Page 102 of Lawbreaker

Tony stared out the window. “She called me. I told her... I told her a lot of lies,” he said to himself, his voice torn with pain. “I never should have done that. I was sorry the minute I said it, but she hung up. Now she won’t answer her phone.” He turned to Ben. “What the hell are we going to do if James finds her first?!”

“He won’t. I swear he won’t,” Ben assured him. “I’ve got men checking manifests for every train, bus and plane out of New York...!”

Tony’s phone rang.

He saw the number, thanked God and answered it. “Where the hell are you?” he exclaimed.

“What do you care?” Odalie asked furiously. “You had your ‘fun’ with me, didn’t you? So now it’s off to somebody else for more ‘fun’!”

She was standing in the shadows of the grand hotel near the wharf, among the tall palms a little out of sight. There were only a few passersby. One gave her a curious look, but then he smiled and nodded, turned around and walked back the way he’d come.

“I lied,” he said. “I didn’t mean a word of it! I was trying to...well, never mind. For God’s sake, where are you? Don’t you know that Phillip James has agents looking for you right now?!”

“He’ll never look for me in Nassau,” she said smugly. “And you won’t find me, either! I have reservations at a place way out in the boonies as soon as I can get a cab to take me there.”

“What are you doing in the Bahamas?” he demanded.

“I’m deciding whether or not to keep my baby,” she almost yelled at him.

“Your...what? A baby?” Tony exclaimed with hushed wonder. His head started spinning. Joy bubbled up in him like an exploding volcano. “A baby? A baby!” There was such tenderness in his voice that it calmed her at once. “Oh, my God, a baby!! You’re pregnant?!” he whispered, his voice choking with feeling.

He didn’t sound as if he didn’t want a baby. She paused, confused by the joy in his deep voice.

“You...you said you were sterile, didn’t you? Well, guess what, you’re not!” She looked around. That man who’d passed her was coming her way, with another man. She lowered her voice. “And now here I am with my whole life turned upside down while you carouse around with your mistress... Oh! Oh! Don’t you dare...! What...what are you doing? Who are you...?!” Her voice faded out at once.

Tony’s heart stopped.

Just a minute later, another voice came on the line. “Hey, Garza, that you?” a voice demanded.

“Yeah, it’s me,” he said icily. “Where is she?”

“You don’t need to know that. We’ll give her brother a call in a few days. Maybe we’ll call today, just to let him know how bad things are going to get.”

Tony took a slow breath. “You will pay a high price for this,” he said, and his voice was as cold as a tomb.

“You wish.” And the line went dead.

Odalie was bundled into the back seat of a car by a man she recognized as the agent who’d delivered Tanner’s backpack to her when he’d been presumed dead. Two other men jumped into the front seats and the car took off.

“What...?” Odalie cried out hoarsely.

“Just sit still and don’t make a fuss,” he told her. “We’re going to take a little trip.”

“Where to?” She wanted to know. Inside she was shivering because she knew who was responsible for this and its likely outcome.

“Just to DC,” the man replied.

“Will I be alive when we get there?” she asked with false bravado.

“Of course.”

“Your boss is a weasel,” she said coldly.

He just sighed. He knew that already.

She was terrified and doing her best to hide it. It was highly unlikely that they were going to ask for ransom. She knew that Phillip James had scores to settle with her brother and that she was one of the two “soft targets” she’d been told about when her security had been tightened by Tony.

She prayed silently as she and the agent, Peters, got aboard a plane bound for the States. It was a private plane. Nobody else was on board except her companion, Peters, the pilot and copilot, and two other men who looked as if they could wrestle alligators. She prayed even more as she was taken to an office in a building inside the Beltway and locked in. They had her in handcuffs, and there she stayed, sitting in a chair, while they made preparations for whatever unspeakable act they were going to perform on her.