I didn’t have time to grab anything, and my heart beat so fast that I couldn’t stop the adrenaline from rushing through my veins. I tried to stall. “I need to shower.”
“Shower on the boat.” He smiled, his eyes roving over my body like the slimy scum he was, and he sucked on his yellowed teeth. “We’ll enjoy the show. We have in the past, right?”
He winked at me, like I wanted his advances, like I was into it.
My sister never would have been into this.
And what I had to do became crystal clear at that moment. The shaky ground settled, the quiver in my hand stopped, and my blood ran cold.
Ice cold.
“Let’s go to Iago.” I brushed past him, and he hurried after me like he suddenly couldn’t keep up.
“Remember, I make the rules, Izzy.” He narrowed his beady eyes at me in the elevator. “Iago may want your ass, but it isn’t going to interfere with me getting my cut of that thousand kilos.”
I shrugged. “If you say so.”
The man was fast, so fast I didn’t feel my head ricochet off the side of the elevator wall from his punch to my temple until five seconds later. Maybe I blacked out; maybe I wasn’t exactly used to being hit in the face. Either way, I took my time before responding. And I tried my best to be strategic.
What would an agent do? What would Dante do?
I pointed to one of the cameras. Someone who wasn’t on drugs may not have looked where I was pointing, but this man did. He looked right up at them, and then I murmured, “There’s security at the hotel. Don’t make a scene.”
He nodded, and his brow furrowed as he mumbled, “Good idea. Good idea. Shit, I forgot. Okay, let’s get out of here.”
As the elevator doors opened, I pointed to the back exit. “Less cameras.”
And less Leonardo.
He would be able to tell the difference between me and Izzy and would alert Dante.
I didn’t want anyone alerted. Not until everyone was on that boat with police raiding it, then my baby sister would be safe.
Safe from whatever Iago had done to her.
Safe from these men.
Because I saw from the look in this man’s eyes, something had happened between her and Iago. It wouldn’t happen again.
I was strong enough. Izzy was right about that.
I let the silence descend and didn’t say a word as I folded myself into the black SUV. I took my phone out of my back pocket in front of the idiot of a man, and when he stammered out, “What are you doing?” I lied like I would have if I had been late to a test, to a job, to anything that I knew meant something to my family. This meant the world to Izzy, and I’d always put her and the rest of my family first.
“I’m texting my sister to tell her I’m going out so she doesn’t worry.”
“Your fucking sister,” he mumbled. “She almost cost us this whole damn shipment. They thought her boyfriend was an agent for a minute.” He chuckled like the idea was stupid. “Turns out that guy fucked her more than a few times. We got real nervous when we had someone go check the first time and he turned up dead, but it was a deal gone bad.”
I tried to tune him out as I turned my phone away from him and texted Dante.
Me: Track me. Shipment’s happening tonight. Don’t call. They mistook me for Izzy. We’re going to the cruise ships.
There were three dots. Then they stopped. Then they started again.
“You writing a novel over there?” he sneered. “Let me see that phone.”
My heart was in my throat as I responded, “Fuck off,” and slid it into my pants.
I had to hope my demeanor matched my sister’s. I’d lived with her. I knew how she’d been when she hung with groups like this. But I didn’t know how she was with him.
There was a beat of silence before he chuckled. “Maybe that’s why Iago likes you so much. That fire in you is a turn-on.”
“Want me to tell him you said so?”
His eyes cut to mine as we drove slowly down the darkened cobblestone streets of Old San Juan.
Men and women laughed beyond the car windows, danced right outside the club, enjoying the beautiful night air and the beat of the music that poured from the bar onto the street.
In this car, though, there was nothing beautiful. The push and pull of power, the coiled, unhinged anger in this man, was unpredictable.
“I should fuck you and see if you tell him,” he muttered.
“What? You think I’d like it and just not tell Iago? I haven’t slept with him either.” I hoped that was true.