She relaxed, now that she had a plan. It would work. She just had to play along, listen to Liam—who she was beginning to think was borderline insane—vent about his brothers.
Liam stared out one of the narrow windows, and Eden turned her attention to Lucy. “Kane isn’t one of the good guys,” Eden said. “He disowned us. Who made him God? And Duke just lets him do whatever he wants. Duke went along with it, believed everything that Kane told him.”
“Duke always conformed to the rules,” Liam said. “But he had a lot of pressure on him. I don’t blame him—he’s lived in Kane’s shadow his entire life. He rebelled by joining the Army instead of the Marines, but it was a small rebellion. He stepped up and raised Sean when our parents were killed, but he wouldn’t let us be involved at all.”
Eden said, “I wanted to come home. My baby brother needed me, but Duke had rules no one could live by.”
Lucy didn’t know whether she believed that or not, but she also knew that Sean had butted heads with Duke more than in just his teenage years. Duke was a solid guy—Lucy liked him—but he was rigid. Only recently had Sean and Duke made amends, and largely because Sean had left RCK for a year before coming back on his own terms.
Still, she could see the twins, nineteen and living abroad, wanting to come home after the deaths of their parents. They didn’t like the same rules Duke did, so they stayed away. Or did Duke force them to stay away? Either way, it would hurt. Wounds festered. Family knew you better than anyone, which was why when they hurt you it stung worse. Because they knew what hurt, how to rub salt in the wounds.
Family was complicated. The Kincaids certainly weren’t perfect. They’d faced horrific obstacles that would have torn other families apart. The murder of Lucy’s nephew when he was seven was only one of many tragedies that tested the Kincaids. But through it all, they managed to persevere and overcome everything life threw at them. If Lucy had a problem, her family was there. Even when she pushed them away after her kidnapping and rape, they didn’t abandon her. They were there when she returned, when she could start living again. They welcomed the prodigal daughter back into the fold, no guilt, no remorse, no questions asked. Anything was forgiven, because in the end family was all that mattered.
The Rogans were certainly not the Kincaids.
“When we lost the bonds six years ago, we thought we were done,” Liam said quietly. “I had failed my father—the one thing he wanted from me, expected from me, and I couldn’t deliver.”
The dynamics were so clear to Lucy she could have written a chapter in a psychology book about Liam right then and there.
“You asked me what we would have done if Sean were at home? I think Sean would have given me what I wanted, after I explained everything. How he even had a part in decoding a map for our dad—he was part of this from the beginning, even though he didn’t know it.”
“Sean would never have given you the bonds,” Lucy said. “You’re deluding yourself into thinking he would be swayed by your arguments.”
“He would be! I would have shown him the one bond that mattered, and he would have given me the rest when I explained that it was our heads on the line if I didn’t deliver the money!”
Liam firmly believed what he said.
“Now you won’t know,” Lucy said. “Because Sean will never forgive you for this.”
“I left him a note,” Liam said, shaking his head as if she’d failed an easy test. “You’re missing the point, Lucy. After all this is over, I hope you’ll convince Sean to forgive us. We haven’t hurt you. You’ll be fine.”
“Fine? Really? You drug me, blind me, kidnap me from my own home, take me to Mexico, and hold me prisoner, and you think that either of us will forgive you? You’re insane. This has nothing to do with your fight with Kane. This has everything to do with you taking me against my will.”
He sighed, glanced at his sister. “I get it.” He rose. “We’re leaving now, and I’m serious, Lucy—don’t leave the house. You’re in the Tamaulipas region. Not too far from Ciudad Victoria, the closest major town. There is no safe passage.” He took a couple steps toward Lucy, then squatted so they were eye to eye. She wanted to kick him in the face. She was angry and not a little bit scared—she didn’t want to be trapped here, but she would find a way out. She was resourceful. Liam had no idea what she could do.
“I want to trust you, Lucy, but I also don’t want you to get hurt.” Before she realized what was happening, he sprayed a mist in her face. Her eyes burned. She tried to get away, felt nauseous. She teetered and he caught her. She pushed him away, stumbled, and fell back onto the couch.
“You won’t pass out because I’m not going to inject you with the sedative this time. But”—he sprayed her eyes two more times—“you won’t be able to see anything for a few more hours. I’m doing this to protect you, Lucy.”
“You fucking bastard!” She rubbed her eyes, blinked, but that made the pain worse. Already everything was blurred again. He pushed her back on the couch and she tried to fight back, but she couldn’t see anything.
“Eden,” Liam said. Then Lucy felt her hands held over her head. She strained and tried to kick, but Liam sat on top of her. “You could make this easier on yourself, Lucy,” he said.
Her entire face hurt and she barely felt him holding open her eyes, but the drops dribbled out the sides, and then she saw nothing. The headache she’d been fighting came back, pulsing, throbbing, and tears streamed from her eyes.
Liam got off her and her hands were free. She lashed out but didn’t make contact with anyone. “It won’t be too long, Lucy. Relax, have your breakfast. There’s more food downstairs. Just be careful walking around until your sight comes back. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”
She felt around for the vase on the couch next to her and threw it in the direction of his voice. It shattered against the wall.
She was blind, again.
The door slammed closed.
“Protection, my ass,” she muttered, then put her head in her hands and willed the pain to go away.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Sean jumped up from his desk, disoriented. He’d fallen asleep. How could he sleep when Lucy was in trouble? He shook his head to clear it, looked at the computer program he’d been running. The window was gone. Momentary panic disappeared when he realized his report was complete.
Six thirty in the morning. He’d dozed for an hour. He hadn’t heard from Kane or JT or Jack. Liam hadn’t called. Nate and Noah were doing god knows what.
And Lucy was still missing.
Sean had traced the serial number of the burner phone Liam had left him. Identified the chain that sold them, then hacked into their database to find out where it was purchased. Illegal, but he didn’t the hell care.
Liam had bought the phone with cash from a electronics supply store outside San Antonio. Sean mapped it—it was halfway between the Southfield airstrip and Sean’s house. He walked over to his printer—the printer coming to life was what had woken him up. The results of his search surprised him. He sat back down and ran another report from the results.
Liam had paid cash—no surprise there—but he’d bought five phones, all with two hundred dollars of prepaid minutes and international access.
“He did take her to Mexico,” Sean mumbled. Unless he left her somewhere in Texas, like he had Siobhan.
There was no way to trace the phones, but now Sean had the other numbers.
Even if Sean called Liam and he picked up, there was no way to trace the call quickly, and while Sean was capable of it, he didn’t have the equipment to pinpoint the call’s location. He might, however, get the general region.
And if he started with a general location, had the FBI bring in their equipment, they might very well be able to get a better location and faster.
His phone rang and Sean jumped. It wasn’t the burner phone, it was his personal cell. An unknown number.
Lucy.
“Rogan,” he said. He sounded desper
ate.
“It’s Jack. I’m on my way.”
“Jack.” Sean didn’t know why he felt relieved. He trusted Kane … but after the secrets with the bonds, the reasons Kane disowned Liam, Sean was beginning to question everything. Jack would do anything to find Lucy. He was her brother and wasn’t blinded by Liam and Eden’s shenanigans.
“JT told me what he knows. Any news?”
“Kane and Siobhan went to New Orleans to talk to an old friend of our parents. Carlo Romero, Gabriella and Dante Romero’s father. I tried Duke earlier, but he wasn’t answering.”
“I pulled out of an undercover operation. I told Duke to stay, the situation is serious, and we need his tech skills on-site. He can’t help us find Lucy.”
“Dante Romero is involved.”
“I know.”
“Kane said you’re the only one who can reach Gabriella Romero.”
“I sent her a coded message. We have to be careful there. She is not with us or against us. She is and has always been on her own.”
“She could be involved with kidnapping Lucy, Jack!”
“Remain calm, Sean.”
Sean wanted to yell at someone, but he swallowed it. Noah stepped into the doorway.
“I’m trying,” he said through clenched teeth. “Who’s the traitor at RCK?”
“JT has it narrowed down to two people. I’m not telling you who, not until we are positive.”
“It doesn’t feel like I’m back, Jack,” Sean snapped.
“Do you trust me?”
“Yes.” He said it immediately and realized that he did. Jack might be the only person he completely trusted right now.
“Two things. First, get down to my house near Hidalgo ASAP. We’ll be closer to the border, and you already know how to avoid border patrol from there. I am flying direct to Hidalgo, ETA four hours, ten minutes. I will meet you there. Second, do not go to Mexico alone. No matter what Liam says, you cannot travel south without a security team. After what happened in Guadalajara, you no longer have anonymity.”
“Nor do you.”
“I’m not Kane Rogan’s brother. If you haven’t noticed, I blend in in Mexico much easier than you do.”
Jack definitely looked more like his darker-skinned Cuban mother than his fair-skinned Irish father.
So did Lucy. Lucy could pass for a native.
“Lucy will protect herself, right? She can blend in, too.”
“Yes.”
That made Sean feel marginally better.
“I’m not going to lie to you, Sean. The situation is fucked. Jasmine Flores is on the warpath, which is why RCK has pulled out of all operations south of the border. We’re not taking any jobs outside the US right now, and it’s going to have a ripple effect. When certain factions hear that we’ve pulled out—even temporarily—they’ll get cocky.” He paused. “Gabriella is not staying with the Floreses just because she’s protecting her own cover. We need information, and she’s helping.”
“What do you need me to do?”
“Get to Hidalgo. Let me know when Liam calls and what he says. You and I are going in alone to extract Lucy. The fewer people the better, we’ll slide in under the radar. But you have to promise to wait for me, Sean.”
“I will.” Sean hung up. He wished he felt more confident, but Jack had been honest with him. He wished that his own brother had told him everything from the beginning.
“I’m going to Hidalgo,” Sean told Noah, after finding him in the kitchen.
“We’ll go with you.”
“No.”
Noah raised an eyebrow. “Sean, you’ll do Lucy no good if you can’t get some sleep. I’ll fly you down to Hidalgo while you sleep. I get it—you and Jack need to go in quietly and get her, but someone needs to stop Liam and Eden from doing whatever it is they’re doing.”
“Kane.” Sean rubbed his eyes. He needed sleep. He needed to think. “Okay, fine. Fly. Just … please don’t crash my plane this time.”
* * *
Siobhan slept for nearly the entire flight. Kane was slowed down by some turbulence along the coast and ended up detouring north before heading back south into New Orleans. He admired how Siobhan could sleep during less than ideal circumstances—he could do the same, if not for the fact that he was flying the plane.
And it gave him time to think.
Maybe thinking wasn’t all that good of an idea, because all he could think about was the redhead sleeping in his co-pilot seat.
She wasn’t much more than a little girl when Kane first met her through her older half sister, Andrea Walsh. Andie had been one of Kane’s commanding officers when he was at the Quantico Marine base. The first and only female who had commanded Kane, and one of the best he’d served under. She was now number two ranked in the officer training program at Quantico, and Kane considered her a good friend.
Kane barely remembered Siobhan when he first met her—she was a teenager, had moved in with her father after spending most of her life living in Mexico with her missionary mother. The Walsh family were all career military—both Andie’s father and older brother died in service to their country.
Over the years, Kane had seen Siobhan. Watched her grow up, in a way, but tried to ignore her. It was when Siobhan got into trouble in Mexico, when Andie asked for Kane’s help, that he realized Siobhan was no longer a little girl. At first he was angry with Siobhan for worrying her sister. Siobhan was a photojournalist, not a soldier. She wasn’t a fighter, didn’t even carry a gun. She mostly worked freelance but spent a lot of time with the Sisters of Mercy, her mother’s missionary group, helping them raise money. And sometimes Siobhan stuck her nose where it didn’t belong. She stood out—she was a beautiful Irish redhead with a tall, athletic body and the fairest of skin. She had more compassion than most everyone he’d ever met … and yet was stubborn and, at times, reckless. Especially when children were involved. He couldn’t step foot in a particular region of Mexico because of her—he’d helped her rescue a twelve-year-old girl who was being married off to a forty-year-old man in order to merge two drug families. Someone in the household had contacted the Sisters of Mercy to smuggle the girl into the United States. The Sisters couldn’t do anything … but Siobhan did.
And then Kane had had to rescue both her and the girl.
That was eight years ago, and that was when Kane started to think about Siobhan as a woman, not as a child. As a beautiful, impossible, reckless, compassionate woman.
He didn’t want to. He didn’t want to think about her at all. But when Andie called, Kane jumped … not just because Andie was his friend. He had been half in love with Siobhan Walsh when she risked her life for a little girl she didn’t know and stood up to Kane. And dammit, he didn’t want to be.
I love you.
She thought she loved him. He tried to explain it to her, that she really didn’t know what she thought, but he couldn’t get the words out.
And then she’d kissed him.
He wanted Siobhan in the worst way, but he knew that with his lifestyle nothing good would come of it. He wanted to take her anyway—she was willing, he was willing, they were consenting adults. But then he remembered that she wasn’t like other women in his life. She was different. Special. Andie’s baby sister.
A woman he could love, if he had a life that had room for love.
The problem was, he lived a dangerous life and his life had already put Siobhan in danger. She’d been used as bait for him by one of the violent cartels; she had just yesterday been grabbed by his own brother and locked in a car trunk.
He’d pound Liam just for that. She wasn’t hurt—except for a bruise that Liam would also pay for. But didn’t this whole thing just remind Kane that his life wasn’t designed for a permanent woman? What would happen if someone hurt her because of him? Killed her? Used her against him? He couldn’t be rational.
Of course you can be rational. You care about Lucy, she’s practically your sister. And you’re doing what needs to be done.
Siobhan stretched and woke up on landing, which was rougher than Kane intended. “Sorry, sugar,” he said.
She shivered and yawned. He handed her her sweater, then frowned. “That’s not going to keep you warm.”
“It’s all I had with me. It hasn’t been all that cold in Texas, I didn’t think I’d need anything else.”
“You should always be prepared.” He pulled a sweatshirt out of his go-bag and tossed it to her. “Might not smell pretty.”
“It’s fine.” She pulled it on. It was an old USMC sweatshirt that had seen better days. “Andie has one just like it.”
He climbed out of the plane and held out his hand for her. She took it, and he held on as they walked over to the small office. Sure, it was six in the morning and lightly raining, but she was shivering as if they were in the middle of a blizzard. Her hands were like ice.
Gus McAvery ran this small airport mostly for charters and businessmen who didn’t want to deal with the bigger airports. There was one well-maintained runway and it was one of the few spreads where they could land day and night. Gus had a small house on the edge of the property, and RCK had an account. They preferred using unmanned airports, but there were a few places around the country they used for fueling and maintenance.
“Rogan.”
“Gus. Thanks.”
“Fill her up?”
“Yes, I may have a long flight ahead of me.”
“I’ll check her for you.”
“Appreciate it.”
“When you need her by?”
“Three, four hours?”
Gus nodded. “Need a ride?”
“Yep.”
Gus tossed him a set of car keys. “Just make sure you’re back by eleven, the missus has her Tuesday afternoon book club over in Lake Charles and she’ll need it.”
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