“No, we don’t want to make it easy for Dorgal.” Catherine unsheathed her knife and cut the vines binding him. “And we sure as hell don’t want to have Santos get his hands on you. Which he will do if we don’t move fast.”
“Let me go,” Montez said urgently. “You don’t have to worry about me. I’ll take care of myself.” He jumped to his feet. “Look, if you hadn’t caught me, I would have been all right. I spent months hiding in the rain forests before I went to Father Gabriel. I can do it again.”
“With Dorgal on the hunt for you?” Cameron asked. “Personally, I would just as soon let you take your chances. But Catherine is feeling protective, so you go with us.”
“No.” His jaw set. “She says that she doesn’t want me hurt. Let’s see if she’s speaking the truth. I won’t go with you. You’ll have to hurt me to make me do it.”
He meant it, Catherine realized with frustration. “You’re being a fool. Where could you hide?”
“I was heading for the Benedictine monastery at the far end of the rain forest. Father Gabriel made arrangements for me to stay there in case of an emergency. I won’t let the monks run the risk of hiding me now. I’ll find somewhere in the forest. But later, after Dorgal checks them out, I could make contact and have them find a safe place for me.”
“He’ll disappear, and you’ll never see him again,” Cameron said flatly. “We’ll have it to do all over again.”
But Montez wasn’t going to help her anyway, unless she used force. She could see it in his expression, the tautness of his jaw.
Save him.
Let him live another day.
Hope that he’d realize that they were fighting the same battle.
“Then we’ll do it again.” Catherine turned and headed for the trail. “Okay, we’ll let you go, Montez. But I want to do it right. We passed a stream a half mile to the east. You come with us. I want your footprints clearly heading east. Once we reach the stream, we can blur them and eventually lose the print. Then you take off south in the direction of the monastery. Cameron and I will make sure that you’re not followed.”
“How?”
“What do you care? You prefer hiding to confrontation.” She was striding down the trail. “If you change your mind, I’ll be glad to have your help.”
“Taunting isn’t going to make me do what you want,” he said quietly. “You have your own agenda, just like Santos.”
“No, but maybe this will help you to trust me.” She turned to face him as she reached the stream. “Cameron has hired a very talented man who is every bit as deadly as Dorgal. His name is Rafael Dario. We’ll have his men protect your mother and nephew from Santos. He’d protect you, too, if you’d allow it. But your family will definitely be protected. You can feel safe that whatever you do, nothing is going to happen to them.”
“I’m supposed to believe you?”
“Believe what you wish. I’ve told you what I’m going to do.”
“Why?”
“Perhaps because I’m not a monster like Delores Santos. Or perhaps because this isn’t over, and I’ll be back to ask you again to help us get Santos. Or maybe I’ll call you and ask you if you’ve changed your mind.” She scrawled her cell number on a card and gave it to him. “Or you can call me. I’ll have Dario pick you up.”
Montez’s lips tightened. “I don’t promise you anything.”
“But I’ve made you a promise, and I’ll keep it. Now get out of here.”
He stood there looking at her, his expression a myriad of conflicting emotions.
“Go!”
He started to turn. “Maybe you’re not like his Delores…”
“Thank you. I might remind you that I shot Delores Santos.”
“Oh, yes, but you don’t have to remind me of that.” He hesitated. “I have friends. I’ll know if you’re telling the truth about having Dario protect my family.”
“Good. Now get out of here before you ruin everything.”
He hesitated once more, staring at her, then at Cameron.
Then he was gone.
“You rolled the dice,” Cameron said. “Interesting. But I would have handled it differently.”
“Get Dario on the phone and tell him to protect Montez’s family.”
“Oh, I will. But I’ll also tell him to track down Montez near that monastery and keep an eye on him in case we need to talk to him again.”
“That was going to be my next request.” She slanted him a smile. “And I know you would have handled it differently. We have different skills and viewpoints. I believe him, and I think he has to come to us. But I also remember how patient you were with Erin when you were trying to recruit her. You aren’t totally ruthless.” She shrugged. “Besides, I still have that book he was so eager to get back.”
“Keeping the book was the only thing that we agreed on. And the circumstances with Erin were different. I’m still angry with Montez for hurting you. I think it’s going to take a long time for me to get over that.” He shrugged. “We shall see. You get a branch and erase the prints Montez just made going back down the trail. I’ll get busy blurring these footprints so well that we’ll make Dorgal dizzy, and he’ll end up back at San Esposito.”
ST. JOSEPH’S HOSPITAL
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
“Progress?” Eve asked softly.
Caleb glanced up at Eve as she came to stand beside Jane’s bed. “Yes and no. I think by tomorrow I might ask you to have that Dr. Basle have another look at her and reevaluate his opinion about the graft.”
“Thank God.”
“Yeah.”
“So what’s the no?”
“He might decide to do it before I can get her ready for it.”
“Then we’ll not bring him in again yet. We’ll give her some more time.”
“I don’t have any more time.”
She inhaled sharply. “That’s not possible. All the doctors gave her seven to ten days. You’ve only been working with her for two days.”
“I told you that they couldn’t be sure of the time factor when the blood was concerned.”
“But only two days? It should be longer than that.”
“Yes.”