Cash
The ride over is quiet. I just want to get this job finished safely. There are two variables I’m not used to dealing with and it’s making this job weigh heavily on me. The job I do isn’t one where you want your emotions engaged and the fact that this is Johnnie’s sister and the fact that there is a child involved are both making me more impassioned than I should be about this case.
We park on a part of the estate that hides our vehicles. I take one last look at my partner and the woman I love and we all exit our vehicles. Each team member has one goal and that is to get that girl and her kid out safely.
We ease through trees and brush, making our way up to the wall around the estate. Walking along the bricked walls, we tread quietly up the door. My heart sinks when I see the door is cracked and has been left open. It can only mean one of two things. Either Steven Taggart is waiting for us or someone has already been here.
We enter the house to see Steven Taggart sitting on the floor and looking like he is in shock. As if he knows why we are there, he begins speaking.
“They took them—my wife and daughter.”
Johnnie lunges at him, hitting him in the face. I watch, completely shocked, as he does nothing to defend himself. I am prepared to kick his ass if he raises so much as a finger in her direction, but I don’t need to. The guy is clearly in shock over his wife and daughter being taken by the Colombian Cartel, as well he should be.
“Where are they, you bastard?” Her screams ring through the air.
I reach down and grab her, pulling her up with one hand. I watch as Thorn grabs her from me and takes her outside, kicking and screaming, so I can get some answers. The team and I work well enough together that many times words aren’t needed. He knew to get her out of there so I could ask the questions that need to be asked.
“The Colombians got her,” Steven repeats once again, as if he hadn’t already said that. He just sits there and stares off into space like he’s hypnotized. I know from my training and previous experience that he’s in shock. I have no problem beating the shit out of him to pull him out of it if need be, but he continues talking.
“The Colombians got her,” he repeats again. He isn’t going to be much help in the condition he is in right now.
I grab a burner phone I brought with me and dial the one person I know can get that girl and kid back alive, Antonio Wayne Ramirez. Antonio knows everyone affiliated with the Colombian drug cartel. He and his brother have ties that go into the deepest, darkest recesses of that depraved world. The brothers are the only two people that I know who have connections to go that deeply into the cartel’s workings and they are the only two I need to know. The two brothers’ connections stretch around the globe and they have a reputation for being ruthless. There are very few people brave enough, or stupid enough, to cross them and those who do, don’t live long enough to brag about it.
I make my way around the corner, so I can’t be overheard, and leave Hunter and Axle with guns on our mark. He isn’t going anywhere in the condition he’s in right now anyway.
“Antonio, I have got a major fucking problem. I got a guy who lost a shipment of drugs and the Colombians have taken his wife and kid. I have no idea which group did this. I’ve got her husband sitting here but he’s out of it.”
“Put the phone up next to his ear.” I put it on speaker rather than placing it next to Steven’s ear. I want the team to hear what he is saying.
“You want your wife and kid back, then give me a name.”
“Jaime Santiago,” is all Steven Taggart mutters into the phone. I put the phone back up to my ear and go around the corner again for privacy’s sake. I don’t want Steven to hear what is going on. Regardless of his state of mind, I have no intention of underestimating my opponent.
“You are well aware why I’m doing this. I don’t fucking like drugs and, come to think of it, I don’t like Jaime Santiago either.” Antonio growls into the phone.
I knew exactly what Antonio Wayne would do when I called him because he is one of my contacts. He and his brother, Ricardo, are big into Antonio bringing women over from Colombia to work in his strip joint. Ricardo holds all the political connections they need and Antonio holds all the street connections in the states and abroad. People are scared of the brothers and rightfully so. They have a reputation for being brutal. In my line of work, I need all kinds of connections and they aren’t always law-abiding citizens.
I can already hear Antonio, on another phone, telling Jaime that he better get those girls back. I know Jaime will do it because nobody wants a run-in with the Ramirez brothers. I also know Antonio will give him Steven Taggart and it will take care of my issue. Even knowing that they will kill him, there is no room in my psyche for guilt. He got himself into this and I am going to make sure that those two girls don’t suffer for it.