by LENA DIAZ,
His only choice was to go on the offensive, which meant he was circling back toward the house from another direction. He hadn’t told Heather that yet because he didn’t want to scare her. He’d decided their best option was to go back in the house and search for a weapon and a phone, assuming the house had a phone. On a small, remote island like this, there was probably at least a satellite phone somewhere. And if this was one of Gonzalez’s houses, which Nick was willing to bet it was, the odds were also high there were more guns inside. Drug dealers tended to keep a heavy arsenal wherever they were at all times.
He already knew Heather was good with a gun. Her bullet had found its target with incredible accuracy, even under extreme stress, when she’d shot one of their pursuers in the garage a few days ago. So if he armed both himself and Heather, they might have a chance.
Provided she could shoot her sister if she had to.
Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that. With the sun coming up in less than an hour, they couldn’t afford to wait for their hunters to find them.
It was time for the hunted to become the hunters.
* * *
“STOP RIGHT HERE,” Nick whispered.
Heather stopped, and peeked through the shrubs. The white coquina shell exterior on the house glowed in the predawn gray light filtering through the trees. Birds chirped, lending an eerie normalcy to a situation that was anything but normal. Presumably, inside that house her sister and a stranger were waiting, with guns, to kill her and Nick. A ripping sound had her looking over at Nick in question. He had his shirt off and was undoing the straps that held on his vest.
“Oh, no, not again.” Heather held out her hands and shook her head. “You are not giving me your vest again. Last night you got shot. If you weren’t wearing your vest you’d have been killed. I mean it. I will not put that on. I’m putting my foot down this time.”
A minute later she was wearing the vest and glaring at Nick as he tugged her shirt down over it.
“Glare at me all you want,” he said. “It’s not going to change my mind.”
She put her hands on her hips. “If you get shot, you’d better hope it kills you. Because if it doesn’t, I will.”
“Thanks for the warning. Now you need to be really quiet so I can sneak inside and look for some weapons. I don’t want you being so noisy the bad guys find us out here.”
“Too late for that,” a voice said behind them.
Nick and Heather whirled around.
A man stood several feet away, his face hidden in shadows. But there was no mistaking what he was holding and pointing directly at them—a rifle.
Nick shoved Heather behind him as the other man stepped forward.
Heather leaned over so she could see the gunman.
Gonzalez.
The only question was, which one? Jose or Luis?
Did it even matter?
Either way, they were in a world of trouble.
“You’re supposed to be in the shed,” he said. “I should have known Lily would screw this up. You might as well go on into the house while I straighten this out.” He gestured with his rifle. “Move.”
“Luis, right?” Nick asked.
Gonzalez nodded.
“You do know Lily has another man inside the house with her?” Nick said, as he turned around. He put his hand at the small of Heather’s back, guiding her toward the house, sheltering her with his body as always—even though she was the one with the vest on this time.
She seriously wished she could shake some sense into him.
“If you’re trying to make me angry or jealous so I’ll make a mistake, Agent Morgan, don’t bother. Lily and I planned this down to the last detail. I know who’s in the house with her.”
The ruined side door was still sagging open and Luis ushered them in through the opening.
“Lily,” he called out, as they rounded the corner into the long hallway. He passed through the archway on the other side into the massive living room and waved Nick and Heather over to one of the couches. He kept his rifle trained on them, his hand steady, his eyes never wavering. “Lily,” he called out again.
Footsteps sounded in the hallway, echoing on the wooden floor. Lily rounded the corner. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw Nick and Heather sitting on the couch.
Heather’s stomach tightened and she dug her nails into the soft material of the couch cushion to keep from jumping up and going to her sister. She wanted to talk to her, to plead with her, to make her see reason.
But she couldn’t very well do that when her sister was holding a pistol.
“Well, well,” Lily said. “This is a surprise.” She strode forward, her hips swaying beneath the long T-shirt she’d obviously slept in, which barely reached the tops of her thighs. Her hair was mussed and she smoothed her hand over it as she reached Luis.
She smiled seductively and reached up and kissed his cheek.
He wrapped his free arm around her and pulled her close. “Miss me?”
“Always. You were supposed to be here last night. What took you so long?”
He ran his hand up and down her back, never taking his eyes off Nick and Heather. “The DEA didn’t trust me. They talked to me for hours and didn’t let me go until this morning. I made them think I needed to go set up some logistics to help with their planned assault on Jose’s compound.”
“Do they know Heather’s missing yet?”
“If they did, they wouldn’t have let me go. I figure they’ll send an agent over there this morning to check on them. Then the search will begin. Far too late.” He glanced back toward the hall, then looked at Lily. “Did you take care of our friend?”
Lily plopped down on one of the chairs. “Yep. We won’t have to worry about him ever telling any of Jose’s men that we double-crossed him. It’s all going to go down just like we planned.”
Heather shivered, and Nick wrapped his fingers around hers.
“You double-crossed your sister,” Nick said to Lily. “You double-crossed the man who helped you kidnap us. And now you plan on double-crossing Jose.” He flicked a glance at Luis. “How sure are you that she won’t double-cross you?”
A flash of unease passed over Luis’s face. “Shut up. You don’t know anything about her. She loves me. And she wants to make things right. My brother has spent his whole life spilling his evil drugs into this world. And Lily got caught up in that because you,” he spat, glaring at Heather, “took everything that belonged to her. You shut her out and didn’t try to help her. She did everything for you. She’s the one who worked so hard, but you stole everything from her. That stops today. She and I will bring down my brother, stop his evil, something the DEA should have done years ago. We’re the good guys here, not you. We’re going to end my brother’s tyranny and start a new life together.”
Heather shook her head. “Is that what Lily told you? That I took everything from her? Lily, is that what you believe? Explain this to me. Because I remember everything totally differently. I worked hard all my life for what little I have. And I tried to include you, but you pushed me away at every turn. Yet every time you came to visit me, I gave you money I couldn’t afford to give. And you took it and left and I never saw you again until the next time you needed money.”
“You lie,” Lily said. “You were the favorite. You were given everything. And when you gave me money it was only right, because you owed me that money, for ruining my life.”
“Enough,” Luis said. “My brother will be here soon and we need to prepare. Lily, get dressed. We’ll put these two in the shed where they should have been in the first place.”
Lily narrowed her eyes at him. “It wasn’t my fault. Raul was incompetent. He let them escape.”
“Well, then, it won’t be a problem for us to put them in the shed now, will it, now t
hat incompetent Raul is gone?”
The tone of his voice was mildly sarcastic. Heather tensed, sensing there was trouble between these two. Trouble between two people holding guns didn’t bode well for either her or Nick.
Lily whirled around and stomped back down the hall.
Luis sat down across from them, his gun steady. “Lily is a good girl,” he said, sounding slightly defensive, as if he needed to make excuses for her. “She’s not accustomed to having to use a gun and breaking the law.”
Heather snorted. “Right. That’s why she was in Saint Augustine with four kilos of cocaine.”
He glared at her.
Nick put his hand on top of her thigh, as if to remind her to be careful what she said.
“Lily is a good girl,” Luis repeated. “It was...difficult for her to go through with this plan. But she has a good heart and she knows this is the best way. The world will be a better place without my brother. And you—” he nodded at Heather “—you must pay for your sins against her. Your death will be quick. This entire house, and the shed out back, are wired with explosives. All of Jose’s houses are wired this way, so he can destroy them if his enemies try to take him. Well, we are going to use that against him today. And as I said, your death, and yours—” he looked at Nick “—will be quick and painless.”
“Let Heather go,” Nick said. “She never did anything to hurt Lily, or you.”
“Neither did you,” Heather insisted. “This is crazy. Luis and Lily are both crazy.”
Luis’s eyes flashed. “I do not have time to argue with you.” The whump-whump sound of a helicopter sounded overhead.
“It is time. My brother will be here soon. We must hurry and put you in the shed. Come.”
“Why don’t you want us here when your brother gets here?” Heather asked. “Are you afraid we’ll tell him the truth, that you’re double-crossing him?”
Luis’s jaw tightened. “It is not a double cross,” he said, his accent thicker than usual as he practically spat out the words. “When you fight Satan, it is God’s work.”
“Is that what you think you’re doing?” a voice asked from the doorway. “God’s work?”
Jose Gonzalez stood at the opening to the family room, five men standing beside and behind him. One of the men was holding a squirming Lily.
Luis jerked around but the rifle was snatched from his hands by one of Jose’s men.
Nick grabbed Heather and pulled her to her feet. He shoved her back into the corner and stood in front of her.
“I have no quarrel with you, Agent Morgan, or Miss Bannon,” Jose’s smooth, accented voice said. “My quarrel is with the traitor I call family, and the woman I once called my love.”
“I still am,” Lily insisted. “It was Luis who tried to betray you, not me. I was going to warn you.”
“Ah, so that is why, when my men and I arrived by boat and sent the helicopter as a diversion, we found you hiding in the trees with your gun pointed at my helicopter.”
“I was...confused. I thought you were Luis.”
Luis let out a roar of rage.
“Enough,” Jose said.
Heather tried to see around Nick, but he smoothly stepped in front of her and blocked her view.
“Please take my brother and his lover away,” Jose said. “I do not wish to see them anymore.”
Heather couldn’t see what was happening, but she could hear her sister cursing and Luis yelling as they were apparently shuffled out of the house.
“As I said,” Jose’s cultured voice rang out after the noise died down. “I have no quarrel with either of you. Please, have a seat.”
“Have your men put their guns away first,” Nick said.
“Fair enough. Put the guns away. There are no enemies here.”
Nick pulled Heather to the couch and they sat. Jose sat across from them in his business suit, looking like he was preparing to share a cup of café con leche and churros with friends. Two men stood beside him, their pistols in holsters at their waists, their massive arms hanging down at their sides. They would have looked like a couple of palace guards if it weren’t for their khaki shorts and T-shirts.
Jose pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and put it on the coffee table in front of Nick. “Agent Morgan, your DEA friends are on their way here with an arsenal at their disposal. Apparently my brother told them that I was holding you hostage. I would appreciate it very much if you would please tell them not to blow up my island and that you are not a prisoner here. Both of you are free to go when your friends arrive. There are no drugs here and I have not broken any laws.”
Nick grabbed the phone. “What about Luis and Lily?”
“Luis and Lily will be taken care of. This is a...family matter.”
Heather jumped to her feet. “Let my sister go.”
Nick stood beside her and grabbed her around the waist. “Let me handle this.”
Heather gave him a terse nod. Nick would protect Lily. He wouldn’t let something bad happen to her.
“Deliver Luis and Lily into my keeping,” Nick said. “They’ll both stand trial and will be put away behind bars.”
Jose slowly rose to his feet, shaking his head. “I am sorry, Agent Morgan, but that is not how this is going to work. You see, certain events over the past few weeks have put me in a...delicate position. I have been made to look weak.”
“You mean because I destroyed your cocaine,” Heather spit out.
“Condition number two,” Nick said. “Be quiet.”
Heather stiffened against him but didn’t say anything else. For now.
“I, of course, do not know what you mean,” Jose said. “I have no cocaine. I do, however, have a family business and rely on my reputation to run that business. My reputation cannot survive having my own brother and lover turn against me and get away with it.”
“They won’t get away with it,” Nick insisted. “They’ll go to prison.”
“This is not a negotiation, Agent Morgan. I am trusting you to make that phone call. Do not break my trust, for I would not want us to become enemies. I must go now. Your DEA friends will come here and take you and Miss Bannon back to the mainland. But I do not choose to be here when they arrive.” He strode across the room. His men followed, but kept a close watch on Nick as they stepped through the archway.
“Wait, wait, you can’t leave with my sister.” Heather started after them, but Nick grabbed her and held her back.
“Stop it, you little fool,” he said. “We’re lucky to be alive. I assure you Jose Gonzalez doesn’t give second chances.”
“But what about my sister? If he takes her, he’s going to kill her.”
“Which is why I’m going to stop him, but not by running after him and his armed bodyguards when I have no weapons.” He handed the phone to her and rattled off a number. “Call Dante and tell him what’s going on. Tell him not to shoot at the house. I don’t want us blown up. And stay right behind me.”
She hurried after him as he headed down the long hallway. She punched the buttons he’d told her and held the phone to her ear as he led her into a bedroom. She waited for the call to go through. Nick yanked open drawers and rummaged through them. Then he headed into the walk-in closet.
“What are you looking for?” she asked.
“Guns,” he called out, his voice muffled.
The phone crackled in Heather’s ear and Dante’s voice came on the line. Heather hurriedly interrupted him. “Sir, this is Heather Bannon. I’m with Agent Nick Morgan. We—”
Heather gasped and clutched the phone to her ear. Lily stood in the doorway, holding a pistol. One side of her face was covered in blood. The gun dropped from her fingers and fell to the carpet.
“I’m sorry,” Lily gasped. “For everything. I got so screwed up. I never meant
to hurt you. I just wanted to scare you.” She coughed. Blood dribbled out of her mouth and dripped down her chin. “Help me.” Her eyes rolled up in her head.
“Nick!” Heather screamed. She lunged forward and caught her sister as she crumpled to the floor.
Chapter Fifteen
Gunshots erupted outside the house, the rat-a-tat-tat of automatic weapon fire. Heather cradled her sister’s unconscious body and scooted farther down into the cast-iron claw-footed tub. Hot tears slid down her face and plopped onto her sister’s hair.
Seeing Heather look so devastated was killing Nick inside, but he couldn’t worry about her feelings right now. He’d be lucky if he kept her from being killed, because Armageddon was taking place outside the house.
“Why won’t she open her eyes?” she blubbered.
Nick squatted down beside the bathtub. Hopefully it would protect both of the women if any shots came through the bathroom wall. It was the best cover he’d been able to find when the shots started outside.
But if the explosives went off, a fancy tub would be worthless. He needed to get them both out of the house.
Heather looked up at him with wide, tear-bright eyes. “She can’t die, Nick. She can’t die without knowing how much I love her. How sorry I am.”
Nick gritted his teeth. “She knows you love her. And you’ve got nothing to be sorry about. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“But—”
“But nothing. Just wait here. I’m going to see if there’s a way out without running the gauntlet outside. I’ll be right back.”
He ran out of the bathroom and into the hall. He’d reluctantly agreed to put his Kevlar vest back on when Heather had insisted. With the cast-iron tub surrounding her, he figured she was as protected as she’d be in a vest. And he wouldn’t be doing her any good if he got shot and couldn’t come back to help her.
He ducked down under the windows by the front room and hurried to another bathroom at the front of the house, instead of the one at the back where Heather was. The thicker walls of the bathroom would hopefully lend him some protection. He stood in the tub and lifted the blinds to look out the window.