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More than that she needed a drink.
But she wasn’t going there. Sober was necessary right now. She’d had that one lapse the other night, and she wasn’t about to allow it to happen again.
Calm down. Slow, deep breaths. Keep it rational. Think clearly, logically.
Could Alice Cortez be Isabella Osorio? The age was right. The features.
Had the old man sent her here for protection of some sort? There was growing unrest in the region over which he reigned. The old man’s time on this earth was limited. Others were champing at the bit to take over as the leader of the largest cartel in Mexico, with a reach that extended all the way to Canada. For that to happen, any remaining heirs would have to be eliminated.
Images of the child in the mask—the one that had haunted her for the past four-plus years—expanded in Sadie’s head.
Take my hand and you’ll be invisible.
Sadie blinked. Turned up the radio to block the voice.
Can’t be her.Osorio wouldn’t send her here ... not this close to Sadie. Not after what she’d done. The idea that he might not know Sadie was in Birmingham was ludicrous. He would know. He hadn’t successfully grown the largest drug cartel in Mexico because he was stupid or shortsighted.
All this time she had never stopped looking over her shoulder, but none of his people ever showed up on her tail or at her door. She’d expected him to. At times had even hoped he would. Then it would be over.
But no one had come to finish her off.
He wouldn’t send his granddaughter here. No way. There had to be another explanation.
A flash of memory slammed into her brain. A voice.Hisvoice whispered in Sadie’s ear ... warning that she would never be free of him.
She would always belong to him because of what she took from him.
“No.” She shook her head, slapped the heel of her hand against the steering wheel. Carlos Osorio had never come after her. He didn’t careabout her. He’d made sure she wouldn’t remember anything important. This was just another fragment of memory that likely was nothing more than a hallucination.
She had invaded his compound. Stolen his son’s heart and then taken his life. Yeah, she had taken something from him all right, but she’d lost plenty as well.
Was that why he had allowed her to live? He wanted her to suffer with those particular demons for the rest of her days?
Bastard.
Watch for the sign.
The air stalled in Sadie’s lungs as the voice rang out in her head, louder than the heavy metal band on the radio blaring in her ears.
There will be a sign when the time comes.
Was the girl ... a sign?
Could the old bastard finally be coming for Sadie? After all this time?
She spotted the stopped truck a split second before she would have barreled into it. She cut right. Hard. Her Saab bounced off the shoulder of the road and into the ditch.
Her head banged into the driver’s window before the vehicle came to a jarring stop against a culvert. The airbag blew up in her face.
When she could move, Sadie smacked the deflated bag from her body. She coughed. Her chest would be sore as hell tomorrow. Rubbing at the side of her bruised head, she stared out the shattered windshield at her damaged front end.
“Idiot.”
She should have stopped somewhere after returning the truck and walked off the damn panic attack. She’d done it hundreds of times before. What had she been thinking?
“Damn it!”
She dug out her cell and called a wrecker. With one en route, she climbed from behind the wheel and propped against the wounded vehicle.
