Angel Falls

by Connie Mann

  “At least you’ll get to say good-bye.”

  He said nothing.

  She waited a while longer to screw up her courage. “What happened between you two, Brooks?”

  She didn’t think he’d answer, but he surprised her. “Doesn’t matter anymore. It happened a long time ago.”

  “It matters to you.”

  “Back off, lady.”

  “No. You have a chance I’ll never have. My father died in a factory fire years ago, and even if I’d known, I hadn’t seen or spoken to him since I was six years old. You have a wonderful father. Don’t throw away the chance to make things right.”

  She saw him struggle against his resentment, and she knew the exact moment he lost the battle.

  “You don’t know anything about my wonderful father. My wonderful father had an affair that resulted in a child. And then he had the unmitigated gall to ask my mother to raise that child as her own. Even more amazing is that she did. And she loved that child as if she’d borne him herself. Now he’s done it again. Knocked up another woman, leaving another baby behind.” He shot a look at Eduardo, curled in her lap. “And you want me to forgive him? Not in this lifetime.”

  Everything inside her went still at his words. Beyond her shock that her idol indeed had feet of clay, she heard the hurt and betrayal of a little boy. Regina groped for the right words.

  “We all make mistakes, Brooks. Haven’t you made any?” she asked gently. She thought she heard his jaw crack, so she hurried on. “Your mother loves you, and you love her. How the family is formed isn’t what matters.”

  “It matters to me.”

  Beyond her heartache for his pain and bitterness, the tiny flicker of hope born in the warehouse died in Regina’s heart. Brooks would never want a woman like her, someone with a past, who couldn’t have children of her own. But maybe she could help to heal the rift between father and son.

  It didn’t take him that long to find their camp. He’d made another call to his “consultant,” who’d told him to check the back roads that went near water. They’d try to make camp there.

  He smiled in satisfaction as he looked around and saw a half-buried diaper. Yup, he’d found the right place.

  He noticed the fire and his smile widened. The embers were still smoldering. He reached over and carefully plucked the map from the ashes and blew it out.

  Then, following his friend’s instructions exactly, he carefully kicked sand over the fire and ran for his car. Oh, yes, it was good to have friends.

  He spread the map over his lap and studied it. Nothing. No markings, no anything. But he wasn’t worried. Teresa was guiding him, and with her help, he’d find them.

  But he’d need a bit more cash for his new life. He pulled out the phone and dialed a familiar number, asking for twice his usual fee. It amazed him how much people would pay to keep their dirty little secrets buried. He tsk-tsked and pulled out Teresa’s photo.

  “We’re getting there. We’ll have them soon. Then you can rest in peace.”

  The kilometers flew by and Regina closed her eyes because the combination of curves, hills, and valleys—along with Brooks’s determined driving—made her queasy. She heard his teeth grinding and felt as if he cut every curve and pass closer than the one before. If she didn’t block out the sight, she knew she would hyperventilate.

  She thought of the part of his conversation with his mother she’d heard. Something wasn’t quite right. She was still trying to absorb the facts Noah had a heart attack and Brooks wasn’t Carol’s son, but she pushed that aside for now. Something else nagged at her. The knowledge floated in the back of her mind, just out of reach.

  She sat up straight and her eyes snapped open as the little car lurched around a curve. She grasped the door handle, then deliberately focused on the task at hand. She got on her knees, making sure she had tucked Eduardo safely into his makeshift bed. He was wide awake, gnawing contentedly on a knuckle. The slobbery smile he sent her created another crack in her heart.

  Regina didn’t know how she was going to hand him over when the time came. She didn’t doubt Carol would find him a good home and family, but still . . . he was Irene’s baby, her last link to her best friend. Oh, how she wished he were hers, that she could raise him as her own. But he deserved better, two parents from good Christian families, who had clean pasts and bright futures and could give him everything she and Irene never had.

  Regina rubbed a hand over her heart against the pain there. When she’d held Eduardo to her breast in that warehouse, the love she’d felt for him had been so huge, so deep, so overwhelming, she didn’t know how to describe it.

  For that one instant, when Brooks had looked at them, her heart had begged for impossible things, for a man to look at her like that. She’d wished she and Brooks were a family and Eduardo their child. But just that quick, the fantasy shattered. Brooks was a loner who swore he’d never marry. And even if he did, he wouldn’t want a woman with baggage like hers. No one would.

  She couldn’t even have children to atone for her past sins. But she supposed that, too, was just punishment, reaping what she’d sown.

  Regina ran an unsteady finger down Eduardo’s plump cheek and swiped at an errant tear on her own cheek with her other hand. She’d cry later, after he was safely in the States with his new family. Right now, she only had one job: to keep him safe.

  With her maternal protective instincts on full alert, a solution occurred to her. She dug around behind her seat until she found the cell phone. One hand on the dash, she buckled back into her seat belt and flipped the phone open.

  “Give me your mother’s phone number at the hospital.”

  She saw the question in his eyes, but he didn’t ask. Merely rattled off the appropriate digits.

  When Carol answered she said, “Hello, Tia Carol. This is Regina, calling from Brazil.”

  “Regina, I’m so glad you called. How are you?” Regina heard the concern in the other woman’s voice.

  “Please, we need your help.” It was very impolite to jump over the usual niceties, but these were not usual circumstances.

  Regina heard the other woman’s sharp intake of breath. “Is everyone all right?”

  “For the moment,” she responded deliberately. “Tia Carol, I’m going to be very frank. Someone is following us, and he has already tried to kill us several times. Without your son’s quick thinking and reflexes, the man very well might have succeeded.”

  “I didn’t know things were that serious,” Carol gasped, horrified. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

  “Yes, Tia, please. We know you have spoken to Francisco Lopez. He will not tell us who’s behind this, but we have to know. Right now we are fighting a shadow. Please, tell us what you know.”

  Through the silence on the line, Regina could almost hear the woman’s internal struggle.

  “Does it have something to do with your husband?” Regina prompted. With an apologetic look toward Brooks, she added, “I know something about Brooks’s birth.” Following a hunch, she asked quietly, “Does what is happening now have something to do with that?”

  Carol’s voice shook, and it sounded as though she were speaking to herself. “I can’t believe he would do such a thing . . .” Her voice trailed off.

  “Tia Carol. Somebody killed Irene. I will not let them kill Eduardo, too.”

  Regina heard another sharp gasp. “But they ruled Irene’s death an accident!”

  “No, Tia. It was no accident. I was there. Please. Tell us.”

  “Francisco didn’t tell me. Never that it had come to this.”

  During the pause, Regina heard Carol taking several deep breaths. When she spoke again, her voice had lost its quaver, and in its place Regina heard the thread of steel behind the softly spoken words. “Years ago, Noah, Francisco, and I went to school together in Brazil.”

  Regina stifled the urge to tell the woman to get to the point, but bit her tongue. Whatever it took to get the whole story. She’d let
her tell it in her own way.

  “What you probably don’t know is that there was another girl there, Teresa. She was beautiful, and we were good friends.” Regina heard pain behind the words, old but still able to inflict hurt. “Anyway, she died some years later.” Carol paused, and Regina tried to figure out where this was leading.

  “Her older brother, Raul, blamed Noah for her death and swore vengeance on our family. Shortly afterward, Raul went to prison for attempted murder. Life went on, and we forgot about the threat.” Her voice trailed off.

  “Why did he blame Noah?”

  The silence stretched. If not for the continuing static, Regina would have thought the connection had been lost.

  Finally, Carol said, “I can’t answer that.”

  Regina sighed and changed tactics. “Why do you think it might be him?”

  “He got out of prison recently and went to Francisco’s office. Said he’d changed and wanted to catch up with his old friends as he made a new life.”

  “Senhor Lopez believed him?”

  “At first. Later he started to have doubts.”

  The pieces began to click into place. “That explains why Senhor Lopez came to Irene’s funeral. Did you know he posted a guard at the orphanage?”

  “No. It seems I’ve been kept in the dark about a lot of things.” Regina pictured the woman’s chin lifting into the air. “It’s time I stopped burying my head in the sand. That’s all I can tell you. Is there anything else I can do to help?”

  Regina bit her bottom lip. “Do you know who Eduardo’s father is?”

  “No.” The silence stretched out. “You think it might be Noah, don’t you?”

  “I’m sorry, Tia.”

  “What makes you think so?” Regina heard defensiveness now.

  With another quick glance at Brooks’ frozen profile, Regina said, “I found a photograph in Irene’s things that was taken while she was pregnant with Noah.”

  “It might be innocent.”

  “Sim. It might,” she agreed.

  “Let me speak to Nathaniel.”

  “Just one more question. Is there really something wrong with Eduardo that requires medical care?”

  Regina felt, rather than saw, Brooks’s head whip in her direction at the question. But she was more interested in the silence on the other end of the line.

  Finally, Carol said briskly, “I said what I did in the best interests of the child.”

  “I understand, Tia, believe me.” Regina handed the phone to Brooks. “She wants to talk to you.”

  Then she turned her face to the window to give him what privacy she could, even though she desperately wanted to know what his mother said.

  Brooks said nothing, merely listened. Finally, he said, “I’ll do what I can,” and hung up.

  The hours crept by as the landscape became more and more mountainous. Regina’s nerves frayed, though she wasn’t sure if it stemmed from Brooks’s silence or the insane pace he had set.

  “Tell me who she thinks the shooter is.”

  She didn’t understand him. How could it have taken him three hours to get that one question out? As succinctly as possible, she relayed what his mother had told him about Raul and Teresa.

  He nodded once and lapsed back into silence. Regina busied herself entertaining Eduardo, who had turned fussy and unhappy after being in the car all day. She understood the feeling.

  Late in the afternoon, shortly after a stop for gas and snacks in Pato Branco, Brooks reached for the phone.

  “Jax. Brooks. What did you find out?” He nodded. “That matches what I’ve learned. Look, I need to get this kid to the States. I’m headed for the Falls. I need a chopper.” He paused to listen some more. “Call me when you line it up.”

  “We’re going to Foz do Iguaçu?”

  The huge group of waterfalls, with their nearby town, were a major tourist attraction. It was beautiful there, but seemed an odd place for a rendezvous.

  “It’s easier to cross into Argentina from there.”

  Regina had no idea what that had to do with anything, but she let it go. She was still trying to figure out why this Raul would blame Noah for his sister’s death.

  17

  RAUL SPED NORTH ON THE HIGHWAY, HIS ANTICIPATION BUILDING WITH every car and truck he passed. Every instinct told him he was gaining on them. He’d propped Teresa’s picture up on the dashboard again, and her smile acted like a beacon guiding his steps.

  He felt a bit guilty at his eagerness to be done with this. Death was not something to be taken lightly. But it had been so long. He wanted to fulfill his duty to his sister and then move on with his life. He had a nice little nest egg stashed away. All he needed was a lovely lady to share it with. Raul stroked a hand over his smooth face and mused that it was too bad Regina wouldn’t be that woman. His life would be quite enjoyable with her in his bed every night—provided she got over her aversion to men. He patted the gun on the seat beside him, allowed himself several minutes to enjoy visions of just how he would convince her. Then he shoved the thought aside.

  She was a whore, and he’d have to kill her. She’d left him no choice.

  Raul urged the Fiat faster and strained his eyes to get a glimpse of his quarry. But with the twists and turns in the highway, and the lumber trucks with their flapping canvas tops, his view remained blocked.

  He picked up his cell phone and dialed the familiar number. “I’m still heading north. If you were Brooks, which way would you go? I just passed Pato Branco.”

  He heard a rustling noise, like a map being unfolded. “Head for Foz do Iguaçu. The border to Argentina isn’t guarded too carefully. It would be the ideal spot to escape with the kid.”

  Raul smiled. The man appeared to be worth every exorbitant penny he was charging. “Perfect. I think you’re right.”

  “I’ll meet you there tomorrow.”

  The other man’s eagerness triggered alarm bells in Raul’s head. “I can handle it.”

  “I’m sure you can. Just thought you might want a hand, that’s all.”

  Raul thought the other man’s voice seemed too casual, all of a sudden. “Fine. But they’re mine.”

  “Whatever you say, my friend. I’ll just be there as back-up.”

  “Meet me at Klaus Bier at midnight tomorrow.”

  “I’ll be there with bells on.”

  “Senhor?” He did not understand this expression.

  “I’ll be there. Look for a tall man wearing a Miami Dolphins baseball cap.”

  “Sim. Until tomorrow.”

  Raul disconnected, but he furrowed his brow in thought. When he hired the man, all he’d asked for was information. Insight into how a Ranger thought so he could track Brooks Anderson better. A face-to-face meeting had never been in his plan.

  Then he shrugged. Whatever would be would be. He’d deal with it as it came.

  Carol Anderson sat by her husband’s bedside and waited for him to wake up. Her feelings seesawed between the urge to shake him awake and get whatever information she could from him to a desire for him to sleep a long time. A part of her was in no real hurry for him to open his eyes, because when he did, they would finally have to deal with things she’d avoided for more than thirty years. But her son and the woman she considered a daughter were in danger.

  Maternal instincts won out, and she perched impatiently on the edge of her chair. She focused on her short, buffed nails, fighting the unladylike urge to drum her fingers on the arm of the chair. Then she paced the floor, her sensible pumps barely making a sound on the worn linoleum. The clock ticked slowly, and every second plodded by on leaded feet. She walked to the window and looked out at the sparkling sunshine, wincing against the brightness. Winter in Orlando was like nowhere else.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked hoarsely.

  Carol whirled toward the bed, her heart in her throat. “It’s okay,” she soothed, going to him and smoothing the covers. “How are you feeling?”

  His gaze pierced her. �
�You’re upset.” After all these years, he knew her well.

  “I spoke to Nathaniel. He has Eduardo and Regina with him.” She paused, carefully considering her next words. “They asked about the past, about our connection to Francisco.” She sighed. “He’d posted a guard at the orphanage.” It took all her formidable self-control to speak calmly, with no more inflection than she would if she were ordering dinner in an expensive restaurant.

  Noah’s eyes widened with alarm. “Are they safe?”

  She patted his hand and hoped he wouldn’t notice the tremor in hers. “For now. Nathaniel will protect them.”

  “You told them about Raul.” It was not a question.

  “I did. And about Teresa.” She had to swallow hard. Her cowardice threatened to choke her. “Though I left out the most important facts.”

  Noah gripped her hand, his sudden burst of strength surprising her. His eyes glistened, but surprisingly, he wouldn’t allow the tears to fall. “I was wrong, Carol. So wrong to get involved with Teresa.”

  Carol looked away, her own tears threatening. “It happened a long time ago,” she whispered.

  “But you still hurt, and for that I’m sorriest of all. You are far more woman than I deserve, and the way you’ve loved Nathaniel . . .”

  She couldn’t help but smile. “Nathaniel is easy to love. He’s a lot like his father.”

  He tugged on her hand, pulling her down beside him on the bed. “I’m sorry, Carol. I’m sorry for Teresa, and I’m sorry for not telling you about my heart problems. I should have told you about both right away, but in my heart, I’m a coward. You were always the strong one.”

  Carol gazed at him, amazed, because inside, she felt weak as a newborn kitten, wanting to run and hide until it was safe to come out again.

  “I thought we were a team, Noah. Why did you hide your illness from me?” She couldn’t keep the accusation out of her voice.