by Julie Miller
AJ and Detective Taylor listened while Nash gave them a sit rep on Tommy Delvecchio, the Gracielas and the price on his head.
“Puente will have the DEA there. But he’s more interested in rounding up Graciela’s men and getting me out of there.” Nash looked big brother straight in the eye, sending a message between men, not cops. “You and I have the same goal.”
AJ nodded. “To save Teresa.”
“I have a plan. Will you help?”
“Josh, you working tonight?”
The blond cop grinned. “I’m always on the job when you are, buddy. I’ve got time for a little backup.”
Nash nodded his appreciation. Neither man had to like him or trust him, but he was counting on them to care about Teresa. “I promised her she’d be home safe to her family by Christmas. That’s one promise I intend to keep. I’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen.”
Josh excused himself from the room and got on the phone to call for some of the support they’d need. Talking cop to cop now, Nash pulled his black book from his pocket and tossed it onto the table.
AJ picked it up and thumbed through the pages of notes while Nash explained. “I want you to give that to my boss, Jesse Puente. His number’s in the front. It spells out who the mole is in our office. If I can’t take Tommy Delvecchio out when I go to that warehouse, I need you to give that to him.”
“All right.” AJ stuffed the book into the back pocket of his jeans. “Let’s do it.”
Nash pulled out his phone and punched in the number that had been repeated so often on Angel Sanchez’s phone. The same number had been found in Santiago Vargas’s phone, as well. He placed it on speaker mode and set the phone on the table.
As expected, Tommy Delvecchio picked up. “Nash. Problem with the cops? For a while there, I didn’t think they were going to let you make your phone call to me. Your little girlfriend has been a bit of a handful.”
That sounded like his girl. Give ’em trouble, darlin’. “Put her on. I need to know she’s okay.”
“Of course.” There was a scuffle of movement, and then a soft, familiar voice.
“Charlie?”
“I’m coming to get you, Peewee.”
Instead of crying or begging for help or even saying I love you again, she shouted into the phone as it was being taken away. “I counted eight men, including your friend. Two outside and—”
Bless her brave heart.
Nash couldn’t be prouder. Or more afraid. He was going to kill Tommy if one hair on her beautiful head had been hurt.
Tommy was back on the phone. “Señor Graciela is anxious to see you. While he’s pleased you took care of Señor Vargas for him, you’re still a blot on the family pride.” He gave Nash the address of a warehouse and AJ nodded, indicating he knew its location. “Shall I assume you’re on your way?”
“Yeah. I’m ready to make the trade.”
Nash disconnected the call and put away the phone.
But AJ stopped him before he could reach the door. “Are you in love with my sister?”
“Yes.”
He thought AJ would need some time to process that admission. Nash was damn sure he wasn’t the man AJ would choose for his baby sister. He even thought, as the overprotective big brother, he might want to take a swing at Nash. AJ would make a hell of a poker player because right now he wasn’t giving away a thing.
The detective simply nodded at Nash and opened the door. “Let’s go get her.”
* * *
“WELCOME, NASH.” TOMMY DELVECCHIO was grinning like the Cheshire cat as he locked a pair of handcuffs around Nash’s wrists. Nash clenched his fists together in front of him, testing the strength of the steel restraints while Julian Sanchez patted him down and took both his Smith & Wesson and the gun strapped to his ankle and set them on the rusted tire rack beside the door.
Nash could see his breath in the cold air of the run-down warehouse near the Missouri River that looked a lot like that chop shop where he’d been wounded. Tommy must have scouted out both locations when he’d set up that ambush and faked his death. Tommy might have been a lying scumbag cheat, but in a lot of ways, he was predictable.
Maybe Nash could use that predictability to his advantage. “Nice digs, Tommy. So this is what your dealings with the Gracielas have bought you?”
“Actually, it’s bought me a nice place down on Isla Tenebrosa. No extradition to the U.S. from there. And now that I’m officially dead, I’m going to start a new life and enjoy the payoff.” Tommy shrugged. “This is just a business meeting, fulfilling the last of my obligation to Señor Graciela.”
“No wires, but he’s wearing a vest,” Julian reported. “Do you want me to take it off him?”
Tommy picked up the two guns, sliding one into each coat pocket. “No. Let him enjoy the illusion of having a chance at surviving. A bullet to the head will kill him as surely as one to the heart.”
“Where is she?” Nash wanted eyes on Teresa, to see for himself that she hadn’t been harmed and to try to somehow communicate his crazy idea for a plan where they could both get out of here alive.
“Now, now. You’ve forced me to be very patient. You can do the same. There’s a certain procedure that needs to be followed.” Tommy nodded to Julian to shove Nash into step ahead of him before following them into the warehouse’s main storage area.
It was a cavernous room with a second-story loft running along the east and west walls. He saw two more armed guards up there, one on each side, watching out the windows. There wasn’t much cover in the abandoned space, just a few stacks of pallets and empty crates and one rust bucket of a forklift off to one side.
But the old desk in the middle of the concrete floor was the most important spot in the room.
“Nash?” Teresa stood up from the chair beside the desk.
“Sit down.” Berto Graciela sat in the chair behind the desk. As soon as he pointed to the man Nash assumed was his bodyguard du jour, the hired gun pushed Teresa back in her seat.
She instantly shrugged her shoulder away from the goon’s big hand. Her wrists were tied in front of her, the hood of her turquoise coat billowed around her shoulders, and several strands of hair had worked loose from her ponytail and fell around her face. Nash met her gaze with the shadow of a grin. Good. He wasn’t surprised to see she’d put up a bit of a fight, but he was glad it hadn’t been enough to get herself hurt.
“We need to stop meeting like this, Peewee.” Nash raised his fists in front of him and jerked at the handcuffs. Her dark eyes widened, sensing he was trying to communicate a message. That’s it, darlin’. Figure it out. Play along with me. I’ll keep you safe.
“Here, Nash.” Tommy walked past him to the desk, setting the two guns and the keys to the handcuffs on the corner of the desk. Teresa’s gaze drifted over to the bounty Tommy had taken from him.
But Nash’s gaze had settled on a more imminent threat. Tommy drew back his coat and pulled a knife from his belt. “Tommy!”
Nash lurched forward. Julian Sanchez caught him by his bum arm and jerked him back into place. The pain that blossomed in his shoulder was nothing compared to the fear of seeing Tommy open that knife and lean over Teresa. But Tommy lifted Teresa’s hands from the desktop and sliced through the rope that bound her. He straightened and tossed the bindings at Nash’s feet. “A gesture of trust.”
“You think I’m ever going to trust you again?”
Tommy took Teresa by the arm and pulled her up beside him. “This is the deal we made. Her life for yours.”
“Nash, no,” Teresa wailed. She dropped her face into her hands. Was she coughing? Or crying?
Wait. Teresa Rodriguez crying? What was going on here? The woman Nash knew was more likely to elbow Tommy in the gut than break down in tears.
But whatever game
she was playing, Nash was the only one who seemed to realize her behavior was off. Was this some kind of reply to his silent message about her brother and a boatload of reinforcements from KCPD and the DEA taking out the two guards outside and lying in wait for his signal to storm the building and rescue her?
“This is all very touching.” Tommy jerked Teresa’s hands away from her face and pulled her to one side. “I’m glad you made a friend here in Kansas City. But Señor Graciela would like to say a few words to you before we complete the transaction.”
Berto Graciela rose from his chair behind the desk. The scalp beneath his thinning gray hair was pink from the cold. But there was nothing vulnerable about his dark eyes and grim expression. He straightened the scarf at his neck and strolled around the table to face Nash. “You made me lose face in my own organization. You and your men were undermining me at every turn.”
Nash glared down at the shorter man. “Just doing our job.”
Graciela nodded at Julian Sanchez, and the enforcer delivered a kick to the back of Nash’s legs, driving him down to his knees. He grunted as the concrete jarred through his body. Teresa’s soft gasp of concern was real this time. Nash lifted his gaze to hers and warned her to stay put. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t survived worse punishment.
Now that Berto held the superior position, he held out his hand toward his bodyguard. The man pulled a gun from his belt and placed it in his boss’s hand. Berto slipped a bullet into the firing chamber and pointed the gun at Nash’s head. “I had to put a stop to it.”
Nash refused to flinch. AJ was waiting for his signal, but he needed to know the truth first. For Torres and Richter. For Teresa. For her sister Emilia and all the lives Tommy’s treachery had endangered. “So you recruited Tommy Delvecchio. He told you who our agents were so you could kill them. Then he staged his own death so the DEA would never know he was the traitor.”
Berto nodded. “I lost millions of dollars because of you. The people who worked for me lost faith in my leadership. I want to end your miserable life right now, but your death will serve me better if I take you home and kill you in front of my men. Then everyone will know that I am the rightful chief of the Graciela organization.”
Nash looked away from the barrel of Berto’s gun and glared at Tommy. “We were your family.”
Tommy shrugged. “Yes, well, Señor Graciela paid me an obscene amount of money to become a part of his.”
“Captain Puente had no idea you were a traitor.”
“No one did.” Tommy seemed to enjoy confessing his sins almost as much as Nash needed to hear them. “But I couldn’t finish the job I was hired to do, because you wouldn’t die.”
Nash spared a loving glance for Teresa before lifting his gaze to Berto Graciela. “All right. Let’s do this. I know you’re a man of your word, even if Agent Delvecchio isn’t. You put a hit out on me, not her. Let her go and I’ll come with you without a fight.”
Berto nodded to his bodyguard, and the man went to get Teresa. But Tommy, the weaselly scumbag, wouldn’t let go. “She’s just the bait. You can’t really let her go. She’s seen our faces and knows our names. Her brother’s a cop.”
The older man turned, clearly disgusted with having his word challenged. “If she is a problem for you, Mr. Delvecchio, you take care of it. She is of no concern to me.”
“Fine. We’ll let her go.” He checked his watch. “Your plane is ready at the airport. We need to get going anyway.”
Interesting. So Tommy was willing to be responsible for several good men’s deaths as long as he didn’t have to pull the trigger himself. Nash could work that kind of cowardice into his plan.
Tommy shoved Teresa into the bodyguard’s chest, and the man started dragging her toward the front exit. But Teresa had never been one to simply go quietly along. “Wait. I want to say goodbye to him first.”
The bodyguard looked to Berto. Berto nodded. He lowered his gun as the bodyguard released Teresa and she ran to him. “Somehow it makes me feel better to know that someone will mourn your passing, Señor Nash. Just remember, you are the cause of her suffering.”
Nash swore he heard Teresa mutter, “Oh, shut up.” She helped him to his feet and tucked herself inside the loop of his bound arms. Her hands reached up to cup either side of his jaw and angle his face down to hers. “I love you, Charlie Nash. If you get out of this alive, you come back to me. You owe me.”
He looked down at her with all the love he possessed. “I know, darlin’. I’m good for it. I promise. You are the bravest woman I know.”
He met her halfway when she pulled his face down to hers to share one last beautiful kiss. She thrust her tongue into his mouth. And something more. That sneaky little witch. It wasn’t necessary, but she’d just made his job a lot easier.
Nash’s teeth clamped down on the hard metal of the key she’d swiped from the corner of the desk.
He pushed the key into the pocket of his cheek and pulled away. “I love you, Teresa.”
Then the bodyguard was pulling her away. Tommy followed them toward the door. Berto nodded to Julian to stand back. As soon as Sanchez released him, Berto lowered the gun and pulled the trigger.
“Nash!” Teresa cried, breaking away from her captor.
The bullet ripped straight through Nash’s thigh, collapsing him to the floor. “Now I feel better, and he will be less trouble to us.” He handed the gun off to Julian Sanchez. “Bring him.”
But that first gunshot was the signal AJ had been waiting for.
A battering ram broke open the front door. “KCPD!” A window shattered overhead. “Drop your weapons! On the ground! Now!”
“Nash!” The moment Teresa reached him, Nash threw his arms around her, dragging her beneath him, shielding her with his vest and body as a dozen of her brother’s closest friends stormed the building.
Julian Sanchez and the bodyguard returned fire and were instantly put down. Berto raised his hands over his head and dropped to his knees. Tommy dove behind the desk as several more shots were fired.
“Clear!” The two guards up top had been subdued.
Uniformed officers and detectives swarmed in. Captain Puente and Cruz Moreno went straight to Berto Graciela and put him in handcuffs. While Cruz read Graciela his rights and escorted him out the door, the captain hurried over to Nash and helped him sit up. “You’re a hard man to find.” He winked at the petite woman clutched to Nash’s side. “Good to see you again, Ms. Rodriguez. I trust we can be straightforward with each other now?”
She was scrambling to free herself, but Nash wouldn’t allow it. “Yes, sir. Sorry I couldn’t tell you everything.”
“You were protecting your partner. Protecting the mission.”
Nash turned and pressed a kiss to Teresa’s temple, thanking her, beaming with pride at Captain Puente’s praise.
The captain glanced down at the blood staining Nash’s jeans. “How many pieces is this guy in?”
Teresa shook her head. “Too many.”
Josh Taylor, the big cop Nash had met only that morning, stood up from behind the desk. “I think this is one of yours, Nash.”
Teresa and Captain Puente helped Nash to his feet at the sound of Tommy’s wailing. With their help, he limped over to Detective Taylor to find Tommy handcuffed and rolling on the floor, holding his side, bleeding. His frightened expression made him look a lot like the kid Nash had felt so much grief and guilt over only twenty-four hours earlier. “I’m shot,” Tommy whined. “I’m shot.”
Josh shrugged his big shoulders. “As far as I can tell, it’s just a graze across his rib cage.”
Holding Teresa beneath his arm, her strength supporting his, Nash shook his head. He had no pity for the traitor he’d finally exposed. He simply looked down on the man who’d sold out Nash and his team and grinned. “I knew you weren’t ready to be a fie
ld agent. You’re not even smart enough to wear your vest.”
Puente wasn’t in a joking mood as he hauled Tommy to his feet. “You and I are going to do some major debriefing, Mr. Delvecchio. I don’t envy your situation. There’s not a cop in Texas who’s going to be on your side. And I doubt the cartel is going to be thrilled that you didn’t finish the job they paid you to do.”
“Captain.” Tommy was pleading with him as he and Detective Taylor carted him away. “You’ve got to give me some kind of protection. I can give you intel on the Gracielas. I’ve got names on at least...”
Just when Nash thought it might all finally be over, AJ Rodriguez sauntered up on noiseless footsteps, holstering one of his guns beneath his left arm. When he reached for Teresa, Nash didn’t try to hold on to her.
“Good work, little one.” AJ wrapped her up in a tight hug and kissed her cheek. Big brother was almost smiling when he pulled away. “Look at my baby sister bringin’ down a drug lord. You said eight men. We’ve got them all accounted for, all in custody. Ambulances are on the way.”
Nash leaned his hip on the edge of the desk, taking the pressure off his throbbing leg. “You boys know how to put on a good show here in K.C. I appreciate the backup.”
“I did it for my sister, cowboy. Not you. But I’m grateful you made sure she didn’t get hurt.” With a grudging respect and a whole lot of gratitude that was completely mutual, AJ reached out to shake Nash’s hand. Then he lowered his gaze to the blood oozing down the side of Nash’s jeans. “Is your boyfriend okay?”
“My boy—?” Teresa beamed a big smile. She threw her arms around her brother. “Thank you, AJ. I love you.”
“I hope you know what you’re in for, Nash,” AJ warned, smiling at Teresa as Josh Taylor called him away.
Looked as though he might pass muster with Teresa’s family after all.
He reached for Teresa as soon as they were alone. But she knelt down in front of him instead, ripping open the bullet hole in his pant leg to inspect his wound. “Looks like a through-and-through. It’s not bleeding enough to indicate the bullet nicked an artery. But you still need—”
