Page 40 of Chris

“Arms out, like a T,” Jorge called, a smirk playing at the edges of his lips.

Chris gave the man on the other side of the gate cocked brow, but did as Jorge ordered. The gate opened, and two of the armed guards that had walked out the exit road from the Lòpez ranch came through to check him, patting him down and looking for any sign of a wire. It had to be that because they didn’t seem to give a shit about the knife in his pocket.

He wouldn’t get so irritated over being checked. It wasn’t the first time he needed to do that, and God knew being who he was, he had enough run-ins with the cops over the years to be familiar with a pat down. It was more the fact that Jorge seemed to be enjoying Chris’s annoyance.

The one man with the bandana covering his face grabbed the duffle bag Chris had brought along with his clothes, and other items, from the ground. He wasn’t respectful about checking the bag.

“He’s clean,” one of the men said to Jorge.

“Perfecto,” Jorge praised. “As I thought he would be, ah, amigo?”

Chris jerked his arm out of the hold of the one man who still hadn’t let him go, and fixed the front of his blazer, brushing off any invisible dust. He hated being handled like he was nothing more than a dog. “Offensive, is all.”

Jorge waved a hand, dismissing that statement. “Can’t be too safe, for one. And for two, I enjoy the show. Now, are you ready to see the ranch?”

“Which do you prefer to call it, the compound or the ranch?”

“Whichever one seems less illegal at the time.”

Good point.

“I look forward to seeing it,” Chris said.

“Come on, then.”

Once the guards stepped back to give Chris room, he moved to follow Jorge who already had his back turned to the others as he walked down the road. Just how long was the road before they arrived at the ranch?

Chris stepped beyond the iron gate with the cursive L welded at the center, and a thought whispered through his mind at the same time. No going back now. The job had only kind of been in play before, but now it was go time. Well, his mind wasn’t wrong, but he pushed it out of his head, so he could focus on the now.

From here on out, Chris would have to be careful. It was just him here—his father, as of a week ago, was back in Canada, and he didn’t have a back up. Sure, he had a phone to call out if he needed help, but what good was that going to do? It would take people time to get here to him, and by then, it would be already too late.

“You’ll see the barns first,” Jorge said, “a couple of miles in. We use them for a lot of things, being we have actual animals on the ranch, but we also use them for storage before a drop, or if we have an oversupply at any given time. Depending on the circumstances before a smuggle run for your father, we’ll be storing his on the property.”

Gravel crunched under Chris’s feet, and the hot sun overhead beat down on his back, reminding him why it had been a bad idea to wear his usual slacks and blazer. At least, he had been smart enough not to wear a fucking tie.

Still, as he shrugged off his jacket, he asked, “How far in is the main ranch?”

“Five miles.”

“And we walk the whole way?”

Jorge chuckled. “We do.”

Great.

“Has the ranch ever been stormed by officials, or—”

“No,” Jorge interjected fast, “because I pay a lot of money to make sure that doesn’t happen. Or, we divert their attention to somewhere else, give them something they want, and that’s all.”

“I don’t understand.”

The man glanced over his shoulder at Chris, grinning sardonically. “Here, it is all about who you know, and who you can blackmail or bribe. They need an arrest, or a bust, and so we give it to them, so they have something to flash on the news, and make it look like they’re doing something important. The public thinks they’re getting a hold on the cartels, the government looks good, and la policía appear like they’re doing their job. Our main operation remains untouched, and we continue to operate as normal. Clear enough?”

More than, but Chris didn’t bother to say it.

“I heard your wife was the daughter of a politician,” Chris said, still keeping a few paces between him and Jorge just in case. He still didn’t trust the man. “Does that play into your bribery and blackmail at all?”

“It did,” Jorge muttered, “and then I had the man killed when he was no longer useful, so it didn’t matter.”