by Tara Janzen
After the fact.
She was checking her phone, probably for messages, which he really needed to do, too-check her phone for messages.
“Um, what did you say this was again?” she asked when she was finished, zipping her phone back into her fanny pack and giving the paper plate of roasted meats and white rice, with its straggly bit of overcooked green something-or-another vegetable a very dubious look.
He kissed her on top of her head.
“It’s fine, Suzi. I’ve been eating at that particular restaurant all week and doing great.”
“You sure?” She glanced up at him, and even with her hair all wildly sticking out and her makeup smudged beneath her eyes, her beauty struck him hard.
He lifted his hand to her face and smoothed his thumb across her cheek. Geezus, she was soft and so incredibly lovely, and he hoped to hell he never ran into Nathan Weymouth. He wasn’t sure he trusted himself with the details of the accident that had killed their child, but he was damn sure he didn’t trust himself with the man who had done it.
“You’re safe,” he said and gave her another kiss. “Go ahead and eat. I’ll be right back.”
He headed into the bathroom for a minute, and when he came back out, she was gone.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Creed had the right room, a luxury suite at El Caribe, and the right mountain of booze-soaked flab, Levi Asher, but not the right answer, not yet, so he tried again.
“Mr. Asher, Levi,” he said calmly. “Have you seen Suzanna Toussi since you arrived in Ciudad del Este?”
The man was face-down on the bathroom floor in his underwear, silk boxers and a wifebeater, pretending to be passed out or asleep, but not doing a very good job of either. He was breathing hard and fast, and folks in drunken stupors were usually, well, too damn drunk to have the brains to be afraid, and people who were asleep didn’t open their eyes every few seconds, look around real quick, and then squeeze them shut again real tight.
It was ridiculous.
Old Levi was wide-awake and very afraid, and in about thirty seconds, he was going to wish he’d done a better job of playing possum.
“Levi, here’s the truth,” he said, sitting down on the edge of the suite’s huge jetted tub. “Every time you open your eyes, I know you’re looking to see if there’s a way out”-he paused for a second and thumbed open his folding knife-”and there isn’t, not unless you can get through me, and you can’t.”
Levi’s eyes popped open again at the sound of the knife blade locking into place. It was just a small snick, but the knife wasn’t small. The knife was big, the blade sharp and serrated down the back side, and the sight of it was enough to cause the mountain to quake. Creed had seen a lot of things in his life, but he’d never seen that much wrinkly, old chubbiness tremble on cue.
Given a choice, he would have taken a pass.
“So I’m going to ask you one more time, and you will give me an answer.”
Geezus. The guy had been on his hands and knees, crawling out of the bathroom, when Creed had let himself in the suite. Asher had actually made eye contact with him before he’d collapsed back down and taken, without a doubt, the stupidest defensive posture Creed had ever seen-the old curl-up-and-die defense.
Anyone could have killed him.
And in this town, someone would, but it wasn’t going to be Creed.
“Mr. Asher, have you seen Suzanna Toussi since you arrived in Ciudad del Este?”
His nod was hesitant but unmistakable.
“Where?”
“H-here.” He gasped the word out, his voice trembling as badly as the rest of him.
“In the hotel?”
The old guy nodded again.
“When?”
To Creed’s amazement, Levi opened one eye and checked his watch.
“An-n hour ago,” he said. “Maybe an hour ten.”
Close, Creed thought with relief. He wasn’t that far behind her.
“Where is she now?”
“I p-picked her up at the Posada Plaza.”
That was good information, but it didn’t tell him what he needed to know.
“But where is she now? Why isn’t she still with you? Where did she go?” Personally, Creed could think of about a hundred and eight reasons why Suzi wasn’t with this old geezer in his hotel room, but he had a feeling it was the hundred and ninth one he needed to hear.
“There w-was a man…well, two…I guess,” Levi said.
Bull. There was no “guessing.”
“Tell me about them. What do they have to do with Suzi?”
“She left with the first one.”
And that was disturbing information.
“Do you know his name?” Always a good place to start.
“D-danny Kane. He came and got her out of the casino. He’s a reporter. Maybe they went back to the Posada. I don’t know.”
“So what did the second guy want? Tell me about him.”
Levi’s eyes closed again, and he pressed his lips shut for a moment, shaking his head. “The same as you, to know where she was. He was big. Bad. V-very bad. That man. Frightening.”
And that information went into the column marked Very Disturbing. Creed didn’t like big bad scary guys going after his friends.
“Do you know his name?”
“N-no,” Levi said. “Only…”
“Only what?” He hardened his voice, letting the old souse know he was treading on thin ice. When he didn’t get an immediate answer, he leaned down with his knife, grabbed the shoulder strap of Asher’s undershirt, and slit it clean through.
The man whimpered, and Creed figured he had another Boy Scout badge coming for this one.
“Wh-where he lives,” Asher confessed, a gasping, high-pitched whine in his voice. “I-I know where he lives.”
Very, very good information.
“Tell me.”
Levi looked up at him from where he was cringing on the floor, and despite still looking pathetic, there was a definite change in his gaze.
“W-we should make a deal. This man has a statue, a sphinx, old, priceless, worth-”
“No deal,” Creed said, cutting him off. Yeah, that’s what this whole damn deal was about, some damn statue. “Tell me where this guy lives while you still have a tongue in your mouth. Comprendes?”
“No, no. There’s money, I tell you, mill-”
Creed was done with the weasel. With one move, he hauled the old man to his feet and shoved his head down into the sink. Then he turned on the water, the cold water. Geezus. Creed wouldn’t have given somebody the time of day for running cold water on his head, but he knew his man, and old Levi Asher rolled over because his hair was getting wet.
He spluttered and choked and said something, and Creed turned off the water.
“What was that?”
“Costa,” Levi repeated, spitting water into the sink. “Costa del Rey That’s where this guy lives.”
And that pretty much clinched the Twilight Zone for Creed. Oh, yeah, this mission was headed there at light speed. Conroy Farrel had the magic statue and was gunning for Suzi Toussi.
Leaning heavily on the bathroom counter, barely holding himself up, Levi watched the man leave the suite. Thank God. He needed to call Gervais. He couldn’t be alone. This was awful. The whole night was awful.
My God, his room had been broken into twice, and he’d been roughed up, and manhandled, and practically tortured.
He looked down at himself. He was drenched.
A small hiccup escaped him.
He was doomed. All his work had been for nothing.
He wiped his hand over his face. He probably needed another drink. His nerves were shot.
Step by shaky, trembling step, he eased his way out the bathroom door and toward the bedroom. He always kept a bottle of whiskey by the bed, just in case he needed a little swig in the middle of the night. He had trouble sleeping, but nobody seemed to care.
My God.
That man-with
the big knife and fierce, heartless gaze, that wild man with the long blond hair and the iron grip had practically lifted him straight off his feet from the floor.
Battle of the Titans, that’s what was going to happen up at Costa del Rey with the Memphis Sphinx in the middle of it. How in the world was he supposed to come out ahead in a ruckus like that?
My God. It was going to be brutal, epic, and Suzi was going to be worthless.
And Gervais? Did he dare send him up the river in the morning as planned? Was there any hope?
Gervais didn’t know about the brutes. Was it possible to send someone into a melee, completely unaware, and have them come out on top with the goods?
Perhaps.
Gervais certainly wouldn’t go upriver if Levi told him about the men set to go mano a mano. The man wasn’t that devoted. In fact, he wasn’t devoted at all. He worked for his money, the same way Levi did, and there was a lot of money at stake in this damn country-twenty million dollars to be exact. If Levi could get the Sphinx, and if Suzi survived, it was certainly possible to squeeze the name of her buyer out of her. He had no doubts about that. He was good with women.
He finally made it to the bed and flopped down onto it. He was so exhausted, he probably didn’t need the extra booze. He would probably fall asleep like a log any minute now.
Rolling over onto his back, he stared up at the ceiling and just tried to relax and catch his breath. Ciudad del Este was everything he’d been told and more, violent and crime-ridden and lawless, a cesspool. Good God, he couldn’t wait to get out of here.
He’d forgotten to call Gervais, he remembered, and he would, in a minute, but he was starting to drift just a bit, and it felt so good, he decided to just keep drifting…
“Good morning, asshole.”
He awoke with a start, harsh words in his ear, and a hand around his throat.
“This is your wake-up call.”
Levi stared, panic-stricken and wide-eyed, into the fiercely dark-eyed gaze of the reporter.
“D-danny Kane,” he stammered, feeling the man’s hand squeeze tighter and tighter around his throat. “Pul-lease.”
“Where is she?” the man demanded to know, and Levi didn’t have to ask who.
He let out a small choking sound, and Danny Kane lightened his grip ever so slightly.
“I know you had a deal with her for this morning, and I want to know what, you sonuvabitch,” Danny Kane’s voice was low, and gruff, and mean, like he wanted to know what very much, indeed.
Levi hated this place.
And he hated this damn room.
And he suddenly felt very guilty about Suzi Toussi, but she was the one who’d begged him to get in on his deal. She was the one who’d wanted to help-and really, on second thought, it wasn’t his fault that she had all these over-testosteroned brutes ready to tear him limb from limb in order to get to her. She’d gotten herself down to Ciudad del Este all on her own.
She’d done this to herself, not him, and she was dragging him down with her.
It simply had to stop.
“Costa del Rey” he said as clearly and succinctly as he could with some behemoth practically strangling him. Who were these guys? he wondered, and why did Suzi Toussi know so many of them? It was crazy. “That’s where she was going for me this morning, to bargain for the Memphis Sphinx, the Maned Sphinx of Sesostris III. That’s where it is.” He couldn’t protect her anymore. He’d done his best, but now the truth must out. “Costa del Rey is up the Paraná River, north of Ciudad del Este, on a tributary called the Rio Tambo. I don’t know exactly where that is, but I’m sure it’s on a map and that you can find it. You look like a guy who’s good with maps.” All brawny and tan from being outside. “And if you care for Suzi at all, you will find it, because two other guys are already trying to catch her, for God only knows what reasons, and they all seem to be heading there-Costa del Rey” He enunciated the words very carefully. He was done. He didn’t want any more encounters involving the Sphinx. He was handing off the problem.
Danny Kane released him, and he fell back onto the bed.
“What two guys?” Mr. Kane’s voice was still plenty mean, but Levi didn’t care anymore. He was getting used to being abused.
“The last man in here had long blond hair and a big knife, and I gave him your name and suggested the Posada Plaza as a good place to look for her.” His mind was so clear now that he’d made his decision. He was leaving, getting out of here, immediately, today, this morning.
“You asshole.” Danny Kane looked like he could chew nails-and he probably could.
“Be that as it may.” Levi was beyond being offended. “But I told the first guy the same thing, to look for her at the Posada Plaza. He was big, dark-haired, forceful, without actually strangling a person, and he had a nice voice-much nicer than yours-I gave him your name, too. So I’m guessing if they don’t find Suzi, they’ll both come looking for you.” Fair game as far as Levi was concerned. His neck hurt from being squeezed and rattled around. “I’m guessing it’ll be an even match, with all three of you going hand to hand, or whatever it is guys like you do.“
He didn’t care. Good God, the Maned Sphinx of Sesostris III finally shows up on the world stage, and there was just no getting to it.
He was just going to have to let it go. There were other amazing artifacts out there. Thousands of them, ancient and priceless, some of them yet to be discovered, and there were paintings, his bread and butter-all of them needing to be traded and sold and shifted around, and money to be made on every trade, sale, and shift.
He sneaked a peek at his watch. Well, no wonder he felt better. He’d had just enough time to sleep off a couple of glasses of champagne.
“I wouldn’t waste any time, if I were you, getting up there to save her,” he suggested. He wanted Danny Kane gone. “You can’t possibly help her by hanging around here strangling me.” And that was the truth, and by the time any of these men got back to Ciudad del Este, if any of them got back, Levi Asher was going to be at thirty-seven thousand feet, jetting north.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Costa del fucking Rey.
Goddamn Levi Asher, there was no Costa del Rey on any map Dax could find, and he was a pretty damn good map finder, one of the world’s best. But he’d found the Rio Tambo, and Dax was betting everything he had that Levi had told him the truth, and that Suzi was smack-dab where the Tambo flowed into the Paraná.
Because she sure as hell wasn’t here.
Geezus.
He rubbed his hand across his chest, trying to ease the tightness that had taken hold of him the instant he’d realized she was gone.
Two men, Levi Asher had said, and one of them had gotten to her in a heartbeat, five floors up. The security chain on the inside of the door had still been in place when Dax had come out of the bathroom. Nobody had gone out the front door. She’d been grabbed so fast, she’d dropped her fork and the rice on it on the balcony-and not another thing had been out of place in the whole room.
That was crazy. Who could do a snatch and grab that clean, that quick, without Dax knowing it?
A few folks, maybe, he guessed, but as soon as he’d seen the chain on the door, he’d run to the balcony, and there had been no one on the street below, not with a leggy redhead in tow.
The guy had taken her fanny pack, too, so the sonuvabitch was thorough. Hell.
He hit a key on his computer, locking it up and shutting it down. He had a couple of calls out, to guys he still knew in the trade, but so far, no one had Costa del Rey on their radar. It wasn’t a town, or a village, or even a spot in the road as far as he could tell. It was a place, a private place on the river with at least one badass knuckle dragger and one multimillion-dollar piece of stolen goods.
Geezus, he hated going in cold, but he didn’t have a choice.
He glanced up at the door. The chain was hanging broken now. The frame was busted where the Posada’s cheap dead bolt had gone through it, assisted, Dax had be
en told, by someone’s heavy, booted foot, un rubio, according to Marcella, a blond-haired man, un gato, according to Marceline, a cat, a very big cat who had gotten Marceline’s motor running.
The first guy in here tonight had grabbed Suzi without a trace. The second guy had been sure to leave his mark, and both those guys were on their way to Costa del Rey.
Dax hoped to hell he wasn’t too far behind.
He’d changed back into his cargo pants, T-shirt, and shoulder holster, with an open shirt over the top. The 9mm he’d carried in a holster inside the back of his slacks had been transferred along with two folding knives to the cargo pants, and he had extra magazines in the pockets.
He rechecked the loads on his sidearms and the submachine gun he’d picked up the day he’d landed in Paraguay. That was one of the perks of working for a world-class criminal-easy access to plenty of armament.
He packed five extra magazines for the subgun in a duffel with a couple of bottles of water and basic survival gear. Then he loaded his tac vest with more ammo, a flashlight, and a sheath knife.
The way this had been going down all day had proved one thing to him-this was not and never had been an art auction. This damn thing had been down and dirty from the get-go, and he had a lot of bad feelings about not knowing what in the hell was really going on here.
Suzi had been kidnapped, with him not ten feet away from her. Somebody was pulling a helluva lot of strings, and when Dax found that guy, he was going down.
He put his vest in his duffel, made sure he had plenty of cash in his pocket, a big, fat roll of it, and turned to head out the door.
And stopped dead in his tracks, staring at a woman who made his blood run cold.
Ice cold.
He’d met some bad men in his life. Killed quite a few of them. But he’d never met anyone like her.
Shoko.
