Natalie’s heart pounded, her hands grasping on to the damp rough trunk she crouched behind. Rain ran down her face. She ignored it. The heavy thud of footsteps stamped closer along soggy brush.
Peering over the edge of the trunk, she tried to gauge his location.
A beam of light and a dark shadow was heading directly toward her hiding place. Her breath caught in her throat and she pushed herself up. Now or never. She had to run.
She swiveled away from the trunk, cold mud catching her sandals as she half ran, half slid along the edge of an embankment. Could she slip over to the other side for cover? It was too dark to see how steep the drop was. Better not risk it. Branches scraped her arms, rain clouding her vision. Beyond her own harsh breaths and the squall of the storm, she could hear nothing. But a glimmer of light flashed across her face, and she knew he was close.
Where was Luke? She strained forward, head down against the pelting rain. But her foot hit a slippery patch of underbrush, and she went down, ribs smacking against hard earth. Natalie raked in a hollow breath, stunned by the impact.
She tried to push herself up, her breath ragged, her body drenched. She had to keep moving, but she was losing the battle. Clawing at the slick forest floor, she desperately tried to right herself again, anticipating the coming attack.
But no attack came.
The footsteps vanished.
The light dropped away.
Natalie turned, hope rising again as she saw Luke and the attacker wrestling in a heap just yards behind her. The flashlight had landed on the ground nearby, and renewed strength surged as she backtracked, snatching it up and turning it toward the pair. Maybe if Luke could see what he was doing...
“Get back!” Luke yelled as she aimed the light on the pair. “He’s got a gun!”
The gun glimmered under the light as the assailant twisted, furiously trying to aim the weapon at Luke. But Luke was stronger, his grip fastened on the man’s gun arm, bending his wrist back until the weapon dropped to the wet ground.
In seconds, Luke had the guy on his stomach, his arms pinned, Luke’s knee to his back.
Sirens sounded nearby. Had the police tracked the car? Natalie hoped so. The impostor continued to struggle, and the wet landscape made Luke’s job more difficult. Natalie’s gaze caught on the discarded gun and she reached down and grabbed it.
“Stay down!” she yelled, training the weapon on the carjacker.
He stilled, and Natalie consciously slowed her breathing, the gun slick and heavy in her palm as the sirens grew louder. She hadn’t touched a gun in years, ever since the concealed handgun license class her father had pushed her to take. She’d borrowed a friend’s gun for the class because she had never intended to own one herself. She might rethink that decision when she got home.
Lights flashed red and blue through the trees as police cars pulled up next to the abandoned cruiser at the edge of the street. Officers filed out of cars, swarming toward them in the woods, guns drawn. Flashlights flooded the scene, dark figures closing in on them. Relief flooded over Natalie. Help had arrived.
But as the officers drew closer, seeds of alarm took root. They were yelling toward the trio in Spanish. A command, it seemed. A hostile command.
“Do you know what they’re saying?”
Luke’s eyes met hers. “Drop the gun. Hands in the air.”
“But—”
“Drop your weapon!” someone repeated in English this time.
“Do it,” Luke said. “They don’t know the situation.”
Slowly, carefully, she set the gun down as far away from the thug as she could reach without moving her feet. She scanned the scene as she straightened. Five officers. No, six.
“On the ground!” someone yelled as the officers drew closer in a staggered formation.
The heat of the situation didn’t lend itself to explanations. Especially with six guns aimed at them.
Luke moved off the thug and put his hands up, lowering himself to his knees. Natalie followed his lead, slow, cautious, keeping her hands up.
But then suddenly, the assailant pushed himself up from the ground and took off.
Guns fired and shouts erupted, and Luke dove over Natalie to give her cover. “Stay down!”
He covered her for mere seconds before his weight lifted off her and he was dragged away by an officer.
“Keep your hands where they can see them!” Luke yelled to Natalie as another officer grabbed her arm and yanked her up.
She could hardly believe what was happening as handcuffs were secured and they were led together to a police car. Was this some kind of a setup? Why were they being arrested? What did the police think they had done?
Luke said something in Spanish to the officer at his side, but the man made no response as they were escorted to a waiting squad car and locked in like criminals.
Natalie looked at Luke, lights from the other cars flashing on his face. “What just happened?”
He shook his head. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
He radiated tension, every muscle on alert as they waited—cuffed and soaking wet—to find out what would happen next.
He cast an assessing gaze over her, and she willed away the tremor of aftershock that had started to take hold.
“We’ll get out of here soon,” he said.
“You don’t know that.”
Luke didn’t respond, and Natalie’s pulse clamored against rising anxiety. Luke had managed to protect her up until this point, but neither of them had any control now. Her gaze strayed out the window toward the dark hill where the officers had spread out in search of the suspect. What was he after? Why pursue the chase? Why go to such great lengths to get to her? He had a gun. He’d been close. He could have easily shot her, but he hadn’t. On the other hand, he’d fought hard to turn his gun on Luke.
“What’s this guy’s game?” Natalie asked, thinking out loud. “A human trafficking scheme?”
“It’s possible.”
“But why go to such great lengths? Don’t traffickers spend time luring their victims? Or kidnapping easy prey?”
Luke nodded. “I agree. It doesn’t seem to fit. More likely a kidnap for ransom—if he knows your dad’s wealthy.”
“How would he know that, though?”
“Good point... Plus, the ransacked hotel room makes me think he’s after something you have.”
“Well, he got the pearl necklace. But he probably didn’t know I had it, and I doubt he knew its value.”
“Even if he did, I’m not sure a twelve-hundred-dollar necklace would be temptation enough for this scheme. You didn’t bring anything else of value with you? Something you might not have been thinking about with all the chaos back at the hotel?”
“Nothing but my engagement ring.”
“You still wearing it?”
“I put it on my necklace chain when I changed earlier.”
“Interesting.”
She shrugged. “Seemed like the safest place for it, all things considered. It was either that or toss it in the ocean.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t. No one would have blamed you.”
“It didn’t seem practical,” she said simply.
“Do you always do the practical thing?”
“Pretty much. Up until yesterday morning, anyhow.”
Luke nodded his understanding.
“How much is the ring worth?”
“I never saw the bill, but Kyle said he had it insured for six grand, so under that. Doesn’t seem like enough to warrant all...this.” She looked pointedly around the inside of the cruiser and wriggled her cuffed hands. Her arms were achy, the metal digging into her wrists. “Why arrest us?” Even as she asked the question, her mind traced back over the night’s events, horror washing down her spine as the pieces started to come together. “What do you think happened to Officer Perez back at the station?”
Luke’s lips flattened into a grim line as another officer approached the cruiser. “I have a feeling we’re about to find out.”
The officer rounded the front of the car and slipped into the driver’s seat, not even sparing them a glance. “I will transport you to the station,” he said as he started the car and pulled onto the road, lights still flashing.
“We’re American citizens,” Luke explained. “This is all a misunderstanding. The one you’re after is the one who ran.”
At that, the officer glanced at him in the rearview, his eyes black with barely controlled emotion. “An officer was killed tonight. You will be interviewed.”
Natalie shut her eyes and leaned back into the seat, ignoring the handcuffs pressing into her lower back.
Had their assailant followed them from the hotel, waited in the lot to distract Officer Perez—then incapacitated him? Murdered him?
She shuddered at the thought, and unexpected tears welled up as she thought about the kindhearted Officer Perez. He’d worn a wedding ring. Tonight, his wife was a widow. Did they have children? Grandchildren? It wasn’t lost on Natalie that his life had been taken while pursuing her protection. As much as she wanted to get out of Mexico, she hoped the murderer would be caught and brought to justice first.
By the time they’d answered questions at the police station and been escorted back to the hotel, they’d missed breakfast and it was high time for lunch. This was the last place Luke wanted to be, but for now, it was the most practical and probably the safest. The police had shot and killed the man who had murdered Officer Perez and carjacked the cruiser, identifying him as a member of a local gang. But the man on the beach and the man who had killed Perez were two different people. Luke was sure of it, and he couldn’t take any chances with Natalie in public. Unfortunately, they would need to stay out of sight for a while. Natalie’s father had friends in high places, but even he couldn’t pull enough strings for someone to meet them at the consulate’s office on a Sunday morning to fix the passport problem. They’d have to go first thing in the morning.
Luke’s hotel room adjoined Natalie’s, but he would be spending the night on the couch in her room, keeping watch. Since it was an interior room on the seventh floor, there was no balcony to be concerned about, which was a good thing. Natalie had headed straight to the shower when they’d arrived, and Luke had ordered room service. They couldn’t very well sit out in plain view in the hotel restaurant.
Luke glanced at the clock. Not quite 1:30 p.m. He ran a hand through his still-damp hair and started a pot of coffee. He hated the stuff, but fatigue was setting in, and today promised to be a long day of waiting.
Seemed like his entire life had been a lesson in waiting. Waiting for his mother to finish another detox program. Waiting for the courts to find a foster home willing to take all three Everett siblings. Waiting for the next mealtime and hoping there’d be food. He still didn’t have much tolerance for waiting, but somewhere in his early teens, when he and his siblings had been separated for the third time in as many months, he’d learned how to manage the anxiety that rose up during those long periods of uncertainty. He prayed, and he fought for a semblance of control by taking action.
He didn’t feel in control right now, though, and his hands were tied, which was a problem. In a foreign country, without backup and without an option of immediate escape, Luke was the sole protector of Natalie’s life. Even as the weight of his responsibility settled on his shoulders, he caught himself falling into old patterns of fear. He was not Natalie’s sole protector, he reminded himself. She had a protector far greater than Luke or an entire team of Shield bodyguards.
He closed his eyes briefly and recited a prayer of protection over his client. Luke would do his job, and he had to trust that God would take care of the rest.
A knock came at the door, and he peered through the peephole, watching as a room service attendant took the note Luke had propped on the door handle. Inside, he’d left a tip and instructions to leave the trays in the hallway. The attendant pocketed the tip and set the two trays to the right of the door, then continued down the hall with the cart until she was out of sight.
He waited a full minute after the attendant left and then cracked the door open, surveying the silent hallway.
Seeing no one, he quickly moved both trays into the room and bolted the door again. The scent of grilled steak and rice slowed his adrenaline, and he set the trays on the coffee table next to the couch, listening to the shower and wondering just how long Natalie planned to be in there.
Not a minute later, as he weighed his growing hunger against the rudeness of eating without her, the shower stopped.
“Food’s here,” he called through the door.
“Be right there.”
Luke poured coffee and forced himself to drink it while he waited for Natalie to appear. He didn’t have to wait long. Within two minutes, she opened the door, steam filtering into the room.
“I feel so much better,” she said as she walked out, still toweling her hair. She’d changed into a pair of black Nike shorts and a gray V-neck T-shirt, and she smiled apologetically at him, clearly refreshed. “I think there’s still hot water left for you.”
“I’ll wait till later,” Luke said, wondering what it was about her that seemed even more beautiful now than he’d noticed before.
Her attention strayed to the trays on the table. “You didn’t have to wait for me,” she said. “If I had known, I wouldn’t have spent five years in the shower.”
Luke laughed at that. “It was hardly five years. Anyhow, after what we just survived, I figured we should celebrate together with breakfast.”
“Agreed,” Natalie said with a small smile, sitting down on one side of the couch. “Let’s eat.”
Luke pulled a chair up to the opposite side of the table and bent his head in a quick silent prayer. When he opened his eyes, Natalie was scooping rice onto a tortilla, but her gaze flicked up to him, curious. If she had a question, she didn’t ask it. Instead, she turned to the topic of the weekend.
They tossed ideas back and forth about how the beach attacker and the carjacker may have been related, but neither had a solid theory.
“I can’t help but think Kyle’s somehow connected to all this,” Luke finally said, venturing into the hypothesis he hadn’t dared mention before.
Natalie frowned and set down her fork. “How? I don’t see it.”
“The timing, for one,” he said carefully, aware that he was treading into deep waters. “Out of the blue, he cancels the wedding. Then disappears. And on the same day, you’re stalked, attacked twice and robbed.” He watched her expression, but couldn’t read it.
“I see your point, but what motive would he have?”
“You’d know that better than I would.”
She continued eating, but her movements were stiff, her demeanor suddenly closed. She’d spoken a handful of sentences about her relationship with Kyle, and seemed determined to keep her emotions and thoughts on the matter close to her heart.
They ate in silence, but Luke was no longer hungry. The air in the room had gone cold, Natalie clearly lost in thoughts she didn’t plan to make Luke privy to. That bothered him. If she wanted the best protection, she needed to commit to full disclosure. Luke had never been one to let frustration fester, so he finally placed the tin cover back over his plate.
“You know, Natalie, my job is to protect you. I can’t do that to the best of my ability if you’re keeping things from me.”
Her eyebrows raised as if she was offended by his assumption. “I’m hardly keeping things from you,” she said, too politely.
The politeness bothered him more than her silence, and he recognized it as a defense mechanism. She didn’t want to share the details of her personal life, but while Luke could respect a desire for privacy, he couldn’t afford to spend time tiptoeing around the questions he had.
“Then tell me more about your relationship with Kyle,” he said. “Start there.”
Natalie wiped her mouth with a napkin before meeting Luke’s eyes again. “I don’t see how telling you about Kyle will help you protect me.”
“Every detail helps fill in the big picture,” he explained. “Trust me. And if you can’t trust me, then humor me.”
She sighed, and he knew he’d convinced her. Not saying another word, he waited for her to decide where to start and how much to share.
Once she began, she didn’t tell him much that he didn’t already know. Kyle was a lawyer slogging through his first years of practicing, an aspiring politician who had interned with Natalie’s father several years ago. That’s how they’d met—through Natalie’s father. They held many common interests and hit it off right away. The relationship just naturally progressed to a marriage proposal.
Those words struck Luke as odd—too formal to describe how a friendship had transformed into marriage-material love. He filed that information away and continued to listen as Natalie described how life had been a whirlwind since the New Year’s gala at her father’s estate. Kyle had been busy and distant at times, but she’d attributed it to the stress of planning the wedding and his heavy workload.
“I didn’t actually think much of it until a few months ago,” Natalie said. “He’d had a bad couple of weeks. Lost his phone, got in a fender bender, missed an important meeting at work. He just seemed out of sorts. Then one night I was going through my bills, and I opened a credit card statement I didn’t recognize. It had my name on it, but I didn’t own the credit card.”
“What were the charges?”
Natalie turned her palms up and gestured around the room. “This vacation. Kyle had applied for the card in my name without even talking to me about it.”
Now that was news he might be able to use. Any time someone started talking about finances new motives came into play.
“He said the new card came with bonus points and he got our airfare free.”
“Why not just apply in his name?”
“He already had one in his name. The points were for new cardholders.”
“Hmm.”
She shrugged. “It almost made sense, except for the fact that he didn’t ask me first.”
It didn’t make any sense to Luke, and it screamed to him that Kyle may not have been as well off as he had perhaps claimed to be.
“In hindsight, though, I should have broken things off then. He really lost his temper that night. I’d never seen him so angry.”
“The way I see it, you were the only one who had a reason to be angry,” Luke said, trying to follow her story.
“I was angry. I realized I’d never received a new credit card in the mail, and I asked if he’d intercepted it so I wouldn’t find out what he’d done. That’s what set him off. Said if I was so suspicious about his motives, maybe we shouldn’t be getting married.” Her already sun-kissed skin turned a deeper pink. So this was the piece she hadn’t wanted to share.
“I should have taken him up on that,” she added.
“But you didn’t.”
“He apologized almost as soon as the words were out of his mouth. It didn’t happen again. But the memory stuck.” Her eyes were glossy, and she looked down at her tray, setting the cover on top of her plate. “And there are your details,” she added softly.
“How do you—”
“I’m sorry, Luke,” Natalie interrupted before he could ask how she thought Kyle was doing financially. “Can we discuss this more later? I’m exhausted.”
“Sure,” he said easily, even though he would have much rather pressed on. “We could both use some rest.”
“Thanks,” she said, her tone a little surprised, as if she’d expected him to argue with her.
He would have, but he sensed that wasn’t the way to gain Natalie’s trust, so instead he stood and picked up the trays, walking them to the door and setting them outside in the hallway to be retrieved. After double-checking the dead bolt and flipping the latch lock, he piled a couple throw pillows on one side of the couch and sprawled out there, his back to the side of the room where Natalie had already pulled back the covers on her bed and switched off the small lamp on the nightstand. Behind him, her covers rustled for a few seconds as she settled in for a nap.
It wasn’t long before the steady sound of her breathing signaled that she was asleep. Despite the coffee, fatigue was taking over for Luke, as well. No way would he be able to stay awake. But there was also no way anyone would get into the room without bulldozing the door, so Luke sent a quick text to Roman to check into Kyle’s finances, and then he let his eyes close so he could get some rest, too.
The blast of an alarm woke him, and Luke shot up on the couch, momentarily disoriented before realizing the fire alarm was going off. Jumping to his feet, he flipped on lights and turned to wake Natalie, but she was already out of bed and shoving her shoes on. Luke glanced at the clock in the room. They’d slept almost six hours. He grabbed his backpack, mentally running through the hotel exits as adrenaline flushed away the deep sleep he’d just woken from. There were two sets of stairs on their wing, and two more on the opposite wing. And if all else failed, a fire escape could be accessed just around the corner.
“Let’s go,” he said, leading the way to the door as a recorded evacuation announcement began to blare over the alarm.
He touched the door handle. No heat. Unbolting the lock, he swung the door open before a thought struck him. He hesitated in the doorway, and Natalie came up behind him. People filtered out of their rooms, hurrying to nearby stairwells.
“What’s wrong?” Natalie asked.
He backed into the room and locked the door again.
“I know you’re the security expert here, but I don’t want to get trapped on the seventh floor with a fire,” Natalie said, raising her voice over the piercing alarm.
“What if there is no fire?”
Natalie looked at him skeptically.
“Doesn’t this seem like too much at once?” he asked. “I’m not leading you into a trap.”
“I don’t know, Luke.” Her frantic eyes flicked to the door. “I say we take our chances and evacuate.”
He hesitated, but his instincts told him he was right.
“Let me check it out,” he said. “I’ll be five minutes, tops. You stay here. Bolt the door. If I see any sign of smoke, we’ll evacuate.”
“No way. Five minutes could be life or death.” She crossed the room to reach for the door, and he followed her, his hand coming to her arm.
“Wait, Natalie. Trust me on this. Stay by the phone. If something happens, I’ll call you. The fire escape is at the end of the hall, to the right. But I’ll be back before you need it.”
Natalie didn’t look convinced, but she nodded. “Five minutes.”
“Five minutes. Bolt the door. Stay by the phone.”
He stepped into the hallway and stayed until he heard the bolt click into place, then ran down the near-empty hall to do a quick circuit of the seventh floor. He checked the fire escape to make sure it was accessible, then raced down to each floor below, peeking into the hallways and seeing no sign of fire or even smoke.
As the lobby came into view, it became apparent to Luke that his suspicion was right. It was a false alarm. Whether a drill, a malfunction or a trap, he didn’t know. But he’d passed the five-minute mark, and it was time to head back up to the room. He started to text Natalie that he was on his way back up, when his phone rang in his hand. A local number. He swiped to answer, but he was already sprinting up the stairs when he heard Natalie’s voice, and his entire body went cold.
“Luke! Hurry! He’s here!”