by Elise Noble
As he brushed his teeth, he heard her on the balcony, speaking softly into the phone in Spanish, and he hoped it was good news.
“How’s Eduardo?” he asked once she’d hung up.
“Small improvements. He responds to pain, sometimes he mumbles stuff, and he’s opened his eyes a few times.”
“Does he recognise anyone?”
“Not yet.”
That old man had better pull through. After all, he’d been the one who’d started this.
“Have you thought about how we broach the subject of Rafael with the Garcias yet?”
“Nope. I was kind of hoping you’d come up with a brainwave.”
“Sorry. But once he gives us the name of his client, we’ll have a bargaining chip.”
Emmy flopped onto the bed and stared out the window. “I’m still pissed he hasn’t told me yet.”
“What would you do if he did? Go running off to Colombia?”
Silence.
“Well?”
“I suppose I would. You’re so similar, do you know that? Both stubborn assholes.”
“Yes, I know.” Black lay down beside his wife and wrapped her up in his arms, as was his custom. Both to keep himself safe and because he loved her more than life itself. “Get some sleep, Diamond.”
CHAPTER 38 - CORA
NEVER IN MY life did I think I’d enjoy cleaning, but dealing with the aftermath of the sprinkler incident sure beat working on my back. Nevin had been furious, of course, especially when he had to start cancelling clients.
“What the hell happened?” he demanded. “Did the system malfunction?”
“Looks as if a candle fell over in one of the rooms upstairs,” an ape said. “At least the whole place didn’t burn down.”
“How? How did a candle ‘fall over’?” He used air quotes around the words, and his pinky ring flashed in the moonlight streaming through the window.
“One of the clients got rough with Mercedes, so it probably happened in the struggle,” Greg said. “We didn’t notice because we were too busy cutting her free.”
“And checking she was still breathing,” Leandro added.
There wasn’t a lot Nevin could say to that, so he just paced the dungeon, his slimy little hands balled at his sides.
“Nobody gets any time off until this mess is cleared up. And candles are banned. Banned!”
The electronic door locks malfunctioned from all the water, which meant the guards had to resort to keys to lock us into our rooms that night. Greg took me upstairs, but when we walked past Leandro, he winked, and I knew exactly what he’d done. He’d saved me again.
That night was the first in over a week I’d spent apart from him, shivering in darkness under a soggy quilt. Yesterday, I’d woken in his arms again, my head resting on his chest. Talk about awkward. At least I hadn’t drooled, and neither of us said anything as we wriggled back to our respective sides of the bed.
But now I was alone again, and I came to the worrying realisation that I really didn’t like it.
Logically, I understood that Leandro couldn’t fetch me, not when playtime was banned. If the cameras were still working, it would look suspicious as hell. But that didn’t stop me from jerking my head towards the door at every sound, every squeak or shuffle from the hallway. Where was he? What was he doing?
I barely slept a wink, and when an ape unlocked my door in the morning, I yawned before I even sat up.
“Why haven’t you showered?”
“Is the electricity on again yet?”
“No, but you have water.”
“What about light? My bathroom doesn’t have a window.”
He scowled at me. “Hurry up and get ready. We’ve got this whole fucking house to clean, and Nevin’s pissed.”
The guard made no move to close the door, and I wasn’t about to strip off in front of him, so I just rolled out of bed in my damp pyjamas, stepped over the puddle of last night’s leather underwear, and reported for duty.
Mierda, the place was a mess. The sprinklers had only run for two minutes, maybe three, but they’d left pools of water everywhere, and the house already smelled of damp. The lounge and the dining room were bright with all their windows, but gloom veiled every other area and I dreaded venturing into the basement.
Nevin held a clipboard as he stood in a sunbeam. “Greg went out this morning and bought mops and buckets for everyone—thank you, Greg—and we’ve got three hours to mop up the water before the electrician arrives. Once he’s checked the power, we can bring in dehumidifiers and get this place dried out.” He clapped his hands. “Go. Go!”
I trailed Mercy through to the kitchen, followed by one of the apes, just in case we decided to make a break for it through a double-glazed window or a locked door.
“Are you okay?” I asked in a low voice. “After last night?”
“I wish the whole damn house had burned down.”
“Never give up hope.”
“That’s easy for you to say. Did you know they have cameras in our rooms? I tried to kill myself once, but they saw me and now we’re not allowed kimonos anymore.”
“Someone will find us. They can’t hide us away forever.”
“You think? It’s been three damn years and I’m still here. Nobody’s even looking for me.”
Three years? Joder. “What about your family?”
“What family? None of us has any. That’s who they target. Girls who nobody will miss.”
Well, Roscoe had made a colossal mistake with Izzy, hadn’t he?
The shadow of our designated ape loomed over us. “Enough talking. We don’t pay you to chat.”
“You don’t pay us at all.”
He just laughed.
By late evening, the electricity had been restored, and industrial dehumidifiers hummed in the rooms downstairs. I was still wearing my pyjamas, and every limb ached from mopping and squeezing and moving furniture around.
But my heart jumped a little when Leandro came to escort me back to my room. I’d hardly seen him all day, and at first, I feared he was avoiding me on purpose. Then I realised that of course he was avoiding me on purpose, because if Nevin realised I was Leandro’s friend rather than his fuck-doll, he might suspect last night’s candle issue wasn’t the accident it had initially appeared to be.
“Thank you,” I whispered as we left the lounge.
“I wasn’t gonna leave you with that psycho.”
We stopped talking as another pair of guards walked past with girls in tow. What I wouldn’t give to be able to have a proper conversation again… I waited for their footsteps to recede before I spoke, nervous about the request I was going to make.
“Can I stay with you tonight?”
“No.”
I froze. Yes, I’d been scared to ask, but I’d never truly thought Leandro would turn me down.
“Just walk,” he hissed, and I jumped at his tone.
“Sorry.”
“Shit. I’m the one who’s sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. But the electronic locks are still out right now. Nevin’s got a guy coming in tomorrow to fix them, which gives me tonight to get into his study. I can pick normal locks, and I watched him put his laptop into his desk drawer earlier.”
“What about the password?”
“I used a back door in the software to load a keylogger onto it last night before…you know. I didn’t get a chance to tell you.”
“So you have the password?”
“Yes.”
“What if he catches you?”
“I have to take the chance. It may be the only one we have.”
“But—”
“You know I’m right.”
I did, dammit. I just wished there was another way. Something less risky, because if Nevin saw Leandro in his study again, he’d get madder than Chad.
We reached my bedroom door, and Leandro pressed the length of his body against mine. I knew it was only for the cameras, but a flash of heat still tore through me.
“Under different circumstances, you’d be the beautiful girl on the far side of the club dancing with her friends and wondering why the weirdo by the bar wouldn’t stop staring at her.”
“You should just invite her to dinner.”
“I’d be too nervous.”
“She’s not gonna say no.”
He smiled that tilted smile I liked so much. “I’ll take that under advisement.”
I wanted him to kiss me. No, I wanted to kiss him, but I couldn’t because if anyone was watching on the cameras, that would look strange as hell. But he didn’t go for my lips. No, his fingers crept under my waistband, and before I could gasp in shock, I realised he’d tucked an object in there. Something small. His phone.
“If you don’t see me by the morning, it means I’ve fucked up. Call your brother and tell him to get you out of here. Do you remember the PIN number?”
“Yes, but don’t go.” I tried to grab his wrist, but he stepped to the side and unlocked my door. “We’ll think of another way.”
“But none of them will be quick, and I can’t stand by and watch men hurt you night after night.”
“That’s my decision.”
“No, honeybee, it’s my decision.”
“Honeybee?”
He’d given me a nickname? That was…cute. I kinda liked it.
“You’re sweet as sugar but you’ve got a sting in your tail. Just make sure you use it on Nevin.”
Leandro gave me a gentle push backwards, and I stepped reluctantly into my room. We’d spent most of our time clearing up downstairs, so everything on the third floor was still cold and damp, and we didn’t have the Florida heat to help dry things out.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.” I choked out the words because they didn’t come easy.
He didn’t answer, just gave me a tight smile—no humour, only tension—and closed my door. The lock tumbled, and I was on my own again. The question was, for how long?
CHAPTER 39 - CORA
I STILL DIDN’T have a watch, but the thump, thump, thump of my heart counted down the moments until dawn. Come on, Leandro. Where are you?
How long did it take to break into a computer? What was on it? At first, my nerves were tinged with optimism. By tomorrow, we could have the information we needed and begin plotting our escape. And Izzy’s, because I had to believe that there was some record of where she’d gone.
But as the seconds ticked by, then the minutes, then the hours, I began to lose hope. At one point, I thought I heard voices coming from downstairs, but I didn’t dare to press my ear to the door in case I got caught. Leandro had said the electronic locks weren’t working, but he hadn’t mentioned a thing about the cameras.
Should I call Rafe? The phone grew sweaty in my palm. If Leandro had got caught and I left it too late, his life would be at risk. But if I called too early, Rafe might come barging in and ruin everything. The difficulty was, I didn’t know either man well enough to predict an outcome. No, not even my brother. As a child, patience had never been his strong suit, and I suspected he hadn’t improved with age. Leandro? I trusted his intentions, but could he get out of a sticky situation if one arose?
I wasn’t sure, but I did know I couldn’t bear to lose him. Not just because he was my biggest ally in this hellhole, but also because every moment I snatched with him, I wanted to last an hour. He thought I was out of his league? No, he was out of mine.
The sun began to rise. An orange glow spread over the horizon, followed by yellow. Dammit, where was Leandro? Even if he’d been delayed with the computer, he’d have let me know, surely? Because he wouldn’t want me calling my brother unless it was absolutely necessary.
Yellow turned to white. The black sky turned blue. And still I heard nothing—not a squeak, not a whisper.
Time was up. I had to call Rafe.
I burrowed under the quilt and turned the phone on. A full battery and two bars of signal—not perfect, but a good start. I realised my hands were shaking as I dialled. How did people like Leandro work undercover for a living? I was a wreck.
My grandma answered. “Hola?”
“It’s Cora. Is Rafe okay? I need to speak to him. Do you have a number?”
“He’s right here. Are you okay?”
My whole chest seized. “What do you mean, he’s there? In Medellín?”
If Rafe had gone back to Colombia, then how the hell would he rescue us?
“No, America. We’re all in America. Hold on a moment, and I’ll put you on speaker.”
Grandma had come to America? What about Vicente? And Dores? The line crackled, and I almost cried with relief when I heard my brother’s voice for the first time in weeks.
“Cora? Are you all right?”
“Yes.” Not in the slightest, but I was still breathing while Leandro might not be. “But a friend of mine’s probably in trouble, and I don’t know what to do.”
“Leander Arden?”
“You know about him?”
What? How?
“He’s an FBI agent. What happened?”
Where did I start? “I’m not sure how much time I’ve got to talk. The guards might come.”
“Just give me the basics.”
Another male voice spoke in the background, an American, not Vicente.
“Who’s there with you?” I asked.
“There’s no time to explain everything now. Just know that we’re on our way.”
“I think we’re in North Carolina.”
“We’ve got the exact location from your phone. Tell me what we’re walking into.”
“Eight girls, eight guards, plus the housekeeper and a bastardo pequeño named Nevin.”
“Eight and eight. Are you including yourself and Leander in that?”
“Yes.”
“What about Isabella?”
“She’s not here. The place is a hideous space-age mansion, and she’s not here.”
“I’m looking at a satellite picture right now.”
“And it’s got a huge basement. A dungeon. But you need to be careful because it’s not only you and the FBI after these people. The Mafia went to the last place we stayed at and killed all the men, and…and…” I choked on my words. “They took my friend Hallie as well.”
“Hallie’s fine. She’s in Florida with Dores and Vicente and Grandma.”
“You found her?” A corner of the crushing weight lifted from my chest, then it slammed back down full force when I realised what that meant. “That was you at the house? Not the Mafia?”
“Yes.”
“You killed all those men?”
“Not personally, but I’m gonna buy a drink for the person who did. What did you expect us to do, Corazon? I saw the tapes of them making you walk into those bedrooms.”
I may not have been able to see my brother, but there was no mistaking the anger in his voice. No doubt when he and whoever he worked with got to this place, the guards and Nevin would be facing the same fate, and do you know what? After my initial shock, I couldn’t get upset over that. They’d subjected Mercy and the others to years of abuse, and they deserved everything coming to them.
“Just don’t hurt Leander when you come here.”
“We won’t. Tell me more about the house.”
“It’s got the same electronic locking system as the pink palace in Florida, but it’s broken at the moment, so they’re using keys. Everywhere’s damp because there was a tiny fire and the sprinklers came on, and be careful not to trip over the cables from the dehumidifiers. The layout’s different—the client space is mostly in the dungeon, with a few rooms on the first floor, and Nevin’s office too. That’s where Leander went last night, and he hasn’t come back. What if he’s hurt? Or worse? One of the guards killed a girl in Florida.”
“The blonde? We saw them carrying her out on tape.”
A sob burst out of me. “Her name was Kelsie.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but before I got any words out, I heard footsteps in the hallway outside.
“Someone’s here,” I hissed. “I have to go.”
“Stay strong, and I’ll see you later.”
All night, I’d been hoping for a visitor, but I’d given up hope of it being Leandro. If it was him, I could call Rafe back and beg him to hold off, but I knew in my heart it wouldn’t be. Something had gone terribly, terribly wrong.
The ape didn’t knock, just opened the door and marched right in.
“Time to get up.”
“Is it breakfast already? Isn’t it kind of early?”
Stay calm, Cora. He doesn’t know what you’ve done. Unless they’d beaten the information out of Leandro, of course, in which case I was screwed in an even worse way than usual. How long would Rafe take to get here? Four hours? Five? And then he’d have to work out how to get in, and…
“The boss wants to talk to you.”
“What about?”
“I think you know.”
“He’s going to complain about the mop yesterday? Because I didn’t break it on purpose. The thing wasn’t designed for doing an entire house.”
“Just get your ass out of bed.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck. I shoved the phone under my pillow and got to my feet as slowly as possible. Every second counted. What had Nevin done to Leandro? And what did he plan to do to me?
CHAPTER 40 - BLACK
BLACK THREW THE rented Porsche Cayenne into a curve, taking a perverse pleasure at his wife’s sharp intake of breath. There, see how she liked it. Rafael sat behind Emmy with Ana beside him. They were the advance team, speeding towards yet another mansion, this one near Wilmington. The van was somewhere behind them, but since time was of the essence, Black wanted to go on ahead and get some of the groundwork done so they could go in as soon as the others arrived.
Satellite photos had shown that this new house was more isolated than the last, set amongst trees rather than beside the beach. No doubt that made it easier for the sick fuckers to hide what they were doing, but it also gave Team Blackwood an advantage. Plus it sounded as if the men in the house might be distracted—by Leander, Cora, the fire, the sprinklers, and the inevitable mess that came with all that. Hopefully, they hadn’t gotten much rest, which would also play into Blackwood’s hands. Black’s merry band of men and women had taken it in turns to sleep on the journey, and they’d been in this situation often enough to quash any nerves.