Page 108 of Sin With Me

“I don’t have proof, but it’s the only reasonable explanation. I opened little Mikey’s coffin back in Pace and there was a note. It said, My blood, my flesh, my bones, and it was signed by Benjamin Cortez. I don’t know how but somehow that son of a bitch took Anna’s son, faked his death, and kidnapped him to raise as his own to spite Anna. Then the fifty million was stolen. Anna had to leave Pace to keep Kate safe. She had to leave Father John, who at the time hadn’t been ordained, without possibly telling him that she was pregnant with Kate. Mateo Cortez knew Anna hid that money. He used Mikey, or Mike Donaldson, to get tothem.”

I pulled into the parking spot, and we hurried to the waiting jet fifty yardsout.

“Xavier’s notes said that no one knew Anna was pregnant. Noone.”

“Well, obviously someone must have known.”

“They kept Mikey or Mike a secret, so he could get closer to Kate and to Anna and find the fifty million. Kate was their answer to that money, but Anna never told her daughter aboutit.”

“Yousure?”

“I’m going on a hunch here, but if Kate knew where the money was, she would have told me.” Lola went up the plane’s steps first, leading the way. She actually looked good in charge, and I could see why my brother was so smitten with her. Brook followed her up, and I was right behindhim.

“What better way of getting to Anna and the money than through her unsuspecting daughter who had no idea about the family’s history? It’s a perfect plan. Kate wouldn’t have suspected her boss at all.” I took a seat by the window and buckled up. The pilot was already lining up for takeoff to Tucson.

“All plans have holes,” Lola said. “There’s no exception. There’s no perfectplan.”

When she said that, I had to admit, she gave me that small ounce of hope I was desperate for. I knew it would be enough to pull me through the next twenty-four hours. If we didn’t find Kate by then, our chances of finding her at all decreased by seventy percent.

“Anna fled because she was afraid Ben would kill her unborn child the way he had supposedly killed Mikey. She burned down Ben’s house the night Mikey died. I saw it in the records. Two days later, FBI documents show that an exchange between four cartels was supposed to happen but never did. Fifty million was missing, and everyone was pointing their finger at Cortez. Anna stole that money fromhim.”

Lola grasped her armrests. Her knuckles whitened underneath the grip and she shut her eyes. I wasn’t the only one to notice.

“Are you afraid of flying?” my brother asked.

“Not so much flying as plummeting to death in an airplane.”

“I should have known. It’s because you have no control, isn’tit?”

“Fuck, do you even know who’s flying this thing?”

Brook laughed. “Of course I do. Lola, you’re fine. We’ll be fine. If you want, though, we can switch our seats to one of the back ones. Statistically speaking, your chances of survival are much higher if you sit in theback.”

“Fuck you!” she screamed.

“Why are you upset withme?”

“Because I’m freaking out here and you’re making this flight impossibly more frightening by talking about crashes and chances of survival.”

“I’m sorry, Lola, that’s not what I meant.” Concerned, Brook took his seat belt and unfastenedit.

“Don’t get up. Don’t you dare get up. Just leave that fucking seat belt on or I swear to God I will never fly with you again.”

He buckled back into hisseat.

“Well, well. I never thought I’d see the day when Lola Lowes was afraid of something other thankids.”

“Don’t get me started on monsters. I don’t need that right now.” She gritted her teeth.

“Hey, Lola. Do you know which clinic Kate’s mother’s in? I want to check in on her.” I asked.

“New Hope in North Carolina. She’s under the alias Jo Winters.”

“Thanks.”

I quickly searched for the number and called the clinic next. As suspected, the receptionist told me that Jo Winters had been signed out earlier thatday.

“They’ve got Kate’s mother as well.” I lowered my head. We were battling a cartel, which in addition to handguns also possessed machine guns, grenades, and fucking automatic shotguns.

---