Dancie ended the call, typed on her keyboard and raised her fists in victory. “I’m back!”
“Check out the news division.”
“I am, I am.” Dancie scrolled through the site map. “Good news, bad news.”
“What?”
“I’ve got access to everything, but I don’t know how to use it.”
“Mary Wade will. You know, the woman Mark wouldn’t take because she has teenagers?”
Dancie nodded.
“I’m calling her.” Piper looked up her number. “She’s already researching for Mark, anyway.”
Within an hour, they’d joined forces with Mary. Anna spoke Spanish, so when she returned from her résumé-and-croissant run, she translated for them.
In the afternoon, Piper had an appointment with the director of a small, private dorm who wanted a questionnaire she could administer to prospective student renters. By the time Piper returned, it was three-thirty, she hadn’t heard from Mark, and three grim faces greeted her.
“What?”
“This Mendoza guy is bad news,” Dancie said.
“I think we already knew that. Did Mark get in touch with you?” she asked Mary.
Nodding, Mary said, “He got my message. When I offered to keep digging, he said he’d heard from an old contact, so thanks, good luck and all that.”
“That sounds like goodbye,” Dancie said.
“Yes.” Cold settled deep within Piper. “It does sound like goodbye.”
* * *
MARK WASN’T PROUD that he’d waited until he was actually sitting on the plane before calling Piper, but he knew what she was going to say. Or close enough.
“Hi.” Amazing how much meaning could be packed into one little word. Her voice was soft and intimate. A lover’s voice.
“Hi.” He shut his eyes. This was proving to be harder than he’d expected. “Something has come up and I won’t be able to see you tonight.”
There was a short silence. “Mendoza?”
His eyes popped open. “Yes.”
“Were you going to tell me?”
Damn. “Not if I could avoid it.”
“Well, I appreciate your honesty.”
Appreciate wasn’t happy but he’d take it. “I’ll be tied up—poor choice of words.”
She didn’t laugh.
“I’ll be busy for the next few days.”
“Let me help.”
He smiled. “With you around to distract me, we wouldn’t get much work done.”
“I’m serious,” she said. “Mary told me she’d been researching for you. Dancie, Anna and I helped her out this afternoon. You did get her message?”
“Yes. The information was very helpful. Piper, don’t take this the wrong way, but I’d rather you didn’t involve yourself with this story. Mendoza has a long reach and I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“I don’t want anything to happen to you, either! Did you call the police? Or the border patrol or whoever’s in charge?”
“Yes, I called the appropriate authorities.” He hadn’t mentioned that he was headed down there, though. “But they’re overextended and even if they weren’t, they work way too slow. Mendoza always gets tipped off and has plenty of time to move the compound.”
“Maybe you just need to give them more information to convince them. I’ll come over and show you what we’ve found.”
“I won’t be there.”
In the seat next to him, the pilot spoke. “We’ve been cleared for takeoff. You need to wrap that up and put on your headphones.”
Mark nodded as Piper’s voice sounded loud in his ear. “Are you on a plane?”
“Yes, and I’ve got to go. I’ll call you when I get back.”
“Call me when you land.”
“Goodbye, Piper.” He disconnected the call and pulled the battery from the phone. He would not be calling her when he landed.
* * *
PIPER WATCHED THE CALL indicator on her cell go dark. She’d stepped outside her office so she wouldn’t be overheard. She needn’t have bothered. Opening the door, she announced, “Mark’s already on a plane. He’s on his way to meet with Mendoza.”
“By himself?” Mary asked. “That’s just—”
“Reckless? Unnecessarily risky? Acting without thinking things through?” Dancie supplied. “In other words, typical Mark.”
Anna had gone home and Piper, Dancie and Mary were sharing a pizza.
“Let’s go with stupid,” Piper said.
“That works, too.” Dancie wrapped strings of cheese around a pizza slice.
“But Mark’s not stupid,” Mary said.
“He’s acting stupid.” Dancie took a big bite and made a blissful face as she chewed.
“Like ordering vegetarian pizza because you think it’s healthy?” Piper asked.
“No, like showing up alone to meet the guy who captured and held you hostage after you humiliated him by escaping.”
“Except he wasn’t captured. He offered himself in exchange for the boys Mendoza had taken from families in the area.”
“That didn’t come out in the media coverage.” Mary looked concerned. “You don’t think he’s going to do it again, do you?”
Dancie made a derisive sound. “He’s not that stupid.”
But he might be that reckless, Piper thought.
“Did he say where’s he going?” Mary asked her.
Piper shook her head. “He’s on a private plane. I heard the pilot right close by.”
“Then we can figure out where he’s going—or at least where the plane is going.” Mary brushed her hands together and started typing.
“He needs to be careful around Mendoza. This guy is devious and he wants revenge. I don’t care what he told Mark.” Piper sat by her laptop. “But Mark thinks he knows him.” She shook her head. “He doesn’t.”
Dancie took another piece of pizza. She’d had more than her share, but Piper wasn’t all that hungry anymore.
“So are you just going to sit there and wait for him to call? And then you’ll tell him all this and he’ll say, ‘By golly, you’re right. I’ll turn around and come back to Austin.’”
Piper slumped. Dancie was right.
Dancie put the slice back into the pizza box. “Are y’all finished?”
Both Piper and Mary nodded and waved it away. Dancie closed up the box.
“Where are you going?” Piper asked.
“To Mikey. This is a bribe.”
“Half a vegetarian pizza isn’t much of a bribe.”
Dancie smiled. “I’ll make up the other half.”
“Who’s Mikey and why are you bribing him?” asked Mary.
“A computer guy with mad skills and negotiable ethics,” Dancie told her. “And I’m a girl with a golden password.”
13
Step thirteen: It’s not all about you. Remember that there are two people in your relationship.
“THIS IS MARK BANNING. I was told to call this number when I arrived at La Hermosa Casa. I’ve arrived.” He gazed out his window at the enclosed patio and the pristine fountain. This was a pretty ritzy place to conduct the sort of business they’d be conducting.
But he didn’t get to pick the place, or which side of the border it was on. He was still in Texas, but didn’t think he would be for long.
A youthful voice spoke. “Senor Mark?”
He didn’t quite recognize it, but took a guess. “Gilberto?”
“Yes, you remember.”
So Mendoza got him back after all. Mark wasn’t surprised.
“I am to tell you to wait for instructions.”
“And when will I—” But the call had ended.
Great. Power games. He wouldn’t bother to unpack. Instead, Mark took off his shoes and stretched out on the puffy comforter and slept.
* * *
“HAS HE FOUND MARK YET?” Piper had pulled into a rest stop off the highway but she didn’t plan to rest. But then, had she planned anything
before getting in the car and heading south? No. She’d acted. Mark wouldn’t answer his phone? Fine, she’d go to him. The fact that she didn’t know exactly where he was didn’t stop her. Yeah, she was way out of her comfort zone.
Mark was out of her comfort zone.
Piper wasn’t sure she even had a comfort zone anymore.
It was the middle of the night and she was in the middle of nowhere, halfway through the eight-hour drive to Presidio, Texas. She was driving because Presidio was also in the middle of nowhere and the nearest airport to it was four hours away, unless you chartered a plane. Which Mark had. Piper could not afford to charter a plane, so she had to drive. And she had to drive because Mark would not answer her calls. His phone wasn’t even on.
She’d been told that the land, near Big Bend State Park, was starkly beautiful. Too bad she couldn’t see it in the dark.
“Mikey is at the delicate stage,” Dancie murmured into the phone.
“Is that like the tricky stage he was in last time I called, or the difficult stage he was in earlier?”
“This is the better-not-get-caught stage.”
“Let’s hope he gets to the I-found-him stage by the time I get to Presidio.”
* * *
MARK HAD RECEIVED two more calls from Gilberto, each coming from a different number. They were obviously using cheap, prepaid cell phones and he couldn’t call them back. Gilberto wouldn’t answer his questions or talk with him, either, and Mark suspected Mendoza was standing next to him. This was probably a loyalty test for Gilberto, poor kid.
The first instructions had sent Mark to a man whose eyes got wide and face drained of color as soon as he’d opened his door. Then he’d slammed the door. Then there had been a lot a yelling from behind the door, at which point Mark stepped back from the door. It opened and a young boy gave him a set of keys and pointed to an ancient, faded red pickup truck parked in the dirt driveway. Then he held out his hand and pointed to Mark’s silver, midsize rental.
Mark dropped the key into the boy’s palm. “That’s gonna put a hole in the budget.”
Without responding, the boy went back inside. Mark had his doubts about the pickup, but it started right up and shifted smoothly into gear. He gave it a little gas and it responded with a deep rumble. Okay. Junker on the outside, hidden power on the inside. Like Mendoza.
Mark drove it back to La Hermosa Casa and shortly after, the second call instructed him to open a bank account. He’d just returned from that chore. He figured Mendoza was watching him to see if anyone was with him. When he was satisfied, he’d contact Mark with meeting instructions.
A little later, when Mark heard someone knock on the door, he thought maybe Mendoza had sent an escort to the meeting site. He hoped it was Gilberto, although Mendoza was unlikely to send the boy across the border alone.
Steeling himself, Mark opened the door and was met with angry brown eyes. Déjà vu.
He blinked. “Piper?” She was here? Stunned, he stood aside. “How did you find me?”
“Dancie’s boyfriend has mad skills.” She rolled a suitcase across the room to the desk.
“Obviously illegal skills.”
“He used a difficult, tricky, delicate procedure.” Piper opened the suitcase and removed her laptop and assorted papers. “And vegetarian pizza was involved. That’s all I know.”
Mark was so astounded that she was here, so thrown off balance, that he spent several minutes caught up in watching her and trying to figure out how she’d managed it.
The desk phone rang and snapped him out of it. The timing was horrible. He couldn’t deal with Mendoza and Piper simultaneously.
“Shall I answer?” She reached for the phone.
“No!” As he leapt forward, she snatched her hand back.
“Is that Mendoza?”
“I don’t know. Let me focus.” He paused, trying to block out the image of the woman standing next to him, and picked up the phone. “Banning.”
“He wants to meet.” It was Gilberto again.
“He hasn’t told me what he wants from me yet.”
“Three hours from now.” Gilberto started giving GPS coordinates.
Mark grabbed for the pen, but Piper had moved everything on the desk. “Gilberto, wait—I need to write this down.” He shoved her papers roughly, but couldn’t find anything to write with.
Silently, she handed him a pen and he wrote on the nearest paper he found. Gilberto hadn’t paused reciting the numbers and Mark quickly wrote what he remembered and caught up with the rest. “I need to verify that. I’ve got—”
The phone went dead. Instantly, he tried to call back, but the call had come through the hotel switchboard and he knew Gilberto would have immediately tossed the phone.
Mark stared at the scribbled coordinates. “I don’t even know which side of the border this is on. And I’m not sure I even wrote them down right.” He glared at a still-silent Piper. “This is why I work alone. I get distracted when I should focus. What if I made a mistake and don’t show up at the right place?”
“I say ‘yay’ because you shouldn’t be going, anyway.” She plucked the paper from his grasp.
“That’s not your decision.”
Standing, her laptop open, Piper typed the coordinates into a map program. She turned the computer around to face him. “Does this look right?”
He looked at a remote area near the border on the U.S. side. “Maybe.” He turned his attention to her. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“Neither should you.”
“This is my job. This is who I am. This is what I do.”
She was shaking her head, golden-brown hair brushing her shoulders. “You’re not writing a story—you’re on a rescue mission.”
He remembered the way her hair felt brushing his skin, the way she felt—but he shouldn’t be remembering; he needed to think and prepare for this upcoming meeting. “Piper, I know we…”
“Had a thing together that meant more to me than it did to you? Just because we had sex doesn’t mean I have the right to tell you what to do or how to do it? This part of your life has nothing to do with me and I should stay out of it? Does that about sum it up?” Piper’s unemotional mask was back in place and her eyes were blank. Almost.
“Yes,” he said.
She didn’t flinch.
“When I’m working, I need to make instant decisions and I can’t second-guess myself. I can’t stop and wonder whether you think what I’m doing is dangerous or risky or wrong.” He gestured to the paper where he’d written the meeting location. “You’ve only been here five minutes and I may have already blown it.”
“I can accept dangerous and risky, but not wrong.” She began searching through the papers he’d mixed up.
He squeezed his eyes shut. “I can’t do this. I can’t.”
“You promised.”
Mark started to deny he’d ever make a promise like that. “I—”
“You promised you would listen to my opinion,” she interrupted. “You don’t have to agree, but you have to truly consider it.”
He remembered. “That was about finding my partner.”
“If you won’t listen to someone who just drove all night to bring you information you need, you’ll never work with anyone.”
“I never wanted to work with anyone.”
“Too bad. Now pay attention.”
Arguing would only waste more time. “Okay.”
“I heard you say ‘Gilberto.’” She placed printouts on the desk.
“He’s my contact.”
“Gilberto from the photo?”
He nodded and she pointed to a picture on one of the printouts. “This Gilberto?”
Mark studied the group. It was a recent multigenerational family photo surrounding a bride and groom. The bride was Elia. He didn’t recognize the groom. Other than being glad she’d found happiness, he felt nothing for her. He picked out Gilberto, who’d grown, and Hector, who still looked boyish, standing next to the
ir mother. Behind them stood Mendoza. “So?”
“You do see Mendoza?”
“She probably married one of his people. Or it’s been Photoshopped.”
“She’s his sister, Mark. He’s their uncle.”
Mark laughed. “You drove all night to tell me that?”
“You already knew?”
“Oh, Piper.” Still chuckling, he drew her to him. “He’s not their uncle.”
Briefly, she relaxed against him before pushing away. “Yes, he is. I’ve found documentation to prove it.”
Mark shook his head. “I’ve spent almost two years of my life collecting information about Mendoza. I wouldn’t have missed that. And even if I had, I stayed with Elia and the boys. I saw how frantic she was. Do you really think she wouldn’t have told me?”
Piper’s face softened. “You were set up. You were poking around, threatening him and he took you out.”
“A bullet to the head would have been a lot less trouble.”
She held up a finger. “But that’s not the way his type operates.”
Oh, no. Not the grid squares.
“He needs to show both power and cleverness,” Piper said. “When that team came in and rescued you, you humiliated him. I don’t know what he’s told you, but trust me, this is all about revenge. He’ll destroy the thing you value most in a way that demonstrates his power.”
“Give me some credit. This is just a meeting. He wants something—probably weapons—in exchange for Hector and some other boys. So if he’s going to make his move, it’ll be when I’m delivering whatever it is he wants. Today, all he’s going to do is parade the boys in front of me so I can see how scared they are. It’s a negotiating ploy to jack up the price.” It would be unpleasant, but Mark knew he wasn’t in any personal danger yet.
Piper looked down at the desk. “I’ve got all kinds of information here, but I know you won’t read it. So I’ll say this.” When she looked back at him, she’d dropped the mask and her eyes were full of emotion. “Unless those boys are what you value most in your life, that’s not what’s at stake.”
She cared about him and she believed what she said.
Tall, Dark & Reckless Page 19
