Fear No Evil

“Why?”

“We’ve never found one of his sites in the United States. When we found Meghan, it was on a small island near Prince Edward Island in eastern Canada. But if that’s the case, the sun would already have risen. He used a private, secluded estate on a Caribbean island at one point, but we raided it and seized all his property.”

“So Lucy’s right? She’s on an island?”

Peterson nodded. “Very likely.”

“But we still know next to nothing,” Patrick mumbled, clicking frenetically on his keyboard.

“We know she’s on the West Coast, which is more than we knew five minutes ago,” Dillon said.

“I found her,” Patrick said.

“Lucy?” Dillon and Peterson said simultaneously.

“Kate Donovan. At least I’ve isolated her general area. Mexico, near the west Texas border. A couple hours out of Hidalgo, in the mountains, north of Monterrey. But she went off-line as soon as you downloaded the feed.”

Peterson looked at the map. “Dammit, that area is full of rebels, drug smugglers, gunrunners. We can get into Monterrey, but that means a couple hours’ detour. Direct? Virtually impossible.”

Dillon stared at Patrick. “I can find her.”

Patrick shook his head, mixed emotions crossing his boyish face. “Don’t.”

“I have to. For Lucy. Just get me a more accurate location by the time Jack calls back.”

“He might not even call,” said Patrick.

“He’ll call me,” Dillon insisted.

“Who’s Jack?” Peterson asked.

“Our brother,” Patrick said. “Jack is Dillon’s twin.”

“Another Kincaid?” Peterson mumbled.

Jack returned Dillon’s call thirty minutes later.

“Hello, Jack,” Dillon answered.

“What’s wrong?” Jack asked without preamble. They hadn’t seen or spoken to each other in eleven years, but Jack got right to the point.

Dillon didn’t waste time. “Lucy has been kidnapped. I need your help finding an ex-FBI agent who’s hiding out in the eastern Mexican mountains.”

“Are you sure? Lucy’s an adult. Maybe she just walked.”

“If you have an Internet connection, I can send you the feed where she’s half naked and tied to the floor.” Dillon’s voice vibrated with anger. Jack had gone off to do his own thing twenty years ago and came home only for funerals. He didn’t know Lucy, and he wanted to believe she had just left the family without a word?

“Of course I’m sure she’s been kidnapped.” Dillon suppressed the complex emotions that talking with his brother Jack inevitably stirred. “The FBI has a task force in place. Her kidnapper has done this before. And if we don’t find her in forty-three hours, she’ll be dead. Murdered live on the Internet. Do you think I would call you if it weren’t a life-or-death emergency? If I didn’t think you might be in a position to help?”

“And you want me to track this FBI agent down why?”

“She has some sort of compound where she’s been tracking this killer for the last couple of years. She has her own issues with the FBI and won’t come back voluntarily.”

“So you want me to kidnap her and bring her to you?”

“No. I want you to bring me to her. She’s on a mountain, about an hour north of Monterrey, which according to the FBI is dangerous territory.”

“Dangerous is an understatement,” Jack said. “I’m not bringing you anywhere. I’ll find the agent myself and compel her to return.”

Dillon said, “No, Jack. You’ll bring both me and Patrick to her. She has computer files we need and the ability to find Lucy. She thinks she can do it on her own, but I think our killer might just want her to find him, that he might leak her information to trap her. And Lucy is his bait.”

“Why do you care about this renegade FBI agent? Who cares about the damn feds? Nothing but backstabbing bureaucrats with guns. I’ll help you find Lucy. I have friends all over the world.”

The quiet arrogant confidence in Jack’s voice was typical.

“No,” Dillon said. “Why is it always your way, Jack? You know very little about this situation. I’m certainly not putting Lucy’s life in your hands.”

“But you’re putting her life in your hands, Doctor? Since when were you in the military? Or the police academy? Do you even know how to shoot a gun?”

“Forget it, Jack. I’ll find Kate on my own. I’m sorry I called you. I guess you really are no longer family.”

Click.

Dillon stared at his cell phone. He didn’t like to gamble, but he also believed he understood his twin. He hoped he did.

For twenty years, Dillon had wondered what had happened to Jack that he would turn his back on his family and devote his life solely to the military-whatever the hell it was Jack did for them. Jack had only come home for Justin’s funeral, a sad testament to a man who as a boy had been Dillon’s best friend.

But Jack was fiercely loyal, had been from early childhood. They’d moved every six to twelve months while Colonel Kincaid was moved from military base to military base. They could only count on themselves and their family, because friendships were fleeting.

Jack joined the military when he turned eighteen and then something happened. Something that seemed to prevent him from keeping in touch with his family. Jack never spoke of it, never even acknowledged that anything had happened.

But Dillon knew his twin brother. Family used to be important to him.

The phone rang five minutes later.

“I’ll meet you in four hours at a bar called La Honda in Hidalgo, Texas,” Jack said. “Don’t bring anyone with you.”

Dillon wrote down the information Jack imparted and hung up. He was glad he was right about Jack, that he would come through after all.

Don’t bring anyone?

“Patrick, we’re going to Texas. I’m going to find Agent Peterson and see how fast he can get us out there.”

SIX

“GOOD MORNING, sunshine.”

Trevor Conrad walked into the room, staying out of view of the camera. Lucy must have dozed off. She startled awake.

How could she have even fallen asleep?

She jerked at the ties around her wrists. Her skin was chafed and sore.

“Fuck you, Trevor,” she said.

He chuckled. He was laughing at her. Lucy’s face grew hot with humiliation and anger. Fear was there, too, cold and hot at the same time, making everything in the plain room sharper, with fewer shadows.

Light.

The one covered window blocked the sun, but the quality of light told Lucy it was morning. How long had she been sleeping? It couldn’t have been long.

“Lucy, I’d like to reintroduce you to Roger,” Trevor said. “You remember him, of course.”

The big ugly jerk she’d kicked in the balls when he’d cut off her bra walked in behind Trevor. She watched as he unzipped his jeans.

“No. No no no no!” She shook her head back and forth, as if she thought that if she said it long enough, loud