The Warrior Code (16 page)

He was responding to Zeb’s question, if the bellboy had seen any markings on the man.

Zeb started to fill him in, but Kelly brushed him off. ‘Yup, the Idaho Falls cops and Connor briefed me. They told me about the tattoo. We’ – Kelly meant the cops – ‘don’t have anything to tie that ink to any gang marking. The Feds might have, but if so, they aren’t telling.’

He paused. ‘You know anything about it?’
I know you’ve got your own set up which rivals the best; so I’ve heard.

‘Not yet. Will fill you in once I have something.’

Roger narrowed his eyes fractionally as he heard Zeb. Zeb wasn’t telling Kelly about the tracker they had placed on the leader’s wheels. He knew the cops’ involvement stifled Zeb.

Zeb hung up, and his phone rang immediately. He saw the number and moved to take it outside when Beth stopped him. ‘Don’t you dare,’ she hissed.

Zeb settled back, ignored Roger’s grin.

‘Luis Zubia,’ Broker shouted.

‘Who?’ Beth and Meghan shouted back.

‘Ladies, I can hear you just fine.’ He chuckled.

‘The scorpion tattoo is known to be worn by a Mexican drug gang headed by one Luis Zubia. Zubia’s gang is one of the fastest growing gangs, a small one for now, but it is taking on the Sinaloa cartel in a brutal power struggle and territory grab.’

They heard his coffeemaker gurgle in the background.

‘Chances are that Zubia will be crushed, since the Sinaloa guys are too big, too powerful and have too much reach. Unless he pulls something out of the hat, I don’t think he’ll last long. But that doesn’t mean he is any less dangerous. Now the photo you sent me, Zeb, is not very good, but that guy looks like Zubia. His description fits for sure. Zubia is short, middle aged, fit and has thick, black hair and dark eyes. He too has a scorpion tattoo.’

Maggie exclaimed, ‘So how the hell is a drug lord involved with our girls?’

‘Ma’am, maybe Meghan and Beth saw or heard something he did. Or maybe, and this is my theory, he just wanted them. Zubia's gang is into drugs, but one of his fastest growing businesses is human trafficking. His gang sells white women to various bidders.’

He paused and said bluntly. 'There are scum in the world who'll pay a high price for twins.'

Zeb saw the women go pale but said nothing.
No point sugarcoating this
.

He stirred when everyone had gone quiet. ‘Krone took out an FBI informer in a Mexican drug gang, didn’t he?’

‘Yeah,’ Broker said. ‘I was wondering if you guys would pick that up. No prizes for guessing which gang that was.’

Roger looked at Zeb. The dots were connecting.

Beth shivered. ‘So it was this Zubia who was after us all along. This gets worse and worse. Now we’ve a drug lord after us who might never stop till he gets us.’

Meghan placed her hand across Beth’s. ‘Babe, don’t wig out now.’

Beth gave her a wan smile.

Broker’s voice came across strong and cheerful. Reassuring.

‘Beth, we don’t know for sure if he’s the guy after you. It
could
be coincidence that he was at the hotel at the same time as you.

‘I’ll keep digging, no doubt the FBI will investigate from their end, and we should find something. This is significant progress from a day back. Now if he
is
the guy after you… I wouldn’t worry. Those two guys beside you; they could stop an army.’

‘Yeah, well, we’re not too sure about this new guy.’ Beth looked in Roger’s direction, ‘but we believe that about Zeb. What’s worrying Meg and me is how long can you all keep your lives on hold and be around us. All that this Zubia prick needs to do is wait you out, and then we’re dead meat.’

Zeb shifted, and her eyes turned to him. ‘You remember what I said in Jackson?’

She nodded, her green eyes boring into his.

‘Nothing has changed. I am here. I will be here. However long it takes.’

He said it in a normal voice, but something about the way he said it sent protons and electrons buzzing, made the air move in the room.

She sighed deeply, and her shoulders relaxed. ‘Thank you.’ It came from deep within, and Meghan nodded vigorously as she patted Beth’s hand.

Roger fanned the air. ‘Now that the drama’s over, and Zeb has been restored to his heroic stature’ – he ducked a punch from Beth – ‘let’s get back to the business of hunting some badasses. Broker, you’ll be glad to know that I’ve made myself useful in the short time I’ve been here. I saved our hero’s skin and got no thanks for it, but I’ll let that one go. We got a live badass and have a tracker on him,’ he said triumphantly.

‘What? How?’ Three women and one man two thousand miles away exclaimed.

Roger took them through their reasoning and how they’d backtracked and found the leader and his ride. He gave Broker the details of the tracker, and they heard him working his keyboard furiously.

‘Gotcha! He’s stationary, about five miles down the road. Now why would that be? And, Zeb, did you tell the cops or the FBI about this new guy and the tracker?’

Zeb’s words fell like a hammer in the room.

‘Nope. I think the cops have a mole.’

Chapter 17

Broker saw it immediately. ‘All these badasses had to know somehow that you guys were heading to Maggie McBride’s.’

Zeb nodded. ‘Our vehicle was clean. No one was following us. An insider is the only explanation.’

He looked up when Beth drew a sharp breath and went pale again.

‘Kelly!’

‘Nope.’ Broker’s reply was immediate. ‘If it was him, he had ample opportunity to have the two of you abducted. He could have arranged an attack on his home when the two of you were there. It’s not him. However, he could have casually mentioned to someone that you folks were heading to Idaho Falls.’

‘Oh and, Zeb, your watcher is a guy called Pacho. He’s Zubia’s right-hand man, his enforcer. A nasty piece of work who likes to torture and kill. One thing you should know about him. He can’t speak. Zubia and he grew up in the same Mexican slum. Pacho became Zubia’s sidekick when that guy chose a life of drug dealing. To show how loyal he was to Zubia, Pacho cut his own tongue off’

This time Meghan shivered. ‘This feels like a horrible dream.’

Zeb changed the topic. He looked at Maggie. ‘Ma’am, do you have any friend who has a wacky car? Anyone who has a house in Idaho Falls?’

Lurette Bridges was in her mid sixties, had fluffy white hair and moved in birdlike steps. Her round glasses reinforced the bird image. She was Maggie’s aunt, a widow who lived in Idaho Falls, and doted on her niece.

She drew up in her Toyota Camry, a car that would have made the dead in a cemetery sit up and take notice.

The Camry was garish pink and had Mickey and Minnie Mouse images painted all over it. The hood had a giant holographic image of Mickey that winked depending on the viewing position.

Lurette stepped out of her car, a Mossberg shotgun in one hand and a cane in the other.

She stopped when she saw Roger and surveyed him from top to bottom. ‘Young man, if you’ve got a girl, you’d better get rid of her, because I’m coming after you.’

She barked when he blanched. ‘On second thoughts, you might not keep up with me.’ She winked broadly to take the sting out, hugged Maggie tight, and kissed the twins. She had met them several times; they were family.

‘Go on, take the car. Destroy it if you can. Gawd knows I’ve tried to crash it, but the danged thing leads a charmed life. You young pups, you don’t need to worry about us. Mags and I will be fine, just fine.’

‘Ma’am, you’ll be coming along with us,’ Zeb told her.

She looked at him, noticing him for the first time, removed her glasses, and moved closer to him. After a while she looked at Maggie and said, ‘You’re right.’

Meghan watched the byplay and laughed. ‘What’s all that about, Mags?’

Lurette adjusted her glasses and swatted her. ‘You’ll know when you’re older, kid. Much older.’

She turned to Zeb. ‘Lead the way, young man.’ She held a hand up when he opened his mouth. ‘Don’t start with all the warnings. I know what I’m getting into. I always wanted to drive a getaway car.’

Zeb and Roger knew Pacho would be watching them. He had to be convinced that they would be staying in the McBride home for a while. A shopping trip to town to stock up on groceries and essentials would do it.

You didn’t browse in Walmart if you had heavies on your tail.

They had discussed leaving the twins with Kelly and going after the Mexican, but following him around had too many variables. Maggie had suggested they stay in her home.

‘If they came once, they’ll come again.’

Zeb looked at her.

‘Don’t worry about the house. Lurette and I were planning to redo it in any case, and if there’s any damage, that’s a perfect reason right there.’

Roger nodded in relief at her offer. They both wanted to have the showdown in Maggie’s house, but it had to come from her. Now they could eliminate any chance of her being used as leverage by the gang.

They also figured Pacho would follow them till he knew they planned to be holed up at in Idaho Falls, and then he would get more men and attack.

They set out a couple of hours later, the twins and Roger in Lurette’s car, Zeb following them.

Lurette wended her way to the town of Idaho Falls, to her home, and Zeb parked his Escalade so that it covered a good view of the Camry.

‘He’s at the far end of the street, behind you, parked behind a couple of cars,’ Broker murmured in Zeb’s earpiece.

The five of them slipped into her home, where Zeb made an extensive shopping list and handed it to Roger. Beth snatched it from his hand, and her eyebrows rose.

‘These aren’t essentials.’

‘Now they are.’

He stayed back as the four of them headed to the local Target and slipped out of the rear entrance. He vaulted across the neighbor’s fence, circled the neighborhood and watched Pacho from the distance. It was always possible that he had found the GPS tracker and had switched it to another set of wheels.

Pacho shook his head in contempt when he saw the lurid car. His respect for his two opponents dimmed a shade, and when he saw the second man climb in with the old woman and the two sisters, it eroded further.

Old people just got in the way. Luis had told him these two were top operatives, but it didn’t look like that, the way they were behaving.

He followed them to town; as they neared it, traffic increased, and it was easy for him to hang behind and merge in the wash.

He fired off a text to Luis and got an immediate reply. He had thought about recruiting men locally, but Luis had shot down the idea. He wasn’t a trusting man.

‘Ten men coming. Three of them my personal bodyguards.’ Pacho knew those were the best men in the gang, handpicked, all of them ex-Mexican Special Forces. Luis continued. ‘Sinaloa fuckers are squeezing us and if this doesn’t work, we’re done with the women. I want them, but not so bad that we get eliminated here.’

Pacho nodded at his phone. He had always told Luis that kidnapping American women was a dangerous business but Luis didn’t listen. His argument was that they got a better price. These two were made for grabbing, Luis said. No family to raise a stink, no one to miss them.

 If the first gang or Krone hadn’t screwed up, by now the women would be across the border and this man Carter would be dead.

Pacho had not told Luis about the second man with Carter. The second guy didn’t matter. With ten men he could easily take the two of them on.

He thought about Luis’s message. They should have dropped the Voice a long time back in his opinion, but knew that Luis had high regard for him. If the Voice pulled off what he promised, then Luis would sit at the Sinaloa’s dining table.

He re-read the messages and put his phone away.

If he didn’t succeed, then it was right that Luis drop this current hunt.

But he, Pacho, would succeed.

He had never failed in his missions.

A good three hours later he saw Mickey Mouse nudge into his street, followed by the Escalade. He thought he saw shopping bags in the rear of the pink car; for gringos, shopping was a birthright.

He eased behind them, and when they swept on the dirt track, he continued to his hideout. It would be a couple of long days as he watched them, but it had to be done. He saw a delivery truck arrive; the old woman received a package and pointed at the window.
Glass or curtains for the shattered window.

More trucks arrived, one of them bearing the signage of a well-known grocer, another that of a gardening equipment manufacturer. Pacho yawned but kept his eyes focused on the happenings.

It looked like the men would stay in the house for some time and help rebuild it.

Pacho moved his gaze behind the house.

His reinforcements weren’t expected before the evening, and they would need a full night’s rest before he launched an attack.

He knew how the assault would happen. It was laid out neatly in his mind.

The majority would come in from the rear, with a small force at the front cutting off retreat. He knew the rear wasn’t even and wasn’t good ground for an incoming force, but his opponents would be counting on precisely that. He wished he had eyes on the rear, but shrugged. He had to make do with what he had.

He knew where Krone had erred. He hadn’t anticipated Carter being outside the house. He hadn't watched long enough. He also didn’t have a big enough team.

Pacho was not Krone.

This time Pacho would lead the attack. Luis’s three bodyguards knew sign language, and they would convey Pacho’s commands.

The ten men came when dark had fallen. They had landed at Idaho Falls and had driven a couple of hours outside the town, where they met an arms supplier.

Lean, fit, bristling with nervous energy, they stood in front of him, armed with M4 and M16 assault rifles, some of them sporting hand grenades. The three bodyguards were more relaxed.

Pacho hugged the bodyguards and signed out short instructions, which the bodyguards translated to the rest of the men.