Her heart jerked, and tears blurred her vision. “What have you done to him!” She jerked on the iron bars that formed the cell door, and the door swung open. Abby rushed into the cell, her heart hammering wildly. “What have they done to you . . . ?” she whispered, wiping a tear from her cheek.
The woman rose from her place beside King. She looked about fifty, with thick silver-streaked black hair pulled into a severe bun at the nape of her neck.
Abby took the woman’s place on the cot, reached down, and gently picked up her grandfather’s thin blue-veined hand. It felt icy cold. She swallowed past the lump in her throat. “King, it’s . . . it’s Abby. We’re going to get you out of here.”
King moistened his dry, cracked lips. “Abby . . .”
She swallowed back tears. “Save your strength. Don’t try to talk. We’re getting you out of here.”
A voice came from behind her. “That, my dear, is a subject we have yet to discuss.”
She whirled toward the sound, saw that the man in the study, Don Arturo, stood a few feet away and that Gage had moved closer to the door of the cell.
“He needs to be in a hospital,” Abby said, rising. “I want him out of here—now.”
One of Don Arturo’s black eyebrows lifted. “And in return?”
“What do you want?”
“You know what I want. The location of the gold you came to recover.”
She knew what they wanted. It was the reason they’d sent the note. “We haven’t found it yet. We’re still looking. It might not even exist.”
“But you believe it does, or you would not have come all this way.”
Gage shifted a little closer, his posture still relaxed. But Abby could see the tension coiling in his heavily muscled shoulders.
“How did you find us?” he asked.
A smug expression settled over Don Arturo’s face. “A man of my stature has many friends in the Yucatán. I had been searching for you. Word came to me that you were staying at the Hacienda San José. Lovely hotel,” he added. “Unfortunately for you, one of the servers overheard you talking about Alux’ob, and one of the gardeners saw you drive off in that direction.” He smiled thinly. “And so here you are.”
“You’ve managed to get us here,” Gage conceded. “Unfortunately for you, Abby is telling the truth. We haven’t found the gold. We haven’t found anything but half a dozen lizards and a handful of kangaroo rats.”
“Then why do you still search?”
Gage shrugged his powerful shoulders. “You never know. We might get lucky.”
“You will take my people to the place you search, and I will let the old man go.”
“We can take you, but you’re not equipped to find the gold, even if you look. It takes training, knowing what to look for, the right kind of equipment.”
As Don Arturo pondered the words, Abby smoothed damp gray hair away from King’s forehead. “We’re getting you out,” she whispered. “You’re going to be all right.” She looked at the woman, saw something in her expression, fear or sadness or regret. Perhaps some of each.
“What you say makes sense,” Don Arturo said. “I think you will continue to search for the gold, but until you find it, the girl stays here.”
Gage’s whole body tightened. “That isn’t going to happen. Abby goes with me. You do anything to stop us, you’ll never find the gold. You must have had King locked in here for weeks. He’s clearly too sick to tell you anything. We’re your last chance.”
Arturo’s features hardened, one of his long-fingered hands balling into a fist. “I can see she means a great deal to you. I will let you take the girl, but the old man stays here and my men go with you. The gold is the price you will pay for King Farrell’s freedom.”
Abby shot up from the cot. “King comes with us. He needs medical attention. You can send your men, but King leaves with us.” Her gaze shot to Gage. He knew her, knew she wouldn’t back down on this.
His piercing blue eyes shifted away from her and fixed on Don Arturo. “You heard the lady. King goes with us. Your men can join us on the hunt. Maybe we’ll even find the gold. But if we do, you get half of it, not all. That’s the deal. King’s freedom for half the gold.”
Abby clamped down on the words fighting to escape her throat. She didn’t care what it cost. She just wanted her grandfather safe and well again. Gage cast her a look, warning her to keep silent. She remembered her grandfather telling her it was always better to hold something back, keep a bargaining chip, keep the upper hand.
Long seconds passed.
Don Arturo’s mouth slowly curved in a smile that looked more feral than friendly. “You drive a hard bargain, Señor Logan. Take the girl and the old man. My men will drive you back to your vehicle and follow you to Alux’ob. If you go to the police or try to escape, they have orders to kill you.”
