Chapter 19
CHAPTER 19
MALO
“ T his is Antonio,” Marquez introduces us. “And this is Chavez. They’ve been working on bringing down the cartel for....”
“The better part of ten years,” Antonio says, extending his hand to me and Blue to greet us. “Good to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about the Kings. If anyone’s going to be able to bring these fuckers down, it’s you.”
“We’ll need your help to do it,” I reply, as we’re led inside the large warehouse Los Desperados run out of. Los Desperados are a motorcycle club that run out of Monterrey, and they’ve got as many problems with Las Rosas Negras as we do. Sin made contact with them based on some interactions we’ve had with their men in Houston, and they were willing to welcome us to Monterrey and work with us to cause some problems for El Serpiente and his men.
I’m tired from the flight, but it’s not as though we have any time to waste. We need to get moving on all of this, and fast. As soon as Las Rosas realize that we have Rayo, and that Blue and I are out in Mexico, they’re going to start locking down their security, and we need to hit them before they have a chance to make that happen.
“This way,” Marquez, the man who met us at the airport, tells us, leading us through to a small room next to the main entrance. I’d forgotten how hot it was out here, the shafts of sunlight that cut through the large windows around us just adding to the heat. I pull off my jacket, tossing it over one shoulder, and Blue follows suit. I’m not sure if he’s ever been to Mexico before, and I bet the heat is already getting to him. It can cook your brain if you’re not careful, and I need him on top of his game.
I wonder if that’s what’s been bothering Maria. She’s been quiet since we arrived, keeping her head down, not even introducing herself to the other guys. Is she losing her nerve? That’s the last thing we need. I made the case for her to come here with us, and if she winds up making this tougher than it needs to be, then it’s going to blow back on me as a result.
“Let me cut to the chase,” Marquez says, once we’re sitting down around the table, beers in hand. “We’ve been trying to take ground from Las Rosas Negras for years now. They’ve been encroaching on our territory, causing more and more problems for us… but no matter how much we try and push back, they always seem to have more recruits to fight with.”
“How are they recruiting?” I ask, leaning forward with interest.
“Drugs,” Antonio cuts in, running a hand over his buzzcut. “They get people hooked on whatever product they’re peddling, and then they’ve got them dead to rights. They’ll do whatever they can to keep their next hit coming, even if that means fighting it out with us in the process.”
“How are they distributing the drugs?” Blue wonders aloud.
“We’ve identified a few warehouses around the city,” Marquez replies. “Heavily-guarded, but that seems to be where most of their dealers are getting their product from. I’d rather go after their suppliers, but this could be at least a way to cut off their product for a while.”
“How many do you know about?” Blue asks. I can see his eyes shining with excitement, as he starts to piece together the possibility of what he might be able to do. He’s always been into firepower, and taking down fully-fledged warehouses, that’s going to take some serious fireworks.
“Three, so far,” Antonio replies. “We’ve got our men tracking some of their dealers to get a better idea of where else they’re coming from, but it looks as though there are three main storage sites as it stands now.”
“Then we need to get rid of them,” I reply. “Create some chaos for them. If that’s how they’re keeping people loyal to them, some of their men are going to drop off when they realize they don’t have access like they did before.”
I don’t mention Jose, Maria’s father, to them, they just know we have beef with Las Rosas, and that’s enough. Scoping out this area is a chance for us to figure out where he is and potentially break him out, if we can hit fast enough.
“Agreed,” Marquez replies, with a nod. “It’s not going to be easy. They’re heavily-guarded, they know how important these places are to the future of their operation, but it would be a start.”
“Do you have a map?” Blue presses, leaning forward. “Show me where they are, and we can start planning how to take them all out in one hit. The last thing we need is for them to figure out the warehouses are being targeted, and then lock them down before we have a chance to raze them.”
“Let me grab one from the back,” Antonio replies, rising to his feet. “We’re going to need to plan this carefully if we want to pull this off.”
“Don’t worry, I know how to handle them,” Blue adds. He’s got a grin on his face that tells me he’s already filling out the details inside his head, and I meet his gaze for a moment. I know there’s a reason Beast chose him to come with me. He knows he’s able to strategize, and that he’s not afraid to use some serious firepower should the occasion call for it.
And, right now, I know we’re going to have to use everything at our disposal to even make a dent in Las Rosas territory.
Antonio returns with a map, and lays out the locations of all three warehouses. We crowd around the table, and Blue begins to trace out a potential plan of attack that would deal with all of the warehouses in a single night.
“We’d need to start here,” he muses out loud, tapping his finger at the warehouse farthest from Los Desperados headquarters. “And work our way back down through the city. This one next, and then this one, and then pull back to the HQ to prepare to defend for a while.”
“How soon can you make this happen?” I ask Blue, and he glances up at Marquez and Antonio.
“How much firepower do you have right now?” he asks. “Guns, grenades, anything else you can make?”
“Let me show you the warehouse,” Antonio suggests, rising to his feet. “You’re clearly the expert here. You can tell us how much more we need.”
“Yeah, always better to have too much than too little in these kind of cases,” he agrees, following Antonio out of the room.
Maria lifts her head to watch them, about the most interaction she’s had with anyone since we arrived here.
My eyes linger on her for a moment, and I wonder if the other guys have noticed how nervous she seems. They’re probably wondering what she’s even doing here, given how much is riding on this mission. She glances up at me, and then looks away again quickly, as though she can tell what is going through my head—as though she can tell that I am wondering if she is up to this.
I want to pull her aside and tell her not to lose her nerve on me now, to remember everything she did to bring Rayo under our control – that she’s capable of so much more than she gives herself credit for, and she just needs to remember that, keep focused on it.
But I have to remember that she’s not part of this world by choice. She never wanted any of this. She’s only here because she thinks it’s the best way to get her father back to safety.
I follow the guys out of the room, but before I go, I plant a hand on her shoulder, just for a second, and she jumps. When she looks up at me, I give her a smile. She manages to return it, though I can tell it’s a struggle for her.
“You good?” I ask her. I need her to tell me she’s okay. Because if not, I’m going to need to put her on the next flight back to Houston before she gets us in trouble.
“Yeah, I’m good,” she replies, and I see a flash of the steel in her eyes that I’ve come to admire. I’ve known some tough sons-of-bitches in my time, but she’s got to hold a candle to a few of them. Thrown into the deep end of a world she’s never known before, and she’s ready to fight for herself and her family.
I just have to hope she’s ready for whatever comes next. And that she doesn’t let her nerve waver.