Диана Палмер – Her Kind of Hero: The Last Mercenary (страница 2)

She hadn’t believed him, about the danger she and her stepfather—his father—could find themselves in. Manuel Lopez wasn’t the man to cross, and he wanted blood. He was going to go to the easiest target for that. He grimaced, thinking how vulnerable Callie would be in a desperate situation. She hated snakes, but he’d seen her go out of her way not to injure one. She was like that about everything. She was a sucker for a hard-luck story, an easy mark for a con artist. Her heart was as soft as wool, and she was sensitive; overly sensitive. He didn’t like remembering how he’d hurt her in the past.

He did remember that he hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. He stopped to have a sandwich at a local fast-food joint. Then he drove himself back to the motel he was staying at. He’d been helping Eb Scott and Cy Parks get rid of Lopez’s fledgling drug distribution center. Just nights ago, they’d shut down the whole operation and sent most of Lopez’s people to jail. Lopez’s high-tech equipment, all his vehicles, even the expensive tract of land they sat on, had been confiscated under the Rico statutes. And that didn’t even include the massive shipment of marijuana that had also been taken away. Micah himself had tipped off the authorities to the largest shipment of cocaine in the history of south Texas, which the Coast Guard, with DEA support, had appropriated before it even got to the Mexican coast. Lopez wouldn’t have to dig too deeply to know that Micah had cost him not only the multimillion-dollar shipment, but the respect of the cartel in Colombia, as well. Lopez was in big trouble with his bosses. Micah Steele was the reason for that. Lopez couldn’t get to Micah, but he could get to Micah’s family because they were vulnerable. The knowledge of that scared him to death.

He took a shower and stretched out on the bed in a towel, his hands under his dampblond hair while he stared at the ceiling and wondered how he could keep an eye on Callie Kirby and Jack Steele without their knowing. A private bodyguard would stick out like a sore thumb in a small Texas community like Jacobsville. On the other hand, Micah couldn’t do it himself without drawing Lopez’s immediate retaliation. It was a difficult determination. He couldn’t make himself go back to the Bahamas while he knew his father and Callie were in danger. On the other hand, he couldn’t stay here. Living in a small town would drive him nuts, even if he had done it in the past, before he went off to medical school.

While he was worrying about what to do next, the telephone rang.

“Steele,” he said on a yawn. He was tired.

“It’s Eb,” came the reply. “I just had a phone call from Rodrigo,” he added, mentioning a Mexican national who’d gone undercover for them in Lopez’s organization. He’d since been discovered and was now hiding out in Aruba.

“What’s happened?” Micah asked with a feeling of dread knotting his stomach.

“He had some news from a friend of his cousin, a woman who knows Lopez. Have you seen Callie Kirby today?” Eb asked hesitantly.

“Yes,” Micah said. “About two hours ago, just as she was leaving her office. Why?”

“Rodrigo said Lopez was going to snatch her. He sounded as if they meant to do it pretty soon. You might want to check on her.”

“I went to see her. I warned her…!”

“You know Lopez,” Eb reminded him somberly. “It won’t do her any good even if she’s armed. Lopez’s men are professionals.”

“I’ll do some telephoning and get back to you,” Micah said quickly, cursing his own lack of haste about safeguarding Callie. He hung up and phoned the adult day care center. Callie would surely be there by now. He could warn her…

But the woman who answered the phone said that Callie hadn’t arrived yet. She was two hours late, and her stepfather was becoming anxious. Did Micah know where she was?

He avoided a direct answer and promised to phone her back. Then, with a feeling of utter dread, he climbed into the Porsche and drove past Kemp’s law office, taking the route Callie would have taken to the adult day care center.

His heart skipped a beat when he reached the first intersection outside the city. At this time of day, there was very little traffic. But there, on the side of the road, was Callie’s yellow VW, parked on the grass with the driver’s door wide-open.

He pulled in behind it and got out, cursing as he noted that the keys were still in the ignition, and her purse was lying on the passenger seat. There was no note, no anything.

He stood there, shell-shocked and cold. Lopez had Callie. Lopez had Callie!

After a minute, he phoned Eb on his car phone.

“What do you want me to do?” Eb asked at once, after Micah had finished speaking.

Micah’s head was spinning. He couldn’t think. He ran a hand through his thick hair. “Nothing. You’re newly married, like Cy. I can’t put any more women in the firing line. Let me handle this.”

“What will you do?” Eb asked.

“Bojo’s in Atlanta visiting his brother, but I’ll have him meet me in Belize tomorrow. If you have a number for Rodrigo, call it, and tell him to meet me in Belize, too, at the Seasurfer’s Bar. Meanwhile, I’ll call in the rest of my team.” He was remembering phone numbers and jotting them down even as he spoke. “They’re taking a holiday, but I can round them up. I’ll go in after her.”

Eb suggested calling the chief of police, Chet Blake, because he had contacts everywhere, including relatives in positions of power—one was even a Texas Ranger. Micah couldn’t argue. If Eb wanted to tell the man, let him. He was going to get to Callie while she was still alive.

“Just remember that somebody in law enforcement is feeding information to Lopez, and act accordingly. I’ve got to make arrangements about Dad before I leave.”

“I’m sorry, Micah.”

“It’s my fault,” Micah ground out furiously. “I shouldn’t have left her alone for a minute! I warned her, but what good did that do?”

“Stop that,” Eb said at once. “You’re no good to Callie unless you can think straight. If you need any sort of help, logistical or otherwise, I have contacts of my own in Mexico.”

“I’ll need ordinance,” Micah said at once. “Can you set it up with your man in Belize and arrange to have him meet us at that border café we used to use for a staging ground?”

“I can. Tell me what you want.”

Micah outlined the equipment he wanted, including an old DC-3 to get them into the Yucatán, from which his men would drop with parachutes at night.

“You can fly in under the radar in that,” Eb cautioned, “but the DEA will assume you’re trying to bring in drugs if they spot you. It’ll be tricky.”

“Damn!” Micah was remembering that someone in federal authority was on Lopez’s payroll. “I had a contact near Lopez, but he left the country. Rodrigo’s cousin might help, but he’d be risking his life after this latest tip he fed Rodrigo. So, basically, we’ve got nobody in Lopez’s organization. And if I use my regular contacts, I risk alerting the DEA. Who can I trust?”

“I know someone,” Eb said after a minute. “I’ll take care of that. Phone me when you’re on the ground in Cancún and make sure you’ve got global positioning equipment with you.”

“Will do. Thanks, Eb.”

“What are friends for? I’ll be in touch. Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

“Want me to call Cy?”

“No. I’ll go by his place on my way out of town and catch him up.” He hung up.

He didn’t want to leave Callie’s car with the door open and her purse in it, but he didn’t want to be accused of tampering with evidence later. He compromised by locking it and closing the door. The police would find it eventually, because they patrolled this way. They’d take it from there, but he didn’t want anyone in authority to know he was going after Callie. Someone had warned Lopez about the recent devastating DEA raid on his property. That person was still around, and Micah didn’t want anyone to guess that he knew about Callie’s kidnapping.

It was hard to think clearly, but he had to. He knew that Callie had a cell phone. He didn’t know if she had it with her. Kemp, her boss, had let that slip to Eb Scott during a casual conversation. If Callie had the phone, and Lopez’s people didn’t know, she might be able to get a call out. He didn’t flatter himself that she’d call him. But she might try to call the adult day care center, if she could. It wasn’t much, but it gave him hope.

He drove to the center. For one mad instant he thought about speaking to his father in person. But that would only complicate matters and upset the old man; they hadn’t spoken in years. He couldn’t risk causing his father to have another stroke or a second heart attack by telling him that Callie had been kidnapped.

He went to the office of the nursing director of the center instead and took her into his confidence. She agreed with him that it might be best if they kept the news from his father, and they formulated a cover story that was convincing. It was easy enough for him to arrange for a nurse to go home with his father to Callie’s apartment every night and to drive him to the center each day. They decided to tell Jack Steele that one of Callie’s elderly aunts had been hurt in a car wreck and she had to go to Houston to see about her. Callie had no elderly aunts, but Jack wouldn’t know that. It would placate him and keep him from worrying. Then Micah would have to arrange for someone to protect him from any attempts by Lopez on his life.