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“All guards are taken care of,” River said.
I heaved a breath, too fucking old for this shit, and made my way down the stairs again. “Kill the power again,” I panted.
“Power out,” Ramirez confirmed.
The lights went off as I hurried through the living room. I heard whimpering and crying from some remote corners of the house, but my path was clear. Everyone had fled. I ran out onto the patio and rounded the pool.
“Start the engine,” I grunted.
“Fuck that—I’m coming down to help,” River replied firmly.
Pushing Luiz up on the wall and rolling him over the edge turned my arms to jelly. I could barely fucking climb over myself right after. Fucking hell, fucking hell. Panting and sweating my ass off, I landed on the other side with a thud.
“Do you want me to see if I can scrub the existing footage?” Ramirez asked.
“No.” I swallowed against the dryness in my throat and hauled Luiz up once more. “Let it send a message to the whole goddamn underworld.”
We’d been taught and trained to keep our aces hidden up our sleeves, but it was a fine line between not revealing your arsenal and creating disorder by showcasing your strength. And the time to show our strength was now. I wanted every fucking Carillo scum to know we were coming for them.
River met me halfway down the hill, and together we managed to drag the unconscious Luiz with us over the ridge and down to our truck.
“I can’t feel my fucking legs.” I sucked in a breath and had to take a step back to get my breathing under control.
In the meantime, River shoved Luiz into the back seat and cuffed the guy behind his back. He zip-tied Luiz’s feet too.
“First responders are two minutes out,” Ramirez said.
I rejoined River and took over, grabbing the duct tape from him. He could go get his rifle.
Luiz was starting to wake up as I circled the tape around his head. Over his mouth, around the back of his head, and another lap. Same with his chest and legs.
“Okay, let’s go. We’ll stop on the way to search him.” I got rid of my carbine and the shit I hadn’t needed tonight, plus the face covering, before I got behind the wheel. “Check in with you later, Ramirez. Thanks for your help. RT2 out.”
“Anytime, friend. Over and out,” Ramirez answered.
Now we had an hour’s drive to our temporary safehouse.
IN THE NEWS
“…and the police say they haven’t ruled out a connection between the murders in California and the explosion in Spain this week…”
* * *
“…after an anonymous tip, intercepted a so-called narco-sub on Thursday, where the Coast Guard seized 3.8 tons cocaine.”
* * *
“Good morning, Los Angeles. It’s going to be another hot day with temperatures between 80 and 85 degrees. We’re going straight to Chopper Tim, who has eyes on the ground—and you’re flying over Malibu this morning, aren’t you, Tim? Tell us what happened.”
CHAPTER 2
River Tenley
2019
Pretend we’re normal…
Right.
