Hidden Agenda Read Free Page A

boss.”
    â€œWho’s the boss?”
    Even as she signed the question, Olivia knew the answer. The tension in her gut that had been there for the past two weeks finally snapped as she saw her brother raise his thumb to his forehead, the other fingers splayed as if waving. One of the very first signs of a trusting young child’s vocabulary. Father.
    Olivia’s mind screamed in defiance. No. Her father was not a part of the cartel. Didn’t have hitmen who carried out assassination orders. Didn’t execute government agents.
    â€œYou’re wrong.” She tried to swallow the lump growing in her throat as she signed her response. “You must have misunderstood.”
    She knew Ivan could read lips as easily as she heard the spoken word. But that didn’t mean she was ready to shove her father into the category of villain.
    â€œI didn’t misunderstand what they said, or what I saw,” Ivan signed. “They shot a man, Olivia. I saw everything.”
    â€œDo they know you were there?”
    â€œNo.”
    Which meant they were lucky. Very lucky. If her father’s men knew there had been a witness to the murder, Ivan’s life would be in danger. She had to get him off the island.
    â€œHave you ever suspected he was involved in something illegal?” Ivan signed.
    Her hands balled into fists, her fear of the truth morphing into anger, before she answered. “Someone sent me some information, but I didn’t . . . couldn’t believe it was true.”
    Until now.
    She stared out across the blue-gray ocean as the last slivers of pinkish sunlight began to fade on the horizon. She’d spent the last decade investigating the news, but most of the stories she covered dealt with PTA meetings and petty crimes, not murder. This time, she was in way over her head. And this time, it was personal.
    â€œThey left one man alive,” Ivan continued. “They will kill him if we don’t get him out of there.”
    â€œIf we don’t get him out . . . ” Olivia’s voice rose along with her signed response. She’d read what the cartel did to people who crossed them. “Ivan, they’ve already killed a man. They will kill us if we get in the way.”
    Ivan’s gaze held hers. “You’ve always told me to do the right thing no matter what the cost.”
    She dug her fingers into the sand. Statements like that were easy to spout off when there wasn’t the chance of getting murdered by a cartel hitman. But she wasn’t going to risk her life, let alone her brother’s life, for a stranger. If they were caught trying to help this guy, all three of them would end up dumped off the Georgia coast in a watery grave.
    But Ivan’s words wouldn’t leave her alone.
    â€œWho is this man?” she asked.
    Ivan shrugged. “Another agent. A spy. I think they were here investigating something and got caught.”
    Olivia frowned. Ivan had definitely been reading too many spy novels. “We don’t know anything. What if he’s one of them, and we get in the middle of a cartel feud or something? We can’t get involved in this.”
    â€œSo we do what? Run? And leave a man to die?”
    â€œWe don’t have a choice, Ivan.” Running sounded like the best thing to do, especially when compared to any plan to stay there to find out the truth about her father. The truth wasn’t supposed to be wrapped up in a web of murder and deceit. “We’ll go to the house, pack up our stuff, and tell them we need to go back to the mainland. We can call the police or the FBI and have them figure out what to do. We’re not getting involved in this.”
    â€œIt will be too late.”
    Olivia frowned. “We don’t know that.”
    â€œThey’re going to kill that guy in the next twelve hours if we don’t stop this.”
    â€œWe aren’t responsible for his life.”
    She