“What choice do I have?”
“I’ll grab you a lab coat on the way out.”
He’d been luckier than her at getting clothes that fit. He’d rolled the sleeves of the dress shirt up to his elbows, giving him a rakish, sexy appeal that had Heather clutching her hands into fists to keep from reaching for him. No one should look that good after the horrible night they’d just experienced.
Thinking about the men possibly watching the hospital, she shivered. The night and all its dangers were far from over.
Whump. Whump. Whump.
The sound of the helicopter’s blades sounded overhead.
Nick automatically glanced up, as if he could see the helicopter through the ceiling. “Chopper’s here. Let’s go.”
Heather stepped out of the bathroom, her borrowed sneakers painfully squeezing her feet.
“This way.” Nick led her out the door and down the hall to their left.
They could hear the sound of excited voices coming from the front of the hospital. Having a helicopter touch down in the parking lot was definitely not the norm. The DEA agents had cleared the lot right in front of the emergency room doors to make space for the chopper.
“Come on,” Nick urged, pulling Heather with him to the exit. “We have to time this just right.” He held the door open, and Heather ran with him outside, to the parking lot out back.
Less than a minute later, Nick drove their borrowed car down the side road next to the hospital. Heather leaned over in the passenger seat to look out Nick’s window. “Fake Nick” and “fake Heather,” both DEA agents from the Key West office, wearing exactly what Nick and Heather had been wearing when they got to the hospital, ran out of the emergency room doors and into the waiting chopper—a chopper that had
Bubba’s Seafood
written on the side.
That explained Tanner’s grin when he said he could get a helicopter.
Heather wouldn’t have believed for one second that the shirtless man pretending to be Nick was really Nick. Nick’s abs were much more defined and his biceps were twice as big.
“Do you think we fooled Gonzalez’s men?” she asked.
“I sure as hell hope so.” Nick punched the accelerator and the car leaped forward.
Chapter Eight
A knock on the hotel room door had Nick waving Heather into the first bedroom. He drew his gun and leaned back against the wall.
“Who is it?” he called out.
“Tanner.”
Nick leaned over and looked through the peephole before unlocking the door. Tanner hurried inside and Nick locked the door behind him.
Heather stepped out from the bedroom without waiting for Nick to give the all clear. He barely resisted the urge to remind her of condition number two as he holstered his gun. The only reason he didn’t was because he didn’t want to embarrass her in front of the other agent. But she was going to have to learn to be more careful. What would she have done if it hadn’t been Tanner at the door?
He shook his head and waved Tanner over to the couch.
“How did it go?” Nick asked.
“Hard to say. We didn’t notice any vehicle activity on the ground when the chopper took off, other than your car leaving the hospital. The agents tailing you didn’t see anyone else following. I’m not sure what to think. Either Gonzalez didn’t have anyone watching and we went totally overboard getting that chopper—which, I might add, is going to be fun to explain on my next expense report—or he’s a lot smarter than I thought.”
“I’ve never met the man in person, but I’ve met plenty who have while I was building my undercover identity this past year,” Nick said. “He’s got a reputation for being on top of things and isolating himself behind layers of front men. If his thugs were the ones after Heather and me, I guarantee they were watching the hospital.”
Heather plopped down on the opposite couch. “If? What are you saying? That Gonzalez might not have been the one who went after us?”
“I’m just open to all possibilities until proven otherwise,” Nick said. “Tanner, have your men interviewed any witnesses who saw the shoot-out near the bar?”
“We’re still canvassing that area. No witnesses yet, but that’s no surprise in that part of town. The drug trade has a wrap on that area.”
“What about my sister?” Heather asked. “Has there been any word about her? Other than the note from the men who abducted her, I haven’t heard anything. I don’t even know if...if she’s alive.”
“I’m new to this case,” Tanner said. “Can’t say that I really have much background, other than what Nick gave me in the hospital. But I
can
tell you that your sister and Gonzalez have been an item for quite some time. If it makes you feel better, I seriously doubt he’ll hurt her if he can avoid it. That’s not what he wants at all. The fact that he went after you with so much manpower, and that he didn’t even seem interested in the duffel bag of drugs, tells me he’s trying to make a public statement. And stealing a police car on top of everything else, well, that’s definitely out of character for him. He doesn’t normally tangle directly with law enforcement. He’s got too much to lose.”
“I’m not sure I understand,” she said.
Nick scooted forward on the couch opposite from her and rested his forearms on his knees. “What Tanner is saying is that if Lily were dead, Gonzalez would have no reason to go after you. The fact that he did go after you is a good indication that he’s still trying to figure out a way to save face and prove that he’s still in control of his empire. Plus, if he killed Lily, he’d dump her body...”
He cursed his poor choice of words when Heather blanched and wrapped her arms around her waist.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I was just trying to say that if your sister was dead, we’d know about it. Gonzalez wouldn’t try to hide what he’d done. Just the opposite. He’d want everyone to know that the woman who’d stolen from him had paid the ultimate price, as a warning to others.”
She nodded, some of the color returning to her face. “I hope you’re right, that she’s unharmed.”
Nick exchanged a glance with Tanner. The worried expression on Tanner’s face told Nick they were both thinking the same thing.
Lily might not be dead, but “unharmed” was a stretch.
Even if Gonzalez eventually let Lily go, a man like him wasn’t going to ignore the fact that his mistress had stolen from him, which was exactly what Nick’s informants had basically confirmed when he’d arrived this morning. The rumor was that Lily had gotten into a fight with Gonzalez and took off with the kilos.
Nick figured the odds were about seventy-thirty that Lily had already experienced Gonzalez’s wrath, and that her suffering wasn’t going to end until—if—she was rescued.
* * *
H
EATHER
WAS
STILL
exhausted the next morning when Nick dragged her out of bed at the unholy hour of seven o’clock. But fear for her sister had her quickly showering and getting dressed without complaint. They’d rushed over to the Key West DEA office, and now she was sitting in the lobby, doing nothing but watching the seconds on the clock tick by while Nick met with Dante Messina, the special agent in charge.
Why she wasn’t being included in that meeting made no sense to her. Lily was her sister, after all, and both of their futures were on the line. Those two facts should have ensured that she was allowed inside the DEA “hallowed offices” instead of relegated to the lobby with Tanner and Chuck babysitting her. She wasn’t sure if they were really worried about her safety or whether their job was to make sure she didn’t run away. She didn’t get the feeling these DEA agents trusted her any more than Nick did.
The clock on the wall showed that Nick had been gone for over half an hour. Heather let out a deep sigh.
Chuck looked up from the newspaper he was reading in the chair across from her. “Are you sure you don’t want anything, Miss Bannon? I can send Tanner out for Starbucks or Mickey D’s.”
Tanner, sitting next to Chuck, cocked a brow. “Or I can send Chuck out to get whatever you need.”
His quick glance at the door to the other room told Heather he was just as anxious as she was to find out what was going on. Heather vaguely wondered what Chuck and Tanner had done to draw the short straw and be stuck in the lobby with her.
Before she could tell them she didn’t want anything, the door opened.
Heather jumped to her feet, expecting to see Nick. Instead, Dante Messina—whom she’d met briefly when they first arrived—strode out of the room and stopped in front of her.
“Miss Bannon,” he said. “Thank you for waiting. We’re ready for you now.” He held his hand out toward the open doorway.
“Thank you.” Heather preceded him into the room and Dante followed behind.
As soon as she stepped inside, she stopped and stared in amazement.
Dante moved past her and spoke in low tones to three men standing beside one of the computer monitors on the left side of the room.
“Impressive, isn’t it?”
Heather jerked around at the sound of Nick’s voice. He was standing beside her, grinning as if everything were perfectly fine. As if none of the horrible events yesterday had ever happened. Then she noticed the tiny lines around his eyes, the tension in his stance. Nick wasn’t fine at all. He looked...worried.
“It
is
impressive,” she answered. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Neither have I. And I’ve been in a lot of DEA offices around the country. I have to admit I’ve got a bad case of technology envy right now.”
Heather could understand why. This office was unlike anything she’d ever seen, except maybe in a movie. There were no cubicle walls. The entire room was open, with three enormous semicircular tables that stretched from one side to the other, in tiers, all facing the front like stadium seating in a theater, or maybe a NASA control room. Agents sat at the various workstations, talking into headsets or typing at their state-of-the-art computers. An electronic map of the Florida Keys was currently displayed on the screen at the end of the room, with live pictures of different parts of the Keys being flashed down the left side.
Dante finished his conversation with the three men he was with and waved at Nick and Heather to join them.
“Come on,” Nick said, resting his hand on the small of Heather’s back. “That’s our cue.”
They headed down the stairs and went through a side door with Dante and the three other agents. Though smaller than the room they’d just come from, this office had the same theater-style screen on the far wall, showing the same live shots.
Dante didn’t sit behind the desk that dominated one side of the room. Instead, he and his agents sat in the well-worn group of chairs arranged in a circle in front of the desk. Heather couldn’t imagine Nick’s boss giving up his position of power by sitting with his agents like Dante. Nick led Heather to one of the chairs and sat beside her. He squeezed her hand as if to reassure her, then let go.
“These men are my section leaders,” Dante said, directing his comments to Heather.
He introduced each man and Heather shook their hands.
“I’m sorry I left you waiting so long,” Dante apologized. “But I had to gather some facts together and hear Nick’s side of what happened before I spoke to you.”
“No problem.” She glanced worriedly at Nick. He gave her a reassuring nod.
Dante rested his forearms on his knees. “I understand you and your sister were arrested for possession of cocaine, with intent to sell.”
Heather jerked back in her chair as if she’d been slapped.
“I’m not judging you,” Dante assured her. “I’m fact-finding so I can make some decisions.”
“Fine. The
facts
are that my sister had cocaine in her possession because she’s mixed up with a drug-dealing boyfriend who took advantage of her vulnerability. I tried to destroy the drugs to keep her from using them or from doing something worse, as you said, like selling them.” She directed her next statement to Nick. “I’m not a drug dealer.”
Nick’s eyes widened. His reaction told Heather he’d never considered that she was. Well, it would have been nice if he’d bothered to tell her that. She crossed her arms and faced Dante.
“The boyfriend you’re referring to is, of course, Jose Gonzalez,” Dante continued. “He’s a major trafficker of cocaine through the Keys to Miami, and on to other cities like Saint Augustine. Nick tells me that Waverly offered you a deal, that if you helped him get Gonzalez he’d drop all charges against you and your sister. I have a problem with that, because Gonzalez is on my turf. Rickloff is out of the Miami office and never consulted me. If he had, I wouldn’t have offered you a deal.”
Heather shot a desperate look at Nick, but she couldn’t read the hard expression on his face. What was going on?
“I don’t understand. I signed an agreement. I was sent here with Agent Watkins...” She swallowed hard against the tightening in her throat and flushed with guilt because Watkins had been injured, but she plowed ahead. “I did exactly what I was told. I’m cooperating in every way that I can.”
He held up his hand to stop her. “I’m not nullifying your deal. I can’t. It’s legal and binding. I’m just saying that I agree with Nick. It was a bad deal, a lousy idea, and if anyone had consulted me—which they didn’t—I would have explained to them how stupid it was.”
“I don’t understand,” Heather said.
“As far as I’m concerned, Waverly is responsible for Watkins being hurt and for you and Nick almost being killed. Not to mention, he didn’t provide backup. Rickloff isn’t an idiot. He knew what would happen. I can only conclude one thing. He wanted Gonzalez to abduct you.”
Heather’s hand flew to her throat. “That’s insane.”
“No, that’s desperation. Rickloff has been after Gonzalez for a long time, with no more success than I’ve had. He wants to get him, badly, so that blinded him to the dangers. I can’t imagine he wanted you hurt. There’s nothing to gain by that. But it’s logical to assume if Gonzalez’s men grabbed you they’d have taken you back to one of his private compounds. Rickloff wanted to follow you to that compound to capture Gonzalez.”
He stood, picked something up off his desk that appeared to be a remote control and crossed to the screen on the far wall. The pictures changed, revealing a more detailed map of the Keys, with several red Xs on it. He waved his hand to encompass the entire screen. “Gonzalez has dozens of homes throughout the Keys and south Florida. Most are protected like military compounds, with the latest security gadgets and a full staff of security guards. There are some remote houses, too, on smaller islands, basically little blips of land just a mile or so across that you won’t see on most maps. Gonzalez likes to go from compound to compound like a game of musical chairs, because he knows we’re watching. The problem is, he has several look-alikes, much like Saddam Hussein had in Iraq. We’re never quite sure where the real Jose Gonzalez is at any particular time. It’s an old-school trick, but effective.”
He tossed the remote back on his desk and sat down again. “We really don’t know which house Gonzalez thinks of as his real home, which brings me to my point. We have no way of figuring out where your sister is without searching every compound, every little island he owns. No judge is going to give us a warrant to do that, and Rickloff knows that. I believe he was hoping to get Gonzalez to kidnap you so he could follow you to where Lily was being held. Armed with that information, he could get a search warrant. I’m sure he thought it would be a simple in-and-out procedure, no one gets hurt. But, as usual, he underestimated Gonzalez.”
Heather stared at the map. All those Xs made her slightly nauseous. Finding Lily was starting to look like an impossible task. “But if what you’re saying is true, about all those compounds, how would Rickloff have known where to go if Gonzalez kidnapped me?”
Dante twisted sideways in his chair to pick up something from his desk. He held it out in his palm—the parrot transmitter Mark was wearing on his shirt in the bar.
“This isn’t just a microphone,” Dante said. “It’s also a homing beacon. I believe Rickloff planned to use that to find you after you were taken. Since Mark was still wearing the pin when he was taken into the E.R., the nurse who cut off his clothes put this in the bag that contained his belongings. That bag was put in his room. None of my agents noticed the pin or realized what it was until there was an attempt on Mark’s life this morning at the hospital. Even though we had him sequestered in a remote room under a fake name, one of Gonzalez’s men found him and tried to kill him.”