Riding in the ambulance as the paramedics continued to fight for his father’s life. Praying to every god he could think of, and vowing to become the perfect son if only Pop lived.
The sorrow of watching his once active Pop arrive home a thin shell of his former self, now confined to a wheelchair.
Looking back with the eyes of a man, Niko recognized the strength his father had shown. Pop hadn’t railed at fate. Instead, he’d thrown his considerable will and intellect into making the best of his situation. He’d taken the DEA up on their offer of an administrative job and had proved invaluable in analyzing data that resulted in several convictions.
Money had been tight for several years because of Pop’s high medical bills, but throughout it all he’d kept his sense of humor, his love for his family, and his belief in the importance of honor.
Dios
, Niko couldn’t wait to see his family again. Alvarez had enjoyed taunting Niko with progress reports, so he knew that Rafe was in Army Ranger School and Maria was in her senior year of college, majoring in education.
Niko was damn proud of them, but doubted they’d return the sentiment. Of all the family, he could only say for certain that his father still loved him, because the few times Niko had checked in with his DEA contact, the man had passed on a message of love and support from Niko’s father. The rest of the family probably hated Niko. Considered him a traitor.
It didn’t matter.
Niko just wanted to see their faces and know that they were safe from Alvarez forever. Even if he had to speak to them from the other side of protective glass inside a jail.
He sighed. Maybe his restlessness came from his secret hope that he’d get a chance to kill Alvarez during the raid. His boss was currently in residence. If Niko was very, very lucky, the raid would occur before Alvarez left.
What better way for the crime lord to die than during a massive gunfight?
Chapter Three
Andes Mountains, Peru
T
wo days later, Niko was working at his desk and scowling at the stack of reports in front of him. Who’d have suspected that running a criminal organization required so much damn paperwork? The place—
Bam! A heavy impact shook the building. Dust rained down from the ceiling. Seconds later, the warning system that indicated a hostile attack blared its distinctive alarm over the public address system.
Niko rushed to the window and saw military helicopters swooping across the back edge of the property. As he watched, one of the helicopters fired a missile toward the upper level of the giant stone fortress.
Idiots! Hadn’t they received the word that there were women and children living here?
Cursing, Niko quickly activated the special link to the security system that he’d painstakingly set up with a little help from a hacker recommended by his DEA contact. He typed a series of commands into the system, then logged out. The commands would disable the security system and take down the phones. Then it would start transmitting all of the data on Alvarez’s computers to a secure DEA server.
Niko grabbed his pistol, made sure his knife was still strapped to his ankle, and headed out of the room at a run, staggering as another blast shook the building. Alvarez’s emergency plan called for Niko to head to the security room and take control of securing the inside of the building, while Alvarez would make his escape through a tunnel that led to a distant helipad.
Screw that. Niko was done following orders.
As far as he was concerned, this attack set him free. He might die trying to get himself and his aunt out of here, but he wouldn’t obey one more goddamned order from Alvarez.
He passed a group of grim office workers. A few of them took a look at Niko’s face and shied away from him. No doubt from the feral grin he felt splitting his face. Five years of reining in his hatred had formed a toxic cesspool at the bottom of his soul. Now that deadly mix of hate, shame and despair boiled up, threatening to overwhelm him.
Keep it together. You don’t want to scare Aunt Madalena to death. Wait until you’ve got Alvarez in your sights before you lose it.
Several minutes later, an announcement came over the public address system, first in Spanish and then in English, telling people to surrender quietly. Good. His Trojan software had given the authorities the access they needed.
Niko left the administration building through the underground tunnel and headed toward the housing complex, passing a number of groups of panicked people along the way. When they looked to him for instructions on what to do, Niko slowed down, schooled his features into a more civilized expression, then told them to gather in the large cafeteria.
This latest group consisted mainly of women from the housekeeping and administrative staff and their children. “If the authorities come inside, you’ll be safer in one room where you are out of the way of any gunfire,” he explained. He told himself he wasn’t worried by the fact he didn’t hear any sounds of fighting. “If our men succeed in driving back the authorities, they will let you know over the public address system when it’s safe to come out.”
Niko made a shooing motion with his hands when the women just continued to stare at him. “Go!”
Finally, one of the women reacted. She grabbed the hand of the young girl next to her and took off at a run toward the cafeteria. With any luck, the raiding party would find the women and treat them as the victims they were, rather than criminals. The women deserved a better life. Their only mistake was working for a monster like Alvarez. None of them had participated in any illegal activities. They’d just been working here in order to feed their families.
Setting aside thoughts of the women’s futures, Niko entered his security code into the locked door at the end of the tunnel. A second code overrode the emergency lockdown instructions.
The door clicked open and Niko raced through. He left the door unlocked, in case he needed to come back this way with Aunt Madalena. Then he made a beeline for his aunt’s room.
A
lvarez had just spilled his seed and rolled off of Madalena when the bedroom shook. She gasped as the bed swayed with such force that she had to clutch the covers to stop herself from rolling into Alvarez. She wanted him as far away from her as possible, even though this coupling had been more about control than violence.
“What’s happening?” she cried out as the bed shook again. “Is it an earthquake?”
Alvarez jumped to his feet, cursing under his breath as he searched for his pants. A second later, the emergency alarm blared through the loud speakers.
“We are under attack,” Alvarez snapped. “Get dressed. We’re leaving.”
Freedom!
The last thing she wanted to do was escape with Alvarez. Whether government forces or a rival criminal gang, Madalena would rather throw herself on the mercy of the attackers than go anywhere with this monster. But from the tight set of his jaw, she knew that if she tried to run now, Alvarez would shoot her with the pistol he held in his hand. She had no idea where the gun had come from, but even though she was reasonably certain that he’d only shoot to wound her, she needed full mobility so she could escape when the opportunity presented itself.
Catching the clothes that Alvarez threw at her, she quickly put them on. As soon as she slid the last button through its hole and slipped into her ballet flats, Alvarez grabbed her arm. “Hurry. We must make it to the escape tunnel before the way is blocked.”
He hustled her through the maze of corridors to a section of the building that she’d never seen before.
“Attention. Attention,” a voice blared in Spanish over the loud speaker. “This is the Peruvian military in conjunction with the United States Drug Enforcement Agency. We have the compound surrounded. Please exit quietly with your hands on your head.”
Alvarez swore and ran faster, his iron firm grip on her arm forcing Madalena to keep up with him.
Overhead, the message repeated in English.
Madalena looked for a chance to escape, but the long corridors left her no place to hide. She was still trying to figure out how to break free when they reached what looked like the door to a linen closet.
Alvarez pulled open the door, revealing a sleek elevator. After shoving his gun in his waistband, he entered a code onto a small keypad in the wall to the right of the elevator, keeping his punishing hold on Madalena’s arm. As if he knew she planned to run.
The keypad gave out an angry beep.
Alvarez muttered a curse and tried again.
Another beep.
Alvarez went very still. He took a deep, shuddering breath. Shook out his hand. Then tried the code again.
This time a flashing red light went off overhead as a different alarm sounded.
Alvarez smacked the control panel with his fist, then tried to pry apart the elevator door with his fingers.
Madalena used his distraction to pull against his hold.
Alvarez backhanded her. “Stay still! Or do you want to be captured and put in jail? Or worse, die when the government sets the building on fire?” He pulled her toward the elevator. “Help me get these doors open. The system has frozen me out.”
“Have you lost your mind?” she snapped. She’d never seen Alvarez in a panic before. Furious, yes. But not so scared that he couldn’t think straight. “We can’t force apart steel doors. Isn’t there another escape route?” The man was paranoid when it came to his safety. He must have other ways out of the building.
Alvarez glanced around, as if not certain of their location in relation to the rest of the fortress.
She let out a wild laugh. “You don’t know where the next escape route is, do you? The mighty Jaime Alvarez, lost within his own fortress.” She made an exaggerated show of looking around. “Where are all of your guards? Where are all of the staff that should be filing out of their rooms? They’ve all abandoned you, Alvarez. You’re under attack and they’ve left you to suffer alone.”
“Shut up,
puta
.” Alvarez hit her again. While she struggled to regain her balance, he pulled the pistol out of his waistband, tightened his grip on her arm, and dragged her back the way they’d come.
A
unt Madalena wasn’t in her room, but from the lingering scent of sex and cologne, Niko knew that both she and Alvarez had been here recently. Cursing, he spun around and stepped back out into the eerily quiet corridor. He glanced left and right, trying to decide which way they’d gone. If he were Alvarez, he’d head to the nearest secure elevator that led to the escape tunnel.
Not that the elevator would do Alvarez any good. The program Niko had loaded into the security system would lock out all codes but the new one he’d set for himself and the assault team. He ran around the corner and into the corridor that held the elevator, but immediately stopped. Flashing lights and a blaring alarm indicated that someone had already tried to access the elevator.
Damn. There were too many ways that Alvarez and Aunt Madalena could have gone from here. Wait. He sniffed the air. There. A mix of his aunt’s perfume and Alvarez’s cologne.
Grinning like a fool, Niko prepared to play bloodhound.
The warnings to surrender came again over the public address system. Niko didn’t want to be caught running through the halls holding a pistol when the assault force came to clear the building, but he wasn’t going to give up his chance to get his aunt away from Alvarez. Hopefully, he’d catch up to them before they reached the outside entrance.
But luck wasn’t with him. Niko lost the faint scent trail a few corridors later. He glanced out the nearest window and saw chaos in the enclosed courtyard. Men in military uniforms traded fire with men wearing the uniforms of Alvarez’s security forces. A few women huddled with children in the corner, trying to hide behind some potted trees.
No way would Alvarez willingly step into that mess. Too great a chance he’d take a bullet. Or that a government agent would see him and capture him. The tunnel to the administration building was open, but only because Niko had left it that way. Alvarez would assume that the tunnel’s electronic door, like the others, would also be locked against him.
So where would he go?
Niko peered out the window again to orient himself. The administration building was to his left. The infirmary straight ahead. The armory and garage over to his right.
The escape tunnel ran below it all. Wait. Below…
Yes. The dungeons.
Niko turned right and sprinted for the stairs that would take him down to the basement. The dungeons here in Peru weren’t as old as the ones in Mexico, but Alvarez had kept the old-fashioned locks that required heavy metal keys. Which meant the dungeons were the only place where you could access the escape tunnel without having to enter a security code on an electronic access panel.
Niko yanked open the door at the end of the hall. The motion activated overhead lights in the stairwell were already on. Good. Alvarez had come this way. Stopping for a second, he listened for any sound that indicated the crime lord was waiting below, close enough to shoot him.
When he heard nothing, Niko clambered down the stairs as fast as he could without falling headfirst. He paused again to listen at the bottom of the stairs. This time he heard the low murmur of voices and the creak of a heavy wooden door.
He crept forward and snuck a look into the antechamber. Alvarez stood directly across from Niko with his back turned. One of Alvarez’s hands pulled on the giant door that opened into the section of the dungeon block that led to the escape tunnel. His other hand held Aunt Madalena’s arm in a death grip.
The breath stilled in Niko’s lungs. This was it. He had a perfect shot. He raised his pistol. He could end decades of terror this man had caused his family. No one but his aunt would ever know for certain that Niko killed Alvarez. Even if people suspected who’d fired the shot, Niko wouldn’t care.
The monster would finally be dead.
Shooting a man when his back is turned is dishonorable.
The voice of his conscience sounded an awful lot like his father.
You shame the family even thinking of such a thing.