Hard Target: Elite Ops - Book One (21 page)

Anna screamed.

Massive timbers flew into the air and tumbled back to the ground like lethal confetti. Flaming debris landed across the front of the Jeep’s hood, way too close for comfort. But the bridge was effectively destroyed. No one would be coming this way for a while.

Leland hauled his butt into the front seat again, his ankle screaming in protest. Anna still had the blanket wrapped around her in the back, retreating further under it to shield herself from falling embers. Cesar was typing into his phone as if he were sitting in a coffee shop.

Had Cesar just tried to kill him?

Leland watched him for a moment, wondering what he was up to, then realized he didn’t care he was hurting so badly. He undid the boot cast and readjusted the wide Velcro straps, moving the hidden GPS locater up higher around his calf.

Still, he needed something to take the edge off the agony, even if it dulled his senses. He fumbled in his pocket for the bottle of Vicodin and dry-swallowed three tablets.

He was hurting so much he couldn’t concentrate. A slower reaction time was preferable to being blinded with pain.

Cesar looked up from his smart phone and stared at him. For a moment the drug dealer looked confused, but when he smiled, Leland knew. Knew that Cesar would soon figure out he had an “issue”.

He wanted to close his eyes, but he had no choice. Keep staring or he’d be lost. Cesar would love knowing that Leland was becoming hooked on pain pills. The risk his growing dependence caused terrified him, and there was no hiding from himself any longer that it was a dependence.

He had to get a handle on this or he’d be putting himself and anyone he was trying to help in jeopardy because of it. Hell, he’d already done that. Despite what Gavin had said about Leland’s not being able to predict it, he never should have let Zach go up to that hotel room by himself.

He fingered the bottle in his pocket as Cesar shifted the Jeep into drive, heading down the dirt track that passed for a road. He despised the weakness of being at the mercy of meds as much as he hated being at Cesar’s mercy. The question was, did he abhor being weak more or less than he feared the extreme discomfort? He’d better figure that out, and soon, or he was going to get himself beyond the point of no return.

Anna sat beside him in complete silence as the Jeep sped through the night. He could feel her staring at him as the meds kicked in and the pain eased. He inhaled deeply and held onto the bottle in his pocket, gazing into the darkness as jungle foliage sped by.

Could he do this?

Could he toss the pills?

It would be a mistake to do it cold turkey, right now. Even the slight withdrawal symptoms he’d experience would put them at too great a risk. But the temptation was great. When he got out of this, the first thing he was going to do was stop. Get rid of this junk. Check into some kind of treatment place if he had to.

He let go of the bottle in his pocket, wishing he was strong enough to sling it from the Jeep. Instead he pulled his empty hand from his pocket, cursing under his breath.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

Not really,
he thought, but nodded an affirmative.

“What’s next?” she asked. The bridge explosion had taken her completely by surprise but effectively shaken her out of the shock she’d been in since they’d had to escape the burning motel.

“Cesar here is going to take us God knows where.”

Cesar smiled. “God knows but few others. Perhaps it is time I told you. I’m taking you to Rivera’s compound.”

“What?” Anna choked the words out. “Why would you do that?”

“Because Tomas Rivera just agreed to give me a great deal of cash if I deliver you safely. He wants you badly,
chica
.”

Leland struggled against the numbing effect caused by the pain meds. Rivera was offering money for Anna? That didn’t make sense. The ransom for Zach was what Rivera was about, or so Leland had thought.

“So you’re going to sell me to him?” Anna was shouting now, completely back in the game while he slipped into the lethargy caused by the Vicodin. Leland could feel her adrenaline kick in.

“
Sell
is such a crass term. I prefer
bargain
,” said Cesar.

“Why does Rivera want her?” Leland asked.

“I don’t care,” replied Cesar. “I just know he does.” He held up his phone. “He offered me two million dollars if I bring her to him. That tells me he’s desperate and he’ll go higher if I have what he wants.”

“But why are you doing this?” asked Anna.

“I thought you were all about helping your brother defeat Rivera and taking back what was once Vega territory,” said Leland. He didn’t ask if this had anything to do with Tomas’s wife, who was also Cesar’s sister. Something told him sharing that bit of knowledge here would be unwise.

Cesar cut his eyes toward Leland then stared back at the dark path in front of them. “Who says I won’t get some of Rivera’s territory with this bargain?” Cesar laughed, and it wasn’t a pretty sound. “Besides, for what he’s offering to pay, I’d give Tomas Rivera my own grandmother.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

“I
STILL DON’T
understand,” said Anna. “Why did Rivera take my son?”

“Because he wanted you here,” Leland stared at Cesar, the truth dawning at last. Rivera took Zach because he knew Anna would come to Mexico to get him.

“So it would seem,” said Cesar.

“But why?” asked Anna, unable or unwilling to catch up.

Leland shook his head, struggling to clear his fuzzy thinking. He understood Cesar’s motivation, or thought he did. Cash was easy to understand. But why did Rivera want Anna? He still had no idea.

“I don’t know and I don’t care,” said Cesar. “But two million will set me up, so I won’t work for anyone but myself. The only stipulation is that you, Ms. Mercado, must be healthy and whole, not harmed in any way.”

“When did you strike this bargain?” asked Leland.

Cesar held up his phone. “A few moments ago.”

“You mean to tell me you negotiated all that since we left the house and blew the bridge?” asked Anna.

Cesar gave a sly smile. “I’ve known since yesterday you were coming.”

“How? We didn’t find out until last night,” said Anna.

Cesar shrugged. “One hears things.”

Of course. Once Rivera had contacted Cesar’s girlfriend
du jour
at the motel, Cesar had known.

“That’s a lot of money,” said Leland, stalling for time as he processed this new revelation. Now he understood Cesar’s motivation. But he still didn’t understand Rivera’s.

“Yes, it is.” Cesar pressed down on the accelerator. “I’m going to collect, too.”

“Won’t your brother have something to say about this?”

Cesar shook his head. “You needn’t worry, Agent Hollis. Ernesto will never know. I have everything taken care of.”

Cesar held up his phone again and kept talking. “Modern technology is a wonder, is it not?”

He slowed the Jeep, stopping in the middle of the road. The night lit up with five sets of headlights all around them. Leland could feel the guns trained on them. He and Anna had never had a chance.

Cesar lifted his hand to the lights then turned to look at Leland. “Currently, you’re safer with me than out here on your own. Everyone in the area has heard about the money you are carrying and won’t care whether you are dead or alive when they take it. I, on the other hand, won’t let anything happen to you. I have my people here to keep you safe. You’re my—how you say it?—ace in the hole.”

The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on Leland: telling them they were safe with at least half a dozen guns pointed their way. To punctuate the moment, the sky opened up once more and rain began to beat down on them in the open-air Jeep.

Cesar’s grin was anything but reassuring. What he’d just said was so obviously a lie. The reward was for Anna to be delivered safe and sound. It didn’t include a DEA agent.

Leland slowly reached into the top of his boot as several men approached the Jeep. Acting as if he were adjusting the straps to a more comfortable position, this time he activated the GPS locater.

Anna seemed to still be puzzling everything out, but Leland was up to speed, despite the buzz from the pain meds. He would have to view this as a glass-half-full situation. Otherwise, he’d howl.

This was the way he and Anna could get to Tomas Rivera’s compound and find Zach. Cesar was going to take them directly where they most wanted to be. Fighting Cesar would be pointless now.

Leland just needed someone on the outside to know where the hell they were. The GPS locater better work as well as Marissa said it would. It would take a few hours for her and Nick to get into place, but they’d be there. He didn’t respond when half a dozen men stood beside the vehicle and didn’t resist when he was none-too-gently pulled from the Jeep and cuffed with plastic tie wraps in front of his body.

The rain continued down in earnest, and Cesar moved them to an SUV with a driver. He didn’t separate them and gallantly handed Anna another dry blanket before climbing into the front passenger seat. Leland sat beside her in the back, wishing he could put his arm around her. She was obviously exhausted, shivering, and probably wondering what the hell he’d gotten them into.

“Relax,” Cesar’s low laugh sounded mean. “In this weather, we’re hours from Rivera’s compound.”

No, this wasn’t the ideal way to get to the boy. But given their choices, in the pouring rain and with no idea where Rivera’s base was, this could work. How Leland would get Zach out was still a question, but he was working on it. And AEGIS resources were on the way.

T
HE SUN WAS
just peeking over the horizon when they drove out of the jungle and onto what most people would consider a real road. Leland guessed it was somewhere between 6:30 and 7:30
AM
. He braced himself as they sped across the combination of rock and dirt with potholes reaching down to China. His teeth were practically rattling in his head, but this road was smoother than what they’d driven over during the night.

Anna bounced into him on the seat once, then twice, before gripping the door. She seemed anxious to stay as far from him as possible. He hadn’t had a chance to explain about the GPS device in his boot, or how being escorted into Rivera’s compound was really a good thing. She could be furious with him or scared spitless. Given the circumstances, either state of mind made sense.

After a few miles they passed another gravel turnoff with signage indicating Mandinga and Antón Lizardo. That meant they were near Boca del Río and Veracruz. The ocean was to their left as they headed down the coastline.

Thirty minutes later they turned off the broken highway onto an actual asphalt road that led back into the jungle for about three miles. The road smoothed out considerably. No more bone-jarring bumps and swerves. Leland studied her, trying to communicate his confidence in the situation with his gaze, but she wouldn’t even make eye contact.

Okay, so fury was probably her current inclination.

A gate barred the driveway and thick vegetation hung over the guardhouse that wouldn’t have looked out of place in an upscale subdivision in the US. There was a speaker at the gate and what Leland knew had to be bulletproof glass in the large windows.

Cesar’s driver leaned out of the car and spoke into the metal mouthpiece. “Cesar Vega to see Tomas Rivera.”

No one answered and they never saw a live person, still the gates opened. Manicured trees lined the patterned concrete drive up to the front stone steps. The imposing Mediterranean-style villa was situated on a hill with beautiful tropical plants and flowers all around.

The surrounding grounds had been carved out of the jungle with a reserved hand. Wild palm trees and foliage blended with the manicured landscaping, making it seem that the house had always been there. A red tile roof topped the massive stucco and stone structure with arches, columns and an open floor plan that put the lie to the idea that most drug dealers lived in deep seclusion surrounded by guards. The rounded arch making up the front door looked Moroccan, sporting a massive decorative iron knocker crafted in an intricate design along with oversized iron hardware.

Anna still hadn’t said a word, but she moved infinitesimally closer to him on the bench seat.

The SUV stopped as two massive men filed out of the door dressed in designer suits with AK-47s slung over their shoulders. Cesar got out of the passenger side and spoke with them. Leland couldn’t understand much of the conversation, but there was lots of pointing and gesturing. The guards were antsy.

“What are they saying?” asked Anna.

“Explaining who we are. I think?” said Leland.

One bodyguard left the group and jogged back inside, returning moments later with a middle-aged man dressed informally in jeans. From the way the group deferred to him, Leland assumed this was Tomas Rivera himself or some senior lieutenant in the organization.

“Do you think that’s Rivera?” she asked.

“Not sure.”

“You don’t recognize him? I thought you knew all these people.”

Leland’s laugh sounded bleak, even to his own ears. But at least she was talking to him again. He just wished he had better answers. “The only picture the DEA has of Rivera is a blurry photo from over twenty years ago. An old Mexican Military ID when he was supposedly working to clean out the Vega cartel along the eastern coast of Mexico.”

“I don’t understand,” she said.

“It’s all about money.” He didn’t want to go into the details here and now. Tomas Rivera’s men were the most brutal of all the cartels in Mexico. The DEA considered them more like terrorists than drug dealers.

They’d been trained in all kinds of covert tactics courtesy of Uncle Sam before they started working for the other side. And Rivera wasn’t afraid to use that vicious knowledge against anyone who got in their way. Enemies, law enforcement, women, children. Yes, that information was probably best kept from Anna until they were safely through this.

Instead Leland said, “No one in the DEA has met Rivera face to face since he crossed over to work for the cartels, at least not that I know of, and that’s been twenty years ago.”