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Then he finally let her up and released her. She slipped down the rain barrel and slumped on the floor, dripping and gasping for air.
“She doesn’t know anything else, or she would have spilled by now,” Dum said, reaching down and yanking her up into a chair. Her gaze slipped to Carmen, who was white-faced and frantic, her eyes wide and terrified. Mari tried to reassure her the best she could.
Santiago consulted his watch, then said, “It’s time to get back.” He walked over to Mari, and she watched him with a sick sense of dread lodged in her throat and a strange, lethargic numbness dragging down on her.
Mari sucked in air, relieved. She had spilled everything she knew, except the information Buck had told her. The classified information. It was clear that Santiago was disgusted with her meager knowledge, and maybe that was why he’d made her suffer some more.
The numbness began to fade, and fear took its place. Tears rose to burn the backs of her eyes. They were moving to the end. She could feel it. Once they no longer needed them to keep her brother and the authorities at bay, he was going to kill them. She would have to be ready.
“We’re going for another little excursion.” Santiago smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “The end of the line for you two.”
Mari knew the action was both futile and foolish, but she kicked him anyway, as hard as she could with her heel, catching him square in the diaphragm. He fell back, wheezing as the air punched out of his lungs, the look on his face worth whatever price he would make her pay.
Coughing, he rolled onto his knees and forced himself to his feet with one arm banded across his belly. He rushed at her, pulling the pistol from his belt, and shoving it in her face. Her reaction was instant. Every muscle locked up. Sweat blistered her upper lip, and the only sound was her heartbeat pounding in her ears. “You little bitch! I should pop you now.” With the gun a few inches from her face, she still couldn’t feel sorry for kicking the fucking monster.
“Boss, we might need her,” Dum said. “Nacho won’t be happy if his drugs don’t make it to the docks.”
How was that for irony? The drug trafficker was trying to save her life.
“You’re going to pay for that when the time comes,” he ground out between short, painful gasps, then he drew back and backhanded her so hard across the face, she saw more stars, her cheek exploding with pain. It caused her head to snap to the side. He knotted her hair in his fist and yanked her off the chair and up the stairs. He shoved her so hard toward the kitchen, she fell to the wood floor, her scalp burning. Her close call twisting in her gut, she had to fight the urge to lose what little she had in her stomach.
“Get up,” he said, and she slowly rose to her feet, a hitch in her breathing as a result of her near drowning. Carmen rushed over and slipped her arm around Mari. “Please stop fighting him,” she whispered. But even as Mari looked at him, gaining great satisfaction at his pain from her kick, she didn’t think it was possible. She wasn’t going to cower anymore.
“Move,” he said and with Carmen’s help, she limped back through the amazing kitchen, and back out the door that led to the helipad. There were now several helicopters parked there. The gun pressed into her back to keep her moving, and she was quite sick of his threats.
“Where are you taking us?” she ground out when they were seated back into the chopper. He just turned to look at her, his jaw clenching tight as anger flashed in his eyes. “Shut the fuck up, bitch. Pedro,” he said.
Dum grabbed her arm and squeezed hard, and she cried out.
“Not another word.”
She glared at him and rubbed her arm—more bruises. The helicopter took off and it was another quick twenty minutes back to the tour place and back in the black Humvee.
As they drove toward town, Mari noticed he was taking a familiar road, one that ran along their property. When he turned into the jungle onto a narrow, overgrown path, her breath got trapped in her lungs. This was their land.
Lined with trees, rough and rutted, Santiago had to slow the Humvee to a crawl as the jungle closed in around them, nothing but a mass of green. Mari hung onto the door as the Humvee bounced along, her attention focused on where they were going. As far as she knew, there was nothing out here but jungle. She looked to the south. La Buena Tierra was only about five miles from here. Carmen looked at her with a tiny bit of hope. She recognized it too. Maybe if they could get away, they could run to safety. She wasn’t going to give up hope either.
The jungle thinned ahead, and they came out of the green morass into a small clearing. In front of them was a long wood and cement building with a flat roof.
A warehouse on her property…oh God, this was where they were stashing their coke, packaging it to slip onto their trucks bound for the docks.
Dee and Dum pulled them from the Humvee and shoved them toward the structure. Several men came out to greet them. Once inside the dim interior, her suspicions were confirmed. There was stacked coffee everywhere, burlap bags with their logo stamped on them. Bags full of their filthy drugs.
There were more men inside, about six all with automatic weapons.
That’s all she got a look at as Santiago shoved them both into a storage room and slammed the door. There was a rain barrel in there, the same as the dungeon, and a blood stain on the floor and the doorjamb. A shiver ran down her spine when she realized this was where Mr. Barrantes died.
* * *
“Buck!” Anna shouted as she came running into the warehouse, breathless, holding her phone. “I know where they are!” She held up her phone.
“How is that possible?” he asked. “They tossed the phones.” His heart jumped at the chance to find Mari and Carmen.
“Carmen has a smartwatch, and we got a location app for her. They must not realize it.” She pointed to a map that had pins on it. “These are all the places where she’s been and where she is right now.” He took the phone out of her trembling fingers. The locations were clearly marked.
“Kat,” he said softly. “They’re close, not more than five miles away.”
“Go!” she said. “Take Joker, Bear, and Zorro and half of the PCD and DEA teams.” She turned to D-Day. “You take Blitz, Gator and Professor, and the other half of the PCD and DEA teams. I want you to go to the West Coast where they held them and check it out.”
