“Chase!”she cried out.With the sudden goosing of the accelerator, the open door to the back seat slammed shut.She reached for the door handle and pulled hard, but it wouldn’t open.The child locks had been activated.The only way she could get out was if someone opened the door from the outside.
She spun in her seat and looked back, praying Chase and his friends could somehow stop the vehicle and free her.She froze.
Chase lay still on the ground as the cab shot forward, moving faster and faster.He’d been about to get in the car when he’d dropped.Was he injured or worse...she gulped...dead?
Despair fell like lead to the pit of Alana’s belly.All their planning to get out of the country went up in the smoke of the burned rubber from the tires spinning across the pavement.She had no doubt she was on the way to Raul Delgado, the leader of the Jalisco cartel.
Sure, she was afraid for her own life, but now that she was a prisoner, she knew Chase would come after her.He’d be tortured and killed, possibly like the men who’d been hanged from the bridge a week before.
Alana couldn’t let that happen.In the short time she’d known Chase, she’d discovered a decent human being.A man others should be more like.A man who would selflessly defend his country and those weaker than himself.He’d come for her and put himself at risk.
Chase had faced untold horrors and risks as a Navy SEAL.He deserved to enjoy his life now that he was out of the military.She couldn’t let him risk everything to save her.She had to find a way out of this mess before Chase met Delgado at the proposed deadline.
The particular cab she was in was more modern than most.Alana searched the interior for a weapon, anything she could use to crack a window or the unbreakable Plexiglass barrier between the front and back seats.She couldn’t reach around to grab the driver by the neck and force him to stop, but she had to get out of the vehicle before she was delivered to the cartel leader.Once in his hands, she’d be surrounded by far too many of his minions to make an escape.Escape had to be now or never.
Banging against the shield between her and the driver did nothing to slow the vehicle.Alana kicked at the window, knowing her soft-soled shoes wouldn’t be effective, but she had to try.She dug in her purse for anything she could use to break the glass, but all she could find was a pen and an emery board, neither of which was strong enough to break through the glass.She tried sliding the emery board down between the window and the door to trigger the locking mechanism.When the driver took a turn too sharply, Alana lost her grip on the emery board, which slipped out of her hand and fell inside the door.She tried ripping the door apart but only managed to break her fingernails.The seat had been cleaned of all objects.Not even an umbrella existed inside the confines of the back seat.
When all her efforts failed, Alana turned in her seat and looked out the back window at the disappearing resort hotel.With no cell phone, she couldn’t call and tell them which way they were headed, and she couldn’t use the hard case of the cell phone to help her break the window.She was stuck and on her way to meet a killer.
The cab weaved between the streets and alleys, leaving the more affluent neighborhoods of timeshare condos and vacation homes, and headed into the outlying areas of tin-roofed shacks and concrete-block buildings with laundry hanging from clotheslines and windows.The farther they went from the beach, the deeper into despair Alana sank.
How could Chase find her?He would be left with no other choice but to show up when Delgado demanded.The problem was, even if he did show up, Delgado probably wouldn’t let her go in exchange for Chase’s cooperation.He’d have Chase and no other reason to keep her alive.He’d certainly make an example of Chase to his men and everyone else in Cabo.
Her heart beat fast, and her chest hurt at the thought of Raul Delgado hanging Chase from a bridge.She couldn’t let that happen.Wouldn’tlet it happen.Somehow, she had to get away before midnight and let Chase know he didn’t have to meet with Delgado.She’d find her way back to the airport, they’d catch the next flight back to the States and she and Chase would live happily ever after.
And pigs would learn to fly.
The cab weaved through narrow streets and roads, climbing into the hills surrounding Cabo San Lucas.Soon, they turned into a gated compound surrounded by high stucco walls.Armed guards stood on either side of the vehicle.The driver spoke to them in Spanish.One of them relayed a message via a hand-held radio.The staticky response came back, and the gate opened.The driver pulled into the compound, and the gate slid shut behind them.
Alana studied the fence, the gate and the surrounding grounds, committing everything she could see to memory.If—no,whenshe escaped, she would have to navigate the grounds in the dark.How she’d get over the seven-foot walls, she wasn’t certain, but she’d cross that hurdle once she was free of her confinement.
The vehicle came to a halt in front of a sweeping, white marble staircase leading up to rich mahogany double doors.
The doors opened, and several men, armed with what looked like military-grade rifles, emerged and surrounded the vehicle.
Alana forced calm to her hammering heart.She couldn’t show fear.To escape her current situation, she had to use her head.Cowering in terror would get her nowhere.
The door opened, and a man reached inside, grabbed her arm and dragged her out onto the brick paving stones of the driveway.
“Let go of me, you Neanderthal.”Alana jerked her arm free and straightened.
Laughter sounded from the top of the stairs.A Hispanic man dressed in white trousers, a black button-up shirt and sunglasses looked down on her.He was surrounded by four men dressed in black, wearing sunglasses, radio headsets in their ears and carrying more military-style rifles.
The man at the center nodded to the men surrounding the taxi.He spoke quickly in Spanish.“Tráeme a la mujer,”he commanded.
The man she’d shaken loose from grabbed her arm.When she struggled to be free, another man gripped her other arm.Together, they half-dragged, half-carried her up the stairs to stand in front of the man in the tailored, white trousers.
All Alana could think of was how much she wanted to bloody those white trousers.The man had to be Delgado—a dangerous man, full of his own sense of self-worth, bent on retribution for being bested in front of his men.
Alana glared at the man who’d terrorized entire cities and preyed on innocents.Carson had told her of how Delgado would steal young girls and sell them into the sex trade, and how his thugs made millions trafficking drugs and humans across the border into the United States.She had no respect for this man, especially when he wanted to make an example out of her husband.
To hell with that.
Alana vowed to get out of Delgado’s compound as soon as possible.She just had to play along and pretend to be a poor, weak female who didn’t have a brain in her head.Then, perhaps, he’d think she was too dumb and wimpy to find a way out of captivity.
“You are the gringo’sesposa,”he said and touched a hand to her hair.“Tú eres una mujer bonita.Beautiful.”He captured strands of her blond hair between his fingers and rubbed them as if testing the texture.
Alana longed to slap his hand away and wipe the smirk off his face, but instead, she let her poker face fall into place, masking any emotion the man could use against her.She’d learned to play poker from her father.He was a master of poker faces and had taught her the secrets of bluffing from a very young age.Her father had made a killing in the oil speculation business by keeping his emotions in check and making the best possible deals through patience and cunning.
