Operation Turtle Ransom: A suspenseful, wild-ride-of-an-adventure on a tropical beach in Mexico (Poppy McVie Mysteries Book 4)

by Kimberli A. Bindschatel

  Noah complied without question. I followed. Noah pulled his T-shirt off as he went straight for our captive, and shoved it into his mouth. Quick thinking.

  I held my finger to my lips, telling Chris to be quiet. “Stay in here until I let you out. Do you understand?”

  Chris nodded, worry in his eyes.

  I grabbed the spotlight and pulled the door shut behind me. Dalton had disappeared. When he switched into SEAL mode, he was truly amazing.

  A flashlight appeared down the trail, erratically bouncing about. Then I could hear the clank-clank of bicycle pedals. I flipped the switch on the spotlight and aimed it at the bike. A young boy, no older than ten, rode right up to me. Lucky was running behind him, ears flapping, tongue lolling back and forth.

  The boy came to a halt and, without a word, dug into his pocket and handed me a note. He spun the bike around and took off, standing on the pedals, pumping as fast as he could.

  Lucky plopped down at my feet, panting.

  I made another scan with the spotlight. The boy had come alone.

  Dalton appeared out of the darkness. “What is it?”

  I looked down at the note in my hand. It read: At dawn. The girlfriend comes alone to the turtle shack with the money. Or he dies.

  Chapter Sixteen

  I scratched Lucky’s ears, glad to know she was all right. She must have been with the boy all this time. He probably let her loose when he brought the last note. “Okay, we have five hours to finalize a plan. Since we don’t have the money, they’re probably going to kidnap me, too, so I’m thinking—”

  “You can stop right there,” Dalton said. “You’re not going. It’s not an option.”

  “We can’t let this opportunity—”

  “Dalton’s right,” Noah said. “Without the money, all you’re doing is making the situation worse. You go, then they’ll have you and Doug.”

  “Yes, that’s—yes,” Dalton said, a bit of surprise in his voice as his head spun around to eye Noah. “Listen to him. Listen to your boyfriend.”

  “No. The difference is—what? No, he’s not my boyfriend.”

  “Okay fine. Whatever.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  He picked up the ransom note and held it in front of my face.

  “That could be—they are probably—I mean, they are making an assumption. They probably mean Doug’s girlfriend anyway. They don’t know who I am.”

  “The difference is…?” Noah asked, looking uncomfortable and trying to move the conversation along.

  “The difference is—” Yes. I pointed at him. I paused, looking at Noah, standing there, bare-chested. My boyfriend? Was he? The kiss on the beach at turtle cove. His hands on my—

  “Yeah?” Dalton said, snapping me out of it.

  “The difference is, I can take care of myself.”

  “Oh no,” Dalton said, shaking his head. Noah stood beside him, shaking his head.

  “I know you’re worried, but—”

  “Worried!” Dalton said. “You haven’t made a sound decision since you got to Mexico. You’re not thinking clearly.”

  Now he was pissing me off. “One thing is crystal clear and it’s the only thing that matters. Doug’s life is on the line. I’m going to do everything in my power to get him back. This is the only way to find out where they’re holding him and you know it. You can help me or not. But you’re not stopping me.”

  Noah stared at me for a long moment, then nodded. He knew.

  “This isn’t a game,” Dalton said, the muscles in his face tense. “We have no idea what their motivation is. A minute ago, we thought they were holding Doug to lure Noah. If that was the case, seems like they’d demand that Noah bring the cash. Maybe this is about the money. Which, if you remember, we don’t have. So we’re back to square one. This situation calls for the skills of a professional negotiator.” He crossed his arms. “I’ll go.”

  “I would agree with you, but—” I glanced over at Chris. He was sitting on the floor, his back in the corner, his face pale. “—you’ve made my point exactly. We don’t know what their motivation is. Maybe sending a negotiator will make it worse. Especially if it’s you. Officer Ramón thinks you’re a cop. If he’s involved and—”

  Dalton grimaced.

  “What did you tell him anyway?”

  He shook his head. “Not much. I did lead him to believe I was a cop, to get you released into my custody, but it never got to that—”

  “It doesn’t matter. It has to be me. If I go, and I let them think I’m an easy target, easy to control, they’ll kidnap me for sure. Then they’ll take me right to the same place where they’re holding Doug.”

  He crossed his arms. “How can you be so sure?”

  “I can’t. But it makes sense.”

  “Okay, let’s assume that for a minute. You are taken to the same location, probably bound, maybe beaten, and—”

  “Doug wasn’t beaten.” I snatched the photo of Doug from the table and held it up. “He looks tired, but otherwise okay.”

  “Fine. You’re taken to the same location. Then what?”

  “Then I break us out.”

  “Alone? With no backup? You’re going to break yourself and Doug out of a cartel stronghold? Now I know you’ve completely lost your mind,” Dalton said, shaking his head. “Not on my watch. It’s not going to happen.”

  Noah eyed Dalton warily for a moment, as though deciding something. His eyes came back to me. “I have an idea.”

  Dalton spun on him. “No, you don’t,” he said through clenched teeth.

  “I think it might work.”

  “No. It won’t,” said Dalton.

  Noah kept his eyes forward, on me. “The turtle trackers. They’re GPS units. They send a live signal.”

  “I thought José said they work by water conductivity,” I said. “They only send a signal when the turtle comes up for air.”

  “We’re not discussing this,” Dalton said.

  “Yes, the big ones, the ones for adults,” Noah explained. “But we’ve got a few of the new, experimental ones for the hatchlings. They’re tiny. We could hide one in your shoe.”

  “But what about the water issue?”

  “That’s the thing. These send a signal every hour, regardless.”

  “That’s genius!” I said, and wrapped my arms around him and squeezed him tightly.

  Dalton glared at Noah. “Hey, I thought you were on my side here.”

  A grin started at the edge of Noah’s lips. “I’m on Poppy’s side. Yes, I’m worried about her. Yes, I recognize how dangerous this is. I wish she wouldn’t do it. But I know one thing for sure, Poppy has a mind of her own and she’s obviously already made the decision. The best I can do is support her in any way I can so that—”

  Something in Dalton’s expression made Noah clamp his mouth shut.

  Dalton turned back around to face me. “You haven’t had any sleep.”

  “They’ll be plenty of time to sleep once Doug is home, safe.”

  Dalton heaved a sigh, and ran his fingers through his hair. I could tell he was pondering an argument, some way to persuade me.

  Well, I didn’t have time for that. “Where are the trackers?”

  “Wait.” Dalton held out his hands to slow us down. “We need a plan. A better, logistical way to track you. This turtle antennae thing, no way. An hour’s an eternity when you’re being transported, or worse.”

  Noah looked to me, then back to Dalton. “I can check the software, see if we can decrease the time interval between transmissions, but I’m not sure.”

  Dalton’s eyes fell, heavy with concern. “I don’t like it.”

  “You’ll be no more than an hour behind me. And it might take some time to get me to the final destination. You can track me and guess the trajectory.”

  Dalton slowly nodded, that strategic mind working. He glanced around the cabin. “Do you have a map of the area?”

  Noah rushed to a cabinet and started s
huffling through papers.

  I turned my attention to Chris. I sat down next to him, took hold of his hand and squeezed.

  “I can’t lose you, too,” he said, his voice a whisper.

  “You’re not going to lose me. Dalton and Noah will be one step behind me the whole way. Dalton is trained for this exact kind of scenario. A simple extraction.”

  “Yeah, but,”—the corner of his mouth crept upward—“nothing’s ever simple with you.”

  I put my arm around him. “It’s going to be all right.” I hugged him closely. “But I need you to do something for me. I need you to go back to Puerto Vallarta and wait. You can’t go with us. You’re too emotionally involved. And I can’t have you here alone. Do you understand? I need to know you’re safe, so I can focus all my attention on saving Doug. I need you to trust me. Can you do that?”

  His eyes locked on mine and I could see he wanted to resist. Then everything about him seemed to wilt. He nodded, holding back tears.

  “I’m going to bring him home.”

  He lifted his chin and nodded toward our captive. “What about him?”

  “He’s not going to tell us anything.”

  “Yeah, but he just heard your whole plan.”

  Oh crap! He was right.

  Noah and Dalton stopped what they were doing and spun around.

  “Shit, he’s right,” Noah said.

  “It’s okay,” I said. “He won’t talk. He’s a good man. I know he is.”

  I got up, dragged the plastic chair over, and sat down across from the man again.

  “We can’t trust him,” Dalton said. “You just kidnapped him, and Chris…tortured him. As soon as he gets back, he’s going to tell them everything.”

  I turned my sole attention on the man. “What’s your name?” I asked him, suddenly feeling like a heel for not having asked already.

  His eyes flitted to Dalton then back to me. “Adrián.”

  “Well, Adrián. I trust you,” I said. “I mean it. I know you’ve told us the truth. And I know that you know we brought you here because we had to. Not because we wanted to hurt you. But because we’re desperate, too.” I turned to Noah. “Will you please cut him free?”

  Noah found a knife in a drawer and started working at the man’s bindings.

  “We have to stop these men,” I said. “Together. You shouldn’t have to live in fear, everyday, worried for your family, your wife, your daughters. We want our friend back, but we also want to stop the violence, stop the poaching.”

  “You can’t,” he said, shaking his head. “They are too powerful.”

  I looked at Dalton, considered what I was about to reveal. “This man”—I pointed at Dalton—“and I are federal agents from the United States.”

  Dalton tensed up and shifted his gaze away. Yep, I was going to catch hell for that one.

  “We will do everything in our power to stop them. But we need your help. You don’t have to do or say anything that puts you or your family at risk. All I’m asking is that you go back to work and say nothing. Just act like everything is normal. Will you do that?”

  The ties broke free. The man sat up and rubbed his wrists. His eyes darted between Chris, Dalton and me.

  “And this man”—I said, pointing to Noah—“is prepared to hire you. As soon as the cartel is gone, you’ll have a job, you and the other men who collect the turtle eggs. He’ll pay you to patrol the beach and protect the turtles.”

  Noah sat on the bench next to him. “It’s true. We’ll match what you’re being paid now, but with no threats to your family. A fair job for a fair wage.”

  The man looked as though he didn’t believe it was possible.

  “Adrián,” I said. “If we arrest your boss, if we bust up the cartel, you’ll need a job, right?”

  For that, I got a slight nod.

  “If we fail, but you’ve kept your word to us and said nothing, there’s no harm done. There’s no reason they would ever know.”

  His eyes made another circuit around the room.

  “All we’re asking is that you give us a chance.”

  His eyes settled on mine.

  “A chance,” I repeated.

  He gave me an ever-so subtle nod.

  “Have we got a deal?”

  Again, a slight nod.

  Dalton moved toward him. “So you won’t say anything?”

  “I swear.” His eyes said it all. He wouldn’t talk.

  I got up, opened the door, and gave him one last smile as he left.

  “You’re taking a big risk,” Dalton said over my shoulder.

  “Maybe. But I don’t think so. Noah’s right. People want to do good. They want to live simple, happy lives, not cower in constant fear. When we take down the cartel, he’ll remember.”

  “I hope you’re right.” He turned to me. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

  “No,” I said. “But it has to be done.”

  “The agency won’t—”

  I spun to face him. “The agency? Are you kidding? That dream is over. I’ll be lucky if I can get a job as a meter maid when this done.”

  He shook his head. “We’ll talk about that later. Just listen to me. Stay focused. When you get there, act scared, meek. Don’t give them any reason to think you’re anything but a total ditz. In your responses, make them think someone else is calling the shots. Make sure you—”

  “I know.”

  “But I’m saying that—”

  “I know. I understand the situation.”

  He sighed. “I wish you wouldn’t go.” There was pain in his eyes, an implicit request.

  “You know I have to.”

  “I don’t know that.”

  “I owe it to him. I’ve been selfish and—I didn’t even know about Doug. What kind of friend doesn’t know her best friend has a new love until they’re engaged?”

  He took me by the shoulders and looked into my eyes. “You haven’t been selfish. You’ve been focused, busy. There’s a difference. If he would’ve called, you’d have been there in an instant.”

  I tried to accept his words. But it didn’t matter. “I have to go.”

  He nodded. He understood. His eyes got soft and his voice quiet. “You come back to me. Do you hear me? You be careful out there alone.” He hesitated, as if there were something else he wanted to say.

  My heart made a little flutter.

  “You just come back.”

  “I’ve got the trackers,” Noah said, appearing next to Dalton.

  Dalton held my gaze for a moment longer, then broke away, turning to Noah. “I want to know what satellite those tags ping. I want to know at what frequency, what’s the life of the battery. I want to know how you’re going to download that information in real time. I want to know how portable we are. What kind of communication system do we have?”

  Noah nodded all the while Dalton barked out orders.

  Finally, Dalton turned back to me. “I’m going to be one step behind you, tracking you the whole time. The old fashioned way. I’ll be right there.”

  “With that leg? You’re limping around.”

  The look I got silenced me. I nodded. “I know you will.”

  “If they zig, I’ll know. If they zag, I’ll be there.”

  I couldn’t help a grin.

  “Do you hear me?”

  I nodded. “Let’s do this thing.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  The sun lit the eastern sky in deep shades of orange when Dalton and I climbed onto the four-wheeler and headed for the poacher’s shack. Noah was somewhere behind me, staying unseen. He’d promised to drop Chris in town to catch the bus north, out of this mess.

  This better work. I didn’t have the heart to tell Chris, but without the money, the kidnappers were as likely to kill Doug as not. And maybe me, too. If I were to admit it, I didn’t want to think about it either. We just didn’t have any other options. It had to be done. No sense second guessing. I was committed. I had to find Doug and end
this thing.

  None of us could figure out a way to hide the tracker in my shoe, so we’d opted for the inside of my bracelet. I loved the symbolism. Dad was watching over me once again.

  The sun was already heating up the forest and stirring the muggy, earthy scent of jungle when I turned onto the two-track. I took it slowly, bumping along, keeping the engine as quiet as possible. They’d be waiting, whether I crept up on them or not, but it felt like the thing to do.

  At a safe distance from the shack, I came to a stop and Dalton got off.

  His eyes held mine for a brief moment before he gave me the nod and disappeared into the jungle.

  I drew in a deep, calming breath. Dalton would scale mountains to track me, but there was always the risk of losing me. Especially if they put me in a car. Or, much worse, and Dalton’s biggest worry, some kind of aircraft. If that happened, I was on my own.

  As I pulled up to the shack, I quickly assessed the area for threats. An old army jeep was parked in the grass, but I saw no one in it or around it. The surrounding foliage was thick, every shadow a possible place of concealment for trouble. Otherwise, this really was a bad location to take someone prisoner. There was only one road, if you could call it that, in or out. The shack was too small to hide in or use to hunker down in a raid.

  Well, what did it matter anyway? I was here to get kidnapped, right?

  So, why was I so nervous? Dalton was right. This was a bad idea.

  A brute of a man, all muscles and facial hair, stepped from the shack, an AK-47 in his grip. He motioned for me to get off the four-wheeler. I killed the engine and got off.

  “Where’s the money?”

  “I—” I shook my head, held up my hands in surrender. “I don’t have it. We need more time. We can’t just go down to the bank and—”

  “Shut up,” he said, his eyes moving to a man who appeared out of the bushes to the south.

  “We can get it though. I swear. If we could just have a little bit more time.”

  Then another armed man approached from the north. I clamped my mouth shut. Crap. He had a noticeable limp. I swung around to get a look at the other. He had a red lump on his forehead. They were the same two I’d fought at the jail.