Take No Quarter

by Desiree Holt

  “Has she spoken to her sister about him?” Slade asked.

  “I think she’s calling her today, probably after work. In any event, I’m keeping a tight eye on her, just in case.”

  “Let me know if you need help.” Marc Blanchard swallowed some coffee. “Nikki and I are still trying to recover from our little adventure. It didn’t help that three days after it all settled down, we had to report back again. But I’m here if you need me.”

  “Little adventure?” Brock raised an eyebrow.

  “Some people can’t stay out of trouble,” Beau Williams joked. “Blanchard took his girl to the lake for a week of fun in the sun and ended up in a nest of terrorists.”

  “You’re kidding! Oh, wait.” Brock snapped his fingers. “That’s about the plot to bomb the rodeo, right?”

  The story of the terrorist group that had tried to blow up the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo, and the part the team had played in it—especially Marc and his lady, Nikki—had occupied an entire evening’s conversation before the team had gone back to base. Brock and Axel had not joined the team at that point, but Trey knew they’d heard the details. They certainly weren’t a secret.

  “Okay.” Slade cleared his throat. “Back to the situation at hand. It wouldn’t hurt to go through the after-action report on our hostage rescue in Mexico again. Nobody can say we don’t take out the trash. We knew there were twenty people in the house, not counting the hostage. We took down sixteen of them and the fire team in the helo wounded the other four when they broke from the jungle and shot at us.”

  “I imagine Hector Lopez Garcia is not too happy with us,” Trey commented.

  “You got that fucking damn right. And that gives rise to some new situations, which I found when I was surfing Dana Roberts’ articles. Damn! That woman sure is pulling the tiger’s tail.” He tapped a button on the laptop. “Although Lopez Garcia operates somewhat under the radar—which makes the kidnapping an anomaly for him—there is a strong possibility that he will want revenge for what happened. Actually, the DEA is surprised they didn’t just kill her and bury her body someplace where she’d never be found. That’s more the Lopez García style, or so gossip says.”

  “Wouldn’t the kidnapping defeat the purpose of so-called low profile?” Marc asked. “I mean, is revenge really that important?”

  “Yes, depending on the situation.”

  “They want Dana Roberts,” Marc guessed. “Now. They want to rectify their mistake. Damn! She must have uncovered something very hot.”

  Slade nodded. “Which means whatever they think she learned is critical, and could be damaging to them.”

  “More damaging than their usual order of business?”

  He nudged the laptop to Beau, who was sitting next to him. “This is just one of her stories she’s filed on Lopez Garcia. Gather round and read it. You’ll see she doesn’t pull her punches and she goes to any lengths to verify her information. And apparently now she’s back in New York, she’s hard at it again.”

  “I admire her grit and determination,” Marc said in his taciturn voice, “but is it really worth risking her life?”

  “Apparently.”

  Trey cleared his throat. “Let me talk to Kenzi tonight after she speaks to her sister and get her take on it. She knows her sister better than any of us.”

  “Do it,” Slade told him.

  “Then what?” Beau asked.

  “Then we figure out how to get her some bodyguards. She can’t run around unprotected.”

  Beau frowned. “Shouldn’t her bosses be doing that?”

  Trey shrugged. “In a normal situation, yeah. But nothing about this seems normal. Anyway, if they want to handle it, okay, but we need to make sure they get the right people.”

  “Agreed.” Slade picked up his cell phone. “While you all finish looking at Dana’s article, I’m going to call Mike Elliott and give him a head’s-up. He’s who I’d want watching my back if I didn’t have you guys.” He looked across the table at Trey. “What time are you picking Kenzi up tonight?”

  “She’ll text me, but she said it would be close to seven. Long day working on the stuff for this particular client. I could call her and ask about Dana, but I’m pretty sure she would have mentioned something. I hate to call her at the office with this big project going. Besides, she’d wonder why I’m calling in the middle of the day to ask her this. I’d rather wait until I can ask her in person.”

  “It can wait until tonight. But we need to impress her with the importance of the situation without scaring the crap out of her.”

  Trey snorted. “Believe me, she knows the situation. She was frightened as hell for her sister. It won’t be a problem.”

  Beau frowned. “I’d feel a lot better if we could handle this ourselves, but I understand why that’s not possible. That said, Mike’s guys are the best available for this.”

  By the time everyone had digested Dana Roberts’ article, Slade had set things up with Mike Elliott and had him ready for when Slade gave him the signal.

  “I tell you, this whole thing makes me uneasy.” Trey rubbed his jaw. “As much about Kenzi as for Dana. I don’t want her to get dragged into this.”

  Slade nodded. “I hear you.”

  “I’m surprised her bosses don’t have her on a short leash,” Brock mused, “considering she’s still a high-profile target for the cartel.”

  Trey snorted. “If she’s like her sister, trying to tell her what to do is a waste of breath. And I mean that in a respectful way.”

  “Okay.” Beau nodded. “So now we’re on top of it. Slade, you called Mike and read him in. Trey, you’ll talk it over with your lady tonight. Then we go from there, right?”

  Everyone nodded.

  “Fine.” Slade closed his laptop. “I think I’ll call Kari and see if she can hook me up with someone who’s got information on the cartel.”

  Slade’s wife was an assistant prosecuting attorney in Bexar County, where San Antonio was located. Trey knew she was plugged in to a lot of sources. The question was whether she could tap into any of them without compromising her position. He watched Slade punch another number in his cell and figured they’d find out sooner rather than later.

  * * * *

  Kenzi rose to refill her coffee mug again from the single-serving machine on the sideboard. The remnants of the pastries Reed had ordered to be sent in that morning lay on a tray, nothing left but a few crumbs. Kenzi knew she always worked better when she had something sweet for energy, but she hadn’t realized that Reed has the same craving.

  He laughed when he saw her glance at the tray.

  “My partners say my habits haven’t changed since we were greenhorn attorneys living on cheap pastries and not much else. It gave us plenty of energy in those early days, but then we always had that damn sugar crash at midnight.”

  “I know what you mean,” she told Reed. “I also started out at the bottom of the ladder.”

  He cocked an eyebrow at her. “But you came here as a first-year right after law school, didn’t you?”

  She nodded. “But I was pinching pennies. Trying to handle student loans. Buy a car. All that stuff.” Then she grinned. “But then you made me your associate and things looked up right away.”

  “I’m glad. You’ve made yourself a valuable part of this firm, and your work on the Reyes corporation structure is outstanding.” He winked. “We have big plans for you once this comes together.”

  She couldn’t help the little skip in her pulse or the frisson of excitement that raced through her at his words. She’d known for months that she was right at the line to move into junior partner, but it hadn’t been until they’d begun work on this new project for Alex Reyes that Reed had mentioned anything. Now he’d brought it up twice. Her invisible antennae were vibrating. She couldn’t wait to tell Trey.

  Wait. Was she allowing herself to get too excited about him? To project into the future when neither of them had discussed such a thing? In fact, it had b
een quietly understood from the beginning that when this was over, it was over. But thinking down that road gave her a suddenly tight feeling.

  “You okay?” Reed asked. “You just got a strange look on your face. Everything okay?”

  She gave herself a mental shake and carried her coffee back to the table.

  “I’m fine. Truly. Let’s get back to this.” She sat back down in her chair, set her mug on the table and woke up her laptop. “Okay, we’ve got the basic structure down, but I think I have some questions.” She looked at Reed. “Just so I understand where I’m going with this when I get back to my office and start the integration.”

  “Fire away. I’ll answer what I can.”

  Why is his phrasing giving me a sudden twitch? Supposedly there was nothing she couldn’t delve into. Oh, well, maybe it’s my imagination. This was, after all, a complicated situation.

  “Okay. The income from Alex’s ranch—mostly the minerals—goes into a separate account for him and part of it goes to his brother’s account in Mexico City, right?”

  Reed nodded. “That’s because when Alex’s grandfather decided to move up here from Mexico after he married a girl from San Antonio, income from the huge ranch operation in Chihuahua was used to buy his land and set him up with stock. He had a generational grace period before he had to start repaying the money. But then they got into some joint operations so complex they took me, a law clerk and two associates to straighten out. That was before you joined the firm.”

  “Yes.” She nodded. “I see he’s been a client for nearly twenty years.”

  “That’s a fact. He was one of the first golden hens who came to us.” Reed took a swallow of his coffee. “The firm was finally taking off and the three of us had been invited to a formal event by a high ticket, highly satisfied client. He introduced us to Alex, who asked us to handle a small project for him. Testing us, I think. In any event, he liked what we did and recommended others.”

  “So, let me see if I understand this.” She frowned at her screen, looking at the list she’d made, trying to get it all straight in her mind. “The two ranches, including the mineral output on both of them, are shared as one big corporation?”

  “That was the optimum solution. The two branches of the family operate as one unit and it seems to work very well for them.”

  “Okay, but now they want to expand to other countries, right? They’re opening bank accounts in Canada, Portugal, France, even Russia and Australia.”

  “All perfectly reasonable,” Reed assured her. “Some of the biggest cattle ranches in the world are located there and the Reyes family is hoping to buy into one of them to expand their footprint. As well, they’re looking at other foreign businesses to invest in, and they obviously need bank accounts in those countries.”

  “Why don’t they just operate out of a Swiss bank, like a lot of corporations do?”

  Reed chuckled. “I suggested that to Alex and he said he liked doing his banking where he could control the rate of exchange. In other words, keep his money in one bank until the rate was favorable enough to shift it to another. That way he makes money on his money.”

  “And it all flows through this very complicated new corporate structure we’re setting up for him, right?”

  “Actually, we’re setting it up for the Reyes family, and their current corporate structure will be absorbed into it.”

  “Good lord.” She stared at the screen again. “That will end up being an obscene amount of money.”

  Reed nodded. “And it’s up to us to create a structure so that it’s all appropriately protected. Us putting a system in place so that when they move the money around, they will always be able to take advantage of the best rate of exchange. Plus, we need to be sensitive to the tax situation. It doesn’t do much good to make a lot of money if you’re paying it out in taxes, especially in more than one country.”

  “Well, it seems to me we’re heading in the right direction.”

  Still, she couldn’t take her eyes from the screen. Something was twitching in her brain, something she couldn’t put her finger on. And she wasn’t about to bring it up to Reed Calhoun. She was probably seeing shadows where there weren’t any.

  “Don’t sweat it,” Reed told her. “You’ve got half a dozen key points you need to focus on right now while I prune and massage the rest of this. That’s enough of a headache for you. Alex wants to meet with us next week to review where we are. I told him you were working on it full time and we’d be ready for him. I know he wants to move forward with his projects, but not until he has a proper structure for them. I gather he has some projects on hold until everything’s in place, so we need to work toward that deadline. Are you good to go?”

  “I am.” Kenzi nodded. “I’ll get back to work on this right away.” She shut down her laptop and began gathering her file folders.

  “Good. I’ll be gone for the next three days, but I’m confident you’ve got enough of a handle on things that you’ll be good on your own. We’ll reconvene when I get back and make sure all our ducks are in a row before the meeting. And of course, you can text me if you have pressing questions, and I’ll get back to you the minute I can. Work for you?”

  “It does. And thank you for giving me this opportunity.”

  “Oh, it’s my pleasure.” He grinned. “You’ve got a sharp brain and understand things like complicated corporate structures and client confidentiality. And the clients like you. Yes, I’d say when we get Alex taken care of, there’s a big change in your future.”

  “Thank you.” Damn! She actually felt herself blush. “See you when you get back.”

  But when she was back in her office, setting things up to work, she wondered why Reed had bothered to mention client confidentiality. That was one of the first things everyone had drilled into them when they came to work at the firm. Had she given him the idea she didn’t respect it?

  Or—and a chilling thought popped into her mind—was he giving her a subtle warning that there were things in the Reyes project that she might be tempted to share with someone? What would that be? And who would she talk to?

  She’d go through everything with a fine-tooth comb this afternoon. Then, tonight, she’d bounce it off Trey. Surely no one was more tight-lipped than members of Delta Force.

  Chapter Eight

  Kenzi was tired, stressed and feeling as if she’d worked ten weeks instead of ten hours. She wanted a hot shower, a soothing drink, a simple dinner and hot sex—and not necessarily in that order. Her day had been long and intense as she’d wrestled with the ins and outs of the new, multi-faceted corporate structure she was helping Reed Calhoun create for Alex Reyes. This wasn’t the first one she’d worked on, but it was definitely the most complex.

  There were still things about it that bothered her, but she just couldn’t put her finger on them. She downloaded some material on rates of exchange in the currencies they’d be working with and also on cooperative cattle ventures. She knew nothing about the latter, but if they were going to be an integrated part of this conglomerate, she needed to know what she was talking about. In the email Reed had sent her at the end of the day there was also mention of a shipping company. Did that mean that now one was to be created for this purpose, again as a block in the structure of the corporation?

  It also occurred to her that she hadn’t spoken to her sister in a few days. Ever since the disaster in Mexico, she hadn’t been able to stop worrying about her. Dana was smart, but she also tended to be reckless when she was on the trail of a story. Hence the kidnapping. If Kenzi had her way, she’d lock the woman up until she agreed to move on to something else, but she knew that was a pipe dream. Dana was her own person, and a damn good reporter besides.

  Trey had spent most of the day at Slade’s ranch with the team doing whatever. She knew they’d burned some time using the target range he’d set up on the ranch, although lord knew, she figured by this time they were all expert marksmen. But it was good for them to hang out with noth
ing to put pressure on them.

  She had texted Trey to pick her up at seven, much later than she’d hoped to be finished, and when he called to tell her he was ready any time she was, the deep sound of his voice flowed over her like warm molasses. She wanted to pull it around her like a quilt fresh from the dryer and rub it all over her skin.

  “Let’s just order something in tonight,” she said as she buckled her seat belt. “I don’t think I could stand to sit in a restaurant. Besides, I have something I want you to run your very sharp brain over.”

  “Oh?” Trey reached over and cupped her chin, tilting her face toward him. “I think it can wait. You look stressed and exhausted. I prescribe a hot shower, a slow massage and a stiff drink.”

  She laughed. “I had something like that already in mind.”

  “Then let’s get to it.” As he pulled away from the curb he asked in a casual voice, “Heard anything from your sister lately?”

  “Just a couple of very brief calls. Why? What’s up?”

  “You know we all had breakfast at Slade’s this morning, right?”

  She wrinkled her forehead. “What does that have to do with my sister?”

  “We went over the details of the kidnapping, reviewing the after-action report. And before you say anything, it’s something we always do. Anyway, Slade pulled up some of her articles on the cartel and we reviewed them, just to get the full picture of why she was a target for them. Kenzi, I’m not sure if you know this, but she’s really sticking her toe in the fire. She ought to back off and let the government do its thing. The Lopez Garcia cartel may not be the top dog in Mexico, but it’s just as vicious as the others. They just fly under the radar a little more.”

  “First of all,” she huffed, “Dana says the government can’t seem to get its thing done. Everyone writes about the bigger ones, like Sinaloa. She told me she’s got a sixth sense about Lopez Garcia, that there’s something there no one is seeing and she wants to find out what it is. Secondly, my sister never waits for anyone or anything. A news story is like, if you’ll pardon the expression, crack cocaine to her.”