Until Midnight (6 page)

and pale daffodil walls, his ultra-modern glass, steel and leather furniture spoke of a man and a corporation devoted to the very best of everything.

She took one of the chairs and sank into buttery comfort.

“A drink?”

“Ice water, thank you.”

He strode to the wet bar and fixed her a tall glass filled with slivers of ice and bubbling water. When he returned to hand it to her, he sat down across from her and with deadly serious eyes, said, “Tell me what has happened to you here.”

She recounted the incident on the beach in short sentences. Leaving out Adam’s

role in any of it, she told him that she had killed the would-be assassin. She had dragged his body into the shrubbery. But she kept her words short, her descriptions brief, thinking this best until she could read the wind on Muhammed’s complicity.

At each revelation, Muhammed stiffened, and at the end asked, “Why did you not

come to me immediately?”

“I am a security expert, Mr. Abbas. I know to investigate my own challenges.

Naturally, I was concerned for my safety but interested in relying on myself first. You, second.”

“I hear your rationale, Miss Welles. But still, I do not agree.”

She waved a hand. “Your agreement is of no importance to me, Mr. Abbas. But

what you know and who you know is.”

His sea blue eyes narrowed on her. “You think someone here had a hand in this?”

“I know they did. How else would this man get inside your very secure

compound?”

He pulled back. “I see your point. I will call my own security team to investigate.”

“I must ask you not to do that. Not at the moment and perhaps not until after I have left the resort.”

“Miss Welles. You are not responsible for this facility. I am. Therefore—”

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“Therefore, tell me what your relationship is with Felix Calderon and the

Campeche cartel.”

“What?” Offense written on his features, he sputtered. “Why do you ask about

them?”

“I must.” She waited for his answer, cool and unmoving. She could wait forever, if need be.

“I have no relationship with men like that. They are vermin!”

“Agreed. Still, I must hear you describe to me if you know Calderon personally and what you and your corporation do to ward off interference in this facility by his

Campeche cartel.”

He stared at her for a long minute. “I do not know Calderon personally. Have never met him or seen him.”

“But?”

He pursed his lips and shook his head, disgusted with what he had to say. “One of

our owners pays fees to the local boss of the cartel.”

She sat forward. “And for this fee, the cartel allows you to operate without fear of invasion or reprisal?”

He nodded, his blue eyes blank. “I pay the fee each month.”

“How? Where? To whom?”

“In cash. In the flower stall in the Mercado. I leave it with the old blind woman who tends the stall.”

“Does anyone on your staff accompany you?”

“My driver.”

“Anyone else? Ever?”

“Once, my assistant.”

“Their names?”

“Rico Hernandez and Miranda Sanchez.”

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Until Midnight

“Thank you. I suggest you talk to them after I am gone and see if they have any

personal relationships with anyone in the Campeche organization.”

“You do not wish to meet with them?” he asked, astonished.

“Only if you cannot tell me one more thing.”

“I will do my best. What is it?”

“What is the name of the owner of the resort who authorizes the payment to

Campeche?”

Muhammed winced, reluctant to give out this delicate information.

“Come, come, Mr. Abbas. All the owners will know what happened here sooner or

later. You will have to tell them. Especially after I issue my complaint and send in my bill for compensation.”

He inhaled. “Winston Haller.”

Oh my god.
She blinked, unable to believe the significance of the name. This man whom so many thought was a beacon of light to the world personified a dichotomy of opposites. Light to dark. Heaven to hell. Good to utterly evil. “Of Haller Enterprises?”

She tried not to gasp in astonishment. Haller was one of the foremost philanthropists in the world. Fourth richest man in the States. And he had earned his billions during the nineties in his own computer electronics inventions that made communications easier, faster, less expensive. “Winston Haller?”

“Yes. None other.”

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Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand

Nicki tried to keep her shock under control as she finished with Abbas, promising

to furnish him with a list of her personal belongings that had been lost in the explosion.

Certain items, however, like her personal arsenal and the little gadgets she always traveled with would never make it to that list. A list, by the way, she planned to mail to him as soon as she could get the hell out of this place.

But in the meantime she needed someplace to hide herself and she needed to make

plans.

Winston Haller? A partner with the man who’d been her client? That was a real

shocker. Haller and Calderon. A devil’s mating if there ever was one. That meant that Calderon knew she was coming here—somehow, someway—and put his plan together.

To destroy the “Yankee
puta
” who’d killed his brother. Never mind that his brother had been an integral part of kidnapping the hostage she’d just rescued. Or that the brother had been inches away from killing the hostage when Nicki shot him instead. This was blood vengeance and Nicki knew that was the worst kind.

So he’d called up his good friend Winston Haller and blackmailed him into doing a

“little favor” for him. Allowing a killer undetected on the premises of the very private resort. And god only knew who else, because the dead man hadn’t set the explosives charge.

That meant that Adam’s contact was compromised, too. If one of the partners was

tainted, they all were. She had to warn him.

She’d barely made her way along the lushly planted walkway from the manager’s

office when a hand reached out of a huge shrub and yanked her into the greenery.

“What—”

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Until Midnight

A warm male hand clamped over her mouth. She was gathering herself to react,

wondering what her options were, when Adam’s voice whispered in her ear, “Just keep quiet. If I take my hand off your mouth can you do that?”

She forcibly swallowed her anger and nodded her head once.

Adam slid his fingers from her lips, trailing them briefly across her cheek before letting his hand come to rest on her shoulder.

“What the hell—” she began in a furious whisper.

“Liar.” His voice held just the edge of amusement. “You said you’d keep quiet.”

Nicki took a long, deep breath, suppressing her bubbling rage and pressed her lips together.

“Better.” Adam tugged her down to the ground with him, where the thickness of

the shrubbery concealed them. “You have to know there’s another loose cannon

walking around here and I was afraid he’d trailed you to Abbas’ office.”

“The explosives.” She pressed her mouth close to his ear. “Our dead guy didn’t set them.”

“Got it in one. I know you are the ruler of all things security but you can’t go

running around here with a target still on your back. Come on.”

“Where are we going?”

“There’s a back way out of here that’s pretty well hidden. It has a gate and

everything. I can’t figure out if it’s Abbas’ private escape hatch in case of trouble or if one of the owners put it there. Anyway, I scoped it out the first day I was here.” He tugged her along with him, crab-walking as they moved. “I have a car stashed there.”

Nicki’s hand clenched over his momentarily in surprise.

“You just happened to find this secret exit? And have a car there? Is that part of your usual activity when you take a vacation?”

They had traveled a decent distance and no one seemed to be around. Adam

stopped and faced her. “You and I both know what I’m doing here is no fucking

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Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand

vacation. And even if it was, old habits die hard. I never leave myself without an escape hatch. So come on.”

Twenty tense, mind-numbing minutes more and they reached the farthest

boundary of the resort grounds. The tall, chain-link fence was artfully disguised with the tropical shrubbery, but even more impressive was the way the gate had been

camouflaged. Unless one knew where to look.

Adam probed the glossy green leaves covering it until his fingers found what he

was looking for. Apparently he’d already done what he needed to because in seconds the gate swung open and he hauled her through it. In seconds they were in the dark green SUV hidden among tall plants, Adam had kicked over the engine and they were

pulling away from the resort.

“How can you even tell where you’re going?” she wanted to know. She had the

feeling they were driving blind.

“Trust me. We’re golden.”

And apparently they were because ten minutes later they pulled out of the jungle

onto a wide place on the shoulder. Adam eased the SUV onto the highway and presto!

they were part of the traffic moving along at a good clip.

“So, on this so-called vacation of yours,” Nicki said slowly, “did you have a next stop in mind?”

Adam chuckled, a deep, gravelly sound. “Guadalajara. Sound good to you?”

Nicki was still trying to wrap her mind around the fact that nothing in this

clusterfuck was the way it seemed. “Sure. Any place is good. But first I have something to tell you.”

Whatever she expected after her brief recitation of the facts, it wasn’t just a nod of his head. “I know.”

“You know?” She practically screamed the word. “So you knew I was being set

up?”

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Until Midnight

“Not exactly. But I knew there was a connection here to Calderon, and that he was

an integral part of the drug machinery.” His mouth tightened in a caricature of a grin. “I just didn’t expect a surprise package like you.”

“I’d say we need to get the hell out of Mexico. We know the partners are involved

but we won’t find the answers here. We need to tackle them in their own lairs.” She sighed in frustration. “If I hadn’t lost all my gear back there I could contact my office and set up an extraction.”

Adam was silent for a long moment, his eyes focused on the road ahead. “I think

you
need to get out of here. Your safety is compromised.”

She gave a short laugh. “And yours isn’t?”

“Uh-uh. No one knows why I’m here. And I’m not leaving until I get what I came

for.”

“You connected the dots and the line on the deadly drugs led you directly to

Calderon,” she guessed.

“You got it.”

“And
your
owner contact got you into the resort as a ‘vacationer’. Burnt-out spy.

Whatever.” She nibbled her lower lip. “Wait. You suspected he was involved, didn’t you.”

“I plead the fifth.” The casual tone belied the tension riding him.

“Ah. Not with me, you can’t. This is turning out to be a bigger bowl of spaghetti

than you thought, isn’t it?” When he didn’t say anything she went on, “You can’t do this alone, Adam.

His hands tightened on the wheel. “I do very well alone. Believe me.”

“Okay, but think about this for a minute. Now you have me. And all the resources

of Nemesis. We can regroup at my ranch, get whatever we need and create a real plan together.”

“This isn’t your fight.” His voice was tight, edgy.

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Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand

“The hell it isn’t!”

“Look! I won’t have you killed because you and I are involved!”

“I am involved. With or without you! Calderon wants me dead, so my only

recourse is to take him down first. And you know as well as I do the dots here can wander in many directions. How do they distribute the drugs? What’s their system? If it’s international all the owners could be involved.”

“I already thought of that.”

“So. We need a plan and we need resources.” She rested a hand on his thigh. “I

want to help you, Adam. Don’t think you have to do this alone. And I’m no novice,

believe me.”

He was silent for so long she wasn’t sure he was ever going to answer her. Finally he blew out a long, slow breath.

“All right. But this is a shared op. We both call the shots.”

“Agreed.”

“Then let’s get to Guadalajara. I know a cheap motel. Secluded. Private. And I’ve

got a secure phone you can use to call your office.” He slid his eyes over to her. “This is going to be a bumpy ride, Nicki.”

She laughed, for the first time since the explosion. “Aren’t they all?”

* * * * *

The motel was buried among many others in a slightly seedy part of Guadalajara,

the room a carbon copy of so many others she’d used for just this purpose. Hardly an icon for the cultural center of the Mexican state of Jalisco. Nicki had been to this part of Mexico before, as a tourist following another case, visiting the historic buildings and cathedrals and riding through the countryside that reminded her so much of the Texas Hill Country.

But they weren’t here as tourists and the more anonymous the motel room the

better off they were.

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Until Midnight

“We’re good to go,” she told Adam, turning off the special secure phone he’d lent

her. She hadn’t been the least surprised to learn he had a fully supplied go-bag stashed in the back of the SUV. A phone. A laptop.
What else might he have
, she wondered as she told him, “Extraction will be in the morning just at sunrise.” She handed him the slip of paper on which she’d written the coordinates.

Adam sat down at the rickety desk and powered up his netbook, entered the