“What for?” I ask, playing dumb.
She shrugs. “He called and asked for three hundred dollars. But I’m a struggling college student, and I didn’t have it to give. I offered him a twenty, which didn’t make him happy at all.”
“What do you mean?”
“He was agitated,” she replies with a worrisome expression. “Said twenty wouldn’t help him, and then hung up on me. Very un-Brian-like.”
Which is true. Brian is the affable one out of the three of us.
“Well, I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about,” I say, trying to dispel any concern she might have.
Laney frowns, shaking her head. “I don’t know, Jaime. He’s hiding something. Pretty sure he’s in some sort of trouble. There’s a secret there for sure.”
I am wholly unprepared for the guilt that swarms over me, causing my teeth to grind down on each other. My body seems to have no control over my actions, my conscience dictating what to do.
Setting my glass down on the counter, I say, “I have a secret to tell you. And it’s huge and you’re going to freak out, but we’re a family that doesn’t keep secrets and we value honesty, so I need to tell you.”
Laney’s mouth forms into an “O” and her eyes get just as round. “What?” she whispers.
No sense in beating around the bush. Ripping off the band-aid I blurt out, “Cage and I got married in Vegas this weekend.”
Laney just stares at me, eyes unblinking, mouth still open but sagging. “You what?”
“We got married.”
“In Vegas,” she says as if she needs to repeat some innocuous detail.
I nod. “In Vegas.”
“But… but… but why?” she stammers.
My shoulders rise, and my smile turns sheepish. “Because we were drunk?”
I say it as a question because I’m not sure that’s the real answer.
Laney doesn’t move a muscle for a second, then she starts laughing. Not a happy, joyful sound but one of dire warning. “Oh… Mom and Dad are going to be so pissed at you.”
“No, they’re not,” I say, lifting my chin and trying to act confident. “We may have been drunk, but we have deep feelings for each other.”
Laney’s expression turns skeptical.
“I love him,” I declare. “And he loves me.”
I get an eye roll from her. “You love him what… after only knowing him a month?”
“Almost six weeks,” I correct her. “And it’s not just about love, Laney. It’s about knowing something is right and true. If we didn’t get married this weekend, it would be next month or next year, but it would happen. I don’t know if I can make you understand, but he’s the one. I just know it.”
Tilting her head, Laney’s eyes go all soft and misty. Her voice is awe-filled. “Really?”
“Really,” I assure her. “I have no regrets. It was the right thing to do.”
Laney holds her glass out, and I pick mine up. “Well… then congrats, sis. I’m truly happy for you.”
We tap edges and sip.
Before I even lower mine, she’s reaffirming, “But Mom and Dad will be pissed.”
“Not pissed,” I correct her, lowering my glass. “Maybe miffed.”
Laney bursts out laughing, motioning with her hand that she needs more details. “Okay… tell me everything about Vegas because you clearly left a lot out, like how in the hell you ended up married.”
I settle onto my stool, curl my hand around the wineglass, and smile. Then I tell my sister about what will be considered my fairy tale with my happily ever after.CHAPTER 18CageGiven my choice between hiking with thirty-five pounds of gear in the jungle or the desert, I’d prefer the desert. The jungle is nothing but hot thick air, bugs, and foliage slapping you in the face.
But the benefit is there’s lots of cover so our advance crew—me, Jackson and Bodie—can scope out the agreed-upon area where we’ll make an exchange of the ransom money for the hostages. All of this was worked out between whatever douche was leading this band of kidnappers and the contract negotiator the family had hired.
In most instances, the exchange goes down without a hitch. There will be a lot of posturing, and their leader will try to extract more money, but in the end, it should happen without a single bullet being fired. Deeper back in the jungle surrounding us is a Special Forces unit for the Colombian military that will do nothing more than observe as the exchange goes down. If things get heated, they are backup for the Jameson crew and will come in guns blazing.
We hope.
Hell, they could be on the ELN’s payroll for all we know, but this is how it’s done.
We’d been thoroughly prepped by the negotiator as well as a representative of the family. It was the brother of the man taken, and he apparently had no trouble coming up with the three million dollar ransom that was ultimately agreed upon. We also liaised with a colonel in a Colombian Special Forces unit, and we spent hours brainstorming every contingency.