No One to Trust (13 page)

The buzz of Porter’s phone made Lizzy jump.
They both looked at it in his palm. “It’s Grant,” he said as he
snapped it open. “Yeah?”

A few ‘yeahs’ later, he shut the phone once
again and looked at her. That heat was still simmering in his gaze.
“You’re good to go. Grant’s inside the lobby.” Turning around,
Porter grabbed a ball cap from the backseat and handed it to her.
“Not super spy material as far as disguises go, but tuck your hair
into this and keep your head down. I’m right here, watching you the
whole time. We have no idea how many eyes Orlando has on the
street. It’s better if we’re not seen together right now.”

She nodded. They’d already gone over this a
few times in the past couple hours. Porter had wanted to wait until
after the lunch rush to check out the safe deposit box so they’d
had time to kill. Having him reassure her that he had her back
eased her fear. “Porter…” She didn’t know how to put any of her
feelings into words. Not when he’d been so amazing. Pushy and bossy
sometimes? Definitely.

But the man had stood by her when he had no
reason to. They weren’t in a relationship and she’d broken up with
him. Yet here he was, watching her back. For that alone she wanted
to tell him about the message from Orlando but she couldn’t find
the words. Orlando had threatened Porter and she couldn’t bear the
thought of him getting hurt. And what if Porter told his brother
about it? Then the cops would get involved and might get her
brother killed…No, she needed to see exactly what was in the box
first before she made any big decisions.

Guilt swamped through her at not telling
Porter but she shoved it back down. Leaning forward, she took his
face in her hands and full on kissed him. Tangling her tongue with
his, she took a few precious seconds to savor the spicy taste of
him. Porter seemed caught off guard for all of a millisecond, but
he didn’t hold anything back in the kiss. It was raw, hungry and
she felt his sensuous strokes all the way to her toes. Heat built
inside her, sweeping through her like a tidal wave until she had to
force herself to pull back.

Breathing hard, she stared at him for a long
moment. She could do this. With Porter outside watching, it would
be a piece of cake. A little voice in her head told her to tell him
about the phone message from Orlando but there was nothing they
could do about it now anyway. Not until she knew what was in that
stupid safe deposit box. Better to find out the contents first.

After slipping the plain blue ball cap on her
head and grabbing the small backpack Grant had also retrieved for
them, she headed across the street.

Once inside she saw Grant lounging in the
sitting area. Four short, modular couches were angled together to
create a square around a perfectly square glass table. Managing to
keep her gaze away from him—even though she was very grateful for
his presence—she headed straight for the first open teller.

Though her heart beat like crazy the entire
time, once she showed the teller her ID and the gold key, the woman
dressed in the sharp black skirt-suit led her down a set of stairs,
a long tiled hallway and through two sets of locked doors. Opening
the box was a simple thing and once the teller had inserted her
matching key and pulled the box out of the slot, the woman
left.

The moment the door shut behind her and Lizzy
was alone in the cold room with rows and rows of safe deposit
boxes, she opened the one on the small wooden table in front of
her.

Inside was a thin, long rectangular black
notebook. There was nothing else there. Frowning, she flipped it
open. As she scanned the pages she realized what she was seeing and
for a moment it felt as if her heart actually skipped a beat.

Dates, meeting places, names of some very
powerful government officials and what she assumed were bank
account numbers were listed all the way back about seventeen years.
This must have originally belonged to Alberto Salas, but looking at
the current dates she realized Orlando had held on to it and
continued adding information about all sorts of interesting
stuff.

The high profile political names were
interesting, but also interesting were the listings of some men
Lizzy thought were Orlando’s competitors. She couldn’t be sure, but
she’d seen some of the names on the international news enough to
know that they were bad men. Drug dealers, arms dealers…bad, bad
stuff. And he had information on who they were sleeping with, where
they golfed, who they golfed with, how many mistresses they had,
who would possibly take a bribe in their organization, who
was
taking bribes. A lot of it just looked like scribbling
and random notes. In the right—or wrong—hands, this book could be
very powerful. After shoving the notebook into her backpack she
pressed the call button on the wall to let the teller know she was
ready to put the empty safe deposit box back.

As she waited, Lizzy tried to wrap her mind
about what she now possessed. And figure out what the hell she was
going to do with it if Orlando really did have her brother.

* * * * *

Porter continued scanning the area in front
of the bank. No suspicious cars. No men carrying guns. Still, the
vise around his chest cinched tighter and tighter each second that
Lizzy was out of his sight.

And forget about thinking of her as Elizabeth
anymore. Something had changed between them. He couldn’t put his
finger on what ‘it’ was, but he’d felt things shift between them
last night. That heated kiss before she left the car told him she
knew it too.

As his phone buzzed, announcing that he had a
new text, he tensed until he saw his brother’s brief message.
Lizzy coming outside.

Only then did that snugness around his chest
loosen. Not completely. That wouldn’t happen until he saw her with
his own eyes.

A few seconds later, tightly clutching the
straps to her backpack against her chest, Lizzy walked out of the
bank at a brisk pace. She kept her head down but he knew she was
aware of everyone around her.

Since the two lane road was deserted, Porter
pulled out of the curb side parking spot and flipped a U-turn so he
was level with the other curb.

Lizzy didn’t pause. She just jumped into the
passenger’s seat and the moment he saw her face he knew she’d found
something. “Drive,” was all she said, her tone clipped.

Palm trees and cars flew by at a steady pace
as he headed in the general direction of Coconut Grove. While Lizzy
had been inside the bank he’d called Harrison and set it up so that
they had a safe house to go to.

Porter still wasn’t one hundred percent
positive that Orlando didn’t have access to their listing of safe
houses, but at this point, he and Lizzy needed to get out of Miami
proper where Orlando definitely had spies. Keeping an eye on the
road and rearview mirror, he began weaving in and out of traffic
and making random turns. If they had a tail, he’d know soon
enough.

As he drove, Lizzy unzipped the backpack and
stuck her hand inside, but didn’t pull it back out. A quick glance
at her told him all he needed to know. Her lips were pinched tight
and her eyebrows drew together in worry.

“You might as well just tell me what you
found, Lizzy,” he said quietly.

“You’ve got to promise you’ll help my
brother.” Her voice cracked on the last word.

Damn it. He couldn’t tell her no. How did she
not realize that by now? Porter bit back a sigh. “Did Benny do
something illegal?”
Other than his drug habit.

“Not exactly, but he’s definitely in trouble.
In…more ways than one.” She bit her bottom lip and clutched the
pack closer to her chest with her free hand.

“What’s in the backpack?”

“You’ll need to read it yourself and we’ll
want to check some of the entries to make sure all this stuff is
legitimate, but it’s very damaging to Orlando. There are names of
dirty government officials, blackmail information on some of his
competitors, lots of nasty stuff. It makes sense why he’s after me
and why…” She gave him another worried look, “…why he left me a
voicemail wanting to trade Benny for this. I don’t know for sure
but Benny probably told him I had this. Or had access to it or
something. Maybe to keep Orlando from killing him or maybe…I don’t
know.” Sighing, she pulled out a thin rectangular notebook.

Porter’s hands tightened on the wheel as he
looked away from her. “
When
did Orlando call?”

She audibly swallowed. “I got the message
before I went in to the bank.”

And she hadn’t said anything to him. He
fought back his temper. “What did he want?”

“His message was cryptic, but it wasn’t hard
to read between the lines. He thinks I have something he
wants—which I do now—and he wants to trade it for Benny. He also
inadvertently threatened you. Told me not to say anything to
you.”

Porter ignored the threat. He didn’t give a
shit what Orlando said. That man was as good as dead. “Do you know
for sure he has your brother?” He glanced at her as they came to a
stop light.

Taking her ball cap off, she shook her head.
Her dark hair fell around her shoulders in soft, seductive waves.
Something he shouldn’t be noticing. “No. Orlando wants me to call
him though.”

“He’ll want to set up a trade as soon as
possible.” The drug lord wouldn’t have made contact with her unless
he definitely had Benny. Porter knew Lizzy wouldn’t walk away from
her brother, but he also knew that whatever was in that notebook
was something they couldn’t just give back to Orlando. Then the
bastard would have no reason to keep her alive. Hell, he’d have
even more motivation to kill her now.

“Are you going to tell Grant or Harrison
about this?” she asked.

He’d be telling them, but before that he and
Lizzy needed to iron out some details. “We’ll need to set up a meet
with Orlando first.”

“You
want
me to call him back?” Shock
laced her voice.

He nodded as a plan formed in his mind. With
one hand on the wheel, he fished a burner phone out of his back
pocket. “Do you need to check your voicemail for Orlando’s number?”
When she shook her head, he turned the phone on. “Do you trust
me?”

She hesitated for a brief moment, then
nodded. “Yeah.”

“Orlando’s going to want to choose the place
and the time. You’re not going to let him do either. He’s got your
brother, but you have something he desperately wants. If he kills
Benny he’ll lose his leverage over you and there will be nothing
stopping you from doing whatever you want with the notebook. He’s
going to want to meet today, but you’re going to stall him. Tell
him you had to drive a couple hours to get the notebook and that
you’re going to need to lose me before you meet him. He needs to
think you’re desperate enough to come alone, but not so desperate
that you give him whatever he wants. If you do that, he’ll know
it’s too easy. You can’t have a meeting place picked out yet
either, but tell him you will the next time you call him back. And
you also need to
demand
proof of life for Benny. Now and
before we meet him. You got all that?” Porter had been in the
protection business for a long damn time. Dealing with hostage
situations was rare but Red Stone gave classes to all its security
employees. Hell, even law enforcement took classes when they opened
them up. This wasn’t technically a hostage situation, but it was
the same conditions.

And Lizzy was smart. He knew she had
practically an eidetic memory so remembering all his instructions
wouldn’t be difficult. Especially considering it was her brother’s
life at stake.

Chapter 11

Lizzy took a deep breath and punched in the
number she’d committed to memory.

“What?” Orlando’s voice grated on her last
nerve.

She steeled herself to talk to the monster
who had her brother. “I got your message.”

“It’s taken you a while to call. Your…product
might not make it to our trade.” He sounded so smug she wanted to
jump through the phone line and punch him.

She took a calming breath, trying to keep her
emotions out of this. “I want to talk to my brother.”

Orlando laughed, which only infuriated
her.

Anger was better than fear. “I talk to him or
you’re not getting
anything
.” She put a punch of heat in her
voice.

Next to her Porter nodded encouragingly.
Seeing his face gave her strength she didn’t know she had. Orlando
cursed then she heard a soft rustling.

“Lizzy?” Her brother’s voice made her throat
tighten.

“I’m here. Are you okay? Has he hurt
you?”

He laughed though it came out harsh and
strained. “I’m fine. Don’t give that bastard anything.”

“Don’t worry about what I’m doing, I just
need to know you’re okay.”

“I’m fine, I promise.” His voice sounded a
little stronger, but she worried he was lying.

Lizzy looked over at Porter. His knuckles
were white as he gripped the steering wheel and his jaw was
clenched tight as he watched the road. Having him next to her,
supporting her, made even more tears well up. Thankfully they
didn’t spill over.

“You’ve heard your brother’s voice. Now, we
are going to make a trade and you are going to give me exactly what
I want. You brother tells me you have nothing, but he’s a sniveling
little liar. Or is he? Maybe you have nothing and I should just do
away with my problem right now.”

Another punch of anger surged through her.
Anything was better than fear. She laughed wryly. “Yes, I have what
you want. Want me to start reading entries to you?” She flipped the
notebook open. “How about I start with one from…five years ago.
Looks like Wendell Crane took a payoff from your father in the
amount of—”

Orlando cursed so loudly Porter could hear
him as she held the phone away from her ear. When Orlando was
through with his tirade she put the phone back to her ear. “I’m not
meeting you today. I’m too far away. Benny wasn’t stupid, he hid it
somewhere you’d never find.”