No Good Deed (36 page)

She looked from Nate to Jack. “We have to find a way to warn him!” Her voice cracked. “He needs to know that he’s as much a target as Kane.”

“He’s always been a target, because he’s Kane’s brother and he was in Mexico when Kane raided Trejo’s complex.”

Why didn’t they see what she saw? “Rollins wants Sean to get their money. It’s the only reason she would stay local when every cop in every agency is looking for her. We’re talking about over ten million dollars. Money that she would consider
hers
and that Sean has the skills to retrieve. I think this whole bounty on Kane was initially because she thought Kane took the money. Sean told me”—she glanced at Nate, then continued—“that there were some operations where he hacked into a cartel’s account at the behest of Kane.”

“I’m aware. That’s long in the past. RCK doesn’t sanction those actions anymore. We can’t, not with our relationship with federal law enforcement.”

“But
Sean
did it, not Kane—yet they might think it was Kane because he took responsibility for the theft. He’s the face behind the Trejo raid. So they wanted him to get their money thinking
he’s
the one who took it. Now they have discovered that it was a quasi-sanctioned federal operation, and that Kane
didn’t
do it. Sean did.”

Jack didn’t say anything for a minute. He and Nate exchanged looks and Lucy wanted to scream. Did they think she was paranoid? She knew she was right. Deep down she knew that as soon as Nicole hacked into Dunbar’s hard drive, she would realize it was Sean who took her money.

Jack said, “I’ll call Padre. He’s the contact for the team. The first place they’ll go is Hidalgo.”

“Okay. Okay.” She took a deep breath, let it out. “Thank you.”

Jack took her hand. “I’m not going to let anything happen to Sean.”

She didn’t say anything. Jack couldn’t make a promise like that. Hundreds of cops were looking for Nicole, combing through her contacts, her family, her cases. Everyone wanted her caught. Lucy believed in the system. There were more good cops than bad. No one was going to stop looking until they found her and put her in prison for life.

But between now and then? Sam Archer was dead. Barry Crawford was dead. How many people did Nicole hate enough to kill? No one Lucy cared about would be safe as long as Nicole was alive.

Prison hadn’t stopped Nicole before; it wouldn’t stop her now.

*   *   *

In the deep darkness, Blitz set a fast, steady pace down the mountain. The three of them wore night-vision goggles. The air was warm, there was no breeze, and every footfall sounded like a cannon, but they moved as quietly as possible. Blitz took the lead, Ranger the rear.

Sean realized that he was ill suited for this kind of work. His specialty was computers and electronics. Give him a security system, he could hack it. Give him an airplane, he could fly it from anywhere. He’d even go so far as to say he could survive in the wilderness if he had to. But military-style operations weren’t his strength, and he could count on one hand the number of ops—outside of being the getaway pilot—he’d done with Kane. And that included the raid of Trejo’s compound three months ago after rescuing the boys.

He trusted Blitz and Ranger because Kane did, but he recognized that Kane’s men had formed this line with him in the middle because Sean wasn’t a soldier.

Stop second-guessing yourself, Rogan. Kane is your brother. You can do this.

It was the fear that they would find Kane dead that terrified Sean most of all. He didn’t want to fly his brother’s corpse back to Texas. Kane was a loner with many friends. Friends like Ranger and Padre and Blitz and Jack, who were soldiers and comrades. But Kane still had an aura of loneliness. He kept the family at arm’s length, and while Sean knew some of the reasons, he didn’t completely understand. He wanted to. He admired Kane, respected him, was frustrated with him, but mostly he didn’t want to lose him. It bothered Sean greatly that he was closer to Lucy’s brother Patrick than to any of his own brothers. He was closer to Jack than he was to Kane, and Jack and Kane were two of a kind. Except—Jack didn’t keep his family at arm’s length. Jack recognized that family mattered, that family made life better.

There was nothing Sean wanted to do more than marry Lucy. Getting Jack and Patrick and the others as his brothers was icing on the cake.

He had a lot to ask Kane. Things he’d tried to get him to talk about before, but Kane refused. Like about their parents’ plane crash sixteen years ago. About their older sister Molly’s overdose even farther back. About what had happened to make Kane hate their brother Liam, and if that event had forced Liam into what was essentially an exile in Europe. Sean wanted to understand some of the choices Kane had made and why. Kane never talked about himself, but Sean had to change that.

Blitz put his hand up. Sean stopped walking. No one moved for a long minute. In the distance Sean could hear vehicles, but he saw no lights and no people. Then Blitz motioned to move forward, but at a slower pace.

They stopped several more times. Sean’s nighttime hearing sharpened—he heard voices in the distance, two or three men talking. A distant sound of a jeep. Sound carried faintly in the still night. He began to sense the same movements that Blitz did, as if his dormant instincts had kicked into high gear.

It took them seventeen minutes to reach a ditch next to a road not much better than the old dirt road Sean had used as a runway earlier. This road wound across the mountain, from the base to the top, but parts of it were extremely steep and narrow with areas barely the width of a vehicle. They didn’t use the road coming down to avoid being seen, but in a pinch they could use it going back up. They were nearly two miles from the plane, shorter as the crow flew.

Blitz motioned for them to drop. There was movement in the canyon in front of them, then the headlights of a vehicle swooped right over where they’d been standing. Soon Sean couldn’t hear anything but the whine of a jeep that hadn’t been well maintained. The sick fumes of exhaust as it passed them made Sean’s eyes water. The jeep stopped twenty yards away and three men got out. They left the lights on but turned the jeep off.

The three were talking and smoking. Sean didn’t understand everything they said—they spoke in rapid Spanish. But Blitz listened intently. A radio buzzed and one of the men responded with an affirmative, then all three started down the other side of the embankment and into a dense grouping of trees.

Blitz spoke so low Sean almost couldn’t hear him.

“They’ve narrowed the search to this ravine. They’re close, we have to go now.”

He turned to Sean. “Stay here.”

Sean opened his mouth to argue. Blitz said, “You can hot-wire that jeep, can’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Be alert. No guns unless absolutely necessary. Radio silence. We need fifteen minutes, max. I’ll signal you on the radio when we’re one minute out. That’s how long you have to hot-wire our transport. Don’t approach the jeep until my signal.”

Sean nodded his agreement. Sean understood the reasoning—Sean was the expert on cars and planes. But he didn’t have to like it.

“Rogan, I need to know that you can protect yourself if necessary.”

Sean knew exactly what he meant. He dipped his head once.

“If we’re not back in twenty minutes, leave the jeep, get back to the plane, and go.”

“I’m not leaving without Kane,” Sean whispered.

“Do as you’re told,” Ranger said. “We’ll get Kane out.”

Thirty seconds later Blitz and Ranger were gone, thirty degrees south of where the three men had headed.

Sean waited.

He didn’t wait well.

But he waited.

Five minutes later a burst of gunfire came from the direction Blitz and Ranger had gone. Sean had his gun in hand and scurried out of the ditch toward the jeep, staying low to the ground. There was no signal to hot-wire the jeep, and if he turned it on too soon it might alert a patrol. That’s when he noticed that one of the three men who’d gotten out of the jeep was standing by a tree on the other side of the embankment, smoking. An AK-47 was strapped over his shoulder. Sean couldn’t see if he also had a sidearm. He was frozen in place by the gunfire, which stopped as quickly as it started. The trail of cigarette smoke moved slowly in Sean’s direction. There were shouts in the distance, but Sean couldn’t hear what they were saying. He couldn’t even tell if they were speaking Spanish or English.

Sean remained flat on the road. If he stood up, the movement might startle the guard. He quietly holstered his gun and unsheathed his knife, remembering Blitz’s admonition. Sean didn’t know what was happening in the ravine. He didn’t want to think about being the last man standing. He didn’t want to think about fucking this up and risking all their lives.

His heart pounded so hard that all he heard was blood rushing through his veins. He willed himself to calm down. Focused on the guard across the road. Focused on what he had to do as soon as Blitz gave him the signal.

He looked at his watch. Only eight minutes had passed. Fifteen minutes, Blitz had said. Did he know exactly where Kane was? He’d done recon, and they verified with Sean’s GPS, but what if Kane had moved in the last hour? What if he’d lost his watch? What if he was dead?

Had Blitz told Sean everything he knew?

Sean pushed his doubts aside and focused on the guard. By concentrating on the immediate threat he slowed his heart rate enough that he didn’t feel the pressure of his own fear.

The guard’s radio transmitted static, then a voice.

The guard answered. Sean made out a few words.

Gone.

The marine.

Camp.

At least that’s what he thought, his Spanish was very rough.

Then he heard an order, didn’t know what it meant until the guard tossed his cigarette after crushing it against a tree and started toward the jeep.

Sean’s radio beeped twice in his pocket.

The guard pulled keys from his pocket and was about to hop into the jeep.

Sean crawled closer, staying low. But his movement caught the attention of the guard. He shined a light into the ravine. “Jose?”

Sean jumped to his feet as soon as he reached the jeep.

The guard jumped, whirled around and fumbled with the gun that was strapped to his back.

If you hesitate, you’re dead.

Kane had beaten that message into Sean’s head during training. Sean didn’t hesitate. He used his momentum to grab the bar of the jeep and swing his legs around to kick the guard in the chest. The guard spun around and fell to his hands and knees.

Don’t hesitate.

Sean let go of the bar as the guard shouted once for José. Sean tackled the guard, pushing him fully to the ground, facedown. The guard swung his hand around, holding a switchblade. He stabbed at Sean, slicing his arm. Sean reached forward and slit the guard’s throat. Warm blood shot out, soaking the ground, the coppery stench burning Sean’s nose. He was breathing hard, feeling disconnected from his body. His arm burned from where the guard had cut him. Sean jumped up and heard more gunfire, this time much closer.

He was about to hot-wire the jeep but saw the keys in the dirt. He picked them up and stuck the key in the ignition. It turned on the first try.

Sean dropped his knife between the seats and pulled his gun, expecting trouble to burst onto the road.

A voice came through his radio. It was Blitz.

“Now, kid.”

Ten seconds later Blitz came through the trees. He didn’t have his mask on, and his eyes were wild but determined. Right behind him was Ranger half carrying, half dragging Kane. Sean put the jeep in gear and started rolling forward as Blitz helped Ranger put Kane in the back. Ranger jumped in next to Kane and Blitz ran around to the passenger side. Before he was even in, he ordered Sean, “Go, go, go!”

Sean drove. He didn’t spare a glance at Kane. He thought his brother was alive, but he couldn’t tell. The road ahead was treacherous and he could easily flip the jeep, killing them all. Or drive off one of the sheer drops. Or worse, not kill them—and then the cartel would catch up to them and torture them before putting a bullet in their brain.

Stop. Focus.

Driving always calmed Sean, even driving through difficult terrain. He went faster than he should, getting a feel for the jeep and what it could do, how it could take the turns. The dirt road was deeply rutted and strewn with rocks and branches and shrubs growing out of shallow holes.

A ping on the metal of the back reminded Sean that people were after them.

“They’re everywhere,” Blitz said, his voice grim.

“Kane?” Sean asked.

“Alive.”

That was it. Blitz was focused on the surroundings. He fired a couple of times and Sean didn’t know if he hit anything or was trying to chase their attackers into the shadows.

Another ping and Sean felt something hit his face. Shit, that hurt. Blood dripped into his eye and he absently wiped it off. He didn’t think he’d been shot; it was a ricochet off metal.

He dared to speed up.

“Slow down,” Blitz said.

“I got it.”

“There’s a ninety-degree turn ahead, sheer drop to the left. Slow down!”

Sean eased up and shifted gears. The jeep whined.

Then he saw the curve.

“Shit!”

The road was so narrow the jeep could barely pass. To the left was the drop, to the right a ravine. The road was at an angle, and the jeep was top-heavy.

Sean speeded up just a bit. He was close to the edge and didn’t dare look down.

Blitz was swearing under his breath, and Sean could have sworn he heard Ranger recite some Bible verse in the back.

Sean became one with the jeep. He understood its limitations and its strengths. He leaned away from the curve as the rear tire dipped off the edge. If he slowed, they’d be stuck or worse, spinning and slipping down the mountainside.

“Downshift!” Blitz said.

Sean ignored him. If he downshifted, he’d slow for a second and they’d be toast. Instead he pressed on the gas and their momentum propelled them forward and out of danger.