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I could hear Shade quietly discussing options with Milo. He returned to the phone.
“Boss,” Shade began. “We’re in a fairly concealed corner of the yard. If you want, we can take out the closest ones and pull them into the brush.”
“You’d have to do it quietly,” I replied. “No guns.” I reminded him.
Despite Hollywood’s glamorous, and totally inaccurate, representation, silencers—or more accurately, suppressors—didn't remove all sound from a gunshot. They muffled the loud pop, but there was still a pretty noticeable click when the trigger was pulled, plus a decent bang when the bullet left the chamber of the gun. So, not silent by any means. My men knew that no guns equaled slitting throats and close quarters combat. The victim would die almost instantly and wouldn’t be able to scream for help. Messy, but effective.
“Got it, Boss.” Shade hung up.
I relayed my instructions to Brick.
“I agree. Taking out the perimeter men, ones who aren’t in direct sight of the others, is a good idea.” Again, Brick called his second in command. “Eric, tell everyone if they can grab any man who is out of sight of the others, to do so. Hand to hand only.”
“Yes sir.” Eric hurried off to relay his boss’s orders.
I went to pull out my KA-BAR, ready to search for men to kill, but Brick stopped me with a hand to my arm.
“We need you alive to get the girl. You must stay here until we can storm the house.”
The thought of sitting on the sidelines, doing nothing, had me seeing red. My fingers flexed, tightening on my weapon. Rage flared throughout my body, snapping and crackling as the flames grew, my anger seeking a release. “What I need is to kill some of the motherfuckers who touched my girl.” Brick didn’t so much as flinch when I shot him a murderous glare.
“I understand, my friend. But I want this deal to go through, and for that, I need you and your woman alive. We have soldiers for a reason. You need to trust them to do the work.”
I growled under my breath, so frustrated I wanted to take my knife and plunge it into someone, anyone. The seven-inch carbon steel blade in my hand didn’t help rein in my anger. Instead, it fed my lust for blood and death.
“It will all work out,” Brick said.
I glanced at the man I was depending on to pull this off. Without his help, I wouldn’t get Miri back. Hell, I wouldn’t even be here. Besides, we did make a deal. Brick would be a very wealthy and powerful man if Miri came out alive, so he had no reason to talk bullshit. He wanted her almost as much as I did, for very different reasons.
I tilted my head back and stared at the stars, brilliant across the sky without the light pollution of a major city nearby. Breathing in and out, my only focus was to calm the hell down and think rationally.
“I’m good,” I told him once the red haze cleared. Brick lifted an eyebrow and I huffed. “Really, I’m good.” I slid the knife back into its sheath. “I just need our men to hurry the fuck up and slit some fucking throats.”
Brick grinned and clapped me on the shoulder.
“That is something we can make happen.”
Thirty minutes later we heard back from most of the teams spread around the mansion. Thirteen Los Guerreros down, and according to our own count and that of our men, there were nine left wandering the property, still looking for Miri’s friend. I had no doubt Miri was back inside El Cuchillo’s house. Between Brick and myself, over sixty men scoured the perimeter and didn’t find a single trace of her anywhere.
“I vote we move on the remaining men,” I whispered to Brick. We took turns looking through his pair of military-grade binoculars. “There aren’t many men left and we don’t want them going into the house. Inside, they’ll have the advantage of knowing the layout. Out here, they’re easy targets.”
Brick nodded and took his binoculars from me, studying the yard. “I agree. We know there are cameras on each corner of the house and by the front door. Our men are wearing dark clothing. They can stay undetected on the cameras and as they kill each target, one of our men will use the flashlight and pretend to be a Los Guerreros searching the grounds. The other will drag the body out of sight.”
“I’ll call my second.” I moved a few steps away and dialed Shade. After four rings it went to voice mail. I tried again and got the same. “Fuck!” I tried Milo next and he answered on the third ring.
“Boss…”
Milo sounded out of breath, which made the hairs at the back of my neck stand up.
“Milo? What’s going on? Where’s Shade?”
“They… one of ’em got him, Boss… He’s dead.” It sounded as if Milo had just run a marathon.
“What?” My head reeled with the information. Shade was set to take Milo’s place as my second in command after this operation was done.
“I got the guy who did it… but…” Milo gasped for air.
“Where are you?” I demanded.
