by Alex Kava
“Hey!” Amanda twisted in her seat. “What are you doing?”
“I have to make sure no one’s following us. Don’t get your panties in a twist. There’s a truck stop just a mile up. I’ll stop there.”
This time only an eighteen-wheeler trailed them down the exit ramp. The truck stop was much busier, with three sets of gas pumps, a large shop that boasted showers for truckers, and a dine-in restaurant.
“I’ll top off the fuel tank,” Hannah told the girl.
If she had to stop she wanted to make sure they didn’t have to again anytime soon. She pulled alongside the pumps, satisfied that no one had followed them off the interstate. The shop door was well in her view. She nodded to Amanda, giving her permission, then watched the girl. For someone who had to pee, Hannah thought she sure was taking her sweet time, doing more looking than hurrying.
56
AMANDA COULDN’T BELIEVE how paranoid the woman was. She was driving her crazy. It was bad enough that she had to wear these stupid clothes, but she swore she’d scream if she had to spend another four hours in the car with her.
Granted, the woman had fed her well. And she had actually been pretty good to her. She had even brought her antibiotics that made her stomach and throat feel better. Plus, the woman hadn’t asked her to do anything weird or . . . Until today, she hadn’t asked Amanda to do anything.
Amanda pretty much figured she’d need to change her looks if she ever wanted to go out into the world again and didn’t want Zapata finding her. That woman had eyes everywhere. And she was a spiteful old woman. She’d be pissed as hell with Amanda. No telling what she would do. And suddenly Amanda felt like she was being watched. Silly, really. Hannah’s paranoia was probably wearing off on her. She’d seen how easily Lucía had been replaced. No way Zapata cared what happened to her.
Amanda crisscrossed the aisles to a hallway underneath the RESTROOM sign at the back of the store. No one paid much attention to her. Of course they didn’t. She looked like a total nerd in this outfit. She was used to men at least noticing her. The new haircut and color made her look older and more mature, but the wardrobe canceled out any of the haircut’s benefits.
As she made her way down the hall, she glanced back. Maybe there was some advantage to not being noticed, to being sort of invisible. Maybe she would be able to have a real life after all.
She found the door for the women’s restroom at the end of the hallway. Just as she put her hand up to push the door open, someone grabbed her from behind. An arm came around her waist as a hand came over her mouth. Before she realized what was happening, she was being pulled back into a dark closet.
She tried to struggle, tried to kick, but no one was even close by to see or hear her feet stomp against the now closed door. Then suddenly she could smell him—his greasy hair gel mixed with his sweat.
Leandro.
“I love your sexy new hair,” he whispered in her ear.
“How? How did you even find me?”
“You did not think I would forget about you, did you? Remember, I told you whenever you listen to your music, I would be there with you.”
He let her turn around to face him. Her eyes started to adjust in the dark. He still gripped her wrists and pulled her against him. He kissed her on the lips, slow and gentle like a lover.
And Amanda kissed him back.
57
HANNAH WENT IN TO PAY for the gas and picked up a couple of cans of soda, only because it took her to the back refrigerators. She glanced down the hallway to the restrooms, then checked for other exits. There was only one. It was in the opposite corner and it was an emergency exit. So the girl would have to leave through the front of the store.
She wasn’t sure that she cared if Amanda sneaked away. But Ryder cared, and he had entrusted Hannah with her safety. She browsed and picked up a few more items, then paid and went back outside to the car. Then she sat and watched the front door to the store.
Ten minutes later, Amanda came out, her face flushed. Hannah wondered if the girl had gotten sick.
“You okay?” she asked when she climbed in and busied herself with the seat belt.
“I’m okay.”
“Took long enough.”
“I got my period.”
“Oh, okay. Did you want me to buy some pads or tampons for you?”
“No, I . . . I got one from the machine in the restroom.”
She was lying. Hannah’s two little boys were better liars than this girl. But she wasn’t sure why she’d lie about a thing like that. Maybe Amanda had thought there would be a back door, and when she realized she couldn’t escape or come up with a better plan, she had to deal with the fact that she’d have to get back in the car.
Hannah didn’t bother figuring it out. They were stuck with each other. The sooner they got back on the road, the sooner she could rest, at least for a while.
Traffic was still busy, but Hannah knew I-10 would be like this all the way to Biloxi. She kept in her lane, drove the speed limit, and paid little attention to the cars zooming past her. Her fingers were tight on the steering wheel but not clenched. As she approached the first bridge, she didn’t notice the black SUV coming up alongside her. Vehicles had come and gone for the past hour. But when he stayed beside her for too long, Hannah did glance over. The young man grinned at her as if that was exactly what he had been waiting for. And then, without warning, she saw him pull his steering wheel hard to the right.
The first crunch shoved Hannah’s car. She held on, even though it pushed her vehicle onto the shoulder. She took her foot off the gas pedal but the car was still going too fast. Her first instinct was to brake and brake hard, but she knew that might roll the car.
“What’s happening?” Amanda yelled.
“Hold on,” she told her, but even as she prepared for the second hit, it rammed the car so hard the steering wheel spun out of her hands.
She grabbed on again and pulled to the left, only to be met with another crash of metal. This time it sent her car off the highway. Both of Hannah’s feet were riding the brake as her vehicle plunged over the guardrail and kept flying.
58
CREED FOUND ANDY stopped in the middle of her training session with Chance. He was bringing her a glass of iced tea. She had messaged him earlier to come see the progress she had made.
The big German shepherd stared at him but stayed seated without Andy telling him to. The fact that the dog didn’t want to rip out Creed’s throat was impressive in itself, and he was surprised to see him so quiet.
“He’s calm.”
As soon as Andy turned to face him, he could see that she was not. Her eyes and nose were red. She’d been crying and was still holding her cell phone at arm’s length. Creed guessed it was the source of her upset.
Before he could ask, she said, “There’s been an accident. Actually, I don’t even know if it was an accident.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Hannah and Amanda. Someone ran them off the road.”
Creed squeezed the glass of iced tea so hard it burst in his hand. Shards flew. Several stabbed into his flesh. Chance jumped up and barked.
“Chance, sit!” Andy told him, and immediately he complied, though now he panted, anxious and watching. “Creed, you’re bleeding.”
“What happened? Are they . . . ?”
“No, they’re not dead. But both are in critical condition. Some guy in a black SUV rammed into them. Witnesses said he didn’t even stop.”
They stared at each other, neither one needing to say what they both knew may have happened.
Against Creed’s better judgment, Hannah had insisted they tell their senior employees about Amanda and how she had come to them. Hannah said they deserved to know, and it would help to have them watching for anything out of the ordinary happening on
the property. Now Creed was grateful that he didn’t need to explain his deepest fear, because Andy already knew.
“I can hold down the fort until you get back.”
He nodded.
“You want me to wrap that for you?”
Only now did he look down and stare at his hand as if it belonged to someone else. Two chunks of glass were embedded in the palm. He shook his head as he pulled them out. He made a fist and held his hand up against his chest.
“I’m okay,” he said as blood dripped down his arm.
“Call me as soon as you know something.”
He nodded again, though he honestly didn’t hear the rest of what she said over the throbbing in his head. With every step, he felt the anger brewing. In all his plans, in all his stupid strategy to protect and defend, he never thought they’d attack somewhere else. Or someone else.
Now he understood. They’d done their homework. They knew that to torture and hurt him would be too easy. And they knew that terrorizing and hurting those he loved—including his dogs—would be exactly what would rip his heart out. What would truly destroy him.
59
SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
PENSACOLA, FLORIDA
CREED HAD HIS ELBOWS on his knees and his face planted in his hands. He didn’t care that his makeshift bandage had bled through. He kept his eyes closed and was hoping the throbbing in his head would quiet down, when suddenly he felt someone standing over him.
“We have to stop meeting in hospitals.”
“And in holes in the ground,” he answered, before looking up at Maggie O’Dell.
She didn’t smile as she sat down beside him. Months ago, a case they’d worked on had landed them in a ravine and twice in hospital waiting lounges. Creed supposed it wasn’t something either of them was ready to joke about.
This waiting lounge had been full just minutes ago. Or maybe it was hours ago, because now he saw that darkness filled the windows where sunlight had been when he arrived. Only an elderly couple remained, clear on the opposite side of the room. They were staring blankly at the flat-screen television on the wall.
“How’s Hannah?” she asked.
“Still in ICU. They won’t let me see her or inform me about her condition because I’m not family.”
“Does she have family?”
“Her two boys are with her grandparents.”
She was waiting for more. When he stayed quiet for too long, she said, “You didn’t tell them yet, did you?”
“They’re five hours away. Hannah wouldn’t want them driving here.”
He didn’t add that Hannah wouldn’t want to risk placing the boys in harm’s way. She’d trust Creed to make sure that didn’t happen. But he didn’t think Maggie would understand. It probably sounded strange that he wouldn’t even call her family.
Truth was, he and Hannah were each other’s family. The two of them were used to making decisions that would influence each other’s lives. By the time Hannah had met and married Marcus Washington, Creed and Hannah had been business partners for several years. They had been through things that had already bonded them thicker than blood. As a consequence, they watched out for each other and cared for each other with no conditions, no terms. That’s just the way it was. He couldn’t explain it to Maggie. Hell, he couldn’t explain it to the ICU warden either. Once in a while, when Hannah got upset with him, she’d tell him he was “depreciating the business.” But even then he knew it had nothing to do with the business. She didn’t care about that. She said it only as a way of telling him to straighten up.
Marcus came to accept him as one would accept a brother-in-law. And when he left for his tour of duty in Iraq, he told Creed that he never had to worry because he knew Creed would take good care of Hannah and his sons.
But this time, Creed had let Hannah down. He should have listened to her when she felt so strongly about sending Amanda somewhere else. He’d let his emotions and memories of his sister override Hannah’s instincts, and Hannah had paid the price.
“You should have told me about the girl,” Maggie said, surprising him.
“And maybe you should have told me that the Bagleys were trafficking kids for a drug cartel.”
“How do you know about that?”
“How do you know about Amanda?”
She sat back, crossed her arms, and sighed with frustration. But Creed didn’t care who knew what anymore. Hannah was fighting for her life. Nothing mattered right now except maybe the throbbing anger that was building up inside him.
“I just found out about the fishing boat and the kids,” Maggie said. “I wasn’t even sure about the cartel connection. My politically inclined boss was stonewalling me. All I was doing was looking for the original crime scene so I could figure out what happened. Turns out I pissed off a bunch of people.”
“Welcome to the club.”
That made her smile. He sat back in his chair until he was even with her. Crossed his arms and leaned his head against the wall.
“I didn’t want anyone else involved,” he told her. “That’s why I didn’t tell you about the girl.”
“And it appears I’m already involved.”
She went ahead and explained what she knew about the Bagleys kidnapping and trafficking children for Choque Azul. Now that she had the case file, she knew much more. One of the three girls Creed and the Coast Guard had rescued on the fishing boat had already identified Regina Bagley from a photo lineup. It happened during their debriefing a week ago. So Agent McCoy knew that the Bagleys had kidnapped at least one of the children, but O’Dell said she had asked McCoy why he didn’t question them or even arrest them—and she wasn’t thrilled with his answer. Something about building a stronger case.
She said the stories the children told during their debriefing were all different. One was taken from a mall. Another from a truck stop. She stopped when she saw Creed wince.
“Were they using them like Amanda? As drug mules?” he asked.
“I’m not sure. I don’t know if anyone knows. Less than forty-eight hours after the captain of the Blue Mist was released from custody, he went missing. They pulled him out of the Potomac.”
“Spider bites. I know.”
“How could you know that?”
“Let’s just say someone heard about it and told me.” He ignored her second sigh. “So what are you doing back here?”
“For some dumb reason I took the case back.”
He turned to look at her and raised an eyebrow instead of coming right out and asking if she was crazy.
She smiled again and shook her head. “I know, it’s insane, right? But this asshole of a DEA agent pissed me off.”
And that made Creed smile.
“What did you do with the cocaine?” she asked in a low voice, though the couple on the other side of the room weren’t paying any attention to them.
“How the hell do you know there was any?”
“They said she was carrying.”
“They?”
“Agent McCoy. The DEA guy.”
“And how would he know?”
That stopped her, and Creed could see she was now wondering the same thing.
“He said something about security cameras in the airport terminal.”
Creed couldn’t believe that the DEA knew all along that he had been harboring a drug mule. Was that possible?
“The DEA already has an agent outside her ICU room, waiting for her to regain consciousness.”
He shot her a look of alarm before he could stop it. And Maggie noticed.
“You can’t keep protecting her. The information she’s able to share could put away some really bad cartel guys.”
“Or it could get her killed.”
“Or it could get you killed. I’m just trying t
o help.”
“And I’m just telling you that I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Are you serious?” She jolted to the edge of her seat. “Do you think I’m wired or something?”
“No, I don’t. But I don’t want anyone else hurt. This is my fight.”
He stayed sitting back, head against the wall, eyes forward, even though he could feel her staring at him . . . hard.
Then suddenly she said, “Your fight? Let it go, Ryder. You can’t win this one.”
“Spiders and snakes”—he pursed his lips and shook his head—“they don’t bother me as long as they don’t hurt my dogs or anyone else I care about. But this . . .” And he jerked his chin in the direction of the ICU door. “They’re not getting away with this.”
“You’re kidding, right?” She glanced around them, then scooted closer until her knees were pushed against the side of his leg and she could make him look at her. “Let the DEA and the FBI handle these guys. You cannot win a fight against them.”
“That’s nice, but it’s not like I have a choice.” He finally met her eyes. “I know I’m on their hit list.” When she tried to look away, he gently took her chin with his fingertips and brought her eyes back to him. “But you already knew that, didn’t you?”
“Agent McCoy only mentioned a dog and handler when he told us about the kids you found. Now that I know about Amanda . . . All the more reason for you to leave it for the DEA and FBI to handle.”
“Other than you, I don’t see anyone from either of those agencies running to my rescue.”
He dropped his fingers from her face but held her gaze until she looked away. She moved back to her original position. They sat quietly, side by side, for a while. Then suddenly Maggie got up.
