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Tino started to pass the powder room but heard an irate female voice. The venom in her words stopped him, and he listened.
“What do you mean?” She sucked in air. “She was supposed to leave today not be snooping around. Where? How?” The woman’s heel tapped sharp and resounding as if she’d jammed her heel down to squash a bug. “I will take care of her. That woman has been trouble since her arrival.”
The handle on the door jiggled. Tino stepped across the hall into the laundry room and listened to the click of high heels moving down the hall toward Garza’s office.
What had Isabella done? It was clear Karyme was talking about his querida. She was the only person he knew in the Garza circle that had told them she was leaving today. His gut soured and his mind flashed over everything Isabella had said last night. Had she gone through with her plan to return to the Garza basement through the tunnel? Had she been caught?
There was only one way to find out. He strode down the hall to the office. The door wasn’t completely closed. Angry voices seeped around the edges.
Tino rapped hard enough to sting his knuckles. He needed the sting to penetrate the numbness the woman’s words had injected into his heart.
“Entrar!” Garza roared.
Tino pushed the door open and stepped through. The man and woman in the room stood several feet apart their arms crossed over their heaving chests, glaring at one another. The air was charged with their animosity.
This was his first glimpse of anything other than love emanating between the two. From each one’s formidable stance, he believed this wasn’t the first time they had locked horns.
“I want that woman taken care of. Either you do it or I will.” Señora Graza’s venomous words froze Tino’s heart with fear.
He forced his expression to remain blank as his mind worked feverishly to find a way to warn Isabella.
“She is too smart for her own good, I agree, but to kill her?” Garza remained with his gaze locked on his wife.
The two stood discussing Isabella as if he wasn’t standing eight feet away.
“She has seen too much.” The woman slowly shifted her gaze to Tino. “Have him take care of the matter.”
Garza walked away from his wife and sat behind his desk. Once seated, he peered at Tino. His dark assessing eyes sent every nerve in Tino’s body tingling. He had to reflect someone who would do anything for Garza. He had to be the one to go after, Isabella. It was the only way he could guarantee her safety.
“Send for Manny.”
Garza’s command dropped Tino’s stomach and dried his mouth. The sadistic Manny would torture Isabella before killing her.
Tino shook his head. “Do you want to leave a mess? I can take care of the matter in a tidy manner.”
Garza tipped his head to the side, narrowing his eyes. “You were squeamish when Manny took care of our shipment thieves. I do not think you could kill a woman.”
He’d only killed one other woman. It had been self-defense, but he had to prove to the drug lord he could to this. Isabella’s life and his future depended on it.
“I do not like messy killings. A broken neck, clean bullet hole; it does not matter man or woman. It is the blood and guts, the mess Manny makes, I cannot stomach.” Tino rubbed his hands together as if he relished the idea of breaking Isabella’s neck.
“I do not care who you send. I want it done today. She has been snooping and digging up things that I wish to remain hidden.” Señora Garza paced the office, her heels clicking on the tile floor like cat claws.
Garza continued to study him. Tino decided to look too aggressive would make the man suspicious.
“It does not matter to me. Only if you wish the woman to disappear quietly with no trace.” He focused his gaze on the agitated woman. She’d stopped pacing. She studied her husband as her fingers played with the edge of her sweater.
“I always prefer no trace when I need a person to disappear.” Garza met his wife’s gaze. “My wife wishes Dr. Isabella Mumphrey to disappear.”
Hearing Isabella’s life meant so little to the two angered Tino, but he nodded and left the room. He’d let his fury loose once he was out of the compound gates and heading to warn Isabella to get the hell out of the country.
~*~
Isabella sat in the small restaurant at her hotel waiting for Alphonso to arrive. She had to go back to the tunnel and get one of the statues. It was the only way she could keep Karyme and Bastante from profiting until she had finished her research.
The theme from Indiana Jones played on her phone. Daddy. If she didn’t answer he’d have agents swarming the city looking for her. Taking a deep cleansing breath, she pressed the button.
“Hello, Daddy.”
“Where are you? Your report arrived but no one has seen you.”
The reprimand in his voice only added a pinch more guilt to her conscience.
“I’ve come across a possible scam.” She held the phone away from her ear as her father let loose expletives she was sure he usually only used around his men.
“You’re not sanctioned to pick up your own assignments. Get home on the next plane or I’ll send a team down there to bring you back.”
The line went dead. Well, now she wouldn’t have to deal with him for twenty-four hours. She slipped the phone into her vest pocket as Alphonso stepped into the restaurant. He sauntered over to her table and plopped on the opposite chair.
“What do you want me to do now?”
She leaned forward to whisper. “We’re going back into the tunnel and take one of the statues.”
His eyes widened and he leaned back. “You are loco.” He peered into her eyes and shook his head. Slowly, he leaned over the table so their noses were only six inches apart and whispered. “You cannot walk into a drug lord’s tunnel and steal from him. We would be dead before we made it back to the main tunnel.”
“If your gang comes up with some kind of a distraction that would have security busy, we could have the statue and be on our way to the U.S. before Garza knows the statue is missing.” She smiled and emitted as much confidence as she could muster. There was no doubt in her mind Bastante had told Karyme about the encounter in the library, and they would move the statues to keep her away from them. But if she and Alphonso headed there right away, she could get one before they were moved.
He continued to stare at her. “You are one loco chica.”
She smiled. “You’re not the first person to say that.” Her thoughts traveled to Tino and their fight. Sadness squeezed her chest. She couldn’t ask him to help her. He’d made it clear his revenge was more important than her desire to ferret out the truth.
“Can I count on you to help me?” She grasped his hands. “I don’t have anyone else, and we need to move quickly.”
Alphonso’s cheeks reddened. He withdrew a phone from his pocket and hit a number.
She listened as he asked someone if they felt like causing trouble for Garza. She detected a hesitancy when he said in an hour. It was a suicide mission to go at the Garza compound with such short notice.
Isabella glanced at her watch. The evening traffic would soon be creeping through the streets. They needed to hurry. She tapped the face of the wristwatch. Only eight months ago she’d discovered her father had her whereabouts monitored through a chip in her watch. Something he had upgraded every year on her birthday without her knowledge. Now that she was a WIA agent it was mandatory to have the chip on you at all times. This knowledge made going into the tunnels easier.
She had to smile. If Daddy waited to hear from their man in Arizona that she hadn’t arrived with the reports, he was adhering to her wish that he only use the tracking device if he couldn’t contact her.
Alphonso slipped his phone into his pocket. “My leader isn’t happy to go at Garza without proper preparations. We worked for months to plan getting in during the last party.”
Isabella stared at the young man. “You were the ones who killed Karyme’s nephew?”
Alphonso nodded and leaned forward. “He was hurting Hadda to get her to help him spy on his uncle. Luis does not like his women hurt.”
Comments and things she’d witnessed while at the compound now became clearer. Hadda had to be the traitor in the mix. Did Tino know this?
“I asked them to cause a confusion in an hour. We must hurry to be at the entrance to the room when they start, so we can grab the statue and be to safety before they realize what has happened.”
Isabella nodded and followed him out of the building. He opened the door of an older small import and she slid in. Taking a deep breath to calm her jittering nerves, she prayed no one got hurt from her need to discover the truth.