CHAPTER 11
“I HAVE A reply,” Kurt said from his perch at the counter.
Caitlyn’s stomach jumped. “What is it?” She jogged to his side.
“Brevard and Steele only. Six a.m. Whiffle Beach gazebo. Follow these rules or the sister dies.”
An anguished sound escaped her throat. Oh, Rose. She shook off the suffocating vine of helplessness creeping over her and found her voice. “Whiffle Beach is closed to the public for repairs to the boardwalk and facilities, so it’ll be deserted. I know they won’t willingly let any of us live, but you have to tell them yes. Absolutely yes.”
“The storm means we won’t have any backup.”
“I know.”
“Okay.” He sent the reply.
Kurt stared at his screen. “You know it’s a trap.”
“Yes, but what choice do we have?”
“None.”
“You don’t have to go,” she said, surprised by how much she liked having someone with her to face this ordeal. Having him around made it easier. Half of her wanted him with her to face down the enemy. The other half wanted him safely on the other side of the world. “She’s my sister. This is my fight.”
His mouth twisted into a scowl. “If you think I would walk away now, then you don’t know me at all.”
“No.” She never doubted he’d stay. “But I had to offer.”
“Whatever.”
She’d offended his pride, but she wouldn’t apologize. She removed the engagement ring from her finger and made reflected light play in patterns across the granite. “Somehow they know she’s my sister.”
“All it would take is a little digging. Or that woman on the stairs might have talked.”
Probably against her will.
Tears burned the back of Caitlyn’s eyes and her throat tightened. A stupid, useless response. She slid the ring across the counter until it struck the wall with a faint clink.
“Hey,” Kurt said.
Without responding, she crossed the room and ran up the stairs.
She shut the door to her room and sat on the bed, breathing deeply until she regained control. Out the window, the palm trees waved their arms wildly in the offshore breeze, looking far too exuberant.
Somewhere out there in the fading daylight, Rose was alive, thank God. But Caitlyn didn’t trust Lambert or his goons an inch. Surely her sister was being used as bait to get Caitlyn and Kurt to show up so Lambert could take his revenge on his son’s killer and get rid of all the witnesses to Rose’s captivity.
But he wasn’t a dumb man. Would he hunt down everyone at Steele? Their families? How far would he go, and how many people would he endanger?
She couldn’t let that happen. No matter what went down in the morning, whether she and Kurt survived, they needed to rescue Rose, and take down Lambert before he could hurt anyone else.
She didn’t know how to do that yet. All they had was the gun Kurt had grabbed from Glenn’s partner last night.
Why had she left Glenn’s weapon behind after she’d shot him?
That now-familiar sick feeling doused her like a cold shower.
Breathe.
Heavily guarded as Lambert was, he would be hard to pin down. Not to mention, he had the local police in his pocket and public opinion on his side.
Caitlyn paced, the floorboards squeaking beneath her feet. They were meeting at Whiffle Beach at six a.m. It wasn’t even six p.m. yet. Christ. She would not survive the wait without a distraction.
No way could she sleep. She needed something to do, something to feel productive. If only they had access to weapons and a range for target practice. At least then she would be able get out some of her aggression and feel like she was doing something proactive that might help tomorrow.
Lambert couldn’t possibly expect her and Kurt to show up unarmed.
God, Kurt. If she thought turning herself over to Lambert alone would protect Kurt and his family and friends, she’d do it now. She couldn’t live with him getting hurt or killed.
Though chances were she wouldn’t have to live with it. She’d probably be dead in less than twenty-four hours.
To prevent that from happening, she had to stop fretting about everyone else and focus.
“Where are you, Rose?”
Forcing her leaden body to move, she returned downstairs. Kurt stood at the counter spreading peanut butter and jelly on bread.
Before he could start throwing out suggestions about how to handle the message from Lambert, she said, “If there’s any way we can find her, I think we need to hit first, tonight.”
“I agree. And it turns out we might be able to.”
Her shoulders relaxed a fraction. Dare she hope? “How’s that?”
“I was about to come get you. Valerie was able to trace the IP address of the email. Believe it or not, it was sent from St. Isidore.”
“Wouldn’t we expect that?” Caitlyn asked. It made sense that Lambert’s men would be holding Rose close by if they were going to bring her to the exchange tomorrow.
“Yes, but not if they were masking their location. If they were using an anonymizing browser or a virtual private network, it wouldn’t have traced back directly to the island. It might’ve looked like it was coming from somewhere like the Netherlands or Russia or Chicago.” He gave a little head tilt. “According to Valerie.”
“So if they’re not masking their location, can we narrow it down to an area more precise than the island?”
Little red indentations from Kurt’s glasses sat on the bridge of his nose. “Yes. She was able to do just that, and it looks like they’re on the northwest side of the island. It’s not definitive, she can’t pinpoint their location like GPS, but she can get within a mile or less. Something to do with local routers or something, I don’t know. But Tara thought to narrow it down by looking at properties or known connections that Lambert has on that end of St. Iz, based on the financial info Valerie put together.”
Damn. Kurt had amazing people on his team. As much as Caitlyn hated getting him involved, where would she be without Steele’s resources? She’d have little or nothing to go on right now. Or she’d already be behind bars.
Or worse.
“Assuming they’re operating somewhere nearby and haven’t moved,” Kurt said, “she found two possibilities. One is Zanana Shores, a resort that’s currently under renovation, located on an isolated spit of land at the top of Zanana Bay, just north of Terre Verte. According to what Valerie dug up, Lambert purchased Zanana two years ago after the economy started to improve, and it’s set to open next month.
“The other is a private home that belongs to the Devaux family, who appear to be beneficiaries of Lambert’s cheap labor.”
Caitlyn couldn’t stop her lip from curling. What was wrong with people?
“The resort seems like a perfect place to stage trafficking victims,” Kurt said. “If there’s a dock, it would be simple to bring them in via boat from other islands, and St. Isidore’s minimal coast guard presence doesn’t present much threat. If done right, no one would notice the new faces among the resort’s tourists. There are also a couple of airfields near TV that would make it easy for them to come and go.”
Against her will, hope lodged itself in Caitlyn’s heart like an axe into wood. “The hotel makes more sense, right? It’s isolated and not open yet, so there’s less risk of Lambert’s men being spotted with Rose.” She mentally swiped away imagined scenes of Rose struggling with her captors. Going down that path was immobilizing.
“I agree,” Kurt said. “Plus I messaged Dan and Jason. They confirmed that north of TV, the island is pretty quiet. Lambert’s men would likely see it as more difficult for Rose to escape from. I’d put my money there too.”
Kurt threw a concerned look Caitlyn’s way. “If we had backup, I’d send someone to the house too, but we’ll have to make it our Plan B instead.”
“And if she’s not at either one…”
Kurt’s somber midnight gaze held hers. “We go to the exchange at six.”
For dinner, Kurt heated canned stew in a pot while Caitlyn sliced a loaf of French bread. With a little olive oil and vinegar on the side for dipping, the meal was almost first-class.
They ate to the sound of spoons clinking on ceramic bowls, the air in the room taut. Next to him, she tapped her toe on the stool’s footrest as if trying to drive the nervous energy from her body. Her shoulders were so tense they nearly touched her ears.
He was almost as tightly wound. Everything hinged on tonight.
After they finished eating and washed the dishes, Caitlyn set out a small package she found in the cupboard. “How about dessert?”
“What are they?” Kurt asked.
“Coconut Shirley biscuits. Cookies. They’re a Barbados staple.”
“I thought you felt bad eating Brandon Marlowe’s food.”
“They’ll go stale before he gets back.” She gave him a wily cat’s smile and shrugged. “I figure if we finish them off, we’re doing him a favor.”
More likely, she needed something that felt good, even if it was just a sugar hit. Kurt couldn’t blame her.
While eating, they hashed out rough plans of attack and retreat for all the scenarios, drawing crude maps on paper taken from the printer in the study. They were undermanned, under-informed, and under-equipped, but they had little choice in such a short time frame.
He wished he could force her to stay behind. If anything happened to her, he would suffer the rest of his life. Short-lived though it might be.
He sighed.
This was ludicrous. For a man who claimed to want a family, he hadn’t done much to make it happen over the last few years. Instead, he’d poured all his energy into Steele and compared every woman he met to Caitlyn.
Would he like to have children? Yes. But given a choice between having a family with another woman and spending his life with Caitlyn alone… He hadn’t been lying when he told her that finding the right woman was far more important. If she’d take him, he would jettison the dream of a family, no regrets.
He stretched his arms overhead and stood, suddenly restless.
Across the counter from him, she stared at their plans and fiddled with a pen. She was beautiful, smart, fierce, and so precious now that the thought of losing her was nauseating.
And maybe it was about time she knew that. Whether she returned his feelings or not—and at this point he was pretty sure she didn’t—he didn’t want them to face this danger without her knowing she was loved.
The word carved a hollow in his chest, but it was the right one. “Love” had never applied to any other woman in his life. Not this kind of love, anyway.
Caitlyn leaned her elbows against the breakfast bar, her brilliant green eyes subdued as she stared at a spot on the wall.
“If Rose is there, we’ll get her,” Kurt said.
She met his gaze, her eyes lighting with intensity. “I know.”
He cleared his throat. “Can we talk for a minute?”
A crease formed between her brows. They were already talking, weren’t they? And he was an idiot.
“Of course,” she said, striding around the breakfast bar to join him in the great room. “What’s up?”
He leaned against the side of the sofa and crossed his arms. Was he making a mistake? Shit. This was the dumbest idea ever. He wracked his brain for an alternate topic that might fit his change of tone.
“Kurt?” She stood in front of him with her hands on her hips and leaned over to move into his line of sight. “Everything all right?”
He straightened, took a deep breath, and looked her in the eyes. “I love you.”