“You are amazing. I was already addicted before I touched you, and now I’m on my way to obsessed.” He squeezed her tight one more time, then backed up. “As much as I’d like to put you back to bed, we’ve got to get back on the road. The guys managed to give us a couple extra hours than planned, so now we do need to hustle.”
With a nod, she walked on careful feet to the small bathroom and stepped cautiously into the tub. The water was barely warm, but it felt good to be under the spray.
When she got out, she saw that Triumph had put the clean clothes from yesterday on the toilet lid for her and left some of her toiletries balanced on the back of the small sink. A smile crossed her face. He was an interesting conundrum. All soft, gooeyness on the outside, crunchy spice secreted on the inside. She liked it, and based on how her body responded to the memories of last night, she wanted to experience it again.
THE FINAL PUSH
Glennon
They stoodunder an awning at the port in Turbo, their eyes scanning for any sign of trouble. “Do you get the feeling things are going way too smooth?” Demon murmured.
“Yeah, I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Steel replied. “We’ve traveled almost uninterrupted. The odds of that are astronomical. They should have tried something by now, at the very least.”
All Demon did was grunt.
“He’s definitely pushing us,” Glennon replied.
Triumph asked, “If that’s true, where do you think he’s pushing us to?”
Turning his head to stare back in front of him, Steel replied, “If it were me? The Darién Gap. Sixty-six miles of despair and death.”
Demon agreed. “Nothing like traversing that hellhole and having to walk across children’s toys, abandoned belongings, and skeletons stripped clean of anything that once made them human.”
“Not to mention the fresh and decomposing bodies alongside them,” Steel added.
Glennon told them, “He’ll create a showdown here. At the port. While the gap would be the smart option, Guillermo does things his own way. He’d want to be in on the final capture, and he’d want it to be a public place. Make a statement. The gap is too private. It wouldn’t give him any satisfaction.”
With a snort, Steel shook his head in disbelief. “Estúpido. Hector warned him that his bullshit ego would be his downfall. Smart was always preferred to dramatic. My brother, Ignacio, is only slightly better in that department, but he’s fuckingloco. Part of why Hector favored me over his full-blood offspring. He knew I always went the smart route.”
With a huff, Glennon replied, “He’s got police, judges, and government officials in his pocket. He doesn’t need to be smart.”
“But smart is less visible. Just because locals will look the other way out of fear, and law enforcement accepts bribes, it doesn’t mean you’ve got blanket immunity. A SEAL team could come in and take him out. People would probably give them a fucking parade and keys to the city,” he muttered.
“That’s part of the attraction for him,” she reminded him. “If he’s able to take someone in full view, it perpetuates his reputation.”
“And if he guns someone down,” Demon added, “it feeds the fear of everyone else.”
“Exactly,” she confirmed.
Triumph spoke up. “If you believe he’s pushing us in a particular direction, shouldn’t we be heading any other direction? Seems like common sense to me.”
“If we’d been able to get to one of our other exit points successfully, none of this bullshit would matter,” Steel said. “It’s the one thing he did well. He cut off those exit points, so we’vehad no choice but to go in the direction he wants.” He looked to Glennon. “At least for now.”
The message was clear. Guillermo expected them to be here to catch a boat. Therefore, Steel was confirming her conjecture that the port was likely where he’d make his move. If they made it out into international waters, there might still be a chance, but it wasn’t much better than the odds they currently had of success.
If they were unsuccessful in getting to their contact’s boat, their absolute last chance at survival would be disappearing into the gap, which could kill them faster than the man driving them to his endgame.
“So, what’s the plan?” Triumph asked.
“Tonight, we’ll catch a few hours of sleep at the home of Tripoli’s contact. Tomorrow, when the bulk of the boats go out, he’ll take us to Cancún to meet up with Dax, Wes, and the others on their fishing trip.”
“Why doesn’t this contact take us all the way home?”
“His boat’s not suited for that type of journey. Conor’s guy has a yacht that can handle deep-sea fishing.”
“How long will the trip take?”
Steel shrugged. “Two to four days, depending on what trouble we run into along the way, as well as refueling stops. It’s going to be a miserable trip. He’s got a false wall in the hold of his fishing boat. A little like a panic room, but smaller. I’ll ride topside with him since I can blend in as his employee, but even still, the three of you are going to be cramped. Just prepare yourselves.”
