"The office is closed," she said as she came nearer. "I was hoping there was a restroom."
Slade held out his hand. If she"d called anyone, that could mean trouble. Ten minutes and they would be out of here. Still, ten minutes could be a lifetime when every second counted.
She acted confused at first, then she placed the phone in his hand. The expression on her face warned that she"d sensed his distrust. "I didn"t call anyone."
He tucked the phone into his pocket. "There"s a restroom inside the hangar."
He waited while she took care of business. The pilot readied the plane. When Maggie joined Slade outside once more, he said, "Let"s go ahead and board."
The plane"s engine roared to life as they approached. Maggie hesitated and looked to Slade. He waited for her to get right with this step. He"d said all there was to say. This was the only option. He had to a.s.sume since an ambush hadn"t been waiting that this phase of his arrangements hadn"t been compromised. That was the best he could do.
Slade took the steps to the plane first, had a look around inside and then offered a hand to Maggie. When she was inside, he pulled in the steps and secured the door.
"Ready?" the pilot asked.
Slade gave him a nod as he settled in for the flight. Once they approached Mexico City he would give the pilot an alternate airfield for the landing. He wouldn"t like it since the change would deviate from the flight plan he"d filed, but he would get over it.
If he didn"t, Slade would handle the landing himself. He hadn"t operated an aircraft this size, but he was a quick study.
Maggie leaned her head back and closed her eyes. She would have questions. That she saved them for later was fortunate. The pilot didn"t need any additional details to pa.s.s along if questioned later.
Slade had resources south of the border, but none like McCain. Weapons, ammo, ID, rudimentary gear and ground transportation. Nothing more. Basically, once they hit the ground in Mexico they were on their own. There was one place he felt confident about leaving Maggie, but he had to be sure that avenue was still viable.
Mexico. Under the circ.u.mstances, most would be running in the other direction. But not Slade. He fully understood that running would be futile at this point. Maybe if he were still on his own he could manage. His gaze settled on Maggie. But not now.
Now he had just once chance... Kill the Dragon before she killed him.
Chapter Six.
Chicago, 2:00 p.m.
"Lucas."
Lucas jerked from his troubling thoughts. "Yes?" He focused on the faces around the conference table in Victoria"s office. "You were saying...?"
Victoria"s worried gaze settled on his, and Lucas managed a dim smile. The last thing she needed right now was to worry about him. Simon Ruhl and Ian Michaels, Victoria"s seconds in command here at the agency, were briefing them on the Keaton situation. None of the news was good. Lucas felt a cramp of new frustration.
"Jim received confirmation that, thankfully, there were no victims as a result of the explosion," Simon explained. "Only property damage. Unfortunately, that"s the only good news we have."
"Still, that"s a tremendous relief." Victoria"s shoulders sagged, confirming the reprieve she felt at hearing the news.
Ian Michaels picked up the briefing. "Maggie James appears to have vanished. None of her employees has heard from her. Her a.s.sistant manager allowed me to check her apartment and it appears untouched. Her personal belongings seem to be in order." He glanced at his notes. "My contact says there have been no transactions on any of her credit cards or her bank card. However, her car and purse were found at the bus station downtown. There was no indication of foul play other than the ominous facts that her keys were in the ignition and her purse was abandoned."
"There have been no public-transportation arrangements in her name or Keaton"s," Simon added. "That doesn"t mean one of those routes hasn"t been utilized. We know that Keaton has operated under numerous aliases."
"What about this woman referred to as the Dragon?" Victoria asked.
That she glanced at Lucas as she stated the moniker twisted the misery already writhing in his gut. He had brought this new menace to Victoria"s door. His every effort to determine the threat Keaton represented had proved futile. And it had cost numerous lives. For the first time in his adult life Lucas felt helpless. The admission, even if only to himself, sliced through his heart like a newly forged dagger.
"What about you, Lucas?"
Lucas turned to Ian. Both he and Simon had been with Victoria for a very long time. Either man would gladly lay down his life for this woman. As would Lucas. "I spoke with Thomas Casey this morning." Thomas and Lucas had once worked together in the CIA"s most elite covert unit-the Specialists. Thomas was also the uncle of Casey Manning, Lucas"s G.o.ddaughter. "Based on the incident in Acapulco, the CIA believes she is somewhere in Mexico. For the past ten years there has been no doc.u.mented activity related to her. Most consider her deceased, as did I. There is no evidence that Keaton is her son or that the woman called Alayna, whom Stark and Casey encountered in Acapulco, is her daughter."
Lucas heaved a weary breath. "That said, there is no evidence to the contrary, either. In fact, outside the club she owned, there is no evidence Alayna exists at all. The same goes for Keaton. What we know of his life here the past two years is all there is, it seems."
Victoria shook her head. "How can this be?"
The worry weighing on his wife hurt Lucas more than any other aspect of this business. That Keaton had obviously taken an innocent victim deeply disturbed him. They had to find Maggie and help her. If she didn"t realize the danger around her, she would very soon. Then it might be too late.
"We"ll keep you posted on any updates we receive," Simon offered, winding up the briefing.
Lucas thanked both men as they left Victoria"s office.
Victoria sat, as Lucas had been minutes ago, lost in her own troubling thoughts. He reached across the table and took her hand. She lifted her gaze to his.
"We will find them. Then we"ll have our answers."
"Is she the one trying to kill Keaton?"
Lucas wished he could answer that question with any measure of accuracy. "That is the consensus." Victoria knew this the same as he did. There were other questions she wanted to ask. If he was brave enough, he would give her the answers without her having to ask. But just now he lacked the courage to say the words that might in any way hurt her further.
"Is there any chance she will fade into obscurity like before?" The hope that flickered in Victoria"s eyes thrust the knife deeper into Lucas"s chest.
"She won"t stop until she"s finished what she started." That he knew with complete certainty. Though his personal a.s.sociation with her was limited, he knew her reputation well.
Victoria fell silent again. For several moments she seemed lost in thought once more, then she returned her attention to him. "Do you know her name?"
Lucas shook his head. "I can"t be certain of anything related to her. In the intelligence-gathering world we work under deep cover, weaving elaborate webs of deception."
"But you had a name for her," Victoria pressed. "She was your lover, Lucas."
The pain in Victoria"s eyes ripped at his heart. "Renae. She called herself Renae back then. That name was never officially connected to her. She has many aliases, all dead ends as far as tracking her activities."
"Is it true that she looks enough like me that we could be sisters?"
Lucas had known this question was coming. To her credit, Victoria had not allowed personal feelings to get in the way of what had to be done. Maggie James needed their help. Slade Keaton needed to answer for his deceptions. The Dragon needed to be stopped. At least three countries had extermination leases on her head.
"There was a time when the resemblance was quite striking," Lucas confessed. He thought back to the evil woman with whom he had foolishly allowed himself to become involved, however briefly. "But she"s nothing like you, Victoria." He squeezed her hand. "Not in any way. She is pure evil."
"Yet," Victoria acknowledged quietly, "you were still drawn to her on some level."
He swallowed back the bitter taste the memories prompted. "There were times when lines were crossed for the sake of the mission."
Victoria smoothed the pad of her thumb over his hand. "I"m aware that accomplishing the mission required great sacrifice at times."
"That"s true." He couldn"t allow the question she wanted to ask to trouble her a moment longer. The answer, however, carried baggage of its own. "Victoria." He waited until her gaze was locked solidly on his. "I have loved you from the moment I first saw you." A tiny, weary smile tilted her lips. "But you belonged to my best friend, so for more than two decades, I accepted your dear friendship as gift enough."
Tears welled in her dark eyes. The last thing he"d wanted was to add to her pain.
"I love you, Lucas. I genuinely hope I was worth the wait."
Slowly, not taking his eyes off hers, he drew her hand to his lips and placed a kiss there. "Indeed, I would still be waiting if need be. I would gladly wait an eternity for you."
Lucas would protect her with his life. Whatever sacrifice was necessary...he would keep Victoria safe.
Chapter Seven.
Mexico, 5:20 p.m.
Airsickness. Slade thought that was Maggie"s problem. Maybe the turbulence was part of the problem. She hoped this morning was no indication of how the first trimester of this pregnancy was going to go. Her sisters had complained at great length about their morning sickness experiences. More bouts like this and Slade might become suspicious. The situation was dire enough; Maggie didn"t need him questioning her. She wasn"t ready to face that decision.
The truth was, she couldn"t say for sure how she would hold up under his questioning. Like an addict, she could resist only so much temptation.
"We"ll wait here for a time."
He scanned the street, then crossed to a seedy cantina nestled between a boarded-up shop and a tourist trap. Maggie followed. A cloud of disbelief hovered around her. Here she was-pregnant and fleeing from a danger she couldn"t comprehend, with a man she couldn"t trust.
A smart woman would have made a run for it back at the motel or the airfield... Apparently she wasn"t so smart. Maggie kept hanging on to the thread of remote possibility that there was a perfectly logical explanation for all this. Maybe he was a spy who couldn"t blow his cover.
Right, and she was a Bond girl.
Her Spanish ranked right around deplorable. Slade"s, on the other hand, was incredible. And not just his ability to speak and to understand the words. He spoke the language as if it were his mother tongue, with flair and confidence. She"d had no idea. Something else to add to her "didn"t know" list.
They had hitched a ride from the airfield with a local who traveled among the private airfields on the outskirts of Mexico City picking up what he called gringos and hauling them to the city. For a fee, of course. Considering Maggie would wager her savings that the airfield at which they had arrived-the same one the pilot had resisted diverting to-was unofficial, she imagined they were viewed as anything but tourists or business travelers to the guy. Apparently, as long as they paid, that was all that mattered. The most unsettling part was how adept Slade appeared at handling all these by-the-seat-of-his-pants maneuvers.
Slade had instructed the driver to drop them off far from the center of the city. This little neighborhood was definitely way, way off the main street. One last time she surveyed the narrow cobblestone path that was so unlike the streets back home, then she went inside. There were somewhat sleazy areas like this one in Chicago; most big cities had their not-so-charming districts. The broken-down storefronts and graffiti-covered walls, the hustlers on the street, some young enough to be in elementary school, were par for the course in areas like that. The occasional food and trinket shop reminded her of Chinatown back home, only this area wasn"t as clean.
Maggie chastised herself for having such a low opinion of a place she"d never before visited. Frankly, all that she"d heard on the news lately about the area contributed to that. Still, she should keep an open mind.
Slade surveyed the vacant tables and gestured to one. "You want something to eat?" He sat down in the chair across from her, the door within his view.
Maggie knew she should eat, but after the unpleasant episode at breakfast and then the trouble in flight, she wasn"t so sure she wanted a repeat performance. Besides, who knew what they served in a place like this. Mostly tequila, she imagined. The few patrons stationed around the place appeared to be more interested in the drinks the cantina offered than any food that might be on the menu.
She shook her head. "Maybe later."
"I"ll be right back." Slade stood and walked to the counter.
Maggie watched as he ordered two of something. He pulled out his cell phone and took a call. He kept his back to her for most of the conversation, not that she could read lips, but she would have liked to observe his face. Right. Like she could have accurately read anything he allowed her to see there. She was about as good at discerning his thoughts and mood as she was at understanding the local language. She picked up the occasional word here and there but otherwise she was in the dark. The language barrier made being here under the circ.u.mstances even more daunting.
Eventually he returned to the table, a bottle of water in each hand. Maggie"s throat tightened. Water would be good. She"d had a bottle on the plane, but she hadn"t been able to keep it down. Her luck might prove better now that her feet were planted firmly on the ground.
In Mexico.
What would her staff think? They would be frantic. And if one of her sisters happened to call or received a call from one of her employees or the police... Maggie didn"t even want to think about that. The last thing she wanted was for her family to worry.
"Thank you." Maggie accepted the offered refreshment. She wanted to ask what happened now, but she"d figured out that he would tell her what he wanted her to know when he wanted her to know it. For now, there wasn"t a lot she could do about the situation. That said, her job was to pay attention just in case she found herself on her own at some point before this was over. The idea that Slade could be killed sent a new wave of misery washing over her.
She had been tempted to call for help while she"d had Slade"s phone back at the airfield outside St. Louis, but she couldn"t bring herself to do it. An ache echoed deep in her chest. She needed to know more about the trouble he was facing. He"d said the police couldn"t protect them. When she wasn"t in the toilet on the flight, she"d spent a lot of time thinking about how she could help herself and help Slade. She had to call the Colby Agency. If anyone could help them, Victoria and Lucas could. She had watched the Colby Agency in action early last year when the building had been under siege. They had used her coffee shop as a temporary headquarters. No one was better at a.n.a.lyzing and rectifying trouble.
First, she needed to understand what Slade and she were up against. Then she would have to convince him to go along with the idea. She had a feeling she was dreaming on that part.
"I"ve arranged for a car and other supplies."
That was a start. "Is she here? In Mexico?"
He didn"t meet Maggie"s eyes. "She"s here."
Fear erupted into knots in her belly. "Is that why we"re here?"
This time he looked her straight in the eyes. "In part."
She tightened her hold on the bottle to prevent him from seeing her tremble. "What does she want?"
Three, four, then five seconds ticked off. "She wants me."
A crushing sensation settled in Maggie"s chest. "You said the less I know the better, but-" she chewed her lower lip "-does she have a score to settle with you? Was there a falling-out between the two of you? Is she angry over something you did?"
He leaned forward, looked down a moment as if searching for patience or perhaps the proper words. "That I"m breathing disturbs her."
Maggie prodded her voice around the lump in her throat. "How long has this been...an issue?"
"Long time." He relaxed into his chair and took a long swallow of the water.
How could he be so relaxed? "You"ve successfully avoided her all this time?"
He stared at Maggie, a.n.a.lyzing her but giving away nothing of his own thoughts. "You"re treading into territory that won"t give you the definitiveness you"re looking for. It"s a waste of energy."
What was that supposed to mean? "Why can"t you disappear the way you have before? Avoid the confron tation rather than running straight into it?" If he had avoided her for so many years, he had to have relocated numerous times. Obviously he possessed the necessary skills and resources. Why was he walking right into the fire now?
Those dark gray eyes bored into hers. "There are complications this time. I made a mistake by staying in one place too long. Now I can"t run."
She-Maggie-was the mistake he"d made. Misery heaped onto her chest. "What can you do?"
More of those trauma-filled seconds elapsed. Maggie waited on pins and needles. Who was this woman to him? Why did she want to harm him?
"There"s only one thing I can do."