“Now, I want you to talk to the boys in there, Miss O’Brien. Tell them that you’re coming in. Do it and do it right, and maybe I’ll let you and your cousin live. You can take Maria’s place. Defy me and your cousin dies, right here and right now.”
She didn’t know what to do! If she she didn’t do as he said, he would shoot Kelsey. If she lunged at him, he would undoubtedly shoot her, but Dallas and Logan would be out in a flash and at least have a chance to kill him.
Suddenly she heard a creak and the cabin door swung open, though no one was visible. “Come in, Mendini,” she heard Logan call from the cabin.
How had he known? she wondered. Had one of the ghosts seen what was going on and given him the info?
“Do you think I’m stupid? You come out here. Now,” Mendini said.
“Don’t be ridiculous. So long as I stay in here, I just might get the chance to kill you.”
“How about I forget about you and just shoot your woman?”
“Kelsey is an officer of the law. She knows the risks that come with that life,” Logan said smoothly.
“Come out. My patience isn’t going to last long.”
“I have a few questions first. How the hell did the Wolf get you, of all people, into his orbit?” Logan demanded.
“Lord, you people. Who do you think you’re looking for? A street thug? A dumb down-and-outer? I’m the Wolf, you moron. Did you think some stupid punk would know what to go after? If you thought about it for a single second, you would have known the Wolf is a man of intelligence and education. One with access to police information. It was so easy to keep tabs on you. Who in the hell would suspect a respected member of the team?”
“You did have it covered,” Logan said.
“I did—and I do. Now put your gun down and come out here.” As if to emphasize his words, he shot toward the cabin, and a chunk of wood came flying off the doorframe.
Hannah couldn’t help herself. She screamed.
To her surprise, Logan’s Glock came sliding out to the little porch.
And then Logan himself walked out calmly.
“Get your friend out here,” Mendini ordered.
“My friend?” Logan asked. He looked at Hannah, and something in his eyes warned her to keep quiet, because he knew what he was doing.
“Samson—Dallas Samson. Tell him to get his sorry ass out here, too.”
“Oh, my friend isn’t in here,” Logan said. He indicated the scraggly beach in the distance. “You can tell him yourself what you want him to do with his sorry ass.”
It was well played. Mendini jerked around.
And there was Dallas, his gun aimed straight at Dirk’s face. He was flanked by Yerby Catalano and Jose Rodriguez.
“I think you should have paid attention to the curse, Mendini,” Logan said quietly.
Dallas fired.
And Hannah screamed again as, right next to her, Dirk Mendini’s head exploded into a mist of blood and brain matter.
Epilogue
Hannah was the first one downstairs on the Monday morning after the death of Dirk Mendini and the de facto dissolution of Los Lobos. She started the coffee and went outside for the newspaper. She smiled as she came back in, waited on the coffee, poured a cup and went out back to drink it while she read the paper.
She’d always enjoyed sitting by the pool while morning broke, enjoying a cup of coffee and with a real newspaper in her hand.
It was even sweeter when the headline and half the front page were dedicated to explaining the mess in her backyard: 1715 Treasure Chest Found.
It had, indeed, been there. They’d unearthed it not long after they’d started digging, about ten feet past where they’d excavated when they put in the pool.
Liam had been there to see it happen, and he’d tried to reach her to tell her the news. He’d gotten a call from Dirk just after dialing Hannah and, thinking he might have come up with valuable information, he’d cut off the call to her and taken the M.E.’s. Liam had mentioned that Dallas and the others were headed up to Marathon following a lead, at which point Dirk’s entire tone changed and he’d started pumping Liam for more information. Then he made an excuse for getting off the phone without ever explaining why he had called in the first place. Liam had been called away by one of his men at that point, but he’d tried Hannah again, planning to mention Dirk’s strange behavior. He’d never gotten the chance to talk to her, of course.
After that, everything was conjecture. Their best guess was that Mendini had already been on his way to the cabin, so he’d simply changed his plans and decided to kill the agents if they were already there and wait for them to show up if they weren’t. As to whether he might also have killed Tio and the women to prevent them from revealing anything about him if everything fell apart, who knew?