Deadly Ties (31 page)

Promptly at six thirty, Karl Masson called Frank’s cell phone.

“Juan.”

A shiver snaked up Karl’s back. “Why are you answering the phone?”

“Did Señor Chessman not call you?”

“No, he did not.”

“He was supposed to call you.”

“Where’s Frank?”

“He got the virus like some of the cargo. Vomiting and the loose bowel. He was going to continue, but Señor Chessman said all the cargo would be sick and a driver would meet the truck in Orange.”

“One did, I take it?”

“Sí. Señor Frank left and the new driver is here now.”

“Who is he?”

“Señor Bandit.”

“Put him on the phone.”

“He wishes to speak to you,” Juan said.

“Yeah.”

“Identify yourself,” Karl said.

“Bandit.”

Already suspicious, Karl went into full-protection mode. “Mission?”

“Shifter.”

“Authorization code?”

“Alpha 263891.”

Karl weighed Bandit’s reaction. He hadn’t hesitated or paused. He was legit. Chessman could have spared Karl some serious anxiety if he’d bothered to phone him, but the man was in jail, and for the sake of appearances, some conventions had to be observed. He might not have had the opportunity.

“Fine,” Karl told Bandit. “Drive south on Highway 77 to Victoria.” Then he gave explicit directions to a ranch. “It’ll take just over three hours. You’ll meet a pickup there and then get right back on the road.”

Originally the plan called for the truck to stop overnight, but taking on added cargo in Jackson had eaten up too much of their time. The boss had allotted five hours for road emergencies, detours, and traffic. The cargo addition in Jackson had burned up four of them.

“After you meet the truck, you’ll be heading south on Highway 77 again. If you’re told anything different, you stop and call me immediately.” Chessman wasn’t taking kindly to Karl’s promotion, and he wouldn’t be above setting him up for a failed mission to shove him out and Chessman back into place. “Need anything repeated?”

“No sir. I’ve got it.”

“Fine. Call in once you clear Victoria, and I’ll verify your instructions.”

“Yes sir.”

Karl ended the call and started to dial Chessman, but an incoming call diverted him.
Dutch
.

The man was more trouble than the job was worth.

Unless you need him to take the fall
.

The minute he determined he wouldn’t need Hauk, he’d activate a plan to take him out. Because the man annoyed him, but also for Annie. The bottom line was he liked her. She was a good woman with really bad judgment. But she deserved better than she’d gotten from Dutch.

NINA won’t like it
.

He didn’t care. She reminded him of Angel. Angel hadn’t gotten a chance. Three short months and cancer claimed her. The kids went to live with her parents—he was on the road all the time. He lost everything that mattered to him: Angel and their kids. Seeing them a couple of times a year just wasn’t the same. No. If Annie survived, she would get a real chance. She’d earned it.

Angel would have liked that.

Even now, he missed her. A hard lump rose in his throat, sank deep into his hollow chest. His eyes burned, and he blinked hard and fast. He’d always miss her.

The phone rang again. Grateful for the distraction, he thumbed the screen and answered. “Yeah?”

Hauk prattled on for a long moment.

Weary of listening to him, Karl interrupted. “She’s alive, but there’s been no change.”

“And Lisa?”

Karl paused a long second, then told Hauk what he most wanted to hear. “Suffering.”

As Karl hung up, the reason he should kill Hauk became clear. Annie made a slave of herself to honor her God and to spare her daughter—something Karl’s parents never would have done for him. Even after Lisa left home and Annie could have escaped, she’d stayed and kept her vows. The woman had integrity, honor, and a love of family like his wife.

And that likeness made Annie too good to be stuck with scum like Dutch Hauk.

Karl shifted on his seat. No one had rescued Angel or him, but if Annie lived, he would rescue her. And he would kill Hauk for only one reason.

Because he could.

23

T
here’s the ranch.” Juan pointed through the window. “Why are you stopping here?”

“That’s what the man said to do.” Mark pulled as far off the shoulder as he dared, then put the truck into Park. If they could get through this transfer, the women would be safe, and their part would be done.

In a cold sweat, he adjusted the mic. “Joe, you prepared if the need arises?”

“Always, bro.” A short pause, and Joe added, “Think steel.”

“Ditto.” Mark typically would. But Lisa was in the back of the truck.
Lisa
. There was no steel in his arsenal when she was involved.

A cloud of dust lifted on the road near the ranch house, and a truck like the one they were in came wobbling toward them. If there were women in the back of it, they were getting one rough ride.

It seemed to take forever, but finally the driver pulled onto the highway and stopped behind Mark. The back ends of the two trucks faced each other.

Mark got out and walked to the rear.

The other driver met him. They exchanged code and mission names, and Mark asked him for the authorization number before he could ask Mark. After he reeled it off, the man opened the rear door of his truck.

Empty.

Panic surged inside Mark. No way was he letting the women transfer vehicles. “What’s the plan?”

“You give me the women and go.”

“No.”

The man was huge: broad shoulders, barrel chest. His face was pocked with scars, and his forearms, bare from rolled-up shirtsleeves, were riddled with thin white scars. Knife slashes.

“Not my orders,” Mark said.

“Just testing you, man.” He smiled and grabbed an ice chest from the passenger seat. “Here you go. Stash it in the back. I need to verify your cargo.”

Mark opened the door and stepped aside.

The other driver pulled out a piece of paper and glanced at the photos of Lisa, Gwen, Amanda, and Selene. “Who’s she?” He pointed to Roxy.

“A bonus.”

The driver frowned. “No bonus, man. You follow orders. That’s all you do.”

“No choice. She spotted us at a stop and was trying to call the cops.” Mark squared off on the guy. “You want me to cut her loose?”

“No.” He shot Roxy a glare that had her instinctively backing into the truck. “Report it next call.”

“Will do.” He stared at the white cooler. “What’s in it?”

“Does it matter?”

“Not to me. But if it’s explosives, I want to know.”

“It’s not.” He sniffed.

Cocaine
. “Got it.” Mark reached for the door, then swung it shut.

The other driver shut the back end of his truck. “Later.” He got into his truck and then drove away.

Mark paused by his rear panel, out of the man’s sight. “Everyone okay, Roxy?”

“Scared but okay. Better drive south as instructed. We could be under observation.”

He hadn’t noted anyone following. “Okay.” He tapped the gas pedal, headed down the highway. “Joe, have we picked up a stringer?”

“Negative, but I’ve got a weird feeling.”

“Me too.”

“Learn anything on the other women?” Roxy interjected.

Mark hated to say it. He’d have a war on his hands. They’d insist on continuing, and he wanted them out of this. “No.”

“What’s in the ice chest?” Roxy asked.

“He says it’s not explosives. That’s all I know, but he sniffed. I suspect it’s cocaine.”

“I’m going to bust the lock and check it out.”

“Don’t.” Joe responded before Mark could. “We show up next stop with a busted lock, and you women are dead.”

“What if he lied? We could be sitting on C4 or nitro or something.”

“Calm down, Selene.” Lisa shouted to be heard over the mumbles going on in the back. “We’re precious cargo. They’re not going to blow us up. They wouldn’t get paid.”

“Lisa’s right.” Gwen added. “It probably is drugs. We’re worth more alive to them.”

“Whatever it is doesn’t matter.” Mark paused. “We’re done. This is as far as we go.”

Dead silence.

Finally Roxy responded. “Lisa, Gwen, and Selene want to keep going until we locate the others, Mark. If we hope to damage their operation, you know we need them.”

Mark hit the brakes, pulled off the side of the road, and stopped. He jumped out of the truck and then jerked open the back door. He found Roxy and leveled her with a glare.

“We are done. It wasn’t a suggestion and I wasn’t asking. Human trafficking, death fights, and now drugs? I’m not letting you get them killed, okay? I won’t do it.”

Joe appeared at Mark’s side. “Take a step back, bro.”

Mark didn’t budge. “X factor,” he repeated the team’s code to relay an eerie certainty that something had gone wrong, a mission had soured, a leak that could kill them had occurred, and it was time to abort the mission.

“Okay, then.” Joe blinked, then blinked again. “We’re done.”

Roxy opened her mouth to speak, but Lisa stayed her with a hand on her forearm. “Let me.” When Roxy nodded, Lisa made her way to the door and then hopped out.

“Here we go.” Joe’s voice was grim.

“Don’t worry,” Mark told him. “This time I’m not being led anywhere. I’m keeping my nose.”

“Whatever you say, bro.” Joe stepped back a bit.

Lisa glanced between the men, then faced Mark. “Honey, listen—”

“No, you listen.” He frowned down at her. “We’re done here.”

“All right then.” She looked up at him, cocked her head. The wind caught her hair, half pinned up, half fallen down, and tossed it in the breeze. “We’re done.”

“Lisa!” Selene sent a charged look at Gwen. “It’s our choice too.”

“I agree, but Mark is experienced at this type of thing, and if he says we’re done, then we should listen to him.”

“Okay,” Selene said eventually, then shrugged. “Sorry, Roxy.”

“Good.” Mark gave Selene an emphatic nod. Relief swam through him and he turned to Roxy. “We’ll get the next set of instructions, and you can have agents waiting to step in for the three of them. Your people go on; we go home.”

Lisa nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

She was too calm. Too agreeable. Lisa Marie Harper didn’t behave this way. “What are you doing?” Mark slung a hand at his hip. “Are you pulling reverse psychology on me, trying to mess with my head? If so, knock it off.”

Her jaw clamped down tight. “Fine. Then you just answer me one thing.” She folded her arms over her chest. “When these substitute agents are in the truck and it stops, and some guy carrying a gun looks in and doesn’t see our faces”—she waved between her, Gwen, and Selene —“why isn’t he going to slaughter them right there? This one didn’t shoot us, but will that next one not kill them?”

Mark’s shoulders slumped, and he glanced over at Joe, whose raised brows proved he didn’t have a good answer. “They’ll be armed.”

“Certainly they will,” Lisa said. “But as soon as the agents show their weapons, they’ll be shot first. If they don’t, they’ll be dead before they can pull them. So either the next link to NINA is dead or the agents are. Maybe both. And then what happens to those other women? How does Roxy find them? How do they get home?”

He hated it when she did this. Fought him on straight logic. “They don’t.”

“Which is exactly why I don’t have to persuade you. You see the wisdom in our going on until we know where those women are. We can stop now, of course, and we will if you insist, right?”

“Yes,” Selene said.

“Absolutely.” Gwen nodded.

Lisa turned back to Mark. Slowly and deliberately, she linked their pinkie fingers. “But if we do stop here, NINA will abduct and ship more women.” She expelled a frustrated breath. “I don’t want to have nightmares forever about them, Mark. I don’t want our life together stained with the guilt of not stopping this because I was afraid.”

“You could get killed.” He shook their twined fingers loose and clasped her arms. “Do you get that?” He glared at the other women. “Do any of you get that?”

Lisa frowned up at him. “How could we not get it?”

Mark squeezed his eyes shut a long minute, then opened them again. “What if something goes wrong? On operations like this, unexpected things happen. Things out of our control. What if—?”

“You fail to protect me?” she asked softly so only he could hear.

Agony tore his insides to shreds. “Yes.”

“I’d rather die trying to stop this for good than live with knowing I didn’t even try out of cowardice. I don’t fear death. It’s life that scares the fool out of me.”

Joe started to intercede, but Selene pointed a “don’t do it” finger at him. “The fact is, there are fates worse than death, and we were about to experience them. We know the dangers and risks. We want all of the women free. To get them, we must do this. It’s the right thing.”

Joe stared at Selene a moment, then swiveled toward Mark. “Forget it, bro. When women team up like this, you can’t win.”

Mark’s sigh heaved his shoulders. “There’s still a problem. Juan says Masson doesn’t give them instructions on the routine two-hour stops. Frank just knew where to go. I’m supposed to be one of them, so I should know them too, and of course I don’t.”

“I think I can help with that,” Lisa said. “They’ve all been convenience stores, and unless I’m mistaken, they all belong to Dutch.” She turned to Roxy. “Can’t you get Beth or somebody to run the records and find his stores along the route?”

“Sure.” Roxy looked at Mark. “We’re set for a joint effort with Mexico. We’re in an observe-and-advise capacity, so that should diminish the risks.”

“You know that’s absurd.”

“We’ll do what we must, Mark. Additional resources have been allocated. But that’s the official line to avoid tangles on both sides of the border.”

“There.” Lisa looked back at Mark. “We’re good, then.”

“Yeah, we’re good.” He snarled. “But this is not good, and don’t think you’re going to do this to me all the time.”

“Do what?”

“Twist things around so you’re leading me by the nose.”

She looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Lisa.”

“I said we’d do whatever you thought best.”

“Get in the truck, Lisa Marie.”

She crawled back in through the rear door and then turned around to face him. “You still adore me, right? You don’t much look like it at the moment, but that’s just because you’re worried, isn’t it?”

She seemed pretty worried herself. He kept his tone razor sharp but linked their pinkie fingers. “Quit pushing me, woman.”

Lisa smiled, touched her lips to his fingertips, then released his hand. “I adore you too.”

How did she do that? His mind turned to mush every time he got close to her. Grumbling under his breath, he turned and was half surprised to see Joe still standing there.

“You’ll get used to it,” Joe said. “You won’t ever walk all over her, and that’ll keep you humble.”

“Is that what you’re hanging here to tell me?”

“No.” Pity flashed through Joe’s eyes. “Tim called. Mandy’s broken off their engagement. She’s met a man she can’t live without.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Afraid not.” Joe swatted at a mosquito on his neck.

“How’s he taking it?”

“Pretty messed up. I’ve got to call him back, so if you want me, stick your hand out the window to signal.”

“Sam and Nick are there. Can’t Tim talk to them?”

“Not without Peggy and Nora overhearing. Cupid and Rambo need to stay in the dark, at least until Tim quits bleeding. He’s talking to Beth.”