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“Where was he sighted?” John’s tone was clipped now.
“In town last night, flashing Bailey’s picture and asking her whereabouts at a little diner there called Casamara’s.”
Bailey nodded. “It’s one of my favorite restaurants. It won’t be hard to find me.”
“We sent out two of our backup teams to locate him, but he disappeared around daylight,” Tehya reported. “As soon as we know more, I’ll get that information to you. Keep your sat phones on you and keep them turned on just in case.”
“Alberto could throw a kink in the plan here.” She turned to John as she sat back in the couch and breathed out warily. “He’s a true killer. Unlike his brother, he doesn’t let himself be ruled by anger, only cold hard determination. We were on his trail for more than a year before we captured him in Colombia. He won’t be easy to track, especially in these mountains. The good thing about him, though, is that when he decides to kill, he doesn’t do it from a distance. It’s face-to-face.”
“Well, bully for him,” John muttered darkly before turning back to Tehya. “I want him found, now. We don’t have time for this.”
“We believe he was given a bit of help in breaking out of his Colombian stronghold,” Tehya told him. “And he obviously has help here.”
“Warbucks?” Bailey asked. “What would be the point?”
“Unless it’s another test,” Tehya said, shrugging, “we’re not certain at this point, though we’re pulling in new intel at the present. We also have a buyer named Jaeko in Aspen. He’s rumored to have been sent to be in place for the auction when it begins and to verify the product for sale before bidding begins.”
Jaeko. Bailey narrowed her eyes and thought for long moments. “Jaeko doesn’t have the connections or the money for this. He’s a low-level buyer with little or no backing. He mostly buys guns, grenades, and ammunition for rebels.”
“He began branching out about three years ago,” Tehya stated as she glanced at John. “Rumor has it that Jaeko made some high-level friends while he was incarcerated in a Russian prison for a few months before he escaped.”
“There was also a rumor that he was killed by his American wife four years ago,” John said slowly.
“Rumor.” Tehya waved it away. “We have definite sightings of Jaeko after that, and none of them was in a body bag.”
Just as there were sightings of Jerric Abbas and Travis Caine—Caine being the bodyguard and chauffeur who worked for John Vincent.
Travis Caine was once an international two-bit assassin whom no one had ever been able to gather enough evidence against. About seven years before, rumor had circulated that he had attempted and failed to kill the wrong victim. A drug lord, Diego Fuentes. Diego had sent his own assassin after him and that assassin had supposedly returned with proof of the kill. Caine’s head.
Weeks later Fuentes’s assassin was dead and Caine had popped back up, alive and well.
Suspicion began to pound at Bailey’s head and suddenly, she was very interested in meeting Jaeko again. There was no way John or Tehya, or their little group of agents, could know that at one time, Jaeko had been one of Bailey’s Russian informants.
What the hell kind of team was John involved in? She glanced over at him as he and Tehya discussed the various players involved in the upcoming bids. Rumors of terrorist cells, terrorist leaders, and terrorist countries that were getting their money together to bid on the product of a lifetime.
“Do we have everyone in place?” John was asking as Tehya rose to her feet long minutes later.
“Everything’s ready.” Tehya nodded. “Jerric is pacing the floors waiting on a phone call . . .”
“Jerric doesn’t pace,” Bailey murmured as she looked up at Tehya.
She watched as John stilled, suddenly becoming dangerously wary.
“Really?” Tehya looked down at her, her brown eyes narrowing. “Are you certain?”
“Jerric Abbas doesn’t pace and Catalina Lamont has a jealous streak a mile wide. Don’t forget that when the two of you are playing your little game here. Because trust me, everyone else of interest will be watching as well.”
“Catalina and Jerric are no longer an item,” she stated with a smile.
“Catalina and Jerric haven’t been an item several times,” Bailey said with a shrug. “Catalina still cut off a woman’s earlobe for allowing him to whisper in it. She’s sworn she’d never let him go short of death and he has yet to kill her. That means they’re still an item.” She rose to her feet and stared at John, then Tehya. “I wonder how Jerric’s new wife feels about his new lover?”
> She turned to head for the shower when John caught her arm, pulling her to a stop. “Meaning?” he growled, his voice dark, warning.
Bailey widened her eyes innocently. “Oh, do I have my information wrong?” “Jerric isn’t married? How bad of me.” She shook his hold loose. “Excuse me while I go shower. This game makes me feel dirty all of a sudden.”
John watched as she stalked through the bedroom and into the shower before he turned and stared back at Tehya.
Tehya sighed. “It’s a good thing Risa trusts Micah and likes me, huh? Otherwise, we’d be having problems with this mission.”
