Easy Target (5 page)

Chapter Five

December 25

Late afternoon

B
RYAN HAD GOOD
memories that involved Christmas. But this had been a bizarre holiday, filled with waiting, impatience, and awkwardness. Being shut up in a hotel room for most of the day with a half-­dressed Sassy had been surreal.

Despite the manager’s assurances of last night, the hotel shop had been closed all morning, along with every other shop immediately around the hotel. Bryan didn’t want to go back to the Casbah, so he’d decided to wait a few hours before trying again. He and Sassy had passed the time catching up on what their lives had been like since Springwater, even playing Texas Hold’em for a while until she suggested they switch to strip poker. God, the woman really would say anything about sex. This very grown-­up Sassy was not at all like the girl he’d known back home.

After a late room ser­vice lunch, he left the hotel a second time in search of clothes for her. A few blocks away, he hit what felt like a Vegas jackpot when he found a combination boutique and grocery store that was open. The clothing might not be Sassy’s style, but he managed to pick out what he assumed were the right sizes.

It was half past six when he got back to the room. Vibrating with tension, Sassy met him at the door. “I checked my voice mails while you were out. Trey’s attorney called. They’re moving up the timetable for the trial. It all takes place right after New Year’s on January third. That’s just over a week from now.”

This was very bad news. Unlike the U.S. courts, in Mexico defendants were considered guilty till proven innocent. And the judges were extremely engaged in the investigation of the crimes involved.

Sassy paced the room with nervous energy. “Trey’s judge is expected to rule on the case immediately after the trial. We’re running out of time.”

Bryan took a deep breath. He’d thought they would have at least another ­couple of months before the judge’s ruling. This added a whole new layer of urgency to finding answers for Trey. Bryan needed to be home, or at least on the North American continent, to help his friend.

While he seriously doubted Elizabeth was alive, he knew voicing that thought here would be a mistake. Besides doing nothing to help Trey’s precarious situation, it would only ratchet up Sassy’s anxiety. He wasn’t sure how to help her right now. He wanted to hold her, but after the fiasco of last night, touching her seemed a recipe for disaster. Instead, he handed her the bag of clothes he’d just bought.

She looked at the simple offering inside the plastic sack and gave him a wry grin. Beyond that she said nothing, which surprised him. He expected some sarcastic comment about his selections, but she slipped into the bathroom to change without a word.

He was staring at the door and puzzling over her reaction when his cell phone rang. It was Marissa. The meeting was set to take place in a hotel across town where Sassy’s passport and cash would be delivered for their trip home. Risa had also arranged for a flight out of Mohamed Boudiaf International there in Constantine. How she had done it on Christmas Day, Bryan had no idea. But he didn’t ask. All he knew was that they were checking out tonight.

Thank you, Baby Jesus.

He explained the plan to Sassy though the bathroom door and began pulling his own belongings together and packing to leave. He shook his head, still surprised they’d made it through the past twenty-­four hours without fighting or sleeping together. Aside from feeling grumpy, grouchy, and horny, he was beyond grateful that temptation and Sassy would soon be out of his hair.

When she reemerged moments later, she put her other, impossibly dirty clothes alongside his in a plastic bag. Nestling her belongings into the duffel bag beside his Dopp kit, she packed with him as if they’d been together for years. For some reason the idea of packing a bag together felt as intimate as kissing her, and he had no idea why. He stared at the white plastic bag a moment before zipping the duffel, then straightened and caught her staring at him.

“We’re just like an old married ­couple, aren’t we?” she muttered, echoing his thoughts so completely that he wondered if he’d spoken aloud a moment.

“As if,” he snorted. “Let’s get out of here, Harriet.”

She winked and grinned for a moment. He had the urge to lean in and kiss the dimple at the edge of her smile, or better yet, push her to the mattress and finish what they’d started yesterday. But he managed to get a grip on himself. That was not in the cards, and he was moments away from making it out of this hotel room with most of his sanity intact where Sassy was concerned.

“Let’s go. We have just enough time to get across town and meet Marissa’s contact.”

“But I don’t want to go back home. I think we can find Elizabeth here.”

He stopped with his hand on the doorknob.

“Are you crazy? After all you’ve been through in the past four days? Where would you start looking? You don’t even know for certain that Elizabeth was ever in Africa.”

“But Juan said she was put on a boat in Venezuela. Wouldn’t that—­”

“Juan Santos, your contact?”

She gasped. “How did you know that?”

“I don’t think you should depend on what old Juan told you. He has, or I should say, he
had
a somewhat dubious reputation.”

“Had?”

“Juan’s dead. He tried to kill Nick Donovan yesterday morning on the Sidi M’Cid Bridge.”

Sassy put a hand over her mouth.

“Nick told me before I came to get you. It seems Juan was notorious for lying when the truth would do. That caught up to him yesterday.”

“But why would he have lied to me?”

“I don’t know, Sassy. I think the more important question is, why would he have told you the truth? According to what Nick learned yesterday, Juan lied about pretty much everything, even when he didn’t have to.”

She stared at the floor a moment longer before shaking her head. “I came here to Africa looking for Elizabeth because of what Juan told me. I can’t believe—­” She stopped herself. “I don’t want to believe it was all a lie.” She moved to the door but didn’t make eye contact. “God, we’re running out of time,” she repeated. “Trey’s running out of time.”

He nodded. What had she traded to get the trafficking routes for the women he had seen on the side of the road in Constantine? He thought of the kiss they’d shared last night and wasn’t sure he wanted to know. He also didn’t want them to walk out of this room at odds with each other.

He couldn’t argue with Sassy and keep her safe at the same time. He had no idea if Rivera’s men were still looking for her or not. With Ernesto Vega dead, things were most likely in utter chaos, but he wouldn’t take chances with her safety.

Regardless of what was happening with Trey’s case, getting Sassy home to the U.S. was the wisest course of action for now. Convincing her of that would be the problem. He decided to wait until he knew how they were getting out of Africa before pushing the subject of going back home any further.

“Why are we meeting so late?” she asked on the way to the elevator.

He grabbed hold of the new subject with gusto, happy not to be bickering. “It must be because of the holiday. Marissa warned it would take a while to get everything together. I’m not sure who we’re meeting across town. She just told me where to wait, and said that they’d find us.”

He turned in their hotel room key, and they caught a cab. The streets were bustling, much more so tonight than the evening before. The cab dropped them in the driveway of the Hotel Hocine, and they walked inside to meet their contact.

Bryan did a double take when he saw Gavin and Marissa seated in the lobby drinking coffee. He grabbed Sassy’s elbow and pulled her with him to the white leather sofa.

Gavin stood. “Merry Christmas.”

“What are you two doing here?” The hair rose on the back of Bryan’s neck. There was a warrant out for this man’s arrest in the U.S., yet Gavin was in Africa instead of trying to clear that up?

What the fuck?

He shouldn’t be that surprised. Gavin had a way of turning up in the most unexpected places. The first time they’d met was in an army hospital in Afghanistan. It had been crazy unexpected and a godsend at the same time.

But with AEGIS under investigation, could Bryan really be one hundred percent sure of Gavin? Loyalty was incredibly important to him. But Bryan was experienced enough
not
to take it all on face value, even though his and Sassy’s options were so very limited right now.

Still, if Gavin was dirty, Bryan was the pope. He’d worked with Gavin too long and seen the man in too many situations to accept anything else. His gut check was not buying that Gavin could be corrupt. Bryan squeezed Sassy’s hand and hoped like hell he wasn’t being naïve.

“Don’t worry about me, Hollywood. Only in the U.S. do they want my head on a pike.”

“So far,” added Marissa with a grim smile.

Gavin raised a shoulder in a shrug and pointedly ignored the comment. “Risa figured we were the logical ones to deliver the travel documents. Nick is already on his way home, and Leland is still on crutches.” He studied Sassy with undisguised curiosity.

“Whatever the reason, I’m glad to see you,” said Bryan. But even as he reached out to shake Gavin’s hand, Nick’s words in Skikda came to mind.
We can believe whatever we want. It’s what we can prove that will matter.

Bryan was still holding Sassy’s fingers in his other hand and dropped them when he realized he was squeezing a little too hard. “This is Sassy Smith, Trey Smith’s sister.” As he introduced Gavin and Marissa, Bryan fought the urge to put his hand on Sassy’s back.

What was it about his always wanting to touch her?

One of Gavin’s eyebrows shot up. “Elizabeth Yarborough’s Trey Smith?” he asked.

Bryan nodded and forced himself to meet Gavin’s stare. While he
had
told Gavin that Trey was a friend when AEGIS had been hired to look for Elizabeth, he had never told his boss about the connection between himself and Sassy and exactly how AEGIS had come to be hired.

After Elizabeth’s disappearance and Trey’s arrest, Bryan had gone to see Sassy at her mother’s house, explained what he did with AEGIS, and offered to help. In turn, Sassy had introduced Bryan to Elizabeth’s parents and encouraged them to hire AEGIS to help find their daughter. The Yarborough family vehemently believed in Trey’s innocence, which had made for some heartrending news coverage. Even so, Bryan suspected Gavin had never told anyone else at AEGIS about his connection to Trey Smith.

That suspicion was confirmed when Marissa put her hand out to greet Sassy. “I must say that it’s a surprise to meet you. I had no idea until now that anyone in AEGIS had a
personal
connection to Elizabeth Yarborough before her parents came to us.” The look Risa shot Bryan would have melted glass if he hadn’t already been so fried by everything else happening.

S
ASSY GLANCED SIDEWAYS
at Bryan as she shook the stunning redhead’s hand. Sassy wasn’t sure what to say to the woman or to the man. Something had happened as soon as Bryan had seen these ­people seated in the hotel lobby. She’d felt it in Bryan’s hand gripping hers when he’d completely tensed up and squeezed the hell out of her fingers before the introductions.

Marissa’s voice wasn’t unfriendly, but it wasn’t exactly dripping with enthusiasm for the situation either. And Sassy could tell the woman was world-­class pissed at Bryan. She had a feeling it had to do with her being Trey’s sister.

What was going on? Could Sassy trust these two ­people or not?

“I appreciate everything your organization is trying to do for the Yarboroughs and for my brother. I don’t know what we’d do if we didn’t have Bryan on our side.” Sassy smiled like a good Southern girl and thickened her accent while patting Bryan’s shoulder as she would her brother’s.

He glanced down at her and gave a slight shake of his head. Was that a warning sign or resignation?

“What are you doing here in Africa?” Bryan asked again.

Marissa studied Sassy openly with her bright green gaze before answering, and it took every bit of Sassy’s hard-­earned poise not to squirm under the scrutiny. She was the poor country cousin next to the beautiful redhead’s elegant ensemble. Sassy’s outfit had been pulled together from what Bryan had bought in a glorified grocery store and what she’d been able to salvage from her own clothing by rinsing everything out in the sink last night. Not exactly the height of couture, even here in Africa.

Sassy’s clothes fit and didn’t smell, but that was about all she could say for her “eclectic” look. Her thick curly hair, normally forced into submission with a blow-­dryer and flat iron, was corkscrewing around her face like Medusa’s serpents. She’d broken three nails at the quick, and with no makeup, her self-­confidence had taken a direct hit.

Normally, she could have dealt with one or two of the issues with aplomb, but all of it together made her feel “less than.” Less than put together, less than having her act together. She’d worked her entire life
not
to feel
less than
. Ever since that horrific summer Bryan had left and her life had fallen apart.

“Surely you didn’t come all this way just to help us out?” Sassy stood a bit taller, giving the other ­couple a skeptic’s gaze.

She’d never responded well to feeling at a disadvantage. Bryan put a hand on her arm, giving her elbow a slight squeeze as they sat beside each other on the opposite sofa facing Marissa and Gavin.

Another warning?

Most likely. Right now, Sassy didn’t give a damn.

Marissa raised an eyebrow at the contact but didn’t respond to her veiled comment. Instead, she addressed her remarks to Bryan. “We’re trying to find out what’s happening with Ernesto Vega and Tomas Rivera. From what we understand, they’re behind these trumped-­up charges on Gavin.”

Bryan hadn’t mentioned anything to Sassy about trumped-­up charges, but that didn’t surprise her. Bryan hadn’t said much of anything about his work, today or last night after their mistimed whatever-­the-­hell-­that-­had-­been and the massive in-­room dinner they’d shared.