Noah froze. “How did you know their name?”
“Sean. Sean was hired by his wife, Madison Spade, to go to Mexico and find her husband Carson and her son Jesse. She said they weren’t in Acapulco and she feared they’d been hurt or kidnapped. That’s why Sean and Kane went down there.”
“Has he found them? Does he know this guy is a fugitive?”
She nodded. “I haven’t spoken to Sean since…” When? Was it really this morning? “I talked to him briefly when we were at the property management office. Noon, I guess.” She rubbed her eyes. “He located them in Guadalajara and were working on an extraction plan. Sean suspected that Spade was laundering money after he dug around as Sean generally does … but he would have told me if he’d known it connected to my case.” She paused.
“What else?”
“I haven’t told Sean much about the case. We haven’t had much time to talk since he left.”
“Call him.”
She pulled out her cell phone and dialed. It went straight to voice mail.
She sent him a text message.
Call me. It’s urgent.
She watched as the text started to send. Then her phone beeped back a message.
Text undeliverable.
*
Marisol woke up because she was cold. She shivered, tried to reach for a blanket, and couldn’t move her hands.
She opened her eyes, panicked, but saw nothing in the dark. She heard nothing. She tried to shift but tight bindings cut into her wrists and ankles. She bit her lip to keep from crying out.
Everything was so fuzzy. She remembered the car … the trunk … the fear.
The fear was still with her. The fear would never leave. Until she died.
No, dear God, I can’t die. I have to save Ana.
They would kill Ana because of her. Take her babies and kill her. A cry escaped her parched lips.
Where had Dobleman taken her? She squeezed her eyes closed, tried to remember … she’d been groggy when he opened the trunk. Had he drugged her? Was she sick from the exhaust? All she remembered was he carried her into a house. It was dark. The middle of the night. And silence.
Flashes returned, of the big man, of him touching her. Tying her up. She didn’t remember much. Her stomach was empty, her head spun, and she knew, right then, that she would be dead very soon. If not by the big man then out of thirst or hunger or the sick she felt.
Heavy footsteps crossed the ceiling above her and she whimpered.
Then they stopped.
Hope didn’t last long.
They crossed the floor again and she heard a lock turn.
No. No!
The creak of the stairs. Then blinding light.
She closed her eyes and turned her head.
“I knew you were awake. I’m so lucky they gave you to me to punish. I’m going to have so much fun.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Sean didn’t dare contact Lucy, though he desperately wanted to.
His confidence level was usually high on ops like this, but tonight he wasn’t certain he would survive. He didn’t generally get involved this deep in the cartel battles—that was the domain of Jack and Kane and their teams of highly trained former military soldiers. Sean was the guy behind the curtain, the geek, the computer wiz, the pilot. He could shoot and fight if he had to, but he did much better using his brains instead of his brawn.
Instead, he wrote Lucy a letter, addressed it, and put it in his laptop case. He hid the laptop on the plane. If anything happened, he could only hope someone would find the plane, find the laptop, and send her the letter.
“Do you have any questions?” Jack asked him.
Sean had a million questions, but he knew the answer to all of them.
He glared at Jack. “You should never have let Kane do this.”
Jack didn’t smile, but his eyebrow rose just a bit. “Have you ever successfully talked Kane out of a plan?”
Good point.
“And if Dante betrays us?”
Jack stared at him with dark eyes that reminded Sean of Lucy.
“I’ll kill him.”
Jack was deadly serious.
Dante sent Sean a text message.
Meet is on. No weapons.
Sean showed the message to Jack. He nodded and disappeared into the dark.
Sean had the bag of money and bearer bonds. He put the backpack over his shoulders and took the ATV that he’d procured earlier. Being silent no longer mattered; they were expecting him.
He hit the dirt road two miles from where the plane was hidden, and turned toward the compound. He feared someone would take a shot at him, that Flores—who knew Sean had the money—would take him out en route, take the money, and then kill Kane. But none of that happened.