by Elle James
Maggie dug her heels into the ground and stopped. “You’re not actually considering showing up for Delgado, are you?”
“If I want him off my back and yours, I may have to confront him.”
Her pulse quickened and her chest grew tight. “You heard the bartender. And you’ve seen news reports. Confrontations with the cartel don’t end up well.”
Chase didn’t look at her. He scanned the immediate vicinity, studying it as if committing every nook and cranny to memory. “He won’t leave us alone unless I show up here.”
“Then we should leave Cabo.” She touched his arm. “Now.”
“I have a feeling it won’t be an option. He probably has contacts at the airport. He had them at the hotel. He wants a piece of me and won’t be satisfied until he gets it.”
“So, you’re just going to march into a hive of cartel thugs? Alone and unarmed?” Maggie shook her head, her heart hammering, her mind spinning with the potential scenarios. “Why did you get into a fight with Delgado?” she asked. “You don’t strike me as someone who goes around picking fights with cartel members. Perhaps it’s all some big misunderstanding.”
A smile twisted into a grimace on Chase’s face. “What do most men fight over?”
“Money, cars, women?” Maggie lifted her hands, palms upward. “You name it.”
Chase chuckled. “Point taken. This time it was a woman.”
“A woman?” Maggie frowned, her fingers curling, her nails ready to dig into any woman who came close to Chase. “What woman?”
He turned to face her and lifted one of her hands. “You.”
The soft tone of his voice and the way he laced his fingers with hers made her weak-kneed and ready to fall into his arms. “Me?” she said, though the sound came out as more of a squeak than a word.
“You,” Chase repeated. “I hit the head, the bathroom, after so much beer and tequila. By the time I came back, Delgado had cornered you at the bar and was hitting on you.”
“But I wouldn’t have given him the time of day, if I’d just married you.”
“Apparently, you were trying to give him the brush-off, but he wasn’t taking no for an answer. About the time I saw what was happening, he grabbed your arm.” He turned her palm up and pressed his lips to the life line at the center. “I distinctly recall the rush of blood through my veins and the heat about to explode out of my head.”
“You were jealous?” Maggie’s heart seized in her chest, and she held her breath, afraid to breathe until he answered.
“Raging jealousy. I recall it wasn’t a pretty feeling. I marched up to Delgado, clamped a hand to his shoulder and spun him around.”
Maggie gasped. “I’m surprised he didn’t stick a knife into you at that moment.”
“I didn’t give him time to think. I slammed him up against the bar and told him you were my wife and to leave you the hell alone.”
Her heart thrilled at Chase’s words and chilled at the same time. “Delgado could have killed you.”
“Oh, he took a swing and missed. Then he grabbed a bottle from the bar and hit me here.” Chase pointed to the bruise on his cheek. “I knocked the bottle out of his hand. It flew across the room and hit one of his cartel groupies.
“Sweet Jesus.” Maggie pressed a hand to her lips. “You really weren’t thinking.”
“Nope. I was in pure, primal reactionary mode. Someone was hurting my wife. I wouldn’t stand for it. Not on my watch.”
“So, is it true? You beat the shit out of Delgado?”
Chase grimaced. “I didn’t intend to, but he kept swinging. I blocked and swung back.”
“You really are insane,” Maggie said. “The bartender said Delgado’s people tried to help him, which means you fought more than one of them.”
“They tried. But I was in full kick-ass mode.”
“Wow. I suppose I should be grateful.” Maggie shook her head. “But you really set yourself up for retribution. You barely knew me. Why didn’t you just let me defend myself?”
“You were trying, but Delgado was dragging you toward the exit.”
“Well then, thank you,” Maggie said. Vague memories tugged at her mind but refused to solidify. “Do you think the bartender will let Delgado know we were asking questions?”
“If he does, I’m not worried about it. We need to know what we are up against. Delgado already knows. Apparently, he didn’t have as much to drink as we did last night.” He lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “I’m sorry I got you into this mess, but I’m going to get you out of it. I promise.”
“You didn’t get me into this mess. Delgado did that.” Maggie’s insides heated at the touch of Chase’s lips on her knuckles. “Sounds to me like Delgado was going to take off with me, whether I liked it or not.” She lifted his hand to the bruise on his cheek. “You saved me.”
“And put you into more danger by doing so.” He cupped her cheek in his palm and stared down at her.
His blue eyes were so blue, Maggie felt as if she could fall into them and never want to come back out. Yes, she could see how she fell for this man so quickly. He was every woman’s dream come true—he was handsome, he could dance, he was kind to old women, and he took on a drug cartel to save his woman. Her breath caught in her throat.
His woman.
And she was trying to get out of the marriage. Hell, she couldn’t hold him to the vows, knowing they were spoken while shit-faced drunk. He’d said it himself that he wouldn’t have married her had he been sober.
After all she’d learned about Chase, the thought of annulling their marriage didn’t hold the same appeal as it had a few hours earlier. To be fair, she had to. No man should marry when he was drunk. She’d been stone-cold sober when she’d considered marrying Lloyd, and that decision had been stupider than marrying a complete stranger after several rounds of tequila shots.
No matter. The marriage would be annulled before they left Cabo San Lucas. If they left in one piece. First, they had to get past the midnight deadline with Delgado, a badass affiliated with one of the most violent cartels in Mexico.
Chapter 6
Chase ushered Maggie along the beach to the next big resort, rather than walking along the street where they could be targeted in a drive-by shooting. Once at the resort, they asked the concierge to call a cab.
Within minutes, the cab arrived. Chase bundled Maggie inside, and they were whisked away, headed back to their resort compound several blocks away.
“What’s your plan, Mr. Flannigan?” Maggie asked as soon as the cab pulled away from the curb.
“I’m not sure yet. I want to convene with Trevor and Carson to see if they have some ideas as to how to handle a confrontation with a cartel.”
“Should we go to the American Consulate or something?” she asked. “Do they even have a consulate here in Cabo?”
He rested his back against the seat and scraped a hand over his face. “I don’t know. But I can’t see that being much help, unless we want to hole up in their building.” His eyes narrowed. “Actually, that might be a good idea. While I’m dealing with Delgado, you could be safe in the consulate, if they have one here.”
“Nope.” Maggie crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not hiding in some government building, while you’re taking one for the team, namely for me.”
Chase frowned. “He’s not after you so much as me. And I can’t have you tagging along to this event. It’s not a conga line with a bunch of drunks. These cartels mean business. They shoot first and ask questions later, if at all.”
“If you’re going,” she poked a thumb at her chest, “I’m going.”
No way was Chase taking her to the confrontation with Delgado. “If you’re there, you put me at greater risk. I can’t defend myself if I’m worried about you. They might take you hostage and use you to manipulate me.”
“Then I’ll come in disguise. I’ll be a regular tourist in the right place at the wrong time.”
Before she finished talking, he was already shaking his head. “You know they’re armed with machine guns. They’ve been known to shoot innocent tourists on the beach with those kinds of weapons.”
“I don’t care.” She lifted her chin. “I’m just as much responsible for this situation as you are.” She threw back her shoulders. “I’m going, even if I have to disguise myself as a dog and bark for treats.”
Chase pressed his lips into a thin line. He admired the fact that she felt just as compelled to confront Delgado as he did, and she was fearless in her desire to help, but he couldn’t have her anywhere near when the shit went down. If he wanted to even the odds a little, he had to come up with a plan to surprise the cartel thug. With only three SEALs, they didn’t stand a chance against even a third of the cartel members in the Cabo area. Yeah, they were highly trained combatants, but ten or twenty-to-one odds were impossible. “We’ll discuss it later,” he said, though he had no intention of backing down and allowing her to accompany them to La Casa Loca that night.
Back at the hotel, Chase hustled Maggie into the lobby and to the elevator, keeping her close to his body should Delgado or one of his men be lurking nearby, waiting for Chase and Maggie to show up. They made it into the elevator with no problems along the way.
On their floor, Maggie stepped out of the elevator beside Chase and looked both ways. “Which room? Mine or yours?”
Chase stepped past her. “Yours. I’ve texted Trevor. He said he’ll be here shortly.”
“Hopefully Gina will know where Carson is,” Maggie said.
Chase nodded. “I could use all the firepower I can get. Ask him if he has any weapons. I really don’t want to go in empty-handed, if that’s the path we choose.”
“You might be out of luck on the weapons. I’m sure neither you nor your buddy got through customs carrying pistols, automatic rifles and machine guns. And I have no idea what Carson brought across the border.”
“True. But I have the Ka-Bar knife I packed in my checked bag. And I’ll bet Trevor didn’t leave home without his.”
Maggie shook her head. “Knives against automatic weapons. I’m not feeling really good about this. You don’t have any high-powered friends in this part of Mexico, do you? Maybe a connection with an opposing cartel or something?”
Chase blew out a long breath. “Afraid not.” He wondered if they still had time to call in a favor from his new boss, Hank Patterson. “Let me get on the phone and see if I can get any assistance in this matter.”
“We don’t have a lot of time.” Maggie shot a glance at her watch. “It’s just past noon. We have less than eleven hours to midnight. We could use a miracle right about now.”
As much as he liked the sound of Maggie referring to them as we, he still had no intention of bringing her with him to La Casa Loca that night.
Chase let Maggie slide her key card over the door lock, but then set her to the side and entered first.
“Hey, it’s my room,” Maggie groused.
Chase paused with his hand on the doorknob. “How often have you breached a room that could be filled with hostiles?”
“Every time I walked into my father’s office,” she muttered.
“Did he shoot at you?” Chase asked.
“Not with bullets.” She rolled her eyes. “Okay. You’ve proven your point. You can clear the room before I enter.”
Chase gave her a curt nod and entered the suite, moving quickly and quietly from room to room until he was certain it was enemy-free.
Maggie entered. “I’m going to freshen up, and then order something for us to eat through room service.”
While Maggie was in the bathroom, Chase placed a call to his new boss in Montana.
On the first ring, Hank answered, “Patterson speaking,”
“Hank, Chase Flannigan here,” he said.
“Chase. Good to hear from you. But I thought you were on vacation. You shouldn’t be calling me until you get back.” He paused for a second. “You’re not in Montana, are you?”
“No, sir,” Chase said. “I’m in Mexico, and I’ve run into a bit of a challenge I was hoping you might be willing to give me some advice on or help with.”
“Shoot,” Hank said, his tone as authoritative as any SEAL commander Chase had served under.
He had just finished explaining the situation to Hank when he heard the water shut off in the bathroom. “Any help or advice you can give me is welcome,” he ended.
Hank whistled. “Cartels are a bad deal. Let me put a few heads together on this, and I’ll get back to you.”
“Thank you, sir. Again, any advice would be helpful.”
“You’ll hear from me in less than an hour,” Hank promised and hung up.
“Who was that?” Maggie walked out of the bedroom into the sitting area. “I hope it was room service. I’m starving.”
“Sorry, it wasn’t.” He lifted the house phone to call room service. “Pizza or sandwiches all right?”
She nodded. “Either sounds great. But if it’s pizza, make it pepperoni. I really like pepperoni, but I rarely get to choose what I like.”
He smiled. “A woman after my own heart.” Chase ordered a pepperoni pizza with double pepperoni. When he set down the phone, he studied Maggie. “Why don’t you get to choose what you like on your pizza?”
She drew in a breath and let it out. “My father gets heartburn with pepperoni, and my ex-fiancé wouldn’t eat pizza unless it was some fancy kind with baked tomatoes and spinach. All I ever wanted was a fast-food-chain pizza with pepperoni.”
“Why didn’t you ask for what you wanted?”
“I was always overruled by dominating men. When I was a teen, I’d sneak out of the house and use my father’s sports car to pick up my favorite pizza, take it to a park and eat half of it by myself. The other half, I’d hide in my backpack and carry up to my room to eat later.”
“As an adult you couldn’t get what you wanted?”
She shrugged. “Not when I was with either of them.”
He frowned. “You do like pepperoni, right? You’re not just settling on it because I like it, are you?”
She smiled. “Not at all. It’s my favorite. And if you recall, I chose pepperoni before you said what you liked.”
“That’s right.” He shook his head. “Must be some residual brain lapses.”
The handle on the door to the suite jiggled.
Chase’s attention shot to the door, and he hurried toward it.
The door burst open and Gina entered, followed by Carson, Trevor Anderson and Anderson’s pregnant wife Lana.
“Look who I found.” Gina dropped her purse on one of the sofas and flopped down beside it. “Seems SEALs are like magnets. They gravitate toward each other. Carson spotted Trevor from across the lobby.”
“Hey, Chase.” Trevor grinned, guiding his wife to the other end of the sofa. “Gina tells me you’ve made an enemy.”
“Glad to see Lana made the flight safely,” Chase said. “And yes, I’ve acquired an enemy. I could use some help, but I’m not sure how involved I want you to be. You have a baby on the way. Now is not a good time for you to waltz into a cartel rumble.”
Trevor’s eyebrows shot up. “True, but then, I can’t let you go in by yourself,” Trevor said. “Cartel trouble, huh? Why don’t you skip it altogether?”
“Because I can’t trust that Raul Delgado will leave Maggie alone.”
Trevor smiled and crossed the room to Maggie. “Pardon my friend’s rudeness.” He stuck out his hand. “I’m Trevor Anderson.” He shook Maggie’s hand and turned toward his wife. “And this is my beautiful wife, Lana.”
Maggie smiled at Lana. “Nice to meet you.”
“Did you say Raul Delgado?” Carson stood behind the couch, his hands resting on Gina’s shoulders. “As in the Jalisco cartel’s leader, Raul Delgado?”
Chase nodded, his lips forming a tight line. “The one and only.”
Carson whistled. “I’ve been here long enough
to know you don’t piss off anyone in the Jalisco cartel.”
“Yeah, well, he was hitting on my wife,” Chase said.
“Wife?” Trevor frowned. “What wife?”
“You just met her.” Chase’s lips twisted in a wry smile. “Apparently, I went on a bender last night, danced the salsa with this woman, closed down one bar and formed a conga line that stretched all the way down the beach to a twenty-four-hour wedding chapel where we tied the knot, and then ended up in La Casa Loca where I crossed Raul Delgado.”
Trevor’s eyes widened with Chase’s explanation. “Holy shit, man. All that in one night?” He shook his head. “I can’t leave you alone for a minute, can I? What are you going to do when I’m not around to bail you out of jail or trouble?”
Chase frowned. “Really, I don’t want you to bail me out of this one. I’m afraid it’s more than you or I can handle.”
Carson raised a hand. “You can count me in, if it helps. I’ve been bored since I got here. I could use a little action.”
“Thanks, but even three of us can’t go up against an entire cartel.” Chase paced the floor, head down, thinking.
“One of my specialties in the SEALs was explosives. I can make things go boom with practically nothing,” Carson offered. “You don’t meet him until midnight, do you?”
Chase nodded. “Midnight. But we’d have to sneak in, plant the explosives and hope we didn’t hurt anyone else. He’s asked to meet behind La Casa Loca. That’s a pretty popular tourist spot. We could create a lot of collateral damage if we go around blowing up shit.”
“Not to mention, if you kill civilians and tourists,” Gina piped in, “the Mexican government would lock you up and throw away the key.”
“Or turn you over to the cartel,” Carson said. “They don’t like dealing with them anymore than we do. Half the time, they pay them to leave folks alone.”
Chase met Maggie’s gaze. “Like the bartender said. He pays the cartel to leave him alone. Without weapons, we don’t stand a chance. From what I’ve heard, the cartel has everything from semi-automatic rifles to submachine guns. They aren’t afraid to employ them in crowded tourist areas, either.”
