Page 63 of Look for Me

Martin quickly said a prayer for Flavian.

Another paramedic approached Martin. Suddenly all his muscles hurt from having to carry Flavian. He stretched out on the ground. Rain fell on his face and soaked through his clothes.

Everything else moved in slow motion around Martin. All he could think of now was Corinne. Was she alive?

You never lost me.

Did she really mean it?

The paramedics told him to get to a doctor since he didn’t have any broken bones or gunshot wounds. That meant Flavian had taken a bullet for him.

A bottled water appeared in front of him. It was Pilar Santiago with a smile on her face. “You’re alive.”

“You’re alive too.” Martin grinned.

“Someone had to call 911 and contact the FBI.” Pilar sat down next to him. “Told you to stay in the van.”

Martin ignored her chastisement. “What happened to you in the club? We waited a long time.”

“I never left. I was in the back alley looking at two dead bodies.” She was specific about sayingtwo.

“Let me guess. Slap and Spit?”

Pilar shrugged. “Don’t know their real names, but they’re dead now.”

“Turncoats can’t be trusted by either side.”

“We don’t know what they are.”

“Nor do we care.” Martin drank half the water. “How did you know we were here? What is this place anyway? I don’t even know where we are.”

“You’re on a private island off the coast of Florida. It’s owned by a trust fund. Your captors rented it.”

“Let me guess,” Martin said. “Because it has prison cells in the basement?”

“Does it?” Pilar whistled. “Do they give tours?”

“Flavian wasn’t our captor,” Martin said.

“I know. It’s his ex-business partner whom Agent Tanaka has been trying to take down for a couple of years.”

“That still didn’t explain how you found us.” Martin finished off the bottled water.

“Tanaka injected herself with a tracker, but Nikos must have discovered it because the FBI tracked it to the bottom of the sea outside Miami Beach. That’s why it took two more days to look for y’all. Kudos to the Coast Guard who helped the police.”

Martin’s eyebrows rose. “Did you say two days?”

“Yeah, happy Friday.” Pilar suddenly stood up. “Here they come.”

Martin watched a group of people emerge from the orange grove. On the other side of the grove of trees, smoke rose into the dark early afternoon sky.

An FBI agent carried Dahlia. Corinne and Tanaka came up behind them.

Martin was relieved to see Corinne.

You never lost me.

Corinne didn’t look his way, though. She screamed and made a beeline for the stretcher lifting Flavian into the chopper. She hunched over the injured man. When Dahlia was handed to her, the chopper lifted off in the rain.

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