her destroy everything he’d built. He would get her back first, then figure out what came next.
He reached for the phone and quickly dialed Dieter Bahn’s number. By the time the other man answered, Richard was completely calm.
“It’s me,” Richard said. “How close are you to Alicia’s location?”
“Less than five miles, I think,” Dieter said.
“When you find her, bring her back…even if you have to tie her up to do it. Do you understand?”
Dieter was the kind of man whose loyalty to the man who paid his salary ran bone-deep.
“Yes, sir,” he answered.
“And, Dieter…”
“Yes, sir?”
“Let me know when you have her in the car.”
“Yes, sir. I will, sir.”
Without even bothering to say goodbye, Richard ended the call. Then he stood up and moved to the windows overlooking his estate, the seat of his empire. If things went wrong, he could lose all of this tomorrow. But that wasn’t going to happen. Things wouldn’t go wrong. Dieter would get Alicia, and then…
He paused, jangling the change in his pocket without thinking. What was he going to do with his daughter when he got her back? How could he keep her quiet? What assurance did he have that she would keep his secret? He sighed.
He had no assurance. None.
He caught a glimpse of his own reflection in the window, then yanked his hands out of his pockets and quickly looked away. He’d worked too hard and too long to be brought down by anyone—even his own daughter. If she didn’t comply…
A muscle suddenly jerked at his temple as the thought slid through his mind. Then it would be too damned bad for her. Accidents happen.
John Nightwalker was in his Jeep and heading out of Justice. The sun was warm on his face, even though his eyes were well-hidden behind dark aviator sunglasses as he drove down Main Street. Someone yelled out his name, and he waved before he looked.
It was Mildred, the pharmacy clerk. She’d tried to hook him up with her daughter for the last two years until, thankfully, her daughter had eloped with one of the Samson brothers, who had a roofing business in a nearby town. When Mildred figured out that having a son-in-law who owned his own business was better than a man with secrets, she’d let him be.
He braked for a red light while the wind whipping through the open windows tugged at his hair like the fingers of a jealous lover. His hands, brown and strong, curled around the steering wheel as they’d once curled around the shaft of a spear. Time had not taken the warrior out of the man—only increased it. As he neared the city limits, he glanced down at the gas gauge. Better fuel up now and get it over with, even though the day was hot. He had milk and eggs in the backseat, as well as some fresh vegetables, but a quick fuel stop shouldn’t hurt anything.
He pulled up to an empty pump at Marv’s Gas and Guzzle, waved at a local who was pulling away and got out. He swiped his credit card at the pump just as he’d done countless times before, then began to refuel. It was a slow time of day. There was only one other vehicle in sight, and it had two flats, which told John it had been there for a while.
A flock of gulls circled overhead, probably checking out the fish heads behind the bait-and-tackle area of Marv’s store. He thought about the ocean and decided that when he got home, he would go for a swim. Water was always a source of renewal for him.
The pump kicked off, breaking into his musing. He was replacing the hose when a white BMW wheeled off the highway, coming toward the pumps at a high rate of speed. He stepped back in reflex, even though the car was going to be stopping on the opposite side from where he’d parked.
All of a sudden his heart started beating erratically and his stomach knotted in pain. The air around him felt charged with an electricity that, in the last five hundred years, he’d experienced only a handful of times before.
Whoever was in that car was either the reincarnated soul of the pirate he’d learned was named Antonio Vargas or someone close to him. His fingers curled into fists as a dark, bloody rage swept through his mind. Suddenly he was seeing the village all over again—puddles of blood beneath rain-soaked bodies, children’s bodies burned and broken, clothing ripped and ornaments cut from the corpses of his people.
The need for revenge swept through his mind so fast that he staggered. Then he caught a glimpse of a tall, shapely body, the silhouette of a beautiful face, hair as black as midnight, and knew a moment of regret. What an irony, that the soul he sought had come back in such a form.
Then their gazes met, and within the space of a heartbeat, all the warning signs John had come to recognize were gone and he knew this wasn’t the person he sought, although there had to be a connection.
Her face was heart-shaped, her features strong but perfectly proportioned. Full lips marked a wide, expressive mouth that was, at the moment, twisted in some sort of grief. When his gaze moved back to her eyes, he felt himself drowning in the tears blurring her vision.
Pain shot through his gut so fast it left him momentarily breathless. He hated to see a woman cry. They stared at each other, eye to eye, separated by less than a yard. Finally John found his voice.
“Are you hurt?” he asked.
Alicia shuddered. His voice sifted through her wounded spirit like cold water on a burn, easing the shock and pain of what she was feeling, if only for a moment.
“No…I, uh…” She swiped at the tears on her cheeks and then threw back her head, unaware that the simple lift of her chin had given her the look of an able opponent, not a victim. “Crap,” she mumbled, her fingers shaking as she tried to pull the nozzle away from the pump. “I need gas.”
Not wanting to lose the connection with her, John moved a step closer.
“Swipe your card. I’ll pump it for you,” he offered.
But Alicia knew that credit card transactions could be traced, and since the last thing she wanted was to let her father know where she was, she hadn’t even brought a card with her.
“Uh…I’m going to pay cash.”
John pointed toward the sign at the pumps. “Then thank the economy for the problem, but they won’t turn on the pump until you’ve prepaid.”
“Yes…of course,” Alicia said, and tried to put the nozzle back on the pump. But her vision was still blurred from tears, and she kept missing the slot.
“Here, let me,” he said softly, then swiped his own card, waited for the approval to come up, then stuck the nozzle in her gas tank.
Alicia took a deep breath. When the stranger moved between her and her car, she suddenly shuddered. In spite of the mess she was in, she didn’t understand the urge she felt to put her hand on the back of his neck. Instead, she began digging through her purse, pulled out a handful of bills and then found herself fixated by a single bead of sweat that had escaped his hairline and was sliding down the jut of his jaw.
Her nostrils flared as the thought of being naked under this man flashed through her mind.
God. Where had that come from?
When the man turned around, Alicia thought that from the look in his eyes, he was on the same page.
“Thank you for your help,” she said, and thrust the handful of bills into his hand.
Before John could respond, another car pulled off the highway and up to the pumps, coming to a stop right behind the woman. He saw her eyes widen and her pupils dilated in shock.
“Oh no. Oh God…He found me.”
Two
John didn’t know who the man was, other than a big bald