Just a Kiss (28 page)

Flaco widened his eyes.

“Yes, he wants me to train all of his men to be like me. There would be nothing to stop him then.” He adjusted the towel on his waist. “Rafael is only looking out for himself. I’m his blood,
and look at me. Look how he treats me. You are no one, so do you think he’ll care if you get eliminated? If he doesn’t even care about me.”

“I don’t believe you, Pancho,” he shook his head in disbelief.

“Do you remember what he said earlier? He said that I had betrayed him. You were here, and heard it for your own self.” He started to walk towards them.

Flaco raised his rifle, and shouted, “Stay there, and don’t move. I don’t want to shoot you, but if I have to, I will.” He walked back slowly, and said, “Just get the boy, so we can go our own ways.”

“I’ll get the boy. But you know that it won’t be the last between me and Rafael.”

Chuy
opened the door, and Flaco followed right behind him, shutting the door.

Chapter
41

Reinforcements and explanations

Pancho
wasted no time getting the information for the U.S. Marshal’s office in Laredo. He made the phone call, asking to speak only to the Marshal in charge of the Celina Gonzalez case. After waiting for several minutes, his call was connected to Xavier’s cell phone.

“My name is Francisco Guerrero, I am a former U.S. Navy SEAL and I don’t have much time,” he spoke clearly.

Xavier became emotional, and began to scream over the phone.
“What have you done with Celina
,
you asshole?”

Pancho shouted over the phone in a stern tone, “IS THIS THE MARSHAL IN CHARGE? IS THIS THE MARSHAL THAT WAS IN HARLINGEN, AT THE
Blue Rock Night Club
? OR SHOULD I HANG UP?”

Xavier took a deep breath and lowered his voice when he heard that he would hang up. “Yes, I am in charge, and I was the one who was at the club.” His voice was cooperative.

Pancho continued speaking in a stern tone. He didn’t shout anymore, since Xavier stopped shouting himself. “Like I said earlier, my name is Francisco Guerrero, and I need for you to meet me in Brownsville. I need your help. How fast can you be in Brownsville?”

“First, tell me about Celina. Is she okay? Is she still alive?”

“Yes, she is still alive. But she is no longer in my possession, the cartel has her, and I need your help to get her back. I don’t know who to trust, because they have many people on their payroll, including high-ranking individuals. I will need your help in setting a meeting up with the police chief of Brownsville. Can you do that?”

“Yes I can, but you know that I have lots of questions for you.”

“Yes, I know you do, and I will answer all of them when we meet in Brownsville. But for now, when you talk to the police chief, tell him not to mention your conversation with no one else. At this point we cannot trust anyone else, at least not now. Do you understand?”

“Yes, I do. How can I contact you?”

“You won’t be able to, just give me your cell number, and I will contact you when I get to Brownsville.”

Xavier gave Pancho his cell number, and hung the phone up.

When Pancho arrived in
Brownsville, he located a payphone and called Xavier to meet him at the police station parking lot.

Several minutes later, based on the description Xavier had given Pancho, he spotted Xavier’s navy blue truck. Pancho walked over, and tapped on the passenger’s window.

Xavier unlocked the door, and Pancho got in. It was an awkward moment for both of them, but they had something in common. Pancho could sense there was tension in the truck, and wondered why he was so upset instead of happy to see him.

“So you’re the SEAL guy?” Xavier’s voice was cold. He looked him over the best he could, since it was dark inside the truck. “
A SEAL
, and the cartel took her away from you?” His voice was sarcastic.

“Look that wasn’t my fault! Celina opened the door to what she thought was room service while I was in the shower,” he retorted. “I got ambushed, unarmed, and undressed.

Xavier took several deep breaths, and gripped the steering wheel.
Fuck! Did this guy screw her?
This guy was in the shower. What the fuck does all this mean? Son of a bitch, Celina.

Pancho could sense that something was not right with Xavier, when he saw his chest heaving. “I was told by Celina, that you were her best friend’s brother.”

“Yes,” he replied, also wanting to add that she was going to be his girl after he divorced his wife.

“This is a long story, but in order to get her back, I need to trade her for the police chief’s son.”

“WHAT? Do you actually think that the chief is going to let us take his son to exchange for a woman he doesn’t even know?” he pushed his cowboy hat off his forehead. “What kind of a SEAL are you?”

Pancho said in a stern voice, “I’m going to dismiss your last comment, because it doesn’t matter what you think of me. And no, but we do need to tell him that his son is in danger. I’m not the only one that is supposed to be after him. I understand that another guy who’s looking at moving up rank within the cartel, is after him too. So either I get to him first or the other guy will. At least with me, he’s safe.”

“What is it with this kid? Do they want some favor from the chief?”

“No. I wish that would be the case. But the kid has a rare blood type, just like the Gulf Cartel leader’s younger daughter. And that little girl needs a kidney transplant, and something else, but I don’t remember.”

“You mean Canales? You’re talking about
el
mero
chingón
?”

“Yes, the big man, the Gulf Cartel’s leader. And even with all the money in the world, they can’t buy that for his daughter. They need to take it. And they will.”

“And how do they know the blood type of the chief’s boy?”

Pancho threw his head back. “Are you serious? Like I said… they have many people on the payroll. More than likely, they paid someone at the hospital or at a doctor’s office for that info.”

Xavier shook his head and looked out the windshield. He let out a deep breath, and said, “I’m exhausted. I’m frustrated. Valeria and Celina can be a handful at times, but this situation here took the cake with lots of cherries on top.” He then hit the steering wheel hard.

“Don’t worry. We’ll get her back. Do you know if the police chief is here?”

“No, I sure don’t.”

“Let’s get down and have a talk with him. I have a plan.” Pancho grabbed the door handle.

“Wait just a minute.” He took a deep breath.

Pancho let go of the door handle, and sat back.

“How did you get involved? I’m just trying to figure all this out.” He rotated his index finger in the air.

He nodded his head in agreement. “My cousin, Rafael, is a high-ranking lieutenant with the Gulf Cartel. And since my return from the service, he has been trying to get me to join him. He wants me to train all of his people with the skills that I have learned as a SEAL. I am not like him, but that night at the club, Celina walked up to my table, and just kissed me. She blew my socks off.” A smile came over his face, as he remembered the moment. “From that night on, Rafael knew that he now had something that he could use on me. For two months, he had nothing and could do nothing to get me to join him, until Celina walked into the picture. So he had her kidnapped, to use her as his bargaining chip, in exchange for an assignment that he needed to have done.”

Xavier shook his head.
So this is the guy
,
Valeria had said
,
that Celina had kissed because she thought he was handsome.
“So here we are in this fine mess, all because of one kiss.”
I hate this guy.

Pancho opened the door, and said, “We’re wasting time. Let’s go talk to the chief.”

Clarifying

Hours had quickly
passed, in the preparation for the exchange of the boy for Celina. It was six in the morning, and the horizon was lit in hues of red and orange, as the sunlight was breaking day.

Pancho cleared his throat, preparing to call Rafael on the cell phone they had given him back at the hotel. He dialed, and waited for someone to answer. “Yeah, this is Pancho. I need for you to meet me at seven in the morning at the Gladys Porter Zoo.”

“It’s not where
you
want to make the exchange. It’s where
I
say,” stressed Rafael.

“Well, in a short amount of time, I did the impossible, that couldn’t be done by your people. So do you want the kid or not? I hear that
El R-
Veinticuatro
also wants to give the kid as a gift to Canales himself. I can cut the deal with him and Canales, and they can make you give me Celina. In the end, I still get what I want.”

There was some silence. “The exchange was going to be at the warehouse. You know exactly which one.”

“Yeah, I know which one, but I want to make sure you don’t double cross me. I want it in a public place, so I’m picking the zoo, and the earlier the better for me. I will leave your tickets on the windshield of my
padrino’s
red truck.”

“Sorry about them,
primo
, it was nothing personal.”

“Yeah, right,” he snapped. “Anyway, only VIPs get in this early. So those are special tickets. Without those, you can’t get in. So, I will see you at the gorilla exhibit.”

He breathed out in irritation. “Yeah, we’ll be there,” he said, and ended the phone call.

Chapter
43

The exchange with fireworks

Pancho had decided on the city zoo, because the layout would allow SWAT to hide in the subtropical vegetation.  After Pancho had explained to the chief of police what his plan was, they had no problem making those arrangements, since the zoo belonged to the city. The mayor approved, realizing that the Chief’s son was in danger, and felt confident since there was a SEAL on the mission. The bonus would be if they were to succeed, they would be capturing one of the drug cartel’s top dogs.

After the necessary preparations had been made, SWAT, along with Pancho and Xavier, arrived at the zoo, two hours before the meeting with Rafael. They orientated the team, and undercover officers were given zoo uniforms, in what they could find to pose as zoo employees. SWAT and the officers were instructed where their designated stations would be. All zoo animals remained locked up for their safety, and the only people allowed in during those hours would be police officials dressed as zoo employees. 

“Does anyone have any questions?” Pancho inquired. He looked at each face that stood in front of him, to make certain that everyone knew what they were supposed to do. “Okay, report to your posts and stay alert.”

Pancho’s gaze drifted back to Xavier, who was wearing beige zoo coveralls, staring right back at him. “You ready?”  He asked Xavier.

Xavier took a deep breath, and said, “I swear, this plan of yours better work, dude. If not, we are all fucked, and I can’t guarantee what I will do to you, if you get Celina killed.”

Pancho stepped forward, stared right into Xavier’s eyes, and said, “Dude, with these people, you don’t know what to expect. She could be dead already. With the cartel, there never is a guarantee.”

Xavier had no reply. He turned on his heel and left to his post.

Pancho walked over to the gorilla exhibit, holding the hand of the boy, who wore a red handkerchief over his face, and dark sunglasses. They waited for what seemed like eternity, but actually only twenty minutes had ticked away, according to his black
Luminox
SEAL’s dive watch.

“I know you must be tired of standing, so if you’d like, sit on the floor, and keep your hoodie on,” Pancho said in a stern voice, as he kept a look out.

“I’m feeling claustrophobic with this handkerchief over my face. Those guys aren’t here yet, so let me take it off for a few minutes.”

“Jorge! This is no time to fuck around. A simple little slip like that and you can jeopardize this mission. It’s not like you have a plastic bag over your head. Believe me, I should know how that feels, okay.”

“I’m getting nervous with this waiting, Pancho. I’m having second thoughts, dude. I feel like I’m going to throw up.”

“I know. I owe you big time, Jorge. Just keep in mind how you are helping in saving a few lives today, okay.”

“Oh my God, Pancho, is that
them
coming?”

Pancho had already spotted them and was accessing the situation.
Thank God Celina isn’t in that white bathrobe that they took her in
,
he thought
.
She was wearing a blue simple sundress.