Dead Heat (36 page)

She looked at him skeptically. “That’s what Ryan said.”

“I mean, another person was involved. Someone with detailed information about the DEA operation, when they were going to hit, where they were going to be.”

“You’re talking a handful of people, many of them decorated federal agents.”

“And corruption always finds a way. What do you know about Sam Archer?”

“She knows Kane and Jack. Especially Jack.”

Sean raised an eyebrow. “Really.”

“I don’t know much about her, but psychologically I don’t think so. She was stunned—in shock—when Brad was kidnapped.”

“Maybe she was the leak but didn’t expect Sanchez would kidnap a federal agent.”

She considered that. “Maybe. But I still think it’s someone in the McAllen office. The information about the warehouse was cleared because it was a place already on their radar, and then we confirmed it from the trash at Sanchez’s ex-girlfriend’s house and a McAllen snitch.”

“And that’s the dead giveaway. Sanchez didn’t trust that whoever put together the leak could get Donnelly to the location, so he planted the additional confirmation.”

“That’s…” What could she say? She wanted to say the whole idea was crazy, but she knew it wasn’t. “Possible,” she finished.

She looked down the hall to the room where Padre had taken Michael. They’d been in there a long time—nearly an hour.

“I don’t know if we can save him.”

She didn’t realize she’d spoken out loud until Sean said, “Donnelly?”

“Michael. He just turned thirteen. He’s hardened. He’s seen things—maybe if we can get him to talk about it, if we can get him into counseling or—”

“Or someone like Padre?”

“Yeah. Someone like him. Who understands. And it helps that he had a good relationship with Father Flannigan.”

“I called Kane,” Sean said, “told him about Brad. He already knew, he was already looking. If anyone can find him, it’s Kane.”

“I can’t leave him behind.”

“You can’t go for him.”

“If he’s not dead, Michael knows where he is. Michael knows Sanchez, where he hides, what he’s up to. And I don’t see Sanchez killing his prize quickly. They want information—and they’ll torture Brad to get it. I doubt they care about the gangbangers Brad arrested on Saturday. This is about Brad Donnelly himself—otherwise they would have kidnapped the first two agents who went into the junkyard—or killed one and grabbed the other.”

Something tickled at the back of her mind, but she couldn’t figure out what was bothering her. She’d seen something or heard something that made her twitch … she was missing a clue.

She rubbed her temples.

“You haven’t eaten,” Sean said, kissing her forehead. “You have a headache.”

“I’m okay.”

He was about to argue with her when the lights dimmed and the security box near the front door turned from yellow to red. Someone had breached the perimeter.

Sean ran to the computer station and typed in codes to see where the breach occurred. He pulled up the camera feed. Then Lucy’s phone rang with an undisclosed number.

“Kincaid,” she answered.

“It’s Kane. I’m here. Didn’t want to set off the alarms.”

“You already did,” she said. Then to Sean, “It’s your brother.”

Sean swore under his breath and took the phone from Lucy. “You could have given me more warning. Okay, I reset the system. Come on up and I won’t shoot you.”

Lucy went down the hall and knocked on the door of the bedroom where Padre and Michael were quietly talking. A long minute later, Padre opened the door. Michael stood next to him. His eyes were red, but he had a determined expression on his face.

“Kane’s here.”

Padre nodded solemnly. “Michael has information, and we all need to hear it.”

CHAPTER 30

Lucy couldn’t stop staring at Kane. He looked exactly like Sean, except older and rougher around the edges. He had the same dark hair—cut shorter—and the same intense deep-blue eyes, but hardened. He had the same dimples in the same places and even the same small mole on his right temple.

They had similar mannerisms, even though Kane was fourteen years older than Sean and had been in the Marines before Sean started school. The Rogan genes were strong.

Except … Sean smiled more. He didn’t have the hard lines etched in his forehead. Though Kane was fit, he was underweight, all hard muscle that wasn’t readily visible under his black T-shirt. Sean worked out in a gym and ate well, while Kane likely ate military rations and fresh food only when he could get it. Kane was a soldier through and through, his attitude more Jack than Sean.

It was clear that Sean both admired his brother and harbored an uneasy suspicion. Why? Because Kane himself was suspicious, vague, and tense?

Kane gave Sean a hug and slap on the back, then did the same with Padre. “Good to see you,” he said. He looked at Lucy, and she couldn’t tell if he was smiling or scowling. “So you’re Jack’s little sister.”

“Lucy Kincaid,” she said and extended her hand.

He shook it and said, “I’m truly glad to meet you. Jack is a good man.” The comment sounded like he was saying
Jack is a saint.

Jack was no saint, but he was one of the few people Lucy trusted beyond all others.

Kane eyed Michael.

Lucy said, “This is Michael Rodriguez. He’s the boy I’ve been looking for, the one I told you about. Padre found him.”

“We found him,” Padre corrected. They sat around the small table in the kitchen, Sean within arm’s reach of the security system. Padre turned to Kane. “You came alone?”

“I left my men in town for recon. We’re running out of time and I need information. The raid was a setup, through and through. The entire plan was to kidnap a federal agent. They will kill him; they may already have.”

“They gave us twenty-four hours,” Lucy said.

Kane deadpanned her. “You think they’re honest?”

“No, but—”

“However,” he continued as if she hadn’t spoken, “they’ll kill him in a public way after torturing him for information and pleasure. This is a federal agent, they want the shock factor, the power of the capture. It’ll demoralize the feds and empower the cartels. I think he’s still alive, but he won’t be for long.”

“They didn’t target just any federal agent,” Lucy said. “I think they specifically wanted Brad Donnelly.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.”

“If it’s a personal kidnapping, that might change the dynamic, but not the final outcome. Why do you think they targeted him specifically?”

“A gut feeling. I had a sense that Donnelly had more than the usual reasons for going after Sanchez. And when they learned that Vasco Trejo was behind this, he and Samantha Archer both got excited. As if the connection between Sanchez and Trejo made other things click into place for them. They didn’t tell me what.”

“I know Archer,” Kane said, and left it at that. He looked at Michael. “You know where they took him.” A statement, not a question.

Michael didn’t say anything. He wasn’t like any thirteen-year-old Lucy had met. He was more man, a small man, with hard, dark eyes and scars, inside and out.

Michael looked at Padre while fingering the medal of St. Jude that Lucy had given him. She didn’t know what Padre said, how he made the connection, but he gave Michael a nod, then said to the others, “Michael wants to help us, but he also needs our help. Michael, tell them from the beginning. They already know about DeSantos.”

Michael took a minute, drinking the water that Padre had given him. “Charlie DeSantos wasn’t my original CPS counselor,” he began. “I went through a couple, then had a really nice woman—” He looked at Lucy. “—like you. Pretty and everything. She hooked me up with Hector and Olive.

“Then she left, moved or something, and Charlie started coming around. At first I didn’t think anything was weird. Two months before I ran away, at Christmas, Hector and Olive told me they wanted to adopt me. My dad said no, then said he’d think about it if I’d come and see him. I hadn’t seen him in three years, I didn’t want to.” His face darkened. “He used to hit my mom. She cried all the time. I wanted to kill him.” He glanced at Padre and seemed torn about whether he should have said that. “I’m not sorry for thinking that.”

“You’re doing fine, son,” Padre said.

Michael stared at his hands as if counting the hairs, then a minute later spoke. “So I went to see him and he told me when I was twelve, I’d have to pick up the slack. I had no idea what that meant, and he didn’t explain. Just that I was his son, and I would do what I was told. He said Charlie would tell me what to do.”

Michael drank water, his jaw so tense Lucy could see the small veins throbbing beneath his skin.

“Charlie came to the house once when Hector was working and Olive was at the church and I was doing homework. He said my dad had made a deal with an organization that I would work for them. I told him to fuck off. He told me I had no choice. If I didn’t go, my dad would be killed. I said fine by me. Then he laughed and picked up a picture of me, Hector, and Olive. And I knew that he didn’t mean my real dad. Charlie said that the court had agreed to sever parental rights, and that cleared the way for Hector and Olive to adopt me, but that it would never happen because they’d be dead if I didn’t do exactly what he told me to.”

Michael looked at Padre, his dark eyes searching for answers that Lucy didn’t know if any of them had. “I had to do it. Maybe I didn’t really believe him at first, but then—well, I believe him now. I wasn’t the only one. There were dozens of us.”

Kane asked, “What were you required to do?”

“Harvesting. Bringing in drugs. I worked in the fields for months. Some of us, they take away, I don’t know what they do with them. I never seen them again. I don’t think they kill them, because when they kill one of us, they do it publicly. In front of us, to teach us to obey. To make sure we do what we’re told. We’re hybrids, you know. We can look Mexican or American. We can blend better than anyone. And when you know someone will die if you don’t behave, well, you do whatever they want. And some of the boys—they didn’t have a Hector and Olive to protect. They did it to survive.”

“How did you end up in Jaime Sanchez’s basement?”

“A month ago I took something from the general.”

Kane leaned forward. “Trejo?”

Michael shrugged. “We call him the general. I don’t know his name. He’s an American, but pretends to be Mexican. Charlie worked for him. Jaime. We all work for him.”

“What did you take?”

“A box. I thought—well, I wanted to escape. Me and some of the guys had a plan. I couldn’t trust everyone, because some of them would rat on you so they got stuff. Like more water, a cot, blankets, stuff like that. But there were some of us who vowed to stay together no matter what. We all wanted to go home. There was this black box that the general had. He kept saying it was his future. After we did a hard job, we got to spend a night in his mansion. Eat good food on dishes at a table and stuff. So I volunteered for a job, and did it well, and got into the mansion. I stole the box, and when I was sent back to the camp I hid it.”

Lucy asked, “What was in the box?

“Computer disks. CDs or DVDs, I don’t know, and that’s what’s so stupid about what I did. I had no way of looking at anything. No computer, no television, I would have put them back if I had a chance.”

“Were they labeled?” Sean asked.

Michael nodded. “But I didn’t know what any of it meant. They were names and dates, but I don’t remember any of them.”

“How many?”

“Fifty. It was one of those CD boxes you can get at the store, with a little lock on the front with four numbers. You spin them around.”

“You knew the code?” Sean asked.

“No. I played with it until I figured it out. Three-one-eight-one.”

“Do you still have the box? Is that why they wanted you so badly?”

“No. I gave it back because he knew I’d taken it, and he threatened everyone. The general rarely came to our camp, but he did that day. Even though I gave him back the box, I thought I was going to die. He didn’t shoot me—he killed Javier. My brother.” His voice cracked, just a bit.

“Brother?” Lucy asked quietly.

“Blood brother. More than real brothers. I ran that night with Richie, just ran and left the rest of them. I can’t—” He stopped, looked away.

Padre reached out to touch him, but Michael hit his hand away and jumped up. “They found us. Shot Richie and left him by the side of the road. Said they would make me watch them kill Hector and Olive, that they had one last job for me, something that would take vengeance on the general’s enemies and forge a new alliance. That’s what Jaime kept saying.”

“What?” Kane asked sharply.

“I don’t know! I just know that I would be dead when it was over. It was a suicide job, and I had no choice.”

“What did you plan to do when Bella let you out?” Lucy asked.

“I was going to tell Hector and Olive everything, but … I sensed Charlie might be around. And I realized he would kill them if he knew I talked to them. Or he would have all my brothers over the border killed. Maybe they’re already dead! I should have died with them!”

Kane stood up. He walked over to Michael. The boy flinched, but then stood straight, as if prepared to take a beating.

Kane knelt in front of him, making himself shorter than the boy. He took Michael firmly by the shoulders and said, “These men are evil. You are not the first they have taken; you will not be the last. But if you have the stomach to save your brothers, we will save them.”

“They have dozens of armed soldiers. They’re across the border. There’s no way to stop them.”

“There is always a way. We need to know where they took the federal agent.”

Michael frowned. “I thought you said you’d help my brothers.”

“We will. But the agent has a ticking clock. He will be tortured and killed. I need to know where.”

Michael looked at Lucy, then Sean, then Padre. Finally, he stared straight in Kane’s eyes and said, “I’ll take you.”

*   *   *

Sean found Lucy thirty minutes later outside, staring at the stars. “We’re ready. You should stay,” Sean said.