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"Drew? Did you hear me?"
"Yeah. What did you find out?"
"Your bartender wasn't the only one to die in that explosion. Apparently, the niece of Enrique Valdez was also on that boat as well. Her bodyguard was supposed to be with her, but he overslept and didn't make the trip. He ended up dead two weeks later. Valdez blamed him for his niece's death." Tim paused. "Valdez is rumored to be the head of a large criminal organization. Most people on the island speak his name in hushed tones."
Drew sat down at the kitchen table, the pieces falling into place. Valdez's niece had to be Megan. "What was the girl's name?" he asked.
"Marguerite Valdez. My friend said that no bodies have ever been found, but that he's sure he would have heard something if your friend or Valdez's niece had turned out to be alive. Many, many people spent days looking for them because of Valdez's money and power. Everyone wanted to be the hero, the one to bring his niece home."
"Okay," Drew said, wanting to end the call before he said too much.
"I can keep asking questions," Tim said. "In fact, I might be headed down there in a week or two. They're having a poker tournament on the island. Maybe you'd like to go with me."
"I don't think so."
"Yeah, I figured you'd say that. Sorry I don't have better information."
"It's fine. And you don't need to ask any more questions. I'm going to move on."
"Well, that's good news. Do you think you can finally let her go, stop trying to save her?"
That was a million dollar question, Drew thought, and he still didn't have an answer. "I'll see you next week, Tim."
"Yeah, see you then."
Drew hung up the phone, his pulse pounding way too fast. He'd been afraid to push Ria to the end of her story, worried that whatever line she'd crossed would be one too many for him to overlook. Now he knew exactly what she'd done. It was so clear he couldn't believe he hadn't realized it before.
Ria walked back into the living room, her hair wet from her shower. When she saw his face and the phone in his hand, she stopped abruptly, giving him a wary look. "What's wrong?"
He got to his feet and walked over to her. "I'm going to ask you a question, and I want the truth." His gaze locked with hers. "Did you kidnap Megan?"
Chapter Sixteen
Ria stared at Drew, her blood pounding through her veins. Apparently, he'd made his decision, and now she had to make hers. She would tell him her story, but she wouldn't necessarily wait around to see what he would do with the information. The prom was over. If she had to leave, she would.
"Megan came with me willingly," she said. "Does that sound like a kidnapping?"
"But you don't have custody of her, do you?"
"No, I don't. Her uncle has custody, but he is a dangerous criminal. Megan was not safe with him. So I stepped in."
"Start at the beginning," he said.
"That's going to take some time. Megan will be home soon."
"And I assume she already knows the story." He walked back over to the kitchen table and sat down. "Talk."
A moment later, she took the seat across from him. "I've told you a lot of it already, but here's the rest. Kate was eighteen when she went to study abroad in Spain. Like me, she also had wanderlust in her soul; she just didn’t care to see the world by boat." Ria took a breath, trying not to get sidetracked by sad thoughts of her sister.
"Anyway," Ria continued, "Kate was only in Spain for six weeks when she met Reynoldo Valdez. He was twenty-five years old and a young lawyer, very handsome, sophisticated. He'd been educated in the U.S., so he spoke perfect English. They fell in love. When her semester of study was over, Kate couldn't bring herself to leave. She signed up for another year. A few months later, she became pregnant. She dropped out of school and married Reynoldo."
"And your family had nothing to say about that?" he asked.
"My family was scattered to the winds. My mother was having her own love affair. I was fourteen and trying to make my way through my first year of high school. My dad was doing his thing, whatever that was. Everyone was thinking about themselves."
