Hidden Agenda Read Free

lost all their beauty. In one moment, life changed forever.
    Olivia swept away the haunting memories and the nagging doubts roused by the emails. While Antonio Valez might not be perfect, she’d seen how hard he worked to get where he was financially, and even more important to her was the fact that he’d loved her mother until the day she’d died.
    More than likely the anonymous emails were sent by a jealous rival trying to smear her father’s name. Being rich wasn’t illegal. The information she’d been sent was completely bogus.
    At least that was what she wanted to believe.
    She scooped up a handful of sand and let the tiny grains fall back onto the shore. Like every good reporter, she’d learned to be open-minded to the truth, while at the same time striving to be skeptical without being cynical. But this investigation was different. Because it was personal.
    Which was why she’d come up with a plan. Tomas had told her that her father was coming to the island tomorrow. She desperately wanted to just come out and ask him if the claimswere true and let him put all of her fears to rest. He’d tell her there was nothing to the lies she’d been told. That he hadn’t risen in the ranks of the cartel and that his business wasn’t being used to launder drug money. But if there was even some truth to it . . . how would her father respond to her inevitable reaction? Would there be dangerous consequences for her and Ivan?
    She stared at the pebble left in her hand and dusted off the traces of sand that clung to it, wishing she could erase the traces of doubt threatening to consume her. She’d done her research on the cartel, and what she’d found terrified her. Cocaine could be brought in from Peru for two thousand dollars a kilo. By the time it was broken down into grams and distributed, the retail value of that same kilo had ballooned to a hundred grand, because of the unquenchable demand from buyers.
    She pulled her arm back and hurled the small stone toward the icy waves. If the accusations were true, it meant that everything she’d grown up believing had been laced with deception. Her father’s relationship with her mother, his identity, and even his financial support that had come from drug money. But what haunted her even more was the possibility that her father could be a traitor to everything she believed in.
    Something snapped behind her, and she jerked her head in the direction of the noise. Ivan walked up to her, carrying his art pad and pencils for the graphic novel he was sketching under his arm. She blew out a sigh of relief and tried to erase the fear she knew was etched across her expression. Unless she discovered the truth behind the emails’ accusations, Ivan didn’t need to know why she’d decided to return to the island this Christmas. He might be nineteen, but that didn’t lessen her desire to protect him.
    He plopped down on the sand beside her. His usual smile was missing as he began signing. “We need to talk.”
    â€œWhat’s wrong?” Her stomach took a dip as she signed back.
    His swift hand motions were as direct as his gaze. “We need to leave. They killed someone. Father’s men. I saw them.”
    The knot that had been growing inside squeezed tighter. “Whoa. What are you talking about?”
    â€œI saw Tomas shoot a man. Someone working for the government.”
    Olivia shook her head, unwilling to draw a line between the anonymous emails and Tomas assassinating a man. Because there had to be a mistake. She hadn’t come looking for proof her father was guilty. She’d come convinced she could prove his innocence.
    â€œYou’re telling me Tomas murdered someone?”
    Ivan nodded, the frustration in his expression growing as he signed. “I saw him, Olivia. Saw what they said. Another man was there. They will kill him tomorrow. They’re saving him for the