Relentless (Benson's Boys Book 2)

by Janet Elizabeth Henderson

  “You have the gun I gave you and I’ll have my cell phone. Don’t take any risks.”

  “All we’re going to do is research and plan. What can go wrong?”

  Joe covered her mouth with his hand. “Never, ever say those words. They jinx everything. Let’s hope the powers that be weren’t listening.”

  When he lifted his hand, she smiled at him. “You worry me, Joe.”

  His answer was a toe-curling kiss.

  Chapter 21

  Patricia was awake, but she was subdued and seemed far frailer than Julia had ever remembered seeing her. They snacked on packets of chocolate chip cookies and drank mugs of tea while they waited for the men to return. Patricia and Elle continued photographing the textiles and feeding the information into Elle’s laptop. Julia went over the notes she’d made on her iPad. And she didn’t like what she was seeing. Patterns were beginning to emerge. Patterns with terrible conclusions. The more she read, the more worried she became.

  When the room phone rang, Julia was preoccupied when she answered, realising too soon that she should probably have let it ring.

  “Hello?” she said cautiously.

  “Señorita Collins?” a female whispered.

  “Maria?” The hotel staff member from the chapel.

  “Si. There are men here asking for you. Bad men. You must get out of your room right away. Now, señorita, hurry.” The line went dead.

  Julia felt an unnatural stillness come over her and knew panic would follow later. “We need to get out of here. Now.” Julia spun on her gran. “Grab whatever is essential. Leave everything else. We need to run.”

  “What is it?” Patricia said.

  “Esteban’s men are downstairs looking for us.”

  Elle was already stuffing her laptop into her daypack. “Passports. Cash. Phones. Everything else can be replaced.”

  Patricia stood, flustered and hesitant in the middle of the room. “I can’t leave the mummy.”

  “You have to.” Julia rushed over to her and grabbed her upper arms. “They will take you and kill us. Do you understand?”

  The colour faded from her gran’s already pale skin, before she straightened her back. “The textiles—can I take the textiles?”

  “Got her handbag.” Elle ran back down the stairs from the bedroom area. “Where are your shoes, Patricia?”

  “Elle has photos of every inch of the textiles. You don’t need them,” Julia said.

  “What if I missed something?”

  “Then you’ll still be alive to figure it out. If they get you, they will kill Alice. She will be no use to them. And once you’ve led them to the treasure, they’ll kill you. If we don’t leave now, we lose both of you.”

  “Here.” Elle thrust Patricia’s shoes at her. “Put these on.”

  “Okay. You’re right. You’re right.” Patricia tugged on the tennis shoes, but kept casting longing glances at the mummy.

  Julia didn’t bother checking her bag; she knew in detail what was in it. She grabbed her gran’s arm and rushed through the door.

  The terracotta plaster walls, hung with old religious art, seemed to close in on them. Patricia turned towards the main exit, but Julia tugged her in the opposite direction.

  “We sneak out. We don’t know who’s down there.”

  They pushed through the fire exit at the end of the corridor and ran down the stairs. Behind them, they heard someone thumping a door. A voice rang out: “¿Señora Matthews, estás ahí?”

  “We didn’t register under my name,” Patricia whispered.

  “Through here.” Julia pushed through the door to the kitchen, just as they heard a thud and a door crash open. “They’re in our room.”

  They raced through the busy kitchen and out into the alley behind the hotel.

  “This way.” Julia pointed to the door leading into the chapel attached to their hotel.

  “You want us to go back into the hotel? Are you nuts?” Elle almost shouted.

  Julia opened the door and rushed inside. “The kitchen staff will tell them we ran out into the alley. They’ll assume we headed away from the hotel. They won’t think we came back in. Plus, I know a hiding spot in here.”

  “How?” Elle demanded. “How do you know?”

  “I spoke to one of the staff about the history of the place. The same one who called to warn us.”

  They ran down the centre aisle of the small chapel. In the left-hand corner, halfway up the wall, was a decoratively carved dark wooden pulpit. The stairs to the pulpit were cut into the wall behind it. But what most people didn’t know was that the stairs didn’t only go up—they also went down.

  Julia ran to the life-sized painting of St. John, complete with gilt frame, that took up the space next to the bottom step.

  “You expect us to hide in the pulpit?” Patricia sounded hysterical.

  “Quiet.” Julia ran her fingers under the edge of the frame. A button. A pop. Pulling hard, she swung the frame out. “Get in.”

  A set of stairs led down to the cellars under the old building. Cellars that weren’t used for anything but wine storage and were cut off from the public.

  “Sit on the steps. I’m closing the door.”

  “Can we get back out if you do?” Elle asked.

  “Yes.” Maybe not the way they’d come in, but they’d get out.

  They sat on the cold stone steps, the pitch blackness pressing in around them.

  “I can use the flashlight app on my cell,” Elle whispered.

  “No—it’s best we sit quietly in the dark and wait until we know it’s safe to move,” Julia said.

  “How secret is this place?” her gran whispered. It seemed to echo off the bare confines of the stairwell.

  “Not very, but it’s not public knowledge either. It’s mentioned in passing in the brochure, and Maria knew about it. I doubt more than a few of the staff know about the painting. Though the cellars under the building on the other side of the courtyard are used for wine. This side isn’t used at all.”

  They fell into another nervous silence, which was suddenly broken with running footsteps and shouting. Angry male voices echoed in the chapel. Someone ran up the small staircase to the pulpit, cursed, then ran back down again. They heard doors slam. More shouting. Footsteps retreating.

  They were being hunted.

  Julia let a few minutes pass before she broke the silence. “We wait here until we’re sure it’s safe.”

  There were mumbles of agreement.

  “What if I need to go to the toilet?” her gran said. “I drank a lot of tea this morning.”

  “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

  Right now, Julia had more important things to worry about than her gran’s weak bladder. She had to tell Joe about the patterns she’d discovered in her notes. She had to tell him what she suspected. That there was a traitor in their midst. That someone they trusted as a friend cared more about the gold than their lives. That they had been sold out to their enemy.

  Julia reached into her messenger bag and pulled out her phone. But when she switched it on, she found there wasn’t any signal.

  “Elle,” Julia said, “can you see if your phone has a signal?”

  And her friend immediately dug out her phone.

  Chapter 22

  The men headed to a suburb high in the hills outside of Cusco. Joe could see the red roofs of the city behind them, but his focus was on the green hills in front of him. About two miles outside a tiny village that considered itself a suburb of Cusco—if the sign was anything to go by—Ed turned the SUV into a narrow dirt road.

  “There only one road into this area?” Ryan asked from the back seat.

  “There’s another on the other side of the caves,” Ed said as he negotiated the bumps.

  “I don’t like it,” Callum said from the passenger seat. “We’re further from the city than I thought we’d be. It means we’d be riding without cover for a good chunk of the journey.”

  “T
he other road is better,” Ed said.

  “Then why didn’t we take the other road?” Ryan asked.

  “Longer. This way is faster.”

  Joe kept his eyes glued to the windows while he dug out his phone. He switched it on and hit the speed dial for Julia. No answer. Joe felt the hairs on his arms stand to attention. Julia would answer her phone. It was constantly with her, in that big, bottomless bag she hauled everywhere.

  He tried again, but still no answer. He cut the call and rang Elle. He got voicemail. Now his sixth sense was screaming at him. Something was wrong. He knew it. He tried Julia again. Still no answer. He’d give it another couple of minutes, and if he still couldn’t contact the women, he’d tell Callum they had to go back.

  “The caves are up ahead, beyond that hill,” Ed said. “It’s said they were used during the Spanish-Incan wars. The Incas would lie in wait for the Spaniards in the crevices of the rocks.”

  Something in Ed’s voice didn’t sound right. The car swerved around a curve in the road, hugging a small hill. Large rocks appeared on the landscape. The grey stones jutted out of the earth at random angles, sharp and deadly in appearance.

  “You said nobody comes up here?” Callum asked, his tone perfectly level, but Joe knew him well enough to pick up that he was worried about something too.

  They were all getting edgy. One glance at Ryan told Joe he was alert too. Their trained senses were flashing alarms at them, telling them something wasn’t right. But what? Joe scanned the barren landscape. If there was a threat, it was well hidden.

  “Nobody comes here,” Ed answered Callum.

  A buzz from Joe’s phone almost made him sag with relief, but when he looked at the text, it had come from Elle, not Julia. And what it said made his heart stop.

  This is Julia. Ed’s mother never left Lima. She couldn’t have taken him to these caves. I think he called Esteban. There are men here looking for us. I think he sold us out. You are in danger.

  Joe looked at his old friend as he drove them into the middle of nowhere. Was Julia right? Had Ed sold them out? Who did he trust? Ed or Julia? There was no contest. Julia would never send him that message unless she was absolutely certain.

  “Callum?” Joe kept his voice even and calm. “While I remember, you got a call from Stu Creek. He said to call him back ASAP. Sounded like he was desperate.”

  Joe glanced at Ryan. The man had transformed, his easy-going demeanour replaced by one of pure determination. He slipped his gun out of its holster and nodded to Joe as he did the same. They’d both gotten Joe’s crude message—they were up shit creek; get ready fast; things were going to get bad.

  “I’ll give him a ring soon as I can.” Callum kept his voice neutral.

  Joe felt his body tense for action. “I’d do it fast. There’s something about that guy I just don’t trust.”

  “Maybe I’ll give him a call now?” Should we do something now?

  “That’s a good idea,” Joe agreed.

  Fast as lightning, Callum reached out and grabbed the wheel, making the car swerve suddenly to the left. Ed pulled back his elbow and hit Callum hard. The Scot dodged the blow, and it glanced off his head. Joe cocked his gun and pressed it into the side of Ed’s neck.

  “How many?” he demanded.

  “It’s too late.” Before they realised what Ed planned to do, he blasted the horn.

  Joe used the butt of his gun to knock out the man he’d thought was a friend. Ed slumped over the wheel. Callum leaned over Ed and threw open the driver’s door. He pushed Ed out.

  Callum climbed into the driver’s seat and gunned the engine as a dozen armed men emerged from the rocks. Joe ducked down as bullets flew. Ryan wound down his window and fired back.

  “Um, I don’t know if I should mention this, boss,” Ryan said as he took out one of the men, “but should you be driving? On account of you not actually having any real legs and this car being a stick shift.”

  “My fake legs are going to kick your arse once we get out of here.” Callum thrust the car into reverse.

  “Sorry I mentioned it,” Ryan muttered as he took another shot.

  The car bolted backwards. Callum held on to the passenger seat headrest as he navigated by looking out of the back window. Joe held on tight. They were tossed up into the air and came down hard on a large clump of grass.

  “How many?” Callum asked.

  “At least ten, not counting Ed.” The words twisted in Joe’s gut.

  “Put it out of your mind,” Callum ordered. “Deal with it later. Right now we need to focus on the facts. We’re outnumbered. Outgunned. And this car is crap.”

  As if to prove his statement, the car hit a ridge and went sailing through the air before landing with a crash against one of the huge grey rocks.

  Joe shook his head to clear it. “Anybody injured?”

  “Does a serious case of whiplash count?” Ryan scrambled out of his door.

  “Whiney wee fart,” Callum said as he climbed out and hunkered down beside the car. “Right, we’re miles out of the city, but there was that wee village a ways back, the one Ed called a suburb.”

  “Not sure we can trust Ed’s information anymore.” Ryan peeked over the ridge.

  “Like it matters if it’s a suburb or not. Will you stop messing around and focus?”

  Joe wondered if he should step between the two men. “Plan?”

  “We head to the village,” Callum said. “If we get a chance, we take one of their guys with us. I have a few questions for him.”

  Joe inclined his head towards Callum’s prosthetic legs. “You gonna manage this terrain?”

  “I bloody well have to, don’t I?”

  “I’ll take point, you follow. Ry? You bring up the rear.”

  “No prob,” Ryan said. “We’ve got incoming. They’re still a distance away, but moving fast.” He grinned at them. “Better run, boys.”

  They took off at a pace Joe knew must have been murder on Callum’s damaged legs, but he never slowed or said a word of complaint. Joe led them into a maze of rock formations that looked like slabs of concrete reaching for the sky.

  “Anybody else feel like they’re an extra in Planet of the Apes?” Ryan said.

  They squeezed through the narrow passageways and clambered over the boulders in their path. Without comm units, they had to rely on hand signals to communicate. Silence was the key. And although their pace was slower than Joe would have taken it alone, Callum didn’t make a sound.

  They heard men move through the natural maze behind them, getting closer. Scrambling over a series of rocks, they made their way towards a wide gap in the wall of stone. Through the gap were open fields and distant houses.

  “I see a road,” Joe mouthed.

  “How far?” Callum mouthed back.

  “Fifteen minutes’ run.”

  Callum set his jaw. He grabbed the rock to his left to haul himself up over the boulders in their path. As he put his weight on the top of the stone in front of him, his foot slid. He fell forward. Joe was close enough to catch him before he hit the rock. But he wasn’t fast enough to stop Callum’s leg from getting wedged between two huge boulders.

  Voices were getting closer. They were running out of time. Callum tugged at his leg, but it didn’t move. Ryan tried to lever it out, but it was wedged tight.

  “Leave me,” Callum ordered.

  “Don’t be an ass,” Joe said. “Unstrap the leg. We’ll carry you.”

  “Too heavy. I’ll slow you down. Can’t risk it. Give me your backup ammo and I’ll hold them off while you sprint for the road.”

  “To hell with that.” Ryan produced a flip knife from his pocket and sliced through Callum’s jeans. As soon as he saw the prosthetic straps, he sliced through those too.

  For a second, Joe thought Callum was going to kill Ryan.

  “We don’t leave anyone behind,” Ryan said. “We’re all for one and one for all. We’re the bloody musketeers.”

  Joe cracked a sm
ile as he thrust his shoulder under Callum’s arm. “Hold on. You’ve got one leg; you can still take your weight. I’ll balance you out.”

  Grim and furious, Callum did as he was told. They ran as best they could, with Ryan watching their backs. If they were slow before, now they were crawling. But they made it through the opening in the rocks and into the field.

  “Bushes,” Callum said. “We have to go low.”

  They rushed for the first set of bushes that could cover them.

  They were hidden just as Esteban’s men emerged from the rocky maze.

  “Is it safe now?” Patricia whispered into the blackness.

  “I don’t know,” Julia said. “I haven’t heard anything for a while, but they could be waiting for us. We’ll give it a little more time.” For once in her life, sitting in a small space in the dark wasn’t a relaxing experience.

  “Did you hear that?” Elle whispered.

  They were silent, straining to hear. Julia was about to tell Elle she’d imagined it when she heard a scraping sound. They froze, each of them trying to become invisible in the dark stairwell.

  “It’s probably a rat,” Patricia said hopefully.

  “Big rat,” Elle said. “Maybe we should go back out into the chapel.”

  It was time to confess. “I don’t know how to open the door from the inside,” Julia said.

  There was a heavy silence.

  “Get out your gun,” Elle said at last. “Give it to me. You two sit behind me and I’ll shoot anyone who comes at us.”

  “Have you used a gun before?” Julia whispered.

  “No. Have you?”

  “No. Gran, have you?”

  “Do I look like Wyatt Earp?”

  There was another pause. “Does anyone know how to switch the safety off?” Elle asked. “It won’t fire with it on.”

  Julia and Patricia made muffled groaning sounds.

  “If you don’t know how to work a gun, why do you have one?” Elle was beginning to sound irate.

  “Joe made me take it. He asked if I knew how it worked. I said yes, because I thought he meant the theory of the thing. I know how it works in theory, but I don’t know how to handle one practically. Before I could explain that, he was gone.”