Page 39 of No Mistake

“I think I see blood inside, on the floor,” Tyler said into coms.

“Bodies?” Dex asked.

“None I can see.”

“Raven 1 to base. House appears empty, but we see blood inside. Cleared to breach?” Dex asked.

Ryan waited patiently for the reply, eager to get in there.

“Cleared,” Sam replied.

“OK, team, let’s move. Watch your six,” Dex commanded.

The team breached both front and back simultaneously. It took less than five minutes to clear the whole house, finding no one.

“We’re too fucking late,” Ryan fumed.

“Boss, you should see this,” Tyler called out from the kitchen area. Ryan followed Dex to see what Tyler was looking at. The dining table was covered in dried blood, the floor around it, too.

“They were definitely here,” Dex said.

Tyler opened the garbage bin. “Yeah, there’s bloodied gauze, surgical knife, and all sorts in here. This has to be where Chloe patched him up.”

Dex activated coms. “Base. House is empty. They were here. Looks like they left in a hurry. We’ll do a search.”

“What’s the fucking point? They’re hardly going to have left a forwarding address.” Ryan looked at Dex.

“There might be something. Everyone slips up sometimes,” Dex said as the team began to move.

“Fuck this. It’s a waste of time.” Ryan stormed toward the front door.

“Ryan?” Dex called after him.

Ryan didn’t stop.

“Ryan, get back here and search the fucking house.”

He walked out the door, slamming it behind him, ignoring his team leader. Bad move, but right now he didn’t give a shit. Screw staying calm. The clock was ticking for Chloe. The sister of the woman that he couldn’t stop thinking about.

Chapter 9

“You two better start talking right now.” Tracer glared at Juan and Diego. They were standing in the kitchen of the new safe house they’d moved to yesterday. Good job they had, seeing as the other one just got raided.

“We don’t have to tell you anything,” Diego said. “We don’t answer to you.”

“And where exactly is Perez?”

Juan and Diego looked at each other, then both went for their weapons, Tracer anticipated the move and drew his own. What a lovely scene, a standoff in the kitchen.

“You don’t want to do that,” Tracer said calmly.

“Why not?” Diego challenged.

“The boss sent me personally to clean up this mess. A mess that resulted in his son being shot. Under Perez’s protection. As far as the boss is concerned, Perez is living on borrowed time. Now you can keep defending him, but think about what the boss might do next if there are any more fuck ups. Or I could just tell him you’re being uncooperative.”

Tracer saw the moment the two men realized if they didn’t start talking, the head of the Vitelli Cartel would not be pleased, and you really didn’t want to upset him.

“I suggest you lower the fucking weapons and tell me what you know about where Perez is and what the fuck he’s doing. Then we can clean up his mess, get the deal done, and you can go the hell back to Mexico.”

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