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I drove all night, right through until morning.
The stink of smoke filled the car. It was on my skin, in my hair, permeating my clothes. Had the compound burned down to the ground now? I hoped so, and I hoped the flames had destroyed the bodies of my father and the other men I had killed as well. It was strange to think of the place no longer existing. Even though I hadn’t lived there for several years, I’d still always thought of it as a home, a base, and now it was gone, and I’d been the one to destroy it.
I’d killed my father, and the other men, too, but strangely, I felt nothing. There was no guilt or remorse, or even happiness that Silas Cassidy was dead. Maybe it would hit me eventually—perhaps when the shock of having taken so many lives in the last twenty-four hours struck—but right now all I knew was that I’d done what was necessary. None of those men’s lives were as important as Catalina’s safety—far from it. I’d have traded one hundred of their lives for hers, if I had to.
I thought to Yolanda and the other women. No one would be coming after them. I doubted even their regular customers would bother trying to track them down. I trusted they’d use the money in the briefcase wisely and find somewhere to live, and not fall back into their old ways of drugs and prostitution. I wanted better for them than that, and I believed Yolanda would help the others make the right decisions. More than anything, I wanted to tell Catalina that the women were free, that they were able to make their own choices again. It was something that had bothered her when we’d run away together, feeling as though she’d abandoned them, and I knew she’d want to hear this news.
I wondered about other things as I drove, closing the miles between us. How would she feel about the compound burning to the ground? It had been Catalina’s only home, even if it had also been her prison. How would she feel about me killing the master and the others, too? Would I even tell her? It would be easy to just pretend they’d been caught in the fire, but I didn’t want to lie to her, even about something that may make her see me differently.
I was already thinking as though I was going to get her back, but I’d only dealt with half of the problem. I wasn’t stupid enough to think I could just waltz into Elliot Torres’s home and demand to have Catalina back. He’d have the place guarded, and would most likely have her locked up somewhere. But I was armed now, and, as long as word didn’t reach Torres about the compound burning to the ground, I also had the element of surprise on my side, but that was about all. I had no idea what the layout of his property was like, how many men he had protecting the place, or where he was keeping Catalina inside the property.
That was assuming she was even still alive.
Miles passed by. Eventually, I reached the outskirts of the city and was forced to slow. I was going into this with no plan, and that was probably a mistake. But, just as I’d been when we’d been on the run, I was on my own with this. There was no army behind me I could call upon, and if I attempted to call any of my father’s contacts, they would most likely try to get in touch with my father. I’d survived when he hadn’t, and that was going to make me look guilty as sin. Word had already gotten around that I’d betrayed him when I’d run with Catalina, and him being dead and me still alive clearly wasn’t just a coincidence.
No, I was alone in this, and when I got Catalina back, it would just be the two of us again. We could trust each other, and I wasn’t going to do anything to risk that.
I located the address that had been on the invoice I’d found in the safe. Slowly, I drove by the property, positioning my arm so my elbow rested on the bottom of the window, my hand shielding my face. Yes, this could easily pass as somewhere that Elliot Torres would live. The house was big and surrounded in a wall similar to the one back at the compound, only not as large or menacing-looking, free from the spikes and coils of barbed wire. A large metal double gate barred the long driveway leading up to the front of the single-story, art deco style house. I only caught a glimpse of it as I drove by—not enough to see if anyone was guarding it from the inside. This looked like the kind of neighborhood where people would start asking questions if heavily armed men were patrolling the grounds.
Were there security cameras? Motion sensors, even? My father had never bothered with anything like that, but that was because we’d been hidden out in the middle of nowhere, and unless a person was given the exact location, they’d never even know the compound existed. This was far from that. I was in a city now. Torres wasn’t hiding from anyone. As far as I was aware, this was his home, and he wasn’t running a business out of it, like we had been at the compound. Maybe that was enough of a reason for him to feel as though he didn’t need to keep his head down. Perhaps, to everyone else, he was a fine, upstanding citizen, and not a pervert who liked to buy a young girl’s virginity.
It tore me apart to know Catalina might be right over that wall. My soul reached out for her, a deep yearning. Did she sense me here? Feel that something was different? I’d never been someone who believed in soul mates before, but I felt tied to Catalina, as though we were joined by some invisible bond. I wanted her to sense I was here and take strength in the knowledge I hadn’t given up on her.
It was important I didn’t get myself killed trying to free her. If that happened, all hope would be lost for her. Maybe she would find a way to free herself, eventually, but she had no family, and the only home she’d ever known had just burned to the ground. Besides, it wasn’t as though she’d have been able to go back to the compound, not when my father was still alive. He’d have marched her straight back to Torres.
Anger rose up inside me at the knowledge I wasn’t far from Torres either. I remembered how he’d touched Catalina in front of me, how he’d done it to both hurt me and claim ownership of her. How much more had he touched her now? How much farther had he taken things? Asking myself those questions wouldn’t achieve anything. No one could change the things that had happened. I needed to fix my sights firmly on how I would get Catalina out of there, and worry about everything else later.
I drove slowly, hoping I wasn’t drawing any attention to myself. I turned down the next block, the road running parallel to the side of the house. Though it was hard to tell from my position, there seemed to be some kind of large glass structure at the back of the property.
Maybe that could be a point of weakness when it came to getting inside? I frowned and kept going, plugging the thought into my head. Glass was weaker than brick, but it was also loud when it broke. Could I do something to mask the sound? My plan of causing a distraction back at the compound had worked. Would I be able to do something similar here in order to get access to the house?
Of course, getting access would only be half of the problem. Torres was bound to have men inside who would be armed and more than happy to shoot a trespasser, especially when they saw who it was. And even if I did manage to get past both Torres and his men, I’d need to find Catalina and hope she was all right.
However hard this was going to be, and with limited chance of success, I didn’t have a choice. I’d die before I walked away from here without Catalina.
There was a good chance that was exactly what would happen.
I turned right, taking the road behind the property, staying alert for any signs of possible weaknesses in the wall, or areas that might give me an advantage. I spotted cameras mounted on metal plates on the walls. Security cameras. In one place, ivy had grown up over the top of one of the metal plates. In another, a tree on the edge of the sidewalk dangled its branches over the top of the wall.
I touched my hand to the spot where I had a couple of the bundles of hundred-dollar bills hidden beneath my shirt. The money wasn’t much, but it would be enough to get us a room for a few weeks and food in our bellies. I wondered if there was anything I could buy that would help me get her freed. More ammunition for Paul’s gun would probably come in useful. A knife I could hide in my shoe in case of hand to hand combat. I felt like I was going into a warzone, but it was only me against Torres’s army.
I kept driving, leaving the property and Catalina behind. I felt wretched, knowing I was leaving Catalina there, but I didn’t have a choice for the moment. I’d need to wait for the cover of night before I could make a move. That was okay. It would give me time to plan and prepare.