UNDERCOVER TWIN (16 page)

“You lie,” Lily said. “You were the favorite. You were given everything. And when you gave me money it was only right, because you owed me that money, for ruining my life.”

“Enough,” Luis said. “My brother will be here soon and we need to prepare. Lily, get dressed. We’ll put these two in the shed where they should have been in the first place.”

Lily narrowed her eyes at him. “It wasn’t my fault. Raul was incompetent. He let them escape.”

“Well, then, it won’t be a problem for us to put them in the shed now, will it, now that incompetent Raul is gone?”

The tone of his voice was mildly sarcastic. Heather tensed, sensing there was trouble between these two. Trouble between two people holding guns didn’t bode well for either her or Nick.

Lily whirled around and stomped back down the hall.

Luis sat down across from them, his gun steady. “Lily is a good girl,” he said, sounding slightly defensive, as if he needed to make excuses for her. “She’s not accustomed to having to use a gun and breaking the law.”

Heather snorted. “Right. That’s why she was in Saint Augustine with four kilos of cocaine.”

He glared at her.

Nick put his hand on top of her thigh, as if to remind her to be careful what she said.

“Lily is a good girl,” Luis repeated. “It was...difficult for her to go through with this plan. But she has a good heart and she knows this is the best way. The world will be a better place without my brother. And you—” he nodded at Heather “—you must pay for your sins against her. Your death will be quick. This entire house, and the shed out back, are wired with explosives. All of Jose’s houses are wired this way, so he can destroy them if his enemies try to take him. Well, we are going to use that against him today. And as I said, your death, and yours—” he looked at Nick “—will be quick and painless.”

“Let Heather go,” Nick said. “She never did anything to hurt Lily, or you.”

“Neither did you,” Heather insisted. “This is crazy. Luis and Lily are both crazy.”

Luis’s eyes flashed. “I do not have time to argue with you.” The whump-whump sound of a helicopter sounded overhead.

“It is time. My brother will be here soon. We must hurry and put you in the shed. Come.”

“Why don’t you want us here when your brother gets here?” Heather asked. “Are you afraid we’ll tell him the truth, that you’re double-crossing him?”

Luis’s jaw tightened. “It is not a double cross,” he said, his accent thicker than usual as he practically spat out the words. “When you fight Satan, it is God’s work.”

“Is that what you think you’re doing?” a voice asked from the doorway. “God’s work?”

Jose Gonzalez stood at the opening to the family room, five men standing beside and behind him. One of the men was holding a squirming Lily.

Luis jerked around but the rifle was snatched from his hands by one of Jose’s men.

Nick grabbed Heather and pulled her to her feet. He shoved her back into the corner and stood in front of her.

“I have no quarrel with you, Agent Morgan, or Miss Bannon,” Jose’s smooth, accented voice said. “My quarrel is with the traitor I call family, and the woman I once called my love.”

“I still am,” Lily insisted. “It was Luis who tried to betray you, not me. I was going to warn you.”

“Ah, so that is why, when my men and I arrived by boat and sent the helicopter as a diversion, we found you hiding in the trees with your gun pointed at my helicopter.”

“I was...confused. I thought you were Luis.”

Luis let out a roar of rage.

“Enough,” Jose said.

Heather tried to see around Nick, but he smoothly stepped in front of her and blocked her view.

“Please take my brother and his lover away,” Jose said. “I do not wish to see them anymore.”

Heather couldn’t see what was happening, but she could hear her sister cursing and Luis yelling as they were apparently shuffled out of the house.

“As I said,” Jose’s cultured voice rang out after the noise died down. “I have no quarrel with either of you. Please, have a seat.”

“Have your men put their guns away first,” Nick said.

“Fair enough. Put the guns away. There are no enemies here.”

Nick pulled Heather to the couch and they sat. Jose sat across from them in his business suit, looking like he was preparing to share a cup of
café con leche
and churros with friends. Two men stood beside him, their pistols in holsters at their waists, their massive arms hanging down at their sides. They would have looked like a couple of palace guards if it weren’t for their khaki shorts and T-shirts.

Jose pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and put it on the coffee table in front of Nick. “Agent Morgan, your DEA friends are on their way here with an arsenal at their disposal. Apparently my brother told them that I was holding you hostage. I would appreciate it very much if you would please tell them not to blow up my island and that you are not a prisoner here. Both of you are free to go when your friends arrive. There are no drugs here and I have not broken any laws.”

Nick grabbed the phone. “What about Luis and Lily?”

“Luis and Lily will be taken care of. This is a...family matter.”

Heather jumped to her feet. “Let my sister go.”

Nick stood beside her and grabbed her around the waist. “Let me handle this.”

Heather gave him a terse nod. Nick would protect Lily. He wouldn’t let something bad happen to her.

“Deliver Luis and Lily into my keeping,” Nick said. “They’ll both stand trial and will be put away behind bars.”

Jose slowly rose to his feet, shaking his head. “I am sorry, Agent Morgan, but that is not how this is going to work. You see, certain events over the past few weeks have put me in a...delicate position. I have been made to look weak.”

“You mean because I destroyed your cocaine,” Heather spit out.

“Condition number two,” Nick said. “Be quiet.”

Heather stiffened against him but didn’t say anything else. For now.

“I, of course, do not know what you mean,” Jose said. “I have no cocaine. I do, however, have a family business and rely on my reputation to run that business. My reputation cannot survive having my own brother and lover turn against me and get away with it.”

“They won’t get away with it,” Nick insisted. “They’ll go to prison.”

“This is not a negotiation, Agent Morgan. I am trusting you to make that phone call. Do not break my trust, for I would not want us to become enemies. I must go now. Your DEA friends will come here and take you and Miss Bannon back to the mainland. But I do not choose to be here when they arrive.” He strode across the room. His men followed, but kept a close watch on Nick as they stepped through the archway.

“Wait, wait, you can’t leave with my sister.” Heather started after them, but Nick grabbed her and held her back.

“Stop it, you little fool,” he said. “We’re lucky to be alive. I assure you Jose Gonzalez doesn’t give second chances.”

“But what about my sister? If he takes her, he’s going to kill her.”

“Which is why I’m going to stop him, but not by running after him and his armed bodyguards when I have no weapons.” He handed the phone to her and rattled off a number. “Call Dante and tell him what’s going on. Tell him not to shoot at the house. I don’t want us blown up. And stay right behind me.”

She hurried after him as he headed down the long hallway. She punched the buttons he’d told her and held the phone to her ear as he led her into a bedroom. She waited for the call to go through. Nick yanked open drawers and rummaged through them. Then he headed into the walk-in closet.

“What are you looking for?” she asked.

“Guns,” he called out, his voice muffled.

The phone crackled in Heather’s ear and Dante’s voice came on the line. Heather hurriedly interrupted him. “Sir, this is Heather Bannon. I’m with Agent Nick Morgan. We—”

Heather gasped and clutched the phone to her ear. Lily stood in the doorway, holding a pistol. One side of her face was covered in blood. The gun dropped from her fingers and fell to the carpet.

“I’m sorry,” Lily gasped. “For everything. I got so screwed up. I never meant to hurt you. I just wanted to scare you.” She coughed. Blood dribbled out of her mouth and dripped down her chin. “Help me.” Her eyes rolled up in her head.

“Nick!” Heather screamed. She lunged forward and caught her sister as she crumpled to the floor.

Chapter Fifteen

Gunshots erupted outside the house, the rat-a-tat-tat of automatic weapon fire. Heather cradled her sister’s unconscious body and scooted farther down into the cast-iron claw-footed tub. Hot tears slid down her face and plopped onto her sister’s hair.

Seeing Heather look so devastated was killing Nick inside, but he couldn’t worry about her feelings right now. He’d be lucky if he kept her from being killed, because Armageddon was taking place outside the house.

“Why won’t she open her eyes?” she blubbered.

Nick squatted down beside the bathtub. Hopefully it would protect both of the women if any shots came through the bathroom wall. It was the best cover he’d been able to find when the shots started outside.

But if the explosives went off, a fancy tub would be worthless. He needed to get them both out of the house.

Heather looked up at him with wide, tear-bright eyes. “She can’t die, Nick. She can’t die without knowing how much I love her. How sorry I am.”

Nick gritted his teeth. “She knows you love her. And you’ve got nothing to be sorry about. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“But—”

“But nothing. Just wait here. I’m going to see if there’s a way out without running the gauntlet outside. I’ll be right back.”

He ran out of the bathroom and into the hall. He’d reluctantly agreed to put his Kevlar vest back on when Heather had insisted. With the cast-iron tub surrounding her, he figured she was as protected as she’d be in a vest. And he wouldn’t be doing her any good if he got shot and couldn’t come back to help her.

He ducked down under the windows by the front room and hurried to another bathroom at the front of the house, instead of the one at the back where Heather was. The thicker walls of the bathroom would hopefully lend him some protection. He stood in the tub and lifted the blinds to look out the window.

Dante’s men were in a firefight. What neither Dante nor Nick knew was exactly who they were fighting—Luis’s men or Jose’s men. When Heather had called Dante, his men were already landing on the island. A few minutes later, the gunfire started.

Nick peeked out the window and watched the woods. He counted five different gunmen from his vantage point, based on the muzzle flashes.

A pinging noise sounded and he ducked back, cursing at the small hole in the Sheetrock just inches from where he’d been standing. Another bullet pinged through the wall. He dived down onto the floor, using the tub as a shield. Two more bullets shot into the room. Someone must have seen him looking out the window.

Going out the front was suicide. He needed to find another way for Heather and Lily to get out of the house. He grabbed the cell phone Jose had given him earlier and punched Dante’s number.

“Dante,” a breathless voice answered.

“It’s Nick. We’re pinned down in here, and if Luis’s statements can be trusted, this whole place is wired with explosives. What the hell is going on? I’ve got gunfire coming through the walls.”

“It’s not from us. I swear it’s like someone’s purposely shooting at the house. We’re trying to take them out. We’ve spotted both of the Gonzalez brothers a few times, but they’ve got a lot of men protecting them. I can only assume their men are either shooting it out with each other or us. Hell, I don’t know who’s shooting at whom. It’s a screwed-up catastrophe out here.”

Nick swore again. “Luis must have had more men hiding in the woods when he came in here. He said he wanted to blow up the house. I’ve got to get the women out of here. What’s the situation out back?”

“Not much better than out front. Your best bet might be to hang low and wait it out.”

Another bullet pinged through the wall. The ceramic sink shattered, raining dust and needlelike shards all over the room. Nick covered his head, hissing as the shards pricked his skin like a hundred volts of electricity all over his arms.

“We’re sitting ducks in here. I’m taking the women out the east side of the house into the woods. We’ll head to the water. Can you cover us?”

“I’ll reposition some men. We’ll do what we can.”

“Give me three minutes.”

“You got it.”

Nick ended the call and shoved the phone back into his pocket. He grabbed one of the towels hanging on a bar above him and raked the ceramic shards from his arms, leaving a bloody trail across his skin.

He tossed the towel down, lunged to his feet and ran into the hallway. He sprinted down the hall back toward the other bathroom. He didn’t want to take the women out into that firestorm outside, but if he could get into the cover of trees, they’d have a much better chance than in here. The house was a death trap of bullets and explosives.

He ran down the hallway and whirled around the corner into the other bathroom.

The tub was empty. Heather and Lily were gone.

* * *

T
HE
SOUND
OF
a voice drifted down the hall. Nick crept forward, following the sound. He held Lily’s gun at his side, pointing to the floor. It was a man’s voice. Luis? Jose? The voice stopped.

Sweat popped out on Nick’s forehead and ran down the side of his face. His gut tightened with dread as he crouched down by the last doorway where the sound had come from. This room was on the back of the house. Thankfully no bullets were pinging through these walls, but there was no guarantee there wouldn’t be at any time. The rat-a-tat gunfire was still strafing across the yard.

He raised his gun and swung around the doorway.

Oh, God. No.

For a moment, time stood still as his mind tried to take in the bloody scene.

Luis Gonzalez sat slumped against the far wall. The only way Nick knew it was Luis was because he wasn’t wearing a suit as Jose had been earlier. His face and chest were covered in blood. Arterial spray covered the ceiling and walls, and blood was still gurgling from the gaping wound in his jugular. The knife Luis had apparently used to cut his own throat lay in his lifeless hand beside him.

And on the floor at his feet lay Lily and Heather. At first, Nick wasn’t even sure which one was which. They were naked, side by side, their eyes closed. It was as if Luis had undressed them and posed them as his last act of vengeance, so no one would be able to tell the two apart.

And they were both covered in blood.

Nick shoved his gun in his holster and ran to the two women. He felt for a pulse. Both of them were still alive, but unconscious.

To the casual eye, the women were identical, especially with their matching tattoos. But Nick knew every inch of Heather’s body. He knew the tiny little round scar on her forehead from when she’d had chicken pox as a child and had scratched herself. He recognized the smattering of freckles on her shoulders from when she’d suffered a serious sunburn a few years ago.

Perhaps the most telling of all were her no-nonsense fingernails, clipped short so they wouldn’t get in her way—unlike Lily’s nails, which were long and perfectly manicured, painted a hot pink.

He sank down next to Heather and gently felt along her body, searching for injuries. When he felt the back of her head, he found a large bump, and his hand came away bloody. He sucked in a sharp breath.

A whisper of sound came from the hallway. Nick grabbed his gun and pointed it at the opening just as Jose Gonzalez stepped into view.

Jose held his arms in the air. His gaze swept the room, his skin turning a pale gray beneath his tan. He stared at his brother a moment. Then he looked above him. If possible, his skin turned even whiter.

“Grab your woman and get out of here,” he said. “Luis started the countdown. The house is going to blow.” He pointed to the far wall.

Nick looked up. He swore when he saw the square box on the wall that resembled a security system keypad. But the bright lights on the readout showed numbers that were counting down.

They had less than a minute.

“Grab Lily. She’s still alive.” Nick shoved his gun in his holster and lifted Heather into his arms. “We’ll make a run for it. My men out front are going to lay down cover fire. We’ll go out the door on the east side and run into the woods.”

Jose slowly shook his head and lowered himself to the floor. He gathered Lily up in his arms and cradled her against him. “No. You go. I’ll stay here with my brother. And the woman I loved.”

“Don’t be a fool. I can’t carry them both, and I won’t have time to come back for her. If you love her, carry her out of here.” He glanced at the readout. “Forty-five seconds. Come on. Let’s go.”

Heather stirred in Nick’s arms. She moaned and opened her eyes. She gasped in recognition. “Nick, what are...” She turned her head and let out a scream. She squirmed and struggled in Nick’s arms, but he held her tight so she couldn’t get down.

“Let me go!” she yelled, her voice breaking on a sob. “Please. I have to help Lily.”

“Jose,” Nick urged. “Come on. We only have thirty seconds!”

“Thirty seconds?” Heather whispered, confusion in her tone.

Jose laughed bitterly. “This little firefight has brought down my empire. You and I both know I’ll never see the light of day if I go to prison. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen, but it did. Luis turned some of my own men against me. I’m finished whether I go to prison or not. At least this way, I’ll be with the woman I love. Now go. Get out of here. You may have already waited too late.”

Nick looked at the numbers counting down and cursed viciously. He whirled around and ran out the door, up the hallway.

Heather twisted and flailed in his arms. “No, no, don’t leave my sister. Nick, oh, God, please don’t leave her there!”

The devastation and panic in her voice were like shards of glass to his soul. He steeled himself against her heartbreaking pleas and ran outside.

“Let me go, put me down. I have to help her!”

Nick ran across the side yard. Gunshots continued to ring out, but Dante must have provided the cover he’d promised because none of the bullets hit him or Heather. He clasped her hard against him to quell her struggles so he wouldn’t fall while he ran into the woods.

Once on the path, he tossed her on his shoulder, steeling himself against her tearful sobs and pleading to go back for her sister.

He grabbed his cell phone and punched Dante’s number, running as fast as his legs could carry him through the thick brush.

When Dante’s voice came on the line, Nick yelled into the receiver. “Get your men back from the house, now. It’s going to blow!”

He dropped the phone and clutched Heather against him, running faster, faster. The sparkle of blue-green water beckoned in a break in the trees. He yanked Heather back down off his shoulder, clasped her to his chest and jumped into the water.

The world exploded in a fiery ball around them.