Armed And Dangerous (The McKinnon Legends - The McKinnon American Men Book 2) (25 page)

An eye for an eye, he thought as he watched them.

It was obvious they were important to each other judging from their physical reactions. He would see to it that they both paid dearly for their transgressions against the Del Torres empire.

Mason opened the door to Holly’s room and allowed her to enter first. He could be a gentleman when the mood suited him. He reached for the Do Not Disturb sign, hung it on the outside knob, and then threw the security bolt behind them. He wanted to ensure no interruptions to what he was going to do with this woman.

He took quick note of the room’s layout determining the fastest means of escape. They were on the second floor so a balcony exit was doable if absolutely necessary. Having perfected the "tuck and roll" maneuver in his military days, he had jumped a balcony a time or two in the past.

Again, he wondered why he could never seem to turn off the mercenary inside him. The only time he could was with Barbara. Then he could be himself and not have to feel the need to defend or conquer.

He noticed the candles, soft music, and sheets already turned down. She was expecting company. He did not mind being a foregone conclusion. It did not make a difference one way or the other to him. He was not here to romance her. He was here to have sex with her.

He pulled her close and kissed her. There was no tenderness there. He wanted her to exorcise the memory of Barbara lying in his arms. He wanted her to wipe away the images of Barbara swimming in the river, running from gunfire, and unselfishly taking off her body armor to cover Jesse. He wanted to feel this woman beneath him as he tried to erase from his mind the look of pain and disgust on Barbara’s face as she watched them on the beach.

This was purely sex, and it was exactly what he wanted. Closing his eyes to kiss her again, all he saw behind his eyelids was Barbara laughing at one of him insane jokes.

He pushed Holly away. “I'm sorry. I can’t do this. It just feels wrong,” he said, tossing one of the casino coins onto the middle of the bed, getting out of there as fast as he could, and leaving behind a stunned Holly standing speechless in her hotel room.

She could not fathom what had just happened. No man had ever turned her down, yet he had twice in a single week. He would be back, she said confidently as she continued to undress. She slipped on her robe, dashed on a little more perfume, and waited.

She smiled triumphantly as she heard the door open and close again and the security latch connect.

“Hum, not who I was expecting,” she purred surprised, but not alarmed. Even if she was prepared to have sex with Mason for free, she was a high-paid hooker. Men in her room were nothing new. He wasn’t Mason, but he would do nicely. That changed in an instant, and she was paralyzed in terror as he pulled out a nine-inch blade and grabbed her around the throat.

“Who was the man that you were with at the beach?” He squeezed her hard around the throat.

“Mason McKinnon,” she stammered as her lips began to turn blue.

“Are you his wife?” Carlos asked sneering at her.

“Yes, and he will be back any second,” she said thinking maybe he would leave if he thought Mason would be returning. That was her last thought just seconds before Carlos spun her around and slit her throat in one easy movement.

Mason did not go straight back to the suite that he shared with Barbara. He needed time to figure out how he was going to face her. After a walk on the beach and another beer in the bar, he figured that he had stalled long enough. He had to face her sometime, and it was time to leave. Barbara had had time to rest, and they needed to follow Redondo’s advice of getting the hell out of Panama.

“Baby Doll?” he called letting himself in and immediately felt the emptiness of the rooms. He went into the bath and found all her toiletries gone. He went to the closet and flung the doors open only to see empty hangers. Barbara was gone.

Calmly, in contrast to his churning insides, he called down to the front desk.

“Have you seen Señora McKinnon?” he asked in flawless Spanish.

“Si, Señor McKinnon. The Señora checked out about an hour ago. Oh, Señor, by the way, there are two messages down here at the desk for you. One is from the Señora.”

Mason coolly put the receiver back on the phone cradle and went to retrieve his messages. He would find her, and they would talk this out and would leave together. He would confess to her that he was a jerk and ask her to forgive him. He had behaved badly. His inexcusable behavior had accomplished nothing save to hurt her feelings and reaffirm her baser opinion of him.

At the front desk Mason read Barbara’s note explaining her plans. He didn’t like it, but what else could he do except let her go for now? She was already on a flight back home by way of the LA corridor bypassing the Gulf Coast region altogether. He called Robert asking him to pick her up and to look after her until he could get back to Dallas.

That accomplished, he turned his attention to the other envelope. Looking it over, he did not recognize the handwriting. It was not Barbara’s. He ripped the envelope open only to see the Polaroid photos of a naked, blood soaked Holly strapped to the bed with eyes wide and glassy in death. The note attached warned he would be next, but Carlos wanted Mason to suffer emotionally first for killing his brother.

“Call Captain Juan Redondo of the National Police.”

“Is everything all right, señor?” The front desk clerk asked seeing the expression on Mason’s face.

“No, now just make the damn call!” Mason felt his stomach turn. It looked doubtful that he would be leaving any time soon. He called his brother for a second time. If this went bad, then Robert would need to send in the best lawyers that McKinnon-Bride money could possibly buy.

Mason found a private room to sit and talk. He gestured for Captain Redondo to have a seat just before he closed the door.

“Well,  Señor McKinnon. You seem to have a knack for finding trouble.” Juan spoke to Mason as he seated himself. “Do you purposefully seek it out or does it just follow you around?”

“It’s sort of all in a day's work, unfortunately.” Mason nervously rubbed the side of his face.

“I gave you a fair chance to leave. You should have run like the rest of your team. Now, who are you, and what are you doing in my country?” Juan was done and wanted some honest answers. If this man lied to him, he would know it and he would find himself in jail so fast it would make his head swim.

Mason knew he had to be honest if he was ever going to get out of this jam. “I work for a private company specializing in personal security and hostage retrieval. And trust me, Captain, I would have gladly left except Barbara needed some serious medical attention and the flights are all grounded due to Hurricane Kathy.”

“Hostage retrieval, you say. So what is your real name?” Juan narrowed his eyes. He believed the first part of the explanation. Let’s see, he wondered, if this guy would be honest about his name.

“I’m Mason McKinnon. I didn’t kill her, sir. Otherwise, I never would have called you. I trust you. I think this is the work of the other brother. You did not find his body did you?”

“No,” he answered shaking his head in understanding. There was no need to place a name to the man in question. “Why would you think this would be his handiwork?”

“This note and it is his M.O.” Mason was thinking about the file he looked at in Robert’s office. Carlos had a nasty habit of cutting his victims in a very specific pattern of torture which had earned him the nickname The Carver. He prayed Carlos had cut Holly’s throat first. It would have been a much more merciful way to die than the torture he could have and most likely did inflict upon her to some degree.

“You came after him, didn’t you?” Juan questioned.

“No.” Mason was quick to deny it. “If we had been after him he would be dead. We got who we came after.”

Juan was not stupid. Carlos Del Torres had escaped from his jail with the help of insiders. He understood that involving his department would have resulted in both Emilio and Carlos getting away totally free and whoever this man and woman had come to retrieve would be dead. “You need to level with me, Mason, if I am to help you.”

Mason nodded. “I had hoped not to involve your department. Do not take what we had to do personally, Juan. You seem like an honest man.”

“I am, but I have issues, just like every department but this issue is much more widespread. Corruption is a hard cancer to snuff out especially when it goes as high as this.”

The Del Torres brothers had been untouchable for years because of the connections they had managed to buy with money or fear. No matter what he got on them, nothing ever seemed to stick.

“Emilio was holding hostage the daughter of Sheriff Josh McKinnon, my first cousin.”

Mason let Juan know that according to Jesse’s testimony her mother was Emilio’s mistress. He also told Juan that Jacqueline was also married to Cesar Vozarosa who shot and killed her on Del Torres’s private beach.

“The little girl is ten and family, Sir.”

Alright, Juan thought. This places a little different spin on things. Even if it was a turf drug war for Emilio and Vozarosa, it was not from Mason’s standpoint and involvement, and even though he was still a mercenary for hire, in this instance it was family helping family. It just so happened to be that this family was not the run-of-the-mill sort who commute to a cubical each day in some high rise office building. They were connected politically and were fully armed and dangerous.

Juan pulled off his glasses and methodically cleaned the lenses, then held them up to the light before slowly placing them back. “What specifically made you decide not to involve me?”

“We saw the tapes of Carlos’ breakout. We had no way of knowing how high up the corruption went. He had inside help, and if we had gone through legitimate channels Jesse would be dead. We both know it, too.”

Juan nodded his agreement, resigned to the fact there were some things it just did not pay to deny. “It is as you say.”

Mason felt he needed to soothe over some rough feathers. “Having personally met you, I can say you would have aided us. However, hindsight is always 20-20 and there was too much at risk.”

“Even my honesty may have not been enough with these two brothers. How is this woman involved?” Juan pointed to the photos on the table.

“She was a woman I was going to sleep with, but just decided it wasn’t what I needed once the moment arrived.”

Interesting, Juan thought studying the young man across the table from him. “How did you meet?”

“The first time was on the night Barbara and I arrived. I turned her down thinking it would blow my cover. Earlier today, I saw her in the bar with some trick around five-thirty. Then, I met her again on the beach about six, and I guess Carlos followed us to her suite. I’m wondering if he thinks she was Barbara. We were pretty open with the affection, and I’m supposed to be on my honeymoon.”

“So you and Señora Barbara are not actually married?” he asked surprised.

“No. It was a cover. Barbara is my boss just in a different capacity.” Mason had gotten up out of his seat and was staring out the window at the beautiful waters and wondering how he was going to manage to get out of this mess, both emotionally and politically.

“Hum.” Juan pondered this piece of information. He had been wrong about that part then. He would have placed bets on them being a couple, and he still would place bets. “When did you leave her room?” Juan asked trying to get a timeline.

Mason sat back down. “I left almost as soon as I got there. It was about six-fifteen to six-thirty, I would guess. I left before touching her, and she had on all her clothes. I took a walk on the beach to clear my head, went to the bar for a quick beer, and then went back to the room to find Barbara gone. That was when I called the desk to see when she left.”

“You think he has her?”

The thought almost choked him. He was looking at Carlos’ handiwork in the photos “No. She took the time to pack and leave me a message at the front desk.”

Juan sat in silence pondering what he should do next. “You know, I should arrest you,” Juan flatly stated. However, he did not feel this man was guilty.

“I understand if you do. But before you toss me into jail think about the fact that Carlos is still out there and he wants me, too. I could be the bait you need to catch that bastard, and then I could take him off your hands. Legally, I can retrieve fugitives and transport them back to the United States. Barbara could, too, if she were still here. ”

Juan was curious about something. “You say Barbara is your boss, so she is an operative?”

“Yes. C.I.A. actually, reactivated for this mission.”

“You love her?” Juan asked point-blank.

“What the hell does that have to do with this?” Mason growled.

“Everything. Now, answer me, Mason. Do you love her?”

He shrugged. “I do, but it is immaterial,” he answered honestly. He knew he was in love with her, but at the same time he was not sure he was totally ready to give up his way of life. She would never take him as he was. Besides, she was in a committed relationship.

Juan knew without a doubt that Mason was innocent. He was wrestling with himself, but not over a guilty conscience.

“Don’t be a fool, Mason. You think for one minute he would hesitate to carve her up? This is a man who killed his own son and son-in-law and left their parts in the bathtub. He has no honor and no remorse. At least Emilio was somewhat a gentleman. Carlos is simply an animal. Find Barbara and take your woman home, Mason. Let me finish this.”

“She is on her way to L.A. by now.”

Her message had said that she was flying out and heading to the West Coast circumventing the weather in the Gulf by flying through the pacific corridor. Then she was coming back to Dallas by way of LAX. Right about then Mason was wishing he had thought of that idea first. It would have saved them a lot of trouble.

Mason did not get a chance to elaborate before the front desk clerk knocked lightly and handed him a second message.