Sin (Sinclair O'Malley Book 1)

by J. M. LeDuc

  This had been the biggest point of contention between her and Charlie when she devised the plan of attack. He didn’t understand why she would want to give Veloz any warning.

  She recalled her conversation with Charlie.

  “I need his men to scramble,” she had told him. “Most of the men Veloz uses are locals without any military training. The last time I faced Veloz, these men were sent out on the perimeter to search—they are dispensable. Most just ran. I expect the same thing to happen when they find out I’m gunning for Veloz.”

  “But you’ll also be alerting his elite force,” Charlie retaliated. “That’s a big gamble.”

  “Not as big as you think. Veloz is very leery to let people close to him. He uses a very small security force outside of the locals. My men and I can handle them.”

  Sin stood outside the shop and looked down the street at the condominium. As busy as this city is, there is very little foot traffic near the building, she noticed. Makes sense since it has been deemed unlivable. But she still had the professionals to deal with. She figured she had two choices. Go after them and possibly get a civilian caught in the crossfire or go straight for Veloz and deal with the men when they came to his protection. She opted for number two.

  CHAPTER 30

  Late that night, she made her way to the back of the condominium. This was the side facing the water and where Felix had done most of its damage. Having been born and raised in the Florida Keys, Sin knew hurricane damage when she saw it. There was a white, hazy line that went up to the third floor of the building—salt left over from the storm surge.

  This matched Charlie’s recognizance which said that the first three floors were at total wash out. She also knew from Charlie’s recognizance which room Veloz was in. The condo was a seven story structure with balconies on all of the units. The only thing behind the building was the Caribbean ocean.

  She didn’t see any security. Everyone must have retreated inside, Sin thought.

  Sin pulled the layout of the condominium out and gave it one last look before proceeding. She headed to an exit on the northeast corner of the building. Inside that door was a utility room that led to the lobby. She pulled her weapon and made her way to the entrance. The door’s hinges were busted and it was ajar.

  Looters after the storm, Sin thought.

  She removed her backpack and hugged the rough cement of the building to make entry easier. Sin reached in the pack and felt her gun belt and her Colt 45s. She felt a calming effect just touching the cold steel of the barrel. As much as she wanted to strap on her holster, she knew this wasn’t the time. She released the steel and grabbed her night-vision goggles. Sliding them over her head, she wedged her body through the opening, trying to make as little noise as possible.

  Sin stepped inside the building and slung her pack back on as she surveyed the scene. She could see why it had been condemned. There was nothing salvageable. The only thing in the room was sand, mildew, and a few errant crabs.

  With stealth-like movements, she made her way to the door which led to the lobby. She pressed her ear to the door and listened for voices. She heard two.

  Time to bring the pigs to slaughter.

  She went back to the exterior door and shoved it open, hoping that the rusted hinges would be heard from the lobby. She quickly positioned herself behind a support post and waited.

  She was close enough to the hallway entrance that she could hear the guards’ conversation. She translated it to English in her head.

  “Should we notify Veloz?” one said.

  “No,” said the other. “You know how he hates to be disturbed at night. It’s probably just a bum looking to get out of the rain.”

  “But what if it is the Angel?”

  Sin heard the slide of a semiautomatic weapon snap shut.

  “This is why we get paid. The last time we alerted him for nothing, he docked our pay.”

  “You first.”

  Sin crouched low in wait. She did not want to use her semi-automatic—at least not on the first guard. Even with a suppressor, there was still an audible noise.

  She watched as the door creaked open and the muzzle of a gun poked through.

  Her heart rate increased and a cool sweat began to appear on the back of her neck—an adrenaline spike.

  Go time.

  She lived for these moments.

  The first guard slid in and hugged the wall to the left of the door. The second quickly followed and hugged the right side. The first—the one seemingly in charge—waved the other on. They stayed low and traced the perimeter of the room.

  “If you are looking for a dry place to spend the night,” he yelled to no one in particular, “you are in the wrong building. Leave now and you will not get hurt.”

  Sin listened to his bravado, but her eyes were on the other man—the less sure one. She eased her pistol into the waistband of her jeans and pulled her straight-razor from her pocket. With a silent flip of her wrist, she opened the blade.

  She picked up a small rock and threw it at the open emergency door. The ping sound did not go unnoticed. The guard in charge told the other to stop moving. He then waited for any other sounds while he scanned the room with his weapon. “Go see if you can find the bum outside,” he said.

  “You go see,” the other said in a shaky voice. “If not, I’m calling Veloz.” He held his phone in his free hand.

  “Don’t call,” the first said. “I need this money. I will go check.”

  Sin waited until the first guard made his way through the open door.

  The second guard was timid in his movements. He put his phone in his pocket and slowly walked close to the support post she hid behind.

  She heard him mumble something about the first guard being an asshole and then he leaned his back against the post. She heard the sound of a match strike and the smell of the sulfur drifted toward her, followed by the odor of lit tobacco.

  Big mistake, she thought, he needs two hands to strike a match.

  It would be the last thing he would ever do.

  Sin slit his throat before he could exhale his first puff. Blood and smoke oozed from the gaping slice in his throat.

  She ran to the open lobby door, but had second thoughts. Instead, she hit the dirt and lay prone, gun extended and aimed at the back door. She heard the first guard before she saw him. He was complaining about finding no one as his shadow filled the door frame.

  One shot to the forehead was all it took.

  Sin dragged his body into the room and shut the back door as best she could before making her way into the lobby.

  From there, she found the back stairwell, the one furthest from Veloz’s room. She figured most of the guards would be stationed as close to Veloz as possible.

  Thankfully, she was right. She made it to the fourth floor before running into any resistance.

  As she had on the previous three floors, she waited by the floor leading into the hallway. On the first three, she had heard no one and quickly secured the floor, before heading to the next.

  This time it was different. She heard footsteps and voices. Her pulse quickened as the voices neared. She waited until they were so clear that she knew they had to be just on the other side of the door.

  Both hands on her semi-automatic, she held it straight out in a classic shooters stance and waited for the door to open.

  It didn’t.

  Instead, the guards must have reversed their direction and walked the other way because their voices began to get softer again. More importantly, so did the sound of their footsteps.

  As soon as the voices were faint enough that all she heard was murmuring, she opened the door, dropped flat on her belly, and plugged both. Their knees buckled and they hit the floor—dead.

  Sin checked the rooms, expecting and finding no one, dragged the bodies into the stairw
ell, and made her way to the fifth floor.

  The fifth and sixth were empty.

  She knew she would find resistance on the seventh. Veloz’s hideout. Before ascending the stairs to the seventh floor, she removed the clip from her weapon and reloaded. What the hell, she said to herself as she pulled back the slide and chambered a bullet, if this is the last thing I do, I’m going out in a blaze of fucking glory.

  Sin crept up the stairs to the top floor, trying not to even breathe if it wasn’t necessary.

  Surprisingly, she didn’t hear any sound coming from the hallway.

  This did not sit well with her psyche.

  There have to be guards on the floor.

  Sin looked at her watch—it was almost two a.m. She needed to finish this mission and be out of the building by daylight. She hated the idea, but she had to play a waiting game.

  Approximately thirty minutes later, she heard the door to a room close. Listening with her ear to the door, she heard three distinct sets of footsteps. This is more like it, she thought.

  The guards seemed to stay near Veloz’s room because their footsteps never got louder and they didn’t speak.

  She gave them enough time to see if they were going to walk a sentry or just stay put. They stayed put.

  From what Charlie had told her, the building did not have electricity, although Veloz ran a generator in his room. His recognizance photos showed a generator on the balcony of his suite.

  She knew they were loud when they were running, and she hoped the humming of the generator would cover her suppressed fire.

  She eased the door open and peaked down the darkened hall. A dim battery-operated light showed a fuzzy, obscure glow in the hall. Two shadowy figures sat—probably sleeping—in chairs while one stood outside of Veloz’s door smoking.

  She took out the one standing first and quickly dismissed the other two before a word or shot could be fired from any of them.

  Sin made her way down the hall and stood, back against the wall next to Veloz’s apartment.

  She heard nothing but the droning of a television and the humming of the generator.

  Sweat poured down her face as her adrenaline reached a new high. She closed her eyes for a moment and thought, It’s now or never, Sin. This is what you came here for. She nodded as if to give herself permission, and tried the doorknob.

  Locked.

  A thought came to her as she was planning how to get into the room. She checked the guards’ pockets and found a key with a corresponding number to the condo.

  She slid it into the keyhole, scrunched up her face, and gritted her teeth, hoping the tumblers would move silently. Her body relaxed as the key turned in an efficient, smooth manner.

  Sin opened the door, staying behind the safety of the wall. Peering to the side, she was able to ascertain that the room was in the living area of a two-room suite. From the eerie glow of the television, she saw Veloz’s bodyguard asleep on the couch and a young girl tied up and sleeping on the only chair in the room. Easing herself into the room, she silently made her way toward the guard.

  The couch was situated such that his head was closest to her. She reversed her sidearm and held it by the barrel like a hammer. With a powerful blow, she cracked the butt end of the grip against the guard’s temple. She checked his carotid artery for a pulse. He was alive, but he wasn’t going to wake up any time soon.

  Sin made her way to the little girl and put her hand over the child’s mouth so she couldn’t scream. The girl woke up in a fright—eyes wide, body trembling. She tried to scream, but Sin covered her mouth with more force.

  The girl didn’t appear to be more than twelve or thirteen years old.

  Whispering in the child’s ear, Sin told her that she was there to help and that the girl needed to trust her.

  The frightened child continued to shake in terror.

  Sin brought her pistol in front of the girl’s eyes to let her see the grip and brought her lips to the girl’s ear. “YO soy la Perla Angel. He venido a llevarte a casa, pero tienes que estar muy tranquila para mí. ¿Puedes hacerlo?” I am the Pearl Angel. I have come to take you home, but you need to be very quiet for me. Can you do that?

  Tears flowed down the girl’s cheeks as she nodded vigorously.

  Sin knelt in front of her and smiled. “I need to keep you tied up for a little while longer in case anyone comes in,” she whispered. “No matter what you hear from the other room, I need you to stay quiet.”

  The little girl again nodded.

  Sin kissed her gently on her cheek—tasting the salt of her tears—and ran her fingers through her long black hair.

  The door between the two rooms was ajar and light was coming from the adjacent bedroom. Sin could hear Veloz having his way with a woman.

  Pig, she thought.

  Sin took a deep breath and burst into the room, both hands on her weapon. Sin’s eyes darted around the room before locking on to Veloz. “Say one word, asshole,” she said through gritted teeth, “and I’ll blow your nuts off.”

  Veloz tried to reach for his gun, but his girth and the weight of the naked woman sitting on top of him slowed his movements. Sin fired one bullet straight through his shoulder.

  The woman was so drugged up, she just sat there and continued to try and ride Veloz. With his good hand, he backhanded the woman so hard, she practically took flight. She landed with a hard thud on the cement floor.

  Sin reached down with one hand to help the woman up, while keeping her eyes and gun on Veloz.

  For her trouble, the woman slapped her hand away and spit at Sin.

  “Girlfriend?” Sin asked in Spanish.

  Veloz’s eyes were dilated and a cold sweat poured off his corpulent flesh. He looked high as a kite. A laugh void of emotion emitted from his trout-like lips as he lay, naked to the world. His good hand covered his wound and blood oozed between his fingers. “Justo otra puta,” he groaned. Just another whore.

  He nodded toward the nightstand and spoke in very heavy accented English. “I seems to be out of hands, you help me out?”

  Sin decided to play his game and reached into her own pocket and fished two cigarettes out of a pack. Keeping her eyes on the prize, she lit them both and handed one to Veloz. With a trembling hand and bloody fingers, he put the cigarette to his mouth and inhaled.

  “Your English has gotten better since the first time we met,” Sin said.

  “It helps in my line of work,” Veloz moaned.

  Sin looked at the woman on the ground who was now crawling toward the door. With the sole of her boot, she pushed the woman over and told her to lie still. “Stay on your back and don’t move. That’s one thing you should know how to do.”

  Again, Veloz laughed.

  The woman—eyes wild and red—spit again in Sin’s direction. Sin pushed her harder, rolling her further away from her and the door. “Bitch,” she said, “God knows what diseases she’s carrying.”

  Veloz laughed a phlegm filled laugh. “Diseases? What you care about diseases? You’ll never make it out of here alive.”

  Sin grabbed a desk chair and turned it so she was sitting straddling the back. “I might not get out of here alive, but I sure as hell am not going anywhere alone.”

  Veloz exhaled another lungful of smoke and was about to say something when Sin shut him up.

  “You and I are going to have a conversation,” she said.

  Veloz squinted and glared at Sin. “Fuck you!”

  Sin waved her gun in front of Veloz. “Judging from my vantage point, you don’t have what it takes.”

  Veloz flicked his cigarette at her and went to yell when she fired a bullet into his other shoulder. Before he could scream, she was off the chair and smothering the fat man with a pillow.

  “I would love to suffocate your fat ass, but I have questions that you’re going to
answer.” With a final shove, she removed the pillow from his face.

  Veloz struggled for a breath like a drowning victim coming up from the deep. When he opened his mouth wide, Sin stuck the barrel of her gun in his mouth.

  She thumbed the hammer back and applied slight pressure to the trigger. “Do I have your attention, asshole?”

  Veloz nodded as best he could with the barrel buried in his mouth.

  “How are you getting the girls to Heap?”

  She removed the barrel of the gun, so he could speak.

  “What you talking ‘bout?”

  Sin lowered the gun and shot out his right knee.

  “Fuck!” The word was guttural and weak.

  His agony was stifled by the barrel back in his mouth. “I have more bullets than you have joints, is that understood?”

  Veloz’s extremities began to quiver as did a slight facial twitch.

  “I will ask you again, how do you get the girls to the Keys?”

  Veloz’s strength seamed to wan as the twitching and trembling increased. “A fish . . . fishing boat picks them up from pier behind building.”

  “See, that wasn’t so hard. Next question, when is the next shipment?”

  “Sunrise, a boat will come.”

  “Where are the girls now?”

  “How fuck I know. I just know they be here at sunrise to meet boat.”

  “Then what happens?”

  “The merchandise is inspected,” a perverted smirk swept over him, “maybe I keep pick of litter for myself, and money is exchanged for whores.”

  Sin backhanded him with the butt of her gun. “They are innocent young children, not whores.”

  Veloz sat back up in the bed and steadied himself. “Maybe in your world, but in this one, they are what I want them to be.” He spoke without emotion. It was enough to make Sin’s flesh crawl. “Even their parents don’t want them. Do you think the parents don’t know what is going to happen to their babies? Hell, they dress them up and make them look pretty just so my men will pick them.”