Flirting with Disaster

by Jane Graves

  “We had plans,” he said, moving toward her like a wolf edging toward its prey. “Remember?”

  Sera was silent.

  He took one threatening step after another, backing her against the sofa. “So you want to tell me why you walked out on me?”

  “I’m sorry, Ivan,” she said with as much of a conciliatory tone as she could manage. “I guess I’m still not feeling well. Maybe another time.”

  “No,” he said sharply. “Not another time. Now.”

  When he came closer still and pressed himself against her, she felt something hard at his waist beneath his jacket.

  A gun. He’s got a gun.

  It was all Sera could do to remain calm, to try to think, to find a way to get this man out of her house before he had the opportunity to use that gun.

  Then Ivan looked to one side, his eyes narrowing with confusion. “What the hell is that?”

  Sera turned to where he was looking, and dread shuddered through her. Gabrio’s bag was sitting on the floor beside the sofa.

  “That’s my brother’s,” Ivan said.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “My brother’s bag!” Ivan said. “What the fuck is he doing here?”

  “He’s not here. That’s not his bag.”

  “You think I don’t know what it looks like?” Ivan glared at her. “A little young for you, isn’t he?”

  “Ivan, I’m telling you he’s not here.”

  Ivan turned immediately and strode into the kitchen. “Gabrio! Where are you? Get the hell out here!”

  Ivan came back out of the kitchen and headed up the stairs. Sera raced after him. She grabbed him by the arm and pulled him around. “Ivan! Stop!”

  He yanked his arm from her grip and took the stairs two at a time. He hit the second floor landing and strode down the hall, screaming for Gabrio. Sera raced back through the living room, searching frantically for something to use as a weapon. Anything. Anything that would stop Ivan from going into that bedroom.

  When Gabrio heard the muffled shouts of a man downstairs, he snapped his head around, listening. But it wasn’t until footsteps pounded up the stairs and the shouting became more distinct that he realized whose voice it was, and a cold, ugly fear rose inside him.

  “It’s Ivan,” he said to Adam. “Oh, Jesus. My brother is here!”

  Adam sat up suddenly. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes! It’s him!”

  “Gabrio! Get out of here! Now!”

  But it was too late. A second later Ivan stormed into the room. He stopped short, staring at Adam, then swung his gaze around to Gabrio. A look of utter confusion entered his eyes.

  “What the fuck is going on here?”

  Gabrio heard the drunken slur in his brother’s voice, that tone he’d heard so many times right before a slap to the side of his head or a backhand across the face. But those things were nothing. Nothing compared to what Ivan was going to do to him now. And what he was going to do to Adam. To everyone.

  “He was alive,” Gabrio said. “I couldn’t let you shoot him again! Ivan, please! It’s not right to do this. Can’t you see that?”

  Ivan’s expression leapt into red-hot rage. “What the hell you talking about? You had a job to do, and you didn’t do it!”

  Slowly he reached beneath his coat and pulled out a gun.

  “Oh, Jesus, Ivan! Don’t do this! Please don’t do this!”

  Ivan looked at Gabrio, his eyes cold. “I’ll deal with you in a minute.”

  He raised his gun and pointed it directly at Adam. In that instant, Sera burst into the room behind Ivan, swinging a fireplace poker in a wide arc. She caught him in the upper arm at the same moment he pulled the trigger. A shot exploded, sailing harmlessly into the wall in an explosion of plaster. Ivan stumbled sideways and fell to his knees.

  Gabrio dived at his brother, knocking him to his back and climbing on top of him. Ivan still had the gun clenched in his fist. He smacked Gabrio on the side of the head with it. Gabrio recoiled, but he was so filled with fury, so filled with hate, so filled with disgust for everything his brother was that the pain didn’t even register. Ivan outweighed him by a good thirty pounds, but it didn’t matter. He grabbed his brother’s wrist and smacked his hand that held the gun against the floor, once, twice, until finally the weapon came loose. Gabrio grabbed it, backed away, and scrambled to his feet, pointing it at Ivan.

  Ivan stood, stumbling a little, holding his palms up. “Hey, man, what the hell is this?” He gave Gabrio a shaky smile. “You’re going to shoot me? Is that it?”

  “Take one step, and I will. Swear to God, Ivan. I will.” Ivan laughed, but it sounded hollow. “No, you won’t. I’m your brother. You won’t shoot me.”

  Gabrio’s mind felt dark and sluggish, every horrible second passing like an hour. His hands were shaking so hard he could barely hold the weapon.

  “Give me the gun, kid,” Ivan said.

  “Why?” Gabrio shouted. “So you can kill somebody else?”

  “What do you think you’re doing, holding a gun on your own brother?” Ivan said, anger edging his voice. “Huh, Gabrio? What the hell is that?”

  “I have to stop you!”

  “Give me the gun,” Ivan said sharply, holding out his hand. “Now!”

  “No!” His hands shook wildly. “I’m not giving it to you!”

  “I said give me the goddamned gun!”

  His face twisted with anger, Ivan strode toward Gabrio, his hand out, as if he intended to rip the gun right out of his brother’s grasp.

  Gabrio pulled the trigger.

  The shot seemed to echo a thousand times over in the tiny bedroom. The force of the bullet knocked Ivan backward, his hands flying into the air. He hit the floor on his back, a star-burst of blood staining his shirt.

  And then he was still.

  Gabrio’s mouth dropped open, and for several seconds all he could do was stare down at his brother’s body, his gaze going first to the bloodstain on Ivan’s chest, then traveling upward to his eyes—dark, glassy eyes staring straight into death.

  He’s dead. You killed your own brother.

  Shaking violently, Gabrio dropped his hand to his side, then relaxed his fingers. As the gun clattered to the floor, he fell to his knees beside it, bowing his head, sobs welling up in his throat as anguish overtook him.

  This couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t.

  He felt Sera kneel beside him. She put her arm around his shoulders, and he started to cry. He couldn’t help it. She was talking, saying over and over that it was okay, that he hadn’t had any choice, but Ivan was his brother, his brother. . . .

  A few moments later, Gabrio heard footsteps coming up the stairs and Dave and Lisa burst through the bedroom door.

  “We heard shots,” Lisa said. Then she glanced down at the floor, a look of horror spreading over her face. “Oh, my God. What happened?”

  “I shot him,” Gabrio said, his voice strangled with sobs. “He was going to kill Adam. I had to do something. I had to. . . .”

  Dave knelt beside Ivan. Put his fingers on his neck. He looked up at Lisa and shook his head, confirming what Gabrio already knew.

  He’s dead. He really is dead. Oh, God. . . .

  Gabrio heard Sera telling Dave and Lisa what had happened in a hushed, anxious voice but barely comprehended the words. He felt like he was going to throw up, and he couldn’t stop crying. Then Lisa knelt next to him, pulling him into her arms and holding him tightly, saying the same things Sera had.

  Dave asked Sera for an old sheet, and he spread it over Ivan’s body. Then he turned to Gabrio.

  “I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I’m so sorry this had to happen.”

  Through tear-filled eyes, Gabrio looked up at Dave, wondering why he wasn’t happy that Ivan was dead. Instead, his face was filled with sadness. Then Gabrio looked at Lisa, at Sera, at Adam. He couldn’t believe they were looking at him the same way Dave was, with sorrow that somebody was dead, even if it
was Ivan, a person who’d only made their lives hell. And then he thought back to how he’d told these people that he wasn’t going to say anything against Ivan about the terrible things he’d done.

  He bowed his head again, feeling so stupid for that now. So damned stupid. They had to think he was so dumb for being loyal to somebody so awful, even if he was his brother.

  And they were right.

  Gabrio hated everything that had led to this. He hated his brother for being a criminal, he hated that Ivan had tried to murder people, and he hated Robert Douglas for being the one who had ordered him to kill.

  His head still pounding with misery, Gabrio looked at Lisa. “Robert Douglas. He told Ivan to kill people. Is he going to pay for what he’s done?”

  Lisa glanced up at Dave, sighing a little. “I don’t know. Adam can back up Dave and me and get us off the hook, but by now Robert is on to us. He’ll have covered his tracks. We may never be able to tie him to the counterfeiting network. And if we can’t do that, prosecuting him for anything else . . .” She sighed. “I just don’t know.”

  Gabrio swallowed his tears. “If I told you where they’re making the drugs, would that help?”

  chapter twenty

  Dave stood motionless along with everyone else in the room, staring at Gabrio as if he’d handed them the key to the whole puzzle. And maybe he had.

  “Where?” Dave said.

  “There’s an abandoned mining camp a couple of miles outside town. That’s where they’re doing it.”

  Dave exchanged glances with Lisa. She looked as surprised as he was. “It can’t be.”

  “I’m not lying. Swear to God.”

  “We’ve been there recently. We didn’t see an indication of anything going on. Where exactly are they operating?”

  “There’s a big building back in the trees where they used to keep a bunch of mining equipment. That’s the place.”

  Dave didn’t remember seeing any building like that, but the area had been heavily wooded. And he’d certainly had no reason to be looking there for the counterfeiting operation.

  “There’s machinery in that building to do the counterfeiting?” Dave asked.

  “Yeah,” Gabrio said. “I don’t know how they do it, exactly, but the stuff is there.”

  “But what about electricity?” Dave asked. “Surely they’d need something to—”

  “Diesel generators.”

  This was beginning to make an awful lot of sense to Dave. “Are there records inside that building? Documents that will implicate Robert?”

  “Files, I think. Don’t know what’s in them.”

  “We were so close to it,” Lisa said to Dave. “Why didn’t we see people out there?”

  “By that time, Robert had probably suspended production, worried over what had happened. He was holding off gearing back up again until the heat was off.”

  “Dave,” Lisa said. “If we can get those records . . .”

  “We can take him down.”

  For a long time they didn’t speak, the possibilities crackling in the air between them.

  “But we have to get Adam and Gabrio out of here first,” Lisa said.

  “No,” Adam said. “You stay here. Get the evidence. We’ll go to Monterrey by car.”

  “You’re injured,” Sera said. “If the road is rough—”

  “It’s not a bad road between here and there,” Adam said. “And it’s more predictable than turbulence on a plane.”

  “Are you sure you’ll be okay?” Dave asked.

  “Positive.”

  Dave turned to Sera. “How much gas do you have in your car?”

  “I filled up yesterday.”

  He turned to Adam. “Okay then. Here’s what we’ll do. Sera can drive you and Gabrio into Monterrey. Get to a hospital so they can check you out, and then start the wheels in motion to get Gabrio out of the country. Lisa and I will stay here, and as soon as it gets dark tonight we’ll check out the mining camp, find the evidence we need to nail Robert, then fly back to the U.S. Then the minute he crosses the border, they can get him on the drug charges.”

  “We’re not even completely sure he’s still down here, are we?” Lisa asked.

  “Yes, we are,” Sera said. “He came into Esmerelda’s when I was there this afternoon.”

  “He did?” Adam said.

  “Yes. He told me he’d ordered a charter flight to arrive here tomorrow afternoon to take him back to San Antonio. He invited me to go with him.”

  Adam’s eyes narrowed. “What for?”

  “He said he knew how close you and I had been, and he asked if I’d like to go with him to attend your memorial service on Thursday morning.”

  “Bastard.” Adam’s jaw tightened with anger. “I know what he wants. If you went with him, before the day was out he’d be after you just like he is every other woman in this town. And he has the nerve to attend my memorial service when he’s the one who tried to kill me?”

  He turned to Dave and Lisa. “Get him. Whatever it takes.”

  Ten minutes later, Dave and Lisa helped Adam into the backseat that Sera had carefully prepared with pillows and blankets to make him as comfortable as possible. Leaving Sera with him, they went back up the porch steps again to grab her bags that were just inside the kitchen door.

  “Hey, man.”

  Dave turned at the sound of Gabrio’s voice. He stood on the back porch, his hands thrust inside his pockets.

  “My brother,” he said. “What are you doing with him?”

  Dave didn’t really want to think about that yet, but the kid had a right to know what was going to happen. “I’ll have to bury him. Someplace remote where nobody will find him. I’m sorry about that, Gabrio, but I just can’t risk—”

  “I know. It’s okay.”

  Still he stood there, staring at Dave.

  “What is it?” Dave asked.

  Gabrio let out a shaky breath. “I—I know what he’s done and everything, but can you say something? You know, after you do it? We’re Catholic, or at least my mother was. . . .”

  Right now Dave didn’t feel the least bit inclined toward any kind of mercy for Ivan Ramirez, but he felt a tremendous sense of loyalty to Gabrio.

  “Sure I will. Anything in particular?”

  “There’s that one verse,” he said. “Something about ‘the Lord is my shepherd.’ Do you know that one?”

  “Yeah. I know that one.”

  “That’d be okay.”

  Dave nodded. “Time for you to get on the road.”

  Dave and Lisa grabbed Sera’s bags and took them to the car. Sera got out of the backseat and slid behind the wheel, and Gabrio got into the passenger seat.

  Before shutting Sera’s door, Dave leaned in to talk to everyone. “Adam, you and Gabrio stay out of sight on the way out of town. Sera, don’t stop for anything. Just move on through. And, Adam, make sure whoever you talk to about a visa for Gabrio keeps it confidential. I don’t want Robert tipped off until we can get out to that mining camp and see what’s there.”

  Adam nodded. “Thank you both for everything.”

  “Just be careful. And call us the minute you hit Monterrey so we’ll know you’re safe.”

  Dave stepped back and stood next to Lisa as Sera closed the door. She started the car, and Dave and Lisa watched as they drove away. With the sun low on the horizon, nightfall would be coming soon.

  “Thank God we got them out of here,” Lisa said, then turned to Dave. “When should we head out to the mining camp?”

  “We’ll wait until dark. Might as well have all the cover we can get.”

  An hour and a half later, Dave and Lisa drove up the potholed road leading to the mining camp. Dave stayed alert for anyone in the area, but it seemed as deserted as the night he’d come here to rescue Lisa. A half moon lit the sky, dimming periodically as clouds passed over it.

  They passed the bunkhouse, then kept on moving up the road, peering through the trees until they saw the structure
Gabrio had talked about. Dave swung the car around to the back of the building where it couldn’t be seen from the road.

  They got out of the car. The night held just a hint of warmth, but the air was perfectly still and painfully quiet. Every step they took through fallen leaves seemed sharp and magnified, every whispered word a shout.

  On first glance the building looked as deserted as the bunkhouse, but when they got out of the car Dave saw a pair of diesel generators beside the building, just as Gabrio had indicated.

  The door was padlocked. Dave took out a crowbar, and after a considerable amount of effort he finally managed to break through the lock.

  “Anybody who comes out here is going to know this place was broken into,” Lisa said.

  “Can’t be helped. Hopefully we’ll have Robert nailed before he realizes anyone’s been checking him out.”

  They went inside, shining flashlights around to check out the building. While the exterior looked decades old, the interior had been cleaned up considerably. Dave saw something that looked like a large mixing vat, along with a piece of machinery that appeared to contain molds for the pills. Creating counterfeit drugs was an astonishingly simple process. The chemical content of the pills was irrelevant, and counterfeiters hardly worried about the environmental conditions surrounding the manufacture of their product.

  In the rear of the building Dave saw a door that looked as if it led to an office. He handed Lisa his gun. “Keep watch at the window. I don’t want anyone walking in here unexpectedly. I’ll see what I can find in the office.”

  Lisa nodded, and Dave went into the office, shining a flashlight around the perimeter until he located two file cabinets. He opened the drawers and scanned the contents, pulling out one file after another. Some of them didn’t seem to pertain to anything concerning the drugs, unless he just wasn’t seeing the connection. Some appeared to be production reports, which might help prove the magnitude of the operation but not who was involved. But when he came upon a folder containing a list of names, he knew he’d found something they could use.

  He stuffed the lists back inside the file, tucked it under his arm, and shut the drawer. He came out of the office.

  “Find anything?” Lisa asked.