Chapter 7
Chase ushered Alana along the beach to the next big resort, rather than walking along the street where they could be targeted in a drive-by shooting. Once at the resort, they asked the concierge to call a cab.
Within minutes, the cab arrived. Chase bundled Alana inside, and they were whisked away, heading back to their resort compound several blocks away.
“What’s your plan, Mr. Flannigan?” Alana asked as soon as the cab pulled away from the curb.
“I’m not sure yet. I want to convene with Trevor and Carson to see if they have some ideas as to how to handle a confrontation with the cartel.”
“Should we go to the American Consulate or something?” she asked. “Do they even have a consulate here in Cabo?”
He rested his back against the seat and scraped a hand over his face.
“I don’t know. But I can’t see that being much help, unless we want to hole up in their building.
” His eyes narrowed. “Actually, that might be a good idea. While I’m dealing with Delgado, you could be safe in the consulate, if they have one here. ”
“Nope.” Alana crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not hiding in some government building, while you’re taking one for the team, namely for me.”
Chase frowned. “He’s not after you so much as me, and I can’t have you tagging along to this event. It’s not a conga line with a bunch of drunks. These cartels mean business. They shoot first and ask questions later, if at all.”
“If you’re going,” she poked a thumb at her chest, “I’m going.”
No way was Chase taking her to the confrontation with Delgado. “If you’re there, you put me at greater risk. I can’t defend myself if I’m worried about you. They might take you hostage and use you to manipulate me.”
“Then I’ll come in disguise. I’ll be a regular tourist in the right place at the wrong time.”
Before she finished talking, he was already shaking his head. “You know they’re armed with machine guns. They’ve been known to shoot innocent tourists on the beach with those kinds of weapons.”
“I don’t care.” She lifted her chin. “I’m just as much responsible for this situation as you are.” She threw back her shoulders. “I’m going, even if I have to disguise myself as a dog and bark for treats.”
Chase pressed his lips into a thin line.
He admired the fact that she felt just as compelled to confront Delgado as he did, and she was fearless in her desire to help, but he couldn’t have her anywhere near when this shit went down.
If he wanted to even the odds a little, he had to come up with a plan to surprise the cartel thug.
With only three SEALs, they didn’t stand a chance against even a third of the cartel members in the Cabo area.
Yeah, they were highly trained combatants, but ten or twenty-to-one odds were impossible.
“We’ll discuss it later,” he said, though he had no intention of backing down and allowing her to accompany them to La Casa Loca that night.
Back at the hotel, Chase hustled Alana into the lobby and to the elevator, keeping her close to him, should Delgado or one of his men be lurking nearby, waiting for Chase and Alana to show up. They made it into the elevator with no problems along the way.
On their floor, Alana stepped out of the elevator beside Chase and looked both ways. “Which room? Mine or yours?”
Chase stepped past her. “Yours. I’ve texted Trevor. He said he’ll be here shortly.”
“Hopefully, Gina will know where Carson is,” Alana said.
Chase nodded. “I could use all the firepower I can get. We can ask him if he has any weapons. I really don’t want to go in empty-handed, if that’s the path we choose.”
“You might be out of luck on the weapons. I’m sure neither you nor your buddy got through customs carrying pistols, automatic rifles and machine guns. Plus, I have no idea what Carson brought across the border.”
“True. But I have the Ka-Bar knife I packed in my checked bag, and I’ll bet Trevor didn’t leave home without his.”
Alana shook her head. “Knives against automatic weapons…? I’m not feeling really good about this. You don’t have any high-powered friends in this part of Mexico, do you? Maybe a connection with an opposing cartel or something?”
Chase blew out a long breath. “Afraid not.” He wondered if they still had time to call in a favor from his new boss, Hank Patterson. “Let me get on the phone and see if I can get any assistance in this matter.”
“We don’t have a lot of time.” Alana shot a glance at her watch. “It’s just past noon. We have less than eleven hours until midnight. We could use a miracle right about now.”
As much as he liked the sound of Alana referring to them as we, he still had no intention of bringing her with him to La Casa Loca that night.
Chase let Alana slide her key card over the door lock but set her to the side and entered first.
“Hey, it’s my room,” Alana groused.
Chase paused with his hand on the doorknob. “How often have you breached a room that could be filled with hostiles?”
“Every time I walked into my father’s office,” she muttered.
“Did he shoot at you?” Chase asked.
“Not with bullets.” She rolled her eyes. “Okay. You’ve proven your point. You can clear the room before I enter.”
Chase gave her a curt nod and entered the suite, moving quickly and quietly from room to room until he was certain it was enemy-free.
Alana entered. “I’m going to freshen up and then order something for us to eat through room service.”
While Alana was in the bathroom, Chase placed a call to his new boss in Montana.
On the first ring, Hank answered, “Patterson speaking,”
“Hank, Chase Flannigan here,” he said.
“Chase. Good to hear from you. But I thought you were on vacation. You shouldn’t be calling me until you get back.” He paused for a second. “You’re not in Montana, are you?”
“No, sir,” Chase said. “I’m in Mexico, and I’ve run into a bit of a challenge I was hoping you might be willing to give me some advice on or help with.”
“Shoot,” Hank said, his tone as authoritative as any SEAL commander Chase had served under.
He had just finished explaining the situation to Hank when he heard the water shut off in the bathroom. “Any help or advice you can give me is welcome,” he ended.
Hank whistled. “Cartels are a bad deal. Let me put a few heads together on this, and I’ll get back to you.”
“Thank you, sir. Again, any advice would be helpful.”
“You’ll hear from me in less than an hour,” Hank promised and hung up.
“Who was that?” Alana walked out of the bedroom into the sitting area. “I hope it was room service. I’m starving.”
“Sorry, it wasn’t.” He lifted the house phone to call room service. “Pizza or sandwiches all right?”
She nodded. “Either sounds great. But if it’s pizza, make it pepperoni. I really like pepperoni, but I rarely get to choose what I like.”
He smiled. “A woman after my own heart.” Chase ordered a pepperoni pizza with double pepperoni. When he set the phone down, he studied Alana. “Why don’t you get to choose what you like on your pizza?”
She drew in a breath and let it out. “My father gets heartburn with pepperoni, and my ex-fiancé wouldn’t eat pizza unless it was some fancy kind with sun-dried tomatoes and spinach. All I ever wanted was a fast-food-chain pizza with pepperoni.”
“Why didn’t you ask for what you wanted?”
“I was always overruled by dominating men. When I was a teen, I’d sneak out of the house and use my father’s sports car to pick up my favorite pizza, take it to a park and eat half of it by myself. The other half, I’d hide in my backpack and carry up to my room to eat later.”
“As an adult, you couldn’t get what you wanted?”
She shrugged. “Not when I was with either of them.”
He frowned. “You do like pepperoni, right? You’re not just settling on it because I like it, are you?”
She smiled. “Not at all. It’s my favorite. And if you recall, I chose pepperoni before you said what you liked. How would I know whether or not it’s your favorite?”
“That’s right, you did choose pepperoni first. Must be some residual brain lapses from overindulging.” He grinned. “And don’t worry. Pepperoni is my all-time favorite.”
The handle on the door to the suite jiggled.
Chase’s attention shot to the door. He held out a hand to keep Alana from approaching it. “Stay back,” he whispered and hurried toward it.
The door burst open, and Gina entered, followed by Carson, Trevor Anderson and Anderson’s pregnant wife, Lana.
“Look who I found.” Gina dropped her purse on one of the sofas and flopped down beside it. “Seems SEALs are like magnets. They gravitate toward each other. Carson spotted Trevor from across the lobby.”
“Hey, Chase.” Trevor grinned, guiding his wife to the other end of the sofa. “Gina tells me you’ve made an enemy.”
“Glad to see you made the flight safely, Lana,” Chase said. “And yes, I’ve acquired an enemy. I could use some help, but I’m not sure how involved I want you to be. You have a baby on the way. Now is not a good time for you to waltz into a cartel rumble.”
Trevor’s eyebrows shot up. “True, but then, I can’t let you go in by yourself,” Trevor said. “Cartel trouble, huh? Why don’t you skip it altogether?”
“Because I can’t trust that Raul Delgado will leave Alana alone.”
Trevor smiled and crossed the room to Alana. “Pardon my friend’s rudeness.” He stuck out his hand. “I’m Trevor Anderson.” He shook Alana’s hand and turned toward his wife. “And this is my beautiful wife, Lana.”
Alana smiled at Lana. “Nice to meet you.”
“Did you say Raul Delgado?” Carson stood behind the couch, his hands resting on Gina’s shoulders. “As in the Jalisco cartel’s leader, Raul Delgado?”
Chase nodded, his lips forming a tight line. “The one and only.”
Carson whistled. “I’ve been here long enough to know you don’t piss off anyone in the Jalisco cartel.”
“Yeah, well, he was hitting on my wife,” Chase said.
“Wife?” Trevor frowned. “What wife?”