“Volkov’s place? What are you going to do?”

“Whatever I can. Probably not much.” Her gaze was still on Rennell and Tanner. “Rennell said this entire area is probably going to have law enforcement crawling all over it soon. We were a little…loud. Rennell said he and Tanner had talked and they want to get Sandrino out of that cave and take him home to Sandrino Place before that happens.”

“Of course they do. I’ll go with you.”

“No, you won’t. Rennell is going ahead. That’s the way he wants it. Tanner will follow us after he gets all the team safely away from here and on the road. You help him.” She paused. “After Tanner comes and they get Sandrino ready to go home, I’ll start making anonymous calls to the police, sheriff’s department, and Immigration. I’ll tell them what we found there. That way perhaps we’ll be able to send those poor victims home to their families, too. It shouldn’t take that long, and it might answer some of the questions they’ll be asking when they find what we did here to Volkov, Anton, and party.”

“And when should I come and help?”

Maria didn’t answer. She was looking Lara up and down. “You know, it’s a good thing that you didn’t like that gown. You’ve made a complete mess of it.” She switched to another subject. “Did you give Tanner a hard time? He thought he might get by with minimum punishment because you trust him. Was he right?”

Lara’s lips tightened. “Yes, but he’ll think long and hard before he pulls that bullshit again.”

“Don’t be too hard on him. He couldn’t have stopped me.” She paused. “And we both know that being able to trust someone like that is a rare and precious gift.” She pressed the accelerator. “I’ll talk to you later.” She looked back over her shoulder as she started down the mountain. “It’s almost over, Lara. Just a little longer…”

By the time Lara had walked down to the casino, both Maria and Rennell had taken off in their separate vehicles. But Tanner turned away from talking to Mallory and said, “Maria said she’d filled you in and you were going to give me a problem about this. Don’t do it. You’ve already gone through your particular hell there. I know you want to help, but it’s something Rennell and I have to do by ourselves.”

“Maria will be there.”