“How do you know we will find anything there?” Xander asked.
“Well, in the last twelve hours, CIA Director Hartsfield has legitimized our little top secret team. They’re calling us Reign. I suppose because of your last name, Xander. A king is royalty, guess it has something to do with that. I didn’t find it very creative of them, but whatever.”
“Ooh, I like it!” Kyle and Zhanna said in unison.
They all looked at Xander. He shrugged.
“I like it. Reign. Sounds strong. They could have done much worse.”
Everyone agreed.
Xander got them back on topic.
“Okay, so we are legitimized. How does that help?”
“Now that we are recognized amongst the upper echelon of the CIA, we now have our clearance. Highest level, as promised by Director Hartsfield.”
“Wow, that’s a big deal, X,” Kyle said.
Xander rolled one hand over the other, gesturing for Sam to move on.
Sam wiped away the sweat from her brow and continued.
“Now that we have that clearance, we now know of José Ramirez.”
“José Ramirez?” Xander asked.
“He has been undercover in Romero’s security for two years now.”
“Now we are talking,” Zhanna said.
“That’s right. Director Hartsfield is going to get him an information drop some time this afternoon. He should be able to provide us with help getting in and, even more so, what to look for when we get there.”
“Perfect,” Xander said. “This is coming together. You’re not so bad at this, Sam.”
“Right, because the last four years of us doing this on our own hasn’t shown that.”
Xander smiled at her.
“What?” she said.
Then he smiled at Zhanna and Kyle.
“What?” they said together.
“Last one to the boat carries the heavy bag of weapons onto the plane,” Xander said quickly as he sprinted out in front of them.
He looked back over his shoulder and saw the three of them look at each other, right before they broke out into a sprint after him. As he sprinted toward his boat at the end of the marina, he was excited. For the first time in a long time he was going to be able to get back to doing good in the world, and there was no other motive that came along with it. No search for answers to questions like who killed his parents. No search for a missing loved one to add stress to the already stress-laden situation. And best of all, no burning desire for revenge to cloud his judgment.
He was going to be able to go in and have some fun doing what he did best.
What he did better than any other human on the face of the planet.
Catch the bad guy and make him pay.
9
Romero’s Rules
Javier Romero sat alone in the middle of the small grandstand he’d had built for the track he’d bought from the government of Sinaloa a few years back. The track had been in shambles, and the horse racing culture had been as well. As he looked out over his dirt track, the palm trees swaying in the background, it reminded him of Santa Anita, a famous track in Arcadia, California, just as he’d meant for it to when he had it designed.
He tugged on the tip of his white fedora, shading his eyes from the afternoon sun. He sipped on some Kentucky bourbon as he watched his best horse practice just beyond the rail. Even though he was more a fan of scotch whiskey, he had always enjoyed bourbon as well. But this bourbon in particular, King’s Ransom bourbon, was new to him. He had his people ship in a few bottles of it because he wanted to have it around when the owner of the company, Xander King, made it into town. He didn’t know Xander at all, but he already liked him. He had watched him on Derby day this past May. Romero liked the way the man handled his wealth and success. Liked the way he’d been humble when he answered the media’s questions, and he liked the fact that he enjoyed a good cigar, a good drink, and a beautiful woman. Romero knew there would be no shortage of things they had in common. He even liked the fact that Xander had been a military man. Showed that he had great discipline and could handle himself when things didn’t always go as planned.
What he liked most about Xander was the fact that he was up for the challenge of bringing his big time Thoroughbred all the way from Kentucky, just for some competition. Romero loved to compete. That’s why he stayed in such good shape for a sixty-year-old man. That’s why he loved horse racing. And that is why tomorrow was going to be so enjoyable. Xander was going to be flying in on his private plane, and they were going to have a good time wagering on their best ponies and enjoying some of the finer things in life.
“Señor Romero?” a man said from the end of the aisle, getting his attention.
Romero stood up, shaking his head as he tossed back the last of the bourbon.
“What did I tell you? English. I want all of us to be speaking in English until Mr. King leaves.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Romero.”
“Was that so hard?”
Romero knew that it was over-the-top to have everyone speaking English, but he wanted his guest to feel as comfortable as possible. He always treated guests this way, but a guest who could potentially help him break into the United States horse racing scene was going to get an even more special red carpet rolled out.
Ricardo Sanchez, the tall and thick man who had been Romero’s right hand for years, shook his head.
“No boss, not hard at all.”
“Good, now what is it?”
“Thoroughbred horse aircraft has arrived.”
“Xander?”
“No, he will be here this evening. A Gary Trudough flew in with the horse along with a few other handlers.”
“Ah yes. Xander’s assistant mentioned that this Gary would be the one flying in with the horse. Make him feel welcome, and let him know that I will be here to greet him when he comes with the horse.”
“Of course.”
Romero shifted his attention back to the track.
“How are the preparations going for our little dinner party tonight?”
“The chef is prepping, the decorators are bringing in the flowers and all of the other things you requested. They will be ready.”
“Perfect. And security?”
“We will be ready as usual.”
Romero turned back to Ricardo.
“No, you will not be ready as usual. You will be more ready than ever before. You are the one who said the Sinaloa Cartel got wind of our new back channel into San Diego. They will be coming for us. But it will not affect our guest. Am I clear? If he hears what we do, and that what we do is making it into his country, it could ruin my attempt to bring my racehorses to America. Need I say more?”
“No, boss. We will be prepared for the worst. But we have no reason to believe they will bring the fight to us. There has been no word that will be the case.”
“Let’s keep it that way.”
Romero nodded Ricardo away, reached down for the bottle of King’s Ransom bourbon, and poured another glass. The taste was sweet on his lips. He pulled the glass away and studied the brown liquor as it reflected a ray of sunlight. He hated to admit it, but that sweet burn was beginning to grow on him. Just beyond his glass, his racehorse thundered down the straight stretch. He didn’t like the timing of having trouble with the Sinaloa Cartel. This time with Xander was a big deal to him. He had been growing weary of the outlaw lifestyle over the past few years. Horse racing seemed a wonderful transition out of it. But he needed the “in” with US racing’s golden boy. Therefore, he needed the next two days to go perfectly. A war with the Western Hemisphere’s largest cartel was certainly one way to ruin it.
10
The Devil’s in the Details
Seagulls cooed as they hovered over the boardwalk just outside the patio of Lahaina Beach House Bar, and at the foot of the sand in Pacific Beach. California was showing off, the sun was shining in its 75 degree way, and the waves were crashing in the distance. The crow
d had swelled on the small patio, as it always did at the beachside bar.
“Be honest,” Tommy said to his sister, Lisa, and his friend Greg. “Don’t you think David is getting us in over our heads with this one?”
Lisa finished a long swig of her Kona Big Wave beer and shook her head.
“It’s not that we are in over our heads. David and Jonathan have handled far worse overseas. I just don’t know how I feel about selling young girls. Pretty messed up, you know?”
Greg said, “Technically, we aren’t the ones selling them. We are just like . . . the delivery service, right? The ones taking the risk. Isn’t that why they’re paying so much?”
Tommy leaned back and let the sun bake on his face.
“Whatever helps you sleep at night, brother. Technically, we are definitely selling them. But I don’t really care about all that. They’re just a bunch of Mexicans anyway, aren’t they?” He took a drink from his beer. “You ask me, we’re just transferring them from one bad situation to another.”
“You’re an asshole, Tommy. And I don’t know. I’m pretty sure it makes us terrible people, regardless of their nationality,” Lisa said.
David and Jon walked up from behind them.
“What makes you terrible people?” David said.
The three of them jumped. They weren’t expecting him to be there for another half hour.
“You three are awfully jumpy, aren’t you?” Jon pulled up a chair.
Tommy tried to play it cool.
“Just weren’t expecting you so soon, that’s all.”
David pulled up a chair.
“Well, this is what it’s like when someone isn’t late for a meeting.”
Tommy rolled his eyes.
David continued, “All right. Everything is in place for tomorrow night, except for the cars. We need three of them. They don’t have to be anything special, just reliable. The more inconspicuous, the better. Can you all handle that?”
“We can handle that,” Lisa said. “But I’m just not sure about this whole thing, David. I mean, what if it were me who was one of those poor girls.”
“Then you would just be some poor girl whose family didn’t care about her anyway.”
Lisa just stared at David. It seemed the inside of him had become as hard as the outside. She figured if you opened him up, the battle scars on his face would pale in comparison to the scars he was sporting on the inside.
“What?” David stroked his dark-brown goatee. “You don’t have to do this. I’ve got several more men coming along for backup as it is. Soldiers. So if you don’t want to be cut in…cut out.”
“You know she needs the money, David,” Tommy interjected.
“Yeah, I know. I told her getting involved with those organized crime scum was a mistake, but she didn’t listen, couldn’t stop trying to be a card shark, and now she has a mountain of debt and is still back here working with us. But we can make that all go away with one job and a cut of two million dollars.”
A wry smile grew across David’s face and his partner in crime Jon’s face as well. It was the first time David had shared the actual figure they would be paid for the truckload of girls and weapons.
Tommy’s face lit up. “Two million d—” He stood up and grabbed the waitress beside the table next to him. “Five shots of tequila please, we’re celebrating.” He returned to his table. “Two million dollars!”
“Would you sit down, Tommy?” David wasn’t happy. He had long thought his little brother was a screwup. He just hoped bringing him in wouldn’t be the thing that brought them all down. Tommy sat down and David stood up. His six-foot-four-inch stocky frame towered over the table. “Now, is that a big enough number for you to actually take this seriously?”
Tommy didn’t answer; he just looked off down the beach.
“Get the cars tonight. Three spaces in the garages will be open at the house. Just pull right in and shut the door behind you. Lisa, you in or out? There can’t be any half-stepping here.”
“Don’t worry about us. We’ll be ready.”
“You three are the only worry I have with this entire thing. Everything else will be flawless.”
The sun went down, and Tommy, Lisa, and Greg were turning their car into the massive dirt parking lot at the Mattress Firm Amphitheatre just south of San Diego. There was a country music concert going on that night at the open-air venue, so cars would be ripe for the picking. Row after row of cars sprawled out in front of them. The lighting wasn’t great, and they would easily be able to get lost somewhere in the middle where no one would be the wiser that their cars were being broken into. By the time the owners heard their car alarms, the three of them would have them started up and be on their way. This wasn’t their first rodeo when it came to boosting cars. They had been doing it for fun since they were fifteen.
They parked their car and coordinated with each other once they’d picked out the cars they were going to take. Five minutes later they were on the road, on their way back to David at the beach houses. Lisa checked her rearview mirror and couldn’t help but shake her head. The only instructions David gave was to make sure to boost inconspicuous cars. Yet there Tommy was, swerving back and forth in the lanes behind them, in a brand-new Chevy Corvette. Bright cherry-red no less. David was going to flip out. She decided it best to give him a heads-up. She dialed David’s number.
“How’d it go?” David answered.
“Fine. Just wanted—”
“Where are you?”
“On the 5 Freeway, almost to San Diego. Listen—”
David cut her off again.
“I’m not far behind you. Haag and I had to pick up a few things. Get back to the house. I’ll see you in a few.” He hung up.
Lisa set her phone in the seat beside her as she shook her head. David could be a real asshole on a normal day. But when they were about to do a job, he was a nightmare on another level. She couldn’t be happier that this was the last time she would be working with him. The last time she was putting herself in these situations. She had done a couple of stints in juvy because of her brother Tommy’s influence. She wasn’t going to see how prison compared. Just one more job and she could move on to her new career, debt free and worry free. All she had to do was keep them from getting caught.
It was then that she saw Tommy swerving around again like an idiot, and it was then that blue and red lights started flashing from the other side of the road. Her stomach dropped when the cop car turned left into the median, then left again onto the highway behind them. So much for not getting caught. Her moron brother had finally done her in.
She quickly picked up her phone as the police car started to pull Tommy over. To her surprise, Tommy was actually slowing down and pulling over.
“What is it?” David answered.
“Tommy is getting pulled over. We’re going to need another car. He’s going to jail.”
“Shit! I knew he would screw this up!” David shouted through the phone. “No, he is not going to jail. I’ll be there in thirty seconds. Head back to the house and put the cars away.”
“David! What are you going to do?” Lisa shouted into the phone, but the line was already dead.
She started slamming her hands on the steering wheel of the stolen car. She couldn’t believe that Tommy couldn’t even do this right. And now David was going to do something even worse and ruin this entire thing. Why did she always have to be the only one with any sense? This was why she had to do this job and then get the hell away from these psychopaths.
Lisa jerked the wheel of the Honda Accord and drove right through the median as she turned around to see if she could at least keep everyone alive. She mashed the gas pedal as her heart pounded. When she approached the flashing patrol car lights, she slowed the car and drove by to see if anything was happening. That was when a black Hummer slammed into the side of the cop car and drove it toward the side of the mountain that sat about thirty feet off the road. She whipped her car back through the me
dian and drove up behind the stolen Corvette. She watched Tommy run toward the cop car, and she bolted out of her car after him.
The only thing she could see was David’s back with red and blue flashing behind him, as he rained punches downward.
“David! No!”
The closer she got, she could see the cop taking the beating. His head was bouncing off the hard, packed dirt underneath him.
“You’re going to kill him! Someone stop him!”
Jon ran around the back of the patrol car and hoisted David up by his shoulders to break his rage. David turned and shoved his longtime friend backward, then turned toward Tommy. His chest heaving with fury, his hands still balled into fists. His face was full of anger. He looked more like a spun-up silverback gorilla than a man.
“You see what you did?” David shouted at Tommy as he pointed to the bloody police officer on the ground. “You see what happens when you don’t take shit seriously?”
“He’s alive,” Jon said, taking the officer’s pulse.
“Hell with you, David! That is your fault, not mine!” Tommy shouted back.
David surged forward and caught Tommy’s throat with his right hand, lifted him up into the air, and slammed him down on his back. He got one hard punch in to the forehead before Lisa dove at David and knocked him off Tommy. They rolled and David ended up on top. He raised his fist like he was going to hit her, but Jon stepped in and took hold of his arm.
“That’s enough! We’ve gotta get out of here. We have what we need for tomorrow night. Let’s not blow this on some family feud!”
Lisa could see madness in David’s eyes. She realized in that moment that he had lost whatever it was that humans have that enable them to empathize with others. The look in his eye was not human at all.
One last job and she was finished.
It was hard to believe, but she was actually scared of her own brother.
King's Reign (The Xander King Series Book 4) Page 5
