The Vargas Cartel Trilogy: Books 1 - 3

by Lisa Cardiff

  “I see that.”

  “According to our source, they have guards stationed at the base of the road and in front of the house, but no one along the sides or the back.”

  Squinting, I leaned forward. “So that’s the weak spot. We’ll attack from the rear.”

  “Or by the air.”

  My eyebrows crawled up my forehead. “No. Absolutely not. We’d announce our arrival. They’d kill Hattie by the time we landed. We need to hike through the jungle and approach from the rear.” I tapped my finger on the aerial picture. “How far is this road from the safe house?”

  Emanuel took a sip of his tequila. “A mile or two, maybe more.”

  “Then, we’ll have our convoy drop us there and we’ll hike up during the night.”

  “It’s not an easy hike. There’s no trail. It’s straight uphill. Thick vegetation with lots of rocks. The guys will be too tired to fight by the time they reach the safe house.”

  “This isn’t an easy job,” I countered. “Hiking is better than having them shoot down our helicopter before we can get boots on the ground.”

  He spun his glass in circles on the table. Waves of tequila lapped over the side. “That all sounds good if this were a military operation. Not a lot of our guys are trained for a mission like this. We need people with experience and endurance.”

  “How many members have solid military or police training?”

  “Members that are available on short notice?”

  “Yes,” I snapped, flexing my hands.

  He cocked his head to the side. “Five. Maybe less. A lot of the members are former farmers or recovering drug addicts. I won’t pull people from Ignacio’s personal guard, and compromise his safety to rescue your girlfriend.”

  I shoved my hands in my pockets to stop myself from hurting him. “What about the Americans? Does Ignacio have any Americans on the payroll or people he’s used on a contract basis in the past?”

  He blinked a few times, then shook his head. “What are you talking about?”

  “Don’t play dumb,” I sneered. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. Just like every other drug cartel, Ignacio uses US military veterans for special tasks. I’d like a few of them to join me.”

  I could call some freelance operatives I’d met over the last five years, but that would take time. Time I didn’t have. I needed people who were already in Mexico and were familiar with the nuts and bolts of drug cartels. I didn’t want to bring in some guy who usually worked with the Russians or the Jihadists. Every criminal entity had a different personality. Different priorities. Granted, greed and power were at the center of all criminal organizations regardless of whether they hid behind the veil of religious zeal, political ideology or flat out materialism. But I didn’t want to waste time briefing someone on the intricacies of the Mexican drug cartels. I needed people already up to speed and familiar with the Vargas and Alvarez Cartels.

  He leaned back in his chair, propping his hands behind his head. “He’s used a few independent contractors hired on a job by job basis.”

  “Great. Hire them for this job.”

  His left eye twitched. “These things take time. I’ll need a week to work out the details. Maybe more. It depends on their availability.”

  “We don’t have a week. Double their standard rate. Make it worth their time.”

  Emanuel shifted in his seat, and our eyes locked. “I’ll have to get Ignacio’s approval.”

  “Then get it. I don’t care about the money. I’ll pay the difference.” I slammed my open palm on the table, knocking over my glass. It rolled onto the floor, exploding into tiny slivers as it collided with the tiles. “Offer whatever it takes to get the right people here.”

  He blew out a breath as he ran his hands through his hair. “Fine. I’ll see what I can do. I know a couple guys who used to be in the Marines. They only take a few jobs a year. They might be compelled to accept this one if I tell them we’re trying to rescue the daughter of a high profile politician.”

  “Don’t reveal her identity until after they accept the job,” I said.

  His bushy brows knitted together. “Why not? We can use it in our favor.”

  “I don’t want this incident to follow Hattie for the rest of her life. Being abducted by a drug cartel once is a tragedy. Two times would make her a circus sideshow.”

  “Why does it matter what people know? According to Ignacio, you’re staying here to help him now, so she’ll be here too.”

  A wave of guilt rippled through me as I poured another glass of tequila. “No. I’m putting her on the first plane back to the US. I’m done with her. I need to get her out of my life. She’s a distraction I can’t afford. Not anymore.”

  “All this for a woman you don’t want anymore.” The corners of his mouth curled up in a stomach-turning grin. “Interesting.”

  My lips flattened. I didn’t care what Ignacio said about Emanuel. He rubbed me the wrong way. Unfortunately, I still needed him, so I refrained from planting my fist in the dead center of his smug face.

  “What the fuck is your point?” Hattie’s absence in my life would be hard. I didn’t need to explain myself to this asshole. She’d given me something nobody had. Unconditional love and acceptance, and now I had to throw it all back in her face. She wouldn’t leave willingly. I’d have to break every promise I’d made to her and shatter her heart in the process.

  He held up his hands in mock surrender even as his eyes glittered with anger. “Nothing. It’s not my business.”

  “You’re right. It’s not.” Against my better judgment, I downed another glass of tequila and grabbed the decanter. “When can we make our move?”

  “Give me an hour to make some calls and if everything falls into place, we’ll be ready to launch our attack in the next few days.”

  I opened the door to Ignacio’s study. “Fine. I have some stuff to take care of. I’ll be in touch later today.”

  I didn’t wait for any answer. I was out of the house, stripped naked and diving into the pool less than five minutes later. I couldn’t be around anyone right now. I needed to clear my mind and calm my nerves. I felt like a noose was tightening around my throat, and my sanity was dangling from a frayed rope.

  Chapter Five

  Hattie

  Darkness and the stench of rotting flesh greeted me when I opened my eyes again. A damp draft kissed my skin. Scurries of rats or other vermin taunted my ears. Shuddering, I turned onto my side and my fingers trailed through a damp pool of what I assumed was blood. I gagged, but nothing came up, which was probably a testament to how hungry and thirsty I was.

  I scrutinized the walls, the metal door, and the damp ceiling. Squinting, I could see the outline of Raul’s body. I needed to get out of here. I couldn’t wait for Ryker. It could take him weeks to find me and organize a rescue mission. Even then, he might not be successful, or I could be dead by the time he showed up. The events of the last couple of days demonstrated with blinding clarity that Juan Alvarez and his son wouldn’t hesitate to kill me. If I hadn’t told Enrique to shoot Raul, he would’ve shot both of us, and there’d be two rotting corpses on the floor right now instead of one.

  I popped open the metal band around my wrist. I hadn’t fully closed it earlier. I wiggled my fingers. My hand and arm still throbbed, but I could bend all of my fingers. Rolling onto my stomach, I army crawled through the pool of blood. It seeped through the front of my shirt and coated my knees, but I kept inching forward.

  I needed to search his body for a weapon or a phone. I ignored the acid swirling in my stomach. I didn’t want to touch his dead body, and I sure as hell didn’t enjoy crawling through his blood, but I’d run out of alternatives. Raul intended to help me. Now that he was dead, I had to help myself. I needed to be strong. I needed to be smart. I had to take risks because cowering like a mindless drone wouldn’t get me out of here.

  My chains wrenched me backward like a bungee cord, and I couldn’t move another inch. I stretched
out my injured hand, trying to reach Raul. My fingers brushed across the hem of his pants. Tuning out the pain pulsing in my fingers, I curled my hands around his pants and yanked his leg. Pain shot up my arm, and I screamed, but I didn’t let go. I gritted my teeth together and pulled as hard as I could.

  When I’d moved his body a few inches, I wrapped one end of the dangling chain around his ankle and the other end around mine. Squeezing my eyes shut, I crab-walked backward, using my entire body to drag him closer to me. The chain bit into my skin with so much force I thought my ankle would split in half. Sweat beaded on my forehead. My muscles burned.

  Finally, my back brushed against the cement wall, and my shoulders sagged in relief. I did it. Now, I could search his body.

  I patted down one leg, then the other. I felt a lump around his ankle. I tugged up his pants and unstrapped a small pistol. Popping open the ammunition cylinder, I checked for bullets. It wasn’t loaded.

  Dammit.

  I slid the pistol back into the holster.

  Not wasting a second, I dove into the front pocket of his pants. I found a silver money clip filled with a quarter inch of folded bills. I leaned over his body and patted my hand on his other pocket. My fingers brushed against a rectangular object resembling a cell phone. My heartbeat rocketed inside my chest, echoing like a freight train in my head.

  I fumbled, unable to find my way into his pocket. I inhaled through my nose to steady my nerves, and the smell of rotting flesh wafted into my nostrils.

  “Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God,” I mumbled repeatedly as I shoved my hand into the opening and snagged the object from his pocket.

  A phone.

  A freaking phone.

  A thread of hope wrapped around my chest and a light laugh bubbled from my mouth. I swiped my finger across the screen. It only had twenty percent battery left so I had to move fast. With trembling fingers, I dialed Ryker’s cell phone number, silently praying he’d answer his phone.

  “Ryker Vargas,” he said after the first ring.

  “It’s Hattie,” I whispered, cupping my hand over the phone.

  “Hattie, where are you?” His voice was clipped with urgency.

  “I don’t know. In some basement I think.”

  “Whose phone is this?”

  “Raul’s. He said he wanted to help me.” I cleared my throat. “But he’s dead. They shot him right in front of me.”

  “They shot him and left his body.” It wasn’t a question.

  I nodded before remembering he couldn’t see me. “Yes.”

  He didn’t say a word for a few seconds. “Are you hurt?”

  “I’m alive,” I answered. I didn’t want to catalog my injuries for him. We could do that if I ever got out of this place.

  “I’m going to find you. I’m going to get you out of there. I promise. Just hold on another day and I’ll be there.”

  I closed my eyes as relief flowed through my veins. Tears beaded like dewdrops of hope in the corners of my eyes. “Okay.”

  “What else can you tell me about where you are?”

  “I’m chained to a cement wall. The room has a metal door and no windows.” I glanced around the room, looking for any details I’d missed. A sliver of light peeped into the room above my head. “Wait, there are three glass blocks near the top of the wall. They’re really dirty.”

  “What about the exterior of the building?”

  “I haven’t seen it. I woke up in this room, and they haven’t let me go anywhere.”

  “That’s okay.” His voice dropped. “How much battery is left on the phone?”

  I pulled the phone away from my ear. “Eighteen percent.”

  “Turn it off, but turn it back on tomorrow night and put the ringer on vibrate. I’ll text you when I’m close.”

  “You know where I am?”

  “I think so,” he answered. A long drawn out sigh echoed like a faint breeze through the phone. “I’m sorry I let you down.”

  My insides twisted with regret, forgiveness, and anger at him and myself. I shook my head, willing all my conflicted feelings to disappear. “I should’ve stayed on the hotel grounds. I should’ve waited for you to come back.”

  “You didn’t do anything wrong. I shouldn’t have left you alone. I shouldn’t have asked you to go back to Mexico with me.” He cleared his throat. “I made so many mistakes.”

  Chills trickled down my back. “Maybe. Maybe not,” I said because I couldn’t ignore the truth in his declaration, but it didn’t stop me from wanting him. Needing him. Loving him. He held my heart in his hands. He always would regardless of what he did.

  I closed my eyes for a second to gather my thoughts. “Why did you do it?”

  “What?”

  “Help Rever.” A sob erupted from my mouth. I gulped humid air into my lungs, trying to stop the torrent of sadness pounding on my chest. “Didn’t you know you were putting us in danger?”

  “I didn’t think they knew about you.” His breathing turned heavy, whistling through the phone in jagged pants. “And even if they did, I thought I could protect you. I thought I could outsmart them. I thought I could get us out of Mexico before they found you.”

  “Okay,” I mumbled as I processed his answer. Anger pulsed through my veins, but it fizzled as fast as it materialized. As much as I wanted to hate him for failing to grasp the danger of the situation, the emotion seemed irrelevant when I could die tomorrow or five minutes from now. I didn’t want to waste time hating him, punishing him, regretting him. Fate had already conspired against me enough times. I didn’t need to give it another reason to kick me in the face.

  “No matter what happens after this, remember I love you, Hattie. I always will,” he said, interrupting the strained silence.

  I bowed my head, resting it against the tops of my knees as I squeezed the phone like it was my one and only lifeline. I rubbed the budding ache in the center of my chest with the palm of my hand. This conversation felt awkward and wooden, and yet, I wanted to snag his words out of the air, and put them in my pocket forever.

  I closed my eyes and summoned his image. In my mind, I traced the angular line of his jaw, down the strong column of his neck, following it over the smooth rise of his muscular chest and around to the thick bands of muscles bracketing his spine. I licked my lips as I recalled the salty taste of his skin. I inhaled, pretending his familiar scent filled my nose instead of the stench of death and despair. I missed him. I needed him.

  “Yeah, I know. I believe you. I believe in us,” I said.

  Even though I denied him the reciprocal profession of love I thought he wanted to hear, it didn’t stop the words from getting stuck on repeat, struggling to escape the confines of my mind.

  I love you.

  I’ll always love you.

  Forever.

  The words simultaneously slaughtered and fortified my soul, but I didn’t feel like I had the strength to console him or offer him forgiveness. We both had so many sins on our hands. We were broken, I realized with sudden clarity, and I didn’t know how we’d fix it. I just knew we had to find a way.

  “I’ll see you soon, Hattie. Stay strong. Keep fighting.”

  “Okay, I will. Bye, Ryker,” I murmured almost soundlessly.

  I powered off the phone and hid it in the zippered pocket of my running shorts. I didn’t want to hang up. It could be the last time I would ever hear his voice or hear him declare his love.

  I closed my eyes, willing my brain turn off, even for a few hours, but sleep eluded me. Visions of Ryker and me skated through my mind. Fragments of conversations rang in my ears. The feel of his fingers ghosting over my skin assaulted my senses. After minutes that moved like hours, I fell asleep.

  Chapter Six

  Ryker

  Groaning, I clutched the sides of my skull. Why did I think it was a good idea to drink last night? I opened, then immediately closed my eyes. What the hell? The morning sun streamed through the open window. The next time I had a date with a
bottle of tequila I needed to remember to shut the fucking blinds.

  Bang.

  And put in some earplugs. I curled my pillow around my head to block out the sound and the sun.

  Bang.

  “Ryker, are you awake?” Ignacio shouted through the door.

  I added taping a do not disturb sign on the door to my list of things to do next time I drank too much.

  “I’ll be up in ten minutes. Leave me alone.”

  The door flung opening, clattering against the wall. “You should’ve been up two hours ago,” Ignacio barked.

  “Yeah. Yeah,” I grumbled. I swung my legs over the side of the bed. “What time is it anyway?”

  “Almost nine o’clock in the morning.”

  I whipped my head around. “Seriously?” Over ninety-six hours had passed. My stomach rebelled, both from the tequila and the thought of Juan Alvarez torturing Hattie while I drank myself into a forced slumber. God, I was a fucking prick.

  He nodded without saying a word.

  I scratched the side of my neck. “Why’d you let me sleep so long?”

  “I didn’t realize you were still sleeping until twenty minutes ago.”

  I braced my head in my hands. It throbbed like a motherfucker. I drank one too many shots of bad tequila last night. I wasn’t my finest moment, but I needed to do something to stop the regrets and guilt from circling in my brain like a bird of prey, waiting to devour me in a moment of weakness.

  “How much time until the Americans get here?” I asked as I pulled yesterday’s black shirt over my head.

  “They’re already here.”

  “A half hour early,” I mumbled more to myself than him.

  “Yeah, that’s what happens when you offer double the normal rate. They don’t want to piss you off.”

  I yanked my jeans up my legs and fastened the button. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”