Shot to Hell (Four Horsemen MC #7) (30 page)

Bruja
dashed for the door, and Ash was right on her heels. Ten ran after them.

Steele looped an arm around Coyote’s waist and escorted him back to the couch, which he sank down onto gratefully. It was only then he noticed three more dead Raptors lying face-down in the corner of the room.

Beauregard stepped over two bodies and fished through a discarded trash bag until he came up with a brick of heroin. “How thoughtful. They loaded up our cargo for us.”

Ignoring the mobster, Steele carefully peeled the duct tape from Coyote’s mouth while Ace sliced into the tape around his wrists. Coyote flinched as the knife pressed against his skin. No telling what horrors Yo had seen the past few days.

“You okay, brother?” Steele knelt at Coyote’s feet—staring up into his bruised and beaten face.

“Well, I’m a couple fingers away from bein’ Captain Hook, but I’ll live.” Coyote held up his bandaged hand.

Steele hung his head. “I’m so sorry. I should’ve been payin’ more attention. If I had, then you wouldn’t—”

Coyote shook his head. “Don’t…just don’t.”

Ace clasped Yo’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “It’s gonna be okay. Duke will fix you up. You’ll be back to your old self in no time.”

Steele watched Coyote’s guarded features. He seriously doubted Coyote would ever be the same again.

Chapter Twenty-One

“Sit down.”

Ash pointed to a wingback chair in the living room. She’d caught up with
Bruja
outside and hauled her ass back into the living room at gunpoint.  

With the exception of
Bruja
, no one was paying her much attention.

Ten stayed outside with the heroin shipment while Beauregard gathered up the remaining drugs into a trash bag. The mobsters didn’t know it yet, but Ash intended to seize it and turn it over to the DEA along with the witchy cartel lady…assuming
Bruja
cooperated.

Steele and Ace fussed over Coyote. And Ash still couldn’t believe Steele had offered himself up as a hostage. What if she’d been wrong about Steele all along?

He’d been so brave, so selfless.

No, she couldn’t think about Steele’s sacrifice right now.

Ash had to keep her eyes on the prize. If
Bruja
cooperated with the DEA, it would be a major coup—if Ash didn’t lose it and kill the bitch.

“How
dare
you speak me to this way?”
Bruja
ran palms along her faded skinny jeans and sat down in the chair. She kept her back ramrod straight and fixed Ash with a dirty look.

“Shut it, or I’ll blow your head off.” She kept imagining it splitting open like a ripened watermelon.

Bruja
clamped her mouth shut.

“You’re used to bein’ in control, aren’t you?” Ash gestured with the gun, and it shook a bit in her grip—not from fear, but from desire. “You got two options available—come with me and tell the DEA every damn thing they wanna know about
Tres Erre
—and I do mean
everythin’
so they can dismantle your operation piece by piece. The cartel won’t sell an ounce of drugs in the states again.”

“I’ll never talk. I’m—”

“I said
shut up
. You’re in our jurisdiction, which means you’re subject to our rules and regs. Not to mention…” Ash kicked Hairy Mole in the back. “You’re fresh out of thugs, honey. There’s no one around to do your dirty work.”

“Except for that other squad.”

Ash crouched down so they were at eye level. “And I’m bettin’ you’re late checkin’ in with your crew. Cartel folks aren’t overly loyal. Y’all are killin’ each other all the time. Somethin’ tells me they’ll be headin’ for the border any minute now.”

Bruja
reared back. “Maybe I will speak with your DEA.”

“Oh, yeah?” This had been easier than she’d thought.
Kinda dissapointin’.

“I can tell them how you worked with criminals. How you broke laws to get me into custody.”

Ash stood up again. “Okay. Couple things I forgot to mention…I played
Let’s Make a Deal
with the
other
criminals, and I work for the DEA, but I’m not an officer as such.  We’ve been losin’ the war on drugs for decades, and the agency finally did something about it. The DEA has a new GITMO model—so you’re subject to the laws. But you don’t have our protections. Ain’t that a bitch?”

Bruja
tossed her head back.

“You see, we’ve been handin’ you guys over to the Mexican authorities only to find out later you’d bribed or threatened your way out of charges.” 

“What was the other option?”

“Oh, right. To hear the other one, you’ve got to know a bit about me.”

She turned her face away. “Spare me your sermons.”

Ash slapped the woman hard across the face. “Eyes on me when I’m talkin’.”

When
Bruja
looked over, Ash could see her own fiery red handprint on her cheek. A sick and twisted side of Ash had woken up, and it was hungry for vengeance.

“Like I said, you need some background information. I have…
had
…a brother named Abe. He was murdered in Afghanistan by the Taliban. All because of the heroin poppy trade. You know, the same kind of poison you get rich on.”

She said nothing.

“You don’t give a damn about my pain or misery because you’re a sociopath and the only person you care about is yourself, so I’m gonna skip ahead to the point. I never got to hunt down his murderers. As far as I know, they never got punished for their crimes.” As she spoke, Ash circled
Bruja
. She lost awareness of anyone else in the room. Right now, it was just her and the cartel leader.

When Ash faced her again,
Bruja’
s lips curled into a sneer.

“Do you know what that’s like?”

“No, and I don’t care. What’s this have to do with me?”

“Pay attention. I’m comin’ to option two. If you don’t cooperate and tell the DEA about your operation, I’ll work out some of my issues with you. And I’ve had ten years to build this rage.”

Her eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”  

“Frankly, I’m hopin’ you’ll choose door number two, because I’m dyin’ to put you in the ground.”

“Killing me won’t bring your brother back.”

Her laughter was cold. “Of course not. Nothin’ will. Not this job or the fights I get into or…the other ways I cope with it.”

That was a stark realization. She’d taken this job to do some good in Abe’s name, but what was the cost to her and her own sanity?

Her lips pulled back from her teeth. “I tire of this game. Shoot me and be done with it.”

Ash sighed. “
I said
I wanna put you in the ground. And no, it ain’t a metaphor because that’s not what I’m gonna do.” She rounded the chair and knelt down to eye level with the woman.

Across the room, Steele made a sharp sound. When Ash stood once more, he shook his head, eyes pleading with her.

Ash deliberately turned her back.

Bruja
swallowed, and Ash could hear the sound. “No?”

It was so tempting. Ash could take out all her rage and fear on this woman. Maybe it’d heal her—take the pain away.

“No. I’m gonna bury you. Alive. And I don’t feel bad about it. You leave piles of body parts around to spook the locals, but I think a cold, dark hole is worse. I had to put Abe in the ground all by himself.” Ash squatted down again. “Of course, my brother was dead, but you won’t be. You’ll be all alone slowly chokin’ to death, unable to see or hear anything.”

Beauregard’s whistle broke the tense silence. “
Damn
, that’s cold. You could give me a run for my money.” At Ash’s look, he stepped back. “Right, sorry to interrupt. This is your show.”

Ash turned her attention back to the prisoner. “So, what’s it gonna be, a long, excruciatin’ night of suffocation, or a stint as a star witness in a federal case? I’ll give you one minute to decide.”

For the first time,
Bruja
looked scared.

***

Two hours later, Ash sped down the highway as she listened to the GPS give robotic directions.

Beauregard sat next to her in the passenger seat. The mobster’s eyes were closed, and he sat back in his seat. She knew he hadn’t fallen asleep—his body hadn’t gone slack, and his breathing wasn’t even.

But she didn’t say anything.

She sure as hell didn’t feel like talking. And Beauregard was still pissed that she’d turned the drugs over as evidence, but she didn’t give a damn. Ash couldn’t let the heroin be sold on the streets. The Cole agents had taken
Bruja
into custody for transport to a federal facility. The woman wasn’t some underling who didn’t know squat about the operation. With her knowledge, the DEA might be able to bring down the cartel. Of course, another cartel would step into their place, but Ash tried not to think about it.

Bruja’s
willingness
to cooperate
made Ash strangely miserable. That, in turn, scared the
bejeezu
s out of her.

She’d been looking forward to torturing someone. How fucked up was that?

Beauregard cleared his throat, bringing her back to the present.

Before they’d gotten on the interstate, they’d rolled through a drive-thru and gotten cups of coffee for the road. She’d needed the jolt of caffeine to stay awake. It’d been a long couple of days.

“Where did Ten go?” If she hadn’t been so drowsy, she’d have noticed the other mobster hadn’t climbed back into the car with them.

“Said he had somewhere else to be.” Beauregard sipped his coffee.  

“Where? A double homicide?” she joked and then sobered instantly. “Tell me I wasn’t his wheelman.” The words
accessory to murder
flashed in her mind. 

“You mean accessory to
another
murder? Because you already played wheelman for a quadruple homicide.” Sarcasm dripped from Beauregard’s words.

“That was different.” But was it?

“Because you considered it to be justified?” Beauregard chuckled. “And here I thought you were different from the biker boys.”

Ash ignored him and stuck with a safer subject. She couldn’t contemplate her own homicidal tendencies at the moment. “So you don’t know where he went?”

“Ten ain’t much of a people person. You know the type—don’t socialize much, lives alone.” Beauregard shrugged. “It’s one of his quirks.”

“Sounds like the Unabomber.”

“Ain’t sayin’ you’re wrong, but he has a cat. That counts for somethin’, right?” He frowned. “Hmph, come to think of it, Ten likes cats more than people.”

Her lips twitched. “He’s a crazy cat lady.”

“Crazy cat
gentleman
.”

They both laughed and then stopped abruptly—staring at one another.

“Did we just share a moment?” Beauregard drawled, draping an arm over the back of her seat.

“I have a gun.”

With a low whistle, he withdrew. “Only bein’ sociable. Don’t read more into it.”

“No, you were testin’ my boundaries.” The mobster deliberately pushed buttons to see what would happen.  

“Don’t get your knickers in a twist. I’m seein’ someone…more or less.”

Ash glanced in her rearview mirror before she pulled into the passing lane. “More or less? You either are or you aren’t—just like you can’t be a bit pregnant.”

Beauregard ignored her tirade. “She’s a lawyer. Her name’s Jane.”

“I didn’t ask.”

“But you’re curious.”

Damn him, he was right. Beauregard was dating an attorney? Didn’t it violate some sort of ethical code? But Ash left it alone. Beauregard’s love life was his own damn business. The less she knew, the better off she’d be.

“You handled yourself pretty well in there.”

Getting a compliment from a killer meant…well, not a damn thing in her book. Ash didn’t know what to say, so she focused on the blacktop ahead and drank her coffee.

“I believe the proper response is ‘thank you.’ Unless you’d like to give me a compliment as well?”

“This ain’t a buddy cop film. You and I won’t be makin’ friends, so let’s not even go there. I vote we keep our mouths shut for the duration of the trip. Deal?”

“No deal. Where you off to next?”

“Not sure.” Ash was anticipating a big fat check from Cole. She should’ve been on top of the world, but she wasn’t. In fact, she was contemplating turning in her resignation.  Steele had been right about her job.

“If you ever decide to get out of the merc business, you could work for me.”

She nearly choked on the coffee.

“Do you need the Heimlich? I’m happy to oblige.”

Ash coughed it out and gave an exaggerated shudder, like a shockwave had gone through her body, as she imagined Beauregard’s arms wrapped around her. “I’d rather be the circus dude who cleans up after elephants than work for you.”

“So that’s a no?”

“A big honkin’ no. I stay on the right side of the law.”

Beauregard tapped on the console. “As a merc, I’d say you’re smack dab in the middle between right and wrong.”

She shifted in her seat. Ash had seen a scary side of herself today, one she never wanted to unleash.  

“It don’t take much of a push to slide on over to the darker side. Trust me, the outfit pays well enough to ignore those pesky moral dilemmas.”

“
You
have morals and ethics?”

“Everyone does. Mine are a bit more flexible than most.”

“I can’t do this job anymore.” She sighed. “It’s killin’ me.” Damn the road, something about the rhythmic motion of the drive and the tension release had loosened her tongue.

“Like I said, I got an opening.”

“Yeah, but you make my skin crawl.” Ash slid the car back in the far right lane and sped up. The sooner they got back to Hell, the better.

“I have that effect on people.”

“Besides, workin’ for you wouldn’t help my problem.”

“Oh, Lord, you really are in an ethical quandary. I remember what those were like. Had some problems when I first started. But, believe me, the pain stops eventually.”

Ash wasn’t sure she wanted to know if she could kill without feeling guilt. “When?”