Page 38 of Fast Vengeance

“Tonight. I’ve got men at the house setting everything up for us.”

Manny nodded and turned away to walk through the sliding glass door onto the balcony. Standing at the railing, he gazed at the horizon. The landscape here was lush and green, a tropical paradise he’d missed so much.

Between the tall cypress trees that edged the rear of the secluded backyard of this safehouse, sunlight glittered off the azure surface of the Caribbean Sea. Only a few miles from his final destination, a place he had spent so many happy weeks at with Oceane and Anya over the years.

His daughter had not been there since she was a child, the last time when she was eleven or twelve. Maybe there, if everything worked out, he and Oceane could begin to mend their broken relationship. One baby step at a time.

He would tell her the lies he had carefully crafted, convince her that he had nothing to do with her mother’s death. Show her the fake evidence he had obtained to prove that Montoya had been behind the murder all along. Convince her that as her father, he had sent Arturo there to guard her and her mother, and Montoya was supposed to be there in case they needed to fight their way out.

But then Montoya had allowed his men to do the unthinkable. The man was so vicious and unpredictable, Oceane might believe it once Manny told her about her godfather’s true nature.

She would believe him. She had to.

If not, he would be forced to take more extreme measures to make her stay. Either way, she was staying with him so he could monitor her and eventually show her the true scope of what she would inherit.

David stepped out onto the balcony to join him and took a deep breath of the fresh air. “Feels good to be back here.”

“Yes.” Manny was more at ease now than he had been in months. He was safe here. He had David, the most loyal of his men with him at all times, constantly monitoring the security situation and keeping an ear out for anything about Oceane and the men hunting him.

“They’re distracted,” he murmured to David, gazing out at that speck of blue in the distance. The government, he meant. “Too many targets to hunt.” With any luck, it would take a while longer for them to realize he wasn’t in Veracruz. That should buy him enough time to put his plan into action.

“No one has heard from El Escorpion since the raid on the estate.”

“That’s to be expected.” A man like him, with unlimited money and resources after nearly four years at the helm of the cartel, could be literally anywhere now.

“You think he’s gone to ground? Or is it because you’ve been blacklisted and he’s cut all ties with you?”

“Both.” Manny wasn’t stupid. He had caused the cartel and its leader a lot of inconvenience with Oceane and Anya’s disappearance, and then the bungled op with Montoya.

But all was not yet lost. After an exhaustive and incredibly expensive investigation of his own, Manny was certain he finally knew who the mysterious head of the Veneno cartel was. He had even sent in an anonymous tip to get authorities to act and take some of the heat off him. Looked like it had worked.

“If it’s actually him, no one has seen or heard from his family either.”

Manny shrugged. “Because he’s taken them with him. They’ll surface eventually. At least this gives me something to barter with.” Both with el Escorpion and the rest of the cartel, but also the Mexican and U.S. governments. “Let’s just make sure we’re ready for anything.”

“Of course.”

Manny didn’t want to die or be captured. But desperation had driven him to this decision. He was going forward with his plan, no matter what the risk.

This was Mexico. They were on his turf now, and things worked differently here than they did north of the border. If he couldn’t find his daughter, he would force the Americans’ hand here and make them bring her to him.

****

“Man, it’s like we’re back in Mississippi again,” Granger muttered, wiping his forearm over his sweaty forehead as he tossed his boots to the linoleum floor of the barracks they were staying in. Part of an old military base where they were housed with their new Mexican Special Forces friends. “Muggy as hell. I can practically wring out my shirt and I only got out of the air conditioned vehicle two minutes ago.”

“Beats winter in Afghanistan,” Brock said from the next bunk over.

Granger grinned. “Yeah, okay, I’ll give you that one.”

They had been in Mexico two full days now, and had landed here in Veracruz last night. The government had sent them here based on the tip they had received, and because it was the state where Oceane and her mother had lived. Where Nieto had based extensive operations out of over the years.

From the moment they arrived, Brock and the rest of the team had been getting the lay of the land, monitoring new intel and working all the sources available to them.

“I’m usually right,” he said. “I don’t know why you guys don’t realize that by now.”

Something pinged off the back of his head.

Whirling around, he found Maka grinning at him from the bunk across the aisle from his, his precious Nerf gun in hand. “You gotta be shitting me,” Brock said. “You seriously packed that thing?”

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