Page 69 of Tango

I raced to catch up with the others. “Cole,” I snagged his arm, “Chili?”

“He had orders from Frank to get out the second everything went down.” We started to move through the house. “He can’t be compromised. He’s still useful here.”

I understood and was relieved as I jumped into one of the pickup trucks that Eagle Eye and Dusk had started and readied for us. It was a tight squeeze, but we were running out of time.

“Go, go, go,” Cole called over the radio, and we tore out of the driveway and down the hill to the main part of town. I eyed the church that once had brought me little pieces of home and was glad Chili had passed along my gratitude to the priest. He’d also made a large, anonymous donation on my behalf. A small sum, really, for what that place had brought me over the years.

“Crazy to think you lived here for ten years,” John shouted over the engine noise. “You sad to leave anyone behind?” I cleared my throat and shook my head as I allowed myself to remember Talya once more.

“Not really.”

“Too fuckin’ hot here,” Mark chimed in. “I couldn’t do it.”

“Agreed,” I said then pointed as the truck in front of us came to an abrupt stop. Ty’s head appeared out the driver’s window.

“Ah, Logan, we have problem.” I strained my neck to see what the holdup was.

Several police cars and at least ten uniformed officers had made a barricade across the road.

“Shit,” Cole muttered. Mark suddenly slapped a pair of handcuffs over my wrists, and before I could react, John pulled a sack over my head. I hoped they had a plan. I could see just fine through the fabric.

“We need to look legit,” Mark whispered.

“Raven One to Shadows. We’ve run into a police barricade on the perimeter of town.” Cole’s voice was heard by all of us through our coms as he radioed Daniel.

“Copy that, Raven One. Stand by.” There was a brief silence, then, “Help is on the way.”

We watched Ty as he pulled his truck off to the side while two officers pointed high-powered rifles at him. The officers signaled at us to do the same.

When all four trucks were pulled over, we were told to exit and get on our knees. I was worried. This wasn’t how things normally went down here. The Mexican police usually just wanted money. You paid a fee and moved on. I wondered if Castillo’s snitches around the city had already put the word out we were here. A uniformed leg appeared, and the sack was roughly ripped off my head. I squinted and pulled away as if in fear. I knew it looked like I’d been roughed up and hoped he’d think it was from the guys. I’d taken a few blows back at Castillo’s.

“Who is in charge here?” he asked in English.

“I am.” Cole stood, then, to my surprise, so did Ty.

“Me too.” I could tell Cole wasn’t expecting that.

“So, you two are to blame for that?” He pointed behind us toward Castillo’s house up on the hill. We had set it on fire in hopes it would draw attention to the house and not to us as we made our escape.

“We had orders to extract this one.” Cole nodded at me. “Things just went a little south.”

“What he do?” the officer asked.

“I married his sister,” I chimed in, knowing they loved a good story. The officer laughed as I got a hit to the shoulder from John. Which I was sure he enjoyed.

“There’s a bounty on his head, for killing a politician and his wife,” Cole explained. “We made a deal with your people to come in, extract, and get out with just him.”

“I never got word of that.” The officer shrugged. “Tell me more about this bounty.”

It always came down to money.

“Twenty thousand, still breathing.” Cole nodded.

“That’s a lot of money.” The officer turned back to buddies with a chuckle. “Why don’t we do this. You give me fifteen thousand, and I’ll let you leave, still breathing, of course.” He smirked at his comment. I could see Cole weighing his options. We sure as hell didn’t have that kind of money on us.

“We have to turn him over before we get the money.” Cole raised his shoulders in a shrug.

“This is a problem, then.” The guy pointed his weapon at Cole.