“You might as well give it to me. No one would understand it but me.”

“I have a friend who might. Hu Chang would find it interesting.”

“Give it to me.”

“After we have a talk about Santos and how you can help me save the people I care about.” She put the book back in her jacket. “And after I’m sure that it’s of no value to Santos. I’m not giving him anything that he wants.”

“I wouldn’t give him anything he wants if I can help it,” Montez said desperately. “I’ll disappear. I’ll dig down so deep, no one will be able to find me. All I want is to keep him from killing any more of my family. Let me go.”

“I might be able to do that if I was sure that you couldn’t help me find Santos. But I’m not sure that’s true.” She paused, her gaze on his face, waiting for any flicker of expression. “Have you ever been to the place where Santos has set up his new headquarters?”

Montez stared her in the eye. “No, I have not. I dealt only with Dorgal. I talked to Santos on the phone several times years ago, but that was before you managed to topple him and send him to prison.”

“He didn’t communicate with you while he was in prison?”

“No, everything was through Dorgal after that. Nor has Dorgal ever given me a hint as to where Santos’s new compound is located. I knew that Dorgal was setting up a safe haven for Santos somewhere, but I hoped that Santos would stay in prison and not be able to use it.”

“Safe haven,” Cameron repeated. “How would you know what Dorgal was doing for Santos? It had to be top secret. Why would you know, Montez?”

Montez didn’t answer.

Cameron’s voice turned stinging hard. “Why?”

“Because I had to know. Satisfied?” A muscle was jerking in Montez’s cheek, and his dark eyes held panic. “But I didn’t want to know. I didn’t want to know anything more. I could see where it was headed. That’s why I ran away.” His gaze flew back to Catherine. “And they let me go, but they gave me a warning.”

“Your brother’s death.”

He nodded.

“But can’t you see that it will just keep on? Your brother, your sister, Father Gabriel? How many deaths will you accept before you fight back?”

“I can see that if I don’t take that warning, Santos will kill another one of my family. My mother is still alive, and so is my little nephew, Nathaniel.”

“Everything you do is a danger to your family. You ran away, and your brother died. You stayed hidden, and they wanted to find you, so your sister died.” Her voice was shaking with passion. “Do you think I don’t know how that feels? Santos is threatening everyone I love, and it seems everything I do is the wrong thing. But your choice is to be a slave to that son of a bitch or fight him. You must know something, or Santos wouldn’t have been afraid of having me find you.”

“I don’t know where he is,” Montez repeated. “I can’t help it if you won’t believe me.”

She did believe him. “Okay, but I think you can help us to find him. Will you try to do that? Look, we could set a trap for him if you’d consent to be the bait. Let Dorgal capture you and take you to Santos. We’ll find a way to track you. We’ll protect you and your family, and we’ll make sure Santos never troubles you again.”

“You’re crazy. You expect me to trust you that much?”

“I hope you will.” She held his gaze. “I’m telling you the truth. Can’t you see it?”

He looked away from her.

“I know it’s dangerous, but so is being on the run from Santos when any moment he might decide he doesn’t need you. Help us, Montez.”

He shook his head.

“I could persuade him,” Cameron offered.

“No, it’s not that simple. Didn’t you hear me? I believe him. I don’t want him hurt. We’ll just stay here, and I’ll try to convince him that—”

“I could do that, too.” Cameron tilted his head. “Or go inside and attempt to find out why Santos wants him kept alive. Though he’s so stubborn, there might be minor damage.”

“Go inside,” Montez repeated warily.

“Not unless there’s no other way,” Catherine said. “I told you, I don’t want him hurt. He’s suffered enough. We just need to make it clear to him what—”

Cameron’s cell phone rang. He glanced at the caller ID and put it on speaker. “Dario.”

“I hope you’re moving very fast, Cameron,” Dario said. “Because you may have company soon.”

“What kind of company?”

“Dorgal. He must have been on his way to San Esposito and sent those two men who killed the priest on ahead.”

“He’s alone?”

“He was alone when he flew into the airport. He checked out the situation at the church, made a few phone calls, and two hours later he got reinforcements from over the border and a few local villages. By the time he started tracking you into that rain forest, he had twenty-two men.”

Catherine muttered a curse.

“Is that our lovely Catherine?” Dario asked. “You won’t be totally alone. I gathered together five of my own men, who are far superior to Dorgal’s, and we’re only fifteen, twenty minutes behind him. However, he has to be fairly close to you.”

“Closer than you think,” Catherine said. “We had over two hours’ delay after we overtook Montez.”

“Not good. Should we try to ambush Dorgal, Cameron?”

“No, not yet. Keep me informed. I’ll get back to you.” He hung up. “You heard him.” He started putting out the fire. “Let’s move.”

“Untie me,” Montez said. “Unless you want to serve me up for Dorgal. He’d love telling Santos how you did that for him.”

“No, we don’t want to make it easy for Dorgal.” Catherine unsheathed her knife and cut the vines binding him. “And we sure as hell don’t want to have Santos get his hands on you. Which he will do if we don’t move fast.”

“Let me go,” Montez said urgently. “You don’t have to worry about me. I’ll take care of myself.” He jumped to his feet. “Look, if you hadn’t caught me, I would have been all right. I spent months hiding in the rain forests before I went to Father Gabriel. I can do it again.”

“With Dorgal on the hunt for you?” Cameron asked. “Personally, I would just as soon let you take your chances. But Catherine is feeling protective, so you go with us.”

“No.” His jaw set. “She says that she doesn’t want me hurt. Let’s see if she’s speaking the truth. I won’t go with you. You’ll have to hurt me to make me do it.”

He meant it, Catherine realized with frustration. “You’re being a fool. Where could you hide?”

“I was heading for the Benedictine monastery at the far end of the rain forest. Father Gabriel made arrangements for me to stay there in case of an emergency. I won’t let the monks run the risk of hiding me now. I’ll find somewhere in the forest. But later, after Dorgal checks them out, I could make contact and have them find a safe place for me.”

“He’ll disappear, and you’ll never see him again,” Cameron said flatly. “We’ll have it to do all over again.”

But Montez wasn’t going to help her anyway, unless she used force. She could see it in his expression, the tautness of his jaw.

Save him.

Let him live another day.

Hope that he’d realize that they were fighting the same battle.

“Then we’ll do it again.” Catherine turned and headed for the trail. “Okay, we’ll let you go, Montez. But I want to do it right. We passed a stream a half mile to the east. You come with us. I want your footprints clearly heading east. Once we reach the stream, we can blur them and eventually lose the print. Then you take off south in the direction of the monastery. Cameron and I will make sure that you’re not followed.”

“How?”

“What do you care? You prefer hiding to confrontation.” She was striding down the trail. “If you change your mind, I’ll be glad to have your help.”

“Taunting isn’t going to make me do what you want,” he said quietly. “You have your own agenda, just like Santos.”

“No, but maybe this will help you to trust me.” She turned to face him as she reached the stream. “Cameron has hired a very talented man who is every bit as deadly as Dorgal. His name is Rafael Dario. We’ll have his men protect your mother and nephew from Santos. He’d protect you, too, if you’d allow it. But your family will definitely be protected. You can feel safe that whatever you do, nothing is going to happen to them.”