Page 48 of Cartel Viper (The Cartel Brotherhood #2)

“It’s still reinforced, even if the new owners just think I was some kind of doomsday prepper. They’ll be at work right now. It’s the safest place to take Madeline—the one place whoever this is, is least likely to know about.”

“Maddy, I’m coming. I’m already on the road.”

“I know, Javi. Just hurry.”

“I will, little one.”

I’d give anything to hear him call me chiquita right now.

“Elle, behind us!”

I watch as a car comes around the bend we just took. They’re driving as fast as we are, so I know these aren’t people who live along this road. They’re definitely pursuing us.

“Javier, tell your uncle where we’re going.”

“I will, but he doesn’t have his phone on. It’ll be from the sat. Expect it to be a foreign number.”

I suppose Javier means Enrique will call back from the satellite phone. I’m getting a crash course in shit that was only whispered around me when I was with Drew. I always suspected they had some type of satellite phone for when they were at the barn, since I knew they turned off their own phones.

“They’re getting closer, Elle.”

“There’s a 9mm back there. If you pull up the spare tire cover, you’ll find other weapons. If you’re not comfortable with the rifle, then grab one.”

One? Just how many other weapons does she have?

I lower the back seat like she told me and scramble into the trunk, so I can lift the lid to the compartment where the spare tire is kept.

It’s there, but I also see a bag that fits into the center of the well.

I pull at it, not expecting it to be as heavy as it is.

Metal clanks against itself before I unzip it and find a veritable arsenal in here. There’s a disassembled shotgun, a disassembled rifle, at least three handguns I can see, and I suspect several knives. The bag is larger than I expected.

I look over my shoulder at Elle, who meets my gaze in the rearview mirror.

The look she gives me is a hardened one.

This isn’t the easygoing woman who offered me something to eat twenty minutes ago.

This is a woman who could be a cartel leader.

I don’t even know what the female version of jefe is. Maybe that’s gender neutral.

I force myself to concentrate again as I consider my options among the handguns. I choose a 9mm similar to what she has up front, but I check the other ones as well. I’m comfortable with all of them and can easily switch among them before I need to reload.

“Elle, they’re close enough I can see the outline of their bodies.”

“Maddy, get down!”

Javi’s shouting commands at me, but I ignore him when Elle shakes her head.

I hadn’t realized neither of them hung up.

The glass in front of me lowers. This is one of the few SUVs that has a back window that winds down.

It makes me wonder if the reason Elle has this particular make and model is for something like this.

I steady my hand by cupping it with my other. I aim for the front tires and take each out. The vehicle careens off to the side and nails a tree but not before the passengers open their doors. However, they’re unable to get out when the airbags inflate. It gives us more time.

“Maddy, what was that? What’s going on?”

Before I can answer, I hear the beeps from another call.

“Javier, that’s your uncle. I have to go.”

“Madeline, do you still have your phone?”

The urgency in Javier’s voice conveys his near panic as much as him using my full name.

“Yes, I’ll call you when I get to Elle’s house. I don’t want to talk over her when she tries to speak to Enrique.”

“All right. Maddy, I love you.”

“I love you too, Javi.”

This isn’t how I wanted to admit my feelings, and I doubt it’s how he wanted to, either.

But if this could be the last time we talk, then neither of us wants to go without the other knowing.

These aren’t emotions that have come out of nowhere.

They’re just ones that came back to life after lying dormant for so long.

They’re ones that have matured into something more than they originally were.

This isn’t puppy love by any stretch. And this isn’t just heat of the moment, deathbed confessions either. I can tell it’s more than that. It’s so much more.

We have a reprieve from anyone following us for the moment. I hear Elle speaking to Enrique, but I miss some of it, as I remain lost in thought. However, I snap back to the present as we pull up in front of a house.

“Grab the bag, Madeline.”

We’re here.

We don’t drive toward the garage, but we’re as close as we can get on the street in a gated community. I suppose someone could assume the car belongs to someone else who lives on this street. It doesn’t directly tie us to Elle’s old house.

I realize Elle didn’t live far from the neighborhood she and Enrique live in now. She moved into his home. This neighborhood isn’t as lavish as his. It’s more like the one I grew up in, definitely more than just comfortable, but not mansions.

There are trees on one side of the house that provide a measure of privacy from her neighbor.

I follow her to a side gate, uncertain what she holds up to the security box.

She doesn’t enter any code, but I hear it unlock.

She pushes it open and shuffles me through.

She closes it with barely a click. We move together.

She with her gun raised facing forward, and me twisting to look behind us.

She leads me over to the back door before she pulls out a lock-picking set from her purse.

She’s fucking Mary Poppins of cat burglars.

Who knows what she’ll pull out next? She opens the back door and freezes. I hear an alarm system beep.

“Stay here.”

She keeps her voice down, but I realize hearing the alarm system reassures me no one else is home.

She hurries to the keypad on the wall between the kitchen and living room.

She enters something that must bypass the code the new owner’s set.

I can’t imagine how she would have theirs.

The beeps stop for a moment. Then I hear three more as she somehow resets it. She comes back over to me.

“If it stays off, it’ll send an alert to the owners. I just needed it off long enough to set it to the perimeter rather than the internal sensors.”

I nod. It makes complete sense, but I don’t know what to say, having just broken into a house for the first time. She’s had her phone cradled against her shoulder since we got out of the car, so she continues her call.

“Enrique, we’re in. I’m taking her to the basement. You know I’ll lose the call once I’m down there.”

“Do you have jammers with you?”

“Yes, I’ll set them up in the basement outside the panic room.”

That shouldn’t surprise me since Drew kept cell jammers in the house too.

That’s the least alarming thing I’ve heard so far.

She hangs up with Enrique as we head down to the basement.

I watch her pull a small device from the gun bag I’m carrying.

She sets it up outside the door to what looks like a basement pantry or storage closet.

We go in, and she flips a light on. The room is empty with nothing on the shelves.

“You said this was a panic room originally.”

“Yes, my boys and I made it when I moved in. When I sold the house after Enrique and I got engaged, we remodeled it to make it look more like a storage room than anything else.”

“Why did you even need that?”

“There’s stuff in my past you’ll learn about in time. But you should know I’ve been Mafia adjacent my entire life.”

“Mafia adjacent?”

What the fuck does that mean?