Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 49215 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 246(@200wpm)___ 197(@250wpm)___ 164(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49215 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 246(@200wpm)___ 197(@250wpm)___ 164(@300wpm)
Joel cleared his throat. “They have their eyes on the sky. Their biggest threat today is Colombian special forces and military, not rival cartels. If they suspect an attack, they think it’ll come from above.”
I agreed with him. The way they had set up their security was all the evidence we needed. If they’d worried about incoming attackers from the ground, they would’ve reinforced the wall and applied more technology. At this point, we didn’t believe we needed a blackout. If anything, it would do more harm than good. Our guys on the outside could easily use what nature provided. Some mud dripping over a camera, and they were good to go.
In between swigs of water, Danny and I wrapped up our update and shared our best bet on how to get over. Cameras were positioned a hundred yards apart, so eliminating just one would clear twice that area.
“What’s the latest from Willow?” I asked.
Emerson responded. “She can’t get access to their surveillance, but she’s in their communications. If they issue an order, we’ll know about it. She does know the tech they’re using, though, and their cameras don’t have built-in IR cut filters. The resolution is also fairly poor.”
Good enough. It was going to be a slow-as-fuck approach for our guys on the outside, where they had to crawl in full camo once they were in the cameras’ angles. No sudden movements.
“Copy that,” I replied. “Elliott, what’s your twenty?”
“About two hours out,” he grunted. “We just got past the outer defense perimeter. Same number of guards, more trip wire. Roughly half a klick between guard stations.”
Two hours, got it. I turned to Danny, and he nodded.
Crew Finlay
Where the fuck was he? Shay was supposed to be in the aboveground cage by now. Next to Luca Blanco’s beloved jaguar named Giulia.
I kept looking out over the amphitheater that’d started filling up with people. I had my back to Adrien, where he was seated at a table of high-ranking cartel members, eating their body weight in all the fucking food that could be found on this earth. Or, mostly in Italy. It was Italian fine dining.
As his scrappy bodyguard, I didn’t eat.
I didn’t mind, to be honest. I wasn’t hungry, and I had too much ground to keep my eyes on. The patios let you know how important you were. Adrien and I had been invited to dinner on the middle platform, a large terrace with approximately twenty guests. We were two marble steps below Luca Blanco’s restricted area, where he was currently having dinner with his favorite daughters-in-law, a few children, Enzo, and a handful of people I’d never seen.
Luca Blanco, one of the biggest drug lords in the world, was some fifty feet away from me.
It was fucking insane. He was right there behind me. Adrien had his eyes on him.
I flexed my fingers, hands clasped behind my back. The patio below ours was reserved for cartel members’ wives and children. Plenty of guards too. They were the ones currently leaving the patio to go sit in the stands of the theater. Everyone was excited about the fight, even the children. Like, did they fucking know? Did they understand death? It felt so fucking wrong to watch kids who belonged in kindergarten running around between armed guards. Completely unfazed, too.
One boy bumped into a guard and laughed, and the older man chuckled and ruffled the boy’s hair.
They had live music, a pizza buffet, and all the AK-47s from Russia.
I heard Adrien chuckle behind me, and he said something in Spanish that made Marco laugh loudly.
It twisted my stomach. Seeing so much happiness and… Kids and guns, mothers and murderers, a feast before a fight that would end in death.
Man, I hope they delayed the fight. I knew Adrien felt the same way. Maybe that was why he made a show of having such a good time. Could that be it? To prolong the dinner?
I eyed another few men and women leaving the bottom patio to take their seats in the stands. No one was in any rush. The theater would eventually seat maybe two hundred people, and if they got thirsty or snackish, they had servers delivering champagne and whatever.
I wanted to get the fuck out of here.
It pissed me off that we hadn’t been able to see Shay. Enzo had offered Adrien a tour of the “gardens,” which had included a stroll through their private zoo. But no kidnapped cage fighters from the US.
Where are you, Reese?
I scanned the tree line, knowing I wouldn’t see shit. I just hoped they were there. Lurking, waiting…
They had Adrien’s go-ahead at midnight.
River Tenley
My stomach flipped as I dropped down on the other side of the wall, and I cursed at the pain in my side and right leg. Motherfucker—I gritted my teeth. Goddamn razor wire. Greer and Cullen were the last to follow, and Coach and Mathis made quick work of covering our muddy tracks. A dead bird with a broken wing was left on the scene.