Saint (19 page)

A cave in the side of the mountain.

* * * * *

“Gabe should have been back by now,”
Francis said, breaking the silence of the cavern.

“He’ll be here,” Seth replied firmly.

The lantern’s low light reflected eerily
off the rock walls. Joan might not have been in their midst, except for the
whites of his eyes shining from the corner where he’d elected to stretch out.
Francis stood by the entrance, gazing out at the night sky.

Harris scooped up one of the smaller packs
and came to sit beside her, tipping her face up to examine the cuts and
scrapes. She pulled the blanket closer around her to ward off the evening chill,
made worse by the cave’s damp interior.

“Cold?” he asked, removing antiseptic and
gauze from the pack.

“I thought the Ohio Valley was supposed to
be humid in the summer.” She flinched slightly as he gently wiped a sensitive
area along her jaw with the stinging liquid.

“Up here you sweat to death during the day
and freeze at night. It’s the altitude.”

“Hillbillies are supposed to live on hills,
not mountains.”

He chuckled shortly, one corner of his
mouth pulling to the side wryly. “We wear shoes too.” It was the first time she’d
seen him moved by an emotion other than anger or indifference.

“I’m not sure whether I’m grateful I
survived the jump, or mad as hell you didn’t warn me.”

“Would you have jumped if I told you to?”
He interpreted her hesitation as confirmation she wouldn’t have followed any
such order. “I didn’t think so.”

“If you were trying to make me rethink
trusting you, that was one way of doing it.”

He leaned closer, trying to get a better
angle on the scrapes in the dim light. She could feel his warm breath on her
cheek as his fingers skimmed over the scratches, testing first for sensitivity
before cleansing the grime away.

“You either trust me completely or not at
all. There’s no room for uncertainty.”

“It works both ways,” she hissed as the
antiseptic stung yet another patch of skin. “You don’t trust me enough to tell
me what you’re planning.”

“We get you off this mountain, hide you at
Joan’s, then I throw a wrench into Hocksteder’s plans. Satisfied?” He pushed
the blanket from her shoulders. “Let me see your arms.”

“What did they do to the hotel clerk?”

“Why? You want to help him get into a drug
treatment center, or put flowers on his grave?” He finished with one arm and
started on the other. “By the time Hocksteder’s done with Will’s reputation, he
can claim evidence tampering, treason and possibly talk the Attorney General’s
office into offering Juarez a deal without anyone raising an eyebrow.”

“They can’t tamper with what they don’t
have. I can corroborate the evidence.”

“Wrong. You can corroborate tainted
evidence, illegally obtained with Will’s help. One hint at a conspiracy and the
whole case has to be reevaluated. Every piece of information you gave them will
be systematically rendered suspect. Juarez’s lawyer will have plenty of time to
discredit anything damaging and witnesses will begin to magically appear and
disappear. I thought Will might have hidden something instead of giving it all
to his supervisor but now I’m not so sure. I couldn’t find a trail.”

“Why did you think that?”

“Will cheats at cards.” His fingers probed
her palm, gently moving upward to her wrist and forearm.

Should she tell him? For one mad second she
wavered, then decided no. Will made her swear no one was to know.
No one
. Juarez or Hocksteder might
succeed in taking her out, or Juarez’s lawyer in discrediting the evidence, but
Benito Juarez wouldn’t walk away unblemished.

“I’m going up to wait for Gabe,” Francis
said. Joan moved to take Francis’ place as the preacher slid between the rock
slab and disappeared.

“Will he be all right out there?” she
asked. “Gabriel, I mean.”

Harris started on her feet next, removing
her shoes and socks to examine the soles. “He’ll be fine.”

Maria pulled the blanket back up over her
shoulders. “Francis is amazing. His hearing is phenomenally developed. Was he
born with it?”

“No. He lived in a dark hole in the ground
in the jungle for several months after being captured on a mission. Now he can
hear a caterpillar making spit. I wouldn’t advise asking him about it, though.
Curious about Gabe too?”

His hands were gentle and warm but her feet
were much more tender now than when Francis massaged them earlier in the day. “A
little,” she admitted. “He really got hot when I said I wanted to take Juarez
down by the rules. I take it Gabriel doesn’t like rules.”

“It’s what Juarez represents that sets him
off. He hates anything and anyone associated with drugs.”

“I know how he feels but that doesn’t
excuse him or anybody else from following the law.”

“Really? You know what it’s like to be
hooked on heroin and opium and hate yourself every waking minute of the day?”

“He’s…he’s a drug addict?”

“Was. He wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t
clean.”

It took her a second or two to digest the
information. “Well, that only leaves you.”

“The less you know about me, the better.
You have some bruises starting on the soles of your feet. Joan,” he called over
his shoulder, “go down to the creek that runs beneath this shelf and get me a canteen
of water, I need to use this one.”

“Yes, sir.”

Joan waited while Seth emptied the contents
of the canteen into a helmet he pulled from his sack, then squeezed through the
opening in the rock wall. Maria sucked in air through her teeth as he placed her
feet in the tepid water.

“It’ll help with the swelling,” he said,
pushing her feet back into the water when she would have removed them. “We
still have a couple of days of hiking before it’s safe to descend.”

It was more than morbid curiosity that prompted
her next question. She wanted to know what made Seth Harris tick. “How did your
wife die?” No sooner than the words were out of her mouth, she was ashamed that
she’d pried into a personal area of his life that was obviously still painful.
Before he could answer, she placed her fingers against his lips. “I’m sorry, I
shouldn’t have asked. It’s none of my business.”

His fingers came up to close around hers.
He studied her momentarily, as if trying to decide something. “Maybe I should
tell you. Then you’ll understand.”

The warmth from his hand seeped into her
chilled fingers. “I think I do understand. It’s hard to lose a loved one, but
to lose the person you shared your life with—”

“She was murdered.”

It wasn’t what she expected to hear. An
accident, complications of illness, perhaps even suicide but not this. Though
it did explain why he was so bitter.

“There was no trial,” he continued bluntly.
“I appointed myself judge and executioner. The animal who slaughtered her is
rotting in hell, where I sent him.”

So, he’d taken his own brand of revenge,
with no thought for the system or the right and wrong of it. Her heart skipped
a beat. Why did she keep forgetting he was very well versed in the art of
killing? She tried to pull her hand away, but his grip tightened.

“The man was Manuel Juarez, Benito’s
father.”

Will’s words echoed through her mind.
“He’s dealt with Juarez before. Not Benito, the father. I’m
only telling you because I want you to understand this will open an old wound
for him and he’s going to turn like a grizzly.”
Had
Seth Harris been reliving the event all over again the night he’d tried to
choke her? She didn’t know what to say, so remained quiet, watching him study
her fingers in an almost trance-like state.

His thumb grazed her palm lightly, spreading
her fingers to trace them. “Maria, do you know what Juarez will do to you if he
gets his hands on you?”

“I paid attention at bootcamp. Juarez is
partial to the knife, that’s why Gabriel and Francis made me learn a few moves.”

“After he breaks your spirit, he’ll carve
you up into little pieces.” It was hard to tell if he was talking to her or at
her. He was still looking at her fingers, turning her palm over to trace the
edges.

“Oh God,” she whispered raggedly. “Is that
what he—is that what Benito’s father did to her?”

“Carolyn was past caring what he did to her
by the time he got around to that.”

A whimper lodged in throat. She jerked her
hand from his grasp and turned away, trying desperately to block out the images
in her mind. “Don’t. I don’t want to hear any more.”

Harris grabbed her shoulders and jerked her
around to face him, eyes drilling into her. The helmet tipped over, spilling
its contents onto the dirt floor. “You listen to me, Maria. He’ll make you beg
for death long before it comes. He’ll pump you full of drugs and use you in
ways you never dreamed possible, until you’re on the edge of insanity. Juarez
is neurotic at the best of times, merciless in the worst. And believe me, the
longer this goes on, the longer he has to search for you, the better the chance
he’ll whip himself up into a frenzy.”

He stared at her, as if by sheer dent of
will he could force her to heed the warning. “It will become personal to him
and he’ll use every resource available to have you brought to him alive, just for
the pleasure of torturing you. Right now he’s just playing the game Hocksteder
laid out to him. But soon enough he’ll take matters entirely into his own
hands, if he hasn’t already, and Hocksteder won’t have a prayer of controlling
him.”

He shook her roughly. “Look at me,” he
commanded harshly when she squeezed her eyes shut. “Let it go, Maria. Maybe
Juarez will let you live if you disappear and the trial falls through. I can
fake your death and get you out of the country to a safe place.”

“Did you let it go?” she asked in a raw
voice.

His hands came up to frame her face. “You
don’t know what you’re getting yourself into.”

She swallowed hard. “I know I can’t live
with myself if I don’t see this through. You know, Seth. You know what it’s
like to lose a loved one to someone like Juarez. I lost two people. It killed
my mother when Jimmy died, shot full of drugs he would never take and made to
look like he was pushing them to school kids.”

“I can live with what I did to make it
right,” he retorted implacably. “Can you, if it comes down to that? It won’t
take away the pain of losing your mother and brother.”

“It doesn’t have to be that way. I can do
it. I can bring Juarez and his ring down without playing their dirty game.”

“For the love of Christ, Maria, open your
eyes! This isn’t a game with winners and losers. Stop looking at the world
through that Goddamn rose-colored veil. Chances are, the trial will be fixed,
jurors bribed and you’ll be made to look like a coached witness. Do you have
any idea how powerful Juarez is? How many government officials he has in his
pocket? The deck is stacked against you. And if Will were still alive, I’d slit
his throat for involving you in the first place.”

She gazed up at him, searching for an
answer she wasn’t sure he could give her. “Tell me how to live with it if I
turn my back and walk away. Tell me how to forget my brother’s bloated body.
How to live day after day knowing I had the means to make it right and didn’t.
I can blow open his whole operation in every major newspaper in the country. I
know all the evidence won’t be admissible in court but it’s not inadmissible in
print, not when I’m the source and I can back it up with documents and tapes.
You tell me how to carry that burden.”

He leaned his forehead against hers,
breathing tiredly. “Goddamn, you’re a stubborn little bitch. It won’t bring
them back, Maria.”

But it wasn’t only Jimmy’s death that
twisted her insides. Will and Buck and Ray and Simon—their deaths would be for
nothing if she quit now. It would eat at her day after day until she hated
herself for taking the easy way out. She knew the system wasn’t perfect, but it
went against the grain to roll over and play dead in the face of adversity.

She touched his face with trembling
fingers. “I’m so sorry about your wife. I won’t ask you to involve yourself
further, Will shouldn’t have… I’ll go with Joan if you think that’s best. But
this is my battle and I have to fight it my way. Just get me to the trial and I’ll
do the rest.”

He lifted his head, pinning her to the spot
with the intensity of his gaze. “You’re not going to Joan’s because of the
trial.”

God, would she ever figure him out? “Why
then?”

“Because of this.” He closed the space
between them, covering her mouth with his. Maria forgot to breathe, forgot about
the chill that seemed forever wrapping itself around her body as she gave in to
the insanity of the moment. His arms came around her, crushing her to his
chest.

Her mouth opened under the blazing assault
and for mindless seconds he thrilled her, setting off an ache deep inside. The
kiss turned carnal, desperate, but by then she was past caring who was right
and who was wrong. She craved a connection with the one man who understood what
churned inside her mind and soul. The tension heightened her senses to a
dangerous level. She didn’t want to think about what came next, only savor now,
this minute, the hard core of his body, the way his hands gripped her buttocks
to grind her more fully against him.