Page 99 of Honor ’N’ Duty

With Colon’s resources, Kade had expected a small army, not half a dozen men. Which could explain why there’d been no gossip in the wind about a kidnapping. Wisely, Colon had kept the circle of his people in the know very tight, limiting the number of loose lips that could sink his ship.

Kade did as ordered, holding out his arms while the wand was run down his back then his legs. If the tiny transmitter/receiver in his ear wasn’t up to spec, the detection instrument would beep and flash, a warning that he was wired.

Being several inches taller than the guy with the wand, the guy had to stand on his toes to run the device over and around Kade’s head. No beeps that he could hear and no flashing lights that he could see.

“He’s clean,” the man shouted.

“Get the ledger,” Colon called out. “Then search the truck. And tie him up, for fuck’s sake.”

One of the men opened the passenger door and retrieved the ledger, bringing it to Colon while two others began opening all the doors of Kade’s SUV. One of them procured a thin piece of rope and tightly bound Kade’s wrists behind his back.

That left three guns aimed at Kade.

“Where are Laia and Rosa?” he said loudly enough for Colon to hear. “I assume she brought you the money. I brought you the ledger, so you can let them go now.” He knew Colon had no intention of letting any of them go free. That’s why even his backup plan had a backup.

Colon handed the ledger to the man standing beside him—his new accountant?—who went back inside the cabin, taking the ledger with him. Whoever that was, Colon trusted him to verify the book’s authenticity. Kade was counting on that man to figure out the ledger was worthless without the code.

The one that only Kade knew.

Colon stepped off the porch and strolled over. “You’re either the bravest man I’ve ever met or the stupidest. Maybe both. You didn’t really think I’d let them go, did you?”

Kade smiled, doing his best to mimic Colon’s smirk when what he really wanted was to smash his fist into the guy’s jaw and wipe it off for him. “I might not be the bravest, but I’m definitely not the stupidest. So no. I didn’t think you’d let us go.” Especially not me.

Colon held his arms wide. “Then what did you hope to accomplish here?”

Stalling for time, he needed Colon’s new accountant to do his thing, and he also wanted to alert his friends to Laia and Rosa’s general location. Until he knew where exactly they were and how many guns were guarding them, he couldn’t risk sending his friends in and inadvertently getting them killed. “That’s my sister-in-law and my niece you’ve got inside that cabin.”

“Copy that,” Jamie said. “We’re in position. Waiting on your signal.”

“I couldn’t leave them here without at least trying.” And getting a confession.

“Take him into the woods,” Colon said. “Bury the body. Then do the same with the woman and child.”

Colon’s new accountant must not be the sharpest tool in the shed. He was taking too long.

“Kade?” came Jamie’s worried voice.

Two of Colon’s men grabbed his arms, then started to drag him away.

“If you want your money,” Kade said over his shoulder, wincing as a shaft of pain shot up his arms, “you might want to hold off killing me.”

“Wait!” Colon held up his hand to his men, who stopped. Wariness had crept into his dark eyes. “Why?”

The door to the cabin swung open, and the accountant hustled out, holding the ledger in his hand. “We have a problem. Based on the numbers and the dates they were transferred to your accounts, I can verify the ledger is authentic. What I can’t verify is what bank the last $20 million is located in.”

“Why the fuck not?” Colon growled.

Good. When people began losing control, they tended to say things without thinking, which was exactly what Kade was counting on. The more agitated he could make Colon, the better the evidence transmitted to the receiver in Jamie’s SUV.

The accountant flipped open the ledger and began running his finger down the page. “These are account numbers that Sampson used to temporarily park the money before transferring it to your overseas accounts.”

“I know that,” Colon bit out.

“And these,” the accountant continued, again running his finger down the page, “are the amounts of money that were in these accounts. That’s how I verified the ledger is authentic. These numbers add up right down to the dollar with the list you gave me. But these…”

The accountant ran his finger down the page again. While Kade couldn’t see exactly what the man was pointing to, he knew he’d discovered the two-letter codes.

“You see these two letters under the bank column? I don’t know what they mean. These aren’t abbreviations for any bank that I know of. We have no idea what banks Sampson was using to park the money in.”