Page 50 of Sovereign Oaths

It could literally be anything. Another ugly car. Extra hair gel. Overpriced shoes. Weapons. Drugs. We had no way of knowing without locating the delivery.

“Ugh,” I groaned. “Let’s update Javi. He can assign someone else to dig in. Hopefully, it has nothing to do with Dias.”

Cruz grabbed my phone and called him over the car’s Bluetooth.

“You guys good?” he asked in a rush.

“Yeah, the tracker’s placed, but I heard something weird on my way out.” Cruz repeated what he’d told me. “It’s probably nothing but might be worth looking into.”

Javier was quiet for a long time before he sighed. “Can’t they stop for just one day?”

I laughed at his exasperation. “I’ve been thinking the same thing.”

“Derek, take over.” The sound of rustling in motion filled the car, and I heard Em moan.

“Are you guys fucking right now?” Lucky bastards!

“Until we were rudely interrupted. Now they are, and I’m back to working,” Javi grumbled and slammed a door. “Right, I’ll let the delta team know. They’ve been following a few leads on Brazzi, so I’ll have them monitor for anything interesting. Maybe it’s a birthday gift for his grandma and not a new type of bomb.”

“Sounds good.” I turned onto the road back to the marina. “How’s Dias?”

“He’s all over the place.” Javi sighed again.

We were all reaching the ends of our ropes. We needed a break. A vacation. Maybe just a day off.

“He’s trying to repair his warehouse, keep up with his normal inventory and shipments from Cuba, and he just got word from his team in Mexico about additional threats.”

“From us?” Cruz perked up.

“Yeah, they know it’s the Velez, but they still don’t seem to understand the gravity of their situation. Dias definitely doesn’t. We listened in on a call where they were basically begging him for instructions. They have no idea what to do other than hold down their territory, but apparently, we now control the local airport. They can’t get deliveries that way anymore.”

“What a mess.” I couldn’t help but laugh.

“There’s more,” Javi continued, excited. “He negotiated with the gang for peace on the night of Em’s birthday party.”

“Really? What were the terms?”

“He gave up some of his territory here. Part of the area around the docks. Now his crews will have to go one specific way to avoid crossing into the gang’s area.”

I parked, and Cruz and I laughed.

“What an idiot,” I said.

“I know. His men are pissed. Almost everyone we have tracked has made a comment or two about how unstable he is. He’s oblivious too. All reports for the past two days have come back that he’s extremely distracted. Constantly checking his phone and on edge.”

“That’s perfect. We’ve got one thing going our way.”

Allowing him to dig his own grave was getting easier and easier. If we could focus our attention on him, we’d be home by the end of the week, at the rate he was self-destructing.

“Hurry back, and you might be able to join in. We were just getting started.”

I cut the engine as Cruz swung his door open. “Hurry, or I’m leaving you behind!”

Javi laughed. “Better catch up. You can update me later.”

I ran after Cruz, locking the car behind me, and leaped into the boat as he pulled away from the dock. “Damn it, you couldn’t have given me a few more seconds?”

He chuckled. “Nope.”

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