The Cartel (A Sarah Roberts Thriller Book 15)

by Jonas Saul

  “Slowly,” the girl said, her voice steady as a rock.

  She’d done this before. He saw it in her eyes. This was one tough bitch. But not tougher than a bullet.

  Fuck you.

  He eased to the right to get out and lowered his hands. His left hand dropped to the seat as if to push off, then darted behind him, grabbed the butt of the weapon, and the gun went off.

  The girl punched him hard in the chest and his breathing instantly grew difficult. So difficult that he slumped in the seat, unable to breathe, like he got the wind knocked out of him.

  In a moment of clarity, he realized it wasn’t his gun that fired. The girl saw what he was about to do and shot him. The punch in the chest was her bullet. The difficulty in breathing was a punctured lung.

  He was dying because a stupid bruja got the jump on him. What would his mother think?

  Stupid bruja.

  In a crazy effort to live, he sucked air in through a wheezy tube. But it wasn’t enough. Liquid pooled in his crotch. Spots formed in his vision. The pain hadn’t really set in yet. It was more a pressure issue. Discomfort. But the pain would come, he was sure of it. Unbearable pain. He would need a hospital. Morphine. Lots of drugs.

  He wanted to see the girl one more time. The effort as great as climbing a mountain road after an ironman triathlon, he forced his head up and looked at the complacent face of the blonde bitch that shot him. How could she? They didn’t know each other. And now it was over. The end.

  As if his head was leaden down with rocks, it dropped, his chin bounced once off his chest as he slumped sideways in Mateo’s seat.

  Mateo’s going to be pissed about the car.

  What little air was left in his lung seemed to leave through the hole in his chest.

  Chapter 14

  Sarah shrugged and raised her hands.

  “He went for his gun.”

  “Kill them all,” Darwin said. “I’m happier that way, Sarah. But we need information. Kill them after we learn shit. Cool?”

  Sarah nodded and started around the Impala’s hood to meet the driver of the vehicle.

  “Sorry about that.”

  “Better.”

  She bent down to the driver. “What’s your name?” she asked in a friendly manner. The same tone she would use if they were buying popcorn at the local movie theater prior to a movie.

  “Mateo.”

  “Okay, Mateo. Why were you following us?”

  “Nice wheels. Thought about jacking it.”

  “Bullshit.” Sarah smiled and scanned the neighborhood. All the houses in close proximity seemed quiet behind their gated driveways and lawns. Curiosity had not pulled anyone outside yet. But people would come soon. The authorities were probably already on their way.

  She chambered a round and made her weapon the third gun aimed at Mateo.

  “Why did you follow us? Making me ask twice pisses me off. A third time ends your life.”

  A dark spot formed on Mateo’s jeans about the crotch and spread. It leaked out onto the pavement below his ass.

  “He pissed himself,” Darwin stated in a bland tone. He genuinely seemed bored.

  How this looked to Mateo would probably scare the shit out of him, but Sarah was done with the hope. Hoping to find Aaron. Hoping Aaron was still alive. Hoping the authorities would do the right thing. There would be no more hoping.

  She placed the gun against the top of Mateo’s head.

  “Gonna tell me?” Sarah asked. “Or die in the street like a fucking pig?”

  Most men, when faced with this prospect, especially after witnessing her execute his friend moments before, would spill the beans on their own mother. And Mateo didn’t disappoint.

  He rambled on about the Enzo Cartel and the bounty on the Hummer. The alive-or-dead caveat and how there were hundreds of soldiers looking for that Hummer and the occupants of it.

  As he fumbled over his words, cried and shook with panic, Sarah eased the gun off his skull and stepped back. Darwin lowered his guns, aiming them at the pavement.

  “Looks like the cartel is going to come to us after all,” Darwin said.

  Mateo frowned. “You guys want the cartel after you?”

  Sarah nodded. “I’m here to put an end to the Enzo Cartel. But I don’t take prisoners.”

  “Why’s that?” Mateo asked.

  “No one lives.”

  Darwin shot Mateo in each foot simultaneously and started away.

  “Darwin, I thought we had a deal. No one lives.”

  Darwin called over his shoulder. “No cartel members get a pass. He’s not cartel.”

  Mateo screamed and writhed on the pavement.

  “Almost as much,” Sarah called after him. “He was working for them.”

  “He can’t hurt us again. By the time that heals and he’s walking with canes—if he can ever walk again—this’ll be long over. Come on. Jump in. We got business.”

  Sarah turned to Mateo. “You might want to put a tourniquet on that or you’ll bleed to death. Use your friend’s belt or shirt or something.” She stepped away, slipping her gun in her waistband. “Gotta run. Remember, no one lives. You got lucky.”

  Sarah ran over and jumped in the Hummer.

  “Didn’t we scare the shit out of him?” Sarah said.

  Darwin checked his mirrors and got the Hummer rolling. “I thought you were going to kill him back there.”

  “I’m not killing anybody unless they deserve it. When his friend went for the gun I reacted. He died. It happens. But I wanted Mateo to think I was going to kill him and I accomplished that.”

  “All we accomplished was exposure. Just like last night. The cartel works fast. They’re all searching for this beast. What do you think about getting off the road, finding another vehicle?”

  “No way,” Sarah said as she sat back in the passenger seat. “We stay in the Hummer. We wait for them to come to us. Then we nail them and say, ‘Take us to your leader.’”

  “Jokes at a time like this?” Darwin asked as he signaled and turned a corner.

  “Is there a better time to—”

  A dump truck came out of nowhere and slammed into the passenger side of the Hummer, shoving Sarah sideways and showering her with glass.

  Chapter 15

  “Are you smart or are you stupid?” Parkman asked.

  His shoulder was beginning to ache in the twisted position he had taken under the bed. His arm were extended, the gun aimed at the Mexican customs officer on an angle.

  The young man blinked once and continued to stare at Parkman.

  “You see,” Parkman continued, “smart men do smart things and stupid men do stupid things. What I just saw you do was stupid. But you could still play this smart. If you get up and try to run from this RV, that would be stupid. Before you got to the door, I’d cut you in half with this hand cannon. You see how stupid that would be?”

  The officer nodded.

  “Good. So get on that radio on your belt and tell them the RV is clean. Your search is over. But you’re leaving the drugs. Got it.”

  Parkman’s gun hand didn’t waver. But it did move to aim at the man’s right cheek.

  “Radio it in,” Parkman said, his voice firmer. “You’re out of options. My little friend here has limited your decision process to doing what I say. So, do as I say. Do it now.”

  The guard moved slowly, unclipped his radio, depressed the button and called in the all clear, the whole time keeping his eyes on Parkman’s face.

  “Good. Now, slide that radio to me.”

  The officer set it down and tried to slide it, but it rolled on the thin carpeted floor of the RV.

  “Where’s your gun?”

  This was risky and a time waster. They needed to leave the area as fast as they could now that he had drawn on a customs officer. But how? Parkman couldn’t let this officer just walk out of the RV. They wouldn’t get two miles before they were apprehended.

  Kidnap him?

  The real q
uestion was how far they were willing to go, how many laws were they willing to break before too much was too much? Find Aaron, save him, but spend ten years in prison for doing it?

  Parkman knew he had reached the point of no return when he allowed Aaron’s teachers to convince him to come along.

  “Cross the border into Mexico. It’ll be fine. We have a story,” they said. “Nothing bad will happen.”

  But now something had happened. And this officer was going to bust them on possession of cocaine after planting it.

  Would Sarah let that slide?

  Maybe he hadn’t been around her enough recently. Perhaps he was getting soft.

  Well, not anymore.

  “Turn around and place your back to the wall. Do it now.”

  To his delight, the guard did exactly as he was told.

  “Sit on your hands.”

  The officer eased them under his buttocks.

  “Good. See, you’re smart after all.”

  Voices approached from outside the RV. Someone shouted for José.

  “Is that you?” Parkman whispered. “Are you José?”

  The officer nodded slowly.

  “Shout back that you’re just finishing and you’ll be out in a minute.”

  José complied.

  The man outside slapped the side of the RV.

  “Okay, but hurry up. We’ve got another one to search.”

  The RV shook as someone entered it. Parkman detected multiple voices.

  Then he heard Aaron’s teachers. The moment Parkman was certain it was them, they stopped talking. The RV stopped moving.

  “It’s okay, boys,” Parkman whispered loud enough to be heard. “He’s with us.”

  Someone walked the length of the RV and stopped in front of the officer. Parkman recognized the thin shins and knew it was Alex.

  “We’re cool, Alex. Just get Daniel to drive us the fuck out of here. Do it now. This guy won’t give us any trouble.”

  The RV’s engine fired up. Then it was moving. Moments later it was doing highway speed.

  “Why are we kidnapping a Mexican border guard?” Benjamin asked.

  “He dropped a bag of cocaine in that duffel bag. He tried to frame you boys and I want to know why.”

  “Me too,” Alex stated in his quiet but menacing voice. “Me too.”

  Then he did some super-fast move that Parkman only saw as a blur and the officer’s head dropped and his body slumped.

  “What did you do?” Parkman asked as he pushed his way out from under the bed.

  “Put him to sleep. He’ll be up in ten minutes or so.”

  “Okay,” Parkman rubbed his legs where they had gone to sleep under the bed. “But we need to talk about how we treat the people we kidnap.”

  “How about we talk about not kidnapping people?” Benjamin said.

  “Point taken, but I couldn’t let him leave the RV and report us. We wouldn’t make it five miles.”

  “Point taken,” Alex mimicked. “They’re going to notice he’s gone, though. Then come after us.”

  Parkman looked out the back window. “True. We need to change vehicles.”

  “How?” Daniel shouted from the front. “Where?”

  “No idea. But get off the highway. I’ll think of something.”

  Daniel hit his indicator and exited the highway. There had been an accident up ahead. It looked like a dump truck had T-boned a Hummer. No emergency vehicles were close by and there were no sirens to be heard.

  “That just happened,” Parkman said. “Steer around it. Get us out of here. The authorities are probably responding at this moment and we don’t want to be here when they do.”

  Daniel slowed and expertly steered around the front of the Hummer, then shot the RV forward. The workers in the dump truck were just getting out of their vehicle when Parkman pulled a curtain back and looked back at the accident.

  For a brief moment Parkman caught a glimpse inside the windshield of the Hummer and thought he saw Sarah in the passenger seat, her head resting on her left shoulder.

  If he was mistaken and it wasn’t Sarah, then the girl in the Hummer was Sarah’s doppelgänger.

  He almost made Daniel turn back.

  Chapter 16

  Food was delivered, the door locked, the sunlight blocked, but the heat, the humidity remained. Even though his stomach begged for a bite, Casper gave up his portion to strengthen Aaron.

  “Casper, you need to eat,” Aaron said. “You’ll wither away, lose what strength you do have and be of no use to anyone.”

  “You’re escaping tonight. If I live through the night, I’ll eat tomorrow.”

  “How are you so sure this plan will work?” Aaron asked between bites of refried beans and bread.

  “If they wanted you dead, they would have killed you. This is a no-brainer. They can’t afford to have you die yet. If they think I’m going to kill you, they will come in here and stop me.”

  “And the rest is history,” Aaron ended.

  “We have to author our own destiny. If you’re meant to have a destiny past this night, then you have to leave this place. Once you’re out, Sarah can leave Mexico with you.” Casper rolled over and faced him. “How are you feeling? Your fatigue leaving, strength coming back?”

  “Much better.” Aaron lowered his head.

  “What?” Casper asked. “What is it?” He pulled himself up to sit cross legged. “What’s bothering you?”

  Aaron wiped his eyes. “I don’t know what happened to me.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “They snatched me, brought me here and I crumbled.” He sniffled and wiped his nose. “The waterboarding, the thought of dying. Then poor Hector was killed in front of me and his corpse left in here overnight.”

  “They were trying to break you. To them this is a game. They break you to get what they want. Once they have Sarah, you’re both discarded like an unwanted child’s toy. I’m sorry but that’s the reality of it.”

  Aaron met Casper’s gaze. “Unless I do something about it?”

  Casper nodded.

  “I could be killed tonight,” Aaron added.

  Casper nodded. “The odds will increase with what we’re proposing.”

  “But I’ll be killed regardless, so what’s the difference?”

  “Maybe there’s something to what Sarah does. I mean, aren’t we describing her philosophy? Don’t wait for the threat to be met, run up to it. Deal with it and be done with it. Waiting will only get you killed.”

  “Yeah,” Aaron said, emotion constricting his vocal cords. “If it was Sarah, she’d do it with one hand tied behind her back. That’s literally how I’m going to have to do it as this hand,” he held up his bandaged right, “is useless to me.”

  “Tonight, Aaron. As planned. Tonight you win your freedom. Not long now.” Casper lay back and closed his eyes. “As soon as the sun goes down.”

  They sat in silence for some time. Casper’s mind began to wander, about to be lost to dreams as he floated back to sleep.

  “Casper?” Aaron said.

  Startled, Casper jerked awake. “Yeah?”

  “When we do this, I aim to kill Spanish.”

  Casper rested back in position, hoping his heart rate would calm so he could sleep.

  “I expect you to, Aaron. Spanish needs to die. I would think nothing less of you. You’re the man who’s with Sarah Roberts.” He breathed in a couple of times, eyes closed. “Nothing less,” he whispered, then nodded off.

  Chapter 17

  Sarah gasped as the Hummer settled. She remained completely still to do a mental inventory of her body.

  What the hell just happened?

  The dump truck. The accident. Shattered glass covered her, and the armrest jammed painfully into her ribcage.

  She took a deep breath and winced. A rib was cracked or broken. Maybe more than one. The pain increased in waves with each breath.

  Shit! I can’t have this now.

  She slid a foot s
ideways until it found the shotgun she had been cradling. She needed the gun in her hands. She needed it ready. She had to bend forward to retrieve it. But the pain in her ribs stopped her.