No Easy Target Page 15

  “What do you mean?”

  “I believe … that they could read each other. Maybe Celia couldn’t read any other animals, but the love was so strong between them that she could bond with Juno.”

  “Oh for God’s sake.” He was silent, thinking about it. “But wouldn’t that make Juno more likely to bond with you?”

  She made a face. “If it didn’t confuse her. She recognized that I was more like Celia than any other person she’d ever been around but that I wasn’t her. That’s why she keeps saying it. It’s a reminder that would constantly hurt, that she won’t accept.”

  “But she’ll accept other people?”

  “She can’t help herself. I told you: She’s all love. It’s been a while since she lost her Celia. She just has to be shown the world is still a good place. She’ll accept me, too, in time. When she’s ready.”

  “And in the meantime, Cambry is your stand-in?”

  “I couldn’t be with Juno all the time anyway.” She moistened her lips. “I told you that. Not on Nicos’s island.” She glanced at him. “Unless you were able to figure out that password? Cambry said you were going to join us later because you had an idea about going in a new direction about that.”

  “Now you’re interested?” He shook his head. “You didn’t give me much time to figure out anything before Cambry phoned me to rescue Juno.”

  “I had to get her out of there. I didn’t stop him because I thought you might have more experience than Cambry.”

  “It appears we all have our places in your agenda,” he said sardonically.

  “I had to save her,” she said soberly. “Just as we have to save Patrick. It’s all life. I’m sorry I didn’t give you time to work this morning.”

  “I had time, just not enough. But I was able to shoot off a couple orders to my think tank in Silicon Valley before you yanked me out of that motel. They should be working on it now.”

  “Working on what? What was this new direction?”

  “Same goal—information. New path. It was taking too long to find that password. Even if I let you go to Vadaz Island to buy time and try to locate that password in Nicos’s office computer, it could be an involved process and might take too long.” He looked at her. “And you could get caught because you ran out of time.”

  “I’d be careful. I wouldn’t get—”

  “It’s too complicated,” he said, interrupting her. “And too dangerous for you. It’s better to simplify.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We’re not going to search for the password. We’re going to go after the computer wizard who created that file for Nicos. Who would know better than he what that password is?”

  “No one.” Her mind was moving from possibility to possibility. “If we can find him.”

  “Would Nicos have opted to keep him on the island in case he needed him?”

  “He never kept outside techs on the island while I was there. He only used them infrequently and made sure they were intimidated enough so that there would be no question of betrayal. But that might have changed if Juan Salva had his way. Nicos was arrogant and thought no one would ever cross him. Salva was always more cautious.”

  “We’ll have to see if it did change. I’m hoping that it didn’t. Then all I’d have to do is find out who this computer guru is and zero in on him. That’s why I texted the Silicon office to tap into all our resources and try to find a computer genius somewhere out there who is corrupt enough to work for Nicos.”

  “Would you have done it?” she asked suddenly. “I mean, when you were a boy? You said you had a very twisted sense of right and wrong. After all, you hacked into the CIA.”

  “I wasn’t that twisted. The challenge might have tempted me, but I would have walked away from Stan Nicos.” He added, “Like you’re going to be able to do when I get the name of Nicos’s pet computer guru. I’ll make a dozen calls myself and I’ll put pressure on Silicon. Once I get a name and address, we’re on our way.”

  “That will be good.”

  “But you don’t believe it will happen.”

  “I’m afraid to believe it.” She smiled with an effort. “We both know that I have to show up on the island tomorrow or we face the fact that Patrick will be killed. I’m even becoming accustomed to the idea.”

  “Not if I can find that computer expert.”

  “Good luck to you. But you said time was against my finding that password in Nicos’s office. Time’s against you, too, Lassiter.”

  He swore under his breath.

  “I feel like swearing, too,” she said. “But as I said, I’m beginning to be accustomed to the idea of confronting Nicos again. I’m not as afraid as I was. That’s a good thing.”

  “I don’t see anything good about it.”

  “I do.” She glanced back at Cambry and Juno. “Everything okay with you two?”

  “Peachy,” Cambry said. “I just gave her those nutrition pills and she went to sleep. I think she believes I’m boring or just another slave.”

  “She’s comfortable with you. Hey, she’s pregnant and she’s had a rough couple weeks. It’s good that she’s sleeping.”

  “Yeah.” He gently stroked Juno’s throat. “I guess that’s right. And no one ever said I was all that stimulating. Do you know, she reminds me of those French mountain dogs. She doesn’t look like a retriever.”

  “It’s that thick white coat. She’s definitely a retriever.” Margaret glanced back at Lassiter. “She should have another feeding soon. We’re supposed to keep them small today, until she becomes used to eating again. When are we going to land?”

  “Another hour or so.” His lips twisted. “I’m sorry I didn’t consult you with the travel plans. I didn’t realize we had food-schedule priorities. We’ll land south of Cancún at a private airport that I had Nick Mandell, the head of my security team, check out. He’ll leave a rental car beside the hangar and we’ll drive it to a beach property several miles away. It has a beach house and it’s very secluded and should give me the privacy I need to work. Any objections?”

  “No, I like the sound of it,” she said quietly. “I can use privacy and seclusion in the next twenty-four hours. But I thought Cancún was a big tourist mecca.”

  “You haven’t been there? I suspected that you’d hit most of the Latin towns while you were skipping around the Caribbean.”

  She shook her head. “Cancún is big into drugs. I wouldn’t have risked going to any city where Nicos had contacts after I got away from him.” She added, “And when I first came down here from the States, my first stop was Guatemala. I liked it there, so I stayed awhile.”

  “First stop,” he repeated. “And how old were you when you traveled all the way from the States to Central America?”

  “A little younger than you were when you were trying to bilk the CIA.” She grinned. “I was sixteen. I thought of it as a great adventure, too. And I guess it was technically illegal. I didn’t have any papers.”

  “You started that young?”

  “It was a great adventure,” she repeated. “And I didn’t feel all that young. I’d been running from my father and DEFACS for years and I saw it as a chance to get far, far away.”

  “I’d say that Guatemala fits that description.” He was silent. “But I’d bet that something happened to make you take a radical step like going alone to a foreign country.”

  “I never said I was alone.”

  “No, you didn’t, did you?” he said curtly. “It just appeared to be your modus operandi since the moment I began hunting you. And the United States is a big country. Why did you feel you had to find somewhere else to hide? And who was with you?”

  She tilted her head. “Why do you want to know?”

  “It’s always annoyed me that I know only bits and pieces about you. It’s like opening a book in the middle and not knowing the beginning.”

  “Or the end?”

  “Not the end. You’ll have plenty of years to write that. It will probab
ly be an epic. I just want to catch up.”

  And for some reason, it was important to him, she could see. Just as it had been important for her to know about his background, the way he thought and felt. She had fought that desire to know him, to let herself open to him, but now there was no reason why she should do it any longer. They were too close, with an intimacy that had been born of what she was and what he needed from her.

  So give him what he wanted. Not everything. She had to keep the walls high if she was going to survive going back to Nicos.

  “When I was thirteen, I met a couple who lived on a farm near Markville, Kentucky. Jason and Marcia Nixon. We … liked each other. They accepted me. They took me in and sent me back to school. I helped out on their farm and they told everyone I was their niece, whose parents had been killed in a car accident.” She cleared her throat. “It was good. And pretty soon I realized that I loved them. I wasn’t used to that. I hadn’t been around people very much since I’d run away. But there it was, and I didn’t know what to do about it. I thought I might even stay with them if I wasn’t in the way. But they didn’t treat me as if I were a burden. I think they might have loved me, too. It looked as if it was going—” She drew a deep breath. “But DEFACS traced me to the school where I was enrolled. One day my father showed up at the farm and was shouting and threatening the Nixons with a lawsuit.”

  “And what did you do?”

  “I picked up a frying pan and hit him over the head. Then, before he could regain consciousness, I packed a bag and took off.”

  “Frying pan,” Lassiter repeated. “Excellent decision. Except for the running away. Wouldn’t the Nixons have fought for you?”

  “It was my place to fight for them. I didn’t want to cause them trouble. And my father would have given them nothing but problems. It was time to move on.”

  “Guatemala?”

  “Not then. I headed south and ended up in New Orleans. I got a job at a petting zoo and worked there for six months. Then I met a girl, Rosa Gonzalez, who worked behind the refreshment stand there. She was a little older than I was, but we struck up a friendship. She was fun and made me laugh. She lived in Guatemala City and she said her father had a speedboat that he used to transport ‘clients’ back and forth from New Orleans to Guatemala.”

  “Clients without proper documents, I assume?”

  She nodded. “I didn’t care about that. I’d been traveling without documents myself since the time I ran away from home. The only time I got into trouble was when the Nixons falsified my birth certificate to get me into that school near their home. Anyway, Rosa was going back home at the end of the summer and asked me if I wanted to go with her.”

  “And you saw a great adventure looming.”

  “And a way to get below the radar if my father was still looking for me. There wasn’t much chance that he wouldn’t be. It seemed a perfect solution.”

  “And was it a great adventure?”

  “At first. Rosa was kind to me, and so was her mother. I grew to love them both. I had a good time that year.”

  “Only at first?”

  She shrugged. “Sometimes perfect solutions don’t turn out so perfect. Things happen.”

  “What things?”

  Time to back away. “You’ve had the beginning, Lassiter. Be satisfied.”

  “I want more.”

  “And I don’t want to give it. Maybe when I get back from Vadaz Island, I’ll be ready.”

  He stiffened. “You’re not going to—” He stopped. “You’re trying to distract me.”

  “Yes.” She leaned back in the seat. “And it worked really well. You’re beset with guilt these days. Of course, you should be, considering how you started with me.” She tilted her head. “I’ll make a bargain. You find either the password or the name of our computer whiz before you have to turn me over to Nicos and I’ll tell you how the perfect solution turned sour.”

  He flinched. “That hurt.”

  “Yes, it did. It’s meant to spur you on.”

  It wasn’t the truth; she knew that he didn’t need anything to drive him any harder. “Maybe I’m getting tired of having you know everything about me. I’ll make you work for it from now on.”

  And keep the pain at bay as long as she could.

  Black-and-white tiles.

  Rosa …

  CHAPTER NINE

  The sand was warm beneath Margaret’s bare feet as she walked toward the front door of the small beach house. She’d taken her shoes off the minute she’d hopped out of the Toyota. She’d seen the blue sea lapping up to the beach as they’d driven up to the house and felt the sunlight strong and pure as it touched her face.

  She needed this. It might be the last time she could relax and enjoy these natural wonders until she got off Vadaz Island. There would be only tension there, and Nicos had managed to taint even the beauty of the island with his ugliness.

  “You look like you did that afternoon on the ship when you took your swim.” Lassiter grinned and glanced at her bare feet as he unlocked the door. “All golden and ready to face the sharks.”

  “They never came. You scared them away with your big bad gun.” She glanced back at Cambry, who had chosen to feed Juno beside the car and was now walking slowly toward them to accommodate the dog’s sprain.

  Cambry grimaced as he saw her looking at him. “Don’t say it.”

  “I was just thinking you’d found your true vocation,” she called back to him as she entered the house.

  Just one large living area with a kitchenette, a long spice-colored couch, a round oak dining table, and five chairs. There were three doors opening off the central room that presumably led to bedrooms or baths. Nothing luxurious. But there were also huge, wide French doors opening to the beach. That was luxury enough for Margaret.

  “You like it?” Lassiter asked, his gaze on her face as she wandered toward the French doors. “I can see you do. I’ll tell Nick Mandell that he did well.”

  “When do I meet this Mandell?” she asked as she threw open the doors to let in the sunlight. “He’s clearly a man who knows what’s important.”

  “In more ways than one,” Lassiter said. “He’s the most lethal man I know with a Remington 700 rifle. He can pick off a target at over a thousand yards. He was invaluable to our team in Afghanistan.” He threw his backpack on the couch and grabbed his computer equipment bag. “As for when you’ll meet him, it depends on how soon we locate Nicos’s computer expert and I squeeze the information out of him. We’ll be moving fast then.”

  “Yes, I guess we will.” She lifted her face to the sunlight. It felt so good.… “You got a text right after you landed. Your people in Silicon Valley? Were they able to give you any help?”

  “Too much help. Too many names. I told them to refine and narrow down the list. I’ll be working on it myself now that we’ve landed. One of those rooms is supposed to be an office where I can set up.” He paused. “You seem very subdued. Are you okay?”

  She turned to look at him. “Fine.”

  He frowned. “Is there anything I can do for you?”

  “You’re doing it.” She nodded at the computer bag. “I’ve taken care of myself all my life, Lassiter. What makes you think I need anyone else now?”

  “How the hell do I know? Maybe because I feel as if it’s time someone stepped in and gave you a hand. As far as I can see, that’s not been happening.” He shook his head. “And I don’t like it that you’re so damn quiet.”

  “You’ll forget all about it once you start working. Most of the time, you have your priorities straight.” She went outside and started to walk down toward the sea. “I’m fine, Lassiter.”

  She could feel his gaze on her back until she reached the surf. Then she closed him out as she rolled up the legs of her khaki pants and started wading through the water. Warm sand and cool water and blue sky. It was all soothing and healing and promising that life was good now, no matter what happened tomorrow.

  So block th
e thought of Nicos out for this brief period. Build her walls and make her preparations.

  And let life weave around her, through her, reminding her that she had something to finish that should have been finished three years ago.…

  * * *

  The sun was going down in a blaze of glory over the horizon when Margaret heard Cambry behind her, coming down from the house.

  “Hey, I brought you a cup of coffee and a sandwich,” he said. “I gave up on you coming back to the house for a decent supper. It seemed as if you were communing with nature, and heaven forbid I interfere with that.”

  She looked over her shoulder and saw him standing a few yards behind her, carrying a thermos and the sandwich. Beside him was Juno, who was sitting looking at her with head cocked.

  “Thanks.” She took the thermos. “It was nice of you to bother. It was too beautiful out here to go inside.”

  “No problem. I didn’t have anything else to do. Lassiter hasn’t stuck his head out of that office since we got here. Actually, it was Juno’s fault. I was having trouble with her. She saw you out here and wanted to come down to you.”

  “She did?”

  “And don’t blame me for not letting her rest that leg. She was being a pain in the ass.” His hand went down to stroke the dog’s head. “She’s pregnant. I figured maybe she was having problems with the pups or something. What do you think?”

  She looked at the retriever.

  Pups, Juno?

  The retriever moved a step nearer to Margaret.

  No, you.

  That was a surprise.

  Why?

  The answer came in a confused barrage of concepts and words.

  Hurting. You’re not her. But you’re hurting. Need me.

  Margaret felt a rush of warmth and affection as she gazed at the retriever. Pure love. The need to heal. The need to give whatever was required … forever.

  And she couldn’t refuse what Juno wanted to give. Because fulfilling that need might also heal the dog.

  Yes, I do need you. Will you stay with me for a little while?

  Juno limped forward and dropped down beside Margaret.

  “Have I lost a dog?” Cambry asked ruefully.