The Cursed (28 page)

“I can try to distract him.”

Dallas heard the whisper at this back and turned to see Jose looking grim and determined.

The ghost strode toward the water, moving toward Tio—and then through him.

The old man swatted at his back, as if he thought there was a bug on him.

Jose began punching the man over and over, wafting through him to attack first from behind, then from the front, then from behind again.

Baffled, Tio spun around, trying to see what was happening.

Dallas took advantage of the split-second distraction and rushed forward, tackling Tio to the ground. The man was old, but he was a fighter. They struggled in the sand, and Dallas managed to break his grip on the knife. Then, when the old man looked up at him, he couldn’t resist.

He slammed him with a right hook to the jaw.

Tio was out.

Dallas slipped the plastic cuffs from his pocket, rolled the man over and secured his hands.

Tio wasn’t going anywhere.

The two women jumped to their feet and ran over to him, sobbing, talking at the same time, nearly knocking him over.

“I’m Agent Dallas Samson, and we’re going to get you out of here. Alicia Rodriguez?” he asked.

He didn’t need to. Jose was standing by her, trying to touch her, and he was sobbing, as well. His tears looked real.

The pretty brunette nodded. “And this is Alma White. Where did you come from? How? Do you know my brother, Jose? They told me he was dead, but—”

“I’m so sorry. Jose
is
dead. But he helped us find you,” Dallas said. “Now—”

He broke off when he heard the sound of a shot being fired.

And then a scream.

* * *

Hannah put down the gun and was desperately trying to figure out what to do next when Dirk grabbed her hair and twisted so hard she nearly cried out in pain. He dragged her in front of him as a human shield.

“Now, I want you to talk to the boys in there, Miss O’Brien. Tell them that you’re coming in. Do it and do it right, and maybe I’ll let you and your cousin live. You can take Maria’s place. Defy me and your cousin dies, right here and right now.”

She didn’t know what to do! If she she didn’t do as he said, he would shoot Kelsey. If she lunged at him, he would undoubtedly shoot her, but Dallas and Logan would be out in a flash and at least have a chance to kill him.

Suddenly she heard a creak and the cabin door swung open, though no one was visible. “Come in, Mendini,” she heard Logan call from the cabin.

How had he known? she wondered. Had one of the ghosts seen what was going on and given him the info?

“Do you think I’m stupid?
You
come out
here.
Now,” Mendini said.

“Don’t be ridiculous. So long as I stay in here, I just might get the chance to kill you.”

“How about I forget about you and just shoot your woman?”

“Kelsey is an officer of the law. She knows the risks that come with that life,” Logan said smoothly.

“Come out. My patience isn’t going to last long.”

“I have a few questions first. How the hell did the Wolf get you, of all people, into his orbit?” Logan demanded.

“Lord, you people. Who do you think you’re looking for? A street thug? A dumb down-and-outer?
I’m
the Wolf, you moron. Did you think some stupid punk would know what to go after? If you thought about it for a single second, you would have known the Wolf is a man of intelligence and education. One with access to police information. It was so easy to keep tabs on you. Who in the hell would suspect a respected member of the team?”

“You did have it covered,” Logan said.

“I did—and I do. Now put your gun down and come out here.” As if to emphasize his words, he shot toward the cabin, and a chunk of wood came flying off the doorframe.

Hannah couldn’t help herself. She screamed.

To her surprise, Logan’s Glock came sliding out to the little porch.

And then Logan himself walked out calmly.

“Get your friend out here,” Mendini ordered.

“My friend?” Logan asked. He looked at Hannah, and something in his eyes warned her to keep quiet, because he knew what he was doing.

“Samson—Dallas Samson. Tell him to get his sorry ass out here, too.”

“Oh, my friend isn’t in here,” Logan said. He indicated the scraggly beach in the distance. “You can tell him yourself what you want him to do with his sorry ass.”

It was well played. Mendini jerked around.

And there was Dallas, his gun aimed straight at Dirk’s face. He was flanked by Yerby Catalano and Jose Rodriguez.

“I think you should have paid attention to the curse,
Mendini,” Logan said quietly.

Dallas fired.

And Hannah screamed again as, right next to her, Dirk Mendini’s head exploded into a mist of blood and brain matter.

Epilogue

H
annah was the first one downstairs on the Monday morning after the death of Dirk Mendini and the de facto dissolution of Los Lobos. She started the coffee and went outside for the newspaper. She smiled as she came back in, waited on the coffee, poured a cup and went out back to drink it while she read the paper.

She’d always enjoyed sitting by the pool while morning broke, enjoying a cup of coffee and with a real newspaper in her hand.

It was even sweeter when the headline and half the front page were dedicated to explaining the mess in her backyard: 1715 Treasure Chest Found.

It had, indeed, been there. They’d unearthed it not long after they’d started digging, about ten feet past where they’d excavated when they put in the pool.

Liam had been there to see it happen, and he’d tried to reach her to tell her the news. He’d gotten a call from Dirk just after dialing Hannah and, thinking he might have come up with valuable information, he’d cut off the call to her and taken the M.E.’s. Liam had mentioned that Dallas and the others were headed up to Marathon following a lead, at which point Dirk’s entire tone changed and he’d started pumping Liam for more information. Then he made an excuse for getting off the phone without ever explaining why he had called in the first place. Liam had been called away by one of his men at that point, but he’d tried Hannah again, planning to mention Dirk’s strange behavior. He’d never gotten the chance to talk to her, of course.

After that, everything was conjecture. Their best guess was that Mendini had already been on his way to the cabin, so he’d simply changed his plans and decided to kill the agents if they were already there and wait for them to show up if they weren’t. As to whether he might also have killed Tio and the women to prevent them from revealing anything about him if everything fell apart, who knew?

Tio, it turned out, was Mendini’s actual uncle on his mother’s side. The best they’d been able to fathom about the island and the women was that Mendini kept them there because he could and he liked the rush of power that gave him, and because there were times when he could exchange a woman for a treasure he wanted from some less-than-honorable seller in the Middle East or South America.

They would never have all the answers, of course. The FBI and local law enforcement would probably be cleaning up the remnants of Los Lobos for years.

But, as Dallas put it when the shooting was over, the head was off the snake.

As for the treasure...

The priceless Zafiro de Seguridad had been in the chest, and it was now being cleaned and prepared for display at the Smithsonian while ownership of the treasure was settled between Spain, America—and Hannah.

Truthfully, she didn’t want any of it. Too many people had died for it. And she had never been interested in
things,
anyway.

Just people.

She was startled when she heard someone calling her name from out front.

She rose and walked slowly around the house. She moved warily, still a little paranoid after all the things that had happened.

There she found a tall, very distinguished white-haired man studying the house with true appreciation for the architecture. He was dressed in a suit—a light, handsome, charcoal-gray suit, but a suit nonetheless.

FBI,
she thought.

He was old for an agent. But there was a younger man at his side, pointing up to some architectural detail on the widow’s walk. Hannah realized that the younger man looked a lot like the older one—and that he was dead.

“Miss O’Brien? Yes, you have the look of your cousin about you,” the older man said. “Different hair color, of course, but there’s a definite resemblance,” he said.

“Yes, I’m Hannah O’Brien. May I help you?”

“I’m Adam Harrison,” he said, stepping forward to study her further with a smile.

“Oh, Kelsey and Logan’s boss.”

He nodded. “Though I tend to let Logan handle the Texas Krewe without interference. I don’t go into the field much anymore. Not the micromanager type.”

“Well, it’s lovely to meet you. I’m the first one up today. If you’ll come in, I’ll get the others for you.”

“Actually...would you mind if we walk around back?”

“If you wish.”

“I’d like to speak with you.”

“Oh?” she asked, surprised, and led the way.

He smiled, taking a seat on one of the lawn chairs. She joined him, noticing that the younger man was still with them and looking around the yard—the pristine pool area contrasting with the raw dirt where the treasure had been found—with interest. “Can I get you some coffee?” she asked Adam.

“In a minute.” He smiled. “I’ve received some interesting reports regarding your abilities.”

Ignoring that for the moment, she looked at him sympathetically and asked softly. “Is that your son?”

“So you do see Josh,” he said.

The ghost turned to smile at her. “She’s got it, Dad. She’s really got it.”

“I can see Josh now, though I couldn’t at first. But love is strong, as I’m sure you know. I don’t see others, however. But you—well, they tell me that you were able to communicate with Maria Lopez when no one else could even see her... And without her help...well, the outcome would have been quite different, I imagine.”

“I don’t know about that. Your agents are very good.”

“Yes, they are. I also hear that you took a ten-minute course in handling a Glock and then took down a murderer with your first shot.”

She reached for her coffee and shook her head. “I was just lucky,” she said.

“I think it’s more than that. And I’d like you to think about joining us,” Adam Harrison said.

She nearly dropped her cup.

“Just think about it, no need to decide this minute. It’s a difficult decision. It’s a tough job, and some days it’s life or death, but we have good days, really good days, especially when we take down someone like the Wolf.”

She certainly understood that. It had been a really good day when they’d saved Alicia and Alma, a real emotional high seeing Jose standing by his sister, knowing he’d been instrumental in saving her life.

“Adam!”

Kelsey hurried over to Adam and hugged him as though he were her grandfather, and then she welcomed Josh, although her hug went right through him. A minute later Dallas and Logan joined them. Kelsey made the introductions.

“So, are you joining us, son?” Adam asked Dallas. “I know Logan told you I’m eager to have you.”

“I don’t know,” Dallas said, and he looked at Hannah.

She felt poleaxed by the entire situation, torn in two as to what she wanted. But she knew what the look he had given her meant.

Yes, he wanted to go.

But he wasn’t going anywhere without her.

“I’ve been thinking,” she said. “Valeriya and her mother could manage this place. I’ll never sell it, and it will always be my home. But, frankly, I’d like to get away from everything that’s happened and all the crazy attention that’s coming, at least for a bit.”

Dallas smiled at her. Lord, but the man had a great smile.

“Let’s go in and have breakfast,” Hannah said. “The Siren of the Sea is a bed-and-breakfast, after all, and we’re known for our breakfasts.”

They all talked over breakfast, though it quickly became clear that Dallas would be accepting Adam’s offer while she still wanted to think for a bit before she committed to a career change. Going with him, however, had never been in doubt. Still, there were things that had to be done first; a move would take some time.

Hannah didn’t know yet whether she was right for the academy, but she did know that Dallas was right for the Krewe of Hunters and she was right for him.

Adam and Josh left around twelve.

When they had gone, all the Siren’s ghosts, the old and the new, gathered with the living in the back.

There Melody announced to Hannah that she wanted to visit her father’s grave. Because his stone was old and weathered and no longer legible, no one even realized that it was his, but she knew where it was.

“We’ll all go with you,” Dallas said.

“Jose, Yerby and Maria wish to move on,” Melody said.

“What about you and Hagen?” Hannah asked. She wanted them to move on, too. She wanted them to find peace and happiness. But seeing them go would be like losing beloved relatives.

Melody smiled. “We’re not quite ready. Valeriya might need us for a while. But when we’re ready, I promise, wherever you may be, Hannah, we will find you and say goodbye.”

They went to the cemetery. Hannah was surprised to find Alicia Rodriguez—who had decided to make the island her home—sitting on a bench there. She heard Jose gasp, and Alicia looked around, almost as if she had heard him.

She looked at Hannah. “It’s almost as if my brother were here. I wish I could thank him. I know he died because he came here, and I know he came here because of me. I was always afraid he would think I betrayed him, that I joined Los Lobos, but I would never have done that. I loved my brother—he was always the one constant in my life, the one good thing I could hold on to.”

“He knows you didn’t betray him, Alicia,” Hannah assured her.

The young woman smiled. “I’m going to have him buried here,” she said. “He loved Key West.”

“I think he’d like that,” Hannah replied.

Jose stood next to his sister. For a minute they were silent as they looked out over the cemetery with its many above-ground vaults, its stones, its strange mausoleums, and even one grave that looked like a redbrick fire pit.

“It’s almost as if I can feel him,” Alicia whispered.

“You
do
feel him,” Kelsey said gently.

“Love doesn’t die, it lives in the heart,” Hannah assured her.

Hannah felt the other ghosts behind her. She heard Melody whisper encouragingly to Yerby.

Jose stepped away from his sister at last and reached for Yerby’s hand.

She took it, meeting his eyes. “I’m afraid,” she said.

Jose smiled. “So am I.”

She moved closer to him. Then, together, they turned around and Jose took Maria’s hand, as well. The three of them turned toward the north.

Hannah could have sworn she saw a soft golden light streaking across the sky in a glimmering arc, but when she tried to look closer, the fierce Florida sun was in her eyes.

She tried to watch them move away, but one moment they were there, and then they were just...gone.

The sun continued to beam down.

It was just another Florida day.

* * *

That night they went to Mallory Square. They watched the balloon man and the statue lady, laughed as the cat man had his felines perform their delightful antics. They watched the sunset, and it was glorious, filling the sky with streaks of gold and red and mauve, like a preview of heaven.

As they sat there, Dallas slipped an arm around Hannah and asked her, “Can you really leave all this?”

“I’ll always be a Conch,” she told him. “Always. And so will you. But can I live somewhere else? Yes. I’ve never been a big believer in things or even in places. I’m just a believer in people.”

He nodded, whispering, “Am I a person you believe in?”

“To me, you’re that sunset we just saw.”

“I love you,” he told her.

She kissed him and whispered the words in return.

And she knew that she would follow him anywhere.

* * * * *

Look for the next
KREWE OF HUNTERS
novel,
THE HEXED,
by
New York Times
bestselling author
Heather Graham,
coming soon from Harlequin MIRA.

Keep reaading for an excerpt from WAKING THE DEAD by Heather Graham.