“You’re the one from the truck.” Avery licked her dry lips. Her pulse raced as her heart pumped adrenaline and fear through her cold veins.
“You see, Sal?” The man in the sunglasses spoke again. “You’ve always underestimated American women. I’ve told you time and time again, they are not just beautiful creatures. They’re also intelligent.”
“You’re right, Emilio,” Sal offered. “My apologies.”
The man—Emilio—smiled and gave Sal a kind nod. “Apology accepted.”
Then he pulled a gun from his waistband and shot Sal right between the eyes.
Avery jumped out of her seat, screaming as the dead man fell backward into the pool. The crystal blue water from before slowly turned to a sea of red.
“Where were we?” Emilio returned his gun to his pants and faced her as if nothing had happened. “Oh, yes. I was about to ask you about your job.”
“M-my job?” Avery couldn’t take her eyes off the floating corpse.
I’m going to be sick.
“Yes, Miss Webb. Your job.” With a few snaps of his fingers, he tore through the macabre trance she’d been under and made a motion for her to sit back down.
Not about to argue with the man who’d just committed cold blooded murder—right infrontof her—Avery returned to her seat, her entire body trembling as she moved.
“Much better. Now, about your job.”
“W-what about it?”
“You and your friends cost me a lot of money when you escaped. To be fair, it really was Sal’s fault, but since he can no longer be of assistance, I’m relying on you to get me my money.”
“I’ll call my sister right now. We’ll find you your ransom.”
“Oh, dear Avery. May I call you Avery? I’m afraid a measly million dollars simply won’t do.”
Another random memory flashed. This one from the bus ride the morning of the excursion from hell.
Flags. Lots of political flags. And this man’s face was on every single one.
“Emilio Garcia,” she said more to herself than to him. “You’re running for president of the Dominican Republic.”
“Very good.” The bastard smiled. “Now about my money. Ten million dollars, to be exact.”
The air left Avery’s lungs in a loudwhoosh. “Ten million?” she managed to choke out. “I-I don’t have that kind of money.”
“No, but the companies who’ve purchased your accounting programs do.”
More confusion set in. “You want me to steal ten million dollars from one of my clients?”
“No, of course not. I want you to steal ten million dollars, split between several of your clients.”
This guy wasn’t just a murderer. He was insane.
“I can’t—”
“Oh, but I think you can.” Pulling a folded piece of paper from the pocket on his chest, he unfolded it and handed it to her. “That is a list of your top five most lucrative clients. I want you to transfer a total of ten million dollars into these accounts—”he slid her a second piece of paper with a list of bank account numbers on them—“as quickly as you can.”
“I can’t do that.” Avery shook her head.
“You can, and you will. If not, I’ll send Felix here back to Charlotte. Only this time, it will be that lovely sister of yours he takes. He’ll bring her here and then torture her in front of you until you’ve completed your task. You don’t want anything to happen to dear, sweet, Alex now, do you?”
Ohmygod. He knows about Alex. He knows everything about me.