Chapter Five
“I’m not under officialprotective custody.” Jarrett paced across Marissa’s porch as he argued on the phone with his superior officer. “You wanted me off the radar. Consider it done.”
“The DEA secured a safe house in Montana, not Washington State.” Special Agent Charles Ackermann cursed from the other end of the line. “You’re a fool for not accepting our protection.”
Jarrett snorted.
He’d spent the past year infiltrating the notorious Consuelo crime family in New Mexico with only his sharp tongue and brains for protection. The horrible things he’d done in the name of good to work his way through the ranks haunted him every time he fell asleep—except for last night when he held Marissa in his arms.
After the Drug Enforcement Administration had raided his warehouses and villa, Arlo Consuelo disappeared underground. The feds couldn’t confiscate his money—the legit part anyway—and his business partners forsook him. So the kingpin played his last ace—he’d set a million-dollar bounty on the man who betrayed him.
Jarrett rubbed his stiff neck and plopped into a creaky old rocking chair. The nippy wind ruffled his hair and shot a shiver down his spine. San Francisco’s mild temperatures had spoiled him, but going from the New Mexico desert to the Washington icebox was no picnic.
“Unless a snitch rats me out for the prize money, it will take Consuelo or some assassin months to dig up my classified files. Hell, the price on my head will likely double the longer I avoid detection.” He leaned back and grinned. “Damn, I pissed that bastard off.”
“You have that effect on people, Brandt.”
“Consuelo is weak and scared right now. If I know him at all, which I do, he’s using his last available resources to hide from the feds. He won’t risk losing his remaining crew by ordering them to hack the DEA database to flush me out.”
Thank God Ackermann had buried Jarrett’s identity under mountains of passwords and red tape when he took the undercover assignment. Though he’d never expected to see his family again, he didn’t want the consequences of his actions to rain down on their heads.
“I’ll be fine, boss, and so will my loved ones. I’m not endangering them by being here.”
“Loved ones? Bullshit.” The elder agent scoffed. “If not for me, you’d be in prison for burglary, evading arrest, and the intent to possess. Where were they then?”
Jarrett bristled. “Thank you for the safe house, but I’ll take it at a later date if I need it. I’m staying here for as long as my family can stand me.”
Ackermann grunted. “Well, I have good news. The border patrol arrested Arlo Consuelo’s sons and some of their cohorts an hour ago at the San Diego/Tijuana line. Once we have the kingpin and his entourage in custody, all the peons left will either join other gangs or die at the hands of those gangs.”
And the bounty would vanish. He’d rather apologize to his dad for being such an asshole as a teenager than testify in court, but he’d do whatever he had to so Arlo Consuelo would live the rest of his life behind bars.
“Things worked out damn well for the agency, despite your fuck up, Brandt.”
He groaned. Again, with this? “Juan Consuelo beat the hell out of a child right in front of me. What should I have done? Let the boy die because he dropped a few ounces of coke? Hell, no.”
He and the eldest Consuelo son had overseen a new shipment from the Mexicans. After Jarrett shoved Juan away from the kid, the jackass tackled him and exposed the wire strapped to Jarrett’s chest. Chaos had ensued as federal agents stormed the building, but Juan escaped.
