Harmony wondered if she could truly believe everything this man was telling her. After all, he was a drug-runner who had allowed her family to be terrorized up to this point Was there any reason to trust? “All we want is for this to be over,” Harmony replied shakily, rubbing her hand over her forehead. “I want to go home to my daughter and the man I love. Please Diego, let us go. If you don’t, I guarantee you that all hell is going to break loose and a lot of people are going to be hurt.”
Diego opened his mouth to speak just as the back door slammed against the wall, and he watched as both women jumped in the chairs in front of him, gasping as they looked over their shoulders at their uninvited guest. Glaring as Tanner Suarez strutted into the kitchen, Diego rose from his chair. “What the fuck are you doing here, Suarez?” he barked, his eyes blazing as he faced the other man.
Grinning at Diego with a wicked smile and gleaming eyes, Tanner laughed. “I see you received the gifts I sent you, Diego. If you haven’t sampled one yet, I suggest you start with the younger one,” he chuckled, reaching a hand out to touch Honor’s hair and pulling a shriek from her lips. “I’m betting she still tastes just like a peach on a hot summer’s day.”
Chapter Fifty-four
As Jake and Zeke picked their way around the last body Slade had left in his wake, he shook his head as he stared down at the dead man at his feet. “Jesus. That guy’s like the fuckin’ Terminator,” he muttered. “They called me the Widowmaker, for Christ sake, but this guy makes me look like a fuckin’ Care Bear.” So far, they’d come across three other kills Slade had made. The guy at Jake’s feet had his throat slit, but the others had their necks broken. It was good to know that Slade could be versatile, but this shit was beginning to alarm even him.
Zeke glanced at the man on the ground and shrugged his shoulders, unconcerned by the carnage they’d encountered. “Slade loves his cousins, and the man’s a machine when he’s on a mission.” Nodding to where the tall man waited about twenty yards from where the tree line ended, he murmured, “He’s spotted something.”
Turning, Jake walked quietly toward the waiting man, careful to step around the broken twigs on the ground. He knew one misstep could give away their location, and they needed the element of surprise on their side. “What do you see, Slade?” Jacob asked when he reached the man, still staring at the house in the distance.
“That your guy keepin’ watch on the porch?” he asked, nodding to the lone man standing on the steps of the ramshackle cabin.
Squinting, Jake spotted Luis standing there, almost as if he was waiting for him. Nodding, Jake murmured, “That’s him.” Dragging his phone from his jean, he texted his former partner quickly, lifting his eyes to watch if the other man checked his phone. Relieved when the man lifted a hand and tugged his ear, Jake’s shoulders relaxed marginally. “He got the message. That’s our sign to come ahead,” he told the two men with him.
“You sure?” Zeke grunted.
“I worked with the man a lot of years, Zeke. Put my life in his hand countless times. He’s an undercover agent playing a role, but he’s clean,” Jake said before moving toward the tree line. Staying low, he moved toward the house, aware of Slade and Zeke at his back as Luis lifted his gun and scanned their surroundings.
Climbing the porch steps quickly, Jake growled in a low voice, “You got my woman?”
“She’s not hurt, Jake, but we got a problem,” Luis replied as the men heard a commotion inside the house. “Diego’s with them, but we got company,” the DEA agent growled. “Tanner’s just got here. I saw him go in through the back. He’s armed.”
“You’re standing out here while the guy that hurt our women is in the house with ‘em? What the fuck?” Jake bit out, his fingers tightening around his gun. “And here I was telling these guys that you were clean, Luis. Tell me, you gone over to the other side?”
“Fuck you, Jake. You know me better than that. I was waiting for you and your guys, asshole, but I’m telling you we need to play this smart. Any cowboy shit could get these girls dead,” he said tightly, looking around at the grim-faced men surrounding him.
“We’re not playing at all, you son of a bitch,” Zeke growled. “Either you’re with us or you’re in our way and we need to handle you. Choose. Now.”
Running a hand over his sweating face, Luis shook his head. “Jesus, fuck!” he snarled. “It’s like the Wild Fuckin’ West out here. Can’t wait to get through with this shit and take my ass back to the Gang Task Force. This operation is good and fucked anyway.”