Vasquez was still in the fight despite his wound, he was sitting up on the ground and firing away. No one returned his fire.
There were five of the hooded men left alive. They retreated to cover behind one of the cars they had arrived in although they outnumbered Vasquez and should have been able to kill him easily. They had exhausted the ammunition in their AR-15s and were down to handguns.
One of the men fired at Henry but his bullets passed behind him as he ran, and Henry reached the cover of the shed. Now the men had to face opposition from the front and from behind.
Kagan lowered a window on the limo and fired out of it. He killed a man as bullets pinged! off the limousine. Henry saw the slide lock back on Vasquez’s gun when the squat man ran out of ammo. The men attacking still ignored him.
Henry sent three rounds into the side of a man who was getting a bead on Kagan then adjusted his aim to shoot another masked attacker. Kagan fired at the same man and father and son both hit their target. They had also both run out of ammo.
The two surviving attackers laughed seeing them pull on their triggers impotently. Kagan dropped his gun and spoke to the men in Spanish.
“Whatever you’ve been paid to kill me, I can pay more.”
The men answered him by shaking their heads. The one on the left removed two items from an ammo pouch on his belt. They were hand grenades. They were going to blast Kagan out of the safety of his limo.
Shots rang out from the doorway of the men’s room. Jax had emerged and was firing at the men with a two-handed grip. He let loose every round the gun held and three of them hit home. One man’s femoral artery was severed in his left leg, while the other one, the man with the grenades, took a bullet to the groin and one to the face. He died immediately and his partner wasn’t far behind him as blood gushed from the wound in his leg.
It took a few seconds for Jax to realize that his gun was empty, and he grunted as he pulled on the trigger.
“They’re dead, Jax,” Henry said. “We’re safe.”
Jax dropped the weapon and jogged over to stare down at the bodies of the men he’d shot. The man with the leg wound died as he watched. The attacker’s eyes were visible in the holes made for them in the hood. One instant there was someone behind those eyes looking back at Jax and then there were only the eyes, devoid of life.
Kagan was out of the limo and helping Vasquez to stand. The smaller man said that he was all right and could walk.
Henry joined them. He was tempted to grab up one of the dead men’s guns and attempt to get away. It would be useless. Kagan would have people on him in no time. He also had Jax to think about. The older boy was staring down at the bodies of the men he’d killed as if he were in shock by what he had done. Jax had taken two lives. Killing was tough for most people to deal with. Henry had killed for the first time the year before. The men had been trying to hurt him and his grandmother. He never lost a second of sleep over them.
Kagan pointed at Henry. “Did you see my son, Vasquez? Did you see him? Henry was fucking fearless.”
Vasquez was grinning. “He’s your kid all right, and his friend saved all our asses.” Vasquez limped to the man nearest him and pulled the hood off his head after claiming his weapon. “I don’t recognize him. I’ll check the others.” Before leaving the body, he took a photo of the dead man’s face with his phone.
By the time Vasquez had finished checking the men who had attacked them, sirens could be heard growing closer. At the same time, there was a jet coming in for a landing.
Kagan opened the door on the limo and told Faye it was all right to come out. Henry had never seen anyone look so pale, then she turned even whiter when she saw one of the dead lying in a pool of blood. Despite the shock she was feeling, Faye was still stunningly beautiful. Kagan noticed him staring at her and Henry looked away.
Kagan then spoke to Vasquez. “Can we do something about those sirens?”
Vasquez was on the phone. He nodded at Kagan. “I’m on it.”
The jet landed at the same time two police cars came around the corner of a hangar and headed their way. Henry didn’t know who Vasquez had called, but whoever it was, they had clout with the police. One car came to a halt two hundred feet away, then the other one stopped. The drivers killed the sirens on their cars and kept the lights going. More than a dozen dead men littered the ground before them, and they sat and did nothing. Vasquez had told him that his father had power in Mexico. Henry could see that he hadn’t been exaggerating.
Jax was still staring at the dead men. Vasquez had removed their hoods to take their photos and had revealed their faces. One of the men was young, perhaps twenty. The other had some gray mixed in with his dark hair. He was the one who had taken a bullet to the face. The entrance wound was an inch to the right above his upper lip.
Henry stood next to Jax. “Hey, you did what you had to do. Don’t let this eat you up. If you hadn’t killed them, they would have killed you. They would have killed all of us.”
Jax kept staring.
“Don’t feel bad about this; you had no choice.”
Jax turned and looked at Henry. There was a wide grin on his face.
“Feel bad? I don’t feel bad about killing these assholes. Are you kidding? That was fucking great! Look at them. I did that. I took their whole world away.” Jax’s blue eyes were lit as if from within. “I can’t wait to kill again.”
Henry was rendered speechless by his reaction.
Kagan came over and placed an arm around each of the boys’ shoulders. “We’re getting on that jet. Is that going to be a problem?”
“No,” Jax said, and Henry shook his head, still stunned by Jax’s joy at having murdered.
They boarded the jet with Vasquez and his bleeding leg bringing up the rear, and soon they were headed deeper into Mexico.
14
The Facts
Cody spent hours reading the DEA file that Steve Mendez had given him. It contained biographical information on Kagan Andreas and his right-hand man Vasquez.
Kagan Andreas was forty-five and had grown up the youngest of three children in the wealthy Chicago suburb of South Barrington, Illinois. His father owned a number of restaurants and was involved in the Greek Orthodox Church. One of his uncles was a bishop of their diocese.
Kagan had been a rebel from the start and gravitated toward crime early. By the time he ran away from home at fifteen he’d been in and out of juvenile detention centers three times. His family disowned him and had given statements that they wanted nothing to do with him.
At eighteen he was arrested in a bar fight that involved his motorcycle gang and a rival club. Drugs were found in his possession and he served a four-year sentence. Following his release from prison, Kagan rejoined his motorcycle club and became its leader the following year. Authorities suspected he had challenged the former leader and killed the man during a knife fight.
Kagan had made connections while in prison and the gang started moving drugs across the border for a cartel. They operated out of Monterrey, Mexico, and transported drugs as far north as Boston. Kagan was making a small fortune, and the motorcycle club prospered; they also came to the attention of the DEA.
An undercover officer infiltrated the gang and led them into a trap in New York State. That was when Kagan was wounded and fate brought him in contact with Anne Knight, Henry’s mother.
Since that time, Kagan morphed his motorcycle club into a more expansive criminal organization that specialized in moving drugs across international borders. While the United States was where most of his business was focused, he also supplied drugs to European cartels and other criminal organizations.
Cody perused the list of suspected drug importers; listed among them was the Gant family in France. The Gants were distant cousins of his and he had dealt with them in the past. It was no surprise to learn that they were in the business of supplying illegal drugs.
Vasquez’s full name was Juan Vasquez-Flores. He was thirty-nine, had a gen
ius IQ, and excelled at mathematics. He had been raised in Mexico City. Like Kagan, he had grown up in a good family that was wealthy and involved with a church.
Vasquez had never been in trouble with the law until he’d met the love of his life, Yolanda, who was a classmate of his at university. Because of his intellect, Vasquez entered college at sixteen. He was a quiet boy and shy. Yolanda was smitten with him as well and took him to bed on their first date. Yolanda was the daughter of a cartel leader and had a wild streak. She introduced the then innocent Vasquez to sex, drugs, and power.
Yolanda received excellent grades but never went to classes. She told Vasquez that the professors and the school knew who her father was and wouldn’t dare give him a reason to be mad at them.
“I can get away with anything because my father has power. These fools here think that knowledge is power, but they’re wrong. My father can barely read or write, and he has more power than all of them.”
Yolanda introduced Vasquez to her father a year later. By then, Vasquez had quit college. He had been trading stocks with the help of an uncle since he was eleven and had accumulated a considerable fortune using an algorithm he’d created. Yolanda’s father was impressed by the young man and gave him a job auditing his books. Vasquez uncovered discrepancies and heads rolled, literally. Six men in the organization had been skimming money.
Vasquez had watched several of the murders take place and surprised Yolanda’s father by asking if he could kill one of the men. The man in question had made fun of his short stature and called him derogatory names. Vasquez grew to hate the man. It was a pleasure to kill him. He enjoyed it and was gratified when nothing bad happened to him afterwards. His religious upbringing made it seem that anyone who murdered would be struck dead on the spot for their transgression. Vasquez had never bought into the teachings of the church. It felt freeing to know that he could do as he wished. Why would anyone want to do anything else?
He and Yolanda married, and she was pregnant with their third child when tragedy struck. A rival cartel leader named Jorge Molina wanted to kill Yolanda’s father. Molina bribed a maid to plant a bomb in their villa. When it went off, it missed its intended target and killed nine others. Yolanda was one of those nine, as were Vasquez’s son and daughter.
The maid’s role in the blast was discovered and when tortured she led to the man who had bribed her. That man led to another man and the rival cartel leader was named as the mastermind behind the plot. Vasquez, along with six other men went on a campaign against Molina. He was too protected to get to, but the same wasn’t true for those who worked for him. Vasquez and the others killed his people and a war broke out. When it was over, Jorge Molina fled to parts unknown and Vasquez’s father-in-law was in charge of a much larger territory.
Being around the family only reminded Vasquez of Yolanda; he left to find a new home. He eventually began working for Kagan and the two became friends. It was Vasquez who was the true brains behind the business, although Kagan had the personality and drive to forge alliances and friendships with the cartel leaders. An introvert, Vasquez was happy to let his friend be the front man and grab the glory. The only thing he wanted in life was to get his hands on Jorge Molina so that he could exact revenge for his murdered wife and children. He had people searching for the man but without success.
Cody looked over the page where Dante Cardoso was mentioned. Dante and Kagan were rivals of sorts because Dante had been forced to form his own supply routes north.
Recently, Dante had been looking to increase his business by shipping the drugs of others. None of the other Mexican cartels agreed to take him up on the offer but two South American drug empires had.
Kagan didn’t like the competition and had caused trouble for Dante by killing a few of his drug mules. Dante responded in kind and it was thought that the war would soon escalate. Cody saw an opportunity there. He planned to make contact with Dante once he was in Mexico.
His cell phone rang. It was Steve Mendez.
“Chris Monte thinks Kagan is at his home in Mexico City.”
“Why does he think he’s there? According to this file Kagan has several homes.”
“He said he overheard Vasquez talking about Mexico City. Monte also said that it’s Kagan’s grandest and most secure villa. He thinks he’d want to show it off to Henry.”
“That makes sense. Thank you, Steve. You just made things easier for me. This file is a huge help too.”
“When are you leaving?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Be careful, pardner, I already lost you once. I don’t want to go through that again.”
“I’ll survive, and I’ll find Henry and Jax.”
“Call me if you need anything, and good luck.”
Cody thanked him and hung up. He sat quietly and went over all that he had learned. At this point he wasn’t trying to devise a plan but sift through the information and let his subconscious work on it. A plan would form, but adjustments would naturally have to be made once he was in Mexico and had learned more.
What was important was knowing his objective, and that was easy. He would bring Henry home, even if he had to kill a thousand. Cody sat quietly, but it was Tanner who sat thinking, and it was Tanner who would soon be giving Kagan Andreas a taste of hell.
15
Welcome Home
Henry and Jax were fed on the jet as they flew south. Henry hadn’t eaten all day and had endured an epic run, being abducted, and a deadly firefight. His body needed fuel. Despite being worried about his grandmother, he gave into his hunger. Jax ate like a starving timber wolf and devoured his food. When offered a beer by Vasquez, he accepted.
They were being treated differently since joining the fight and saving the day. Kagan showed an interest in Jax for the first time and asked him questions about his life. He was aware that he would likely be lying dead back at the airfield if not for Jax.
“I owe you,” Kagan told him. “I will make you a wealthy man for what you’ve done.”
Jax smiled and asked for a second beer. Instead, Vasquez poured him some of the whiskey he was drinking.
Vasquez had bandaged up his own wound. A bullet fragment had passed through an outer portion of his right calf. It left him with a slight limp, but he seemed unfazed by the pain.
Faye had been shaken by the violence and downed two drinks as soon as they had taken off. Kagan seemed calm and he smiled every time he looked at Henry, who was seated across from him. After asking Jax and Vasquez to move so they could talk alone, Kagan reached over and patted his son on the cheek.
“I’m so damn proud of you, boy. You and your friend saved our asses back there.”
“Are you grateful enough to let us go home?” Henry said.
The smile left Kagan’s face. “I know it must feel like I’m kidnapping you, but I didn’t have time for anything else. I’m a wanted man in the United States. Give me a week, Henry. If you still want to leave in a week, I’ll consider letting you go. I’m betting you won’t want to. You can live like a king here, Son. You can have everything you want. Will you give me a chance to prove that to you?”
“It’s not like I have a choice, is it?”
Laughter filled the plane. It came from Jax and Vasquez. Henry frowned. Those two had certainly become fast friends. It was only a short time ago that Vasquez threatened to slit Jax’s throat open, now the ranch hand was telling Vasquez stories and downing whiskeys with him.
Henry looked over at Faye. She was across the aisle and two rows away but was facing him. Her gaze was locked on a computer tablet that was in her lap. She was a beautiful woman and Henry found himself mesmerized by her. He wondered if there was something between her and his father.
“You are attracted to Faye?” Kagan asked.
“She’s very beautiful. Are you two together?”
Kagan shook his head. “She is my assistant; we have a business relationship. Your mother was the only one I ever loved. If I want sex, there are women who wil
l fill that role nicely; Faye is not one of them.”
“How old were you when you and Mom were together?”
“I was twenty-eight.”
“And she was only sixteen, my age.”
“She was old enough to love. You’re sixteen. You’ve been in love, right?”
Henry thought about his previous girlfriend, Makayla, whom he still loved. He nodded.
“Your mother’s love for me was as real as the love you feel for that girl who was abducted last year.”
Henry blinked in surprise. “How did you know that I loved her, and not Olivia, the girl I’m with now?”
“I saw you on TV when they held that press conference. It was obvious that you loved her; you even said as much when you asked for help from Cody Parker.”
Henry was shocked again. He wondered if his father somehow knew that Cody was Tanner.
“You know that it was Cody I was trying to contact that day?”
“I suspected it. When the dust settled, you went to live on his ranch, and Christopher Monte said that you two were close.”
“Cody is a friend. He helped me when I was a little kid too.”
“What is he exactly? Is he some sort of spy? I’ve researched him and there’s a long gap of time where no one knows what he was doing. I was also told that he destroyed a large group of men that attacked his home.”
“Cody is… resourceful. He’s spent years training to defend himself after his family was wiped out when he was my age.”
Kagan snapped his fingers. “He must have been the man that killed Monte.”
Henry started to nod then caught himself. He wasn’t supposed to know that Monte was dead. He had learned that information while eavesdropping on a conversation Kagan had in Spanish.
Flesh and Blood (A Tanner Novel Book 35) Page 9
