His Kind of Trouble (13 page)

Ana couldn’t help but wonder who it was. It had to be very late back in the States, and nighttime phone calls were usually important. Or perhaps a woman, a lover, making contact during his absence?

A jolt of jealousy was replaced with common sense; Chance was not that kind of man. But as he returned to the room, she could tell from his expression that something had happened on that phone call.

He walked directly to her, looking around the room, as if to make sure no one was listening.

“Can we talk in private for a moment?”

Ana frowned, wondering what was going on, and nodded. “Of course.”

They went to the far side of the courtyard to a more private spot, yet she knew his request was not a personal one.

“What do you know about Marco? His past, what he’s into?”

Ana was surprised by the question and took a second to process it.

“I don’t understand—what do you mean?”

“I’ve just had a feeling about the guy. Something isn’t right. He fights like he was trained to do it, and my gut tells me there’s more there than meets the eye, so I had my brothers do some investigating,” he told her.

“You had them look into Marco’s background? But why? He works for his family business, in agriculture—that’s all. What could he possibly be hiding? A lot of men know how to fight,” she said, feeling as if Chance had perhaps become too paranoid.

“I think he probably does work for his family business, but I also think it’s a cover.”

Ana shook her head, waving off Chance’s concerns. “A cover? A cover for what?”

“Possible illegal activity. Who knows? Maybe something else. All I know is that when Jonas and Garrett tried to dig up information on him, there was almost nothing to be found.”

Ana stared at Chance, hands on her hips. “Maybe that is because there is nothing to be found—you are wasting your time on this, Chance. Marco is just...Marco. We’ve known him since we were children.”

Chance didn’t look as if he was buying it. “It’s more than that. It’s hard to explain, but when people are involved in things like illegal activity, or when they are working undercover, or in black ops—”

“Black ops?” Ana interjected incredulously.

“Or things like that. My brother Ely would know. He was one of them. Their records are often scant and clearly constructed—they have enough of a background to put them on the map, but sometimes, there’s not much else. None of the things you find with normal, everyday life. Like travel records. Marco travels a lot, but there’s very little record of where and for how long, where he stayed, that kind of thing.”

Ana was completely confused, and she was, to be honest, a bit scared. Her sister was with Marco, and if Chance was right, what did that mean for Lucia?

“I don’t know what to say. I’ve been away so long, I don’t know what’s going on, but if you’re right, is Lucia safe?”

“You should call her. Tell her your mother needs her home and wants Marco to come here, too. Make something up, but get them here. I’ll feel better with her here and I’m going to talk to him myself,” Chance said.

Ana could tell by his tone that he was dead serious, and while her mind told her that there was no way this could be true, concern for her sister and a willingness to trust Chance had her reaching for her phone.

“She isn’t picking up,” Ana said, and her hands trembled slightly as she dialed Marco’s number.

Gratefully, he answered. Though he sounded odd—as if he had been drinking.

“Marco, thank goodness. This is Ana. May I talk to Lucia? Mama needs to check on something,” Ana said, surprised at how normal her voice sounded.

No response.

“Marco? Are you all right?”

“I’m sorry, Ana, I was sleeping, and just getting my bearings. Are you saying Lucia is not there with you?”

Ana’s hands turned cold.

“No. I thought she was with you,” Ana said and gripped the phone more tightly. “Marco, what happened? Where is Lucia?”

“We had a fight. She took my truck home, but that was hours ago. Perhaps she stopped to walk along the shore, to think.”

“No, she’s not answering her phone. She wouldn’t not pick up for me. Marco, what happened? What did you do? What did you fight about?” Ana asked, her voice increasingly louder and panicked in fear for Lucia.

Chance took the phone from her hands.

“Marco, what’s going on?”

The men talked for a few minutes more, and Chance hung up.

“What did he say?”

“He’s leaving now, going out to look for her. He said she was upset and didn’t want to stay with him, didn’t want him to take her home, so he lent her his truck. He hasn’t heard from her since, but he’s going to search for her and will call us back shortly.”

Ana grabbed Chance’s arm. “We need to go, too. She could have had an accident, if she was upset, or she could be hurt,” she said, her throat constricting. She wasn’t sure she could breathe, thinking about her sister hurt, or worse, while they had been here having such fun.

Chance took her face in his hands. “Ana, you need to stay calm. It could be okay, and we’re going to find out. We have to stay put—this could be a trap to lure you out.”

“I don’t care! This is my sister!”

“I care, and you have to trust me, okay? We’ll find her, and we’ll settle this.”

Ana wanted to fight, to run to her car and leave, but she also knew he was right.

“I will call the hospital, the police, to see if there were any accidents,” she said, feeling sick at the thought.

“That’s a good idea. Go. I’ll let you know as soon as Marco calls,” he said and pulled her in close first for a hug. “It will be okay. I’ll make sure of it,” he told her. Ana held on, pressing her face into his chest, wanting to believe him.

She did what she said she would, avoiding her cousins and not wanting to worry her mother. She went back to her room to call. A short while later, she didn’t know if she was relieved or not that no one had been reported hurt in any car accidents, at least, no one matching Lucia’s ID or description.

As she was going downstairs to tell Chance, he opened the door and walked through, and to her surprise, Marco was right behind him.

“Did you find her? What happened?” Ana asked, rushing across the room to meet them both.

Chance curled his arm around her and pulled her into his side, supporting her. He glanced down at her, his expression fierce.

“We will, Ana. You have to be sure of that.”

She focused on Marco, her heart sinking. “What do you mean, we
will?
Where is she?”

Marco nodded, looking bleak but also angrier than she had ever seen him.

“I found the truck. With a note. They took her,” he said, his jaw tightening. “And I will do whatever it takes to get her back. This is my fault, Ana, and I’ll fix it. No matter what.”

12

“L
UCIA
IS
PREGNANT
?
”
Ana hissed as she stood up from her seat in the courtyard, poised as if she were about to launch herself at Marco. Chance had no doubt from the look on her face that she wanted to hurt the man.

“No, maybe. I mean, she said she was hoping to be. We’d only been together for the last two days, but she wasn’t... We didn’t use...” He faltered, and Chance had to fight off a wince, embarrassed for the guy even if he had screwed up royally. “When she told me that, I didn’t handle it well. I’m in the middle of this case, and I’m around some very dangerous people, and up to this point, it was possible to keep my lives separate. I told Lucia that I had to go back to my case, that I couldn’t stay. Our engagement was...”

He paled, shaking his head as he met Ana’s eyes.

“I love your sister. More than my own life. But our engagement was a sham. It was only an excuse for me to get closer to you, to have a reason to stay close while you were here.”

Ana frowned. “Why?”

“The threat against you is coming from somewhere within the group we’ve been infiltrating. I’ve done business with some of the fringe players, but we’ve been trying to get deeper, into the central management. None of the major players know me, and I thought it was best if I protected you myself—but it’s hard to know whom to trust, and I think someone must have told them I was here.”

“Wait, I don’t understand,” Chance interjected. “Are you saying you think someone from within the
federales
ratted you out to the criminals you were following?”

“It’s the only thing that makes sense. The cartel itself would have no reason to follow me back here. But there is a price on Ana’s head, and the police knew I was becoming engaged to her. It’s possible that they mistakenly took Lucia, thinking that she was Ana.”

Ana did step forward then and raised her hand to strike Marco’s face. But she stopped, her hand dropping to her side. He never flinched.

“How could you? How could you do this to our family, to me, lying to us all? And sending Lucia away in the night, when you thought she could be pregnant? Because you had to return to your
job,
and you couldn’t
deal
with it?”

Chance had seen Ana’s passionate personality in many guises, but he had never seen her so purely angry. Electricity nearly crackled around her, and he set his hands on her shoulders before she forgot and hurt herself, her own wound still fresh.

Tears rolled unrestrained down her cheeks as she glared at Marco.

“If she dies, it will be because of you,” she spat. “And because of me. If I had not come back, if I hadn’t ignored the threats...” she said, her anger turning to guilt and defeat all at the same time.

Chance drew her in close. “No. This is no one’s fault but the men who took her, and we’ll find them. And we’ll find her. I have my brothers working on tracing her cell. Marco, what do your people say? The ones you can trust, anyway? What do these guys want? What will happen when they find out that they don’t have Ana, but Lucia?”

Marco seemed to wake up, responding to Chance’s no-nonsense tone. They couldn’t just stand around here arguing and crying, or Lucia would die.

“Two things. They will try to trade her, or...they will decide they don’t need her around.”

A strangled cry escaped Ana’s lips, and Chance’s heart squeezed painfully. He hated seeing her suffer like this, and he was hell bent on doing whatever he needed to in order to make her happy, as well as safe.

“Do you have any idea where they could be holding her?”

Marco was also clearly flat-out in love with Lucia and ready to hurt someone himself. Chance would be happy to help him, but it appeared he was going to be the coolheaded one around here.

“Listen, all that matters is finding Lucia. Do you have any idea where she could be?” he repeated.

Marco was quiet for a few beats, then looked up, shaking his head. “They could be anywhere.”

Chance didn’t like feeling helpless. It wasn’t in his repertoire.

At that same moment, both his and Marco’s phones rang, and they answered.

“Chance?”

“Jonas, do you guys have anything?”

“It’s sketchy, but we may have a lock on Lucia’s cell phone. I’m texting you the coordinates. It looks like it’s in the middle of who knows where. Do you have anything from the police?”

“I’m standing here with one of their federal officers, and he’s talking to his people now, I think.”

“Good. Coordinate with them, and don’t handle this yourself. These guys usually come in groups and they come heavily armed.”

Chance nodded. “Copy that.”

“How’s Ana?”

“Upset, of course. Angry as hell,” he said, watching her pace the courtyard a few yards away.

“Can’t blame her, but it’s even more important that you stick to her like glue, Chance. This threat was directed at her, and this could be a decoy, or who knows—this Marco, anyone, could be involved. Even her sister.”

“No, it’s not like that.”

“You don’t know. Believe me, I’ve seen worse. Just...stick with her. Let the police go find the sister.”

Chance felt his spine stiffen. Sometimes his brothers forgot that he was an adult, completely capable of doing his job.

“Chance, we just want you home in one piece. Her, too, but this is nasty. Stay in contact, okay?”

Chance’s annoyance dissolved when he heard the strain in his oldest brother’s voice—they were worried. He knew his brother would send in the troops if he could, but they weren’t in the United States, and Lucia was a Mexican citizen, and so was Ana, for that matter. There was nothing Jonas and Garrett could do but watch and try to help from afar. Chance knew how frustrating that could be.

“Don’t worry, Jon. I don’t intend to let anyone lay a hand on her.”

There was a pause before Jonas simply said, “I see.”

“See what?”

“Nothing, Chance. It happens to the best of us,” Jonas said, and Chance shook his head at the phone. Why did everyone keep saying that to him?

“Okay, I have the coordinates,” he confirmed, looking down at the incoming message. “I’ll let you know what’s happening,” he said, cutting off the call.

“What did they say?” Ana asked both men as they converged on her.

“We have the coordinates on Lucia’s phone,” Chance said. “They could have ditched it, so we don’t know for sure, but it could at least give us some direction on where they took her.”

Marco’s expression was dark, his eyes dangerous.

“We won’t need them. I know where she is.”

Chance understood immediately. “That wasn’t the
federales.
That was whoever took her,” he stated.

Marco nodded.

“They know they have the wrong sister, and they want Ana. They also want me.”

“They know who you are? That you’ve been working undercover?”

Marco nodded. “I spoke to Lucia,” he whispered, his tone choking. “I know she is alive. For now, but they said I have to come with Ana right now, or she won’t be.”

Chance swore under his breath.

“Okay, well, if we know where they are, can’t you send in a team to get her out and apprehend these guys?”

Marco shook his head. “If they have someone on the inside, they’ll know we’re coming, and they’ll kill her without a second thought.”

“I will go. There is no time to do anything else,” Ana declared, and Chance turned to her in shock.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he said and winced as he saw her eyes blaze. “I didn’t mean it to come out like that, Ana, but you can’t possibly go. They’ll just kill you, Marco and probably Lucia, too. There’s no benefit in you going. You don’t think these people will really honor their word and let Lucia go, just because they said so?”

“Well, we have to do something!” she said, keeping her voice down. They had been trying to not alert everyone else in the house, especially Doncia, about what was going on. “I cannot take this. How will we save her?” Ana said, suddenly pale and lifting a hand to her shoulder.

“You’re hurting, Ana. Have you taken any medicine?”

“No. I need to have a clear head.”

“A couple aspirin, at least, won’t muddy your thinking. I’ll get you some,” Chance said, turning to go inside.

“No, I’ll get them. You two must find a way to work this out. There isn’t any time,” she said. She hugged Chance tightly and then headed toward the house.

Chance took a deep breath.

“They are independent women, Ana and Lucia,” Marco commented. “Very passionate, very determined.”

“You said it. So what next? I can’t leave Ana here alone. This could be a trap. If we leave, she’s here unguarded.”

Marco pursed his lips. “I hadn’t thought of that,” he said. “You stay here, and let me see if I can pull something together.”

“What are you thinking?”

“Ana and Lucia are very beautiful women, but we have some undercover officers who could look very similar to Ana, especially this time of night. If I can get one to go with me, with backup, we might pull it off.”

“That’s brilliant—but I thought you worried about whom you could trust?”

“It’s getting too late for that now. We have to do something, so I’ll just have to risk it,” he said, pulling out his phone to make the calls.

It was Chance’s turn to pace as he once again found himself feeling at loose ends, unable to help. But then Jonas’s words came back to him; he had to focus. His job was the protect Ana—that was why he was here. As much as he wanted to help Lucia, he had to leave that up to Marco and the
federales,
and hope they could pull something out of their hats.

He supposed he should call Jonas back and let them know what was happening. Hed reached for his phone.

But it wasn’t there.

Searching the ground around him, he couldn’t find it, and panicked.

Ana.

When she’d hugged him, she must have lifted his phone. She had the coordinates for where Lucia might be, and she had the phone’s GPS to use them. He heard the rumble of a car starting in the driveway, and cursed, running full speed to the driveway, only to see the brake lights disappearing down the dark road.

“Damn it,” he yelled, Marco racing out to meet him.

“What happened?”

“Ana. She took my phone, and she took the car. She’s going to try to go after Lucia herself.”

Marco swore loudly. He’d driven his family’s produce delivery truck to the house, his truck being stuck in the jungle where Lucia had been taken. The large, lumbering truck could never catch Ana in time.

“Doncia. She has a car out back. I can hot-wire it,” Marco said, turning, only to find the woman he spoke of standing behind him, looking regal, as usual—and petrified.

“Or you can just ask me for the keys,” she said. “You will find my girls?” she said, her eyes traveling from Chance to Marco and back.

“We will,” Chance promised and hoped that he could keep it.

“Go, please. Please don’t let them be hurt,” she said, handing Marco the keys.

When he looked at her questioningly, she just said, “The courtyard is an odd place. Voices travel there. Even when you think you are not being heard, you are.”

With that, she left them and walked back inside.

“Ready?” Marco asked Chance as they ran to the car. “I contacted my office, and they have someone meeting us there, though I don’t know how Ana’s going to affect the situation if we can’t get to her in time.”

“Then let’s go,” Chance confirmed as they sped out of the drive and down the dark road after Ana.

“You drive,” Marco said, throwing him the keys. “I have to make a few more calls.”

Chance hit the gas and pushed the cold fear in his heart back, knowing he couldn’t even think about losing her. Losing Ana, and not having her in his life, wasn’t an option. He’d do whatever was necessary to save her, even if he had to put his own life on the line to do it.

* * *

L
UCIA
SAT
VERY
QUIETLY
ON
the dirty floor in the corner of the dark barn, closing her eyes and trying not to think about it as she felt something run over her foot. Her hands were tied to post behind her, so tightly that they hurt, and her mouth was dry from the rag wrapped around her face.

Who were these men?

They had to be the group that Marco had infiltrated, that he was trying to take down. They might have seen her with him and thought this was a way to get leverage?

“Ha,” she huffed through the gag, the effort making her choke. Her eyes burned with tears as she thought about him. He wouldn’t even know she was missing, and if he did, he’d probably only be angry that she had messed up his undercover work.

She couldn’t wipe the look on his face, or the words that he’d spoken, from her mind. The last moments she had with him—maybe her last moments forever—were angry ones. He didn’t want to marry her—it was just a ruse for his job.

He certainly didn’t want children or anything that would interfere with his work.

And now here she was because of his work.

How could she have been so stupid? She could be pregnant right now—so reckless, to have thought of bringing a life into the world and having it end like this.

Despair gripped her heart, and she tried to hold on, to
think.
The men had dumped her here and left her. She didn’t know if there was anyone outside standing guard, but she didn’t think so. She’d heard some cars come and go, and some voices, but that was all. Perhaps there was a house and she was just put here for safekeeping until they decided what to do with her.

They hadn’t said a word, just laughed when she cried, asked who they were. They told her to shut up and hope that her boyfriend came through.

Came through with what?

Lucia had been trying to work the rope around her wrists, but it was too strong. Her wrists were abraded from the rope.

What did it matter? What did anything matter?

Then she thought of the possibility of the baby—the baby that
she
wanted, even if Marco didn’t—and started struggling again. Marco could go to hell. She was going to save herself, whether he came through or not.