Hunted (FBI Heat Book 1) Read Free Page B

If stopped, they would’ve looked like a large cleaning crew.”
    Rex arched his eyebrows. “Not bad.”
    “Best I could piece it together, the house where they were held was in eastern San Diego County. They drove west on Interstate 8 to I-5 north. Without a guard noticing, Pedro kept fiddling with the door handle, but it wouldn’t open. Probably had a child-safety master lock. The vans pulled off the freeway in Oceanside for gas. It wasn’t that late, so the station was still busy. At a signal from Pedro, the other men attacked the two guards, who were at a disadvantage because they’d been smoking weed all day. The kid smashed the window with a metal bucket, reached through the broken glass, and opened the door with the outside handle. Then the five guys made a break for it.”
    “The guards didn’t shoot because there were too many witnesses,” Rex surmised.
    “No doubt it would’ve ended much worse if the station hadn’t been crawling with customers. Anyway, they laid low in Oceanside until they managed to spot some Hispanics. In no time, the guys were in someone’s kitchen, explaining to a sympathetic audience what had happened. Sure enough, a Good Samaritan offered to drive them down to San Ysidro this morning.”
    They sat silent for several minutes.
    “No leads on the missing women,” Rex said as more of a statement than a question.
    “Nada.” He pulled two photographs from a file and laid them on the desk. “These women are Maria and Carmen.”
    “Shit.” The SSA shook his head. “Someone’s daughters, sisters…”
    Ben cursed under his breath. “Yeah.”
    “The others?”
    “The guys didn’t have photographs of the other three women. They’re going to work with a sketch artist.”
    Rex stroked his chin. “Did you tell them?”
    He shook his head. “Didn’t have to. They’d already heard the horror stories about sex trafficking.”
    “Do they know the odds of finding their women?”
    “I tried to soften it to a little above zero. Knowing Hermosillo, they could be working near all the new oil fields in North Dakota by now.”
    “Too bad the bastard decided to diversify. Guess drugs weren’t enough.”
    Ben massaged the tight muscles at the back of his neck. “Yeah, H is a real prick. Wants a piece of anything profitable.”
    “How much time and effort do you want to spend on this?”
    He exhaled in frustration. “I promised them we’d try. In exchange, they’re going to put their heads together and give us every detail they can about Loco and his connection to Hermosillo. ICE is holding them in a detention center. They gave me a week before they’d start deportation proceedings. If we come up with any leads, they might agree to extend.”
    “All right. I can assign Special Agents Staci Hall and Dillon O’Malley to work part-time on this with you. Anything else you need?”
    “Yeah. A miracle.”
    * * *
    “C’mon, Amber. You haven’t been to a single Meet-Your-Neighbors party since you moved in,” the rental agent whined.
    Amber glanced past the woman to the pool area down in the courtyard, where a boisterous crowd was deep in party mode. “I’m sorry. I… I’ve been busy.”
    “You don’t look busy now. Believe me, it’s gonna be a good one. The apartment complex’s hottie came this time.”
    She snorted. “Complex hottie? Seriously?”
    “Yeah. His name’s Ben Alfren. He rarely comes to these things, but he’s so freakin’ sexy all the women want to date him.”
    “Well… uh… players aren’t really my thing.”
    “That’s the crazy part—he never hooks up with anyone. He’s kinda mysterious. Like you.”
    Like me, my ass. I bet he’s never had to hide from a stalker a day in his life
. “Thanks for the invite, but I—”
    “Don’t be a party pooper. Look, come down for just one beer, check out Ben, and then you can leave.” She traced an
X
over her heart. “I cross my heart. I’ll never bug you again about coming to another complex