Chapter 17
CHAPTER 17
THE MAN WAS hazy through the smoke. Hair curled around his shoulders, a grimy layer of filth coated his skin, and a pair of tattered, too-big trousers hung around his waist. He lowered the cloth from his face as he walked towards me.
“Took your sweet time, Diamond.”
My heart stuttered.
Was it Carlos? Or was it...
“Black?” I whispered, squinting through the gloom.
“Who else would it be?”
How was I supposed to answer him? Logic told me it was Carlos playing some kind of elaborate trick. But most would say I’d left logic behind in Virginia, perhaps even in London fourteen years ago. Had a miracle happened and Black was standing here before me?
Or was I dreaming? Was this my subconscious, taking cruelty to a new level? I pinched myself hard.
Well, that hurt.
How could this be happening?
Because if it was Black in front of me, then who died in the taxi in Richmond? It could only have been Carlos, surely? Someone got incinerated, and that someone had shared Black’s DNA.
Unless there was a third brother. No, that didn’t bear thinking about.
I must have spent too long considering because he cleared his throat and interrupted me. “Will you stop zoning out and get the door open?”
The man looked like Black, and he sure sounded like Black. But I had to be positive before I un-caged him. It was Black himself who’d trained me to think first and act later. I needed a proof of life question, something only the two of us would know the answer to.
“What was I wearing when we met?”
Apart from Jimmy, nobody, not even our closest friends, knew I’d been a stripper when Black and I first crossed paths. I’d only admitted to stealing his wallet.
“Have you gone completely out of your mind?”
Probably. “Just answer the freaking question, will you?” I gripped the bars, my knuckles turning white as I waited for his reply.
“Fine.” He bent over and retched, then straightened up. “A schoolgirl outfit and running shoes.”
My heart stopped then restarted again with a stronger beat, the one that had faltered when I watched a taxi blow up outside the Green Mountain hotel on the outskirts of Richmond.
And with that pounding came the realisation I’d left the love of my life to spend eight months festering in a Colombian cellar.
“Emmy, what’s wrong with you? Get me out of here.”
And if I didn’t rectify the situation, we were both going to die in it.
I snapped out of my stupor. “Do you know where the key is?”
“No.” He looked past me to the pregnant chick. “Jane, do you?”
Jane shook her head helplessly.
Not to worry. Black had taught me to be a good Girl Scout, so as usual, I was prepared.
I shrugged out of my slim rucksack and balanced it on one knee. Spare knife, bullets, paracord. The mangled remains of the satellite phone Nate had made me bring, which I’d somehow broken clean in two earlier. Now, where were the explosives?
Ah, there in the corner, a couple of small charges, just big enough to take out a door lock and equipped with Nate’s special remote detonators.
I slipped one of them through the bars to Black. “You need to put it on from your side. It’s shaped to blow outwards.”
If I put it on myself, the force of the explosion would be directed right at him.
I grabbed Jane’s wrist and pulled her along behind me as we got out the way of the blast. The uneven floor had seen better days, and when she stumbled going around a corner, I barely managed to keep her upright. Then there was an ear-splitting bang, and Black belted along the corridor towards us.
He grabbed Jane’s other hand, and we half carried her towards the stairs. The smoke on the floor above had thickened into a dark blanket that invaded my lungs, and I could hardly see my hand in front of my face as I tried to get my bearings. But Jane knew the house better, and she led the two of us outside before collapsing onto the ground.
Black fell to his knees beside her, coughing, while I gulped in clean air. The smoke stung my eyes. I didn’t dare to rub them—my hands, along with the rest of me, were coated with a fine layer of soot. Black and Jane were the same.
I quickly came to my senses and pulled my gun out. With Black now holding Jane’s hair out of the way while she threw up, one of us had to keep an eye out for trouble. The far end of the house collapsed as I took stock of the situation. I guess it could have been worse.
We were only stuck in the jungle fifteen miles from anywhere, surrounded by bodies and burning buildings. Fudge, I hated the smell of charred flesh. It reminded me of Black’s… Hold on. He wasn’t dead anymore. Right? I struggled to take that in. My eyes told me one thing, but...but…
I reached out and poked him.
He gave me a grumpy look. “What are you playing at?”
“Just checking.”
Jane’s eyes darted from side to side as she took in the devastation. “What do we do now?” she asked, voice quaking.
I watched the tree line as I answered. Was anyone still there? “I saw a couple of trucks in a shed out the back. Let’s start driving and go from there.”
Jack’s team had destroyed the plane, and no way could Jane get through the jungle to the boats we’d come in, which was unfortunately where I’d told Nick to meet me. The other option would be for us to split up, and I didn’t like that idea. The only thing keeping Jane on her feet was Black, and if he’d been locked up all this time, he wouldn’t be in the best shape either.
“Let me guess, you broke another phone?” At least Black’s sense of sarcasm was alive and kicking.
“I can’t help it, okay? It just happens.”
He shook his head in exasperation then picked his way barefoot over to the nearest corpse. I kept watch while he pulled the boots off the dead guy and wedged his own feet into them.
“Two sizes too small,” he grumbled as he pulled the laces tight. “But better than cutting my feet to shreds.”
We set off along the path cut through the trees. I say path, but it was more like a tunnel with the mossy green boughs meeting overhead. We’d almost reached the trucks when Jane veered off the track.
“Hey, you’re going the wrong way,” I called.
“I need to pick something up. It’s important.”
I raised an eyebrow at Black, and he shrugged. “We’d better go with her.”
She elbowed through the damp foliage of a barely visible trail until we reached a tumbledown hut. The door hung off at an angle, but she pushed it open without hesitation and emerged a minute later clutching a small padded envelope to her chest.
“Any ideas?” I mouthed at Black.
His shake of the head said he didn’t know any more than I did.
“We can go now,” Jane informed me.
“Gee, thanks.”
The makeshift garage contained two vehicles: a new-looking pickup and something that might once have been a truck in a previous life, but only its cracked tyres had stopped it from rusting into the ground. I found the key to the pickup tucked securely behind the sun visor. At least I wouldn’t need to test my hot-wiring skills today.
Before we got in, Jane stopped and scanned the trees, squinting at the greenery.
“Come on. What are you waiting for?”
“Did you see a cat anywhere?”
What, another delay? “No, no cat.”
“Can we look for him?”
“He can find mice or something. He’ll survive.”
“But he doesn’t know how to live in the wild. He relies on me to give him food. He was supposed to be Diego’s pet, but Diego’s mean to him, so Kitty doesn’t like him very much.”
Kitty? Very original. Much as I loved animals, I didn’t want to stay here any longer.
“Please?” Jane begged.
Black shrugged again. Wow, wasn’t he Mr. Talkative today? I blew a thin stream of air between my lips, trying to hold on to my weakening patience, and even though I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible, I guessed we both owed Jane for taking me to the cellar.
“What colour is Kitty?”
“He’s big and black, and he has a red collar on.”
“I’ll have a quick look, but then we’ve got to go.”
Black stayed with Jane while I made a fast circuit of the compound. Apart from the trees rustling in the wind and the burning buildings, I didn’t see any movement. It was a lost cause. Kitty was either barbecued or hiding. When I returned to the vehicle shaking my head, Jane looked as if she was about to cry, but Black reached out and tenderly cupped her cheek.
“Animals are more resilient than we think.”
He gave her the smile that always made my heart melt, and thankfully she climbed in without further protest.
I went to get in the driver’s seat, but Black pointed me over to the passenger side.
“I’ll drive, you shoot.”
Fair enough. Shooting was a skill that quickly went rusty if you didn’t practise, and if Black had got his hands on a gun during his time in Colombia, he wouldn’t have been locked in a cell when I found him.
At the main gate, I hopped out and hauled the barrier open. Good thing it was manually operated because there wasn’t a whole lot left of the guard hut after Nate’s team had finished with it. It looked even worse than the one at Little Riverley.
“That was for you, Mick and Seth,” I muttered to myself as I took my place at Black’s side again.
The road, if it deserved to be called that, was covered in a six-inch layer of mud, which went some way towards disguising the potholes. Every time we hit one, the truck lurched and groaned together with its occupants. We could only crawl along. If we drove any faster, the truck would have left a trail of parts in its wake as they all shook loose. How had Diego ever made it through here in a sports car?
I watched in the rearview mirror as Jane shifted uncomfortably behind me, hands cradling her swollen belly. How many months pregnant was she? She certainly looked like she was ready to pop. And who was the baby’s father? One of Hector’s guards, maybe? If so, Blackwood would be mighty unpopular because we’d killed all the ones we saw at the compound.
I looked at my watch as I worked out the next steps. It seemed like an age since the helicopter took off, but in reality, it had only left twenty-five minutes ago. Seb’s watchers would have departed by now as well—we’d agreed they’d leave at dawn as we went in. I checked the fuel gauge. Half a tank. We’d be able to get to the hamlet fifteen miles away, and hopefully somebody there would have a phone that worked. Then we could call Mack, and she could divert the helicopter to pick us up.
I explained this to Black and he nodded his agreement, never taking his eyes off the road as he concentrated on steering around the worst of the ruts.
It was definitely one of the more unpleasant drives I’d been on. I’d have sold my soul to the devil to have a Huey back. Oh, wait, I did that years ago. Maybe he’d settle for a kidney instead?
The needle on the speedometer stayed firmly below twenty miles an hour as we trundled along. Nobody talked, and Black’s knuckles turned white under the filth as he gripped the steering wheel. I switched between looking at the road ahead and checking our tail in case we’d missed somebody behind us.
Black had never been a chatterbox, but I thought he might have said a few words to me. I didn’t even get a smile. Sadly, I wasn’t surprised about that part. For all intents and purposes, I’d left him buried in a hole for the best part of a year, and he had every right to be furious.
What were his first words when he saw me? Took your sweet time.
And boy, had I. I’d flipped out for three months after I thought he’d died. Three freaking months! And all that time he’d been alive. I should have kept my head rather than being cowed by the likes of Hector Ramos.
Jane coughed behind me, and Black slowed the truck for a second.
“You okay?” he asked her.
“I think so.”
“This’ll all be over soon; I promise.” He gave her a smile then snaked his hand through the gap between the seats and squeezed one of hers.
The rearview mirror may have been dingy, but I didn’t miss her blush when she gazed back at him.
Nor did I miss that he’d smiled at her, but not me. Well, clearly Jane had been there for him all the time I hadn’t. When Nate and I first saw her on our recon, she’d been carrying a tray of food near the villa. Probably she’d been taking Black his meals. They must have built up quite a bond.
And me?
I’d been worse than useless.
Let’s see, while Jane looked after Black, I’d managed to disappear off to England and turn Luke’s life upside down with my lies. After that, I’d nearly got myself killed in Syria and caused my friends no end of worry by disappearing for a week.
My pièce de résistance, though, had to be getting into Ramos’s business and practically inviting him to my house to try and kill those same friends. And just for good measure, I’d got the place destroyed in the process. That was quite an impressive list of screw-ups. Way to go, Emmy.
I sighed. All these years I’d been kidding myself I could make something of my life, but my mother had been right when she’d told me I was a total waste of space.
Stupid, stupid child.
Before I could berate myself further, my thoughts were interrupted by a horrible grating noise coming from the engine. The revs went crazy, and the truck slowed from its bumpy crawl to a complete stop. Fan-freaking-tastic.
Black and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes, kind of like we used to in the old days.
Why us?