rod. Some of the garments dropped to the floor.
“I see it.” The door had a dial and a keypad.
“Use the keypad. 924199379.”
I punched numbers as fast as Daniel spit them out. Inside, jewelry lined the walls. A photo of the two of them sat fron
t and center.
“How the hell are Vivian’s jewels going to help me find Muriella?”
“There’s a gun in the back. The clip is beside it. Extra bullets in the Jimmy Choo shoe box.”
“Do you know how many fucking shoe boxes there are in here?” I jammed the clip in the gun, made sure the safety was on, and shoved it in my waistband.
“Top shelf, closest to the door. Only Jimmy Choo’s in the closet.”
I spotted the box, but it didn’t slide off the shelf as easily as I expected it to. When I lifted the lid, I didn’t find any designer stilettos. The box was filled to the brim with silver bullets.
“You expecting the cavalry to come after you?” My thoughts immediately went to the scene we’d come back to after the Heart Ball. So maybe this wasn’t overkill.
“Just got the notification; she’s pushed the panic button. I’m going to text you an address. Shoot to kill. I mean it. I’ll take care of the mess.”
“Panic button—” Her phone vibrated in my pocket. “I just got more coordinates. From an unknown number.”
“Give them to me,” Daniel demanded. I recited the latitude and longitude, hearing the taps of his fingers on a keyboard. “It’s a field in Connecticut.”
“Could be a distraction.”
“Could be where they’re taking her.”
Her life was in my hands. Did I follow Daniel’s directions or go to Connecticut? My instinct said one thing, logic the other.
Chapter Forty-Three
Muriella
I had been inside the bank countless times performing drills with Daniel in case of emergency. Well, this was an emergency. After I’d had my eyes and fingerprints scanned as if I were in some sort of spy movie, we’d made it to my vault, where I’d finally been able to communicate my location by pressing the panic button.
I was never so grateful to Daniel as I was in those moments. All the practicing had made this process second nature. I didn’t panic, because I had a series of tasks to perform. I knew in what order to do them and completed each one with calm and composure. We’d even practiced down to the arrival of the security team Daniel had put in place to come rescue me. But unlike in the drill, they didn’t arrive.
I tried not to panic as my father and brother scooped the money, rolled-up paintings, and rarities into the black bags stored inside the vault. It seemed like only seconds before they had everything packed up. This wasn’t supposed to go this fast. The rescue team should have shown up by now.
I reminded myself as we exited the private room that the plan was still in place. Daniel had prepared me for what to do under every foreseeable circumstance.
When the team wasn’t there as the elevators opened into the basement garage, a trace of panic crept through me, but my determination was stronger.
If anyone was going to save me, it would have to be me.
There was a car parked in a designated spot I could reach with my eyes closed. I knew where the exits to the garage were, both on foot and by vehicle. Now I just had to get to it.
The General, my father, and Carlos were occupied with loading the car. I’d pretended the bags were too heavy for me to lift, so my father pushed me out of the way, just as I’d hoped he would. It almost seemed too easy as I quietly slid away into the shadows. I stayed low, certain I’d hear footsteps chasing after me, but there was only the slam of bags being slung into the trunk of the SUV.
I made it to the stairwell and quietly reached up to push the door open. Once inside, I straightened and darted up two flights of stairs. I had directed the General to park deep in the bowels of the garage, just as I’d been taught. My getaway car was parked closer to the exit. The two extra floors they’d have to climb would give me that much more time.
It was tempting to burst out of the stairwell and sprint to the parking spot where my shot at freedom was, but I remained stealthy, checking the area before jogging to the wall and into the shadows, out of the fluorescent lighting.
I had almost reached the car when I heard the squeal of tires on the concrete ramp. I dropped out of sight immediately, balancing on one of the parking stones so they wouldn’t see my feet if they stopped to look. The sound of an engine running came close, then doors opened, and feet hit the ground, the echo loud as it bounced around the garage.
Three cars were all that separated me from escape. It was a risk to move, but the garage wasn’t large. If I stayed put, I’d certainly be found. On my hands and knees, I crawled toward the car, pausing at the sound of footsteps when I was just behind it. They seemed to stop when I did and start again as I inched forward. I reached up into the rear wheel well and found the car key, just where it was supposed to be. Daniel had had the car backed in to make it easier to pull out, and he’d even disabled the lights that flashed when the car was unlocked. I was grateful for his forethought now, remembering on more than one occasion how I’d thought it was all overkill. I wished he wasn’t a half a world away, but in a strange way, I felt him with me. I felt Vivian and Stone too, encouraging me to fight.
Strengthened by thoughts of the people I loved, I crept to the driver’s side door and opened it. The car had a keyless ignition; if I had the key on me, the doors unlocked at my touch. The dome lights inside the car had also been disabled, so it stayed dark even when I didn’t fully shut the door. Making any kind of noise was too risky.
Through the windshield, I saw my father’s vehicle parked in the middle of the ramp, the back doors wide open. The General was still in the driver’s seat, ready to move in an instant. Carlos yelled something to my father as he jogged up the ramp from the lower level, throwing his hands up. Their faces were bright red. Their resemblance to each other and the similarity of their mannerisms were uncanny. That alone triggered my doubt of Carlos.
It’s now or never. I pressed a button near the steering wheel and the engine roared to life. Three heads snapped in my direction. Throwing the car in drive, I peeled out, heading toward the exit, which was mercifully in the opposite direction of my father. As I rounded the corner, I slammed on the brakes after nearly colliding with a Suburban attempting to back into a small spot. There was no room to go around, so all I could do was wait.
Carlos pressed his face against my window, and I jumped as he pulled violently on the door handle. “Trust me,” he mouthed.
A glance in the rearview mirror revealed my father fast approaching. The Suburban was still trying to back into the parking spot. I looked into Carlos’s eyes and made a decision.
I pressed the unlock button.
“Move over,” he commanded in a rough voice, and I crawled over the center console as he climbed in beside me. “I’ve got her,” he shouted to my father, and my heart sank. I pulled on the passenger door handle, and he clamped down on my thigh. “Trust me.”
My father approached and rested his hand on the top of the open driver’s side door as he caught his breath. “What were you thinking, Camila? Your insolence is intolerable.” He glared. “Get her back to the car,” he said to Carlos.
“She’s secure in this one. We should take it,” Carlos reasoned.
“All right. I’m riding with you, though. The General will follow.” By this time, the Suburban had parked, and the General was right behind us. My father went to inform him of the change of plan.
“When we get to the airport hangar, I’ll give you a signal and you run. Do you understand?” Carlos whispered to me. “You are not getting on that plane.” I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat. He reached behind him, into the waistband of his pants, and produced a gleaming black handgun, which he placed in my hand. “You remember how to use this?”
”Yes.” Our father had insisted upon hours of target practice after our mother’s abduction and ultimate death. It was a habit I hadn’t been able to break. The metal was warm from his skin, and I slipped it in the waistband of my jeans, pulling my sweater down to conceal it. I opened the glovebox, searched under the driver’s manual and paperwork, and found the knife hi
dden there. I handed it to him. He gave me a strange look, shaking his head as he hid it where the gun had been.
My father climbed into the back seat of the car. “Go.”
Without consulting a GPS, Carlos easily navigated the streets as if he knew them by heart. I stared at the familiar buildings and got a gut punch when we passed a billboard with Stone on it. The panic button hadn’t worked. No one knew I was missing.
I was calm. I could fight back, unlike when I was a child. Perhaps my father would ultimately win, but he wouldn’t escape without severe damage.
As I looked over at Carlos, I realized I had missed him very much. Our mother was gone. My father I cursed. But Carlos…it was as if he was this person I didn’t know, and yet I did.
“It’s good for our family to be together again,” my father said in Spanish from the back seat.
“It is,” I agreed in English, turning to look at him. I didn’t have to pretend anymore. “But you are not part of that.”
He had the nerve to look contrite. “Camila—”
“Do not address me. You aren’t worthy,” I said regally, pinning him with a lethal gaze before facing forward again.
“That’s no way to speak to your papa,” he said, and I whipped back around.
“You aren’t my papa. You are my rapist,” I spit out. “Mama would be so ashamed of you.”
“She knew who she married, and she loved me anyway.” He lifted his chin, the words matter-of-fact.
“She wouldn’t have if she’d known what you did to me.”
“You are just like her. So spirited. That’s what drew me to her in the first place.”
My anger spiked. “You never deserved her.”
“That’s no revelation, my dear,” he said, looking at me as if I should have known better. “I took care of you and Carlos. Your mother’s wild spirit got her killed—”
“You got her killed!” I screamed, my eyes filling with tears. “You took care of no one but yourself,” I growled. “You’ve given your son the same miserable life you’ve had, and what you did to me was unspeakable. I was a child. Your child.”
Three Dates (Paths To Love Book 2) Page 22
