Big mistake startling a caffeine junkie with his finger on the hair-trigger of a sub-machine gun. Jimmy dove to the side, landing hard on the concrete as a barrage of bullets sprayed the spot he had occupied in an erratic line.
Bautista wrenched the weapon out of the soldado’s hands and cursed him a blue streak in Español. “Imbécil! Sal de mi vista!”
Rodríguez shot Jimmy a rancorous glare before he retreated to the back of the hangar and out of Bautista’s sight.
Jimmy groaned and rolled onto his back. He used the distraction to work the Swiss Army knife out of his pocket and went to town on the tape.
“You want to know where the flash drive is,” Mitch said. “Why don’t you ask your good pal Albatross?”
“I know he doesn’t have it yet. You would be dead if he did.” Bautista’s voice hardened. “Where’s the flash drive you stole from my safe?”
“What the hell is he talking about, Mad Dog?” Jimmy said, picking an argument to buy himself some time. “This hasn’t been about a damn treasure map after all?”
Mitch shrugged beneath his bindings. “It has, but it hasn’t. I was just going after the map, but the flash drive was sitting right there beside it in neat a little enveloped marked ‘top secret.’ And you know how I hate secrets.”
“You’re worse than a little girl.” Jimmy shook his head with exasperation, using the exaggerated movement to shift the knife blade to a better angle. “That’s always the way with you. You get knee-deep in shit and decide to sit down.”
“It’s good for the complexion.”
“Did you have to drag Sophie into it this time, though?”
“I’m not the jackass who escorted her to Tortola.”
“She wanted to meet you.”
“You see now why that was a bad idea? She should have stayed away.”
“Enough!” Bautista shouted. More calmly, he said, “Apparently, I’ve misjudged your devotion to your daughter, Mr. Thompson. It appears Mr. Panama here has more to lose than you do.”
Jimmy stopped sawing on the tape and froze when everyone’s gaze returned to him.
“Talk some sense into your friend,” Bautista continued. “You don’t want Rigoberto Garcia’s son and your lover to die.”
Mitch’s head whipped around and he looked at Jimmy. “What’s he talking about? What’s he mean by your lover?”
Avoiding his friend’s puzzled gaze, he shrugged.
“I’ll kill you, you filthy motherfucker!” Mad Dog bent at the knees, raised his bound arms up, and then slammed them back down across his thighs, splitting the duct tape and freeing his arms. Instead of going for one of the stunned soldados’ guns, he lunged at Jimmy.
“If I find out you’ve touched my daughter.” Mad Dog seethed as his grip on Jimmy’s throat cut off his oxygen supply. “I’ll hang you upside down by your balls and skin you alive, you slimy backstabbing son of a bitch!”
It took five bulked-up soldados to pull Mad Dog off of Jimmy. As they dragged Mitch away, the crazed expression on his face shifted for an instant. Jimmy was coughing air back into his lungs when he caught it, the meaningful look that said make your move while I keep them busy. Then Mitch bucked and reared and howled at the moon. Jimmy rolled onto his back to hide his suddenly free hands.
“Tie him up here.” Bautista shoved a wooden straight back chair at one of his men. The gang dragged Mitch to the seat while someone procured a fresh roll of duct tape. “There are other ways of getting information out of a man.” He gave Jimmy a pitying look. “I’m sorry, Mr. Panama, but I don’t make idle threats.” Jimmy’s heart stopped as Bautista raised the detonator and said, “Time’s up.”
Two of Bautista’s men took Sophie on a small motorboat to the luxury yacht waiting near the mouth of the cove. Florez stayed behind, watching them from the dock. The triumphant smirk on his face sickened Sophie because she knew it only meant one thing. He was finally going to get his wish. He was going to kill Jimmy Panama.
On board the yacht, the men escorted Sophie to a stateroom in the bowels of the ship and shoved her inside. With her hands duct-taped behind her back, she couldn’t reach out to break her fall and smacked the hardwood floor. Fissures of pain darted through her body and a wave of nausea threatened to expel the small bagel she’d eaten on the sailboat.
“Está bien, señorita?”
Sophie looked up into the concerned face of a young boy. When she tried to turn over, a sharp ache shot through her left shoulder and both of her kneecaps throbbed.
The boy, who couldn’t have been more than ten or eleven, slid to the edge of his bunk to look down at her.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“You’re American?” He changed languages easily, speaking with only the hint of an accent. “I thought you were one of their putas.”
Sophie didn’t have to know Spanish to understand his meaning. “I beg your pardon? I’m British! And I have never been accused of being a—a—what you said.” Well, not in the last two days, and certainly not by a little boy. “Why would they tie me up if I was one of their women?”
“To trick me in to trusting you. They tried that once. It didn’t work, but I thought they might be trying it again. They aren’t too bright. No one thought to check me for a weapon.” He reached into his pocket and produced a switchblade knife with an ornately engraved handle. It looked far too dangerous for a child his age, but Sophie held very still while he severed the tape. “They think I’m weak because I’m young, but I’m a fighter like my papa.” He closed the switchblade and then stuck it back into his pocket.
She sat up and looked at him. “You’re Tulio.”
“How do you know my name?”
Peeling the rest of the tape from her sore wrists, she said, “I hazarded a guess. I’m a friend of Jimmy Panama’s.”
“You know Tio Jimmy?” He was a cute kid, with his tousled mop of brown hair and big brown eyes. His gaze narrowed suspiciously. “Are you his lady?” He was precocious too.
Heat crept up her neck. She smiled and stood, taking in the barren room. “Jimmy told me about your father. About how they were SEALs together.”
“My father died bravely in combat.” His scrawny chest puffed with pride. “Tio Jimmy takes care of Mamá and me. He sends us money and makes sure I go to the best private school in Colombia.”
Of course, he did. It suddenly all made sense, why Jimmy was so desperate and secretive about the boy. He felt responsible for him because he’d accidentally killed his father, and he blamed himself for getting the boy kidnapped. “If anything happened to Tulio…” he’d started to say on the beach before Mitch had interrupted him. There were so many variations on how he meant to complete that statement, but Sophie could only imagine one. If anything happened to Tulio…he would have no reason to go on. If he was distraught enough, and she believed he had been at one time, perhaps Tulio was the only thing that had kept him from putting a bullet in his brain these last ten years. The notion tore at her heart.
“Are you okay, lady?”
“Hmm. Yes.” She put a hand on the boy’s shaggy head and stroked it gently. “Call me Sophie.”
Tulio hopped off the bed. “Is Tio Jimmy here? Is he going to rescue us?”
“He’s here, but he’s in trouble. We need to get off this boat and figure out a way to help him.” She looked out the porthole and saw the entrance to the cove and the ocean beyond illuminated in the pink, orange, and purple rays of the setting sun. It would be dark soon. She hated the idea of getting into that water at night, but what choice did she have? Taking a deep breath, she tried the window latch. It didn’t budge.
“It’s glued shut. I already tried to open it.”
“There has to be another way.” Her gaze scanned the room. Except for the bunk, the pillows, and a blanket, the space was empty.
Tulio went to the door and tried to force the handle. He pounded on the solid wood panel in frustration. “Usted tiene lo que quiere! Libérame! Do you hear? Libérame!�
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Sophie grasped the boy’s narrow shoulders and pulled him back before he hurt himself. “It’s okay. I’ll figure a way out of this.”
He wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged her. “I miss my mamá.”
“You’ll see her soon enough. I’m sure of it.” As she stroked his hair, her gaze narrowed on the porthole again. “Tulio, may I see your knife?”
He pulled back to look up at her, his expression hesitant. “It belonged to my father. Mamá gave it to me for my birthday. She said he would have wanted me to have it.”
“I’ll be careful. I promise.”
He removed the switchblade from his back pocket and placed it in her hand. “What are you going to do?”
“Get us out of here, I hope.”
Staring at the detonator in Bautista’s hand, Jimmy shouted, “Wait!” He struggled to his feet, pretending his hands were still bound behind his back. “I can get him to talk.”
Bautista removed his thumb from the button and lowered his hand. “I’m glad to hear it.” His smiled faded when he noticed how much trouble his soldados were having subduing Mad Dog. His butt was in the chair and his torso was tied half-ass to the backrest, but that was as far as they’d gotten. They couldn’t get his arms around his back to tape them together. “How do you intend to get through to a lunatic, Mr. Panama?”
Mitch’s plan to distract the soldados while Jimmy overcame Bautista would have worked if the Colombian drug lord and three of his men weren’t still focused on Jimmy.
“Well—”
Something slammed against the giant barn doors of the airplane hangar, rattling them on their hinges. The commotion stopped and everyone’s heads turned. Even Mitch stopped struggling. His gaze met Jimmy’s and then, in silent agreement, they hit the deck.
A thunderous ba-woom accompanied the violent blast that blew a gaping hole in the side of the hangar big enough for, well, a small aircraft to fit through. The explosion took out the bozos in front. The barrage of bullets from Jonas’ machine gun took out the ones still standing. Like Mitch, Jimmy curled into the fetal position, protecting his head from ricocheting bullets while they waited for Jonas to ease up on the trigger.
Some of the soldados shot back but they only drew Jonas’ fire and deadly aim.
The acrid scent of burning metal filled Jimmy’s nose as flaming bits of debris showered down around him. Through the thinning cloud of smoke, he spotted Bautista scrambling for the detonator. It must have been blown out of his hand during the explosion. It now lay fifteen feet away.
“Come back here, you son of a bitch!” Jimmy shouted, low-crawling after him.
Bautista’s fingers skimmed the detonator at the same moment Jimmy caught his foot.
“Press that button and you’re a dead man,” he growled.
The Colombian looked back at him. His thick silver eyebrows lifted in surprise and he laughed caustically.
Rodríguez, who had been sprawled on his back playing dead, pointed the nose of his .38 Special at Jimmy’s temple and cocked the trigger.
Jimmy released his grip and Bautista grabbed the detonator. “You were saying, Mr. Panama?”
Jimmy’s heart stopped as the vicious bastard pressed the button.
Sophie was away from the boat when the explosion sent a tidal wave of water up over her head, shielding her from the fiery hunks of debris that fell from the evening sky. The cold, murky seawater sucked her down and she descended a good ten feet before her feet touched something solid, a large boulder protruding from the earth. Her lungs swelled as panic threatened to consume her, but she recited Jimmy’s warning in her head like a litany. “The important thing is to stay calm and don’t panic. You panic, you drown.” She lost precious seconds calming herself down.
Using the boulder to push off, she worked her arms and kicked her feet the way Jimmy had shown her. She swam until her lungs threatened to burst and the stitch in her side ached like she’d been shanked in a prison brawl. The grueling effort paid off though as her head suddenly broke the surface of the water and air filed her lungs. She swallowed it greedily before looking around for Tulio who had been beside right her when they’d jumped. She found him treading water a few feet away.
“Are you okay?” he said.
Sure, she was okay, except for the fact the boat they’d just escaped from was in a thousand pieces and flaming hunks of fiberglass littered their way like a minefield. She nodded. “I’m fine. Let’s keep moving, shall we?”
When she finally grasped the ladder at the end of the dock, Tulio was already out of the water, urging her on. Her strength was spent, but she’d come too far to give up now. She dug deep one last time and pulled her body up the rungs.
When she collapsed onto the boardwalk, Tulio dove into her arms. She hugged him back and they both laughed with relief.
“I’m glad you find your predicament so amusing, Senorita Thompson.” Florez stepped out of the shadows of a man-sized boulder at the end of the dock, blocking their only escape route. His gun was pointed at them.
As they came to their feet slowly, Sophie tried to guide Tulio behind her but he wouldn’t go.
“The man you work for just tried to blow us up,” Sophie said, draping her arms around the boy’s neck and holding him close. “Do you really want to kill your own nephew?”
Florez’s gaze flickered to Tulio.
“Pretend you didn’t see us,” she said. “Let us go.”
“And risk Bautista’s wrath?” He shook his head. “I don’t think so. The boy will live. I will take good care of him. I’ll make sure he’s raised right.”
“If you hurt me, Jimmy will kill you.”
“Not if I kill him first.”
“Why do you hate him so much? He didn’t mean to hurt Rigoberto.”
“Hurt him? He murdered him in cold blood and left his unborn son fatherless.”
“Rigoberto’s death was an accident. Jimmy would never willfully hurt someone he loves.”
Florez’s face crumpled with pain and his gun hand trembled. “When we were children, Rigoberto was the closest thing I had to a brother. Then he moved back to the states, where he was born, and joined the Navy. He forsook me for that faithless gringo.”
“Jimmy made a terrible mistake, but he’s spent the last decade persecuting himself.”
“A decade isn’t nearly long enough!”
“That isn’t for you to decide.”
“He deserves to suffer. He stole my best friend. He made Rigoberto his bitch, then he shot him like a dog. I’m going to make him pay. He’s going to watch while I make you my bitch, then shoot you in the head.”
Sophie’s throat tightened and tears blurred her vision. But not even the mordant taste of fear on the back of her tongue could temper her outrage. “You’re despicable. Perhaps Rigoberto forsook you because he knew you were insane!”
He smirked as he perused her body, taking in the soaked cami top and shorts plastered to her skin. “I can see why Panama finds you so appealing. A prissy English female with the curves of a puta and the temperament of a shrew. I’m going to enjoy making you submit to me almost as much as he did.”
When he made a move toward her, a roar punctured the air and a man came out of the night, tackling Florez from behind. The gun flew from his hand and skittered across the boards, stopping near Sophie’s feet. The two men landed in the flaming water with a great splash.
Two heads broke the surface and Jimmy hauled back his fist and punched Florez in the jaw. The Colombian’s head snapped back but he managed to fasten his hands around Jimmy’s throat. The struggle continued as both men sank beneath the water’s surface again.
Tulio picked up the gun and shoved it at Sophie. “Shoot him. Shoot him!”
“What? Why me?”
Tulio looked exasperated. “I can’t shoot him, I’m a kid.”
Sophie took the heavy piece of metal awkwardly and remembered what had happened the last time she’d held a gun. She shook her head. “I c
an’t do it. I might hit Jimmy.”
When the men’s heads came up again, Florez gasped for air. Jimmy had the Colombian in a headlock from behind and he was starting to lose consciousness. He went limp and Jimmy shoved him away, letting him float face-first in the water.
“You okay, darlin’?” Jimmy swam toward her.
Her throat was too tight to speak, so she nodded. Realizing the gun was aimed at him, she pointed the business end at the ground.
He put both hands on the edge of the deck and hauled himself straight up out of the water on the first try. His strength and ease in the water made her breath catch.
He strolled forward and hooked an arm around her waist. “Ain’t you a sight for sore eyes?” he said and laid a quick hard kiss on her mouth. He looked down at Tulio and his big hand cupped the back of boy’s head. “How you doin’, little man?”
“I’m good.” In light of the circumstances, his reply made Jimmy and Sophie laugh.
“We have to go, sweetheart. The police are coming,”
She heard the sirens in the distance, faint but unmistakable. “Here.” She shoved the gun at him. “Take this.”
He shook his head. “Hold on to it. We’re not out of hot water yet.”
Retrieving the Uzi he’d tossed aside before taking a running tackle at Florez, Jimmy led Sophie and Tulio back to the hangar.
Inside, Mitch and Jonas appeared to have the situation under control. They’d tied up Bautista along with his three remaining soldiers and had stuffed them all into a storage closet.
“Are you all right, Ladybug?” Mitch caught Sophie up in a hug as Jimmy moved away to help Jonas drag a heavy cabinet in front of the closet door. “Thank God you’re alive!”
“Jimmy saved me.”
“You saved yourself, darlin’, and Tulio too.”
Her father shot Jimmy an acerbic look she didn’t understand. His face cleared when he looked down at her again and smiled gently. “Can I see that medallion for a minute?”
Sophie’s hand went to the necklace. She was surprised to discover she hadn’t lost it in her escape from the yacht. She handed it over and watched as he opened the secret compartment.
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