Breaking Point

by Allison Brennan

  Tommy looked from Hirsch to Damien to Bella then back to Hirsch.

  He didn’t remember her. It had been eighteen years, she’d been a young teenager then, he didn’t remember her.

  She almost breathed easier.

  “My people are not the problem,” Hirsch said. “I told you expanding too fast was going to raise flags.”

  “Because you put the wrong people in charge. It’s that Desiree bitch. I told you that black whore was a liability, that she didn’t want to get with the program. She’s now in jail, and she’ll flap her gums.”

  “She doesn’t know anything about Port Arthur.”

  “But she knows about you.”

  Tommy turned to look at Bella again, frowned. He recognized her, but he hadn’t placed her.

  She had to disappear before he remembered.

  “What happened in San Antonio?” Hirsch asked.

  Tommy turned back to him. “Really, you don’t know? I found out fifteen minutes ago when my bitch Ginger called and said her house had been raided. She’d left Desiree there to watch the girls and wham-bam, the feds show up! FBI, DEA, SAPD, SWAT, everyone and their brother came to the party. They have fourteen of my girls. They weren’t even supposed to be there, until you fucked up El Paso. They were supposed to be on a fucking ship by now. But El Paso was a clusterfuck and now you don’t even know that the police raided San Antonio. I don’t fucking believe this. How long have we known each other, Martin? Eighteen years. But you saving my ass once doesn’t buy you a free card for lifelong stupidity.”

  Martin Hirsch saved Tommy? Eighteen years ago? When Bella escaped and Sergio had been killed? How? Hirsch had barely been out of prison then.

  Small world. She almost laughed, except she was so terrified right at that moment that she didn’t dare open her mouth.

  “You forget that it’s my contacts, my associations, that built our network,” Hirsch said. “My network thrived on maintaining small organizations throughout the country where any one that is taken out, they can never rat on anyone else. Everything was self-contained until you wanted to expand overseas. You’re the one who insisted we bring Desiree out from Los Angeles, not me. So don’t put all this on my feet. We can and should go back to the small cells. Regroup and continue the expansion on the original timeline. For every trucking company the cops find, I have three more they know nothing about. You’ve always been the brawn, Z. I have always been the brains.”

  Tommy did not like being ridiculed or made to feel stupid. Bella could have told Hirsch that. It was why Tommy liked to bully Sergio’s prostitutes, because Sergio would belittle him, and Tommy couldn’t stand it.

  “Why is there a whore here?”

  “This is Dr. Carter.”

  “From the mobile clinic?”

  Hirsch nodded.

  Tommy stared at her. He was thinking.

  Thinking would get her in trouble.

  Hirsch’s driver came in and handed Hirsch a note.

  “What the hell does that say?” Tommy demanded. “No secrets, Martin.”

  “We had a situation this morning, but it has been resolved.”

  “What situation?”

  “Local pimp made a mistake. He paid for it with his life.” Hirsch turned to his driver. “Confirm all this, get back to me, and be ready to leave if we need to.”

  Hirsch was protecting Damien and, de facto, protecting Bella by not telling Tommy everything that had happened between last night and this morning. She didn’t read more into it—Hirsch would throw her under the bus if it would save him or his business. But she’d take anything she could get right now.

  The driver left and Tommy sat down at the table with Hirsch. He turned to Damien. “Take your bimbo to bed, the big boys have business to discuss.”

  Damien gave Tommy the evil eye and both Tommy and Hirsch straightened their spines. Then he turned and ushered Bella out the back door. They walked down to the small private pier that extended forty feet into the bay. The water wasn’t blue—it was a slimy green along the rocky shore. But Bella breathed in relief.

  “I’m sorry you had to be treated like that.”

  Damien hadn’t cared what Hirsch said to her in the past. Or maybe he had, he just hid it well.

  “Look, I knew what I was signing on for, okay? I needed money, Hirsch was paying. I’m no saint.”

  “I won’t let them hurt you, Doc. I promise.”

  “You said you had business in L.A.—why don’t we go now? With the heat coming down on Gino, it might be best.”

  “I have to be here tomorrow.”

  “Why?”

  “No questions. Just trust me.”

  Trust him. Right.

  “Okay,” she said.

  She wouldn’t be here tomorrow, anyway. If everything worked according to plan, JT would bring RCK in to raid this place and she would be safe.

  They sat outside for nearly an hour, not talking, and Bella finally felt slightly less apprehension than earlier. Damien looked at his phone. “They’re done. Let’s go back.”

  Suddenly, she didn’t want to go back. What if Tommy was still there? The longer she was around him, the more he might remember.

  “D—”

  He stopped, faced her. His face was unreadable, like always.

  Like always except when he told you he loved you. Except when he kissed you.

  “It’s nothing,” she said. “Let’s go.”

  She followed him back into the house. As soon as they stepped inside, Damien was grabbed by two men and Bella was grabbed by Tommy.

  “Bella,” he said, spittle flying from his mouth. “As soon as Martin said your name, I knew I recognized you. Just took me a few minutes to figure out from where.”

  He slapped her so hard she fell to her knees.

  Damien fought the two men. He elbowed one in the nose, breaking it, then slammed the head of the other into the wall, cracking the plaster.

  “Enough!” Hirsch yelled. He had a gun on Damien. “Did you know?”

  Damien’s nostrils were flaring. “You’ll be sorry.”

  Tommy said to Damien, “Did you know that her name is not Isabella Carter and she isn’t a doctor? Her name is Bella Caruso. She was a whore for Sergio until he was killed by a team of mercenaries. It took me a long time to figure out exactly what happened that night, but it was you, all along. Your brother was in the Navy and then it all made sense. You betrayed us.”

  She didn’t bother denying it. He wouldn’t believe her anyway.

  Damien froze.

  “Want proof? Look at her tattoo. On her right shoulder.”

  Damien hesitated, then pulled the back of her shirt down, partly revealing her falcon tattoo.

  “There’re letters there somewhere. I know, I put them there. She might try to hide them, but she can’t. SXC.”

  Damien must have seen them. Bella closed her eyes and waited for the bullet to end her life.

  Tommy said, “Martin said she saved your life, Damien, so I’m giving you a chance. Are you with us?”

  “Yes,” Damien said. His voice was back to the cold, emotionless robot he’d been for the last year. Before he decided that he had feelings for Bella—feelings he’d never had before.

  They were now gone.

  And Bella was as good as dead.

  “Restrain her. I need to know why she’s here and how much she knows. I’ll bet you she’s the one who has jeopardized our entire expansion, and she will pay for it. Slowly.” Tommy leaned over and whispered in her ear. “And very, very painfully. I will enjoy torturing the truth out of you, Bella Caruso, and then I’ll leave your bloody, broken body on your brother’s doorstep.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Sean got off the phone with Kane. The situation in Port Arthur had gone from bad to worse.

  He was at DEA headquarters, but he let Lucy do what she did best. She was running the task force with cool precision, had tasked Brad’s tech guru Aggie with mapping out all the locations Meyer had given the
m, and they were creating a plan of attack. Sean could have helped, but his help wasn’t needed. Brad let him sit in his office, so he closed the door and used the privacy it offered.

  He dialed an unlisted number. Mona Hill picked up after four rings.

  “Yes.”

  “It’s Rogan.”

  “Of course it is.”

  “The Port Arthur police had a warrant for murder for a pimp named Gino. His body just turned up. We think Hirsch ordered his execution to protect his operation.”

  “And why would I care?”

  “I need information.”

  “I gave your cop wife everything I know.”

  “Something big is going down in Port Arthur. One prostitute is already in the hospital. I need to know what their plan is.”

  “I’m not in business with these people. I told you that.”

  “Mona—”

  “Odette. Call me that name again and I will never answer your calls.”

  “Odette, you have always been the queen of information. You know what’s going on. Or you have a good idea. There are lives at stake, including a fourteen-year-old girl.”

  Silence.

  He waited.

  “There’s one rumor related to Port Arthur. If I tell you will you leave me alone?”

  “For a while.”

  “You’re a bastard, Rogan.”

  “Tell me what you know.”

  * * *

  Brad walked into his office, planning on making a private call, and was surprised to find Sean still in there. He was on the phone. Brad didn’t feel he needed to afford him privacy considering this was his office and Sean wasn’t even a cop, but he made a motion to leave and Sean shook his head and put up his finger.

  “How certain are you of this information?” Sean listened, then said, “I appreciate it.… No, it doesn’t mean I won’t call you again.” He hung up.

  “News?” Brad said.

  Sean got up and closed the door.

  Brad frowned. “Your office vetted my office, I thought you of all people trusted everyone here.”

  “I do. But I have information, and I can’t tell people where I got it.”

  “Okay.” Brad was getting used to this. He worked with Criminal Informants all the time. Sean was hardly a CI, but if there was ever a grey area, it was RCK.

  “Based on what Bella said and what we’ve been able to ascertain with Hirsch and company moving east, we thought he was shipping girls out of the country. On the contrary, word is he’s expecting a shipment. All these little moves here and there along I-10? To solidify his network and expand his market.”

  “How many are we talking?”

  “Don’t know. But it seems dozens of pimps from Florida to California are all expecting six to eight new girls tomorrow.”

  “Sunday.”

  “And they’re coming in through Port Arthur.”

  “Your brother is there, right?”

  Sean nodded. “They know Hirsch landed, but they haven’t found him. The one potential witness is dead—a local pimp suspected of killing a john. My guess is Hirsch had him whacked to keep him from talking. The girls in the house they raided aren’t talking, and the one girl who might talk, she’s still in critical condition.”

  “What do you think we should do?”

  “Send a team to Port Arthur.”

  “Wouldn’t a big federal splash put Bella at risk?”

  “Maybe. But the feds will lose track of these girls as soon as they are moved along Hirsch’s pipeline.”

  “Four of the houses on Meyer’s list are in Port Arthur and Beaumont. I’ll bring this up to the task force, but ultimately, it’s Donovan’s call.” Brad opened the door, glanced back at Sean. “You know what Donovan will do, don’t you?”

  “Pretty much. My bag is already packed, and I have Kane’s plane fueled because he took mine.”

  “Military transport would be faster.”

  “Your call, as long as I can hitch a ride.”

  Brad nodded, and left Sean to do who knew what. Sometimes, Brad was amazed at how he got his information.

  He found Lucy in the conference room directing his staff. It burned him that Rachel was being stubborn about this task force. Not because Brad had to use his staff—he and the FBI shared frequently—but because she hadn’t come by at all. Brad had reached out after the interrogation and asked her to observe. She hadn’t shown up.

  But Jason Lopez was here, and he was watching closely. Too closely. It was like he was Rachel’s spy, and that didn’t sit well with Brad.

  Brad approached Lucy and gave her the information Sean had uncovered. She walked immediately over to the map she and Aggie had created and added flags to the pins already there. “Brad—you understand smuggling using shipping routes far better than I do. How can they get people in here? This isn’t a deep sea channel, is it?”

  “They have a small port authority, but they can handle major vessels. However, they wouldn’t go through any legitimate facility—not one that’s so small. It’s easier through a large busy port because they can’t check every single container. My guess is that they’ll bring in a ship to the middle of the gulf, then unload their cargo to several smaller ships that will skirt under the radar, so to speak. It’s still risky, but human trafficking is a two-way street—criminals in the U.S. import people as well as export them.”

  “They would need a house or…” Lucy snapped her fingers. “Trucking company on this waterway.”

  “Trucking company, my guess. A house taking in a few dozen—or hundreds—of people? Don’t see it happening, even in the middle of the night. But a business, maybe. If there was one that fit their needs.”

  Aggie said, “Agent Murphy is calling, says it’s urgent.”

  “Speaker,” Lucy said.

  Aggie transferred the call in the conference room.

  “Gianna, it’s Lucy and Brad. What do you have?”

  “My cop found the Moore brothers holed up in one of their flops. We tag-teamed them. They were scared shitless, excuse my language. What went down in the bar was unexpected, and they squealed, begged us to protect them. I’m sending you everything we got, but there are two takeaways. First is when they made the agreement with Hirsch they were told that they would be in control of the sex trade in El Paso in exchange for a percentage and access to Hirsch’s transportation network. The network was primarily for prostitutes, but they would take guns, drugs, documents, whatever was needed for an extra fee. They’d be given a liaison to work with to make everything run smooth.”

  “Sounds like a protection racket,” Brad said.

  “It is, but everything’s sugarcoated. The Moores were idiots not to see it, nor to realize that if they were in charge of the sex trade, that means Diaz is dead. Diaz wouldn’t play ball with Hirsch, Hirsch had him killed. They really did not see that coming.”

  “Which is why our jails are full,” Brad added.

  Gianna laughed. “Second tidbit? They were expecting a brothel with thirty girls, all trained, all ready to work, of all shapes, sizes, and races. They’d be delivered next weekend with their liaison.”

  “Hirsch was delivering a brothel,” Lucy said flatly.

  “Staffing a brothel, I should say. The Moores were to find a minimum three locations to house them and move in their own girls as well. They planned on re-opening their uncle’s run-down bar and working the girls out of there.”

  “Do they know where Hirsch is now?” Lucy asked.

  “I thought we knew he was in Port Arthur?”

  “We do, but we need an exact location.”

  “Truly, they don’t. Hirsch told them he was solidifying agreements across Texas, and they didn’t ask for specifics.”

  “Good work, Gianna,” Brad said.

  “I have something else—we found Milo Feliciano. He’s dead. He’d been hiding out with his mother, but left because he’d heard the heat had died down a bit. He was shot in the head while he sat at a stop light in broad day
light this afternoon.”

  “Who?” Brad asked.

  “My guess? Hirsch still has people here, and they think Milo sold them out after the raid on the trucking company. His mother knows nothing, as far as she’s concerned he was just under the weather.”

  “Okay, thanks,” Lucy said. “Be ready to work on a simultaneous raid.”

  Brad raised an eyebrow. “Simultaneous?” he said.

  “I’m working out the kinks with Kate, but I think we can make this work.”

  “I’m yours when you call, Kincaid. Out.”

  Brad looked to Lucy for more info. “Define.”

  “We have thirty-two addresses from Meyer. If we take down only those in the area, the others have time to move. If we can coordinate with all the FBI offices and local police, and raid them at the exact same time from Los Angeles to Shreveport, we have a chance of taking them all out—and finding out who might be on Hirsch’s payroll.”

  “That takes a lot of time and organization.”

  “Kate’s doing it—don’t underestimate her.”

  “Or you.”

  “Or Aggie,” Lucy said. She glanced around and then lowered her voice. “That girl drives me a little crazy, but she’s smart and anticipates what I’m going to ask for next. It’s kind of … disconcerting, but I’m not complaining.”

  Brad smiled. He glanced up and saw a familiar profile walk by the open door. “I’m glad I got her. She was an Army brat, I’d give her a break on the quirkiness. Let me know when we roll.”

  “Go take a nap—it’ll be late tonight or early tomorrow morning. I’m thinking early on a Sunday morning would be a fine time to raid thirty-two houses.”

  He didn’t disagree, but he’d wait until Donovan put the next-to-impossible task together. He’d organized Operation Heatwave and while it had been substantially larger in scope, it was focused in San Antonio, he had two months to put it together and an entire squad of support staff.

  “Can I get you coffee?”

  “Actually, Aggie has kept me properly caffeinated,” she said and smiled. The only sign that Lucy was tired was the circles under her eyes, but Brad knew she wouldn’t rest until they had a plan in place.