by Misty Evans
Rios’s smile widened. “I’ll do that, sir.”
Tijuana
The apartment was empty except for her.
Sophie showered and dressed, then checked the weather forecast. The tropical storm had indeed been upgraded to a hurricane, but a low-level one that would probably peter out the minute it hit land.
Although they were going to get a bevy more of rain and wind, landfall was expected within twelve hours and far to the south in the desert area of southern Baja.
As it stood, when she looked out her window, everything appeared normal. The rain had stopped, the sun was out. A jumble of dark clouds could be seen on the horizon, but for now, things were peaceful. Even the peacock in the garden was doing his normal strut around the birdbath, not a care in the world.
Where is Nelson?
Breakfast was an egg and toast with grape jam. As she sat at the small kitchen table, the morning news droning in the background, she fiddled with the bracelet on her wrist. The apartment seemed too big, too empty this morning without Nelson’s lugging presence.
Her bed had felt too big last night as well.
Shutting down that thought, she stuck her plate and glass into the sink. Thanks to the impending storm and Nelson’s quick thinking, today was the day Rodrigo and Lexie were leaving for the beach house to pay their respects to their dead father and mother. Her morning would be spent sorting the cash she’d picked up yesterday. She’d hold out the thirty-five thousand as instructed, and distribute the rest to various banks and Morales’s private investment house later.
Once Morales was gone, she and Nelson would sneak into the pit and have a look around.
Where is Nelson?
Probably doing security stuff to make sure the security team kept the cartel leader safe until she and Nelson arrested him.
Oh the irony.
We’re almost done. And I still don’t know what to do with Lexie or the other girls.
Yolanda had been helping her with the girls, but it was a lot to ask for her to take over completely, considering she had so much else on her plate, including taking care of her son.
She’s my only hope. Once the arrests were made, Sophia would have to get back to Tijuana and find Yolanda some help.
In the meantime, she had work to do.
The main house was bustling with excitement. Suitcases were packed and sitting by the front door. Lexie came down the stairs, Harry by her side, with a book bag slung over her shoulder.
“Good morning, Señorita,” Sophie said to the girl.
“Maria-Sophia! We’re leaving early for the beach. Can you come with us?”
“You’re still going? Even with the storm?”
“Rodrigo says the storm is nothing.” Lexie made her way to the pile of suitcases and set down her bag. “And we’re Moraleses. We’re not scared of storms. A little storm isn’t going to stop us from honoring Mama’s and Papa’s memories.”
Outside, in the distance, Sophia heard the sound of gunshots. She reached for the girl. “What is that?”
“Nico took Rodrigo to the south end for gun shooting practice!”
Nelson was teaching Rodrigo how to shoot a gun?
“I wanted to go to,” Lexie said. “They both told me no.”
“And they were right to do so, young lady.”
Lexie had not had breakfast yet, so Sophia hustled her into the kitchen and left her with the maid and a bowl of cereal. She wanted to see what Nelson was up to, but decided to ignore him and get down to her business. Morales would want a full report on the week’s profits and losses.
The interior of the small office she used on the first floor snugged under the grand staircase and was sparse but accommodating. Computers, printers, and a host of files waited for her. The room was windowless and had a special insulation in the walls to block outside intrusions, be they eavesdroppers or wireless hackers.
Three black cash bags sat on the floor waiting for her. The system was twofold: cash and investments. Yesterday, she logged the cash from all of the local merchants, and replaced everything in their registers and safes with drug money. The clean cash would now go into the banks, once she had finished sorting it. As a precaution, the money would be mixed together before she sorted it back out to deposit. Tomorrow, she would get online and transfer various amounts to offshore accounts.
Sophia closed and locked the office door behind her and reached for the first black bag.
Chapter Fifteen
Nelson finished prepping the team of security agents escorting Morales to his beach house shortly before noon. He’d shown Morales how to handle a handgun, because although the cartel leader had lived in a world of violence and was constantly surrounded by men with weapons, he’d never received training himself.
Nelson cared little if Morales lived through an attack from Guido, but no head of security worth his salt would let the man he was in charge of leave the security of his home without some kind of defense training.
Which made Nelson wonder all over again at the incompetence of James Chavez.
When Nelson entered the house and went to do a final check-in with Morales, he found Sophie in the man’s study with him.
“I beg you to reconsider going to the beach house this weekend with the storm and everything,” she was saying as Nelson entered the room.
He pulled up short, wondering what she was talking about. They needed Morales out of the house, out of town, if they were going to search for the ledgers and the missiles.
“Your security team is ready, sir,” Nelson said. “I’ve handpicked a group of Savages to ride with you and a second group is already at the beach property, securing the area.”
Morales closed his laptop and stuck a file in his bottom drawer before locking the desk. “Very good.” He snapped a finger at the guard hovering by the door. “Load up Felix.”
The guard went to the tank containing Morales’s pet snake and covered it. A second later he carried it out the door. Nelson gave the tank a wide berth.
Sophie still sat in the chair across from the desk. “Think of Lexie. If the hurricane does hit land, she could be in danger.”
Now Sophia’s pleas made sense, but a part of him was shocked. She was more worried about the safety of the girl then she was about finding a link to her sister?
Morales came around the end of his desk and stopped in front of her. He leaned his butt on the edge of the desk, the look on his face one that bothered Nelson. “You worry too much, Maria-Sophia. Lexie and I will be fine. We have survived much in our lifetimes, including several tropical storms.”
“Yes, but—”
He reached out and touched her cheek, the intimacy of the gesture making Nelson tense. “If it looks like we are in danger, I promise to bring her back. But it is important that she remember and honor our parents, and she has been looking forward to this trip for months.”
Sophie stood and gave a small nod. “I will see you on Sunday, then, if not before.”
She started to turn away when Morales grabbed her wrist. It was gentle but still restricting. “You are welcome to come with us.”
Nelson saw the way her body stiffened, but she didn’t pull away. “I have the banking to do today and I must get the money ready for Sunday.”
Morales didn’t like being rebuffed. His face hardened.
But Sophie knew how to save her backside. She laid a whopper of a smile on the man and touched his arm. “Perhaps next year? I do love the sea. It’s especially beautiful this time of year.” She chuckled. “Unless there’s a hurricane, of course.”
Her charm was infectious. Nelson wondered if any man could resist.
A half-smile broke the line of Morales’s lips. “I would like that, si.”
Nelson had reduced the security staff by half, sending most of the guards with Rodrigo and Lexie. The maid had gone with them, Rodrigo locking up the house.
Normally, she would be on her way into town to deposit money. Today, Rodrigo had told her to wait u
ntil he returned. She didn’t know if he was actually worried about her or still feared deep down inside that she’d steal his money and run.
Her apartment was empty, and once more she felt a pang of loneliness. How pathetic that Nelson had only been there two days and he’d already wormed himself into her life to the point she missed him when he wasn’t around.
For a brief moment, she wondered if he’d gone to the pit without her. They had mapped out a plan during the previous night when they couldn’t sleep, and Sophie knew without a doubt that Nelson wasn’t one to suddenly change the plan without due cause. He was a quick thinker and talented at going with the flow, but he didn’t wing things when it came to tactical operations. He always had a plan and stuck to it if possible. He wouldn’t go to the snake pit until nightfall.
While she’d been in her office, she’d done some digging and found contact info for an old friend in child services back in the States. Not exactly a friend, per se, but a woman who had tried to help her mother gain citizenship and get a job when they were living in L.A. If anyone could help her with the Lexie situation, Wanda Kohl could. Sophie had emailed her and crossed her fingers when she hit the Send button.
Once done with that, Sophie had erased all traces of her Internet searches and the email off the computer.
Now inside her apartment, she changed into black knit pants, a black cotton shirt, and braided her hair so it was easy to hide under the hood of her jacket she would be wearing later. She was getting a drink from the refrigerator when Nelson arrived.
He was tense, his eyes darting around. When she started to speak, he held his finger to his lips and silenced her. “How was your day? Did you get your work done for Señor Morales?”
As she answered, he began checking once more under furniture and tables looking for bugs. She joined him. “All of yesterday’s pickups are accounted for and will be deposited when Rodrigo returns. Tomorrow I will get the cash ready for Sunday’s exchange.”
“Very good. What are you cooking me for dinner tonight?”
She raised an eyebrow at him but played along. “Enchilada casserole, my grandmother’s favorite dish to make. Since it’s not raining, I thought we could sit on the patio and enjoy it.”
He winked at her and moved into the kitchen. “Smells delicious.”
The kitchen was clean of bugs. He moved off to the bathroom. “I’m going to clean up.”
Sophie went into her bedroom and searched there while he pretended to take a shower. Again, she found nothing. What had made Nelson suspicious that Rodrigo had bugged her apartment?
Maybe nothing had tipped him off. Nelson was always suspicious and constantly on his toes.
Just like her.
Starving, she busied herself in the kitchen making a simple casserole. When Nelson emerged from the bathroom, he was dressed in black like she was. “I’ll take the plates down to the patio,” he said.
Obviously, he still wanted to take precautions and not speak inside about what they were up to. A few minutes later, they were seated downstairs on a pair of white wicker chairs with a small table between them.
Nelson began inhaling his portion of the barely warm meal. Sophie pointed upstairs. “You want to explain that to me?”
“Just a feeling,” Nelson said around a mouthful of food. “You keep telling me that Morales doesn’t trust me and I can’t quite figure him out. Your paranoia must be rubbing off on me.”
Nelson didn’t operate on feelings. At least not from what she’d seen. “Why were you teaching him how to shoot today? Isn’t that sort of counterproductive when we go to arrest him?”
“Why were you trying to get him to stay here instead of going to the beach house?”
“I was worried about Lexie. Tropical storms are highly unpredictable.”
He gave her a palms up gesture. “I was worried about her too. Guido Ruiz is unpredictable.”
Sophie tipped her wine glass at him. “Touché.”
“Morales already knew how to shoot, by the way. Not well, but it’s obvious he’s had a few lessons. I was simply evaluating how much of a threat he might be if we are still here to arrest him on Sunday, and against my better judgment, I was trying to make sure he could, indeed, defend himself and Lexie if Guido’s men ambushed them.”
Guido. There was a conundrum. “When Guido finds out you double-crossed him, he’ll be out for blood.”
Nelson shoved another forkful of food into his mouth and chewed. “I’m keeping an eye out for him. Right now, I’m more worried about surviving the snake pit. Why would Morales hide ledgers anyway? How did you find out about them?”
The sun was sinking, fingers of pale peach and pink striping the sky. Sophie set down her glass and pushed her plate away. “The woman who held this job before me, Rosalie, worked for Ciro for nine years. Quite possibly, she and Ciro had a little thing on the side. Either way, he trusted her with everything. According to her, he was fastidious about his business and wrote down every transaction, every contact, every exchange. They’re like diaries of his life. By the time he passed, he had gone exclusively into the drug trade, mostly with synthetic versions created at the labs in and around Tijuana. Bigger profit, lower risk. Rosalie and Ciro had a falling out and she left right before he died. She didn’t know where Rodrigo might have put them.” She rubbed her forehead.
“But they’re not in any of the safes inside the mansion.”
Nelson stopped chewing. “How do you know?”
“I broke into them and looked.”
“You cracked the safes?”
“Don’t look so surprised. You’re not the only one around here who can pick a lock.”
“Safe cracking is different than picking a lock.”
She grinned. “I have a varied work skill set.”
“When you and I worked on Chica Bonita the last time, there were girls from Western Europe and Russia being funneled through CB into points south. If Rodrigo is resurrecting the human trafficking side of the cartel, he might be planning to reverse the process and ship American and Mexican girls to Europe.”
“As drug mules or sex slaves?”
“Both probably,” he said. “That’s why he needs Kronos.”
“His focus is on drugs so most likely he wants to get a foothold in Europe with those first.” Sophie wanted to change the subject. “It won’t matter once we take him down. But I’ve got to get my hands on those ledgers. I can find out if my sister’s name is in any of them and where she was sent.”
“Are you sure they’re in the snake pit?”
“If you were Rodrigo and you were hiding the history of your family’s cartel, where would you put them?”
“Sure as hell not surrounded by snakes.”
“That’s why you can’t figure him out. He’s not your typical cartel leader and you’re not able to think like him. After all of these months, I am. I’ve seen the way he operates. The snake building is exactly where he would hide his father’s criminal history and anything else that he wants to protect.”
“Like a pair of missiles no one is supposed to know about?”
“Seems possible.”
Shadows crept along the edges of the garden. The peacock waddled away from the birdbath, tucking himself near an aloe plant. A toad hopped across the concrete, hesitating for a moment to look at Sophie and Nelson, before venturing off into the bushes.
Nelson wiped his hands on a napkin and sat back in his chair. “The night guard will make his rounds in fifteen minutes. We’ll have a half hour window before he comes through again, but we’ll have to take a circuitous route like we did last night around the shed to avoid detection by the cameras.”
A flash of lightening in the distance brightened the sky for a split second. Pressure was building in her head along with the barometric pressure.
Nelson eyed her from across the table. “Once we grab the ledgers, do you have an exit strategy?”
“Get the hell out of the snake pit?”
“You
know what I mean.”
The unlit house across the way grew fuzzy as the night crept closer and the clouds grew thicker. “If the missiles are there, we know the CIA’s supposition is legitimate and then we have a judgment call to make. We stay and keep things status quo until the meeting with the European, or we blow out of here and at least get our man. Either way, the Morales cartel and the missiles will be out of commission, right? So, in the end, it’s up to you and me to make that call.”
A low rumble echoed over the compound. Nelson continued to study her. “You ready for this?”
Sophie took a sip of wine. At the thought of what she was about to do, the wine tasted like acid. She swallowed and took a deep breath.
She needed a moment. One small heartbeat in time to consider the fact she was about to enter a death pit.
And that she was about to find out what had happened to her sister.
No point stewing. She’d been waiting for this moment for two years. Longer if she were honest.
Setting down the glass, she met Nelson’s steady gaze. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
Chapter Sixteen
The pit was cold.
Nelson remembered that from his previous visits, one conscious, the other, not so much.
Floor to ceiling glass ran the length of the main room, framing the two largest snake enclosures. Put them together, Nelson thought, and they’re nearly the size of my apartment back home.
Trees grew inside the giant terrariums, vines winding their way up the trunks and along the branches as if mimicking the snakes that lived there. Sophie followed on his heels, the beam of his flashlight bouncing off the glass and catching a beady eye or shiny scale here and there.
“Missiles are big compared to ledgers,” Nelson said, “but these cages could hide them, don’t you think?”
“Inside?” Sophie’s voice faltered slightly. She stopped in front of the python enclosure. “You think he hid the missiles, and possibly the ledgers, inside with the snakes?”