Finding a Safe Place
Triumph
It took two days to pass through Peru. Once again, they stopped about an hour before the border, switched him and Glennon from the back of the truck into the hidden compartment, and made the border around noon.
Luckily, traffic was minimal this time of day, and they were able to get through quickly.
An hour later, Steel stopped the truck and let them back into the rear area.
Glennon struggled on her own to get onto the tailgate and needed to be lifted into the back. He hopped in first. “Turn your back to me,” he instructed.
Once she did, he gently grabbed her under the arms and slid her up into the nest they’d made for her.
Demon frowned as he handed two water bottles through the sliding window. “Check her dressing. Make sure she hasn’t popped any more stitches or that it hasn’t become infected.”
Eyes shut, she didn’t stir as he carefully lifted the T-shirt hem so he could inspect the wound. “What should I be looking for?”
“The skin should look like it’s knitting together. Might be a little pink, even red, but it won’t have any drainage, especially pus. Swelling should be down.”
“Nothing appears to be wrong then. I think maybe she’s just tired. She fell asleep almost immediately. She’s not waking up, and I’m touching her skin directly.”
Demon conferred quietly with Steel, who pulled to a stop almost immediately. Demon hopped out of the passenger seat and came to the back. “Grab your tablet and switch places with me. We need Midas’ and your computer skills. Steel will tell you what to do.”
He didn’t want to leave her, but obviously the men had a plan of some sort. These guys were the experts at navigating impossible situations, so he’d trust they knew what they were doing.
Secure in his seat, Steel took off again down the road. “The radio power button, press it once. When the screen goes red around the outside, it will give you a secure link to Midas in Los Angeles. If we end up getting stopped, hit the power button twice, quickly, and it will switch to local radio.”
“Got it.”
After hitting the power button, he secured the tablet and powered it on. Midas appeared on the dashboard screen of the truck. “Gentlemen,” he greeted them. “I’ve got you on my satellite feed. How’s it going?”
Steel told him, “I need you to link to the tablet for Triumph. We need a safe place to land for the night. Glennon’s in rough shape. She needs real rest.”
Midas’ fingers were already working on the keyboard. “Can you afford the time?”
“Not really, but Demon said we need at least a few hours. Six minimum.”
“Okay, I’m syncing to Triumph’s tablet now.”
Midas watched as the screen went from a white background to black.
“Are you going to hit the border by nightfall?” Midas asked.
“Barring any stoppages, yes,” Steel confirmed. He looked at his watch. “Probably about eight p.m.”
“That’s getting late. Fewer vehicles on the road. You’ll be more vulnerable then.”
“But it will also be easier to see anyone following us,” Steel reminded him.
Triumph looked up from the map he’d pulled up on his tablet. “They know where we are?”
Without taking his eyes off the road, Steel replied, “Best to assume it. Guillermo never gives up a prize, and he would definitely consider her to be one. And he’ll especially want back a prize he feels was taken from him.
” He chuckled derisively. “For all the power they wield, the cartel doesn’t worry about tactics.
They prefer to flaunt their strength, hit hard, often and publicly, rather than be quick and quiet.
At least, that’s how they are with Guillermo in charge and me not there to advise him.
But once we get to Turbo, we should be able to lose them in the crush of people. ”
“I don’t understand. If they’re following us, then why aren’t they taking us out? Why let us get so far away and continue even further?”
Midas interrupted their conversation. “Your links should all be good to go.”
“What am I doing?”
“You, my young padawan, are going to use the satellite to find some backroads for when you get into Colombia. Once you hit the home stretch, Guillermo’s fuck-nozzles will likely close the gap.
” He began muttering to himself, and his fingers were flying over the keyboard.
“Mocoa is too far. At least six hours, more like eight, even with low traffic, and horrifically out of the way.” He tapped a few more keys, then swung to another monitor.
“Ipiales will give us more options to hide,” Steel told him. “We can fuel up easy. Grab food so we can take some back routes.”
“If you’re suggesting it, then I’m guessing the cartel will expect that,” Midas told him.
“Possible. If Guillermo’s ego is running his brain, we might be able to get away with it. Again. He knows how my brain works, but he was always trying to outsmart me. Thinking too hard isn’t always a bonus. If not Ipiales, what about Pasto? I don’t dare go much past two hours.”
“Taminango,” Triumph offered, pointing at his tablet. Steel flashed him a look, and Midas began a search on his end of the call. “It’s between the two. Small mountain town. Not far off the highway. Would the cartel think to look there?”
“Probably not. They’d likely predict we’d try to hide somewhere larger. It’s a good suggestion,” Steel praised. “Thoughts, Midas?”
“Lots of farms on the outskirts. Let me see what I can find as far as contacts nearby. Back in a few.”
True to his word, Midas was back online with them in under ten minutes, but he wasn’t alone. With him were Wes King and a new man.
Wes greeted him with a nod. “Triumph.”
Midas jumped into the introductions. “Before we get to Wes, I’ve got someone to meet you in Taminango.
Jhon Zambrano. He and his wife run a small family hotel.
No name, so it’s more of just a rooms-to-let situation for locals, but he’s empty right now.
” He rattled off an address. “He’s already been paid, and he’ll ask no questions.
You can park the vehicle on the side of the building, near the outdoor stairs.
Second floor. Each has a window that faces the street in case you need to see unwelcome visitors. The boys also have a side window.”
“Got it,” Steel confirmed.
“He’ll have a hot meal waiting for you and be watching for your truck. Once you’re settled, he’ll bring it up and leave it by the door.”
“Thanks. Glennon could use it,” Triumph said.
Steel smirked but didn’t comment.
“What?”
“Nada, hermano.”
Triumph scowled. She did need real food. And real rest. Wasn’t that the point of this stop, which they didn’t really have time for and wasn’t safe? And why was it such a big deal that he was concerned?
Better to shift the subject before anyone else fed into Steel’s good humor. “What’s going on, Wes?”
“This is a fellow Ranger, Daxton Chambers. He came up with a great idea. A few of us are going to take a well-deserved guys’ fishing trip to Cancún.
We’ll leave from here in the next day or two, once he’s got everything in gear, stay a few days in Mexico, get some sun, drink some beer, and shoot the shit.
When it’s time to leave, no one will notice two more passengers joining us for the ride home. ”
Triumph congratulated him. “Losing ourselves in a tourist area. As long as we can get there in one piece, it’s brilliant.”
“We thought so,” Daxton said with a smile.
“We can smooth over the re-entry into the country. And Conor, one of our Texas Parks guys, has a contact to a fishing charter service. I’ve got a number for you to call when you hit Mexico.
Ready?” He rattled it off, and Triumph committed it to memory.
“Your escorts will be able to hook you up with a boat ride from Turbo.”
“How did you manage that?”
There was a pause. “That one is courtesy of Cruz.”
Irritation rose inside him. “FBI. Let me guess. It comes with strings.”
“It does. He tried to avoid questions, but it didn’t work. Chief Hammerling apparently misses nothing.”
“Now she’s at risk.”
“He claims no one else is aware of the situation, and Francesca vouches for him. Says the man is tighter than a constrictor knot.” Under his breath, he said, “Not sure I want to know why she knows that.”
Triumph chuckled. “Probably not. Let’s just say it’s the tightest knot possible. Most difficult to get out of.”
“I don’t want to know why you know that either, do I?”
Triumph gave an amused shrug as he pursed his lips. “Stop by Elysium some night when this is all over.”
Wes winced. “Look, truth is, we’re probably going to need the extra backup if something goes badly. The price is low. He just asks that when she gets back, they have coffee.”
“Coffee, my ass. It’ll be an interrogation. She’s been through enough.”
“Francesca offered to sit in on the meeting. Promised it would be off the books and not on government property.”
“It’s up to Glennon,” he said grumpily. “No one’s going to make her ‘have coffee’ if she doesn’t want to.”
“Well, we’ve got to get her home first, then you can argue caffeinated or decaffeinated to your heart’s content. How’s she doing?”
“Exhausted. Weak. Refusing to give up though.”
“Sounds like a good woman to have around.”
He didn’t say anything. After all, what could he say?
She wasn’t his to claim or to keep, even if they were currently dancing around each other like a couple of birds in the mating season.
There was a long road ahead of her to come to terms with the past decade, as well as assimilate back into the everyday world.
While she hadn’t talked about her physical relationship with Guillermo, it had likely been abusive on all levels, and being undercover, she’d had no choice but to take it.
His anger rose further. She shouldn’t have had to take it. Someone should have been looking after her, undercover or not.
Midas’ voice drew his attention back to the screen. “You’ve got a few more hours to the border, then a couple hours after it. Keep your eyes open. I’ve yet to figure out how they seem to know where you’re going. Did she get rid of everything on her person like she was supposed to?”
“She said she did.”
Pursing his lips, Midas thought for a few moments. “Does she have body jewelry? We’ve got a tracker in one of our operatives’ belly-button piercing as a means of keeping track of her.”
“I didn’t exactly undress her and check. Thought maybe I should take her out for dinner first,” Triumph sniped.
“I’m just asking, dude. Settle. It’s just something that came to me.”
He was about to make another snarky comment when he stopped. Dammit.
Groaning, he hung his head. “She’s pierced. I totally forgot.”
Steel coughed to cover a bark of laughter.
Wes raised an eyebrow.
Midas didn’t bother to hide his grin. “Umm… upstairs or downstairs?”
“Upstairs, jackass. In one of the pictures I pulled up online, you can see them. She had a bathing suit on, and you could see them through the material.”
His temper flared again. Anger and frustration seemed to be his go-to emotions, which was odd. He was rarely angry. If anything, he was overly patient and reflective. Sometimes too much so, according to his friends.
Steel chuckled. “Take it easy on him, guys. I get the sense he’s turning a little green.”
“I am not hulking out,” he snapped.
“Not that green, jackass,” Demon said from the back. “The other green-eyed monster.”
Great. He could hear the conversation back there? Hopefully, Glennon didn’t wake up and hear it.
And what the hell? They thought he was jealous? What was there to be jealous of? “I don’t get jealous,” he scoffed. “Besides, she’s not my girlfriend. I barely know the woman.”
“Sure you’re not,” Wes teased. “Your nose is growing longer by the second, Pinocchio. A man does not travel into the heart of cartel territory with two dead guys to save someone he doesn’t give a shit about.
Or ask a computer expert—when he’s one himself—two Texas Rangers, and two FBI agents for help to illegally get her back into the country. ”
“You’re helping, and you all know her less than I do.”
“Because you’re a friend of Francesca’s, and she’s family, ergo, you’re family by extension,” he explained.
“And you’re friends with Tripoli, who knows TB, and that makes you part of our family,” Steel said.
Warmth flowed through him from top to bottom and immediately erased his anger. Having people on your side was always a good thing, but people who actually walked the walk, and sometimes ran to actually help? That meant something.
He cleared his throat. Quietly, he admitted, “Thanks for that.” He glanced into the back of the truck at the sleeping woman. “There was just something about her way back then, and when she called, it was like no time had passed,” he admitted.
Under his breath, Steel told him, “Cuando lo sabes, lo sabes. It’s how I was about my Leeza. I met her for the first time at the altar, and when I lifted her veil? It was like lightning struck. There’s never been another woman since, even when we were apart. Almost as long as you two.”
“You met her at the altar?”
“Cartels prefer arranged marriages to strengthen family ties.”
He shook his head in amazement. “That’s so archaic.”
“Happens more often than you think.”
Somehow, the notion seemed barbaric to him, but he also understood that their cultures differed drastically. Steel’s past was very different from that of an ordinary person.
Triumph circled back to the topic of a tracker. “Would he have wanted to follow her movements?”
The man barked out a laugh. “He’d have followed her into a bathroom to make sure he knew where she was. Not only is it more than possible, but it’s almost a sure thing.”
Midas pushed. “Okay, well, when you get to Taminango tonight, you might want to ask her about those. Maybe they were a gift from Guillermo. It would be easy for him to have slipped something into the jewelry.”
Triumph offered, “I’ll see if I can trace any radio frequencies. Figure out if we’re leaving an electronic trail and backtrack it to where it’s sending information. When we get to our destination, I’ll broach the topic of the… jewelry.”
He felt his face heating. Normally, talking about nipple piercings would have next to no effect on him.
After all, he worked and hung out in adult clubs, and he saw much more than that on the regular.
Somehow, because they were hers, and he was talking about her—a woman he was refusing to outright admit to them he was attracted to—it was different.
“Take care, and talk to you soon,” Wes said. “We’ll be waiting for you.”
Midas cut the communication, and the drive carried on in silence.