The door was bolted, and it took Kane a few precious minutes to pick the lock. They were on a time line. The guards had to wake up before sunrise, and all of them had to be gone and out of Mexico before that happened. Kane inched the door open and went in on the floor, rolling to the right of the bed—the woman’s side—staying in the darker shadows. Rose came in after him, softly closing the door behind her. The bed creaked, and she froze, lying in plain sight if Cesar happened to look down.
She counted to sixty and then began a slow crawl to Cesar’s side of the bed. He would be armed and wouldn’t hesitate to shoot. He was sleeping facing her, and she smiled as she slipped her hand under the pillow to remove his gun. A knife lay on the bedside table, the hilt pointed toward him where he could easily grab it. She waited until Kane had darted the wife and slid into the darkness. She knew his knife was out and ready to throw.
She crouched down, presenting a smaller target, lifted Cesar’s knife, and placed it ever-so-gently against the artery pumping in his neck. “I think you should wake up, now, Senor Lopez,” she announced softly.
The eyes snapped open, instant awareness there.
“I wouldn’t move if I were you, but take a good look at my face. I want you to remember me, to know who I am.”
No one wanted Cesar Lopez to remember them. The eyes burned with arrogance, with fury, with the promise of reprisal. Rose smiled at him. “I think, before you go all macho on me, you might consider that you haven’t looked at the condition of your wife.”
His gaze flicked toward his wife of forty years. He couldn’t turn his head, but he could see the outline of her beside him.
“She’s sleeping soundly. I want you to really think about this situation you’ve found yourself in, Senor Lopez, because if you don’t, some very bad things are going to happen to you and every single person you love.”
The door opened, and dark shadows flitted in and out of the room, dropping IDs on the bed between his legs. The IDs raining down on him were from his guards, his son, his daughters, their spouses, and eventually something taken from each child supposedly safe in his home.
Rose leaned in close. “As you can see, we could have killed every man, woman, and child on your estate and in this house. Everyone. You don’t know us, Lopez, but we know you, and we know where all of them live. No one else knows we’re here but you. They’ll all believe they fell asleep. You can tell them whatever you want when you give them back their IDs and whatever else we’ve confiscated from them as proof that we could have killed them. Call off the contract on me. Walk away and pretend I don’t exist. You and I won’t have any more trouble. If you don’t, my friends and I will be back, and believe me when I tell you, you don’t want any part of us. Not now. Not ever.”
She allowed the knife to slide against his skin. His breath caught in his throat and he stiffened, fear creeping into his eyes, his body turning to a shuddering mass of jelly. He could see the shadows of men, moving in his room, but he could never identify them. They’d invaded his inner sanctuary, and they’d proven they could kill everyone. He swallowed hard and nodded his head.
“Don’t disappoint me, Lopez. Don’t ever get stupid. Even if your people found and killed me, my people would take everything and everyone you care about. And then they’ll kill you. They’re ghosts. You’ll never see them coming, and then it will be too late. Do we have an understanding?” She kept her voice very even, very soft. Almost gentle.
His eyes were nearly all white now, his terror mounting. His body had broken out in a sweat. All the arrogance had faded as he faced his own mortality. There was no refuting anything she said. The proof was strewn all over his bed.
He nodded again, this time vigorously enough to have the knife cutting into his skin had Rose not been cautious.
“You realize we’ll have to put you to sleep like the others,” she said, almost as if she was talking to a child. “Just in case you try to convince yourself that you were having a nightmare, I’m cutting your dose in half. You’ll wake up first and see all the proof lying on your bed. You can walk around your house and see the guards, your children, and your grandchildren sleeping peacefully. And you can thank me, Lopez. I’ll only have compassion for them this one time. Look into my eyes so you know I’m telling you the truth. Anything—anything happens to me, and they’re all dead.”
He believed her; she could see it on his face. She pressed the needle into his neck and watched him watching her as the drug took him.
Phase six complete. Let’s go home, she informed Mack.
CHAPTER 20
The scent of flowers permeated the air. Rose inhaled deeply and turned her face up to Kane’s. His piercing gaze met hers, and her heart nearly stopped and then began to pound. Would it always be like this? Such an extraordinary, overwhelming love that shook her every time she looked at him?
“Do all brides feel like this on their wedding day?” she murmured, waiting for him to bend his head to hers. She couldn’t look at him without wanting to be kissed, and Kane always knew what she needed—or wanted. Even the boots she’d left behind in the store were now safely in her closet—a gift from him. He seemed to like giving her gifts. No one had ever done that before, and sometimes she didn’t quite know what to say or do when he presented her with another package or left something on their bed.
He didn’t disappoint her, his arm sliding around her waist, drawing her close to him, so she could take him deep into her lungs before his mouth touched hers. The familiar butterflies fluttered in her stomach. She would always— always—love kissing him. The world dropped away in spite of the noise of so many voices, so many conversations swirling around them. Three GhostWalker teams had come to help celebrate their day and to catch up with one another.
Kane had given this to her—this incredible wedding and a memory she never considered she would ever have. It wasn’t the white wedding dress right out of the magazine that Jaimie and Rhianna had found for her or the tuxedo on Kane that made him look like her very own handsome prince that meant so much. It was these people—her people—surrounding them, celebrating with them. They’d come from all over, filling the warehouse, the one Gideon and Paul and been renovating.
The warehouse had been transformed into a sparkling world filled with elegant chandeliers and ice sculptures, dazzling things seen only between the pages of a book but never experienced. The men were incredibly handsome, just like in the fairy tales, while the women, dressed in beautiful gowns, were breathtaking.
Kane pulled her into his arms as the music slowed into a sweet, dreamy rhythm so that she rested her cheek against his chest and let herself melt into him. They danced past the playpens where Jack and Briony Norton had placed their twin sons. The two boys, Jeremiah Ken and Noah Jack, followed the action with interested eyes, occasionally turning their heads toward each other as if in silent communication.
That was the strange thing, Rose decided, about the babies, the way they seemed so completely intent with each other, as if they were silently communicating. Daniel Ryland Miller, Ryland and Lily’s son, was there as well, a strong boy with his mother’s eyes and his father’s commanding features. Sebastian lay on his stomach watching the other babies soberly, and they all seemed to be very interested in one another.
“You don’t think, at their age, Kane, that the babies could already be telepathic and communicating with one another, do you?” Rose murmured speculatively against his chest.