Secrets and Seduction: 5 Romance Novels (85 page)

Ensenada was Gutierrez’s natural habitat; Gutierrez’s people.

Charlie wasn’t the only one who felt uneasy. Juliana’s stiff posture and the tight lines around her eyes revealed her tension. Charlie rubbed her arm. “Relax.”

“I feel like I’m being watched.”

“That’s your cousins. Or the cops.”

“No. It’s more.”

He tensed. “You can’t sense him.”

“No. I wish we had a photo of him so I could find him. I think he’s here.”

Charlie wrapped an arm around her. “If he is, he doesn’t know who we are or what we look like either. Our car is covered under a tarp, so no one knows it’s American. We’re Mr. and Mrs. Sanchez. Not Jordan Hessler and his lover.”

Juliana rubbed at the goose bumps on her arms. “Don’t say things like that.”

“He’ll call,” Charlie assured her.

“He’s cautious. He’ll look before he leaps. And he won’t be alone.”

“We’re not alone either.”

“They’re trained to kill. We’re not.”

“I’ll take him with me if he tries.” Charlie carried a gun he’d use if he had to. Another reason not to let the cops stop him. But he needed to lighten Juliana’s mood. “Let’s go shopping. Rosita’s birthday is next week.”

“All right.” She gave him a bright smile.

Hessler’s phone rang and nearly stopped Charlie’s heart. And then it galloped madly. Juliana clutched his arm. He took a deep breath, looked at the number and opened the phone. “Hessler.” Juliana pressed her ear close.

“You’re a hard man to find,” Gutierrez’s smooth Spanish voice said. “You’re everywhere but you’re nowhere.”

“I told you I’m in Ensenada.”

“I’m here. I’ve come to collect what you owe me.”

“Where and when?”

“Tonight. Midnight. Pier 80, slip 42, the Sandpiper.”

“I’ll be there.” Charlie closed the phone.

“How do we know it’s not a trap?” Juliana demanded.

“We don’t. So we get there first.”

They caught a taxi to Pier 80 with Ricarda and Alfonso Sanchez. Charlie scanned the area. This didn’t feel right. “We’re a group of young people out to see a friend off. Look for slip 42, but don’t indicate you’ve seen it. Then look for someone casting off. We’ll watch them leave then come back here. Everyone got the plan?”

Ricarda and Alfonso agreed. They were from two different branches of the Sanchez family. Ricarda was twenty and string-bean thin with straight black hair down to her hips. Alfonso was the same age but muscular with a sharp mustache.

The women paired up and strolled casually past slip 42. Charlie saw nothing unusual about the large sailboat. It looked like it was locked up tight, the sail lashed down. He continued walking to where the women had stopped ten slips further down. A group of people were making preparations to depart.

Juliana and Ricarda made small talk with the boat’s occupants. Charlie’s neck itched as the time crawled by. Were these boaters amateurs? How long did it take to launch a boat? At length they cast off, and his group waved the travelers goodbye.

Then he escorted Juliana off the pier with her cousins following.

“I didn’t see anyone at slip 42,” Alfonso said.

“No activity at all,” Charlie agreed. “Keep walking.”

They strolled along five more piers before they hailed a cab.

“What does it mean?” Ricarda asked. “If he called from there, someone should be there.”

“True,” Charlie said.

“If he was watching the pier,” Juliana mused, “he can guess Hessler is either you or Alfonso.”

“Or that I’m not Hessler,” Charlie replied.

Juliana and her cousins looked confused, so Charlie explained. “If he knows what Hessler looks like, and if we’re the only ones who went down that pier, then he knows I’m not Hessler.”

Juliana gripped his arm. Her eyes were wide. “What are we going to do?”

“We’ll set up around that slip. Then at midnight, I’ll arrive with the sculpture, and we’ll capture him.” Charlie knew it was simplistic. Mexican officials probably wouldn’t prosecute Gutierrez. U.S. law enforcement was also constrained. But he couldn’t stop now. He had to go forward.

He instructed the taxi driver to take them to the market. They wandered around for an hour before he felt sure they hadn’t been followed. Then he guided his little group home.

Fifteen people sat around the table for dinner. An expectant hush fell while they ate. They wanted this to be finished. Charlie glanced at Juliana’s beloved face. He didn’t want their time together to be over. Maybe after they caught Gutierrez... Would he have proven himself worthy of happiness then? He
had
to because being with her again had showed him how empty and lonely his life was. Glamorous California paled beside the vibrant colors with which Juliana filled her life. And the excitement of being surrounded by Hollywood stars and glittering events failed to move him like the shining love in Juliana’s eyes when she looked at him. The same way she’d looked at him for years and he’d taken it for granted. Never again.

At nine-thirty, four of the young Sanchezes left for the pier. They took Charlie’s baseball bat, assorted iron bars, pipes, and lengths of wood with them. The clock ticked the minutes away. The tension in the house was thick and uncomfortable. Felipe played quiet Spanish music on his guitar. It made the waiting a little more bearable.

Hessler’s phone rang, and Charlie nearly jumped out of his skin. He wasn’t the only one. Felipe hit a jarring note.

Charlie looked at the phone, saw Gutierrez’s number and opened it. “Hessler.”

“We both know you are not him.” Gutierrez sounded smug.

Charlie covered the mouthpiece. “He knows.”

“What is your game?” Gutierrez asked.

“Power. The same as yours.”

“It is funny you should say that. I have someone here who wants to speak to you...Mr. Sanchez.”

“Charlie, don’t do what he says!” Alfonso yelled on the other end of the line, his voice trumpeting into the room.

Felipe and Rosita looked stricken.

“You think
children
can outsmart me?” Gutierrez sneered. “You have one hour to produce the Hunahpu before I kill them. You understand?”

Charlie’s stomach tied in knots. “Yes.”

“Same place. Come alone. Bring the Hunahpu. Leave it and walk away.”

“Yeah, and you’re such a nice guy you’ll let them go.”

“You do not have the power in this negotiation. I do.” A scream of pain nearly shattered Charlie’s eardrum.

Rosita and Felipe clutched one another. The rest of the Sanchezes paled.

Gutierrez continued in a conversational tone, “The little girl just lost a finger. If you do not bring the sculpture, she loses her life and the others, too.”

“Bastard!” Charlie snarled.

“You are out of my league. Do what you are told, and your young friends live.” Gutierrez severed the connection.

“Gutierrez has them.” Anger and fear washed over Charlie in hot and cold waves. God, his fault again.

The Sanchezes gasped, cried, and moaned. Juliana clutched his arm.

“He says he’s going to kill them if I don’t bring the sculpture to him in an hour.”

“Holy Mother of God! Give it to him!” Rosita cried.

“He’ll kill them anyway,” Charlie said.

“If there is a chance . . . ” she cried.

“There isn’t. He’s evil. He glories in other people’s suffering.” He had to stop Gutierrez.

Rosita sobbed, and Felipe tucked her against his chest. He turned to Charlie. “Who screamed?”

“Ricarda. He . . . hurt her.”

Rosita cried out as though she’d suffered the hurt herself.

Felipe’s eyes hardened, making him look more like Captain Sanchez than ever. “Then he must not get away with it. No one hurts a Sanchez without repercussions.”

“I can find Ricarda and the others,” Juliana said into the tense silence. “Their clothes are here.”

“Then do it,” Rosita cried. “I cannot tell their mothers they died.”

“We’ll be going where an unknown number of men are armed and on the alert,” Juliana warned. “It will be very dangerous.”

“Just get me close enough,” Charlie said, “and I’ll take it from there. None of you need risk yourselves further.” He’d get the young people out or die trying.

“We’re going with you,” one cousin said.

Another nodded in agreement. “You need us.”

Charlie shook his head.

“I’m coming, too.” Felipe’s look dared Charlie to argue. “You don’t have to prove yourself alone.”

“No!” Rosita clutched him.

“I have to go,
amore
. They are my blood.”

Charlie swore he’d bring everyone back alive. He’d been an extra in enough war movies and watched enough hours of film to have at least Hollywood’s version of going up against bad guys. “I have two guns. Anyone else have one and know how to use it? I don’t want to get shot by friendly fire.”

Felipe stood. “I have guns in the cellar.”

“I have a knife and can use that,” one cousin said.

Charlie rose. “Let’s go.”

Juliana gathered cast-off clothing from the four cousins. Charlie armed himself, and had her tape the sculpture to his chest once more. Felipe and the others climbed the stairs from the cellar, tucking guns into waistbands and pockets.

At Charlie’s raised eyebrows, Felipe said simply, “I have not always managed a hotel.”

The cousin’s knife turned out to be a wickedly sharp Bowie knife, ten inches long.

Where had these Sanchezes gotten weapons like this and why? What had Felipe done or been in the past? Charlie didn’t ask for details. This wasn’t the United States; the government here was different.

They piled into two cabs. Charlie sat beside Juliana in the first car. White-faced, she clutched the clothes and called out directions to the driver. The cab turned onto the waterfront and headed for some warehouses, where she told the driver to stop.

They exited, and the taxis drove away. Charlie could just see Pier 80 from where he stood. Everyone huddled in the shadows.

“This warehouse?” Charlie asked, keeping his voice low.

“No. The last one we passed. I didn’t want to stop there.”

“Do you know where they are inside?”

“Toward the back. I need to get closer.”

Charlie didn’t want her any closer, but he needed the hostages’ exact location. “C’mon.”

Their group crept to the warehouse two abreast, making no sound. Juliana led them into the alley between the two buildings. When they were two-thirds of the way to the end of the structure, she halted.

“Here.” Her voice was a wisp of sound.

“How close to this wall?” Charlie asked.

She cocked her head. He could barely see her in the crescent moonlight. “Ten feet?”

“Not close enough.” He led the group around the back of the building, past a door, and rounded the next corner.

“They’re closer on the other side,” Juliana whispered.

Charlie stationed Felipe and two cousins at the back entrance. He and Juliana and the rest trouped back to where she’d sensed the captives were closest. There were windows in the wall. Two young cousins boosted a third up.

“I see them,” the slender young man hissed with excitement. He tried the window, then signaled to be let down.

“The window is locked,” the cousin reported. “We could break it, but that would make noise. They’re sitting in a circle with their hands and feet tied.” Anger laced his young voice. “One man is guarding them with a gun.”

“He didn’t see you, did he?” Any second Charlie feared an armed attack.

“No, he was facing away from the window. But Alfonso did.”

“I pray to God he doesn’t give us away,” one cousin said with fervor.

“Let’s go talk to Felipe,” Charlie said.

The cousin reported what he’d seen.

Felipe said, “There are two doors in the front, one of which is a truck door, one in the back, and windows on the side. This door is locked.”

“The front may be locked too.” Charlie looked at his watch. “We’re running out of time.”

“There’s a forklift parked in the field behind us,” the cousin named Estebon said. “If I can get it started, I can operate it.”

“A frontal assault?” Charlie asked. “Ram the front gates?”

“Excellent idea,” Felipe said. “I can shoot the guard through the window.” What was it like to live in a seemingly modern, civilized city and yet know how to defend yourself and the ones you loved like he planned to do?

“We shoot through the windows as we ram the front door. Two people remain at the back door to prevent anyone from escaping,” Charlie summarized.

The Sanchezes nodded.

“I’ll go with Estebon and the forklift,” Charlie said. Juliana looked at him with wide, fearful eyes.

“I’m going in the front,” another cousin, Jose, volunteered.

“Me, too,” offered Lorenzo.

“Estebon, try the forklift,” Charlie ordered.

Time passed. Muffled night sounds floated from the direction of the pier. Louder and closer was someone’s sneaker scuffing a stone. Salt brine tickled Charlie’s nose, along with food smells and sewer gas.

When the engine fired, its growl split the night. Most of their little raiding party jumped. Charlie’s heart thudded in his chest. Estebon raised a fist in triumph, then he put the forklift in gear and headed toward the side alley. The two cousins guarding the back door pulled out their guns and took their position.

The engine echoed loudly in the confined alley. Charlie held his gun ready for trouble. He made sure Juliana was behind him.

They left Felipe, three cousins, and Juliana at the window. Charlie gave her a quick kiss. She gripped his hand hard. Then he, Jose, and Lorenzo ran after the forklift. It moved faster than he’d thought a machine like that could. Before he was ready, the forklift turned the corner around the front.

Under the single weak overhead light, Estebon turned the forklift to face the warehouse. The truck door was a wooden one that rolled up.

Estebon gunned the engine and raced for the door. The forks crashed through the wood with satisfying ease, destroying the majority of the door with a crack that resounded over the water. Charlie followed the forklift through the hole and dived for cover behind a stack of wooden pallets. Jose followed him and tucked in behind Charlie’s back. When the forklift engine shut off, the silence was deafening. There was a pop, and something thudded into the wood to his left. Gutierrez’s men were shooting at them. With his gun ready, Charlie peered into the dimness but saw no one except Estebon crouching behind the two-high stack of crates across from him.