Jitter brought the RV to a stop and he and the crew began coaxing the women out. They were each given a water bottle; the women thirstily guzzled the water down. One of the crew members collected the empty bottles into a garbage bag and tossed the bag in the back of the RV.
There was still enough nightfall for them to reach the first cooling station.
Jitter got back into the driver’s seat of the RV and watched the crew and the women hike into the darkness. He read a text from TJ and without replying, placed his cell phone in the cup holder. He made a wide turn and maneuvered the RV to the main road leading back to the resort.
*****
Dirk stood in the elevator, watching the floor numbers above his head climb. The doors slid open with a ‘ding,’ and he exited, heading towards his office. The DEA field office was He stopped short of his door and turned around to get back on the elevator, remembering he wanted to follow up on a lead. He pressed the button for the floor to the evidence room.
When the elevator stopped, he stepped out into the hallway and walked briskly to the evidence room. He opened the door and was met with the sight of Sage pulling papers from a file.
Sage, clearly startled, dropped the paperwork in her hands as the door swung open. She hastily erased the panic from her face but not before Dirk processed it.
“Hey,” Dirk said, more as a question than a greeting.
Sage picked up the papers she’d dropped, avoiding Dirk’s eyes. “Late night, Agent Bledsoe? It’s almost midnight,” she said with a crooked smile.
Dirk didn’t respond right away. He stood over her and waited for her to stand again. Before rising, she managed to shove one of sheets under a nearby copier.
Dirk casually examined the documents she was holding. “Find something helpful?”
She handed them to him. “Well, not really. I couldn’t sleep, so I thought I’d come down and try to look for any connections between what we found in the San Miguel bust and what Demarteniz gave us. If San Miguel is active, we need to know.”
Dirk smiled at her. “I love your dedication, Agent Wright.”
He leaned down and pressed his lips softly against hers. She didn’t resist. He slipped her ponytail holder from her hair and ran his hands through her locks. They moved slowly in unison to a nearby counter. He hiked her up in one swift movement and sat her on top. She moved her hands over his defined chest as he filled the space between her thighs with his body. Locked in a kiss, he unbuttoned her blouse and she moaned in delight at his touch. He let out a guttural groan as she made contact with the skin of his belly.
Although her body craved him, Sage knew Dirk was a distraction she couldn’t afford. Just as she pulled away, he did the same. They looked at one another and smiled.
Dirk began to re-button her blouse. She, in turn, straightened his shirt.
“You are a remarkable woman, Sage Wright.”
She dropped her eyes to her hands. “Not always.”
Dirk lifted her chin and met her eyes. “You can trust me. Whatever you’re going through, I can help you. You’re so…sad. Why?”
Sage searched his face for something she couldn’t quite name. She hopped down from the counter. “Sadness is just a part of life, Dirk. I’m okay.”
“I don’t think you’re okay, but… ” He grabbed her hand as she headed for the door. “Question, I noticed you were here earlier tonight, too. Was there a reason?”
Here We Go
The night air was suffocating as Sage waited for the gas pump to come to a stop. She checked her watch. She’d been driving four hours straight and still had many more in front of her. She didn’t have a plan past dodging Dirk and getting to Hermosillo.
The darkness surrounding her was palpable. One street lamp lazily lit the single bay of pumps. She scanned her surroundings for at least the fifth time since she had been outside of her vehicle. Her safety wasn’t guaranteed inside her truck but it surely was in question being in the open.
Her thoughts ran in circles trying to figure out how the Vegas run had been compromised. TJ couldn’t be explicit over the phone as to what happened with Harvey but she understood through their coded conversation that he’d been arrested and the bus towed. Nothing would come up dirty with the party bus, she was sure. Harvey, however, was something different. What could he have done to get arrested? Sage knew he would never put himself nor her in jeopardy intentionally.
There was also the bag containing the evidence she’d taken from headquarters. She was unable to inquire about it when she spoke to her son. Sage hadn’t told him about the new negotiations with the cartel. She had also chosen to spare him of what his uncle was going through because of the mistakes being made.
She could only hope Coco still had eyes on the bag scheduled to be turned over to San Miguel’s people. Even with Harvey being arrested, the luggage, all staged and clean, should have been cleared.
Her cell phone rang once in her pocket then went silent. She jumped inside the Durango, grabbed her second cell phone from the glove compartment and waited for that one to ring. She had no clue who would be calling from the Compound but it couldn’t be good at the given hour.
Finally, it chimed. She picked it up before the first ring ended.
“Yeah,” she answered.
“It’s Lorenzo. I didn’t think this should wait.”
“What is it, ‘Zo?”
“Something came for you.” He paused. “Here. It’s a red box with a red bow.”
Her heart skipped a beat then plummeted down into her stomach.
“You there?” Lorenzo asked.
Sage couldn’t speak. “Mm, mm,” she managed, nodding her head despite him not seeing it. She wondered desperately how the cartel already knew something went wrong with the delivery.
“Should I open it?” Lorenzo asked.
She smoothed her ponytail with her free hand and took a deep breath. She swiped at tears that found their way down her cheeks. “Mm, mm,” she almost hummed through closed lips, dropping her head and bracing herself.
Lorenzo choked back a gag. “Damn.”
Sage waited for Lorenzo to gather himself. He’d went to high school with her and her brother. There were many years between them. What he saw had gut punched him.
Lorenzo eventually spoke. “His thumbs…and four fingers.”
Sage disconnected the call. She leaned into the steering wheel, hugging it, willing it to hug her back. Her tears had no end. Her body racked with hurt for her brother.
Through her pain she began to find clarity.
The cartel was getting information almost instantly. Every hiccup, every roadblock. They knew and responded before she even had a chance to assess things. She wondered if they were behind the fails. Did they have the party bus pulled over? Was there someone on the inside feeding them information?
Sage was jolted back into real time by the ring of her personal cell phone. It was Jitter. She answered after several moments, trying to compose herself.
“Where are you?” she asked without preamble. “I really need you, Jitter. We need to talk.”
“I just cleaned the transports. Foot traffic is a go. Where are you?”
Sage gave him her exact location and, just as she had coordinated in their travel plans, he was less than thirty minutes off her path.
Across from the gas station she saw a trailer parked in a dirt lot with three plastic tables situated in front. A collapsible board was sitting near the street that read, “Tacos 24 Hours.” She pulled into the lot and switched off her headlights. She leaned her head back against the headrest and closed her eyes. She hadn’t slept in almost forty hours. She thought of her brother. Tears escaped through her closed lids.
She remembered the last time Silas had gotten himself into trouble and smirked at the simplicity of that ordeal. It was worlds away from where they were now.
He’d been playing dice in South Phoenix and won thirty thousand dollars. Another gambler tried to rob him afterwards and Silas s
hot him once in each leg before fleeing. He had called Sage, not wanting to be arrested because the attempted robber, who happened to be a rival dealer, had been taken to the hospital by ambulance. He’d guaranteed Silas he was pressing charges.
Despite Silas’ many brushes with the law, he wasn’t for prison life. Street revenge he could handle but prison he fought desperately to avoid. He’d been shot, stabbed, even near death but nothing compared to prison, he told Sage once.
After the shooting at the gambling spot, Silas called his twin and swore it was the last time he would ask her to bail him out. As she always did, she fixed the situation. Sage visited the hospital room of Silas’ victim as Special Agent Wright with the DEA and citing his known drug affiliation, there were no charges brought against her brother. Just like that, Silas was safe.
Approaching headlights pried Sage from thoughts of Silas. She watched gratefully as Jitter exited his car and walked towards her car. She climbed out, met him halfway, and fell into his arms.
“Hey, hey…” Jitter said, bringing her closer. “What’s going on?”
New tears cascaded onto Jitter’s shirt as she laid into him. “They’re killing him. They’re killing Silas. I can feel it in my bones. I have to get to him, now!”
“We’re doing everything we can. We have to be smart about this though, Sage. It’s crazy to be on their territory. After tonight’s run, we will be at something like five hundred and forty-two women moved across the border.”
“It took us almost three weeks to move that number, Jitter. He won’t make it much longer!”
Sage straightened herself up and dabbed at her eyes with the pads of her fingertips. She and Jitter sat at one of the plastic tables. A teenage boy came over and asked in Spanish if they wanted to order something and Sage responded likewise, asking for bottled water.
“We don’t have time for ‘smart.’ I’m checking it out and if I feel like he’s there, I’m going in. I already called in a team, they’re right behind me. I’m taking Silas out and taking San Miguel down.”
Jitter placed a hand over hers. “You think that’s wise? You don’t think San Miguel planned for that? You will be exposed if he goes down. We all will. I hate to say this, but how do you know they haven’t killed Silas already? He did take millions from them, Sage. Cash, cocaine…gone! He robbed the cartel!”
“You remember the time Silas almost caught a case for the shooting at the gambling spot over on Broadway?”
Jitter let out a light chuckle. “Hell yeah, he shot the dude in both knee caps for trying to rob him.”
“Well, right before he called me that time, I had this horrible feeling that he was in trouble. Like he needed me. His call came minutes after. He was scared. It was the same when we were little. He needs me now. The feeling is even stronger.”
“Then we move. Period,” Jitter reassured her, nudging her chin. “I always have your back.”
They moved Jitter’s car behind the gas station and he hopped in the Durango with Sage. They were still two and half hours away from Hermosillo. Sage travelled at speeds approaching one hundred miles an hour as they followed Siri’s directions from her iPhone.
The address Demarteniz gave up before he was murdered was in a welcoming neighborhood. The house stood alone, three stories high. Sage parked a few houses down and cut the lights.
“What now?” Jitter asked, pulling out his pistol.
Sage let her tinted window down just a bit and watched the house closely for any movement. There was nothing.
Time’s Up
Two twenty passenger vans picked up the stranded Vegas bound travelers after their driver was apprehended. It was a cramped ride for all forty-six bodies but they returned to the Compound, minus Harvey, without incident.
After getting all the women back to their bunkers, TJ and Coco went to the observation room to wait for further instructions from Sage. They sat at a crescent shaped desk overlooking the common area of the Compound through a two-way mirror. They could see the women but the women could not see them. Color monitors displayed the bunkers that were not in their line of sight.
The women seemed restless but not much was going on. The head count was at half capacity which made the task of keeping watch easier.
“Any word on Harvey?” Coco asked.
“He’s being detained downtown.” TJ scratched his head. “Our lawyer says he’s being charged with possession. Crazy thing is…Harvey doesn’t do drugs. He sold a little weed in his day but that’s about it. And not having his wallet…I saw him with it. When we were in the office with Jitter before we headed out, he had it. So, why not just give his ID to the cops? No ID equals probable cause in Arizona. It’s like he was trying to get arrested.”
“Yeah, I thought that whole thing was a little fishy myself,” Coco agreed.
TJ motioned to the two-way glass in front of them. “How do you feel about what we’re doing?”
“You mean these girls?”
“Yeah. You don’t feel fucked up? It doesn’t mess with your conscience?”
Coco thought for a few moments, then answered, “I guess I don’t feel anything, honestly. I’ve been where they are. Pimped out. Lost. Nobody felt sorry for me. Nobody rescued me. Well, except Sage.”
TJ watched the women on the other side of the glass. He shook his head sorrowfully. “This is just…shitty.”
“T, if it’s not us doing this, I guarantee you it will be someone else. You have no idea how deep this trafficking game goes. Between you and me, I was hoping Sage doesn’t just shut all this down once we get Silas back. It’s crazy money. Even with what the cartel takes, we are still on the top of the food chain. There’s no reason we shouldn’t stay in the game.”
TJ’s face contorted into a scowl. “Seriously? There’s no way in hell I would continue this. My uncle is all I care about. Same for my mom. She’s only doing this for Silas. This ain’t who we are.”
“It’s who Silas is,” she shot back nonchalantly. “I know he’s about his money. He could keep this operation alive. Question for you. How’d he get in this shit with the cartel anyway? I’ve heard a thousand different stories.”
TJ stroked the nape of his neck and rattled off the story. “So, everybody knows Silas had the cocaine game on lock. He had gotten so big that he was moving more than his supplier could provide. He decided to do business with a new connect in Mexico, who we now know was actually the San Miguel cartel. He never met with them face to face. The exchanges were always a drop and pick up at a designated location. Silas was supposed to re-up on this particular drop, you know, get the new shipment. He was supposed to leave the payout for the previous bricks along with the cash for the new bricks, which were left for him at that same location.
“Basically, he kept all the money, took the bricks and left Mexico. But he didn’t know he was in bed with the cartel. He thought he was just burning a couple of Mexicans who wouldn’t retaliate across the border. Next thing we know, he’s missing and my mom gets this Facebook Live video with him all fucked up.” TJ flinched at his own words. He stifled a few sniffles. “They knew my mom was DEA and it was on from there. They had it out for her ever since she shut down one of their major operations a month or so ago. They got a two for one taking Silas.”
Coco laid back in her chair, looking up at the ceiling. “Damn. With those bricks and all that cash, we’re talking something like three million. Where do you think he put it?”
“Is that all you care about? Money?”
She kept her eyes on the ceiling. “Pretty much.”
“I watched Jitter kill two people in cold blood the other night. An old man. No reason! That shit ain’t right!” TJ jumped to his feet, his voice raised. Spit flew from his mouth as he continued. “I’ve seen my Uncle Silas beat people to a pulp over five hundred bucks. I’m watching myself sell women to the highest bidder. And y’all don’t feel shit? Nothin’? I’m done. I’m out!”
He snatched his cell from the desk and stormed out. H
e walked past several crew members without a word. He climbed up the stairs leading to the hatch door, punched in his code and lifted himself out when the door released. He locked the hatch door and left the Compound for what he hoped to be the last time.
Once inside his Impala, he called his mother’s cell. He had to let her know he was out. She didn’t answer so he left a voice message.
Ma, I love you. I just wanted you to know that. Ok? I’m dropping out of school. I’m just not cut out for it. I thought I was but, I’m just not. I hope you’re safe. Please call me when you can.
TJ pulled out of the parking lot and didn’t look back.
He travelled almost a mile before he felt his car wobbling. He veered off to the side of the dark road and got out. He used the flashlight feature on his cell phone to examine his tires. His front passenger tire was completely deflated. He squatted down to search for a nail or something intrusive that may have punctured it. There was something shiny glistening on the inner tire, he noticed. Intentionally out of sight. It was a pocket knife inserted in the tire. He yanked it out and looked at it briefly before stuffing it in his pocket.
He studied the flattened tire quizzically. “What the…”
As TJ leaned closer to get a better look, he was struck in the head from behind. He was knocked unconscious, landing on the side of his face.
*****
Staked out in front of the house in Hermosillo, Jitter and Sage sat in silence, watching intently.
“You know, they could just be a normal family sleeping. Maybe that’s why there’s been no movement in over an hour.”
Sage shook her head rapidly. “No, there’s something about this place. I know I’m right.” She rolled her window up. “We’re going in.”
Jitter rolled his window up and climbed out. “Let’s do this then.”
They crossed the street and approached the multi-level house from an angle, guns drawn. Sage checked the second Glock at her waist. They made it to the front gate and jumped over. A motion light picked up their movements and they dropped low into the nearby bushes. They waited for any activity from inside the house. Still, there was nothing.
Coyote: Sometimes the wrong way is the only way Page 5