Page 178 of One Minute Out

Roxana looked at her a moment more, then asked, “You wouldn’t happen to have a phone I can borrow, would you? I need to send a quick text.”

Charlotte cocked her head. “Who doesn’t have a phone?” She reached into the waistband of her wetsuit and pulled out an iPhone.

Sixty seconds later Roxana moved back up the pool area, rewrapping the loose cord around her wrists behind her back as she did so, and tucking the ends in so it looked like she was still bound. She’d just finished when the sliding door opened and the American guard who’d stepped away with the coffee lurched out, grabbed her by her throat, and yanked her back into the kitchen, leaning into her ear as he did so. Softly, so no one else in the house could hear, he said, “Where the fuck did you go, you bitch?”

Roxana stared back at him, and she answered in a low tone herself. “I was looking for a bathroom.”

“Outside?”

“Yeah, outside. I thought there would be one in the pool house and I could get some privacy. But the front door was locked.”

“You weren’t out here a second ago.”

“I tried going around back but couldn’t get in. My hands are tied up, remember?”

The bodyguard stared at the pool house a moment, then shoved her back down into her chair. He searched her thoroughly, but she had done a good job with the cord so he didn’t pick up on the fact she was no longer securely tied.

He began pacing around the kitchen in a panic, but said nothing until the South African who’d been watching her passed by in the hall with a load of files in his hands.

Quietly, but with unmistakable anger, the American said, “Hey! You were supposed to watch her. She went outside.”

The White Lion operative looked at Roxana, then back at the bodyguard. “No, mate, you were supposed to watch her. I thought you had her lashed to the bladdy chair.”

“But—”

“Did you search her when you got her back?”

“Yes. She’s clean.”

“Then what’s your worry?” He started moving off, then looked back to her. “We’ll keep this to ourselves; we’d both get an ass kicking.”

The American nodded. “Right. Okay.”

The South African disappeared on his way to the SUVs parked out front.

As he paced back and forth, the protection officer tasked with watching Roxana raised his hand to strike her twice, but both times he lowered it before hitting her. Finally, he just sat down in front of her, his hand fingering the butt of the pistol in his shoulder holster, and he stared at her with pure malevolence.

But Roxana didn’t care. She felt better now. Yes, she would probably die today, but it didn’t matter now, because before she left Charlotte Cage hiding in the pool house, Roxana had used the teen’s phone to send a very short but very informative text to her sister.

9102 Jovenita Canyon Drive. Director is Ken Cage. Ten men with guns here. Whatever happens—I love you. Do not reply.

And then she’d returned to the main house.

Roxana knew that if she escaped, Cage and the others would flee the property immediately. No, she had to wait, to buy time for Talyssa, even if waiting meant dying.

FIFTY-THREE

I disconnect the call with Talyssa, repeat the address she just gave me out loud, and then Rodney types it into Google Maps on his phone. Even before it comes up he says, “Jovenita Canyon? That’s up in the Hollywood Hills.”

We look at the satellite map, zoom in on the place, and see a large Italianate mansion that looks like it must be worth fifty million bucks. The property is positioned on a steep hill, the grounds around it are meticulously sculptured, and a detached pool house looks like it’s twice the size of the home I grew up in.

A.J. says, “We’re really gonna hit a mansion in Hollywood? Cops will be all over the place. If the bad guys don’t get us, then five-oh will.”

Carl adds, “LAPD helicopters fill the skies down there. I can insert you boys, but it will be a one-way trip for all of us.”

Both men are right, of course. With a shrug, I say, “I’m going in, with or without you guys.”

Kareem chuckles a little as he fingers the bloody bandage on his shoulder. “Settle down, hero. You ain’t the only dude here that wants to do the right thing.” He looks at Carl and his two surviving teammates. “For Shep, we’re gonna see this to the end.”

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