Page 101 of Everything We Found

James looked up too just as the high-pitched whine of the engine and rhythmicwhomp-whompof the propeller blades reached them. The wind gusted, sending the plane sideways before a quick correction on its rapid descent to the runway.

Thomas’s muscles tightened as his heart thumped like a fist pounding on a door. The engine throttled for landing, the propeller noise suddenly increasing, and the plane touched down. He felt the vibration through the ground as gravel crunched under the landing gear. Gradually, the engines spooled down and the plane came to a stop some fifty yards from them.

“What now?” Tension rippled through James’s frame.

“We’ll know when we see him.”

A door swung outward and upward, steps automatically unfolding.

“Let me do the talking,” Thomas insisted.

James shot him a look. “Like hell.”

Some seconds later, a man came into view. He descended the stairs, followed by a second man. Both wore jeans and dark T-shirts, the material rippling in the wind like seismic waves across their chests and rounded guts. They were soft in the middle, all their muscle compacted into thick arms. These men were also younger than the man who lived in Thomas’s nightmares.

Thomas glanced at James. “Where’s Mom?”

James shook his head.

Thomas waited for her to appear. He couldn’t tell who else was on the plane aside from the pilot still sitting in the cockpit.

This didn’t bode well.

The men approached, their features becoming more distinct, and a sickening level of stress inundated Thomas’s system. Nausea rose on a sharp wave.

“That isn’t Fernando Ruiz,” James said.

It wasn’t. These two men were much worse.

34

THOMAS

Cesar “El Segador” Ruiz and Salvador “El Eliminador” Ruiz.

The two sons of one of the most violent cartel leaders ever documented.

They murdered police in broad daylight. Civilians disappeared without a trace. Fentanyl deaths skyrocketed the last eight years under their leadership.

Corkscrews, electrocution, flayings, and live feedings to tigers.

Just a few of the extreme torture methods they employed against their rivals and anyone who interfered with their territory when they’d taken over the cartel’s operations, their tactics far exceeding Fernando’s reputation as The Butcher.

“This isn’t right,” James muttered under his breath.

Of course it wasn’t right. Nothing about the trajectory of their lives had been right since Phil invited the Hidalgos into Donato Enterprises’ operations.

Was it possible they never intended to bring Claire? Could she already be dead?

Or…

Did they really have her? Could the photos have been doctored or AI-generated?

Thomas realized he’d asked out loud when James said, “They have her. Intelligence says she’s with Ruiz.”

Was he inside the plane? Coward sent his sons out first.

He also could be arriving separately. Another plane might arrive, or a car. Claire had to be coming with him.