DeliciousDanger (33 page)

“That long ago?”

“Some things simmer for a long time, waiting for the right
opportunity. Anyway, why don’t you take Kelly for her look-see and I’ll see
what I can find. I’m hoping this is where Jordan also chose to go to ground
when he disappeared. It’s a place he knows and where he’d feel secure.”

“Good idea. Maybe we’ll have more to work with when I get
back. Ready, Kelly?”

But as they headed toward the door, Xena stepped in their
path. “Oh, oh.” Kelly smiled at the huge animal. “You want to go too, right?”

The dog snuffled at her hand.

She turned to Mike. “Is that okay?”

“Why not. She behaved better on the trip up here than some
of my human passengers.”

Five minutes later they were airborne, leaving Rick totally
absorbed at the computer.

Chapter Thirteen

Greg Jordan looked at his watch. In an hour he’d be safely
out of here. He couldn’t stay here, although Camellia Cay was beautiful,
secluded and very well guarded. He should know. For a long time he’d been one
of the people guarding it, at a very hefty salary.

“One day there will be an opportunity,” the man had said,
“for you to make a great deal of money. When that time comes, it will be worth
whatever it takes to do it.”

He’d certainly been right. But a live Rick Latrobe made it
impossible for Jordan to enjoy the fruits of his labors the way he wanted to.

He still couldn’t figure out how the hell everything had
gone so wrong. Rick Latrobe wasn’t any superman. Killing him should have been a
simple matter but the man had more lives than a cat. Somebody needed to finish
the job. As long as Rick was alive, Greg would still be looking over his
shoulder.

Meanwhile he had a new identity, money in an untraceable
account and another place to stay on his way to a permanent location. He
supposed things could be worse.

He was just closing his laptop, having yet again checked to
make sure his money was safe, when a light tap sounded at the door. He cracked
it open a few inches to find one of the guards standing there.

He kept his face bland. “Yes?”

“He says to be ready in fifteen minutes. I’ll be the one
coming to get you.”

Greg dipped his head. “Thank you. I’ll be ready. And thank
him, also, very much.”

“No problem. He gives the orders, we just follow them.”

He locked the door again and checked to see if he had
everything he needed. He wasn’t taking much with him. Clothes wouldn’t be a
problem. He could live in jeans until he felt it was safe enough to shop. Or
send someone to do it for him. He had his laptop which contained all the information
he would ever need. And it was all backed up to a flash drive that he’d had
couriered to his brand-new offshore bank.

Camellia Cay’s owner was obsessive about secrecy. His guests
were carefully selected and vetted and received absolute privacy. But in
addition to that, the man had purchased four other uninhabited islands and
constructed homes on each of them. In his colorful career he’d offended not
just his own country but others, so he wanted enough bolt-holes to crawl into
if the time ever came. He repaid his debt to Greg by giving him the use of one
of those islands for as long as Greg needed it, until he made his permanent
arrangements.

When the knock came at the door, he hung the strap of his
computer case over his shoulder and lifted his suitcase. He was ready. More
than ready.

* * * * *

The reality was worse than anything she could have imagined.
When Mike set the chopper back down on the bluff, Kelly stumbled back to the
cabin, Xena hard on her heels, barely making it to the bathroom before she
emptied her stomach of everything in it. She was well into the dry heaves when
a hand reached around her holding a wet washcloth.

“Here you go, Red.” Rick’s voice was soft and gentle.

While she wiped her face and the inside of her mouth, he
stroked her hair with a tender caress. She was humiliated that he saw her this
way but grateful for his ministrations.

“It was awful.” Her voice was hoarse in a throat made raw by
the retching. “It looked like someone had taken a giant bulldozer and just
leveled everything.”

“I talked to Dan about this while you were gone. We think
it’s time to get you somewhere safe. Someplace where you’ll be out of this.”

She struggled to her feet, shaking her head. “Where could I
be safer than here?”

“Kelly, that fire was meant to draw you out. At the very
least to be a warning to you and it was set by someone who knew what the hell
they were doing. Mike says they avoided all your alarm sensors and used
sophisticated incendiary flashes set to a timer. Whoever this is means
business. You can argue all you want to but it’s not safe for you to be around
me.”

She said nothing while she rinsed out her mouth and wiped
her face again. Still silent, she walked back into the main room of the cabin
where she turned to face him.

“I’m not going. Period.” She looked down at Xena who had
positioned herself next to her mistress. “Last night she woke me because she
knew what was going on but she wouldn’t let me leave the cabin.” She bent down
and took the massive face in her hands, locking her eyes on the dog’s. “What do
you say, girl? Shall I let them run me off? Leave Rick here by himself?”

Xena instantly moved to stand in front of Rick, a low growl
rumbling from her throat, her large body vibrating.

Kelly held her hands out to Rick, palms up. “See? If I
leave, she’s staying and then what would I do for a bodyguard?”

“I don’t need her.” Rick raked his fingers through his hair
in frustration. “Just tell her it’s okay.”

Kelly looked at Xena again and chuckled when the dog emitted
another growl.

You can’t leave him. I will protect you.

He’s being a real pain about it.

Do not leave him. The three of us must stay together.

Kelly switched her gaze to Rick. “Sorry, big boy. It ain’t
gonna happen.”

“I agree,” Mike chimed in from the kitchen where he was
opening a soft drink. “With everything she says. Xena too. If she’s with us at
least we can control her situation.”

“Like we controlled what happened at the farm?” Rick bit
off.

“But she’s alive, right?”He turned to Kelly. “Right?”

“Right. So let’s not argue about this and get back to work.
I want to catch these bastards and skin them alive.”

Now it was Rick’s turn to chuckle. “Okay, then. Dan called.
Our attorney is already on the job, talking to your insurance company. He’s
sent someone up here to make a site inspection and nose around.” He turned back
to his computer. “I’ve been doing some research into the guest list at Camellia
Cay. But Andy’s going to have to help with that too, because a lot of people
who stayed there used aliases. So far I haven’t come across one familiar name.”

“If you can’t, how can Andy?” Kelly wanted to know.

“Andy could find ways to trace the President of the United
States if he was using an alias. I don’t ask questions. I just let him do his
thing.”

“Did you find out who owns the place?” Mike asked.

“Someone named Matthias Grant but we’ve figured that’s an
alias too. That’s the first name Andy’s gone to work on.”

“Then why don’t I fix us some sandwiches?” Kelly walked into
the kitchen area. “At least if we get attacked, we can defend ourselves on full
stomachs. And then let’s try some of those exercises we got from The Lotus
Circle. Maybe we can knock down that brick wall in your brain.”

* * * * *

He was going about this all wrong. Zarife pushed away from
his computer after hours of fruitless searching, not even knowing what he was
looking for. Wherever Rick Latrobe was hiding out, it wouldn’t be at a place
that was easy to locate.

Asking questions wasn’t the way either. He’d already
discovered that just the mention of his name made people look at him with
unfavorable curiosity. He couldn’t afford to make himself stand out any more
than he already had.

And that was when he realized he needed to tackle this from
a different angle. If anyone knew where Latrobe was it would be his partners. They’d
be the ones who’d hidden him away. Of course, he couldn’t exactly walk up to
them and ask them. But he could try following them, one at a time, searching
for an opportunity to learn the information.

None of them was listed in the telephone book, not that he’d
expected them to be. And hanging around the building where their offices were,
a giant black obelisk, could get him in more trouble. There were no convenient
coffee shops across the street or stores to browse in and the security was
tighter than at Guantanamo.

He just wanted this over. He wanted to call his father, give
him the information and whoever the elder al-Dulami had in readiness would
finish the job Greg Jordan hadn’t been able to complete.

His best bet, then, was to check out the airfield. For that
he would need to call Gabir. He had already scoped the place out thoroughly
before the aborted accident on the interstate. He could tell Zarife where to
position himself and what to look for.

Reluctantly, with an uneasy suspicion that he was making a
big mistake, he picked up the telephone and punched in a number.

* * * * *

Ken Murphy leaned back in what had been Greg Jordan’s desk
chair and propped his feet on the desk. He hadn’t been here a week and already
he was suffering from the fatigue that seemed to affect everyone. Dealing with
the security on a daily basis took every bit of his patience and ingenuity. And
Amin was an enigma yet to be decoded.

At least the Grainger Caldwell crews were on a steady work
schedule and the projects were beginning to move. Somewhere—god only knew
where—Dan Romeo had procured two more specially outfitted Humvees and
piggybacked them onto someone else’s shipment. With gunners at the ready, each
day they acted as escort for the two of the three crews considered to be in the
area of highest danger.

Everyone was jumpy, though. The construction crews were
anything but happy, despite the outrageous amount of money they were being
paid. The guards slept with one eye open, expecting to be shot or have their
throats slit at any moment. By this time Ken’s charm and patience were both
stretched beyond thin.

But, in the way he’d learned from too many years in this
business, he had finally cracked the wall of silence around the invaders in the
northern part of the country. It had taken skill and patience, cajoling people
in places in the city that no sane man would be found in and no small amount of
money. In the end, however, it had paid off.

When his sat phone rang he picked it up, knowing who was on
the other end. But at least this time he had some new information for him.

“Always nice to hear from you, Dan,” he joked. “And this
time I might even have something to say to you.”

“God, it would be nice to have something from
someone
,”
Dan told him. “What have you got?”

“I have to tell you, this was like mining gold in a river of
sludge. If we had enough hot water I’d shower for two days straight.”

“When you get back here, I’ll personally see to it that you
have an unlimited supply of hot water. Now give.”

Ken rubbed a hand across his eyes. “It seems that way up in
the northern corner, almost to Iran, in the Zagros Mountains, is a family
tribe, al-Dulami, Shi’as who have been working for years to reclaim their power
and glory. Somehow over the past two decades they’ve been accumulating a
massive amount of wealth.”

“From where?”

“That I don’t know. Is it important?”

“I don’t know yet. Let’s hear the rest of it.”

“Very quietly, almost silently, they let it be known they
had cash to pay for weapons if there were a lot of them and the buy wasn’t made
on the open market. Once they got their hands on the weapons, they began a
well-planned offensive.” He stretched out his arm and reached for his coffee.
“Thing is, everyone is either a supporter of the al-Dulamis or scared to death
of them. No one mentions their name. And each area they’ve taken is like a
walled fortress. Coalition troops trying to breach their security have taken so
many hits they’ve stopped trying.”

“How does a deposed tribe get that kind of power?” Dan
mused.

“Money and threats. You’re with us or you’re dead kind of
thing.”

Ken could almost hear the wheels in Dan’s brain turning.
“Someone had to put the buyer and seller together. Someone had to be the
go-between. And someone had to know about this particular shipment to begin
with.”

“It wasn’t all that secret,” Ken pointed out. “All the
security firms have been shipping stuff over here.”

“Yeah but there had to be a way to get all the parties
together. And I have a feeling it didn’t just happen overnight.”

“All right,” Ken sighed. “I’ll see what else I can find
out.”

“No. Let it lie on your side. I need to attack it from over
here. What’s happening with Amin? You think he’s involved?”

“Hard to say. One minute he’s my best friend, the other I’m
afraid to turn my back on him. Honest opinion? I think you need to get rid of
him but not before this situation is resolved. Keep your enemies close kind of
thing.”

“You believe he’s involved.”

“Without a doubt. But I want this wrapped up before I do
anything about him.”

“You just keep on with what you’re doing and I’ll get you
out of there as soon as I can.”

“Gee. And just when I was really starting to have fun.”

* * * * *

Rick was trying to run a money trace on Greg Jordan, Kelly
was sorting papers as he printed them out and Mike had gone back to Blue Fork
to snoop around when Xena began her growl and prowl again.

“You think she senses something outside?” Rick asked,
turning away from the computer.