Then again, had he ever felt any loyalty toward her?Maybe it’d been nothing but a ruse to draw her in so he’d haveexactly this opportunity.
“Does this have something to do with my father?” Remyseemed to think that was the connection.
All that talk of loyalty to her family because of thework Hank had done years ago with her dad might have been nothingbut lies—keeping her close. For this.
She thought about it while he said nothing. Maybehe’d decided that he wanted to be there out of loyalty in thebeginning. But anything after Mexico was suspect, and she didn’tbelieve any of it was other than the blackmailer twisting his lifefor whatever scheme the puppet master had in mind.
“What does he have on you?” She asked the questionout loud, even as she wondered again what the blackmailer had onSteve. “Did he kidnap Zimmerman’s family? Is that what he does?Threaten the people closest to you to force you to do what hewants.” But Hank didn’t have a family.
She’d thought he considered her kind of like adaughter. Now she knew that couldn’t be true. “What does he knowthat you don’t want to get out?”
The question hung in the air. He was willing tosacrifice her for whatever it was. Maybe she didn’t want to know.She might end up disappointed she was worth so little. She huffedout a breath—not anywhere near a laugh, but headed in thatdirection. The ability to be a little sardonic, especially at atime like this, helped shore up those defenses.
If she could focus on Hank, then she didn’t have tothink about—
The car slowed, and they pulled under the roof of abuilding. A warehouse.
El Cuervo.
She tried to stay cold. Tried to keep her minddivorced from what was happening. Adrian…she couldn’t think abouthim. Did he hate her for leaving? She had no idea what Hank hadtold him about her taking the car and going. Apparently not thetruth, at least as far as she’d known it.
This was supposed to have been about baiting a trapfor El Cuervo. Instead shewas the target, and it was Hank who had snapped it shut. Onher.
Lord…There were no words. Her eyes burned. Her nose stung.
The door opened and a man stood there. Megan didn’tlook at whoever it was. She just lay still on the floor behind thefront seats.
He grabbed her foot and pulled her out. Her shoesslapped the floor. The man ducked his head and pulled her upperbody over his shoulder. He stood, causing a grunt to rise in herthroat. Her head swam along with the throb, upside down with allthe blood pooling there.
He lumbered under the weight of her. Yes, she neededto quit her pizza habit. She didn’t need the reminder, thank youvery much. He shifted her again and deposited her on the concretefloor.
Megan blew out a breath and tried to relax everytense muscle. Her jaw screamed from being locked so tightly. Hershoulders were on fire. She took another moment to get some morebreaths in her.
And then she looked up.
El Cuervo stoodover her, dressed in the same suit. Did he have several in thatcolor because he liked it so much? She pictured them lined up inhis closet like uniforms. The scar peeked out his collar on theleft side of his face, wrinkled skin from there to his ear.Burns—probably suffered years ago. Had that been instrumental inhim becoming the man he was now?
Why did her mind keep coming back to his obviousinjury?
“We meet again.”
She’d pretended not to know Spanish the first time hespoke to her. Now she replied in English, just because she knew itwould irritate him. “The pleasure is all yours, I’m sure.”
**
Adrian buckled himself into the airplane seat. He’dgone right for Megan’s SUV before anyone else got to it. Firstthing he’d done was try and look inside. The doors were locked. Acheck of the bathroom, the hallway, and the ground between the backdoor and where the SUV had been parked, yielded her car keys.
Inside the vehicle, he’dfound her phone and purse. He’d taken the phone. It didn’t matterthat local cops would discover her ID and wallet, and likely herFBI badge, inside the SUV abandoned at the gas station.
Agents in DC at his office hadn’t been able to locatethe GPS on Hank’s vehicle. They’d gotten nothing back but,“Error.”
Adrian leaned his head back against the airplane seatand shut his eyes. His entire skull throbbed, but that was nothingcompared with what Megan was likely going through. And she wasbeing implicated as a terrorist along with Zimmerman. Two“rogue” FBI agents, supposedly acting onsome prearranged plan. A stolen sonic weapon. Both of themknowledgeable about police and federal agency response times andhigh value targets.
It was a smart move to blame it on them.
Adrian decided then that the blackmailer really hadtaken Zimmerman’s family. That had to be why no one had been ableto find them. Now the blackmailer was leveraging their livesagainst Zimmerman’s cooperation. Demanding he bring revenge on menwho had wronged the blackmailer through a military operationundertaken years ago.
Years in which hatred and anger had festered andturned cancerous. Infecting the blackmailer.
Now the blackmailer was like patient zero with thevirus being spread to unsuspecting people. His targets weresuffering symptoms and passing it on. Forced to fight for him, sothat more and more people were drawn in.
“You need to turn those off, sir.”
Adrian opened his eyes. He glanced from the airlinehostess to the phones he had in each hand on his lap. He turned offhis, and then Megan’s.
He’d tried her mom half a dozen times on the way tothe airport. Calling out using her phone, while his rang on thepassenger seat. Local FBI personnel trying to reach him, probablywondering what happened. Where Hank was.
No one had tried to call Megan’s phone.
He tried to doze on the way to Denver. Mostly hishead went around and around, whirling between worry over Megan towhere she was, what Hank had done
