Vail chewed on her lip. She couldn’t argue with Turino—but, damn it, what was she supposed to do when Robby went missing? Did they think she’d just go wine tasting and sightseeing?
“Working with the team’s exactly the point,” DeSantos said. “If we’d known, if you’d shared your concerns with us, we could’ve worked with you, maybe run a fake op to throw them off, a decoy, so it didn’t jeopardize Velocity. There are ways to preserve the overall op but still get things done under the radar.”
“I didn’t think you’d listen. I did a little research on you people. Karen in particular. Following rules and working for the greater good doesn’t seem to be in her DNA.”
Vail stepped back. Jesus. What website did he find that on? Even worse, is it true?
“Now what?” Dixon asked.
“Nothing to worry about,” Turino said. “Cortez no longer has Hernandez, so you’re no longer a threat to Velocity. Once Villarreal broke him loose, I had no reason to stand in your way anymore.” Turino brought a hand to his neck and pried away DeSantos’s arm to free up the flow of oxygen. “Look, I want to see Hernandez brought home, no question about that. A LEO in the hands of a cartel burns at me. I lived through Camarena. I knew the guy, worked with him. When we found out what happened to Kiki, it killed me, affected me deeper than I could ever admit. I wanted to track down those fuckers and do to them what they did to him.
“It’s what drove me to request assignment on Velocity. I wanna see these bastards taken down. Badly. If there’s one thing I have left to accomplish in my career, it’s bringing ’em to their knees. Devastate their ability to bring drugs into our country.”
“If Camarena affected you so deeply,” Mann said, “you’d be busting your ass to find Hernandez.”
Turino shook his head. “Not at the expense of blowing a years-long operation that’ll save hundreds—shit, thousands of lives. And not at the expense of the other UCs whose cover’d be blown if you’d fucked things up. They’d be tortured and killed, too. I couldn’t take that risk.”
“Is there anything you’ve kept from us,” Vail asked, “that we should know?”
Turino rolled his eyes. “You people’ve been a goddamn handful. Trying to keep you in check has been damn near impossible. At this point, I think you know everything I know. In the grand scheme of things, I don’t think I’ve slowed you down that much.”
“When seconds count, ‘that much’ may’ve been too much,” Vail said, lacing her voice with contempt. “If we’d gotten to that drop house thirty seconds earlier, it might’ve made the difference.”
“That one you can’t pin on me.”
DeSantos released his hold and pushed Turino away. “Lie down. On your stomach.”
Turino twisted around and faced DeSantos, whose Desert Eagle was trained at Turino’s center mass. “Why?”
“Because I want to talk with my colleagues and I wanna be sure you’re not going to do something stupid.”
Turino complied with DeSantos’s request. DeSantos patted him down and removed a smaller Glock that was tucked into Turino’s ankle holster. He then backed away and huddled with Vail, Dixon, and Mann.
“All due respect to Karen,” Mann said, “Turino’s not wrong. I wanna get Hernandez back, you know that. But I think we have to take a breath and look at this objectively. One life against hundreds, if not more. A serious blow to Mexico’s most violent cartel. Shutting down their money laundering operations. All those drugs and weapons off the streets.” He scraped at his forehead with the prosthesis. “I can’t fault the guy. In a way, I respect him. It took balls to do what he did.”
DeSantos nodded at Dixon. “Roxxann?”
Dixon puffed her cheeks and blew a mouthful of air through her lips. “Tough call. I see your logic, but seems like the guy’s been acting on his own. I can’t imagine the DEA ordering one of its agents to purposely screw us over.”
“They wouldn’t,” Mann said. “Every DEA agent I’ve ever worked with is a class act. Professional. Committed. But don’t be so quick to judge the man. We got caught up in the Crush Killer case and we cut corners. Lots of ’em. We did shit we shouldn’t have done. Right?” He got a nod from Dixon and a conciliatory dip of the chin from Vail. “When you’re dealing with a case like that, especially a huge one like Velocity, it’s hard not to let emotions get the best of you. We all know that’s true.”
They turned to Vail. She shoved her hands into the pockets of Robby’s leather jacket. “I can’t be one to judge him. I’m certainly no angel. The past couple weeks I’ve . . . crossed the line plenty of times. Too many times.”
DeSantos said, “So, what do we do with him?”
“Let’s back up a second.” Dixon ran her hands through her hair. “What if he’s got a broad mandate to run the task force as he sees fit? Bottom line, we’re pissed because he’s looking at the big picture and we’re focused on getting Robby home safe. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Is there a right or wrong here?”
They were silent as they chewed on that.
“So what are our options?” Mann said. “We leave him here or we take him with us.”
Vail said, “Trust is everything. Way I see it, question is, Can we trust him?”
“Our goals are no longer conflicting,” Dixon said. “It’s a moot point.” Vail pulled up the collar on Robby’s jacket. “Trust is never a moot point, Roxx.”
“Who tipped you off?” Mann asked DeSantos.
He held up his phone. “Text.”
“From?”
DeSantos rotated his body, checking out the area. Lowering his voice, he said, “Turino admitted it. Source is irrelevant.”
Vail figured it had to be Sammy. But it no longer mattered.
“If it helps any,” DeSantos said, “we all understand one another now. And I think we woke him up.”
“I’d say grinding your Desert Eagle into his ear definitely got his attention,” Dixon said.
Mann cracked a smile. “I kinda liked that. Old-school stuff. Settle it out in the field.”
“Fine,” Vail said. “We handle this in-house. But I’m done working with him, not until I can be sure we can trust him. If shit goes down and he has to choose between Robby and Velocity . . . ” She shrugged. “We can’t take that chance. I can’t take that chance.” She looked around and everyone indicated agreement.
DeSantos checked his watch. “Time to rock and roll.”
They released Turino, returned his side arms, and then headed back to the helicopter as the chief pulled up. They handed over custody of Arturo Figueroa and told Thomson to expect a visit from Agent Jordan.
Then, with DeSantos piloting the Huey, they went skids up and disappeared into the black San Diego sky.
PART 4
CRASH AND BURN
2300 Paseo Verde
Henderson, Nevada
Hector DeSantos peered out the window, then made an adjustment with the cyclic and collective controls and guided the helicopter into a gentle descent toward the Las Vegas countryside. He hovered fifty feet above his target, then slowly dropped onto the center of a grassy knoll. The helipad was encircled by a decomposed granite path, bordered by wooden benches and decorative lamps.
The Green Valley Ranch Station Casino was a resort in every sense—but it also served law enforcement as a staging area when the need arose. The helipad, composed of well-tended and close-cropped putting green grass, sat at the far end of the complex’s recreation quad.