LITMIR.BIZ

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accommodate his request.

      “Jake is sorry,” she said again. “He thought you were one of them.”

      “So you said. But I’m not, so cut me loose.”

      “You are not one of them?”

      “Hell no. Look, untie me. Right now.”

      “You’re not a prisoner.”

      “Sure, I get that. So why do I feel like I am?”

      Alcina reached out and tugged a brown leather backpack over to her, dug around inside, and pulled out a bottle of Excedrin. She uncapped it and shook out two tablets. Novak felt better because he could use a painkiller at the moment. Then she reached inside again and pulled out an eight-inch dagger. She pulled it out of a black leather sheath. It looked razor sharp, the polished blade glinting. She smiled at his expression. “I’m not going to stab you. I’m going to cut you free, so don’t move. I am not used to handling knives.”

      “Got it.”

      “Jake tied you up because he thought you’d be angry and try to hurt us when you woke up. He said that you would be confused about what happened.” Alcina was getting all smiley and friendly now as she crawled forward and quickly and expertly slit the cords on his wrists with one sharp jerk. Okay, it looked to Novak like she knew how to use a knife well enough. She handed him the blade and let him cut his ankles free. Then she backed away from him in a hurry, just in case he decided to stab her, he assumed. Novak stretched his aching muscles and rolled his cramped neck from side to side. He felt his head wound, but that intensified the thudding behind his eyes. He watched the men around the fire for a moment. They were there for a reason, and he wanted to know why. He wanted to know a lot of things, and nobody was telling him squat.

      When Alcina handed him a bottle of water and the pills, he tossed them down and drained half the bottle. He was still thirsty and finished it off. He didn’t know where he was or why, but he wanted to know, just in case things went bad, which usually happened when he woke trussed up like a pig.

      Some basic instinct told Novak that this tiny woman wasn’t the sweet little madonna that she appeared to be. His wariness wasn’t really justified, judging from her fight with that bully. She had been tough but she had also been desperate. According to Claire, she was their new client, whether he liked the idea or not.

      “Please allow me to bandage your head so the bleeding will stop,” she said. Something was very off about this young woman. She seemed way too calm for what had happened to her earlier that night. He nodded, and she crawled close again and pressed folded gauze against his split scalp and then wound more around his forehead.

      “Okay, Alcina, I’ll bite. Where am I? Why am I here, and what do you want?”

      Novak wondered if she’d tell him the truth. It didn’t matter; he had no idea what the truth was. While he waited for her to answer, he examined the platform on which they sat. If he remembered correctly, he was sitting atop a chickee, which was the palmetto-roofed structure historically built by the Seminole tribe. That’s when some of the scattered pieces bumping around inside his mind started clicking together, and he began to line up what had happened. The men at the fire had to be Seminoles. They were the tribe who had settled southern Florida, and he knew they had reservations down around the Everglades. He had visited one a decade or so ago while on leave in Miami. He’d been impressed by them. They were a handsome people and courteous to their visitors and eager to present their history in an accurate way. He startled when some animal screamed somewhere out in the dark outside the fire. Whatever it was, it was dead now. That’s when he figured out where he was.

      “This is the Everglades,” he said, looking at Alcina for verification.

      She shook her head. “No, we are on the Miccosukee Reservation. Eldon Osceola and his family run their tourist business here. They helped my brother and me. They helped get you away from those men. They would have killed you.”

      “The tribe is helping you?”

      “No, not the tribe. Just Eldon and his family. Few even know we are here.”

      Okay, that could complicate things if the tribal council objected to getting involved in Alcina’s case, whatever it was. He said as much to Alcina.

      “Eldon said he did not want the tribe to be a part of helping us. He said he is doing a personal favor for a good friend. He doesn’t expect trouble out here, so he is doing nothing to endanger tribal members or their land. He says it is protected, and the Skulls would not dare to come here after us.”

      “What favor? What friend?”

      “She is a doctor who helped us get here from our country. These men will protect us while we’re here.”

      Well, that was just fine, but it didn’t come close to answering his question. “Who’s us?”

      “Me and my brother, Pedro.” She gestured at the boy, who still looked nonresponsive.

      “So why hire Claire and me?”

      “Did she not tell you?”

      Now she’s acting suspicious of me, Novak thought, thinking that a bit ironic.

      “She told me to wait at the condo for you. I don’t know much else, and I won’t until she shows up and fills me in.”

      Alcina didn’t trust him any more than he trusted her. That was a good thing. She shouldn’t trust him, not in a million years. She didn’t know Novak from a hole in the ground, or if he was even who he said he was. He watched her exquisite face and could almost see her mind working. She was gauging what she should believe. She was deciding how much she should tell him before Claire vouched for him. She was not stupid, not by a long shot, but she needed to work on hiding her thoughts. She was easy to read. She had not learned to put up a shield. A moment later she arrived at the right decision and decided to believe him.

      “Eldon and I have a mutual friend in Guatemala City. She is a doctor, and she sent us here and asked Eldon to protect us.”

      “Those guys obviously want you dead. Anybody else after you?”

      “The man who sent them took my baby, and he wants to kill both of us. You saw.”

      “Who took your baby?”

      “They did.”

      “You don’t know who they are?”

      Tears filled her eyes and gleamed in the flickering light. “No, but Claire Morgan says you will find Rosa for me.”

      This conversation was getting Novak nowhere. “Does anybody know who took your baby?”

      She shook her head, and fat tears oozed over those long lashes and rolled down her cheeks. Novak tried not to be affected by her obvious grief, because he didn’t know enough yet to feel sorry for her. She might trust him this soon, but that wasn’t mutual. She wiped her cheeks with the backs of her hands.

      “They came to our village one night and kicked in our door and just took Rosa.” She held his gaze. “My husband tried to stop them, but they shot him. They just killed him right there beside Rosa’s crib.”

      Novak watched her face as she relived the moment. If this tale was true, it was a terrible thing, all right. She looked legit, she sounded legit, and he wanted to believe her. Claire obviously already did, but who wouldn’t be affected by that kind of sob story? “So you’re telling me that these people just rolled up in the dead of night, broke into your house, murdered your husband, and kidnapped your baby. Did they try to take you or hurt you?”

      “We ran away after they shot Luis. They looked but couldn’t find us.”

      “Who’s us?”

      “Pedro and me.”

      “Did they take anything else?”

      “No, they only took Rosa.”

      “How old is the baby?”

      “Eight

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