Chapter 14
DEAN
Night in the compound was never silent. Generators grumbled, the dogs prowled, guards spoke in low bursts of Spanish over radios that hissed and crackled.
Dean had learned to count those noises like a priest counting the beads on a rosary.
When something didn’t fit…the wrong voice at the wrong hour, a dog too loud, it put him on high alert.
Tonight, every sound was too loud, too close.
As Dean, Ricco, and Matteo slipped out a back door of the house, Dean looked around at the deep shadows. “Where are we meeting him?”
“Warehouse, outskirts of Santa Lucia. Two hours. He’ll only bring one man.” Ricco’s voice dipped. “You’re out of your mind, cabrón. If Carlos gets even a whisper of this—”
“He won’t.” Dean marched for the massive building that housed all the Righteous equipment. “And if he does, I’ll deal with it.”
“As long as Matteo can get us out the back gate without being seen, then we will be fine,” Dean stated.
“I can get us out. It is always the same one to six guys that come and go as they please. They do it so much that no one pays attention anymore. The Hummers only ever go in and out the back entrance. The drivers never have to show their faces, and they never book to leave or arrive. Mr. Keene said it had to be that way to protect the identity of his men while they’re doing jobs for Carlos. ”
“They have to be working for money. Keene has corrupted the whole system, but at least it works in our favor,” Dean said as they slipped into the dark building, and once he was sure no one was around, he opened the large bay door.
Six of the vehicles were lined up in a row and he walked to the one in the lead.
“Here’s hoping that all my accesses still work.” He touched the door panel. “Access code Yankee, Alfa, Sierra, Mike, India, November, Echo, Two, Nine, Six, One.”
Dean waited a breath for the beep and sighed with relief when the door unlocked. “Hello Sexy,” he greeted the vehicle, and Ricco looked at him.
“Hello Sir,” the Hummer responded.
“Do you know how to drive this thing?” Ricco asked as he looked at the Hummer in shock. That look never got old.
If there was one thing Dean knew how to drive, it was the special equipped Hummers.
He smiled at Ricco. “Did my father not tell you what I’ve been doing the last fourteen years? I am one of the American ghosts. Welcome to the inside,” Dean smiled, gripping Ricco’s shoulder.
Dean climbed in behind the steering wheel, while Matteo got in the passenger seat and Ricco climbed into back. Being back inside the beautiful beast again made him smile.
He touched the controls and the mounted laptop opened and turned on. “Sexy, show me all the human heat signatures on the compound.”
“Yes, Sir.” The antenna whirred to life, and the front windshield lit up with a map of the property, showing everyone moving around it.
“Wow,” Ricco gasped from the back.
“That’s nothing, you wait until you see what she can do. Sexy, I need you to map out the fastest route to Santa Lucia staying off all main roads.”
The windshield shifted, and a huge map with a dotted red line appeared. “Here is the fastest route avoiding all roads, and potential enemies in the area. Arrival time, one hour and thirty-six minutes.”
Dean looked at Matteo and then Ricco. “This is your last chance to bail. I understand if you want to.”
“I’m in this until the end.”
“You’re crazy, but I’m with you,” Ricco agreed.
“Well, alright then. Let’s get moving, we want to be back before sunrise.”
Dean engaged the Hummer’s auto-drive, ignoring Ricco’s unease from the back seat as he pulled up the Righteous database to catch up on intel.
Now that he knew Carlos was the one pulling the strings, the patterns stood out, clear and deliberate, things he never would’ve seen before.
Missions designed to eliminate enemies under the guise of making the world a safer place.
Looking through the Alvarez files revealed an interesting tidbit that explained why Carlos hadn’t simply stormed the castle and destroyed the family. Alvarez had political ties to the American government.
It also became clear that Trev didn’t log the mission to extract Maeve, so he definitely did it off the books. It meant Trev had figured out that something wasn’t adding up and didn’t trust the organization.
The Hummer drove in utter darkness, it didn’t need light to follow the road, and as they crested the next hill, Dean could see the glow from Santa Lucia.
“The warehouse is on this side of the town,” Ricco said, leaning forward from the backseat. “It’s that building there.”
“How many people know about this warehouse?”
“Carlos doesn’t know about this one,” Matteo answered.
“Okay we need to keep it that way. Sexy, take me to a secondary building out of the way of any cameras or surveillance, that’s at least a fifteen-minute walk.”
“Yes Sir.”
The map showed the new course and within twenty minutes they were parked. The vehicle hidden in utter darkness, wedged behind a tall tower of skids and an old building.
The two men followed him as they walked to the meeting place, neither saying a word as they approached the warehouse crouched at the edge of Santa Lucia.
They stuck to the shadows, moving silently through the older industrial section of the town. Dean peered around the last building and checked for any threat including possible sniper nests. Just because Alvarez agreed to meet, it didn’t mean it wasn’t a trap.
The warehouse was made of corrugated metal walls, tagged with old paint and rust. One floodlight burned above the side door, turning shadows razor-thin. A tall man stood just inside the gate, gun in hand, his face hard like he’d seen too much shit. Dean knew that feeling all too well.
Stepping out of the shadows the three of them walked toward the gate. Alvarez’s guard’s rifle was angled down, but ready. When the guard locked eyes with them, there was a beat where Dean thought he really had walked into a trap, but when they stopped walking the guard nodded at them.
“You Ramírez?”
“I am.”
“You can only bring one guard in with you.”
“I don’t need any.” Dean looked at Ricco and Matteo who both seemed ready to argue. “Stay here, keep an eye out for any sign of trouble and radio me if anything seems off.” Dean handed over his gun but kept his knives that were hidden on him.
The guard unlocked the gate and escorted Dean in.
Metal clanged shut behind them as the guard relocked it.
Side by side, they crossed the yard until the guard stopped at a door tucked into the side of the building.
The place smelled of old paper and dusty, like an abandoned mill.
Dim light spilled just enough for Dean to spot a man waiting beneath it.
Dean walked over and didn’t say a word as he stared at Alejandro Alvarez. Age had curved his shoulders, but the eyes were the same—sharp black stones, polished by suspicion and loss.
“Ramírez,” Alvarez said, voice like gravel dragged across a tomb. “It has been a long time.”
“Alvarez…it has.” Dean didn’t offer a hand. “I’m surprised that you agreed to meet.”
“Honestly, so am I. But…you sent me a message about my daughter. Fourteen years gone. Tell me, Mercurio…why now?”
Dean’s jaw flexed at the name. He didn’t bother correcting the older man.
“Because I thought she was safe, and because we both want the same thing.”
Alvarez’s eyes narrowed, suspicion slicing deep.
“Safe? There is no such thing as safe. I know what Carlos planned to do, when I heard that she had disappeared…I thought she was dead. That he’d accidently killed her in one of his rages.
And now after all this time you send a message saying that she is alive and in danger. ”
Dean’s hands curled into fists at his sides. “Yes.”
A humorless laugh escaped Alvarez. “Why should I believe you?”
Dean’s voice was a growl, low and controlled. “Because I’m the one that made her disappear.”
“What?” Alvarez growled, as he stepped closer. The guard shifted uneasily at the sudden tension. “Mind expanding on that?”
“I’m sure you can guess, but my father wanted me to marry your daughter.
He told me that when she turned thirteen, she would be the perfect, ripe age.
I’d already planned on running the minute I turned eighteen.
I had no love for the man and his abusive ways.
But I knew that if I didn’t take Isabella with me, then he would marry your daughter himself. ”
Alvarez’s voice was quiet, but it struck like a whip. “You disappeared with her. A child. No trace. Do you know what that did to me, to my family? To bury an empty coffin because we thought she was dead?”
Dean’s throat worked. He kept his face carved from ice.
“I’m not going to pretend that I understand what you went through, but I couldn’t get to your compound without being killed.
I had one shot at freedom, and I took it.
I did the only thing I could think of at the time and that was take Isabella with me.
We hid out for as long as I could, but money was an issue and my father’s guards kept getting too close.
I left her at a fire station, and I joined the army to escape him. ”
“You left my baby girl at a random fire station? Hijo de la chingada! Debería meterte un plomazo aquí mismo.” Alvarez yelled and pulled his gun, pointing it at Dean.
“Would you rather I left her there? She’d either be dead or ten kids deep courtesy of my father. Is that what you wanted?”
Alvarez’s hand shook and finally he lowered the gun. “But you just left her.” Alvarez got up into Dean’s personal space, shadows crawling across his scarred face.
“I was a stupid eighteen-year-old kid. I’m sorry. I regret not making better choices, but I hadn’t planned on her coming with me initially, and…” He sighed. “I’m sorry, but she is alive and she is in real danger now.”
“Where is she?”
Dean shrugged. “I don’t know…not exactly. She was staying with a friend of mine, a leader of a motorcycle club. She was safe with them, but she was spotted in Cali, and one of Carlos’s men somehow framed her for murder.”
“No mames…asesinato?” He closed his eyes and tapped the gun off his forehead. For a long beat, the only sound was the drip of water from a leaky pipe. “Is she in some prison?”
Dean shook his head. “I managed to get a message out to some friends that helped her escape, but Carlos has the might of a secret organization, the same one that hit your warehouse months ago. They are highly trained and think they are working for the United States government. They are ghosts. Take their orders from special phones and no one knows who is in charge. Carlos is sending these men after her. I have no way to leave, to stop the men, or to help her.”
“So, he wants her alive?”
“Yes.” Dean’s mask cracked. “I know what it’s like to be at the mercy of my father. And I’ll kill him before I let him do to her what he did to me, but it would be best if she never reached the compound.”
Something shifted in Alvarez’s expression. Not trust, not forgiveness, but there was the faintest flicker of understanding.
Still, his tone was steel. “What do you need from me?”
“I understand you have friends in high places in the United States government.” Alvarez’s eyes narrowed.
“It doesn’t matter how I know that, just that I do.
There is a man in the Marshals that is an old friend of mine and can track anyone.
Send him after her, get the Marshals to bring her in, and you can pick her up from them. ”
“What do you get out of this?”
“I need manpower when the time comes to take down my father. I want a promise right now that in exchange for the information I gave you, you will help me.”
He scoffed. “It is a suicide mission to attack your father’s compound.”
“It is right now, but I’m working on something to solve that issue.”
Alvarez studied Dean, the silence heavy. Then, slowly, he nodded once. “For her. Not for you. Don’t mistake that, but yes…I would like to wipe him off the map. Will you take over?”
Dean shook his head.
“Consider it your bonus for when you’ve finished helping me. The area will be yours. I want nothing to do with this life, but you must promise you will not execute the innocent, or those that have helped me. They get folded into your organization or given their freedom.”
“You’re not what I expected, Mercurio.” Alvarez held out his hand for Dean to shake. Dean clasped hands with him, and they’d just gone from natural enemies to a bridged but fragile truce.
“What is your friend’s name that I need to have sent after Isabella?”
“He goes by Wolf.”
“You walk a tightrope, I pray you don’t fall before you keep your promise to bring Carlos down.”
Dean’s mouth curved in a humorless smirk. “I never fall. I fucking leap off the ledge.”
“What happened in there?” Ricco asked when he saw Dean was still in one piece. Matteo and him both looked skeptical that Dean was going to walk out of the meeting alive.
“Not here.” Dean waited until they were back in the safety of the Hummer. “He’s agreed to help when the time comes.”
“Can you trust him?” Matteo asked.
“We want the same thing, for Carlos and the empire he’s built to be destroyed. He will help,” Dean affirmed, wheeling the Hummer out of its hiding spot and heading back on the same route they took to get here.
When they got close Carlos’s compound, they navigated back to the hanger the same way they had left. They encountered no questions about their comings and goings.
“Sexy, I need you to wipe the memory of everything we said and where we went. Keep my access so I can summon you if needed,” Dean ordered, leaning forward and opening the glove compartment.
“Yes, Sir. All information has been permanently deleted.”
“What’s that?” Ricco asked as Dean stuffed the watch-shaped piece into his pocket.
“A fun toy.” Dean smirked. “Come on let’s go.”
Getting out, they quickly cleaned out the sand they had tracked in, then closed and locked the doors. They paused briefly before crossing the open courtyard. The floodlights threw deep shadows across the stone. Carlos’s office light burned, a square of yellow in the black facade.
Ricco lingered, eyes flicking upward once before vanishing back into the shadows.
“Let’s go,” Dean whispered.
Dean didn’t bother to look up. Didn’t break stride. They took the same back way into the house, silent, then split off one by one.
Dean reached the suite, opened the door, and stepped inside.
Yasmine was waiting, baby curled against her chest, the twins sprawled in sleep on their bed. She looked up at him, questions burning in her eyes. He didn’t answer, just bent down and pressed his lips to her forehead.
“One more move,” he whispered, breath against her skin. “One move at a time is all it takes to tip the board.”