LITMIR.BIZ

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think of to do: she’d packed a bag and run.

      And she was still running. She needed to tell someone what she knew, but her father’s power was great and his reach was long. He had strong ties to almost every arm of the government. She didn’t yet know who to tell or who to trust. Maybe he could live with the blood of innocent soldiers on his conscience, but she couldn’t—wouldn’t. And she wasn’t going to let him get away with it, either. The next day, after he’d left for the office, she left him a note that she was feeling better and was going to take off for a few days at a spa. Then she’d emptied one of her sizeable bank accounts and left Miami in the middle of a thunderstorm—perfect weather to match her mood.

      The spa excuse had worked for only one day. When she’d failed to check in, Richard began making calls. When she didn’t return the first call within the hour, he’d called a second time, then a third. By noon, Alicia had a half-dozen unanswered messages on her cell, including a text message from him hinting at concern. After that, she’d stopped keeping track. It was inevitable that she would have to answer, but she wasn’t ready. She was so angry with him that she could hardly think, and at the same time she was afraid. She knew her father’s reputation. He was ruthless when it came to getting his way. He wouldn’t take kindly to having someone mess in his nest, which was exactly what she planned to do. She had to be far enough away—and safely concealed—before she trusted herself enough to call back. And most of all, she had to be certain of her own ability to avoid giving herself away and figure out a way to keep him from tracking her via her phone. There was a part of her that felt like a traitor to him, but she kept reminding herself that at least she wouldn’t be a traitor to her own country. The fact that her father was in bed with the terrorists responsible for the tragic events of September 11, 2001, was chilling.

      

      Unbeknownst to his daughter, Richard Ponte had installed GPS locator systems on every vehicle in his empire, and he already knew her whereabouts. In fact, he had sent Dieter Bahn, his right-hand man, to bring her back. Ponte had no idea what was going on with her, but he was beginning to realize it was serious. He knew she’d emptied one of her bank accounts and that she was running. He just didn’t know why. But he was determined to find out. And when Richard Ponte was determined to make something happen, it happened.

      

      Alicia was focused on the needs at hand, which were food and fuel, both of them less than a quarter mile ahead. She was debating between something sweet or salty for a snack when her cell phone began to ring. She glanced down at caller ID, and her heart skipped a beat. It was her father. Again.

      She’d lost count of how many times he’d called. As nervous as she was about it, she knew that communicating would help keep him off her back. She just didn’t know if she could trust herself to stay calm. As the phone continued to ring, she finally made a decision. She pulled over to the side of the road, put the car in Park, then answered. Her heart was pounding. All she could think was, God help me.

      “Hello?”

      “Thank God!” Richard bellowed. “Alicia! What the hell are you up to? Why haven’t you been answering your phone?”

      “I’m not up to anything,” Alicia said, hating herself for the quaver she heard in her voice. “I left you a note telling you where I was going. I just wanted a little getaway. I certainly didn’t expect a constant barrage of phone calls, trying to check up on me as if I’m some teenager. For pity’s sake, Dad, get a grip.”

      “Don’t start that crap with me!” Richard yelled. “You emptied your bank account and you’re not returning my calls. What am I supposed to think?”

      Alicia swallowed past the knot in her throat. “That I’m twenty-seven years old and that it’s my money?”

      Richard was so angry he was shaking. He didn’t like to be thwarted, and he didn’t like to be reminded that it was his deceased wife’s money that had set him up for life and left their daughter independently wealthy.

      “Is it some man? If it is, I can tell you right now, he doesn’t love you. He’s just after your money.”

      Alicia felt as if she’d been slapped. That her own father would deem her unworthy of a man’s love without the money that came with her was, at the least, humiliating. Her voice was shaking when she asked, “Why, Daddy? Why wouldn’t some man love me? Why would you say something like that?”

      Richard couldn’t have cared less that he’d hurt her feelings. “I was right,” he crowed. “It is a man. Now listen to me. Quit acting like a child and get yourself back to Miami before you get into something you can’t get out of. You’re too trusting. You’re too naive. Is he there with you now?”

      “There is no man,” she muttered, suddenly wishing there was. It would be a far simpler dilemma than the one she was in.

      “I don’t believe you,” he said. “You went sneaking out of this house like some bitch in heat. You must have had a reason.”

      It was the “bitch in heat” reference that did it. Suddenly the past few days of being sick at heart and scared half out of her mind bubbled up and over. She started talking, and the more she talked, the louder she got, until she was screaming at him just as he’d screamed at her moments earlier.

      “The only man in my life that made me leave home was you!”

      Taken aback by her sudden rage, Richard had to struggle to answer. “Me? You’re not making sense.”

      It was as if someone had opened a festering wound, and now that the pressure was gone, the poison was spilling out of Alicia without a thought for caution.

      “I know what you’ve been doing…you and Uncle Jacob. I heard you two talking. You’re selling weapons to the enemy.”

      Richard felt the floor tilt beneath his feet. Jesus, Mary and Joseph. “You’re wrong,” he insisted. “I don’t know what you think you heard, but you’re wrong.”

      “No. I’m not wrong. You’re the one who’s doing something wrong…horribly wrong. What I don’t get is why, Daddy? Why? We have more money than we could spend in two lifetimes. Why would you betray your country for more?”

      Richard felt as if someone had just punched him in the gut. He sat down on the side of his desk before he fell. Son of a bitch…she knew!

      “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. “You misunderstood what was being said. You need to come back now and I’ll explain…I’ll—”

      “I don’t believe you. I don’t want to ever see your face again.”

      “What are you going to do?” he asked.

      Alicia didn’t know she was crying until she tasted the salt of her own tears. Angrily, she swiped at them with the back of her hand. “What I do is no longer any of your concern.”

      There was a long, uncomfortable silence, then one last question. “Alicia.”

      “What?”

      “Are you going to tell?”

      Alicia disconnected, threw the phone down in the seat and pulled back out onto the highway, still heading for Justice.

      

      Richard’s heart was hammering so hard he couldn’t catch his breath. How had this happened? They’d always been so careful. He shoved a hand through his hair and then covered his face with both hands as his mind began to race through the possibilities of what might happen next.

      She wouldn’t tell. She was his daughter—his own flesh and blood. Surely she wouldn’t turn in her own father? But he couldn’t be sure. She’d sounded so angry. He’d never heard her like that before. So…what next? Sit here and wait for the hammer to fall on his carefully balanced empire—or take back control?

      Shock was soon replaced with anger. There had been dozens of times throughout his life when he’d felt as if he’d been here before, in

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