Page 85 of Colombian Chemistry

“I’m so sorry about that, baby. I know how you feel about killing. I wish you’d never been put in the situation to be forced to go against your morals.”

After taking a moment to let it sink in, I shook my head. “I’m not sorry. And I don’t feel bad. You were right. Some people deserve to die, and Pedro was one of them. He never would have stopped, and he’d have killed countless people if he’d have survived. I’m glad I did what I did. He was going to kill you, and I would do it over and over again.”

“Look at you, badass!” Piper cheered from the open window.

“Maybe we need to add her to the team,” Knox joked.

“Oh no!” I laughed. “One and done. I’m not going on any killing sprees. But I’m glad I did this one.” I looked down at Pedro’s body and glared. “He hurt my family.”

“And now he’ll never hurt either of you again.”

“My dad!” I said too loudly. “Is he okay?”

“He’s safe and sound,” Knox said. “He’s hiding out in the van where we have it hidden. We best get you there, too, and get the hell out of here. There are still guards patrolling around, and they’ve called for backup. More cartel will be here soon.”

“What’s the best way out?” I asked. “And don’t say the window. I may have gotten over a lot of my fears, but I still freaking hate heights.”

Marcus chuckled and slung an arm around me, then kissed my forehead. “I found a good way through. And Wesley just came on and said he’s got control of the compound again. He can help us get out.”

“There’s one stop we need to make along the way,” Piper said as she slipped through the window.

“Where’s that?” Knox asked.

Her coy smile matched the sparkle in her eyes. “You’ll see. Just follow me.”

We moved together through the mansion, and they took out the few guards we passed along the way. With my earpiece gone, I couldn’t hear Wesley anymore, but I knew he was still in their ears based on how they’d stop and be ready before anyone made it to us. Finally, Piper took us through the basement to a door at the end.

“You guys ready?” she asked with a smile.

We all nodded, and she pushed open the door that had the lock shot off. When we stepped inside, our mouths dropped open simultaneously.

“Holy. Shit,” I whispered.

There were stacks and stacks of drug bricks and also tons of weapons, but those didn’t catch my eye. It was more stacks of hundred-dollar bills than we could ever count that had me struggling to breathe.

“I had to take cover in here earlier and saw all this shit. Who’s ready to retire in style?” Piper said as she spun around and opened her arms.

“Me! Me!” Knox raised his hand like a little kid before bursting into laughter and running toward the stacks of money.

“Unbelievable,” Marcus breathed. “There are hundreds of millions of dollars in here.”

“We can’t take it all, of course,” Piper said. “But if we each carry out two of those duffle bags, we can get about five million per person. More than enough to keep us all happy.”

“We’re fucking rich!” Knox said as he grabbed a stack of money and pressed it against his chest. “This totally makes up for the fact I didn’t get to use my new under-barrel grenade launcher tonight!”

“I can fund my research,” I said, then stopped. “Wait. That’s drug money... blood money. I don’t want blood money.”

Marcus chuckled. “Well, if we leave it here, it just funds the cartels even more, which means more deaths. Or we take some of this off their hands, and we use the money for something good... like helping your huge brain save the world.”

I bit my lip as I considered his words, then nodded. “You’re totally right. Let’s fill up those bags!”

We each grabbed the duffle bags piled on the shelves and shoved as much money into them as we could. When we finished, we each grabbed two.

“And they aren’t going to come after us for the money? I really don’t want to run for my life anymore,” I said.

Knox shook his head. “When we call the Los Lobos cartel and sick them on the Jungle Kings tonight, they’ll take over this compound. They’ll have no idea how much money was in here, so they won’t miss it. There is still a few hundred million dollars in here, easy. They’ll be happy as pigs in shit about everything and never question it’s not all here.”

“Oh yeah. Good point.”