Tijuana Nights (The Nights Series Book 1) (15 page)

"You'll make sure I'm with you when you go back to Tijuana, right?" I asked in a small voice.

"Yes," he said, leaning over to gently peck me on the lips. His scent enraptured my senses, and suddenly I wanted more. I wanted to be safe and secure with him somewhere, out of danger. But would this be what it was always like with him? I had to wonder. He let go of my hand as he got out of the car, shocking me back to reality. He looked at me through the car door. "We'll leave the car unlocked. You can stay here if you want to, or you can come."

I looked around the dark street, and immediately decided that I didn't want to be here on my own, not knowing what was going down.

"I'm coming."

The house was a few doors down the street. River glanced at Gabe’s dot his phone. I was wondering if my new phone could do something as cool as that when Chase clarified it for me. "All of our phones are linked so that we can always find each other. Your phone has the same."

"Oh," I whispered.

When we reached the property, River darted ahead, leaving me alone with Chase.

"Now for the diversion," Chase murmured.

Even though the night was warm, I felt cold. I rubbed my arms through the leather jacket I was wearing, the gun digging into my flesh in the process.

Chase reached for the gun, and snapped something back on it. "Just turned the safety off, Mack. You're free to use it as you see fit. Just don't shoot one of us in the process."

I nodded, afraid my teeth were going to chatter if I spoke. We waited silently in the dark for a few moments, and then I heard something foreign. At the far end of the property, the night lit up like fireworks, and the ground rumbled beneath our feet. Then my ears rang as mortar and stone splintered and blasted apart.

"Holy shit." I sank to the ground. "What the fuck was that?"

"The diversion. A grenade," Chase said. "Get ready. Stick close to me."

Alarms started ringing, and people were yelling. But they were running towards the house in the opposite direction from the front gate. Chase was doing something to the keypad on the front gates by holding a device over it. Suddenly the gate clanged loudly as the bolts unlocked, and it started opening outwards. I looked at Chase in surprise, and he gave me a knowing smile back. I got a bit of a fright when I saw River silently approaching out of the corner of my eye.

He grabbed my arm and started pulling me through the gates. "Come on," he whispered. "Time to get into position."

I swallowed, and dogged his steps as silently as I could. I was getting the jitters. I had no idea how long these things took, but already this seemed to be taking forever.

"How long?"

River smiled. "As long as it takes."

I cringed. That could seem like forever in such close proximity to the woman who wanted my head.

"Gabe could be in a compromising position. Don't worry, Carmen will leave him to his own devices so she can be head of command shortly, and he'll be free to go." Chase was smiling from ear to ear, and I realised then that he loved this sort of drama.

Carmen. Head of command. If I didn't watch it, I really was going to be sick soon. Thank god I didn't have anything in my tummy to heave up.

Chase pulled me behind some trees down the side of the house, and I watched River disappear ahead of us. "Quiet," he whispered.

I forced myself to control my nervous breathing. Armed men ran out of one of the house doors, and straight past us.

"Amateurs," Chase muttered. Then he pulled me forward, and we stood behind the next set of trees. We were so close to the house now, I could see people through the windows.

"God, how many people are in there?"

Chase assessed them critically from the safety of darkness. "Who knows? Gabe did warn us that she had a contingent of cartel members here."

I swallowed. "Oh boy."

"Brace yourself," Chase whispered. And I did. But I braced myself against him. I heard another grenade blast on the opposite boundary.

"Where the hell is he?"

Chase pointed to the roof. "Up there. He can throw grenades a good distance from heights." He suddenly clamped his hand over my mouth before I could respond as all hell broke loose inside.

Carmen came into view, and I felt myself suck in a breath through Chase's hand. He realised, and loosened his grip on me. "Sorry," he whispered almost inaudibly.

I watched Carmen issue orders to people around her as she stood in a negligee, baring her long bronze legs and leaving little else to the imagination. I couldn't believe that all these people knew that she was cheating on her husband - their boss! And yet, Javier either didn’t know, or he cared too little to do anything about it. And then as I watched her take command, I realised that she was a natural born leader. I always had the impression that she was just a cartel wife, and that was why Javier courting me was so offensive to her status and rank within the cartel.

It appeared that I was wrong. Watching her now, it was damn clear that she was the boss. There were no two ways about it.

"I need to get closer," Chase whispered. "Do you want to stay here, or are you coming with me?"

I gave him a quick nod to say I was coming, and followed him from the bushes. We ran quickly up the pathway alongside the house, towards the back. Chase found an open window and inched it silently open to climb through it.

I swung my leg over. I knew this wasn't a good idea, but there was no way I was staying out there in the garden by myself. I watched Chase check the hallway outside the room, and then he shone his phone around the room we were standing in. It looked like a small, unused sitting room. There were a couple of older styled sofas, a bookshelf lining the back, and a TV mounted on the wall. If I didn't know any better, I would say it looked like a man cave, but for someone much, much older.

Chase sent a text to Gabe explaining where we were. I hoped that was the end of it and we could get out of here as soon as possible.

Another explosion rocked the house, this one much closer. I pursed my lips. The last thing we needed was for River to blow the shit out of us. Chase signalled to me to get down behind the large couch. I didn't question or argue - it was common sense in case somebody walked in and found us.

I knelt beside him and rested my head on the floor. I sat there quietly until something foreign greeted my senses. Muffled sounds came through the floorboards, and I strained to hear properly through the vibrations of the people running around in the house. And then I heard something that sounded like a whimper.

I moved my head into a better position and listened closer. It wasn't just one whimper. It was a whole lot of whimpering and crying. Right beneath us.

Alarm swept through me and my blood ran cold. There were people down there. I suddenly looked up at Chase. "Can you hear that?"

His gaze met mine, and he lowered his head to the floor for a few moments.

He lifted his head again, and then put it back to the floor. "There are people down there," he murmured. "Women, by the sounds of it."

"Oh my god." I tried to keep my voice down. "What if they aren't meant to be here?"

Chase shook his head. "I'm not sure, Mack. They could be anyone."

I lowered my head back to the floorboards, and as I listened, I could make out some of the words. "They're speaking English." I sat up again and looked at him. "Chase. I don't think they're meant to be here."

He pursed his lips at me, and looked at his watch. "Our operation is to get Gabe out."

I stared at Chase incredulously. "But what if these people need us?" Panic started to well within me. Nothing about this was good. I dropped my ear to the floor again. 'Please help us,' I heard someone say.

"We have to get them out," I whispered. "They're asking for help."

I saw doubt creep across his features, and then he shook his head. "We don't know what we'd be getting ourselves into. I don't want to compromise the mission."

Frustration ripped through me.

Right then, the door burst open, and Chase and I both knelt silently to the floor.

"Chase?" A whisper came through the darkness.

Gabe.

Chase sat up, and peeked over the sofa. "Gabe," he spoke softly. "Are you ready to go yet?"

"Yeah."

I had my head pressed to the floorboards once again. They were crying and whimpering. Obviously these people needed our help. I didn't know what to do, but I wanted to do something. Chase grabbed my arm.

"Come on, Mack. We have to go."

Another blast ruptured somewhere, and I heard the house groan. I looked at Chase in alarm. "He's going to bring the house down."

Chase shrugged. "Possibly."

"There are a bunch of people down there that it will fall on!" I looked between Chase and Gabe.

Gabe sighed. "Yes. We have to go."

Chase heaved me up off the floor, and we made our way towards the window. People were really running around the property now, I could smell smoke and it plumed in through the windows of the house.

Chase sent a message to River, and before I knew it, we were going out the window. "Go to the trees," Chase instructed. I didn't need to be told twice. As soon as my feet hit the ground, I was running.

We reached the shrubbery, and knelt down to let it cover us. And then I had an idea. "Chase, do you have any grenades on you?"

He nodded, and lifted his finger to his lips, which made me go still. People ran past up the path in the direction we'd just come from. Rapid gun fire erupted from somewhere, and I prayed that River was all right. It was also a stark reminder of the gun I still held tightly in my hand.

"I'll throw a grenade in the general direction of those people as we leave, and they may have a chance of getting out," Chase whispered in my ear. "But when I do, we’re going to have to run for our lives, because people are going to be swarming the area as soon as it happens."

I gave Chase a silent nod of thanks. He somehow knew what I was thinking. At least we had tried something. If they were hostages, I hoped they survived.

A message came through on Gabe's phone. "River's out near the road," Chase whispered. As we stood, Chase threw a grenade high over his head with all of his might. "Run," he ordered.

Gabe and I raced through the bushes and out onto the pathway. I heard Chase behind us, then the explosion rocketed through the air. And then I could hear nothing but my own breathing as I ran for my life down the dark pathway, trying not to tread on Gabe's heels.

A big man suddenly stepped out on the path in front of us, and we skidded to a stop. And then he fell in front of me. I looked down at him stunned, and saw he had a bullet-hole, precisely between his eyes.

Chase grabbed me. "Come on," he urged.

We continued to run towards the entrance. The Mercedes pulled up at the gates, and Chase threw me into the backseat with him, and Gabe somehow managed to make it into the front. River pulled the car away, the doors still open. Gunfire ripped through the night, and I heard a series of bullets hit the car.

As River gained control of the vehicle, both Gabe and Chase managed to pull their doors closed.

"That was fucking close," River shouted at us.

Close. "Oh my god," I moaned. River threw the car around a few bends and Chase and I were thrown around the backseat.

"Are you all right?" Chase asked me.

"No," I answered. "No I'm not." I pulled myself into a seated position, and tried to inhale deeply to calm myself down. "I think I'm going to throw up," I commented. I leaned against my door, head against the cool glass. And then the window started winding down. I leaned my head out of the speeding car, gulping in oxygen.

Chase pulled me in once he was sure I wasn't going to be sick, and wound my window up. "Best you don't lean out for too long," he said quietly. "It's not good practice to hang out of windows."

I shook my head and rolled my eyes. The motion was making me feel ill. Gabe passed me some water from the front seat.

"Thanks," I said gratefully. I uncapped it, and drank half of the bottle down.

"We're going to have to make a hasty exit when we get to the airport," River said to Gabe. "Set it up."

"We can't go," I said. "What about all those people back there?"

"What people?" River's eyes cut to me in the rear-vision mirror.

Gabe groaned. "The people." He sighed. "She's talking about all the women they have trafficked in. That was why Carmen flew us down there in the first place. A shipment of women came in through Cabo san Lucas."

"Human trafficking?"

Gabe nodded. "Yeah, that. Carmen flew in to inspect them. They're all women, collected from around the place. You know... south. Anyway, they are all undergoing breast implant surgery tomorrow for the cartel to insert bags of pure heroin, and then they'll be sent north across the border."

"Jesus Christ," I spluttered. "You're not serious?"

Gabe turned to me. "Deadly."

I started trembling. I had effectively sent those women to their death. They would be cut open in less than hygienic circumstances, given a heroin boob job, and then trafficked to the States. I wound down my window again, this time I really was going to throw up. My stomach heaved, but little other than water came out.