Black List

CHAPTER 9

TEXAS

There were very few people Nicholas would ever risk his life for, but Caroline Romero was one of them.

That didn’t mean, though, that he had thrown caution to the wind and gone rushing blindly to her aid. There were still precautions that he needed to take. First and foremost among them was selecting his base of operations.

Three Peaks Ranch spanned more than twenty thousand acres and belonged to a wealthy Texas family headed by Peter Knight. From cattle and aerospace to mining and biotechnology, Knight’s business interests spanned the globe, and Nicholas had facilitated multiple transactions for him over the years.

The ranch was the family’s primary retreat, maintained by a full-time staff. In addition to taking care of the Knights when they were in residence, the staff was expected to see to the needs of other guests who visited throughout the year. Before Nicholas showed up, they had had no idea what to expect. Mr. Knight had simply called and stated that a VIP guest was coming, that he’d be staying for an indeterminate length of time, and that the staff should see to any needs he had.

The man’s first request was waiting for him outside the guesthouse the next day: a black Yukon Denali that had been sourced from a leasing group in Brownsville catering to disabled drivers. It looked and functioned just like any other SUV, except that it also offered hand controls so that the driver could control the vehicle’s acceleration and breaking without touching the pedals. Per Nicholas’s instructions, the staff had tinted the windows and removed the rear seats in order to give the dogs as much room as possible.

Hopping into the front passenger seat with a Leatherman tool, he peeled back the headliner and snipped the wires that connected to the vehicle’s cell phone and onboard GPS/OnStar navigation system. After replacing the headliner, he then scoured the entire vehicle inside and out, making sure there were no other fleet management or tracking devices that might have been installed. It was a time-consuming exercise that required he get under the vehicle and use a step stool to poke around the engine compartment, but he had no intention of letting anyone follow his movements.

Once satisfied, Nicholas loaded the dogs inside and with the assistance of a booster seat he had brought along, took the Denali for a test drive to familiarize himself with the ranch.

The Knights had populated it with all sorts of wild and exotic game. If Nicholas hadn’t been awake for the entirety of his flight in, he could easily believe he’d been dropped onto a wildlife preserve in Africa. In the time it took him to drive across the game enclosure, he saw addax, oryx, kudu, impala, water buffalo, zebra, gazelle, and wildebeest. The dogs, their heads out the lowered windows, noticed them too.

Confident he could now handle the vehicle out on regularly trafficked roads, Nicholas eventually turned back to his guesthouse.

Sitting on the front steps was the Knights’ ranch manager, an attractive woman in her late thirties named Maggie Rose, who gave a friendly wave as Nicholas drove up.

Putting the car in park and turning off the ignition, Nicholas hopped out and then used the remote on the SUV’s key fob to open the rear tailgate and let his dogs jump down.

“How’s the truck working out?” she asked.

“It’s just fine, thank you,” he replied. Maggie had an easygoing way about her that he liked. Upon first seeing him, people often did a double take, but when she had met him at the plane last night to escort him to the guesthouse, she treated him just like any other guest. She had been professional, with just the right amount of Texas charm thrown in.

“I hope you don’t mind, but since you weren’t here I let myself in and put away the groceries you asked for.”

Nicholas did mind. He didn’t like the idea of anyone being in the guesthouse while he wasn’t there. Nevertheless, there wasn’t anything he could say. He was a guest, and he was sure she had done it only as a courtesy.

“Thank you,” he replied.

“You’re welcome,” said Maggie as she smiled at Argos and Draco. “I did a little research on your dogs last night. They’re an amazing breed.”

Nicholas smiled. “It’s the only type of dog I’ll ever own.”

“I bet they get expensive pretty quick in the eating department.”

“You can’t put a price on animals like these,” he said, patting each of them.

“May I?” asked Maggie as she approached.

Nicholas nodded and Maggie walked over to Argos and Draco. She held a hand out to each of them to smell and then scratched them behind the ears. “You could probably make up half your food bill renting them out for pony rides at birthday parties.”

Nicholas smiled again.

Lowering her hands, Maggie took a step back. “If there’s anything else you need, just give me a buzz. My number is posted next to the phone in the kitchen.”

“I’ll do that,” he replied.

He watched her as she walked back to her truck and climbed inside. She honked the horn and gave him a wave and a warm smile as she drove off. Nicholas waved back.

Once she had gone, he mounted the stairs along with the dogs and let himself inside. The dogs needed to be fed, but he wanted to check his equipment first. While he didn’t have any reason to distrust Maggie, he didn’t have any reason to trust her either. She was a nice woman, but he’d had plenty of nice women try to slip knives between his ribs over the years.

He made his way to the master bedroom, where he looked the equipment over. All the cases were still locked and appeared to be just as he had left them.

Unpacking two of them, he set up his satellite uplink and connected his laptop. As everything was powering up and signals were being established, he fed and watered the dogs. By the time he was done, he was ready to go online.

Sitting at the dining room table, he navigated to the site Caroline Romero was using to communicate. He had left her a message alerting her that he had arrived in Texas. Now there was a message waiting for him in return. It read: Tonight. 8 pm. Casa De Palmas. McAllen. Parking garage. Top floor. Thank you for helping me.

Caroline’s previous appeal for help had contained such intimate information, things only the two of them could know, that he had no doubt that she was the author and that she was in very deep trouble.

Being the man he was, he wanted to rescue her immediately, sweep her into safety, but he needed to be careful. Telling her about the ranch and where he was staying was out of the question, at least for the moment. A lot of time had passed since they had last seen each other. A million things could have changed. Plus, he still had that twinge that something about this entire thing might not be right. Meeting in public was a much better option.

He also liked the idea that they would meet someplace where he wouldn’t have to get out of his car. It made him feel better about traveling into McAllen.

Conducting a quick search for Casa De Palmas, he learned that it was a three-star hotel in the heart of the city. Next he pulled up satellite imagery and got a good feel for the layout of the property. Once he was familiar with the location, he began planning his routes to and from the hotel—as well as likely locations for an ambush. He was taking nothing for granted.