Morning dawned bright and hot, and Zander and Erin lay wrapped in each other’s arms, watching the clock. The night had passed like something out of a dream—the two of them finally racing back to their room, half-dressed, then crashing onto the bed laughing and kissing and starting the entire process again, until they were both so spent and sated that they could do nothing more than sleep.
“We can go at any time, you know,” he said, and she nodded, but didn’t make a move to get up. Instead she lay perfectly still, as if she was willing this moment to last.
Finally, she sighed, the sound filled with resignation. “We’ll just go down with the packs, right?” she asked. “We sit, I have my phone, they drive up or they’re already there. When they see us, they maybe send a guy up. We don’t let go of the backpack until Mom and her boyfriend are several feet away from the car, ideally all the way up to us. You’ll have a gun. If they do anything weird, I’m supposed to drop and let you handle it.” She blew out a long breath. “That about cover it?”
“Absolutely,” Zander said, leaning forward to kiss her on the shoulder. “You’re gonna do great.”
They made it to the hotel café just before nine o’clock. As the caller had indicated, the small eating space spilled out onto the patio, with a view that overlooked low bushes and the side parking lot of the hotel. They took a seat at the table, and agreed to a breakfast of juice and coffee. Erin was rigid with anticipation, glancing around at the other diners. There were only a handful at this hour, the restaurant’s complimentary buffet long since ended. “Once we get them back, is that it? Do you think we’re going to be followed, or whatever?”
“I doubt it,” Zander said honestly. “Like Rey said, these guys aren’t professionals. They just made the best of the opportunity your mom gave them.”
Erin grimaced. “Way to go, Mom.”
“Well, that definitely works in our favor.” He glanced at her. “Your mom and her boyfriend are in pretty good health, right? As in able to walk on their own, no oxygen tanks or any of that?”
Erin smiled so ruefully Zander felt his heart tug uncomfortably. Holy shit, she really doesn’t have any idea. How long had it been since she’d actually seen her mom?
“Well, I think my mother is still healthy and strong—she always was,” she said. “Hiking is one of her favorite things to do. When I was young, hiking in Mexico was all she’d ever talk about. She was a nurse, but I think she wanted to be an artist or art buyer of some sort. Whenever she came back from a trip, she’d have some random piece of jewelry or pottery to show for it that she’d found in some remote village, convinced she’d found the next great Mexican export.”
Zander snorted, but his gaze never left her face. “Sounds to me like she was smoking another great Mexican export, if she thought you guys were going to make it rich on pottery.”
“I know, right?” she said, shaking her head. “But that was Mom.” Her voice couldn’t shake the bitter note. “I think if she could figure out a way, she’d live here all the time.”
“A way that didn’t involve you financing it, you mean?” he said, and Erin’s lips twisted a bit.
“Something like that.” She glanced at her phone, then frowned. “Zander, it’s past nine o’clock,” she said, tension flooding her body as she sat up straight. “Why aren’t they here already?”
“Easy, there,” Zander said. “They could be stuck in traffic, they could be waiting for us to do something stupid. Or, they could be making sure no one else is watching.”
Erin’s eyes widened, but before she could speak, Zander reached out and held her hand with just a little too much force. “Relax, Erin. There’s no way they can see anyone but us, waiting here, just the way they told us to wait. And we’re going to continue waiting here, until we hear from them…or for another hour. Either way, your job is to hang tight, enjoy the lovely view of the parking lot, and relax.”
“But what does that mean?” she asked, genuinely confused. “What does that mean if they don’t show up? They have to show up. We’re doing everything right!”
Zander grimaced, sitting back as their waitress arrived with their juice glasses. He had hoped like hell the drop would go smoothly and the kidnappers wouldn’t dick around, but clearly, that had been too much to ask. Erin was trying to keep her shit together, but as the hour wore on, her breathing got more shallow, her glance more skittery every time a truck drove by the building, or a car door slammed. He watched her for signs of melting down, but mostly she was just…angry. Angry and scared and no doubt wondering what the hell she was doing down here, gutting her savings and putting herself at risk for a woman who showed up so infrequently that Erin didn’t even know whether or not she was breathing without a ventilator.
He knew he was one to talk. He and his dad had never exactly been poster children for Family of the Year. But he’d had his mom. His brothers and sisters. Erin didn’t even have a dog.
And yet here she was, halfway across the country and a world away from her comfort zone, about to throw her life savings away because her mother and some random jackwit had gotten themselves into trouble. Even more insane, Erin seemed remarkably not freaked-out about this fact. Resigned, yes. But not surprised. How many times had her mother pulled this shit in the past? Not to this degree, of course. Not to this level of crazy. But clearly, this wasn’t her first rodeo.
“They’re not coming.” Erin’s voice was almost toneless, and Zander looked up, following her gaze out to the parking lot. Nothing moved on the blazing-hot concrete, not even the breeze. Zander checked his watch: 9:35.
“Why don’t you brief me on what you know about this boyfriend guy while we’re waiting,” he said, gratified to see her gaze swing back to him, even though he didn’t like the haunted look her eyes carried. Disappointment and bleak acceptance were now overtaking the fear, and Zander fought a grimace of his own. Even when she got kidnapped, Erin’s mom managed to let her daughter down.
“The boyfriend is Mike—no last name. I don’t know what he does for living, if anything, or even how long he’s been in the picture. Mom seems to go through boyfriends kind of quickly.” Erin’s lips twisted. “I’m not even sure how long she was with my dad.”
“And the last you actually talked to your mom before this was…?”
Erin shrugged. “Four or five months—no, eight. It was before Christmas. She wanted to make sure I didn’t call checking on her over the holiday, because I was her excuse for leaving work for a few weeks. She’s now a home-healthcare nurse…somewhere. In Virginia, I forget where.”
Zander nodded, trying to keep his anger in check. What sort of mother didn’t call her own daughter on Christmas but warned her ahead of time that she was going to skip town and needed an alibi?
They talked for a few minutes more before he checked his watch again: 9:55. Erin was right. They weren’t coming. But that didn’t mean the kidnappers weren’t watching them, and he wanted to make a show of good faith. He readied himself for another conversational topic, anything to keep Erin distracted. “So tell me about—” He broke off as Erin’s phone rang. She lurched for it, but Zander covered it with his hand first.
“Take it slow, Erin. Know that they’re just trying to fuck with you. Keep to the fact that you did everything they asked of you, but that now you’re convinced that they’re just going to kill your mom, anyway. That you might as well go home.”
“What?” Erin looked at Zander as if he had three heads. “Are you crazy?”
“Just see what he says.” Zander took his hand off the phone and Erin snatched it up.
“Hello? Hello!” she cried, her distress seeming completely unfeigned. “I’m right here, I’m right where you told me to be. Why aren’t you here?”
The plaintiveness in her voice was not at all part of the act they’d discussed, but Zander lifted his brows. Erin was playing the role of good daughter with impressive conviction. Maybe under all of that anger toward her mother, there was still the chance for something else. A chance for them to come together, to heal the rift between them. Erin’s mother was no prize but…she was alive. That trumped dead any day. You couldn’t apologize to a dead parent. And they couldn’t apologize to you.
“Look, I don’t believe you,” Erin’s words interrupted his thoughts, and now she was on script, her stress palpable. “Not at all. There’s no way you’re going to let my…parents go free and I might as well just pack up my money and go home.” The man started talking and Erin shook her head vigorously, impressing Zander with the steel in her voice. “No! No, I said I’m not going to meet you somewhere strange and now—especially now, I can’t even believe a word you’ve said. Why didn’t you—oh, that’s complete bullshit! Your lookout told you wrong, there are no cops anywhere and it’s just me and my boyfriend and the waitress here, and she would be the oldest undercover cop in the history of the force, so—what?”
Erin’s eyes slid to his. “Tonight, huh?” she said, her voice heavy with disbelief. “And where is that?” Another pause. “The Playa del Sol?” Her eyes widened and Zander frowned. He’d heard of the place, he was sure of it. “A block from the hotel.”
At that, Zander gave a single sharp nod and Erin blew out a breath, running a hand through her hair. “Okay, okay, fine. What time?” She stared at him. “Yes,” she said, without asking Zander’s opinion. “Six P.M. would be perfect. Would be great. That’s perfect, yes, that’s—” She gave a little jerk, then set the phone down, and shot Zander a sheepish look.
“Six P.M.,” she said flatly. “At the Playa Del Sol.” She shook her head, as if not believing her own words. “This will all be over tonight.”