Wicked Ties (Steele Security Series)

by Justice, A. D.

  The Cordovas had just created an enemy they could have never imagined, even in their worst nightmares. Bull parted from his friends to conduct his search of his two assigned warehouses for any signs of Chaise. His stride was swift and confident and his determination was set in the hardness of his eyes. After he rescued Chaise, he would unleash hell at the Cordovas’ front door.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Chaise was taken back to the warehouse and put in the small, crowded cell with the younger girls. Many of them looked emaciated and almost lifeless. Their eyes were dull and their stares were vacant. Chaise had a strong suspicion that they were drugged to keep them compliant.

  As she stepped over the bodies strewn across the floor, trying to avoid stepping on anyone while she looked for an empty space, she saw a familiar face. Her breath caught in her chest and her mouth gaped open. Tears sprung to her eyes and she stumbled to reach the sleeping girl in the corner.

  Chaise cried, “Aura! Aura!”

  The girl slowly opened her eyes and tried to force them to focus on the shadowy figure moving toward her. She heard the name Aura being called but she thought she had been dreaming. She had been in that shithole for so long, she was beginning to forget what life outside it was like.

  “What did you call me?” she asked, the shadowy figure finally coming into focus.

  “Aura, it’s me, Chaise,” she said as she knelt beside her. Chaise had suddenly forgotten the stench and the filthy conditions of the cell. All she could focus on at the moment was the fact that Aura was in front of her. She was just so relieved that Aura was still alive.

  “I’m not Aura,” the girl replied weakly. “I’m Ana. Aura is my twin sister.” A single tear escaped from her eye. From the looks of her, she was dehydrated and malnourished; she didn’t have many tears left in her to cry.

  “Ana? Twin sister?” Chaise was repeating the words but they hadn’t quite sunk in yet. “If you’re Ana, then where is Aura? Have you seen her?”

  “No. Oh God, I hope they didn’t get my sister.” Ana’s face contorted in pain, as if her heart was breaking in two and she wanted to sob. But no tears would flow and she made no sounds as she curled into a fetal position.

  Chaise easily lifted the girl’s head and shoulders off the cold, concrete floor and slid her lap under her. As Chaise laid her back down across her legs, Ana’s frail hand grabbed Chaise’s and held on as tightly as she could muster. Chaise stroked her dirty, matted hair as she uttered words of comfort.

  “I’m sure she’s fine, Ana. If she isn’t here, she’s probably hiding somewhere,” Chaise reasoned. She was beginning to get a good idea of why Aura was so adamant to help with the research at Viboro Distributing.

  Leaning forward as far as she could, Chaise whispered to Ana, “Did you work at Viboro?”

  Ana simply nodded her head ‘yes.’ In that simple gesture, she confirmed exactly what Chaise thought was happening. They would hire young, attractive Latino women and then abduct them for their own nefarious plans. Her thoughts then strayed to Aura and how responsible she’d felt for Aura’s disappearance.

  The young girl was trying to save her twin sister, whom she loved and missed. The poor girl who was lying in Chaise’s lap, sound asleep, had obviously been mistreated and abused at the hands of her captors. Chaise wanted to ask Ana more questions but didn’t have the heart to wake her up.

  Chaise leaned her head back against the metal bars and fought back the panic attack festering just under the surface. The situation as a whole was too much to handle at once. She started breaking it down into bite-size chunks so she could deal with one issue at a time.

  The first issue, obviously, was that she had been kidnapped and no one knew where she was. That thought alone threatened her last thread of sanity. A fleeting memory took root in her mind and it suddenly calmed her and filled her with a sense of peace. Her thoughts created a temporary refuge from her reality.

  Bull had called her hotel room phone just before they knocked on her door. He knew where she was and he knew that she’d been taken. He would find her. Bull wouldn’t leave her there.

  Thoughts of Bull simultaneously broke her heart and gave her strength. Regret filled her over the way they parted, the way he found out who she was, and especially that she answered the hotel room door instead of just talking to him on the phone.

  In her drunken stupor, she had secretly wanted to punish him for rejecting her in front of everyone. She thought they had moved past that stage of their relationship when he relented and let her touch him while they made love. Thinking she had gotten through to him in a way that no one ever had before, she wanted to be the one for him—like she felt he was for her.

  Suddenly, she realized the deeper meaning of his call. First of all, he was back in Miami and had searched until he found her. Second, his tone of voice was a mixture of relief and regret. That told her he still cared about her and that there may still be a chance for them to salvage their budding relationship from the mistakes they’d both made. And third, it gave her even more reason to fight, to live, and to escape the situation with as many of the girls as she could take with her.

  Chaise must have fallen asleep at some point. She was already completely exhausted by the time she reached her hotel room. The adrenaline dump after being “escorted” to Rico’s room and then Ricardo’s yacht had her running on all cylinders for several hours. When she crashed, she did so sitting on the uncomfortable concrete floor, leaned against the hard iron bars, with a scared, young girl in her lap.

  Her legs were asleep and the painful pin-prickling sensation ran through them like lightning bolts. Her back and neck ached and her ass just simply hurt. From the small holes near the ceiling, she could tell it was still dark outside. The male voices approaching had awakened her and put her nerves on high alert.

  Chaise turned her head to the side to get a glimpse at who was approaching. She tried to hide her surprise when she saw a familiar face. It was one of the men who had shot at her and Bull in the parking lot. It was Bull’s father. He was walking with the other men who had taken her from her room, talking to them like he knew them and was one of them.

  When he looked at the girls in the cell, his face registered no emotion. She knew if what Michelle had said was true, then John was trained to keep his emotions locked away deep inside where they wouldn’t blow his cover. His eyes raked over the bodies in the cell until they met Chaise’s eyes.

  The flash of recognition and concern was so quickly masked that Chaise would’ve missed it had she not specifically been watching for it. She didn’t know if John could get word to Bull fast enough to help her. He wouldn’t blow his entire case just for her safety, but maybe he could find a way to help.

  “We need one of these putas to make a run before daylight. We have to make a stop by Rico’s house, too,” the tall, thin thug told John in his thick Spanish accent. Together, they walked to the cell to choose who would go out next.

  “Diego, these girls look bad. Are you feeding them, man?” John asked.

  “They eat sometimes,” Diego replied nonchalantly. He opened the door and walked around the cell, not bothering to avoid stepping on anyone who was in his way. He approached Chaise and Ana and kicked Ana with the toe of his boots.

  “Puta, wake up. It’s your turn,” he said cruelly.

  “She’s not a bitch,” Chaise spat out at him, venom lacing her voice as she spoke. “And she’s in no shape to go anywhere. Leave her alone.”

  Diego smiled at her bravado and then he backhanded her across the cheek. Her head jerked violently to the side, clashing against the metal bars and sending her toppling over onto her side. Her cheek immediately swelled and she felt a small bead of blood roll down her face from where his ring cut her skin.

  Ana fell to the concrete when Chaise was knocked over. She woke and rubbed the side of her face where it had hit the concrete. Diego kicked her again with his boot and told her to get up. Ana tried to push herself up but couldn’t muster
the strength to finish her movement.

  Chaise jumped up, faced Diego and took a step toward him to block his access to Ana. “I said she’s not going anywhere. I’ll go in her place. Just tell me what I need to do.”

  “Well, aren’t you a brave little puta? Maybe I should teach you some manners. You need to know who el jefe is around here,” Diego said with a snide smile.

  He started to reach for Chaise when the shorter, but stockier, man’s words stopped him cold. “Diego, don’t touch her again.”

  “Okay, Manuel,” Diego replied, sounding like a whipped dog. Looking at Chaise with anger and disgust in his eyes, he said, “Follow me.”

  Diego led her out the door that led to the docks. John and Manuel followed close behind them. Diego, Chaise, and Manuel got into the speedboat. John untied the mooring line and threw it into the boat. Manuel looked up at John and said, “Stay here and watch the girls. We’ll be back sometime tomorrow.”

  John watched until the boat disappeared into the blackness hovering over the ocean. He had to find some way to contact Colton and let him know he’d seen Chaise. He needed a way that wouldn’t call attention to him and blow his cover before he was ready to close the case. There were still questions that had to be answered and people who had to be arrested before he could walk away.

  The deplorable conditions the girls were left in turned John’s stomach. He could easily take the men out and turn the girls loose, but that wouldn’t give him what he needed to stop the Cordovas from doing it again somewhere else. His rationalization weighted heavily on his conscience and he couldn’t wait to retire from the insidious underworld life.

  John had already given up too much in his life under the guise of justice and protecting others. The nagging issue that kept him up at night was the injustice he’d committed toward his own family. He was young and impetuous when he made the decision to leave for the sake of his wife and son.

  Looking back, he decided if he could do it all over again, he would have never left them. As soon as the case was finished, he would retire and move back home to Alabama. If Michelle wanted, they could even move to Miami and be close to Bull. One way or another, the case had to wrap-up soon because John wasn’t sure how much more he could take.

  As he looked at the pitiful creatures in the cell, part of him rejoiced that he had moved up in the Cordova ranks. Another part railed against him for being such a good undercover agent that he could actually pull it off. Unable to stand it any longer, he brought the girls food and water from the kitchen. He had no doubt he would hear about it later. With any luck, Chaise’s connection to the case would help bring it to a close sooner than he could alone.

  John wanted to go with Diego and Manuel to keep an eye on Chaise. She was obviously very important to his son and John was once again very conflicted over his duty to his country and his duty to his son. Watching them take Chaise away was one of the hardest things he’d had to do as an agent—right behind leaving his family.

  His inner turmoil boiled down to one question—Will Colton ever forgive me?

  ****************

  Bull moved around the darkened warehouse and instinctively knew it was empty. It wasn’t the location where they were holding Chaise but he could see Viboro Distributing boxes stacked on pallets. Rows and rows of boxes reaching almost twelve feet high lined the interior of the rundown building. No reputable company would use such dilapidated buildings.

  That made him want to know what was inside those boxes even more. Every bit of intelligence he could collect on the Cordovas would help solve one more piece of the puzzle. Anything that helped him locate Chaise was worth whatever he had to do. Bull crept inside, keeping low and in the shadows, until he had cased the entire inner perimeter and verified no one was there.

  All the boxes were exactly the same height, width, and depth. Bull opened one of them and removed a wooden box with a hinged lid. It was marked with the Blue Cypress Casino logo on the top. Bull opened the lid and stared at the casino chips inside. They appeared to be genuine, high-quality clay chips that were used by the higher-end casinos.

  Bull picked up one of the multi-colored chips and immediately noticed the weight was wrong. He closed his fist around it and felt it start crumbling from his grip. Underneath the colored outer shell, a white, powdery substance crumbled in his hand. He looked around again at the rows and rows of boxes that were ready to be shipped.

  He walked through the warehouse, looking at the shipping labels, and noted they were being sent to casinos across the country. “Holy shit,” he uttered under his breath in disbelief. He unpacked one package and counted twenty wooden boxes. Each wooden box contained one thousand chips. The amount of drugs passing through just one warehouse was staggering.

  Bull took pictures with his phone, capturing the names and addresses on the shipping labels. He also snapped pictures of the contents and the compressed, white powder inside the chips. He rushed back the way he entered and on to his next destination as he continued his search for Chaise.

  The next warehouse search was fruitless. It obviously hadn’t been used in quite some time. Dust and dirt covered everything, with no tracks or anything else to indicate anyone had been there in months. “That explains why they have so many warehouses,” he said aloud to himself. “They’re alternating between them to avoid getting caught.”

  Bull texted the others to let them know his search was complete and there was no sign of Chaise in either of his warehouses. Within a few seconds, he received texts back from all the others relaying the same information, except Shadow. Having not received a response from Shadow, he decided that was where he needed to go next.

  As he silently walked through the darkened streets, he heard voices coming from behind one of the vacant buildings. He slowed his pace and listened for any sign that they knew he was there. The number of voices increased and he was able to identify six distinct voices. They were speaking in Spanish and talking about the beautiful new Cordova girl.

  “Jorge, you think she’d want you, ese? You’re crazy, man!”

  “Yeah, Marco, she is hot! She’d definitely pick me over you, homes.”

  “You two losers don’t have to worry about it. Manuel already ordered everyone to stay away from Senorita Chaise. If I catch you near her, I’ll cut your dick off myself,” an older voice chastised the younger boys.

  “We were just fucking around, man,” Jorge responded, clearly offended that he had been put in his place.

  The voices started trailing off so Bull moved into position to follow them. They had no clue he was close behind them, monitoring their moves and waiting for them to take him to Chaise. He listened to their boasting from the shadows and gave them all the rope they needed.

  Bull sensed a change in the air, a sudden charge of energy and the distinct feeling of being watched. He skirted around the corner of the building, still hidden in the shadows, and silently unsheathed his knife. Holding it firmly in his grasp, he readied himself for the man moving along the side of the building toward him.

  When the other man reached the corner, Bull’s arm flew up in a split second and stopped just short of the man’s neck. “Shadow, what have I told you about sneaking up on me?”

  Shadow’s deep chuckle rumbled through his chest, “Are you getting rusty in your old age? The Bull I knew would’ve known the very second I moved into his range.”

  “Fuck you, man. Old my ass—I made you as soon as you stepped on my block,” Bull said with a smile.

  Shadow’s tone became serious as he said, “Come with me. They’ve taken Chaise to Rico’s house. I couldn’t get to the boat before they left. John’s at the warehouse with the other girls.”

  Bull’s blood turned to lava in his veins at just the thought of what Rico planned to do to Chaise. “Lead the way,” he responded.

  Shadow and Bull jogged to the waterfront warehouse where they’d held Chaise. Bull swore under his breath when he saw the girls locked up in the cell. Looking at his father
, Bull asked, “You’re just going to leave them in there?”

  “I have no choice until I can close this case and bust the Cordova family,” John answered. “I have to figure out their trade route so I can shut them down or they will just go somewhere else and start this all over again.”

  “This ends tonight, one way or another,” Bull responded. “I’m not leaving here without Chaise.”

  John walked over to the cell and asked one of the girls to follow him. She eyed him wearily but she did as he asked. Once he had her out of earshot of the others, John and Rebel sat down with her to decipher Cordova’s plans.

  “What’s your name, sweetheart?” Rebel asked in a calm, reassuring tone.

  “Consuela,” she answered meekly.

  “Consuela, my name is Rebel. I won’t hurt you, I promise. I’m here to help you. Can you tell us what’s going on here? Why do they have you locked up in here with these other girls?”

  Her eyes darted between Rebel and John and then over to the other men who were waiting a few feet away. “They send us to their contacts in other countries to pick up the drugs for them. We bring them back here and I don’t know what they do with them after that.”

  “So they’re using you as mules. That way they won’t get caught trafficking,” John stated. “How do they send you?”

  “In the bottom of a big, dirty ship. The men on the ship are mean, too,” Consuela replied with sadness permeating her voice. “Once the ship reaches US waters, it stops. We have to bring the drugs the rest of the way in a small boat. It is very dangerous with the waves and the weather. They tell us if we don’t come back, they will kill our families.

  “And, sometimes, we take the small boats far out into the ocean and meet another boat that looks like a submarine with a snorkel sticking up. They throw the packages in the water for us to get,” she finished explaining.

  “How do you know where to go?” John asked.