The first guy was dead, and Sean retrieved a handgun and grabbed his AK-47 and slung it over his shoulder. He didn’t have a radio, but Sean found a cell phone in his pocket. He avoided looking at the man’s face. He was young. Too young to be in the middle of this war.
Maybe it wasn’t Gabriella. Kane shouldn’t be here at all. Sean should have taken this job on his own. Jesse was his son, his responsibility. There was a bounty on Kane’s head; anyone could have spotted him. At the football game last night. When he went to town to meet with Gabriella. Or Dante Romero turned on him.
The bastard. Sean would kill him if anything happened to Kane.
Sean turned to the second guy and stared at a gun in his face.
Blood poured from the guy’s leg and arm, but he was close enough to kill Sean. He spoke rapidly in Spanish and Sean didn’t know what he was saying.
Suddenly the guy’s head caved in from the side and he fell over, dead.
Sean whirled around, gun in hand, heart racing. Then he heard a whistle. Kane’s whistle. He lowered his gun just slightly, and Jack Kincaid jumped out of a tree, landing on both feet. Another man came from the opposite direction. JT Caruso. Jack and JT, the other principals of RCK. Sean almost thought he was injured himself and this was all an illusion.
Jack, Lucy’s brother, was a lot like Kane in the way he moved and operated. JT, though he, too, had been in the military years ago, rarely worked in the field anymore. He was the face of RCK, looked more like Rick Stockton or a wealthy businessman. Except now, when he was dressed all in black with a Kevlar vest.
“What the fuck?” Sean demanded.
“We don’t have time.” Jack pulled a radio off the second guy. “You’re good, Sean, but you’re not a soldier. Never turn your back on the fallen.”
Sean didn’t need to be lectured, not now. “They have Kane.”
“We know.”
Then it was clear. “That was the plan?” Sean said. “I told Kane it was a flawed plan from the beginning, and he said he had another way in! They will kill him. Dammit, Jack!”
“Pull it together, Rogan. I get it—Kane is your brother. Now focus, or I’ll tie you up in the fucking plane and get your brother and your son back without you.”
Sean forced his heart rate to slow. “You know.”
“I needed to know.” Jack put his hand on Sean’s shoulder. “I would have done the same thing. So would Kane or anyone else. But you have to bury those emotions right now. We have a plan, and I need you. I really need you—but we don’t have time to argue. Flores is going to weigh turning Kane over for the highest bounty or killing him. The first option gives us time, but once he disappears it will be next to impossible to find him. We have hours, not days.”
“They’re going to see this is a trap. They’ll beef up security.”
“That’s where you come in,” JT said. He walked over and dropped a duffel bag at Sean’s feet. “Open it.”
Sean did. Inside was cash and bearer bonds. He flipped through the top stack. “That’s millions in bearer bonds alone.”
“A million in cash and six million in bearer bonds, give or take.”
“Where the hell did you get this?”
“An operation years ago. The less you know, the better. But you’re going to go in and buy Kane’s freedom.”
“They’ll never agree.”
“Seven million is more than three times the highest bounty. It’ll at least buy your way into the compound.”
“I need more information. I’m not walking in with seven million and no weapons.”
“They’ll take your weapons, your cell phone, everything. But that bag has a tracker, and if Carson Spade is their accountant and chief money launderer, he’ll be given the bag to verify the authenticity of the bonds. Wherever it goes, we’ll find it.” Jack stared him in the eye. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes, but—”
“No buts. Do you trust me?”
“Yes.”
Sean’s heart skipped a beat.
“But don’t make me tell Lucy that you got yourself killed trying to save my son. It will tear her apart.”
“I have no intention of letting any of us die tonight.” He looked at his watch and nodded to JT. “It’s time.”
JT left. Sean wished he had more information. He didn’t like going in blind. Without knowing who else was out there, who wanted to kill Kane, how he was going to save his son.
Jack said, “Sean, this is how it’s going down. I don’t need to tell you that anything can happen, but I trust you, Sean. You’re smarter on your feet than anyone I’ve worked with before.”
“I’m not a soldier,” he said, quoting what Jack said to him.
“And that is why this is going to work. JT isn’t the only backup we have—we have Matt Elliott in the wings.”
“The prosecutor?”
“He was a SEAL with JT. They work well together. And if everything goes south, we’ll need a diplomat. Now listen. It’s important you play this right.”
*
When his dad came back from town, he was in a really bad mood, so Jesse stayed away from him. All he would say was that the bank was fine, but businesses in the States were falling apart.
“Then can’t we go home?”
“Jesse, it’s not that easy,” he said. “Just—just go play your video games.”