Page 54 of Buck

Buck went inside and straight to the glassed-in, raised office accessed by a set of stairs where Diego was standing inside motionless in a way that spiked Buck’s threat meter. When they got inside, Buck noticed the devastated look on his face, his eyes glazing with moisture, his phone held loosely in his hand.

“Buck,” he pleaded, ignoring the activity in the warehouse. “You’ve got to help them.”

Buck frowned. “What’s going on, Diego?”

He held Buck’s gaze for a moment, the disquiet in his eyes deepening, then he looked away, his expression taut. “The Sombres. They have Mari and Carmen and are threatening them if you don’t allow the cocaine shipments to proceed to their destinations.”

Everything went dead still for Buck, the sounds, his hands, his heart, and it felt as if every drop of blood had drained from his head. “What? How the fuck?—”

“It’s my fault.” He winced, as if his words had touched something raw inside him. “I should have told you right from the beginning, but I was scared of my dad. He pushed me into this?—”

“Diego! Get to the point,” Buck prompted gruffly, working at pushing his fear to the back of his mind. It wouldn’t serve any of them, including Mari and Carmen. He couldn’t stem the surge of anger that gripped him after the shock of Diego’s words, completely directed at the men who had the woman he loved—yeah, he fucking loved her. But some of that anger was directed at himself for allowing something so horrendous to happen when he’d sworn to keep her and her family safe and protected.

Their kidnapping should have never happened on his watch, and knowing from experience how dire their situation was, he nearly choked on a fresh wave of anguish and remorse. His beautiful Mari and her innocent seventeen-year-old sister were in the hands of ruthless, conscienceless murderers.

When Diego stood there, Buck grabbed his shirt and shook him, his rage flowing hot and fast through his veins overcoming his reason.

“Easy, Buck,” D-Day said, laying his hand on his arm.

He released Diego forcefully, the vision of Mari and Carmen brutalized, mutilated, and dead running through his mind and making him almost lose his temper again. “Answer me, Diego,” he growled, the threat in every vibration of his voice.

He blinked several times, tears running down his face. “I haven’t been paying attention to the shipping. Juan’s second in command took over for me, and I let him do it all. I was more interested in my prototype and my plants. I was so busy. I just didn’t have the time, and he knew what to do.”

“What does this have to do with Mari and Carmen?” he rasped, his voice sounding like rough sandpaper.

His eyes were bleak. “I told Mari, and she was worried this was going to reflect back on us.” He swallowed hard, his devastated eyes staring at nothing, his voice hoarse. “She went to his place to talk to him, to get him to take the manager job officially. I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know. Oh, God. What have I done? My fear of my father has ruined us all.”

His mouth compressed in disgust. “Goddammit,” Buck shouted as automatic gunfire cracked through the warehouse and men scattered for cover. The bullets shattered the glass, and as Buck lunged at Diego and took him down to the floor, D-Day and Blitz followed. D-Day was already up, crouching and moving to the door as two men approached with semiautomatic rifles. D-Day took them both out before they had gotten halfway up the stairs.

Buck keyed his mic, muttering another oath, and relayed all the information to Kat, including what had happened to Mari and Carmen.

“I’m sending some people to evacuate the family and any remaining employees. Get the situation under control.”

“We’re working on it,” Buck said. He turned to Diego. “You’re with us. Stay behind us and move when we move.”

He, D-Day, and Blitz exited, Diego going with them. At the bottom of the stairs several men fired at them from behind machinery. “D, go around and flank them,” Buck said between gritted teeth.

In seconds, Buck heard D-Day’s rifle crack and the sound of bullets hitting bone and flesh. “Move,” he said as they raced toward the other side of the warehouse where PCD, DEA and his buddies were pinned down. There was someone up in the rafters firing down at them. “Blitz, kill that fucker.”

Blitz set up his sniper rifle and took a moment to aim. He slowly squeezed the trigger, and the shot hit the guy square in the forehead. He tumbled from his perch and landed heavily on the concrete floor, blood pooling. Quickly, the warehouse became a buzz of activity. The DEA agents and their dogs were spread out around the building. From what Buck could see, several of the dogs had found traces of drugs.

“Let’s hit the trucks, check out the cargo,” D-Day yelled to the team. Buck hopped up into the back of one of the vehicles and pulled out a bag.

He noticed that the logo was the same, but some of the stitching at the top of the bag used to close it was a different color. He pulled out his combat knife and sliced through the bag. Coffee beans spilled out, along with small packets of white powder.

Kat had been watching the scene from the warehouse floor. “Until we have Mari and Carmen secured, we have to leave these trucks just as they are. Make sure we can find them later.”

Buck gritted his teeth. This whole operation was fucked up. Knowing there was nothing else they could do here, he set trackers on both trucks and jumped down. Buck made his way to where Kat and Joker were talking. He wanted to know if they had found Mari and her sister. Before he could interrupt their conversation, Joker handed him a slip of paper with GPS coordinates and said, “Let’s go. The FBI has tracked the sister’s phones. We have a location.”

It didn’t take long for the team to reach the location, a deserted strip of roadway with no structures of any kind on either side. They found the phones tossed by the side of the road with no idea what direction they went in, and there were no witnesses.

Weary and scared out of his mind, Buck and his team returned to the warehouse they were using as a command center.

16

Mari tried to hold her breath, but it was getting harder and harder to gain any air. Her head was forced under the water in the rain barrel so many times, she’d lost track. Her hands bound behind her, she had no leverage, and the pressure of Dum’s fingers was surely imprinted on the back of her neck. She could hear Carmen pleading with them, her voice clear when she was pulled up, only to go muffled when she was dunked again. Pinpricks of light burst behind her eyes, her lungs filled tight and pushing against fresh bruises. She’d reached the point where her body had stopped fighting for clean air, her blood pounding between her ears. She didn’t struggle, didn’t strain to pull upright. It wasted precious air to the brain.

The man yanked her up, her hair blocking her vision already swimming with stars. She grabbed as much air as she could before that bastard dunked her again, and she had to hold back her instinct to fight to save oxygen. Three more times, Dum shoved her head underwater.

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