Hell Bent (9 page)

“I’m more than capable of doing that—
alone
,” Cade shot back.

“See? You think you’re Superman too, so what do I have to worry about there?  What’s one more woman on your watch, big guy?” Veronica countered in a slightly sing-song tone.

Cade’s face turned a beautiful crimson red.  “Arguing with you is like arguing with a goddamn brick wall, Ronnie.”  He slowed the truck and whipped down the exit ramp, stopping at a red light.

“I’m a lawyer, and a woman,” she said with a chuckle.  “It was a losing battle before you ever engaged, soldier.  The shelter is in the other direction, so just get back on the interstate and I’ll give you directions.  That’s another thing we women are good at.”

“And exactly the reason I should stay away from your kind,” he growled as he hit the gas when the light turned green.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Cade pulled up to the shelter and stopped to survey the damage to the front of the building.  It was hard to see the front because law enforcement officials from every local agency filled the parking lot and formed a line down the street.  He even saw an FBI van parked near the door, so it must be bad.

“Did your girl say anyone was hurt?” Cade asked when he saw the tail of an ambulance on the other side of the black FBI van.

“Estella was too upset to say much and she was talking so fast I only caught half of what she was saying.”  Ronnie sighed heavily.  “With all the windows in the office gone, I don’t know how we can stay here, even if the living quarters in the back weren’t damaged.  Besides, the shooters may come back to finish the job since the funding bill is coming up for vote on the house floor next week, unless they delay it.”

“What in the world would shooting up this place accomplish regarding that bill?” Cecelia asked, sounding shell-shocked.

“So we’d need more money to fix it, I guess.  Who knows what those rednecks are thinking,” Ronnie replied.  “They threatened me and I’m just a North Texas district judge who’s lobbying for the funding bill.  A nobody in the grand scheme of things.”

A loud-mouthed redhead who has been very vocal in your support of the bill to better fund this shelter which houses and educates illegally trafficked women so they might find jobs to stay in the States.
 

When the Shark Lady spoke people listened, important people.  Ronnie had even told him that herself before.  That meant she was definitely not a
nobody
in this situation and a high-value target.  She was on these nutjobs radar and they’d put a bullet in her as fast as they had this building if it served their cause.  Not on his watch.

“Let’s go talk to the police,” Cade said, shutting off the engine. 

He hopped down from the truck, then went around to help Ronnie down.  Cecelia got out on her own, but stood at the curb looking slack-jawed at the building. 

So much for her combat experience at Salerno. 

Because she looked frozen to the spot, he grabbed her arm as he passed with Ronnie on his other side to pull them with him toward the front door.  At the front door, Cade let go of the women’s arms and his boots crunched on broken glass as he pushed his way inside.  He stopped to search through the thick crowd of police personnel for anyone who looked to be in charge. 

Across the room, he spotted a slick-looking Latin guy who had FBI written all over him and it looked like he was translating for the Dallas PD officer who stood next to him scribbling on a notepad.  Cade couldn’t hear what was being said over the roar of the many conversations in the room, so he walked that way.

When he stopped beside the man he quickly surmised they were talking about what the tiny, but fiery Hispanic woman standing in the middle of the circle of women had done to save them.  Five men in face masks got out of a white van with big guns.  Before they got to the front door, she went into action to quickly lock down the place, pull the fire alarm and hide under the desk to call the police.  They tried to get in the front door, but the police sirens must’ve scared them, because they shot the place up, then left.

Heroic measures for sure, and she was right, she probably saved these women.

“Good job, chica,” Cade mumbled in Spanish.  The conversation stopped and all eyes turned toward him.  The FBI agent’s eyebrows crashed down over his dark eyes.

“Who are you?” he demanded in unaccented English.

“Doming—um,” 
Holy shit, he’d almost spouted off his Columbian cover name
.  “Cade Winters,” he corrected sticking his hand out to the man.  “I’m personal protection for Veronica Winters who is the admin here.”

“Carlos Ramos, SAIC Dallas FBI,” he said, finally taking Cade’s hand after studying him thoroughly. 

Ronnie stepped in front of Cade and he was surprised when she hugged the agent tightly.  “Carlos, it’s good to see you again, mi amigo.  How’s that shoulder?” she asked with a laugh, as she stepped back.

“Stiff when it rains—along with other body parts these days,” he replied with a rueful grin, as he rotated his arm.

Ronnie’s smile slipped.  “I’m, ah…sorry about you and Susan.”

“Wasn’t meant to be,” he said equally as somber, but added a shoulder shrug.  “She’s happy now, and I’m happy for her and Logan.  He’s a better man than me if he can handle her.  She’s not an easy woman to love.”

Not an easy woman to love?
  Cade wondered what the story was with this guy and Susan Logan.  He’d find out from Ronnie later, because finding that out wasn’t a priority for him right now.  Discovering what they knew about this vandalism, possible attempted abduction or murder was.

Cade opened his mouth to redirect the conversation, but the agent’s eyes fell on Veronica’s gently rounded belly, and he smiled.  She covered the bump with her hand and smiled back.  “Yeah, I am.  Unbelievable, huh?” Veronica asked with a laugh.  “We’re over-the-moon happy about it, but Trace is driving me crazy.”

“You look good, Veronica, congratulations.  Where is your troublemaking husband?  I’m surprised he let you out of his sight, considering.”

“It was a hard won fight, but of course I prevailed.”

“Of course, the Shark Lady always wins,” Carlos agreed, with an eyeroll.  “How’d you get involved with this shelter?”

“Well, after I
was
one of these women out at the Diamond Bar Ranch, almost trafficked to a cantina myself, I felt a kinship with them and decided to do something to help them.  The shelter was here, I just provide legal services and lobby for funding.”

Carlos glanced at Cade.  “I thought he said you were admin?”

“The admin received a threat to her family and had to quit.  The second in charge was afraid for her family too, so here I am.  Estella, the woman who called you, filled in until I could get here.”

With a frown, he asked quickly, “What kind of threat? They didn’t mention that.”

“She went home from work one day and had a message waiting for her from the Sovereign Soldiers.  It was delivered by her son who was left tied to a tree in their backyard.”

“Wow—that’s pretty brazen.”  Carlos shook his head, and blew a breath.  “And what’s more unbelievable is that nobody called us to let us know.  When did it happen?”

“In the last two weeks, so maybe they just haven’t had time to notify you.  The assistant admin didn’t quit until yesterday,” she informed.

“Well, I’d suggest you find somewhere else to house these women, at least until we track down the men who did all this.  You’re not safe here, and neither are they.” He gave a chin nod to the group of women who were now in a huddle comforting each other.

“I have no idea how many women are in residence right now,” Ronnie replied with a huffed breath.  “I also have no idea where I’d take them.”

“Well, it’s a good damned thing
I
do then,” a gruff female voice said loudly, as the owner of that commanding voice, an older, but well-preserved woman shouldered her way through the crowd of large men like she owned the place until she stopped beside Veronica.  “Allison and I heard the news on the television, so she sent me right down here.”  She lifted her chin a notch, as she adjusted the strap of her handbag on her shoulder.  “We’re taking the women to her house.  She said to tell you she has enough room there for a village of refugees.”

“It’s good to see you, Aunt Lou Ellen,” Ronnie said with a smile, before she leaned way down to hug the smaller woman. 

The heat-packing woman not to be messed with, Cade surmised, biting back a grin.  The woman was all of five and a half feet tall and looked like a socialite.  He couldn’t see her going all Dirty Mary on anyone.  Cade’s insides itched to get on with things, as the hug went on and on.

Veronica had become a serial hugger since he’d seen her last.  Before, his sister would’ve sooner kissed a pig than let anyone touch her, but now?  She was hugging the hell out of everyone.  Between her pregnancy and infatuation with her relatively new husband, she must be on a hormonal highwire, so maybe that was the cause.  She definitely had that loving feeling, which had escaped her before.

Cade definitely didn’t have that problem. 

He just wanted to get the hell out of here as soon as he could.  This crowd was making him feel closed in and claustrophobic.  The women began chatting like magpies and dragged Carlos into their conversation. 

He looked back over his shoulder to find Cecelia deep in conversation with one of the CSI team members who stood on a ladder digging a bullet out of the wall near the ceiling.  Cecelia was the one who had been a compulsive hugger back in the day, soft and compassionate.  It made him damned uncomfortable when they first started dating, but he got used to it.  From her, and her alone.  Cade contemplated the contrast between her and his sister now.  It was almost like they’d traded personalities or something.

When he turned back, the small serious-faced woman he now knew was Estella separated from the circle of women to walk back to the agent, but Carlos didn’t notice her until she tugged the sleeve of his suit jacket. 

“I remembered something else,” she said quietly, and he frowned.

Reverting to Spanish again, Carlos asked, “What did you remember?”

“I looked over the desk to try and get the license plate number.  I saw one of the men remove his mask before he got back into the van.  I didn’t see his face, but he had dark hair and was dark-skinned, Hispanic, I think…or maybe Arab.”

That made absolutely no fucking sense to Cade.  Why would a Tejano or anyone of color be affiliated with the Sovereign Soldiers who were as racist as they came?  One of their goals was to rid Texas of all non-whites, especially Mexicans—American born and legal or not.  Hell, they even stationed themselves at the border in places and picked illegals off like crows when they tried to cross the border into the United States. 

The most troubling thing was he knew this particular group of vigilantes set up in raw, rural places mostly.  They were as much masters at avoiding border patrol as the illegals and coyotes, because they weren’t dummies who set up in places the authorities expected to see them.  Cade was sure they would employ the same tactics with this situation which meant he needed to keep his eyes open everywhere. 

He looked back at the circle of nine women and wondered if that was the sum of the group he’d have to protect until the feds figured out the situation and made arrests.  Add in Veronica and Lou Ellen and that was eleven women he’d be responsible for. 

Knowing how slow the feds were to act, he could be tied down for weeks, or months, babysitting them, unless he could help.

I’m not Superman
.  No, he definitely wasn’t, and he wasn’t a babysitter.  It was time to ask Logan for help, so he could help the feds get answers.  The question was would he help him since he’d been so upset when he found out Cade had demanded and been paid a hundred grand for his help in the last mission.  That was before Logan hired him as a regular team member though, and his second-in-command offered it.

Another woman joined the circle of Latinas and her face was as green as the shirt she wore.  Her hands flew frantically as she informed the women that Amelia was going to die if someone didn’t help her quickly. 

Estella’s face paled as she ran to her, grabbed her arm and shuffled her through the now thinner crowd toward a door at the other side of the room.  Cade didn’t know why, but his feet started moving in that direction to follow them.

The door opened with a loud clank when Estella shoved a hip into the release bar, but it only opened halfway.  After a second the door opened wider and a medic stepped through pulling a gurney.  When the head of the gurney cleared the doorway, so did a second harried-looking medic who was using an Ambu bag to sustain breathing for an older woman.  The blood-soaked bandage around her forehead almost covered her eyes.  Estella and the woman just glanced at her, before going inside the room. 

Cade stood there for a second staring behind the gurney, wondering  if he’d misunderstood, but a loud, pained scream from inside the now-closed door told him he hadn’t.  He quickly pushed the door release, and it opened, but stood there slack-jawed for a second when he saw six more women, one of them on the floor with two men in body armor emblazoned with SWAT beside her. 

The men glanced up at him with eyes filled with both fear and disgust.  It was obvious the very young and very pregnant woman on the floor was in active labor.  Not his rodeo, he thought as he reached behind him for the door release, but his feet carried him toward them. 

“Is another medic unit on the way?” he asked, his stomach lurching when he saw the blood stain on her dress near her hips.  This girl was so young she probably just got her period a few years ago, which meant she was at high risk for complications with her pregnancy.

“Hell no—” one of the men started in a high-pitched squeak, but his partner slammed an elbow into his chest.

“No, there was a ten-vehicle pileup on the interstate with mass casualties.  The fire department, EMS, and even the med evac crews are tied up,” he informed.

“I’ll help you get her into your car, then,” Cade offered, kneeling beside the man.