by AJ Adams
It was all too soon when Fuentes came back, brandishing a taser with business-like intent. “I don’t think we should rush into this,” he mused. “Solitaire cracked last time, offering to spill her guts to you in order to get away from Escamilla, remember? Solitaire is always practical. She’ll be sensible this time too.”
They both looked at me expectantly.
“Right,” Mateo said slowly. “I can give you a network worth millions.”
At the familiar words, I froze. This was it. I was a rat. My head told me everyone has a limit, but the red-hot shame of knowing I’d reached mine was flooding through me.
Then I spotted Fuentes’ hands. They were curling and uncurling nervously. Now why would he be edgy, with me at his mercy and already known to have cracked? I looked at him and saw the tight smile was too tense for comfort. Mateo was unnaturally still, too.
“I can give you everything from the access code to Arturo’s favourite colour of shirt,” I said slowly, “but I’ll die before I tell you fuckers a single thing.”
From the way they exhaled, I knew it had been a bluff.
Fuentes shrugged. “Well, it was worth a try.” He stared at me. “Really, Solitaire, you are a stupid bitch. All that crap about honour and loyalty! Who do you think we are?”
“I make my choices, and I don’t work with treacherous scum.”
For a second I thought he’d step close and slap me. I was already feeling his bones crunch when Mateo put out a hand.
“Remember my wrist,” he said quietly.
The words triggered a memory.
Escamilla was holding a cattle prod to my chest. I heard myself scream, but I couldn’t escape. The cage kept me in place. “That will teach you to bite me,” he snarled as he walked away.
Mateo was there, leaning in close and looking at me. Through my tears, his brown eyes and sharp nose were blurred. He was laughing at me, enjoying my pain.
A wave of rage consumed me. “Hey you,” I whispered. “Want to be rich? I can give you a network worth millions.”
The mention of money put a sparkle in his eyes. “Tell me!” He put a hand through the bars, stroking my face with his fingers. I sighed, steeled myself, grabbed his wrist, and twisted. There was a snap, and then he was screaming.
“I broke your wrist,” I smiled at Mateo. “That must have been awkward for a puto like you.”
The insult got to him. He almost went for me, but Fuentes held him back. “Come on, you got your own back on her then by telling Escamilla how to control her,” he reminded Mateo. “And now she’s going to help us take down Arturo.”
I didn’t like the way he put that at all.
“I’m still going to beat the hell out of her!” Mateo hissed.
The threat didn’t touch me. The relief that I hadn’t blabbed made me feel like Superwoman. “Fuck you, you little mayate. You don’t frighten me.”
“I made you scream then,” Mateo was in a snit. “I’ll make you scream again.”
“Go ahead,” I told him. I could take whatever they dished out, knowing Arturo was on his way. “I don’t give a fuck what you do to me. I’m not telling you a thing.”
“We could have a go,” Mateo said slowly to Fuentes.
“Come on, Mateo, it was you who told me Escamilla zapped her a zillion times as punishment, and it didn’t work. It would take months to break her. Why waste our time?”
His words made my heart sing. “Looks like you’re on a hiding to nothing, doesn’t it?”
Fuentes shrugged. “You’re talking tough now, but when we hand you over to the Gulf you’ll sing a different tune.”
I would like to think I’m brave, but at his words, cold sweat ran down my back. Handing me to Arturo’s greatest enemies would torture me and present Arturo with an impossible choice. If he abandoned me it would show him as weak, and he would come under attack, but if he went to war over me, some of his crew, his family, would die. It was diabolical.
I looked at Mateo. “You’d let your family die? Your cousins?” I purposefully didn’t include his half-sisters. With their relationship, it was likely he’d love to see them go. I didn’t mention Arturo, either. It was easy to see that all this came from jealousy.
“They’ve always looked down on me,” he shrugged. “It would be easier to ransom the database, but if you won’t talk, we go back to the original plan. We hand you over to the Gulf, and tonight I go to London, ostensibly to check Jorge’s books. When the shit hits the fan, I take out Jorge. I will take control, strictly on a temporary basis, and Miguel will turn up to help.”
“Once we’re in, we won’t let go,” Fuentes smiled. “The Gulf will kill you, and we’ll be miles away from suspicion. Arturo will probably die too, and when the war is over, Kyle will take over and be very grateful to us.”
“I just wish I could see it!” Mateo couldn’t help grinning at the thought. “The golden boy! The legitimate son who had it all handed to him on a plate will crash and burn!”
“You’re quite wrong,” I told Mateo. “Arturo is better than you, and it has nothing to do with being legitimate or not.”
“I never had a chance!” Mateo snarled.
“Arturo paid for your education and gave you a job, but you’re just a pathetic loser.”
“Pinche puta!” Mateo was red-faced with fury.
Fuentes grabbed Mateo’s shoulder. “Easy, now. She’s just messing with you.”
As they stood and stared at me, I marvelled at how easily they’d caused so much trouble. Undoubtedly Mateo had been trusted too much, probably because Arturo felt sorry for him. I hoped Arturo wouldn’t take this to heart. Fuentes’ scheme was just part of business, a greedy man trying to take a step up, but Mateo’s treachery would cut Arturo to the quick. Luckily it could all be fixed. If these two were taken out, all our problems would vanish along with them.
Mateo took a deep breath, visibly calming himself. “So, shall we set the ball rolling and call the Escorpiones?” He was talking about the Gulf’s elite killer squad.
It was time. I wished I had a knife hidden on me or a spare gun in my boot, but I hadn’t bothered, thinking anyone who snatched me would give me a pat down. It wasn’t a problem: there was a gun and a taser available. Admittedly they were currently in the wrong hands, but that wouldn’t last. I’d take the taser from Fuentes and zap Mateo.
“Cuff her but be careful,” Mateo instructed Fuentes tersely. “She’s been training for weeks, and she’s quick and strong.”
“She won’t get to me!”
Fuentes’ stupidity was going to work in my favour. As I braced myself to grab the taser, I heard a sound. It was the hoot of an owl. Mateo and Fuentes didn’t bat an eyelid, but I knew owls hunt only at night. Arturo had come through and much faster than I could have reasonably hoped for.
I raised my voice. “You two fucking idiots! You think Arturo doesn’t know where I am? You two are cornered!”
I hoped Arturo would realise there were two of them, and by my voice, he should have located my position in the room.
Mateo winced, but Fuentes laughed. “She’s trying to play you!”
I saw the door behind him begin to bulge and smoke. They’d take that out completely. There was a creak behind me. That must be someone about to demolish the window. I didn’t bother going for the taser. I just threw myself to the floor, screaming, “Go, go, go!”
As I yelled, the window behind me roared and ripped out of the frame.
“Fucking bitch!” Mateo screamed. I rolled past his feet, keeping low and out of the way of the bullets that were sure to strafe the room in the next few seconds. As if in slow motion I saw him turn to follow me. I kicked out as he pulled the trigger, causing his first bullet to go wide. It hit Fuentes solidly in the chest. He stood frozen a second, blood spilling down his front, and then he just folded.
“You bitch!” Mateo was on the ground, inches away from me, white-faced with shock and horror. “You fucking bitch! Look what you made me do!”
I lay on the floor, gasping for air, waiting for it all to fade out when the door disintegrated. A dark figure burst in. It was Arturo, snarling like a pit-bull. He looked like a fiend, but my only thought was that at least I had a chance now.
I was staring at Arturo like a witless cow when Mateo struggled to his knees, looked up, and fired again. There was a spray of blood, and then Arturo collapsed. My screams filled the universe.
Chapter Twenty-Five: Arturo
I didn’t expect to die that day. It just goes to show, doesn’t it, that life is precarious? Of course, I should have been more careful.
As I sat on Kyle’s deck, sharing those chicken poppers with Raoul, my brother was reading me a lecture.
“You took a hell of a risk, coming here without an escort.”
“I know. I lost my temper.”
“You might have been shot.” Kyle was on autopilot, the stricture was pure form; his mind somewhere else. “Next time you lose your temper, storm into another room, okay?”
“Oh come on! How often do I lose it?”
That’s when Chloe came over, and I practically had a coronary right there. It was pure terror for Solitaire. It was such a strong emotion that Raoul fled into the house.
Chloe raced off, calling back, “I’ll tell the others to come, now!”
Kyle was instantly on his phone, snapping out orders while I flipped open mine, punched up the GPS app and saw Solitaire’s phone tracker heading into the town centre. She stopped moving in front of the Soriana Supermarket back entrance. As I scanned, I saw she was carrying three extra GPS chips. Solitaire was making sure that I wouldn’t lose her. Half of me wanted to whoop, the other half wanted to wallop her for taking such a crazy risk.
“She hitched a ride in a delivery truck,” Kyle said tersely. He picked up his laptop, flipped it open and started tapping keys. “I’ve got the halcones moving in.”
“How far away are they?”
“Just a couple of blocks. Arturo, what the hell is going on? Why did she take off? And what am I supposed to talk you into?”
When I laid it out for him, he sat and thought. I sat and forced myself to be patient. I wanted to run to the rescue, but my head overruled my heart – it would already be known that I’d gone to Kyle’s without an escort. If I went tearing into town, every single one of my enemies would be looking to see why. Then they’d be after Solitaire.
I knew I had to stay put until Solitaire had a proper guard. Once she did, I could go get her, take her home, and beat the fuck out of her. Or maybe I’d kiss her all over and never let her go again. The thought of never being able to do either again put a block of ice in my gut.
“Jesus, Kyle! Where are those fucking halcones? Tell them to hurry the hell up!”
Kyle looked up from his laptop. “I’ve got her on CCTV.”
I shot over and there she was, standing in the middle of the road, looking around like a gringa tourist. If she wasn’t careful, some fucker would mug her. I didn’t even want to think what would happen if the Gulf saw her.
“This is the security feed from Scotiabank,” Kyle said. His pointed at a face behind my girl. “That is one of ours.”
“Thank God!”
“I’ve told them to watch, follow and wait.”
“What the fuck! Pick her up, and take her home!”
“Arturo, Solitaire is right.”
“No, she damn well isn’t!”
“This isn’t the right way to go about it, but we’re committed now.”
“If that was your Chloe –”
Kyle swallowed. His eyes flickered as the bad memories hit him. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
Then it was me stopping him getting back on his cell. “Wait! Look!” Mateo was talking to Solitaire.
“I’ll call him,” Kyle said.
“No. Look at the GPS tracker.”
Solitaire had vanished from the screen.
“Now why does Mateo have a jammer?” Kyle’s grey eyes were ice. “Jesus, Arturo. He’s Songbird!”
“He can’t be. He didn’t know about Istanbul.” I watched Solitaire shrug, smile and get into Mateo’s car. “He’s working with someone.” I saw the car doors close, and then it really hit me. “Oh fuck, Kyle! We have to go get her right now!”
The next few minutes were fraught with activity. Quique, Chema and Rafa came running in, then Kyle was barking orders, and we were diving for the cars.
“How long before we catch up with her?”
“Fifteen minutes.”
“What? She’s forty miles away! More, maybe!”
“Your chopper’s meeting us in the field at the end of the road.”
“Get the halcones to update us every thirty seconds.”
“They will, but my guess is that Mateo will head towards the airport. He bought a bungalow there. It’s under his mother’s name.”
I like to think I’m cool under pressure, but my brother definitely has the edge over me when it comes to rescue missions. I was damn glad to have him there.
Kyle shoved a bullet-proof vest and a .45 Magnum at me, and then we were charging up the road with Chloe shouting after us, “Be careful!” Or maybe she was just yelling at Kyle. We’ve made up, but we’re not bosom buds.
The halcones had followed Mateo’s car to a place out of town by the airport, just as Kyle had predicted, so the pilot was able to drop us in a nice, flat, quiet field just over two miles away. I wanted to run straight over, but Kyle threatened to knock me on my ass.
“We do this right,” he said quietly. “If we fuck up, they might kill her.”
So we ran the first mile, and then leopard-crawled, military style, for the second. When we got close, we saw there were no cameras. I guess any hints of security out there would alert passers-by there was something to steal. Also, my bet was that this was Mateo’s love nest, discrete but not intended to be secure from attack. The wooden door, however, was inches thick, the windows were barred and the walls made of solid brick, so there was no way we could just bust in.
“Leave it to me,” Kyle breathed.
He and his men worked, fixing plastic explosive to the door and window frames. A bag of stun grenades stood on the ground. I crept close and listened.
“You gave up Arturo’s contacts.” Solitaire’s voice came through muffled but clear. I heard Fuentes and Mateo lay it all out, and I could see the others listening, too.
Now Mateo was trying to scare Solitaire into giving up the access code. He really was a moron. Nobody can make Solitaire do anything she doesn’t want to do, not even me.
As Kyle and his men worked fast but silently, Solitaire was telling Fuentes to go fuck himself. My girl sounded as cool as a cucumber. I think she’d be calm if a tornado hit. I decided that once I got her out, I’d kiss her all over and then take her away and beat her till she was creamy. Afterwards I’d beg her never to do such a stupid thing again.
I know, I should have been worried, but with all of us there, I knew we had it in the bag. Mateo and Fuentes had been lucky, but now they were outsmarted and outgunned. We’d blow our way in, stun them with the grenades, whisk my girl out and then total the fuckers.
Kyle signalled he was done, motioned us all back and then looked around. I was about to ask him what the fuck he was waiting for when I heard a small hooting sound. It was Chumillo and Pepe Rojo, snaking through the long grass. The rest of the cavalry had arrived.
They waved at Kyle, and he motioned us all back. “It blows on three,” he mouthed. “Guard your position, take down whoever comes out, but do not enter until I give the all clear.”
I took up my position by the door that was already beginning to disintegrate, burning intensely with smokeless heat. I should have waited for the all clear but hearing Solitaire’s voice shouting, “Go, go, go!” and then that gunshot, m
y gut took over, and I was crashing in.
As the door splintered and vanished, time slowed down, just like in the movies. Fuentes was face down on the floor, covered in blood and clearly dead. My Solitaire was down, too. She’d been shot, but she was looking at me, her eyes dark with pain. Mateo was also on the ground, half hidden by the sofa. I stepped aside to get a bead on him, but he was a tricky bastard to the end, rolling fast and shooting up at me. I went down like a ho in a back alley, but I got a shot off. It went right in Mateo’s face. I’d been targeting his chest, but my aim was off.
As I hit the floor, all I wanted to do was reach Solitaire. I wanted to tell her that I loved her, but I couldn’t get to her. The last thing I saw was a spray of blood. The last thing I heard was her screaming.
I came to again with a rush. I could hear, but I couldn’t see a thing. I was moving, flying through space, and there was a lot of yelling.
“Clamps! And get Rodriguez in here, NOW!”
“Doctor, what about the girl?”
“We do him first.”
The stupid fuck was about to make a mistake. I fought through the fog and opened my eyes. “Solitaire. Save Solitaire first!”
Bautista’s face hovered above mine. “I am doing my best,” he snapped. “Now lie still, you damn fool!”
I felt a pressure on my neck. I tried to lift a hand, to brush it away but a nurse was clinging to my arm, hissing in fear or anger.
Bautista was yelling again. “Get goddamn Rodriguez!”
I tried to turn my head, and then there was a sharp pain, and I was out again.
The second time I came to, everything was quiet and dark. For a horrific moment I thought I was dead and buried. The muted beep of a machine somewhere stopped my heart bumping its way out of my chest.
I opened my eyes, looked around and there she was: Solitaire. She had two black eyes, she was swathed in bandages, and there was an oxygen mask over her face, but she was alive. I could see her chest rise and fall as she breathed.
“Solitaire!”
My voice was a whisper, but her eyes opened instantly.