by Sharon Sala
When his food was ready, he filled a plate and took it out onto the patio overlooking the ocean. It was the same place he’d been standing when he’d first seen the devil ship sail out of the storm and into their lives. He cut a piece from the steak that he’d cooked and put it in his mouth, chewing slowly while watching the horizon with a dark, steady gaze. Even though centuries had come and gone since the massacre, old instincts die hard. The need to still stand watch was strong. And even though he didn’t believe fate would be so kind as to send his enemy back to him that way again, he had learned long ago not to trust anyone or anything—not even fate.
What he did know, and had known for at least sixty years, was that the soul he sought had once again been reborn. And he knew this because of the signs that came with it.
The first was always the dream of the massacre, after which he would wake up shaking and sick to his stomach, drenched in sweat. He’d learned, too, that the closer he got to the reincarnated soul, the more rapidly his heart would beat. He’d followed those feelings all over the world so many times he’d lost count, but he had never been able to find his nemesis. When the feelings disappeared, he could only assume that his enemy was dead and once again his soul was no longer earthbound.
He finished his meal in silence, watched the sea until the sun had set behind him, then got up and went inside. He turned on the television in the kitchen as he cleaned up, only to find that the botched bank robbery was the topic of the national news. He watched the film clip without moving, wincing slightly when he heard his name come out of the newscaster’s mouth. Still, it was done, and he wouldn’t have changed anything in any way. When the newscast was over, he turned off the TV and went to bed.
Another day had passed.
One more night alone.
Detective Robert Lee hit Rewind on the bank security tape, then Stop. Then Play. Once again he saw the botched bank robbery in progress, from the moment the teller fainted to the point where the perp headed for the door. He saw the guard grab his pistol as the perp took a hostage. It wasn’t pretty, but it was, in the realm of law and order, what constituted an ordinary screwup, not unlike a dozen other scenarios he’d seen in his eighteen-year career on the force. It was what came next that didn’t make sense. And if he hadn’t been watching it over and over for the last few hours, he wouldn’t have believed it had happened.
When he got to the point where the perp, who they now knew was a man named Wallace Deeds, had taken a hostage, his attention shifted into high gear. First the hostage’s two little boys began to cry. When the smallest boy started toward his mother, Lee began to tense, waiting for that damned Indian to make his move. And even though he knew what was going to happen, it was still shocking to witness. All of a sudden, Nightwalker was in full camera range, running at the gunman and his hostage with a knife in his hand.
Lee watched Deeds spin and fire. He saw the bullet hit the Indian. He saw blood spurt out the back of his shoulder and his shirt instantly turn red. Then Lisa Doggett went limp and Deeds shoved her away. He watched her come to and run to her boys, shielding them with her body. Deeds seemed to be about to fire a second shot, but it never happened. One moment the knife was in Nightwalker’s hand and the next it was in Wallace Deeds’ chest.
Deeds went down, but the Indian didn’t. That was what kept freaking Lee out.
When the Indian bent over and pulled the knife out of Deeds’ chest without staggering or showing any pain, Lee simply couldn’t wrap his mind around it. He wanted to have a reason to go after Nightwalker, but there wasn’t one, and considering the half-dozen new cases on his desk, he knew it was time to let this one go, however reluctantly.
Two days later—Justice, Georgia
Alicia Ponte’s life was one of wealth and privilege. She was the daughter of a rich man, the type of woman who headed committees and organized charity functions. She wore the right clothes, knew the right people and always made the society pages. She had friends, but none were close. She’d had one boyfriend in college and a brief relationship with another man over three years ago, and nothing that mattered since.
At twenty-seven years old, she had always thought of herself as confident and self-assured, but the last twenty-two hours had proved her wrong. She was scared—as scared as she’d ever been—and of someone who was supposed to love her. The irony that she’d waited until now to run away from home was lost in the gut-wrenching fear that kept her moving. But her flight was about to be sidetracked by the need for fuel.
She glanced down at the gas gauge. It was too close to empty to dare trying to make it to Savannah, but according to a road sign she’d seen a mile back, Marv’s Gas and Guzzle should be able to take care of that.
A short while later, she came upon the city limit sign of Justice, Georgia, population: 488. Alicia didn’t care how many people lived here. She just wanted some of Marv’s gas—and maybe a cold drink and a snack—then she was back on the road. Only, running wasn’t going to solve her problem. She couldn’t run forever. She needed a place to hide. That she was hiding from her father was nothing short of horrifying, but there was no denying what she’d accidentally overheard.
Her father—Richard Ponte, the largest arms manufacturer in the western hemisphere—was selling weapons to the enemy in Iraq, as well as to the American soldiers who were fighting them. Profiting from the war in the most hideous manner and arming both sides with the same most up-to-date munitions money could buy.
Her father had been overseas for almost a year, opening a new recycling plant in Taiwan, overseeing the closing of a tire factory in India. She’d visited him a couple of times but had opted to go back to Miami. It made her uncomfortable to know that he was taking advantage of the poverty and strife in those countries by paying the workers only a fraction of what he would have had to pay American employees. Once he was back, she was excited to have company for dinner again.
She’d been on her way into his office to see if he would be staying home for lunch when she realized he wasn’t alone. She heard her father and his old friend Jacob Carruthers talking, and she smiled to herself, thinking she would get to share a meal with Uncle Jake, as well. Just as she started to knock, she heard her father curse, which shocked her. He didn’t behave like that in her presence, and she knew if she went in now, he would know that she’d heard him. So she hesitated, and as she did, she heard something far worse.
The phrase “shipment of arms” was common in her father’s world, and she normally thought nothing of it. It wasn’t until she heard the name Osama bin Laden that she knew something wasn’t right. Then, as she listened, for the first time in her life, she knew the true meaning of the phrase “her blood ran cold.”
Osama bin Laden was happy with the goods.
She put a hand to her lips to keep from gasping aloud. There had to be some mistake. Then she heard her father mention a delivery in Afghanistan to al Qaeda. Then the Kurds and Mohammed al-Kazir. The nail in her father’s coffin was when she heard Jacob say that bin Laden would double his offer if they could deliver before the end of the month, and something about the thirteenth being a problem, because it was some kind of holiday.
She heard her father chuckle, then comment with something to the effect that he would make them pay out the ass if they wanted the good stuff.
She felt sick. This couldn’t be happening. The last comment she heard was the one that sealed their fate.
“You know,” Jacob said, “U.S. Customs might start getting wise. There are only so many plows and tractors that one company can import.”
Her father snorted. “I pay enough money under the table to smuggle any damn thing I choose.”
Alicia had no memory of how she’d gotten out of the hall and back up the stairs to her room. The next thing she remembered was being on her hands and knees in her bathroom, throwing up in the toilet. She threw up until her belly hurt and her jaws ached. By the time she managed to drag herself to bed, she was in a cold sweat. The maid had come in t
o clean, but Alicia had sent her away, claiming she was coming down with the flu.
By the time the maid made it back downstairs, Jacob Carruthers was gone and Richard was on to the next big thing. The maid hesitated in the hallway, then knocked at Richard’s office door.
“Yes,” he muttered, irked at being disturbed.
The maid opened the door just enough to pass on her message.
“Sir…Miss Ponte has taken ill…the flu, she thinks, and said to pass on her excuses because she’s going to skip lunch.”
“Yes, thank you,” Richard said.
Her father had too many irons in the fire to worry about a flu bug unless he was the one getting ill, Alicia knew, so for now she had some time to regroup. She’d never been able to lie and get away with it, and she’d never been able to hide her feelings. One look at her face and her father would have known something was wrong. It wouldn’t have taken him long to get it out of her, so she’d done the only thing she could think of to do: she’d packed a bag and run.
And she was still running. She needed to tell someone what she knew, but her father’s power was great and his reach was long. He had strong ties to almost every arm of the government. She didn’t yet know who to tell or who to trust. Maybe he could live with the blood of innocent soldiers on his conscience, but she couldn’t—wouldn’t. And she wasn’t going to let him get away with it, either. The next day, after he’d left for the office, she left him a note that she was feeling better and was going to take off for a few days at a spa. Then she’d emptied one of her sizeable bank accounts and left Miami in the middle of a thunderstorm—perfect weather to match her mood.
The spa excuse had worked for only one day. When she’d failed to check in, Richard began making calls. When she didn’t return the first call within the hour, he’d called a second time, then a third. By noon, Alicia had a half-dozen unanswered messages on her cell, including a text message from him hinting at concern. After that, she’d stopped keeping track. It was inevitable that she would have to answer, but she wasn’t ready. She was so angry with him that she could hardly think, and at the same time she was afraid. She knew her father’s reputation. He was ruthless when it came to getting his way. He wouldn’t take kindly to having someone mess in his nest, which was exactly what she planned to do. She had to be far enough away—and safely concealed—before she trusted herself enough to call back. And most of all, she had to be certain of her own ability to avoid giving herself away and figure out a way to keep him from tracking her via her phone. There was a part of her that felt like a traitor to him, but she kept reminding herself that at least she wouldn’t be a traitor to her own country. The fact that her father was in bed with the terrorists responsible for the tragic events of September 11, 2001, was chilling.
Unbeknownst to his daughter, Richard Ponte had installed GPS locator systems on every vehicle in his empire, and he already knew her whereabouts. In fact, he had sent Dieter Bahn, his right-hand man, to bring her back. Ponte had no idea what was going on with her, but he was beginning to realize it was serious. He knew she’d emptied one of her bank accounts and that she was running. He just didn’t know why. But he was determined to find out. And when Richard Ponte was determined to make something happen, it happened.
Alicia was focused on the needs at hand, which were food and fuel, both of them less than a quarter mile ahead. She was debating between something sweet or salty for a snack when her cell phone began to ring. She glanced down at caller ID, and her heart skipped a beat. It was her father. Again.
She’d lost count of how many times he’d called. As nervous as she was about it, she knew that communicating would help keep him off her back. She just didn’t know if she could trust herself to stay calm. As the phone continued to ring, she finally made a decision. She pulled over to the side of the road, put the car in Park, then answered. Her heart was pounding. All she could think was, God help me.
“Hello?”
“Thank God!” Richard bellowed. “Alicia! What the hell are you up to? Why haven’t you been answering your phone?”
“I’m not up to anything,” Alicia said, hating herself for the quaver she heard in her voice. “I left you a note telling you where I was going. I just wanted a little getaway. I certainly didn’t expect a constant barrage of phone calls, trying to check up on me as if I’m some teenager. For pity’s sake, Dad, get a grip.”
“Don’t start that crap with me!” Richard yelled. “You emptied your bank account and you’re not returning my calls. What am I supposed to think?”
Alicia swallowed past the knot in her throat. “That I’m twenty-seven years old and that it’s my money?”
Richard was so angry he was shaking. He didn’t like to be thwarted, and he didn’t like to be reminded that it was his deceased wife’s money that had set him up for life and left their daughter independently wealthy.
“Is it some man? If it is, I can tell you right now, he doesn’t love you. He’s just after your money.”
Alicia felt as if she’d been slapped. That her own father would deem her unworthy of a man’s love without the money that came with her was, at the least, humiliating. Her voice was shaking when she asked, “Why, Daddy? Why wouldn’t some man love me? Why would you say something like that?”
Richard couldn’t have cared less that he’d hurt her feelings. “I was right,” he crowed. “It is a man. Now listen to me. Quit acting like a child and get yourself back to Miami before you get into something you can’t get out of. You’re too trusting. You’re too naive. Is he there with you now?”
“There is no man,” she muttered, suddenly wishing there was. It would be a far simpler dilemma than the one she was in.
“I don’t believe you,” he said. “You went sneaking out of this house like some bitch in heat. You must have had a reason.”
It was the “bitch in heat” reference that did it. Suddenly the past few days of being sick at heart and scared half out of her mind bubbled up and over. She started talking, and the more she talked, the louder she got, until she was screaming at him just as he’d screamed at her moments earlier.
“The only man in my life that made me leave home was you!”
Taken aback by her sudden rage, Richard had to struggle to answer. “Me? You’re not making sense.”
It was as if someone had opened a festering wound, and now that the pressure was gone, the poison was spilling out of Alicia without a thought for caution.
“I know what you’ve been doing…you and Uncle Jacob. I heard you two talking. You’re selling weapons to the enemy.”
Richard felt the floor tilt beneath his feet. Jesus, Mary and Joseph. “You’re wrong,” he insisted. “I don’t know what you think you heard, but you’re wrong.”
“No. I’m not wrong. You’re the one who’s doing something wrong…horribly wrong. What I don’t get is why, Daddy? Why? We have more money than we could spend in two lifetimes. Why would you betray your country for more?”
Richard felt as if someone had just punched him in the gut. He sat down on the side of his desk before he fell. Son of a bitch…she knew!
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. “You misunderstood what was being said. You need to come back now and I’ll explain…I’ll—”
“I don’t believe you. I don’t want to ever see your face again.”
“What are you going to do?” he asked.
Alicia didn’t know she was crying until she tasted the salt of her own tears. Angrily, she swiped at them with the back of her hand. “What I do is no longer any of your concern.”
There was a long, uncomfortable silence, then one last question. “Alicia.”
“What?”
“Are you going to tell?”
Alicia disconnected, threw the phone down in the seat and pulled back out onto the highway, still heading for Justice.
Richard’s heart was hammering so hard he couldn’t catch his breath. How had this happened? They’d always been so
careful. He shoved a hand through his hair and then covered his face with both hands as his mind began to race through the possibilities of what might happen next.
She wouldn’t tell. She was his daughter—his own flesh and blood. Surely she wouldn’t turn in her own father? But he couldn’t be sure. She’d sounded so angry. He’d never heard her like that before. So…what next? Sit here and wait for the hammer to fall on his carefully balanced empire—or take back control?
Shock was soon replaced with anger. There had been dozens of times throughout his life when he’d felt as if he’d been here before, in another time and place. faced with ruin through the behavior of others. The longer he thought about it, the more he realized he wasn’t going to sit back and let her destroy everything he’d built. He would get her back first, then figure out what came next.
He reached for the phone and quickly dialed Dieter Bahn’s number. By the time the other man answered, Richard was completely calm.
“It’s me,” Richard said. “How close are you to Alicia’s location?”
“Less than five miles, I think,” Dieter said.
“When you find her, bring her back…even if you have to tie her up to do it. Do you understand?”
Dieter was the kind of man whose loyalty to the man who paid his salary ran bone-deep.
“Yes, sir,” he answered.
“And, Dieter…”
“Yes, sir?”
“Let me know when you have her in the car.”
“Yes, sir. I will, sir.”
Without even bothering to say goodbye, Richard ended the call. Then he stood up and moved to the windows overlooking his estate, the seat of his empire. If things went wrong, he could lose all of this tomorrow. But that wasn’t going to happen. Things wouldn’t go wrong. Dieter would get Alicia, and then…
He paused, jangling the change in his pocket without thinking. What was he going to do with his daughter when he got her back? How could he keep her quiet? What assurance did he have that she would keep his secret? He sighed.
