SEAL Under Covers (SEAL Brotherhood Series Book 3) (27 page)

“Armando, who do you think I am?” Mia’s horrified expression wiped away the smirk he hated. “If I knew that, you think I’d have hung around her? You think I’m completely nuts?”

So she’d lied to him. Lied to him all along. Well, he’d deal with that one later. Right now there was the problem of what to do about Carlos.

Carlos continued. “Imagine my surprise when I am out on my little boat, and I get this call, telling me the cops was all over my stuff, and they had a list of some ten names of people they was picking up. You know who else was on that list?”

No.

“That’s right, your little bitch was going to have Mia arrested, too, as accessory.”

That was the last straw. He’d been a fuckin’ idiot, buying her fears and helping her with her stuff. It was all a smokescreen. She’d betrayed him just like interpreters and shopkeepers in Afghanistan had betrayed them. She had a lot of nerve pretending to fall for him and all the while planning his own sister’s demise. Nobody got away with harming his family. Rage exploded in his veins.

“So what’s the plan?” He knew Fredo would cough at that one. He was grateful he still had the presence of mind to think straight. Fury was way more comfortable to him. Didn’t matter that he recognized it as a sign he needed help. It felt good to get angry, because it was some kind of solution he could effect. He was glad he hadn’t brought anything but a handgun to this meeting.

“She played you real good, Armando. I told you to be careful. But I didn’t know how bad it was.”

But then he found a shred of sanity and perspective. Gina had been good at her job. Sucked, but it was what she was
supposed
to do. He knew there was something off, just couldn’t pinpoint it, but now it all made sense. And weren’t the cops supposed to be the good guys? It still didn’t make him feel any better, knowing he’d been used in this manner.

What began to really eat a hole in his gut, though, was her relationship with Sam. Was that all a ruse as well?

“How’d you get this information, Carlos?” he asked.

“I got friends too.”

“Like Sam?”

Carlos reacted with a string of Spanish slang. “He’s a crazy man. No way you can trust a crazy man.”

“And yet Gina apparently does,” he said.

Mia stepped toward him. “Armando, I think she used him too. She doesn’t like the dude. Besides, he’s a little rough.”

Finally something was familiar, some truth was beginning to come out.

“Sam’s on Sam’s team. He’d never be a player on mine,” Carlos said, his eyes forming slits. “Your bitch better be careful. She’s playing with some serious shit with that one.”

Carlos was right. If half of what they revealed to him was accurate, Gina herself might be in some danger. Danger perhaps she was trying to keep from him. Is that what she meant when she asked him not to get involved?

“So now what do we do?” Armando asked.

“I need safe passage to Mexico. You let me go this evening. I sail away to Mexico until all this blows over. Mia can go home with you. It’s like a favor for a favor. You get to deal with the bitch and her master when you get back.”

“But that would be breaking the law.”

“You’re breakin’ the law by packing.”

“Considering your line of work and where this meeting is taking place, I consider it an act of self-preservation.”

“Look, Armando, be reasonable,” Carlos took Mia by the shoulders and stood directly behind her. It wasn’t lost on Armando that Mia was his shield in every sense of the word. “I’m just looking for the opportunity to lay low for a while, recoup. Lick my wounds. You do me a favor, I do you a favor by giving your sister back. Nobody gets hurt.”

Mia wrinkled up her nose and tried to get away from him, but Carlos held her about the waist and put a gun to her temple.

“You starting to feel me?”

“Why you Huckleberry asshole. You’ll never make it out alive if you harm one hair on her—”

“Get your fuckin hands off her,” came Fredo’s voice. Carlos was staring into the barrel of an H&K MP5. The startle effect gave Armando enough time to nudge Mia’s knees, forcing her to fall forward and collapse out of the way. He grabbed Carlos’s gun. Rory was there in seconds securing Carlos’s wrists and ankles in zip ties.

Fredo laid his weapon down carefully as he ran over to Mia, who was rubbing her knees, which were slightly bloody. She glared at her brother.

Sirens and lights flashed. He’d have to stay and give statements. It was too late for him to get Mia away, but she was safe.

As the patrol cars began to descend on the pier, Armando wondered which vehicle Gina was in. Would she take point and come in first? Or wait and show up sheepishly at the end after all the arrests had been made?

As he watched the SDPD officers bathed in the blue and red flashing lights, he couldn’t make out Gina’s face anywhere in the crowd of uniforms. Nor Sam’s. He started getting a worried feeling in his gut. He didn’t think of her as a coward and was sure she’d be present for this crowning moment.

He saw the police sergeant in charge coming towards him and Armando decided to make a quick call to Riverton. He needed someone to help cut him loose, and fast.

Chapter 28

Kozinski swore and threw his cell on the couch in the living room, where he’d spent the night. Again. He was getting updates on their progress. So far, they’d arrested seventeen of Carlos’s gang, including some young teenagers who would be delivered to juvenile detention after they got a good look at the jail, where they’d most likely end up if they didn’t straighten themselves out. That was always Kozinski’s rule, get the younger ones scared so they’d keep to the straight and narrow. Less than 10% ever did, but still.

They’d found a cache of weapons loaded on a semi destined for Mexico. Used to be they would arrest people with vans or station wagons. Now it was semis full of guns and ammo.

Lord help us.
He hoped this country lasted long enough that he could see his grandchildren get married and start to have a life of their own. Some days, it seemed as if the bad guys had more firepower and more informants than the S.D.P.D. did.

They’d also found two stashes of drugs and a packaging facility nearby. Was supposed to be a soap plant, making scented bath salts, which was smart, since it partly threw off the dogs, who’d been trained to be so scent sensitive.

He’d just learned that Carlos had slipped away. The man had shown himself at one of the gun caches, and then slipped into the night like a bat. So much for Tito’s intelligence, and Kozinski had a mind to arrest the sister, too, since he was fairly sure she might have been in on the smokescreen.

Nah, you’re being too negative, Koz.
His therapist wanted him to stop doing the trash self-talk. The tapes weren’t working, either. A dumb decision was still a dumb decision, regardless of what you told yourself afterwards.

So there was someone who was feeding information to the gang. He’d been careful not to reveal anything to Sam, and thus he was pretty sure it wasn’t him. Sam had been one of his best cops before his steady deterioration into risky behavior. When Gina arrived on the force, it had all come to a head. She was something Sam wanted and could never really earn. He’d seen it happen before, but he thought Sam was stronger than that. Morally, Sam might not be a poster child for a faithful marriage, but Koz doubted he’d ever sell out his brothers in arms for money. The man was weak, but never seemed the type to be greedy, or to be working some angle for extra money.

And maybe that was the problem, he thought. If Sam had some kind of a life off the force, maybe he wouldn’t have put all his eggs into that one basket. It was a shame.

The next call was a surprise. He picked it up in one ring, even though it was one o’clock in the morning.

“Kozinski.” He sounded like a frog and cleared his throat.

“Clark Riverton S.D.P.D.” He’d never met the man, but knew him by reputation as a real bull dog of a detective.

“What can I do for you at this hour?”

“Yes, very impressive. Or are you not sleeping either?” Riverton asked him.

“Got a big sweep going on, so been getting updates all evening.  Don’t expect I’ll get any rest tonight. What’s up? You working too?” If he was calling at this hour of the night, it was important.

“I’ve heard a little about an undercover operation going on involving the Scorpions.”

“You are correct.”

“I’m friendly with a SEAL who is personally related, not involved, mind you, but related to the gang.”

“You must mean Armando Guzman.”

“Exactly. I’ve met Mia a couple of times. She’s a real firecracker. And with Armando, her brother, a SEAL, I imagine he’s going to want to interfere.”

“That would be understating it.”

“
I
don’t want to interfere.”

“Yes. So, what’s your point?”

“I think he’s just helped you with your sweep.”

“Come again?” Kozinski didn’t think he had enough luck left for this.

“Carlos tried to make a deal and the SEALs took him down. You’ve got men down there at the harbor making the arrests now. ”

“They killed him?”

“Fuck, no. He’s sitting in the back seat of a patrol car with his wrists and ankles tied together like an animal ready for slaughter. I’d prefer that Guzman not get any grief for this.”

“He can have a tickertape parade, as far as I’m concerned. He’s still at the scene? We let the arresting officers make the determination.”

“Surely he’s not a target.”

“He will be if he doesn’t stop inserting himself.”

Kozinski took down the address of the boat just as his other phone began to ring. He knew that number to be the officers in charge.

Kozinski wondered where Gina was in all this. And he’d not heard that Sam was a part of any of the arrests, not that he was supposed to be. “Clark, I have a question for you. Is Gina Mancuso with them there?”

“Um, no. I don’t think so. I mean, Armando didn’t mention her. Why?”

“She’s my undercover. Just thought maybe she was there.” Kozinski wasn’t completely comfortable giving out this information, but with most of the gang rounded up, and Carlos under wraps, he needed to get word to her as soon as possible.

“If she is, I’ll have her give you a call,” Riverton answered.

“No sir, I’ll call her myself. Thanks. And don’t tell Armando I’m delighted he got Carlos, or he’ll be thinking he can moonlight between deployments.”

“Wouldn’t be such a bad thing now, would it?” Riverton chuckled.

“I think he does just fine at his current job.”

Kozinski called his senior task force officer back and was briefed on the shipboard arrests. He hoped it wouldn’t get too messy for the SEALs, who had probably stopped a firefight from the sounds of it. He was actually starting to feel pretty good until he tried several times to get hold of Gina, who was normally very good about answering his calls.

Chapter 29

Gina awoke in a tiny, darkened room. She had no idea how long she’d been sleeping, but her internal clock said she’d slept all night. And hard. She mentally checked herself out. She was lying on a bed with…how odd, with silk sheets. Nothing seemed to be hurt or missing. Her clothes were still intact, although she was barefoot. She was unbound, but her wrists and ankles hurt as if she had been tied up. She examined a red ring that was especially tender around her right wrist.

The bed she was sleeping on had dark silk sheets, which seemed very odd. She remembered hearing crying and then realized that’s what woke her up.

It’s the sounds of my own weeping!

Crossing to the doorway, she found herself in the duplex Tito led her to last night. In the daytime it didn’t look nearly as dangerous. She listened for signs of anyone else and heard shuffling. The echoes of her own voice had stopped. When she turned, she recognized Tito’s body, even though the head was missing.

Gina’s stomach began to lurch. She felt dizzy.

“Come here, baby.” Sam’s chest appeared from the shadows. It was streaked with sweat and dried, dark burgundy blood. A clump of what looked like brain matter stuck to one of the loops of his belt. His eyes had that vacant and hungry look he used to show her just before he trussed her all up like a chicken at a Chinese market.

She pitched forward and heaved contents of her stomach, nearly covering his boots.

“That’s it, baby. Get it all out. Everything’s over now. You’re safe. I’ve got you and I’m never letting go.”

Then it hit her. He was completely telling the truth. Sam would never let her go. He wasn’t the man she thought she knew at all. He was someone who wanted to own her in every sense of the word. She knew she was in mortal danger.

She ran across the dirty living room floor in her bare feet, stepping on sharp pieces of glass and something metallic, but she kept on running. She was looking for a doorway, for a way out. She stopped and vomited all over her toes. When she looked up, she found a doorway to what she hoped was an exit.

Where was Sam?

She’d found a bathroom that was surprisingly clean. She fell to her knees and worshiped the white toilet bowl, which smelled almost pleasantly of cleaner. She heaved another round. Then she heard Sam come up behind her. He turned on the faucet and she saw a clear glass of water handed to her.

Before she could take it, she lurched again, but there wasn’t anything left in her stomach. The dry heave was painful. Her head was pounding. She should have felt happy her captor had been killed, but why was Sam there?

She looked up and grabbed the water glass anyway. She needed it. The water tasted heavenly. Sam’s stubby fingers were caked with a combination of dirt and dark red ooze. But he didn’t hesitate to smooth his callused palms over her shoulders, neck and down her arms as she drank her fill.

After she finished, he took the glass from her and lifted her by the waist, pulling her backside into his groin where she felt his erection as she slid down when he let her feet touch the ground. He didn’t remove his hands.