“Yep,” Leif responds.

  “Vannah, do you have a picture of your brother?”

  “I did. But my wallet is somewhere inside Miles’s father’s house.”

  “Shit.”

  “Can you describe him?” Leif asks.

  “It’s been years since I’ve seen him, but he looks a lot like my father. Dark hair and eyes. Tall. Around six two. Pretty muscular.”

  “You just described every Italian guy I’ve ever laid eyes on,” Leif says.

  “Yeah, I know. I’m not much help.”

  “Are there any pictures of him online? Did he have a social media profile or anything?”

  She shakes her head. “He’s been gone too long. My family always discouraged the use of social media, anyway. When you’re in the line of work that we’re in, you don’t want to be so easily tracked. And my brother was pretty private anyway. That’s why it was so easy for him to disappear without a trace.”

  “Are there any pictures of him to speak of at all?”

  “My family threw out everything they had of him when he went away, and it’s not like they’d let you inside their house anyway.” She scratches the side of her head. “But what you could do is check out his old high school yearbooks. He went to a private school on Long Island. It was called St. John’s Academy for Boys. Maybe visit the school library and see if you can find a yearbook from when he attended.”

  “It’s a start. When did he graduate?”

  “Well, I guess it was fifteen years ago now.” She wrinkles her forehead.

  “You sure?”

  “No, not really. He’s eight years older than I am. And I graduated nine years ago, so I guess that’s seventeen years ago.”

  “All right. That would make him about…”

  “Thirty-five,” Savannah says. “I think of him every year on his birthday.”

  “That’ll be a help,” Leif says. “What’s his birthdate?”

  “January seventeenth,” Savannah says, closing her eyes.

  “Good to have,” Leif says. “I’ll do what I can.”

  12

  SAVANNAH

  The days are beginning to drag.

  Falcon and I have made love a lot, and that’s been wonderful, but within two weeks, our supply of fresh food has dwindled, and we’ve had to resort to eating the survival food.

  It’s not terrible, but it’s certainly not good by any stretch of the imagination. Everything we eat is either dehydrated and stored in a bag, or out of a can. Never in my life did I think I’d enjoy eating canned green beans, but the rehydrated beef stroganoff makes me wish I were a vegetarian.

  The good news is that after two weeks, I’m in better shape than I’ve ever been in my life. I started slowly, as Falcon suggested, and without anything else to do, I’ve worked on my shooting and my strength.

  I can’t say my strength has improved much after only two weeks, but Falcon has taught me lots of self-defense moves, lots of punches and kicks, and I’ve been an eager and quick learner.

  And my shooting has only gotten better.

  The last time we practiced, I hit the target dead center four out of five times, and that fifth one was damned close.

  Still though, as I boil water and pour it over freeze-dried macaroni and cheese for lunch, I’m starting to wonder if we’ll ever get the hell out of here.

  Until, for the first time in a couple days, Falcon’s satellite phone buzzes.

  I’m serving the bright orange concoction onto two plates when Falcon puts the phone to his ear.

  “Yeah?”

  Pause.

  “Seriously? He’s here?”

  Pause.

  Who’s here? I bring the food to the table, set a plate in front of Falcon, and take a seat next to him, eagerly listening.

  “That’s great news!”

  Pause.

  “No, not here.” He glances over at me. “I don’t want to leave Savannah here alone though.”

  “Oh hell, no you’re not leaving me here alone,” I say.

  He waves at me to be quiet.

  I glare at him.

  I love the man, but whatever’s going on involves me as much as it does him. Moreso even.

  Pause.

  “Put it on speaker.”

  He nods, and then puts it on speaker, setting the phone on the table. “I’ve got you on speaker, Leif. Savannah’s here.”

  “Hey, Savannah,” Leif’s voice. “How are you holding up?”

  “I’m good. About ready to dig into some gloppy macaroni and cheese.”

  “Had to hit the survival food, huh?”

  “Yeah. I’ve got a few eggs left for tomorrow’s breakfast. A few apples and oranges here and there. They’re the only fruits that would last more than a few weeks. There’s also some pasta. But for the most part, the fresh food is gone.”

  “I can bring you a new stash.”

  “No,” Falcon replies. “It’s time we got the hell out of here. It’s been two weeks, and no one has found us here.”

  “That doesn’t mean they’re not looking,” I say.

  “Oh, they’re looking,” Leif says. “I’ve been watching them. The McAllisters are furious. They’ve had their people out with dogs, combing every inch of the surrounding area, trying to track where we took you. Luckily they haven’t come within a mile of here. At least, not yet. But here’s the good news I was telling Falcon, Savannah. I found your brother.”

  My heart thumps wildly as happiness surges through me. “Vinnie? Is he all right?”

  “He’s good. I had to make an offer he couldn’t refuse, though.”

  “You mean he wouldn’t come for me?” I ask, the happiness lodging into my gut as a brick.

  “That was the offer I had to make. Nothing swayed him. Not money, not a new identity so he could hide in plain sight. Nothing at all, Savannah, until I told them what they tried to do to you.”

  Happiness again. Happiness that my brother hasn’t forsaken me.

  “He’s on a private plane now, traveling under an assumed identity. He’s been living in Spain, going by the name Alejandro Martinez.”

  “Yeah, he could totally pass for Spanish,” I say. “From what I remember, anyway.”

  “I’ve got a current picture of him,” Leif says. “I sent it through the phone.”

  My heart nearly stops. I’m actually going to see my brother?

  “He lands in Austin in an hour. I’m picking him up personally. Falcon says not to bring him to the safe house.”

  “The fewer people who know about it, the better,” Falcon says. “We never know when we may have to use it again.”

  I look over at Falcon and grab his arm. “Will it be safe for me to leave this house to see him?”

  “Since it’s been two weeks, the McAllisters aren’t looking quite as hard,” Leif says. “At least not in this general area. At this point, they think you’ve fled the country. So we’re going to let them think that.”

  “Then where should we meet you?”

  “I rented a small furnished house in Giant Oak, the town over from Summer Creek,” he says. “I’ll text you the address. Meet us there at six this evening.”

  “Should I cut my hair?” I ask. “Color it?”

  “Don’t do anything that could draw attention to yourself,” he says. “Keep your hair the way it is, and don’t wear dark glasses or a scarf over your head. Nothing like that. But try to keep the bright colors to a minimum.”

  “That won’t be a problem,” I say. “All the clothes here in my size are beige and brown and nondescript.”

  “They’re that way for a reason, Savannah,” Falcon says.

  “They sound perfect. What kind of car do you have available?”

  “In the underground garage are two cars,” Falcon says. “Both electric, and both fully charged. A silver Nissan Leaf, and a navy blue Tesla S.”

  “Take the Leaf,” Leif says. “It will look less assuming.”

  “That’s what I was thinking, too,” Falcon agrees.

  “And I don’t have to tell you.” His voice adopts a dark edge. “You know what to do.”

  I nod. “We’ll be there.”

  Falcon ends the call.

  I run my hands through my hair. I can’t help smiling. “I’m going to see my brother,” I say. “I can’t believe it.”

  Falcon’s face is noncommittal. “We need to go down to the bunker, find you a holster, and get you armed.”

  “I have to be armed?”

  “When Leif said, ‘you know what to do,’ that’s code between him and me. It means we come armed.”

  “Why would I need to come armed to see my brother?”

  “Savannah, your brother’s been gone a long time.” He lays a hand on my shoulder. “Do I think he’s a threat to either one of us? No, I don’t. But we can’t take any chances. Besides, if something happens, and we don’t make it to the meeting point, we need to be ready for anything.”

  I bite my lower lip. Then I nod. “I understand.”

  The drive is about thirty minutes long, and I look behind and beside me everywhere I can the entire time while shielding my eyes from the sun. Staying inside two weeks with only artificial light really does a number on your eyes, and the sun…

  The Texas sun is so damned bright.

  I want to strip all my clothes off and just bask under the sun.

  But of course that’s not possible.

  I can’t even leave this car for fear that one of the McAllisters’ spies will spot me and take me away from Falcon.

  I quiver at the thought.

  “Vannah, I’ve got this,” Falcon says. “No one is here. No one can find us. No one’s following us. Try to relax.”

  “I can’t. I’m pretty antsy.” I sigh and grab his arm. “I’m scared, Falcon.”

  “You don’t have to be scared as long as I’m with you.”

  I believe him. I believe he’d move heaven and earth for me, just as I’d move heaven and earth for him. He doesn’t want me to do that any more than I want him to do it for me. We each put the good of the other before our own. We’ve got our own little Gift of the Magi thing going. The irony of our gifts is a seductive sin, each of us giving up our heart’s desire to find the true essence of our love in the depth of sacrifice. It’s utterly beautiful.

  But I think…

  I think we need to work together a little more.

  We slide into the open garage of a single-family dwelling in an unassuming neighborhood. As soon as we’re in, the garage door closes behind us.

  “How’d that happen?”

  Then I see Leif standing in the doorway from the garage. He nods to Falcon.

  Falcon and I leave the vehicle and go inside. The garage leads straight to a laundry room and then to the kitchen.

  And at the kitchen table sits⁠—

  “My God, Vinnie!”

  He has his back to me, but I’d know him anywhere.

  My brother turns, looks at me, his eyes sunken and sad. Then he rises, rushes to me. “Oh my God, Savannah.”

  I burst into tears. “I’m okay. I’m okay, Vinnie.”

  “I’m so sorry I wasn’t here to protect you,” he says, grabbing me into a hug.

  “No one blames you for that, Vinnie. I can’t believe it’s really you.” I pull back and look at him. Leif sent me a picture, but it was nothing compared to seeing my brother in real life. He has a few wrinkles around his eyes, a few gray hairs at his temple, and he has a full beard, but it’s my brother. It’s Vinnie.

  “I can’t believe how you’ve grown,” he says. “No longer a little beanpole. And so pretty, Sav.”

  “Anybody hungry?” Leif asks. “I’ve got fried chicken.”

  Then I inhale. Good old Texas fried chicken.

  “All of a sudden, I’m actually starving,” I say.

  “Yeah, I could eat.” Falcon holds his hand out to Vinnie. “Falcon Bellamy.”

  Vinnie shakes his hand heartily. “I understand that you’ve done a lot to protect my sister. Thank you.”

  Falcon looks at me and smiles. “I’d do anything for her, man.”

  Vinnie nods. He doesn’t go all big brother on me, worrying that someone is having sex with his little sister. “You’ve proved that,” he says. “I won’t leave her again.”

  “You do what you have to do.” I say. “I’m sorry you had to come back for me, Vinnie.”

  “I’m not. I shouldn’t have left in the first place.” He sighs and looks away from me. “If I’d taken my place at the head of the family, none of this would’ve happened.”

  I shake my head. “No.”

  “If I’d been here, maybe Mikey would still be alive, and maybe you wouldn’t have been sold off to the McAllisters.”

  “I don’t want you to think that way,” I tell him. “None of this is your fault.”

  He doesn’t reply. He thinks it is his fault, but it’s not. It’s not his fault any more than it is Michael’s or mine. I’m not even sure it’s Dad’s fault.

  Leif gets the food out, and we each take a plate and serve ourselves. I bite into a succulent drumstick, and my tastebuds go crazy. It’s only been a few weeks on the survival food in the safe house, but I feel like I forgot how good fresh meat tastes. I can’t believe how hungry I am in the midst of all this.

  “Okay,” Leif says, once we’ve all finished our dinner. “I don’t know exactly what we’re dealing with here. Falcon doesn’t either. The two of you know more about your family and why they might be pushing this marriage between Savannah and Miles.”

  “It’s got to be something big, Vinnie,” I say. “They let me off when I was eighteen, and again when I was twenty-two. I did the family’s bidding for five years out of college when I worked as a parole officer in Austin, and when I begged Dad to let me out a month ago, he finally agreed. But now, all of a sudden they want me again? There’s got to be something more than a simple alliance at work here.”

  “I agree with you,” Vinnie says. “I’ve been out of the family dynamic for a long time, but when I was in high school, Dad taught me everything I needed to know. He just assumed I’d be willing, and though I didn’t want to know everything, I let them teach me. I was underage at that point, so there wasn’t much I could do about it anyway. But the more I found out, the more I knew I didn’t want to be any part of it.”

  “Do you remember anything that might be related to this situation?” Falcon asks.

  “I remember every damned thing,” Vinnie says. “It’s not something you can easily forget. Finding out what your family is capable of.”

  “Oh God…” I swallow. “They’re not into something besides drugs, are they?”

  “They weren’t then,” Vinnie says. “Unless Dad held back on me. Once I turned eighteen right before I started my senior year of high school, I don’t think he held back. For me, adulthood brought information I didn’t want to know.”

  “The McAllisters. They traffic women and children.” I shudder. “I found that out by accident.”

  Vinnie nods. “Yeah, they were just getting into it back then, and Dad promised me we would never ally with that family. Never in a million years.”

  “I’m afraid he broke that promise,” I say.

  “I know. First with Mikey, and then with you.”

  My stomach does a somersault. “Oh my God… Do you think…”

  “Yeah,” Vinnie says. “I think they killed Mikey. I think he threatened to go to the cops about the trafficking.”

  I place a hand over my mouth. “God, the drugs are bad enough.”

  “I know. So much fentanyl coming across the border, and all those fucking mules⁠—”

  Falcon drops his jaw, his eyes wide.

  “You okay, Falcon?” I ask.

  “Yeah, fine. I’m just putting a lot of things together in my mind right now. There are things…” He rakes his fingers through his hair. “Things I’ve never told anyone, Savannah. Things my attorneys didn’t know eight years ago. Things only my brothers know.”

  “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about, man.” Leif says. “There’s a bunch of shit you’ve never told me either.”

  “I made a promise a long time ago,” Falcon says. “But I’m wondering… I’m wondering if I inadvertently got involved with your family, Savannah.”

  “Drugs?” I ask.

  “Yeah, drugs.” He looks over both shoulders and lowers his voice. “I’m trusting you people with this knowledge. Nothing leaves the room. Leif, I assume you checked for surveillance.”

  “Checked, double-checked, and triple-checked. You’re good, man.”

  Falcon looks at Vinnie then. “Did you ever know a man named Diego Vega?”

  Vinnie’s eyes widen. “He’s a bad guy.”

  “Don’t I know it,” Falcon agrees.

  “All right,” I say. “The two of you are going to have to tell us what the hell you’re talking about.”

  13

  FALCON

  Diego Vega disappeared eight years ago.

  No body was ever recovered, and the two men who were with him were apprehended at the border and never heard from again.

  I’m about to break a promise I made to my brothers by telling a guy I just met. I trust Leif and Savannah with my life, but Vinnie? I don’t know him from Adam.

  “Did Diego Vega work for your family?” I ask.

  “He did at the time I left,” Vinnie says.

  “If you talk to your father,” I say, “you’ll probably find out that Diego Vega disappeared about eight years ago. Into thin air. Along with a truckload full of merchandise.”

  Savannah’s eyes go wide. “Falcon?”

  “There’s a lot more to my story than a young rookie cop getting accidentally killed,” I tell her.

  “Oh my God,” she says.

  The look on Savannah’s face crushes my soul into fragments. Her mouth is agape, and she’s looking at me quizzically. She wants to know the full story.

  But I can’t drag her into my history. Not when she’s struggling to free herself from her own.

 

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