Page 54 of Dangerous Liaisons

Chapter Forty-One

The front door opened and sunlight streamed down the hallway past Jesse’s cell in the instant before the door closed with a tinny clank. Lights snapped on and she jammed her eyes shut against the painful intrusion. She had been confined for more than a day in total darkness. She leaned back against the wall, blinking as booted feet shuffled along the hall. The odor of burnt cocaine preceded six armed guards who came into view.

They stopped in front of her cell and a guard unlocked the door. He stepped back and pointed his cattle prod at her. “Get up,” he ordered in English.

Jesse glanced at his three comrades with the CR-21s, then looked back at him. “What, no breakfast?”

“Now,” he said.

She locked gazes with him and slowly rose. The men backed up as she stepped from the cell, and the head guard motioned her forward with this cattle prod.

She lifted a brow. “No handcuffs?”

His eyes narrowed.

She should be more like Cole, Mr. Unflappable. But if the guard tried to hit her with the cattle prod again, she’d ram it up his ass and energize.

Jesse marched in front of the guards out the building into the hot sun. Four more guards waited outside in a line. The guards parted, pointing the way to the open bed of a military surplus duce-an-a-half parked twenty feet away. No firing squad—yet. She slowed to a stroll. Cole wasn’t in the truck. She surveyed the four other buildings like the one where she had been caged, and two smaller structures at the south end of the compound. Which building had, or did, imprison Cole?

The perimeter had no fencing. Two guard towers, each with two men and a 50 caliber Browning machine gun, were located at opposite corners. They had substantial firepower all the way around, but she wouldn’t get a better chance at escape than this, especially if they were moving her to a more secure prison. When the guards kept a respectable distance, she realized why they hadn’t handcuffed her or used the cattle prod. Perez wanted her alive and coherent, so had ordered them not to get close enough to start any shit with her. Understanding struck. Why hadn’t she thought of it before? Perez went to see Cole while he was being held captive in the village. All she had to do was get captured, and Perez would come to her.

At the truck, she vaulted in and sat in the back against the cab. Two guards with prods and side arms jumped in and sat in the rear. Guards lowered the flap, the engine revved, and Jesse grabbed the edge of the seat as the vehicle lurched forward. They traveled on rutted roads for fifteen minutes, then stopped. One guard threw back the flap and jumped from the truck.

Jesse caught sight of the corner of a large hacienda surrounded by well-trimmed bushes before the second guard jumped to the ground. A gravel drive curved to the right, butting up against a long expanse of velvet lawn stretched past the house to a rock wall eight feet tall.

The head guard along with two of his comrades appeared. “Get out,” he ordered.

Jesse stared impassively.

“Vamanoos!”

She’d gone as far as she was going to. “You gonna make me?”

He threw out a clipped order and the four men pointed their guns at her.

She maintained eye contact with the leader. “You’ll need more than you four to take me alive. If he wants me, he can come get me.”

The guard’s face reddened. Jesse thought she’d miscalculated, then he muttered to the man beside him, and the man hurried toward the hacienda.

Five, ten, fifteen minutes passed, and the heat inside the truck pressed in on her. The guards shuffled, sweated, and swore outside the truck. The temperature had to be hotter in the sun than inside the shaded truck, although, she’d kill for even a trickle of a breeze.

She had decided Perez wasn’t going for the deal, and her heart sped up with the fear that she had to find a way out of here and back to Cole when a tall, good looking man dressed in beige slacks and a short sleeved linen shirt, approached with an easy gait. He stood as tall as Cole and carried an extra thirty pounds of muscle. This man was nothing like the stereotypical drug lord—short, scruffy, heavyset—nothing like what she had expected. He stopped at the back of the truck. Jesse looked into eyes that were exactly what she’d expected: dark and lifeless. Dread coiled deep within her and she understood: Perez and Lanton were exactly alike, and she’d underestimated them both.

He tilted his head in a bow. “Senorita.”

Jesse gave a nod. “Senor Perez.”

“I am told I must come greet you personally.”

She didn’t reply.

“Come inside. We must talk.”

“Where’s Cole?” she asked.

“Do you care?”

“Professional curiosity.”

Perez laughed. “Very good. We will discuss Mr. Smith. Please,” he gave an elegant wave of his hand, indicating she should exit the truck, “come inside where it is more comfortable.”

Jesse jumped from the truck and fell into step alongside the man who held the key to her future. She prayed like hell he couldn’t hear her heart pounding.