12
VANESSA COULDN’T HOLD back tears as she wrapped her sister in another hug. No matter what happened, nothing else was as important as this moment. Julie was here, hugging her back.
Vanessa smiled brightly. She’d found her sister, at last.
“This makes everything worth it. I’ve missed you so much. I knew I’d find you sooner or later. I never stopped trying,” Vanessa told her.
“I know. I know you did. I wish you hadn’t,” Julie said.
“What do you mean? Didn’t you look for me, too? Didn’t you wonder? I always needed to know what happened to you and Max. Maybe together, we can find him, too. We could be a family again.”
“Vanessa, we haven’t ever been a family.”
Vanessa backed away. Something was wrong. Her sister’s face was hard, her features cut at sharp angles into a grimace. Any warmth she’d imagined was gone. Vanessa reached out to touch her arm, and Julie pulled away.
“I know this has to have been awful for you—being controlled and manipulated by these people, but we can put an end to it. I can help you. I want to help you. The clerk told me that you were being forced. That there was a man—”
Julie scoffed. “How do you think you can help me? You and Luke? He wants to help me right into jail. Do you think I didn’t know you were setting a trap for me? Helping him do exactly that?”
“No. It’s not like that, really, he—”
“Listen, I know everything about you, and I definitely know everything about Luke. And I know how a guy like him could play you, not having a ton of experience and all. But honey, really, if you’re about to tell me that Luke agreed to help me out, you’ve been duped. No doubt he duped you with benefits, but he duped you all the same,” Julie said bitterly.
Vanessa spared a sideways glance to the men who watched them.
Guards. Thugs.
Julie had a small bruise on her cheek, near her eye, but otherwise she looked fine. She didn’t appear fearful at all.
If she had been threatened, where were the people who were doing that? She didn’t sound like a victim, but Vanessa still felt that something was wrong.
“Who hit you? Are you being made to do these things? That will make a difference, you know,” Vanessa said, lowering her voice so that the men couldn’t hear.
Her sister’s face softened slightly, and Vanessa studied her. The wary calculation in Julie’s eyes seemed like a reflex, making her look older than she was. She was younger than Vanessa by almost two years, but her life was so much harder. It showed.
“Listen, this is the new plan. You’ll stay with me, here, and it won’t be too long until Luke knows you’re missing. If he brings the software, hands it over, and stops meddling in our business, you both walk. If not, well...” Julie looked away, taking a deep breath. “Things could go badly. For all of us.”
Julie started to back away, but Vanessa chased after her.
“Wait! Julie, you have to listen to me. We just found each other again. We can help each other. We’re sisters.”
Julie paused. “We haven’t been sisters since we were kids. You don’t even know me.”
She started walking again, and Vanessa hurried to catch up, grabbing her arm.
“I want to know you. It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
Julie paused, turning to stare at her. “More than you want Luke Berringer? I doubt it,” her sister said scathingly.
“You’re wrong. Luke is—” she was about to say a mistake, but the word wouldn’t cross her lips. “Luke helped me. And he does want to find you, that’s true, but there has to be a way we can make this work. I’ll do anything for you. He’s...what we had, it was just convenient. But you’re my sister. You’re family.”
Julie’s gaze was cold. “I wish I could believe you.”
“Please, do.”
Julie was quiet for a minute, and then her expression relaxed a little.
“There’s something else you have to know.”
Vanessa frowned. “What?”
“Come with me.”
They took a winding path up to the front door of an old plantation-style house, the entryway and walk surrounded with the rich vegetation that made the island so beautiful, but this setting merely made Vanessa more wary. No one knew where she was. No one could see her, or find her here. The man who had driven her here, along with the other, walked behind them, preventing any escape.
Julie opened the door and let Vanessa inside first. Once inside the opulent entryway, Vanessa followed Julie down several hallways to an office. When they entered, a man sat at the desk. He looked angry when his eyes fixed on her.
“What the hell is she doing here?”
He stood and walked around the desk in front of them, hands on his hips. He wore a sleek black suit, gray tie. He reeked of wealth and power—and cruelty.
Julie was tense, her hands gripped together in front of her. Vanessa realized this had to be the man who was making Julie do the terrible things she’d been doing.
She met his eyes straight on, close-up, and time stopped. She knew those eyes. They were her father’s eyes—her biological father—except that they held none of the same humor or kindness.
“Max?” She could hardly breathe as she said his name.
No, it couldn’t be.
He swung his gaze to Julie. “Why did you bring her here?”
“She says she wants to help. She has a direct line to Berringer. And she’s family. Maybe we should bring her in—”
He pulled back his arm and hit her. Hard. Julie fell to the ground, not moving.
“Julie!” Vanessa yelled and stepped forward, but she stopped as her brother crossed in front of her, not allowing her to reach her sister.
Never in a million years would she have thought the soft-faced, redheaded boy she remembered would have become this monster. Max’s head was shaven now, as if he had removed as much of his family resemblance as possible. His lips drew into a taut, mean line as he leaned in.
“Hey, sis,” he said with a leering drawl, looking her over in a way no man should ever look at his sister.
Vanessa had to hold herself stiffly to avoid cringing.
“I don’t understand. How can you be...are the men who are forcing Julie making you—”
Max laughed heartily. “Hardly. You are such a sap. You always have been. No one forces me to do anything,” he said. “She works for me. I’m the boss.”
Vanessa blinked as she tried to focus. “You mean that you...”
“What? No hug for me?” he said with smirking malice. “I guess not, especially after I tried to blow you up. Too bad that didn’t work out. It would have solved a lot of problems. But we can take care of that now. In fact, it’s almost better seeing the expression on your face first.”
Vanessa shook her head in denial, taking several steps away from him. This man could not be her brother.
“No,” she said more to herself than to him.
“At least this will end it once and for all. Do you know how completely boring it’s been keeping track of you all these years? Making sure you didn’t mess things up or lead anyone to me? At least I won’t have to do that anymore.”
Vanessa stilled. “You’ve been watching me? You knew where I was? Who I was? All this time?”
He laughed, as if anything she said was hysterical.
“I’ve known since you were in college. I found both of you, but at least Julie had some potential. She knew the score. I wouldn’t have bothered with you if you hadn’t been so intent on shoving your nose in our lives. Why couldn’t you just mind your own business? When you showed up here, I knew you’d try to throw a wrench in things. I’d hoped to get rid of you and Berringer in one big boom, but oh, well. Can’t win every time. But now I have you, and pretty soon I’ll have him, too.”
Vanessa was still trying to believe what she was hearing—that her brother was the cause of all of this. The boss, as he put it. That he’d known about her and Julie for over ten years. He’d victimized Julie and made her do horrendous things. He’d watched Vanessa look for them and had known about her all this time.
And now he was going to kill her. And Luke. He’d probably kill Julie, too, when he was done with her.
“How could you be like this? There has to be some part of you, something left, that’s decent. Mom and Dad would—”
Max’s face screwed up into a mean scowl. “I barely remember them. What I do remember is that they left us on our own, with no will, no money, no guardian. Nothing. Wards of the state. I ended up in one hellhole after another because of them. Sure, you lucked out—you found some decent people. Goody for you. Julie and I had to do whatever it took to survive. That’s okay, though. It got me where I am now.” He gestured to the house, their grand surroundings.
“You blame them for what you have become? I don’t think so. You’ve made your own choices, and they would be ashamed of you.”
He appeared unmoved, shrugging. “I couldn’t care less. Soon, I’ll have more money than I can spend in a lifetime, and I won’t have to worry about you, or her, or Berringer anymore. I’ll be rich, and you’ll all be dead.”
He said it with such relish that her stomach turned. Vanessa’s heart broke, again, and she choked on regret and sorrow, but she was also frightened out of her wits. How could she get help now? What had she done? They would all be killed. By her brother. She had only wanted to find her brother and sister, to have them together as a family again.
Vanessa had never imagined this.
She had to keep him talking as she sought an escape. If she could get close, hit him, or try to take him down and then run into the jungle. Bring Julie with her. It was a long shot; she couldn’t take him on physically, especially not with the other two thugs in the room. “Why Julie? Why would you kill her? You work together.”
“She’s been useful, but once she knew about you, she started balking. I was clear that if she didn’t go along, if she double-crossed me, I’d kill you. Simple as that. Not that I didn’t plan to do that, anyway, but you know, it helped to keep her in line.”
For Vanessa, his words were like a silver thread being cast down from the sky—a thin bit of hope. Her sister had been trying to save her. Julie had been sacrificing herself, going along with Max, so that he wouldn’t hurt her.
The realization gave her new strength, and she noticed that Julie had started to move, pushing herself up from the floor. Julie was no doubt confused and afraid, controlled by Max for so long.
Had she heard Max? Did Julie understand that he was going to kill her, too?
“So you would kill both of your sisters for your own gain?” she asked again.
“Um, yeah. I would. I just said that. And your bodyguard friend, too.”
Max grinned, tipping her face up to him as he pinched her chin painfully between his fingers. “You should have seen her back in the day, with your Luke. However, he sure took a liking to you, as well. I wouldn’t have thought you had it in you to please a man like that. Maybe he was reliving old times.”
She held his gaze, though he disgusted her. And frightened her. “You don’t know anything about Luke. Or me.”
She had to keep him talking. Julie was almost to her feet.
“I know enough. Berringer might have contacts in high places, but I have friends in even higher ones. You see, while my childhood sucked, I did form some bonds with other kids who suffered as much as I did. Some of those kids ended up in top-level government jobs and large corporations...all over the world. All willing to help me when I asked, and when I paid them well enough. Believe me, I know more than you can ever imagine.”
Vanessa felt sick, but she steeled herself. She had to find a way out of this.
“From what I can see, you’re the stupid one in this family,” she said, treating Max to the same kind of scathing looks he’d been bestowing on her.
He barked out a laugh. “Oh, really? How do you figure that?”
“Well, at least Julie saw the opportunity to use me. To include me in what you’re doing, rather than leaving a pile of dead bodies for the authorities to investigate. How far do you think you’d get? Luke is a bodyguard—with a high-profile company—and there are four more like him who wouldn’t let his disappearance, or mine, go unanswered. You’ll never truly be free. At least she had the brains to see it and think of an alternative. You left evidence at that bomb site—and do you think my disappearance soon after won’t raise some questions? Luke’s, as well?”
Julie stirred, groaning. Vanessa hoped that she wouldn’t disagree or somehow endanger them both.
“I’m not afraid of anyone,” her brother sneered. “No one will be able to find me.”
“I found you. Luke found you, and you might be interested to know that Homeland Security has found you, too. And if this is the big score you say it is, then you’d think you’d play it smarter. Get away clean. I can help you do that.”
His expression was mulish, but she saw the flicker of interest in his eyes as he crossed his arms in front of his wide chest. “Just for the sake of argument, how do you suppose you could do that?”
“I know where the software is. Luke will never bring it here for me, and he won’t give it up to you, even if his own life is on the line. But I can get it.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because she’s my sister, and I want her in my life. More than anything. I care about her more than I do about a stupid computer program. You have to know that’s true, all these years I’ve searched. I’d never do anything to hurt her. If I can get you the software, you can let us go. You can disappear, and Julie comes with me. We all start a new life.”
“And what about your bodyguard?”
She shrugged, hoping to appear uncaring, but she was trying to save Luke, too. If he came after her alone, he’d die.
“What about him? What will he be able to do? The software will be gone, and Julie and I won’t talk. We wouldn’t be able to tell him anything, even if we wanted to. We won’t know where you are, and I’ll have Julie, so that’s all I care about. You can disappear forever.”
Max was quiet as he considered her proposal.
“So you would get the software, bring it here? That easy?”
“I would.”
“How do I know you won’t screw me over?”
“I have no reason to. All I want is Julie, and I would never risk anything happening to her.”
“Even for Berringer?”
“Yes. Even for him.”
“Maybe I’ll just kill you both after I have it. What about that?”
She rolled her eyes, pretending impatience. “Like I said, you’d be hunted. It would scare off some of your buyers, for sure.”
Max nodded slowly, returning to his desk. She prayed that she’d finally gotten through to him.
“Here’s how it works. You get the software, and you deliver it here within two hours. I hold you both here until the sale goes through, and then we all go our separate ways. My men will take you to the software, follow you and bring you back.”
Vanessa felt a thrill rush down her spine as she faced off with her brother. This was working. If she could get out of here, she could get to Luke, and tell him that Julie was being forced to work for Max. He’d know what to do then.
“No. I get the software alone, so that Luke isn’t suspicious. We exchange the program for Julie in a very open, busy place. We’ll leave immediately, and you can do whatever you want to do.”
He wasn’t pleased with her counteroffer, and narrowed his eyes as he watched her. Vanessa held his gaze.
“You have more backbone than I thought. Maybe it does run in the family,” he said with a short laugh. “But this could work. Though you need to be clear that if you try anything, my men will shoot you, Berringer, whoever, on the spot. And I’ll take my time killing her,” he said with a nod to Julie, who watched them, looking terrified.
“Deal.”
Max nodded to the men by the door, who seemed to understand their orders. Vanessa found herself taken roughly by the arm, and yanked toward the door by one of them.
She caught her sister’s eye and tried to let her know with a look that everything would be all right. Vanessa would make sure it was, or die trying.
* * *
LUKE HELD HIS breath as he crouched outside the window of the room, listening to Vanessa broker a deal with her brother.
It struck him in the gut. She was very convincing. He knew she was doing what she had to in order to keep herself and Julie alive, but he also felt the stab of betrayal that she would sell him out so easily. He tried to understand that she would, of course, value her sister over a piece of software—and over him—but the twist in his gut wouldn’t go away.
Worse, he suspected that Julie was still in on this charade. He couldn’t imagine she would be willing to go with Vanessa. Not when she knew that would mean jail time. He watched the two men take Vanessa out of the room and found his suspicions almost immediately confirmed.
Looking in, he saw Julie stand, rubbing her jaw.
“Did you have to hit me quite that hard, Max? Sheesh,” she said, rounding the bar. She poured herself a drink and threw it back.
“Sorry, Jules. But she had to buy into it. You called it—she’s willing to do anything to save you,” he said, laughing. “You’re brilliant. She’ll lead us right back to Berringer and the software. We can take it, and take care of them, right there on the spot.”
Julie went to the window where Luke hid, staring outside, not a foot away from him. She murmured something, but Luke swore he saw her frown sadly. Regret, or grief—something terribly sad—was etched into her features. Then she turned away, moving to the other side of the room.
“She had a point, you know. Killing them will only make us more vulnerable, and could scare away the buyers. If we get the software, why not let them go? She’ll never be able to find us again. Not after this.”
“It’s better if they’re gone. The guys will make it look like a local crime. Don’t worry. We’re almost there.”
Luke gave Vanessa’s sister some minor credit for trying to change her brother’s mind about killing them, but as he stared at her through the window, then Max, Luke silently vowed to put them both away. It wouldn’t be hard, as he’d used his phone to record most of their conversation.
He was glad he’d put the tiny tracker on Vanessa when they’d arrived at the island. He didn’t think he’d have to use it, but when she hadn’t arrived at the boat as they’d agreed, he knew how to find her. And he had.
What he didn’t expect was that this was going to be a family affair, including Vanessa’s brother, who apparently was running the whole show. That had been a surprise. Or that they would send Vanessa after the software herself, with a plan to kill her at the hotel. But this could work, he thought, as he slipped back through the greenery to the front of the house.
There, Luke saw the two big men taking Vanessa down the walkway to the car. He had to move now. He couldn’t make it to his own car fast enough, so he had to prevent Vanessa from getting into theirs. Taking on the two large—and armed—men would be tricky, but he had the element of surprise on his side. Sneaking down behind them, he hurried to beat them to the car and confronted them as they approached.
Vanessa’s eyes went wide, and he hoped she wouldn’t give him away.
Luke grinned broadly, and wiped sweat from his face.
“Oh, am I glad to see you. My car broke down back on the main road, and there are no houses around here anywhere. I thought I was going deeper into the jungle,” he said with exaggerated relief.
The two men stepped forward, ahead of Vanessa, forming a wall between Luke and her. One put his hand on his belt, clearly ready to do whatever needed to be done.
“Turn around. Leave,” the taller guy said.
“Are you kidding? You won’t help me out? What am I supposed to do? It’s hotter than hell out here. Can I use your phone and get some water? I have no cell signal—”
“I said leave.”
Luke cursed, shaking his head as he walked a little closer.
“Man. You guys suck. I thought the people here were friendly to tourists.”
Just then, the thug to his left grunted, and collapsed at the knees, falling to the pavement. His friend stepped back in shock, but Luke didn’t waste time, running forward to tackle the man, hitting him as hard as he could. The guy was too big to take down with a single punch, so Luke hoped that his body weight and the pavement might do the trick.
Not quite. The big man was stunned for a second, before he reared back and then forward, his head narrowly missing what would have been a painful headbutt into Luke’s skull and hitting his shoulder, instead.
Luke tried to grab the guy’s gun, but it was missing—must have fallen out of the holster, and he pushed back to his feet, looking around for it.
As he turned, he saw Vanessa struggling with the other man, until he pushed her down to the ground, where she gasped painfully, then went limp. Luke started to rush to her, searching for the other gun, when he heard the click.
His opponent was back on his feet, gun in hand. The other man drew his and pointed it at Vanessa. Luke’s blood ran cold.
“All I want is her. I don’t care about anything else. Let us go or take us back to town, and I’ll give you what your boss wants. If you kill us now, you can bet he won’t be happy. He’ll never get his hands on that computer program without me. She wouldn’t have been able to find it. It’s hidden in the hotel.”
The men looked at each other, and then him. The one by Vanessa put his gun back in his holster and picked up Vanessa, roughly throwing her over his shoulder.
Luke swallowed hard, hoping she was okay.
“Walk.” The man holding the gun on him directed him back up the path, and Luke had no choice but to comply. Now getting out of this was going to be harder, indeed.