Ghostwalker 09 - Ruthless Game

a few precious minutes to pick the lock. They were on a time line. The guards had to wake up before sunrise, and al of them had to be gone and out of Mexico before that happened. Kane inched the door open and went in on the floor, rol ing to the right of the bed
    —the woman’s side—staying in the darker shadows. Rose came in after him, softly closing the door behind her. The bed creaked, and she froze, lying in plain sight if Cesar happened to look down.
    She counted to sixty and then began a slow crawl to Cesar’s side of the bed. He would be armed and wouldn’t hesitate to shoot. He was sleeping facing her, and she smiled as she slipped her hand under the pil ow to remove his gun. A knife lay on the bedside table, the hilt pointed toward him where he could easily grab it. She waited until Kane had darted the wife and slid into the darkness. She knew his knife was out and ready to throw.
    She crouched down, presenting a smal er target, lifted Cesar’s knife, and placed it ever-so-gently against the artery pumping in his neck. “I think you should wake up, now, Senor Lopez,” she announced softly.
    The eyes snapped open, instant awareness there.
    “I wouldn’t move if I were you, but take a good look at my face. I want you to remember me, to know who I am.”
    No one wanted Cesar Lopez to remember them. The eyes burned with arrogance, with fury, with the promise of reprisal. Rose smiled at him. “I think, before you go al macho on me, you might consider that you haven’t looked at the condition of your wife.”
    His gaze flicked toward his wife of forty years. He couldn’t turn his head, but he could see the outline of her beside him.
    “She’s sleeping soundly. I want you to real y think about this situation you’ve found yourself in, Senor Lopez, because if you don’t, some very bad things are going to happen to you and every single person you love.”
    The door opened, and dark shadows flitted in and out of the room, dropping IDs on the bed between his legs. The IDs raining down on him were from his guards, his son, his daughters, their spouses, and eventual y something taken from each child supposedly safe in his home.
    Rose leaned in close. “As you can see, we could have kil ed every man, woman, and child on your estate and in this house. Everyone. You don’t know us, Lopez, but we know you, and we know where al of them live. No one else knows we’re here but you. They’l al believe they fel asleep. You can tel them whatever you want when you give them back their IDs and whatever else we’ve confiscated from them as proof that we could have kil ed them. Cal off the contract on me. Walk away and pretend I don’t exist. You and I won’t have any more trouble. If you don’t, my friends and I wil be back, and believe me when I tel you, you don’t want any part of us. Not now. Not ever.”
    She al owed the knife to slide against his skin. His breath caught in his throat and he stiffened, fear creeping into his eyes, his body turning to a shuddering mass of jel y. He could see the shadows of men, moving in his room, but he could never identify them. They’d invaded his inner sanctuary, and they’d proven they could kil everyone. He swal owed hard and nodded his head.
    “Don’t disappoint me, Lopez. Don’t ever get stupid. Even if your people found and kil ed me, my people would take everything and everyone you care about. And then they’l kil you. They’re ghosts. You’l never see them coming, and then it wil be too late. Do we have an understanding?” She kept her voice very even, very soft. Almost gentle.
    His eyes were nearly al white now, his terror mounting. His body had broken out in a sweat. Al the arrogance had faded as he faced his own mortality.
    There was no refuting anything she said. The proof was strewn al over his bed.
    He nodded again, this time vigorously enough to have the knife cutting into his skin had Rose not been cautious.
    “You realize we’l have to put you to sleep like the others,” she said, almost as if she was talking to a child. “Just in case you try to convince yourself that you were having a nightmare, I’m cutting your dose in half. You’l wake up first and see al the proof lying on your bed. You can walk around your house and see the guards, your children, and your grandchildren sleeping peaceful y. And you can thank me, Lopez. I’l only have compassion for them this one time.
    Look into my eyes so you know I’m tel ing you the truth.