Marta’s eyes narrowed. “My handler was clear. He doesn’t want Taggart to think we prioritized a mission over his kin.”
They wanted Big Tag to owe them a favor. Good luck cashing that one in because Big Tag tended to do what he wanted. “He won’t. I’ll fill him in on everything you’ve done, but it’s up to you. You want to keep your cover, then tell me what I need to know and let me do my job.”
Tessa retrieved her gun and breathed her first deep breath in hours. She could do this. Everything was going to be all right because this was her stage now, and she knew exactly how to perform.
“Don’t fuck this up. And use mine. It’s got a suppressor.” Marta reached behind her and came up with a shiny semi complete with a lovely suppressor that would keep her kills quiet, thereby not alerting anyone that she was on the move. “But get dressed first. I know your boobs might distract those assholes, but it’s not seemly. Cover them.”
Tessa put hers on the bed and Marta’s joined it. She was right. It wasn’t seemly to go kill a bunch of dudes in a too-short robe with her ass hanging out. She was a girlfriend, and she had to think about David. She wouldn’t want him teaching a class on the rise of democratic socialism in Eastern Chile while showing off his abs. He liked her ass and her boobs and all her other parts, so she would keep the nudity where it belonged. Between the two of them and anyone who happened to belong to one of their clubs.
She reached for some undies. “Tell me what I need to know.”
Marta sat back. “I’ve got most of them in the dining room. Go up the back way and you can pick them off easily from the second floor landing. I’ll take out the asshole watching the back door. If anyone asks, you got him first. I want to fuck him up a little because he’s been harassing the maids, and those babies are scared of him. I want to make him scared of me before he dies.”
“Cool.” She had no problem with that. She hooked her bra. “I took out the back guard and then moved to the dining room. Where’s Luis?”
“In the library with your boy and Eddie. Don’t kill Eddie. I need him. If I do this well, I might be able to shift to a cushy position back home. I miss Mexican food. You know, American Mexican food. My mother would spin in her grave at how my tastes have changed,” Marta admitted.
“If you’re ever in Dallas, I’ll treat you to some Tex-Mex.” She put on shorts and a T-shirt.
It was time to save her guy.
* * * *
David glanced up and realized hours had gone by. He’d had his head wrapped around the problem and hadn’t felt the passage of time.
Luis was sitting in the window seat where Tessa had been yesterday. He had a walkie-talkie in his hand and had been coordinating movements with his men. So far David had figured out that there were seven of them and they were scattered around the grounds, though he didn’t know exactly where they were.
There was another guard on the door that led from the library to the hallway. He wasn’t sure if there was another guard outside. Mateo hadn’t shown his face for hours. He was probably watching Tessa, and that made David’s stomach turn. He’d left her vulnerable. He should have fought, should have done whatever it took to get her out of there.
Or he needed to realize that this was panic and Tessa was a pro who’d wanted him out of that room. She would wait for her best opportunity, and she would come for him.
All he had to do was buy her time. She was smart and brave and deadly. His pretty predator.
What was Tessa going through? It didn’t matter how good she was at her job. He would still worry about her, and once they got out of this, he would pamper her and love her and never ask about the more dangerous parts of her job. Unless she wanted to talk about them.
“She’s all right,” Eddie whispered. “They won’t hurt her.”
Was Eddie naïve or was he simply trying to make David as comfortable as possible so he got what he wanted? David looked back down at the notes he’d been making. “Of course.”
Eddie groaned. “I’m being a fool, aren’t I?”
“It doesn’t matter.” David kept his voice low and didn’t look up.
“I’m sorry. I thought you would get here and figure out the puzzle, and you wouldn’t even have to know what was going on,” Eddie whispered.
He seriously doubted things would have gone that way. “They’ve been planning this for a long time. They obviously know something we don’t. They have to have a reason to believe the treasure exists.”
“They told me the old butler knew something. According to Luis, he helped my dad bury the treasure, but before he could tell them anything, he died. That was why they put this plan in motion.”
That was interesting. “He used the word bury?”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t there,” Eddie admitted.
Luis’s radio crackled, and someone came over the line announcing that there was lunch in the dining room. It was good to know they were keeping a schedule and the cook was still hard at work. He wondered how much they were paying her. Eddie had been surrounded by wolves.
“Because there’s nothing in this poem that tells me the treasure was buried.” He’d read the thing a thousand times now. “He talks about it being hidden.”
There was a knock on the door, and it opened. A man walked in, a stack of files in his hands. He walked up to Luis and handed them off.
“Hidden where? I would think the jungle would be the best place to hide it. He spent a lot of time out there. He called it meditative time,” Eddie replied. “Do you think he put it in one of the villages?”
Given some of the rumors he’d heard, David didn’t think so. “What do you know about the hidden passageways in this house?”
“I know that I’ve shown these fuckers all of them. It was the first thing they asked about. The butler knew where the passages are.” Eddie glanced back.
Did he? There was a line in the poem that made him think not.
A stream that flows for only one
My secret kept until you are clever enough to find it
He thought he was right about his first impression. The treasure was meant for Eddie and it was personal, and it was here in this house or on the grounds.
Luis had hopped off his seat and moved toward them, the files in his hands. “Here’s everything we could find about the house. Montez kept a copy of the blueprints in his office. These are the originals. They don’t include the third floor. Hope it helps because you’re running out of time.”
“I thought you were giving us through the weekend.” How hard was Luis going to push because David knew he needed to give Tessa as much time as he could. The last thing he wanted was to actually find this sucker because he was fairly certain a bullet to the back of the head would follow.
Luis frowned. “Someone rented a chopper to take them from the mainland to here. I don’t like it.”
“It’s probably another treasure hunter.” Eddie looked up at their captor. “You know this is the tactic they’ve started to take. We had one of those guys…what do you call it when they have their own channel on social media?”
“I think you’re thinking of vloggers.” He was right. There were several so-called historians who had their own web pages where they did videos specifically about their adventures trying to locate some of history’s mysteries. They usually stuck to the big ones. Atlantis. The Lost City of Z. But there were a few who specialized in recent history’s mysteries. It wouldn’t surprise him to see someone do a spot on the lost Montez treasure.