Silence in the Dark (29 page)

After a hesitation, Angel lifted his shoulder. “As you wish.”

After the waiver was signed and the doctor left, she pinned Angel with what she hoped was a determined look. “I’m going to give Joel a call.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s her legal guardian.”

“But she’s my daughter, and I owe Joel nothing. If he hadn’t
informed the wrong people, I would not have been shot and my wife would still be alive.”

“You don’t know that,” Danny said. “What if he’s not the one responsible for what happened that day in the warehouse?”

Bailey folded her arms across her chest. “He loves your daughter, and he’s cared for her since Claire died. He didn’t have to do that, you know.”

Angel scrubbed the side of his face. Finally, he gave her a curt nod. “I know when I’m outnumbered. And now I need some coffee. Anybody else?”

The thought of coffee soured her stomach, and she shook her head as she found a chair to sit in and took out her phone. A list of incoming emails popped up when she turned it on, and she scanned through them. One was from Pastor Carlos. As soon as she talked to Joel, she’d see what he wanted.

Joel answered on the second ring. “Good evening, lovely lady.”

“I don’t feel very lovely,” she replied. When did she get so tired? “Maria is running a fever and vomiting and I’m at the hospital with her. The doctor is doing a spinal tap right now. As soon as I know the outcome, I’ll call you.”

“What happened?”

“I don’t know. How’s your dad?”

“Holding his own. Look, I’m leaving and will be there as soon as I can.”

Bailey felt better that he was coming. She didn’t like being the one to make decisions, especially if something else came up. “Good. I’ll let Angel know.”

“Are you sure you’re all right? You don’t sound like yourself.”

“I’m fine, just tired. I’ll see you when you get here.” She disconnected just as Angel returned with his coffee. “He’s on his way,” she said.

Angel nodded. “How is his father?”

“Like he was when we were there.”

“Maria’s doctor is coming now,” Danny said, nodding toward the door.

A smile stretched across the ER doctor’s face. “It’s not meningitis. The fluid came back clear. I’m glad to be wrong, but when meningitis is suspected, you don’t want to take any chances.”

“What do you think it is?”

“With meningitis ruled out, I think it’s probably the hot dog. I’d like to keep her overnight for observation.”

Bailey’s cell phone rang. It was her mom. “Hello?”

“We’re bringing Solana to the ER. She’s throwing up and looks as bad as Maria did.”

“I’ll tell Angel. We’re still in the emergency room.” She hung up and told the others.

“And you said she ate the same thing Maria did?” the doctor asked.

“Yes—hot dogs,” Angel said.

“That pretty well confirms it’s food poisoning.” He turned to Bailey. “Call your mother back and have her bring your friend to the ambulance entry. That will get her treatment quicker.”

20

A
ngel followed Maria’s bed as it rolled from the ER to the elevator. She looked so tiny in the bed, and her still form with an IV in her arm scared him—he’d much rather see her running and playing, but at least she was getting help from the antibiotic.

Solana looked awful when she came into the ER. He’d hated to leave her, but Bailey had stayed with her, and where Bailey was, so was Danny. Perhaps Solana would be put on the same floor as Maria when she left the emergency room.

Maria’s blue eyes fluttered open. “Daddy?”

“I’m right here, baby.”

“Are you going to stay with me?”

“I am. We’ll go home in the morning.” Home. Presently, he had no home. Joel had sold the small house where he and Claire lived after they married and when Maria was a baby. Just as well. It would be better to start over someplace where there weren’t so many memories. If he was ever able to go back to Mexico, that is. Ben Logan had not been happy that he didn’t tell him about leaving the bed-and-breakfast last night.

Once they moved off the elevator, the ER porter stopped at the nurses’ station to hand over Maria’s chart, then they proceeded down the hallway.

“Here we are,” the attendant said when they arrived at the room.

“May I move her to the bed?”

The floor nurse came around to the front of the bed. “Sure, just be careful with the IV. We don’t want it to come out.”

No, Angel didn’t want that. It had been hard enough hooking up the IV the first time, and he didn’t want Maria to go through that again. The nurse held the IV bag while Angel picked her up and settled her in the bed. “Comfortable?”

She nodded. “I’m thirsty.”

Angel shot the nurse a questioning look.

“How about ice chips, and then later we’ll try a sip or two, and if she keeps that down, she can have more later.” A page sounded on the nurse’s phone. “I’ll be back to go over her chart in a minute.” She hurried from the room and almost collided with someone entering. “Excuse me.”

“I’m sorry,” a male voice answered.

Angel froze. He’d recognize that voice anywhere.

“Daddy.” Maria’s eyes lit up. “It’s Tio.”

A band tightened around his chest. He expected Maria to know Edward, but well enough to call him Uncle? He took in a breath and blew it out before turning around.

Edward Montoya stood at the foot of the bed. “Hello, Angel.”

He nodded curtly. “Edward.”

“You look well.”

For a dead man.
The unspoken words hung between them. Angel had seen his uncle from a distance since he’d recovered from the gunshot wounds, but nothing prepared him for being in the same room.

“How did this happen?” Edward waved his arm around the room.

“She got food poisoning. Maybe you would like to step outside in the hallway.”

“No!” Maria cried softly. “I want him to stay.”

“I’m not going anywhere, little one. If necessary, I would take a bullet for you.”

Angel stared hard at Edward, but his uncle’s gaze was on Maria, and it was evident he cared very much for her. For the first time, Angel noticed that Maria’s eyes were almost the same color as Edward’s. He’d always believed his daughter’s cornflower blue eyes were inherited from Claire, but no, she’d gotten them from his grandmother, the same person Edward had gotten his from. His uncle turned to him.

“May I sit down?” He nodded to a chair on the other side of the bed.

That was a switch. Edward asking instead of telling. Angel nodded. For Maria, he told himself. Edward moved silently to the chair and took off the long overcoat and draped it across the back. How long did he plan to stay?

“How did you know?” Angel asked.

“Phillip Maxwell called his son to join us for dinner, and he told his father that Maria was in the hospital. I came immediately, and when I arrived, Danny was with someone who appeared quite ill.”

“He was with a friend of ours.” Angel glanced at the bed, where Maria had dozed off.

Edward cleared his throat. “Do you think it’s possible that we can put the past behind us? For Maria’s sake?”

His question ignited the fire smoldering in Angel’s gut. It was all he could do to keep from reaching across the bed and throwing the man out. He counted to five, focusing on his breath with each number. “You killed my mother and father and then have the nerve to ask that?” Angel kept his voice low.

His uncle straightened in the chair and leaned forward. “I told you fifteen years ago I did not kill your parents. Your father was my brother. He was blood. Family.”

“I didn’t believe you then, and I don’t believe you now.”

“Why?”

Angel curled his lip. “My father left a letter accusing you of
trying to take over the company. He told me if anything happened to him, to look no further than you.”

“He was wrong. Because I criticized the way your father ran the business left us by
our
father, he thought I was trying to take over. All I wanted to do was make it profitable like it had been when our father ran it.”

“You’re lying,” Angel said through his teeth. “My father was a good manager.”

Edward heaved a sigh. “No, Angel, he was not. A good man, yes, but he let his employees slack off, he didn’t pursue accounts aggressively, and he let the suppliers rip him off. I will be glad to show you the books from then and now, if you like.”

Angel hated to admit that some of what his uncle said was true, but if Edward wasn’t responsible for their deaths, who was? “Who do you think killed my parents?”

His uncle dropped his gaze to his tented fingers. “Your father refused to pay insurance money to a small cartel for their protection. I believe this drug cartel used their deaths to intimidate other factory owners in the area. To show what could happen if they refused to pay the insurance.”

“Do you pay insurance?”

Edward looked up and stared into Angel’s eyes. “Yes.”

“To the same cartel?”

He nodded.

“Who is this cartel?”

“The Calatrava.”

The same cartel that was after his daughter.

Joel took a deep breath and tapped on the door before pushing it open. He’d come up the back stairs and had been surprised to see Edward get on the elevator. Joel figured Edward would stay away from his nephew.

Angel turned from the window and held his finger to his lips. Joel glanced at the bed where Maria lay sleeping. “How is she?”

“Much better than earlier. Thank you for being concerned enough to return, but you really shouldn’t have. Your father needs you.”

His father had never needed him or wanted him around. Maria’s illness had been a good excuse for leaving, although he did feel bad about leaving his mother alone at the hospital. The way he’d been pacing the waiting area, he thought she was glad for him to leave. Now if he could only get the necklace . . .

Maria opened her eyes and gave him a weak smile. “Uncle Joel, you came.”

“Couldn’t keep me away.” Bailey had been right on the phone. This was one sick little girl. He gaze traveled to her throat. “Where’s your necklace, sweetheart?”

Maria felt her neck, and her eyes grew large. “It’s gone.” Tears filled her eyes. “I didn’t mean to lose it, Uncle Joel. I promise.”

Joel swallowed the curse that almost ripped out of his mouth. He flexed his fingers. She couldn’t have lost it. If she had, he was dead. He pressed his fingers against his temple, trying to work blood back into his face. “Think where you had it last.”

Pain gripped him as Angel’s hand clamped down on his shoulder. “Do not raise your voice. She is a child, a very sick child, and if this necklace is so expensive, you should not have given it to her.”

If Angel only knew. “I’m sorry.” He pressed his lips together and forced his body to relax. “I have another, less costly one I’ll give her once I put Claire’s photo in it. But if you find the other one, would you call me?”

Angel narrowed his eyes. “What’s so special about this necklace?”

“It . . . it belonged to Claire,” Joel said. He should have come up with that a long time ago. “I bought it for her when she first came to Mexico, and it cost quite a bit of money even then.”

“I do not remember seeing it when we were married.”

He searched for an answer. “She’d broken it, and I had it repaired. I don’t think I ever returned it to her.”

“You mean that was Mommy’s necklace once?” Maria turned to Angel. “Daddy, we have to find it.”

“It’s not lost, baby. Bailey has it.” He turned to Joel. “I’m pretty sure that’s where it is, so you can quit your worrying.”

Relief almost made his knees buckle.

“Can you go get it?” Maria said.

“I’ll get it for you,” Joel said. He couldn’t believe he was this close to retrieving those numbers. “I need to talk with Bailey, anyway.”

“Then hang around. She’s downstairs with Solana and should be coming up to a room on this floor soon.”

“Solana is sick as well?”

“Yes, she ate the hot dogs like Maria did.”

Joel couldn’t help but notice how Angel’s voice changed when he spoke of Solana. Or how Maria seemed to like her as well. The future was plain. Once Angel had his parental rights restored, he would marry Solana, and they would live happily ever after with Maria. He flexed his fingers. His brother-in-law’s life was coming together while Joel’s was falling apart. Maybe he’d take Maria with him if he had to disappear. That would put a dent in Angel’s happiness. But first he had to get that necklace. “I’ll go and check the ER, see if they’re still there.”

Outside the room, his head cleared. What was wrong with him? There was no way he could take Maria if he left, at least not to the final destination—wherever that might be. But why not temporarily? He could hide her somewhere to divert Edward’s attention. He knew his boss’s single-minded focus. If Maria was missing, every brain cell he had would be focused on finding his great-niece.

Joel’s step became lighter. He’d found the piece to his plan that had been missing. Now to get into that account.