AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It’s so dusty here,” Julia whispered beside him, her eyes on the hills around Lima that housed the sandy-coloured shantytowns. The thousands of small houses, made out of reed matting and plywood sheets, were barely visible against the barren hills.
“When we get things sorted out with your gran, I’ll take you to Cusco and the jungle. Lots of green there for you to look at.”
She stiffened beside him, and Joe wondered if he would ever break through her defences to the point where she was relaxed and comfortable around him. He had to believe he would, because Julia Collins had become as essential to him as breathing.
“Is she going to be okay?” Julia’s soft question broke into Joe’s musings. “Is your lawyer friend good?”
“Yeah.” Joe placed a hand on Julia’s arm and watched her freeze in place. When he didn’t move it, she relaxed slightly. Baby steps, Joe reminded himself, baby steps. “He’s more than capable. If anyone can sort out this mess and get your gran out of there, Ed can. And she’s definitely going to be okay. Patricia is in the safest part of the prison.”
“But if Ed can’t get her out, she’ll be moved to the other part, right?”
“That’s not going to happen. I promise you that.”
Julia seemed to relax further at his vow, and Joe prayed he would be able to keep it. To hell with that—he would definitely keep it. He’d move heaven and earth to make sure he did. First, he needed to get her into their new hotel room, then he was going to make some calls to find out what the police were doing about the missing Alice. Then he planned to talk to his boss, Callum. He didn’t know what was going on here, but one thing was clear—things were a whole lot more complicated than Julia’s grandmother had led them to believe.
Chapter 2
Callum McKay swung his legs over the edge of his bed as he picked up the phone ringing on his nightstand. Well, he swung what was left of his legs. The parts that hadn’t been blown off when he’d been in the service. He absently rubbed his thigh as he checked the caller ID.
“It’s all gone to hell, hasn’t it?” Callum said by way of hello. “It didn’t take long. You’ve been there, what? Two hours?”
“Five,” Joe said.
Callum sighed. “Spit it out, then. It’s the middle of the bloody night over here.” Not that he’d been sleeping, but Joe didn’t need to hear about his ongoing battle with insomnia.
“We picked up a tail at the prison.” Joe’s voice was hushed, and Callum guessed he was keeping the information to himself for the time being.
“Law enforcement?” Callum tried to ignore the pain in his legs. Pain that shouldn’t have been there, because the part of his legs that ached no longer existed.
“Don’t know,” Joe said. “But I don’t think so. There were two of them. They were coordinated and knew what they were doing. Plus”—Joe lowered his voice—“I could have sworn I saw signs of respect as they walked through the streets.”
Callum cursed. Signs of respect meant locals who were too scared to look at the men. Signs of respect generally meant one thing—cartels were involved. “Have you gotten the full story out of Julia’s grandmother yet?”
“She’s still in jail, but my contact—Eduardo Sanchez—is working on it.”
“He can be trusted?”
“Yeah, he’s dual nationality and did some time in the Marines way back when. He’s good people.”
“What about the missing friend? She’s been gone, what? Three, four days now. Any sign of her?”
“You remember that?”
“Aye.” Callum sometimes wished his memory wasn’t a steel trap. He stared at his stumps. There were things he would kill to forget.
“There’s been no word. We checked in with the police here, and they said they’ve got officers hunting for her, but…”
“But the system is disorganised and corrupt. You don’t know who’s really looking for her and who really wants her.”
“Yeah. If she left on her own, she could be anywhere. If someone has her, there’s been no word, no call for ransom. I haven’t said it aloud, but there’s a good chance the woman is dead.”
“You think someone killed her over this damn mummy?” Callum asked.
“I don’t know what to think.
All I know is we have a missing woman, another in jail and guys with guns on our tail. Can you get Elle to do some hacking magic and dig up everything she can find about Alice Bridges, Patricia Matthews and this damn mummy?”
“Aye, I can do that.”
