Page 33 of Last Chance Christmas

He walked ahead of Olivia and saw one of his brothers turn to watch him come over. Olivia could figure out how to call this in, get help here. He needed to distract Sosa so that she could do her job.

He needed to draw attention to himself.

“What are you doing?” Izan spread his arms wide.

“Jogging your memory.” Alonzo shifted the gun to point it at Izan, then moved his arm to aim at Izan’s mother.

Izan stiffened. “About what? What do you want?”

The guy should’ve been halfway to Mexico by now. He could’ve run, but he was still here. In town. Thinking he had unfinished business. Or that he knew this area well enough he could hide…and do whatever he wanted.

“You know what I want. So give me Diego’s money, and I won’t kill these people. Your familia.” He said the last word like it was a slur.

“They’re more my family than you are.” Izan was going to keep him talking until the police got here. “They raised me. Cared for me. Now you’re going to threaten them. That only means you know they mean something to me.” They meant everything. “If I had your money, I’d give it to you. Because their lives are worth more than some stupid money I don’t even care about.”

“Then tell me where to find it.”

“Leave with me. We’ll take my car,” Izan said. “I’ll take you to the money.”

His family reacted. Mom whimpered, and the others moved to look at him. Someone gasped.

Apparently he was a good actor, because they didn’t know he had no idea where the money was. He’d never had it and wasn’t going to be able to produce it. What he needed was for the Collins family not to be in the line of fire.

He felt Olivia move behind him, and his phone was tugged from his back pocket, where he always kept it. She didn’t have his password, but she could make an emergency call. Get the police here.

“We can go right now.” Izan motioned with his head. “No one has to get hurt.”

Olivia grasped a handful of his shirt and slid his phone back in his pocket. Did she think the police could track him if he went with Alonzo? At least one of them was thinking ahead, because he had no idea what he was doing.

Alonzo said, “I get that money. It’s mine. You aren’t family.”

“That’s right, I’m not. I don’t want Diego’s money. I never have.” That, at least, was the truth.

He earned his money fair and square. Izan had no idea what had happened to the money his birth parents had stolen from Diego Sosa. But the man had killed them both for it. Alonzo knew enough to presume Izan had it, though Izan had no idea what gave Alonzo that impression.

Alonzo held the gun on Izan and dragged Ainsley to her feet with his other hand. “We’ll take just one with us. For insurance.”

Ainsley gasped. “Izan.”

“Your brother will make sure nothing happens to you.” Alonzo leaned in and smelled Ainsley’s hair. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun in the meantime.”

Izan flinched, taking a step toward Alonzo. “Let her go, or no deal.”

Alonzo chuckled. “You think you have any say in this?” He lifted the gun and pointed it at Ainsley’s throat, kind of like the way he had with Izan.

Izan’s throat tightened reflexively. He knew exactly what it felt like being held like that. Helpless and unable to do anything for the risk of getting shot in the head. Lights out.

No, that wasn’t how his family was going to lose Ainsley. Not right before Christmas, and not at any other time. The second they got out of here, he was going to jump Sosa and finish this.

“You don’t need her. You’ll have me.”

Olivia stepped out from behind him. “And me. There’s no way anyone will come after you with a cop as a hostage. Izan and I will go with you, and you’ll get that money.”

Alonzo dragged Ainsley along with him. “I don’t need a cop.”

He whipped the gun over and pointed it at Olivia, already pulling the trigger.

Fifteen