Love Inspired Suspense December 2013 Bundle: Christmas Cover-UpForce of NatureYuletide JeopardyWilderness Peril

by Lynette Eason

  “Antonia,” her sister said, her voice throaty with emotion. “Are you okay?”

  “Yes, I had an accident, but I’m okay.”

  “Safe from the hurricane?”

  The hurricane was not the greater danger at the moment, but she didn’t want to upset Mia. “Yes.”

  “Where are you? Who was that who answered the phone?”

  Antonia did her best to explain.

  Her sister fell into a surprised silence. “Why are you on Isla?”

  Antonia sighed. “It’s too complicated to go into now. I’ll have to wait out the hurricane here with Reuben, and Paula and Silvio,” she hastened to add. She knew she had to tell her sister the rest. She tucked herself into the corner and lowered her voice. “Hector is here, too.”

  Mia’s shock could not have been clearer if she’d been standing in the room. Paula and Silvio had discreetly disappeared into the hallway, and Gavin sat on the far side of the room, fiddling with his cell phone. Even so, Antonia pulled herself to the farthest recesses of the kitchen and squeezed the phone to her ear.

  “It’s okay,” she said. “I’m keeping close tabs on him.”

  “Stay away from him, please.”

  “Did you find a place?”

  “We managed to get a room to stay in. I watch a woman’s children while she’s at work. They play with Gracie, so she’s okay, but she asks when we can go home and see Daddy and Auntie and Uncle.”

  Mia was sobbing now in earnest. Pain drove deep in Antonia’s chest. Gracie, sweet Gracie.

  “It will be okay. I’ll get some more money together so you can get a better place,” she whispered.

  “How can I tell Gracie about her father? How will I ever explain what I did?”

  That horrible day replayed itself in her mind. Mia had come to Antonia with her suspicions about Hector—the odd phone calls, the dangerous-looking men who had come to the house, Hector’s paranoia underlying a strange and unhealthy energy. Mia was going to leave, take Gracie. She made Antonia promise not to tell Reuben.

  And she hadn’t.

  Instead she’d prayed, gone to the house to help her sister and got there along with the police, who were arresting Mia. Gracie was already sitting in the back of a squad car, her face white, two fingers stuck in her mouth and tears on her cheeks.

  It all came out in anguished bits and pieces. Hector had confronted Mia when he found her attempting to leave. He flew into a rage and promised to take Gracie so far away she’d never be found. Then he went after Mia, who stabbed him with a knife their father had owned, a knife Antonia had recently given her sister after she found it in a box of old belongings.

  There was no mark on Mia. Not the slightest shred of evidence to connect Hector to crimes of any sort or to prove he’d attacked her. Mia admitted she had gone into the kitchen with the knife when she heard Hector, but only for self-protection. The housekeeper testified that Mia screamed at Hector the night before, threatening to leave him.

  Antonia tried to explain it to law enforcement officers. Mia was protecting herself and her daughter. Hector was the criminal. They remained indifferent.

  Worst of all was the doubt in the one person Antonia had needed most to believe her—Reuben.

  Antonia swallowed hard, lowering her voice as much as she could. “Listen, there’s a chance we can find some evidence, something to prove he’s in the mob.”

  Mia sniffed. “No, sis. Stay away from Hector.”

  If she only knew the current situation.

  Mia sighed. “I’m scared.”

  Me, too. She heard noise in the background.

  “I have to go,” her sister said. “Please don’t take any risks. I can’t lose you, too. You’re all I have left.”

  Antonia started to answer, but the phone went dead.

  She replaced it in the cradle, looking quickly over toward Gavin, but he had gone. Even Charley the cat had padded off to some far corner of the hotel. The small lamp glowed on the table, but the gloom overtook it, swallowing up the light. All around, the rain pattered against the covered windows.

  Though Hurricane Tony was an act of nature, she knew Hector had brought a storm of his own to the island. “I’m going to survive it, and I’m going to beat you,” she whispered into the darkness. But what about Reuben? her soul whispered back.

  She could not allow herself to consider Hector’s brother. He had not believed her about Hector before and he wouldn’t now. She was alone. And she would save Gracie any way she could. A noise from the hallway startled her.

  Paula stood in the shadows holding a pile of neatly folded blankets. “You’re to share our room. Silvio won’t want to sleep any time soon. Rest if you can, while the men keep watch.”

  “I can keep watch,” she said. “It’s not just a man’s job.”

  Paula shook her head. “They don’t want you around, can’t you understand that? You tried to ruin the Sandoval family.”

  “They tried to ruin mine,” she cried. “I was protecting my sister.” For some reason she desperately wanted this woman to understand why she had given up the one man she loved more than anyone else. The cost was almost too much to bear.

  “Reuben was protecting his brother, but you see them all the same, paint them all with the same brush. All the Sandovals are evil in your mind, aren’t they?”

  Anguish sloshed in her gut. “They are a criminal family who got my sister thrown in jail.”

  “No,” Paula said coldly. “Your sister got herself thrown in jail and she took her child away.”

  Antonia fought to keep her volume steady. “Tell me the truth. You know Hector is in the business, don’t you?”

  Paula hesitated, tightening her grip on the bundle in her arms. “I don’t know anything.”

  “Yes, you do. You all know Hector is a criminal, but you protect him and that makes you part of it, and Reuben, too.”

  Paula spoke so low Antonia had to move closer to catch it all. “Reuben is only guilty of loving his brother. If you can’t see that, you never deserved him in the first place.” She turned on her heel and moved into the bedroom, throwing the blankets on a small sofa.

  “The bed is mine. Rest while you can.”

  Antonia collapsed on the sofa, her mind spinning in disorienting circles. You never deserved him in the first place. Deserved him? Deserved to be with a man blinded to his brother’s evil?

  She clasped her hands together to pray, but her wild thoughts would not allow it. She settled on alternately pacing and sitting, working through all the details she could remember about her past, their past and what kind of future there could possibly be.

  If they survived.

  If…

  *

  She jerked awake. Minutes later? No, hours, she decided, and the clock confirmed it showing a few minutes after midnight. Paula’s bed had been slept in, but she was not there and the door was ajar. Antonia chided herself for falling asleep and tiptoed to the door. The hotel was quiet. She listened, catching the sound of whispered voices from the kitchen.

  Padding down the stairs, she paused at the bottom, intending to straighten her hair and rumpled clothing before she intruded on the conversation when she caught one word that stopped her.

  “Guilty.”

  “This isn’t the time,” Silvio said, his gravelly voice low but unmistakable.

  “It may be the only time,” Paula answered back. “We’re all a part of this now.”

  “We’ve been a part of it since we started working for the Sandovals,” Silvio said. “Doesn’t matter which one. I’m going up to take my turn at watch. I’ll talk to Reuben as soon as I can.”

  “Do you think Hector knows?”

  There was a pause. “We can only pray that he doesn’t.”

  “But if he does, Silvio? What if he does?”

  “Then there’s going to be blood.”

  *

  Reuben had just returned from a tour of the outside, his clothes were sodden, water running off them onto t
he front doormat as he let himself in again. Paula would not approve of him leaving puddles, no matter what the circumstances. A carafe of coffee sat on the counter along with ceramic coffee mugs. Paula believed foam cups would be the downfall of modern civilization. Though he wasn’t a coffee drinker himself, he was grateful that Paula had managed to make some on the small camp burner. Silvio was enduring the wet misery of the cupola, and the coffee would be a welcome relief.

  Gavin was to watch out the front windows through a sliver of a crack between the boards and check the back door. Since there was no sign of the kid, he was probably sleeping somewhere. The thought made Reuben uneasy. Gavin knew more than he should about the Sandovals. Then again, it was nothing that a simple Google search wouldn’t reveal. Plenty of material—suspicions, allegations, rumors from back in his father’s day. The stuff scandal sheets are made of.

  He jogged up the stairs to the cupola. The sound of snoring mingled with the rain. He pushed through to find Silvio sleeping on a hard wooden chair, shotgun cradled in his arms, mug of coffee perched on the railing.

  Sleeping on guard duty? Reuben smiled. He would get much enjoyment from teasing Silvio about that.

  “Hey, old man. Wake up or it’s K.P. duty for you.”

  Silvio grunted but did not rouse. Reuben shook him more forcefully with no better result. Breath quickening, Reuben shone his flashlight at Silvio, whose face was completely slack. He bent down and slung Silvio firefighter style over his shoulder and carried him down to the lobby, depositing him gently onto the sofa. He called for Paula, who came immediately, still dressed. Antonia followed, also fully dressed, rubbing her eyes.

  Paula let out a cry when she saw Silvio and dropped to her knees at his side. “What happened?”

  “He’s asleep, but I can’t wake him.” Reuben checked Silvio’s pulse and found it steady and strong. “Heart’s okay, I think.” Reuben paused. “He was drinking coffee.”

  Antonia locked eyes with his. Then she went to the kitchen and peered into the top of the carafe. “Reuben, there is some residue at the bottom. Pills, I think.”

  Paula’s face cracked. “He’s been poisoned.”

  “I think just drugged. Sleeping pills probably.” He squeezed Paula’s hand. “He’s going to be okay after he sleeps it off.”

  Paula nodded, blinking back tears, and stroked Silvio’s hand.

  Reuben joined Antonia. “Did you drink any coffee?”

  She shook her head. “No, and I guess Paula didn’t, either. You?”

  “I’m not big on coffee but…” A thought struck him. “Gavin is.” He went to the bottom of the staircase. “Hector, Gavin,” he shouted. “Come down here.”

  There was no answer. He took the steps two at a time to reach the tiny bedroom at the top of the stairs, the one Hector had claimed. Not bothering to knock, he shoved his way through.

  The bed was neatly made. Dread rippled through his insides.

  “Do you think Hector drugged the coffee? Or Gavin?” Antonia said.

  “Why would either one of them do that? We could have all had it and left ourselves helpless.”

  “And at the mercy of Leland and Garza’s men,” Antonia finished.

  Reuben sprinted past her, grabbing his flashlight from the kitchen and heading for the back. He threw open the door, fresh air bathing his face.

  Reuben readied the flashlight. The floor was spattered by the rain intruding through the open door, banging in the wind. He played the flashlight around outside, Antonia doing the same. Nothing. No sign of Gavin, either.

  He peered into the lashing rain. Had his brother gone this way to enact some sort of plan?

  Had Gavin?

  He turned to Antonia. “They’re both gone.”

  “Why would Gavin leave?”

  Reuben shook his head. “I have no idea.”

  They heard the sounds at exactly the same moment; one pierced through the sound of the storm, then two more.

  “What…?”

  Reuben didn’t answer as he sprinted into the storm toward the sound of the gunshots.

  NINE

  Not allowing herself to consider the stupidity of her actions, Antonia ran after him. Perhaps it was the lingering shadow of their years together that pushed her to follow Reuben anywhere in any circumstance. Nature seemed to mirror their past as the storm shoved her along with such force it felt as if she was fighting against an assailant. Driving rain, nearly horizontal now, slammed into her in stinging needles. Fumbling for her light, she flicked it on, the beam picking out rain shrouded cabbage palms nearly bent double. Moonlight flickered through the clouds and then disappeared, advancing and retreating as if teasing them.

  She realized with a start that she could hear nothing but the storm and that she was alone. Dancing shadows made her twitch as she imagined the shooter, whoever it was, taking a bead on the back of her neck.

  Reuben had vanished into the trees just to her right and she followed, grit sticking to the bottom of her shoes.

  “Reuben?” she whispered. Ridiculous, as he wouldn’t be able to hear a thing over the pelting rain, but there was a gunman nearby. She was not familiar enough with guns to know how close the shooter had been. Close enough to kill Reuben, she thought, stomach convulsing.

  She stepped over a fallen tree, landing ankle-deep in water. To her right, what used to be a ribbon of creek bisecting the island on its way to the lagoon was now wide and rushing, adding to the cacophony. A flicker of movement ahead told her Reuben had stopped at the edge of the creek. She caught up as he bent under a thick tangle of dripping branches.

  “What…?” she started to say as loudly as she dared until he shook his head in warning.

  “Go back,” he said, gesturing toward the house.

  She shook her head. “I’m staying with you.”

  “I—” He paused as two bodies came crashing through the foliage. Leland thrashed through a clump of bushes, and two seconds later, Hector followed, throwing himself at Leland’s ankles, sending him sliding across the slick wire grass.

  Reuben leaped toward his brother to assist, but Leland had made it back to his feet and whirled to face them. “Come on, Reuben,” Leland shouted above the rain. “Let’s dance. Mr. Garza wants his island.” He smiled, a ghastly grimace in the darkness, hands loose and ready for a fight, watch glinting in the snatches of moonlight.

  Antonia’s stomach dropped as she finally got a good glimpse of Garza’s man. Though she’d only gotten a quick impression before, she felt sure he was the same person who had followed her from the airport, the man with the gold watch who called the guy on the Jet Ski to collect her. Or watch her drown, she wasn’t sure which. He’d broken into the bungalow when his earlier plans hadn’t worked. The realization stunned her to the point where she almost missed what unfolded.

  Reuben launched himself forward until Hector reached out a hand and caught his brother on the shin, bringing him to the ground so hard she heard the breath come whooshing out of him. Pushing through her stupor, Antonia stumbled in to help when Leland darted forward and grabbed a handful of her hair.

  Pain shot through her head as he yanked her close. “While the boys are busy playing around, you can come along with me. We’ve been waiting for you.”

  She clawed his fingers, trying to pry them loose, and kicked out, but could not make contact and maintain her footing. “Get your hands off me,” she spat.

  “Not likely,” he said with a laugh. Letting go of her hair, he took her wrist and dragged her away from Reuben.

  Heart hammering as hard as the rain that pelted down around them, she allowed herself to be carried along a few steps while she calculated her best means of escape. Wet branches slapped at her face as Leland plowed along. His grip never loosened, so she waited until he maneuvered over a fallen log. Once he stepped up, she snapped her wrist in the direction of his thumb and fingers, the weakest point, and she came loose from his grasp, scrambling backward.

  Leland let out a gro
wl and surged forward. “Naughty, naughty.”

  She had already sprinted away, slipping and sliding, breath coming in frantic gasps as she felt him close the gap. She could hear him slap aside the foliage, twigs snapping as he neared.

  Faster, faster, her mind screamed into the rain. She turned to see him just behind her, his fingers grazing her shoulder, eyes widening as he caught sight of something that made him pull to a stop. He muttered a string of words, which she could not hear, and gave her a jaunty salute.

  “Later then, señorita.” He grinned and sprinted off into the darkness just as Hector and Reuben hurtled into view. They reached her within seconds.

  Reuben grasped her forearms, breathing hard. “Did he hurt you?”

  “No,” she said, sucking in a breath.

  He looked as if he didn’t believe her, his fingers clutching her closer until she was pressed against his chest. “Are you sure?” he whispered raggedly into her ear.

  She closed her eyes and some part of her relished the need she heard there, the echoes of love long past, tender and bittersweet. “I’m okay,” she murmured. I’m okay until you let go, her fickle heart finished. Where had that secret whisper come from? A place that had sealed over long ago. She pulled away, restoring her powers of reason.

  Hector had jogged past them and now he returned, panting hard. “Can’t find him. He’s headed back to the boathouse. I’m going to cut him off.”

  “No,” Reuben yelled over the storm. “You’re going to tell me what happened. We heard shots.”

  Hector started to reply when a branch broke loose in the howling wind and spiraled toward them. Scampering into the trees, they avoided the pinwheeling branch as it crashed by.

  “Let’s get back to the house,” Reuben yelled. “We’ll talk there.”

  Hector nodded, and they made for the hotel, though Antonia was so disoriented by the storm and Leland that she was not sure in which direction they were traveling. Wind tore at her clothes and nearly took her off her feet more than once. Her inner thoughts were just as disconcerting as the storm.

  We’ve been waiting for you.