“He doesn’t want me in contact with my team. He seemed more concerned with the formula for this flu virus than my health and well-being.”
“You didn’t give it to him.”
“No way.”
“Now we’re back to square one.” The adrenaline rush she’d experienced in the park had slowed to a drip. She felt like a balloon, once flying high, punctured and whirling out of control.
He covered one of her white-knuckled hands on the steering wheel with his own, slightly scraped and battered. “No, we’re not. At square one, all I possessed was a name. Now I have…so much more.”
His fingers tightened around hers for a moment, and then he curled forward, his head in his hands.
“Jack!” One of his headaches had him in its grip again, torturing him with pain…filling him up with memories.
Lola’s gaze darted to the rearview mirror before she swung around and pulled a U-turn in the middle of the street. She cruised back into Little Havana and turned onto a small side street. She could keep Jack safe here while he rode out this headache. The people of Little Havana would come to her aid, just as they’d done in the park.
After all, she was the Cuban Godfather’s daughter.
THE DIZZINESS RECEDED. The pictures faded to nothingness. Images had branded themselves on his brain and then dissipated, no longer necessary.
A cool, light touch fluttered at his brow. He wanted to be in the present. He dragged himself back, forcing his eyes open.
Lola’s dark green eyes, wide with worry, met his blurry gaze. “Lola.”
“How do you feel?” She thrust a bottle of water at him. “Have some water.”
He rubbed his eyes. “It’s better. Each time it gets easier and easier. Less pain.”
“Less to remember.” She twisted off the cap of the water bottle. “Drink.”
He wet his lips with the warm water and powered down the window. “Don’t you want to hear what I remembered?”
She studied his face, one side of her mouth curving into a half smile. “You remembered everything?”
“Pretty much. I know where I left Gabe.”
Lola clapped her hands together and brought them to her chin as if in prayer. “Is he safe? Why hasn’t he contacted me? Where is he?”
“He’s safe. After I rescued him from the hovel where his captors had imprisoned him, we set off on foot to another village. I left him with a family. He’d treated their youngest son…and I gave them some money.”
“He’s still there?”
“I hope he’s still there. I told him to stay put until I gave him the all-clear.”
Lola bunched her right fist and pounded the console between them. “Why hasn’t he contacted me?”
“Umm, there’s no telephone there. No internet.”
“Then how are you supposed to send him a message?”
“Through his Doctors Without Borders team.”
“You did it.” Lola leaned over and gave him an awkward, one-armed hug. “You were successful before you even knew you were successful.”
Her hair tickled his chin, its strands clinging to his stubble. To hand Lola this treasure made everything worthwhile. He’d been a burden on her since stumbling into her life…and he’d just made up for it all.
It almost made the shock and pain of what else he’d remembered bearable.
She drew back, her hand resting on his chest, over his heart. “There’s something else, isn’t there?”
“My recovered memories confirmed my suspicions about Colonel Scripps.” Jack took another swig of water as if it were a shot of something stronger. “He betrayed me. He betrayed all of us. He betrayed his country.”
“I’m sorry.” Lola’s fingers curled into the cotton material of his shirt. “What did you remember?”
“It’s why I went back after seeing your brother to safety. Gabe told me a few things that had my head spinning. I had to discover for myself if they were true.” He tongue flicked against his dry lips. “They were. The Colonel had been running some interference for Farouk. It’s hard to believe even now.”
She flattened her hand against his chest. “He’s going to make it hard for you, isn’t he? He’s going to sabotage your chances for coming in and for getting anyone to believe in you.”
“It’s not going to work.” And for the first time that day, hope coursed through his veins, energizing every cell in his body. “I’m going to call on Prospero…and they’ll come.”
“How are you going to reach them? You don’t have their phone numbers imprinted on your brain, do you?”
“Nope.” He drummed his fingers on the dashboard. Too bad they weren’t in L.A. where he could stop by his house and have access to all his files and numbers. “I’ve been trying to think…Buzz is a commercial airline pilot now, but the airline is not going to hand over the phone number of one of its pilots.”
“Not likely.” Lola screwed up her eyes, as if squinting at something in the distance. “What do the others do?”
“Riley’s a beach bum down in Cabo. Not likely I’m going to find him.”
“And the third member, Ian?”
“God, Ian’s probably off mountain-climbing somewhere.” He snapped his fingers. “I can probably get to Ian or Buzz through their exes.”
“Their ex-wives?”
“Ex-wife in Ian’s case, ex-fiancée in Buzz’s.”
“You guys sure leave a lot of exes in your wake.”
He wedged a finger beneath her chin and skimmed her lips with his. “Not me—not a girlfriend or wife in my memory banks, not even an ex.”
She smiled a misty kind of smile that should’ve started an alarm bell clanging in his head. But he didn’t care. He’d take this fearless woman along for the ride as far as she wanted to go.
“Can you find the exes?” The mist cleared and Lola had gotten down to business.
“I’m not sure about Meg, Ian’s ex-wife. She works as a nature guide in the Colorado Rockies, but I don’t know the name of her company. But Raven…”
Lola slugged him in the arm. “I don’t like the look in your eyes when you mention Raven. It’s kind of…wolfish.”
“Raven?” He chuckled. “Not my type at all—way too high maintenance. Anyway, she’s a translator at the United Nations. You shouldn’t have any trouble at all tracking her down and leaving a message. She also used to work for Prospero as a translator.”
“Okay, then. What are we waiting for?” She slipped the car in gear and pulled away from the curb. “We’re going to call Doctors Without Borders to bring Gabe in, we’re going to call Raven to bring you in and we still have Gabe’s formula. They can’t do anything to hurt us…can they?”
He squeezed her thigh. “Not if I can help it.”
On the way back to the house, Jack had told her more about his life. Despite the danger and the excitement of his chosen career, his day-to-day existence in L.A. seemed bereft of emotion and human connections.
What did he fear? And was it the same fear that had him trying to convince her that what they had together was a fleeting hookup?
After Jack had made the call to Doctors Without Borders and had given them Gabe’s location, a huge weight rolled off Lola’s back. They wouldn’t hear from Gabe for another few days and he still faced some danger, but the head doctor assured them that bodyguards would escort Gabe to the airport and get him on a plane home.
She waved the prepaid phone at Jack. “Curious Colonel Scripps hasn’t called in yet.”
“After that stunt we pulled in the park, he knows I know. But I still can’t believe it.”
“I wonder why he turned.”
Jack’s lips lengthened into a thin line. “It has to be money. It can’t be ideology.”
“But his ideology couldn’t have been that strong to begin with if money lured him so easily.”
“Who said it was easy?”
She tapped the phone. “How do we call the UN?”
“It’s after six-thirty.
Not even Raven Pierre would be working at this hour.”
Wanting to rescue Jack from the funk he’d been in since discovering his mentor’s betrayal, Lola jutted out her bottom lip in a pretend pout. “How do I know you don’t have a history with this Raven?”
A slow smile curved his lips. “Raven is Buzz’s girl—always was, always will be. Besides, I have my own girl.”
And then he turned all that brooding intensity on her, and she kissed him with every ounce of the passion he’d stirred within her…for the first time wanting him to forget everything but the feel of her mouth beneath his.
THE FOLLOWING MORNING, Rosa dragged a scraggly Christmas tree into the house and set it on the floor with a flourish. “There.”
Lola laughed. “What exactly is that?”
“It’s a Christmas tree.” Rosa wagged her finger. “Christmas is less than two weeks away. You seem to have forgotten.”
Pushing back from his breakfast, Jack stretched and winked at Lola. “I haven’t forgotten a thing, Rosa.”
Lola didn’t know why the two of them were so light-hearted this morning. They still had a very big problem—secure the formula and secure Jack’s safety.
Rosa waved her hand at the window. “I know we have sunshine and palm trees, but it’s still Christmas.”
Lola checked her watch for the hundredth time that morning, waiting to put a call in to the UN and track down Raven Pierre. “And when are you visiting your daughter in Orlando?”
“Next week.” Rosa tilted her head at the little, lopsided tree. “You don’t think Mr. Gabriel will be back soon, do you? I’d hate to be away when he comes home.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Now if she could only follow her own advice.
Rosa fussed over them for several more minutes, insisted on washing up their breakfast dishes and scurried out of the house to take care of her husband.
Lola dove for the phone she’d been eyeing with impatience. “Finally. Same code phrase as before?”
“She knows it.”
Jack had already looked up the general number for the UN, and just like with Colonel Scripps, Lola started on a phone maze. She finally reached the translation department.
“I’d like to speak to Raven Pierre, please.”
“Raven is off for a few weeks.”
Lola sagged. Of course, Christmas was right around the corner. Didn’t that scrawny tree in the center of the great room proclaim it to be true?
“But she always checks in for her messages…sometimes several times a day. Would you like her voice mail?”
“Absolutely.”
Jack whispered. “Use the code.”
Lola nodded and when Raven’s sultry voice stopped and she heard the beep, she left the message. “Caliban says there’s a storm coming.”
She recited the phone number of the prepaid cell and dropped it on the table. “Do you think she’ll get the message today?”
“You heard the lady. Raven checks her messages compulsively.”
Lola paced toward the tree, flicked some dry needles and spun around. “I’m going to the hospital to visit Eddie.”
“No.”
She knew he was going to say that. “He won’t be there much longer. I have to be with him.”
“And how’s Eddie going to feel if something happens to you? An accident? A kidnapping? A disappearance?”
Lola shivered. He had a way of painting a very bleak picture. “I’ll be careful. C-can’t you come?”
“I could, but I’m not. And you’re not, either. The Colonel knows your name, he knows where you work and he knows what you look like. He also knows I’m still flapping in the breeze on my own. We can’t risk it.
“Can you give Eddie a call? The kid’s starved for any kindness. He’ll be almost as excited by a call as by seeing you in person. Trust me.”
Lola scooped the phone from the table and perched on the end of the couch. She said a prayer that Jack’s faith in his team was not misplaced. If those guys, Buzz, Ian and Riley, didn’t come to Jack’s aid, he’d be devastated…not that he’d show it.
She punched in the number for the pediatric ward, and Shawna from the nurses’ station picked up. “Shawna, it’s Dr. Famosa. Could you please put me through to Eddie Hidalgo’s room?”
“Oh, my God. I’m so glad you called, Dr. Famosa. W-we were just about to call you.”
“I’m still technically on vacation, Shawna.”
“I know that, but it’s Eddie.”
“Eddie?” Ice water ran through Lola’s veins. Had he taken a turn for the worse?
“You didn’t take him home?”
“Home?” The ice had spread throughout her body, and Lola shivered, bouncing her legs up and down. “What are you talking about? Where’s Eddie? He’s supposed to be in his hospital bed.”
The nurse choked out a sob. “Eddie’s gone.”
Chapter Fifteen
Jack caught the phone as Lola dropped it. He’d been hovering over her shoulder as soon as he saw her face blanch and her eyes widen.
“Hello? Hello?”
“Is Dr. Famosa okay?”
Lola had recovered from her shock and was tugging at his shirt. “Where is he? Where’s Eddie?”
Jack put the phone on speaker. “She dropped the phone. She’s listening now. What’s going on?”
“The boy, Eddie Hidalgo, is missing. We’ve already called the police. We think it’s his mother’s murderer.”
Lola gasped beside him.
“How long has he been missing? When did you notice?”
“This morning. We’re ordering the tapes from security, and the police are going to put out an Amber Alert.”
The nurse recounted for Lola everything that had happened in Eddie’s room up until the moment they’d realized he was not in the hospital.
When the call ended, Lola sat beside him like a wax figure. Staring straight ahead, she said, “They have him, don’t they? Hector Villagrande isn’t smart enough to pull this off.”
Jack wrapped his arms around her stiff body, trying to rub warmth and life back into her. “Farouk obviously knows that hospital. He’s been following you around for weeks, even before I got here.”
A sob wracked her body. She was rigid before; now she clung to him for support, as if her bones had melted.
“We have to give them what they want, Jack. We have to give them Gabe’s formula.”
Jack plucked a few strands of hair from her wet cheeks. “They don’t want the formula, Lola.”
“What?” She grabbed his shirt. “Of course they want the formula. That’s the whole point, isn’t it?”
“Think about it.” He spoke slowly and deliberately. “Even if we turn over the formula, do you think they’re going to believe that we’re turning over the only copy?”
She rubbed her temples, his words not piercing through the fog yet.
“They’ll never believe that, so what would be the point of releasing Eddie? We give them the formula, they release Eddie and then we turn over our copy of the formula to the CIA, implicating Colonel Scripps in the bargain.”
“Th-then why did they take Eddie? What do they want?”
He took a breath, clasping his hands in front of him. “They want me.”
She jerked, her shoulder banging his. “You?”
“My life for Eddie’s.”
“No.” She jumped from the couch and grabbed his shoulders. “What good would that do them? I’ll still have the formula and all the copies. Their plan is finished and they know it.”
“Exactly.” He rose beside her and encircled his hands around her waist. “Thanks to you and Gabe, the formula is out. They’re done, which gives Farouk even more of an incentive to see me dead. I ruined his plans.”
“More of an incentive? He has other reasons for, for wanting you…?”
“Farouk hates me. This isn’t the only plan of his I’ve disrupted, but it may be the biggest. He wants me dead.”
She buried her fac
e in his shoulder. “A child? He’s using a child?”
“He’d use any means to get to me.”
“How does he know you’re not going to just walk away?”
Jack stroked her hair. “I’m not going to endanger a child and Farouk knows that.”
“Eddie must be terrified. He probably thinks this has to do with his mother’s boyfriend.” She clutched his shirt. “What are we going to do?”
“We wait for their instructions, and then we go get Eddie.”
“You’re just going to give yourself up to Farouk?”
He held her away from him and pinched her chin. “After knowing me for a week, do you think I’m the kind of man who’s going to give up?”
“No. Do you have a plan?”
“Not yet, but I’ll think of something. I’ll get Eddie and bring him back to you myself.”
A tremble snaked through her body, and he held her close. He’d always figured Farouk would use Lola to get to him, but he never imagined he’d snatch Eddie. The man must’ve known more about Lola’s life than he’d suspected.
They didn’t have to wait long for the call, and it came on Lola’s prepaid phone. So Scripps was enmeshed with Farouk to the very end.
When the call came, Lola had recovered herself. She wasn’t one to fall apart and get hysterical. Green sparks flew from her eyes. “Where’s Eddie, you SOB?”
Farouk’s slightly accented voice flowed across the line with oily confidence. Jack locked his jaw. That was another voice he’d never forget.
“The boy is safe, Dr. Famosa.”
“Tell me where to bring my brother’s formula. I’ll give it to you in exchange for Eddie.”
Farouk laughed. “I don’t want the formula anymore, Lola. For all I know, you have fifty copies of that formula floating around. No, my dream of controlling a biological weapon of mass destruction is over—thanks to Coburn and the other members of Prospero.”
“What is it you want? Money? I have a lot of money.”
“I know you do…your father’s money. You see, Lola, your father and I are not so different. Men will go to great lengths for money and power—ask Colonel Scripps.”
Jack gritted his teeth. How had Farouk gotten around Scripps?
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