Salazar flinched as the door slammed after Natalie came into the house.
“I see you’re in fine temper,” he said as he strolled out of the bedroom. “And you drove right up to the house instead of parking in the trees. Not smart, Natalie. The only way we’ve survived so far is to be careful. Do you want to get us killed?”
“I’d see that I wasn’t the one killed.” Natalie threw her handbag on the couch. “I’d just tell everyone that you lured me here to offer me information about the kidnapping of my little girls. A mother is always desperate and willing to take chances when it concerns a child. Of course, I’d have to shoot you so that it would make the story stick.” Her eyes were glittering with anger as she strode toward him. “But I’m not desperate, I’m furious, because I think that you’re going to tell me that you’ve made another mistake. Isn’t that right?”
“Duncan and Cara weren’t in the car. Franco doesn’t know where they are.”
“I knew it,” she said through clenched teeth. “I could see it coming when you told me that Duncan had taken Cara to Atlanta. What are you doing about it? You’re not relying on that stupid prick to find them?”
“I haven’t taken him out of the action. I may be able to use him.”
“What are you doing?” she asked again.
“I’ve tapped Jose Domingo, my distributor in Atlanta and told him to check out airline manifests on commercial airlines for the last two days. He’s checking out train and bus, too. But I’d think that Quinn would want Duncan and the kid to go far and fast to get them to safety. So far, no records of them have surfaced. So Domingo is checking private and charter flights.”
“How long before you’ll know?”
“Only a few days. I have to be careful about pushing Domingo. His contacts are valuable to me. He doesn’t want to make waves with ATLPD by any overt moves. After all, he could deal with any of the other cartels.”
“Then go after Quinn,” she said impatiently.
“We’re getting there. He’s been off the radar for the last several hours since we’ve heard about the forensic report. But Franco will locate him.”
“Maybe he’s gone to join Duncan and Cara.”
“He went to the trouble of staging that elaborate red herring. He won’t chance being followed and giving their hiding place away. He knows we’re watching him. Franco will gather him up if he doesn’t get another lead before that.” He held up his hand as she opened her lips. “I know, an incompetent fool.”
“You seem to hire no one else, first Walsh, now Franco. This entire thing has been bungled. You promised me. I trusted you.” Her hands clenched into fists. “I gave you my daughters. You said that it would be over in a heartbeat, and no one would ever know.”
“We’ve gone over this before. It didn’t work out.” He was sick to death of her attacking him. He just wished he was sick of her. He’d thought in the beginning that he’d grow tired of her and would be able to find a way to dispose of her and make his position more secure. It hadn’t happened. He only had to see her, touch her, and he had to have her. Just thinking about her, and he got hard. He wanted her now. “And you wanted those girls dead as much as I did. I did you a favor.”
“No, I told you I wanted them kidnapped. I didn’t say you had to kill them.”
“You knew that was the only safe way to handle it. You just closed your eyes. Why else were you so angry when I told you that Cara and that nurse got away?”
“Because at that point there was nothing else to do. I couldn’t go back. I had to go on with it.”
He slowly shook his head. “You wanted it.” He moved closer to her. She smelled of vanilla and that exotic Russian perfume she’d worn since the day he’d met her. She’d told him her father sent it to her every year. Whether he screwed her or not, before he left her he always had to shower and get her scent off him before he went home to Manuela. His wife knew he had other women, but she couldn’t know about Natalie, and that perfume was too distinctive. “And you wanted me. You still want me.”
“Not now,” she said impatiently.
“Now.” He put his hand on her breast. “You’re not sleeping with Castino. You need it. I can feel your nipples hardening.” He rubbed at the sensitive tips through her silk shirt. “I’m doing everything you’d want me to do about the kid. It won’t be long and you’ll be safe.” He unbuttoned her shirt. “But I need encouragement…” His tongue touched her nipple. “Give it to me.”
“I don’t need you.” She was starting to breathe hard. “There are other men.”
“None that I wouldn’t kill if I caught you with them.” He bit down hard and felt the shudder that went through her. “Like I did when I heard you were screwing that chauffeur you hired to take you around to your fancy parties. Do you remember what I did to him?”
“Yes. It was … bloody.”
“You liked it. You liked knowing that you’d caused it. That you had the power. It was difficult for me to do it in a way Castino wouldn’t suspect had a connection with you.” He pushed her away and took off her blouse and bra. “So I set him up to be caught in a Federales raid near the border. I protected you then, too, didn’t I?”
“And yourself.”
“It’s the same thing.”
She looked at him challengingly. “You only want me because I belong to Castino.”
“Not only. You know better. It might have started out that way, but we’re both caught now.”
“Not me.” She stared fiercely up at him. “I’ll let you have me only as long as you amuse me. When I get bored, I’ll walk away.”
“I haven’t bored you yet.” His hands tightened on her breasts. “Get in bed.”
She didn’t move. “That’s not why I came here.”
“It’s why I came here. Sometimes you’re so concerned someone will find out about this place that I can’t get you to come. But you came tonight, didn’t you?”
“Let me go.”
“Get in bed. Why not? We’re here now. You’re hot, you need it.” He added thickly, “And I need you. I’ll make you scream, Natalie.”
She smiled. “Perhaps.”
“Are you teasing me? That’s very dangerous.”
“I’ve heard nothing but what you want.” She took off the rest of her clothes and stood there naked. “I want to hear what you want to give me.” She took down her chignon and her hair flowed around her shoulders. “Oh, I’ll scream for you.” She came toward him. “And I’ll make you scream. But I came here for a purpose, and you’ll give me what I want.”
“I told you that I was working on it. I have to be careful.”
She rubbed against him like a cat. “Not good enough. I don’t care about being careful any longer. I want a promise that you’ll keep.” She reached down, caressing him. “And you’ll give it to me.”
Her breasts brushing against him. The scent of her … “Shit.”
“I need it to happen. You either give it to me, or I’ll find someone who will.”
“I’ll kill you.”
“No, you’ll give me Duncan and Cara, and it won’t be in a few days. You’ll know where they are tomorrow. I don’t care if it causes problems with your distributor in Atlanta. You’ll do what you have to do.” She went to the bed and lay down. “And before you leave here tonight, you’re going to promise me that no matter what you have to do, I’ll know where to find them.”
“You?” He was over her, tearing off his clothes.
“Me. I can’t leave it to you any longer.” She gazed up at him as he came into her. “I have to make sure it’s done.” She whispered as she started to move, “Now promise me…”
3:15 A.M.
“Come back to bed,” Salazar said thickly as he watched Natalie dress. “I’m not done with you.”
“I’m done with you.” She slipped on her shoes and went over to the mirror on the far wall. “You were right, I needed it. You were very entertaining.” She ran her fingers through her hair. “We may have to arrange things so that we can do this more often. Would you like that?”
“I’d like to stay alive more,” he said dryly. “Too dangerous.”
“That’s what I always say, but I’m beginning to think we should explore the possibilities. We need a change.” She touched up her lipstick. “If you find me exciting enough?”
She knew damn well the effect she had on him. “Stop playing games and come back here.”
“You don’t have time. You have calls to make, don’t you?” Her smile was brilliant as she turned back to him. “And I have arrangements to take care of, too. Changes … Salazar.” She headed for the door. “I can hardly wait.”
He watched the door close behind her and cursed low and vehemently. He was still horny as hell, and that wasn’t his only frustration. He didn’t like it that Natalie was being so demanding, but he knew it had been coming. He had barely been able to restrain her for the last few years.
He looked at his phone on the bedside table. Those calls Natalie had spoken about were against his better judgment. Not good business. It was clever to stay beneath the radar and not do anything to disturb either the Feds or the police department and make them pay too much attention to his operations. But if he didn’t meet Natalie’s deadline, she would be even more likely to become difficult.
What the hell, he thought recklessly. He was ready for a change, too. He was tired of being careful. How many years had it been since he had been like Franco and taken what he wanted and made everyone around him fear him? He wanted that heady feeling again.
He picked up the phone and dialed Franco.
“I need to know where Duncan and the kid are by tomorrow night. Do you have any possibilities?”
Franco hesitated. “Your man here in town said that he’d discounted all the commercial airlines and narrowed it down to four or five private airlines. Three Quinn has used in the past nine years. I thought I’d check those out. I’ll be careful. Domingo said you wanted us to be discreet.”
“I want to know tomorrow night. Screw being discreet.” He hung up.
3:35 A.M.
Joe watched Natalie Castino drive out of the gates and waited another fifteen minutes for Salazar to leave. He didn’t come out of the house. The lights in the bedroom went off after another five minutes. He probably felt safe as long as Natalie wasn’t with him.
You’re not safe, you bastard.
He moved quickly toward the wrought-iron fence, and, a few minutes later, he was over the top and dropping to the grass.
A shadow in the bushes to his left!
He whirled and gave a roundhouse kick that hit the man in the throat, then moved in for the kill as he was falling.
“No!” Manez moved out of the bushes. “Madre de Dios, you’ve caused enough trouble, Quinn. I won’t have you killing my men.”
Joe stopped, breathing hard, trying to calm the rush of adrenaline. “Then you shouldn’t have men who set themselves up to be taken out. I saw him the minute I hit the ground.”
“Pedro is a very good man.” Manez helped the man to his feet. “You’re obviously just better. Go back to the car, Pedro. I’ll take it from here.”
Pedro gave Joe a glowering glance and turned and walked away.
“And you shouldn’t expect me not to react if you don’t tell me you’re going to be on stakeout, Manez.” Joe gazed after Pedro. “How much does he know about this house?”
“Why? Would you go after him and finish the job?” Manez said sourly. “He knows nothing. No one knows about this house but you and me and the prisoner who gave me the information. I just thought I might need backup.”
“Against me?”
“Against Salazar. I’d be an even greater target than usual if he saw me here. Though I had an idea you might be popping in and causing trouble.” He turned. “I need to get you off the street. I’ll walk with you back to your car.”
“I checked it out before I went to the house. Are you trying to protect me, Manez?”
“Only because I don’t need you blowing the only lead I’ve had since—”
“I’m not blowing it,” Joe interrupted. “I just had to verify so that I knew where I could go with it. I had to see what was happening.”
“You should have left it up to me. I was going to bug the place and make sure that I had all I needed.”
“This is Salazar and a woman he’s been screwing for years. They both know the consequences. Do you think that he wouldn’t take precautions? I had a listening device, and I should have been able to hear through the glass of the window and couldn’t do it.”
“So you found out nothing?”
“I found out that she went in angry and came out looking very sleek and satisfied. I don’t know the dynamics, but they’re definitely lovers.” He stopped at his rental car. “And presumably have been lovers for a number of years according to your informant. The question is if she’s his accomplice. I’d bet that she is.”
“I’d … hesitate. A mother doesn’t kill her children.”
“We both know that’s not true. It depends on what the stakes are and the personality of the mother.” He paused. “It’s the most unnatural crime imaginable, so the personality would have to be twisted beyond belief.”
“Perhaps … she doesn’t know?”
Joe looked at him.
Manez shrugged. “The idea offends me. What can I say?”
“You can say that you’ll give me all the information possible on Natalie Castino. I suppose you got photos of her going through the gate?”
“I thought it might be useful.”
“To stage an uproar between Salazar and Castino that would put the coalition in chaos? Not yet, Manez.”
“I’ll be the judge of that.”
“No, not until Eve and Cara are safe.” His lips tightened. “Salazar will have put precautions in place to make sure he’s not connected to this place or Natalie Castino. That photo will mean nothing. Even if Castino makes a move on Salazar and takes him out, it won’t be good for me. Then he won’t be able to give the order to stop Franco and whoever else he’s put on tracking Eve down. Let me take care of him myself.”
Manez shook his head.
“You gave me a week.”
“That was before Natalie Castino appeared on the scene. I can use her, Quinn.”
“A week.”
Manez shrugged. “Five days. Subject to change if I find it necessary.”
“Done.” Joe got in the car. “You won’t find it necessary. I believe Salazar’s attention is going to be focused away from anything to do with the cartels for the time being. He’s going to be doing everything he can to find Eve and Cara.”
“And what are you going to do?”
He pulled away from the curb. “Get back to Atlanta and make sure he comes up against a stone wall.”
* * *
“I like this.” Cara dug her spoon into the stony dirt of the courtyard and smiled at Eve. “I kind of thought Jane was joking about it, but she really gave me a spoon.”
Eve chuckled. “I believe it’s more of a way of teaching patience and care than necessity. I remember when she was digging at the site in Herculaneum, she was very impatient. She must have learned an important lesson.”
“But MacDuff hasn’t learned it.” Cara’s gaze went to the area where the Laird was working with Jock. “I didn’t think I’d see an earl with his sleeves rolled up and sweating. And he has a shovel.”
“It’s his idea of a compromise. He let us have spoons and he’s going for the big stuff. He believes that the chest might be in the dungeon area. It would take a long time for him to get down there with a spoon. We’re only looking for possible clues, keys, boxes, scrolls, or anything else written by family members. They’re looking for the chest itself.” She put her spoon aside. “But I’ll have to leave you to it by yourself for a while. I have to go and take a look around the surrounding area and get my bearings.”
Cara nodded. “It’s a new place. Elena always used to look around the neighborhood when we moved to a different place. She said it made it safer for us.”
Eve nodded as she got to her feet. She should have known Cara would not be alarmed. Her life had been one long flight for survival. “Stay close to Jane.”
“You’re going alone?”
“Jock was going to go with me, but he appears to be busy with MacDuff. I’ll be fine.”
“Yes, you will.” Caleb was suddenly beside her. “But Jock thought that you’d be even better if you had someone to keep you company. He asked me to take his place.” He grimaced. “A great compliment since he really doesn’t trust anyone but MacDuff. I don’t think he trusts me either, but he knows I can take care of you, and he knows where he can find me if he has to go after me.”
Cara laughed. “But Jock wouldn’t hurt you.”
“Not if I could help it.” He smiled at Cara. “You like him?”
She nodded. “He wouldn’t hurt anyone.”
Caleb looked at Eve. “I believe that’s our cue to leave.” He took her elbow to help her over the rocky terrain toward his car parked on the road. “I’ll keep her safe, I promise, Cara.”
Cara nodded and went back to her digging.
“Jock has her completely fooled,” he said quietly. “She thinks he’s some kind of Boy Scout. Are you going to tell her about him?”
“Not if I don’t have to do it.”
“Because she’s a child?”
She shook her head. “She’s not really a child. Because she’s half-right, he wouldn’t hurt anyone he didn’t have to hurt. He is what she believes him to be. He didn’t try to fool her, he was just being himself. I don’t want her to think everyone she reaches out to is a threat.”
“Well, I don’t have that problem with Cara.” He opened the car door for her. “If you’ve noticed, she regards me with the same wariness that everyone else does. I’m surprised that she permitted me to take her Eve away without her.”
Eve glanced at him, her eyes twinkling. “But you were vouched for by Jock. That makes you totally acceptable.”
He started the car. “Until she reaches the age of intimidation. Then I’d have my work cut out for me.” He glanced at Jane sitting on a rock and going through a box of papers. “Wouldn’t I, Eve?”
“Yes,” she said bluntly. “But even Jane allowed me to go off with you without protest. She either trusts me to take care of myself, or you’ve made inroads on her trusting you.”
“Which do you think?”
“I have no idea. I know you usually don’t give a damn about anyone’s trusting you. But Jane may be different.” Her gaze narrowed on his face. “Is she different for you, Caleb?”
“She’s a beautiful woman.”
“Are you going to answer me?”
“So that you can rush to protect her?”
“I’ll always do that.”
“She’s … different. I won’t hurt her … if I can help it.”
“That’s not good enough.”
He suddenly smiled recklessly. “It’s all you’ll get from me. It’s more than I’ve ever given before. She fights me, and that makes me … angry.”
“That’s not what you were going to say.” Her gaze was still reading him. “I think you were going to say it hurts. Were you?”
“Me?” He shook his head mockingly. “Why would you think I would succumb to that particular weakness? No one else believes that I would ever be that soft.”
“I know you would never admit it. I don’t know why I asked.”
“Neither do I.” He took out a folded paper from his pocket and handed it to her. “Jock gave me this map. He thought you might want to look it over. He told me to take you to the lake. It’s the only area that has access from the north. From the south, anyone coming would be easily spotted.”
She unfolded the map and checked it out. “By all means, let’s go to the lake.”
* * *
Gaelkar Loch was large, deep, crystal blue, and surrounded by craggy hills that fell steeply to its green banks. The north bank was bathed in thick gray mist that not only shadowed the lake itself but obscured a good fourth of the massive hills that hovered over it.
Eve felt suddenly small and overwhelmed as she stood on the edge of the steep slope nearest the road and looked out at the blue water and that ghostly mist. “What is it?” she murmured. “I’ve been to the Alps and I never felt…”
Caleb nodded. “It’s principally that heavy fog. MacDuff tells me that it never goes away. Most unusual. It makes the place seem a bit menacing. It’s easy to imagine that anything could happen in those mists. There are all kinds of legends about it. The locals say that it could hide the beginning or the end of the world.” He shrugged. “Some people feel it, some people don’t. It does manage to capture the imagination. These Highlands have been battlegrounds and full of pain and savagery for centuries. I’m sure that Cira was a part of those battles.”
“But you feel it? You weren’t born here either, were you?”
“No, my family settled in Italy centuries ago.” He grimaced. “Much to the dismay of the villagers who were there before them. It seems my ancestors were far more intimidating than I am, and the villagers didn’t understand the gift that was passed down through the family.”
“Imagine that,” Eve murmured.
“But I do have a home a few hundred miles from here now. I like the wildness of the Highlands.” He smiled. “I think I would have bonded with Cira.”
“I believe you would, too.” She looked back at the lake. “MacDuff believes Cira is Jane’s ancestor.”
He nodded. “But that means nothing to me. I want Jane exactly what she is, what she’s made of herself.” He inclined his head mockingly at Eve. “What you’ve made her.” His smile faded. “As usual, I have a number of purely selfish interests in coming here, but one of them is to help you, Eve. I won’t let anything happen to you or Cara.” Then the smile was back. “Jane would have my head, and that’s not the part of my anatomy I’m interested in giving her.”
Outrageous. Totally outrageous. But she still had trouble smothering a smile. “It depends on how you look at it. But I do thank you for any help. There are many reasons why I need everything to go smoothly while we’re here.”
“Smoothly. What a curious word to use in this case.” He looked at her speculatively. “And you’re usually very clear and concise.”
“It’s just a word, Caleb.” She could have bitten her tongue. The word had come out of nowhere. Everything had to be smooth. She had to take every care so that the child would be able to survive these next weeks. But Caleb was sharp and intuitive, and he had caught that subtle inference. “Stop reading something into—” Her phone rang, and she breathed a sigh of relief. She took the cell out of her pocket and her relief was gone in an instant.
Joe.
“I’ve got to take this.” She walked a few yards away from Caleb as she punched the access. “Is there a problem, Joe?”
“The forensic report came back yesterday. Salazar knows that you and Cara weren’t in the car.”
She drew a shaky breath. “We knew that was coming. Yesterday? Why didn’t you call me when it first came in?”
“I was a little busy.”
She stiffened. “I don’t like the sound of that. Did Franco come after you?”
“He didn’t get a chance. I made myself unavailable. Something else popped up, and I had to check it out.”
“Joe.”
“I’m going to tell you. That’s why I’m calling. It may be a way we can manipulate the situation to keep Cara in the U.S. I was in Mexico City checking out a lead one of Manez’s informants handed him.” He paused. “For at least the past six years, Natalie Castino has been sleeping with Salazar. Probably longer than that, but that’s the only time span Manez’s informant knew for sure.”
“What?” Eve was stunned. “There’s got to be a mistake.”
“I was at their little love nest in the hills outside Mexico City. I saw her. She was angry with Salazar. She’d probably just heard about the forensic report.”
“Joe, that doesn’t make sense. It had to be dangerous for her to conduct a liaison with Salazar. If her husband found out, she’d be killed.”
“Maybe she thought it was worth it.” He paused. “Or maybe she was caught in a trap and couldn’t get out.”
“You think that she helped him kidnap the girls,” she whispered. It was almost too horrible to say the words. There was no child more helpless and vulnerable than when a parent was involved. They were automatically thought to be the protector, not the aggressor. “Why, Joe?”
“Manez is trying to find out. He’s digging for more information about her.” He added ruefully, “He didn’t want to believe it. He’s a tough guy, but he probably loves his own mom, and it’s hard for him to make the connection.”
“It’s hard for anyone.” She was having trouble herself. Though she had done a few reconstructions on children who she had later found out had been killed by their parents, it had almost always been an accidental blow. Or by the father to hide proof of molestation. She could remember only two murders committed by a child’s mother, and the women had both been declared by the court to be insane. But then, maybe judges had the same problem as Manez about accepting that a mother could kill her own child. “I don’t understand. It’s not as if she had much to do with Jenny and Cara. You told me that nurses took care of the children, and she and Castino didn’t see that much of them. I’ve seen photos of them while they were with their parents and … they were damn adorable.” She had to steady her voice. “Why would she do it? Was it because she was so obsessed with her lover, Salazar, that she’d do anything he wanted?”
“It’s a possibility, but I don’t believe that’s true. The woman I caught sight of outside that house last night was no weakling. She exuded power, lots of power. What she was doing with Salazar was what she wanted to do.” He added, “And I’d bet that if she was involved in the children’s kidnapping, she wanted that, too.”
“Did Manez give you anything more to go on?”
“He came back with a bare-bones report by the time I got back here to Atlanta. I’ll forward it to you. Not much. She married Castino when she was eighteen and had Jenny only a year later. In Russia, she was Daddy’s little girl and lived the life of a princess. Sergai Kaskov is a Mafia boss, but he evidently adored her and gave her everything she wanted. But maybe she didn’t want to be a princess, she preferred being a queen. When Castino came to Moscow and she heard how powerful his cartel was, he seemed to be what she needed. For the first few years, her life in Mexico was ideal, parties, a husband who was crazy about her, designer clothes, the power she’d never had in Russia.”
“It changed?”
“Not on the surface. She had another child, Cara, a few years after Jenny. The word was that she hadn’t wanted to have another child, but Castino was insisting. He wanted a boy.”
“And he didn’t get one that time either.”
“No. So he wanted to try again. Natalie suddenly became ill and flew home to Moscow to visit her father. She came back eight months later, and she was in fine form and absolutely radiant. Manez said that everyone who saw Natalie and Castino together during that period remarked on how she managed to dazzle Castino again. He wasn’t pleased about her long visit to her father and had taken a mistress. But within a few weeks, he’d sent her away, and Natalie was queen again. She kept him so busy, in bed and out, that he wasn’t pushing about her getting pregnant immediately.”
“If she was that busy with her husband, she wouldn’t have had time to seduce or be seduced by Salazar.”
“I don’t know, it depends on what spurred them to get together. Manez didn’t give me any more details about that period.”
“What about the girls? Would she have had an opportunity to help with the kidnapping?”
“The afternoon before Jenny and Cara disappeared, Natalie had taken Jenny to perform at the garden party at a friend’s house in the hills. Cara stayed home, taken care of by Elena. Natalie said she and Jenny returned to the house at about six, and she sent Jenny and Cara to bed about nine. No one discovered they were missing until the next morning.”
“She sent them to bed at nine,” Eve repeated. “Her nurse would have put their nightgowns on them, wouldn’t she?”
“Presumably.”
“But Jenny wasn’t found in a nightgown when they took her out of that grave. She was wearing a white eyelet dress and a black-velvet ribbon in her hair.” She moistened her lips. “As if she’d gone to a party.”
“You’re saying you think that the girls were taken immediately after Jenny was brought back from that garden party?”
“It would give Salazar almost twelve hours more to whisk them out of Mexico before the search started.” She felt sick. “Natalie gave him that time.”
“But you still don’t want to believe it.” He said wearily, “Neither do I.”
“I can’t think why she would—”
“We’ll find out eventually. We just have to accept that’s almost certainly what happened.” He was silent. “And be on guard against her.”
“On guard?”
“Manez told me that she boarded a flight for Moscow this morning. It seems her father is ill and wants to see her. Convenient?”
“Perhaps she’s panicking and going to him for protection.”
“Or perhaps she’ll surface somewhere other than Moscow. I just wanted to warn you that she may be a factor.” He paused. “How are you? Everything okay with Cara?”
“She’s digging in the dirt at the castle. She’s smiling a lot and having a good time.” She drew a shaky breath. “And how the hell do I tell her that her mother might have been responsible for killing her sister and Elena?”
“You don’t tell her, not yet. Let it play itself out. You didn’t answer me. How are you?”
“I’m digging in the dirt, too. And right now I’m with Caleb, gazing out at a lake that the Highlanders say might have been created to hide the beginning of the world or maybe the end of it.”
“Caleb? If he showed it to you, then I’d bet on the end.”
“Maybe. I can never tell about him. But Caleb’s been more accommodating than usual.” She changed the subject. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to keep Franco and Salazar from tracing you. I got behind when I flew down to Mexico. I’m on my way to Gainesville now to contact Jeff Brandel, the pilot who flew you to Scotland. I’m going to give him enough money to go out of the country for a while. He should have arrived back in Gainesville by now.” He was silent for an instant. “Look, yes, the idea of Natalie Castino’s killing her own child is horrible, but look at the good side that we found out about it. How likely is it that Immigration would send Cara back to a mother who’s suspected of murdering her sister?”
“But how long would it take to prove that Natalie did that? It’s hard to believe, people push it away. She might persuade everyone that she’s a victim.”
“The glass half-empty?”
“I want hope for Cara, Joe. I just don’t want to take chances. Not with her, not with you. I love you.” She added unsteadily, “Take care of yourself.” She hung up.
She gazed blindly out at the lake that had so intrigued her before. The beginning of the world, the end of the world. Mist and swirling waters and no one knew what was happening beneath that mist.
And no one knew what had happened to twist the heart of Natalie Castino, who should have loved and cared for her children and instead had tried to destroy them.
“Bad news?” Caleb was studying her expression. “Quinn?”
She nodded. “It looks as if Salazar will be on the move soon, if he’s not now. I guess that’s actually not bad news. We knew it was going to happen.”
He shrugged. “You looked stunned.”
“Joe just found out that Jenny and Cara’s mother was probably involved in their kidnapping.” She made a face. “I suppose stunned is the word, and sick, and bewildered. I can’t understand it. A child’s life is so precious. I can’t see how any mother could do that.”
“You’re saying kidnapping, do you mean killing?” he asked bluntly.
“I’m having trouble saying the word when connected to Jenny and Cara.” She deliberately said, “Killing. Because that was where it was going to end, and Natalie Castino must have realized that.”
“I’m just being very clear.” Caleb’s lips turned up in a half smile. “No one minces words about me, and I generally return the favor.” He tilted his head. “This is really disturbing you.”
“You’re damn right it does. I’m a mother. I instinctively want to protect any child.” She added fiercely, “And I want to punish anyone who would try to hurt a child.”
“Back to the primitive. I understand that concept though I generally operate from a different standpoint.” Caleb looked out at the lake. “Have you seen enough? Would you like me to take you anywhere else?”
“No, we should probably go back to the castle.” She started to turn away, and then realized he was studying her again. Why? Had she been too passionate about the idea of Natalie Castino’s crime and betrayal? She couldn’t have been anything else. Perhaps that wasn’t why he was staring at her so curiously. He might not have even noticed how upset she’d been.
Though he probably had noticed and would analyze and bring it up at his leisure. Not that she couldn’t just laugh it off. But she seldom laughed at whatever Caleb deduced about anything. He always came too close.
Face it now. She turned to look at him. “What? You’re staring at me.”
“I like looking at you. I like you, Eve.” He took her arm and led her back toward the car. “I can see why you and Jane are so close. You’re both painfully honest … most of the time. I find that infinitely refreshing.” As they reached the car, his hands slipped down and he grasped her hands as he stood looking down at her. “Though it’s usually not in the least complimentary to me. But even that’s forgiven, I always know where I stand.” He stared directly down into her eyes. “And here’s where you stand. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure that you’ll be safe. You have Jock and MacDuff, who are the soul of everything bold and noble, but every little while you need someone who’s not at all noble. That’s me.” He was smiling as he opened the car door for her. “I have an incredible number of dirty tricks at my disposal. And I’m putting them all at your disposal.”
She stared at him in surprise. “What brought this on?”
He shrugged. “Occasionally something touches me, and I have to respond.” He got in the driver’s seat. “You seem to have hit it today.” He started the car. “Don’t tell Jane, she’ll say I’m conning you.”
“No she won’t. She knows you better than you think.”
He nodded. “But she’d still put up barriers and have me jump through hoops. She doesn’t like the idea that I might do something that’s not totally on the dark side. It confuses her.”
“It confuses me, too.” She paused. “What … touched you today, Caleb?”
His smile was mocking. “Now that would be a revelation. There’s always a price for a revelation of my unique personality. You wouldn’t want to pay it.”
Would Jane want to pay it? Eve wondered.
“In time,” he said as if he had read her thoughts. “If I prepared the way.” He changed the subject. “Now tell me about Cara and that music that was luring me like a Lorelei the other evening. What do you intend to do about her when this is all over?”
GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA
Still no answer.
Joe frowned as he hung up the cell.
It was the third attempt to reach Jeff Brandel he’d made since he’d gotten on the road today. Straight to voicemail on the first two calls, this time no connection at all.
He didn’t like it.
Fifteen more minutes, and he’d be at the airport.
Nothing might be wrong.
But, dammit, he didn’t like it.