Hide Away Read Free

you’re a smart boy, and I know that you can do it for me.”
    â€œI’m a man, not a boy.”
    â€œOf course you are. But it’s not a bad thing that others believe you to be a boy, so they won’t suspect how very deadly you can be. I’ve seen you use that ploy before.”
    â€œSometimes.”
    â€œOften. Do you think I haven’t been watching you? Use your brains and that smile the ladies like so much.”
    â€œThen tell me what I need to know. Tell me what Walsh knew, what I should have known from the beginning.”
    A definite touch of arrogance, Salazar noticed. “You know the beginning. You grew up with it. The drugs, the vice, that son of a bitch, Juan Castino, constantly moving into my territory. He acted as if his cartel was the only one in Mexico, and every time anyone came close to taking him down, he managed to come out on top. I had the brains and the plans but Castino had the contacts and was always just ahead of me. If I hadn’t managed to form a mutual coalition of all the cartels in Mexico, he would have eaten me alive. I can rein him in as long as he knows I have the backing of the coalition behind me.”
    â€œUntil we find a way to kill him. That’s the best way. Don’t worry. I’ll do it for you.”
    So simple, so incredibly naïve. “I know you will. But it has to be staged very carefully. I can’t let any of the other cartels know that I’m getting ready to jump Castino.” He paused. “Or that I yielded to temptation eight years ago to twist the knife and make him hurt. They might turn against me.”
    â€œBecause you arranged with James Walsh to kidnap Castino’s two little girls and their nanny and kill them? They all probably wish they’d had the balls to do it.”
    â€œThey’d chop me up and serve me to Castino. And then move into my territory and split it up.” His voice was laden with frustration. “It was going to be so simple. Walsh would kill them, and there would be no bodies or anything to connect me to it. I’d be able to sit back and watch Castino suffer, then, when the time was right, I’d make sure he joined his little girls in the graveyard. But Walsh screwed it up. He left me hanging and vulnerable if Castino finds out I paid Walsh to kill them. We have to fix it, Franco.”
    â€œI can do it if I work fast. I don’t think that Castino knows anything yet. The kid’s name on the police report is Cara Delaney, and Walsh is only suspected of being a serial killer. Nothing about Castino.”
    Hope and relief shot through Salazar. “You’re certain?”
    â€œI paid a good deal of your money to bribe a look at those reports. No mention of Castino … or you.”
    â€œYet.”
    â€œAs you say. But there may be a way to keep you safe if we work fast. Eve Duncan hasn’t made a statement yet. She’s in a local hospital being checked out for concussion, and her lover, Joe Quinn, isn’t letting her be interviewed.”
    â€œWhere’s the kid?”
    â€œShe’s being taken care of by a friend of Duncan’s, Margaret Douglas.”
    â€œNot at Child Services? They’re big on Welfare shit in the U.S.”
    â€œNo, I’m sure. I knew you’d want to know where you could put your hands on her.”
    â€œOh, yes.” His hands around her throat to end this nightmare. “Then it appears you may have a multitude of targets in the near future. You need to find out how much Duncan knows about Cara Castino … and me. I have to know I’m safe from Duncan before I move forward again.”
    â€œYou’ll be safe. It’s only a question which target I hit first.” His voice was suddenly eager. “You tell me and it will be done. Duncan? Quinn? The kid?”
    â€œYou’re moving too fast. I want you to go to that hospital and report back to me. Do you