“And the car bomb?”
“A…miscalculation. Jesse found someone who could build one, and it seemed like a way to keep our hands clean and take Nick out from a distance. Except the stupid thing detonated with the remote starter.” Cassandra laughed, the sound bitter and hollow. “Nick’s like a cat with nine lives, but he’s about to use his last one.”
“So this is all about money?”
“Lots and lots of money. Enough we can’t spend it all in one lifetime.” Jesse gripped her by the shoulders and spun her around to face him, his fingers digging into her shoulders hard enough Gracie knew she’d carry the marks. “I’m sick of working a lousy nine to five dead-end job. Uncle Simon had trusts set up for each of us, and the Aussie government stole it all away. How was that fair?”
“I don’t know,” Gracie spoke softly, “but Nick wasn’t the one who took your money.”
“Good old Nick cut off the pipeline, sweetie. When he arrested Uncle Simon, he effectively dammed up all the channels of money flowing into the coffers, and we were left with nothing. Nothing!”
“Enough. Gotta go or Nick will get there before us.” Jesse slid the laptop into his backpack and slung it over one shoulder, then turned to latch onto Gracie’s arm. She tried yanking it out of his grasp, but for a smaller man, he was surprisingly strong. Cassandra took a final look through the motel room, and they all exited the room, and piled into a different SUV than the one they’d arrived in. This one was all white with a beige interior and had that new car smell, like it hadn’t been used before. The SUV they’d arrived in was parked several spaces down and they completely ignored it.
Gracie was pushed into the back seat again, and Cassandra followed closely behind her, and Gracie’s eyes widened when she noted the gun back in Cassandra’s hand. There went any attempt to escape, at least for the moment. She wasn’t giving up. If there was any chance, she’d take it. She knew San Antonio, could find her way through the back alleys and side streets and hide away if she got the chance.
Jesse peeled out of the parking lot, headed toward downtown. That seemed like a strange choice, but it was a good one for her, because she’d be closer to Alvarez. Closer to the courthouse and the district attorney. Farther away from her parents, who lived in the suburbs, but at the moment, keeping them out of the line of fire was preferable than drawing Cassandra and Jesse’s attention to them. She’d protect them at all costs. They’d given their all for her, she could do no less.
Cassandra pulled out the phone, the same one she’d had Gracie call Nick on earlier. Knowing he was on his way, walking into what could only be a trap scared her. On the other hand, knowing he was coming warmed her inside because she knew he’d rescue her. Save her.
“Hello, Nick. Are you following instructions?”
“You know I am. I’m doing exactly what you ordered because you have Gracie. I’m about twenty minutes from downtown San Antonio.”
“Lovely. Head toward the Riverwalk. There’s parking around Bonham and Third. Park there and stay in your car. Do not under any circumstances use your phone or leave the car. You’ll get further instructions once you arrive.”
“Let me talk to Gracie.”
Cassandra looked over at Gracie before answering. “I don’t think so. Not until you’ve arrived and we can make sure you aren’t going to do anything foolish. You’re not going to do anything foolish are you, Nick?”
“You’re holding Gracie hostage to assure my good behavior. I’m not about to give you an excuse to hurt her.”
“Like you hurt Uncle Simon?” There was a wealth of bitterness behind Cassandra’s words, the vehemence with how she spat them out shocking. From the way she’d talked earlier, she hadn’t really cared about her uncle, except for him losing all his money. Which was the real story?
“Simon Norville was a thief who stole hundreds of millions of dollars from corporations who hired him to install security and proprietary software to prevent the exact crimes he was guilty of committing. There was more than enough evidence to convict him ten times over. I was simply one of the agents responsible for the arrest.”
Nick spoke with conviction and Gracie believed him. He was one of the good guys, working to uphold the law, even if it was halfway around the world. It didn’t matter where he lived, he was working to make the world a better place, and she respected him for that. And believed every word he told Cassandra was true.
“Granted, Uncle Simon’s hands were dirty. But the companies he stole from weren’t exactly squeaky clean. Dig a little, and you’ll find a cesspool of corruption and political tampering the likes of which the world only dreams of finding out about. But Australian Intelligence didn’t want that information coming out, did they, Nick? They needed to put a cork in the pipeline before all the dirty little scandals could see the light of day.”
“I wouldn’t know about that, Cassandra. I investigated the missing funds. Your uncle hurt a lot of people, draining retirement accounts, wiping out savings. All to line his own pockets. That doesn’t make him a good man. It makes him a thief.”
“He might have been a thief, but you ruined him! Crippled him for life.” Cassandra stopped talking, and Gracie watched as she drew a deep breathing, regaining her cold façade. “Did you think you could walk away and he wouldn’t want to exact a price for your actions? He’s waited years to see you fail, yet it’s like you’ve got a lucky charm in your pocket. No matter what’s been thrown at you, you pop right back up. Why won’t you die already?”
Gracie’s heart squeezed in her chest at Cassandra’s words. She knew they’d been trying to hurt Nick, and all their attempts failed. They weren’t going to quit, weren’t going to be satisfied until Nick died. Their uncle had set them on a path from which there was no coming back, and the hardest part was knowing they might succeed because they were using her as the bait to pull him in.
Looking out the tinted windows, she tried to figure out where they were. San Antonio’s Riverwalk was famous for its boat ride and restaurants and shops. The world-famous Alamo wasn’t far from there, only a few blocks and an easy walk. But judging from the houses they were bypassing, they were miles away from the crowds and the sights. Were they planning on running Nick around in circles, chasing a ghost? Or had they set a further trap for him someplace else?
“Just following directions, Nick. Gracie is counting on you riding to her rescue. You don’t want to disappoint her.”
Stabbing a manicured finger against the disconnect button, Cassandra banged her head against the headrest several times, cursing in frustration. Gracie had the feeling it wouldn’t take much to push her over the edge.
“Ready to head to the rendezvous?” Jesse’s gaze met Gracie’s in the rearview mirror and she read what looked like regret in their depths, and knew they had no intention of letting her go once Nick showed up. She’d suspected as much, but there’d been a glimmer of hope. The only way she’d walk away from the cousins was to escape.
But how?
“You heard?”
Nick spoke into the burner phone on the seat beside him. Shiloh had tossed it to him as he was leaving the sheriff’s station, with orders to call the number on the screen and leave it on speaker so they could not only listen in, but keep Nick posted about anything they found out while he drove to the rendezvous.
