Hidden Away (37 page)

“Allen Cross’s brother?”

“Yeah, Allen Cross is the son of a bitch who raped Sarah, but his brother was there. He watched. He participated. His story about hiring a recovery firm to bring Sarah in because she can help bring his brother’s killer to justice is bullshit. He wants her out of the picture so she can’t hurt him.”

“Damn,” Donovan muttered. “What a fucking asshole. I vote that when this crap is over with Lattimer that you and I go on a little hunting trip.”

Garrett grinned. One thing he loved about Donovan was that he had a very personal sense of justice when it came to certain crimes.

“What are you going to do about Sarah, Garrett? It’s obvious she means a lot to you.”

“Let me worry about Sarah,” he said gruffly.

“I’ll send the email. You need to alert Rio and be on guard. It’s possible Lattimer won’t even show. He might send his men in after her.”

Garrett shook his head. “He’ll come. Sarah is personal to him. He killed Allen Cross because he hurt Sarah. Personally. He didn’t send someone else to do it though he could easily have done so. He risked a damn lot showing his face on U.S. soil again. Coming to Belize will be nothing to him.”

“Be ready, Garrett. Lattimer’s no amateur. He’s a ruthless bastard with a very gray sense of justice.”

Garrett thought back to when he faced Lattimer down all those years ago and felt the ripping sensation of the bullet Lattimer fired tearing into his leg. “You aren’t telling me anything I don’t already know. I’ve waited a damn long time for this, Donovan. I won’t fuck it up. And tell Resnick he better damn well be careful. If he barges in here like a fucking idiot, Rio and his men are going to take exception. This is our show and Resnick better play by our rules.”

“I’ll let him know. I’m sure he’ll be in touch.”

Garrett hung up the phone and then called Rio to relay the news.

 

 

SARAH
hummed contentedly as she set out the plates for breakfast. She dished up the eggs and bacon and then went to the oven to pull out the pan of biscuits that had turned golden brown. It was easy to forget that they were in some way out-of-the-way place in Central America, or that she and Garrett had endured a harrowing captivity just two days earlier.

Peace that she hadn’t experienced in a long time settled over her like a warm and comforting blanket. She felt energized. She felt alive. And she felt hope for her future.

It was all silly. This giddy, feeling that gripped her. But it was fun and light and she wanted to laugh for the sheer joy of laughing. She smiled as she put the tray of biscuits on the counter and then she looked up and found Garrett across the room watching her with those intense blue eyes.

“Why are you smiling?” he asked as he ambled over.

A delicious thrill ran over her body all over again as she recalled the previous night. “I’m happy.”

There was a brief glimmer of tension that rippled across his face before he walked over to where she stood and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his back. He kissed the side of her neck. “I’m glad you’re happy.”

She rotated in his arms and leaned up on tiptoe to kiss him. “Thank you for last night. For listening. For just letting me get it out without judging or reacting.”

He squeezed her and kissed her long and lingering, his lips melting over hers. “He won’t touch you, Sarah. Ever again.”

“Have you let Marcus know what’s going on? I don’t want him to worry.”

“He knows.”

She stared up at him for a long moment as reality edged its way into her euphoria. Strange how it always worked that way. Thinking of Marcus had brought home the fact that her entire life had been upended. She was starting over with only Marcus to rely on for help.

She pulled away and placed the biscuits on a platter and then went to set them on the table. Garrett followed her and when she went to sit down, he put his hand over her wrist, holding her in place.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

She sighed and eased down into her chair. She picked up her fork and speared a piece of egg and then pushed it around her plate. “My life is a mess,” she said honestly. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’ve been in survival mode for so long, just taking it day by day, never thinking beyond the immediate. Marcus would like nothing more than to take care of me, for him to put me up somewhere where I never had to worry about money or work, but what kind of life is that? Existing, but not living. I can’t return to Boston. I wouldn’t, even if Stanley Cross got hit by a bus tomorrow.”

“It’s a pleasant enough thought,” Garrett cut in.

She smiled. “Yes, I admit it is. But I wouldn’t want him to die immediately. I’d want him to linger for several days and be in agonizing pain.”

“I love it when you get all ruthless.”

“You know what I love about you?” she said in an instant change of topic.

He blinked in surprise. “My amazing body? My ability to give you awesome orgasms?”

She laughed. “Aside from that.”

“Do tell.”

“It’s really hard to throw a pity party because you know just what to say to make me laugh and smile.”

His eyes grew serious. “I’m not making light of your situation, honey. If anyone has a reason to bitch, it’s you.”

She shook her head. “No, I mean it. Somehow it never seems quite so bad when I talk to you. I was sitting here thinking about what the hell I’m going to do after this is all over with. But then I think if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have those concerns because I’d probably be dead. And life ... it’s precious, you know? Even when it’s bad, it’s still good.”

“Just when I think I’ve got you figured out, you do or say something that just makes me realize that I haven’t even scratched the surface of the woman you are.”

Her cheeks warmed under the blatant admiration in his voice.

“You’re pretty damn special yourself, Garrett.”

His lips tightened and he looked down at his food, forking up a bite of eggs and shoveling them into his mouth.

“Tell me about you and Marcus. You were raised in foster homes and yet he’s your half brother. He seems pretty concerned about you now. Why weren’t you raised together?”

The question caught her off guard and for a moment she sat there, fork frozen midway to her mouth. She lowered it to her plate and was silent a moment.

“Marcus and I shared a father. I never knew him, but from what I’ve heard he was a real bastard. Marcus hated him because he was unfaithful to Marcus’s mom when he knocked my mom up. I would have thought that would give him reason enough to hate me. My mom wasn’t self-sufficient. She was the type of woman who floated from man to man, looking for someone to take care of her because she had no desire to be responsible or hold a job. When she got pregnant with me, I think she thought I was her meal ticket. The problem was, my father wanted nothing to do with either of us. He sent her away without a dime and told her he’d kill her if she ever tried to make trouble for him. Granted, this was my mother’s side and I was very young when she told me these stories, but Marcus did confirm that my mother did go to my father’s house when she found out she was pregnant with me and that our father threw her out.”

“Sounds like a real piece of work,” Garrett muttered.

“She died when I was eight and I went into the foster care system. You already know all that. Marcus has always felt guilty because he knew he had a half brother or sister, and he also knew our father would never accept me. After our father died, he started searching for me. When he found me, he wanted to give me things. A home. Money. Cars. I don’t know if he was trying to assuage his guilt or if just wanted the best for me. I was uncomfortable with it. I had a good job. I’d never get rich at it, but I was happy. And honestly just knowing he cared and that he’d been looking for me was enough. Suddenly I had someone when I hadn’t since I was eight. Plus ...”

“Plus what?” Garrett said as she drifted off.

She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t say this to insult you because I know you work for my brother, but I know he’s not perfect. I suspect ... I suspect he’s done a lot of things. Bad things. Our father wasn’t a good man. Part of me doesn’t want to know, because I love him and he’s my only family. I feel guilty because I stick my head in the sand, but if I knew—if I really knew—that he’d done terrible things, it would crush me.”

Garrett blew out his breath. Goddamn but this sucked. He didn’t even want to respond anything because anything he said at this point would be a lie.

“I don’t think badly of you,” she said in a rush. “I mean, I know this is a job. You just work for him.”

“You aren’t just a job, Sarah. If you believe that, you’re one hundred percent wrong. I don’t give a damn about the job. What I care about is you and making damn sure Cross doesn’t get close to you.”

Pink dusted her cheeks and her eyes went soft. “Garrett, there’s something else I wanted to tell you. Something I wanted to tell you when we were in that prison and I was so afraid. I didn’t think that was the right time, and maybe it isn’t now. I just—”

Garrett looked up in annoyance when Rio and Terrence let themselves in the back door. Sarah stood abruptly, her cheeks flushed and her fingers curled into nervous fists. What the hell had she been about to tell him?

“Do you guys want breakfast?” Sarah asked. “There’s plenty, and I could put on some more eggs and bacon if the others would like to eat.”

Rio glanced between Garrett’s scowl and Sarah with a raised eyebrow. “Are we interrupting anything?”

“Yes.”

“No,” Sarah said. “Really. We were just eating and talking about nothing. Why don’t you join us?”

Without giving Rio or Terrence a chance to answer, she hurried around to the fridge and took out more eggs and the rest of the bacon. She juggled another can of biscuits and plopped it all onto the counter.

“Your timing sucks,” Garrett muttered as Rio and Terrence took their seats.

Rio glanced over at Sarah, who was busy beating the eggs in a bowl. “Van called. Resnick’s sending one of his teams in. I don’t like it, but we could probably use the backup. Lattimer has resources. I don’t think it would be a bad idea to call up Steele for this. The last thing we want to do is underestimate Lattimer when all this goes down.”

“Do what you feel is best,” Garrett murmured. “My priority is Sarah. Your job is to make damn sure we’re both safe. If you need to call Steele in, then do it.”

Rio gave a short nod as Sarah walked over to put two plates in front of him and Terrence.

“What about the rest?” Sarah asked. “Aren’t they hungry?”

“They can’t leave their posts,” Rio explained. “Terrence and I won’t be long. We just wanted to check in on you two and make sure everything was all right.”

“Oh, we’re fine,” Sarah said breathlessly and gave Garrett a shy look that made him smile.

She sat back down, fiddled with her now-cold food some more and then looked up first at Garrett and then the others, and she frowned. “Do you really think they’ll find me here?”

Rio shot Garrett a look that clearly told him he wasn’t sure who the “they” were that she was referring to and furthermore, he wasn’t going to venture onto shaky ground.

“Cross. Or the people he hired, I mean,” she amended when no one immediately answered her.

Garrett reached over and squeezed her hand. “It’s not impossible. But probable? It would take time to pick up our trail from Mexico and a lot of resources to track us here. I’m not saying it couldn’t be done. We didn’t have the cleanest exit in the world, and my brothers hauling ass to Corozal didn’t help I’m sure. But regardless of whether they know where you are, what you need to realize is that we’re not going to let those bastards take you.”

Garrett glanced over at Rio. No, it wasn’t Cross and company who concerned them. But make no mistake, once Lattimer was taken care of, Cross was definitely next on their list.

THE
slight bulge in Marcus Lattimer’s jaw was the only indication of his mounting fury. He stared coolly at the email from Sarah he’d just opened and leaned back in his chair, eyes narrowed in concentration.

It shouldn’t surprise him that someone had gotten to Sarah. She hadn’t done the best job in disappearing. He’d tried to persuade her to come to him, but he’d understood her reasons why. Sarah had become a target from the moment Marcus had killed her rapist. It was one of the few times he’d lost control in his life. It was one of the few mistakes he’d made.

Not that he regretted killing Allen Cross even for a moment. But he’d handled it all wrong. He’d allowed his rage to rule his actions. Stupid. What he should have done was get Sarah away from Boston and settled. Somewhere she’d be happy and taken care of. Then he could have dealt with Cross. Sarah would be none the wiser and he could have returned to her. They could have been a family.

Damn Culpepper. Another of Marcus’s recent mistakes. He was growing careless. Culpepper must have gotten information to the U.S. government before Marcus dispensed of him a few days earlier. He’d lasted longer than Marcus had thought he would. But no one could last forever under such horrific conditions.

Now Marcus wanted to kill him all over again for selling out Marcus’s only family. Sarah, who’d never hurt anyone. Who’d already been dealt enough misfortune in her life. He’d been so determined to make it up to her, and in the end he’d only caused her more pain.

It was all too pat. Too easy. Marcus doubted that Sarah even composed the email staring him in the face. She was too careful. She’d never blab such explicit details through an email. The question was whether Sarah was even in Belize as the email stated. It was a trap. No doubt there. But were they using her for actual bait or were they just trying to get Marcus to walk blindly into capture?

They weren’t the first to underestimate him. They wouldn’t be the last.