“We’ll get him back. I swear it.”
“You don’t understand anything.” Fire flashed in Maria’s eye. “He’s already dead.”
Ted’s mouth dropped open. “How could you know?”
“Because I met with El Pozolero.”
Ted looked at her, stunned. “You what?”
“I met with El Pozolero. He’s holding my dad. He wouldn’t let me see him, to make sure he’s okay. That tells me that he isn’t. If he wasn’t dead when I met El Pozolero, he is by now.”
A long pause ensued.
Ted turned it over in his mind. “Then what are we going to do?”
“We are not going to do anything. You’re going to get on a plane and fly home. I’m going to take care of my family. My responsibility to my family comes first. You understand that.”
Ted reached down to the floor and pulled on his boxers. “Of course. That goes without saying. What does that have to do with you marrying me?”
She turned her back on him. “It’s just too dangerous for you here. I couldn’t stand you getting hurt, ending up like Dad. I can’t leave. I have to take care of my father’s business. I have to keep it going for Mom, for all the people who work for him, for all the people that depend on the money he brings to La Paz for their livings. If his business went away, thousands of people would go hungry.”
Ted grabbed her shoulders. “I’m sure you’re exaggerating a little.” He turned her towards him.
She rubbed the back of her hand on her nose. “Don’t we have any tissue?” Her voice was angry. “You just don’t understand.”
“What don’t I understand?” He grabbed a box of tissues from the night-stand and handed it to her.
She blew her nose long and loud. “You don’t understand what business he’s in.”
“What? He ships produce to the US. What’s hard to understand about that?”
“Do you know what kind of produce?”
“Uh . . . lettuce and tomatoes and stuff?”
She held Ted’s face in her hands. “It’s the stuff that’s hard to explain. He uses his produce shipments to ship marijuana to America. Ted, he’s in the drug business.
Ted sat stunned. He couldn’t be more surprised if she told him she was a hired assassin.
They stared at each other for a moment.
Maria got up and began rounding up her clothes which were strewn around the bedroom floor. “That’s what El Pozolero wants. Dad uses airplanes to ship his product. El Pozolero wants his distribution channels. It doesn’t matter to him if he has to kill a few people to get them.”
“No, it can’t be.” Ted tried to get his mind around the concept. “Your dad’s a regular guy.”
“There are lots of regular guys in the drug business in Mexico. It’s our number one export.”
“I know. I mean . . . I could move here. Help you run your business.”
“Do you really believe that? You’re thinking with your heart. Use your head. You’re the most black and white person I’ve ever met. With you it’s either right or wrong, there’s no gray.” She pulled on her clothes. “You could never be involved in our business. You could never be happy here.”
She stalked out of the room and slammed the door.
Popo got up and pawed at the door.
Ted sat in bed and tried to understand what just happened.
Chapter 21
Ted sat on the bed and stared at the wall for over an hour. His head spun. What was he going to do? Did what he learned change his feelings about Maria?
He saw her face in his mind’s eye, her impish smile. He could feel her smooth skin on his hands. He had never loved anyone like he loved her.
Was it all going to go away? Just because her father was a drug lord? There must be some way to extricate her from her father’s business and get her home.
Maybe he could move her mom to Seattle too. Get her out of harm’s way. Maria could just turn the business over to her subordinates to sink or swim.
He slowly got up from the bed and pulled on his clothes.
He opened the bedroom door and Popo shot out in front of him. He found Maria sitting with a glass of white wine in her hand in an overstuffed chair, crying uncontrollably.
Popo sidled up to her and put his head in her lap.
“Maria, I’ve thought about this.” He dropped to his knees in front of her, shoved Popo’s head away and took her hands. “You still love me. I know you do. You just said it. I love you. I love you with every ounce of my body. There has to be a way to work this out.”
She sniffled, pulled her hands away from him and blew her nose. She didn’t speak.
“We could move your mom to Seattle. Turn the business over to your dad’s subordinates . . . “
“You don’t understand anything,” she shouted at him. “This isn’t just about you and me. It isn’t about my mom and dad. Ted, this is about the whole community. The whole state. I can’t just turn my back on these people and walk away. They’re my friends. I grew up with them. We have a very symbiotic community here. If we pull out, it will all fall apart. Or worse.”
Ted rolled back on his heels. “You don’t have any obligation to these people. We’re talking about your life here, your mom’s life.”
“I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.” She dried her eyes with a tissue.
“Well, I’m not leaving you here alone. Whatever you’re into, I’m in it with you. All the way.”
She reached out and brushed his cheek with the back of her hand. “Do you know what you’re saying? What this means? It can only end one way. Either El Pozolero will be dead, or I will.”
“I’m not going to let that happen. I have a little experience in these things.”
“You’re crazy loco.” She rose from the chair and pulled Ted up with her. “At least if you’re going to get yourself killed, you should be armed.” She grabbed her purse off the side table. “Come on, let’s go out to the ranch.”
It was a forty-five minute drive in Maria’s Thing with Popo in the back-seat. Nacho and José followed in Ted’s Jeep.
When they arrived at the ranch, Maria drove past the main patio to a cement block building against the hill that looked like a little barn.
“Come with me,” she said, as she got out of the car.
Popo leapt out after her.
Ted followed close behind her as she walked to the door. To Ted’s surprise, the steel door had a scanner that read her handprint. The red light turned green and Maria entered a pass code on the key pad. Ted heard the lock click open.
“Wow! That’s some lock you have on this door.”
“Regular locks keep the honest people out. This one keeps the dishonest people out. There’s a security camera there,” she turned and pointed to a power pole across the road, “that’s monitored twenty-four seven.”
They stepped into the cool building and Maria turned on the light.
“Holy shit!” Ted thought he was in a National Guard armory.
An array of M-16s, AK-47s, shotguns and rifles lined the walls. He pulled back a tarp and found a .50 caliber machine gun. Boxes of ammunition were stacked against the wall.
“It looks like you’re getting ready to start a small war.”
“No. It will be a big war. Dad always knew that this day would come, that we would have to fight to defend our home, our families, our people.”
Ted had a hard time taking it all in. There must be enough munitions to arm a thousand men. What in the hell was Ricky up to?
“Let’s start with a handgun.” Maria walked to a cabinet and unlocked it with a key on her key ring. “I think a Glock 21 would work just fine for you.” She reached in the cabinet and produced a black pistol.
Ted took the gun in his hand. Its handle had a rubbery feel, much like his own Glock 17 at home. It was a larger, heavier weapon, a .45 caliber automatic pistol. It shot a larger bullet than his nine millimeter hand gun, so its stopping power was incredible.
“
I use a Glock 17,” Maria said, taking a gun that looked just like the one
Ted left in Seattle locked in a cabinet. “We’ll need some extra magazines and ammo.”
She handled all the munitions like she was an expert.
“You look like you know how to use this stuff.”
Maria cracked a little smile. The first one he’d seen since he arrived.
“Dad got me started shooting at nine. I can shoot the eyes out of a seagull at three hundred yards with a long gun. I always was a better shot than him with a hand gun.” She puffed at the barrel of the Glock and spun it around by its trigger guard and pretended to holster it. “What do you think about that, partner?”
“I think you’ve seen too many old cowboy movies.”
She shoved the Glock into the waist band of her shorts. “Let’s see, what else do we need? I think a rocket launcher would be a little bit of overkill. If we need one, we can always come back here.”
What the hell was she planning?
“But we need a long gun. Rifle or shotgun?”
Catrina had trained Ted with firearms. “I’m okay with an M-16, but I’ll never win any prizes for marksmanship.”
“Hmmm . . . I think we need a shotgun. We’re only going to need it if we’re ambushed. She walked to the wall and pulled down a Remington 11-87 semi-automatic 12-gauge shotgun. “You ever handled one of these before?” She handed the weapon to Ted.
Ted held it in his hands. It was lighter than he expected. “No, I’ve never used a shotgun, but how hard can it be?”
“What you need to know about this gun is that it fires a handful of pellets. We’ll use buck shot. Up close it’s devastating. It could blow a hole in a barn door. Get a little farther back and the pellets bounce off the door.”
She grabbed a box of shotgun shells from the shelf. “It’s semi-automatic. It fires every time you pull the trigger. It’s not like an M-16 with fully automatic mode. One pull, one shot.”
“What the hell are you planning on doing with all this ordinance?”
“I’m trying to keep us alive.”
Chapter 22
Ted watched Maria walk outside and close the door behind her. Reaching her Thing, she pulled a small handle on the back seat back and exposed a hidden compartment.
“We’ll put the shotgun and our extra ammo in here. It’ll be close by, but no one searching the car will ever find it.”
“You were prepared for this?”
“We’re prepared for all emergencies.”
They drove back into town in silence except for the sound. Ted was a little surprised that Maria left her bodyguards behind, even more so that she didn’t take Popo with her.
He brooded over what he had gotten himself into.
As they reached the main highway leading into town, Ted noticed a municipal police car parked on the side of the road. He didn’t think too much about it.
Several minutes later, he turned his head and saw the police car following about a quarter mile behind them.
They drove along the curved highway cut into the cliff side overlooking the Sea. It was a spectacular view. Ted looked at the turquoise water close to shore, the deep blue water further out. He could see the dun-colored mountains across the bay. The sky was crystal clear.
He heard it before he saw it.
A piercing siren sounding behind them. They had just come out of the hills onto fairly level ground. The road straightened out.
He turned and looked over his shoulder. The police car was flying towards them with lights and siren going.
“Crap, now what?” he asked.
“Hold onto your hat. I’m not stopping for that cabrón.” Maria stomped down on the accelerator pedal.
To Ted’s surprise, the little tin can of a car shot forward.
“Shit! What kind of engine do you have in this thing?”
Maria smiled. “Dad thinks of everything. When he rebuilt this car for me he installed a twenty-one hundred cc turbo charged engine. It puts out fifty percent more-horse power than the original.”
She stopped talking to negotiate a curve. They were doing nearly one hundred kilometers per hour. “Dad also jacked up the suspension so I could do that.”
The police car came around the curve and accelerated. The cop car was catching up to them.
From out of nowhere a white Ford F-150 pickup pulled into the road, blocking their way. The truck had a Policia Municipal sign on the door and six men in battle gear in the back. A waist-high steel pipe railing encircled the bed of the truck. Steel plates were welded to the pipes to give the soldiers in back some cover from fire.
“What do they want?” Ted screamed.
“They’re working for El Pozolero. They’re going to kill us.”
Ted leapt into the back and pulled the lever on the back-seat. He grabbed the shotgun and a box of shells.
“We won’t make it easy on them.”
Maria slammed on the brakes and skidded to a stop. There was about twenty feet separating them from the truck and the police car was coming up fast.
“C’mon, let’s get out of here.” Ted grabbed Maria’s hand and pulled her out of the car.
At that exact instant, the police in the back of the truck opened fire. Automatic weapons riddled the Thing with bullets, but Ted and Maria were already out. Ted led Maria over the berm that marked the edge of the road. He stopped and rapidly pulled the trigger on his shotgun five times.
The air was filled with the sound of gunfire and smoke. Ted couldn’t tell if his shots did any good.
“We gotta get out of here.” He dragged Maria to her feet. They ran towards a boat-yard a hundred yards away.
The policemen jumped from the back of the truck and looked to their lieutenant in the passenger seat to tell them what to do next. The window was shattered and the interior was splattered with blood.
One of the men opened the door and the lieutenant fell out onto the road, his head a bloody mess. The driver leaned on the wheel and groaned.
The officers conferred amongst themselves while the two cops in the car joined them.
Ted looked over his shoulder and saw the lack of pursuit.
Thank God.
Finally, one of the cops took off after the couple. The others soon followed.
Shots rang out.
The police were running and trying to hit a moving target at the same time. They didn’t come close.
Ted and Maria reached the chain link fence that surrounded the boat yard.
“Can you climb this fence?” Ted asked.
“I don’t know. I guess so.”
Ted bent down and put his hands together. “I’ll give you a boost.”
Maria put her foot in his hands and he lifted her until she could reach the top rail. She easily pulled herself over the fence and dropped to the sand on the other side.
“What about you?” she asked.
“Are you kidding? I was raised in East L.A. We majored in breaking and entering.”
Ted grabbed a hold of the fence and pulled himself up. Damn, he felt like Spiderman crawling up the fence.
In a moment he was standing next to Maria. “Let’s get moving.”
“Where are we going?”
“I don’t know. Away from them.”
The fence slowed them down enough that the pack of armed men caught up. They were standing on the other side of the fence.
Ted and Maria ran towards the line of boats sitting on the hard ground above the Sea’s edge.
Ted felt a bullet zip past his head; he pulled Maria down and lay on top of her. More bullets whizzed by.
“Quick, only a few more yards.” Ted dragged Maria to her feet.
Something clicked in his mind. He was on the gridiron again. There was a line backer charging towards him with a murderous look in his eye. Ted was one of the fastest, most agile running backs that ever played in the Los Angeles league.
He dodged to his right, then spun on his heel to the left.
&nb
sp; A hail of bullets filled the space he just vacated. The bullets tore into the hull of the fiberglass sailboat they were approaching.
“Somebody’s not going to be too happy about that.” Ted pulled Maria with him.
In a couple of steps they found cover behind the line of boats.
Ted stopped to look around the transom of a powerboat to see the police climbing the fence.
“We gotta get out of here.”
“Where?” Maria asked.
“I don’t know. We’re all fenced in.”
Maria pointed. “Not towards the sea.”
“Can you swim?”
Maria laughed as she ran towards the water, shedding her shirt, shoes and shorts on the way.
“Are you kidding?” she asked over her shoulder as Ted ran to catch up. “I was raised on the water. We majored in swimming.”
She took several steps into the water and dove in.
Ted followed her. He considered himself a good swimmer, but he couldn’t keep up with Maria.
By the time the police reached water’s edge, the couple was rounding the breakwater that protected the boat yard.
The cops fired off a few shots, but they were beaten.
Chapter 23
Since Catrina’s best friend, Jennifer Trask, gave up her law firm to become a U.S. attorney, Catrina used Chris to take care of her legal business. He was smart, ambitious, and, best of all, he was sympathetic to women’s issues.
You don’t have to have a vagina to be a feminist.
She met with Chris at least once a month, usually over lunch, to keep him current on the issues going on in her world. With a business like hers, she always needed a mouthpiece.
It might be a divorce case this week, a restraining order next week. She had even used Jennifer to bail her out of jail a time or two. So far, things had been even keeled with Chris.
She pulled her Explorer into the valet parking area in front of Chandler’s Cove. The shi-shi eatery was right on the water at the south end of Lake Union. Surrounded by marinas filled with multi-million-dollar yachts, it was the place for business lunches and the place to be seen at night.
She stepped out of her SUV and waited for the doorman to open the door. The hostess inside took her right to her table. Chris hadn’t yet arrived.
The Cartel Strikes Back: The Ted Higuera Series, Book 5 Page 15
