by Kaylea Cross
“Yes.” God, her heart was hammering. She schooled her features into a calm mask, determined to hide her anxiety as he took the bag from her, checked that everything was in it and then walked over to toss it into a garbage can nearby.
“Step out. We’re switching vehicles.”
She got out, stiffened when he pulled something out of his coat pocket.
His dark eyes met hers in the dim light filtering into the alley, a flare of sympathy flashing in them. “It’s a detector wand, not a gun,” he said softly, and stepped toward her.
She stood absolutely still as he ran the device over the length of her body, pausing at the bottom of her breasts. He glanced up into her face for a moment.
Her heart rocketed into her throat. Had he figured out what she’d done? But he merely finished the sweep down to her feet and back up, stopping once more at bra level.
“Underwire,” she explained tightly, hoping the annoyance covered the stress in her voice. “But maybe you’d like to check my fillings too, just to be safe?” She raised an eyebrow, letting some of her resentment bleed through. It was realistic enough to be believable.
David lowered his gaze and shook his head, giving a slight wince. “I had nothing to do with that, by the way.” Before she could say anything, he pulled out his phone and called someone. “We’re ready. All clear? Good.”
He was tucking his phone away when a car pulled into the far end of the alley. A minivan. “This is us. Come on.” He grasped her upper arm and walked her to the waiting vehicle, his grip gentle but firm.
“Where are we going?” she asked, hoping she hadn’t damaged the chip during the transfer. If she had, she was screwed.
“Home,” was all he said.
Oceane climbed into the back with him behind the two men up front, and they drove away.
A sense of unreality hit her. After all this time she was about to face the monster who had haunted her dreams since the terrible night when those armed men had stormed her home. Marking the beginning of the destruction of her entire world.
I’m going to face him for you, Mami, she vowed as she stared out the window as the darkened city passed by. I’m going to get answers.
And then I’m getting us both the justice we deserve.
Chapter Seventeen
Until this moment, Manny had never known time could pass so slowly. It felt like he’d been waiting days instead of minutes for the call to come in.
His heart jumped when his cell phone rang. David. “Yes?” He held his breath, awaiting the reply. Please let her be there. Let her be okay.
“We’re five minutes away.”
A huge smile broke over his face, relief rushing through him. They’d done it. It had worked. “She’s there?”
“Right next to me.”
He closed his eyes, sagged forward to plant a hand on the tabletop. Thank you, God. Thank you. He’d waited so damn long for this. “Is she all right?”
“Of course. Do you want to talk to her?”
“No. Not yet.” He needed a few more minutes to compose himself, and he didn’t want their first words to each other after all this time to be over the phone.
The reunion he’d dreamed of was tempered by the knowledge that she had been working with the Americans and his own government. This might well be a trap, but his men were careful and he was willing to risk it. They had emergency evacuation procedures in place just in case something went wrong.
His first priority, however, was his daughter’s safety. Even if there was an attack, he would not leave without her.
He rubbed a hand over his mouth, his mind working fast. He’d thought many times of what he would say to her if he ever had the chance. Oceane would be angry and scared and confused and he didn’t blame her for any of it. He had a lot of work to do if he wanted a chance at repairing the damage he’d done to their relationship.
Manny didn’t deserve another chance with her, not after the things he’d done, but he would take it. More than that, he would guard it, nurture it with all of his energy for the rest of his life, however long that might be. As of tonight he was a new man, with a new life waiting for him.
The mansion’s security system beeped a few minutes later, alerting him that a door had been opened. His pulse thundered in his ears as he stood in the entryway to the kitchen and waited.
David appeared first, his face lit with a secret smile. Then he stepped aside, revealing the beautiful young woman standing behind him.
Manny exhaled in a painful rush as Oceane stepped forward, barely stemming the impulse to rush over and wrap her up in his arms. Looking at her was like a punch to the gut. It had been almost a year since he had last seen her. How could he have forgotten how the sight of her made it feel as though his heart would burst open?
Her skin was a pale, creamy brown, shades lighter than her mother’s had been, her hair a deep chocolate and less tightly curled, but the eyes and everything else about her were pure Anya.
A wall of emotion hit him, the force of it taking him off guard. His throat closed up, guilt and grief and regret all but choking him.
She stopped where she was, her body stiff, her blue-gray eyes cold as winter as she stared back at him. Full of hatred and a loathing that shredded him inside.
His fault. All his fault. God, if he could go back and change the past he would do things so differently. He would have told her the truth long ago and taken more steps to ensure she and her mother were protected. If he had done those things, Oceane would be rushing into his arms right now and Anya would still be alive.
He cleared his throat, unable to help the smile tugging at his mouth. He was so damn glad to see her again. “Hello, Oceane. I’m glad you’re here.”
She didn’t answer, just stared back at him with those icy eyes, the pain embedded there slicing him up.
Patience.
It wasn’t something that came easily to him. He was now accustomed to getting whatever he wanted when he wanted it, but for her he could exercise some patience.
He sighed. “Why don’t we sit down and talk,” he suggested, gesturing behind him to his office. The most secure room in the house, where even a bug David might have missed on her wouldn’t transmit anything.
She studied him a long moment, then relented and took a step forward, gazing around at the lavish décor and furnishings of the main floor. “This isn’t the same house we used to stay in.”
“No. I thought a change of venue was best. Make a fresh start.” The property wasn’t far away from that house, though, only four lots north up the beach.
He took a breath, forced his tight stomach muscles to relax. They would be leaving here in another hour or two, once everything was in place. Then he would have all the time he needed to repair their relationship. Until then, he had to make her comfortable enough to relax a little.
“Just in here.” He stepped aside to let her pass him, aching to hug her the way he used to. There was a time when her face would light up at the sight of him. When she had looked at him like he had hung the moon.
Those days were gone forever. But perhaps they could have something almost as good, in time.
She took the tufted leather chair he indicated as David shut the door for them. She seemed calm enough on the surface, but her nerves showed in the way she rubbed her hands on her thighs and the way her gaze darted around the room.
“Would you like something to drink? Or eat?” he asked.
“No.” She met his eyes, her inner strength shining through. “I’m here, as promised. Where is Agent Hamilton?”
“Nearby.”
“You agreed to release him immediately if I came to you.” She raised her chin, her whole being radiating a defiance that had him hiding a smile. She had more of him in her than she probably wanted to admit. “I honored the terms of our agreement. Now let him go. You promised. I need to see you do it.”
He nodded. “I will within the next hour or so.”
Anger flashed in her eyes. “
No. Now.”
Suspicion took root. “What is he to you?”
She faltered for an instant, caught off guard by his question. “An acquaintance.”
She was lying. “He must mean more to you than that, given your reaction.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Your men tortured him,” she said in disgust.
Manny didn’t react, though his conscience squirmed a little under the censure in his daughter’s gaze. “I’m not involved with any of that.”
She stared at him in disbelief. “They’re your men. And no matter how involved you are or aren’t, you didn’t stop it, either.”
Sighing, he leaned back in his chair. He’d been hoping to delay this conversation until later, but it was clear they had to have at least part of this out here and now. “Whatever they told you, there are many things going on here that you don’t know about. Things you don’t understand.”
Her mouth twisted into a bitter smile. “I wonder why that is?”
“I was trying to protect you. You were just a little girl.”
She shot from her chair, hands knotted into fists at her sides. “No. I haven’t been a little girl in a long time. You were trying to control me. Keep me ignorant of everything that was going on. Hiding the truth from me as much as possible, and, stupid me, I believed it all. My entire life has been a lie.”
SHE WAS SHAKING inside, slowly coming apart at the seams, stitch by stitch.
None of this was going according to plan. Oceane had expected some deviation, but not this. Not arriving at the wrong house and Brock still being held prisoner.
Was the tracking device still working? She wasn’t even sure this place was in the same neighborhood as the house she had shown Taggart and the others, and without the tracker the taskforce would never find her.
Nieto’s expression was so damn calm she wanted to scream at him. “I know you’re upset. And I understand it’s my fault.”
“You’re damn right it’s your fault. It’s all your fault.” Now that she was here before him, she couldn’t keep the acidic words inside her any longer. If she didn’t let them out, they would eat her alive.
Nieto drew in a deep breath, held up a hand. “Look. I realize there are a lot of things we need to talk about. But I need you to know that everything I did, everything I hid from you, was for your protection. I did everything in my power to keep you safe, and even that wasn’t enough in the end. When I heard that you and your mother had been attacked at home, I thought…”
He stopped, seemed to struggle to hold onto his composure before continuing. “I feared the worst. And ever since I found out you had fled to the States, I’ve been working to bring you back here the whole time, so I could explain everything where I know you would be safe.”
She shook her head, emotions ripping through her in a chaotic torrent. Betrayal. Rage. Grief. A deep, aching sadness that would never go away. “You had a tracking device implanted in my mouth without me knowing. You hunted us down in D.C. because you were afraid we had betrayed you, and then you killed my mother.”
He blanched and shook his head, emphatic. “No. No, I swear it. I sent Arturo to get you, bring you back to me. Juan was supposed to locate you with the tracking device and have his men provide security during the extraction, that was all.”
All? Oceane stared at him, her heart imploding.
The tears she had been battling were too much to hold back any longer. They dripped down her cheeks and she angrily swiped them away. Her voice shook as much as her body as she responded. “Those men raped her, do you understand? They violated her. Then they butchered her with knives. I was there. I saw her stumble out of the house, naked, bleeding from all the wounds.”
She sucked in a breath and jabbed an accusing finger at him, wished it was a gun instead so she could shoot him in his black, evil heart. “I had to sit there by her side, hold her hand and watch her bleed to death. There was nothing I could do to save her or ease her pain. My mother, the person I loved more than anyone else in the entire world. Do you understand that?” She screamed it, all the pain pouring free after being bottled up for so long.
A terrible silence engulfed the room as he stared back at her.
“Yes,” he finally said, looking ill, his jaw flexing and his hands balling into fists on his desktop. “Believe me, Juan will pay for what his men did. I will see to it.”
Did he really believe that would make anything better? He was insane. “She’s dead because of you. And now you’re dead to me too.”
His expression turned stricken. “No. Don’t say that.”
She shook her head, held up a hand to stop any other arguments. She didn’t want to hear his lies. “I’ve said everything I had to say to you. I came here to see you, did everything I said I would. Now free Agent Hamilton and let me go. You and I are done.”
“We’re not done,” he shouted, slamming his hand on the desk.
She jumped and sucked in a breath, ready to bolt for the door. His face was red, his eyes bulging in a way that terrified her. She’d never seen him like this, the monster beneath the handsome veneer slipping above the surface. While she hadn’t expected him to just let her walk out of here, until this moment she hadn’t been afraid that he would hurt her.
Now she wasn’t so sure. But even if she got out of this office, she would have to get past David, and David would do whatever her father told him to.
Her father struggled with himself for a long moment, then exhaled and leaned back to regard her more calmly. “All right. You’ve said your piece. Now you’re going to listen to mine.” He thrust a finger at her chair. “Sit down.”
“N-no.”
“Sit. Down.”
“Or what? You’ll hurt me too?”
Something flashed in his eyes. Surprise? “Don’t push me.”
The menace in those quiet words sent a shiver through her. Reaching behind her, she gripped the arms of the chair and dropped onto the seat, her pulse hammering in her throat.
Someone knocked on the door. David opened it. He glanced between them, his gaze pausing on her almost in concern for a moment before he addressed her father. “He’s on the way. Should be here in about ninety minutes.”
“Thank you,” her father muttered, his eyes still spearing her. “We’ll be out shortly.”
David shut the door and a chill rippled up her spine as his words registered.
“You are my only child,” her father continued as though there had never been an interruption. “My sole heir. While I’ve been searching all over for you, I’ve also been reorganizing my estate. It’s true that a sizeable amount of what I have came from less than legal means. But everything else came from legitimate sources.”
“Some of which I unknowingly helped you launder,” she snapped, sick with rage and despair. And alarm. She wanted out of here. Had stupidly thought Nieto would let Brock go if she came.
His jaw flexed again, but this time he let the verbal slap go. “I pushed you into becoming a financial adviser for a reason. I knew that someday you would have a huge amount of money to manage, and I wanted to be sure you could handle it. Now the time has come. I’ve been restructuring everything so I can begin to show you what I’ve created, let you take over more and more of the business side until I pass it all to you when I die.”
“I don’t want your filthy blood money.”
“It’s yours, whether you want it or not. It’s your birthright. And I’m going legitimate. I wouldn’t expect you to work with or keep money that came from my other sources.”
Like that made it okay? Did he honestly think she would want this? Even consider it, or…she didn’t know, be happy about it? He was insane.
He waved a hand impatiently. “I realize that you and I have a lot of things to work through. I can only hope that in time we can rebuild at least part of what we had. It will take effort on both our parts, but you have to know that even with all that’s happened, no matter what happens, I have always loved you and always will.”
It hurt. Hurt so bad it felt like her chest was being split open. Because she’d loved him too once. Loved him to pieces. To the point where had she and her mother not been driven from their home that awful night, she might have been able to forgive him for lying to her about everything else once she’d learned the truth.
Maybe. Though she would never know now. Too much had happened. She would never give him another chance.
“Who’s on the way?” she demanded now, desperate to change the subject because it was all she could do not to launch herself across the desk and attack him. “What did David mean?”
He hesitated a moment before answering. “My pilot.”
No. “What?” she gasped.
“We’re leaving.”
Like hell.
She shoved to her feet and took a stumbling backward step toward the door, afraid to take her eyes off him, her heart thundering in her chest. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
His jaw tensed, a sign his patience was growing thin. “Yes, you are.”
She whirled and lunged for the doorknob. Managed to twist it and yank the door open, only to run smack into David. He caught her by the upper arms to steady her.
But then his fingers locked around her arms like manacles, and the taut expression on her face made her insides shrivel.
His black gaze cut to her father, still behind his desk. “They’re attacking the other house.”
Oceane gasped, cringed when her father shot to his feet, his livid gaze snapping to her. Scalding her with its fury. “What did you do?” he demanded. “How did you know?”
“There’s no time for this,” David interrupted, tugging her firmly into his side. Protecting her from Nieto, yet unwilling to let her go.
She pulled and struggled, frantically tried to get free, her mind racing. Nothing in her world made sense anymore. She needed to get the hell out of here. Find a way to escape.
Nieto’s lethal gaze swung from her to David. “You know what to do. Go.”
Go where? Oceane dug in her heels and tugged against David’s grip, shaking her head. “No.”