Page 14 of K-9 Guardians (New Mexico Guard Dogs #4)

Her feet slipped out from under her. Scarlett hit the clean black tile with a thud. Oxygen stretched out of reach the harder she tried to control the impact. Her fingernails clawed into the thin grout, but it was no use getting to her feet.

Alarms screeched from every hallway. Socorro was under attack. Whoever blew through the gate had tripped the system. Any operatives inside would already be taking battle positions. Cash and Jocelyn on the roof with their high-powered rifles, Jones armed with his personal arsenal on the elevators and Granger... She’d left him in the garage. Watched him take a bullet.

But she couldn’t think about that right now.

Her job was easy. Get to the security room. That was where she could do the most damage. Scarlett shoved to her feet. The aches and bruises from the past few days wouldn’t slow her down. She wouldn’t let them. She dug her toes into the floor to propel her forward. Right, then two lefts. She collided with the door that prevented anyone but her and Ivy Bardot access to the security room and scrambled for her key card.

Every second counted on the battlefield. One wrong move. That was all it would take, and she and her team would lose everything.

Scarlett nearly fell over the threshold as the door released. Loud voices punctured through the radio sitting in its charging station on the desk. An entire array of monitors cast a blue-white glow across the darkened room. Cameras covered every angle of the structure, and Scarlett worked to get eyes on the rest of her team. She grabbed for the earpiece left in its power cradle.

“Gotham and I are in position on level two.” Jones’s voice was staticky in her ear. “Anyone manages to get inside, they won’t make it far.”

“Hold your position. Scarlett, shut down the elevators. We’re not going to make it easy for them.” She imagined Ivy Bardot secured in her office, armed, with both eyes on the surveillance.

“Granger’s in the garage trying to hold them back,” Scarlett said. “That’s his only way out.”

Thousands of possibilities screamed for attention at the back of her mind, but only one stood out. Sangre por Sangre. Scarlett scanned the multitude of monitors for her teammate, but there was something else in the garage. Something that shouldn’t be there. Her skin tightened to the point she was convinced her bones would crumble to dust inside her own body. “Be advised, hostiles have brought in an armored vehicle. I count fifteen—no, sixteen—armed enemy combatants in the garage, but I don’t see Granger.”

“Damn it. Get eyes on him. Now.” Ivy’s voice notched an octave higher.

Socorro had never been attacked in its own territory. For as many years of experience each of Ivy’s operatives had gathered, this was a first for all of them outside of their military careers. And it was showing. “Cash, Jocelyn. I need you on that roof in case more are on their way. Where the hell are you?”

“Almost there.” Socorro’s forward observer—Cash Meyers—sounded out of breath. “Do you know how many stairs there are in this place? Not to mention how much gear I’m carrying.”

“Just keep climbing. Just keep climbing.” Logistics coordinator Jocelyn Carville sang her own personal mantra.

“I will end you.” Cash’s threat meant nothing when an entire drug cartel had breached their home base.

“Has anyone contacted Dr. Piel or the veterinarian?” Jones Driscoll looked up into the camera set on him. “Might be a good time to let them know to stay in their offices.”

“On it.” Scarlett took out her cell and tapped out the message to both physicians. An instant reply buzzed through from the vet.

Hans ran when the alarms went off.

“What?” The question was more for herself as Scarlett instructed the vet to shelter in place. Her female K9 was missing with the other one unaccounted for after the fight at the warehouse. In a matter of hours, she’d lost everything she held dear. She wasn’t sure she could take much more.

“I’ve got movement on the elevator.” Jones hiked his rifle into his shoulder on the monitor, but all Scarlett could see was a bunch of blurred pixels as her world unraveled right before her eyes.

“Scarlett, where is Granger?” Ivy’s voice tried to keep her in the present, but grief and a stabbing of fear kept her from engaging in the moment. “Scarlett?”

She tossed her phone on the desk. Tears prickled at her eyes, but she couldn’t focus on that right now. Her mind was being pulled in a thousand different directions, and she couldn’t make sense of a single one of them. She scoured the monitors. Hans had to still be in the building, and there was nothing Scarlett could do about it.

“Uh, guys. Elevator. On the move.” Jones backed up a step, ready to engage anyone who came through the elevator doors.

“Working on it.” Scarlett ran through the elevator protocol as fast as her fingers allowed and found the line of code to take the system offline. “There.”

The elevator’s LED panel froze on the screen. Whoever was hoping to get onto the level would be stuck until Scarlett deemed otherwise.

“Wait. I hear something from inside.” Jones took a hesitant step forward. The combat controller let his weapon swing free as he pressed one side of his head to the doors on the screen. “Oh, hell. It’s Granger. Bring the elevator back up.”

Her heart jump-started at the news. Granger was alive. “I shut the whole system down. It’s going to take at least two minutes to bring it back online.”

Two minutes Granger might not have.

“We don’t have that kind of time.” Jocelyn’s voice was no longer singsongy. “I’ve got five more vehicles headed our way. Cartel based off the makes and models. No telling how many more soldiers inside. A half mile out.”

“I’ve got another dust cloud coming in from the east,” Cash said. “Can’t be sure who it is yet.”

“They’re cutting off any chance of escape.” Ivy went silent for a series of seconds, every single one of them waiting for the next order. “Scarlett, I need you to get the secondary system ready.”

Shock stole Scarlett’s confidence to win this battle. “Are you sure?”

“This firm is a direct connection to the Pentagon and every other federal organization we’ve partnered with to undermine Sangre por Sangre.” Socorro’s founder didn’t wait for an answer. “If the cartel gets their hands on any of the intel we’ve used, they’ll be able to identify our inside source, and there will be no stopping them, and that is something none of us can come back from. Get the system ready.”

Jones let his rifle drop to his side as he threaded his fingers between the elevator doors. Muscles Scarlett would never have in her life flexed as he tried to pry the doors open by hand. “Why does that sound like we’re launching a nuclear missile?” he asked.

“Because that’s basically what we’ll be doing.” Scarlett brought up the program she’d built from the ground up. One press of the button. That was all it would take to appease Socorro’s enemies and ensure the team never interrupted cartel operations again. Because none of them would make it out of here alive. A chain reaction of fear and determination and grief knotted her nerves. “The entire building will be demolished.”

“Whoa. What the hell are you talking about?” Wind caught Cash’s last word from the roof and made it difficult to hear through the earpiece. “What is the secondary defense system?”

Scarlett took a deep breath as a flood of cartel members spread through the garage. They searched every SUV and confiscated individual weapons from the back of each vehicle. She let her hand slip to her sidearm, hoping beyond hope it would be enough. “C-4. Wired over every square inch of this place.”

“It’s not every day you get a front row seat to the end of the world, but at least we’re all together.” Jocelyn’s voice cracked a split second before a dog bark pierced the open channel. Her German shepherd, Maverick, had been the logistic coordinator’s partner as long as Scarlett could remember. “I’m going silent. I need to call Baker.”

The green LED connected to Jocelyn’s earpiece on Scarlett’s monitor went red as her teammate reached out to her life partner, Alpine Valley’s chief of police.

“Got it!” Jones pried the elevator doors apart and leveraged one leg into the gap to keep it from closing.

Granger slapped a hand onto the tile and hauled himself free of the elevator that wasn’t quite level with the floor yet. Only he wasn’t alone.

The desk bit into her sore midsection as Scarlett tried to get a better view of the man following the counterterrorism agent, but her instincts had already put two and two together. Her nails bit into her palms as she recognized the sharp jawline and dirty blond hair. “King.”

She pushed away from the desk to intercept him but caught another range of movement on a monitor. One of the armored vehicles. An outline of white in the middle of so much darkness and destruction.

A woman stepped down from the back of the vehicle. So out of place. Long dark hair lay in tendrils past her shoulders and framed a heart-shaped face. Her white blazer and pant set put her in a whole other category of wealth and security as the soldiers around her fanned out.

Catalina Munoz.

“It’s her.” Scarlett wasn’t sure who she was talking to, but the comms were still open. “Catalina Munoz. She’s here. This is all happening because of her.”

“Who the hell is Catalina Munoz?” Jones’s question seemed to catch King’s attention on the monitor.

“Who are you talking to?” The DEA agent fought her teammate for his earpiece and won out, shoving the device into his own ear. “Who is this?”

Their last conversation—his accusations—undermined everything she knew about herself and her ability to get her team out of here alive. “Agent Elsher.”

“Scarlett.” King searched the corridor until he found the nearest camera and limped toward it, his gaze searing straight through the monitor. “I put it all together. Hernando Munoz was a source. Adam and Eva were using him to get to the triad. If Catalina’s here, that means she’s the one who killed him. She’s the real brains behind the operation. Taking out the other cartels, partnering with the triad, abducting Julien. It’s all because of her. Where is she?”

Scarlett turned her attention back to the monitor overlooking the inside of Socorro’s garage. Instantly on high alert as Catalina stared into the camera lens. “In the garage.”

Catalina turned toward someone or something still in the truck before facing off with the surveillance. Another pixelated outline—smaller—appeared on the screen. And then Julien came into view.

“King,” she said. “She has your son.”

K ING DISLODGED THE EARPIECE .

“King! There are more on the way!” Scarlett’s voice crackled just before he handed the device back to the operative in front of him.

Pointing to Granger, King backed toward the elevator car still uneven with the floor. “You’re going to want to get him to a doctor.”

“There’s no way out of here that doesn’t put you in their sights, Elsher.” Granger’s usually frustratingly even voice dipped as he latched on to his shoulder. “They’ll kill you the second they get eyes on you.”

“Not before I kill them first.” King’s gaze caught the surveillance camera. He knew Scarlett was watching, and he got as close to it as he could. He didn’t know whether or not they had sound or if she could make out his words, but it didn’t matter. He had to tell her. That he was wrong, that she meant something to him, that she was everything he’d tried to avoid in his life and everything he needed at the same time.

“I love you.” There wasn’t any more he could say.

King turned his back on the camera—on whatever future they might’ve had—and headed for the elevator door. He set the rifle against his chest, ready for whatever waited on the other side. Because it was the only way to get to his son. And save the woman he loved. If he could slow Sangre por Sangre down, there was a chance the entire Socorro team could live to fight another day.

Only one way to find out.

“You really think you’re going to survive whatever is down there without a vest?” The operative King hadn’t met before—the one who had forced open the elevator doors for them—stripped the Velcro from the side of his ribs and pulled his Kevlar vest over his head. Offering it with one hand, he hiked Granger’s arm around his shoulder for support with the other. “Thought you DEA types were smarter than that.”

“You’d be surprised.” King hauled the rifle strap over his head, took the vest and slipped into it before replacing the weapon. There were more on the way. That was the last thing he’d heard Scarlett say. The cartel had most likely surrounded the place, cutting off any chance of escape. Socorro operatives would have to prioritize, Scarlett included, leaving him to fight this particular battle alone. “Thanks.”

Electricity powered up behind him, and the elevator car closed the distance to the last level. Scarlett. With a half salute toward the camera, he smiled. “Wish me luck.”

King stepped into the elevator, facing off with his own reflection as the doors closed down the middle. Gravity suctioned his stomach into the bottom of his torso as the floors counted off on the LED panel overhead. “I’m going to need it.”

The elevator pinged just before a thud registered from under his feet as the car landed on the garage level. One second. Two.

The doors parted.

Smoke and dust and diesel infiltrated his senses as King stepped out. A circle of soldiers took aim, and he raised his hands in surrender. “I come in peace.”

“I’m not entirely sure that’s true, Agent Elsher.” The semicircle parted down the middle, exposing the source of the voice. Catalina Munoz, in the flesh. “I seem to recall having to clean up quite a few bodies at my warehouse two days ago. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to get blood out of cement.”

He wasn’t going to apologize for that. He wasn’t going to apologize for anything concerning this investigation. “Where is my son?”

“Right here.” Catalina half turned and reached behind her. Long fingers wrapped around the back of his son’s neck and drew him forward away from the soldier guarding the ten-year-old. “Julien has done a fine job of keeping me company, haven’t you, dear?”

“I’m here, buddy.” Every cell in King’s body wanted to rip Julien out of Catalina’s grasp, but that would surely get him a few bullet holes of his own. And Julien had already watched one parent die in front of him. King couldn’t do that to him again. He balanced his weight onto his good leg, just in case he had to move fast. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

“The lies parents tell their children,” Catalina said. “No wonder betrayal trauma has become so prevalent these days.”

His son flinched at the comment. Or maybe from the woman’s grip around his neck. King couldn’t tell which, but one thing was clear. Nothing was going to stop him from getting Julien out of here alive. “Let me guess. You’re here for the intel your husband handed over on your operation.”

“You’re smarter than you look, Agent Elsher.” Catalina stepped fully into the ring of armed cartel members, putting Julien that much closer to the barrel of an assault rifle. “I’ll make this easy for you. Give me what I want, and you and Julien are free to leave this place.”

“While you burn Socorro to the ground.” That wasn’t an option. “Why? Why dump Adam’s body at Socorro’s doorstep? They didn’t have anything to do with this until I approached them for help finding your husband.”

“Is that what she told you?” A weak, sad smile creased crow’s feet at the edges of Catalina’s dark brown eyes. “Ivy Bardot knew about your partner’s investigation long before you recruited Socorro into your little revenge plot, Agent Elsher. How else would he and that ATF agent access satellite images and intel about my operations over the years without raising federal suspicions? I imagine that’s why she offered you her resources in the first place. Because once I took care of your partners, Socorro lost their hold in my dealings. And she couldn’t have that.”

Was that true? Had Ivy Bardot already known exactly who he was and what he wanted before he’d stepped into that conference room? Had she used him?

“Only now it seems I’m presented with the opportunity to take out two birds with one stone,” Catalina said. “My uncle would still be alive if it weren’t for Socorro. Metias raised me, you know. Taught me everything I know, made sure I went to the best schools, supported me. He shaped me into the woman I am today. One who’s going to lead Sangre por Sangre into the future.”

Blah blah blah. King didn’t have time for this. Cartel reinforcements would only skew the chances he and Julien had of making it out alive. “Then I was right. You were the one behind taking out the other cartels in the area. Not your husband.”

“Hernando served his purpose well. Kept the DEA and other federal agencies focused on him while I moved the deal with the triad forward,” she said.

A ferocious growl resonated from the back of the armored truck, and Catalina let her hand slide from Julien’s neck.

“It worked for a while.” She backed toward the truck. “But after you and your friend—Scarlett is her name?—breached my warehouse, I discovered Hernando hadn’t been as true to me as he promised in our wedding vows. And, well, I couldn’t have that.”

The widow motioned for one of the gunmen, and Gruber lunged from the darkness. A restraint prevented him from opening his mouth wider than a few centimeters while the choke chain kept him from attacking. The K9’s dark eyes focused on Julien before the animal went wild all over again. As though he were trying to live up to his orders to protect King’s son.

King locked his gaze on Julien. “Stay with Gruber.”

His son’s terrified face relaxed slightly.

“I’ve given you my terms, Agent Elsher.” The widow was losing her patience, her voice icier than a moment ago. “But you seem to have come down here empty-handed. Am I to understand you won’t be giving me what I came for and that I’ll have to do to you what I did to the other two agents who crossed me? What were their names again? Eva Roday and Adam Dunkeld, right? Were they friends of yours?”

Rage bubbled up his throat. “You were there that night. The night Eva was killed. You ordered her murder.”

“No, Agent Elsher,” Catalina said. “That’s one tradition I don’t follow in the cartel. You see, I do my own dirty work.”

Eva. Adam. Munoz. This woman had killed them all.

The elevator pinged again, drawing the attention of every gunman in the garage.

“You might’ve gotten away with the murders of my partners, Catalina, but you’re wrong about one thing.” He heard the doors part. “I didn’t come empty-handed.”

Something hit the cement.

King didn’t have to know what it was. He lunged for his son, securing Julien in his arms as the explosion rocked through the garage. Cement rained down on top of them as King rolled to put his son underneath his body.

Gruber’s growl pierced through the cacophony of screams and gunshots, and King stuck a hand out. “Gruber!”

The K9 collided into King’s back, every muscle the dog owned rippling in response to the attack. King loosened the choke collar from around the Doberman’s neck and tore at the muzzle. “Pass auf.” That was what Scarlett had said to get Gruber to protect Julien, and King needed the K9 on that job now more than ever.

A second bark registered from near the elevator, and a dark blur of lean muscle and sharp teeth burst through the circle of gunmen. Hans pounced on a soldier coming up on King and Julien, taking him down in a mess of claws and teeth.

King kissed the top of Julien’s head. “Remember what I said, buddy. Stay with Gruber.”

“Shoot them!” Catalina’s voice was broken up by a series of coughs. Distant. In retreat.

King pushed upright as a glimpse of Catalina’s white blazer disappeared into the back of the armored truck. The engine growled to life. “You’re not getting away that easily.”

Return gunfire cut through the haze of dust and debris still clouding the garage, and Scarlett shoved her way into the fight. She took aim at a soldier coming up on King’s left and pulled the trigger. The gunman dropped. “Go! We’ve got this!”

It was then King realized she hadn’t come alone. The operative who’d loaned King his vest rocketed his fist into a cartel member’s face off to the left as another Socorro contractor unsheathed a knife from her cargo pants and sank it deep into an attacker’s side. One by one they were picking off threats to give King the opportunity to finish this.

“Take care of my boy.” He scratched behind Gruber’s head, then ran for the armored vehicle. His leg protested every step, but he wasn’t going to slow down. He wasn’t going to let Catalina get away with what she’d done.

Her smile cut through the interior of the cargo area a split second before the door secured.

He ran into the two-inch steel and slapped his hand against the door. The vehicle lurched backward toward the entrance. “No!”

“King!” Scarlett’s voice penetrated the haze of adrenaline and anger combining into a toxic cocktail under his skin.

He turned to face her just as she tossed him a brick of white clay. Only it wasn’t clay.

King caught the mass and hurried to stick it under the armored vehicle’s front wheel well. Catalina was in the passenger seat, that smile still in play. Until he unholstered his sidearm and took aim. Not at the windshield. At the brick of C-4 he’d planted on the armored truck.

He pulled the trigger.

The truck shot into the ceiling of the garage, the entire engine bursting into a thousand different pieces.

Strong hands grabbed the shoulders of King’s Kevlar vest and dragged him to the ground. He slammed into the cement as a wall of gear and muscle and red hair shielded him from the blast. The explosion triggered a high-pitched ringing in his head, but through the aftermath, Scarlett’s voice crystalized. “And you made fun of me for preparing for the zombie apocalypse.”

Sirens screeched through the garage as two police patrol vehicles cut off the cartel’s exit. The passenger side door of the armored vehicle fell open, depositing Catalina Munoz onto the ground with a huff. Her white pantsuit would never be the same.

Nondescript SUVs skidded to a halt beyond the police wall and unloaded a dozen DEA agents, and Catalina had no other choice than to raise her hands in surrender.

The fight was over. King’s son was safe. His leg would heal, and the world would keep turning. Without Eva and Adam in it. And all King could think to do was pass out cold.