by Elle James
“Are you sure you can handle that weapon?” Carson asked Gina.
She nodded, hefting the AR-15 in her hands. “I’ve got this.”
He handed her a magazine and a box of bullets. “What was your MOS in the Army?”
She glanced away. “Doesn’t matter. They train everyone in basic combat skills. I qualified as an expert marksman. That’s all you need to know.” She filled the magazine with rounds and slammed it into the weapon. “I’m ready to go.”
“You think Mr. Neal will stay put in the hotel room until we get back to him?” Trevor asked.
Gina shrugged. “We can only hope.”
Carson grunted. “I read him the riot act about getting in the way of anything we’re doing to rescue Maggie. He understands we’re up against some pretty bad dudes.”
“Does he also understand that you three are highly trained Navy SEALs?” Gina asked.
“I explained it to him. He wanted to come with us, but I told him he needed to stay at the hotel in case Maggie was freed and made her way back. She’d be frightened and would need someone she knew and loved to be there for her.”
Gina nodded. “That ought to do it.”
“I also told him that if he interfered with our mission, I’d shoot him,” Carson said.
“I’m glad you told him that and not me,” Chase admitted. “That man is my father-in-law. Shooting him wouldn’t make my new bride happy.”
“Speaking of which,” Trevor said. “What the hell made you tie the knot in the first place?”
“A lot of tequila and a special woman who loves life and has a good heart,” Chase said. “Now, let’s go get her back, or my marriage will set records for how short it was.”
“You thinking of staying married?” Trevor asked. “I thought you’d stay a bachelor for life.”
“Things change,” Chase said, his answer short, almost terse. He didn’t want to waste time explaining himself when he wasn’t all that sure of why he’d married Maggie in the first place. The argument because it felt right seemed lame, though it was true. Whatever the reason, he had to save Maggie from Delgado or none of his reasons would matter.
As they were loading into Carson’s SUV, Chase’s cellphone buzzed in his pocket. He dug it out. UNKNOWN CALLER displayed on the screen. Thinking it might be Delgado, he hit the talk button. “Yeah.”
“Flannigan? Hank, here.”
“Hank, we’re about to head out. Do you have any suggestions on how to handle this situation?”
“Yeah, wait for us,” Hank said.
“What do you mean?” Chase stared out at the lengthening shadows. “I can’t wait. We’re taking the fight to Delgado at his place in the hills outside of the city. If we don’t leave now, we might not catch him at home.”
“Then go, but send me the GPS location. We’re at the airport, loading into vehicles as we speak.”
“You’re here?” Chase’s heart swelled with hope. “In Cabo San Lucas?”
“We are.” Hank chuckled. “Me and five of my best men. Send us the location. We’ll join you as soon as we can.”
Chase sent Delgado’s address to Hank in a text and then asked, “What about arms?”
“We arrived in a private plane. We have what we need,” Hank said. “Don’t wait on us. If you could slow them down long enough for us to get there, we might even the odds a little.” Hank paused. “Any word on the girl? Have you located her?”
“No on both counts. All we have is the Delgado’s deadline. Midnight tonight. If the preemptive attack doesn’t work out, I’ll fall back on the original demand.” His gut knotted. “And pray the bastard doesn’t change his mind and kill Maggie first.”
“Right,” Hank said. “We’re on our way.”
Trevor stood at Chase’s side as he ended the call. “Was that Hank?”
Chase nodded. “I can’t believe he made it here in just a few hours.”
“Here in Cabo?”
“Yup,” Chase said. “With five of his best men.”
Trevor grinned. “That’s Hank for you. He’s there when you need him. And he has a network of friends with money and assets who can get him where he needs to be, when he needs to get there.” Trevor clapped his hands together. “Gang, we have backup. This mission just got better.”
Chase wasn’t as quick to think everything would turn up roses. “We still don’t have a bead on Maggie. She might not even be in Delgado’s home. He could have taken her to some other cartel compound.”
“From what my sources tell me, Delgado likes to run his operation out of his house. He has it set up the way he likes, and the high wall around it slows down or keeps out the riff-raff.”
“Speaking of which,” Gina said, “we’ll have to scale that wall. I never was good at vertical leaps, and I’m barely five and a half feet tall.”
“We’ve scaled walls in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Trevor said.
“We’ve got this,” Carson said. “And we’ll get you over it. No worries.”
“Good,” Gina said. “Then maybe we’d better get going so we can get into place before sundown.”
“Shouldn’t we wait for Hank and his men?” Carson asked.
Chase shook his head. “I’m afraid that if we wait too long, there might not be anything left of Maggie. He has the address and GPS. He’ll be here in time to provide the backup we’ll need. In the meantime, we can scope the surroundings and come up with plan to breach the compound. Hopefully, Hank and his guys will get there before we’re in so far over our heads we can’t dig our way out.”
Carson chose a 9mm Glock and stuffed explosives into one of his pockets and detonators in the other. “Let’s get moving.”
Gina and the three former Navy SEALs piled into Carson’s SUV and headed out of the city and up into the hills overlooking Cabo and the ocean in the distance. The sun was just slipping into the ocean when they arrived at a location where they could hide the vehicle. At a mile away from their target, they’d continue on foot to the compound and perform a quick reconnaissance of the walls, the security system and take a count of the number of guards on duty. With only the four of them to start with, they could easily be bested in a matter of minutes if discovered. An all-out attack wasn’t an option. They had to sneak in by scaling a wall. Then they’d have to take out the exterior guards, enter Delgado’s home, locate Maggie and get her out without her being harmed. The chances of them getting in, extracting Maggie and getting back out without alerting Delgado’s men were slim. But they had to find Maggie before Delgado used her to force them to lay down their arms and surrender to him and his men. Just like surrendering to the Taliban, the odds of the SEALs surviving once that happened were nil.
Being caught wasn’t an option.
From all Carson had told them, the cartel members were ruthless and always out for blood. They didn’t let their enemies go unharmed. Most of the time, they used them as examples, torturing and killing them as a warning to others not to cross them. Raul Delgado was one of the worst for using this terror tactic.
After they hid the truck in the brush, the men and Gina gathered their weapons and took off over the hills, moving in the direction of Delgado’s home. They moved quickly across rough terrain, careful not to expose themselves to anyone who might be lurking. The setting sun cast long, dark shadows, giving them sufficient concealment as they navigated the hills and gullies, working their way toward Delgado’s compound.
The road curving up to his hilltop hideaway switched back and forth. The four of them kept climbing, keeping a watch on the road from a distance. So far, they hadn’t seen anyone going up or down.
Chase worried they were setting their sights on the wrong goal. Maggie might not be inside the cartel leader’s compound after all. If she wasn’t, they’d wasted precious time getting there. But with no other intel on Delgado’s haunts, they didn’t have any other choice.
First over the top of the ridge, Chase spotted the compound on the next rise. He stopped and held up a fist fo
r the others to stop as well.
They huddled to study their target.
Surrounded by high walls, the building within the walls was large and sprawling with windows on the upper level that probably had a great view of the ocean below.
“I spot a guard on the rooftop.” Carson handed Chase the binoculars he’d brought along with him.
Chase had been looking through the scope of his rifle and had yet to spot him. With the wider range of the binoculars, he picked up quickly on a man in black, carrying a rifle. He leaned against a wall, staring out over the road leading up to the main gate.
Chase looked closer. “Two men on the gate, and one roaming the outer wall on this side. For all we know, there might be another on the other side and the rear.”
“We can take the guy on the wall and go over the top,” Trevor said. He glanced at the last of the sun dipping downward into the ocean to the west.
“By the time we get close to the wall, it’ll be dark enough to provide cover for our approach,” Gina said.
At that moment, Chase’s cellphone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out and stared down at the name on the screen. He hit the talk button and pressed the phone to his ear. “Hey, Hank.”
“We ran into a bit of luck at the airport,” Hank said. “At the general aviation ramp, we overheard the pilot of another plane talking to a truck driver about a delivery he had for the same address as the one you gave us. We waited until he’d loaded the cargo from the plane into the truck. When he had it all loaded, he went back into the terminal, giving us the opportunity to add to his cargo.”
“What are you telling me?” Chase asked.
Hank chuckled. “We hitched a ride in the back of the delivery truck. We’re well on our way.”
Chase could feel the weight of the mission ease a little. “That’s good news.”
“All we need is for you to make sure we get past whatever guards might be at the gate checking the delivery trucks,” Hank said.
“We’ll do our best,” Chase promised. “Be prepared in case we aren’t successful.”
“Roger,” Hank said and ended the call.
Chase pocketed his cellphone and turned the binoculars on the narrow, winding road leading up to Delgado’s compound. “The cavalry is on the way. They hitched a ride in the back of a delivery truck destined for the Delgado compound.”
Trevor clapped Chase on his back. “I told you Hank was a standup kind of guy. Trust him to be there when you need him.”
“We have to get to the compound before they arrive and neutralize the guards on the gate, so that they don’t inspect the back of the delivery truck. At the very least, we need to create enough of a distraction to give the guys a chance to exit the truck and enter the compound on their own.”
“I think we can do that,” Carson said. “I have the C-4 explosives I brought with me. We can set up a pretty decent distraction on the back side of the compound. Enough to take their minds off what’s out front.”
“Okay, Carson, you’re on for setting charges,” Chase said. “Make noise, not so much damage. We don’t know for sure where inside they might be keeping Maggie. We need to time it for when Trevor and I are at the wall. Blow the charge, and we’ll go over during the confusion. Once we’re inside, we’ll find Maggie.”
Trevor’s lips twisted. “That’s a tall order for three SEALs and a soldier.”
Chase shrugged. “Sometimes less is better. We have less chance of being discovered when there are only two of us on the inside.”
“Two? No way. What about me?” Gina asked.
“You need to be Carson’s backup while he’s setting charges. Once he triggers the explosion, you two can slip around to the front and take out the guards on the gate. Since we don’t have radios, we’ll communicate via cellphone texts and coordinate our efforts that way. But first, we need get to the base of the compound. Set your phones to silent if you haven’t already.”
Chase checked through the binoculars again and spotted the headlights of a vehicle on the road, climbing up the hill from far below. He trained the lenses on it. When it switched back, he could tell it was a cargo truck. “We need to get moving. Hank and his team are on their way up now and will be here soon. We need to be ready for when they arrive. I anticipate no more than ten minutes.”
“Let’s do this,” Trevor said.
Carson grinned in the dusk, his teeth flashing white in the darkening gloom. “God, I missed this.”
“Just don’t do anything to put yourself or others at any more risk than we’ll already have,” Chase warned. “Our number one goal is to get Maggie out alive.”
Carson gave a mock salute. “Gotcha.”
“Will do,” Trevor said.
“Operation Save Maggie,” Gina said. “But, boy, I want to kick some Delgado ass while we’re at it.”
“We might get our chance,” Chase said. “Let’s just make sure he doesn’t end up kicking ours or Maggie’s first.”
Chapter 10
Maggie made it outside the kitchen only to find herself in a driveway that led around the side of the sprawling house. Dusk was settling in around the house, but the stars had yet to make their appearance in the sky to light her path. She clung to the shadows of the mansion, though the white stucco would probably silhouette her body against it. She bent low and moved close to the bushes and small trees planted close to the building.
Her heart hammered in her chest, but she couldn’t let fear rule her. She’d come this far; she wouldn’t let them recapture her and take her back to Delgado. He might grow tired of dealing with her and kill her outright. But then he wouldn’t have a bargaining chip to lure Chase to his assignation at La Casa Loca. Then again, Chase wouldn’t know she was dead and would show up anyway. He wouldn’t give up on her if he thought there was any chance of saving her from Delgado.
No, she had to stay alive, get the hell off the compound and find her way back to Cabo San Lucas to stop Chase from showing up at midnight.
As she approached a corner, she heard men’s voices. She dropped to her haunches beside a yucca plant and froze.
A shout sounded behind her, and a man burst through the door of the kitchen she’d come out of moments before.
Maggie swore beneath her breath. She recognized the man she’d hit over the head and locked in the cell below. She shrank lower in the shadows and prayed he wouldn’t see her.
Two other men rounded the corner she’d almost gone around and ran toward the shouting man. They spoke in rapid Spanish.
While they were occupied, Maggie crawled on her hands and knees to the corner of the building, took a deep breath and slipped around it. Then she scrambled to her feet and ran for the compound wall. Her pulse beat so hard against her eardrums, she could barely hear anything else. She’d made it to the wall, and no one was shouting. No footsteps sounded behind her. But there was nothing to climb to get over the top. She moved amongst the bushes along the wall until she reached a trellis covered in bougainvillea vines and blossoms.
Heart pounding and breathing ragged, she dug her feet into the trellis and climbed, her hands and face scraped by the branches. After she’d made it only four feet up the trellis, hands gripped her around her hips and jerked her from her perch and back to the ground.
Maggie dropped to her hands and knees, rolled onto her back and leveled a kick at the man’s groin.
He cursed in Spanish and doubled over, giving Maggie time to crab-crawl backward. She flipped over and launched herself away from the man, only to run headfirst into another. This one caught her around her middle and crushed her against him, pinning her arms to her sides. She couldn’t get enough leverage to kick him hard, and she couldn’t wiggle her way free. He held onto her so tight, she could barely breathe.
The man spoke in Spanish to someone else, and then carried her to the front of the house where he tossed her to the ground.
Maggie rolled and sprang to her feet, ready to run. One glance around made her freeze in pla
ce.
Lights shone down on her from the corners of the house. Four men pointed rifles at her, their fingers on the triggers, ready to shoot.
Raul Delgado emerged from the house and descended the steps to where she stood, a handgun pointed at her chest. “Go. Run for it. I have no use for you. You have caused enough trouble.”
“You want me to run so you can shoot me in the back.” She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. “If you’re going to shoot me, do it now. I want you to look into the eyes of the woman you’re about to kill.”
Delgado’s eyes narrowed. He raised his handgun, pointing it at Maggie’s face. “It would be a shame to destroy such a pretty face.” He lowered the weapon, and his lips curled into a sneer. “I have much better use for one like you.” He nodded toward the man closest to him. “Tie her up and put her in my bedroom. And when I’m done with you,” he leaned close to Maggie’s face and sneered, “my men can have you to do with as they will.”
Maggie’s stomach roiled. These men were animals. She’d die before she let one of them rape her. Especially Delgado. As the man approached her, she bunched her muscles, ready to fight with every last breath.
Chase and Trevor positioned themselves at one side of the compound while Carson and Gina worked their way around to the back. Up until they were within a couple yards of the compound, Chase had kept an eye on the guard on the roof. That man’s attention seemed to be on the front of the house and the road leading up to the compound. The truck headlights were within a quarter of a mile of the gate and closing fast.
Chase’s cellphone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out and read the text.
Ready
He texted back.
Go
A loud explosion erupted.
Trevor bent and cupped his hands.
Chase stepped into them and reached for the top of the wall. He dragged himself up to the top and lay low until he was sure all was clear. The guard on the roof had moved to the rear of the building to check out what had caused the explosion.
