Whitewater (Rachel Hatch #6)(39)

Munoz, realizing his fate was back in Hatch's hands, made a last-ditch effort to break free by bucking hard.

Hatch felt his movement in his muscles before he made it. She began her counter before he attempted his attack. With the forward threat neutralized, Hatch stowed her gun and used her left arm to lock in the back of Munoz' neck. The interruption of the blood and oxygen to the brain caused the corrupt lieutenant to drop to the ground.

When consciousness returned, Munoz was cuffed to the open door of the police cruiser he'd arrived in.

"You might as well kill me." He spat blood into the dirt.

Hatch felt the cold steel of the Glock against her back and seriously considered taking the dirty cop up on his offer.

"They'll never stop. You know that," he continued through ragged breaths. "After I'm gone more will come."

"How did you find us?" She had other ways of extracting the information, but time was of the essence.

"I told you, Mr. Fuentes tracks his packages." He smiled. It was the same smile he'd given her when he first saw her walk in through the doors of the Nogales Police Department. The glaring difference this go round, his bright white teeth were now painted with his blood.

"The girls, like the one in that house and everything else the Fuentes family claims as their own, are monitored. It didn't matter that you ditched the van at that mission parking lot, though it would have been a lot easier had you not. It would have saved us a lot of time. We were tracking the van, not the package. Once we realized what'd you done, we activated a different tracker."

"Where is it?"

Munoz shrugged. "I don't know. Some doctor puts them in."

"Then a doctor will take them out," Ernesto said walking up on the man with his frying pan weapon still at the ready. The seventy-seven-year-old looked ready for another round.

"What are you going to do with me now?"

"Don't worry. If what you said is true, and Mr. Fuentes tracks his packages, then I'm sure someone will be along to find you soon enough." Hatch walked away, back towards Ernesto's house.

"You're already a dead woman! Do you hear me? A DEAD WOMAN!" Munoz called out.

The black hole swallowed Munoz as Hatch walked into the light. She thought about the words. There was more truth to that statement than he’d ever know.





Twenty-Five





They filled up Ayala's yellow Nissan, just as it started to sputter its final protest. Hatch gave an uneasy smile, still unnerved from the gun battle they'd narrowly avoided at the hand of the pan-wielding hero in the driver's seat. A man who, by his own admission, was accustomed to covering the violence of the world but unaccustomed to experiencing it firsthand.

"See, I told you we'd make it." His voice still quivering as the adrenaline dump he'd received during his moment of triumph had begun to recede within his system. Homeostasis would be reached again, but only after he'd crashed. The trick in combat was to keep the crash from happening before the battle was fully won. And they were still far from done. After filling up, they set off toward the Solarus Juice plant.

Ernesto and his wife Josephina had loaded their small Jeep with supplies, as much as they could comfortably fit and still leave enough room for Letty. The trio headed off in the opposite direction of Hatch and Ayala. It hadn't taken Ernesto long to find a doctor in his inner circle willing and able to find and remove whatever tracking device was implanted in Letty. And hopefully keep the cartel's henchmen at bay.

It was as good a plan as they could muster in the time they had to create it. With Letty's information, Hatch knew this next stop might be their last chance to recover the abducted teen.

With two hours to go until they reached their destination, Hatch realized she’d lit a fuse when she started the fire that burned down the aptly named club. And once lit, she feared it wouldn't end until the cartel had their pound of flesh. She felt the bright sparkle tail of the fuse chasing her now, and as she looked in the rearview mirror for headlights, Hatch half expected to see glowing embers chasing close behind them.

"You look worried," Ayala said.

"I am. This might be my last chance to save her."

"Our last chance," Ayala corrected with a smile.

"You know that I couldn't have gotten this far without you."

"If this is going to be one of those 'I can go it alone' speeches, you can just save it. I'm in this until the end. Whatever that means. And trust me when I say this, I understand what's at stake when I say this to you." His face warmed. "Daphne, you can get it out of your head that you're doing me a favor by leaving me behind. Because you're not. This is my home. I may not be as tough or skilled as you, but I am damn well not going to sit down and let the cartel, or anybody else for that matter, sell a little girl into slavery if I can help it. And without question, this is something I am willing to give my life for, just as readily as you."

"Partners it is."

"I just wish I'd brought Josefina's pan with me."

"You were really brave back there. The way you and Ernesto took out those two guys was nothing short of amazing. It's going down in my book as one of the coolest endings to a hostage standoff that I've witnessed in a long time. Plus, you saved my life."