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Someone lurched back from a blow to the face and punched the other man’s stomach. The second man staggered back. At once the man straightened, his silhouette clear against the twilight at the kitchen window. He raised his right hand. Something was in it. A pistol. Ramirez. Sie
The bullet shattered a window. Chase struggled with Ramirez’s gun arm, trying to wrench the weapon away as the pistol went off again, its muzzle flash almost blinding in the gloom. Her ears in greater pain, Sie
Sie
“Chase, where are you?”
“Here!”
She slammed the club against Ramirez’s head so hard that the weapon split in half.
She picked up another table leg and struck him again, feeling something on his skull go soft, but he showed no reaction, remained motionless, seemed not to have felt it.
18
For long seconds, no one moved. The only sound was Malone’s labored breathing. He couldn’t stop his heart from racing.
“Is he dead?” Sie
“Yes.”
Hot bile rose in her throat.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I think…” She wiped blood from her mouth. “I’m all right.” Outside, thunder rumbled in the distance, a storm coming up the gulf.
Malone braced himself against the counter. “Why didn’t we hear his Jeep?”
“It isn’t outside. He must have parked on the beach and snuck up.”
The thunder rumbled louder.
They held each other.
“He called me Mrs. Bellasar.”
“Jesus.”
“He said he’d done a computer search.” Her shoulders heaved. “He knew that the CIA is looking for us.”
“If he put Dale Perry’s name into the computer, you can bet it set off alarms in the Agency. By now, whoever told your husband we were at that Virginia safe house has passed along the news. Your husband will be coming.” When thunder again rumbled, Malone stared toward the window. “We don’t have much time.”
“But what about…” Sickened, she peered down at the body. “We can’t just leave him. The Mexican police will co
Malone strained to order his thoughts. “We’ll tie something heavy to the body and dump it in the gulf. His Jeep. We’ve got to find it. I’ll drive it to Santa Clara while you follow in the Explorer.” His mind raced. “We’ll make it seem like he parked on the edge of town. The storm and the tide will wipe out the tire tracks. If we’re careful not to leave fingerprints, the police won’t be able to prove we had anything to do with this.”
“But the shots…”
“We’re too far from town for anybody to have heard. Yes, Fernando must have, but he’s too afraid of the authorities to tell what he knows.” Ignoring how quickly Ramirez’s body was turning cold, Malone searched the pockets. He found car keys, but they weren’t enough. He needed Dale Perry’s driver’s license. Where was it? He had to find it. “There. Thank God.” He pulled the license from the corpse’s trouser pocket. “Hurry. Help me carry him to the boat before that storm comes any closer.”
He grabbed the corpse’s hands, started to lift, then realized that Sie
Spurred by a new burst of thunder, she grabbed the corpse’s boots, shuddered, and lifted.
They lugged the body across the trailer. Malone was in the lead, backing toward the screen door. He nudged the door open with his hip. Then he got a better grip on the corpse and backed out, startled by a flash of lightning that revealed a look of terror on Sie
But not because of Ramirez. Something was behind him.
He turned.
A blaze of lightning revealed Bellasar, Potter, and three bodyguards.
“You should have known I’d find you,” Bellasar said.
Sie
“Taking out the garbage?” Bellasar asked.
Malone released the body and tried to straighten.
Not fast enough.
Potter slammed the barrel of a pistol across his forehead. “Let’s deal with this garbage first.”
19
Blood streaming down his face, Malone felt himself being lifted, two men carrying him into the darkness of the trailer. As if from a distance, he heard Bellasar demand something.
Sie
More indistinct voices. Something flickered. At first, Malone thought it was the lightning outside, his impaired vision barely registering it. But a second flicker and a third spread across the trailer, the darkness dissipating until he realized that what he was seeing were candles that Bellasar had made Sie
“More portraits.” Bellasar’s features were twisted. He rammed a fist through an image of Sie
Malone was in too much pain to speak.
Thunder shook the trailer.
“Pick him up.”
Hands yanked Malone to his feet.
“Hold him steady.”
With pain-blurred vision, Malone saw Bellasar put on leather gloves.
“No!” Sie
The blow to Malone’s stomach would have doubled him over if Bellasar’s men hadn’t been holding him so rigidly. The next blow was aimed toward his nose, the one after that to his stomach again. His mouth. His -
The last thing he heard, passing out, was Sie
20
“You’re killing him!”
“That’s the point.” Derek drew back his fist again. Sie
“You’ll beg me a lot more when your turn comes.”
“I don’t care what you do to me! Let him live! If you ever had any feelings for me -”
When Derek shoved her across the room, she banged against a small table, knocking a candle onto the floor.
Wind shook the trailer.
“That storm’s too close,” Potter said.
On the floor, the candle continued to burn.
Chase’s swollen face was covered with blood as Derek punched him again.
A few drops of rain pelted the metal roof.
“Get the car where we left it when we followed the Jeep,” Potter ordered a guard.
The candle’s flame spread to the carpet.
“Hurry,” Potter told the guard, “before the storm hits and you can’t find the car. I don’t want to be stuck here.”
The guard ran outside.
“Put out that fire,” Potter told another guard.
“No,” Derek said. “Let it burn. Let everything burn.”
As smoke rose from the burning carpet, Derek hit Chase one more time, frowned at his blood-covered glove, and gestured for the men to let him go.
Chase collapsed on the kitchen floor.
When Sie
Lightning cracked. More drops of rain pelted the trailer.
“Sounds like it’s going to be bad,” a guard said.
The flames spread across the carpet, reaching the portraits.