by Ty Patterson
He waited for them to comment, and when they kept silent, he continued.
‘Zeb says no bullet came close to him, and it takes a couple of seconds to go from here to the dining room. Enough time to have some wild shots in that general direction.’
‘So you’re saying they weren’t after Zeb?’
Chapter 16
‘Bingo. They were out to kill Krone. One of the guys at the back rushed Zeb when he could’ve taken him out with his MP-5. Now, maybe that guy was overconfident, thought he could take on Zeb one on one and claim the kill, but these bullet holes here are obvious. Zeb wasn’t their primary target.’
‘Who, then?’
Zeb was looking away in the distance when Meghan’s question roused him.
‘This was a cleanup gang. They were here to silence Krone and his sidekicks, then take me and the two of you out. Krone was the link to The Man, and once they knew Krone hadn’t succeeded in killing us, they acted. They probably were waiting for some sort of acknowledgement and either didn’t get it or heard the gunfire and knew it had become a clusterfuck.’
Maggie joined them after finishing calls to the cops and her curious neighbors. ‘So who are these new guys?’ She was composed despite the firefight in her home and the damage it had sustained.
Salt of the earth. Just like the sisters, Zeb thought.
‘We can ask them.’ Roger glanced at Zeb. ‘I did ask them politely, and one of them spat at me, but none of them said a word. Palisano was a bit more forthcoming when I hinted that he would get the death penalty. But even he didn’t have much to contribute. He said Krone was the guy who did all the talking with The Man. Krone never told them who The Man was, and Romero and Palisano never met him. We can question these guys again.’
Zeb knew what he meant and shook his head fractionally. If it was solely their mission, he would’ve interrogated the captured men, but the cops and the FBI were involved. In any case, he didn’t want to question them with women around.
But that didn’t mean they couldn’t do anything else.
Roger and he swiftly searched the bodies, and as they expected, they found no identification. Roger silently pointed at the scorpion tattoo on the backs of the second wave of men. The men were all heavily inked but the scorpion was common on all of them.
Zeb snapped photos of the marking.
They found a phone each on Krone and Romero. Roger had searched the live and dead bodies and had found nothing on them either but their phones. He had marked their phones with a tiny mark that identified their owners.
They laid the phones in the dining room, called Broker, briefed him, and sent him all the numbers on all the phones, as well as pictures of the dead, the alive and the tattoo.
The cops came fifteen minutes later, and the night turned into flashing lights and uniforms.
Zeb pointed the cops in the direction of Krone’s Durango. The cops spread further out, and a distant shout drew a number of them away. They had found the wheels the second group of men had come in.
The FBI then arrived, and the inevitable turf war ensued, but there was only one winner. The Feds carted away the captives and the dead bodies five hours later, just as dawn painted the Idaho sky orange and gold.
It was agreed that the Idaho Falls Police Department and the FBI would take credit for taking down the badasses, and Roger and Zeb would be kept out of the news. Roger and Zeb exchanged glances and shrugged in acceptance. It suited them. Clare and Director Murphy’s doing.
‘They all look Hispanic,’ Maggie mused as they watched the captured men being led into wagons.
Zeb nodded but didn’t say a word. Something was stirring in the deep corners of his mind, something linked to a previous mission. It would come to him when the memory was fully formed.
Pacho watched the Federales and the cops leave, and saw the two men escort the women to a neighbor’s house. Rest and recover.
As he suspected, the men didn’t stay at the neighbor’s house. They returned to the woman’s house and disappeared inside.
Pacho was lying in a depression a thousand yards away, watching the events through a high-powered scope, a Remington M24 sniper rifle by his side. The moment he heard the flash-bang go off, he knew the mission had failed. The second man had been a surprise. Pacho hadn’t seen him arrive.
These two men had easily taken out nine good men. Six of those were Pacho’s best men, handpicked by him, trained by him. He had heard about Krone and his guys from the short man and knew that the mercenary was one of the very best at his business.
He suppressed the rage that swept over him and glanced briefly at his M-24 rifle. He could take the men out from this distance, but then this would turn into a suicide mission. There would be no escape for him as the cops and the Federales would swarm the area.
Now was the time for discretion. Later, when he had more men, he would attack.
He knew where he could find more men. As good as his own had been, if not better.
He would rip off the heads of these two guys and carry them back to Mexico.
‘Should we get him?’ Roger murmured.
Zeb shook his head. The man, alive and free, was worth more.
He had suspected the presence of one more guy since none of the six felt like leader material. Roger and he had slipped out of the back of the McBride home and had circled wide for three miles. They had come from behind where the cops had found the getaway vehicle and had searched till they found another concealed one.
From there, it had been easy to track the man who was now lying prone watching the houses.
They were five hundred feet behind the man, dug deep into the ground, an invisible part of the terrain, and observed him through their scopes.
They saw his lean body lie easily, ignoring any discomfort, and the way he made small economical movements whenever he had to.
‘He saw everything go down. Didn’t lift a finger to help. Knew that would be a one-way ticket. This guy has been around. He’s no pilgrim.’
A couple of hours later, as the sun was beating down on them mercilessly, Pacho slithered back slowly and, when he was fully covered by foliage, rose and headed back to his vehicle. He drove away, taking a circuitous route that would join the road a few miles away from the neighbor’s house.
It was evening when Maggie led the sisters back to her home.
Zeb and Roger had the house cleaned by a professional cleaner recommended by the cops and had taped the broken windows. By the time Maggie returned, the house smelled strongly of room fresheners, but other than the damp and burnt patches on the carpets and the bullet holes, there was nothing to show that the house had witnessed a firefight.
The men were expecting the twins to be subdued since they were still hunting for leads, but Beth’s eyes were shining.
‘Kelly’s got something. The hotel manager where we were staying approached the cops and said they had a Mexican guy staying with them at the same time as us. Now get this – he pointed us out to one of the bellboys and asked him if we were anyone famous. Now the bellboy forgot all about this, and only when he was discussing with the hotel manager the attacks on us did his memory return.’
She turned her phone upside down to show them a blurred picture of a man dining alone in the hotel.
‘I've sent that picture to Broker. The address he provided at the hotel was phoney. Kelly is running his image through various databases to see if they can match him to any identity. Broker will do the same.’
‘Nope. The bellboy or the manager doesn’t remember anything more about the guy. He was short, that’s all they know, which we can see. Why do you ask?’ Kelly’s voice sounded tinny as it came out from Zeb’s phone lying on Maggie’s dining table, surrounded by all of them.
He was responding to Zeb’s question, if the bellboy had seen any markings on the man.
Zeb started to fill him in, but Kelly brushed him off. ‘Yup, the Idaho Falls cops and Connor briefed me. They told me about the tattoo. We’ –
Kelly meant the cops – ‘don’t have anything to tie that ink to any gang marking. The Feds might have, but if so, they aren’t telling.’
He paused. ‘You know anything about it?’ I know you’ve got your own set up which rivals the best; so I’ve heard.
‘Not yet. Will fill you in once I have something.’
Roger narrowed his eyes fractionally as he heard Zeb. Zeb wasn’t telling Kelly about the tracker they had placed on the leader’s wheels. He knew the cops’ involvement stifled Zeb.
Zeb hung up, and his phone rang immediately. He saw the number and moved to take it outside when Beth stopped him. ‘Don’t you dare,’ she hissed.
Zeb settled back, ignored Roger’s grin.
‘Luis Zubia,’ Broker shouted.
‘Who?’ Beth and Meghan shouted back.
‘Ladies, I can hear you just fine.’ He chuckled.
‘The scorpion tattoo is known to be worn by a Mexican drug gang headed by one Luis Zubia. Zubia’s gang is one of the fastest growing gangs, a small one for now, but it is taking on the Sinaloa cartel in a brutal power struggle and territory grab.’
They heard his coffeemaker gurgle in the background.
‘Chances are that Zubia will be crushed, since the Sinaloa guys are too big, too powerful and have too much reach. Unless he pulls something out of the hat, I don’t think he’ll last long. But that doesn’t mean he is any less dangerous. Now the photo you sent me, Zeb, is not very good, but that guy looks like Zubia. His description fits for sure. Zubia is short, middle aged, fit and has thick, black hair and dark eyes. He too has a scorpion tattoo.’
Maggie exclaimed, ‘So how the hell is a drug lord involved with our girls?’
‘Ma’am, maybe Meghan and Beth saw or heard something he did. Or maybe, and this is my theory, he just wanted them. Zubia's gang is into drugs, but one of his fastest growing businesses is human trafficking. His gang sells white women to various bidders.’
He paused and said bluntly. 'There are scum in the world who'll pay a high price for twins.'
Zeb saw the women go pale but said nothing. No point sugarcoating this.
He stirred when everyone had gone quiet. ‘Krone took out an FBI informer in a Mexican drug gang, didn’t he?’
‘Yeah,’ Broker said. ‘I was wondering if you guys would pick that up. No prizes for guessing which gang that was.’
Roger looked at Zeb. The dots were connecting.
Beth shivered. ‘So it was this Zubia who was after us all along. This gets worse and worse. Now we’ve a drug lord after us who might never stop till he gets us.’
Meghan placed her hand across Beth’s. ‘Babe, don’t wig out now.’
Beth gave her a wan smile.
Broker’s voice came across strong and cheerful. Reassuring.
‘Beth, we don’t know for sure if he’s the guy after you. It could be coincidence that he was at the hotel at the same time as you.
‘I’ll keep digging, no doubt the FBI will investigate from their end, and we should find something. This is significant progress from a day back. Now if he is the guy after you… I wouldn’t worry. Those two guys beside you; they could stop an army.’
‘Yeah, well, we’re not too sure about this new guy.’ Beth looked in Roger’s direction, ‘but we believe that about Zeb. What’s worrying Meg and me is how long can you all keep your lives on hold and be around us. All that this Zubia prick needs to do is wait you out, and then we’re dead meat.’
Zeb shifted, and her eyes turned to him. ‘You remember what I said in Jackson?’
She nodded, her green eyes boring into his.
‘Nothing has changed. I am here. I will be here. However long it takes.’
He said it in a normal voice, but something about the way he said it sent protons and electrons buzzing, made the air move in the room.
She sighed deeply, and her shoulders relaxed. ‘Thank you.’ It came from deep within, and Meghan nodded vigorously as she patted Beth’s hand.
Roger fanned the air. ‘Now that the drama’s over, and Zeb has been restored to his heroic stature’ – he ducked a punch from Beth – ‘let’s get back to the business of hunting some badasses. Broker, you’ll be glad to know that I’ve made myself useful in the short time I’ve been here. I saved our hero’s skin and got no thanks for it, but I’ll let that one go. We got a live badass and have a tracker on him,’ he said triumphantly.
‘What? How?’ Three women and one man two thousand miles away exclaimed.
Roger took them through their reasoning and how they’d backtracked and found the leader and his ride. He gave Broker the details of the tracker, and they heard him working his keyboard furiously.
‘Gotcha! He’s stationary, about five miles down the road. Now why would that be? And, Zeb, did you tell the cops or the FBI about this new guy and the tracker?’
Zeb’s words fell like a hammer in the room.
‘Nope. I think the cops have a mole.’
Chapter 17
Broker saw it immediately. ‘All these badasses had to know somehow that you guys were heading to Maggie McBride’s.’
Zeb nodded. ‘Our vehicle was clean. No one was following us. An insider is the only explanation.’
He looked up when Beth drew a sharp breath and went pale again.
‘Kelly!’
‘Nope.’ Broker’s reply was immediate. ‘If it was him, he had ample opportunity to have the two of you abducted. He could have arranged an attack on his home when the two of you were there. It’s not him. However, he could have casually mentioned to someone that you folks were heading to Idaho Falls.’
‘Oh and, Zeb, your watcher is a guy called Pacho. He’s Zubia’s right-hand man, his enforcer. A nasty piece of work who likes to torture and kill. One thing you should know about him. He can’t speak. Zubia and he grew up in the same Mexican slum. Pacho became Zubia’s sidekick when that guy chose a life of drug dealing. To show how loyal he was to Zubia, Pacho cut his own tongue off’
This time Meghan shivered. ‘This feels like a horrible dream.’
Zeb changed the topic. He looked at Maggie. ‘Ma’am, do you have any friend who has a wacky car? Anyone who has a house in Idaho Falls?’
Lurette Bridges was in her mid sixties, had fluffy white hair and moved in birdlike steps. Her round glasses reinforced the bird image. She was Maggie’s aunt, a widow who lived in Idaho Falls, and doted on her niece.
She drew up in her Toyota Camry, a car that would have made the dead in a cemetery sit up and take notice.
The Camry was garish pink and had Mickey and Minnie Mouse images painted all over it. The hood had a giant holographic image of Mickey that winked depending on the viewing position.
Lurette stepped out of her car, a Mossberg shotgun in one hand and a cane in the other.
She stopped when she saw Roger and surveyed him from top to bottom. ‘Young man, if you’ve got a girl, you’d better get rid of her, because I’m coming after you.’
She barked when he blanched. ‘On second thoughts, you might not keep up with me.’ She winked broadly to take the sting out, hugged Maggie tight, and kissed the twins. She had met them several times; they were family.
‘Go on, take the car. Destroy it if you can. Gawd knows I’ve tried to crash it, but the danged thing leads a charmed life. You young pups, you don’t need to worry about us. Mags and I will be fine, just fine.’
‘Ma’am, you’ll be coming along with us,’ Zeb told her.
She looked at him, noticing him for the first time, removed her glasses, and moved closer to him. After a while she looked at Maggie and said, ‘You’re right.’
Meghan watched the byplay and laughed. ‘What’s all that about, Mags?’
Lurette adjusted her glasses and swatted her. ‘You’ll know when you’re older, kid. Much older.’
She turned to Zeb. ‘Lead the way, young man.’ She held a hand up when he opened his mouth. ‘Don’t start with all the warnings. I know what I’m getting into. I alw
ays wanted to drive a getaway car.’
Zeb and Roger knew Pacho would be watching them. He had to be convinced that they would be staying in the McBride home for a while. A shopping trip to town to stock up on groceries and essentials would do it.
You didn’t browse in Walmart if you had heavies on your tail.
They had discussed leaving the twins with Kelly and going after the Mexican, but following him around had too many variables. Maggie had suggested they stay in her home.
‘If they came once, they’ll come again.’
Zeb looked at her.
‘Don’t worry about the house. Lurette and I were planning to redo it in any case, and if there’s any damage, that’s a perfect reason right there.’
Roger nodded in relief at her offer. They both wanted to have the showdown in Maggie’s house, but it had to come from her. Now they could eliminate any chance of her being used as leverage by the gang.
They also figured Pacho would follow them till he knew they planned to be holed up at in Idaho Falls, and then he would get more men and attack.
They set out a couple of hours later, the twins and Roger in Lurette’s car, Zeb following them.
Lurette wended her way to the town of Idaho Falls, to her home, and Zeb parked his Escalade so that it covered a good view of the Camry.
‘He’s at the far end of the street, behind you, parked behind a couple of cars,’ Broker murmured in Zeb’s earpiece.
The five of them slipped into her home, where Zeb made an extensive shopping list and handed it to Roger. Beth snatched it from his hand, and her eyebrows rose.
‘These aren’t essentials.’
‘Now they are.’
He stayed back as the four of them headed to the local Target and slipped out of the rear entrance. He vaulted across the neighbor’s fence, circled the neighborhood and watched Pacho from the distance. It was always possible that he had found the GPS tracker and had switched it to another set of wheels.
