King's Reign (The Xander King Series Book 4)

by Bradley Wright

  Beth threw her arms around her sister, then led the way down the street full of tourist-trap shops and cheap Mexican food. Carrie just laughed as her sister’s blonde pigtails bounced along the way. The sun had begun to set. Carrie looked up at its beautiful color and for a moment almost called her sister back. Her parents had been adamant about being back to the cruise ship by sundown. And while it wasn’t quite that time yet, darkness was certainly closing in.

  Instead, she chased after her sister. She needed some lotion with some aloe in it anyway. She had fallen asleep on the beach earlier, and her lobster-red skin was making her pay for it now.

  “Wait up, Beth”

  “There.” The man pointed out the girl with the sunburn to his partner. “She’s perfect.”

  “You don’t think she’s too old? Boss said find a young girl, don’t you think he meant younger than her?”

  “Well, you saw the girl she was talking to, didn’t you? She’s much younger, we’ll take them both, make even more money.”

  The two Mexican men exited their vehicle and began to walk up the street to the store the girls had disappeared into. They didn’t look like criminals, didn’t look like bad men at all, but they were about to do a very horrible thing.

  They tried to act normal as they approached the novelty store. The two of them walked inside and made their way to the back where a refrigeration unit housed various soft drinks and waters. The girls were there as well, laughing and looking at all the different postcards.

  “Ooh, I think he’ll like this one, Betty Boop,” the dark-haired girl with the sunburn said to the little one. She would be just what their boss was looking for. Young, just now blossoming into a woman. She would bring top dollar.

  “Shut up, Carrie! I just want one for my teacher!”

  “Okay, squirt. Just pick one and let’s get out of here. We have to get back to the boat.”

  After a few more minutes, the girls had finished paying and walked back out into the street. The two men followed closely behind. Their car was just a block away now, and the girls were walking directly for it. With each step the girls took, the men took two. They were closing in on them now. One man motioned to the other to go ahead and move across the street, conveying that he could come in from the other side in case one of them tried to run. This wasn’t their first time doing this, and it showed.

  “Bethany, come back this way,” Carrie called to her sister.

  Bethany did as she was told and slowed her pace. Carrie knew she was excited to get back and show their mom which postcard she picked out. It was then that she saw her reflection in the store window to her right, and then she noticed a second figure walking not too far behind her. Carrie whipped her head around to see who was following on the sidewalk at her back. The man smiled and gave a friendly wave, but something didn’t feel right.

  “Come here, Bethany,” she said, trying to think of a reason to make her sister come all the way to her. “One of your pigtails is falling out.” She knew that would work; her sister couldn’t stand one hair on her head being out of place.

  This time, instead of just slowing down, Bethany turned around and began walking back in Carrie’s direction. She was only ten feet away, but it might as well have been a mile. Before Carrie knew what was happening, before she could even react, her sister had been scooped up in some strange man’s arms. The cry for help was on the edge of her lips, but before she could get it out, there was something keeping her lips from moving.

  A hand.

  The same hand from the friendly hand wave a moment ago. She could see the man that had a hold of her reflecting in the store window. At the same time, she was watching a different man try to stuff her little sister in the back of a strange car. Panic clawed at the frames of her consciousness. She didn’t know what to do; she just knew from all the episodes of Dateline NBC that her family had watched that she could not let them get her and Bethany in that car.

  So she began to fight.

  First she kicked back behind her, and the man grunted in pain at the unexpected blow. When he lifted her up off her feet, she rammed the heel of her sneaker straight backward, and she must have hit the sweet spot because in a blink she was free of the man’s grip.

  “Help! Help us!” Carrie screamed as she ran toward the strange car. Her sister was kicking against the man who had a hold of her. “Let her go!”

  There were a few others on the street around them, but they all seemed frozen in shock. She was going to have to do this on her own if they were going to get away. She sprinted forward, and all she could think to do when she made it to the man was club him in the back of his head with her purse. She took the purse in her hand, stepped forward, and swung at him as hard as she could. The man was so caught off guard that he dropped Bethany.

  It worked!

  She took another swing at the man and hit him on the shoulder. Her heart was pounding, and adrenaline rushed through her veins.

  “Run, Bethany! Run!”

  She turned to take a swing at the man she had kicked in the groin, because she knew he would be coming up behind her. And sure enough, he was. But this time, she missed. He was able to dodge her purse and grab Bethany by the shirt as she tried to run past. Just as Carrie was going to lunge at the man to help, she felt a hand wrap around her leg, pulling her backward.

  “No!” Carrie screamed. “Let go of her! Someone, PLEASE!” She barely found the breath to scream. Her lungs burned as panic drained her stamina.

  She lunged forward once more and kicked her leg up, breaking free of the grip from the man on the ground. “Let her go!” Carrie jumped on the man’s back. Bethany was sobbing in fear, struggling to run forward and get her shirt loose of the man’s hand. Carrie began beating down on the man’s head with both fists, and finally he was forced to let go of Bethany’s shirt.

  “Run, Bethany! Go get Daddy!”

  Carrie felt two hands wrap around her waist, and before she knew it, she had been thrown to the ground. Her elbow plowed into the concrete, and she screamed as pain bolted through her nerve endings. Her scream forced her sister to turn around. Through the man’s legs in front of her, she could make out her sister’s face in the glowing streetlight.

  Fear.

  “Run! Go!”

  “No, Carrie! I won’t leave you!” Bethany cried. “Let go of her!” Her voice echoed through the street.

  The two men picked Carrie up off the ground and began attempting to shove her in the backseat of the car.

  “Go now, Beth! Go get help!”

  Finally, right before Carrie was forced inside the car, she saw her sister turn, and once again watched as her pigtails bobbed away from her. The door slammed behind her. She was terrified. What did they want? Where were they taking her? She didn’t know any of the answers, but she knew she was in serious trouble.

  At least they didn’t get her little sister too.

  She screamed, felt a thump on her forehead, then everything went black.

  18

  Son of a Drug Lord

  “Coffee?” Xander said, offering Sam a cup from the freshly brewed pot.

  The jet hit a pocket of turbulence, Xander wobbled, and hot coffee lipped out of the rim of the mug that he had extended toward Sam. She managed to dodge it like a cat on a hot tin roof. She gave Xander a warning look from her seat, but then smiled when she noticed that Xander’s expression looked impressed.

  “Just keeping your skills sharp, Sammy.”

  “My skills are just fine, thank you,” she told him as she took the warm mug from his hands.

  Kyle plopped down in the chair beside them.

  “So what’s next for Reign?”

  The sound of a name for the team still felt a little odd to Xander, but he was warming to it. He was proud of the way they all performed back at Romero’s mansion. Not that it surprised him, because he had seen them all in action before, but it was nice to know he was going to be able to count on them when the shit inevitably hit the fan. T
hey left Romero’s and Sinaloa on as good of terms as one can when a man has pledged to go after another man’s son. Xander could see in Romero’s eyes that he wanted to stop him, but he was witness to Reign’s performance, and though he was a proud man, Romero knew they were also the only reason he still drew breath.

  Before they went wheels up, while Xander and Kyle had gone to make sure Gary and Heir to the Throne made it safely out of Sinaloa, Sam and the rest of the crew began to formulate a plan for what was next. Based on what José had said, it was clear they had to start with the info that had come in from the undercover FBI agent. And that is where Sam’s work had been focused the last couple of early morning hours. Deciphering who, what, and how credible this new information was from this recently “dark” agent.

  “Can I just have a second?” José said before Sam could answer Kyle’s question of what was next. “I just want to thank you for getting me out of there alive. For a minute there, I wasn’t sure how that was going to happen. Two years in deep cover, seeing the things that I have seen, I thought being free of Sinaloa and Romero was a pipe dream. Thank you all for that.”

  Xander clinked his Red Bull can against José’s coffee mug. José looked to be in his midthirties. Long dark hair pulled into a ponytail, olive skin, brown eyes, and what looked like a physique ready for any physical challenge.

  “Thank you, my friend,” Xander said. “The longest I’ve been undercover was a month, and it was hell. Constantly trying to be someone else is exhausting. And thank you for your invaluable information.” Xander took a sip of his energy drink. “So do you think we can trust what Romero is saying about his involvement in the human traffic ring?”

  “I think you can,” José said. “I saw no signs of his involvement in that sort of thing. Don’t get me wrong, Romero is a ruthless man, but only when it comes to his drug business and people remaining loyal to him. That is why I thought I would have to die to get out.”

  “Okay, so you believe him when he said it was his son?”

  “Honestly, he must have thought a lot of you, Xander. Even though he and his son don’t get along, as loyal as he is, I am shocked he told you that.”

  “I was too.”

  “But yes, I believe him.”

  Sam set down her coffee mug that read “Talk to me when this is empty” and powered on her iPad as she looked at José.

  “So what do you know about Romero’s son?”

  “Nothing really,” José answered Sam. “I haven’t seen him in over a year. And even when he was around, it was always a short visit. He and his father would argue, then he would leave. That’s it. Rumors were that he was a real spoiled asshole who kept getting in over his head, and Romero was constantly bailing him out.”

  “Like now?” Xander asked rhetorically.

  Zhanna brought over some eggs and bacon from the galley and passed the plates around to the team.

  “Here is breakfast. Where are we going now?” she asked.

  “Why don’t you bring us up to speed, Sam,” Xander suggested.

  “Okay, according to Eliza Sanchez, the undercover agent, we are dealing with a real wild card in Romero’s son.”

  “Can we give him a name already?” Jack interjected.

  “Francisco Romero.” Sam gave Jack a wink. The old cowboy tipped his hat. “The last couple of years he apparently has been trying to break out of his father’s shadow and create a name for himself.”

  Kyle laughed. “Ah, the dream of every young son of a drug lord.”

  Sam continued, “As José eluded, it was a rocky start at first. He tried to set up several different operations, to no avail, needing Daddy to get him out of trouble. That being said, over the last year, and probably the reason you haven’t seen him, José, Francisco has been able to set up a trafficking ring consisting of all the major ports up the Mexican Riviera. Mainly, of course, Mazatlán, Cabo, and Puerto Vallarta.” Sam glanced up at Zhanna. “And Mazatlán is where we are heading now. An American family just reported their sixteen-year-old daughter being taken last night in Puerto Vallarta. Witnesses confirmed it.”

  “So why we are not going to Puerto Vallarta?” Zhanna asked.

  “The drive to get to California runs right through Mazatlán. It’s a shot in the dark, but I’m hoping we can make it there in time to cut them off. The sooner we can fight them, the less time they’ll have to deal the girls. It’s very likely they will try to sell a few of their kidnap victims in Mazatlán. They won’t sell what they consider their ‘high-dollar’ girls there, but American men on vacation will pay good money for a young Mexican girl.”

  “This is a sick-ass world we live in,” Jack said. “We have got to get these sons of bitches before they can do this to these poor girls anymore.” He then turned toward Sam, a look of disbelief on the old man’s face. “So I reckon what I’m hearin’ you say is that the white girls go for a premium? And those premiums are paid by men in our own country?”

  “That’s right, Jack.” Sam nodded. “Wealthy businessmen in the US. I guess they’ve done everything else in their lives, so they get bored and dabble in the black market.”

  Kyle was taken aback. “This is sick. We have to stop this. So you’re telling me that these assholes go from port to port stealing young American tourists right from their vacations? What sick bastards would do things like that?”

  “Sons of drug lords trying to make names for themselves,” Xander answered.

  Sam added, “Not just American girls. I know this sounds awful, but the men in the US doing the buying like a variety. So they are picking up girls from a lot of different places. These ports in the Mexican Riviera are just the easiest pickings, so they are the most frequented. If we shut this operation down, cutting off the head, the rest of the body will die.”

  “Francisco Romero.” Kyle said his name with great disdain.

  “That’s right,” Sam said. “We take out Francisco, we take the entire operation down.”

  “What makes you think Francisco will be here in Mazatlán? Why wouldn’t he just let his men do the dirty work?”

  “Sanchez’s intel is that he is very controlling because it is all still so new. He stays with the shipment until the handoff in Tijuana to ensure nothing goes wrong. Then he has his money, so it no longer involves him. He never has to cross the border, which is where the biggest risk lies.”

  “So then we only know half of the information?” Xander said.

  “Half?” Kyle sat up. “What do you mean?”

  “Right, Xander, only half,” Sam said. “We aren’t yet sure who receives the shipment and then takes it across the border to finish the sales. But they are believed to be Americans.”

  Kyle stood up. “I mean, we are talking about this like these girls are a commodity. Like they are something as insignificant as drugs or something.”

  “To these people, that is exactly what they are,” Xander said. “And that is exactly why this entire operation dies tonight.”

  “What do you mean tonight?” Sam asked.

  “You know exactly what I mean, Sam. We only take down half the operation if we just stop them here in Mazatlán. The Americans responsible for the other side of this thing have to be stopped as well. Otherwise it’s a failure.”

  “I disagree.” Sam was stern.

  Xander shook his head. “So you’re telling me that if someone took Kyle but we got him back, you wouldn’t be going after the men who took him? To make them pay? To stop them from doing it again?”

  Sam glanced at Kyle, then back to Xander. Her face was solemn.

  “Of course I would make them pay. But that’s different, Xander.”

  “Not to me it isn’t. Any one of those girls could be my niece, Kaley. Each of those girls is somebody’s niece . . . somebody’s daughter. Everyone involved in this operation is going to pay. If not because it is what they deserve, then because it will send a message to anyone else considering giving an operation like this a shot in the future.” Xander paced the wa
lkway in between the couches for a moment, thinking. “Do we even know what type of vehicle we are looking for? Where is this Agent Sanchez undercover? With Francisco?”

  Sam sighed. “This is the frustrating part of this, and honestly, it smells fishy to me. The intel from Sanchez is very vague. The day she was supposed to give a report on what she had been investigating stateside was the day she went dark. They were expecting to receive information from her about both ends of the trade, but it never came. She is from California and she requested this assignment, which is why they put her on it, but no one is sure where she is or why the intel is so incomplete.”

  Xander shook his head. “What great help the government is. Good thing we have all their resources,” he said sarcastically. “Something is definitely off. Do you think she’s compromised?”

  “Her superior said she’s been nothing but exemplary so far. But as you know, Xander—”

  “That doesn’t mean a damn thing.”

  “Right.”

  “So we don’t even know what vehicle we’re looking for?” Kyle asked.

  “No,” Sam answered. “But Francisco has his own plane. Just because he is known to be controlling the shipments doesn’t mean that he rides with them the entire way.”

  “You think he could be at the airport?”

  Sam looked annoyed by their lack of information.

  “Until we know what vehicle they are transporting the girls in, where the exact drop point is, and who is taking the girls into San Diego, we don’t really have another option other than the airport.”

  “She’s right,” Xander agreed, looking at Sam with a smirk. “So are we playing ‘Mr. and Mrs.’ again when we land?”

  19

  Captive

  It was hot and dark, and the suffocating air stank of body odor. Other than the rumbling below her, the sound of tires rolling down pavement, oh, and the screaming and crying of other young girls around her, that was all that Carrie knew of where she was. Their cries were heartbreaking. Even though it was in a way comforting to know she wasn’t alone, it nearly wrecked her soul to know that there were other girls that these monsters had taken.