He said, “I won’t stop you from killing Samantha Archer yourself, but remember the original plan.”
She scowled. “That bastard Kane Rogan has screwed up more of our plans than anyone. And I will kill him. Slowly. He thinks he’s tough, but he’ll beg to die. I’ll make sure of it.” She sat up, beautiful in the nude, completely unmindful of her nakedness. Joseph could stare at her for hours. “And we still don’t know how he drained our money. He’s not exactly a computer mastermind. Are we getting the computer forensics report?”
“It’s sensitive right now. Everyone is looking at everyone else. My contact is being extra cautious.”
“Tell him caution will get him dead.”
Joseph didn’t say anything. Niki would come around. She always did. Which was why they had survived for so long in the most dangerous business on the planet.
His phone beeped. He picked it up. “It’s Lyle. He has the documents from DC.”
“It’s about fucking time.” She pulled on jeans and a tank top. She’d never looked sexier. “He’s here, right? He’s not going to make me wait, is he?”
“He’s here.”
They left the bedroom and went downstairs. The house was in the middle of the property and well-guarded. They had multiple routes to escape if the feds tracked them down.
Lyle was drinking Scotch at the bar in the large gathering room. Tobias was standing behind the bar, playing the bartender. Joseph stared at him, keeping his antipathy hidden.
Tobias. He would be at the bottom of a lake if Joseph had his way. His sick fetishes disgusted Joseph. He was a stupid, self-centered, pompous ass. He acted as if he really was the head of their organization, instead of the figurehead. And then he’d gone and killed Garza. In fucking public. Caught on camera at the airport. Why couldn’t he have just thought for five seconds that there would be cameras all over the fucking airport?
Tobias had grown fat and lazy. He had ostensibly been in charge for three months and it had gone to his head. He was their biggest problem, bigger than Kane Rogan. Joseph had verbally put the blame on Trejo and Sanchez, because Niki would never see that Tobias was the root of all their problems. He always had been, from the moment they’d set the fire in Van Nuys twenty years ago and killed three people in order to destroy the remains of the woman Tobias strangled to death.
Joseph should have killed him and not said a word. He knew how to make a body disappear. Niki would never have figured out it was him.
But he didn’t lie to the woman he loved.
Tobias glared at them. “We were supposed to meet hours ago, but you two were upstairs fucking all day.”
Niki walked behind the bar and kissed Tobias on the cheek. “Shut up,” she said, but with a smile. “I’ve been in jail for nearly three months, I deserved one day for myself.”
Tobias grunted.
She turned to Lyle. “Joseph said you had something.”
“I did exactly what you said,” Lyle said. “But it took our guys a while to crack the code.”
She said, “Give it to me.”
He handed her a flash drive.
“Don’t you care about what happened with Kane Rogan?” Tobias said.
Niki frowned and looked from Tobias to Joseph. “He was captured in Santiago,” she said.
Tobias snorted but didn’t say anything.
Joseph lost his temper. He crossed the room and jumped over the bar. His hand was around Tobias’s thick, ugly neck. He pushed him against the wall. Glasses fell to the floor and shattered.
Niki said, “Joseph!”
Joseph hated this man. Hated him with a passion that had him squeezing harder. It would be so easy to kill him right now.
“Please, Joseph,” Niki said. Joseph could barely hear her.
He stared into Tobias’s arrogant, scared, beady eyes. They watered, reddened, and Tobias was shaking. He grabbed Joseph’s wrists but had no strength to push him off. He was a pathetic, weak coward. Tobias knew exactly what Joseph wanted to do to him, and better, he feared him.
Good. He should be afraid. If Joseph had the opportunity to kill him without it coming back to hurt Niki, he’d do it. Without hesitation and certainly without remorse. Tobias deserved worse than a bullet in the brain.
Joseph let go and stepped back. Tobias sputtered and coughed.
Niki took a step toward Tobias, but Joseph caught her eye. She stopped, straightened her spine, and said in a calm voice, “What happened with Kane Rogan?”
Tobias didn’t answer right away. He stood up, poured a glass of Scotch with shaking hands, and drained it. Then he said, “We don’t have him.”
“What do you mean, we don’t have him?” she asked. Niki sounded as angry as Joseph felt. Good. She needed to be angry.
“The priest,” Tobias said. “He fucked it all up. He must have told Rogan where we had the girl, because he brought enough men to take out everyone. Dover got away, he’s hurt pretty bad, but he took out one of theirs.”
“Did he have a fucking army?” Niki asked. “How could Rogan take out a dozen men?”
Tobias didn’t look at her. “We had five. Five is usually enough.”
“Five against Rogan?”
“Rogan had three men.”
“Five. Five idiots against four trained US soldiers.” Niki picked up a glass and threw it toward Tobias. It hit the wall behind him. “Didn’t the fiasco at Trejo’s compound teach you anything? There were four then, too, against twenty!”
Tobias stepped toward Niki. Joseph resisted every urge to push him back against the wall. Niki was going to have to learn that her cousin was out of control.
“You got arrested, Nicole.”
“How did Trejo get that disk?” she countered.
“How do I know?”
“You’re lucky the DEA hasn’t figured out what really happened five years ago, otherwise they never would have pled, and my escape would have been that much harder.”
“That FBI bitch didn’t need the disk to figure it out.”
Niki reddened and Joseph stepped back. Finally. Tobias was showing his true colors.
“You, Toby, are a fool if you think you have the power here. You are a figurehead, nothing more. Your games have gotten us into far more hot water than anything I have done. What you did with Elise was inexcusable.”
“Leave her out of this.”
“I can’t! She’s in jail because of you.”
“She’s exactly where she needs to be. You always do this, Nicole. You treat me like I’m the idiot. Like I don’t know how to run this operation.”
“Elise is in jail,” Niki repeated.
“She’ll be out by Wednesday afternoon.”
“You’re delusional,” Joseph said. “No way will the feds let her go.”
“Don’t underestimate her. Our contact at the juvenile detention center told me that the shrink they assigned wants Elise transferred to a minimum-security facility for minors, and possibly a group home. I’m watching the situation closely. You’ve always underestimated her, Nicole.”
“She’s a loose cannon,” Niki said. “She doesn’t follow orders.”
Except, Joseph thought, from Tobias. They were both sick.
“We’re family,” he said. “We stick together. You can’t leave her behind.”
Niki sighed and rubbed her eyes. “I never planned on leaving her. I just wish you’d left her in DC where she was gathering information, and doing a damn good job of it. Now she’s been compromised. The feds have her DNA and prints. She’s been burned.”
“Elise is meant for better things,” Tobias said. “She’s smart. And if you’d work with her, you’d know that.”
“She’s sixteen! Reckless. A know-it-all. I’m still reeling over the fact that Jimmy gave her to you at thirteen. She wasn’t ready.”
“She was ready, and I’ll prove to you that she can do anything.”
“First, let’s see if she can get herself out—and not lead the feds to us. Then we’ll talk.”<
br />
“Fine,” Tobias said, frowning.
Niki turned to Joseph. She looked so tired, so … worn out. She shouldn’t feel that way, not now when she was free.
Joseph said, “I’ll reach out to Dover, find out what happened with Rogan, and we’ll regroup. We should take them all out, no more games.”
Tobias snorted. “Games? What’s that game of yours in the basement?”
Niki looked at him. “What’s in the basement?” she asked.
“Someone I thought would be more help than he was,” Joseph replied. “I’ll explain later.” He glared at Tobias. Damn him, Joseph wanted to tell Niki himself. He wanted information first—but now he’d have to confess he jumped the gun a bit while she was still in prison. But he wasn’t going to do it around Tobias.
She rubbed her eyes. “Toby, stop trying to divide us. We’re united—a family. Joseph is family, as much as you and me. Don’t forget it.”
“Never,” he said, and Joseph knew he was mocking them. “He’s not blood.”
“Stop,” Niki said. “Fighting now only gives the feds more power. United, we will win. Remember that. It’s been true for years, it’s true now. We need our money,” she repeated. “And if Rogan saw Dover, he’s burned. It won’t take long for the feds to trace Dover back to Los Angeles.”
“Maggie will take care of it,” Joseph said. “You’re not the only one in the family, Niki. Others need to carry their weight.” He glared at Tobias. He was either too dense or too arrogant to see Joseph’s rage.
Good. Then you won’t see me coming with the knife when I gut you and leave you to die slowly in the middle of a remote desert. Scorpions will sting you. Snakes will bite you. Coyotes will eat you alive and then the vultures will pick your bones clean.
“Take me to Samantha Archer,” Niki said. “I need to regain control.”
“Are you sure?” Joseph asked, enjoying the image of Tobias screaming in pain.
She nodded. “Toby, contact Dover and tell him the bounty on Kane Rogan just doubled. Dead or alive. He’s too much trouble.”
Tobias sneered. “Happily.”
* * *
Tobias watched Nicole leave the room with that asshole Joseph. God, he hated that man. Joseph thought he was better than him—him. Joseph was turning Nicole against him. Joseph had worked on her for years, and every little mistake—even things that weren’t his fault—Joseph used against him.
Lyle had watched the entire thing from his seat in the corner. Tobias would have forgotten he was there, except he spoke up after Nicole left. “Hey! Nicole! You forgot—”
The flash drive. It was sitting on the bar, next to the computer. Tobias caught his eye and shook his head. Lyle stared at him and Tobias didn’t know who he was siding with.
Nicole walked back into the room. “What?”
“Do you need a driver? Because I have the Lincoln.”
“Give the keys to me. Joseph will drive. You stay here and get some rest; tomorrow will be a long day.”
He tossed her the keys and turned to Tobias after she left.
“What the hell?”
Tobias picked up the flash drive and stuck it in the computer. “We’re going to figure this out. Nicole’s going to realize that she needs me. I’m not just a figurehead.”
“Sure, buddy, anything you want.”
Inside, Tobias was smiling. That was one thing that Nicole had forgotten. Tobias was very good at making friends.
Much better than either her or her fuck-buddy Joseph.
* * *
Kane Rogan found and lost the bastard’s trail twice that night. The priest’s idea of a medical center hadn’t panned out, but Kane bribed a hooker who ended up having a wealth of information. Could be because she didn’t have to spread her legs for him and he paid her far more than her weekly rate. He hated that so many women down here felt they had no choice but prostitution, but he’d learned that people were resilient and they did what was necessary to survive.
What was necessary to survive also included betraying him, so he trusted very few people. But this time, his hunch had paid off, and the intel was solid. The man he was tracking was heading to Juarez territory southeast of Santiago—the one place Kane hesitated to go. He’d made a mortal enemy of Felipe Juarez, and it was personal. If it was just business, Kane wouldn’t care, and Juarez probably wouldn’t have held a grudge. But as it was, Kane got Juarez’s thirteen-year-old daughter out of an arranged marriage to the slimy thirty-year-old son of a cartel leader, and smuggled her into the States. He bought her false documentation, and a friend of his in Immigration placed her in a home. Her identity was a closely guarded secret—Kane didn’t even know what her new name was, and he didn’t want to know. His Immigration contact kept tabs on her and now, eight years later, she was in college and studying to be a doctor.
Kane wondered if Juarez had been the one to give Tobias’s people the information about Siobhan. Siobhan was the one who had alerted Kane to the situation with the arranged marriage. Normally he would have nothing to do with the personal workings of families. If it wasn’t directly related to drug or human trafficking, he steered clear, and Juarez was a criminal gangster, not an international drug trafficker. There were too many problems and Kane couldn’t fix every damn one of them.
But Siobhan said if he didn’t help her, she’d rescue the girl herself. Essentially blackmailing him into it because he knew Siobhan was ill prepared to do something of that magnitude.
Kane’s past, coming back to bite him in the ass. He wasn’t surprised.
Kane stole a truck and picked up the trail of Tobias’s man near the border of Juarez territory. The bastard was driving a military jeep, just like the prostitute had said, with a missing taillight. He’d pulled over to rest, and that was his one mistake. He should have driven straight through.
But pain did that to people.
Kane found the jeep half hidden on the edge of a side road off the main highway. Main and highway being subjective terms because traffic was sparse, especially at night, on this side of Santiago. He waited, watching, to make sure it wasn’t an ambush.
They were miles from anywhere, and the closest town was small, less than five hundred people. Juarez owned everyone in the area, so Kane would find no safe haven. His map told him he’d already crossed into Juarez territory. Was that why the kidnapper had stopped? Did he think that Kane wouldn’t pursue him? Kane had to make a decision: Turn back now or follow through with his plan.
Kane did not shirk from his duty. And his duty was to find Tobias. His life—Sean’s life, Lucy’s life—depended on it.
In fact, there was no doubt in Kane’s mind that Tobias would go after everyone in Kane’s life, starting with his brothers and sister, then moving to everyone who worked for RCK.
Kane was going to end this war before anyone else got hurt.
There were no streetlights in the area. A flashlight would be visible to anyone on the road. The land was a mix of desert and farmland, with scraggly trees and bushes. To the south and west there were mountains, but here was a flat, dry valley. Easy to track someone. Easy to be tracked.
After fifteen minutes of silence, Kane moved over to the jeep and shone a dim red light inside. Blood had pooled under the gas pedal. This man’s right leg was bleeding, though there wasn’t enough blood loss to kill him. Not yet. But there was also blood on the back of the seat and on the gearshift. Blitz had said it was serious, but Kane had been seriously injured in the past and able to patch himself up sufficiently until he could get medical attention.
Kane had to assume that the man he was tracking had the skills to take care of himself. He also had to assume that he knew the area better than Kane. Because he’d tried to stay away from Juarez, all that Kane knew was what was on his map.
He paralleled the trail the kidnapper had walked, uphill and into increasingly dense foliage. Two hundred yards in, Kane came upon a one-room shack. There was no electricity going to the building, no sign that anyone
was inside.
It was darker here than on the road. Kane didn’t see any booby traps, but he needed to be cautious as he approached. He listened, waiting for sounds that he was surrounded. Waiting for an ambush.
Silence. Then he heard a grunt from the cabin. Faint. He listened again, heard a faint fuck.
Sounded just like him when he was stitching himself up.
Still, he waited. He saw a brief flash of light from the cabin, a yellowy glow that might have been from a flashlight. Then it went out. Could have been a signal, so he waited even longer.
Still, nothing.
He approached the cabin. Gun in hand he inspected the door. No lock, nothing to keep him out. No wires along the edges. The wood was warped and splintery. He walked around the perimeter. A lone, uncovered window in the back gave him a visual. A man lay on a sleeping bag in the corner, propped up by the walls, the door in his line of vision. He had bandages all around him, and his pants were cut open. A very faint glow from a flashlight under a rag illuminated the area. It looked like a gunshot wound to the leg, and a knife wound to his right arm. But he was sweating and that suggested he was battling an infection or another complication.
He had a gun within reach to his right, but that was the only weapon Kane could see.
Kane silently moved back to the door. Did he wait until the kidnapper tried to leave? Or had he called someone for a rescue?
A voice came from the inside. Kane hadn’t heard a phone ring, but it was clear that the kidnapper was talking to someone.
“I need extraction,” the kidnapper said.
It might have been a sat phone, because Kane was getting no cellular signal out here.
“Off Eighty-Five, near Pino Suarez. A nothing dot on the map right over the Tamaulipas border.” Silence. Kane heard the voice on the other end but couldn’t make out any words.
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