by Desiree Holt
“My guess is he knows they’re gone and wants to wait until he can do another search with them there. It’s much more intimidating.” He bit back a curse word. “Anyway, once we get you out of there, I’m going to ask my friends to see about getting them to safety.”
She was silent for a moment and he wondered if she’d just hung up.
“Thank you, Rocket,” she said at last in a soft voice. “For everything. You don’t know how much this means to me.”
“If you keep doing this, I’ll get a lot of practice,” he teased.
Her sigh hissed over the connection. “I’m sorry. I try to be better about this stuff, but…”
“But it’s in your DNA,” he finished.
“Yeah, I guess so. But I swear, if you really get me out of here…”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, sweetheart. Let’s just take care of this, first. Remember. Be up on the roof as soon as it’s full dark. Just be careful in case Barrera decides to send one of his men tonight to check things out.”
“And I have my gun,” she reminded him.
He let out a slow breath. “Okay. Good. And you’re clear on what you need to do?”
“Got it. See you tonight.” There was a tiny pause. “And thank you again.”
After the call disconnected, Rocket stood there for several moments, just reliving the conversation and calling up his memories of Mallory Kane, even if they were five years old. Tonight couldn’t come soon enough for him.
Chapter Eight
Felix Barrera took one of his specially blended cigars out of the humidor in his den, inhaled it for a moment then lit it with his sold gold lighter. He took a moment to blow perfect smoke rings while he waited for Ruben Vidal to arrive. Lately his specially ordered, hand-rolled cigars seemed to be the only thing that calmed him down.
There was still no trace of Melinda Clayton, which royally pissed him off. He’d had men following every member of the Albado family and that had led nowhere, which pissed him off even more. He was sure the bitch was in that house somewhere, but the question was, where? His men had gone through it top to bottom, but there hadn’t been a trace of her. How the hell had the Albados managed that?
His men should have done it tonight. A good way to start the weekend. Except everyone in the Albado family had been out. He didn’t want to raid an empty house. It was important to him that the people who lived there, who had committed the sin of protecting an enemy, should witness the search and be punished for it. The fact that the house was empty frustrated the fucking hell out of him.
“Still nothing?” he asked as Ruben walked into the room.
Vidal shook his head. “Not even a sniff. And let me tell you, I’ve had people looking everywhere.”
“The checkpoints are still up?”
“Si! And I just did an all-points check and they are now all in place. We’ve pretty much locked down the city as far as they’re concerned, although where the hell would they go, anyway?”
Barrera shrugged. “The marina. The airport, maybe trying to sneak onto a private plane. Depends on how stupid they are.”
“Okay, I’ll change the teams at eight in the morning. How long do you want to keep them going?”
“Until I find that stupid bitch. Whatever it takes.”
“Well.” Ruben shrugged. “There’s no way she can get to the water without us knowing it. Every single road out of town, even the narrow ones, has a checkpoint.”
“The airport is out. She can’t get on a commercial flight without my being notified and I have men watching every private plane leaving here, even checking the inside before clearing them for takeoff. I keep telling myself we’ve got her, but then why don’t I have my hands on her? How has this bitch made herself so invisible?”
Ruben frowned. “I’m still not so sure why you have such a hard-on for this female. I didn’t see anything about her that stands out.”
“It’s my instincts, Ruben. Instincts I’ve developed over all these years. There’s something about her that smells like trouble, and I’m going to find out what it is. Then I’m going to find her and peel her skin off one layer at a time. We have to find that Clayton woman.” He bit down on the cigar. “I can’t believe she got off the island without any of us knowing. We keep a tight rein on every place a boat can land at Santa Marita and control every aircraft in and out of the airport. We’re missing something here. You need to take another crack at digging around the internet.”
“I was pretty thorough the first time, but there really was nothing to find. On the surface, she looks like the most boring person in the world.”
“On the surface.” Barrera pounced on the words. “I know you hit all the usual places, but dig deeper. There’s got to be something there. My senses tell me she’s not just some nosy tourist, and my senses never let me down. I reached out to my connection on the dark web but he hasn’t gotten back to me yet.” A situation that pissed him the hell off. “I can’t just sit on my ass waiting around. Especially since I have this itchy feeling that who she really is could spell big trouble for us. What about handing it off to Marta? She’s smart and keeps her mouth shut. Can she dig into the dark web, too?”
“Yes. I will get her on it right now. She’s the best tech we’ve got. I don’t know why you go outside for someone to do this.”
“I don’t trust women,” Barrera snapped. “Just remember. If she fucks up, it’s your head, too.”
“No worries. I like my head just where it is.”
He pulled out his cell and selected a preset number. Barrera listened while he explained to the woman on the other end exactly what he wanted. Then he disconnected.
“She’ll be on it right away, jefe. If there is anything to find, she’s the one to discover it.”
“And you set up the checkpoints?”
Ruben glanced at his watch. “It’s getting late. I’d think if she was trying to sneak out of the city, she’d want to do it in the dark. We’ll keep doing all-points checks. In fact, maybe I’ll tell all the guards whoever finds and stops the woman gets a bonus.”
“Bueno. Bueno. I cannot let that bitch slip through my fingers. If she tries to leave town, I want her to be in for an unpleasant surprise.”
“Okay. We’ll make it happen. And the whole Albado family is out of the house tonight? That’s why you scheduled the raid for tomorrow?”
“Yes. They are. The parents are having dinner with friends at Casa Valentina and the daughter is spending the weekend with her boyfriend. I want them there when I do it, so if I find even the least little trace of that bitch, I can spell out for them exactly how they will be punished. To their faces.”
“All right. But, Felix, if this Clayton woman was still in the house, would they go off and leave her? With no lights on and none of the window air conditioners running? She’d fry in there.”
“I know. I know.”
Barrera blew another smoke ring. He was holding on to his self-control only with the greatest effort. He was not used to being thwarted in anything or short-stopped or in any other way prevented from getting what he wanted. If he didn’t find that bitch soon, he was going to start killing people out of frustration.
Ruben looked at his watch. “Meanwhile, Gerard Moreau and his people will be here in thirty minutes. I suggested they land at your private dock and we can move along from there.”
“Good, good. Let’s get ready to meet them. I just hope that fucking bitch doesn’t end up doing something that blows this all up.”
“What can she do? She’s one person, an insignificant female. Worst case, you can make an example of her if you find her. It will be a lesson for others, including Moreau, that you don’t fuck with us.”
“True. Yes, true.”
“And keep in mind, Moreau may want a lower price if they’re buying more product.”
“No.” Barrera flicked a collar of ash into the glass dish with a sharp movement. “No discounts. Does Sinaloa give discounts? Juarez? Tijuana? Los
Zetas?” Irritation rose. “Are we a discount operation? We give them good product at a fair market price. And we are already pricing it just a hair below the others. Tell them no deal.”
“I figured, but I had to run it by you.”
“Go ahead and check with the blockades. Then we need to get down to the dock.”
* * * *
They swam through the water in familiar silence, clad in full SCUBA gear. Elias had ferried them out to the dive spot in a smaller powerboat that Ed had told them he used for taking out his diving customers. Ed dove with them, prosthesis and all. He didn’t mind blending in with the crowd after he was there, but he didn’t want to do the whole arrival scene with his boat.
The distance from where the five former SEALs slipped into the water to the very isolated little cove where they’d surface was two miles. They’d done more than five miles in BUD/S, so this was a snap. And Ed had assured him he’d practiced a lot with the prosthesis. He’d never do anything to hold them back.
They surfaced in a tiny cove surrounded by very large boulders. Between that and the road was a long thick stand of trees that stretched at least half a mile in each direction. Rocket thought Ed was right when he said Santa Marita had a lot of hiding places that Barrera’s men never paid attention to. From what they had learned about him, he probably wasn’t smart enough to think of them as danger spots.
And that was good for them.
Now, if they could just get Mallory out of the Albados’ house and here to this little cove, they could execute the rest of the plan and get the fuck out of here with their asses still intact. Ed had gone over the process with them at least a dozen times. Rocket just hoped it worked. In a setup like Santa Marita, with a dumb, power-hungry, bloodthirsty man at the helm, anything could go wrong. Been there, done that.
Emerging from the water, they divested themselves of the SCUBA gear, leaving them dressed in jeans and T-shirts. Then they retrieved their handguns and sat phones from the waterproof bags attached to their dive suits. Rocket checked to make sure the little baggie he’d stashed in there before donning their gear was still safe. To him, it was almost as important as his gun.
They carried everything to a car that sat waiting for them in the trees. Ed dumped all the gear into two large waterproof bags and stored it in a compartment in the floor in the back. He dug the keys from beneath the front floor mat and they all climbed in. Looking like regular tourists—or as regular as they were in Santa Marita—they drove slowly through the trees to a crappy dirt road and finally to a narrow badly paved side road.
“Do I even want to know whose car this is?” Blaze asked. “I thought you were low key here?”
Ed shook his head but grinned. “Not really. It belongs to another guy who does odd jobs now and then for me. Lets me borrow it when I need to.”
Blaze chuckled. “Why do I get the feeling these odd jobs you have people doing aren’t the kind you want to discuss?”
Ed glanced over his shoulder. “Rocket, text Mallory and tell her to be ready.”
“I guarantee you she is, but I’ll do it anyway.”
“Tell her to get up on the roof,” he added. “Mateo’s home, waiting for us. I stopped by there to scope out the streets and the area and checked in with him.”
“Who else in in the house?” Rocket wanted to know.
“Just Mateo’s sister, Lucia. Not a problem there. His parents are at the home of friends. But no matter. The streets are so busy no one will pay attention to us. And Barrera’s men are either watching trouble spots or partying themselves.”
“Okay, then let’s do this.”
They rode silently after that, no one saying a word as they made their way into town and the residential area where the Albados and Mateo lived. Rocket noticed that Ed had been right. People were strolling the streets, or sitting on doorsteps with their drinks. Cars drove slowly with celebrants inside, saluting with beer bottles. Ed had made sure the Galaxy men had their props so they could blend into the environment. Now they just needed a little luck.
When they pulled up in front of Mateo’s house, he was waiting for them on the stoop, his party face on. Ed had told them it would look better if they all went in, since little groups of people were going in and out of other houses up and down the street. They all greeted Mateo as if he were a long-lost friend and followed him into his house. But once they were inside, it was all business.
“This way,” Mateo told them, led them up to the roof and pointed. “That’s the Albado house, right there. Across from us.”
Rocket guesstimated the distance then turned to Mateo.
“Ed says you have the grappling hooks?”
The man nodded. “I got them from him earlier today as a grocery delivery.” He walked to the edge of the roof and grabbed a large plastic sack sitting there. “Ready when you are.”
While Ed and Blaze unpacked the grappling hook and the machinery to shoot it across the alley, Rocket texted Mallory.
We’re here and ready to rock and roll.
The answer came back at once.
Me, too. Take a look.
He looked across the alley and up and saw her kneeling at the lip on the edge of the roof. She raised a hand to him. He raised his back.
You can do this.
Yes. I can. In fact, I did it once before.
What????? Mallory?
But she wasn’t answering him. Damn woman, he thought, even as he forced back his fear for her.
“Okay.” He nodded at the others. “Let’s do it.”
Blaze took the grappling hook pistol from the bag and locked all the pieces into place. While he did that, Viper took the trailing ends of the rope ladder and he and Eagle each wrapped one around their waist. Then they sat down, making the ladder taut and reducing the chances it would swing free with Mallory on it. Blaze shot the hooks across the alley and they landed perfectly on the raised edge of the Albado roof.
Mallory tested to make sure the hooks were set then climbed over the lip and onto the rope ladder. He had to admit, even as he watched with his heart in his mouth, that she seemed to know what she was doing. Still, he didn’t draw a full breath until she made it to the bottom of the ladder and Ed and Mateo helped her onto Mateo’s roof. Ignoring everyone else around them, he pulled her against his body and wrapped his arms around her as tightly as he could. He was dying to kiss her, but he didn’t want to do it with an audience.
“I’ve got you,” he whispered.
“Thank you,” she whispered back.
“You’re amazing.”
“So are you.”
“Did you bring your gun?”
“Gun?” Ed whipped around and stared at them. “What gun?”
Mallory pulled it out from beneath her T-shirt. “This one. Inez gave it to me. Bullets are in my pockets.”
“I hope to Christ you know how to use it. Let’s get going. We’re not out of the woods yet. Mateo just got a call from his commander that Barrera is setting up checkpoints around the city. The guy told him to boot out any company and get his ass to work.”
“What do these checkpoints consist of?” Blaze wanted to know. “Do they have barricades up, stopping every vehicle?”
“I’ve only seen them do this a couple of times. They usually park a cop car—or a private one if they use up their fleet—and have a couple of patrol guys standing there. Vehicles have to slow down to pass them and give the police a chance to get a good look at them. They’ll only stop someone who looks suspicious. Mallory had to show her phony ID to one of the idiots who approached, so my guess is it’s available on the internet, they pulled it down and everyone has her picture.”
“Shit.” Rocket scowled. “That sucks.”
“We may get lucky and find a way out they haven’t set up yet.”
“Then let’s move,” Blaze agreed.
Ed and Blaze yanked on the rope ends of the ladder, freeing them from the grappling hooks, and rolling up the ladder. Inez would have to get up there and
dispose of the hooks. They left the house as a noisy group of partiers, waving goodbye to Mateo, holding beer bottles, scrunching Mallory in the middle of their group, and laughing as they climbed into Ed’s vehicle. They stuffed her into the middle seat, Rocket and Blaze each putting an arm around her and Rocket leaning forward to kiss her. He wasn’t about to let anyone else do it, and for a moment the taste of her, after all this time, almost made him forget what this was all about.
“You can save that for later,” Blaze told him. “We need to get the fuck away from here and back to the cove. You said Elias would be meeting us with a Zodiac.”
“He is. We didn’t bring you in on one because we didn’t want to give any warning of your arrival. Leaving’s different. We’ll be gone and away before anyone can do anything.”
“You’re right about moving out of here,” Rocket agreed. Then he whispered in Mallory’s ear, “We’ll have plenty of time when we’re out of here.”
She didn’t say anything, but she pressed closer to him.
They did okay for a few blocks, heading away from the residential area they were in. But then they ran into a roadblock on a street which they backed away from.
“Checkpoint,” Ed murmured.
“Uh-uh,” Eagle agreed. “Let me see if there’s another way to get to our launching point.”
But after they’d run into two more checkpoints and backed away from them, Ed drove them away from the area and out toward what he told them was La Jungla—the jungle.
“Very thick and overgrown. It’s on the edge of town, past the fields where Barrera grows his dope, and no one ever goes there. The entrance isn’t even visible—there won’t be a checkpoint, though, and no one can find you in there. Barrera’s men are not going to want to try hacking through miles of it to find you. If he thinks you’re in there, it’s more likely he’ll decide you’ll die there and save him the trouble.”
“And we’re supposed to—what—sleep in the bushes?” Rocket asked.
