Page 39 of Protecting Olivia

Something had woken me up. I didn’t hear anything except Olivia’s soft exhale on my chest. Call it a sixth-sense or years on the battlefield. Something wasn’t right. I had left the closet light on when we went to bed. I could still see the light under the door, so I knew the power had not been cut. I slowly rolled Olivia to her side and sent Z a quick text.

I tagged my pants off the floor and slid my feet into my boots. I pulled back the blinds in the bedroom just enough to check the front of the house, nothing. As I let the blinds gently fall back into place my phone vibrated in my pocket.

Zane had alerted the team, and they were on standby.

“Olivia,” I whispered, “wake up.” I waited for her eyes to open. “I need you to get up and get in the closet. All the way to the back.”

I really wished she knew how to shoot. It was too dangerous to give her a weapon without her knowing what to do.

Olivia didn’t ask questions as she got up and quietly made her way into the closet. Right before she stepped in I pulled her back and softly kissed her lips. I couldn’t wait another second. It wasn’t a long passionate kiss, it was a light touch of our lips. The type of kiss a man gives the woman he loves before he gets out of bed in the morning.

I was so damn proud of her when she slipped in the closet and shut the door behind her. I needed Olivia hidden away so I could search the house.

The living room was completely dark giving me enough freedom to move around and check the windows. I was at the back door when my pocket vibrated. I pulled my phone out and read Zane’s text. What the fuck? Before I could reply, Zane, Jaxon, and Colin came through the front door, flipping the lights on as they entered. Each man had their guns leveled at Gomez and one of his men.

“You thought it was a good idea to bring him in the house?” I asked Zane. “You know I promised Abe we wouldn’t get blood on his floors.”

Gomez grunted at the same time Zane rolled his eyes. He thought I was joking, I wasn’t. I was ready to get this over with and take Olivia home.

“Where are the other two he came with?” I asked as Garrett joined the team.

“Abe and Wolf are currently having a chat with them at the bottom of the hill,” Z told me.

Zane pushed the men farther in the room. At least their hands were zip-tied, but that still didn’t mean shit. How did we know that Gomez didn’t have a whole army of cartel members on standby?

“We’re gonna have a little talk with Gomez before we dispose of him. He seems to think he has some information we want,” Zane explained and guided Gomez to the kitchen table. “Have a seat.”

Jaxon followed suit and shoved the man in front of him to the table.

“What information might that be?” I prompted.

We didn’t have time to fuck around. Olivia was in the closet upstairs, and we had to move as quickly as possible.

“You have a traitor in your ranks,” Gomez spoke.

Well, no shit Sherlock. We knew that, and we knew he knew that.

“You don’t say?” I quipped.

“And you thought you needed to come all the way to the US to impart that wisdom on us?” Z asked.

“In Bolivia, men do business face to face. We do not cower behind a screen. I prefer to look a man in the eyes if he is going to threaten my life.” Gomez sat back in his seat with a smug look crossing his face. This man had balls.

I walked around the table and pushed the muzzle of my Sig to his forehead. “How’s this for looking you in the eyes. I’m going to put a bullet in your skull. You don’t have shit to tell us.”

“I did not take that pretty young girl. None of my men have been in the US for some time. You Americans are so stupid. If I had the girl, I would’ve killed her. I do not play games and take and release. There is no release. Never release, if I want to take, I do it. Then they die. You have a traitor. And not the idiot Clark who was merely a boy trying to keep up with men. You found him dead, yes?”

I was struggling to keep my cool. Though something he said struck me as the truth. Gomez’s work up did show that he was ruthless. He always killed his enemies. He never even tortured them.

I glanced at Zane who seemed to be contemplating the same thing I was. Zane pulled his phone out, when he spoke to Gomez, he didn’t lift his eyes from the screen. “Yes, and we got your note telling us he was a gift from you.”

Gomez threw his head back and laughed. “Do I strike you as an altruist man? I do not give gifts.” Gomez’s demeanor changed when he looked up at me with fire in his eyes. “You think you are the only ones who have the capability to track information. I am here as a courtesy. I will tolerate the gun to my head for only so long before I take it as an insult. Siles is not who you think he is. He was planning a coup. Do you not think I knew that the sweep was fake? The American’s only hit my smallest territories. If they had information of my operation, they would have gone to my largest warehouses. Siles is a traitor to me, an informant. I did not contact the Americans wanting him back. His men did.”

“And we are supposed to believe you?” I asked.

If what Gomez was saying was true, Siles had outsmarted the Attorney General. Nothing like having the Americans take out the leader of the cartel so you could slide into his place. After we killed Gomez, Siles would no longer need to be in protective custody. He would be free to go back to Bolivia.

“Of course not. I know better than that. If you’ll take your gun off my head and take my watch off, you’ll find a chip in the back with all the information you need. Minus your traitor.”