Chapter 13 #4
“We’ve been through a lot, Floyd and I. He’s saved my butt a few times.
I know him well. But when Floyd disappeared on me—and took my special phone with him—I did some back channel checking up.
It wasn’t a big leap to figure out he was up to something.
” Oscar paused. “He was always up to something. It was his job. His life really.” Oscar looked at Dane and lowered his voice.
“He is particularly interested in you. I should have known sooner. I’m sorry I didn’t pick up on it and call you to warn you.”
Oscar continued, “I found out from a good source that Floyd Parker was working with Tavares and that Floyd supposedly wanted you dead. And that Tavares wanted you and Shana alive. Tavares planned to swap you for his nephew’s release.
Floyd and Tavares allegedly joined forces when Floyd promised he could get you both.
Tavares promised Floyd a big payoff. I wasn’t sure if it was Floyd playing a game to set up Tavares for a fall at that point.
“I should have known there was a problem when Floyd asked about you—no matter how artfully casual he was about it. It was his reaction when I mentioned that Shana had partnered with you that made me suspicious. He got a gleam in his eye. A very unhealthy gleam. But at the time I had no reason to think he had any scheme planned. We continued with business as usual in Haiti for weeks after that. I forgot all about it. I hadn’t realized Floyd was making plans behind the scenes.
“So when he called me and told me Tavares had Shana, I had a sense that he was telling the truth—and that he wanted me to do something about it. I called the governor to confirm that Shana was missing and he did. He said you were all working on a plan. I had tried calling you all but it turns out David and O’Keefe were in the air at the time and Dane was apparently in a dungeon.
“I figured I was closer than you were. I didn’t know Dane had already gotten to Shana—Dane, I didn’t even know then that you were in country although I suspected you might be. So I got some assets lined up and took off. You know the rest.”
Dane listened with interest, but he was stuck on Oscar’s first words about finding out from a ‘good source.’ He had suspicions.
Very dark suspicions. The kind that made his chest tighten and his pulse pick up—a very unhealthy combination.
He didn’t want to know, didn’t think he could stand knowing, but he asked anyway.
“Who was your good source?”
Oscar flinched. He was a very cool customer. His flinch almost made the bottom fall out of Dane’s stomach. Dane did not flinch, but steeled himself for the answer. He felt Shana move closer until her shoulder touched his arm and her skin singed his.
“Maria’s brother.”
“Maria?” David said.
Oscar stayed silent. Shana stiffened at Dane’s side.
He would have gulped if he hadn’t been concentrating on keeping his cool.
It was usually automatic, but this trip had been a test. His automatic self-control switch had not been turned off—it had been smashed to smithereens. Ever since he’d found Shana gone.
Now he stifled his urge to pull her in to claim her and calm her, and to allow the feel of her softness to soothe him. He didn’t even allow himself to clear his throat, so his voice sounded gruff when he spoke. He had everyone’s attention.
“Maria was Floyd’s mistress back in Columbia. I’d met her when we worked with the ATF on a drug sting in Columbia years ago. Maria was not exactly an informant, but she was a cooperative player—she ran a high-end brothel frequented by some of our poster boys for the drug cartel.”
“Get to the point,” Shana said. She’d turned somewhat to face him, and so far she hadn’t withdrawn, her shoulder still touched his.
They’d touched on this before. She’d be pissed now that he hadn’t told her everything from the start, think he’d been holding out on her.
Nothing pissed her off more than that. Dane stifled a sigh, but he allowed himself to freeze into the petrified version of himself.
He channeled the granite statue version of Dane the legend and continued.
“Maria was collateral damage in the takedown.” Dane paused to let that sink in. Oscar knew this. He knew details of the story—different versions from different people. He’d never heard Dane’s version because Dane had never shared it. Not with anyone.
“There is disagreement on who was at fault. Some people thought it was her own carelessness. Maria liked excitement, was drawn to the action. Some people thought it was my fault for not warning her. Others—including Maria’s brother—thought it was Floyd’s fault for not warning her, for not keeping her away. ”
“What do you think?” Shana spoke the soft words, but Dane knew the question was on everyone’s mind.
He knew they all lost sleep at night over the possibility of collateral damage every time they ran any kind of sting or takedown operation.
It was their job to forge into the line of fire—it was not a place for innocents.
He spoke the truth. “It’s one of those things I’ve tried not to think about all these years.
” He didn’t say that Maria’s death was one in a long line; that he’d discarded thoughts of blame and guilt and put them in a dark corner of his soul.
He didn’t say that the dark corner threatened to overwhelm him; that it was growing larger than the rest of him; that it threatened to take over his essence and shut him down; that he was there that very moment trying to outrun the darkness.
In a way, he welcomed the showdown with Maria’s ghost. It could have been his fault.
He could have prevented her death. You didn’t kill her.
He became aware of a new stream of sweat trickling down his hairline along the right temple, temporarily soaked up by his overgrown sideburns and the growing stubble of his beard.
In another way, he dreaded this showdown. No need to dwell on why.
“It doesn’t matter what I think right now. If Maria’s brother Luis is in the picture, it matters what he thinks. He confronted Floyd back when it happened. I went with Floyd to tell their family. Floyd blamed it on me. Luis didn’t believe him. He was predisposed against Floyd.”
“He hated Floyd,” Oscar said. “Still does.”
“What brought this to the surface again?” Dane asked Oscar.
“Luis was in Haiti. I didn’t ask Floyd if he’d seen him, whether Luis had confronted him, but my bet is that they ran into each other.”
“So you think Luis put Floyd up to avenging Maria’s death by coming after me? Then he finds out about my partnership with Shana and joins in with the Tavares people because he knows they have a grudge against both of us?”
“That’s the size of it.”
Dane thought for a beat. “I don’t think Luis has that much sway with Floyd.”
“There’s also the money,” Oscar said.
“Did Floyd need the money?”
Oscar shrugged. “He’s coming along on retirement age.”
Dane smiled. Oscar gave him a warning squint back.
David scoffed. No need to remind Oscar he was further along on his way toward retirement age than Floyd was.
Well past it, by some standards. If Dane ever felt like he was getting too old for this racket at thirty-nine, he thought about Oscar.
Maybe Oscar ought to be on his mind more often.
Except Dane didn’t think of this racket as something he could retire from.
It was his essence—who he was. Same as it was for Oscar.
“Let’s get out of this godforsaken place,” O’Keefe said.
Dane didn’t want to tell him this was one of the most civilized missions he’d been on outside the country.
“We need a plan to ensure Floyd is going to follow us,” Shana said.
“I don’t even care so much about Tavares—law enforcement has that family on their radar for other things.
But if we don’t get Floyd now—he’ll get away with everything.
” She folded her arms across her mighty magnificent chest and Dane’s blood surged, bringing body parts to life that had no business being part of this mission.
“He’ll follow us.”
David said, “He might be tempted to cut his losses and run. We should have a plan to make sure he doesn’t get out of town without Tavares knowing about it.”
“Floyd will want to cover his tail with the CIA,” Dane said.
“He doesn’t want them chasing him any more than he wants the Tavares people on him.
” Dane paused and he had everyone’s attention, but he looked at Shana.
He didn’t have a plan in his head, but he knew he could brainstorm one with some inspiration.
“Floyd will ideally want to blame our death or disappearance on Tavares and keep himself clean. He wants the money, but he also wants revenge of his own. He needs to come away clean, to wrap up his career, put his last payday together, and get his revenge.”
“Are we sure he’s not doing this under duress?
” David asked. “It’s a big leap for a CIA man with a long career to suddenly turn rogue and start killing his colleagues and working with the people he’s been working to shut down all his life.
Are you sure his motivation to take you down is strong enough? ”
Dane should have known he wouldn’t get away with the shortened version of the background to this mission and Maria’s death. He took a controlled breath, a mind-clearing breath, and spoke.
“Floyd figures I deserve to be taken down. I’d taken down his mistress. Or so he believes—he has to believe it to prevent feeling his own guilt. Maria didn’t get arrested, or captured or outed, but killed. I’m not going to lie and say I had nothing to do with it, that it was all on Floyd—”
Oscar interrupted, “I didn’t see it that way.”
“But Maria was only his mistress, not his mother,” David said. “And it’s years later now. Is he motivated by her loss or motivated by a threat—maybe from Luis?”