Many smiles greeted this announcement. Nothing like screwing over those that screwed you. And turning over the money to the government, when they were not the ones to sanction the hit in the first place was a no go. All knew that that money would disappear and more than likely be used to fuel other cells that needed shut down instead of fed. No, the men here would see it sent and spent on favored charities and causes.
Sawyer rapped his knuckles on the table to draw attention to him. “So how do we shut them down for good?”
Tech sighed and shook his head. “You know as well as I do that you never shut them down. As soon as you take one vulture out, there is another to step in his place.”
“I want this specific vulture’s carcass to be the one stepped on by the next, quickly. We will worry about the one stepping up later.” Sawyer’s statement brought remarks of agreement from the assembly and he punched his finger into the tabletop to make his point.
Zora pulled up several feeds of Hispanic men moving about known businesses that were cartel owned or linked. “We have one little problem. We don’t know who is leading them. I can’t be Hernandez as he is buried under the weight of my mountain.”
Kade watched the screens and the men moving on it like ants working a hill. Again, his wife was not safe. “Until we figure it out, you are on lock down.”
Zora had known this was coming. She was kind of glad their house was not finished as she would have been hard pressed to obey him as he would want her here at the club, even with the security they had going in. She nodded at Kade. “Fine.”
Kade squinted at her. “I want a detail on you at all times, even here.”
Zora wrinkled her nose but agreed. “Fine.”
Tucker looked up from where he was looking over Zora’s medical record in the file. “You know what fine stands for don’t you?”
The room spoke in unison. “Fucked up, insecure, neurotic, emotional.”
Tucker walked up to Zora as the people in the room filed out. The order was to press on those that had links to see who the new head that needed removed was. “You were up early. You didn’t binge on caffeine again, did you?”
Shaking her head, she tilted the cup she had carried in with her to let Tucker see inside. “Pineapple juice with ginger all morning.”
Tech spoke up as he shut off the screen and closed the wall. “Pretty good stuff, she made me one.”
Tucker nodded and walked out as Kade came up behind his wife and wrapped her in his arms.
~Chapter Sixteen~
Zora stood watching the dogs eat as she ate one of Lyndsie’s breakfast burritos. She loved them and was on her third one of the morning when Kade walked into the kitchen with a man in tow. “Zora, this is Stitch. He will be your shadow until all this is settled.”
Zora wiped her hands on a paper towel after cramming the rest of her breakfast in her mouth like a chipmunk and held out her hand for him to shake. “Stitch? I’m always curious about your all’s nicknames.”
Stitch ducked his head and his cheeks actually pinked up a bit. “When I served with Tech, he gave it to me. Said I laugh like the character on the movie.”
Zora resolved to get him to laugh just so she could hear it. “Works for me.”
Kade kissed her on the forehead while spearing a piece of pineapple off the plate Zora was eating off of. The woman loved her fruit. He gagged as he got the effect of the salt she insisted on putting on it all though. “Why woman? That just ruins it.”
Zora laughed as he spit the bite in the sink and turned on the garbage disposal. “Teach you to eat my food.”
Tech came running in as Stitch burst out in his trademark laugh. He did sound like the cartoon character. “We got a problem.”
Kade, Zora and Stitch shared at look that said, ‘what now?’ as they followed Tech to the basement.
Men were gathered around his cage and the feeds of the cameras Zora and Tech had tapped into. Activity around the watched locations was either dead as a door nail or so much it looked like the ants were on the coke being sold. “Activity has increased, and chatter is that they are moving on something soon. Whoever is leading them is keeping details off the air but there is something going down for sure.”
Zora took up the new second chair and swiveled to the screens. Headphones with a mic like Tech’s were on her head the next instant and she was typing away. A string of SUVs pulled into frame at a warehouse and men in combat gear and automatic weapons came pouring out into them. “Got to love OnStar.”
Zora had tapped into the onboard system and the voices in the lead car came over the speakers. “ETA ten minutes. Block both entrances and move in at once.”
There was no denying that voice. How the hell had he survived?
Sawyer turned to the men gathered. “You heard the bastard! Fall in!”
Ghost moved to the neighboring cage and started handing out weapons.
Weasley pulled out his phone and sent off a text to Lyndsie to move all women and children out of the building and the apartments on the right. The building on the left was blessedly empty as the renovations were not yet complete. All would be evacuated out to a safe location on the other side of town.
Kade grabbed Zora’s chair back and spun her from the screens where she was working. “Out! Now!”
Zora shook her head. “No. I can help.”
Kade grabbed her wrist and hauled her up and over his shoulder. “Like hell. I want you out.”
Sawyer stepped out of the cage next to the one Tech was still working in adjusting his vest. “You need to get something on before you take her out.”
Kade sat Zora down and took the offered vest from Ghost. Upon releasing his wife, she ran back to the cage he just carried her from. Weasley held out two rifles to him as Kade growled and made to go back for her.
Zora continued going through systems and deleting a line of code on each. “Done. Don’t know why we didn’t do that months ago, but he has no access to anything owned by the club or its members now.”
Tech pulled a vest on and clipped his mic around his neck, switching from the bulky one he had used earlier. He preferred the same set up as the men behind him over the headset that Zora wore during an op that was this close. “Was kind of hoping that someone would be stupid and use his credentials and we could have them to question.”
Hernandez’s voice came over the speaker that Zora had patched it threw. “Target in sight. You know what to do.”
Kade looked to where Zora and Tech were pulling up every camera they had and then some on the screens. It did take half the time with two working. It was too late to send her out with Lyndsie and the others now. He slammed a vest over her head, nearly knocking off her headset and leaned her rifle against the table next to her, a pistol near her right hand and knife on the left. “Tech, you get her out of here should they breach.”
Tech nodded and began calling out locations as the vehicles spewed out men at the front doors. The metal shutters had been dropped over the windows, but they looked prepared for that. They were placing devices on the double doors. “We got explosives.”
Zora nodded and spoke into her mic as the men ran up the stairs to take defensive positions. “On the gate as well. Coming in two directions like they said.”
Kade followed the two finger point of Sawyer as he came up the stairs in the lead of the second group of men. Ghost was already up on the roof, but the angle was off, and he was having trouble taking the men trying to get in out. The sound of his gun talking was sporadic as he fought for shots.
The doors being blown open caused the power to flicker and fail, plunging the rooms into darkness even if it was the middle of the day. The metal shutters that had dropped cut all outside light off. Using the light spilling in behind him, Kade moved to defend the garage and that entrance.
Zora watched as the cameras flickered before coming back on with auxiliary power. Kade was setting up position in the garage with the toolboxes and refrigerators they kept beer in as pr
otection.
Sawyer had over turned several of the tables that were far from ordinary. Reinforced, those suckers were heavy and now being used as protection on that side of the building for the men returning fire on the group trying to get in the doors they just blew open.
“You got him yet?”
Tech shook his head and scanned the cameras. “No sign of Hernandez. Tangos on the second floor deck.”
Zora watched as Kade returned fire of the men taking cover behind the vehicles in the parking area out back. Where were the cops?
“Zora, you need to go.” Tech turned and kicked her chair around so he could zip up the vest that Kade had slung on her. “Left out of here, right once in with the trucks, on the wall is a door, your biometrics are already programmed. You will come up across the street.”
Zora shook her head and tried to turn back to the screens. “You need help. They need our eyes.”
Tech knew she did not want to leave Kade. Or any of the others she considered friends and family. “You have to go now.”
Zora made to argue again but something louder than the automatics was being fired now.
“Fuck! Now Zora!”
Zora grabbed her rifle and fled the room with her dogs on her heels. It was just dumb luck they had followed her down. And it was due to her father’s training that they were not gun shy even if all going on upstairs was so much more than a single rifle or handgun being fired around them.
Pressing her hand to the panel Tech directed her too, the door sprung open and she darted in, pulling it shut behind her as the dogs ran in. Following the tunnel, she stopped at a ladder and looked up. The dogs would be stuck where they were until she could come back for them. Looking at the scared faces of her pets, she smiled and knelt down. She gave each a hug around the neck and kiss on the nose. “Be good. I’ll be back.”
~Chapter Seventeen~
Zora pushed at the heavy metal lid above her, praying there was no one on the other side. She had no gear to take a peek out before lifting the door. Grunting, she shoved again, and it finally gave. Light came in and she slowly stuck out her head, looking around as best she could while clinging to a ladder. She was in the back alley she herself had utilized to sneak up on Kade to kill him and then he returned the favor when he used it to take her hostage.
Heaving herself out, she unslung her rifle, keeping it ready for action and looked around for a ladder or something to get on the buildings around her. She would help even though she knew it would get her in trouble. Better that then the men she cared for dead. The man she loved… She would not think about that.
There was a ladder up the wall of the next building over and she started towards it. Slinging her rifle down to hang from the Chalker Sling she had it fastened to, she made to climb up. A hand wrapping in her hair, had Zora gasping as she was jerked backwards.
“I figured you right. Stay to fight until made to leave and then this would be the only way out.”
Hernandez.
Zora turned to look at the man that held her. He had seen better days. Guess he had not escaped untouched after all. The left side of his face was a mask of scars that went down into his collar. “Oh, you’re not so pretty anymore.”
Hernandez gave her a shake and drug her back to the open pit, he looked down as growls echoed up at him from the hole at their feet. “Looks like all your pets are locked down. Who will save you now?”
The sound of the metal cover closing was loud and muffled the calls of the dogs that were trying to get to their mistress.
It was the fist to Zora’s stomach that had her quickly on her knees as she gasped for breath. Looking up at the man above her, she bared her teeth.
“I want to thank you for your little stunt up on the mountain. Made me invincible in the eyes of my men.” Hernandez wrenched the rifle off Zora’s shoulder and tossed it behind him. It did not hit the ground. Instead two men stepped up behind their leader, one now holding her own rifle on her. The pistol in the front of her pants was taken as well and tucked in the same place on him as Hernandez disarmed her. She had stupidly left the knife on the table in ops.
“Cockroaches are hard to kill.” Zora caught herself before her head struck the ground when Hernandez slapped her, knocking her off her knees.
“That they are. And I will wipe them all out today.” He was referring to the Horde. “Would have long ago if your dear old dad hadn’t gotten smart. It was all I needed to tie up loose ends. Even with a threat to you, he was too damn noble.” Hernandez took a step towards her and wrapped his hand back in her hair and jerked her to her feet.
Walking her through the alley, he spilled just like most movie bad guys. Why do they monolog? Zora thought.
“And then you came around. Should have been dead really. Guess that makes you a cockroach as well. It was fun until you decided to not kill Kade. Figured you would take out at least one of my targets for me. All you got done though was fucking him. Maybe I’ll take my taste before I kill you like I planned before. Maybe I’ll make him watch before his brain meets a bullet. If you’re a good girl, I might just keep you.”
Zora wanted him to keep talking since he was taking his time getting to his point; both in his little speech and wherever he was taking her. “How did you find me?”
“Chip in your phone. Figured you or Tech would check it but neither of you did. Funny thing about today’s technology, if you don’t pull the battery, there is power even if it is off. Was simple enough to follow you when you left on your own power and then just stay back for the right moment.”
Zora wanted to kick herself. And then Tech. Why had they not thought of it? Or to put his own chip in there, then Tech would have at least found it? Guess both figured the other would find it. Dumb smart people sometimes.
“Why?” Zora winced as her hair was pulled tighter around Hernandez’s fist.
Looking down at the woman in his grasp, Hernandez cocked his head. “Why? Why come after you? Why use the Horde? Why take over Los Reyes de Oso?”
Zora had to keep him talking. The mouth of the alley was fast approaching. “All of it.”
Stopping, Hernandez jerked Zora back against him and breathed in her ear making her want to squirm away. It was like he was enjoying the fire fight in front of them. “I could have gone after Sawyer or even Lyndsie to get to him but that would leave Kade to take up the slack. No. Best to start a rung lower. If Kade was out, Sawyer would lose his boy. Best fucking friends and all that they were. Sawyer would take his eye off the prize to comfort him when you were gone.”
Zora tried to wrench away from the hot, moist air blowing over the side of her face, but Hernandez only tightened his fist making her hiss at the burn of her scalp. Anymore and he would be ripping out her hair.
“Your next question. Why use the Horde? The Horde was the best trained soldiers I could round up in the time I had. Fucking Marco and Tomás had my mother. I would have been happy to see it all fall until they decided they needed to control me. They wanted to use the Horde to take out the competition threw me. But then Kade, the shit pouch, used her as a human shield. Fucking coward. He had to pay. Guess you are serving two purposes.”
Zora struggled until her own pistol was pressed to her temple.
Hernandez ran his nose up her face from ear to forehead on the other side with an audible sniff and then licked the same path making Zora shudder.
“Then, I got to thinking. Uncle Marco was dead. Tomás was dead. All their command structure was wiped out. And I am Oso. It runs through my veins, just a thick as Tomás’. Why let all that power? All that money? Just go to waste. Just be snatched up by someone not worthy of the Oso line. Me Madre would have been proud. She would have wanted me to take it on. Show the family we belonged and were not a byproduct. A big fuck you to the men that thought I was controllable. I would now control what they had.”
They stopped next to one of the blacked out cars and watched as the two factions fired on each other. Hernandez looked to the man w
ith her rifle and nodded. He spoke into his mic in Spanish and the men on this side of the fight ducked down and ceased firing, taking cover. It was a second or two before the Horde stopped and the back lot was quiet.
Pistol to her head, Zora walked out in front of Hernandez to in front of one of the trucks. He stood looking into the darkness of the stalls. The men that had been with him in the alley came to stand on either side of them. Hernandez exchange the gun for a knife and held it in the same place as the scar on her back, his hand still wrapped in her hair to keep her from trying to flee.
Kade watched as Zora stiffened as the knife disappeared behind her. Tucker swore from next to him. The fucker was dead. Depending on if he hurt Zora would determine how long and how painful it would be. Sawyer was still pinned down inside, and Ghost was trying to relieve that pressure from that side of the roof. Movement behind Hernandez’s group caught Kade’s attention. Stitch.
The sound of a round hitting the skull of the man on Zora’s right sounded like when she was kid and her grandfather had taught her to shoot using melons. The man on Hernandez’s left fell before he could spin and aim her rifle behind them. The burn of the knife sliding in had her hissing and trying to arch away from the pain.
“Drop it.” Hernandez spun her with him as he stepped back behind the trucks, out of range of the guns inside to face the threat that had snuck up on them. “I will kill her.”
Stitch released his hands from the pistol in his hand but kept his finger in the trigger guard. “How do you expect this to work out? You can’t take us all out and we won’t stop coming until you and all yours are gone.”
The sick smile on Hernandez’s face showed his madness. He really thought he had this. Sirens were finally being heard over the sounds of gunfire. Back up was coming and if she knew the club the way she did, more of them would be on the way as well once the women and children were safe. “I don’t need you all right now. Just the higher ups and the club will be suspended in free fall until they can muster a new chain of command and in that time, I will take out every one of them.”
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