Falling Darkness. Karen Harper
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and nail him. Man, I hope you’re contacted soon by Patterson. But you don’t think your friend Heck could have run off with a woman he just met, do you? I mean, I gotta admit I practically eloped with our-lady-in-common, but—”
“Claire is not ‘in common,’” Nick interrupted, which really annoyed Jace since he was trying to be supportive. Even though he’d been flying the plane that went down, all of this major mess went back to Nick Markwood. And here Nick was running—ruining—Claire’s and Lexi’s lives too. Jace tried to control his anger, but he had to say something.
“Look, Nick, you and Claire got together pretty fast too. But back to the latest problem. The way Heck stared at that ruined hotel and that private Russian firm sitting there in his family’s beautiful hacienda, who knows, he might want to stay here. And cozying up to Ames—turning on us—could make that come true.”
“I know him, trust him. Something’s wrong. I’m going to the computer room to see if a reply came back yet. Then I’m—not sure what. We can hardly go to the Havana police to report him missing. Be right back. And if you change positions, let our bodyguard Bronco know. He’s still over by the line of taxis, watching for Heck from there.”
Jace checked that Bronco was still there and gave him the high sign to stay put. Taxis here meant mostly cars that looked like they drove out of a 1940s or 1950s movie, so it was a real vintage auto parade in front of the hotel. Jace saw a lavender Ford with huge back fins, big Chevrolets, even some Cadillacs, all shined up, some with parts that didn’t belong to them, that somebody had probably bought in a back alley shop. He noted an occasional square, black Lada, the Russian-made car they’d seen at Heck’s family’s hacienda. And cars that Gina had pointed out, government-owned ones with the distinctive blue license plates, some cruising by, some parked.
Jace edged around the corner of the building where he could see the Nacional’s outdoor hotel patio overlooking the sea. Businessmen and a few couples were having lunch, silhouetted by the harbor and the sparkling water. So deceptively beautiful, so luring, this seemingly benign place. He watched some daredevil boys cannonballing off the seawall of the Malecon, barely missing the jagged rocks to splash into the water. That was more like the daredevil mess they were in, he thought. To get back over the water they had a lot of dangerous snags to avoid.
He heard someone call, “Seth!” and turned. He wasn’t yet used to hearing that instead of “Jace.” It was Lexi’s nanny they were now calling Lorena, looking terrified, in tears.
“Where’s Mr. Jack?” she demanded. Before he could answer, she went on. “Meggie is missing. She trick me, went down somewhere in an elevator. We have to look for her!”
Suddenly, he felt like he’d jumped and hit the rocks.
* * *
Nick was disappointed there was no answer to his email yet. Wasn’t the FBI more efficient than that? It had been—he checked his watch—nearly an hour, but maybe Patterson had to lay plans before sending them instructions. If word came they should go somewhere and Heck wasn’t back, what then?
He decided he’d go up to be with Claire, see how she was feeling since Jace and Bronco were still on watch at the front entry. If only they had a way to contact Gina. She had to be with Heck, hopefully helping with whatever he’d got into. This was so not like him. If he couldn’t trust Heck anymore, what could he do with him when they got to Michigan—if they got to Michigan?
Nick was waiting by the bank of main elevators when one opened and Claire ran out. She gasped to see him, seized his arm in a tight grip and pulled him away into a dead end of the hall behind a cluster of potted palms.
“What’s wrong?”
“Lexi ditched Nita by ducking back into an elevator. I’ve been riding them while Nita looks outside.”
“Damn! Heck’s still MIA too.”
“Maybe she found him and he—No, he’d bring her right back to us. I’m going crazy. What if someone bad sees her, takes her? Why haven’t the hotel people found her? I had to risk telling them she’d gone off on her own. I keep checking in the room.”
“Have you looked out by the pool?” he asked.
“Yes. Nita did too. Where are Jace and Bronco?”
“Out watching the crowd for Heck and/or Gina. Where haven’t you looked? Is there someplace here she’d go to, wanting to feel safe? Lily may do bad things, but not your girl.”
“I—I don’t know. I feel like I’ve lost her in more ways than one, and that terrifies me. Maybe—maybe the store where we bought the bathing suit for her. She liked those stuffed animals in there, and I wouldn’t let her have one to lug around and I knew she’d never leave it when we leave here.”
“Let’s go check that out. Did you tell the lifeguards at the pool in case she goes back there?”
“Yes,” Claire said, her voice breaking, her hands gripped together as if in prayer. “That’s when I really lost it, started to cry—when he said he keeps a watch on the kids, because they found one last month drowned at the bottom of that big pool.”
* * *
Claire spotted Lexi the moment she and Nick walked into the beachwear and gift shop. She was so grateful, so relieved, she burst into tears again. Her knees went so weak she almost fell. Standing in the corner, the child had a bright green stuffed toy whale clutched in her arms. But she looked like she wasn’t embracing it but strangling it.
“Meggie,” Claire cried and knelt beside her. She threw her arms around the child and the whale. Nick squatted beside them and propped Claire up.
“Whales are bigger than sharks,” Lexi whispered. “Big enough to kill those sharks we saw, big enough to ride out of here. I want to go home.”
“We will,” Nick promised. “We will. Sorry,” he said when a saleswoman hurried up to them. “She wanted that, and we told her no, but we’ll take it.”
“I thought she with other people here. You want put it on your room bill?”
“Ah, yes, that would be fine. No, on second thought I’ll just pay cash for it.”
Claire lifted Lexi and the whale and headed out into the hall. She overheard the saleswoman telling Nick the price and saw him take what must be his last small American bill out of his pants pocket.
“Lexi,” Claire told her as she carried her over to a wicker bench and sat down beside her, “don’t you ever do that to Nita or me again! And don’t tell me Lily did it. Everyone’s been looking for you!”
“But, Mommy, I didn’t even know where I was. Where are we? Why can’t we be home?”
“Oh, my sweetheart, I’m so sorry about everything. But we’re together. We love you, all of us. We’re a little family now, but—I guess I’ll have to explain things better.”
When Nick came out of the shop, Claire stood and hiked Lexi up as if she was a much younger child with her legs around Claire’s waist and Claire’s arms under the girl’s bottom. That stupid stuffed animal was still in the way, but nothing else mattered now that Lexi was safe, but—actually, it did. Everything mattered to get them out of here.
Nick looked both relieved and desperate. “I’ll tell them at the desk she’s been found,” he said, “but I’ve got to check my email too.” He took Claire’s elbow and steered her farther away from the shop. “Sit in the lobby. Don’t budge. I want to be able to see both of you.”
Claire sat with Lexi on her lap on a leather sofa and kept an eye on Nick too as he went into the adjacent room where she could see little cubicles sheltering laptops. Jace must be frantic over Lexi too, all of them. She needed to tell Nita and him their daughter had been found. She needed a tissue to wipe her eyes and blow her nose. She needed Nick to hold her. Most of all, maybe more like her daughter than she cared to admit, she needed her sense of safety and sanity back.