Chapter 17
SEVENTEEN
PAUL
I leaned my head against the cool brick wall and listened to the silence that blanketed the room.
After we left Nicole and Chili in New Mexico, we left for Fort Echo in Texas.
This place would be our home base for the next six days.
It was close to the border and had all the resources we might need for a possible emergency extraction.
With Nicole as a willing participant, Frank had gotten us clearance for whatever might come.
It was a desperate measure, but the US was in a losing battle with the Cartels, and desperate measures were all we had.
Mark leaned forward and rubbed his eyes.
He’d been suffering from a massive migraine since we left Shadows.
I knew that witnessing June’s death had been a terrible blow to him.
The doc had given him a shot, but nothing could touch the pain.
I hated seeing him suffer so much. I knew somehow, he blamed himself.
Keith flipped his phone over with a huff then shook his head, and I knew we still had nothing.
Whoever hit and killed June seemed to be a ghost in the wind.
Thanks to Nicole’s description of the bumper sticker with the tiger on it, the police were able to find it and link it to June’s murder.
The car had been found only a few miles away.
It had been driven into a bunch of thick shrubs.
It was wiped completely clean of prints, and so far, nothing had been found that could possibly give a DNA sample.
We already knew the license plate was fake; it had been registered to some guy long dead. Frank said the car was registered to a teacher at St. Augustine Elementary who had reported it missing an hour before the accident. Whoever the driver was, they knew what they were doing.
“This is so fucked up.” Mark suddenly pushed to his feet and rushed out of the room.
Cole followed, and we let them be. June had been part of both their lives since they could use a slingshot. As Abigail’s sister, she’d mothered them as if they were her own.
“Paul.” Frank stuck his head inside the door and waved for me to join him. My stomach bottomed out, but I stood. John mirrored me.
“Not you, Black,” Frank grunted, but John stood his ground.
“What you have to say to Paul you can say to all of us.” Frank had lost the trust of the guys since they found out the part he’d played in why I’d been in Mexico. Frankly, I didn’t blame them.
Frank removed his glasses as he stepped into the room. “Remember your rank, John. You take orders from me.” It was a shitty comment and didn’t go unnoticed by the others. Their faces had hardened.
“You lost our trust long ago, Frank, and you sure as hell haven’t done much to fix it,” John growled.
Frank’s white eyebrows pinched together as Cole moved closer. He glanced at John then at me.
“Is there a problem here, boys?”
“I don’t know. Is there?” Frank looked at me. I’d put a hand on John’s shoulder when Frank commented on his rank.
“No,” I pulled John backward, “Frank just needed a word with me.”
Mike slowly stood and moved to stand next to John.
“Tensions are high, boys, but save that fire to use out there and not in here.” Cole’s voice was a warning to stand down.
“Tensions have been high for a while, Colonel.” John stepped back, but his posture told me he was pissed.
“John,” I moved myself between him and Frank, “it’s all good.”
“Something’s off. I can feel it.” I nodded, because shit was definitely off.
“Let’s get through this mission and we’ll talk.” I gave him my word.
His gaze moved to mine and he tried to read my mind. Normally, he could, but I fought to block him out. I had to.
“Paul, let’s go,” Frank ordered, and I gave John’s shoulder a squeeze and followed him outside. “Black needs to—”
“Frank,” I cut him off, “don’t pit me against my family. You won’t win.” His mouth twisted, but to my surprise, he didn’t put me in my place either. “And this will be the last time.” I brushed past, leaving him to follow me.
“Hey, hold up,” Frank called. He’d trailed me for a bit, but I wouldn’t turn. “Paul, Steve from North Rock just called in.” His breaths came in huffs, and I knew his advanced age made it hard for him to keep up with my pace. I stopped finally but wouldn’t turn.
“What’d he want?”
“Said he was followed all the way across state lines to Tennessee. Once he shook the tail, he scanned his Jeep, and guess what he found.” He waited, but I wouldn’t bite. “A tracker with a lion’s head on it.”
I whirled as a cold feeling spread through my limbs. That was the same logo on the one I’d found on Nicole
“Yeah,” he nodded, “now you see why I need you. We’re close, Paul, but we need to be closer.
This is the only way.” I cursed under my breath.
“Nicole is planted deep, and she’s good, so let her dig there,” he pointed to the left, “while you dig over here.” He pointed in the opposite direction.
“It’s a smart play, the only play, and you know it. ”
Do I know it?
“Does Cole know?”
His eyes went down then back up. “The fewer involved, the better. You know this.”
“Fuck.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “And when he notices I'm gone?”
“He’ll be fine. Besides, you need to go. The chopper’s waiting. I’ve got you covered.”
“Of course you do.” I spun back around and walked away from my brothers and toward everything I’d worked so damn hard to forget.
I refused to think of my son; the pain was too much.
***
“You must be Paul.” A man stood as I entered the room and offered me a hand. I looked around and saw the box next to him. “I’ve been hired to—”
“I know who you are.” I glared at him. “Let’s get this shit over with.”
Since I’d left Frank, I’d gone over the plan about nine different times in my head and couldn’t see a way out of it.
Once the guy was finished with me, I found my way to where Chili waited with the old pickup truck that had been arranged for us. I got in, and he started the engine. I stared at a small hole in the floor and wished I was anywhere but where I was.
“You okay, man?” Chili, who hadn't said much at all since he’d also been roped into this shit storm, rubbed the dust from his face. The truck didn’t have AC, so the windows needed to be open for any kind of relief.
“Never better.”
I leaned my head back against the headrest, still angry for breaking the biggest promise I’d made to myself. I knew I had to get past it and keep my head in the game. I wasn’t doing myself or anyone else any favors by wallowing in it.
The phone in my pocket vibrated, and I pulled it out and squinted at the screen. The dust in their air made me cough.
“Frank?” Chili questioned.
“No. Pull over, fast.” I jumped out and answered. “What is it?”
“Paul, we got a problem.” Brick made a noise like he was inhaling smoke, and I spun around to look at Chili through the open door.
Devil’s Reach had been watching Bruno’s place.
“Her light’s been on all night, fuckin’ place is too quiet.
No one coming or going. She knew the plan, an’ I think she’s tryin’ to tell us something. ”
A pain exploded in my head.
“Can you,” I cleared my throat, but the emotion was too strong, “can you send someone up there?”
“Rail’s on the way back now. He went to see what he could figure out. Just needed you to know somethin’ ain’t right, man.” There was a reason Trigger kept Brick so close; his intuition was normally dead on. I fought not to panic. I was trained for this, but it was Nicole we were talking about.
“Did you let Cole know?”
“Not yet. Figured you’d call the shots here.”
I looked up at the sky. “Okay, loop Cole in, and text me the minute you know anything. Don’t use names, keep the texts clean.”
“Yeah.” He hung up, and I got back in the truck.
“We good?”
“Not even close.”
I filled Chili in as we drove and kept a close eye on my phone.
Cole had men listening to the bugs the maid had planted, but apparently nothing informative had come of it.
I wondered where the maid had been able to plant them, because so far, they’d been useless.
We knew Bruno’s mother showed up, but then the signal had gone shitty.
They were working on it, but I was worried they’d been compromised.
“Shit, Chili, I wonder if they jammed the signal.”
“Just breathe, man, one problem at a time. We’re here.” He leaned out and pushed the button near the gate. “Just stick to our story, and if there’s trouble, we’ve got our signal.” He drove through, and I forced myself to breathe.
“Out.” The soldier pointed an automatic rifle at us. “IDs.”
Chili handed him our IDs. The soldier was young, barely past eighteen.
“Check your records, son. I've been cleared, and Bruno is expecting my visit,” he snapped at the kid.
The kid studied me. “You carrying?” I raised my shirt to show him I wasn’t.
“You’re not on the list.”
“Yeah, he is.” Chili grabbed the clipboard and jammed his finger at it. The kid blinked at him, confused about what to do next. “See,” Chili pointed, “EN.” The kid reached for his radio, and Chili raised his arms like he was pissed. “Make us late, then. I'll let him know it was your fault.”
“Go.” The kid tossed the clipboard and waved his gun at the truck.
“Hey, kid?” I pulled out the toothpick I’d put between my lips and pointed at his gun. “Your safety’s on.”
He quickly turned the gun over as I rolled my eyes.
We climbed back in the truck, and Chili laughed as we drove off. “Just like old times.”
“Those days are long gone now.” I checked the mirrors and looked straight ahead.
“Fuck, Paul,” he laughed, “what are the chances he’ll buy this?” Chili smacked me on the back. “Yup, just like old times.”
I refused to comment and shook my head at him as I got into character.