winds had turned into intermittent gusts and the violent deluge had become a steady rain. Camila Borrego took it as a sign from God that she would be rewarded if she persevered for the sake of her father’s memory.
She had her man, Tavio Vega, follow the Fish and Wildlife truck and drive at a safe distance. Sam Rafferty had been foolish enough to use his cell phone again. The ping on her laptop reinforced they were following the right vehicle.
After the truck pulled into the emergency loading area for the medical complex, Camila watched from a distance through her beating wiper blades and the persistent rain. She saw Sam Rafferty together with his mother for the first time. The tall muscular man with broad shoulders carried his mother in his arms as if she weighed nothing. He laid her on a gurney and medical staff rushed her inside. A woman in uniform had driven them to the hospital and stood by Rafferty now, touching his arm.
“They have the look of lovers, wouldn’t you say, Amadeo?” Camila asked of the Vega twin sitting in the back seat, but she didn’t expect an answer. “Sam Rafferty looks exhausted…and worried. That is good.”
“Perhaps God will do our work with the old woman,” Tavio said.
“Not so fast. I have plans for her. Do not rob me of my fun.” Camila smiled and pointed to a spot along the curb ahead. She ordered Tavio to park down the block from the ER. “Rafferty knows my face. I cannot go inside, but I want both of you to report what happens. Get close enough to hear everything.”
Camila knew that the faces of identical twins would stand out in anyone’s memory if they were seen together, but if one of them broke into a supply room and stole surgical scrubs and a mask, the novelty of twins would not be noticed.
Tavio and Amadeo did as they were told, but not before selecting their weapons of choice and extra ammunition from the cargo hold and concealing them under their clothes. After they left the vehicle, they split up and entered the hospital from different directions. Camila had the keys to the SUV and moved into the driver’s seat. She turned off the engine to not draw attention and let raindrops bead and trickle down the windshield.
After time passed, the rain stopped and the sun lingered on the cloudy horizon at dusk. When she didn’t hear from the Vega brothers, she sent them a text, with no reply. Her phone call earned her only static. She’d expected a report by now from one of the Vegas, informing her of what they witnessed inside the hospital.
But when Sam Rafferty rushed out of the ER and climbed into the Fish and Wildlife truck parked in the emergency loading zone, Camila was taken by total surprise.
She kept her eyes on everything he did. At first she thought he might only move the vehicle, but when he drove off hospital grounds and headed away from the medical center, Camila didn’t have time to text her men again. She couldn’t lose her prize.
She turned the key in the ignition to start the engine and followed him, cursing his soul. With a sideways glance, she kept an eye on the laptop, opened on the passenger seat next to her. Rafferty had his phone on and the signal moved with him.
“What is so important that you leave your mother behind, guapo ?” she muttered under her breath as she drove into the lengthening shadows of a dying day.
With adrenaline coursing through her veins, Camila felt the weight of her handgun pressed at the small of her back, tucked into the waistband of her pants—and the feel of the knife sheathed in her boot. She played out scenarios in her mind, all of them with her standing over the body of Rafferty, before she reached for her knife and carved off her pound of flesh. She prayed Geneva would live long enough for her to show the old woman what had become of her precious son.
In the cargo hold of her SUV, the Vega brothers had stockpiled weapons with impressive firepower. Camila would have more than enough munitions to surprise