Chapter Nine
Carajo.Enrique gnashed his teeth as two thugs turned toward Lourdes.He swung at one of his assailants, desperate to get back to her.The man ducked and landed a blow to Enrique’s ribs.Pain radiated.Backed against the wall, he kicked and punched like a madman.The strangers ducked his blows and threw their own.In the holes of the masks, their dark eyes burned with life and excitement.Familiarity.The men matched Enrique’s moves tit-for-tat as though they’d choreographed it.His instincts itched.Something wasn’t right.
Furious heat seared his face from a solid right hook.Cold air knifed through the open doorway and chilled his skin.The embers in the hearth crackled with bitter mockery.He’d worked so hard to keep his woman safe.Hidden.If he fired now, the others would respond in kind.Lourdes could be caught in the crossfire.
“Let the girl go.She doesn’t need to see this.”He dodged a blow and stalled for precious moments he didn’t have.“I’ll answer for my crime—”
“No!”Lourdes dashed to the fireplace and grabbed an iron poker.“We’ll answer together.”
Mierda.She was going to get herself killed.
To the thugs’ credit, none of them leveled their firepower at her.
So they wanted Lourdes alive.Gracias a Dios.He could live with that.Rather die with that if these assholes had their way.
“If you value your lives,” Enrique spat at the strangers, feigning control of the situation, “then you will not lay a fucking finger on my woman.If you do, I will cut out your intestines and hang you with them.”He’d killed that way before.Twice.When he made examples out of two human trafficking rapists.
A bark of laughter shattered the tension.
“My God, Ricky.You’ve got it bad.”The man tugged off his mask and flashed his lopsided grin.
Enrique’s blood froze.“Santiago?”His shoulders slumped.Rage drained from him like air from a punctured balloon.“Goddamn it.I could’ve killed you.”
“You tried.”Santiago de la Fuente rubbed the back of his dark-blond head and winced.A purplish-red bruise marred his cheek.“Got a goose egg.”
Enrique swore and turned to the other men.“Masks off, you bastards.”
One by one, they obeyed.
Domingo Vega gave a lazy two-fingered salute and shoved his gun into his shoulder holster.His curly dark hair softened the hardness of his whiskered jaw.
Near the doorway, Muniz and Rascón dipped their heads in respect and holstered their weapons.
Enrique pressed the cold steel of his gun to his forehead, breathing hard, and lowered his arm.“Now it makes sense.”He leveled a harsh glare at Domingo, the youngest man in the room and the finest hacker he knew.“Took you no time at all to find me.”
“Long enough, mi amigo.”Domingo smirked before he plucked the eyeglass case from his pants pocket and perched the black frames on his nose.“Rubén’s been losing his damn mind since your call.I figured it out yesterday—your property records.No one had ever heard about you owning a cabin, so the boss sent us to check it out.We had to wait until dark to move without drawing eyes.”
Cristo.He’d put the deed for the cabin under an assumed name.Domingo linking that to him proved the man’s extraordinary cyber gifts beyond a doubt.
