“You think he’s here yet?” one of the security crew asked from the backseat.

“We’re about to find out.”

I slammed on the brakes, parked in the fire lane, and jumped out. As soon as my feet hit the ground, another SUV roared up beside me and stopped. I pulled my pistol as the window rolled down.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Rix shouted. “I’ve been following you for two miles debating whether I should pull your ass over after someone called in a possible drunk driver. You’re lucky I was the closest unit.”

“Not now. Busy.”

“You care to fucking share why you’re in an SUV owned by Lachlan Mount, hauling ass to a private airport with a bunch of his guys?”

My head jerked to the side as I looked at Carver. “What the fuck is he talking about?”

He shrugged. “You needed backup. The best. I got it for you.”

Jesus fucking Christ. “Don’t have time to explain,” I told Rix.

The cop slammed his vehicle into reverse to park behind my SUV. He jumped out, gun in hand. “Something’s going down. Don’t know what it is, but you’re not doing this alone.”

“You can’t be here.”

Rix glared at me. “Too late. I’m here.”

I shook my head. “Fuck it. Be stubborn. You want to help take down the cartel before they get to Ari? Then let’s go get this motherfucker.”

I tucked my gun away as I headed for the door. Private airport. No security. God bless rich people who don’t like walking through metal detectors.

I walked up to the information desk and slid the slip of paper with the tail number Rome had texted me across the counter. “I need to know if this plane has landed.”

The woman folded her hands. “I’m sorry, sir. For privacy reasons, we can’t disclose that information.”

Rix pulled out his badge. “We’re overruling your privacy reasons.”

Her eyes widened slightly. “I’m not supposed to provide any information without a warrant.”

“You want to be invited to the funerals you contribute to by not sharing the information?” Rix countered.

“No.” Her head shook vigorously. “If it’s a matter of public safety, I can make an exception.”

“We’d appreciate that,” I replied.

She took the slip of paper, typed the info into the computer, and frowned. “This flight came in ahead of schedule. It landed about fifteen minutes after they filed the flight plan, but of course, we see that when people want to keep their destinations as private as the FAA will allow.”

“Wait. You mean they’re already on the ground?”

“Yes, sir. A couple of hours ago. They were here and left.”

My mind racing, I spun away from the desk with Rix, Carver, and another one of the crew following me. “Fuck. Fuck.”

“This had to be planned,” Carver said. “You think they wanted us away from the house? Away from Ms. Sampson?”

My stomach hit the floor.

“He’s not going to touch her.” I cut my gaze to Carver. “Get on the phone. Call the guys at the house. Make sure she’s still in lockdown and there’s been no movement.”

He already had his phone out as I reached into my pocket to see a missed call on mine from Ari.

Fuck. I called her back, but got no answer.

“She’s in the safe room? You’re sure?” Carver asked. “Can you confirm via camera feed?” We waited for several moments before he froze. “What do you mean, the camera feeds are down?” He asked the question quietly, but it blared through my brain like he’d shouted it.

No. Not fucking happening.

I called Ari’s phone again and let it ring until it went straight to voice mail.

Where the hell are you?

I snatched the phone from Carver’s hand. “Have there been any disturbances? Anything?”

“No, sir. Well, something tripped a sensor on the back perimeter, but there was nothing there when we checked and none of the house sensors were triggered. I went to check the feed to see what it was, and just saw it was black. We’re trying to figure out what happened. The safe room door is still engaged.”

I thought of the day the man came up on a boat and scared the shit out of Ari while she was outside, and how she’d locked herself in the safe room without setting off the alarm for Carver to know. None of that system was foolproof. If she could get around it, so could someone else.

“Any boats? Coming or going?”

A moment of silence. “Now that you mention it . . . I heard a boat motor as we came around the house to check.”

Fuck. “We need confirmation Ari is in the safe room. Go pound on the fucking door, if you have to. I need to hear her voice. Call us back.”

“On it.”

I hung up and handed the phone back to Carver.

“Where’s Sampson? He know his sister is locked down in a safe room?” This came from Rix.

“No fucking clue where he is. MIA. But we got a head in a box from the cartel this morning. One of Ari’s employees. Saw pictures of another one. Now the asshole who did it is here, and I’m not stopping until we put him down so he can never touch her again.”

Rix’s eyebrows went up. “You’re gonna need more backup if you’re going to war with the cartel.” He’d done it before. He would know.

“You offering?”

“I can’t do it officially, but I’m here. Let’s do this.”

I glanced to Carver. “We got another body on the team. Now we gotta figure out where the fuck this asshole went.”

60

Ariel

One stolen boat and one borrowed car later, I knew I made a huge mistake the moment I walked into my dad’s empty house and someone grabbed me, wrenching my arms around my back. All my training deserted me, and I froze when I saw Carlos standing in the living room, his white shirt perfectly pressed but spattered with a faint spray of red. Blood.

I could hear Rhett’s voice yelling in my head to fight. I yanked, trying to twist out of the grip of whoever held me, but all I did was waste my energy.

Carlos waited until I stilled to speak, shaking his head. “You should have done what I told you to do, Ariel. Instead, you had to be foolish.”