Above the Law Read Free

She might not be able to join in, but she had to know more. “What happened?”
    Diego started talking, and she closed her eyes again to block out everything except his words. She cringed as he relayed the details provided by a neighbor who’d seen everything unfold.
    Maria had walked out the front door. The neighbor waved from his own front yard. Maria called out a greeting and was bending down to retrieve the newspaper when a black SUV roared up to the curb. The neighbor had been startled at first, but the sound of rapid-fire gunshots spurred him into action. He ran back into his house and dialed 911 while straining to get a better view from his living room window. Before he was done with the call, the SUV drove off, leaving Maria sprawled on the lawn. With the phone still in his hand, he’d run across the street, screaming for help, but it was too late. Maria’s body was riddled with gunshots. She was still and lifeless, lying in a river of blood.
    Dale listened to the account, allowing the horrific images to penetrate her consciousness, but filing away her pain for later. Right now, paralysis was her friend, but she needed one more thing to make sure what they were telling her was real and not some tragic nightmare. “I need to see her.”
    Diego stared at her with a frown of reluctance, but finally nodded and grasped her arm. She stumbled, feeling faint, floating above her body—she wondered vaguely if she would ever feel normal again. A second later, she saw a different hand on her arm and she turned to see Mary standing beside her.
    “I’ll take her.”
    “I’ll go with you.”
    “We’re fine.”
    “I’m here if you need me.”
    Dale saw their mouths move, but their words drifted through the air like they were discussing someone else, something else. Anything besides her. It didn’t matter—all the talk was just a delay of the inevitable. Without waiting for an escort, she stepped over the crime scene tape and walked slowly across her lawn toward a cluster of people kneeling on the ground. As she drew closer, she saw Mary out of the corner of her eye, waving everyone away until it was just her and the torn and bloody body of the woman she loved. She dropped to her knees, clutched her chest, and keened her sorrow, not caring who heard.
    Dale shoved her phone into her pocket and slid her arms into the bulletproof vest, flinching as she adjusted the Velcro straps tight around her chest and shoulders. She hated the bulk and the vulnerability the vest symbolized, not to mention her left shoulder was still sore from the gunshot wound she’d gotten while checking out a lead at one of Cyrus Gantry’s warehouses. If she didn’t need to set an example for the rest of her team, the vest would have stayed in the back of her truck.
    She waved at Mary, her second in command. “Do we have eyes in the building yet?”
    Mary held up a finger, spoke a few words into her phone, and nodded. “Heat sensors picking up one body inside. Sniper from the house roof confirms, but he doesn’t have a clear shot. Beams are in the way.”
    They’d received a tip from an unknown source early in the morning that Sergio Vargas would be doing a major deal at the barn on this property today. Dale wasn’t big on anonymous tips with no opportunity to evaluate the source, but the prospect of bringing in the fugitive chief of the Zeta Cartel was worth taking a risk on shaky information. If Sergio Vargas was in that barn, chances were he wasn’t just doing a one-time deal. He’d probably been hiding out here. The entire homestead was unoccupied, and this farm had been on the market for months. With no one to interrupt his dealings, this was the perfect setup for a drug lord on the run, and the fact that his co-captain and brother, Arturo Vargas, had been arrested just last week, probably made the solitude even more appealing. The owner had given the task force the run of the place to clear out any outlaws. Sergio Vargas’s oasis was