Tijuana Nights (The Nights Series Book 1) (28 page)

I saw Chase looking at me across the car, and I gave him a tired but emotional smile. I felt like crying, God knows why. I needed some sort of release.

No one spoke ‘til we hit Tijuana city.

“Turn left here,” Gabe directed. That brought me out of my daze, and I started to pay attention to where we were going. We were quite close to the US border, driving through a different warehousing area. I could see crappy housing that all looked the same lining the border into the distance. I never wanted to live in a place like this. I questioned whether or not that was from my experiences here, or whether I actually just didn’t like the place. I couldn’t really tell the difference at the moment, and nor did I want to try.

It was quite dark in the city now, and Gabe was still giving directions. Finally River pulled to a stop and parked the car under a large tree, giving us some cover. I could hear people somewhere. Muffled cries, shouting, and some cheering. It was as if they were watching a football game. It was a weird notion to consider, especially when we were as good as homeless here now, with nowhere to go. Everyone else carried on with their lives, while we had just been in a big shootout with cocaine sculptures, and blown a house up.

River and Chase got out and walked around to the back of the car, opening the boot. River passed bags to Chase, and lifted up the wheel housing. I strained to watch over the backseat. There was a lot of different shit in there; more grenades, guns, ammunition, something that looked suspiciously like a detonator. River handed me two small Glocks similar to the guns that I had used in the warehouse earlier. Chase opened my bag and pulled out my Cleopatra styled wig, throwing it to me. He then chucked a small clear packet of bobby-pins as well. I got to work immediately, blindly pinning the wig to my head. I had no idea how it looked or if it was even sitting straight but I did my best.

I turned to Gabe. “This look all right?”

Gabe looked up from his iPad, and gave me a quick nod of approval.

I slumped back in my seat and rifled through the bag for a change of clothing. “What exactly are we doing here, Gabe?” I noted that someone had also included my double gun holster as well, and dumped that on the seat beside me.

He gave me a cursory glance before he returned his attention to his screen. “River’s pissed. No…scratch that. He’s on the war path. He loved that house, and he’s more than fucked off that they managed to trace us, which gives us the insight that they have more cards up their sleeves that we were prepared for.” He blew out a big sigh, and looked up at me. His eyes were sad, and he looked tired.

“So… we just go in there and take them down?” I found some jeans, and switched into them in the back seat. I then shrugged off the sweatshirt, clipped the holster to me, and pulled on a leather jacket that Chase had packed.

Gabe shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m not one of the action men around here.” He shoved his thumb towards the direction of the boot. “They are. I do what I’m told.” He jabbed a finger against the screen a couple of times, and then looked back up at me. “This time it’s personal,” he whispered. “They fucked with River directly, and now they’re going to get what they deserve.” Something beeped, drawing his attention back down to the device. “Fuck me,” he muttered. “Damn. Damn, damn, damn.” He put the iPad down while I looked at him questioning what the hell was going on.

Gabe got out of the front seat, and walked around the back to River and Chase. “They know who she is,” he said quietly. I almost couldn’t hear him, but when I saw their faces, my blood ran cold. Everything seemed to slow. They were talking about me. My mouth was dry, and I desperately needed to think – to figure out what this meant.

I quickly pulled on some boots without zipping them up, and got out of the car, lighting a cigarette.

“How?” River asked.

Gabe shrugged. “Looks like they ran facial recognition software on her and pulled some records. Driver’s licence, an arrest from like twelve years ago, and passport information.”

I walked up behind them, my hands shaking, and my skin tingling.  “I was never charged,” I muttered.

River looked sharply at me, and shook his head. “It no longer matters,” he stated. “Gabe, wipe the records. Too late now of course, but we don’t want any of that to come up in the future.” He looked back at me. “You know what this means, right?”

I looked between him, Gabe, and then Chase. Slowly I shook my head.

“It means,” Chase said softly, “that unless we deal with them, they will hunt down all of your friends and family, and use them against you until they get what they want.”

I dropped the cigarette on the ground, and mashed it with my boot. “But they’re in England.”

“Doesn’t mean they’re untouchable,” Gabe stated. “They will hunt every known associate down, and kill or torture them one by one until you come out of hiding. That is what these people do. No one is safe.”

My mind flicked to Elsie, and my throat closed up. I didn’t want anyone to hurt her, let alone look at her the wrong way. She was the sweetest and most caring woman I had ever known, and she had raised me as one of her own when I had lost my parents.

I pressed the heel of my hand against my forehead and gritted my teeth. I couldn’t think clearly. This was all getting too damn complicated. I refused to cry. This was not the time. Anger flared inside of me. “What do we do now, then?” I asked through gritted teeth.

‘We take ‘em out,” Chase said plainly. “Now.”

I stared at him, wondering if I’d misheard, but from the way he looked at me, it was clear he was deadly serious.

My phone started ringing in my pocket, and I reached for it, giving the others a confused look. It was an unrecognised number, which wouldn’t have been too hard, considering no one really knew this number except for the people standing around me. “Hello?”

“Ciara.” Someone sighed deeply. I looked up at River in alarm.

“Yes?”

“It’s Alvarez,” he said. “We still haven’t had our dancing date yet.”

A part of me felt relieved to hear a friendly voice at the other end of the phone, but I also knew that I didn’t give him my number. Hell, I didn’t even
know
my number. As River moved closer to me to listen in on the call, I collected myself. “Lovely to hear from you,” I said quietly. “You’re right – we haven’t.”

Alvarez chuckled. “Been busy, have you?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

“I have time now, if you’re free?” he said suddenly. “Come meet me.”

I gave River a panicked look, but he just silently nodded. “I just have to wrap something up, but you caught me on a good day,” I answered. “Where should we meet? Your place?”

Alvarez laughed outright then. “No, no. I’m working late – so you can meet me here.”

He gave me the address, and I repeated it back to him before ending the call.

“Fuck,” River muttered.

“What?” Chase asked.

“He gave her the address of the warehouse we’re about to go to.” He blew out a sigh, as I stared at him.

“He knows, doesn’t he?” I whispered, my heart racing.

“I would say so,” River responded, gripping my shoulder with reassurance. “I guess all we can do now is what we came to do. Then we get to fly home.”

I swallowed. “Can’t we just go now?”

River moved in front of me, putting his other hand up on my shoulder, and looked me in the eye. “I know this is hard, Mack, but they will never, ever stop. There is nowhere in the world they can’t find you. They have their hands in every pie. We need to finish this before they get to your friends and family…and before they eventually catch up with you.”

I clutched my arms to my chest. I felt like I was going to faint. I avoided looking at him, and stared at the ground. “Can I stay in the car?” I asked in a small tight voice.

Chase stepped up behind me, his hand around the small of my back. “You will never have closure from this unless you do it yourself. It’s better to see things with your own eyes, instead of constantly being haunted by it.”

I turned to him. “I don’t want to go in there. I have seen enough death and bloodshed today to last me a lifetime.”

“And you will see a lot more if you don’t help us end this.”

I gnawed on my bottom lip as I considered his words. The gravity of the situation was quickly becoming a reality. I looked at the three men standing around me. Chase with his ability to quickly and accurately analyse every situation, his extreme emotional intelligence, and his ability to care deeply and yet kill with calculated precision. River, the role he’d played in getting me to come to Mexico and becoming my mentor, protector, and voice of Zen-reason. And then there was Gabe, the American hacking guru who moonlighted as a diversion for those he loved, and who was always quick for a light-hearted laugh. They all looked back at me now, their features solemn as I considered my options.

They had my back, I realised. Completely and utterly. They considered me one of their team, through and through. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I was part of a family. A family who looked out for each other. This team was built on friendship, trust… and something else. Comradeship. They went into situations to kill, and they came out alive because they trusted each other.

I wanted that. I wanted them to trust that I would make the right decision. If it weren’t for them, I would have been dead a long time ago, probably beheaded, and a trophy on Carmen’s mantel.

“Okay.”

“Okay, what?”

“Okay – we go and do this,” I clarified.

Climbing scaffolding wasn’t something I ever thought I would have to do, but I guess there was a first time for everything. Thank God River and Chase both helped me up some of the trickier parts, or else I would have landed on my arse. Now we were standing on a rickety walkway that surrounded the roof of an enormous warehouse. I was already knackered from the day, and would’ve much preferred to put my feet up and have a glass of wine or something equally numbing.

There was a crapload of cars parked around the warehouse, and judging from the noise this was apparently the place to be. As we rubbed some of the grime off the skylights, and peered down below, every cell in my body froze as I took in the mayhem below.

This was no viewing of a football match game. “What the hell is going on,” I muttered, peering down through the dim and dusty light. I inhaled sharply as I recognised a couple of the people below us. Alicio and Alvarez. This was a cartel party, and what made it worse was that I had an official invite. I knew that invite was no accident.

“Initiation rituals of the Cartels usually involve murdering someone,” Chase whispered as he cleared off a patch in my skylight and looked down.

I examined the scene below me. There were men and women held captive, strung up in chains around the walls. They were alive by the looks of it. Some had thrown up, and I had no doubt that wasn’t the only mess made.

“The more brutal and skilled the person is, the better placed their position will be within the cartel.”

I could feel my mouth begin to water as I watched those people down there… but it was watering from the sudden urge to throw up. This was absolutely nothing like even the worst horror films I’d seen, or my worst nightmares. It was even more alarming. These people were about to be killed in front of an audience. That’s what the cheers were about that erupted every now and then. The rest of the cartel were fucking cheering them on.

“I can’t handle this.” A lump formed in my throat, tears ran down my cheeks as I forced myself to hold the contents of my guts in. “I can’t be up here while innocent people are down there dying.” I looked pleadingly at Chase. “Let’s just go. Please.”

Chase shook his head, and reached his arm out to steady me. “Take a deep breath, Mack,” he instructed. “Close your eyes, and breathe in and out slowly. Re-centre yourself.”

I opened one eye at him. “You sound just like River,” I accused.

Chase gave me a lopsided smile. “Yeah, well – sometimes you pick up useful tips from people.” He squeezed my arm. “Close your eyes and breathe.”

I snapped my eyes shut and tried to concentrate. It was hard to do knowing what was going on beneath my feet, but I forced myself to focus.
I’m going home soon, I’m going home soon,
I chanted rhythmically in my head. I began to feel a bit more like myself after a few moments. I could feel Chase’s warmth, and even though there were a bunch of people getting murdered below me, he made me feel safe.