Page 63 of Prisoner of War
Torrez saluted Serrano. “I’m sorry to interrupt you when you’re busy, General, but it is important.”
Serrano waved away the apology. “You know Colonel Zalaya, don’t you?”
Torrez spun to face Zalaya and his face shifted, surprise flickering there justfor an instant. “My God. Bruno...” Torrez took a step toward him. Another one. Strong emotions made his face work. “Who would have thought I would see you again? Here, of all places?”
Serrano pressed a finger to his lips, watching closely.
Zalaya showed shock, swiftly followed by a warm pleasure. “Jose Torrez. I did not know you had traded teams.” He got to his feet, grasping for the cane. “Ithas indeed been too long.”
Torrez brought his hand up to curl it around Zalaya’s neck. “Too long,” he murmured and kissed him, his lips firmly against Zalaya’s.
* * * * *
Minnie staggered in shock, her back slamming up against the wall of file cabinets, making them rattle and rock on their bases. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the monitor as the white-haired man kissed Zalaya with openpassion. It was unmistakably the kiss of a lover.
Her heart thundering, she found her own fingertips touching her lips.
What was more frightening was that Minnie knew the man who kissed him. The white hair was just as unmistakable as his passion for Zalaya. He had been one of the men General Blanco had gathered around him in the big house. He’d sat at the table with Nick’s officers.
What washe doing here?
At Serrano’s cough, the man stepped back, embarrassed. Zalaya rested his cane against the boardroom table. “I suggest you avert your gaze, Serrano,” he told the general. He took Torrez in his arms, his hand holding the back of the man’s head and kissed him again, thoroughly.
Serrano politely kept his eyes averted but couldn’t fail to hear the soft moan. It didn’t matter who haduttered that moan. That it had been uttered was enough.
After sixty seconds he cleared his throat again and gave it another ten seconds before looking up again. The two men had separated and Zalaya was seating himself, the customary hard expression back on his face. He glanced at Torrez as the man made his way around to the other side of the table and his expression softened just for a fleetingmoment. Then he looked back at Serrano and the emotion was wiped from his face.
“Jose Torrez does not appear on any payrolls or duty rosters. I would know if he did.”
“Your memory does not fail you,” Serrano assured him. “Torrez has been doing some work for me. What the Americans call ‘going undercover’.” Serrano turned his chair to face Torrez. “You would not have left without dire news. Tellme.”
Torrez glanced at Zalaya. “Given your proclivities, Bruno, I assume that you are running Serrano’s security and communications now?”
“That is correct.”
“Then you both need to hear what I have learned. Escobedo’s household is in turmoil. Two of their women have disappeared. One of them is Jose Escobedo’s daughter. They believe both of them are here on Vistaria.”
Zalaya spread his handson the table. “Then I know who the other is,” he said.
Serrano put it together swiftly, aided by the expression on Zalaya’s face. “That little split-tail spitfire you’re keeping in your room?” he said. “I told you she was not Australian.”
“You have her?” Torrez breathed, sitting upright. “She is the daughter of one of Escobedo’s American business associates, a man called Benning. Actually, she’smore than that. She was the lover of one of Escobedo’s favored lieutenants, just before the war broke out.”
“Captain Eduardo Peña y Santos,” Zalaya breathed.
Serrano frowned, reaching for the associated memory the name tickled. He dredged it up. “That’s right. That’s the officer you killed in the hospital,” he told Zalaya.
* * * * *
Minnie stared at the monitor. Her heart was thundering inher ears and she grew dizzy. She remembered to breathe.
How had Duardo survived his time as Zalaya with his facilities intact? The things he must have been forced to do to keep suspicions from rising! That kiss he had given Torrez...there must have been other moments like that.
Then there was the conversation about killing Duardo. It confirmed her suspicion that Duardo had taken Zalaya’s placeduring his stay in the hospital.
It also crystallized a fact she hadn’t faced before. In order for that exchange to take place, Duardo had dealt with Zalaya in some way. Had he killed him, as Serrano believed Zalaya had killed Duardo?
* * * * *
