“First, they’re not going to release RJ without some solid proof that you know where the drugs and weapons are. Second, don’t discount the idea that they’re not going to know what the CIA is up to. Computer hacking, leaks, moles—these are all real concerns in the intelligence community. Just as we monitor their chatter, they monitor ours.”
“I thought as much.” She burrowed back into the sofa. Hunching her shoulders, she buried herself deeper into her sweater.
That was not the answer she’d wanted from him, but he wasn’t going to risk RJ’s life...and he wasn’t going to let the CIA or Ariel risk that child’s life either.
He couldn’t watch her sitting comatose in the corner of that sofa just waiting and worrying.
“Let’s order something to eat. We haven’t had anything since Fernanda fed us lunch, and that seems like a lifetime ago.”
“We can’t leave. I’m not walking out of here with RJ missing to have a meal.”
“I said order. Pizza?”
She flicked her fingers. “Whatever you like. I can’t stomach the thought of food.”
He crossed the room to pick up Joanna’s landline, holding up the buzzing receiver. “Any recommendations?”
“Supreme Pizza.” She pulled out her cell phone. “The number’s in here.”
Not wanting to tie up her phone, he punched in the number on the landline and handed Gina’s cell back to her. When he gave the pizza place Joanna’s phone number, the guy on the phone already knew the address.
“Extra-large pepperoni and a house salad, Italian dressing.” He glanced at Gina and she shrugged.
While they waited for the pizza, Josh typed up some notes on his laptop and Gina watched TV without seeing a thing. Josh shot a few worried glances her way. He almost wished she’d wail and gnash her teeth in her grief. It would be easier to comfort her.
Right now she looked as brittle as a dried stalk of wheat that, once touched, would break apart and scatter. If that happened, he’d lose her for sure.
He didn’t know what Vlad’s people were waiting for, but he was almost certain it was Vlad who had RJ and not Los Santos. The drug dealers were much less discreet than the terrorists—and not as highly trained.
The buzzer for the front door of the building startled them both, and Josh shoved away from the counter where he’d been working to press the speaker button. “Yeah?”
“Pizza delivery for Joanna.”
“Stay there. I’ll be right down.”
Gina looked over the pillow she was hugging to her chest. “My mom usually lets him in and invites him up.”
“Not this time. I’ll be right back.”
Josh stuffed some cash in his pocket and dashed downstairs to the lobby, waving at the security guard on duty. He opened the door for the pizza guy just as a couple was coming through the front door.
“Thanks and keep the change.” Josh handed the kid some money and put the bag with the salad on top of the big pizza box and carried it to the elevator.
Back in the condo, he dished some salad into bowls and tossed a couple of pieces of pizza onto two plates. “Come and join me at the counter. I’ll even throw in a glass of red wine.”
“I couldn’t...”
“What? Eat or drink while your son is missing?” He pulled out one of the high stools tucked beneath the center island in the kitchen. “C’mon. You’ll need your strength when that call comes through, and a little wine will help you relax while we wait.”
She tossed her security pillow to the side and shuffled to the counter. “Why haven’t they called? Where is he?”
“They’ll call. They want that info and they’re not going to jeopardize that by harming RJ.” He poured a glass half-full of a red wine he’d found on a small wine rack beneath the island counter. “Drink.”
She sipped the wine, closing her eyes. Then she took a bigger gulp and set down the glass with a sigh.
“Already unwound a few of those muscles, right?”
Cupping the glass with both hands, she said, “I’m scared.”
“I know you are, Gina.” He brushed his fingers along her arm. “You’d be crazy not to be worried, but we got this—and then they’ll pay. I’ll make them pay.”
A cell phone buzzed and he and Gina locked eyes for a few seconds.
She plunged her hand in her pocket, bobbling her phone and almost dropping it before holding it in front of her face. “Unknown number.”
“It’s them. Speaker.”
She nodded and swallowed. “Hello?”
“What did you collect from that bank, Gina? And is it worth your son’s life?”
Chapter Seventeen
Gina’s heart hammered so loudly in her chest she could hardly hear her own response. “I have the information you want. Where’s my son?”
“He’s fine. Playing with his companion, Diego.”
“I need to speak to him. I need to see him.”
The man spoke away from the phone. “Isabella, bring the boy here.”
A woman’s voice cooed in the background. “It’s your mama. Say hello.”
“Hi, Mama.”
Gina’s throat closed with tears, which overflowed from her eyes. “RJ, how are you? Are you having fun?”
“Playing with Diego. We ate hamburgers.”
“Lucky.” She dashed a tear from her cheek with a balled-up fist. “Where are you?”
“At Diego’s.”
The sound of a clicking tongue came over the line. “Did you really think RJ was going to give you directions? As you can tell, he’s fine. Now, what did you pick up at the bank?”
Josh tapped her phone and then pointed to his eyes.
“I—I want to see RJ.”
“For God’s sake. The boy is fine.” After some noise in the background, the man heaved a heavy sigh. “All right.”
A minute later, a picture of RJ holding a French fry and smiling came over the phone, and Gina traced his precious face with her finger.
The man growled, “Well?”
Josh had been writing on napkins and shoved the first one at her.
She read from the napkin. “‘The weapons and the drugs are in a tunnel.’”
There was a sharp intake of breath over the phone. “A tunnel, where?”
Josh tapped the paper and she read the words he’d written. “‘A tunnel beneath the US–Mexican border.’”
The man cursed in a language other than English, other than Spanish, and Gina gripped the phone tighter. Los Santos didn’t have RJ, the terrorists did.
“Where is it? Do you have a map?” He paused for a few seconds. “You didn’t already turn this information over to that navy SEAL or the CIA, did you? Because if you did...”
“No!” She knew the end of that sentence and didn’t want to hear it, didn’t even want to think it. “I mean, my... The SEAL knows because he was there with me. He’s here now.”
Josh leaned toward the phone. “What should stop us from turning this over to the US government? Why wouldn’t we, and just lie to you about it? How would you know one way or the other?”
“Oh, we’d know. That’s why this kid is still alive. We haven’t heard anything, otherwise.”
“You have a mole?”
“Where’s the tunnel?”
“Where’s Gina’s son?”
“She’ll get him back, safe and sound, once we get our weapons, the weapons her lying, cheating father stole from us. If the CIA hadn’t killed Hector De Santos, we would’ve done it for them. We’d upheld our end of the deal and delivered the drugs and he didn’t turn over the weapons, as planned. You can blame your father for all of this.”
Gina covered her eyes with her hand. She blamed them all.
“Listen�
�” Josh picked up the phone “—you’re not getting this information until RJ is in his mother’s arms. We’ll meet you in Mexico. We’ll guide you in from there once Gina has her son.”
Lifting her hand, Gina peeked at Josh. He was serious. They were all going to meet out by this tunnel in Mexico.
The man on the other end of the line grunted. “That could work, but if you call in the CIA, the FBI, the DEA, the US military, we’ll know about it—and the deal is off and things won’t end well for Hector De Santos’s grandson.”
Gina put her hands to her ears and suppressed a moan that had started deep in her gut.
Josh stroked her hair. “I believe you. We won’t call anyone.”
Josh spent the rest of the conversation telling the man, who called himself Yuri, where to meet them in the Sonoran Desert and working out a plan for an exchange.
When Josh ended the call, Gina folded her arms across her stomach. “What are you going to do? You’re not going to allow a band of terrorists to walk away with a cache of weapons, are you?”
“No. I don’t think Los Santos is going to allow it either.”
“What do you mean?”
“I told the scumbag on the phone that I wouldn’t tell any government agency and I won’t, but I don’t think the terrorists have a mole within Los Santos. Do you?”
“You’re going to tell Los Santos to meet us there, too?” She put one hand to her throat where her pulse was beating wildly. “That could put RJ in so much danger.”
“RJ’s already in danger. We have to have some element of surprise on our side.”
“Why would Los Santos trust you? They can’t possibly believe you’re going to allow them to keep the drugs once they take out Vlad’s people—if they can take out Vlad’s people.”
“Maybe we broker our own kind of deal with Los Santos. Vlad knows who I am, but the drug dealers don’t. They don’t know you’re working with anyone. You can play them off.”
“Me?” She jabbed an index finger at her chest just to make sure. “How can I play them off? What does that even mean?”
“As far as they know, you’re Hector De Santos’s daughter and Ricky Rojas’s widow. You were more than eager to meet up with them when you thought Ricky might still be alive. I’m the jealous boyfriend who wouldn’t allow it.”
“You want me to contact the cartel, don’t you? You want me to make some kind of deal with them.”
“You can turn to them. Tell them the terrorist group has kidnapped your son, Hector De Santos’s grandson and the heir apparent to Los Santos. You want your son back, you want revenge and you want those drugs.”
She had to take another swig of wine for this one. “What about you?”
“Like I said, they don’t know who I am. Why wouldn’t you seek the protection of Los Santos? The last remaining members heard of you, you were at your father’s compound in Colombia when he and your husband were shot and killed. You were grilled by the DEA and never gave up anyone or anything.”
“That’s because I didn’t know anything.”
“They don’t know that. Besides, you knew about the accounts on Isla Perdida and kept mum about those.”
“How are we going to pull this off without endangering RJ?”
“We’ll keep RJ safe. We’ll have to arrange some kind of ambush by Los Santos after you have possession of RJ.”
“Los Santos will get away with the drugs. You know that, don’t you? How could you live with yourself if you allowed that to happen, after all you’ve been through, after what your family went through at the hands of my father’s cartel?”
“The DEA can always go after the cartel. Stopping Vlad is more important right now. Los Santos is the lesser of two evils. We know the location of the tunnel, and the DEA can come in and shut it down.
“It’ll work.” He popped a pizza crust in his mouth. “We’ll make it work.”
“Will it satisfy the people you report to?”
“It will hinder Vlad, and that’s what they care about.”
“Los Santos will want those weapons back.”
“They’re not going to get them. That I can’t allow.”
“You have a plan for those, I suppose?”
“Oh, yeah. Think about it.” He crumpled a napkin and fired it into the lid of the pizza box. “We have a huge advantage over both Vlad and Los Santos—we’re the only ones who know the location of that tunnel.”
“What do we do next?”
“Before we fly out to Tucson tomorrow, you’re going to contact Los Santos. Reply to the number they used to text you. Tell them you need their help and are willing to turn over Hector’s drugs to get it.”
“I hope they believe me.”
“Why wouldn’t they? You were afraid of them before. You thought they were going to kill you for information you didn’t have—now you do have it.”
“The people in Isla Perdida—were they Vlad’s or the cartel’s?”
“I think the man in the red tie who conveniently passed out on the plane was Los Santos. The couple and the assassin in the boat were Vlad.”
“And you?”
“I’m just the jealous boyfriend who wants a little piece of the action.”
Licking the taste of spicy pepperoni from her lips, Gina eyed her cell phone. “Should I do it now?”
“Send them a text.”
They worked out the text together on the napkin first, and then Gina entered it into her phone.
I know where the drugs are. They have RJ. I need help.
She held her breath as the message zipped through. If this didn’t work, she could die. RJ could die. She had to trust that Josh wouldn’t let that happen. She had to trust the man who had killed RJ’s father.
Gina stared at the display on her phone until her eyes grew tired and dry, until Josh had cleaned up all the dishes and wrapped up the pizza, until her wineglass was full again.
“Go to bed.” Josh brushed a finger across her lips. “They’re not going to answer any faster with you staring at the phone.”
She dragged her gaze away from the cell. “What if Los Santos doesn’t answer at all? What if they don’t believe me?”
“They want those drugs. That haul represents millions and millions of dollars to them and their street cred. If Los Santos wants to ride again, they need to prove they have the goods and the guts to carry on without the brains behind the operation.”
“I hope you’re right, or we’ll be going out to Mexico tomorrow to face Vlad’s people with nothing.” She cupped her phone in her hand just as it buzzed, and she jumped.
Josh raised his brows at her, but she shook her head. “It’s a text from Mom. Should I tell her I talked to RJ?”
“Don’t tell her anything.”
She responded to her mother and then dumped the rest of her wine in the sink. She needed a clear head to confront what was coming her way.
As they both turned to face the stairs, she grabbed Josh’s hand. “Stay the night with me? I can’t be alone.”
“You’re not alone.” He placed his hands on her hips and followed her up the stairs.
Later in bed, she nestled her back against Josh, whose arm was draped around her waist. “I wonder if RJ is afraid. I wonder if he knows something isn’t right.”
“His captors are going to do everything in their power to make him comfortable. They have to bring him to Mexico, and they don’t want an uncooperative subject. I’m sure they’re telling him he’s going to meet you there. He’s probably still with Diego.”
“Whoever that child is.” Gina squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the guilt she felt for sending RJ into the unknown.
Just as she started to drift off, Josh’s arm still securely around her, the cell phone in her hand buzzed.
/> She jerked awake and Josh said, “Is it them?”
Peering at the screen glowing in the dark, she read aloud from the text. “‘Welcome home, paloma.’”
* * *
THE NEXT DAY, Gina stood in the middle of the Sonoran Desert as the wind whipped her hair across her face and sand pelted the back of her neck.
While they were in Arizona, Josh had called upon a buddy of his, a retired marine who’d worked bomb demolition. Josh had explained that Connor Delancey not only knew how to take apart explosives, he knew how to put them together.
Gina squinted through the binoculars at the rocks guarding the cave’s entrance and said a little prayer for Josh and Connor as they rigged explosives among the weapons and drugs that were tucked inside the miles-long tunnel beneath the earth. Without her father’s map, the location would be completely hidden.
She hoped RJ was miles away from that tunnel when it blew. They were counting on Los Santos to provide a diversion and some chaos so that Josh could get away from the tunnel and trigger the explosion.
Movement near the entrance of the tunnel had her tightening the grip on her .22. When Josh waved his arms over his head, she sagged with relief even though they still had a long way to go.
Five minutes later, the two men were back in Connor’s four-wheel drive.
“Did everything go okay? Do you think it’s going to work?”
“As long as this guy does his job as well as I’ve done mine.” Connor jabbed Josh in the ribs with the end of a stick he’d picked up on his way into the tunnel.
Gina grabbed her hair with one hand, holding it in a ponytail. “How long?”
Josh checked his watch. “Two hours before I give Vlad’s people their final directions to this spot in the desert.”
Connor clapped Josh on the back. “Do me a favor, dude.”
“Let me guess—pictures?”
“You got that right.” Connor framed his hands in the air. “Just the moment it all detonates.”
“Hopefully, we’re going to be too far away to get any good pictures.”
“C’mon, man. You’re going to deny an artist his moment in the sun.”
“You’ve got issues, Connor. I’ll do what I can.”
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