Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 80139 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80139 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Derek Wolfe, the billionaire tycoon, is dead, so nothing there.
Deitrich Klein turns out to be a dead end too. He’s in Germany and hasn’t had contact with any of the others in over a year.
Marco Ramirez, though, leads me to names I know—Declan McAllister and Jacinto Agudelo, Dani’s father. And of course, Mario Bianchi, Vinnie’s grandfather.
That’s not new information exactly, but it feels different seeing it displayed like a map in front of me. In college, Barb used to joke about my brain having red string and thumbtacks for synapses, but here it is, all the connections unfolding.
It’s not a shock to see those names together.
I read through transaction after transaction until—
The name I was hoping I wouldn’t see pops up.
Austin Bellamy.
My father.
Austin Bellamy wired $150,000 to an account controlled by Hernando Reyes twenty-three months ago. The notation says only “consulting.”
That’s it. Nothing more. I bite my cheek so hard I taste blood.
Consulting? The only thing Dad knows is ranching, and I doubt a Colombian mobster would have any interest in that. What the hell has my father been doing?
But I can’t dwell on that, at least not while Dad is still in the hospital recovering from aphasia after he tried—and failed—to take his own life.
Very unlike my father…but if he’s in league with these assholes, he probably felt like he had no other choice.
Except again, that’s so not like my father.
He’s a good man. A solid man. An excellent rancher and—
Hawk. My brother. He never says anything good about our father. The rest of us have the utmost respect for him, but Hawk? He never joins in the praise.
I type and type and type, hoping to figure out what the connection is, but I find nothing more on my father. But I do find something.
Diego Vega’s and Hernando Reyes’s names seem to form a web, one I can see in my head with the red string and thumbtacks Barb used to tease me about.
And one new name surfaces. Adriana de la Fuente, personal assistant to Diego Vega.
And damn…
She has an address just outside Austin.
4
CRUZ
I don’t say hello.
I never do.
The second the phone connects, I put it to my ear and breathe. Just enough sound to let him know I’m there, listening and waiting. If I say “hello,” he’ll know I’m not in a safe place to talk.
Three seconds pass.
Four.
Then his voice slides through the line. “Cruz.”
“Here, Boss.”
“Hernando Reyes has gone dark for twenty-four hours.”
I tighten my grip on the phone, but my breathing doesn’t change.
Reyes.
I know the name. If he’s missing, it’s probably not an accident.
“I checked his feeds remotely,” the boss says. “Hawk Bellamy paid him a visit. Attacked him and abducted him from his Austin residence.”
Hawk Bellamy.
I’ve heard that name too.
Not in whispers. In warnings.
“Highway cams picked up Bellamy’s vehicle heading back toward Reyes’s property shortly after,” he adds. “Which means this wasn’t a long-distance move.”
“So he’s still local?”
“That’s the assumption.”
Still local. Probably still alive, then.
“He’s most likely keeping him somewhere on Bellamy property,” the boss continues. “I’ll send you coordinates of probable sites.”
My pulse stays level, but something sharp slides under my ribs.
Bellamy land.
I’ve been there before.
Not officially.
Not in daylight.
“Short window,” he says. “You go tonight. Find Reyes. I want photographic confirmation.”
I don’t respond. I don’t need to. He knows I understand.
“Don’t disappoint me.” The line goes dead.
I lower the phone slowly, already feeling the faint vibration of the incoming text.
Coordinates. Three of them. I glance once at the screen, commit them to memory, and slide the phone back into my pocket.
Time to move.
The drive out to Bellamy land is quiet.
I follow the first set of coordinates down a narrow dirt road. The tires crunch over gravel, loud in the stillness, and I kill the headlights before I get too close.
I park behind a line of trees, step out, and move on foot the rest of the way.
The old building comes into view. Moonflowers crawl along its edges, pale blooms glowing faintly in the dark. I pause, scanning.
No movement. No light. No sound.
Still…something makes my skin tighten.
I approach anyway.
Inside, the air is colder.
I step across the threshold, my boots silent against the warped wood floor, eyes adjusting to the darkness.
Empty.
No signs of a struggle. No recent presence.
But the creepy feeling doesn’t leave. It presses in closer, and for a split second—
I’m not here anymore.
I’m back in that place. Standing in the doorway. Staring at my mother’s body.
Emotion coils through me.
Something happened here. Something that can’t be undone.
I force the memory and the feeling down.
This is just a building.
I turn and walk out without looking back. Reyes isn’t here.
The next two locations are the same story. Clean, quiet, and empty.
Either Bellamy moved Reyes already or he never used these places at all.
Which means—
I stop mid-step.
The barn where I exhumed the corpse. It’s not on the list of coordinates, but I know where it is because I’ve been there.