Into the Deep

by Virginia Smith

  Ben reached down and grabbed her hand. “We don’t want to get separated.”

  Wordlessly, Nikki nodded and tried to ignore the warmth of his touch, the familiar way her hand fit inside his. For a moment, a gap appeared in the crowd and she glimpsed the shimmer of water at the far end of the concrete pier. The sun hung low in the western sky, painting the clouds with Technicolor rays. Memories rushed over her, and she tried to ignore them. How many sunsets had she and Ben watched together in Mexico? If she allowed herself to reminisce, she could almost feel the sand beneath her bare feet and hear the call of the seagulls as they soared over the waves searching for their last meal of the day.

  A brightly clad woman on a three-wheeled bicycle approached the edge of the crowd, a hand-lettered sign on the full basket proclaiming her to be the “Cookie Lady.” The throng opened and accepted her into its embrace, and within seconds she was hidden from sight.

  “How will we ever find the person who wrote the note?” Nikki asked. “We don’t even know what he looks like.”

  Ben’s eyes moved as he scanned the people who filed past the buildings that lined the square. “Don’t worry. He’ll find us.”

  His tone raised the hair on her arms. She tightened her grip on his hand and searched the faces of the people coming into the square. Most were smiling and didn’t look at all threatening. Just tourists coming to enjoy Key West’s famous sunset celebration, hoping to catch a glimpse of the elusive green flash that sometimes happened when the sun set into the ocean. Of course, she had no idea who she was looking for. There were tons of Latino people all around her, and besides, the person they sought might not be from Mexico at all. The Reynosa cartel probably had non-Mexican operatives in the United States.

  Well, for certain they did. Senator Adam Webb was one of them.

  The crowd continued to swell with more people than Nikki would have thought the square could hold, until the pier was packed full. People surged around them, and she found herself jostled sideways. She bumped into Ben and then was pressed full-length against his side. The contact sent a thrill through her and, from the intensity in the eyes that suddenly locked on to hers, through him, as well. Blood rushed to heat her face.

  “Sorry,” she mumbled, and dropped his hand in her hurry to peel herself away from his body.

  Another shove pushed her away from him. In seconds, the crowd had closed the gap. Her pulse picked up speed as she lost sight of his dark, unruly curls. A wave of bodies pressed her backward, like a paper cup carried to the beach by the surf. She opened her mouth to call Ben’s name—

  A hand clamped over her mouth. Another grabbed her upper arm in a viselike grip. Before she could twist away, she was spun around and propelled deeper into the crowd.

  Ben’s attention was fixed on the crowd when Nikki released his hand. His first instinct was to sweep her close to him with a protective arm, but their history together stopped him. That and the fact that she obviously found his touch repulsive. He hesitated for just a second, but it was enough. Someone stepped between them, and then another person. Within seconds he could no longer see her.

  A frantic fist squeezed his throat. He forced himself to relax. Common sense told him there was nothing to worry about, that it was easy to become separated in a crowd like this. Why didn’t he think to fix a place to meet if they lost each other? He scanned the people in his vicinity, looking for her familiar blond head.

  There! He was sure that was Nikki, but why was she moving away from him, farther into the mass of people swarming around the square?

  Her head turned, and he caught a glimpse of her profile. He raised a hand and started to call her name, but then stopped. A dark head leaned close to say something to her, the man’s short-cropped black hair a stark contrast to her shining locks. Fear tightened her features, and then she was gone, pulled farther into the crowd.

  A heavy knot twisted his stomach. The Reynosa cartel had Nikki.

  For an instant, he was frozen. Then he jerked upright. He couldn’t lose sight of her. He pushed forward, shoving a man out of his way.

  “Hey, watch it, buddy!”

  Ben muttered an apology, but he was gone before the guy could have heard it, shouldering his way through the crowd, his gaze scanning the people in front of him. He caught the occasional glimpse of Nikki’s blond hair through a gap in the multitude, and kept forcing his way toward the pier’s edge.

  When he arrived on the other end, the crowd thinned out slightly. A few people lined the waist-high railing at the edge of the pier, watching the sun sink toward the horizon. Most, though, were focused on the performers, oblivious to nature’s show going on behind their backs. Ben skirted around a wooden cart strung with beaded necklaces, his gaze darting everywhere.

  Then he spotted her.

  Nikki stood a little apart from the crowd, a Latino man close beside her. Her body was pressed against the protective barrier that lined the edge of the pier. As Ben made his way in that direction, he saw that the man had a tight grip on her arm with one hand. The second hand was around her waist. Did it hold a weapon? He couldn’t tell.

  She caught sight of him as he approached. Their eyes locked. The fear Ben saw in hers left him cold. He tried to put as much assurance as he could into his smile. If he could just get his hands on that thug—

  A voice at his side halted his step. “Alto.” Stop.

  Ben stopped just in front of Nikki.

  “We have some business, amigo.” A high tenor, heavily accented, the tone light, almost pleasant. “You have something of ours.”

  Ben turned. The Latino man standing beside him was several inches shorter than him, with a muscular build and sun-darkened skin. Ben searched his features and sifted through his memory. He’d never seen this man before.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He tried to match the man’s tone, but fear had tightened his throat. His voice sounded as though it was squeezed through a funnel. “Let her go.”

  The man acted as if Ben had not spoken. His head dipped in Nikki’s direction. “And now, we have something of yours. A trade is in order, yes?”

  Ben’s hands tightened into fists. “I told your buddies in Cozumel that I don’t have whatever it is you’re looking for.”

  “That is what I heard. But they did not believe you, and neither do I.”

  A couple walked between them and Nikki, and Ben twisted sideways to keep an eye on her. The man who held her saw his move and pulled her even closer. A visible shudder rippled through her body.

  “Listen,” Ben said, “you people searched my room in Mexico and my apartment here. If I had something of yours, you would have found it by now.”

  “Not if it was well hidden.”

  “Come on, that’s ridiculous.” Ben tore his eyes away from Nikki and faced the Reynosa operative. “Look, if I had it, I’d turn it over. I promise. Tell that to whomever you work for.”

  He didn’t want to say the name Reynosa out loud. Not here. Not anywhere. If, by some miracle, they didn’t know he’d identified them, he wanted to keep it that way.

  “A friend of yours told us a story, amigo. He said he left something with you, something very valuable.”

  Ben’s blood chilled. He hadn’t told a soul about the flash drive. Nobody knew. Nobody except Nikki and…“What friend?”

  The man stepped closer. “Señor Rueda.”

  His mouth dried in an instant. So, Sergio had talked before he died. What had they done to him to pry that information out of him? Ben suppressed a shudder, his imagination running wild. “Sergio wasn’t my friend, and he didn’t give me anything.” He tried to make his voice sound convincing, but even he could hear a note of uncertainty.

  “No, but he left it in your room at the dive shop. We tried to keep you out of the conflict, amigo. We waited until you left your room the next day. But when we went to retrieve the item…” He held his hands out, fingers splayed. “It is our property. We want it back.”

  “Your fr
iends in Cozumel didn’t mention any of this.” The shadow of an ache throbbed in Ben’s jaw at the memory of his previous encounter with the Reynosa cartel when he’d caught them searching the scuba boat. “Why have your people waited so long to contact me? Why mess around with searching my place, busting out my car window?”

  The man shrugged. “Mexican wheels turn slowly. You lived there. You know this.” A smile crept onto his face as he glanced toward Nikki. He raised his voice loud enough for her to hear. “But I am not one to let an opportunity pass. The pretty señorita is an opportunity. So, if you will just turn over the item, my friend will release the girl. She can go home to her family. That will make her happy, yes?”

  At his words, Nikki’s eyes widened. She drew a sharp inward breath. Her gaze snapped to his face. What he saw there looked dangerously close to panic.

  The smile on the man beside him deepened. “The señorita is very pretty, amigo. A shame to let anything happen to her.”

  The fingers gripping Nikki’s arm bit into her flesh. From where he stood, Ben could see the reddened skin in the fleshy part of her upper arm. Then he noticed something else—the fingers of the thug’s other hand were curved around her waist. He clearly saw all four of them. Impossible to hold a weapon and still grip her waist like that. The only thing holding Nikki captive was that thug’s bare hands. If Ben rushed the guy, maybe he could break his hold.

  Still, the tough guy had managed to manhandle her through the crowd once. He could certainly do it again. If Señor Mouth here, the one doing all the talking, delayed Ben for even an instant, she would disappear into the masses in a heartbeat. And if they took her away, would he ever be able to find her?

  Ben made a decision. His attempts to avoid becoming entangled with the Reynosa cartel had failed. Now he’d endangered Nikki, too. And for what? Let them have their proof against the dirty senator. He wasn’t going to do anything with the flash drive, anyway. He spoke loud enough for Nikki and her captor to hear.

  “Okay, I’ll give it to you.”

  Nikki’s shoulders deflated as the breath whooshed out of her lungs. Señor Mouth nodded.

  “A wise decision. Hand it over, and you will not see us again.”

  “I can’t.” Ben gulped as the man’s face hardened. “I mean, not right this second. It’s not here. I hid it in Mexico.”

  Señor Mouth cocked his head sideways and studied him through narrowed eyes. “Tell me where. I will make a phone call, and then we will wait. When the item is recovered, you and the señorita will be free to go.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone.

  Ben shook his head. “You’ll never find it on your own. In fact, it might not even be there anymore. It might have washed away.”

  “You hid it underwater?”

  Either he was really quick, or the Reynosa people had already considered the possibility. Probably the latter. This guy looked like he’d been selected for brawn more than brains. Ben nodded.

  He slid the phone back in his pocket. “Then you had better pray the tide has not swept it away. You will get it yourself.” An unpleasant grin appeared on his face. “And we will keep your friend safe until you return.”

  Nikki watched him, her blue eyes intense as the ocean in a storm. He could catch an early morning flight to Mexico, hitch a boat ride to the dive site, retrieve the flash drive and turn it over to someone in the Reynosa organization by tomorrow afternoon. But there was no way he was leaving Nikki with this pair.

  He scanned the constantly moving crowd around him. Through the entire conversation, nobody had paid any attention to them. The sun hovered inches above the horizon, and those in their vicinity were focused on watching. Tourists snapped pictures. A clown on stilts took small steps through the crowd, making his way to a less populated area of the pier.

  “That’s not how it’s going to work,” he told the Latino man.

  Señor Mouth shook his head, laughing. “Amigo, you are not in a position to—”

  He didn’t have an opportunity to finish his sentence. At that moment, the clown drew alongside them. The people backed up to give him room to pass, and, as Ben expected, pressed close to the Reynosa operative. For no more than a second, the man’s attention was diverted as he glanced over his shoulder to see who had pushed him. Ben cocked his arm forward and then landed an elbow right in the Latino’s solar plexus. The man doubled over, gasping.

  Ben wasted no time in dashing forward, intending to throw his arm around the neck of the one who held Nikki and pry him off her. But she was as quick thinking as ever and apparently anticipated his action. She raised her leg and stomped on the thug’s foot. Though her effort would have had more effect if she’d been wearing those spiky heels she used to like instead of sandals, it served to startle her captor enough that his grip loosened slightly. At the same moment, she twisted sideways. He still held her arm, but now her body was not between him and Ben.

  Ben lowered his head and charged with as much force as he could gather in the short distance. The top of his head connected with the guy’s chin. That freed Nikki from his grasp. When she jerked away, Ben did the first thing he could think of. He shoved the startled man as hard as he could. His body tumbled backward, over the top of the waist-high railing, and landed with a sickening thud on the concrete. With an audible groan, the thug doubled up on the ground and rolled sideways. Fortunately for Ben, he rolled away from the railing. In the next instant, he disappeared over the edge of the pier.

  The splash as he hit the water twelve feet below seemed to electrify the crowd. A woman screamed, and then another, and within seconds, people were shouting and climbing over the railing, trying to get to the edge of the pier to help the man up. Ben lost sight of Señor Mouth as the crowd surged forward.

  He grabbed Nikki’s hand. “Come on.”

  They pushed through the mass of people, holding tightly to each other’s hands. Ben knew he had no choice. There was only one way to end this nightmare. He had to return to Mexico and retrieve that flash drive.

  SIX

  Nikki clutched the armrest of Ben’s old Ford and tried not to turn around again to stare at the headlights through the back window. Were they being followed? It was too dark to see the occupants of the car behind them. In the driver’s seat beside her, Ben’s glance kept going to the rearview mirror.

  “Do you think they’re back there?” Her question quivered.

  He flashed a sideways glance toward her. “I don’t think so. Most of the cars that followed us out of Key West have passed us by now.”

  They zoomed along U.S. 1, the wind from the open windows louder than the music that crackled through the speakers. On Nikki’s right, an ocean of endless darkness stretched as far as she could see. They’d driven through Florida’s Lower Keys and were nearing the end of the Seven Mile Bridge.

  This is so not how I expected to spend my thirtieth birthday. Not who I expected to spend it with, either.

  She stole a glance at Ben. He had acted bravely, even heroically, back on the pier. And not just when he attacked the man holding her. Her upper arm ached even now from the terrifying grip that had held her captive, and her heartbeat quickened at the memory of the rough fingers at her waist. In those moments when she’d lost sight of Ben, terror had nearly paralyzed her lungs, and she’d thought she might faint from fear. But the look in Ben’s eyes when he found them, the assurance he’d communicated silently to her, had slowed her pounding heart. His presence gave her a sense of safety at odds with her surroundings.

  Just like always.

  Nikki pushed away the disturbing realization and focused her attention on the road before them.

  After they’d forced their way through the crowd at Mallory Square, they’d run the few blocks to Ben’s home. She barely had time to glance around the sparse, three-room apartment while he shoved a few things in a backpack and grabbed his car keys. Her request to go by the condo to pack an overnight bag was overruled. Though his terse tone irritated her, Nikki knew
he was right. Everything vital—her credit cards, vacation cash and passport—was in the fanny pack she was wearing at Mallory Square, because she’d been too anxious to leave any identifying documents back at the condo. Even her suitcases had been stripped of the name tags. She whispered a prayer of thanks for that attack of paranoia. After the disaster at the pier, it was almost a certainty the Reynosa people would go to the resort. If they broke in and searched the place, all they’d find were her clothes and shoes, nothing with her address back in Portland.

  But what if they know my name? The tendril of fear that had wound itself around her insides tightened. If they know who I am, it wouldn’t be hard to find out where I live.

  The bits and pieces she’d been able to hear of the conversation between Ben and the man at Mallory Square came back to her now with frightening clarity. Not once had the Mexican man referred to her by name. Chances were they didn’t know anything about her beyond the fact that she and Ben had known each other in Mexico and had met up again by chance yesterday afternoon near the dive shop where he worked.

  But the more she thought about that, the less likely it seemed the meeting was coincidental.

  What if Allison didn’t send that gift certificate? What if they arranged it?

  As though he could read her mind, Ben’s voice broke into the silence. “Why don’t you try your friend again?”

  The cell phone was warm from being clutched in her hand. She rolled up her window so she could hear, and Ben did the same. When she pressed Redial and held it to her ear, she halfway expected to hear Allison’s voice mail again.

  “Hey, girl!” A familiar voice chirped in her ear. “I hope you’re calling me from a seaside restaurant, where you’re sitting across the table from a gorgeous hunk you picked up on the beach today.”

  The seat belt strap pressed against her shoulder as Nikki straightened. “Allison! Thank goodness you’re there. I’ve been trying to call you all day.”