No man wants to live his life as a cripple.
Unfortunate collateral damage from the bombing attempt on Salavatore’s life. Another debt owed by Alejandro when Durand found him.
“Bien, Uncle.” Eduardo kept his eyes on the book in his lap. Always reading. Always the same answer.
The boy never looked him in the eye. Probably too hard to look up at men all the time.
“All is ready for tomorrow?” Durand asked Maria.
“Sí. Thank you for use of your jet.” His sister’s eyes didn’t meet Durand’s either.
She made him feel guilty for her son’s problems. This was no his fault. The fault lay at Alejandro’s feet.
She knew that.
“You don’t have to thank me for everything, Sister. Blood always takes care of blood.” Durand sighed. She asked for so little and only for Eduardo. Just one of many reasons he could deny her no request.
She nodded. “We still thank you for the roof over our heads and the medical treatments.”
“Sí, gracias, Uncle,” Eduardo mumbled on cue as he always did right after his mother.
Durand clamped down on the guilt creeping up his spine. He had provided well for them, been a loving brother to her and loving uncle to his broken nephew.
He had no reason to feel shame.
“I pray this surgery will be the last one for you, Eduardo,” Durand said, changing the subject.
“Gracias.” Her son’s gaze remained on the book in his lap. What could be that interesting?
“Thank you for finding a new doctor,” Maria added.
Dios. Durand wanted to yell at her to stop thanking him. But he reached over and hugged her instead.
“I will see you tonight.” Durand walked off, deciding it was time for Julio to find a place to care for Eduardo around the clock. Maybe leave him in the States, then his sister would have to get on with her life. Maria might fight him on it, but in the end he controlled the checkbook for Eduardo’s care, and this was the last surgery.
Just as soon as he found and dealt with Mirage.
That would happen as soon as Julio broke Ferdinand’s son.
HIS ARMS WERE a safe zone where nothing could touch her.
Gabrielle sighed, happy even if she was living a fool’s dream. She snuggled her back closer against Carlos’s warm chest. After all the years alone and unloved, she refused to face the possibility that she and Carlos might not be able to stay together. What would Joe do after this was all over?
What would he do if he knew that she and Carlos had been intimate? Would Rae or Korbin say anything? She didn’t think so after seeing this team work together.
There were so many more things she didn’t know.
Such as whom Carlos, Joe, and all these people worked for. Who was this Fratelli group they were trying to stop, and what exactly were they trying to stop? Where was Linette and how did her friend fit into all of this? And one big question.
Had Durand learned the true identity of Mirage?
She didn’t know a lot of things, but deep in her heart she believed one thing. Carlos might not be the kind of man who would get seriously involved with a woman, but she believed he cared for her. That didn’t change that he had orders to bring her back.
Carlos kissed the top of her head. A hand brushed over her hair, stroke after stroke.
She smiled. He was so affectionate she could fall hard for a man like him. As if she hadn’t already?
Mon Dieu. Her mind could deny it, but her heart wouldn’t.
“Why aren’t you asleep?” he asked in a voice thick with exhaustion.
“I don’t know. Just thinking.”
“How can you have any energy after the last three hours?”
“The Tynte women are made of stronger stuff than other women,” she teased.
“Yes, they are, and if you’re the signature design, they’re all beautiful, sweet, and intelligent.”
Her whole body sighed with pleasure.
“What’s bothering you?” he asked.
“Nothing really. I haven’t even worried about Durand Anguis catching me for a while.”
His breathing slowed, then his chest moved with one deep breath. “Why are you so focused on the Anguis?”
She’d sidestepped some of his questions earlier.
That was before he’d saved her life yet again. Carlos and his people fought dangerous groups such as the Anguis, so they’d have no reason to share her story or expose her. She’d wanted to tell someone for the longest time, but couldn’t. Carlos knew exactly who she was, so where would be the harm in telling him?
“I’ve targeted the Anguis for a long time,” she started. “My mother believed in being more than a figurehead for a dynasty. She was a bit of a rebel for her era. Her parents didn’t understand the depth of Mama’s humanitarian commitment. Neither did Papa. Against his orders, she slipped away and traveled to South America incognito with a group of teachers who were going to open a new school in Venezuela, but her real plan was to help a very dear friend escape a dangerous man her friend unknowingly married.”
Carlos stopped brushing his hand over her hair and seemed intensely focused on her story. She appreciated his interest and that he didn’t give her a standard “Just leave this to the authorities,” as so many others had said years ago.
“Mama’s friend lived in the Venezuelan town where the teachers were going to set up a school,” Gabrielle continued. “On the way there, the bus passed through a small town near Caracas. Reports said a big black sedan ahead of them was stopped by goats in the road. Just as the bus caught up to the car, bystanders said grenades were launched at the vehicle from a rooftop. The explosion lifted the car into the air and ripped the bus apart.” She’d kept this inside for so long she could hardly share it now without strangling on the pain.
“All the teachers were killed,” she continued, reciting the events she’d played over and over in her mind from memory. “Mama had left a letter for the maid to give Papa two days after she left so he wouldn’t panic when he returned home from a trip and found her missing. Papa sent a highly skilled tracker immediately to find Mama and bring her home. This man did catch up to her, but not until just after the bombing. Papa was devastated when he got the news.” Gabrielle hesitated. “We all were. The man Papa sent to Venezuela was much like your people, with many resources. He arranged for documents that proved the body was his wife, which wasn’t hard to do since Mama was…unrecognizable.”
Carlos rubbed her arm, but remained silent.
Now that she’d started she wanted to get it all out.
“Papa wouldn’t let me tell anyone what really happened since Mama had entered the country illegally. He said the media would focus on that and not the fact that Durand had killed innocent women when he attacked a competitor trying to move into his territory. Papa said Durand would be punished for killing Mama and the teachers. We told everyone Mama had been in a bad car crash while traveling and buried her along with the secret.”
That had been a lifetime ago. Gabrielle still remembered standing in the rain at the cemetery, soaked to the bone, while she waited for everything to go back to normal.
As if it had all just been a bad dream.
“So you went after the Anguis?” Carlos said softly.
“Not exactly. I just got frustrated when as years passed it became clear Durand was not going to be held accountable. No one could prove he’d been behind the bombing even though eyewitnesses swore his men were on-site. The world forgot a month after the bombings, but I didn’t. I didn’t get serious about trying to do something until after I’d graduated, married Roberto, then divorced him and went into hiding, where I spent so much time on the computer.”
“Because of being afraid of Roberto,” Carlos muttered.
“Oui. So I turned to what gave me comfort, researching things. I used my skills to find out everything I could on Durand and the bombings.”
“What exactly did you find?”
“That Durand Anguis was definitely behind the bombing. He’d wanted to make a statement so others wouldn’t try to enter his area. He’s killed many innocents, not just my mother.”
Carlos turned rigid as a statue at that, which she understood because of his protective nature around a woman. Considering his line of work, Carlos was probably more aware of Durand’s atrocities than her.
“Over time, I established a reliable contact,” Gabrielle continued. “Thanks to this person, I have the name of the son who Durand credits with many of the murders.”
The room was so quiet for a moment, Gabrielle could hear the air circulating.
“Who?” Carlos asked so softly it raised the fine hairs along her neck. When she shivered, he lifted the sheet up to cover her and drew her back closer against his chest.
She could feel Carlos’s heart beating powerfully. The heart of a warrior who fought to protect the world.
“Alejandro Anguis, the man I hope to see one day die for his crimes.”
TWENTY-THREE
WHY DON’T YOU give Babette a call?” Carlos tossed his cell phone on the bed for Gabrielle, who stood on the other side buttoning her blouse. In hindsight, he should have had her try to reach her sister last night, but hoped he’d have received word on Babette by now.
Gabrielle looked up, eyes wary. “Why? It’s not even five in the morning yet. Did she text you?”
“No. Just give her a call and see if she’s okay.” He wasn’t ready to tell Gabrielle her sister was missing. After last night, anything he said or did was a land mine waiting to be tripped.
She knew the name Alejandro, but didn’t know that the Anguis tattoo was a snake and dagger. If BAD or Interpol freed her, she’d eventually find out about the tattoo and…
What had he thought? That the day would come where he’d really be free of his past? That there was a chance of ever having more of a life than a box of memories tucked away in a safe house?
Face it, hombre. The only hope you have to stay alive is to remain unencumbered to run and hide…and kill when necessary.
His best-case outcome scenario was to secure her freedom, then to disappear himself into the bottomless recess of BAD’s network, become a deep-undercover operative only.
Family was everything and he had to stay alive to assure his was safe, so that one day he could free Maria and Eduardo.
Gabrielle gave him a curious glance, then finally lifted the phone and keyed in a number. She held the phone to her ear, amused by something she listened to before she spoke.
“Cute recording, Babette. This is Gabrielle. Just wanted to say hello. Call me.” She hung up and tossed the phone back.
“Why don’t you text her, too?” Carlos suggested.
The humor drained from Gabrielle’s eyes. “What’s this all about?”
Well, hell, subtle wasn’t working. “Don’t get upset until Gotthard gets us an update, but Babette’s security card was not scanned through the school system last night.”
“Oh, mon Dieu!” Gabrielle grabbed the phone, frantically texting, then looked at him. “I said it was an emergency. To call immediately. What are we going to do?”
The panic growing in her eyes was the reason he’d waited as long as possible to tell her about her sister. He walked over and put his hands on her shoulders. “We don’t know that anything has happened. She might have lost her card.”
Gabrielle studied his face, then narrowed her eyes. “Rae knew this last night. Didn’t she?”
This was where things would go from bad to shit bad. “Yes, but she’s probably been up half the night working on this.”
“Which means you knew, too,” Gabrielle accused, ignoring the rest of what he’d told her.
“Yes, but-”
“But you didn’t think I needed to know last night?”
“No. There was nothing any of us could do until we determined Babette was definitely missing.”
Fury burned away the panic. “News flash. She’s missing! So what are you going to do?”
He wanted to snap right back at her over his frustration at another teenage girl being in danger, but couldn’t when worry for her sister was behind Gabrielle’s acidic tone.
Someone knocked at the door. Carlos walked away, glad for the short reprieve from how her shoulders sagged next. He could handle anger, but his insides clenched at the disappointment in her voice. That he’d let her down.
When he opened the door, Rae stalked into the room with a weary-looking Korbin right behind.
“Long night?” Carlos asked him.
Korbin shoved a droll look his way. “Yes, and not due to anything physically draining. Rae is a maniac when it comes to something she can’t solve.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about Babette?” Gabrielle yelled at Rae.
Rae gave Carlos a pointed look. “Leash her until I have coffee or I may have to kill her.”
Gabrielle launched at Rae, but Carlos caught her around the waist before she committed suicide.
Rae didn’t move a muscle as Gabrielle flailed her arms and kicked, yelling, “Let me go. I’m flying back to the school.”
“Calm down and I’ll take you.” Carlos struggled to hold her without causing a bruise.
When she settled down at that offer, he set her on her feet. “Get packed and we’ll go.”
“Bad idea.” Korbin scratched the beard shadow on his face.
“Why?” Gabrielle demanded.
“Could be a trap. Someone could have figured out what Gabrielle did in the computers and be waiting for both of you.”
“No one could have followed what I did in the IT center,” Gabrielle argued.
“Someone tracked you to Peachtree City and let your ex know you were going to be in Milano,” Rae reminded her.
“I don’t care. I’m going to get my sister.”
Carlos’s phone dinged with a new text message. Gabrielle rushed into the bedroom and dove for the phone, punching the keys and reading. When Carlos caught up to her, relief burst with her next exhale.