Chapter 50
Mountain Property Near Hollis Golf & Country Club
The building creaked as the temperature dropped outside.
Metal ticked softly overhead, the hot skin of the structure cooling inch by inch in the mountain night.
Inside, the air was stale and heavy.
No windows.
No insulation.
Darkness, concrete, and the lingering smell of oil and dust.
Izzy sat on the floor with her wrists bound behind her back, shoulders aching from the angle. Across from her, Cal leaned against a steel support beam in the shadows, hands tied the same way.
A single overhead bulb buzzed weakly above them.
Izzy’s throat felt raw.
“Where are we?”
Cal shifted slightly, looking around again.
“I think…” He swallowed. “I think this is one of my father’s old buildings near the country club.”
“You think?”
“I’m not sure.”
Izzy laughed bitterly.
“That’s comforting.”
Outside, wind moved through the trees.
Then Izzy looked at him hard.
“So your father’s going to let them hurt us?”
Cal frowned immediately.
“No. He would never do that.”
“Oh yeah?” Izzy snapped. “Really? Because from where I’m sitting, your family’s doing a fantastic job so far.”
Cal stared at her.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Maybe he’s not the one in charge,” she shot back.
His expression tightened.
“What does that mean?”
“It means Varga’s in charge of all of it.”
Cal blinked.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“Izzy, what the hell are you saying?”
“Oh, come on, Cal.” She stared at him in disbelief. “You seriously expect me to believe you don’t know your father’s tied to the Varga cartel?”
“Cartel?” Cal shook his head sharply. “What are you talking about?”
“Ghost Ice.”
The words landed hard in the metal building.
Cal frowned deeper now.
“I’ve heard the name on the news—”
“Your father’s storing raw material for it.” Her voice cracked with anger and fear. “Vance Varga handles logistics. Your dad handles movement and holding locations.”
Cal stared at her.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“My father does business deals, land deals, horse deals—”
“He does cartel deals.”
“That’s insane.”
Izzy gave a hollow laugh.
“Is it?”
She leaned forward as far as the restraints allowed.
“Hell, I’ve been here two weeks and figured it out. You’ve lived with the man your whole life, and somehow you know nothing?”
Cal’s jaw clenched hard. Outrage came first—hot, automatic—but underneath it something colder slid in. A thin crack of disbelief.
Cal looked genuinely shaken now.
“Izzy, listen to yourself.”
“No, you listen to me.” Tears burned suddenly behind her eyes. “I found those paintings. Clara Vale saw something out here twenty-seven years ago, and then she disappeared.”
Cal went quiet.
He thought of airstrips cut into ridges, trucks that came and went at odd hours, deals his father never explained because he’d never asked. It had always been Hollis business.
“And now I’m the one asking questions.”
The fear finally cracked through her voice completely.
“Oh my God…”
She looked toward the dark ceiling of the building.
“They’re going to kill me.”
“No,” Cal said instantly.
“Yes, they are.”
“They are not going to kill you.”
“You don’t know that!”
Her voice echoed sharply off the metal walls.
Cal shifted forward hard against the ropes.
“Izzy, if I were part of this, why would I be tied up here too?”
That stopped her for half a second.
Because she didn’t have an answer.
But she still didn’t trust him.
Burke is investigating your father. Your father lied. The landing strip. The trucks. The cameras. Nothing about this was normal.
Izzy shook her head slowly. Emotion climbed hard into her throat as she looked at him, her eyes glassy. “They’re going to bury me somewhere in these mountains like Clara Vale.”
Tears finally spilled down her face.
Cal’s expression changed immediately.
Not defensive now.
Alarmed.
“Izzy, stop.”
She turned away from him, shoulders trembling.
“Hey.” His voice softened. “Look at me.”
She didn’t.
“They are not going to kill you.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“No.” He exhaled hard. “But I can promise you my father wouldn’t allow it.”
The words snapped out of him on reflex, the way they always had when anyone questioned Wade Hollis. But even to his own ears, they didn’t sound as certain as they used to.
Izzy laughed bitterly through tears.
“You still believe that?”
Cal opened his mouth, then closed it again. For the first time in his life, he didn’t know how to answer a question about his father.
Before Cal could answer—
Footsteps sounded outside the building.
Both of them went still.
The steel door opened.
Two of the Florida men stepped inside carrying a flashlight.
Cal straightened instantly.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he snapped.
Neither man answered.
“Do you know who I am?”
One of them smirked.
Cal pulled harder against the restraints.
“My father will have your ass for this.”
The taller man finally looked at him.
“Your father works for people like us.”
The sentence hit harder than any punch. All the fight went out of him as something deep inside him had cracked. At first, his mind automatically rejected it.
Then memory started surfacing in ugly little flashes.
Restricted roads on Hollis land, he’d been told, never to use.
Trucks arriving long after midnight.
Men, his father called business associates who never stayed long enough to learn anybody’s name.
Every time Cal asked questions growing up, Wade answered the same way:
“Some parts of this business aren’t your concern yet.”
Back then, Cal had heard protection in the words.
Standing here now, he finally heard the warning underneath them.
Cal’s face darkened instantly.
“Untie us. Now.”
The men ignored him completely.
“I’m not telling you again.”
A laugh echoed softly through the building.
Then the taller man reached over and killed the overhead light.
Darkness swallowed the room instantly.
For the first time since they’d dragged him off the farm, Cal felt something he couldn’t fight with his fists or the Hollis name. Panic slid in under his ribs, sharp and unfamiliar.
The steel door slammed shut.
Locks clanked into place.
And somewhere outside—
An engine started.