Chapter 37

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Trujillo, Puerto Jardin

Present Day

FINN ARRIVED at the bar early and loitered until the table in the corner was available. It provided two walls for protection, and it also offered privacy. If anyone came near, it would be solely to eavesdrop because there was nothing else this direction. He looked around El Taller , but it hadn't improved in the two years since he'd met his team here for check-ins. It was still a dingy, seedy dive. The only difference he could see was it was at about half capacity. A lot of mercenaries were north of Rio Blanco because it was where things were hot at the moment.

There were plenty of people, though, enough that Finn stopping here and meeting mercenary buddies wouldn't look odd. Ramos had sent several men to tail him, and both were up near the bar, trying to inconspicuously keep tabs on him. They were good, but two years hadn't dulled his edge enough to miss his shadows .

If today followed the same schedule as the day before, Zo would be finishing dinner with Ramos about now. Finn frowned. Yesterday, he'd gotten back from his meeting with Silva in time to join them. Today, he had to meet with his captain.

And Zo was on her own with the drug lord.

He watched Griff wend his way from the bar to the table, a bottle of beer in his left hand. "We might have to take the handle Stone Man away from you," he said as he dropped into a chair against the other wall. "Your emotions have been written across your face since I got here."

Because he'd been worrying about his loquita. Finn's scowl deepened—Ramos' men would be keeping their eyes open for slips like this. "How obvious?"

Griff shrugged. "To someone who knows you well or was watching you closely? Like neon. To everyone else, probably not too noticeable. The problem is you have men studying you pretty fucking close right now."

"Yeah." He took a short swig from his beer bottle. It was late, and he would have preferred a soft drink, but he'd stand out. "Where are BD and Cordy?"

"They'll be here." Griff rotated the beer bottle in a small circle on the tabletop. "What has you so wound up anyway?"

Finn sighed. "Zo. She's alone at the compound."

"If there's one woman I wouldn't worry about in that situation, it's yours. She's got more courage than most men." Griff pushed his dark hair out of his eyes, the gesture careless.

"That's the problem." Finn shook his head. "When I got back to our room last night, she gave me the highlights of her day. Do you know what she did?" He didn't wait for a response. "She decided to test how much freedom she was allowed. And once she discovered she pretty much had the run of the estate, she went looking for her Tia. And found her."

Lips quirking up, Griff said, "Damn, that's one resourceful woman. Now I know why you ignored my advice and chased after her."

"Don't you fucking get it?" Finn tried to dial it back, but his worry for Zo consumed him.

"No, I don't. She located someone we want to rescue, and in a time crunch, it's vital intel. It's also information you might not have gotten because the dude is obviously going to be more suspicious of what you're up to than Zo. So no, I don't understand what your problem is."

Finn had to unclench his jaw. "What if she sees the perfect opportunity to get herself and her Tia out of there? Do you think she's going to sit around and wait to run it past me before taking it?"

After smothering a laugh, Griff smirked instead. "No way is that going to happen. Relax."

"What makes you so sure of that? I know Zo better than you do."

"Maybe, but you view her through a lens of emotion I don't have, and I promise you she's too smart to do something that stupid. You think she's unaware of the perimeter security? Not a chance. She did the legwork for you. For us. She passed the intel along. She didn't go rogue and try anything wild."

"It was a risk to leave the suite."

Griff took a swig from his beer before he said, "It would have been a calculated risk. She probably figured—correctly—that until the deal is finished, she needs to be breathing."

Okay, so Griff had a point, but fuck. When it came to the people she loved, she did take chances, and she loved Tia Izel with her whole heart. Zo had been on her own for most of the day. Who knew what the hell she'd been up to in his absence?

Grimacing, Finn changed the subject. He'd make himself crazy if he couldn't put his loquita out of his thoughts. "Why are you here, anyway? I expected Lurch."

With a shrug of one shoulder, Griff said, "BD thought it would look more natural if you met up with a group of buddies. Ski's coming, too." He gestured vaguely with his bottle. "Lurch is over at the bar."

"I see him." Finn had to work to keep the growl from his voice.

"Just checking." Griff smirked again. "Your head is on your woman, not the job."

"Asshole," he muttered without heat.

Griff raised his beer. "Those of us who speak the truth salute you."

"What happened to the musketeer motto?" But Griff had managed to lighten Finn's mood.

"I lived up to the code. Admit it, aren't you feeling better about Zo?"

Finn didn't have to admit anything because Lurch made it to the table with three beers. He set them down and shifted a chair so his back would be against a wall, too. Griff started to reach for one as Lurch sat. "Hands off! Those aren't for you."

Lurch took a bottle from the triad and raised it to his lips.

Ski and Pruitt came in, each scanning the room before ambling their direction.

"One of those mine?" Pruitt pointed to a beer when he arrived, and Lurch slid it over to him before sending the other one in Ski's direction.

Finn tuned out the chatter as they took seats. The captain and chief had entered with a third man, and the three of them were headed to the bar. "Who's that with BD and Cordy?"

"The new guy." Ski's voice held resignation.

"Yeah," Lurch said, not sounding any happier.

The new guy. None of the men at the table had used his handle, which told Finn a hell of a lot. "Why'd they bring him?"

"Probably hoping he'll figure it out," Pruitt said glumly.

"We talked about this," Ski reminded him.

Finn nodded as the memory came back. What had his buddy said? Something about the dude trying to adjust to covert ops?

When the men reached the table and settled themselves into chairs, the captain asked, "Did you come alone, Stony?"

"No, I have a couple friends near the bar."

"Then, everyone needs to look happier. We're seeing an old buddy for the first time in years."

"You should have lost them," the new guy said.

"And then I would have had to answer questions about what I was doing when I got home tonight." Finn gave the man a flat stare.

"You're calling the hacienda home?" BD asked, both eyebrows going up.

"It's where my woman is." It was that simple and that complicated. Home wasn't a place for him. It never had been. Home was wherever Zo was.

Nodding his understanding, the captain said, "I got Lurch's thoughts on how the meeting went yesterday, now give me your opinion."

"It went better than I expected. He didn't have his bodyguards put a bullet in me."

"But he's leery," Cordy said. He wasn't guessing.

"Very."

"Do you believe his claims about not having the merchandise to sell to your host?" the chief asked.

Finn had spent a lot of time thinking about it in the past twenty-four plus hours. "No, he's got them all right. I think he's planning to take them to auction—that's why he said what he did yesterday—but he'll sell them wherever he can make the most profit."

"An auction will slow down the return on investment," BD said.

"It will, but above everything else, Silva and Torres are businessmen. They have the motherlode, and they'll hang on to them for as long as it takes to maximize revenue," Finn said with a half-smile.

His teammates grinned back as if he'd said something funny, and Griff raised his bottle in another mock toast. Except the new guy was a few beats late before he followed suit, and it looked strange. The slowness wasn't good. Finn had some of Ramos' A-team with him. Although not Vargas, thank God.

"It's a rare collection," Finn continued. "An auction guarantees a high return."

"Can you convince him that Ramos will pay top dollar?"

"Can I? Yes. Will Ramos agree to that price?" Finn shrugged. "In the past, he decided the cost was too high on a purchase and tried to halve what he was paying without letting Torres know in advance. It didn't go over well."

"Fuck," Ski said. "That complicates things."

"I have another complication to throw in the mix." This time, Finn raised his beer, pointing the neck at his friend as if he was acknowledging something that Pienkowski had said. "Someone unknown is selling arms to Bianchi, the drug lord Ramos is at war with. I tried to check it out today but hit dead ends."

"Whoa," Pru said. "What?"

"I heard a rumbling about competition in the marketplace two years ago but dismissed it as paranoia. Considering the source, it could have been, and who'd be stupid enough to challenge Torres? But I'm hearing the same rumor now, and it's got some heft behind it. You want to check it out for me?"

When the captain nodded, Pruitt said, "I'm on it."

"You think this unknown seller is going to mess things up?" Griff asked.

Finn shrugged again. "I don't know. The bigger problem is the price the boss is going to demand for the merchandise. Ramos might decide that since Bianchi's dealer doesn't have any to sell, he can get by with the ARADs or some M4s. "

"That means the new weapons stay out of the hands of a drug lord," the new guy said.

Everyone looked at him. "It means," Finn corrected, "they go to auction and get sold God knows where. It means they could be packed up and shipped out of the country before me, Lurch, or anyone else can get close enough to locate them. You want to bet against the buyer being in Russia or China? Ramos is our best chance to recover them. As long as he's on the table, Silva might hold off selling to someone else."

"Might?"

"Might."

After a moment of silence, the captain said, "Do what you can to convince Silva that Ramos will pay whatever he asks. Those weapons need to stay in Puerto Jardin."

Finn nodded. "I'll work on Ramos, too. Talking price will give me a good idea of how serious he is to acquire more of them, or if he'll settle for the ARADs. The fact that he already has some of the precision-guided rifles might work in our favor. He likes them a lot."

"Speaking of that," Cordy said, "any progress on locating the half dozen Ramos bought earlier?"

Shaking his head, Finn said, "His men are already using them, and I can't get near enough to most of them to check out what they're carrying. The only thing in our favor there is that I'd bet Ramos has those men protecting him and his compound."

"Cordy," the captain said, "let's see if we can get a couple of guys in Ramos' organization. Stony can't wander around, but maybe someone else can. Oh, and put someone in Bianchi's camp, too. Let's dual-path identifying the unknown arms dealer."

The chief nodded.

BD took a long drag on his beer bottle. "Anything else you need to tell me, Stone Man?"

"No. I hit the highlights. "

"Okay, we'll work on finding those loose weapons, you work on keeping the rest of them in the country. How did Silva react to Lurch's presence yesterday?"

Lurch shifted in his seat, and Finn wished he wasn't at the table, but he told the truth. "He was dismissed as too young and not too bright. Everything was addressed to me."

The captain tapped a finger on the table for a moment before he said, "Do you want me to replace him with someone else?"

Lurch stiffened, but he remained quiet. He clearly wanted to take over the role Finn had played when he'd been with the team, but he was willing to put the op before his own wants.

Taking his time, Finn ran through his teammates in his head. Which one of them could lie convincingly in insanely stressful situations? Not Ski, that was for damn sure. Winter and Griff were possibilities, but they'd need more practice before they were ready to deal with men like Silva or Torres. The new guy was a definite no, and the rest of the team? Unlikely. Lurch might appear to be younger than he was, but he had the cajones to play in the big leagues. "No, he's the best option, and looking like he's sixteen might work in his favor."

"Dude, I look at least twenty. For real."

"Maybe if you could get your beard to grow in." Finn tapped his cheeks where Lurch's facial hair was so sparse, it was almost nonexistent.

"Fucking genetics." But Lurch's eyes danced with amusement.

"Children," the chief interrupted, "let's remember why we're here."

He'd missed this, Finn realized. The joking around with the guys, the strategy sessions, the high stakes. Yeah, he liked his job with the Paladin League, but it wasn't the same. It wasn't even close.