Midnight Shadows (14 page)

She had never told anyone. Even when Silva had returned her to Cruz, even when her supposed lover had asked her why she had bruises, cuts, and marks all over her body, she wouldn’t say. If she had told him, allowed herself to speak the words, she would have killed him.

Once she’d gotten away from Cruz, she had felt free for the first time in years. But she had known she wasn’t completely free. He would come after her. Not only for the money she’d stolen but also because she’d damaged his ego. An evil man with a bruised ego was a dangerous thing.

When she’d gone to Midnight and hired Wildefire Security to protect her, she had felt almost safe. She’d covered her tracks. No way would Cruz ever trace her all the way to a tiny little town in South Alabama.
 

How nice it would be if the story ended there. If all of her bad decisions just melted away and, for once in her life, Lauren Kendall had started making wise choices. For a time, that’s what it had seemed. She had a safety net of people who could keep her out of Cruz’s clutches. Good people who had actually cared about her. And she’d had Logan Wright.
 

Oh God, why hadn’t she stayed?

Logan was the first man to treat her like a lady…like she was someone special. The first man whose touch had made her feel clean. He had known almost everything she had done, most everything that had been done to her, and still he had stuck with her, by her. And how had she repaid him? By doing the very thing she’d been doing most of her life. She’d run like a chicken-shit coward. The instant she’d learned that Cruz was dead and couldn’t touch her anymore, she’d hightailed it out of Alabama like a band of demons was on her tail. She had left Logan in the dust.

And what good had it done her? Instead of that freedom she’d thought she wanted, she was right back to being a prisoner again. Only this time it was worse, so much worse than before.

Lauren surged to her feet and paced the small confines of the cabin. Freedom? That wasn’t why she’d left Logan. There was no point in lying to herself. She’d left him because what he made her feel had scared the hell out of her. She had known how much he cared for her and realized that with her record, she would never be good enough for him.

Of course none of that mattered now. She was well and truly caught. When Silva showed up, it would be the end for her. Even if he allowed her to live, she already knew she couldn’t survive a second dose of him. If he so much as laid a finger on her… She shook her head. She didn’t know what she might be capable of doing, but she swore if he touched her, it would be the last thing he did—even if it meant her life.

Chapter Twelve

Midnight

Holden Marsh sat in the elegant but comfortable living room and eyed his fellow…. What could he call them…teammates? He hadn’t planned on having any and beneath the aggravation, he felt an odd sort of amusement. He who had worked alone for too many years to count, now had eight people involved.

When he’d come to Sabrina Wilde with his proposition, he hadn’t seen it as more than her going in to Silva’s ‘guest’ house. And him, with Sabrina’s help, bringing Lauren out. It had been complicated already. Adding this many people was, in his opinion, a sure road to disaster. Unfortunately, Sabrina Wilde wouldn’t have it any other way.

Family was an odd concept to Holden. By accident of birth you were born into one and for that reason alone you were supposed to love them? Trust them? He’d had a family once, but love hadn’t been part of the equation. At least not the kind that these people apparently had for each other. Even Brody James and Logan Wright seemed to have been included.
 

Holden had done his research before coming here. The Wilde family had an interesting history. Triplet sisters who’d lost their parents to a supposed murder/suicide. Raised by their grandfather, the sisters, though independently wealthy, had gone on to make something of themselves. Savannah was a former assistant district attorney, Samantha a former homicide detective, and Sabrina a private investigator.
 

Seemed like odd choices for three Southern belles who really hadn’t needed to be employed in order to have every material possession they might want. In Holden’s estimation, that said a lot about a person.

Zach Tanner, chief of police of Midnight, had an interesting story, too. As did Dr. Quinn Braddock. The Wilde family sure as hell wasn’t without their drama.

Logan Wright and Brody James, friends of Tanner’s, had run a successful security company in Mobile. A few months back they’d formed a partnership with Wildefire Security. Holden didn’t have much intel on either man…not near enough to form a solid opinion. Their being friends with Tanner was enough for Holden right now. Still, he would keep an eye out for any possible problems.

On the other hand, Ian Mackenzie was seemingly an open book. Holden didn’t trust the obvious. Mackenzie had been adopted when he was a kid by Molly and Barry Mackenzie—‘do-gooders’ who had adopted and raised a total of ten kids.

What concerned Holden was the lack of drama or trouble surrounding Mackenzie. He appeared to be a straight shooter. He might’ve had a rough start in life but once adopted became the model son and citizen. A decorated war hero who’d served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. On returning to the States, the man finished up his college degree in criminal justice and worked for a private investigator. When the old man retired, Mackenzie took over the business.
 

The PI was well respected, had a reputation for uncovering obscure, hard to find information, and was well liked by his peers. Holden wasn’t buying it. The guy had to have something dark. Everybody had secrets.

Holden didn’t like unsolved mysteries and he didn’t trust people with a squeaky clean past. Ian Mackenzie had to be hiding something and even while they all worked together to rescue Lauren Kendall, he was determined to find out what that secret was.

Sabrina stood at the front of the room and addressed the small group of people. “We’re all here, so let’s get started.” She nodded at him. “Mr. Marsh?”

“Just so we’re clear,” Holden said, “what’s said in this room can go no further. I’m not only putting my ass on the line but also every person involved in bringing Silva down.”

“You can trust us,” Sabrina said. “Everyone in this room is a professional…knows the importance of this job. Now tell us what you can about Silva.”

“He’s one of the least known but most powerful criminals in the United States. His family, grandfather and father, started their businesses in Columbia. From all accounts they were sadistic bastards who taught young Robert everything he needed to know about being evil.
 

“Silva came to the US when he was in his early twenties. Guess he wanted to make his own way, but he had plenty of help from them, in both contacts and capital. By the time he was thirty, he had amassed his own wealth—his own reputation of filth.”

“And why can’t he be stopped?” Savannah asked. “If your people know this much about him, why can’t he be tried and convicted?”

“Money, influence. He’s got politicians and law enforcement…hell, even the media’s in his pocket. They either owe him favors or he pays them off.”

Savannah shook her head. “I don’t buy that. I worked as a prosecutor. Sure there are some dishonest people in law enforcement, but the majority is there to seek justice, legally. You make it sound like everyone’s corrupt.”

“Not what I’m saying at all. In fact, I agree with you. But whenever Silva has been brought up on charges, he either finds a way out of them or they go away. He’s had plenty of people try to go up against him. But evidence disappears, witnesses mysteriously vanish, die, or change their stories. And slick attorneys find holes for the bastard to weasel through.

“A long term undercover project is our only hope. As I told Sabrina, I’ve been working as one of his lackeys for close to two years trying to get enough verifiable evidence to bury the bastard. He doesn’t trust easily. Even though I’ve witnessed and been involved with enough filth to fill a garbage bin, I still don’t have anything substantial. Not enough that will hold this bastard. We could probably get him locked away for a year or two, but that’s not going to do anything but amuse him. I’ve got to have enough to bury him for good.

“I was close to gaining his complete trust…becoming one of his top goons. He’d never put me in charge of anything major. Then I got the assignment for Armando Cruz.” He saw Sabrina’s surprise and nodded. “Yeah, that was a first for me. I knew some of the plan, not all of it. Silva had cameras planted in the room, was watching the whole show. I was supposed to wait until you and Walker left before coming in.”

Surprise and then gratitude gleamed in Sabrina’s eyes. “You saw what Cruz was about to do to me. You came in and stopped him.”

“Yes.”

“What’s he talking about, Bri?” Savannah asked. “What was Cruz going to do to you?”

“I’ll tell you later.” She nodded her head at Holden. “Thank you.”

He acknowledged her gratitude with a nod of his own. “Once I was in, I knew I was going to have to make it look good. Silva was cursing in my ear, telling me how I’d already screwed everything up and would pay. He told me I’d better make sure everything else went off without a hitch.”

“The information Cruz gave you about Lauren. It wasn’t much.”

“That was a ruse. I wasn’t there for information. Silva already knew the answer to every question I asked Cruz. I didn’t know going in but I was sent there for one reason—to kill Cruz. Silva called all the shots—I just delivered them.”

“What about Walker?” Sabrina asked.

“Silva’s orders, too. He’d planned on getting rid of Walker soon. He decided to go ahead and get rid of him then.”

“Because Silva decided he wanted me,” Sabrina said.

“Yes.”

“What would he have done with me?”

“What he does with every other woman he takes—rape, torture, slavery, eventually death.”

“Then thank you from all of us,” Samantha said, then shook her head, confused. “But weren’t you holding her for Silva?”

“I needed it to look that way. Silva was still a couple of hours away. I was going to get her out of there.” His mouth twisted in a grim smile as he remembered what happened next. “I had a friend on his way over.”

“And then I showed up and messed up your plan.” Mackenzie said.

“Not really. Garrett was going to have to go either way. Could’ve done without the headache you gave me, but for the most part, it worked.”

“As an officer of the law, gotta say I’m not comfortable with the murder of three people, no matter how bad they might have been. However, as Sabrina’s brother-in-law, I’m grateful for any help you gave her.” Tanner leaned forward. “Now tell us why a man who seems to have no compunction to arbitrarily kill people is so anxious to save one woman.”

He couldn’t dispute Tanner’s criticism. And his question was a fair one. Shame wasn’t necessarily a new concept to Holden. Yeah, he’d done a lot of shitty things, especially in the last couple of years, but most of those didn’t bother him all that much. With the kind of job he had, a man had to make some difficult choices. If he got bogged down by every one of them, he wouldn’t be a very effective undercover agent. But he did have some regrets, especially one in particular.

“Lauren is a victim. Those assholes weren’t.”

Seeing that this hadn’t satisfied them, Holden continued, “As I told you, I didn’t know about Cruz’s birthday gift to Silva. Lauren arrived when I was on an assignment. When I got back, she’d already been there six days…was to be returned to Cruz the next day. I got there in time to watch Silva’s last performance.”

“Performance?” The harsh grimness of Logan Wright’s face told Holden he wasn’t asking a question. It also told him that Wright had feelings for Lauren beyond a bodyguard.

“Silva likes an audience. I won’t go into detail about what he did.”

“And you did nothing to stop it?” Wright snarled.

No, and that was his hell to live with. It was also something he swore he would never allow again. As sick and disgusting as Silva’s abuse of Lauren had been, it’d been limited simply because he was going to have to return her to Cruz. Now that Cruz was permanently out of the picture, he would have no such restraint. There was no telling what Silva would do to the woman.

“Where is she? Where’s he keeping her?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know? How the hell—”

“Logan, let him explain,” Sabrina cut in.

“Silva has a house specifically for his women. I don’t know where it is. He’s never invited me, but he goes there once or twice a month for entertainment.”

“Then how are we going to get her if you don’t know where she is?” Samantha asked.

Before Holden could answer, Sabrina stood and addressed the room. “Silva wants me. He’s been looking for me ever since my escape. Marsh is going to arrange for one of Silva’s men to be notified of my whereabouts. Marsh will get the call to pick me up. He’ll take me to the house where Lauren is being held. Once I’m in, I’ll work with Marsh to help Lauren escape.”

A long, taut moment of silence followed Sabrina’s statement. Then the air exploded with protests and curses.

 
Sabrina steeled her spine, bracing herself, prepared to take them on. When she felt a hard, strong body behind her and then a comforting but supportive hand on her shoulder she twisted her head to look up.
Ian.