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Ridge prompted her to continue.
“Can we afford to wait? If Varilla did kidnap her, he may have already taken her out of the country, and if it was to Mexico, she might not be there any longer either.”
“May I?” Tryst asked.
“Please,” Ridge responded.
“I can assure you Varilla will not be leaving the port by land, water, or air.”
“How—” Seraphina must’ve realized mid-sentence she was about to ask a question she wouldn’t receive an answer to. “One more thing.” She looked around the room as if to warn those present not to challenge her. “I will be on the team going to Alamos.”
The only person who commented was Tryst. “As I would expect you to be,” he said, looking her in the eye.
After landingthe plane on the ranch’s private runway, I’d just gotten settled in one of its many guesthouses, orcasitas, when Tryst received a call requesting our support in Yavaros.
“Good God,” I muttered upon our arrival at the port. There were rows and rows of warehouses, shipping containers stacked twenty deep, and ships lined up for what looked like miles, waiting to be loaded before setting off to places around the world.
“Are you certain this is where we’re intended to meet?” I asked Beau when we arrived at the specified location after the sun had set.
My brother looked at something on his phone, then between two rows of stacked containers around us. “Yes, this is where Ares said to wait.”
“Who is this guy connected to?” Ridge asked.
“K19, but their Shadow Ops team,” Beau responded right before a man I immediately knew was Ares, based on his appearance alone, rounded the corner. The man was the Marvel graphic novel character personified.
After introducing ourselves to him, he handed out comms devices to each of us, then instructed us to stay out of the way until our assistance was needed.
Prior to our arrival, we’d been briefed on what that “assistance” entailed. First, to identify Luisa Reeve if the Shadow Ops team found where the human trafficking victims were being held. Two, to help transport the victims to a place where they could receive the necessary medical care as well as to begin the reunification process.
Tryst had stayed at the ranch in order to line up medical personnel, who would remain on standby there.
“How many men do you have going in?” Ridge asked Ares.
“Six, and from what we can tell, there may be as many as thirteen people being held in that container over there.” He pointed three stacks down and one row over. “As far as what we’re up against, based on thermal imaging, there’s a total of sixteen inside. We believe the two people who appear to be moving about are with Varilla. Our intention is to keep the three assailants alive enough for questioning.”
Alive enough.Ares’ response chilled me to the bone. Like before, I felt as though those of us representing Los Caballeros were in far over our head. We weren’t trained for this or any other kind of official mission.
After making sure we were all armed, Ares took his leave.
We wereable to keep track of what was happening through the comms, so we knew the precise moment the team of six made their move into the shipping container. First, we heard shouting, followed by gunshots and people screaming.
“Let her go, Varilla. The container is surrounded. There’s no way out,” I heard Ares shout through the earpiece.
“You let me go, or she dies,” a man responded.
“If she dies, you die.”
“Traer el coche,”Varilla was overheard saying. I knew enough Spanish to recognize he’d just requested backup in the form of transportation through his own comms.
Within seconds, an SUV with blacked-out windows barreled up to the back of the shipping container, tires screeching.
“Four incoming,” Ridge said as they jumped out of the vehicle.
“Take ’em out!”Ares responded.
Ridge, Beau, and I fired shots simultaneously, taking down three of the men who’d exited the vehicle.
“There’s a fourth,” said Ridge.
