“Why do you want to know?”
“I like to know things.”
He turned and walked off.
“I can find out, you know. On my own.”
He stopped and turned back as she drew closer.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“Maybe the same thing you want.”
“How would you know what I want?” “Perhaps you’re not as subtle as you think you are.”
Mecho stared right through her.
“The thing is, Mecho, I’m not sure we can both get what we want. Only one of us can.”
“Only one of us can,” he repeated.
He turned and walked off. This time she did not follow and he did not look back.
Mecho was thinking only one thing.
I will have to kill her after all.
CHAPTER 68
“Jane, what the hell are you doing here?”
Griffin Mason stared back at Ryon as she stood on the front stoop of his cottage near Choctawhatchee Bay. He was dressed in a robe and his hair was disheveled.
“Actually, it’s a threesome,” said Puller as he appeared on the right of Ryon while Carson appeared on the left of the woman.
Mason paled as he looked at the pair.
Puller said, “We need to come in and talk.”
He glanced nervously over his shoulder. “This isn’t a good time.”
Before he could look back he was being propelled into the house by a hard shove from Puller. His robe flew open, revealing his naked body.
“I didn’t say it was a request,” said Puller as he stood over Mason, who had ended up on his back on the floor.
“Where are they?” Puller demanded.
“Where is who?” yelled Mason.
Puller grabbed him by the shoulders and jerked him to his feet. “The kids,” he barked. “Where are they?”
“What kids?”
“Diego and Mateo.”
Carson glanced sharply at him.
Puller eyed her. “It occurred to me on the way over. This jerk-off can afford a thousand bucks to buy a kid.”
They all heard a noise from the next room. Puller raced to the door and threw it open.
Mason shouted, “Damn it, you can’t go in there.”
“The hell I can’t,” said Puller.
He froze in the doorway as the others joined him.
They all stared into the room.
A bedroom.
Someone was on the bed.
It was not Diego. Or Mateo.
It was Isabel.
And she was naked.
She barely had time to lift the sheet to cover her body.
“Isabel?” said Puller.
She stared back at him, her face a ball of anger. “What the hell is going on, Grif?” she exclaimed, looking over at Mason.
Mason grabbed Puller by the arm and tried to jerk him around, but Puller was so big and strong that Mason merely ended up knocking himself off balance and falling to the floor.
He jumped back up and screamed, “I am going to sue your ass off.”
Puller turned to him. “What is she doing up here?”
“That is none of your damn business,” yelled an apoplectic Mason.
Mason looked at him blankly. “What?”
“Cookie? Floating in a bathtub. You were there. You told Ryon to get over there and take his most valuable watches. Only way that works is if he’s dead.”
“I didn’t kill him.”
“Yeah, right. And what about my aunt? You make her do a header into the fountain? Hold her under?”
“I swear to God I didn’t.”