“I don’t.”
“Which is why he never told you.”
“Don’t make him sound noble, Carlo. He kidnapped a federal agent in the process of stealing the bonds out of Sean’s safe, and I have to find her.”
“I’ll tell you where they are on one condition.”
“You know? You know where the treasure is?”
“Dante called me last night. He wanted me to join them, because it had once been my dream. I told him it was their dream now. I don’t need a treasure.”
Kane was livid. “You’ve known for this entire conversation and only now tell me?”
“You’re angry, Kane. Your anger is going to get people killed.”
He was ready to explode. He prided himself on controlling his emotions, but right now he was about to lose it. “You’re playing a game, Carlo, and time is running out.”
“Promise me you won’t hurt them. Maybe your mother was right—the treasure was cursed, it affected all of us. The closer we got … things happened. Your parents died. I lost all my money pursuing the dream. And now the boys are doing awful things like kidnapping a woman. But don’t hurt them. Try to understand.”
Kane let out a deep breath. “I will do my damnedest to protect them, Carlo—that I can promise—but there are consequences to their actions, and RCK cannot let them kidnap one of our people in order to make a fucking point. Now do you understand?”
Carlo got up, found a notepad on his small, uncluttered desk, and wrote down some numbers. “The longitude and the latitude. The church was buried in an earthquake more than a hundred years ago, but the key artifact is a broken cross wedged into the mountainside, which will be in front of the cavern. The cavern is guarded by Saint Michael the Archangel. I don’t know if it was literal, or perhaps a plaque or statue or prayer. Locals stay away out of fear and superstition—they think the place is haunted, that the earthquake was a sign from God, punishment. But under the foundation of the old church rests not only the souls of the departed but also tens of millions of dollars of gold and silver Stephen Austin intended for Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie. That’s not only a treasure, Kane, but history.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Noah didn’t know if Sean was sleeping. Nate was in the back of the plane passed out completely like most soldiers learned to do in training. Take ten minutes whenever and wherever they could. Noah was lost in his thoughts, about his conversation with Rick, his meeting with Eden, what he should have done, and what he would need to do.
His phone rang and he answered it, surprised that he had service up here.
“I have a cell booster,” Sean said from the co-pilot seat without opening his eyes.
Noah answered, “Armstrong.”
“It’s Ryan Quiroz. I’ve been trying to reach Lucy, we have intel on the Morrisons.”
“The couple suspected of adopting Baby John?” Noah had to completely change gears. He had put all that aside yesterday.
“Yes—she didn’t come back after lunch yesterday, but I didn’t think much about it. But now I can’t reach her.”
“There’s a situation I can’t go into. I’m out of the office today, take over for me.”
“Sir?”
Noah realized he should have gone through proper channels. He hadn’t told anyone he wasn’t coming in. “I’ll call Durant and clear it. Dunning is with me. I can’t explain right now.”
“It has to do with Sean’s sister, doesn’t it? She was calling and texting Lucy all day yesterday.”
“I’ll explain when I return. What do you have on the Morrisons? If you need a warrant, contact the AUSA directly, she knows you’re working with me on this.”
“Yes, sir, but they’re out of the country. They left Sunday night, direct flight to Cancún.”
“Talk to Durant. She’ll start extradition procedures and contact our Legal Attaché down there. Have them detained as soon as possible. There’s a consulate near Cancún—Mérida, I think. Remember there is an infant involved, we want to make this as quick and easy as possible to prevent anyone from getting hurt.”
“I’ll make sure the office knows.” Ryan paused.
“Anything else?”
“Is Lucy okay? I know something’s going on.”
“She’ll be okay. Keep me in the loop.”
“Will you do the same?”
The tone was borderline insubordination, but Noah couldn’t blame him. The situation was unusual.
“I’ll do my best, Ryan.”
He disconnected. Ryan would do the job he was supposed to do, but this whole situation was a mess.
Noah hadn’t flown much recently—only once or twice since he’d flown Sean’s plane in the Adirondacks and was shot down by pot growers last year. He reflected that since he’d met Lucy and Sean, since Rick Stockton had brought him in to investigate the murder of Lucy’s rapist nearly two years ago, he’d been involved in far more dangerous—and admittedly exciting—situations than during his first three years in the FBI. Even in the Air Force, being a Raven—part of the Air Force security force—had its moments, most of the time the work was monotonous, broken up on rare occasions by intense, high-stress situations.
But he didn’t know if he could do this all the time, not when people he cared about were in jeopardy.
He glanced at Sean. His eyes were closed, but Noah knew he wasn’t sleeping. He had to admit, he thought Sean was going to snap last night. Yet he’d kept it together. Noah was hard on Sean, and he knew why—Lucy’s career. Sean broke laws Lucy needed to enforce. And while he might be keeping his nose more or less clean, he was still a wild card and Lucy could end up paying for his sins.
Noah often asked himself why he cared—Lucy was a good agent, but she was a grown woman who could make her own decisions about what was right and wrong. If she crossed the line, she would accept the consequences.
Yet he’d half fallen in love with her. Being attracted to her wasn’t the problem—he’d been attracted to many women over the years, both before and after he fell in love with Eden. Not all of them had been available. But when he started working with Lucy, watching her work, seeing how she processed her cases, how she thought, and then the few times she’d exposed a hidden vulnerability … yeah, he would have fallen for her hard if Sean weren’t in the picture.
Sean knew it. It was one of those things that guys knew about other guys, and maybe Noah hadn’t kept his feelings completely to himself. But Sean had grown up a lot in the last two years, and Noah wanted their marriage to work. For Lucy, if no one else.
Sean’s cell phone rang and he grabbed it. “Kane,” he said, sorely disappointed. “What do you know?”
Sean listened for several minutes, asked a few questions, then said, “We’re thirty minutes out of Hidalgo. Jack’s on his way. Where the fuck is she, Kane? Did they take her on their fucking treasure hunt?” He listened, then hung up without saying anything more.
When Sean didn’t volunteer anything, Noah pushed. “Tell me.”
“The bonds have some sort of treasure map hidden in them. Hell if I know what Kane meant, he wasn’t all that clear. Or I’m too tired to make sense of it. Something to do with a treasure my parents were looking for before they died. Gold and silver buried somewhere in eastern Mexico. The bonds are part of a treasure map—at least that’s what I think Kane said.”
“So he knows where they are.”
“He’s sending me the coordinates, which will be close to their location, but we’re going to need supplies and cash—it’s not a friendly area. Someplace in the middle of nowhere between Tampico and San Luis Potosí in the mountains. Kane’s reading maps, and there’s no place to land a plane nearby, so we’ll need a jeep or two.”
Sean rubbed his eyes. Everything Kane told him was spinning around, and he didn’t know how to make heads or tails of it. He still couldn’t believe that Liam took Lucy. Was this a vendetta because Liam and Kane hated each other? Was there more to the falling-out than Kane had told him? Or wer
e they simply keeping Lucy from talking about what she heard, like Siobhan had said?
“What are they doing, Noah?” His voice cracked. This last month had been hell. Finding out he had a son. Saving Jesse’s life, then losing him to witness protection. Telling him yesterday that if they were lucky they could see each other once a year—and making Jesse believe that was a good thing. Sean wanted more, dammit, and he couldn’t have it.
And now Lucy, missing. He hadn’t been able to keep Jesse, and now he was about to lose Lucy.
You’re not going to lose her!
He’d almost lost Lucy last month because he’d lied to her. He hadn’t deserved her forgiveness, but she stood by him and he would never let her down again. They were getting married, and everything was more or less coming together until fucking Liam came in and took her. Took the one good thing in Sean’s life. Why, dammit? Why?
Panic wasn’t going to get her back, only being smart. And ruthless.
“Are we meeting Kane?” Noah asked.
“You’re not,” Sean said automatically. “Neither you nor Nate can go down there. I’ll wait for Jack in Hidalgo and then Jack and I are meeting Kane at an airfield outside of Tampico. The good news—if there is any good news—is that this region isn’t controlled by the Flores cartel or their allies.”
“I am going,” Noah said.
“You’re a federal agent, the risks are too great, and you know damn well the FBI will disavow any knowledge of your activities. They’re not going to get you out if things go sideways.”
“Stop, Sean. You forget, I was a Raven. I understand the dangers. I’ve been to the region, I know the area, and however bad-ass Kane and Jack are, they need backup. I’m not going in as a fed.”
Sean wanted to say no, that he didn’t want or need Noah, but he didn’t. Because they needed all the help they could get and Noah was good under fire.
“How many people are we dealing with in Liam’s group?”
“Three or four—Liam, Eden, Dante Romero, and possibly Philip Corsica. Philip is Dante’s friend and bodyguard.”
“Gabriella Romero isn’t with them?”
“Jack says she’s not.” Sean didn’t go into the details of why. “I don’t think they would have anyone else with them, if they’re truly looking for buried treasure. Maybe hired locals to help carry supplies, but that’s just a guess. They may not trust anyone. I wouldn’t. I just—” Sean shook his head.
“Spill it.”
“Why take Lucy? She would be a hindrance for them. How would they force her to go along with it? Threaten her? Me? But even if she went along with it, they wouldn’t give her anything that could be used as a weapon. They knocked her out. They took her to a foreign country with no backup, where they damn well knew she’d be in danger.” He paused. “Maybe that’s it—that’s how they’re keeping her in line. If she could, she’d call me. Just to let me know she was safe.”
“They could have put her in a locked room, like they did with Siobhan. Liam said he was going to call you.”
“It’s the friggin’ morning and he hasn’t called,” Sean said, then stopped and looked at Noah. “So what did Eden do to you? Everything makes sense now. But she must have really done a number on you for you to hate me so much.”
“It’s a long story.”
“Condensed version.”
Noah hesitated, then said, “I met Eden nearly seven years ago. I was stationed in Germany and she and Liam were still affiliated with Rogan-Caruso. Before Kincaid. She lied to me from the beginning. I learned the hard way that they were both thieves.”
“She and Liam did a variety of jobs when they were with the old Rogan-Caruso. Including sanctioned thefts.”
“If Rogan-Caruso sanctioned the crime I witnessed, I doubt Rick Stockton would be singing your praises.”
“That’s when Kane cut them off.”
“Eden used me and our relationship. I suspected she was up to something, but she lied so smoothly, so sweetly, I didn’t even think she was lying. She and Liam stole a painting from a private collection at an embassy in Germany—an invitation I had from my commanding officer. She made a point of telling me how much she wanted to go, and I took her. I saw the painting later, when she was packaging it up. She thought I’d left, but there was something strange about her behavior so I went back to her loft and saw her and Liam with the painting. I should have turned them in, but I couldn’t.”
“What was her excuse?”
“She offered no excuse. Just begged that I not report it. I wanted to—and that I didn’t haunts me. She used me. I was the one with the invitation. I was in my dress uniform. I was representing my country. That means something to me, more than you can know.” He paused. “Kane would understand. When you put on the uniform, you are no longer an individual. You stand for your country and every other man and woman who wore the uniform. She could have caused an international incident. But I think what was worse, she laughed it off. Tried to distract me with sex, and suddenly I saw through every one of her games for the six months we’d been together. I don’t think it was the first time she used me, which made me wonder if our meeting was chance like I’d thought or part of her overall plan.”
“I’m sorry,” Sean said, and he meant it. “I guess that’s why you’ve hated me from the beginning.”
“I don’t hate you.”
Sean grunted. He was too exhausted to argue with Noah, too upset and worried to prove over and over that he was good for Lucy. Because how could he prove it when his own brother had kidnapped her?
Noah said, “I never hated you. I didn’t like you very much, and sometimes I thought you deliberately baited me.”
“I did.”
Noah let out a brief laugh. “Good to know my instincts weren’t all shot to crap. But in truth, you also had a big black mark against you because Eden and Liam used me and I wasn’t going to let another Rogan do the same.”
“Fair enough.”
“We’re almost to Hidalgo.” Noah adjusted the altitude and skirted the town toward Jack’s ranch southwest of the city limits.
Sean let Noah handle the plane. He was a good pilot—he should be, trained by the US Air Force. As soon as they landed and slowed to a stop, Sean said, “Do you still love Eden?”
“No.”
“You answered quickly.”
Noah pulled into the hangar that Jack’s caretaker had opened for them. He shut down the engine. “For the last six and a half years, I wondered if I really had loved her, or it if was an illusion. When I saw her yesterday, everything I’d ever felt came back. Once, I had loved her. I knew it yesterday—there had been a time when I thought the sun revolved around her. But she lied to me, used me, and when I saw her again I knew there was nothing left. Whatever had been there is gone. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have feelings for her. I think Liam manipulates her in much the same way she manipulates others. He controls her damn life, and she can’t do shit without his okay. It’s certainly not healthy. But there is nothing she can say or do that will make this right. I will arrest her and Liam and bring them back to the States to stand trial for drugging and kidnapping a federal agent and a civilian.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“They’re my blood, Noah, but they’re not my family. Not anymore.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
As soon as Lucy was certain that Liam and the others had left, she considered her options.
They hadn’t locked her in, but her head still hurt and she could see nothing except light and dark. This time she knew what to expect. She wasn’t sure what she should do, but staying in this room wasn’t an option. She took the water bottle from the lunch Liam had given her and drank half of it, then rinsed her eyes out with the remainder. It didn’t restore her sight, but the water took some of the sting away.
Her eyesight had returned about eight to nine hours after she’d been drugged the first time. That meant she’d be blind or mostly blind until the middle of t
he afternoon. She didn’t want to stay here, but Liam was right: She couldn’t leave if she couldn’t see. She was in the middle of Mexico—she couldn’t very well tell anyone she was a US federal agent. Some of the locals might be willing to help her with a phone or finding the embassy or consulate if she lied and said she was a lost student or something, but she needed her vision to assess her surroundings and anyone she encountered.
Last spring, when she, Kane, and Sean had crossed the border to rescue DEA Agent Brad Donnelly, Kane had specifically told her if she was captured not to speak English or tell anyone she was a US citizen or in law enforcement and never to give her real name. She could be used for ransom—or worse.
“Be smart, Lucy. Read the people around you. Know what to say and when to say it. Buy time for us to find you.”
As loath as she was to obey Liam, staying in this house seemed to be the safest thing to do. She needed to find a weapon and more bottled water, get a sense of the layout, and find a hiding space if necessary.
On alert, she left the room and felt along the wall, moving slowly so she didn’t tumble down any stairs. Based on how she’d heard Liam approach this morning, the stairs were to the left of the door; first, she explored the right. There wasn’t much to explore. There were three doors. The first was to a closet—she bumped into shelves, felt towels and linens. She inspected every shelf by touch, searching for something she could use as a weapon, but there was nothing.
The second door was to a small room that didn’t appear to be furnished or have a purpose. The final door opened to a bedroom. By the subtle perfume, Eden had slept here.
Lucy searched the room as best she could without her eyes. It was simple, functional. Double bed, dresser, desk, chair. She tripped over the chair but caught herself.
Desk.
She searched the desk, feeling around for a letter opener, but only found minimal office supplies, including several pens. She took what felt to be the sturdiest metal pen—the closest thing to a weapon—and put it in her pocket.
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