by Bethany-Kris
Ready to run.
Abril reached out and slapped the thigh of Valeria’s horse with a loud crack. “Heeyah!”
She had time to grab hold of her daughter, and the reins before the horse reared back from the slap, and jerked forward. They came out of the stable doors in a full gallop, the man coming back toward them barely got out of the way.
Valeria looked back in just enough time to see Abril kill that man, too. Which meant no guards would follow them off the ranch, she realized. It was just them, and the horses, now. Abril was quick to jump on the horse waiting for her, wasting no time coming out of the stables at full speed.
Her horse was fast, but skittish from the noise. She managed well enough to get the animal steered toward the fields behind the house that would take them further away from the chaos behind them. It took Abril no time at all to catch up with Valeria, her horse coming alongside hers as she glanced over.
“We’re going to the cliffs,” Abril said, her voice faint, the words almost disappearing in the wind. “We don’t have a lot of time.”
“Why is that where we have to go ... or how do you kn—”
Abril smiled. “Who do you think helped to start this war, Val?”
“But why?”
She was so grateful.
So much.
Was this her freedom?
It seemed like it.
Tasted like it.
“Why?” Valeria asked again.
Abril would have sacrificed so much for what she did here tonight. Most certainly.
“I needed to be free, too,” Abril said. “Just differently than you.”
What could she say to that?
“Mamá,” Maria whispered before the girl peered up at her mother. “I smell fire.”
She did, too.
Whispering in the wind.
What was burning?
Her arm tightened around Maria’s waist, and her heels pressed hard into the horse’s hind end. “Keep looking forward, niña.”
Because they weren’t ever going back.
Not now.
18.
Someone slammed a Kevlar vest into Chris’s chest, and he barely caught the item before it fell to the ground. His mouth opened to thank the man who had given him the protective item, but Alessio Sorrento had already turned to move onto the next waterproof storage crate they had brought along for this assault.
The tension in Alessio’s back—his twin’s lover, one of two people that Corrado spent his life with—said the man wasn’t in the mood to talk. On a good day, Alessio’s moods regularly swung one way or another. Today, however, he was swinging toward the bad side of things, and it all had to do with Chris.
Or rather, the plan Chris and Corrado came up with over the phone during a late night call after the morning Abril told him what she would do to help. Chris had to figure out the rest, how to get in the ranch without coming in through the front—the cliffs would be the only way, he knew. Then, he needed people. He couldn’t do this alone, and so he called his twin, who made more phone calls. Amid all that, Corrado thought switching out the two of them—because his twin was far better in an assault-type situation one-on-one than he was—would be a good idea.
Alessio did not agree.
“Les,” Chris said.
“Just get fucking dressed. We don’t have time.”
The man’s sharp order wasn’t just for Chris, and it slithered through the small crowd that had gathered on the edge of the cliffs. It was a handful of men—the three that The League spared for this mission, a couple from his father’s organization that had skills in retrievals or assaults, and the handful Andino Marcello gave to them to use.
It wasn’t much.
Still a team though.
Dressed in tactical gear, with assault weapons that would mow down a crowd, if needed, this job should be easy. Get in once the girls were out, clear the ranch, and hightail it back to the cliffs where they would all leave like this had never even happened.
Simple, right?
Yeah, Chris hoped so.
This all came down to a prayer.
Down below, three boats waited. Speed boats that one of their guys had got a hold of when he called through to a contact he had in Mexico. Alessio scaled the wall, his years of rock climbing coming in handy when they needed to secure a rope ladder with metal steps down the cliffs.
There should be only one way into the ranch.
Just one.
They were wrong.
Someone just needed the means and the mode.
His means were Valeria and Maria.
His mode was The League.
Two days.
That was all he had to put this plan together, get these eight men into the country and here, and make this fucking shit work. It had been a toss-up whether they pulled it off. No one would say it might work, and but for the grace of God, they were here.
Now, it was Abril’s turn.
Half of this plan had been Chris’s. The other side of things belonged to her. None of it would work if she didn’t get her part of the plan in order, and so now he waited beside cliffs and water that made his heart race. He’d just come up from there, and one way or the other, he was going back down those cliffs to get in a boat before the night was over. That fear of water would never leave him.
Of that, he was most sure.
Chris had never been more grateful for his father forcing him to get in water after the almost drowning incident, and making him learn to swim because you have to learn, Chris, you have to. Never had he thought he hated his father more than he did when Gian dunked his head under water at only aged seven, apologizing because he knew it scared his son, but still determined to make him work through the terror.
He had.
It still made him fucking edgy.
Chris turned to the readying men, wanting to go over the plan just one more time—everyone needed to be on the same page, and while The League members likely already were, it was the men who came from outside of their organization that concerned Chris. No one needed to be a fucking hero here. It wouldn’t help.
His speech stopped at the galloping in the distance. The unmistakable clip-clop of hooves hitting soil hard. With the sky a blank canvas of black, it was hard to see into the dense stretch of forest that separated a small portion of the desolate land before one came out to the cliffs.
His gaze strained.
Heart thundering.
Chris forgot everything he would say, everything he wanted, as his world came to a standstill. Now or never. Either those horses would carry a woman he had somehow fallen hopelessly in love with during the process of trying to save her life, and her child, or all of this had been for nothing.
He didn’t think that way though.
Those thoughts were poison.
Time slowed when the horses broke through the tree line, and even in the darkness, he recognized how she rode the animal. As the animals came closer, he distinguished little Maria in front of her mother with Valeria’s arm keeping her safe, and her pink book bag tight in her small hands.
Chris rushed forward before the horses had even come to a stop. The clock in his mind ticked down again. They were running out of time, surely. How long would it be before someone realized the fight between the rival cartels had been a manufactured war, only meant to distract just long enough for them to finish all of this?
They needed to get out of here.
“Come on, let me help you down,” Chris said, coming alongside the horse to reach for Maria first. Unsurprisingly, she reached back, and he almost laughed when a little gray head with two pointed ears peeked out of her backpack. That kitten of hers. “Snuck her out, did you?”
Maria grinned in Chris’s arms. “She’s my kitty, I had to.”
Right.
Goddammit.
He would get her a million kittens if that’s what she wanted.
Just not tonight.
Chris kneeled down when he had Maria’s feet on
the ground, and Valeria hauled herself off the horse, too. Turning, he pointed at Alessio who was tying safety lines to the stakes he had beat into the ground for when they took the girls down the cliffs to return to the boats. The ladders were fine, and they would use them, too, but the lines were just for added protection.
His demand.
“See that man right there?”
Maria nodded.
Chris smiled her way. “He’s my brother’s ...” Okay, that was a difficult one to explain, but he managed with, “My brother’s spouse, yeah? He will take you down the cliffs, and you hold on tight, okay? Listen to everything he says, make sure you keep a tight hold on your kitten, and—”
“We’re going down the cliffs?”
He glanced up at Valeria, seeing the worry in her eyes. “It’s the safest way out of here without drawing attention. It’s how we came in, and it’s how we planned to leave, too.”
He didn’t miss the way her throat jumped at that statement.
“What?” he asked.
“You came up from the water?”
Oh.
It wasn’t her that she worried about, he realized. It was him.
“You do what you gotta do, sweetheart.” Chris went back to Maria, giving her a playful wink, so she didn’t feel as scared. “Think you can handle it?”
Maria shrugged. “It’s very dark.”
“The boats will shine lights up.”
“There're boats?”
Her surprise made him laugh.
“They go really fast, too.”
“Wow.”
“Les?” Chris called.
Alessio didn’t waste time coming over with harnesses ready in his hands—three. One for Maria, Valeria, and Abril who still hadn’t gotten down from her horse. Chris figured he would deal with that one after he handled Valeria.
Maria went to Alessio with no arguments.
Chris turned to Valeria as he stood.
It took their gazes meeting in the darkness for his world to slow again. Two days he had been in pain because he had left her, punishing himself second by second for the suffering she endured behind closed doors with no one to help. And yet, here she was, as beautiful and perfect and strong as ever.
While people moved all around them, unpacking AKs from waterproof cases, and getting the finishing touches ready for their oncoming assault on the ranch—Corrado needed to make it out alive, after all—Chris took a moment to step forward. His arm linked around Valeria’s neck, tightening to pull her close to him until he hid her away from the rest as she folded into his chest.
Closer was better.
He needed her closer always.
Chris tipped his head down and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. Her fingers curled around the edge of the Kevlar vest he’d thrown on, and he breathed her life in.
Because she was ...
Alive.
“He’ll take you down the cliffs, too,” he whispered.
Valeria looked up, eyes dimmed with confusion. “Aren’t you coming?”
“Later. We have to get my brother out first.”
“But that means you’re not coming with—”
“Soon, okay? I will follow you soon.”
“Chris.”
“Don’t make this hard, Val. Argue with me another day. Tell me this was crazy some night when you’re next to me in bed. Give me the silent treatment over dinner because I didn’t follow you like you wanted me to. Right now, though, let Alessio put the harness on you, and take you down the cliffs to the boats. Because that means you can do all those things someday. And that’s what you wanted, right?”
She nodded, bottom lip trembling. “A chance, yeah.”
“Here’s your chance, babe.”
Her grip on his vest flexed tighter. “But you’re coming right after?”
“As soon as I can.”
Valeria made a soft noise in the back of her throat before standing on her tiptoes to press a fast, burning kiss to Chris’s lips. She didn’t linger, not nearly as long as he wanted her to, but it was enough to remind him why he was here doing this.
And that was worth everything.
Her hand patted his chest over the Kevlar vest. “I’ll ... see you soon, then?”
Chris grinned. “Absolutely.”
“Okay,” she said in a breath.
He didn’t watch her walk to the cliffs because that was easier, and while he wasn’t at all scared to run into a gunfight between rival cartels for his twin ... watching that woman walk away was the hardest thing he would ever have to do in his life.
He wasn’t ready for it.
Instead, he looked to Abril still on the horse.
“You’re next,” he told her.
Abril arched a brow. “I’m not leaving.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“This is my home—my family. I have a place here, a purpose here. I can do what they can’t, and I can do it better.”
The cartel, he knew.
“Abril—”
“Do you have an extra gun for me?” she asked.
There would be no argument. Her tone made it clear.
“Pink?” he called to the Marcello enforcer handling the guns.
The man’s attention flew his way. “Yeah?”
“Toss me a gun that’s ready.”
An AK was in his hands in ten seconds, and he handed it up to Abril on the horse. She used the strap to secure the weapon at her back before nodding at the horse Valeria had brought along.
“That’s Butter—it’s a good horse. I want to keep it. You’ll ride it back.”
Well, all right, then.
“I take it, the plan has changed?” he asked.
Abril laughed airily. “For the cartel, plans always change.”
“And the new plan is ...?”
“I walk out of here on top. The rest of you have to follow along.”
Chris nodded.
Seemed simple enough.
Truth was, some women didn’t need to be saved. They didn’t want to be saved. Not when they would do it themselves and do it better. Abril was one of those women.
Chris was fine with that—she wasn’t his woman. She could do whatever she wanted as long as he got what he needed.
He had that now.
• • •
On horseback, Chris and Abril arrived back at the ranch first. The group, in their tactical gear and with guns ready, wouldn’t be too far behind them, though. That was the least of his concerns when the property line of the infamous Lòpez compound came into view.
Flames licked at the sky.
Smoke clung to the air.
“Oh, my God,” Abril whispered.
The ranch was burning. From what he saw, a barn, three of the houses, part of the stables, and a good portion of the land. The Garcías came in hard, and they weren’t fucking around here. The whines of the horses echoed from where they were stuck in the stables, and unable to get out of their stalls. The loud smack of their hooves crashing against the wood walls told him the animals were panicking, and rightfully so.
Around the corner of one building, Chris caught sight of a man peeking around the side with a gun aimed across the property at one house that wasn’t burning. Gunfire lit up the sky, from several directions, although it all seemed aimed right at that house. With the windows blown out, he figured they’d been shooting at it for a while, now.
That’s where he needed to go.
“My horses,” Abril said, her tone growing frantic when she added, “they will die!”
Chris pulled his shirt high to cover his mouth and give him the ability to breathe cleaner air. Abril did the same when he nodded over at her. “Head for the stables, and get the animals out,” he said, “be fucking careful, and quick. That house they’re shooting at, I bet it’s where Jorge is, and the rest.”
His brother, too?
Maybe.
“How long?” she asked.
“Ten minutes,” Chris said, “because
that’s how long the team estimated it would take for them to run in—what’s your plan now?”
“White flag it.”
He raised a brow. “Really?”
Abril shrugged. “I have to make it look good, don’t I?”
“You play a dangerous game.”
“I intend to win.”
Chris tipped his chin down, a silent agreement to her statement. “Ready, then?”
“So ready.”
She pressed her heels into the horse and took off. He did the same to Butter although he felt the animal’s hesitance to approach the chaos in front. No animal—none with any instinct—wanted to walk into a smoky blaze with this much noise. Still, the horse went as it’d been trained, it’s trot turning into a gallop with Chris’s encouragement.
He swung that gun at his back around to his hands, a tight grip on the reins with his other as his finger wrapped the trigger. All he needed to do was keep pulling back that trigger, fast and repeated, and a bullet would come out each time. It was his aim while on a horse that concerned him.
Apparently, for no reason.
Coming around the side of the building that one man was using as a shield, he caught the fucker in the side of his face when he turned to look at the approaching horse. Blood and matter sprayed the wood of the wall before the body hit the ground.
Chris snapped his heels into the horse, a heeyah coming through his clenched teeth to urge the animal closer to the gunfire around the west side of the property. Aiming that gun as the horse jumped over a six inch line of fire snaking along the dried grass on the pathway between the houses, his distraction stopped the sounds of whizzing bullets just long enough for attention to turn on him.
His finger pulled back on the trigger fast—pat, pat, pat, pat. Rapid fire, or rather, as fast as his finger pulled on the fucking trigger. He knew how many bullets were in his clip, and until the rest of the team came onto the property, he needed to be conservative with his ammo.
Although, by the time the men from the García cartel realized what was happening, Chris had already gotten his horse around the side of the house under attack. He rolled off the animal, hitting the ground with his feet, as bullets sprayed the corner of the home, sending wood splintering and flying past the horse’s hind end.
Abril would find the horse.