Chapter 9

 

It had been two hours since their last meeting, and now the Benson Security team assembled in the ballroom once again. Ryan noted that this time, the family members who weren’t part of the team were missing. Coffee was flowing freely, and a buffet table had been set up near the bar, laden with finger food. Ryan had helped himself to a plate full of sandwiches, pastries and cake. He planned to go back for seconds.

“They have fruit, too,” Elle pointed out as he sat back down beside her.

“Fruit doesn’t fill you. You need stodge for that.”

She shook her head. The programming genius had changed out of her party dress and into a pair of purple shorts that sported a vintage Minnie Mouse pattern, and a yellow T-shirt with ‘Ka Pow!’ in a jagged cartoon bubble, printed across her chest.

“See you took the time to get back into your work clothes,” Ryan said around a mouthful of food.

She answered him with a hand gesture before she went back to typing.

“You managed to narrow the location down?” Ryan nodded with thanks when a waitress refilled his mug with coffee. She made him think of Esperanza, and he wondered if she was still in his bed, waiting for him. He hadn’t had a minute to check. He’d been running around with Harvard trying to sort out supplies for the rescue effort. Man, he hoped she was still in his bed. And he wished he was back there with her.

“Yes,” Elle said. “It’s still a large area, but I called in some favours, and we should be getting satellite imagery through soon. Maybe we can see a settlement, or some buildings, to give us a clue where they’re keeping our people.”

Ryan let out a whistle before taking a sip of coffee. Caffeine. Just what the doctor ordered. “What kind of favours did you do that gives you access to satellites? And whose satellites are we talking about?”

She smiled, her eyes still on her computer screen. “That’s need-to-know. And you don’t. Plus, I didn’t say they were favours I was owed. I just said someone at Benson Security was owed favours. Big favours. Satellite-sized favours.”

Ryan bet he knew who it was. Benson Security’s silent partner, Harry Boyle. The guy was an IT genius, who’d written security programs for the British government, among others. He wasn’t involved in the day-to-day business at Benson—he spent his time helping his wife run a charity that worked for greater literacy in Africa—but that didn’t mean he didn’t have fingers in pies that could be useful. Speaking of pies… Ryan picked up a tiny meat one and popped it in his mouth.

“Listen up,” Lake called, and all talk stopped instantly. Every eye in the room turned to him as he looked at the waitstaff. “Please leave us.”

They didn’t have to be told twice. The group of men and women scurried from the room.

As they went out, a tall South American guy, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, sauntered into the room. He headed straight for Lake and took up a position at his side. Lake waited until the doors closed behind the waitstaff before he started speaking again. “This is Rodrigo De la Cruz. I have it on good authority that he’s the best tracker and guide in South America.”

“That would be my authority,” De la Cruz said with a grin.

Lake didn’t smile. “David sent him.”

Elle’s head jerked up on hearing the name of the man she’d been hunting for online for months. Even using the DNA sample David had taunted her with, Ryan knew she was no closer to finding out who the mysterious man really was, or which government he worked for. When Elle realised that David hadn’t accompanied De la Cruz, her shoulders slumped. Ryan wasn’t sure what was going on with David and Elle, but he knew he’d sneaked into her bedroom in Scotland months earlier and warned her to stop hunting him—by securing her with pink fluffy handcuffs, no less.

Ryan leaned in and whispered, “Maybe he’ll turn up later.”

She shrugged. It was forced. “No biggie.”

Yeah, right.

“Elle,” Lake said. “You got anything else for us?”

“I have satellite pictures coming in right now,” she replied. “Give me a minute to go through them. I might be able to narrow this location down even further.”

“Impressive,” De la Cruz said. He spoke English with an American accent, but Ryan would guess it wasn’t his first language. It was his mannerisms more than anything. Americans weren’t generally as expressive when they spoke.

Megan plopped into seat on the other side of Elle. “At least David sent some eye candy in his place. Damn, that man is hot!”

Her husband, who stood behind her, tugged her hair.

“What?” she demanded as she looked up at him. “He’s the sexiest Latino guy I’ve seen since Ricky Martin. And I’m still upset that he plays for the other team. In fact, women everywhere are still upset about that.”

Dimitri smiled and shook his head, leaving Ryan to wonder, once again, why any man would take Megan on.

“Megan,” Lake said with a long-suffering sigh. Sometimes, Ryan forgot that, living in the same small town in Scotland, Lake had watched Megan grow up.

“What?” Megan said.

“Want to keep your voice down? Nobody cares how hot De la Cruz is.”

“I do,” De la Cruz said. He winked at Megan.

Dimitri let out a threatening rumble, and Megan looked up at him. “Don’t worry, baby. Nobody is hotter than you.”

“And this is why we shouldn’t let couples on the team,” Callum said. “It’s distracting and unprofessional.” He shook his head. “I wish I was back in the army,” he said at the same time as everyone from the London office.

He glared at them as laughter broke out.

“Okay, settle down,” Lake said with a grin. “It’s good to let off steam, but we need to focus. Elle?”

She was studying the photos on her screen. “Can the new guy come look at this?”

De la Cruz didn’t wait for permission—he strode around the table and came to stand behind Elle. He peered over her shoulder and tensed. “What’s the location?”

She tapped her keyboard and brought up a map. He nodded.

“Go back to that photo,” he said. An aerial view of an encampment surrounded by jungle appeared on the screen.

It seemed like everyone present was holding their breath while they waited to hear what the man had to say.

“Zoom in, bonita,” he muttered. “Scroll left. Zoom again.” He stiffened before standing straight. “It’s the Martinez family for sure. I recognise their setup. All of their jungle camps look exactly like this one. Each camp is isolated and rigged to blow if it’s penetrated by the enemy. The only access in or out is by boat, and usually the river is a hike from the camp.” He looked at the photo again. “This one is closer to the water than most. But still a good few hours on foot—if you take the shortest route. Days if you head in the other direction.”

“Aren’t they making it hard for themselves to get out of there, if there’s only one way in and out?” Megan said. “If we take their path in, it will be like shooting fish in a barrel.”

De la Cruz shook his head. “They grew up in the jungle. They know the area inside and out. They’ll just scatter into the trees if they’re attacked, and meet up at another encampment later. It’s one of the reasons they’ve been so difficult to eliminate. That and the fact they are merciless in making a name for themselves.” He looked back at Lake. “You know what they do to their kidnap victims?”

“Yeah,” Lake said, but didn’t elaborate.

“I don’t,” Ryan said.

De la Cruz looked down at him, his brown eyes turning black. “They cut and brand the men. They gang rape the women. It’s their way of putting their stamp on their victims and increasing the fear people feel for them. They want people to be terrified of being taken by them. They want to be able to ask for more ransom each time.”

“Shit,” Ryan muttered.

“Yeah,” De la Cruz said.

Lake cleared his throat. “You know where this camp is?”

“With the map and the photos, I can find it.”

Lake nodded. “Then we leave now. Everybody get ready. Gather your gear.”

“Wait.” Rachel Ford-Talbot held up a hand. Ryan noted that Harvard was hovering close to her again. The guy had it bad. “The local chief of police wants to ride along—with a couple of his men. He pointed out that the last time Benson Security was in Peru, there was a bloodbath. He insists his presence will stop that from happening again.”

“That isn’t good,” De la Cruz said. “The local police force is full of guys who’re on the take with the cartels. There’s no way to tell who you can trust.”

Rachel gave him a cool look. She hadn’t bothered changing out of her sparkly red gown, but her clothes didn’t soften her demeanour any. “The police chief says that he will arrest us, shut this retrieval operation down and take over himself, if we don’t comply.” She turned to Lake. “I suggest we comply.”

“He wants the glory,” Callum spat. “He wants to be the one who can say he rescued Belinda Collins.”

“That was my assessment too,” Rachel said. “He’s an unctuous little man. But, as they say in America, he’s the law in these parts. If we want to do our job, we have to play nice.”

“We don’t say that in America,” Harvard said. “Not since the time of the wild west.”

She didn’t even look at him. Instead, she shared a look with her business partners, Callum and Lake. “We don’t have a choice. Not unless you want this to be another international incident. And Benson Security can’t afford another one of those. It took a lot of money and playing nice to get rid of the last one.”

The last one being when they’d accidentally blown up a plane in Peru and massacred a cartel who was trying to kill them. Yeah, the authorities had not been pleased about that.

“The police chief comes along for the ride,” Lake said, but he clearly wasn’t happy about it.

“That’s a mistake,” De la Cruz said.

“This whole thing is a mistake,” Callum said. “We should have ended this wedding celebration in Scotland. Why we had to come here, I don’t have a bloody clue. Rich people are nuts.”

Ryan couldn’t agree more. He watched as the team dispersed. They were wired. Eager for action. Eager to succeed. Determined to bring their people home.

Beside him, De la Cruz dug into his jeans pocket. He brought out a piece of paper and handed it to Elle. “From David,” he said with a smile.

She fell on it like a starved dog before she realised how much she was giving away, and calmed her actions down. She opened the paper, and Ryan made no effort to hide that he was reading over her shoulder.

Ellie, what did I tell you about hunting me? Stop. You’re putting us both at risk. D. P.S. I like the lavender hair better.

Her head jerked up and she looked around the room, as though he was hiding in the shadows somewhere, watching her. When she realised he wasn’t, her shoulders slumped slightly and she grinned at the note.

“Did he wear gloves when he handled this?”

De la Cruz had a smile on his face. “He said you’d ask that. The answer is no.” With a shake of his head, he walked away.

“Hot damn!” Elle shrieked. “I have his prints. I am so going to track his backside down.”

“Uh, Elle?” Ryan felt someone should be the voice of reason. “That’s exactly what the note said not to do.”

She snorted. “Like he meant it.” Then she was tapping away, her focus firmly on her laptop and the rescue effort.

Ryan stood and followed the rest of his team out the door. The sun was rising over the rainforest, and the sound of birds calling to one another had reached cacophonous levels. The heat hit him as soon as he stepped outside the air-conditioned interior of the hotel, and he started to sweat instantly. Even this early in the morning, the humidity was killer.

He glanced in the direction of his cabin and wondered again if there was a beautiful woman waiting for his return. His feet took a step in that direction without him even realising he’d done it. He was that desperate to get back to her. The need driving him was unusual and disconcerting. He never reacted like this with women. Usually, he had a great time and then walked away. He rarely, if ever, wanted to go back. In his experience, repeat performances made women think there was more going on than a few hours of shared pleasure.

Yet here he was, hungry to get back to Esperanza. What was it about her that made her different? He honestly didn’t know. All he was sure of was that he wanted to get back and investigate the power she had over him.

“You coming?” Dimitri called.

Ryan let out a sigh. There was no going back to his woman right now. He turned and followed his team towards their helicopter, hoping Esperanza would be there when he returned.