Page 48 of Lethal Vengeance
I narrow my eyes at her. “How did you know?”
“The captain of the guard is very fond of money, and Armando doesn’t pay well,” she returns with a delicate shrug. “It’s too late to save them. The captain told me they took them out through the tunnels and loaded them into trucks a week ago.” The weight of this knowledge makes her shoulders droop.
“That’s what the gangs were doing in the tunnels,” Sterling murmurs.
But why? Secret exit through the tunnel. Timing of the cartel. The counts. The pieces swirl round in my head. The one facility is getting him moved up in the ranks giving him more power. That only leaves… money.
“He lined his own pockets first.” Greedy bastard.
Cruz and Sterling nod in agreement.
“We need a plan to get everyone out in less than a week.” Her eyes dart to Cruz and Sterling. “Please tell me you have more than five people here.”
“Four actually,” I say dryly. “Quinn is our contact. Look, we don’t have enough soldiers here. Our specialty is small extractions, not large-scale war. The best we can do is inform our government contacts and get them to move on it.”
Head tilted, she studies me for a few minutes. “Former military, right? If I get you more men, can you lead the attack?”
“Can and will are two different things,” I retort. “Not only would we have to hit the facility—we’d have to simultaneously attack Armando’s place, too. It would require an army and a hell of a lot more time than we have at our disposal.”
“One facility and Armando’s,” Sterling points out. “To take the facility, we’d need roughly seventy-five men?” He pulls his laptop over and brings up the facility.
Knowing it would be futile to interrupt him, I quickly calculate. “Seems about right. Maybe a few more to guard the transports for the victims.” A week to pull off an operation of this magnitude. Normally, I’d say it’s impossible, but we’ve spent the last week and a half studying this facility. We have the intel. And we have two people on the inside.
Shit.
My eyes meet Cruz’ and he frowns, immediately picking up on my train of thought. “With the tight timing, it would be best if Quinn and Raider stayed in the facility. Quinn can use the earpiece to give us information during the attack while Raider disrupts their operations with a little chaos.” I stare steadily at Sterling, waiting for the explosion.
Sterling stands. Eyes dart to mine, a mutinous look in their depths. “No. If something happens, they could be trapped in there. We need to get them out.” Green eyes glare at me while his super intelligent brain starts turning over the new information.
I want to agree, but I can’t. It takes everything in me to say the next words. “If they’re inside, it gives us an advantage,” I insert calmly.
“NO!” he roars, his arm sweeping everything off the table in front of him. “We are not leaving them in there.” Chest heaving, he leans forward and jabs a finger into my chest. Memories of the past strain his voice until he can barely get another sentence out. “There has to be a solution.”
I clamp my hands down on his shoulders to ground him. “It’s their choice. I’ll send in Cruz to ask them.” I pause to let him digest that information. “And he’ll make sure they have a way to escape, if needed.”
Sterling shrugs off my hold. “I don’t like it.” He squats down and picks up his computer. “There are too many variables to safely predict the outcome.” Carefully placing it back on the table, he examines the damage. “If they say no, they come out.” His green eyes drill into Cruz, then slide to me, looking for our agreement.
Cruz and I give him our word.
The girl steps forward. “I need to call my father to let him know I’m out. And to ask for some men. How many do we need?”
“For the facility attack, we’ll need roughly eighty men,” I tell her. “More if we’re going to hit Armando’s home at the same time. Do you have any intel on his place?”
She thinks about it for a second. “No.”
Sterling taps a few keys. “I’ll start working on the location of his residence.”
I hand Margot my phone. “Here. We’ll likely need a hundred men to do what we need, but I can work with eighty, if they’re trained. See how many you can get, and we’ll work on finding the rest.” I study the strong-minded girl in front of me. The determination lining her face reminds me so much of Quinn. “Won’t your father want you to go home where it’s safe?”
She takes the phone and walks over to the window. “My father has been providing me with money this entire time. The only reason he hasn’t attacked is because I asked him to wait.” Her eyes gleam under her blond lashes. “People like me can always find a way out. Money, power.” She snorts. “A ruthless, corrupt father. We have almost limitless resources. The people left in that facility have nothing. Why not save them and get my revenge at the same time?”
Her matter-of-fact tone sends a chill down my spine. From what I hear about her father, he’s a take-no-prisoners type, and she’s a chip off the block. Glad she’s on our side. I leave her to make her call in private.
Cruz is setting the earpieces on the chargers when I walk over to him.
“You okay?”
He flashes me a look I can’t read.
