SiNN (25 page)

To do what, kill Jake and Toby as he had Danielle so he
could finally get to her? Lea dug her fingers into Jake’s wrist.

“You don’t have to worry,” he said. “You’ll be safe as long
as we leave.”

“I don’t care about me,” she cried, her tears finally
coming, streaming down her face. She’d lost Danielle and any hope of a future.
All that mattered now was Jake and Toby getting out of this alive. “I don’t
want you guys getting hurt because of me.”

“We won’t,” Toby said. He pulled on his shirt and briefs.
“Go on, get dressed. Please.”

Mechanically, Lea pulled on her clothes, barely listening to
Toby and Jake discussing their plans and the departure. Her mind wandered back
to Phoenix, Danielle’s apartment. Is that where the cops had found her? Had
Cubrero brutalized her as he had his other victims?

Please God no, not that. Danielle couldn’t have been in pain
or afraid when she died. Life had been so fucking unkind to her, she deserved
some measure of compassion. To have gone quickly, too surprised to react or to
realize that all of her dreams hadn’t come true…would never come true as she’d
hoped.

Lea pressed her hand over her mouth, muffling her wrenching
sob.

Jake looked over. So did Toby. They appeared as helpless as
Lea felt. She turned away, not wanting them to feel burdened by her grief.

Toby cleared his throat and spoke quietly. “I have to get my
laptop. It’s in the kitchen, I think. Did you leave anything of yours
downstairs?”

“I don’t think so,” Jake said. “Go on, get your stuff. Lea
and I will be down there in a few minutes.”

Toby stopped at her side.

She murmured, “I’m all right.”

He turned her around and folded her within his embrace. “We
should have protected her, Lea. We should have known. It’s our fault.”

“No it’s not.” She hugged him hard. “Don’t ever say that. If
it hadn’t been for me, none of this would have happened. Danielle wouldn’t be…”
Lea’s throat closed with new tears, not allowing her to continue.

Toby kissed the top of her head, squeezed her one last time
and left.

Jake crossed the room. “None of this is your fault, Lea. You
have to believe that. Decisions were made by your father when you were a child.
Nothing you could have done would have prevented this. It was always on his
head, not yours.”

He sounded so composed, yet appeared so sad. Was this how
he’d been during those years when he’d tried to win his stepfather’s love?
Reasoning things out with his mind while his heart continued to long for what
could never be? Caressing the side of his face, Lea rested her thumb on his
bottom lip. “Keep safe, please. Make certain nothing happens to you or Toby.”

Jake yanked her into his arms, holding Lea so tightly she
couldn’t breathe. She clung to him as fiercely, knowing this would be their
last chance. Once they were at their final destination, his and Toby’s
colleagues would be there, giving them no chance to express their love.

Weeping, Lea dug her fingers into his shirt. He kissed her
throat, her cheek, then sought her mouth. Just as their lips touched, his
cellphone rang.

He swore.

She asked, “Who is it? Is it bad?”

Jake put up his hand for her to be quiet and answered the
call. “Gabriel.”

Lea bit her bottom lip as he listened.

“Yes, that’s right,” he said. “Wait, give me a sec.” Holding
the phone to his chest, he whispered, “It’s all right. Nothing bad. Go on
downstairs. I’ll meet you and Toby there when I’m through with this call.”

Halfway down the stairs, Lea saw light streaming from the
kitchen. More came from the maid’s room where Toby and Jake had provided so
much joy. Given the sounds, Toby was in there gathering his stuff so they could
leave.

Swiping tears from her eyes, Lea crossed the family room,
searching for her backpack. The last she recalled, she’d left it on one of the
chairs. All of them were empty. So were the sofas. She turned slowly, taking
everything in, finally spotting the backpack on one of the heavy Spanish
credenzas against the wall.

When had she put it there? She couldn’t remember. From the
moment they’d arrived, she’d focused on satisfaction, having the best time she
could, forgetting the future, living in the present.

Even that had been taken from her.

Fighting new tears, Lea dug through her things—a comb,
lipstick, her apartment and car keys, a grocery list, her cellphone. She looked
at the device, wondering when Jake had returned it. After he’d found out about
Danielle, knowing she couldn’t call her friend ever again?

Lea’s bottom lip trembled. Gripping the edge of the
furniture, she lowered her face, not wanting to leave this place, knowing she
had no choice. She belonged nowhere now. Again. Her heritage making certain
she’d never share her life with anyone.

A tear hit her hand, rolling into the phone. She ran her
thumb over the keypad, pausing on the button used to take pictures. Of course,
why hadn’t she thought of it earlier? Before they left, she’d get a photo of
Jake and Toby. They might not want her to take it, but she’d argue them down.
The picture would be hers to treasure in the months and years to come. A small
part of them for her to remember.

Lea’s hand trembled as she checked the phone’s battery.
Shit. It was almost dead. She dug into her backpack for the charger. Surely
she’d brought it with her to The Second Circle. She couldn’t have left it at—

Her thoughts halted with a rattling sound to her left.

Lea stared at the front door, slightly ajar. Frowning, she
listened. There were no more sounds coming from the maid’s room. Had Toby gone
from there to the outside without her hearing or seeing him?

Or had Jake come downstairs and moved past quietly, not
wanting to interrupt her weeping?

Lea glanced at the stairway, then felt something tugging her
hair. Lifting her hand, she touched warm skin. Toby’s? Jake’s?

Her mouth opened on a gasp at her hair being twisted and
held tight, the press of cold metal at her throat, warm breath on her ear.

“Scream and your friends will die,” a man whispered. His
words lilted slightly with his Spanish accent.

Raw terror prickled Lea’s skin.

It’s not impossible that Cubrero knows about this place
and is headed here now
, Jake had said.

How had he gotten inside? Had he broken the lock on the
front door and simply strolled in here? Why hadn’t the alarm gone off? Hadn’t
Toby set it?

With sickening speed, Lea realized he must have forgotten
about the estate’s security once he’d joined her and Jake at the pool that
first day. After what happened out there, none of them had been thinking
clearly, and all because of her. She’d encouraged both men to behave as
hedonistically as possible, ignoring the truth, how single-minded and sadistic
Cubrero could be.

“I’ll go with you, wherever you want,” she whispered. “I
won’t make a sound. They won’t know I’m gone. Please don’t hurt them.”

“Before I’m finished with you, you’ll beg me for a lot more
than that.”

Lea’s eyes filled, but she said no more. Pleading was futile
now. Her life had come full circle and would end as horrifically as Cubrero’s
other victims. As Danielle’s had. Lea held back a sob. She hadn’t been able to
protect her friend, but she’d do everything she could to keep Jake or Toby from
coming to harm.

With his hand gripping her hair, Cubrero shoved Lea toward
the front door.

Footfalls sounded in the hall leading to the maid’s room.

Cubrero stopped and yanked her back.

No. Oh God no. Lea’s mind screamed for Toby to stay where he
was, not to come out here.

He rounded the wall and froze at what he saw, astonishment
registering on his face. His hand flew to his shoulder holster.

Cubrero fired. His gun’s silencer made a noise like the
bursting of a single kernel of popcorn. So insignificant, yet devastating.

Toby staggered back, his head dipping to his chest, the
blood blossoming on it, staining his shirt.

Gasping, Lea reached for him. Cubrero twisted her hair,
keeping her from moving closer.

Toby fell against the wall, sliding down it to the floor,
his eyes wide with horror.

From above, Jake’s footfalls sounded on the stairs.

No.
She opened her mouth to shout an alarm. Only a
croaking sound escaped.

Jake continued down the stairs until Lea could see his legs.
Inexplicably, thankfully, he stopped.

Cubrero tightened his grip on her hair.

Bending at the waist, Jake glanced in Toby’s direction, then
hers.

Again, Cubrero aimed.

“No!” Lea screamed. She rammed her body against his,
repeatedly thrusting her elbow into his ribs.

His arm jerked. He fired again and again. These shots were
wild, one striking a bronze statue, another a lamp, the next the banister.

Growling, he released her hair and grabbed her throat.

Lea clawed his hand and face, her rage liberating,
uncontrolled at him taking Danielle from her and now Toby. Bastard! He wouldn’t
get Jake. Lea would kill him first. She gouged the skin beneath his eyes.

He swore in Spanish and swung the gun to her, directing the
muzzle at her forehead.

She expected to hear the click of its trigger. A sharp bang
sounded instead.

Cubrero pushed to his toes, his eyes widened, unbelieving.
Blood gushed from the side of his neck.

His hand fell from her throat. He dropped to the floor.

Lea scuttered back and looked up.

Jake was sagging against the stairway, his gun in both
hands, the barrel still pointed at Cubrero, blood staining the leg of his
jeans.

Chapter Thirteen

“How’s the pain?”

Jake turned from the hospital’s hallway to the young doctor
who’d treated his injury, a through-and-through. The bullet hadn’t hit any
major blood vessels or bone. He couldn’t recall it even hurting. His worry had
been over Lea.

And Toby.

Don’t go there, Jake ordered himself. He didn’t want the
doctor to see his distress and misinterpret or question it. Talking wasn’t what
he needed to do. He had to forget.

His memories wouldn’t allow it.

Toby’s face swam before him, pale and damp with sweat, his
expression frozen in fear. There’d been so much blood. More than Jake could
ever recall seeing in all of his days in the service. It wasn’t as though he’d
never seen the aftermath of a killer’s carnage. He had. He’d even witnessed
another marshal’s charge being killed, the act random and sudden when an
out-of-control car had careened into her.

It was part of his job to see death. He’d expected and
accepted it, until Toby.

“Deputy Gabriel?”

He regarded the physician, a pretty woman with green eyes,
reddish hair and a surprisingly creamy complexion. No freckles. Weeks ago, Jake
would have asked her out.

Weeks before, he hadn’t known Lea.

“Is the pain manageable?” the doctor asked.

“It’s fine.”

His wounds would heal long before he recovered from what had
happened. Cubrero’s actions had changed Jake in a way he never would have
suspected. For the first time since he was a child, love mattered to him again.
Nothing else could come close.

The doctor searched his face. “I can prescribe something
stronger.”

“I don’t need it.” He wanted to feel everything, whether it
was good or bad. Never again would he anesthetize himself against life. It
meant too much to him now. “I’m all right, really.”

With a nod, she gave in. “I’m here if you need me.”

Not wanting to encourage her obvious interest in him, Jake
didn’t comment. The moment she moved away, he glanced down the hall again.

At the end of it was a waiting room with a series of beige
vinyl chairs where Lea sat…next to her mother. At fifty, the woman was still
lovely, her features remarkably similar to Lea’s, their coloring the same. As
she spoke to her daughter, she touched Lea’s hand, her arm, her cheek, as
though wanting to make certain she wasn’t imagining this. The child she’d tried
so hard to protect was actually here.

Lea allowed the woman what she willed, making no move to
curb her chatter or to hurry it along.

There was no need any longer.

For the first time in decades, Lea and her mother were truly
safe, permitted to be themselves, free of witness protection or a life filled
with lies. A little over a week had passed since Cubrero’s death, but already
his cartel was in disarray, his lieutenants battling for control.

They didn’t care that Manuel Morales’ testimony had put
Cubrero’s father in prison. That had always been his fight, not theirs. Lea and
her mother were not their concern or even on their radar.

Mother and daughter could pick up their lives and get to
know each other now. Lea could learn to love the woman who’d given up so very
much for her.

She patted her mother’s hand. Encouraged, the older woman
smiled. So did Lea.

It looked so fucking sad, Jake wanted to do something about
it, but didn’t know what. In the last few days, she’d lost a lot of weight. She
couldn’t eat. Rarely slept. Dark circles ringed her eyes.

He knew she was thinking about Danielle and Toby, blaming
herself for what happened.

Nothing Jake had said convinced Lea otherwise. He’d
reasoned, then argued, finally giving her space in the hope that she’d
eventually forgive herself.

She pushed from her chair, then bent down and kissed her
mother’s forehead. The woman looked as though she might cry. She held onto
Lea’s wrist, her mouth moving quickly with her words. Clearly, she didn’t want
her to go.

Lea pressed her mother’s hand to her cheek. They talked a
bit more until the older woman seemed comforted.

Turning, Lea looked at Jake. He smiled immediately, an
involuntary reaction he wouldn’t have curbed if he could.