Vengeance (SSU Trilogy Book 1) (27 page)

He sat outside on the terrace, his table overlooking the edge of a cliff. To his left, the waves crashed mercilessly against the rocks. The sea was an additional benefit to the fort’s design. It made this side of the property impregnable.

A gull swooped low, diving for the basket of rolls in front of him. Alvarez nodded and his attendant raised his rifle and shot the bird out of the sky. It landed on a thin strip of beach between the jagged rocks below. “Set the dogs on it, after my session with Señor Paterson,” he instructed.

“
Sí, jefe.
”

The sound of booted footsteps on the marble stairs leading up from the dungeons announced the arrival of his guest. A moment later, Paterson was dragged into view. The man wore thick iron manacles on wrists and ankles and his arms were chained behind his back. Bruised, cut skin peeked through tears in his clothing.

Last night, Alvarez had ordered his surgeon to remove the bullets from Paterson’s upper back and thigh. He didn’t want lead shifting inside the man’s body, maybe doing enough damage to kill him before Alvarez had learned the location of the chip.

“Ah, Señor Paterson, how kind of you to pay me a visit.” Alvarez placed the piece of croissant in his mouth and chewed delicately as he watched Paterson’s eyes struggle to focus on him.

“Jorge, how badly did you treat Señor Paterson last night?” Alvarez let a hint of his annoyance creep into his voice. “He lacks attentiveness this morning.”

Jorge’s eyes shifted between the prisoner and his boss. “We worked him for three hours,
jefe
. Just as you told us.”

“Alvarez,” Paterson finally acknowledged. Even slurred, the word was full of contempt.

“So, you do recognize me. Did you enjoy your little talk with Doña Serafina last night?”

Paterson flinched slightly, the only sign that he recognized the name of Dr. Nevsky’s mistress.

“I always suspected someone would come calling on her looking for information,” Alvarez continued. “She knows nothing, of course, but still,” he shrugged. “Since I’m the one who introduced her to Dr. Nevsky, she was more than willing to help lure you into the open. Of course, you should have been more wary after you avoided the first trap so easily.” He hadn’t been certain that having the woman arrange a second meeting would work. Yet she’d played Paterson perfectly, moaning about how scared she was and how she hadn’t known Alvarez’s men were at the café. Insisting that she still had information for him.

The plan had exceeded his expectations. When his men followed Paterson away from the whore’s house, they’d noticed that he picked up another tail. A woman that Jimenez claimed had white hair.

The sister.

Even more astounding, Niko had shown up to rescue the sister.

With a little careful maneuvering, he could get Niko in his dungeons. A piece of revenge he’d dreamed of for years. As additional pleasure, he’d make Madalena watch, then send Niko’s body parts along with a videotape of his dismembering to the traitorous bitch that was his mother.

After all, everything went back to her in the end. She was family. Distant, yes, but blood bound. Fresh out of university, she should have been grateful to be given a position in one of the Alvarez family businesses in Juarez. Instead, she’d befriended a young DEA agent, Leander Andros and started passing the man information about the company’s role in the drug business.

She’d given Andros the information about a crucial shipment going out. Information that led to a DEA raid that destroyed the business and left Alvarez’s older brother dead.

Niko’s death would only be the beginning of the final stage of his revenge against Galena Andros.

Paterson coughed.

But first, he had to deal with the current problem. “Señor Paterson, you were paid to steal Dr. Nevsky’s microchip. You received your down payment. Now you will give me the chip.”

“No.”

Alvarez shook his head in mock disappointment. “Jorge.”

The man stepped behind Paterson. With a quick motion, he twisted Paterson’s right arm up behind his body. Paterson winced, but said nothing. Alvarez signaled Jorge to continue. He kept twisting until Paterson dropped to the ground, head hanging, gasping in pain.

“I don’t have the chip.” Paterson’s voice was harsh, rasping across the ears like sandpaper.

“Don’t lie to me. You told me you were going to retrieve the chip the night of the fire. I know you met with Nevsky before the lab burned.” He buttered another croissant, enjoying the man’s pain too much to hurry this along. Slowly, one small section at a time, he ate the entire croissant. Then, very calmly, he asked, “Where is the chip?”

“I don’t have it!”

Jorge popped the man’s shoulder out of its socket. Paterson screamed, startling a flock of gulls into flight.

“You have until this time tomorrow to reconsider your answer, Señor Paterson. I do hope you reconsider.” He waved his hand and the guards lifted the man to his feet and started to drag him away.

“Jorge?”

“
Jefe?
”

“Let Señor Paterson rest until this evening. Tonight your men may continue to practice their technique on him for two hours only.”

“
Sí, jefe!
”

Alvarez took a sip of his coffee, pleased with the results of his interrogation. It was always disappointing when they broke too quickly.

He stared across the pure, azure water. Of course, Niko and the sister would attempt a rescue. He would allow them onto the property, then see them dragged into the dungeon.

With a wave of his hand he signaled for his attendant to bring him the phone that called inside the fortress.

“We will soon be receiving two additional guests,” he told his head of security. “This is what you will do.”

#

Madalena Andros remained perfectly still, watching from the shadows beside the solarium window. Alvarez was getting careless. Before prison, he’d kept guards on her room to make sure she didn’t wander his home and stumble across sensitive information. Yet, since they’d moved to Ixtapa, she hadn’t been guarded.

In fact, this morning there had been no other people in the hallways at all. Possibly due to the new prisoner. The man, Paterson, was the one Alvarez had told Niko to find. She felt sorry for him, but she could do nothing to help. She would not risk drawing attention to herself and having this freedom taken away from her.

Because Niko was near.

She’d heard Alvarez ordering his security chief to set a trap with Paterson as bait. She couldn’t allow that. It was bad enough that Alvarez had kidnapped her again. For him to get his hands on Niko was unthinkable.

Ah. Of course. That was the real reason she had no guards. Alvarez hoped Niko would come to her rescue.

She’d been witness to some of the atrocities Niko had been forced to commit while undercover with Alvarez. She knew how close her nephew had come to being destroyed by the role he’d played. How he’d fought not to give in to the dark rage that governed so many of Alvarez’s men.

She was proud of Niko and the man he’d become.

No matter the cost, she had to keep Niko away from Alvarez.

Silence from the patio let her know it was safe to move again. Still, she peeked quickly out the window to check that Alvarez had indeed left before she headed down to the kitchen. For all she was allowed to wander around the house, if she tried to step outside, she’d be stopped. So, how could she warn Niko?

#

Tuesday, Afternoon

Acapulco, Mexico

Niko slouched insolently in his chair and ignored the blatant come-ons from the scantily clad waitress. He lifted the bottle of beer up to his mouth and pretended to take a swallow while he watched the entrance from half-lowered lids, wondering if his contact would show up. The man was already twenty minutes late.

If Carlos didn’t show his face in five, Niko was out of there.

To kill time, Niko pulled out his pocket knife and a sharpening stone. The waitress plunked a basket of American potato chips on his table, eyed the knife, and hissed a warning that he’d better not cause any trouble and get her fired. Niko reassured her he would behave like an angel and she huffed off.

Thirty seconds before the five minutes were up, his contact strutted in. Niko sighed. He almost wished Carlos hadn’t shown. The man thought he was God’s gift to the world and had a temper like a cockerel. He was useful, though. A mercenary, Carlos knew just about everything that went on in Acapulco, legal and illegal.

So far as Niko could tell, Carlos didn’t know, and didn’t care, who’d put Alvarez in prison.

“Heh,” Carlos huffed in surprise as he stopped in front of Niko’s table. “So it’s true,” he said in Spanish. “
La mano derecha
is back. You come with
El Jefe
?”

Niko reached out and shook Carlos’s hand without standing up. “No,” he answered in the same language, putting a look of distaste on his face. “Me and Alvarez, we’re through. He had a rat in his organization and the gringo cops locked me away.” He turned his head and spat onto the floor, adding to hundreds of previous wads staining the dark wood.

Carlos nodded. He pulled out a chair, turned it around, and straddled it, leaning his scrawny arms along the top. With a wave of his hand and an appreciative leer, he signaled the waitress and ordered tequila.

“That why you’re back? You want revenge on
El Jefe
?”

Niko shrugged. “Maybe.”

Carlos laughed. “Yeah, you do. Why else you want my help?” He thumped his chest. “Because I’m the best and you need the best to take on
El Jefe
.”

No, if he’d been the best Carlos would be working solely for Alvarez. The men on Alvarez’s payroll were the most violent, amoral, sadistic men Niko had ever met. Each man had a kill specialty. Knives, guns, garrote—the weapon didn’t matter. The team who killed the Patersons was known for scalping their victims. Each of them had had a personal section of wall at Alvarez’s compound in Peru where the scalps they’d taken were displayed.

Niko’s fist clenched around the sharpening stone. He thanked God the compound didn’t exist any more, because sure as shit, Jenna’s family’s scalps would be there.

The waitress returned with the tequila and Carlos sunk his peso notes deep into the cleavage mounding over the edge of her top. She wriggled, laughed and gave Carlos a peck on the lips before she sauntered off. Carlos watched her with a predatory eye that made Niko want to call the waitress back and tell her not to leave the club alone after her shift. When Carlos finished with a woman, she was lucky if she ended up in the emergency room.

Carlos lifted the bottle to his mouth and took a long swallow. “Heh, you’re not alone in wanting to take down El Jefe,” he continued. “Pepe Marone owns half the city now. Word is he’s pissed Alvarez is back. He’s either going to kill him or turn him over to the authorities.”

Niko grunted noncommittally. As satisfying as it would be to let Marone have Alvarez, Niko needed Alvarez alive, at least until he freed his aunt.

“You’re awfully quiet,
Derecha
.”

That’s because you talk too much, asshole.
Niko shrugged and tested the edge of his knife with his thumb. Perfect.

Carlos eyed the knife warily. “If you don’t got something to say to me, I’m gone.” He started to stand up.

Niko pointed the knife at him. “Sit.”

Carlos paused, then lowered himself back onto the chair.

“I was supposed to meet a man last night. Alvarez’s men grabbed him instead. I want to know where he is.” Niko balanced the tip of the knife on his index finger while Carlos watched, mesmerized. For all his toughness, Carlos had a tiny little phobia of knives. Give him a pistol or shotgun, and he was deadly. He wouldn’t run screaming if you pulled a knife on him, but his momentary freeze gave opponents an edge.

“I don’t know anything about this man you claim was taken.”

Niko described Paterson as best he could from his brief glimpse of the man and Jenna’s description of what her brother had been wearing last night. “Jimenez and another man were following him.” With a flick of his wrist, Niko sent the knife in an arc and caught it with his right hand. His other hand pulled some pesos out of his jacket pocket and set them on the table, the movement tugging at the stitches in his forearm.

Carlos grabbed the money. “I’ll ask around.”

“Be fast, Carlos. You’re not the only one I’m asking.” Niko tossed the knife from hand to hand. “I’ll double the money if you’re the first one with the news. Otherwise, you get nothing.”

Carlos’s eyes gleamed with greed. “Understood.”

Niko gave him the number of the disposable cell phone he’d picked up on his way out of the hotel, then watched as Carlos got up from the table and went over to flirt with the waitress before strutting out of the bar.

“Stay away from that one, honey,” Niko murmured when the waitress came over to collect his empty glass. “He’s a killer.”

The woman just laughed. “As long as he pays well, who cares?”

Niko shook his head and made for the exit.

Outside, the sidewalk was crowded. As he turned toward the hotel, a body slammed into him from the side, knocking him off balance. He felt the slight tug as a hand slipped into his jacket pocket, but by the time he’d regained his balance, the person was gone.

Niko continued with the flow of the crowd for a block, then ducked down a side street. He stopped behind a thick tree and put his hand into his pocket. His fingers touched the edge of a note.

He unfolded the plain, unlined piece of white paper.

Your aunt cries nightly for you
, the note said in Spanish.
New terms. Bring me Jenna Paterson and I will release your aunt.
It was signed,
A
.

Madre de Dios.
Niko shoved the note back into his pocket and started walking. Yet his sudden panic didn’t fade. He should have guessed Alvarez would want Jenna as leverage against Paterson.

But there was no way in hell he was letting Jenna anywhere near that bastard. He’d found a charter plane to take Jenna home tonight. He’d worked with the pilot before and the man hated Alvarez with a vengeance. Jenna would be safe with him.