Ann Aguirre - Blue Diablo

Chance was already getting some ice for my palm. He knew the drill. I hoped he had the balm somewhere in his pocket, as this had been a bad one.

For at least five minutes, my teeth chattered too badly for me to speak. Chance rubbed my back and tended my palm while Chuch asked me with his eyes what I’d seen. I didn’t want to do this; Christ, I didn’t want to tell Esteban. But maybe knowing would be better than uncertainty.

Through raw waves of nausea, I managed to say, “It was someone she knew. She wasn’t afraid of him at first. He came to the door, they spoke, and she agreed to go with him. I can never hear what they’re saying, but I recognized your name on the man’s lips. I think he knew you too.”

It would kill me to tell him the rest. My uninjured hand curled into a fist as I watched the merc’s eyes close. His throat worked, but he didn’t question what I knew or the manner in which I’d acquired the knowledge. His eyes opened. “Tell me the rest.”

Chance rubbed my back. I drew in another steadying breath. “They got in his car. It was an old metallic green El Camino; she didn’t notice the plates. He took her to... a lake. I think it was a lake.”

“Lake Casa Blanca,” Chuch offered, low. “It’s the only one nearby, so it must’ve been, if it happened here.”

Esteban sat as if he’d turned into a pillar of steel. “ Mierda ! I know someone who drives a green El Camino. I used to work with him. But go on.”

I just couldn’t go into detail, not aloud. It’s bad enough I’ll see this again and again in my dreams.

“He tried to kiss her. She slapped him. He... raped her. Hit her. Choked her.”

He punched her in the face as he penetrated her, came just before she died. Poor Rosita hadn’t even been spared that, clutching her rosary in bloody hands. It must have spilled onto the shore when he dragged her body into the water, and the bastard didn’t notice in the dark.

“Tell me what he looked like,” Esteban demanded. “I think I know who it was, but I want to be sure before I kill him.”

“He stood a head taller than her,” I said slowly, visualizing him in my mind’s eye. “He wore a black jacket, jeans, white shirt. He had a heavy mustache, acne scars on his cheeks. And he had tattoos on his fingers. Letters. They spelled something.”

“D-E-A-T-H,” the merc said quietly. “He thinks he’s a real badass, the right hand of death.”

“If they search the lake, I bet they find her,” Chuch put in. “I’m sorry, mano .”

In answer, Esteban gave Chuch back the thousand bucks. “I would’ve paid a lot more to find out what happened to her.” To my surprise, the small man hugged me around the shoulders, a short, hard embrace that almost hurt. “It’s been years, but I know where to find the hijo de la chingada .”

The bastard deserved to be called worse than that. I felt vaguely astonished at how readily he’d accepted my gift. Yet there was no other way I could’ve picked up on those details, especially the car and the man’s description. Perhaps he’d seen other gifted at work.

“Good luck,” I murmured as Chuch stood.

That didn’t begin to encapsulate my feelings, but Esteban just studied me, as if he knew. “I’ll be in touch.” He folded to his feet as I did—a gentleman, oddly enough.

When we quit the bar, relief rushed through me. Who knew what might’ve happened if Chance hadn’t been there, or Chuch?

We drove back to the house in silence, me nursing my sore palm, the guys lost in thought. A man would die as a result of tonight’s work—no trial, no jury, just an execution. I had no doubt of it, but I didn’t doubt he deserved it either, not after what I’d seen him do to Rosita—and probably others after her.

Before we went inside, Chuch checked the wards. Though the warlock was dead, we couldn’t be too careful. As we came into the living room, we found Kel still watching TV. That made me smile despite the pain. He didn’t glance away from the moving images on the screen. The light glazed his skin, cast his tattoos into sharp relief. Butch bounced around my ankles until I picked him up and scratched him between the ears.

Eva was in the office, doing more research on the Net. “I never knew it was so bad,” she said as we came in. “It’s crazy. Last September, gunmen burst into a club and threw five severed heads inside as a warning. The people who took Min are not fucking around.”

I thought we’d established that. Then again, Eva hadn’t seen some of the things I had. That made a difference.

“They’ve joined forces with malevolent powers.” Kel spoke from the hallway. “Using demons and dark magick where simple force fails. If we do not stem the tide, they will consolidate their control over the country, and drugs will be the least of their crimes.”

Was he thinking about the girls, stuffed into crates like so much produce? God knew they would haunt me.

Chance reached for me as if he sensed my thoughts. He hugged me around the shoulders and I leaned into him for just a moment. “Montoya owns IBC, doesn’t he? Selling girls into slavery pays a whole lot better than waste management.”

“I’m pretty sure he does,” I answered. “That’s the only connection that makes sense. But proving it would be harder.”

Kel turned then and his smile chilled me. “We don’t need proof. We need to know where he lives.”

“I got that covered too, primo .” Chuch grinned. “If I can’t find out about it, it ain’t worth knowing. Now I’m just waiting for Esteban to get back to me.”

“You weren’t the only ones who found something,” Eva said with a smirk. “I called your cousin Ramón and asked him to go check out the address for the registered agent that fronts for IBC.”

“Good thinking.” Chuch took a seat in the recliner, leaving Chance and me leaning up against the wall, Butch nestled against my shoulder, and Kel listening from the hall.

“The place was totally ransacked.” She clicked a few times on the computer and brought up a folder. “I downloaded some snaps from his cell phone before he left.”

We all leaned over to take a look. Blood spattered walls, paper shredded all over the floor.

“Christ,” I said. “It looks like somebody died in there.”

“Probably the agent,” Chuch said with a shrug. “With the warlock in charge of the operation gone, Montoya is cutting his losses and tying up loose ends.”

Shit. Good thing we had another avenue open for finding Montoya. I hoped like hell Esteban would come through.

We sat around waiting for Chuch’s phone to ring. I fed Butch, let him out, and then held him in my lap while others did the talking. I wondered if he missed Lenny.

Arguing passed the time best, and Eva was all over that.

“When we hit, I’m going too.” She folded her arms and dared anyone to disagree. “I know how to handle myself.” I expected Chuch might have something to say about that, but she went on. “And it would be stupid to leave me here by myself where anything could happen to me. At least if I’m with you, you can protect me, right?”

Oh, well played, Eva.

That silenced the rising protest from her beleaguered husband. I glanced out the window, saw the wide open sky fading to dawn-mauve, pink, and pearl streaks along the horizon. Like a nocturnal monster, I yawned. Man, my sleep schedule was all screwed up.

Still, we needed to lay our plans. Yesterday morning, we hadn’t done such a stellar job of that, and only Chance’s luck combined with Kel’s berserker battle prowess carried us through. We couldn’t count on that again.