Falling Darkness. Karen Harper

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СКАЧАТЬ was a much younger child with her legs around Claire’s waist and Claire’s arms under the girl’s bottom. That stupid stuffed animal was still in the way, but nothing else mattered now that Lexi was safe, but—actually, it did. Everything mattered to get them out of here.

      Nick looked both relieved and desperate. “I’ll tell them at the desk she’s been found,” he said, “but I’ve got to check my email too.” He took Claire’s elbow and steered her farther away from the shop. “Sit in the lobby. Don’t budge. I want to be able to see both of you.”

      Claire sat with Lexi on her lap on a leather sofa and kept an eye on Nick too as he went into the adjacent room where she could see little cubicles sheltering laptops. Jace must be frantic over Lexi too, all of them. She needed to tell Nita and him their daughter had been found. She needed a tissue to wipe her eyes and blow her nose. She needed Nick to hold her. Most of all, maybe more like her daughter than she cared to admit, she needed her sense of safety and sanity back.

      * * *

      Nick’s stomach was in free fall when he gave his card to the guy in charge, then sat at a different laptop from the one he’d used a little bit ago. He typed in his code, and an email appeared on the screen. Bingo! It was from the fake Chicago firm!

      Jack Randal: sorry your investment gamble went in the tank, but we can reinvest. I promise we can “git mo,” to use an old saying around here about getting you more money with interest. Can you handle that ASAP? Let me know if you’re on board with my advice. Investment adviser Robert Patmore.

      Gitmo. Guantanamo! That had to be what he meant. Get to Gitmo and the officers there could spirit them out, help them get home—that was, to their WITSEC hideout in Michigan. But the thing was, Guantanamo Bay with its naval detention camp was way on the southeastern end of the island, a long trip away. And Patterson had signed the note with a fake name, but one that echoed his own.

      Nick typed a message back: Sounds like good financial advice. ASAP, will do, with all my investments. I realize this could take some time.

      He sent the message, then erased Rob’s, wishing he could erase the dangers between here and Gitmo—and without Heck, if he didn’t get back here soon.

      * * *

      Lexi’s little family reunion in their hotel room wasn’t pretty, Nick thought. Lexi insisted it was all Lily’s fault and that the stuffed whale was named Shark-Killer. Nita kept saying it was her fault, and Bronco kept saying it wasn’t, when a loud knock sounded on the hall door.

      Everyone quieted and froze. Nick went over to the door and, pressed to the wall on either side of him, Bronco and Jace waited. “Who’s there?”

      “It’s us,” Heck cried. “Open up, boss.”

      Still, Nick looked through the spyhole on the door. “He’s with Gina.”

      Nick swung the door wide and yanked Heck, then Gina, into the room. He stuck his head out to look up and down the hall, then closed the door and locked it.

      Jace began, “Berto, where the hell have you b—”

      “I know it took me longer than I planned, but I know where your father’s former friend that cheated him out of some money is here in Havana.” Heck raised his hands as if to ward off an attack. “We got his address, me and Gina, and we walked there, not far from my family’s old hacienda. A guard told us to get away, so we did. It was my idea, but she helped. I had to tell her a few things about him. How he hurt your father—financially, I mean.”

      “You found him—how?” Nick demanded. “Are you sure it wasn’t a trap—a setup?”

      “It was something Meggie said, how he had those rare fish. Gina and I passed a tropical fish store on the edge of El Vedado. So I said let’s go in, and we made like we wanted to buy some of their pricey stuff. Asked who cleaned tanks in a home visit if we wanted it, all of that. Then I left, and Gina turned it on with the guy, one that cleans the tanks, and he boasted about some American bigwig has an office here in a hacienda. So we walked where he said, looked at the place. It’s offices but Ames must live there. Big. Fancy. Not far from my family’s old place.”

      Astounded, taking that all in, Nick said nothing at first. Ames was here. And Heck knew where. He’d used a partial cover story with Gina so she evidently wouldn’t panic at all the gory details. Finally, he asked Heck, “And are you sure no one followed you back?”

      Heck and Gina exchanged quick glances. “No one,” he said, “but we spotted a drone. Maybe it was filming the hotel, but maybe not. Couldn’t see who was running it, but someone down on the Malecon, I bet. Funny, but it’s still hovering outside over the front entrance. If we were on the other side of the building, you could see it. We—”

      Nick interrupted. “I don’t like the sound of that. Maybe he was looking for us just like we were for him or maybe that guard that ordered you away had you followed. Gina, I see Berto hasn’t clued you in on everything, but we needed to keep secret that we—I—have an enemy here who was my father’s enemy years ago and maybe caused his death. That guy Seth mentioned at the Key West airport who could have tampered with the plane could have been working for that man. Somehow he learned we survived the crash, landed here—I don’t know. Over the years, I’ve learned to put nothing past him. We’ve got to go—now.”

      Claire said, “Jack’s right. He’s spied on us with a drone before. But we can’t just run out the front, then.”

      “Down the back inside fire-escape stairs and out the back service entry,” Nick ordered. “Grab things fast. We have to go now!”

      Nita started to cry again, but Nick was amazed at how solid Claire suddenly seemed. She handed Lexi and the whale to Jace and seized her purse with her meds. They had so little, it didn’t take long to get ready. They streamed out the door, and Nick practically shoved them down the hall toward a sign that read SALIDA/EXIT. Because Jace had Lexi, he pushed him ahead, let them all pass, then locked and closed their hotel door and raced after them. They didn’t get even one night in this place with the inviting beds, he thought.

      “And don’t make noise on the stairs! Wait for me at the bottom!” he called after Bronco, and the big man nodded as they headed through the emergency exit.

      Nick was barely to the stairs where Heck was holding the heavy door for him. “Sorry, boss. Wanted to help. The drone—I didn’t know he’d be looking for us here too.”

      “You did help if we can tell our friends where Ames is. We needed to run anyway. I’ve been given a plan. Go, go!”

      Nick saw he had been right. As the heavy door started to close slowly behind him, he saw two men dressed in suits and ties down the hall burst from the elevator and draw guns. They must have inquired at the desk. What else did they know? Nick watched them for one split second through the hazy glass window in the door. Heck tugged at his arm and hissed, “Boss, come on!”

      And then Nick saw what scared him as much as Ames’s men. One man produced something from his pocket that opened the door just as the other elevator door slid open to reveal four men who looked like Cuban police.

       8

      Heck and Nick rushed down the stairs as quietly as they could. The others were below them, whispering, but it echoed in the stairwell.

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