Page 12 of K-9 Justice (New Mexico Guard Dogs #6)

CHAPTER TWELVE

“You’re just going to let them leave?” Granger’s logic wasn’t going to help her right now.

“Carson made his choice.” Ivy watched plumes of dirt kick up behind the SUV racing across the New Mexico desert. Her heart twisted hard every second it kept driving away. “Give them thirty minutes, then activate the GPS.”

Though she already had an idea of where Carson and his fellow soldiers were headed. This final war between Sangre por Sangre and Socorro had practically been fated. She’d only let him leave because they could track him.

“Do you know what it took to capture those two?” Jones extended one hand toward the massive wall of windows, motioning to the retreating vehicle. “The woman nearly gutted me like a fish. I’m lucky to be alive, and you’re just letting them leave?”

“Easy, tiger. The boss knows what she’s doing.” Scarlett’s insistence on being the voice of reason didn’t sit well. Socorro’s security operative didn’t usually agree with Ivy’s strategy, which had led to the installation of a hundred pounds of C-4 lining every hallway in the building in the past in an effort to protect the team. It had worked. And also destroyed the garage during a cartel ambush a few months ago. Scarlett’s calm demeanor made Ivy wonder what the woman had up her sleeve. “You gotta make them feel safe, give them a reason to let their guard down. Then when they least expect it, you trigger the explosive.”

“Come again?” Granger asked. “Are you telling me you’ve wired our SUVs to explode? How far is the frequency?”

“Anywhere in the world. That’s the beauty of satellites,” Scarlett said. “Don’t give me that look. The next time you or Charlie or any one of us is abducted, you’ll be begging me for a kill switch. This way, we’re prepared.”

“Wait. Does King know about this?” Jones asked. “Does he let you drive his son around in an SUV wired with explosives?”

“I’m not allowed to drive Julien,” the security consultant said. “But that’s not connected to the C-4. No.”

“Enough.” Ivy couldn’t deal with this right now. She swallowed to counteract the emotion clogging her throat since her final conversation with Carson. But, worse, the idea of coming face-to-face with him on opposite sides of the divide triggered a grief so intense she couldn’t breathe. She’d trusted him. Counted on him. She’d…loved him, damn it.

They’d agreed how far they would go to see this through, and now… Now he was choosing the wrong side. He was choosing the enemy over her. Over their partnership. To make matters worse, he’d taken her dog in the process. Part of her was still in denial. She’d wanted him to turn back, to choose her over the mission. Wondered if she’d been right in letting him go, but if he was hell-bent on saving a few cartel soldiers, she’d at least use his exit to her advantage. “Jones, check in with the hospital. I want an update on Jocelyn’s recovery. Get ahold of Chief Halsey if you have to, and let him know of our plans to initiate contact with Sangre por Sangre . Granger, contact the medical examiner and see if he has any more to add from Dr. Piel’s autopsy. And, Scarlett, get those explosives off my SUVs before someone ends up hurting themselves.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Scarlett said. “But to be clear, it’s not easy to trigger the explosives. There’s a whole security code you have to put into the system to connect to the devices, and—”

“Thank you, Scarlett. That will be all.” She just needed to be alone. To figure out what to do next. She’d given Carson a two-hour head start with the intention of providing him the opportunity to change his mind, but he’d called her bluff.

Movement registered behind her as the team headed for her office door. And her heart hurt, damn it. As though Carson had taken it between both hands and squeezed as hard as he could just to see what would happen. Air rushed from her lungs as the betrayal hooked into her. She was about to fall into a thousand shards of glass from the invisible pain.

“Boss.” Granger’s reflection took position behind her injured shoulder. Then Jones and Scarlett and Cash. “We’re your team. Every single one of us has experienced loss and betrayal. Sometimes from the people we love the most. You don’t have to hide from us. We’ve got your back. Whatever you need.”

“I need…” She didn’t know what she needed. A single tear escaped her control, and a rush of embarrassment flooded through her. Ivy immediately swiped it away as she turned to face them. The men and women who’d devoted themselves to carrying out her own personal crusade. Except two had been taken from their ranks. Jocelyn was recovering, but Dr. Piel would never step foot in this building again. “I need this to make sense, but no matter how I reframe it or pull it apart, it just doesn’t.”

“Which part of this war has made sense in the past two years, Ivy?” Cash asked. “ Sangre por Sangre doesn’t follow the rules. Because no cartel has gained this much power in the entire history of the drug epidemic. This is all new territory, for all of us. But we knew one day they would come for us. They’ve tried en masse in the past. Now it seems this Sebastian guy has figured out how to slide the blade in without us even noticing.”

“Doesn’t mean he gets to walk away in one piece,” Jones said.

That hadn’t been at all what she’d meant, but exposing her lack of judgment—her grief—wasn’t in her DNA. Maybe that was the problem. She and Carson were supposed to be partners. Had made a commitment to one another. They’d started this war against the cartel together. Only now… He was gone. He’d been there when she’d needed him the most, but had she returned the investment? Had she been as committed to him as Carson had been to her, or had she let her past dictate their relationship? Was her stepfather still finding ways to show her she wasn’t strong enough—for this job, to finish what she started, to keep a partner—from beyond the grave?

Ivy wanted to deny that man had anything to do with the life she’d built for herself, that he’d encouraged her to rise above her trauma and finally take control. Except she couldn’t. Every experience, every conversation, every fantasy and hope she’d had since the age of ten had made her into the woman standing in this office. Including the abuse she’d suffered at the hands of a parent who was supposed to protect her. She couldn’t forget any of it, and that failure to disassociate from that part of her life had followed her into the most important relationship she’d ever had.

And cost her everything.

What that meant for the future, she didn’t know. All she could do was focus on the next step. “Every battle between this team and the cartel has ended in one place.”

“ Sangre por Sangre ’s headquarters.” Granger folded his arms across his broad chest. “Hell, is there even anything left of that place? Charlie and I were nearly crushed to death when all of the new underground tunnels collapsed last month.”

She remembered. Having been the one to pull him out of the collapse. “Check out the latest satellite images before disabling the explosives you installed on the fleet, Scarlett. If there’s movement, we’ll have a better idea of what we’re up against.”

“I can bring it up now.” Scarlett took her phone out from her back pocket and tapped both thumbs against the screen in a nonsensical order to anyone but her. “I’m repositioning the Pentagon’s satellite over the headquarter coordinates. Should take just a couple minutes.”

Scarlett’s phone chimed. “That’s not good.”

“That might be the worst response you could possibly come up with.” Jones had never been one to hide his criticism of others, but there’d been less of it since he and Maggie had gotten involved in the past year.

“Is there a problem with the satellites?” Ivy asked.

“No. I was able to reposition them without any problems.” Scarlett turned the phone to face Ivy. “This is the problem.”

Ivy lost control of her exhalation and took the phone from the security operative. “When were these images taken?”

“Less than an hour ago.” Scarlett looked to the men at her side. “Seems Sangre por Sangre isn’t on its last legs as our intel suggested. There has to be at least a couple hundred vehicles parked around that building.”

“It’s Sebastian.” Ivy didn’t know where the theory had come from. She felt it as nothing more than an instinct that had been trying to warn her over the past four days. But now, staring at the screen, she’d never been more sure of anything in her life. She handed Scarlett’s phone to Granger, who in turn tensed as though he’d watched someone kick his K-9.

“What do you mean, boss?” Cash took the phone next, refusing to allow his expression to give away the dread they were all feeling.

“There’s no way a low-level cartel soldier would have been able to round up this many recruits in a matter of two days. Not as long as upper management was still in control and as sure as hell not just because of me or Carson.” Energy she had no idea what to do with skittered through her as the pieces started falling into place. “This kind of power only comes from years of earning your subordinates’ respect, of sending warnings and exacting punishment when orders aren’t followed, and people try to get out.”

Granger seemed to grow another two inches. “You’re not saying—”

“We’ve been looking for the identity of Sangre por Sangre ’s founder since we got into this mess. Carson was never able to get a face-to-face. Didn’t even have a clue as to his whereabouts or his name. Lieutenants were handed orders through coded messages and delivery services. Everything was hands-off. Every soldier we’ve gotten to talk has only called him el jefe , and I think now we know why.” She slapped her hand against the nearest window. The entire pane shook under the force, but it was nothing compared to the frustration burning through her now. “He was right there in front of his own soldiers the whole time. Pretending to be one of them, keeping an eye on them, making sure they did what they were told.”

“You mean this Sebastian, the guy who attacked you at the salvage yard, is actually the leader of the cartel?” Scarlett asked.

“It’s the only way this makes sense.” Ivy was still trying to process this new possibility. Her mind was working faster than her mouth. “He killed those women to send a message. No one escapes Sangre por Sangre . But in the two years Carson has been undercover, no one was willing to offer information on a killer in the network who carved symbols into his victims’ backs. Because they knew who was responsible and what would happen if they identified their leader.”

“Wait.” Cash stepped forward. “Then doesn’t that mean this Sebastian would’ve had to have known that Carson was part of an undercover operation from the beginning? I mean, he couldn’t identify the top brass for two years.”

Acid pushed into her throat. Ivy raced for her cell phone and pressed the autodial to call Carson. Despite the lingering effects of their last conversation, she couldn’t let him go through with this. “He’s walking straight into a trap.”

* * *

This place was on the verge of total collapse.

Carson wasn’t sure the structure could take much more.

The multistory building had been designed to hide in plain sight. Meant to bring the cartel together, to pool resources and serve as a headquarters as efficient and deadly as the very people trying to destroy Sangre por Sangre . But a handful of explosives had broken it down, eroded its foundation and turned it into something worthless.

Not entirely unlike the emptiness coiling through him.

“Get rid of the vehicle.” He tossed the keys into the back seat to the youngest of the soldiers and shoved free of the SUV. Knowing Ivy, he was sure she’d have equipped her fleet with GPS and possibly even better countermeasures. But she had promised him a two-hour head start. He trusted her to keep her word—for now—but her patience would run out sooner or later.

There was a small chance Sebastian had managed to contact upper management since their showdown in the salvage yard, but the way Carson had left him unconscious and bleeding would buy him the time he needed to defend his case. At least, that was the hope.

The soldier positioned behind him had caught the keys and gotten out, letting Max hop down from the back driver’s-side door. In less than a minute, dirt kicked up behind the stolen vehicle but disappeared over the ridge of the man-made bowl acting as a defense system around the building. If anyone came close to this place, the cartel saw them coming. Especially now that upper management seemed to have called in every asset, soldier and resource on and off the books. “There a party I don’t know about?”

His female companion didn’t answer, taking the lead into the partially collapsed garage. In truth, she probably didn’t know what the hell was going on either. Both she and her younger associate had been apprehended downtown for a number of hours.

Though Ivy’s operative hadn’t said where. If the street dealers had been pulled off their corners, why had two soldiers been left behind? Carson’s curiosity had always gotten the better of him. He’d never been able to look an answer straight in the face without questioning the premise. It was one of the reasons the FBI had brought him on board. Why they’d trusted him to go into this assignment.

He followed in his companion’s tracks through debris, pools of water and what looked like pulverized cement toward the entrance into the building. One point of entry. One point of exit. He gauged the chances of being able to turn back now and scanned the property over one shoulder. They weren’t looking good. “So how did Socorro get the drop on you two?”

“It was stupid, really.” She led him into the building, and a sensation of being crushed took hold, with a healthy hint of resistance. Though his companion kept moving as though they couldn’t possibly die within these walls. “We were on a stakeout, and my phone died. We didn’t get the word about pulling back until it was too late.”

“A stakeout?” Carson hadn’t received a single order the past month, but apparently, that wasn’t the case for the rest of the soldiers he’d served beside. It didn’t make sense. Someone was still operating the cartel despite the limited resources and manpower, and yet they’d managed to pull this many soldiers out of thin air. His gut clenched tighter with each step he took deeper into the belly of the building. He took the time to memorize the route they were taking through the maze of corridors. Or maybe Sangre por Sangre wasn’t as injured as upper management wanted everyone to believe. “Whereabouts?”

“Across the street from that Socorro bitch’s apartment. The one who runs the place.” She slowed her pace. Just enough to maneuver behind him in the narrow corridor. “We were told there was a potential rat in our ranks, and that he would be there. Our orders were to drag him back to face his punishment.”

Carson scanned the hallway up ahead. They hadn’t come in contact with anyone else from the cartel, but his instincts said the moment they did, he was out of options. He slipped his hand into his opposite pocket, out of his companion’s sight, and secured Ivy’s pocketknife in his palm. He hadn’t meant to hold on to it, but the chaos of the two days since the battle in the salvage yard had prioritized more important things. “You got a name of this rat?”

“Funny you should mention it,” she said. “Because I was told it was you.”

She didn’t hesitate to make the first strike. His companion latched on to his shoulder and dug her fingernails into his skin. He arced the pocketknife toward her temple, but there was a reason she’d been recruited into Sangre por Sangre . Her background in street fighting had only served her when cornered. She blocked his attack. Carson took the opportunity to go for the other side of her head.

Max’s barks filled the hallway and threatened to trigger a ringing in his ears from her proximity. She waited for her turn to attack, but he wouldn’t give the order. Not yet.

His fist connected with the soft tissue of his companion’s cheekbone. He brought his heel up and kicked straight into her chest.

She fell back into the corridor wall, sliding down until she hit the ground. Out of breath.

“Come on, Max. We gotta get the hell out of here.” Carson didn’t wait for his companion to get back up. He bolted back the way they’d come, playing through each turn they’d taken in his head. Except there seemed to be no end to this place. He picked up the pace. The cartel’s top brass knew he’d handed intel from within the organization to Socorro. They knew about his relationship with Ivy. And if they were waiting for him at her apartment, they’d most likely intended to use her to punish him. “Where the hell is the exit?”

This was the way they’d come. He was sure of it. Only now…

A barrage of flashlights assaulted his vision as he took the next turn.

Carson pulled up short, though every cell in his body screamed for him to turn around. He brought one hand up to block the brightness of the flashlights, but his vision refused to adjust. It was no use. They had him pinned. Going back would only extend the inevitable.

Max made her discontent known almost instantly, her low growl threatening anyone who dared touch her handler.

“Dominic, you made it.” An outline shifted forward through the wall of individual lights. And presumably the weapons trained on him. Sebastian had somehow remained in one piece. Considering the beating Carson had given him, his quick recovery only credited the complicated design to the mask the cartel soldier seemed to wear. This was no ordinary recruiter for a drug cartel. Carson didn’t know what the hell he was. “We were getting worried.”

This was it. The moment he’d dreaded for two years. His cover had been blown, and there was no going back. Not to Socorro. Not to the cartel. Not even to the FBI.

They’d all abandoned him. But, worse, he’d abandoned them. The power of knowing an entire organization—that a partner—had his back in case the cartel had learned of his true identity wasn’t there anymore. He was on his own.

“Sorry I’m late.” He tried to count the soldiers at Sebastian’s back through the shadows. Too many for him to number. Too many for him to fight alone. His blood ran hot at the idea of dying right here in this place. With nothing but his weapon and Ivy’s pocketknife on him. And Max. She’d be forced to watch before Sebastian had her put down and buried somewhere nobody would find her remains. Hell, she deserved better than this. “Hell of a party you’re throwing.”

“All in your honor, my friend. Please.” Sebastian angled one side of his body, completely at ease with the potential of an attack. In fact, Carson had the feeling the son of a bitch was betting on it. “Join us, won’t you? This moment has been coming for a long time.”

Carson didn’t have a choice. He scanned the walls, clutching on to Ivy’s pocketknife—just to have something to keep him in the moment—and took a single step forward.

Pain splintered across the back of his skull.

He fell forward, losing his grip on the pocketknife, and hit the floor on all fours. Lightning didn’t come close to describing the patterns exploding behind his eyes. Max’s revolt went into overdrive as she lunged at his attacker. Loud screams pierced through the haze closing in around Carson’s mind. He couldn’t think, couldn’t force his limbs to obey his commands.

“Enough,” Sebastian said.

A single shot sucked the life out of Carson.

The K-9’s whimper etched into his brain and refused to let up. Then silence. It bounced off the cinder-block walls and dug deeper holes into his heart. His pulse rocketed higher as rage spread hot and thick through his veins. Carson shot to his feet, turning on his heel. His fist connected with the soldier who’d clocked him. The man dropped hard beside Max’s still frame. “No!”

His knees couldn’t hold his weight anymore as grief overwhelmed any thought of his own survival. Carson pressed his face into Max’s, and she licked at the tears. She was alive. For now. He skimmed his hand down the length of her body, coming away with blood. He’d done this to her. He’d trained her to protect him, and now… Now he was going to lose her.

Fingers fisted into his hair and pulled him away from his partner.

“I’m sorry to say dogs are not invited to this fiesta.” Sebastian dragged him across the dirt and tossed him back onto the front lines of infantry ready to fire.

Flashlights danced around Carson as he looked up at the man who’d brought him into the cartel. A man whose life he’d saved. “I’m going to kill you for that. Every single one of you.”

Sebastian’s knees popped as he crouched beside him. Fisting another handful of hair, the cartel leader forced Carson’s head back. The physical damage from their brawl had darkened, sharpening some features and downplaying others on the older man’s face. “You asked me to give my bosses a message the last time I saw you. Consider your message delivered, Agent Lang.”