Chapter 8

 

Callum McKay was in his office when Benson Security’s resident computer expert rushed in. Callum and one of his three business partners, Rachel Ford-Talbot, looked up from their notes to frown at the blue-haired woman.

“I know.” Elle held up her hand—the other one was clutching her laptop. “No interrupting, but this is serious stuff.”

She plopped the laptop on the desk and her fingers flew over the keyboard.

“What’s going on?” Lake Benson, the original owner of the company and ex-SAS soldier, demanded from the phone in the middle of the desk.

Elle gave it a guilty glance. “Were you having a conference call?”

Callum glared at her while he spoke to Lake. “Elle’s got some important news.”

“About?” Lake asked.

Callum cocked an eyebrow at his hacker.

“The situation in Peru,” Elle said before looking back at her screen.

“We’re calling it a situation now?” There was an unvoiced groan in Lake’s words. “The London office isn’t even officially open and you guys are on your second case. Second unpaid case. The building, which we were in the middle of renovating, already needs to be redone because the last unpaid case caused someone to set off a bomb in it. I’m beginning to regret expanding the business.”

“Not as much as I regret being dragged into your expansion,” Callum grumbled.

Rachel rolled her eyes with the sort of drama only a woman dressed in a designer suit and bright red lipstick could pull off. The gesture dripped sarcasm. “Do I have to remind you that all of the problems the new London office are dealing with have come straight from the original Scottish office? The office you head up. If you hadn’t foisted these people on us in the first place, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“Who made you a partner again?” Lake asked.

“I did.” Rachel studied her perfectly manicured nails. The woman was a trust fund darling with the personality of a bad-tempered cobra and the instincts of a shark hunting prey. When she’d decided that Benson Security needed a holistic personal protection section to care for the needs of women who wanted security, none of the three male partners had the guts to stop her buying into the company.

“Although this partnership dynamic is fascinating,” Elle said, risking life and limb in the process, “I need to show you this.”

She turned the laptop towards them. There was an image of a man, taken from a distance with a high-powered lens, on one side of the screen, and on the other was a long list of names.

“What are we looking at?” Callum racked his brain, trying to figure out if he recognised the face.

“You’re looking at a list of people who were murdered after dealing with Carlos Esteban,” Elle said, and Lake sucked in a breath, making the hair on the back of Callum’s neck stand on end.

“You know this guy, Lake?” Callum asked.

“I know of him.” Lake’s tone was deadly. “He heads up one of the more vicious South American cartels. It’s smaller than some of them, but it’s growing in power—mainly through violence.”

Callum stilled. “Joe sent me a message an hour ago saying he thought the cartel might be involved.”

“Oh, it’s involved, all right,” Elle said. “I remote-hacked the phone that was delivered to Julia’s hotel room, and the call came from the heart of a compound owned by the Esteban cartel. Carlos Esteban is definitely holding Alice hostage, and he’s serious about getting his hands on that mummy.”

“Why wasn’t I told about this?” Rachel fixed Callum with an icy stare. “As far as I was aware, Joe and Julia were on a personal trip to South America, in order to get a crazy family member out of jail.”

“They were,” Callum said. “The jail problem morphed into a hostage situation, which Elle here has been investigating.”

“And now that hostage situation has turned into a clusterfuck involving a cartel,” Lake said.

“Consider yourself informed,” Callum told Rachel.

Her eyes narrowed in a way that made it clear she was plotting his demise.

“So,” Elle said into the silence, “you want to know the rest?”

Callum broke his stare-off with Rachel to look at his hacker. The subject matter was at odds with her blue hair and bright pink Hello Kitty t-shirt.

“Spill,” he said.

“Carlos Esteban is known for never letting a hostage live. Not only that, but he’s known to wipe out anyone he does business with, after he gets what he wants from them. The last business deal he made ended in a hotel blowing up in Arequipa. All guests killed—including the three men Esteban had business with.” She stared at each of them in turn, her blue eyes wider than usual. “There hasn’t been one recorded instance of someone dealing with Esteban and walking away. They either become part of his operation for life, or they die. There is no middle ground.”

A heavy silence filled the room.

“You have any luck tracking down help for them in Peru?” Callum asked Lake.

“Everybody I trust is tied up in something else and can’t get away. I have one more option I can tap for emergency help, but that’s it.”

Callum and Rachel stared at each other for a moment. There were times when he could almost feel the witch read his mind. This was one of those times.

“I’ll call Father and see if I can borrow his jet again.” Rachel stood, pulling her phone from her designer bag as she did so. She started to talk as she strode from the room.

“I’ll dig up everything I can on Esteban.” Elle grabbed her computer and followed Rachel.

“You taking the whole team?” Lake said.

“Megan’s still healing from the bullet to her leg,” Callum said. An injury from their last unplanned op. “She can stay here with Dimitri and man the store.” He didn’t mention that Dimitri’s traumatised sister would be there too. Both men knew that Katrina wasn’t anywhere near ready to leave the security of the building. And neither of them would take her into another dangerous situation. Not after everything she’d gone through at the hands of her kidnapper. “Rachel can handle the interviews we have set up.”

“So everybody else, then,” Lake said. “Keep me posted. Let me know if I need to call in emergency help.”

“Thanks.” Callum stood, ready to shut the call off.

“Be careful,” Lake said. “Elle only scraped the surface when she described Esteban. The guy is smart, ruthless and evil. Don’t underestimate him. He is completely relentless when it comes to getting what he wants.”

Callum felt a cold dread settle in his chest. “I’ll call you on the other side.”

With a click, he ended the call and went to pack—texting Joe as he did, to let him know help was on its way.