Chapter One

by Judith Rochelle

  “It’s Quinn.”

  “Well.” Silence stretched between them. “How nice to know you’re not dead after all.”

  “I know. I’m sorry. I...It’s been a bad time.”

  “A bad few years, I’d say. I’d ask how you’re doing, but I’m assuming since you called me at work and not at home that this isn’t a social chat.”

  “You’re right. I know I haven’t done very well keeping in touch, and I’m sorry. But I need a really big favor.”

  As briefly as he could, he described the situation and told Nick what he needed from him.

  “I’ll say this for you,” his friend said when he’d finished. “When you decide to rejoin the world you don’t mess around.”

  “Can you do it?”

  “Yeah. I’m not too excited about getting crosswise with the U.S. Attorney’s office. However, if our places were switched, I’d be asking you the same thing.”

  “So it’s a go?”

  “How could I say no? Give me until six to get it set up.”

  “You can do it that fast?”

  “Hey. Fast is my middle name.”

  Quinn let out the breath he’d been holding. This was a lesson in exactly how deep friendship went, and he thanked God his friends hadn’t given up on him during the past four years.

  “Nick?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Thanks.”

  “No thanks necessary. Talk to you in a few.”

  Quinn disconnected, then took a moment to gather his thoughts. Getting Kate out of here was the only smart thing to do. He needed to move her to a place where she wouldn’t be at risk, then put Part B of his plan into motion.

  He looked at his watch. Okay. Time to get moving.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Peter Fleming was hot, tired and irritated. The den where he was working was beginning to feel claustrophobic.

  His first order of business was moving the money to new temporary offshore accounts, where it would sit until he recreated the structure. That required a lot of work. It was the same as starting over. And this time, unfortunately, he’d be doing it with three pairs of eyes watching over his shoulder.

  When Esai gave the order to close the law office, Peter had printed out everything on the computers, locking the files securely in his briefcase, and taking the duplicate flash drive from his safe. He learned after leaving Tampa, men had gone in and yanked the hard drives from all the computers, destroying them and dropping them in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. So all he had was what he’d brought in the locked briefcase that never left his side.

  Sitting at the desk in Eva’s den, working his magic from the keyboard, he fantasized about taking the briefcase, slipping away and living the rest of his life on what he had in Argentina or Brazil. Then reality would set in and he knew even Easter Island wouldn’t be far enough away to hide from the Osunas. Relative or not, they’d skin him alive, literally, then cut his body into very small pieces.

  “Have you finished setting up the new permanent accounts and the procedures for moving the money?”

  Peter’s fingers jumped on the keyboard at the sound of Miguel’s voice. The man moved as silently as a mouse.

  “And have you already written the new code?” the man went on. “We have to be two steps ahead of the federales. If they manage to decode the files on that damn data storage unit and find this location, they could be moving on us any minute now.”

  “I’m on top of it,” Peter answered, grinding his teeth in irritation. “But I’ve been at it less than a day. This takes time. I told you. I can’t just call a bank and say, could I please open a new secure, anonymous account? Oh, and by the way, I’m moving money into it and I want you to wipe out the trace.”

  “But isn’t that exactly what you’re doing?” Miguel persisted.

  “Yes, but I don’t want to leave electronic fingerprints anywhere. Not even with the bankers. And it has to look legitimate. Just as the new ‘corporate’ structure does. So please. Just let me handle it.”

  Yes. Go away and leave me alone. Quit breathing down my neck.

  “How are things coming?” Esai now stood beside his brother, the smoke from one of his favorite thin cigars curling in the air.

  Peter shoved his chair back from the desk. “Is everyone going to stand over my shoulder while I do this?”

  “Time is running out, Peter.” Eva’s imperious voice cut through the air as she joined her two brothers. “I don’t dispute the fact that your encryption is the best, but sooner or later they’ll break it. We’re already on their radar, so I’ve come to a decision. I believe we still have a few days but then we need to leave here and set up our headquarters someplace else. We’re going back to Mexico, where the climate is currently more favorable to us.” She turned to her son. “You, too, Peter.”

  “Fine.” Over my dead body. He swallowed the last of his coffee, wishing for something stronger.

  Miguel’s jaw dropped. “Leave everything behind? Are you serious?”

  “She’s right,” Esai put in. “Every day they get closer to cracking the codes and reading the files, they’re that much closer to having what they need to come after us officially.”

  “Our one piece of good fortune,” Eva said, “is that no one knows about me yet, or this place. We’re all safe from prying eyes as long as we stay within this compound. That may delay them long enough for us to put our plan into place.”

  “How long do you think that will last?” Miguel asked, clipping the tip off a cigar.

  “I don’t know. Peter seems to have more confidence in the safety of his encryption than I do.”

  “Listen, I wrote every one of those codes myself and inserted codes within codes,” Peter pointed out. “They don’t have the electronic pass keys to open them. It will take them forever.”

  Eva gave her son an icy smile. “Don’t be so arrogant. They’ll do it sooner or later. Most likely sooner.”

  Esai and Miguel looked at each other, sick expressions on their faces.

  “That stupid girl and your even stupider son have completely destroyed the life we’ve built up,” Esai said.

  “This is just a...temporary setback,” Eva said in a cold voice. “Once Peter finishes setting everything up again we’ll be back in business. I have helicopters ready to move the moment we’re ready.”

  “If you’re right and we have to leave, why haven’t we done it already?” Miguel protested. “Why couldn’t Peter do his thing from Mexico?”

  “Two reasons,” she snapped. “First, I want everything in place before we leave here. I don’t want to leave any loose ends hanging for someone to follow. Nothing incomplete.”

  “I have to disagree with you on this,” Miguel said. “As long as he has a computer and an uplink, he can work from anywhere. Transfer money from anyplace.”

  “Not your decision,” she told him. “Secondly, I want some insurance that the federales won’t get in our way. That girl is our best bet, the best kind of leverage we can have.”

  Esai raised an eyebrow. “What good is she now? Especially since we can’t even get near her.”

  “Idiot. She’s a bargaining chip. Something to make them back off. Yes, Kathryn Holt is just the ticket. We’ll offer to trade her for a clean getaway, returning her unharmed as soon as we’re safe across the border.” Evil gleamed in her eyes. “Or at least that’s what we’ll promise them.”

  “But...” Miguel began.

  Peter stared at her. “Surely you can’t believe they’d go for something like that.”

  “Surely I can. She seems to mean a great deal to the key people in this case. We’ll see just how valuable her life is to them.”

  “And exactly how do you plan to get hold of her?” Peter persisted. “She’s not exactly accessible.”

  A humorless smile twisted her lips. “I just received a very interesting telephone call with information that will help us with that. I believe your Kathryn will be in our hands sooner than any of you thi
nk.”

  “What do you want me to do with everything when I finish?” Peter asked, anxious for them to be out of the room.

  “Store it all on an Iron Key encrypted flash drive,” Eva told him. “More than one if you need it. I picked some up while you were at Esai’s. And back everything up to an external hard drive. Lock everything in the brief case and give it to me. So, how much longer?”

  He shrugged. “A lot quicker if everyone would get the hell out of my hair.” He deliberately turned his back on them, knowing he was pushing it. But they needed him for this. That was his ace in the hole.

  “Then we’d better leave you to it and get busy with what we all have to do.”

  Settling back at the computer in his affluent prison, he was unhappier than he’d been for a very long time.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The afternoon marched along slowly, Kate dozing off and on, Quinn busy with his own thoughts. Precisely at six, he excused himself, telling Kate he was just going to get a cup of coffee. Back in the courtyard again, he speed-dialed Nick Vanetta.

  He answered at once. “Quinn?”

  “Yup.”

  “All right. Go back to the room. In a few minutes two men will show up pushing a gurney. They’ll have a request to transport Kate for tests signed by DeWitt.”

  “How the hell did you do that?”

  Nick snorted. “I’ve got a good forger. Don’t worry. You just get Kate ready.”

  “Done.”

  He took the stairs two steps at a time. Kate was struggling to sit up when he entered the room.

  “Lie down, darlin’,” he told her. “You need your rest.”

  Sharon Langford was pretending to leaf through a magazine in the corner chair but Quinn knew her hearing was tuned to full volume. He bent close to Kate, putting his lips next to her ear. “In a few minutes some things are going to be happening,” he whispered. “Do you trust me, Kate?”

  She nodded at him.

  “Then just do whatever I tell you and don’t say anything. If you’re okay with that, just squeeze my hand.”

  She curled her fingers around his as tightly as she could, and he smiled.

  “Good girl.” He pulled the chair closer and settled down to wait.

  The breaks the nurses took were the only time Quinn was completely alone with Kate. He was sure Lane had convinced himself nothing could happen during a thirty-minute period. Besides, they were only worried about someone breaking in, not out, and there were still two cops on the door. He’d timed this precisely with Nick.

  Sure enough, right on schedule, Sharon put down her magazine and said, “I’m going to run down to the cafeteria, but I won’t be gone long.”

  “Take your time,” Quinn told her. “We’re fine.”

  The next few minutes felt like an hour. Then a light knock sounded at the door. One of the cops on guard duty stuck his head in.

  “Say, Quinn, there are two men in hospital scrubs who say they’re here to take Miss Griffin for some tests. They’ve got orders from the doc. Do you know anything about that? We were told they weren’t moving her from the room for anything.”

  Quinn nodded. “DeWitt called me directly a few minutes ago so I’d know these guys were legit. I was just about to tell you they were on their way.” He shrugged. “They decided to do an MRI.”

  “All right, then. If you say it’s okay. Here they are.”

  Kate opened her eyes and Quinn kissed her cheek, then took her hand. “All right, darlin’. It’s show time. Don’t say a word and just do whatever I tell you, okay?”

  Fright glittered in her eyes, but she nodded, squeezing his hand as hard as she could.

  A minute later the door opened and two men came in pushing a gurney. One of them came over to shake Quinn’s hand.

  “We’ll have small talk later,” Nick Vanetta said. “Right now we need to move. One of your sentries out there might decide to double check on this.”

  They moved with quiet efficiency and in seconds Kate was shifted from the bed to the gurney. Quinn saw her bite her lip against the pain of movement, but she never made a sound. Nick opened the door, nodded to the two cops and then they were rolling the gurney down the corridor, Quinn jogging along beside it.

  People gave them curious but casual glances while they waited for the elevator at the far end of the corridor, the one that opened into the ambulance bay. Nobody asked questions, however, and no feet thundered down the hall to stop them. From somewhere, Nick had procured an elevator key, so the ride to the ground floor, while tense, was nonstop. The car bumped to a stop and the doors slid open to a waiting ambulance and a man in EMT coveralls leaning against the open rear doors.

  “Any sightseers?” Nick asked him.

  “No. I just blended in with the scenery. But we’d better get moving before someone wonders why I’ve been here so long.” He handed a bottle of water to Quinn along with a vial of pills. “Good thing you were able to read the prescription off her chart. Our friendly pharmacist gave me enough to hold her for a while.”

  “Thanks.” Quinn shook two of the pain pills into his hand.

  “Take these, darlin’. We’ve got kind of a rough ride ahead of us and I want you to sleep.”

  She obediently opened her mouth for the pills, then drank from the bottle of water. They loaded her into the waiting vehicle.

  Quinn turned to his friend. “I can’t thank you enough for this.”

  The tall, dark, lean, good-looking man grinned. “I always liked to play cops and robbers. I just never thought I’d be one of the robbers.”

  Nick introduced the other man in scrubs. “Quinn, this is Nolan Hanks. He used to be with the DOJ and came with great recommendations.”

  Quinn studied the man. “Why did you leave, if you don’t mind my asking?”

  Nolan shrugged. “Burnout. A chance to have more variety in my work and certainly a bigger payday.”

  “He’s good,” Nick assured him. He’s been with us a couple of years and is great for stuff like this. I’d trust my own sisters with him. Okay?”

  Quinn hesitated a moment, then nodded. “Okay.”

  “Good. He’ll follow you in that black Explorer over there. If you see it on your tail, it’s him. Your ambulance driver’s got directions.” He checked his watch. “You’d better get going.”

  He reached in his pocket for a key and handed it to Quinn, along with a small knapsack. “Prepaid cell phones. You don’t want to take a chance using yours. There’re six of them in here with my number programmed, so you should be okay. And the cabin’s fully stocked.”

  “Thanks. I owe you big time.”

  Nick looked at Quinn with worried eyes. “Take care of yourself, okay? And your lady here. Next time I see you I hope it’s over a beer on your porch or mine.”

  Quinn climbed into the back of the ambulance to sit on the bench beside Kate. Nick slammed the doors shut and banged on them twice, and the ambulance pulled out onto the street.

  ****

  Kate had no idea how long they drove. Once they stopped and Quinn transferred her gently from the ambulance to a Ford Expedition.

  “Not much longer, darlin’.” He kissed her cheek.

  She heard the faint sounds of him exchanging words with the ambulance driver, then someone else. Finally, he climbed into the driver’s seat of the Expedition and they were moving again. She dozed, the pills doing their job as Quinn had promised, and roused only when they stopped moving again.

  “We’re here,” Quinn said softly.

  Kate opened her eyes and stared through the window. They were parked in a clearing dominated on all sides by giant oaks and sycamores. In front her was a small log and limestone cabin, with a tiny front porch and a wide picture window.

  “Hang on,” Quinn told her. “I’ll come around and get you.”

  As he opened her door, another SUV pulled in behind them, and Quinn waved at the driver. “Let me get her settled,” he called, “and we can sit down and talk.”

/>   “Who’s that?” she asked.

  “Nolan Hanks, from Nick’s agency. Our backup. We need another pair of eyes so I can sleep once in a while.”

  Still foggy from the drugs, she was more than willing to let Quinn carry her into the cabin. Nudging open the door to one of the two bedrooms, he placed her on the rustic double bed with exquisite care.

  “Where are we?” she asked him.

  “A place a friend of mine keeps for emergencies just like this.”

  “The same friend that helped us get out of the hospital?”

  He nodded.

  “Will he get in trouble for this?”

  The corner of Quinn’s mouth tilted up in an attempt at a grin. “Nah. He’s pretty untouchable. He and his partner have too much clout.”

  “Good.” She swallowed back the fear she still couldn’t shake. “Why are we doing this?”

  “Because I don’t want anyone—and I mean anyone—to know where you are until everyone important in the cartel is under lock and key. And until I’m sure the target’s not on your back anymore.”

  “Okay.” She was too exhausted to think or talk anymore at the moment. “I think I’d like to sleep some more.”

  “Sleep heals, you know.” Quinn kissed her, a gentle kiss but one that held a great deal of promise. “We missed dinner. When you wake up I’ll fix you something to eat.”

  But she was already out.

  ****

  It was late when Kate awoke. The shade was up on the bedroom window and she could see a sliver of moon and the glitter of stars in the inky sky.

  She lay still for a few moments, orienting herself, remembering where she was. The cabin bedroom was compact and neat. Bed, dresser, bedside table, small straight back chair. Framed Texas prints on the walls. On the bed, covering her with its downy softness, an old-fashioned quilt that looked hand-stitched. Everything smelled sweetly of mountain cedar and sycamore, a fresh, clean scent.

  Carefully, she maneuvered off the bed and onto her feet. There. Getting better and better.

  Quinn was sitting at the small dinette table, drinking coffee and making notes on a pad of paper. He looked up when the bedroom door opened and leaped to his feet. In an instant he had his arm around her, steadying her.