by Desiree Holt
Barrera watched through the side window as they drove through town, automatically looking for any sign of trouble or disturbing activity, but it was just the usual scene. Soon they left the commercial area and headed into a residential district. Streetlights provided plenty of illumination, but once they hit the edge of the jungle that changed. The minute they bumped off the pavement and into the thick growth of trees and bushes, the only light source available was their headlights.
“Be careful, Ruben,” Barrera warned. “This is a dangerous place to be in. And there are no designated roads.”
“Si.” Ruben dipped his head, but that was all he said.
Barrera clenched his fists as they moved along at a snail’s pace. After what seemed like an interminable amount of time, they came into a small clearing with a hut on stilts in its center.
“This is where they’ve been hiding her.” Barrera spat the words out. “Practically under our noses, because they knew we’d never look for her in here. Mierda. Which is exactly why we should have.”
He was glad no one pointed out that he had been driving the search and had never directed them toward La Jungla. If they lost this woman, it would be on his shoulders, and that he could not abide.
“All right, let’s look around.”
He climbed out of the vehicle and leaned against the door. He would oversee the search while the others crawled around, climbed the ladder to the hut and did whatever else was needed to see if they could find a trace of where Mallory Kane was now.
They covered every inch of the area slowly and methodically, until he wanted to scream and tell them to get their fucking asses in gear. But he also knew that they had to take enough time to make sure they didn’t miss any clues. At the end, they at least had bits and pieces for him.
“She was definitely here,” Ruben told him. “and someone was with her. There is a pallet on the floor of the hut that’s obviously been used. A good part of the bottles of water beneath a small counter are gone and there are only a few empties in a trash bag. There’s also some debris from food that’s been sealed up and added to the bag.”
“So she’s been here and gone.”
“Si. But someone’s with her.”
“It can’t be one of the men from the SUV. They were seen all together every time they were spotted. So there’s someone else that’s also part of this equation.”
Barrera wanted to strike something. Or someone. All of this made him realize that Mallory Kane wasn’t just a writer snooping around to write some kind of exposure piece. She had friends who weren’t everyday people. Military? Former military? Former police? Whatever they were, they spelled big trouble for him unless he could eliminate all of them.
“We can’t follow them on foot.” He looked at Ruben. “It would take too long and I’m not sure we’re all in shape to do so.”
Well, at least he wasn’t, but he didn’t want to single himself out.
“I don’t know what they’ll do when they reach the cliff,” Ruben mused. “Even if there’s a boat waiting for them, that’s a hell of a dive to the water. And it’s nighttime, although it could be close to dawn by the time they reach that place.”
“It is,” Barrera agreed. “But they have to have something planned and we have to find out what it is.”
“We need to get back to the palace,” Ruben suggested, “and move from there.”
“A boat,” Barrera told him. “Not for them, but for us. Whatever they’ve arranged, we need to be there and ready for them. I want two boats loaded with military and fully armed.”
In seconds, they were all back in their vehicle.
“Benno will drive,” Ruben told him, “so that I can make any necessary phone calls.”
“Good, good.”
“We need to make sure to take Mallory Kane alive,” Ruben told him once they were moving. “We have to find out if she’s reported any information to anyone or sent notes to someone. If she’s made any arrangements for publication of that information if anything should happen to her. And who she’s made arrangements with. There has to be a way to get that information.”
“Look into it.” Barrera’s mouth curved in a humorless smile. “I have discovered you have contacts and outreach almost everywhere. A very valuable talent to have. Once we have resolved this, I see a big promotion in your future. Perhaps a new title.”
“If it pleases you. I am just happy to serve.”
But Barrera had caught a fine edge of excitement in his voice. Good. Ruben Vidal was a valuable asset to him and would continue to be.
“And find Bruno Whatever his name is,” he went on. “We would not have found this place if not for him. He should have a place on one of the boats, no?”
“I agree. Meanwhile, let me call the patrol boat office at the marina and tell them we will need two fully staffed gun boats readied right now. Take us directly to the harbor. And turn on lights and sirens so no one gets in our way.”
He listened while Ruben made the call and gave the orders, his blood churning at the thought of eliminating people who dared to try and undermine him. He had planned for too long and worked too hard to get to this point. He was not about to let some idiot female and a bunch of what he was sure were hired thugs tear it all down.
“Bruno Elizondo will be waiting for us at the harbor,” Ruben reported. “The patrol captain will take care of it.”
“Good, good, good.”
What else did he need to do? If any word of this got out, his entire empire would be destroyed. If his cartel customers found out, he would lose the trust he had worked so hard to build. The people of Santa Marita who he had under his control, who were afraid to oppose him, might suddenly rise against him. They were not the size of, say, Sinaloa. They just had this small island which he had entirely under his thumb—and he planned to keep it that way.
Tonight would be about more than just disposing of what he considered an enemy. It would be about asserting his authority and letting people know what happened to anyone who tried to bring him down.
He drew a breath as they pulled into the harbor patrol marina. Time to flex my muscles.
Chapter Fourteen
It felt to Mallory as if they’d been walking forever. She was close to the point of exhaustion, but she still managed to put one foot in front of the other. There was no way she was going to wimp out, not when these men had put their lives on the line to rescue her and get her out of a situation of her own making. She hated to admit it, but she hadn’t done the research for this project the way she usually did. That was her own stupidity.
Inez had called her and begged her to come to Santa Marita and see for herself what was going on. Usually, she dug into the internet for everything she could find, turning up articles that would give her background. But this time she’d been in a hurry and done a hasty job, and had also made a stupid assumption. She’d thought because this was a tiny island run by a cartel reject, there wouldn’t be much to write about.
How wrong she’d been.
She was still processing the destruction of the agriculture economy to grow drugs, and how that money had never had the trickledown effect on the people.
Because she was so busy letting her brain run wild and because it had gotten so dark, she stubbed her toe on a tree root and bumped into Blaze, who was walking ahead of her.
“Whoa.” Rocket grabbed her from behind and steadied her on her feet. “You okay?”
Everyone had instantly come to a stop and shone their flashlights in her direction.
“I’m okay.” She righted herself, embarrassment heating her cheeks. “I just need to pay better attention to where I’m going.”
“Just walking can be dangerous out here.” Ed’s calm voice settled her nerves. “Especially in the dark like this.”
“Thank you for saying that, and I promise to be less clumsy.”
Rocket put his arms around her and pulled her close to his chest, which surprised her.
“Not to worry. I�
�ve got your back.”
She could have stayed there forever like that, warmed by the heat of his body, assured by the strength of his arms, but that wouldn’t solve anything. She took a step back.
“I’m good.” She looked at the others, just black forms in the darkness highlighted by the tiny flashlights. “Let’s do it.”
They had barely started forward when Blaze’s cell phone chirped and Mallory heard him answer.
“Everything still a go?” he asked. “Yeah. Yeah. Okay. We’re probably about a half hour out. Okay. I’ll give you a heads-up with a ten-minute warning. Thanks.”
“He all set?” Rocket wanted to know.
“Good as ever. You know Saint.”
Ed shifted his pack. “Let’s hydrate again, then move. We’re almost there.”
Mallory thought the last half hour of this march was the longest walk she’d ever taken. Her legs ached to the point they were numb and her feet felt as if they were on fire. But they were doing this for her, so there was no way she was going to complain or hold them back. When she got home, she could lie in a hot tub for a week and recover.
Hopefully with Rocket.
At last, they were there. The sudden egress from the jungle was so startling, she almost stumbled again. One minute they were walking beneath a thick canopy of greenery, the next they were in wide-open space beneath a black sky dotted with silver stars. Mallory had to blink to get her bearings.
Rocket put his hand at the small of her back to guide her.
“Careful where you step.”
“Got it.”
And careful was indeed the word. The land beneath her feet was all rocks and pebbles, lumpy and bumpy and difficult to walk on. This time, because she was so tired and her balance wasn’t the best, she allowed herself to hold on to Rocket’s arm to steady herself. They all moved slowly, carefully feeling their way as they approached the edge of the cliff. Falling on these rocks could mean broken bones or multiple fractures.
“Here.” Blaze had moved ahead of them all when his flashlight illuminated a large plateau created by four enormous flat rocks.
“Is that big enough for the helo to set down?” Ed asked.
“Saint could set down on the head of a pin. We need to use our flashlights to guide him. He didn’t want to hover and call too much attention to himself, but he should be here any minute now. So everyone get ready.”
Mallory took her Glock from her backpack and checked the magazine to make sure there was a bullet in the chamber. Just as she did so, she heard the sound of a motor, but it didn’t sound like any helicopter she’d ever heard.
* * * *
Because Ruben had called ahead, they were waiting for Barrera and his party when they arrived. Two patrol boats were set to go, each with a full crew and the mounted guns loaded and set.
“Whatever we can do for you, mi general,” Captain Emilio Suarez told him, shaking his hand.
“Your men understand that this is a critical mission? That we are chasing criminals who have committed crimes against the state and who cannot be permitted to leave this jurisdiction?”
Captain Suarez nodded.
“They are well aware that the safety of the state must be protected at all costs.”
The two men exchanged a meaningful look. Suarez had been a part of Barrera’s team from the very beginning. Even a man as respected as President Alcante practiced a little nepotism now and then. Suarez had been relegated to a low position in Alcante’s administration while his younger son ran the harbor patrol. When Barrera had made his move on Santa Marita, Suarez had managed to get an audience with him, a deal had been struck and now Suarez ruled the harbor police from top to bottom. People who violated Suarez’s orders fell on unhappy times.
Like the Mexican navy patrol boats, these boats were armed with a single Melara 76 mm naval gun and a pair of turret guns. They could take down any boat with ease, but he wasn’t too sure about their range firing upward. However, he was going to do the best he could because he owed so much to this man.
“Private Elizondo is on the second boat,” Suarez told him. “We have him set up with one of the gunners. Come. Let’s get ready to move.”
Barrera followed the captain onto the lead boat, moving to a place where he’d be out of the way but could see all the action. Ruben was escorted to the other boat, then they were ready to shove off.
The night air had cooled slightly, and on the water, it was almost cold. The breeze coming in off the Pacific Ocean was pretty stiff at this time of night and Barrera was glad he’d thought to bring his jacket. They moved slowly away from the dock, one boat in line behind the other, and when they had cleared the harbor, they began to increase their speed.
“I know exactly the spot you are looking for,” Suarez told Barrera “A very dangerous place. We call it buceo mortal. Death Dive.”
“There has to be a reason for that.”
“Before you came here, for many years young and foolish people would try to dive off that cliff. But the water below is not deep enough to absorb them and they can’t dive out far enough.”
Barrera lifted an eyebrow. “I’m assuming people have gotten a lot smarter since then?”
Suarez shrugged. “It is to be hoped. Surely these people you are after aren’t stupid enough to think they can escape this way.”
“I don’t know what they’re thinking, but by heading for the cliff out of the jungle, they’ve left themselves with no options.”
“Perhaps they plan to scale down on ropes and meet a boat that will pick them up.”
Barrera made a derisive noise. “If they know anything about Santa Marita, they should know that’s impossible.” He grinned at Suarez. “Our incomparable harbor patrol would put an end to that.”
“We are most definitely ready,” Suarez assured him.
“How long a ride is it to get there? The island isn’t that big.”
“There are dangerous reefs and shoals that can’t be seen from the surface. You need an underwater map. We provide them for divers, but not everyone asks for them. Some people are stupid enough to think they can just spot them visually and bypass them.”
Barrera frowned. “But if you don’t know the location, you can rip the bottom out of your boat.”
“Sad but true,” Suarez agreed. “But that’s the simple explanation for the wide detour.”
The further they got away from the shoreline, the faster the boat moved, until finally it turned and headed toward that far side of the island. They were moving towards the face of the tall cliff when another sound attracted their attention. Barrera looked up, tracking the sound. When a searchlight hit their faces, they both blinked.
And Barrera cursed.
* * * *
The sound of the helo’s blades—whump, whump, whump—cut into the night and the movement stirred the air like a wind off the water. The six of them—the four Galaxy men, Ed and Mallory—were all gathered together near the landing spot for the chopper at the edge of the cliff. They held up their flashlights, even as weak as they were, so Saint could see them and the spot to set the helo down.
Rocket was focused on getting Mallory to the chopper and inside so she wasn’t in anyone’s line of fire. They had all moved into position to get ready when another sound came. Motors. Loud ones. He shaded his eyes and looked out toward the water, the direction from which the sounds had come.
“Goddamn.”
“Fucking shit.” Ed spat the words out. “It’s the goddamn harbor patrol. How in the fuck did they even know we’d be here?”
“First question,” Rocket growled, “is how did they even find out we were in the jungle, because that’s the only way to get to the cliff. Something’s wrong here.”
“My guess?” Ed snapped. “They shut us off from every other exit and this was all that was left. Or some asshole somehow found out what was going on and ran to Barrera. I don’t know how, but you know as well as I do that kind of shit always happens.”
“FU
BAR.” Viper looked like he wanted to pound something. Fucked Up Beyond All Repair.
A sound split the air, one they were all familiar with that upped the critical nature of the situation. Bullets. Lots of them.
“Wrong?” Eagle backpedaled. “What’s wrong is that those boats are shooting at us.”
“None of them are reaching the surface up here, though,” Viper noted, as bullets bounced off the face of the cliff.
“Yet,” Ed pointed out.
“I think they’re short-range guns, but that doesn’t mean they can’t adjust them to a certain extent.”
The words had hardly left his mouth before chunks of rocks at the edge of the cliff flew into the air.
“Not that short range,” Viper contradicted. “You’re right about adjusting. We need to get the fuck out of here.”
With the rotors kicking up the air around them, the helo lowered, barely touching the surface of its landing spot.
“We better load in a hurry,” Ed told them, “before any of those bullets hit somebody. Come on. Mallory first.”
He yanked out his Draco, snapped the handle in place and began spray bullets toward the boats. More bullets were flying as the others added their own firepower.
Rocket nearly had a heart attack when Mallory pulled her own gun from her backpack, crouched down beside him and aimed toward the boats.
“Are you crazy?” Rocket tried to pull her away and toward the helicopter.
“I can shoot, too,” she insisted.
“But not against these guns.”
He had his own weapon out now, firing toward the water with one hand and tugging Mallory toward the chopper with the other. But the damn woman was still shooting toward the water.
“Mal.” Rocket kept dragging her. “That won’t hardly reach them and the guys are on top of it. Come on.”
“But at least it’s more metal coming their way,” she protested, digging in her heels.
Before they could move again, more bullets kicked up rocks around the helo’s runners.
“I don’t know if we can hit them from up here,” Blaze shouted, “but at least we can give them something to think about.”