Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 84102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
“Camila is unharmed, and they’ve had her for three weeks,” Eddie explained.
“So they came to you then? Because Luis has been with me for a semester and a half.” They’d been planning this for a long time.
“And they’ve been infiltrating my house for just as long,” Eddie replied, his voice tense.
Well, good he was fucking tense because he was also the reason they were in this situation in the first place. David shoved his way through the library door. “Did it occur to you to maybe shoot me an email. ‘Hey, David, got a situation down here and need your help. Why don’t you bring the troops in?’”
“Because my son’s life is at stake. You can’t understand what it means,” Eddie shot back.
“I can certainly understand what it means to love someone.” He wasn’t letting him off easily. Eddie had plenty of time when he could have given David a heads-up. “You didn’t even tell me you had a kid.”
“I didn’t know I wanted one until I met him.” Eddie moved into the library.
Luis had two men with him, both with guns, of course. “The lady is a friend of a friend, and that was how I found out about the connection.”
“How do you know she’s not in on this?” David asked Eddie.
“Does it matter?” Eddie said with a shrug. “He’s still my son. There was a test, and I believe it. Even if she’s in on it, he’s still my boy, and I want him. She might not kill him, but she could disappear with him. I can’t risk it.”
But he could risk David’s life, and more importantly, Tessa’s. “Did they plan to pick me up at the airport?”
“That was a rival group,” Luis answered. “Someone in my organization has been talking, but I’ll handle it.”
“You do understand this is one of the stupidest plans in the history of…do I dare call it organized crime?” He was flabbergasted at the entire idea that they expected him to find a treasure that had eluded everyone else who’d looked for it. And in the matter of a few days. “We don’t even know if the treasure exists.”
“It better or you’re going to be in trouble, Professor.” Luis’s eyes had narrowed. “I need that money. I owe some people, and the time is coming when I can’t make payments anymore. I can give them the treasure or I can give them you. The men I’m dealing with won’t treat you with the same respect.”
He couldn’t tell there was any respect at all. “I meant what I said about Tessa. If she’s hurt in any way, I won’t do a damn thing for you. It doesn’t matter what you do to me. You don’t touch her.”
“That’s a lot to risk for a woman who doesn’t care for you,” Luis replied.
He didn’t think she’d meant all of what she’d said. Oh, he could absolutely see her walking away, but she did care about him. That was precisely why she would walk. If she didn’t feel something for him, she would likely offer him a D/s relationship that would be all about sex and kept to their respective clubs. And he would take it on the off chance she might change her mind about him.
Because he was mad crazy in love with her.
“I need a map of the grounds.” He wasn’t discussing his love life with his kidnapper. And it was also good to know that more than one group wanted to kidnap him. At least it was all for his own skills and not his family connections. That was a plus. Of course his skills would mean nothing if he couldn’t translate them into some kind of crazy treasure that probably didn’t exist.
“I think we should go into the jungle,” Luis insisted.
And waste the time he had? He wasn’t about to be farther from Tessa than he already was. There was also the fact that he didn’t think the treasure was out in the jungle. “We’ve gone over this. If there’s twenty million dollars out there, it’s in a big fucking box, man. Even if it was cash, the container would have to be large and insulated to protect what’s inside. The jungle is wet and muddy, and after a couple of years there would be erosion around it. That would make it easier to find. Am I making sense to you?”
“I agree with David.” Eddie wouldn’t actually look at him. “There’s no way my father hauled a large box into the jungle in the last year of his life.”
David didn’t want to think about it. “Then it’s somewhere here on the grounds, and I need a map of them. I would also like any blueprints of planning materials you can find for the house and the grounds. There’s a guesthouse as well.”
Luis got in his space. “I’m not your errand boy.”