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He nods cautiously. I pull out five one-hundred-dollar bills and hand them to him. “I’ll see that it gets back to you.”
He nods again. “Johann, go get the car keys.”
A few minutes later, I’m driving down the crowded streets of Tawua like a bat out of hell, hoping I’m not too late. Hoping that this time, things will be different. I barely come to a stop in front of the hotel, parking in a fire lane as I scramble out of the car. At this point, every second counts.
And then, like an answer to my prayer, I see her. She’s walking with a man in a suit, and he’s holding her elbow as he guides her out of the hotel. As Johann said, she’s blindfolded and her wrists are bound, but both the blindfold and the scarf look like they came in someFifty Shadeskinky fun pack. WTF? I look closer. There’s a gun rammed into her side. It’s military grade and very real.
I crouch down behind the parked car, carefully planning my move. I’ve only got one chance, and I’m well aware of the fact that McKenzie will end up with a bullet in her if I fuck up.
Doubt and misgivings crowd into my head, and suddenly I’m in the mountains of Mexico again, when one wrong move on my part meant the people I loved most died. But I can’t stay in the past anymore. It’s time to cross the threshold.
I see a rock on the sidewalk and pick it up, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Right as they pass by me, so close enough that I can smell McKenzie’s clean, sunshiny scent, I aim and throw it, hitting the man squarely in the back. He stops. I lunge forward from behind, catching the man in a headlock as I knock his wrist down, aiming the gun away from McKenzie.
But this is no street thug. He’s highly trained in martial arts and, I’ll hazard a guess, military combat, and we each struggle to gain control. But I have the element of surprise on my side, and I squeeze his throat with my arm as I use my body weight to torque his wrist, bending it as I push the gun down. I can hear the sickening snap of his finger, which is on the trigger, as it breaks. But he’s not about to give up. Using advanced techniques that you only get in the special forces or a lifelong career as an MMA fighter, he fights back, ultimately managing to wrench out of my grasp.
McKenzie’s several feet away from him now, looking disoriented, and I have a choice. I can go after him in a fight I may or may not win and possibly take him out, or I can save her. It’s a no-brainer. I deliver a swift kick to the back of his knees, and he crumples to the ground as the gun goes skittering across the sidewalk. Without hesitating, I scoop McKenzie up in my arms, unceremoniously tossing her into the passenger seat of the car, and screech away, leaving behind the man who is trying to kill her.
After a few minutes, I risk a glance over at her. She’s sitting rigidly in the seat next me, and I realize she probably has no idea where she is or who she’s with. “I’ve got you, baby. It’s me.”
I rest my hand on her thigh, but she doesn’t move or even acknowledge me. If anything, she stiffens more. She looks like she might crack in half. She must be in shock.
Fuck!The blindfold. I lean over and pull it off. She regards me coolly, her eyes shuttered. What the hell happened to her in the hour and a half that she was missing?
“Hang in there, baby. We’re going to get somewhere safe, and then we’ll figure out what to do next. I don’t want to stop to cut off the zip ties until I know no one’s following us. Okay?”
She nods mutely.
I drive around, turning and backtracking enough to make sure we’re not being followed, before stopping at Maliau Basin, a pristine jungle hideout in the wilderness which a quick Google search while I drove says is a land of many waterfalls, high cliffs, and nothing but nature. And consequently, the perfect place to make sure McKenzie’s okay and for us to figure out our next move. I drive the Filipino man’s truck through the brush until we come to a private clearing. I kill the engine and turn to McKenzie.
“If you’re going to kill me, just go ahead and get it over with,” she says woodenly.
“Why the hell would I want to kill you?” Exasperation creeps into my voice. “My God, McKenzie, I love you.” I hadn’t intended to say that, but as soon as the words are out of my mouth, I realize they’re true.
“You don’t use people you love. Or lie to them. You don’t have to pretend anymore. I know who you really are.”
Fingers of dread grip my freshly opened heart. The only way she could know who I am is if El Gato sent someone to kidnap her, and somehow let it slip that I worked for him. Which means he lied to me about not sending someone after McKenzie.
“That motherfucker! I made it clear to El Gato that if he so much as lifted a finger against you, we didn’t have a deal.”
“So, you don’t deny you work for him?”
I sigh. “I’ve been working for him for three years, but it’s not what you think.”
The hurt I see in her eyes will haunt me until the day I die. “Really? I’ll tell you exactly what I think. No…what I know. It somehow looked like my brother sold your boss some guns, but he died before they were delivered, and you or he or both of you think that Liam’s bucket list is going to help you find them.”
“It didn’t just look like your brother sold El Gato a shitload of guns,” I correct. “I brokered the deal with him.”
That stops her cold. “You met Liam?”
I nod. “You’re more like him than you think.”
She shakes her head in denial, but I don’t know if it’s because she doesn’t think they’re similar or she doesn’t believe he sold the guns. Either way, she has her brother on some sort of pedestal, and hearing the truth about him must hurt.
“I’m sure he had his reasons,” I say. “We all do. But there’s no doubt he sold the guns to El Gato.” I lift my hand to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear, and she flinches.
“For fuck’s sake, McKenzie. You can’t really think I would hurt you.”
“I don’t know what to think anymore,” she says, her voice stony, but I can hear the hurt behind it, and it cuts me like a knife.
