Jacked Up (Bowen Boys #4)(83)
She scrambled up and tried the door. Locked. Ignoring her wobbliness, her dizziness, and the blinding sun, she rushed to the window. She had to get out, but one look sank her spirits. There was water as far as her eye could see. A small beach on her right, a pier with a couple of boats on the left.
As she heard the door unlock, she turned, hugging herself.
Exxum walked in. “You’re finally awake.”
Elle had thousands of questions but the first that plopped out of her mouth was, “Where am I?”
“You’re my guest at one of my private retreats on the North Shore. My security detail was nice enough to get you for me.”
“I’m not too savvy on proper etiquette in high circles, but I’m positive drugging your prospective guests is a big no-no.”
Exxum smiled. “I don’t usually have to resort to such extreme measures. It was a shot of something to make you more agreeable. I apologize for the inconvenience.”
“Apology not accepted. I would like to leave. Now.”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible.”
Of course not. “What do you want from me?”
“From you nothing, but the man I know as Alex Ayala doesn’t seem to be what he appears, and I’d like to have a chat with him. In the last six months several of my business deals have gone belly-up inexplicably. Everything has started to make sense.
“Ayala had passed all of my security filters, which are many, with flying colors. He’d brokered several high-profile transactions for me and now, because of him, I have some disgruntled clients, not famous for their coolheadness or reasonability, thinking I’ve cheated them out of their guns. He’s cost me a lot of money, directly and indirectly. And a lot of the headaches. To say we have a score to settle is an understatement. You are a means to an end. So, you see, I don’t want anything from you per se.”
“I do,” she heard a voice say.
The sun was behind the man on the door, so she couldn’t see him properly, but as he stepped in, she realized who that was. Maldonado. Alive and well, looking tanned and relaxed, as a matter of fact.
God, this was getting worse and worse.
“I thought you were…”
“Dead? Sorry to disappoint.”
“I saw you getting into the car and—”
“You saw my cousin getting into the car. If we could have gotten you, it wouldn’t have been necessary, but since your friend intervened, we had to go with plan B. And well, it was my cousin’s fault that Aalto died and I’m in this mess, so it just stands to reason that he should pay the consequences. I already had his dental records swapped with mine some time ago. Why would anyone keep useless relatives around, right? Especially one who resembled me so much. I needed you and everyone who saw the incident to be convinced it was me. Ayala wouldn’t have backed off otherwise.”
Elle frowned. It had not been just dental records that had identified the body. “DNA confirmed it was you.”
“Law-enforcement agencies should do their homework better and screen their candidates more thoroughly. People with gambling issues should not be allowed to handle forensic evidence; some unscrupulous thug could use their secrets to encourage them to forge false forensic statements. You have been a very bad girl. You impersonated Mrs. Cabrera and, to add to your stupidity, you went to the cops.”
Donald had given them her name; it was useless to lie at this point so she kept quiet.
“Why don’t you make things easier for yourself and tell us Alex Ayala’s real name?” Exxum asked. “We could bring our…grievances straight to him.”
Elle tried to play it cool. “What do you mean, what’s his real name? I know him only as Alex Ayala. I’m as much in the dark as you.”
Maldonado didn’t seem fooled. “He fought my men to get to you. I’ve read the info Exxum has on him. Alex Ayala does not fight for a woman, much less for a witness under federal protection. Someone undercover does.”
She forced her throat to work, her mind racing. She needed a way out and she needed to be damn convincing. For Jack’s sake and for hers. “I’m not a witness under federal protection.”
“You dispatched my flight. You went to the cops.”
“Yes, and yes, but I know there’s no future testifying against somebody like you. What I want is to make a deal. My silence can be bought.”
Maldonado barked out a laugh. “You are misrepresenting the situation. I don’t have to buy your silence. Dead people tend to keep their traps shut.”
“Dead people might have a safe deposit box whose contents are sent to the FBI once said people kick the bucket,” she said, doing her damnedest to squish the trembling on her voice.
“If I had a penny for every time I heard someone say that, I’d be richer than I am, which, considering the margin of profit in my line of work, is saying a lot,” he sneered. “You’re bluffing. So cute, and so pointless in the grand scheme of things. Where do we find Alex?”
She remained furiously silent.
“You don’t have to tell us anything, true, but we are trying to do you a favor,” Exxum explained with a sigh. “We don’t need it. As soon as he hears you’re missing, he’ll come to us.”
“You overestimate my influence on him.”