Nancie left the room as she had found it with the exception of the two videos she had stolen. When the family returned from vacation, Nancie paid her friend’s father a visit while he was home alone, and his wife was out shopping.
She told him what she had done and that she had watched all of his tapes. The man hung his head in worry until he heard Nancie laugh.
“I won’t tell anyone. It can be our little secret.”
After that, they became lovers and Nancie had been called Mistress for the first time. Eventually, the affair was discovered, and the man’s wife left him.
Nancie married George Ventura when she was nineteen and Ventura was thirty-seven. They’d met online in a forum for sadomasochists and discovered that they were compatible. By then, Nancie was already involved in the family business. At that time, she was the one who searched for new girls while she worked at a boutique in a college town. It wasn’t difficult to keep that part of her life hidden from Ventura. Nancie only had to attend a few parties with the girls she befriended and then others took over from there.
She often wondered how her husband would have reacted had he known what she was up to. Unfortunately, George Ventura was killed in a traffic accident caused by a drunk driver. Nancie became a widow at only twenty years of age.
When her father gave her the responsibility of getting the abducted girls ready for the auctions she was thrilled. She couldn’t punish them the way she might like to, but she fed on their fear and despair like a vulture feasting on a carcass.
She was pleased to discover that there always seemed to be at least one girl in every group who had enough spirit to want to fight back. That’s when they would hire someone to visit the girl’s family and murder their father or mother. In the earlier years they had used contract killers found on the dark web. Lately, Johan had handled that chore for them.
Nancie liked Johan. They were similar in some ways. While Nancie enjoyed inflicting pain, Johan got off on committing violence. That was why she revealed to him that she was involved in sadomasochism. She thought that he might like it too.
Johan went with her to the club in Miami where like-minded people gathered to indulge in their particular form of sexual expression. There were several women there who he was attracted to, but he wasn’t really into giving or receiving pain as a form of pleasure and never visited the club again.
When questioned by Tanner and Bo, Johan had revealed Nancie’s sexual proclivities to them. He’d babbled so much at the end that he would have told them anything. He thought that if he could please them it would have put an end to the pain Tanner inflicted on him.
Johan hadn’t understood that there was nothing he could say that would save him. His past actions had already condemned him.
Knowing of Nancie’s involvement in sadomasochism would be helpful if Tanner and the others were unable to track her down any other way. If she were to hide out at the club in Miami that she frequented, thanks to Johan, they now knew to look for her there. Still, their best bet was to search Tampico for Nancie. Hopefully, they would find her there, and soon. The clock was ticking, and the auction was drawing nearer.
Johan’s body was found along with that of his accomplice, Aaron Murrell. Earlier, the family had learned about Nick’s murder, and discovered Regina’s body. Nancie’s father, Arthur, realizing that they were under attack, decided to fight back instead of going into hiding. Nancie agreed, and she was the one who would act as bait for those out to get them.
She wasn’t in Tampico alone. As Arthur had told his nieces, he had hired a group of men to protect his daughter. The eight men had orders to keep Nancie alive and to capture and torture anyone who tried to harm her. Arthur assumed that it was some other group looking to move in on their business. They had a shipment of fresh girls out at sea, and if he and his family were out of the way, those girls, and the profit they could bring, would belong to the ones killing them.
But Tampico was no longer the ship’s destination. Tampico was a trap, and it was one that Tanner and those with him were walking into.
7
Long Time, No See
Maxwell had arranged to have a private jet fly them to Tampico, Mexico.
Kate received a call from her mother as they were boarding. Another old friend of hers had died, and strangely enough, it had been a house fire that killed her, just as a fire had killed the couple that Kate and Michael used to know so well. They discussed it on the flight while seated near Tanner. Toward the rear of the plane, Maxwell, Bo, and Ali were talking quietly among themselves.
“Simone Linares?” Michael said. “Yeah, I remember her. You two were both into gaming. When was the last time you saw her?”
“I’d guess it was nearly thirty years ago, when our kids were small. I used to bring them over to Simone’s house so that they could be with her kids while we played video games.”
“Were any of her kids still with her?” Michael asked.
“No. Mom said that Simone’s kids had all moved away years ago. But there was someone found with her, a man named Jason Coban. Why does that name sound familiar to me?”
Michael sat up straighter in his seat. “Did you say Jason Coban?”
“Yes, why, do you know him?”
“I knew him years ago. He was my acting teacher, remember? I was taking classes from him.”
“You wanted to be an actor, Michael?” Tanner asked.
“Not exactly. I was taking the classes to be a better corporate spy and liar. And the classes helped. Poor Jason. But… wait a minute. What would he be doing with your friend, Simone?”
“Maybe they hooked up at some point,” Kate said.
Michael shook his head. “I don’t see that happening. Jason was gay, and he would also be over eighty years old by now.”
“Your other friends died in a fire too, didn’t they?” Tanner asked.
“Yes,” Kate said. “Jen and Todd.”
“And now the same thing has happened to two other friends, and you haven’t seen any of them in years. That seems like more than a coincidence to me.”
Michael stared at him. “What are you saying, Tanner?”
“I wonder if the fires weren’t accidents.”
Michael and Kate looked at each other as they both frowned with worry.
“Could this be connected to us somehow?” Kate asked her husband.
Michael opened his mouth to speak, then just shrugged.
“Why don’t you call around or do a search online for any other old friends, Kate. If you don’t find any other incidents, then maybe it is just an odd coincidence,” Tanner said.
“I’ll do that,” Kate said, in a voice that revealed she was afraid of what she might find.
The computer tablet that Kate had discovered in Nancie Ventura’s house had been charged up and proven to be useful. There was an email account that contained a receipt from a home rental agency. Nancie had recently rented another house in Tampico under her own name.
The house was located in an upper-middle class neighborhood with large front lawns. Michael and Kate were sent in to pose as a couple looking to buy a home that was for sale across from the one Nancie lived in.
Kate kept the real estate agent busy with questions while Michael slipped into a rear bedroom and unlocked a window. He rejoined Kate as the agent was telling her about another house she might like better. Kate asked questions about the home and seemed interested in seeing it, but then her phone rang.
It was Ali calling her at a prearranged time. Kate answered the call and then acted surprised.
“Is that today?”
On the other end of the phone, Ali was laughing at the genuine sound of surprise in Kate’s voice.
“Yes. We’ll make it. And thanks for reminding me.”
“You’re welcome,” Ali said, still giggling.
Kate sent the real estate agent an apologetic smile. “I’m so sorry but we have to go. There’s another appointment I forgot about.”
The
agent said that she understood and told Kate that she would give her a call the next day. Kate said that would be fine, and they left the house.
Maxwell had rented a large van for the group. The others were parked several blocks away from Nancie Ventura’s house and waiting for the Barlows to return. They showed up in a car Tanner had rented and climbed inside the van.
“How’s it look?” Tanner asked.
“I didn’t see any obvious signs of a trap,” Michael said. “But all the curtains are drawn. That might indicate that someone is hiding in there.”
“That someone could be Nancie Ventura herself. She has to have heard about Johan and the others by now,” Kate said.
“Or there are a pack of armed men in there waiting to see if anyone comes looking for Nancie,” Bo said. “Tanner is right to be cautious. We don’t want to walk into a trap.”
Michael explained the layout of the home he and Kate had been in to Tanner, and which window he had left unlocked.
“It’s one of only three windows that can’t be seen from Nancie Ventura’s house. Also, I didn’t get a chance to go up there, but there’s a window in the attic. It might make a great lookout spot.”
“Good work, Michael, Kate. I’ll head inside the house and watch Ventura’s place for a few hours. The rest of you might as well head back to the hotel.”
“I’m coming with you,” Bo said. “I hate sitting around and doing nothing.”
“We may be doing that anyway,” Tanner said. “For all we know, Nancie Ventura is in that house all alone and there’s nothing to see.”
Nancie Ventura was in the house, and there was plenty to see.
Her father had installed eight armed men inside the home. He had wanted Nancie to leave the house and let the men handle things, but Nancie insisted on staying. She wanted to get her hands on whoever had killed her brother, Regina, and Johan.
Several of the eight bodyguards were familiar to her. They worked for the same organization her father used to guard the villa during the auctions. Thinking of the auction made her remember that she had to leave the home soon in any event. Her father had decided it was too risky to auction the girls off in Tampico and had arranged to move the event to the house in Texas. Nancie would have to leave Mexico no later than early the next day so that she could be there for the auction. She hoped whoever was stalking them would show themselves soon.
One of the guards called out to his leader in Spanish. Nancie understood Spanish. The guard had spotted a gray SUV drive by the house for the second time in five minutes. That placed the men on alert.
Nancie smiled. Maybe someone would be stupid enough to come after her.
Across the street, in the attic of the home that was for sale, Tanner had made the same observation about the gray SUV to Bo, who nodded.
“I counted four men in it.”
“Me too,” Tanner said. “But I didn’t see any weapons.”
A curtain fluttered in a window on the upper floor. Both Tanner and Bo spotted it.
“Someone is moving around over there,” Bo said.
“At least two people. Check out the third window from the right on the ground floor.”
Bo looked and spotted the male face gazing out.
“Maybe that is a trap over there.”
“We’ll assume it is. For now, we’ll wait and see if that SUV comes back.”
Minutes passed with nothing happening. The street didn’t get much traffic because it ended at a cul-de-sac four blocks north. When a van came into view, Tanner brought up a camera with a telephoto lens and zoomed in on it. What he saw surprised him.
“There’s at least two shotguns in that van, but I can’t tell how many men.”
“And here comes that gray SUV again,” Bo said.
The van drove up the driveway of Nancie Ventura’s home. Men jumped out of it and headed for the front door. Out on the street, the SUV skidded to a stop at the curb and let out more men. Tanner counted ten in all. About half of them had shotguns while the rest had a mix of rifles. There was an AR-15, an AK-47, and two rifles that looked like Beretta ARX-100s.
The front door lock was blown apart and two men entered the house. One of the other men was shot from a window as he attempted to make it around to the rear of the home. What had been a peaceful afternoon in a quiet neighborhood had turned into a thunderous firefight between two forces.
It was obvious that Nancie Ventura had set a trap for anyone looking to harm her, but who were the other guys?
Tanner and Bo stayed back to see which side would win.
Nancie had been expecting one or two people to try breaking into the house to harm her. She’d never imagined that a small army would be sent to kill her.
All hell broke loose once the van drove into the driveway. After the front door was knocked inward, she grabbed her phone off the coffee table and ran down a hall and into the kitchen. A man gave chase. Nancie was imagining the bullet he would send at her fleeing back when the man caught his own round in the back thanks to one of the men guarding her.
Someone screamed from upstairs as shotgun pellets came at him through the window. Another man came running down the rear staircase. He was bleeding from a wound to his left arm. He shouted at her in Spanish.
“Find a place to hide and stay there until we tell you it’s okay to come out.”
Hide? No way, Nancie thought. She was getting the hell out of there.
More screams came from the front of the house after the sound of twin shotgun blasts. None of her men had shotguns, which meant that they were her people doing the screaming.
Nancie looked out at the back yard and saw no one. She ripped the door open, looked left, then right, and headed for the back fence.
She was six feet away from the fence when a line of bullets stitched the grass ahead of her. She dropped to the ground and curled in on herself.
“I’m not armed. Don’t shoot!”
A voice shouted at her. It was an American voice. It belonged to a tall, bearded man. “Keep your hands where I can see them.”
Nancie did as he said and saw him tense to shoot her. He’d almost mistaken her phone for a weapon until he’d seen the pink color of her phone case. She tossed the phone aside and showed the man her empty hands.
The guy moved toward her slowly. He was walking sideways in order to also keep an eye on the house. The house where men were screaming and dying.
He had a rifle in his right hand and a phone in his left. He made a call to someone.
“We have her. But it’s not safe to come here yet. Stay back until I call you again.”
The man listened for a moment, then smiled. “A bonus sounds great.” He put away the phone and brought out a pair of plastic handcuffs.
“Get on your feet and put your hands behind your back.”
Nancie just sat there, her eyes on the fence. She had been so close to getting away.
“Hey! I said to get on your—” A figure appeared in the back doorway. It was one of Nancie’s men. He and the man beside her traded shots and both of them went down from wounds to their torsos. Nancie sat there stunned for a moment, then she sprang up and bolted for the fence. It was a wooden barrier six feet high with loose decorative round stones at its base. She was about to pull herself over the fence when a hand grabbed the back of her collar and yanked her backwards.
It was the bearded man. He was bleeding from his side and had his teeth gritted in pain, but he was well enough to keep her from going anywhere.
“Lie flat on… on the ground and… put your hands behind your back,” he said, and there were gasps of pain mixed in among his words. He was also holding his rifle awkwardly.
Nancie stretched out a hand and grabbed one of the decorative stones. She swung it at the man’s head. The rock connected solidly, and the bearded man collapsed to the ground.
Nancie scrambled over the fence while scraping a knee bloody and landed hard on the other side. The house behind her obviously belonged to people who ha
d children. There was a kiddie pool, a swing set, and one of those colorful plastic tricycles that toddlers ride.
Nancie rushed through the yard as more gunfire came from the house she’d left. She wondered if any of her men would survive.
When she was out on the street, she paused and considered which way to go, right or left. She knew the block her rented house was on was a dead-end street but couldn’t remember if the same was true for the block she was on now.
She couldn’t take a chance that it was and decided to head right toward the main avenue. Once she was there, she’d only have a short distance to go before she came to a shop she could hide in, in case someone came looking for her.
Nancie reached for her phone to tell her father what happened and found her pocket empty. That’s when she remembered that she had tossed it aside in the yard, then forgotten about it in her haste to make it over the fence. She cursed her stupidity. If she had that phone, she could call for more help. But there was no way she would risk going back for it.
Nancie began running in an effort to reach the avenue quicker. When she heard a vehicle come up from behind her she glanced back over her shoulder and saw an SUV. For a terrible moment she thought it was the one that had been at the house, then recalled that it had been gray, while this new one was blue.
She caught the silhouette of a woman and an impression of red hair as the SUV drove past her. Nancie called out to her in English, before realizing that she should have spoken Spanish instead.
“Hey! Stop! Please Stop!”
In any event, the vehicle stopped. Nancie ran to it, flung open the passenger door and climbed inside.
“Thank you so much. A group of home invaders attacked me… and… I… oh God.”
The woman driving the vehicle had her head turned away when Nancie climbed in, but she had swiveled around to face her as she was talking. It was not a good face. It was horribly scarred and disfigured. And… vaguely familiar.
Sins of the Father and Mother (A Tanner Novel Book 42) Page 7
