"This is not just business! Carson, tell me, or I swear, I'll send an army after you."

"It's nothing I can't handle. Just a little money problem. I'm fixing it, and then we'll be on the next flight home. But you have got to call off the dogs. Right now. You'll freak out people we don't want to freak out. You're lucky I found out about it before my employer did."

"I cannot believe this, Carson." Madison was going to hyperventilate. She could feel it building and tried to force herself to calm down. Panicking was not going to get her son back. "You have my son in the middle of something this dangerous?"

"It's not dangerous! Just someone else's mistake I need to fix. Trust me, Madison. I love you, I love Jesse. This is just a small glitch and I'm the only one who can fix it. Nothing is going to happen to him, but you're panicking, and that's not good for any of us."

"You should have told me from the beginning. You should never have brought Jesse down there."

"I'm taking a risk calling you now. If everything goes right, I'll be done here by Thursday, Friday at the latest."

"Where are you?"

"Honey, I'd tell you, but right now you're not thinking straight, and the last thing I need is you showing up here. Or sending a damn PI after me. Call him off. I mean it. I love you, Maddie."

He hung up. He hung up on her!

She was torn. Carson was obviously in the middle of something potentially dangerous, which put Jesse in danger. But she'd just spoken to both of them, and they sounded fine. They were alive, they were healthy, Jesse didn't sound like anything was wrong. She wanted Sean to bring her son back ... but she didn't want to get her husband hurt.

"How could you do this to me?" she screamed in the silence of her hotel room.

She had to trust Carson. They had celebrated their tenth anniversary in April. She loved him. Her father respected him. He'd provided for her, took another man's son as his own, helped her build her own business-antiques, something she loved and was good at. She had a life and Carson and Jesse were a part of that life. They were her life.

Coming to Sean Rogan was a mistake. Carson was right, she'd panicked. Why had she even come here? What had she hoped to gain?

Because you hadn't spoken to your husband and son in three days and Carson lied to you.

Damn damn damn!

Why hadn't she called her father?

She knew why. Her father would know then that Carson was moonlighting. He would know they had financial problems that Carson had taken a second job to remedy. And Carson wouldn't forgive her. He may never forgive her for talking to Sean. Why had she called Sean? She could have found someone else ...

Punishment. You were mad at Carson for scaring you, for taking Jesse when you really didn't want him to go ... and then lying to you. So you went to the one person you should never have seen again.

"It's okay," she told herself, as if speaking out loud would make it true. "Jesse is my son, I would do anything to protect my son."

Carson and Jesse were safe. For now. She had to call off Sean. To keep them safe.

She grabbed her purse and cell phone and ran out of the hotel.

Jesse brought his dad the water bottle. He'd already drunk half of another on the way back from the kitchen. "Here," he said. "Where's Mom?"

"The phone cut out-cell reception is terrible here."

"She sounded really worried. I thought you said she was fine with us staying longer."

His dad drank some water. "I thought she was, but she worries, you know that."

Jesse shrugged and sat down on the couch. His mom was moody all the time lately. His dad said it was girl hormones, but Jesse thought it was something else. She'd seemed sad when he left last week. "I should call her back-or maybe we can just go home? Do we have to stay until Friday?"

"This is important, Jess. You're right-I should have left you at home, but I thought this would be good for us to have some guy time. You have straight A's, it's not like you're going to miss anything if you miss school for a week. And I talked to Dom, they have season tickets to the football team here. They're playing tonight."

"Really?" Jesse loved soccer. He'd been playing since he was six. But he'd never been to a professional game.

"I may be able to wrap up everything by Wednesday. We'll leave as soon as I'm done."

"Sure. Whatever."

"You're having fun, aren't you?"

"Yeah. Just bored. I wish we didn't have to leave Acapulco."

"I can't let you just go out and explore-it's pretty safe here, but you know how Mexico can be. We need to be smart."

"I know." Jesse finished his water bottle. "Can I go swimming?"

"Of course. You can go anywhere on the property-Dom has forty acres to explore. But come in before noon, the sun can be murder."

"Okay." Jesse put his DS on the charger and left the suite of rooms Dominick Flores, his dad's boss, let them use. He already had his swim trunks on-he'd been swimming every morning and night since he got here. But he was bored. There were no other kids, everyone was serious except for Gabriella.

Two of Dominick's bodyguards asked him where he was going. "Swimming," he told both of them.

It was weird to be here in a house full of armed guards. His dad said that Dominick was extremely wealthy and there was always the threat of kidnapping for ransom or thieves. And they were in Mexico. So why not just stay at the resort? At least there was a lot to do-they had a totally badass game room.

Jesse went outside and around back to the pool. It was early, but hot. It would be sticky and gross later.

He swam for thirty minutes or so, but it really wasn't that much fun. Everyone seemed to stay up real late and sleep in ... so except for his dad and the guards, he hadn't seen anyone. Dominick's younger brother Jose was sort of cool-he had a totally sick gaming system in his apartment and had let Jesse play with him last night. But then he and Gabriella had gone out.

Jesse dried off, pulled his T-shirt over his head, and went to the back door. It was locked. He walked around the side of the house-the place was a mansion. It had to be like ten thousand square feet. Maybe more. The kitchen door was often open because the cook liked to go out for a smoke like every ten minutes. Yeah, Dominick was rich-he had his own personal chef.

The kitchen was open, but no one was inside. Jesse picked a muffin off the cooling rack-the cook was a jerk, but he baked the best muffins and pastries. He went through the dining room, down the hall, through the foyer, and thought he heard his dad in the library. The door was partly open, and he almost walked in, but then he heard Dominick raise his voice.

"I hope you're right, Carson. I can't afford any scrutiny right now. Neither can you."

"I'm sure it's nothing," his dad said. "We're on track, but I need to get to the bank today, set up the new accounts. By tomorrow-Thursday at the latest-I'll have moved all the money. Even if the feds track the old accounts, they'll be shut down."

"You'd better be right."

"I am," his dad said. "But I've added another layer of security. In three months the new accounts will automatically be converted into yet another new account. I can set it up in advance. So even if-and it's a big if-they track us, by the time they figure it out, the money will be gone."

"I like the plan in concept-but it had better work."

"Dom, I've been doing this for years. I set up the contigency plan in the first place, and it served you well, didn't it?"

Jesse heard two people walking down the main staircase, so he quickly turned into the closest room and shut the door. The room was empty-a sitting room. Dominick had a dozen sitting rooms all over the house. Double doors led into the atrium in the center of the house. Jesse waited until he thought the people had passed, then walked through the double doors and into the atrium. There were lots of plants and even full-sized trees in the huge room. Dom had a lap pool in here, too, but it was for family only, Jesse had been told.

"Swimming so early, little man?"

He jumped and almost stumbled halfway up the stairs. Gabriella stood in the middle of the atrium looking up at him.

"Yeah," he said. "Before it gets hot."

She walked up the stairs and stopped on the stair beneath his. Looked him in the eye and said, "Be careful, Jess. There are a lot of eyes-and ears-in this house." She then smiled, patted him on the shoulder, and said as she passed him on the stairs, heading toward her apartment, "Next time you go for an early swim, let me know."

CHAPTER TWELVE.

"I'm ready," Sean said to Kane as he slowly started taxiing out of the hangar. His phone vibrated on the console next to him. It was a long text message from Lucy.

I'm on the road, but right before we left, your friend Madison Spade called the house-about 10 minutes ago. She sounded upset and wanted to know what airport you were at. I told her to call you, but she said she tried and couldn't reach you. I don't know what her story is, and I didn't want to tell her, but she said that she has important information about her husband and son that you have to know before you leave, so I sent her to the airfield. Be careful. I love you.

"Well, shit," Sean said and stopped the plane. He showed Kane the message. "What is Madison up to?"

"No good," Kane responded.

Sean called Madison's number. She picked up immediately. Before he could get a word out, Madison said, "Don't leave! I'm almost there!"

"You are not coming with me."

"No, no, it's not like that. I talked to Carson. He and Jesse are fine. You don't need to go."

Every instinct in Sean's body told him either she was lying or not telling him the entire truth.

"Did he call you?"

"Yes! I spoke to both of them. Please-I just got to the airport. Your girlfriend told me where you were."

"I know. She told me."

Madison clearly wasn't expecting that answer.

"You should have called me."

"I didn't think you'd talk to me! You were very mean when I called earlier. I have to see you. I'm canceling this whole thing. They're fine. I just panicked. But they're fine, really."

Sean hung up. He did not believe this. "Watch the plane," he said to Kane and climbed out of the cockpit. By the time he dropped to the tarmac, he saw a white sedan racing toward him. She screeched to a halt only feet from the tail of the plane and jumped out of the car. "Thank God you haven't left."

She looked frantic and took a deep breath. "Carson called me thirty minutes ago. He and Jesse are fine. I talked to Jesse. They're fine, they were robbed. They'll be back on Friday."

"Robbed?"

"Yes, that's why he couldn't call me, didn't get my messages. Their passports were stolen, they're at the American embassy. That's where they called me from."

He didn't believe one word.

"The American embassy where?"

"I don't know. I didn't ask. Probably Acapulco."

"And he couldn't call you for three days."

"He didn't have time to explain everything! He just told me they were fine, they were at the embassy and straightening everything out. I talked to Jesse myself."

That he believed. She had talked to her son but he didn't know whether that was to verify he was alive, or because he was really safe.

"Give me your phone."

"What?"

"I'm tired of the games. Give me your fucking phone."

"I'm not hiring you. I'm unhiring you. You can't do this. Just leave it alone."

He yanked her purse from her hands, retrieved her phone, then tossed the purse back at her. He walked back to the plane.

Sean said, "Spade made contact." He tossed Madison's phone to Kane, who grabbed it with one hand. "Plug that into my tablet and break her passcode." He reached into his go-bag and pulled out a phone. He wrote the number down on a pad, then walked back to Madison.

She stood exactly where he'd left her, eyes wide.

He handed her the burn phone. "This is how I will contact you."

"You don't understand..."

"What did he say?" Sean stepped forward and Madison stepped back. He didn't care if he looked or sounded threatening; she was lying to him and now he knew for certain that her no-good husband and his son were in danger.

"They're fine. They'll be back on Friday."

"And?"

"And ... that's it. Please don't go. I should never have come to you. I should never have told you..."

"You're lying."

She straightened her spine and stared him in the eye. "Who are you?"

"If you don't tell me exactly what your husband said, you're putting your son in greater danger. My son. And I will do anything to protect my son."

"I'm not lying, Sean. Carson called me and said they were fine, he just has more business, and he will be home on Friday."

"And?"