Shadows and Silk (4 page)

“We’ve received new intelligence that the del Fuego cartel has in fact been taken
over by Alexander Ramos and the whole operation moved to Mexico.”

“Shit,” Brant said, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger.
They all knew of Alexander Ramos.
He was currently the leader for the Sinaloa drug cartel, which happened to be the
most powerful and deadly cartel in Mexico. “He’s expanding his territory.”

“It looks that way,” Declan said. “He’s setting up the del Fuego cartel in southern
Mexico, from the Yucatan to the border of Guatemala. He already
controls
almost all of
west
ern Mexico
, and I think we can agree that controlling that much territory isn’t going to go
well once the Mexican government finds out and they start cracking down.
The rumors are already spreading.
The streets will be
overflowing
with the blood of innocent people.”

“But according to this information, we still don’t have a location for the new labs,”
Devlin said
, shuffling through the
intel
quickly
.
“How are
we any better off than we were?
”

“
We don’t have the exact coordinates
,” Shane said. “But we do have information we didn’t have access to before, and the
new labs have definitely been set up in Ramos’ territory.
My tech wizard was able to ferret out the information
while my team was doing surveillance.
In fact, we
think
Ramos took
control
over what was left of the del Fuego
cartel just weeks after Carlos and Miguel del Fuego were killed.
We were focusing
all our attention on Colombia, but Ramos was keeping things on the down low until
he had everything in place. I’m assuming it took time to rebuild the labs in a place
no one would find them.
The new rash of killings in the Yucatan area suggest
s
the cartel is up and running
for business now
.
Whispers on the street are starting to strengthen.
”

Miguel and Carlos del Fuego had been the heads of the del Fuego cartel
up until their deaths a few years before
.
Carlos had killed his father in a struggle for power, and
Declan
had killed Carlos with a shot straight to the heart
while
Cade rescued
Brant’s sister,
Bayleigh
.
It had been sweet justice considering the del Fuego’s had killed Cade’s lover a few
years before.

“How’d it come to your attention now?” Brant asked. He didn’t bother to read through
the papers in front of him. He was waiting for the axe to fall. He took a
nother
sip
of beer and kept his gaze steady with Declan’s.

“Intelligence picked up an unusual transmission through satellite. It seems Ramos
is a little smarter than your average drug lord. He’s got brains behind the muscle,
and that makes him even more dangerous.”

“Spit it out
,
Dec,” Brant said.

“
The cartel has set up the underground communication system using Maya as their language
of choice.”

Brant was already shaking his head, knowing where Declan was going. His stomach twisted
in knots, but Declan didn’t let him get a refusal out before continuing his explanation.

“Ramos
is a Mayan descendent and
has managed to bribe enough native speakers to work for him.
An underground network to pass along sensitive messages, much like the Navajo Code
Talkers during World War II.
Unfortunately for us, there are
only a handful of people outside
of
the natives who are knowledgeable
in the language.
They’re a closed culture, and they wouldn’t want our interference. And Ramos is probably
paying them handsomely or threatening their families to gain their cooperation, so
we can’t try to work our way in through them.
They’re loyal to him.
”

“No way in hell,” Brant said
, shaking his head again
.
“You’re out of your fucking mind.”
He saw
Max pass Shane a twenty-
dollar bill out of the corner of his eye, but he ignored them.

“Told you,” Shane said, taking the money and putting it in his wallet.

“You can’t seriously be talking about bringing your sister i
nto this mess,
”
Brant said.

“She’s been in this mess for years,” Declan said. “She wants to help us destroy the
cartel once and for all, and she has the resources we need to do it.
She’s an expert in the field. She speaks the language, and she can read the hieroglyphs.
She’d be invaluable on a mission like this.
We use civilian consultants all the time.
”

“No.
Absolutely not.
She’s your sister
,
for fuck’s sake
.
Has she pissed you off so much lately that you feel the need to take her into cartel
territory and leave her to a horrible death?
They’ll make an example of her.
She has no field training, and it’ll endanger the entire team.
Who’s supposed to protect her?”

“From my understanding,” Shane said,
the perpetual grin he kept on his face in place as usual.
“You did a fine job
protecting her
the last time
. Surely you can manage
it again
.
Besides, we drew straws before you got here and you lost.
”

Brant
narrowed his eyes at Shane, wondering exactly what he knew about
the time he’d spent with Darcy four
years ago, and then
he
immediately dismissed
the thought
. If her brothers
knew what had really happened between them, his body would’ve disappeared a long time
ago
.

He’d both cursed
and congratulated hims
elf on walking away from Darcy all those
years ago.
The further he’d driven from Surrender, Montana, the more he’d wanted to turn around
and go back to her.
She was his weakness. And in his line of work, there could be no weaknesses. Not
unless you had a death wish.

A day hadn’t gone by where
he hadn’t thought of her,
and
he’d kept track of her from a distance—making sure she was truly safe after her run-in
with del Fuego’s men.
He’d done thorough background checks on the
men she’d dated and he’d made sure doors had opened in her career. He had the power
to do those things, and he used it without apology because he’d come to realize shortly
after their one night together that no one was more important than she was, even if
he couldn’t be the man in her life.

Brant
scooted back his chair and
stood
abruptly, planning to get his coat and walk out the door before the craziness of
this conversation could go any further. The need to get away as soon as possible was
getting stronger with every passing second.
Being around Darcy again would be a mistake—he knew it as sure as he was standing
there.

“We’re going to take her into cartel t
erritory,” Declan
said, the friend gone and the commander taking his place
. “And she’s going to do her job by deciphering whatever needs to be deciphered so
we can find the location of the labs and keep hundreds, maybe thousands, of people
from getting k
illed. She’s an expert on
the Maya
. There’s no one more perfect for the job. She’s already familiar with the cartel
,
and she was the one who helped us realize how the
y’ve been communicating all these years
.
And she’s not completely untrained. We’ve all worked with her since she was a kid.
She knows how to protect herself, and I wouldn’t hesitate to let her watch my back
if things turned to shit.
”

Brant’s hands fisted at his sides, and the lack of control brought his anger to the
surface. Anger over the way he’d had to leave Darcy.
Anger at himself for not being the kind of man who could ever have a normal life.
And anger at Declan for pushing the matter when he knew damned good and well nothing
good could come of it.

“
This is a mistake,” he rasped, his
throat dry
at the prospect of what his future held.

“Is there something you’re not telling me about the real reason you don’t want to
do this?” Declan asked
, narrowing his eyes and coming to his feet to look Brant eye to eye.
“
You clearly have a problem with Darcy. Y
ou haven’t been to a family get-
together since Cade and
Bayleigh’s
wedding, and you left as soon as the ceremony was over even though you were the best
man.
”

“
I had food poisoning,” Brant gritted out. “And
I’m with all of you all the damned time
.
I’m surrounded by so many
MacKenzies
I can’t piss without one of you
holding
my dick
. What the hell is your point with all this?”

“Nothing. You’re just being more unreasonable about this than usual.
Darcy’s an intelligent woman, and you’ve known how to handle her since she was
ten
years old. She’s always listened to you more than the rest of us. I’d think finally
shutting down the del Fuego cartel would be your top priority.
”

“No one knows about priorities better than me,” Brant said.

Declan nodded
somberly
.
Not many people knew the details about Brant’s first wife
, or that he’d even had a wife for that matter
.
He hadn’t had her for long.
Declan was one of
the few
who knew the real story
.

“Which is why Darcy is going in with you
,” Declan said
.
“
She’s the only team you need on this op. Shane and the rest of
his
SEAL Tea
m
will be your backup, and
Max
and I both have
agents already in the area
.
We trust
Darcy’s
safety with you. I can count on one hand the number of people I’d say that about,
and four of them are her relatives.
”

“Great,” Brant said. The urge to put his fist right into Declan’s face overcame him,
and he could tell by his friend’s raised brow that he was daring him to try. “Just
great.”

“What’s the matter, Brant?” A silky voice called from the door—a siren’s call that
had his blood pumping and his cock hardening in an instant.
“Afraid I’ll be too much for you to handle?”

Darcy walked i
nto the room like she owned it
. L
ike a woman who didn’t care that the man who’d broken her heart
was only a few feet away.

She’d dressed carefully for the occasion—jeans appropriate for a night out at a bar,
and a soft silk blouse in a watercolor floral print, topped with a cropped
violet jacket
. Her tan leather boots came up to the knee and fit like a second skin, and four-inch
heels spiked
to a sharp point
.
The underwear beneath the clothes had been selected with care—cobalt lace panties
and a matching bra that were the same color as her eyes. No one would see them, but
it gave her confidence all the same.

S
he looked good and she knew it—like a
successful
woman who had ultimate control
over her sexuality
. The naïve
girl
sh
e’d once been no longer existed, and she’d decided if she was going to be forced into
Brant Scott’s presence, then by God, she was going to make him suffer.

“Cat got your tongue?” she asked, her smile devilish as Brant seemed frozen in
his tracks
.

“I don’t think we’ve me
t
,” a man she didn’t recognize said, holding out his
hand for an
introduction
as he rose from his seat
.

“Darcy
MacKenzie
,” she said, liking the man instantly. He had a warm smile and a teasing glint in
his
chocolate brown
eyes that told her he could probably hold his own with her brothers.