The Columbus Affair: A Novel

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

ALLE WATCHED AS MIDNIGHT STOPPED THE CAR AND BRIAN walked around to her side.

“Get out,” he said.

She shook her head.

Midnight shut off the engine and emerged into the Austrian night, leaving the headlights on.

Brian opened her door.

She cowered back across the rear seat. “Please. Leave me alone. I’ll scream. Come near me and I’ll scream.”

Brian stayed outside and crouched so she could see his face. “I’m not your enemy.”

Midnight bent down, too.

“Tell her,” Brian said to the other man.

“I was told to kill you.”

She’d been in Vienna nearly a month and had seen this black man almost every day. But that was the first time she’d ever heard his voice.

“By who?” she asked.

“Simon gave the order to Rócha. They want you to disappear. There’s no plane to Florida, at least not one for you.”

They both stared at her with looks of concern.

“I told you,” Brian said, “that you were in way over your head. Simon’s done with you. Whatever he needed from your father, he’s apparently got. You’re not part of his plan anymore.”

“I don’t believe you.”

He shook his head. “Look, I’m taking a huge chance revealing to you that I have eyes and ears inside Simon’s camp. This man here is staking his life to save yours. The least you could be is grateful.”

“Why are you doing this?”

She held her ground across the seat, three feet from the open door, realizing there was little she could do. The door at her back would probably not open. She was alone, in the woods, at their mercy.

“Alle,” Brian said. “Listen to me. You’d be dead, right now, but for me. I had you brought here. Midnight—”

“Is that really your name?” she asked. “I thought it was just what Rócha called you.”

He shrugged. “I got the tag when I was a kid.”

“You fondled me.” She hadn’t forgotten.

“And if I hadn’t, Rócha would have been pissed. He told me to do it, so I played the part. Just like you, missy.”

Then she knew. “You told Brian about all that’s been happening.”

Midnight nodded. “Yes, ma’am. That’s my job.”

“Get out,” Brian said again.

She shook her head and did not move.

He exhaled, shook his head, and stood. His hand reached beneath his jacket and a gun appeared. “Get your sorry ass out of that car. Now. If you don’t, we’re going to drag you out.” To make his point he thrust the weapon inside. “I’m not in the mood for this.”

Her brain seemed frozen, her body paralyzed.

Never had she faced the barrel of a gun.

She slid herself across the seat to the open door.

“It’s late,” he said. “I’m tired, and we have a drive ahead of us.”

“Where are we going?”

“Someplace where you can be dead, at least as far as Simon is concerned. Midnight has to go back and report that you’re no longer breathing.”

“Why does Zachariah want me dead?”

“Because, little lady,” Midnight said. “That man has been playing you for weeks. He tells you what you want to hear, and you believe every word. He’s got what he wants. Now you’re in the way.”

“What is it he wants?”

“Your father on a leash,” Brian said. “Whatever your grandfather has in that coffin, Simon wants it bad. And you just helped him get it.”

She still wasn’t prepared to concede that Zachariah would harm her.

“Why do you care what happens to me?” she asked, still sitting inside the car at the door.

Brian stepped close, the gun still in his hand. “I got news for you. I don’t. I only care about what you know. But unlike your great benefactor, I actually saved your life.”

“And that’s supposed to make me grateful?”

He shook his head and again pointed the gun straight at her. “Do you have any idea how much trouble you’ve caused.”

She tried hard to master the stabs of panic in her chest. She wanted to retreat inside the car but realized that would be useless.

“Are you going to cooperate?” Brian asked, a look of hope in his watchful eyes.

“I don’t seem to have much choice.”

Brian turned to his compatriot. “Get back to town and tell them she’s dead. Then keep your eyes and ears open. I’ve got a feeling a lot is about to happen on your end.”

Midnight nodded and reached for the front-door handle.

“You’re going to have to get out,” Brian said to her.

She stepped to the ground.

The trunk popped open and Brian retrieved her bag, tossing it to the roadbed. Midnight climbed into the car and left, taking all illumination with him. She and Brian stood in the chilly dark. Not a sound could be heard from the woods around them.

“Time for us to go,” he said.

And he walked toward his car, pointedly ignoring her bag.

She lifted it and followed.