Page 86 of Our Tricks

“There’s also a slim chance that there’s a problem with the software, and it’s just not picking up the signal. I say we go to the La Garita location instead of trusting it to your team. Marco could be there too since he’d been the one looking for his sister,” Corbin suggested.

Sprocket shook his head and brushed his hair out of his face before putting it up. “How the hell do you have this position when you’re a fucking idiot. If they know about the trackers and believe that Dax is the one who set this all up, they purposely left the one working for Mariana. How do you even know if the tracker is still in her? They could have removed hers too and are just carrying the damn thing around.”

“No, it would tell me if it wasn’t in her anymore. It tracks body heat, and this one says it’s…” Corbin didn’t finish his sentence as he looked at the screen.

Not willing to wait for him to remember what the human body temp is, I turned the computer to look at it. “Wow, would you look at that. Wherever it is, the temperature is seventy-five. Pretty sure if a human had that temp, they’d be dead. Although, at this point, that’s totally a possibility thanks to your brilliant plan. You heard Sprocket, we’re not fucking changing the plan other than to move it up.”

“How—”

“Nope, you don’t get to speak anymore,” Cognac said, wagging a finger at Corbin.

I wanted so badly to text Alvaro back and let him know we were coming for him, but I couldn’t give Marco anything else to work with. There could be a chance they have no idea he texted me. Even if they did, there’s no way for them to know who exactly was getting his messages with how my phone was set up.

No, I had to move forward with what we had planned. Pulling up Brian’s number, I hit dial, and he answered on the second ring. “Hey, boss, I gotta say this is one of the better jobs you’ve put us on. Cool part of having to make the cruise look real is that it was.”

“We’ve got a problem,” I stated.

“What do you need?” Brian asked, snapping into business mode.

Glancing at Corbin, I walked to the back of the plane where Billy had lowered the back ramp. I blinked at the bright sunlight and stepped off the ramp onto the tarmac, making sure no one could hear me.

“The mission needs to happen tonight,” I informed him. “Seems that the CIA fucked us over and fed Alvaro and his mother to the wolves. He put a tracker on them and sent them to show us the way to the monster’s lair. One of them shows they’re heading to your location, meaning Martin could be there as well. Is your team going to be ready to make this happen?”

“Yeah, boss, we’re ready. Do we know if either is alive?” Brian asked.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, I let my head thump against the outside of the plane. “No, there’s a chance that Mariana is already dead. It’s her tracker showing they’re bringing her back home. Corbin said the tracker tells the person’s body heat to prove if they are alive or not. It doesn’t look good, but I refuse to believe it until I have confirmation.”

“Fair, I wouldn’t be either,” Brian agreed. “Alright then, we’ll get a move on it and speed this up. Everything else the same… wait for your signal?”

“Yeah, I’m gonna call Dante next so he can keep an eye out for any of them and let him know about Martin. God, I can’t fucking believe he did that to us. He’s so blinded by his anger over losing his friend and fellow agents that he’s taking risks that aren’t needed,” I complained.

Brian let out a sigh. “Then it’s a good thing you plan to lose the dead weight.”

“Hey, did you manage to talk Dani into going with Dante or is she still with you?” I asked, knowing she’d complained about not being put in the team that would need her the most.

“Ah…” Brian started, which told me everything I needed to know. “She’s here with me.”

“Good, if Mariana or Alvaro are there, at least there’s someone I trust to help them,” I said, relieved. “Brian, you better fucking make it through this, you hear me?”

“Yeah, boss, I hear you,” he answered, and I could hear the smile in his voice. “Don’t worry, you and the others have a solid plan, and each team has roughly eight hundred fighters. These assholes aren’t going to know what hit them.”

“Alright, get to work,” I ordered. “The next time you hear from me, it will be ‘go’ time.”

“See you on the flip side, boss,” Brian shot back before hanging up.

Next, I called Dante and filled him in on the situation, asking the same questions I asked Brian.

“Honey child, when are you gonna learn I always have six backup plans in play? The one thing a con artist is always good at is adapting to their environment. The only thing I want to know is… if we do find Martin, what am I doing with him? Are we still handing him over, or will he have a tragic accident?” Dante questioned.

I chewed on my thumbnail as I thought about that question. “I trust your gut, Dante. When you meet him, if he’s the bastard who killed his mother and brother, I say bury the fucker. If you think he’ll actually be useful alive, then ship his ass back to the States where he can spend his life in a windowless cell being interrogated.”

“Oh, you let me have all the fun, don’t you, sugar,” Dante cooed. “Alright then, I’ll await your signal and be ready to act in a flash.”

Dante had the smallest team of only two hundred, but the chances of him running into trouble he couldn’t handle with that amount of people were slim. The ones who needed the big numbers were Mutt and Gator. They were also the ones who would be joining us when they were done with their hit at the drug farm. Shooting off a text to them to call me the second they got my message, I joined the others on the plane. Catching Cam’s eye, I nodded, letting him know that things had been moved up and we needed to do the same.

“Corbin, our plan is kind of shot to hell now, isn’t it?” Sprocket challenged. “What the fuck are we supposed to do if we can’t find Martin?”

“As I said, we need to go to La Garita. He has to be there, it’s the only thing that makes sense,” Corbin challenged.