Hard to Kill: a Hard Targets novel

by Wendy Byrne

  If Sabrina didn't have this visual popping through her head of reaching across to shake some sense into Kane, maybe she could have thought of something clever to say at the moment. Something that would make this awful feeling inside her go away. But nothing came to her.

  Push. Pull. Push. Pull.

  "Are you two fighting?" While Caitlyn's voice held optimism, panic rode along Sabrina's spine. The word conspiracy hinted at the edges of her awareness as Caitlyn and Kane exchanged looks.

  "No, Caitlyn. It's not that—" Sabrina looked at Kane. When he nodded, she continued, "Ponci is dead."

  Tears twittered at the edges of her Caitlyn's lashes. For a moment, Sabrina was envious of the emotions lying below the girl's surface. It made her who she was—a capable, loving young women. "Are you sure?"

  "Positive," Kane responded. "He can't hurt you anymore."

  "That's good." She sucked in a deep breath. "Do the other girls know?"

  "I'm not sure, but I'll make sure they're contacted if they haven't been already."

  "Then you two should be happy. Why do you look all stressed out and scared?"

  "It's complicated," Kane offered.

  "I thought you two were…you know…together." Caitlyn looked first at Kane then Sabrina, as if trying to figure out what was going on.

  "We're not," Kane quickly said.

  Too quickly. Something about the words hit Sabrina harder than they should. She should be relieved, right? So what was the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach at the finality in them?

  "What else?" Caitlyn asked, clearly unwilling to let the subject drop.

  "I've got to leave for Paris in a few minutes, but don't worry. The men outside will see you and your parents safely to the airport. I guess this is goodbye, Caitlyn." He wrapped the girl in a hug. "When I'm in the States, I'd love to check on you and see how you're doing."

  "I'd like that." She kissed him on the cheek.

  Sabrina grasped Kane's hand in a handshake. He brushed off her touch and wrapped her in an unexpected hug, bringing with it security, safety, and a solidarity that caught her off guard. Despite her inability to feel, she found herself hugging him back. Fiercely. She drew in a breath, but she had to work at it as his embrace crushed her chest, robbing her of breath. Or maybe that was the elusive emotion clawing at her.

  He hugged her and whispered, "I'll find you, Sabrina."

  Right then she couldn't say if it was the words that startled her or the feeling of his peppermint-tinged breath wafting around her nose. But the accompanying shiver was born of something foreign.

  He winked at Caitlyn and left through the door. For the first time in her life, Sabrina felt the terror of being alone, even though that had been her preference for as long as she could remember.

  "Kane seems mad. What's going on?"

  Sabrina shrugged, trying to lighten the mood. "You know how men get some times. And they say they don't get PMS. Ha."

  Caitlyn laughed, as Sabrina knew she would. But then she stopped abruptly as something on the TV riveted her. The only station broadcasting in English was CNN, which Kane had left on for background noise.

  Caitlyn started pointing to the set, her voice mute, as tears rolled down her cheek. "It's him. Trinity."

  Sabrina stopped the broadcast and hit rewind. The broadcast continued. "Ambassador Quarto is in Venice during Carnivale, sponsoring a benefit for the Children's Hospital. He's very active in helping children get free cancer treatment in many of the clinics he's established throughout Europe. He utilizes his own private jet to ensure they get sent to the best hospitals throughout the world."

  She turned toward Caitlyn. Her one hand trembled as she pointed, while the other covered her mouth. "He's close by."

  "Are you saying Ambassador Quarto is Trinity?" Sabrina asked while a different kind of fear set up low in her belly. That was not the same man Kane had showed her a picture of. That meant the FBI was on the wrong track, and the man she was after was more powerful than she could have imagined. An ambassador, with the power and privilege that went along with that.

  "That's him." Caitlyn's voice shook, and tears started to flow down her face.

  Sabrina blinked, unable to comprehend what Caitlyn was saying. It all seemed too unbelievable.

  "How do you know?"

  Caitlyn nodded. "There's proof." Two little words that made all the difference in the world. "I heard Ponci mention something about having insurance in a safe deposit box, but I'm not sure where it is."

  Nothing ever happened this easily. But apparently Sabrina's luck was about to change. She knew this for certain when Caitlyn spoke again.

  "Don't let him get me again, Sabrina." She shook so hard, her body a mass of jumbling nerves, that Sabrina ushered her over to the bed, urging her to sit on the mattress.

  Of course. It was the only thing that made sense.

  A diplomat. A big shot who used the guise of helping sick children to continue his sick plan. How he was able to get the girls out of the US unnoticed always bothered her. But now it all fit together. He drugged them and claimed he was sending them to Europe, where he'd set up his own charity for children needing cancer treatment, for medical services. The slime ball. Now Sabrina knew she wouldn't have to go too far to find him. He was virtually in her backyard.

  Game changer. Should she call Kane and let him know? But how could she do that when she couldn't be sure herself?

  She brushed Caitlyn's hair as she pulled her in close. "Do me a favor? Don't mention any of this to anybody. Nobody can know."

  Caitlyn whimpered. "He'll find me."

  "He's a sewer rat. He'll want to keep his reputation in tact. With all the buzz around his benefit and the Carnivale over the next couple of days, there'll be reporters dogging his every move."

  Caitlyn tugged at her arm. "You've got to come with us. He's dangerous, Sabrina."

  "I need to stick around and make sure he pays."

  Caitlyn drew her into a hug. "He came one time…I pretended to be asleep. He and that creep, Guillermo Ponci, went to some fancy school together. They were tight. Anyway, Guillermo complained I was difficult." She giggled, more out of hysteria than mirth, as evidenced by the tear sitting on the corner of her eye.

  "You don't have to talk about this, Caitlyn." Sabrina felt torn between wanting to know and not wanting to know.

  Caitlyn brushed at the tear. "I'm a lot stronger than you think." She huffed out a breath. "Besides, it helps to talk, doesn't it?"

  Sabrina didn't have an answer for that one.

  But on the other hand, she couldn't deny her the opportunity. The pain etched on Caitlyn's face was so palpable, a line of worry creased above her brow.

  "By the time Trinity arrived, I'd picked up a little Italian. Ponci wanted his money back. I guess I wasn't quite what he bargained for. I caused a lot of trouble." A weak smile pulled up the corners of her mouth.

  Sabrina nodded. Maybe Kane was right after all. Caitlyn did seem to be a lot stronger than she'd thought.

  "Trinity assured him I could be managed with the right drugs." A visible shiver wormed through her. "I wouldn't cooperate with those pictures they wanted me to make. I ran away a couple of times. At one point, I attacked one of Ponci's guards with a poker from the fireplace." She squeezed Sabrina's hand tighter. "Instead they decided they could isolate me, barely feed me, and I would cooperate and do what they wanted." Her voice was low, barely above a whisper, but laced with a strength Sabrina never envisioned. "But I told them I'd rather die. And that was what was happening when you came to rescue me. I would have starved to death for sure."

  "How did you—"

  "I couldn't let them win." She sucked in a deep breath. "At first it wasn't too bad. I mean, I was scared and all, but it was okay. Then things got progressively worse. I learned Ponci and Trinity, maybe some others, were big on making porno flicks. Everything in the place where we stayed was wired with cameras."

  Caitlyn wiped at an errant tear, and Sabrina on
ce again wondered why she herself couldn't cry. Why her emotions remained trapped inside like a safe with no tumbler lock to open it.

  "I didn't know how much longer I was going to be able to make it. I kept waiting to be rescued, but every day seemed as if a year."

  Sabrina grasped her hand. At that moment, the relief oozed through her body like a shot of Valium directly into her bloodstream.

  Anxious to break the focus, Sabrina once again pointed to the picture frozen on the TV screen. "You're absolutely sure about this, Caitlyn?" It wasn't out of the realm of possibility with the drugs she'd been given and the trauma that she'd misconstrued or imagined what happened.

  Caitlyn shook her head. "I'm positive." Her bones seemed to rattle beneath her skin. "Usually they drugged me to keep me subdued and out of it. But one time, the guard forgot to give me the heavier dose. I heard Ponci on the phone talking about a meeting later in the day with Ambassador Quarto. After he hung up, he said something like, 'Goddamn asshole Trinity thinks he can tell me what to do and when to do it.' Later that same day, that man came to visit. "

  It could be this guy was only another grunt like Ponci rather than the lynchpin of the organization. Could she trust the word of a girl who'd been scared and drugged out of her mind?

  In terms of witnesses, she couldn't be sure this girl could hold up to any sort of interrogation or probing. No doubt she'd dissolve under the hint of cross-examination. And the guy was an ambassador who was known for doing charitable works. Proving he was behind all this might be a lesson in frustration.

  Could Sabrina trust this girl's word and follow through without some sort of evidence? She knew darn well the FBI couldn't. That left her and her brothers to take the man down and hope they weren't being led astray.

  Going with her gut, she sent off a text to her brothers telling them about the change in locations. She was headed to Venice.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Kane wasn't sure if it was Sabrina's doubts running through his head, but he had a bad feeling about this whole operation. Then again, maybe it was the way things ended between them. Unsettled.

  And he still had to wonder what she was up to. He confirmed that she'd called her brothers. He had airline manifests checked and, as he expected, they were flying into Zurich later in the day. Her brother had arranged for a cell phone to be delivered to the hotel for her. It would be a simple process to track and get her new number. He had no doubt they were going after Trinity. Would they show up in Paris, or were they headed off in another direction?

  The strategy meeting for Lennard was in about an hour, so he'd arranged to meet Ron prior to that. He'd been sitting in the bar at the hotel for about fifteen minutes waiting.

  "Still in one piece, I see." Ron grasped his shoulder and sat on the stool next to him. "Where's Sabrina? I expected her to tag along."

  Kane shrugged. "Yeah, me too. But…well…she's complicated." Although that word hardly came close to describing her.

  "That's not too surprising, given the Petrovich connection you told me about. She give you any insight into the guy's psyche?"

  He shook his head. "Not much. He took her and her siblings in when her parents were killed. There's a lot of gaps in her memory that I wonder about. Maybe the investigator in me can't seem to accept anything at face value."

  "And?" Ron did a come on motion with his hand.

  "She's up to something with her brothers. I think they're planning to take down Trinity. And by that, I mean kill him."

  "You think they're in Paris?"

  "I'm not sure. They could be."

  "Are you going to bring this up in our strategy session in"—Ron turned his wrist to look at his watch—"thirty minutes?"

  "Hell no." Kane would never betray her. But he still had to figure out a way to keep her from doing something stupid. He'd seen the look of raw determination in her eye when he'd left, and he knew all too well what that meant.

  * * *

  John and Martha Collins burst into the room, encompassing Caitlyn in a hug that lasted a good five minutes. Sabrina couldn't help but reflect on the love swirling between the threesome.

  Family. The concept seemed to flitter outside her reach. For as long as she could remember it had only been her and her brothers. Outside of the three of them, she hadn't felt an emotional connection to anyone else. Even Kane, as much dysfunction as was present in his family, seemed more evolved on the emotional scale than her.

  What was it in her family's past that had scarred them so completely that none of them could commit to anyone for longer than a couple of weeks? They each carried undeniable baggage. Why couldn't any of them move beyond it?

  "Mom. Dad. This is Sabrina." Caitlyn giggled. "Then again, I suppose you guys already met. Kane's not here. And he's great too. But can we go now? I never want to visit Europe again. In fact, I'm never leaving New York. Maybe never leaving home."

  "I'm forever indebted to you," John said, unashamed of the tears that littered his cheeks.

  "You should have seen Sabrina, Dad. She kicked butt like Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider."

  They laughed, breaking the hint of awkwardness that had risen. No one wanted to discuss the details of what had happened to Caitlyn. Which was fine with Sabrina. She didn't want Caitlyn to divulge any more than she needed to right now.

  "What time does the flight leave?" Sabrina asked, more anxious than ever to see this matter to its conclusion.

  John twisted his wrist, checking the time. "We'd better get going back to the airport. The plane leaves in about two hours."

  Sabrina nodded, not quite sure what else to say. It had been a long journey. One she couldn't help but think wasn't yet over for any of them. "I'll look you up when I get back to the States and see how you're doing." Would she do as promised, or would it be another one of those unfulfilled commitments she couldn't get herself to complete?

  Caitlyn's eyes misted over as she wrapped her arms around Sabrina. "Thank you for everything." She pulled back and smiled. "And you and Kane need to figure that whole thing between you two out."

  "This gal doesn't need a man by her side to finish the deal." She winked at Caitlyn. Somehow now the words didn't ring a hundred percent true.

  * * *

  Kane set up in the apartment across from Pierre Lennard's house. Using his binoculars, he tried to keep watch, but considering the place had every drape closed tight, he didn't have a hope of seeing inside. The other agents were wandering around, waiting until the final orders to apprehend came through.

  Nellis was still punishing him for going against orders, and he'd relegated him to watchdog duty. Which, in the end, was fine. This way, he could keep an eye out for Sabrina or her brothers. Every second, he half expected they'd pop up on the street.

  He trained his binoculars on the old woman waiting at the bus stop. Her build was similar to Sabrina's, so he zoomed in closer and blew out a breath. Short of getting a makeup artist from Hollywood to give her the lines and wrinkles of a woman in her eighties, that wasn't Sabrina.

  If she wasn't hanging around here, where could she be? She'd sent that text to her brothers yesterday. He had no doubt they'd landed by now. There wasn't a doubt in his mind they were gunning for Trinity.

  Before he could make himself crazy with worry and speculation, the powers that be must have given approval to bring Pierre Lennard in for questioning, because six agents entered the downstairs door. All he could do now was wait. Ten minutes later they exited, escorting what appeared to be a recalcitrant and handcuffed Lennard.

  That was when guns started popping and all hell broke loose.

  * * *

  Sabrina got off the train in Venice and glanced around. For the first time she could remember, it felt awkward being alone. He'd been so much a part of her life over the last week, she expected Kane to pop up every time she turned around. But he didn't. And she'd made peace with that. At least she thought so.

  Why was she struggling with guilt about not passing along the in
formation Caitlyn had given her? It wasn't as if Kane weren't holding out on her as well. She pondered that for a moment, letting the idea sift through her brain. He'd filled her in on details he probably shouldn't have. But that didn't mean she needed to do the same. She liked to work alone. Except for assistance from her brothers at times, she preferred it that way.

  Besides, Caitlyn was headed back home, and that was the important part of this journey. Her brothers were the only men she could or would ever truly count on to finish off this task.

  The voice inside her head couldn't stop at Caitlyn. She needed to figure out if Ambassador Quarto was Trinity. Still, it could very well be that Kane's lead proved right, and she and her brothers were on some wild goose chase. The idea was possible given the fragile nature of Caitlyn's psyche. But Sabrina needed to know for sure.

  Sabrina had barely come down from that emotional rollercoaster when she felt fingers dig into her biceps. Fear snaked along her spine as she primed her elbow to strike, right before her brother laughed.

  "Taking down a child trafficker is a little too hard to resist."

  She hugged her brothers one at a time and felt an ease in that tightness in her chest. Just like old times. As quickly as the thought came up, she pushed it back. Old times were not necessarily good times.

  Working as a threesome had been Petrovich's idea from the start. She didn't want to focus on that black period of her life and the reverberations it caused.

  Instead she focused on how happy she was to see them, and squeezed them again for good measure. Max, Jake, and Sabrina. Max looking like he'd just stepped off the pages of GQ, and Jake looking like he'd been on the cover of Rolling Stone. She almost laughed at the absurdity of their differences but sameness at the same time.

  "Okay, all this hugging is making me nervous," Jake said even while he snaked an arm about her waist.