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Chapter Twenty-eight
Once back in his suite with Miguel, Jake introduced him to his other stowaway.
“It’s a gatito – a kitten.” Pleasure rang out in the boy’s shocked voice. Not unexpected, the two bonded immediately, and from then on Miguel carried the happy baby feline on his shoulder the whole time, his hand never stopped petting.
Jake showed him around the suite, and they picked out some hiding spots that Miguel could use if it was necessary. One of those places being in the closet.
That reminded Jake of Rylee’s place. “So, tell me Miguel, what happened earlier in Rylee’s stateroom? She seemed to think you would have been safe in the closet there too. Why did you bolt?”
Miguel’s expression was thoughtful. Jake saw the unease on his face. Understanding that the kid needed time to accept if he was going to trust him or not, Jake backed off and waited.
Indecision fled and Miguel finally began to tell Jake what happened.
“Si. You’re right. I was in the closet, and her purse fell to the ground from the top shelf. Everything landed on the floor. When I picked it all up, I saw a wallet, or what looked like a wallet and… and I opened it.”
“You opened it.”
Totally immersed in watching Miguel’s expression, he could have been bitten by a rattler and wouldn’t have been any more stung than he was by the boy’s answer.
“Si. She’s an FBI agent. It said so on her badge.”
“You’re sure.”
“Si.”
Now he was pissed. Tense, his body tight, he had no idea what it meant, but he knew one thing, she hadn’t been honest with him. “Okay, let’s not mention this to anyone else. We’ll keep it to ourselves.”
“Okay, Señor Jake.”
Thoughts beat at each other to get to the front of his mind first. In a mess of confusion, he started to walk away but thought differently when he realized one thing.
“So that’s why you ran. You were scared she’d arrest you.”
“No, Señor.” Miguel frowned at Jake as if he were dense. “Rylee wouldn’t.”
Really confused now, Jake asked, “Then why did you run?”
Miguel’s expression showed surprise, as if the answer was clear to anyone with a brain. What he had no way of knowing was that Jake’s brain was still addled by the news. “Because helping me could get her into trouble. It’s obvious she’s on vacation, but aren’t cops always kinda on duty? She shouldn’t be hiding me.”
Now Jake felt two feet high. It took a kid to see the facts that he should have instinctively known. When he thought about it, she hadn’t really lied to him either. Maybe she did work in finance – in an accounting department but for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They had to have thousands working at all those areas, not only in the Intelligence or Criminal departments.
And it was plausible she’d left her job. Hell, he didn’t even know where she had worked, only that she’d come to Miami to visit her sister.
Son of a bitch! He shook off his mad and made up his mind. It was more than time for him to find out her true background. He’d do so as soon as the kid was settled, and Carlos was aware he had to watch over the cabin.
Urging Miguel to get ready for bed, he sat on the side, hoping that if they shared stories, the kid would get tired and be ready to shut down. He had a woman he needed to see and the sooner the better.
Talking helped him understand more about Miguel’s family in Grenada. Life was hard on the island. They lived a very poor existence, and his mother’s job was essential to the well-being of the family now that they no longer had this father’s income.
As Miguel reminisced, Jake literally felt the sadness oozing from the boy who’d recently lost a father he’d idolized, and that’s when the attachment began to form.
He’d be dammed if there was anything he could do to stop these feelings from growing… to not feel the empathy and then admiration. The kid had been petrified to leave his home and hide away on a freighter heading to Miami, but after his mother gave birth to the twins and could no longer work, he’d felt as if there was no other choice. He’d had to step up
“How did your father die, Miguel?”
“He was killed in a boating accident nine months ago. Mi papá, he was perfecto. Other men left their families and didn’t care about them, but he’d always sent us his money, and he came home every chance he got. Then when Mamá got pregnant again, we needed more money, and so he took longer trips, more fish, more money. That’s what he always told us. Except he didn’t tell us that it would be more dangerous and that the boat would sink.”
“It must have been devastating news.”
