“Call tomorrow.”
I calmly find my way to the taxi line. What to do . . . what to do?
Antonio is long gone. Diego . . . gone, way gone.
And I’ve nowhere to go.
What do I do now?
Returning to Mexico City is asking for trouble. And even if I do hang low at a nearby hotel, I’ve no way of entering back through security. That business card was undoubtedly a one-shot deal. What I need is somewhere safe to go outside of the city . . . as well as my passport . . .
There’s really only one option left.
I dig into my purse and retrieve the small thank-you card before asking the man ahead of me, “Can I use your phone?”
33
Diego
“Aubrey’s gone,” McIdiot informs me.
I press my eyelids closed, briefly. Like the bright midday sunlight has abruptly caused a migraine. I’m inside the hacienda, upstairs and in a blue-themed room, on the phone with McDuff as I watch from a window high above a servant playing soccer with a young boy. Señora del Leon is also outside, rocking back and forth on a white wicker chair. By all pretenses, it’s a leisurely day at Hacienda Santo Miguel. Peaceful. Enviable, even.
And the last place I want to be right now.
“Don’t go ballistic on me. I did everything I could to find her. But she’s gone.”
“How?”
“They closed the airport. Security threat. I was halfway to my apartment before I heard. I maneuvered my way back past security but I couldn’t find her.”
“Her flight?”
“Never departed. She probably jumped in a cab. She’s gone.”
Mierda.
“I’ll swing by her hotel. Where else would she go?” McDuff grumbles.
“Check my apartment. Though even if she can find it, there’s no way she’d get inside. Not with the security I’ve got in place.”
“You took her to your apartment?”
The blue room has turned blood red. I’m too furious to answer. Today had gone as smoothly as I hoped for. Security still at a minimum, few staff members on hand to dodge and evade, easy access into the house. I thoroughly searched three rooms for any clues as to what Señora is up to. Before entering the blue room and feeling my phone vibrate. Before the mindfuck of all mindfucks began dancing around inside my head.
“You report in?” he asks.
“Nothing to report . . . yet. You figure out where Fahder disappeared to?”
“Checked with my contacts. There’s no trace of him. Time’s running out before I call in with the feckin’ news.”
“Keep looking for them both until I wrap things up here. Señora is turning out to be a false lead.” One of us is going to be on that ship bound for Cork. This is not the time for our main target to disappear, for my lead to go belly-up, and for the entire uranium transaction to happen right between our noses without any links extending outside of Fahder and his fucked-up family. If something doesn’t happen today, Hayden is going to flip.
I inhale deeply. Wherever Aubrey is, it’s unlikely Mendoza will still have his men searching for her. Not with the uranium transaction underway. Not after the bounty on her head was collected.
“For what it’s worth, I like your bird. I’ll see what I can do. But for Christ’s sake, something better give. I’m not boarding that goddamn ship blind.”
Señora del Leon stands and gestures for everyone to come inside.
