Page 32 of K-9 Guardians

“I thought you said you handed the evidence over to the DEA.” King straightened to the edge of the bed but didn’t bother trying to stand with his wound.

“I did. All but one of the pills.” Scarlett read over the report of ingredients broken down line by line, looking for the one that would give them everything they needed: the cartel’s new partner. “Once we breached that warehouse, there was no way Sangre por Sangre was going to stick around for the authorities to confiscate that much product. Given how much fentanyl is worth on the street, I’d say we uncovered a six-million-dollar operation. That kind of loss would destroy the cartel and any chance Muñoz had of making it out of there alive.”

“So you kept one of the pills to have tested.” A hint of admiration reached through the buzz he’d left behind from that kiss. “The DEA will be running their own tests. They’re going to find out where those drugs came from.”

“Yes, but federal crime labs take weeks to process evidence, and they’re certainly not going to know where to look before we do.” Bingo. The last ingredient. Scarlett glanced up at Granger to confirm the dread seeping through her. “Are you sure?”

“Had Dr. Piel run the results twice. She says it’s not a mistake. We can do it again, but we’re going to need another source. She went through the single pill you gave us. But unless you know of someone else using dextromethorphan in their fentanyl, I think we have our answer as to which organization Sangre por Sangre is using for new product.”

“Dextromethorphan.” King grabbed for his crutch and dragged himself to their position at the door. She handed off the toxicity results, and his gaze locked on the paper in his hand. “I only know of one organization that uses that as a signature in their product.”

“Yeah. Me, too.” Scarlett wanted to sink back into bed, to rewind the past few minutes and pretend wolves weren’t waiting at the door all along. “Sangre por Sangre has teamed up with the largest triad in the world.”

THETRIADSCONTROLLEDthe drug trade through bribery, extortion and murder in the extreme. To the point western law enforcement couldn’t even penetrate the organizations without inside help. They were the sole hands-off source of the opioid crisis ripping through the world.

And Sangre por Sangre had taken them on as a partner.

Providing them with unlimited resources in product, weapons and manpower. New Mexico would never stand a chance once the cartel took full advantage.

King couldn’t just sit here. He dressed as quickly as his leg allowed. The wound was pulsing, trying to hold him back, but this new intel wouldn’t wait for him to recover. The cartel was in over their heads, and his son was stuck in the middle. “Adam and Eva must’ve figured out the connection. They were getting too close to exposing the triad’s involvement.”

King aggravated the stitches in his leg, and he fell back against the mattress. Nausea surged as pain stabbed through his thigh, and all he could do was wait for it to pass. Sit here. Useless in his own body. “Damn it.”

“Take it easy.” Scarlett was there, securing her hands around the back of his calve. “That wound isn’t going to magically fix itself in under twenty-four hours, King. You’ve got to give it some time.”

“I don’t have time.” He hadn’t meant his explanation to sound so harsh, but King couldn’t help it. They were running out of time. Julien was running out of time.

“I know.” She massaged her fingertips around the wound, careful not to touch anywhere close to the bandages. “That’s why I had Granger take what we know upstairs. Ivy and Socorro have been taking a lot of heat as to why the cartel only seems to be getting stronger despite our efforts to take down the key players. Now we know the answer. They’re not the only ones we’re up against, and I have a feeling it’s been that way for a while.”

Every muscle in his body prepared for the pain she’d trigger if she kept touching him. Only it never came, and he seemed to be relaxing, inch by inch under her touch. And, hell, he didn’t know how that was possible. A live wire of defensiveness had been sizzling beneath his skin his entire life. And this woman had somehow worked her way around it. That was her job though, wasn’t it? To figure out a system’s defenses and either build it up or take it down? Tough part was, he wasn’t sure which she was doing to him.

“What do you mean?” he asked. “We only got to this point because Eva was killed two months ago.”

“In your world, yes. You started looking into Muñoz because you suspected he had something to do with the murder of someone you knew.” She slid her hands along the back of his calf, starting from the base of his leg and working up again, and King couldn’t move. Didn’t want to move. “But Socorro has been focused on Sangre por Sangre for close to a year. We’ve been mapping out their entire organization through surveillance, financials, property records and inside intel to find their weakness. Everything we’ve uncovered points to a simple hierarchy with no outside influence. One man at the top with lieutenants protecting their territories across the state. Now it seems we were wrong. We’re up against something much bigger than we or the Pentagon imagined, and I’m starting to think it’s only a matter of time before Sangre por Sangre stops trying to hide that fact anymore.”

Truth rang deep through his chest. She was right. Of course he’d carried out assignments that involved the cartel for years—a lieutenant here, a search-and-seizure there, border checks every few months—but he’d never tried to put the whole picture together before now. Before it became personal. A monster had been growing within the organization all this time and no one—not even the DEA—had suspected anything had changed. “It’s Muñoz.”

Scarlett lightened the pressure on his leg, the only evidence she’d heard him at all. “What do you mean?”

“He has to be the liaison between the two organizations. That’s the only reason I could see him being so desperate to go after federal agents and their families to keep the triad off the DEA’s radar. To come after me. He’s scared.”

The pieces were slowly starting to make sense, but there was still so much missing from the overall picture. Something they weren’t seeing.

“He makes the connection with the triad,” King said, “proposes that Sangre por Sangre can be a gateway into the United States. Only problem is, his cartel isn’t the only one on the map, let alone the only one near the border. So he starts going after other organizations that can provide the same kinds of services and taking them out.”

“Like the Marquez cartel. The one whose leadership was taken out in a bombing in Sangre por Sangre’s warehouse ten years ago and the DEA called in Agent Roday.” A brightness King had come to anticipate lit up Scarlett’s eyes. She shoved to her feet as though the same kind of energy sizzling through him had transferred into her. “But why take the risk of bringing down the DEA, the ATF and Socorro on his own head? What does Muñoz get out of all of this?”

“What do lieutenants like him always want inside these organizations?” he asked.

“Power. Respect. Fear, in a lot of cases. You think he wants to be the man at the top.” An audible inhale shuddered through her as she crossed the room, back and forth. “If that’s the case, our intel was right. Muñoz is planning a hostile takeover from the inside. Which isn’t easy. I’ve watched lieutenants kill each other to claw their way up that ladder, but it never works. The guy at the top isn’t easily impressed. But Muñoz would have all the support he needs if he pulls off a deal moving triad product. It’s a hell of a theory, but all we have to corroborate it is an empty warehouse and single fentanyl pill that was used up during testing.”

“We have more than that.” Though King wasn’t sure how far it would take them. “Julien recognized the woman who checked him out of school the day he was abducted. Kidnapping a federal agent’s son isn’t something Muñoz would leave to just anyone, especially one of his soldiers. Too risky.”

Scarlett stilled. “You said the only female soldier that matched that woman’s description in Muñoz’s inner circle was killed a few months ago.”

“There’s one I hadn’t considered.” And he hated himself for not realizing it until now. “Though up until now, I was positive she only benefited from Muñoz’s lifestyle. There’s no evidence she’s involved in the business.”

Scarlett pointed a soft finger at him. “The wife. You think he sent his own wife to get Julien? But how... How would he have recognized her at the school unless...”

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