Over his shoulder, she could see their whiskey sours sitting on the table. Beyond was the entrance to the cabana. “What if someone sees us?”
Vottari smiled and bent down to kiss her. His overpowering cologne made her want to throw up. She turned her face to the side, frustrating him.
“Close the flaps,” she said softly.
“The what?”
“The door. Close the door. I don’t want anyone to see.”
Figuring he was in for a very good time, Vottari’s smiled widened. Lifting himself off her, he went to close the cabana’s flaps.
The moment he turned his back, Lovett sat up and shot her hand into her bra.
Damn it, she worried. Where are they?
She had placed the tablets in her bra, where she thought she could easily get to them. But with having had his hands, and even his face, all over her, they must have shifted.
Come on. Come on. Come on. She was starting to freak out. Where the hell were they?
Just then, she felt the first tablet, and then the second. Her fingers closed around them like a vise and she slid them from her bra.
Looking up, she could see only Vottari’s silhouette outside. He had already unfurled one flap and was working on the other.
Snapping the first tablet so that it would dissolve faster, she dropped it into his drink.
She was in the process of snapping the second when it popped out from between her fingers and landed on the table.
Without a moment to lose, she picked up her glass with the cocktail napkin underneath, set it atop the pill and pressed down, crushing it.
Then, setting her glass aside, she grabbed Vottari’s. Sweeping the pieces into his glass, she gave it a swirl to mix everything up, and then she set it down.
Reclaiming her own glass, she leaned back against the loveseat and that’s when she saw him.
He was standing in the entrance, glaring at her, his mind moving from passion to rage.
Finally, he spoke. “What the fuck did you just do?”
CHAPTER 78
Vottari advanced into the cabana. “What did you just put in my drink?”
Lovett’s immediate instinct was to convince him that he had not seen what he had just seen. “What are you talking about? I didn’t put anything in your drink.”
“You lying bitch.”
“You know what?” she said, starting to stand up. “We’re done here.”
“No we’re not,” the man replied, removing something from his pocket. “We’re just starting.”
As soon as she heard the distinctive click of a blade locking into place, she knew he had pulled a knife. In a flash, all of her training came flooding back.
Kicking the table over, she sent the candles and glass hurricane lamps hurtling at him.
It wasn’t much, but it gave her enough time to get on her feet.
Snatching a cushion off the loveseat, she used it to blunt his attack. He came in fast, though, driving her backward.
She was so focused on the knife that she didn’t see the chair, and went tumbling over it.
The moment she hit the ground, he was on top of her, the blade pressed tightly against her throat. She didn’t dare move.
Putting his lips against her ear, he whispered, “Like I said, we’re only getting started.”
She could feel his other hand under her skirt. He was rough and pushed it up the inside of her thigh. When he got to her panties, he stopped. Then, with a snap, he ripped them off.
His hand was suddenly out from under her skirt and was unzipping his fly. She tensed. He was going to rape her.
Sensing she was about to do something stupid, he applied even more pressure to the knife.
Lovett felt the edge of the blade biting into her skin. When his free hand came up to his mouth and she saw him wet it with saliva, she knew she had to do something — even if that something was just to scream — in the hopes that someone would hear her.
She opened her mouth to yell, but as soon as she did, he punched her in the side of her face.
She saw stars. She had to fight with everything she had not to black out. She knew if she didn’t, it would be all over.
He had remoistened his hand and was trying to force it between her legs. Summoning all of her strength, she fought to deny him.
Angered, he withdrew his hand and pulled it back to punch her again. That was when it happened.
Like a pair of pythons, two strong arms snaked around Vottari’s throat and behind his neck.
Squeezing his shoulders back, her savior cut off the blood supply to the man’s brain and within seconds, he passed out.
“Are you okay?” Harvath asked as he dropped Vottari to the ground and kicked his knife out of the way.
Lovett couldn’t speak, she could only nod.
“Toss me your underwear,” he said as he fished a set of flex-cuffs out of his pocket. “It’s right there to your left.”
It was a strange request, but she did as he asked.
Someone who has been choked out doesn’t stay out for long. It was only a matter of seconds.
Securing Vottari’s wrists behind his back, Harvath shoved Lovett’s underwear in his mouth and covered it with a piece of duct tape he had wrapped around the flashlight in his other pocket.
He then gestured toward the overturned furniture. “Unzip one of those throw pillows, pull out the stuffing, and bring me the cover.”
As she did that, Harvath removed his cell phone and sent another group text.
When she brought him the cover, he dialed a number and handed her his phone. “Tell Naldo where we are and that he needs to come get us right now.”
Lovett took the phone and relayed the instruction in Italian as Harvath put the cover over Vottari’s head as a makeshift hood.
Ninety seconds later, with all of his lights out, Naldo pulled up on the beach outside.
“Move, asshole,” Harvath ordered, yanking the hooded Vottari to his feet.
When the man tried to break free of his grasp and run, Harvath hit him in the kidney so hard, he was sure to be pissing blood for a week.
Dragging him to the back of the SUV, Naldo helped toss him into the cargo area. Harvath leapt in behind him, forced him to lie down, and then kept him pinned to the floor.
As soon as Naldo and Lovett were in, he said, “Okay, let’s go.”
The ROS operative put the vehicle in gear, stepped on the gas, and raced down the beach.
Pulling his phone back out, Harvath sent his final group text.
Within seconds of its being received, Harvath’s team began slipping out of the club.
Argento and his men stayed only long enough to make sure their American counterparts had gotten out without incident. Once that was confirmed, they too made their exit.
By the time any of La Formícula’s bodyguards were concerned enough to go looking for him, the teams that had snatched him were long gone.
CHAPTER 79
Andrew Jordan pulled the MacBook Air out of his briefcase and pushed it across Paul Page’s dining room table.
“Ever heard of a thumb drive?” Page asked, accepting it.
“That’s what I said, but Susan Viscovich is spooked.”
“You used Viscovich to hack Carlton and Ryan?”
Jordan nodded. “She’s the best and I know you didn’t want to waste any time.”
“What did it cost us?”
“Don’t ask.”
Part of Page really didn’t want to know. A job like this must have been exorbitantly expensive. “Why the laptop, though?”
“She said it was for our safety,” Jordan replied. “She had to put out a contract for the hack. They scanned the files up and down for malware and didn’t find anything, but she’s paid to be suspicious. She wanted to make sure we were able to review all of the material on a computer stripped of any ability to connect with the Internet.”