by L. T. Ryan
Chapter Twenty-One
I met Jack’s gaze with an eyebrow raised. This was what we came here to do. We were walking on thin ice as it was testing the limits of Goddard’s trust. Now we had to deliver. Sadie wouldn’t be much help in this situation. She couldn’t be. The senator didn’t know the kind of tactical brain she had, and we couldn’t risk revealing that side of her. It’d blow her cover and spell the end of the three of us. Jack had Goddard’s trust more than I did, so he would have to lead the conversation. I’d have to prove my worth.
Jack crossed an ankle over a knee. “I’d recommend hitting him at his house. I’ve already been there. I haven’t seen the whole thing, but I’m more familiar with it than anywhere else we could meet up with him.”
“It’ll put him at ease, too,” I said. “If he’s as arrogant and hotheaded as I’ve heard, he’ll be cocky inside his own house. We can use that to our advantage.”
Goddard’s attention cut to me for a moment but slid back over to Jack. My words had been noted out of courtesy. I tried to let the dismissal bounce away by imagining what it would feel like for my fist to connect to his face.
Jack acknowledged my input with a tip of his head. “He won’t imagine we’d take a risk like that on his turf.”
“How would you get an invite?” Goddard said. “He doesn’t know you. I imagine he trusts you even less than I do.”
Jack turned to Sadie and gave her a questioning look.
Goddard’s feet slid off the desk and slammed onto the floor. His body jerked upright. “No.”
“She’s our only way in.”
“I will not allow you to put Michelle in danger like that. It is out of the question.”
Sadie said, “Thomas—”
“No.”
“Thomas.” Sadie’s voice was quiet but authoritative. “I know I can get us back in there.”
“You’ll be killed.”
“I’ll take care of her.” Jack gestured at me, his eyes focused on Goddard. “We both will.”
“You’ll understand that I don’t trust you have her best interests at heart.”
Jack’s head cocked to the side. “And you’ll understand that I’ve known this girl for half my life. We may not have stayed in touch that entire time, but I’ve cared about her for much longer than you have.”
“Jack.” Sadie laid a calming hand on his arm and looked up at Goddard.
The senator’s lips disappeared after he licked them. He took a deep breath through his nose then steepled his hands in front of his face. His eyes shut for a few seconds. Then his face relaxed. He’d made his decision. “Understand this. If anything happens to her there will be no country, no island, no iceberg where you can hide from my vengeance. You might as well turn your pistols on yourselves because I can guarantee I will not show an ounce of mercy. When I’m through with you, your dead grandmothers will wail from the grave begging me to finally kill you.”
“If anything happens to her,” Jack said, “I won’t even try.”
Goddard turned back to Sadie. “What will be your reason for calling on Nicolás?”
Sadie looked away. “Nicolás and I have maintained some semblance of a relationship.”
“Did you know he was going to move against his uncle?” There was an eerie calm to the senator’s voice.
“No.” Sadie chose her words carefully. “He had talked about it before, but it felt like all bluster to me. He loved his uncle, even if they didn’t always see eye to eye. I didn’t think he could ever be capable of this.”
“Why didn’t you come to me with that information?”
“I just didn’t deem it newsworthy.”
”And now that you know? What does it change?”
Sadie bowed her head. “Everything. I can’t trust him. He is no longer the person I thought he was.”
“We are not good people, Michelle.” The senator looked fatherly as he watched her, but there was a coldness to his voice that was unsettling. “You should know that by now.”
“But there’s goodness in you. In all of us.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “I’ve done my fair share of terrible things. I’m not innocent here either, but if he can turn against Mateo, who says he won’t turn against you? I wouldn’t know what to do with myself.”
“You would be taken care of.” Goddard turned to Jack. “You advised me to keep him alive earlier. What’s changed?”
Jack shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t care. I’m helping out a friend. It’s good karma.”
“Is that all it is?”
“And a good paycheck.” He paused a beat. “But I have to know that once we take out Nicolás, we’re not held responsible for the fallout.”
“You do this job, you get paid, you leave,” Goddard said. “I don’t need your career choices to affect Michelle. Or me, for that matter.”
“Thomas,” Sadie started.
He held up a hand. “It’s non-negotiable. You can have your goodbyes, and then I don’t ever want to see you again, Jack. Or your friend.”
I laughed. “Not a problem for me, man.”
Jack worked his jaw, but nodded. He turned to Sadie. “He’s got a point. I’m not the man you knew back then. Being friends with me comes with consequences.”
Jack may have been following a script, but the lines rang true nonetheless. We’d both been through plenty to feel that way, and I could tell Jack meant the words either way.
I clapped my hands in an attempt to break the moment. “All right. So when do we get started?” My stomach growled audibly. “And does this job come with a complimentary lunch?”
* * *
Goddard ordered his chef to prepare us food. The man pulled a slab of beef from the fridge and went to work carving it. Smoke rose over the cooktop as the meat sizzled. The smell overtook the room.
We gathered around the dining room table with maps of Nicolás’s house and information on the movements of his men. In the last twenty-four hours he had doubled his force. He was paranoid that someone would make a move against him—whether that was Goddard, another cartel looking to move in while chaos reigned, or somebody within his ranks.
Goddard watched without input as Jack and I planned our hit. The idea was to have Sadie get Jack in the door again. He’d deal with Nicolás and his men on the inside. I would make my way around the outside of the compound and systematically take out his guards. They were heavily armed, but if they were anything like that kid in the forest, their training was subpar. We didn’t think there’d be much of a fight as long as we kept the element of surprise.
Sadie returned to the table after having a hushed conversation over the phone with Nicolás on the back deck. She left the French doors open and a steady breeze blew in. The humidity had dissipated after a quick thunderstorm, leaving the air cool and refreshing.
“He’s agreed to meet with me,” she said.
“Does he know I’ll be there too?” Jack asked.
She nodded. “He doesn’t like that you’re my new bodyguard. He wishes it was one of his guys, but I told him I trust you with my life. For now that seems to be enough.”
Goddard was peeling an orange, looking unconcerned. He wasn’t one for doing the actual planning, but he wanted to supervise our every move. Jack and I ignored him the best we could. He put his knife down and began to piece out the sections of the fruit. “What did you tell him?”
“I told him you were looking to put a hit out on him.”
Goddard looked up sharply. This would be met with repercussions if things didn’t work out the way we planned. “And what happened to needing the element of surprise?”
“We need a valid excuse to meet there. He didn’t think it was safe for us to talk right now in case you were watching him. I had to make it clear this needed to happen sooner rather than later.”
Jack straightened up and stretched his back. We’d been bending over these maps for the last half-hour or so. “He’ll never think we’re the ones there to do the job. Between Sa
die’s presence and giving him the heads up, he’ll be relaxed.”
The senator tapped one of the maps. “He’s doubled his men. That’s not exactly relaxed.”
It looked like Goddard was about to change his mind about sending Sadie in, so I interjected. “Trust me, he’s not going to see this coming. He’s blinded by Michelle’s presence. It’s the best plan we’ve got, and we don’t have time to come up with a better one. We need her to get Jack inside.”
“Fine.” Goddard grabbed a napkin and wiped his hands. “But I’m sending a few of my men along with you.”
Jack and I tensed at the same time. More men meant more confusion and more restraints we had to operate under. That wasn’t ideal. Jack spoke first.
“No offense, Senator, but I don’t trust your men.”
“And I don’t trust you.” Goddard stood up. “At least we’re on an even playing field.”
“And how do we know your guys will give us the room we need? Your man Spero wasn’t too happy to see us earlier.”
“Spero will fall in line.” He looked over at me. “He’ll be there to make sure you’re able to take out the guards on the outside.”
I ground my teeth together. “I’ve been in worse scrapes before. I don’t need the help.”
“Forgive me, but I don’t really give a rat’s ass what you think you can or cannot do. You want the job? You want the money? You want your life? You’ll do this my way.”
We all exchanged a look. We knew Goddard would want to send a few of his men along to keep an eye on us. It was another element in play that we didn’t need to make an already complicated op even more so, but what choice did we have? We had to get inside and get to Nicolás before he decided Camila wasn’t worth the trouble anymore.
Jack leaned forward across the table with his hand extended. “Deal.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
March 27, 2006
Sadie and Jack pulled up to Nicolás’s house after a long and silent car ride. It was eight a.m. and already eight-five degrees out and the air conditioning in Sadie’s vehicle worked half-ass at best. Sweat trickled down Jack’s face, his neck, and settled in his shirt collar. He didn’t care. It’d been twenty-four hours since he’d showered. A little sweat wasn’t going to make much of a difference.
Jack had vetoed either of them going in with comms on. It meant Bear would be as much in the dark as Goddard was. At least they’d be able to play out this Nicolás situation without having to use doublespeak. Goddard hadn’t liked the idea, but Jack convinced him that going in mic’d up wasn’t a risk worth taking. In exchange, they’d agreed for the senator to send two extra men who would have mics on them. Bear would have to play it safe.
Sadie kept her foot on the brake, and her hand on the shifter, still in drive. She looked over at Jack. “Have I thanked you yet?”
He shrugged. “No. Do you feel like you need to?”
She gripped the wheel with both hands until her knuckles turned white, then relinquished her grasp and watched as the color returned. “I didn’t exactly walk into your life on the best of terms. You’re risking a lot here.”
Jack watched through the windshield as two of Nicolás’s armed men made their way toward the car. “Didn’t have much choice. But even if I had I’m not that much of a bastard that I’d let an innocent girl die. Or risk the life of an agent, even one from the CIA.”
She laughed. “How sweet.”
Jack knew it wasn’t the answer she had been looking for. He felt himself being pulled toward her and had a feeling Sadie felt it too. But what he had said earlier in Goddard’s office was true—being friends with him came with consequences. She was with the Agency. Jack could never live a life like that again. It would be better if they continued circling each other without closing the gap and then move on with their lives. When he left Costa Rica, he’d leave her behind. It was best for both of them.
Before either could say anything else one of Nicolás’s men tapped on Jack’s window. Jack showed his hands and Sadie followed suit after cutting the engine. Both their doors were opened for them. They got out of the car and endured a pat down. The man searching Jack found the Glock. He pulled it from Jack’s waistband and gave him a look. Jack shrugged to say, can you blame me? The man dropped the magazine, ejected the chambered round, and tossed the gun in the front seat of the car then pushed Jack forward toward the house. He stumbled then caught his step and moved on.
As they walked up the stairs he glanced around the grounds. He knew Bear and Goddard’s men were out there. Where, he wasn’t sure. Half a dozen of Nicolás’s men were visible around the outside of the house. There would also be guards in the woods and inside the house. They knew what to expect even if they didn’t have an exact count.
As Jack crossed the threshold behind Sadie he started to count down. They’d have roughly five minutes to isolate Nicolás and put him at ease before Bear and the others started moving in. The goal for the men outside was to take Nicolas’s men out quickly and systematically. No guns. No commotion. Jack and Sadie needed as much time as possible before the proverbial alarms started going off. As much as Jack didn’t like the idea that Goddard had his own team here, they were going to be useful.
The two of them were ushered into the same room they had stood in before. The smell of burning tobacco met them as they entered. Nicolás was sitting on the sofa, cigar in hand, reading a newspaper. On the table next to him was a drink. Perhaps he was trying to look like his slain uncle. He appeared relaxed, but it was just a front. There were twice as many men in plain sight as there had been before and Nicolás’s gun was visible on the table next to his drink.
Through the haze of cigar smoke Nicolás’s gaze landed on Jack first. He looked him up and down before he switched over to Sadie. Jack could tell how much the man wanted her on his side, but just like last time he wasn’t going to beg with his men around. He had a reputation to maintain, especially now that he’d proven he had the cajones to take out his own uncle.
“Michelle.”
“Nicolás.” There was a beat of silence while Sadie looked around the room, taking in the scene. “Do we have to talk in front of them?”
Nicolás jutted his chin to the side. He was being cautious, but it was a bluff. “If they go, so does he.” He aimed his twisted index finger at Jack.
Jack smirked. “Come on, man. You still don’t trust me? Look at this face.”
“He tried to bring a weapon on the premises.” The man who spoke was the same one who had felt Jack up outside of the car.
“It was for her protection. We both have the same goal here. You don’t want anything to happen to her and neither do I.”
Nicolás’s gaze danced around the room. His men were trustworthy, sure. But not all these guys were his men. How many had been loyal to his uncle just two days ago? How much did they know of his relationship with his uncle’s former accountant?
“If they go, so do you, gringo,” Nicolás said.
He was playing right into their hands. “Fair enough.” Jack turned toward the door. “What does a guy have to do to get a cup of coffee around here?”
Nicolás nodded at one of his men and the group led Jack out of the room, shutting the doors behind them.
“Seriously though,” Jack said. “Can I get a cup of coffee?”
“Sit down and shut up.” The man who spoke was the one that Jack suspected was Nicolás’s personal bodyguard, the man who gave orders to the others. He was sharp, but his temper was short and Jack thought he could use that to his advantage. After all one of his best skills was getting under people’s skin.
“Relax, bro. I’m outnumbered six to one. What are you worried about?” He patted his pockets like he was looking for something. This set the other men on edge. “You think your boss is going to appreciate us hanging out here, listening to their little lover’s spat?” When the man didn’t say anything else, Jack pushed harder. “Is this how you treat your guests?”
“We don�
�t owe you shit.”
Jack took a step forward and stood toe to toe with the man, who was at least a head shorter than him. “What’s your name?”
The man didn’t back down. “Goya.”
“Well, Goya, I’m the guy who’s going to keep your boss alive. What do you think’s gonna happen when we take out Goddard and he lands on top? He’s going to reward the guy that made it happen.” He grabbed a pack of cigarettes from Goya’s shirt pocket, fished one from the pack and held it between his thumb and index finger. “You see, that guy’s me. And what do you think’s gonna happen when I become his right hand man? I’m going to reward the guy who knew his place and pointed me in the direction of a goddamn cup of coffee.” He looked at the cigarette. “And a lighter.”
Goya looked away at one of his men and laughed. But his face gave him away. His shoulders tensed as he prepared to strike. Jack tightened his stomach as the other man drove an uppercut to his solar plexus. When the blow landed it didn’t take the wind out of him, but he doubled over anyway. Jack needed to make the guy feel like he had gotten one over on him. His arrogance would be his downfall.
Goya bent down to speak in Jack’s ear. His hot breath smelled of tortillas. “The second Goddard is out of the picture, so are you, asshole. Nicolás may trust you for now, but that’s only going to last for so long. He rewards the men who have stood by him over the years. You’ll have a long way to climb if you think you’ll have his ear.”
Jack gasped out a breath and straightened up slowly. He looked around. Each of the men standing there looked ready to take him down if he made the wrong move. He slapped a grimace on his face, and said, “Look, man, we’re here for the same reason. We both want Goddard gone. We’re both gonna benefit from it.”
“Some more than others.” Goya looked over Jack’s shoulder and nodded at one of his men. He then gestured for Jack to turn and head down a narrow hallway.
“Clear out,” Goya shouted at a couple of workers who were preparing breakfast for the household. They scampered out of the way without having to be told twice.