Secrets of the Dead (34 page)

“Is she going to be all right?” Eve knew the boy was looking past his stepfather to where Jaid was hooked up to a serious amount of machines.

“She really is. The doctors upgraded her condition this morning. The medicine makes her sleep a lot, though. Don’t worry. As soon as she wakes up and hears the news, she’ll make me call you back.”

“Promise?” The boy had been a trooper, but Eve wondered if he was about to crash. He’d been through more—far more—than any kid should ever experience.

“Are you kidding? If I don’t she’s liable to crawl out of that bed, order her own plane and fly to get you herself.”

That drew a smile from the boy. “Bet she would, too.” He was silent for a moment. “Eve and me talked in Spanish. She said to be ready to run when she said run. And I did. As fast as I could. But there were too many people. They caught me again.”

Adam’s throat worked. It took a moment for him to reply. “You used your head. That’s what counts. Go ahead and eat.” Room service had been delivered next door minutes ago. “You’re going to need your strength for the trip back to the States.”

Royce beamed. Heaved a sigh. “First place I’m going is to the hospital to see Mom. Then I’m ready to go home. Our place, not the one in Virginia Beach.”

“I’m pretty sure that can be arranged.”

“Okay, Royce, Kell and I have got the weirdest meal ever laid out on the desk in the next room.” Finn popped his head in the door. “You have no idea how hard it was to get pancakes, a hamburger and french fries, a chocolate malt and popcorn.”

“Have them come get me if Mom wakes up, Adam.”

“Think she won’t make me?”

The silence in the room lasted until the door closed behind Royce. Then the man heaved a sigh and muttered, “That situation was much too close.”

“There were some dicey moments.” Eve allowed. She slid a glance to Declan. “I was pretty happy to see this guy in the elevator. From the looks of Malsovic, the rounds he went with Declan did real damage.” She’d had no sympathy for the monster. Though the bruises on Declan’s face and knuckles still had her stomach clutching with worry for him.

“Good. Stillions sent me updates throughout the hours of debriefing after the raid, and I got the texts from all of you. Paulie has kept me apprised. But there are still details missing. Start from the time you met Pascal and fill me in.”

They took turns doing so, not glossing over any of it, because he’d have their heads if they did. When they finished, Declan said, “You probably already know that Stillions and the State Department people are pretty pissed that we went to the hotel without their okay. They were trying to cut us out of that end of things, I guess by leaving us completely out of the loop. We had no idea of they’d gotten the photos to convince the Malaysian authorities to mount the raid. And we couldn’t wait any longer. So we went with our own plan.”

“If you’d waited for them, Eve would have been gone. And if they hadn’t showed up, you wouldn’t have been there to rescue Royce. Stillions isn’t getting any sympathy from me. Although he wasn’t a fan of your tactics. What you call leverage he insists on referring to as kidnapping.”

“Declan smoothed that over with Huan, the mother,” Eve put in quickly.

He shrugged. “I pointed out that she was in a unique position to mitigate any charges leveled against her for participating in the auctions by turning evidence against Trettin. First one who flips usually gets the best deal, and there’s a pretty substantial international reward out on the guy.”

“In the interest of expediency, Stillions prevailed on the police to allow me to interpret at Malsovic’s interview.” A quick shudder worked through Eve at the memory of the hatred in the man’s eyes. “Malsovic spoke freely, because he was blaming everything on Zupan. When he wasn’t blaming the man, he was throwing Shuang under the bus. I…ah… asked more questions than what the police told me too.

“According to his answers to the questions I put to him, Lexie Walker was a runaway who had come looking for work and was eventually caught in bin Osman’s web. She was a favorite of his. He kept her for himself at the Kaula—what’s now the Latifma--while renting out the other women. This made the other women bitter, but none as much as Shuang, who, according to Malsovic, wasn’t one of the enslaved women, but bin Osman’s right hand in the operation. Then Lexie got pregnant. We saw the paternity report and birth certificate. She was terrified bin Osman would take the baby.”

“He probably would have,” Declan murmured. “The local police seem to think bin Osman would have gladly paid Malsovic for the boy. But no one can get through the layers around the man. And we learned that Pascal, the man Eve met with, is known to have a close working relationship with bin Osman’s two oldest daughters, who are suspected of being part of their father’s criminal network.”

Raiker seemed to digest that for a moment. “When Royce is old enough he’s going to have to be told the whole story. How did Jaid’s father end up with the baby? He was only weeks old when Royce Benning took him to Jaid.”

“Malsovic claims he found texts between the two of them on Benning’s phone. Jaid’s father and Lexie had hatched a plan to get her and the child out of the hotel. Malsovic claims he doesn’t know how it went down, but he got called to the scene afterwards. The baby was gone and Walker was dead. Stabbed several times in the chest. He said Shuang admitted killing the woman in a fit of jealousy, but she swore the child had been there when she’d left the room. So bin Osman ordered Malsovic to find his son and the killer.”

“And he kept Shuang’s secret. Blaming Lexie’s killing on whoever had stolen the child,” Adam guessed.

“Yes. Benning stopped coming to work, so suspicion eventually fell on him. Malsovic said the truth came out about Shuang killing Walker after bin Osman fled back to Malaysia. That’s why the man hated her. On Malsovic’s phone he had pictures of a lot of the evidence he used to prove Royce’s parentage. He had more documents in a bag he had at the auction. There were copies of the text messages between Benning and Walker. And six copies of framed photos of the same girl/woman he found in Benning’s apartment.”

“You mean Jaid.” Raiker’s voice was as soft as she’d ever heard it. “You know he abandoned her when she was eleven.”

Eve could only imagine what that had done to the woman. And how much forgiveness it must have taken to heed her father’s wishes and adopt Royce as her own. “Maybe he was trying to keep his family safe. He surely knew how dangerous bin Osman was, and he was in debt to the man. Malsovic had a more recent photo of Jaid from a tabloid when the two of you got married, and then he had a name to go with a face.”

“Bolton.” Bitterness laced the word. “A so-called journalist who was trying to write a tell-all book on me. Ended up losing his job at the paper and now sells sensational pieces to whoever will pay him.”

“Who…are…you…talking to?”

Raiker turned away from the screen to look at his wife. Her eyes were open. “The question is, who are you going to be talking to. Your son has been waiting to speak to you.”

“Royce! You…found him!”

The man nodded at the computer. “Well, my people did. He’s good, Jaid.” His tone gentled. “He’s okay. Worried about you.”

“Just a minute. You can talk to him yourself.” Eve and Declan rose. She carried the computer to the door, which he opened. Finn answered the knock next door, a broad smile on his face. “Looks like someone’s awake.”

Royce abruptly forgot food he was shoveling into his mouth. From the looks of things he’d made serious inroads into the meal. His mouth full, he yelled, “Mom!”

Eve set the computer down next to him. The picture on the screen jiggled as Adam moved his laptop to a table that swung out over his wife’s bed. And the tears running down Jaid Raiker’s face had Eve swallowing hard and turning away. “Maybe we can give them some privacy,” she murmured to the men in the room.

“Of course.” Finn surged to his feet, followed her and Declan to the door. “C’mon, Kell.”

“Yeah, sure.” The other man strolled after them. “We can go next door.”

The four of them had no sooner gotten in the other room than Declan surveyed them grimly. “Lexie Walker’s family could never have a claim on Royce, even if they knew of his existence. But bin Osman is a loose end.”

Eve crossed to one of the beds, sat on the corner. “Too many people here know about Malsovic’s claims of Royce’s parentage. Although neither Pascal nor Megat seemed eager to share the information with bin Osman.”

“Have to wonder if their relationship with bin Osman’s daughters means they don’t want a male heir showing up,” Kell suggested. He leaned a shoulder against the wall beside the door.

“We can’t count on that.” Declan’s expression was sober. “It’s too much risk for Royce.”

“If you’ve got a plan,” Finn put in, “now is the time to share it.”

“Declan got access to Pascal’s computer through some Trojan horse thing,” Eve said, never taking her eyes off the man. He had something up his sleeve, she could tell, and it had to have something to do with Pascal’s files and communications they’d gone through.

“Our best bet is to thoroughly discredit the men who were contacted by Malsovic and Shuang regarding Royce.” Declan moved to the laptop on the desk. Sat down in front of it. “If we destroy their credibility with bin Osman, he’ll never believe anything they say.”

“So you’re going to send the man damning communication from Pascal’s computer?”

Declan through Finn a wicked grin. “He’s going to get a passel of email copies, showing just how closely aligned Megat and Pascal are with the bin Osman daughters. And maybe a couple of emails I add that disparage bin Osman’s leadership ability. That should be enough to have the man cutting ties with both of them. And the beauty of it is that all of the communication will appear to be coming from Ahmed Pascal’s computer.”

“What are you waiting for?” Kell drawled.

He was fast. Eve had known that, from the other occasions when Declan had worked his magic on the computer. She helped when it came time to composing the phony messages in Malay, but the task was finished in less than an hour. When he finally leaned back in his chair, Kell pushed away from the wall.

“The heroics of the day have me famished. Let’s get something to eat.”

“Maybe you could go downstairs, get something from the dining room.” Declan suggested.

“Why?” Kell frowned. “They’ve got room service. We’ll just order something.”

“I wouldn’t mind a drink with my meal.” Carstens crossed the room, opened the door and steered the other man through it. “Sure you two don’t want anything?”

Eve should have been embarrassed by the speed with which Declan was getting rid of the other two. Would have been, if she didn’t have an overwhelming desire to be alone with him. Finally. “Bring me something back,” she called over her shoulder. Then Declan had the door shut behind them. Strode to where she was sitting and tugged her to her feet, into his arms.

His kiss was explosive, a flood of desperation too long pent up without release. Eve recognized the response. Returned it. Her fingers raked through his hair as her mouth twisted against his, pouring everything too long suppressed into the contact. It had steadied her during the long hours of the debriefing, when she’d needed to keep a tight rein on her emotions. But the desire to feel Declan against her again had simmered inside her, gathering heat and strength until she’d felt as though she’d combust from it.

Her fingers danced up his shirt, releasing buttons until she could slip a hand inside and rest it against his warm skin. Nipping at his bottom lip, she took a long shuddering breath and could feel something inside her calm at the strong steady thud of his heart beneath her palm. His hand skated under the back of her tee and her bones went to water.

A haunting thought had the breath shuddering out of her, and she tore her mouth from his. A little light-headed. More than a bit weak. The possibilities she’d refused to let herself linger on when Malsovic had her remained at the hem of her mind like determined ghosts. But somehow being in Declan’s arms took a step toward banishing them. She could have lost him. So easily. They could have lost each other.

His hand stroked up and down her spine in long velvet glides that had the remaining strength streaming out of her. “You gave me some bad moments for a while there, Evie.”

“There were one or two,” she admitted. Because they were there, she slipped the rest of the buttons on his shirt out of the buttonholes so she could rest her cheek against his chest. Flesh to flesh. The contact was soothing. “I was a big fan of the hat,” she said suddenly, as she brushed her fingers along his ribs. “Reminded me of Indiana Jones.”

“First Dirty Harry and now Indiana Jones.” She could hear the smile in his voice. “I think you have a thing for iconic action heroes.”

“I appear to have a thing for heroes. Or one in particular.” Slipping her arms around his waist, she leaned a bit away so she could look up at him. “And I have been remiss for not thanking you for the rescue you mounted. I’m bloodthirsty enough to have relished seeing my buyer writhing on the floor of the elevator in pain. And glad you were able to have a few minutes with Malsovic before the authorities swooped in.”

“You and me both.” There was a thread of dark regret in his voice that he hadn’t been able to prevent her being taken in the first place. “That intention actually got me through some rough patches…thinking of what I’d do to him when I had the chance. Guess we’ll have to be satisfied thinking about him spending the rest of his miserable life rotting in a Malaysian cell as the various countries fight for the right to try him.”

She tipped her head to look at him. The whiskers on his jaw gave him a slightly dangerous look. Certainly he’d been dangerous to her equilibrium ever since she’d known him.

“We’ll be home in a day or two.” His gray gaze was focused on hers, the look in them intent. “This part will be over. But you and me…we’re not. I’ve never been in love.” His hand rose to cup her cheek. “At least not the death do us part kind. But that’s how it is for me, Evie. The whole time you were missing…it was like someone carved a hollow through my chest. I don’t want to think about how close I came to losing you through circumstances I couldn’t control. I’m not about to risk it now. I love you.” There was something in his eyes that might have been surprise. “Wasn’t looking for it. But you sort of sneak up on a person. And damned if I’m going to let go of this—or you—once we get back in the States.”