Page 7 of Duty Unbound

“You think you’re smart?” Herrera’s accent was thick, his English carefully practiced. “You have no idea who I am or what I can do. The Cartel del Trueno will hunt every one of you down. I’ll have your heads mounted on pikes outside my hacienda.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Interesting choice of decoration.”

The guy turned nearly purple in fury. “You’re already dead men.”

“Doesn’t look like it from here.” Ty put his fingers up to his neck to check his pulse. “Guys, I’m not dead. Just in case you were worried by anything you might have heard.”

I pointed back at the gag. “I think we’ve had enough from our lobster friend.”

“Lobo meanswolf,for fuck’s sake.” Jace still wasn’t looking up from his computer.

Herrera switched tactics as Ty reached for him with the gag. “Wait! Whatever they’re paying you, I’ll triple it. Quadruple it.”

I shook my head. “Not interested.”

“One million US dollars. Each.” Desperation crept into his voice. “Walk away now. Drop me at the next village.”

Logan snorted from the driver’s seat.

“What’s funny?” Herrera demanded.

“Just wondering if our heads on decorative pikes comes before or after you pay us the million each,” he said. “Seems counterproductive, you know?”

Herrera’s face contorted with rage. “You think this is a joke? You think?—”

I nodded to Ty, who shoved the gag and hood back into placeand popped the earmuffs back on. “Aw, man. I was enjoying that. I wonder if he would’ve offered us each our own puppy next.”

Despite Herrera’s monologue, this was the kind of job I preferred for Citadel Solutions. Clean. We took the fight to the target, neutralized the threat before it became someone else’s problem. No waiting, no reacting—justaction.

The bodyguard work we did was different. Standing around, watching someone else’s life play out, waiting for danger to come to them. Too much sitting still. Too much time to think.

But bodyguard work paid exceptionally well.

Logan glanced back from behind the wheel. “Poor little guy still doesn’t know what hit him. One second, he’s in his jungle hideout sipping whiskey. The next, he’s eating dirt.”

Jace finally looked up from his screen. “Should’ve run when he had the chance.”

“He thought he was safe,” I said simply. “They always do.”

The cartel’s network had protected him for years—bribes, mercenaries, corrupt officials—but that was the thing about men like Herrera. They believed their own legend, believed they were untouchable.

His beliefs had been wrong. And when my team had struck, we’d struck hard.

Now he was on his way to a classified government facility, where he’d either rot in a concrete cell or disappear entirely. Either way, he wasn’t my problem anymore.

The conversation moved on, the lobster-wolf forgotten.

“So, next job,” Jace said, stretching out his legs. “We going with the Morocco business bigwig or pop star babysitting duty with Nova Rivers?”

I tried to offer my core team choices when feasible, although the final decision was ultimately mine.

Ty perked up instantly. “Wait, Nova Rivers?TheNova Rivers?”

Jace frowned. “You listen to her music?”

“No, of course not.” Ty’s response was way too fast, and Logan and I both chuckled.

Jace clicked through a few files on his laptop, his face half lit by the screen. “Morocco pays pretty damned well.”

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