I only wish I could be a better person.

We walk along the side of the wide parking lot, heading to the place where the concrete benches are placed, and I slip my arm into his for a few feet. I stare ahead and say, “I’m…I’m sorry for what’s going to happen. But I have to do this to save my family. I hope you can forgive me.”

Then a man’s voice quietly says, “You should not trust that man, not at all.”

And I come to a halt.

The voice is from Archie.

CHAPTER 81

IN THE basement garage of his new hotel, Pelayo Abboud approaches the black GMC Yukon with his associate Casper keeping pace with him. Tom Cornwall is being helped into the rear of the Yukon, sitting next to the young girl who is on the far side, wearing black tights and an oversized Epcot sweatshirt, Tigger doll in her lap.

Casper says, “The old man and the Army captain, they have left the Yucatan.”

“Good,” Pelayo says. “Then it will be finished in just a few more minutes.”

Casper holds the rear door open, and as another vehicle starts up in the distance, Pelayo cheerfully climbs in and sits next to Tom.

I grab the old man’s wrist and pull him closer to a little island of grass and low brush, drag him in for cover, and I say, “You tell me what you know. Now.”

Archie sighs. “His name is Pelayo Abboud. He is a killer, a criminal, a very, very bad man who will one day burn in eternity for his sins.”

My hand is still on Archie’s wrist. “Go on. That’s not really a news flash.”

He looks out at the warm and wide waters of the Gulf of Mexico, acting almost like a child seeing the ocean for the very first time. “Pelayo is the head of a Mexican cartel, the Veracruz.”

“Never heard of it.”

“No matter,” Archie says. “Like many other cartels, his has a bank under his control. One for which I worked.”

“First Republic Global Bank, NA, based in Guadalajara.”

“Ah, exactly. You are a very smart woman.”

“Not smart enough,” I say. “Tom Cornwall…my husband. He’s a journalist. He found out about Pelayo and the bank, and made arrangements to interview you.”

“True,” Archie says, shaking his head. “I was kidnapped by the El Baja cartel, to be turned over to this Tom, so he would write a book about their rivals, the Veracruz cartel. I was to be El Baja’s weapon to publicize the Veracruz’s activities, to cripple them. But now Pelayo has used you to bring me to him, to disarm his enemies.”

I’m running out of time, and sensing that, Archie adds, “One last warning. Do not trust any promises Pelayo has made. They are all false. There will be no exchange, there will be no safety for you or your family. At the right moment for Pelayo, he will kill you all, even your little girl.”