Not tonight. You’re not going to die tonight.
He zigzagged, kept as low as he possibly could, stumbled, kept moving toward the southeast corner. But in the dark and with all the noise, he was losing his sense of direction. Was he heading to the right corner? Had he messed up? Shouldn’t he be there by now?
He slowed down, listened, and heard a whistle. Kane’s unique whistle.
He turned to the right and bolted through the new hole in Flores’s stone and metal wall, courtesy of Jack and JT.
“We have a problem,” Jack said.
“Jesse,” was the only thing Sean could say as he gasped for air.
Please don’t tell me he’s dead. Please don’t.
“He’s here,” Kane said.
Sean glanced over. Standing behind Kane was his son. His son.
He didn’t know what to say. Thank you to Kane was inadequate. Hello to Jesse, likewise. He just stared.
“We need to retrieve Spade,” JT said.
“What the hell for?” Sean snapped back to attention. “He made his bed, let him die in it.”
Then he looked at Jesse. This boy considered Carson his father. The man who had raised him. The only father he knew.
“Rick Stockton needs him in the States,” JT said. “Rick has covered our ass many times and asks for little in return; we’re doing this. There’s no way they’ll get him extradited before he slips away. He has far too many assets and properties. He’s not just a small-time accountant laundering money for a crime boss. He’s the only accountant for the entire Flores crime syndicate. He knows everything.”
“But we’re on a clock,” Kane said. “If Dante did what I expected him to do, the Velasquez crime family has sent a team to take care of business. We don’t want to be here for that battle.”
A female voice said, “You made a promise to me, Jack Kincaid.”
Sean looked over and saw Gabriella Romero. Tall, slender, beautiful. Exotic would be the right word.
Jack said, “Sean, Matt Elliott is at the rendezvous point, and he has the coordinates you need to pick us up.”
JT handed Sean a .45. “You’ll have a tricky landing and takeoff, but you’re the best.”
“That I am,” Sean said, though he didn’t feel at all confident at this moment. Then he spotted the duffel bag that had the bearer bonds and cash. “What—you got it back.”
“Took out Flores’s goons before they arrived at the gate. We can’t let anyone have these bonds. Take them with you. The cash is going to Romero—he earned it.”
Kane grunted. Sean didn’t know what Dante actually had done, but clearly JT and Kane didn’t see eye-to-eye on this.
“Go,” Kane told Sean. He glanced down at Jesse. “Trust us, kid.” He handed Jesse a phone. “When this beeps, call Carson’s cell phone.”
Jesse nodded. He was pale as a ghost, but he stood tall.
Kane, Jack, JT, and Gabriella went back into the compound. Sean wanted to go with them.
But it was just him and Jesse, and he would do anything to protect his son.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
For all her flaws—mostly criminal flaws—Gabriella had done everything she said she would and more. It had been Jack’s plan to take out the lights, but Gabriella had taken care of the backup generators first. Kane was going to owe her and Dante big time, and he didn’t like owing criminals anything. He and Dante were going to have a heart-to-heart when this was all said and done. If Dante could recuse himself from some of the shadier businesses, Kane could look away from the other shit. But he didn’t think Dante could turn down the money. He wasn’t a distributor, smuggler, or grower … he was a moneyman. A negotiator. The arbitrator when two crime families—like the Flores and the Velasquez families—had a disagreement.
And sometimes, like now, it paid for Dante to know everyone’s secrets.
But Kane sure as hell didn’t like him knowing the Rogan family secrets.
Kane and JT split off from Gabriella and Jack. They had their own plan, and it didn’t include grabbing Carson Spade.
JT didn’t work in the field anymore, but there were some things that were so ingrained, it was like they’d been working together for years. They didn’t need words. A nod, subtle body movement, hand signs. It was like old times, but Kane was acutely aware that JT was rusty. Just because he had once been among the elite didn’t mean his reaction time was the same. Kane hadn’t thought Jack would bring in JT and Matt Elliott to implement Kane’s plan—Matt was a fucking prosecutor and hadn’t run an op since he left the Navy SEALs umpteen years ago. JT—he was more in the game, but not from this side of the war.