091:

"Are you sure?" Tracy asked in Spanish as she spoke to the Brazilian authorities.

The answer was positive. Melissa and Melinda Villarino were twin daughters of Carlos Villarino and had both been killed in an automobile accident exactly twenty-two years ago. One of them had borne a son before her death and the young man was living with his grandfather, Carlos Villarino, in Cartagena.

Tracy clicked off her phone and sat there staring at the wall in Louise's bedroom where she'd come for privacy. Staring in disgusted horror---

Was it possible? All this?? All this!!!!!!

"If...." She said to herself. "If this son was raised by his grandfather... he would be his grandfather's only heir."

That makes him pret-ty special.....

"And what if this grandson, this beloved only link to beloved twin daughters, was threatened.... Say, by disease..... either genetic or otherwise....." She pondered, rubbing her head with her fingers turned to claws by her sudden inspiration.

"Then that made Raine Maverick's only other surviving offspring..... genetically.... Possible donors."

Perhaps the only ones on the planet.....

Jewels..... why say jewels? The value entrusted to the abductors would be unknown and therefore carried safely....

Jewels... a code word for Megan and Melia.... created by contact with the family jewels...?

A long shot, but now irrelevant. She had to know if this son-- the heir-- had any genetic abnormalities.

Her thoughts swirled over the countless clues they'd had--- too many strange clues--- porn pictures??? Why? Why? Kell's detainment on the plane--- Kell's face in the pics--- What had Kell to do with any of this?

What if she were wrong? On a wild goose chase?

What were the odds?

Hadn't she thought about genetic disorders over the years? Of course she had, studied them profusely. Why not? She had a genetic disorder and had passed it on to almost all of her children in some form, mostly to the female children.

Melia... Melia... why are you so willful? Why leave by yourself? Why put your beautiful daughters in danger? It wasn't for money that they wanted you Melia.... It was for something even more valuable.

Your life, your organs.

That cold wash of brutal disgust nearly had her staggering.

Melia---

Impulsive, she had been impulsive. Like her mother. That's a genetic disposition, isn't it?

And let's see where it got me!

Megs, Cassie, Maille!!!! Running off to rescue their wayward foolish sister. Loyal, silly, genetically predisposed---- she couldn't think of anything else to add--- girls, girls!!!

Why in the hell would Carlos Villarino do this? Why would he have used porn pics? Why would he have killed Jerry Antonucci? Why Kell? None of it--- none of it made sense---

Unless cosmic reality had brought unrelated--- extremely unrelated incidents-- together---

And wasn't that just real life?

You couldn't write a book as weird as the coincidences that took place in real life.

Tracy slipped to her knees, her eyes filling with moisture. And she pleaded with God to preserve their lives.

*****