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He was right. They were two of the five Felixstowe victims who’d left Tryst’s ranch, saying they were headed to the US border. Two more of the group had been found murdered in La Higuera. That meant of the five, one remained.
“What about throughout the rest of the house? Any other evidence of who’s been here?”
“Sir, I found something,” said one of the deputies, who we’d seen in one of the bedrooms. “Ma’am, sir,” he said, nodding to Tryst and me.
We followed him up the ladder and into a room where a mattress had been flipped and cut open. Inside was a duffel bag containing several bundles of money.
“We did a quick estimate, and it looks like there might be as much as two hundred thousand here.”
Tryst looked at me. “If I were a man on the run, I wouldn’t have left this behind,” he said.
“Agreed.” Which meant there was a chance the fifth man would return.
Vader arrangedfor deputies to stake out the house. Tryst, some of the other caballeros, and I took shifts, joining them, along with Tank, Blackjack, and Atticus.
On the third night, we watched someone approach the house and open a side gate.
“Let’s move out,” I heard Vader say through the comms.
“I’m going with them,” I told Tryst, strapping on one of the two Kevlar vests we’d brought with us. “I love you, Tryst,” I said before donning my NVGs.
“I’m right behind you, and I love you, my Jaicon,” he said. I wanted to argue and tell him to remain in the vehicle, but there wasn’t time.
“On the count of three,” said Vader once I was in position with the rest of the team.
Three deputies, Tank, Blackjack, Atticus, and I cleared the house, including the crawl space. I got to the door of the bedroom where the money had been found in the mattress just as the man we’d seen enter through the side gate climbed out the window.
“Freeze!” I yelled, but not quickly enough to get a shot off. “Suspect exited the front window of bedroom three,” I said through the comms, racing out after him.
As soon as my feet hit the ground, terror spread throughout my body. Tryst stood near the front door with the man’s gun pressed against his temple. Even through the NVGs, I saw his eyes dart back and forth as if he was trying to tell me no.
“I got this,” said Tank through the comms. “Ten seconds.”
I didn’t care—couldn’t care—if Tank’s shot killed him. All that mattered was for Tryst to live. “Do not fire unless you are certain you can take him out before he pulls the trigger. My life depends on it,” I whispered.
“Give me my fucking money, or I kill him,” the man shouted.
I counted the seconds as if they were hours. Praying to God and the deities that Tank would save the man I loved.
I could see him move into position in the bushes of the house next door. “Three, two, one,” he said in quick succession.
I let out the breath I was holding when the man dropped to the ground, the gun in his hand falling with him.
I pulled the NVGs from my head and threw them down as I raced into Tryst’s arms. At the same time, Blackjack and Atticus rushed to the man, securing his weapon.
I put my hands on either side of Tryst’s face and kissed him, stopping only long enough to say, “Thank God you’re okay.”
“I am fine, my love,” he said, tightening his arms around me.
“Call a bus,” Atticus shouted. “The fucker’s alive.”
EPILOGUE
TRYST
Two weeks later
The man who’d held the gun to my head started talking while still recovering in the hospital from a non-life-threatening gunshot wound, mainly because he was far more afraid of Varilla’s henchmen than he was of law enforcement. Since he had a price on his head, he didn’t even try to negotiate a deal. All he wanted was to live.
