Page 148 of More Tricks

“How did you get through so fast?” Cognac questioned.

“Seems they didn’t think people would crawl and didn’t put the fencing all the way through. Bastard is just asking for someone to break in and overthrow his whole operation. Good thing it’s us and not someone else who would have torn the trees down,” she commented as she led the way through the backyard.

A guard turned the corner of the house and spotted us, but Dax had already pulled the trigger, hitting him right between his eyes. He dropped like a sack of bricks with only a small grunt coming out of his mouth instead of the alert he was going to give.

“Drag him away from the house and off to the side in the shrubs. The longer we can keep our presence quiet, the better,” Dax whispered.

I grabbed the man under his armpits and hauled him away to the large flowering plant of some kind and heaved him in the middle of it. In the daylight, you would be able to find him, but at night, with no lights, it was good enough.

Dax picked off two more guards, one on a balcony of the second floor that had just stepped out and another out by the pool. Cognac took care of the one by the pool, tossing him in and letting him sink to the bottom with the help of a lawn chair. Taking one last look around, Wes headed for the back door. Using whatever technology wizardry he had, he got the door open with a beep and a flash of green light. Turning the handle, he pulled it open enough to make sure it was unlatched, then signaled for us.

Oddly enough, getting into the house was the easy part of the plan. Once inside, there were fifteen bedrooms and five other various areas for people to be using. They had live-in staff on top of the security, so there was no telling who could be in which room and at any given time. The answer to that problem was solved when Harper made the discovery of the panic room in the basement. Now, all we had to do was alert them to our presence when we wanted them to know about it.

The sound of glass shattering and a gunshot had us all whipping around to find Dax in the main entrance with a mangled chandelier on the floor before her. “Oops,” she commented with a grin.

Men started to shout and feet clomped to investigate the sound. The three of us spread out, moving through the rooms picking off the guards one by one as they put all their focus on where the sound was coming from. We’d figured there would be five to seven guards outside and probably only three to five inside. What we didn’t know was if he had men stationed close by in case of an emergency. This was a calculated risk, but our hope was the other attacks would have used up those men.

“Report, what the hell is going on down there?” a voice asked from a walkie-talkie.

Reaching down, I unclipped it and responded, “There is a woman here. It seems she’s all by herself, but she’s demanding to see Diego.”

“Did she give you a name?” the voice asked.

“Don’t ask stupid questions. Just shoot the bitch,” Diego snarled. “Hold her off long enough for us to reach the panic room. We’ll take the back stairs.”

Seeing they were just handing me all the information we needed on a silver platter, I decided to go for gold. “I think we’re gonna need backup. She's already taken out the guards outside.”

There was no response, so either they didn’t have one, or they were dead. The Wright brothers had entered on the other end of the house, figuring we could work toward the middle. Shrugging, I tossed the radio to the side and started to search the rest of the house. This was the one thing the FBI trained me hard on was how to process a scene and not get shot doing it. So far, the rooms were empty until I reached what I believe was a study of sorts. A woman sat in an upholstered chair, reading a book and drinking wine. When I entered, she looked up at me with dead eyes, then went back to what she was reading.

“If you could shoot me in the side of the head, then I’ll still be able to have an open casket funeral,” Mariana commented.

Frowning, I lowered the gun slightly. “You want me to kill you?”

“Oh, I’ve been dead inside for so long I’m not quite sure why my body insists I keep living. To me, this is a blessing. I will finally be able to make it all end. I would have done it myself, but it appears I’m just not that strong of a woman,” she shared, glancing up at me set her wine down. “Would it make it easier for you if I tried to shoot you? That way, you can say it was in self-defense.”

I wasn’t a good man, even if I was an FBI agent. Everything I’d done was for Dax to protect her, ensure that she was safe however I could make her. While I didn’t have a problem taking out this woman, there was something that held me back.

“Tell me, if we killed Diego, your children, and anyone else who would come after us in retaliation, would you be one of those people?” I asked.

Mariana let out a heavy sigh. “Pity, I thought for sure you were a man with low to no morals. Seems I won’t be free after all from this torturous life. If it’s not Diego, it will be Marco. He will want his property back now that it's not doing him any good here.”

That had my attention. “You know Marco personally enough he would have so much control over you?”

She let out a bitter laugh gulping more of her wine down. “I’m the bastard's little sister, a pawn in his game to be placed where it will best serve the Tesoro Cartel and the man who wants to be king of it all.”

“Unfortunately, you will have to live a little longer, but I promise when we have what we need from you, I’ll personally see to it you’ll get your freedom,” I said, backing out of the room and locking the door from the inside before I shut it.

Holy fucking shit, we have Marco’s sister who landed right in our laps. The woman was broken enough that she would tell us whatever we wanted to know in hopes her end would come sooner. I mulled over the many questions we might be able to have answered because of this chance encounter.

Finished with the first-floor sweep, I decided to head back to the main entrance and found a few more dead bodies and Dax chilling on the couch, munching on mixed nuts out of a crystal bowl. When I gave her a disapproving look, she offered it to me. “Want some?”

“No, Dax. Shouldn’t you be, I don't know, dealing with Diego?” I questioned.

“He’s not going anywhere anytime soon. He’s in this panic room. The bastard didn’t even take his wife or kids with him, just saved his own ass,” she said, popping another nut into her mouth. “After dealing with the Mad Dogs, I feel like this was so much easier or maybe because it was better planned?”

I reached out a hand for her. “Come on, let's find the others and get this over with.”

“Wes is in the basement, and I think the triplets are clearing the second floor,” she shared. “Might as well head to the basement since that’s where they will meet us when they're done. They have what we need to get through the door into the panic room once Wes has disabled all the security.”