Page 12 of Wicked Intention

Cupping her hand around the lens end of the flashlight, she aimed it at the ground behind her. Some kind of vine snaked across the path.

Even with the light, Zo walked slowly. The small LED bulb didn’t offer much illumination, and there was a whole lot of dark. The path wasn’t quite as overgrown as she’d feared, but it was a long way from clear.

It seemed to take an eternity before the outline of the inn rose in front of her. Upstairs was dark, but if there were guests, they could be down in the tavern. The first floor beneath the guest rooms, where Tia Izel and Tio Luis lived, was dark as well, but then they’d be in the bar/restaurant tending to customers. The public room blazed with light on the side of the building, as did the kitchen, which faced the back.

She’d have to wait. It gave her an opportunity to think. Tio Luis and Tia Izel might not be blood relatives, but she loved them with her whole heart. The last thing Zo wanted to do was put them in danger. Would a couple of phone calls do that? That’s what she had to decide.

Staring up at the inn brought images into her mind. Tia Izel teaching her and Mari to cook. They’d laughed together in that kitchen thousands of times as they talked and worked. Tio Luis trying to show her how to play chess at one of the tavern tables and shaking his head sadly when her impatience gave him easy victories. The two of them sharing legendsabout the Huarona civilization and stories of the Lost Disk of the Gods.

San Isidro had been hurting for a decade now. The archaeologists working at the nearby ruins had been the primary source of income for the village, but the civil war had put an end to the excavations.

Zo’s eyes started to close, and she shook her head. She needed to stay alert. A few too many adrenaline surges, a run through Rio Blanco, which was at altitude, hiking miles in the heat after she’d gotten off the bus, trekking through the jungle on an overgrown trail—it was all catching up with her.

If Finn were here, she could take a ten-minute break and let him watch out for the two of them. Her lips curved as she imagined his arms around her, keeping her safe and secure. She could almost feel the beat of his heart against her cheek.

The sudden, loud buzz of an insect jerked Zo’s eyes open.

If she was going to dream about Finn, maybe she should picture his reaction to her lack of attention.

Zo didn’t like standing among the trees with nothing solid at her back. She looked around, evaluating positions, and spotted the shed. The door would be locked, but the shadows next to it should be deep enough to hide her, and she could lean against it, ensuring no one came up behind her. It had other things to recommend it, too. The storage building was on a straight line to the kitchen door, so she’d have a good vantage point as she waited.

Despite her struggle to stay alert, she wasn’t sure how much time had passed when disquiet replaced drowsiness. Without moving, she opened her eyes. It was darker than before, a cloud covering the moon. She waited, trusting her instincts.

There. Movement near the corner of the inn.

Hardly daring to breathe, she slowly turned her head to get a better look. Whoever was out there stayed away from the windows and the illumination they cast on the ground.

Zo strained to see, her adrenaline surging and bringing her to full alertness. And a few minutes later, when the cloud cleared the moon, she discerned the outline of a man. The desire to run was strong, but she quashed it. The human eye was good at picking up movement, even in the darkness.

Without warning, the porch light came on. The figure froze. Zo held her breath and prayed it wasn’t Tia Izel who’d turned the lights on, not with someone creeping around the yard. The door opened.Stay inside, stay inside.

A man she didn’t recognize exited the inn, Tio Luis directly behind him. “You,” Tio Luis called in Spanish, “join your friend on the porch.”

Only then did Zo notice that Tio Luis had the man’s arm twisted behind his back. She didn’t have long to wonder what the other bastard would do. Casually, as if the invitation had been warmly offered, he crossed the yard and went up the stairs. It took self-control to keep from gasping when he stood in the light.

The scarred man. Dead Eyes. The one who’d chased her in Rio Blanco.

She looked closer at the guy Tio Luis had in an armlock, but he didn’t appear to be the man she’d seen with Dead Eyes earlier in the day. How many people were after her?

“Get off my property, Vargas,” Tio Luis said. “And take this one with you.” He propelled his prisoner forward. The man regained his balance before careening into Dead Eyes.

“Señor Ramos will not be pleased to hear how inhospitable you’ve been,” Vargas said with complete calm.

Zo bit her lip hard. Alfonso Ramos. She should have guessed. When they were kids, he’d been as interested in the disk as she’d been. They even searched for it together.

“Señor Ramos,” Tio Luis said, “knows San Isidro is off-limits for his trade. You’re not welcome here.”

Vargas seemed unimpressed, but with the might of the Ramos drug cartel behind him, the threats of an innkeeperweren’t going to scare him. “We’re looking for Zofia Parker. Have you seen her?”

“What do you want with Zofia?”

“Answer the question, Alvarez.” Vargas no longer had any smoothness in his voice—this was pure demand.

Tio Luis paused long enough to make it clear he wasn’t frightened. “I was unaware she was in Puerto Jardin.”

“You’re saying you haven’t seen her? That she’s not upstairs in one of your guest rooms right this moment?”

“You’ve already searched the inn. You know she isn’t here.”

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