Chapter 33
33
Dread soaks every inch of my skin. I’m drowning. This can’t be. The world around me becomes smaller and smaller with every question I ask myself. What does Juan Sánchez want me?
Rio breaks me out of the spell I’m under.
“Zo?”
My whole body feels made of stone. I tell him what I found. “The man who has Ava is Diego’s killer.”
At first, my brother is too stunned to process. “Are you sure?”
“Nobody is ever a hundred percent sure, but I’m willing to bet my life on it.”
“None of this makes sense.” He narrows his eyes.
I make more sense of it. “Sánchez crossed the border to Miami years ago. His alias…” I drop the bombshell, “…is Father.
Rio stops breathing, eyes fixated on me. This is huge. I watch the information connect behind his eyes until the penny drops.
“So the man who kept Ava isn’t her actual father?”
Seems not.
“We need to find her.”
If he’s using Ava to take us down, I have to believe he’ll keep her alive… I have to get to her before he takes her back to Oregon.
Just then, Penelope breaks my stream of thought.
“Guys…”
My gaze lands on Penelope’s bloodless cheeks as she stares at the screen of one of her trackers in disbelief.
Callum looks over her shoulder. “What do you have?”
“For the past few weeks, there’s been a new very high-frequency signal in town.” She lifts one of her gadgets in her hand.
Penelope’s passion for aliens has made her the queen of radio signals, telescopes, and scanning the skies. She holds up one of the trackers she brought with her tonight.
“I keep it on most of the time, just in case, you know,” She shakes her head and trails hair behind her ears. “Anyway, I found the signal a few weeks ago and was stoked that it actually stayed in Echo Valley rather than coming and going like most of them do. I’ve been obsessively watching it. This thing picks up wildlife tags. I thought maybe a mountain lion or puma or something like that. I kept track of the signal. It moved around the Valley a bit, mostly being over at your ranch. ”
Blood drains to my feet just sensing where this is going.
“That made sense where you guys have so much land more off the main streets, but then…” She talks so fast now. She clicks around on her trackpad and clacks her laptop keys as she speaks. “The night Ava and Callum came to watch a show at my house, the signal was super strong. We went all around my apartment complex looking for some endangered animal but…”
“Fuck,” Rio hisses. “You think the signal was coming from Ava?”
Penelope nods slowly. “The signal was still in Echo Valley tonight before I got knocked out. It was somewhere near the police station. And now, it’s just off San Antonio Valley Road.”
Callum stands so fast his chair scrapes the floor. “Can you get an exact location?”
“Pretty close. Yeah. You go ahead, start driving, and I’ll call you with updates. You need to hurry.”
Callum’s eyes blaze fiercely. “Like hell I’m leaving you here alone after what happened tonight.”
“You have to go,” Penelope says urgently. “Ava needs us, and I’m here. I’m fine.”
Callum pulls his radio off his belt. “This is Chief Grant, over.”
A voice comes through the radio. “Go ahead, Chief Grant, over.”
“I need protection for a witness at the station. Confirm there is an armed officer on duty, over.”
“Confirmed, Chief Grant. Over.”
Callum helps pack up Penelope’s things. “I’ll drop you at the station.”
With the signals Penelope picked up, we’re able to pinpoint the location precisely enough. We are led to a field three hundred yards off the main road, the pitch-black makes it easy to spot even the smallest sign of light from an outbuilding. The law enforcement and SWAT Callum arranged so soon is impressive.
But we can’t just storm in.
I briefed Callum on the way who called for more skilled help when Pen found Ava’s signal. Callum holds communication over radios behind me, but I’m not listening. I’m simply staring at the dim light in the distance where the woman I love is being held, hoping she’s alive. I don’t even notice the additional men in black uniforms arrive. The only thing I can see is that dim light through the mist.
Callum clamps down on my shoulder, pulling me from my deep concentration.
“SWAT is here. Mount Hamilton special teams are here. We’re ready to move.” He gazes out into the same darkness as I do, and his jaw tics. “They might have the place surrounded. But special teams have night vision. We’ll need to trust in these guys.”
“I can’t stand here knowing she’s only a few hundred yards away from me. They could be doing anything to her there.”
“Enzo, from what you told me, they want to take down GhostEye. Or to get to you. If so, she’s a hostage. Hostages aren’t useful unless they’re alive. We have a plan to get her out. ”
“Fuck,” I breathe out sharply, clenching every muscle with frustration. I haven’t had enough time to profile Sánchez. All I have to go on is Ava’s past experience and mine. Neither seem to connect the trigger-happy young man in Ensenada with the patient one with a years-long revenge plannow calling himself Father.
“I’m going in. I’ll make a hostage trade. I’m not standing here doing nothing while I let him do whatever he wants with Ava.”
“He’s not going to simply let her go if you get in there,” Callum says, staring out in the abyss beside me.
When his gaze lands on me again, there’s a synergy, an understanding.A man doesn’t just stand by on the sidelines when his woman is in trouble. Callum and I are cut from the same cloth.
He calls over on the radio. “Assemble for briefing.” A rough sigh leaves his lips, and he points his radio to my cell. “Text and see what the fucker has to say.”
I text, just knowing I’ll soon have an invitation.
ME
I’m here now, Sánchez. You got what you wanted.
In no time at all I have a response.
AVA
I’ll trade you for the girl. Don’t even think about coming with any armed men. I brought my own. Blood will be shed.
I show the text to Callum who raises his eyebrows. “Thanks for the tip.”
We head off together to his briefing with the SWAT team. Callum informs the team that men are out there. The plan is for me to stall by exchanging further texts with Sánchez, allowing the team ahead to take out any men guarding the barn.
Twenty texts filled with bravado and ego exchange, and I keep him on his toes until Callum finally receives the message.
Callum’s radio crackles. “Clear.”
And I send one last message for my enemy.
ME
If she isn’t alive when I get there, you will die.
The heavy weight of steel pulls down on my back pocket; it’s been a long time since I carried a gun. The dew of the grassy field wets the bottom of my jeans, and with every step I can’t help but wonder if SWAT missed a man. If one of Sánchez’s minions still hides and waits. Every inch closer, I only believe it more. Finally, I exhale a stale breath when I come upon a black helmet, hidden in the shadows just outside the entrance to the barn.
He offers me a nod, reassuring me it’s clear, then with two fingers points to his eyes, lifts his rifle, then hitches a thumb toward the inside. The snipers are set on the targets. There must be around five men out here with me, skilled marksmen, and I’ve seen how effective they’ve been before. Still, I’ve never had to trust their aim to protect someone I love.
I’m both reassured and more worried than ever that I’m armed. Will they check me? I don’t want to be helpless if they do anything to hurt Ava.
I slink around the edges of the dilapidated barn and find a hole made from a missing knot in the wood. I need to see what I’m dealing with before going in. At first, I can’t see Ava. There’s nothing but a wood stump with a short-handled ax in it and a few old brooms with mangled bristles in the abandoned space.
But then, the brittle voice of the woman I love reaches my ears.
“You’re a monster.”
My gaze follows the sound, and there she is in the hay loft next to a burly forty-something-year-old man standing stoic and detached. Another stands beside her, and seeing my nemesis in the flesh makes my blood run cold… Juan Sánchez .
My body flush with the barn door, I shout through, “I’m here! Let her go.”
His evil laugh soaks through the wood. “ Por favor, entra …”
The SWAT team member gives me a signal of two fingers, then points inside. Only two suspects inside.
I push open the door. Ava now stands with her head drawn brutally back by Sánchez’s pull. She’s so vulnerable, neck on display, in the clutches of this demon. But her words show me she hasn’t lost that bright courage.
“Enzo! Go!”
He tugs her hair her viciously to stop her talking and directs the other man. “Restrain her, Anton. I need to focus on our guest.”
So this is Anton.
Anton wraps her long red strands around his hand like a leash and holds her loosely, but he looks like the kind of man who could easily turn her hair from a leash to a noose. The way she described him, I expected him to be something like my dad. Luis might have been a strong, solid man in his youth, but he’s never been approaching seven feet with muscles popping out of his shirt collar. It kills me to see Ava in his grasp again. He held her for enough years.
“This ends now, Sánchez. There’s no reason to hold on to the girl now you have me.”
“I’m disappointed. You’ve come so far since that shop in Ensenada, but your negotiation skills aren’t any better than your pleading cousin’s. The problem is you have no leverage.” At that, he whips out a pistol and aims it at Ava’s head.
Instantly, I withdraw my own weapon and point it at Sánchez. I have to trust SWAT has this covered. Still, with Anton restraining Ava and a gun at her temple, this now feels an impossible out. There’s no way SWAT has a clean shot.
Sánchez tuts. “It’s not playtime, Batman. It’s story time.”
Ava pleads, “Enzo, back out now… just let him have me. You can’t take him down if you’re dead. Leave!”
Her pleas are so selfless, they batter my heart with a jarring pain. It’s not easy to stay steady.
“What the fuck do you want with me?” I growl. “You want to take down GhostEye?”
“Oh no, Enzo. This isn’t official business. This is personal.”
The sinister smile on his lips morphs into features burning with a searing hatred. He gestures with the gun, telling Anton to go downstairs.
As they descend, I back into the corner, allowing SWAT open space and a better shot if they can get one. I can’t be in the way of the snipers so I press myself all the way to the back wall, the barrel of my pistol following Sánchez’s every move.
But when I see where they’re headed, I’m not sure which man to cover, because now, they stand near the stump, and that ax looks as lethal as the gun at Ava’s temple.
He raises his three-fingered hand and shakes it with fury. He’s struggling not to lose control as he speaks. “The first finger I lost to your stray bullet in Ensenada.” He points to the empty space where another finger should be. “The second was taken from me to make an example out of a gangster who leaves a live witness.”
His face contorts with anger, his jaw clenches, and his teeth grind. “Anton.”
As if they discussed this torture before I entered, Anton still holds Ava’s hair, and somehow, in a deft martial arts like move, secures on of her hands behind her back and the other is pressed to the chopping block.
My heart races, my lungs are heavy, and it’s all I can do to stop the extreme adrenaline coursing through my veins not to lose aim. Sánchez still has his gun to Ava’s head.
“That was just the beginning of the torture they inflicted on me. I knew it. When the stubs didn’t heal and infection set in, it looked like I might lose my whole hand, if not my life. The boss refused me proper care. My sweet grandma begged me to desert the cartel, to save myself. It was a conundrum Do I flee and get the proper care but become a liability to the boss? Or stay and die anyway? In the end, I listened to my poor grandma’s pleas.”
Tears stream down Ava’s face. She must be flooded with fear, but still her words are brave.
“Enzo. I don’t care what he does. Just leave. If you stay, this monster has the power.”
Sánchez presses the gun hard to her head. “Shut up, bitch! It’s not your turn. Touching as this love scene is, it can wait till we return home.” Sánchez turns a filthy smile on me. “I bet lover boy taught my little virgin some nice ways to please Daddy.”
I grip my gun so hard it shakes. “Ava… he won’t take you anywhere.”
Sánchez dislodges the ax, and with both weapons in hand, he’s more unhinged than ever. “My family gave me all their life savings to flee the cartel, to stuff myself into a people smuggler’s dead cow, just to stay alive over the border where I used the rest of my entire family’s life savings to pay for medical care in a back alley with a butcher. But he did give me antibiotics and saved my life. But when the cartel couldn’t find me… they took my family instead.”
He grips the ax and wags it at me.
My gut wrenches, knowing what the hell he wants to do with that ax. The woman I love is pressed viciously against the stump. I squeeze the trigger. If I shoot, I could risk hitting Ava. Fuck. It’s not a clear shot.
Each word he speaks through gritted teeth, the volume gets louder and louder. “I lost everything because of you. My home. My career. My reputation. My motherfucking hand!” Veins pop out of his neck. He’s pent up with years’ worth of revenge and rage. “And now, I’m going to show you what it feels like to lose everything, one piece at a time…”
At that, he raises the ax as if to strike. Ava instinctively kicks at him with one of her heavy Doc Martens and makes contact.
“ Puta !”
Everything slows as if life before me becomes a freeze frame, one right after the other. Ava kicks again. The ax rises above Sánchez, and my mind tells me if I don’t shoot, all is lost.
My finger is tight on the trigger; I aim but don’t feel confident… what if I hit her?
But then, the frames become one messy scene. Anton pushes Ava aside to the floor and she falls into a heap. The burly man throws a shoulder into Sánchez, and with Ava on the ground, two shots ring from outside the barn.
SWAT takes them down.
Ava is free, and two devils slump into a heap on the floor.