by Diana Palmer
“Until you read Blasco-Ibañez, you have no idea how dangerous bullfighting really is,” Eb agreed. “He must have seen some of the corridas.”
“A number of Spanish authors did. Lorca, for example, wrote a famous poem about the death of his friend Sanchez Mejias in the bullring.”
He brushed back a strand of gold-streaked brown hair and smiled. “I’ve missed conversations like this, although a good many of the men I train are well-educated. In fact, Micah Steele, who does consulting work for me, was a resident doctor at one of the bigger Eastern hospitals when he joined my unit.”
“Why did he give up a profession that he must have studied very hard for?”
“Nobody knows, and he won’t talk. Mostly what we know about him we found out from his father, who used to be a bank president until his heart attack. Micah’s stepsister, Callie, looks after old man Steele these days. He and Micah haven’t spoken for years, not since he and Callie’s mother divorced.”
“Do you know why they did?”
He shrugged. “Local gossip had it that Micah’s father caught Micah and his stepmother in a compromising position and threw them both out of the house.”
“Poor man.”
“Poor Callie. She worshiped the ground Micah walked on, but he won’t even speak to her these days.”
“That name sounds familiar,” she commented.
“It should. Callie’s a paralegal. She works for Barnes and Kemp, the trial lawyers here in town.”
“It’s so nice to have a lazy day like this,” she murmured, watching Stevie browse among the party decorations on a shelf. “It makes me forget the danger.”
“I’m surprised that Lopez hasn’t made any more moves lately,” he said. “And a little disturbed. It isn’t like him to back off.”
“Maybe he was afraid those two men who attacked me would be arrested and they’d tell on him,” she said.
He laughed mirthlessly. “Dream on. Lopez would have them disposed of before they had time to rat on him.” He pursed his lips. “That could be what happened to them. You don’t make a mistake when you belong to that particular cartel. No second chances. Ever.”
She shivered. “We do keep all the doors locked,” she said. “And we’re very careful about what we say. Well, Jessica is,” she amended sheepishly. “Until you taught me about surveillance equipment, I didn’t know that a whisper could be heard half a mile away.”
“Never forget it,” he told her. “Never drop your guard, either. I’ll always have someone close enough to run interference if you get into trouble, but you have to do your part to keep the house secure.”
“And let you know when and where I’m going,” she agreed. “I won’t forget again.”
He reached across the table and folded his fingers into hers, liking the way they clung. His thumb smoothed over the soft, moist palm while he searched her eyes.
“You haven’t had an easy time of it, have you?” he asked conversationally. “In some ways, your whole life has been in turmoil since you were seventeen.”
“In transition, at least,” she corrected, smiling gently. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that everything changes.”
“I suppose so.” His fingers tightened on hers and the look in his eyes was suddenly dark and mysterious and a little threatening. “I’ve learned a few things myself,” he said quietly.
“Such as?” she whispered daringly.
He glanced down at their entwined fingers. “Such as never taking things for granted.”
She frowned, puzzled.
He laughed and let go of her fingers. “I told you that I was engaged once, didn’t I?” he asked.
She nodded.
“I never told her what I did for a living. She never questioned where my money came from. In fact, when I tried to tell her, she stopped me, saying it wouldn’t matter, that she loved me and she’d go wherever my job took me.” He leaned back in his chair, his expression reflective and solemn. “Her parents were dead. She and an older boy were fostered at the same time to a wealthy woman. They spent years together, but he and Maggie weren’t close, so I made all the wedding arrangements and paid for her gown and the rings, everything.” His eyes darkened with remembered pain. “I still felt uncomfortable about having secrets between us, though, so the night before the wedding, I told her what I did for a living. She put the rings on the coffee table, got her stuff, and left town that same night. She married two months later…a man twice her age.”
She knew about his ex-fiancée, but not how much he’d cared about the woman. The expression in his eyes told her that the pain hadn’t gone away. “Didn’t she send you a letter, or phone you after she’d had time to think it over?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Until I ran into her in Houston a week ago, I had no idea where she was. Her adoptive mother died just after we broke up. Tough break.”
Her heart stopped in her chest. “You…saw her…in Houston?”
He nodded, oblivious to the shock in her eyes. “As luck would have it, she’s a new junior partner in an investment firm I use, and widowed.”
He stared at her until she looked up, and he wasn’t smiling. “You’re in a precarious situation, and we’ve been thrown together in a rather unconventional way. We’re friends, but you don’t have to live with what I do.”
All her hopes and dreams and wild expectations crumbled to dust in her mind. Friends. Good friends. Of course they were! He was teaching her martial arts, he was helping her to survive a potential attack by a ruthless drug lord. That didn’t mean he wanted her to share his life. Quite the opposite, it seemed now.
“If a woman cared enough, surely she could give it a chance?” she asked, terrified that her anguish might show.
Apparently it didn’t. He leaned back in his chair with a long sigh, reflective and moody. “No. She said she wanted a career, anyway,” he replied. “It suited her to have her own money and be independent.”
“My parents never shared their paychecks, or anything else,” she said carelessly. She glanced at Stevie. “Stevie, we’d better go, sweetheart.”
He came running, smiling as he leaned against her and looked across at Eb, who was still brooding. “Can we take Mama a cone?”
“Of course we can,” Sally said gently. She dug out two dollars. “Here. Get her a cup of that fat-free Dutch chocolate, okay? And make sure it has a lid.”
“Okay!”
He ran off with his grubstake, feeling very adult. Sally watched him, smiling.
“I could have done that,” Eb commented.
“Yes, you could, but it wouldn’t help teach him responsibility. Six isn’t too young to start learning independence. He’s going to be a fine man,” she added, her voice softer as she watched him.
He didn’t comment. He was feeling claustrophobic and he didn’t know why. He got up and dealt with the used napkins. By the time he was finished, Stevie came back carrying a small white sack with Jessica’s treat inside.
There wasn’t much conversation on the way back to the Johnson house, and even then it was completely impersonal. Sally realized that it must have hurt Eb to recall how abruptly his fiancée had rejected him. She might have loved him, but the constant danger of his profession must have been more than she could handle. Now that he was retired from the danger, it might not be such an obstacle.
That was a depressing thought. His ex-fiancée was a widow and he was in a secure profession, and they’d recently seen each other. It was enough to get Sally out of the truck with Stevie and off into the house with only a quick thank-you and a forced smile.
Eb, driving away down the road, felt a vague regret for the loss of the rapport he and Sally had seemed to share. He couldn’t understand what had made her so distant this afternoon.
Eb had already contacted a man he knew in the Drug Enforcement Administration on a secure channel and told him what he knew about Lopez and his plans for Jacobsville. He’d also asked about the possibility of having a ma
n go undercover to infiltrate the operation and was told only that the DEA was aware of Lopez’s construction project. He wouldn’t tell Eb anything more than that.
Understanding government work very well, Eb had assumed that the undercover operation was already underway. He wasn’t about to mention that to anyone he knew. Not even Cy.
He had Dallas monitoring some sensitive equipment that gave them direct audio and visual information from Sally’s house. Nobody would sneak up on it without being noticed. He’d also had Dallas bug the telephone. That night, he was glad he had.
In the early hours of the morning, Sally was brought wide-awake by the insistent ringing of the telephone. The number was unlisted, but that didn’t stop telemarketers. Ordinarily, though, they didn’t call at this hour. It wasn’t a good marketing strategy, especially in Sally’s case. She’d hardly slept after the discussion with Eb in the yogurt shop. She wasn’t in the mood to talk to strangers.
“Hello?” she asked belligerently.
“You’ll never see us coming,” a slow, ice-cold voice said in her ear. “But unless Jessica gives up the name by midnight Saturday, there will be serious repercussions.”
Sally was so shocked that she fumbled with the phone and cut off the caller. She stood holding the receiver, blinking in astonishment. That softly accented tone had chilled her to the bone, despite the flannel gown she was wearing.
No sooner had she righted the telephone than it rang again. This time, she hesitated. Her heart was pounding like mad. She was almost shaking with the force of it. Her mouth was dry. Her palms began to sweat. There was an uncomfortable knot in the pit of her stomach.
She wanted to ignore it. She didn’t dare. Quickly, before she lost her nerve, she lifted it.
“She has one last chance,” the voice continued, as if the connection hadn’t been cut. “She must phone this number Saturday night at midnight exactly and give a name. One minute after midnight, you will all suffer the consequences.” He gave the number and hung up. This time the connection was cut even more rapidly. Sally dropped the receiver back into the cradle with icy fingers. She stared down at it with growing horror. Surely Eb and Dallas and the others would be watching. But were they listening as well?
The phone rang a third time, but now she was angry and she didn’t hesitate. She jerked it up. “Hello…?”
“We couldn’t get a trace,” Eb said angrily. “Are you all right?”
She swallowed, closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and swallowed again. “Yes,” she said calmly. “I’m all right. You heard what he said?”
“I heard. Don’t worry.”
“Don’t worry?” she parroted. “When a man’s just threatened to kill everyone in my house?”
“He won’t kill anybody,” he assured her. “And he’s through making threats for tonight. I’m going to find out where that phone is. Go to sleep. It’s all right.”
The receiver went dead. “I am sick and tired of men throwing out orders and hanging up on me!” she told the telephone earpiece.
It did no good, of course, except that voicing her irritation made her feel a little better. She climbed back into bed and lay awake, wide-eyed and nervous, until dawn. Just before she and Stevie left for school, out of the child’s hearing range, she told Jessica what had happened.
“Eb and the others are watching us,” Sally assured her quickly. “But be careful about answering the door.”
“No need,” Jessica said. “Lopez may be certifiable, but he’s predictable. He never takes action until his demands haven’t been met. We have until midnight Saturday to think of something.”
“Wonderful,” Sally said on a sigh. “We have today and tomorrow. I’m sure we’ll have Lopez and all his cohorts in jail by then.”
“Sarcasm doesn’t suit you, dear,” Jessica said with a smile. “Go to work. I’ll be fine.”
“I wish I could guarantee that all of us would be fine,” Sally murmured to herself as she went out the door behind Stevie.
Somehow she knew that life would never be the same again. It had been bad enough hearing Eb talk about the woman he’d loved who had rejected him at the altar, and knowing from the way he spoke of it that he hadn’t gotten over her. But now, she had drug dealers threatening to kill Jessica and Stevie as well as herself. She wondered how in the world she’d ended up in such a nightmare.
It didn’t help when Eb phoned again and told her that the phone number she’d been given was that of a stolen cell phone, untraceable until it was answered, and it rang and rang unnoticed now. There would be no time to run a trace precisely at midnight. It was the most disheartening news Sally had received in a long time.
CHAPTER SEVEN
EB WAS DISTURBED BY THE MESSAGE he’d intercepted from Lopez. He knew, even better than Sally did, that it wasn’t an idle threat. The drug lord, like his minions, was merciless. He’d had countless enemies neutralized, and he wouldn’t hesitate because Jessica was a woman. Just the month before his arrest, he’d had the leader of a drug-dealing gang disposed of for cheating him. It was chilling even for a professional soldier to know what depths a human being could sink to in the name of greed.
He and Dallas started planning for the certainty of an attack. The Johnson homeplace was isolated, but it had plenty of cover where men could hide. Eb intended having people in place long before Lopez’s hired goons could find a safe passage to the house to carry out the madman’s orders. Anything else would be impossible, since he knew Jessica would never sacrifice her informant’s life, even to save herself and her family.
“I think we can safely assume that these men aren’t professionals,” Dallas said quietly. “Their way will be to wade in shooting.”
Eb’s pale eyes narrowed. “I wouldn’t bet the lives of two women and a child on that,” he replied. “Lopez knows I’m here, and that I have trained professionals working for me. He also knows that I’m why Jessica talked Sally into moving back here in the first place. He’s ruthless, but he isn’t stupid. When he comes after Jessica, he’ll send the best people he’s got.”
“Point taken,” Dallas said heavily. “I suppose it was wishful thinking.” He glanced worriedly at Eb. “We could bring all three of them over here.”
“Sure we could. But it would only postpone the inevitable. Lopez doesn’t quit. He’ll look on it as a setback and find another way to get to them. Besides, they can’t stay here indefinitely. Sally has a job and Stevie has to go to school.”
Dallas stared into the distance, quiet and thoughtful. “Stevie doesn’t like me,” he murmured. “He told his mother he was learning karate so that he could work me over.” He shot a half-amused glance in Eb’s direction. “Spunky kid.”
“Yes, he is,” Eb agreed. “Pity he has to grow up without a father. And before you fly at me,” he interrupted Dallas’s exclamation, “I know Jessica didn’t tell you whose child he was. But you know now.”
“I know,” Dallas muttered irritably, “for all the good it does me. She won’t even discuss it. The minute I walk in the door, she clams up and stays that way until I leave. I can barely get her to say hello and goodbye!”
“Then she cries herself to sleep at night because you hate her.”
The blond man’s dark eyes widened. “What?”
“That’s why Stevie wants to deck you,” Eb said simply. “He’s very protective of his mother.”
Dallas seemed to calm down a little. “Imagine that,” he mused. “Well, well. So she isn’t quite as disinterested as she pretends.” He stuck his hands into his pockets and leaned back against the wall. “No chance she’ll turn in the guy who ratted on Lopez, I gather?”
“Not one in a million.” He studied the other man for a moment. “You’re really worried.”
“Of course I am. I’ve seen the aftermath of Lopez’s vendettas,” Dallas said curtly. “What worries me most is that if someone’s willing to trade his life or his freedom to get you, he can. No protection is adequate against a determined killer.�
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“Then ours will make history,” Eb promised him. “Let’s go over to Cy Parks’s place. I want to see if he’s got a way to contact that guy in Mexico who used to work as a mercenary with Dutch Van Meer and Diego Laremos back in the eighties. He went on to do work infiltrating drug cartels.”
“J.D. Brettman led that mercenary group,” Dallas recalled, grinning. “He’s a superior court judge in Chicago these days. Imagine that!”
“I heard that Van Meer lives with his wife and kids in the northwestern Rocky Mountains on a ranch. What about Laremos?” Eb asked.
“He and his family live in the Yucatán. He’s given up soldiering, too.” He shook his head. “Those guys were younger than us when they started and they made fortunes.”
“It was a different game back then. Times have changed. So have the rules. We’d never get away with some of the stunts those guys pulled.” Eb felt in his pocket for his truck keys. “All of us met them, but Cy and Diego Laremos got to know each other well several years back when Cy was doing a little job down around Cancún for a wealthy yachtsman. He may know the professional soldier who helped a friend of Laremos’s escape some nasty pothunters and a kidnapper.”
“Do I know this friend?” Dallas wanted to know as they headed out the door.
“You probably know of him—Canton Rourke.”
“Good Lord, Mr. Software?” Dallas exclaimed. “The guy who lost everything and then regrouped and now has a corporation in the Fortune 500?”
“That’s him.” Eb nodded. “Turns out the new Mrs. Rourke’s parents are university professors who devote summers to Mayan digs in the Yucatán. It’s a long story, but this Mexican agent does a little freelance work. He’d be an asset in this sort of operation.”
“He might even have some contacts we could use?”
“That’s so.” Eb got in and started the truck. He glanced at Dallas. “Besides that, he’s done undercover work on narcotics smuggling for the Mexican government and lived to tell about it. That proves how good he is. A lot of undercover people get killed.”