Ranger's POV
I've searched the region where John Richards said Diego Ortiz had his compound. There isn't anything in sight. I wonder if it's another case of transposing coordinates. Lester notices my hesitation and frustration and approaches me. Quietly, he asks, "What's up?"
"The same issue as before," I reply. Lester nods and pulls Ram into the conversation. We squat and write in the dirt with a stick. Ram retrieves the map and points out the coordinates as I swap degrees and seconds. He shakes his head at the first one. But when I wrote the remaining permutation, we agreed it was the correct location. I set our sights on the new direction while Lester and Ram obliterated our scratches in the dirt. It will take another ten hours to hike to the spot. We're exhausted despite experiencing food and sleep deprivation during training and other missions.
Lester, Ram and I remember the background check details on Jeanne Ellen Burrows. She is the daughter of Ponzi scheme mogul Quentin Barker and Vivian Burrows. After Quentin's arrest, Jeanne Ellen joined the Army and assumed her mother's maiden name, Burrows. She attempted to escape from the ridicule and torment of the affected victims.
When I met her, she came on too aggressively, and I avoided her whenever possible. Jeanne Ellen is a beautiful woman but never appealed to me as a potential partner. I never considered having sex with her, either. She struck me as the type to trap a man into marriage and bleed them dry. Jeanne Ellen was in my basic training group, one of the six women who enlisted that year. Lester, Tank, Bobby, Ram and Manny were also part of the troop. We made a pact to avoid the women while off base. It was against the rules to have a relationship with another soldier.
Lester smiles; he knows I'm thinking about meeting Jeanne Ellen Burrows. My cousin thought Jeanne was too high maintenance for the Army. She trained hard to keep up with the men. Jeanne was one of two women to make it through the rigorous training. We were surprised she got through the program. It's remarkable how much one can achieve if they have something to prove.
I smile while thinking about Stephanie. She made a connection none of us considered. Jeanne Ellen applied for a job at Rangeman. I planned to have her work at the Boston office to keep her away from Stephanie and me. Jeanne Ellen has no moral code. Any man is fair game. I only have eyes for my beautiful wife.
After reviewing Stephanie's uncovered details, which Jeanne Ellen attempted to hide, I don't want the woman near my business or family. Jeanne Ellen is more like her father than anyone thought. The woman found the unsuspecting men to invest in her father's Ponzi scheme. Jeanne Ellen should have gone to prison with her father, but the idiot protected her.
"How much do you want to bet that she influenced her partner to modify the coordinates?" Ram asks, careful not to use names in the open.
"We all know she did. But I want to know why," Lester wonders.
"To get the jump on us," I reply. "She knew we would figure out the confusion with the coordinates and ask for help to find the correct location. It gave her enough time to set the trap."
"Do you think she was there watching us?" Ram asks.
"Anything's possible, but I doubt it. She wants to lead the cartel," I surmise. Women like Jeanne Ellen Burrows only care about money.
"What about that other part?" Lester asks. "About the ex-wife?"
I press my lips together. That was the worst part of Jeanne Ellen's plan. During our leave after our first deployment, I went to Miami to visit Abuela Rosa with the guys. We lied to Jeanne Ellen about going to the Staccato Night Club in North Miami. We didn't know that Jeanne Ellen had convinced her college roommate, Rachel Cortez, to meet her at the Cuban Club in Little Havana. I never thought my buddy would tell Jeanne Ellen our plans. That man died during our first deployment.
Another man in our troop, Winston Carrol, latched onto Jeanne Ellen, unaware the woman was our comrade. It left Rachel free to approach me. I was attracted to her and stupidly spent time screwing her in the backseat of her friend's car. We wanted more, and I took her to a place close by. It was the biggest mistake of my life. A few months later, she contacted the Army, claiming I got her pregnant; impossible since we used protection I provided. It was all a ploy to get ahold on my family's finances, specifically Abuela Rosa's money. My Abuela wisely invested her money and has an impressive portfolio. Abuela invested in Rangeman. She was my silent partner until we made a profit, and I returned her investment with interest. Only my core team and Stephanie know about her involvement.
According to Stephanie's intel, Winston got honourably discharged from the Army after an altercation with a civilian left him with permanent brain damage. Winston never saw it coming. Jeanne Ellen supposedly found him bleeding in the alley. She called for an ambulance and claimed she never witnessed the assault. Stephanie wondered if Jeanne Ellen was the suspect involved. The police never found fingerprints on the metal pipe used to smash Winston on the back of his head.
After hiking for ten hours, I feel someone touch my shoulder. The gentle squeeze let me know it was Lester. I stopped and waited for him to communicate his concerns. "Someone is watching us," he whispers.
I squat and pretend to tie my shoe. Ram stands guard as Lester disappears into the trees. He returns with a young boy. "What do you want?" I demand.
"Please help," the boy cries. "She has my mama."
"Do you know who has your mom?" I ask.
"She calls herself cat woman," the boy replies. Jeanne Ellen.
Everything about the child screams it's a trap. "Where?" I ask. He points to the right of our heading. "Lead the way." The boy runs off toward the right. Lester follows when I silently remind him to be careful. Ram and I continue to our destination, hoping to cut Jeanne Ellen off at the pass.
It takes us twenty minutes to approach the property from the north. The bushes and trees obscure our view. Ram climbs the closest tree and leaps from branch to branch, moving closer to the target. I follow on ground level. We hear a bird whistle coming from the barn around twenty-five feet away. Ram quickly assembles his rifle. I ran towards the structure when he tapped the barrel with his fingernail.
I'm light on my feet. The front of the barn isn't visible from my direction. I must approach the doors with caution. "Why did you do it?" Lester asks.
"Come on. You can't be that stupid!" Jeanne Ellen snarls.
"I know everything about you," Lester replies. "You should have gone to prison with your father."
"Please. Daddy was an idiot. He went after the money after I told him the potential investor was an undercover agent," Jeanne Ellen scoffs.
Lester attempts to keep her talking. "They never recovered the stolen money. Where did it go?"
"Here," she laughs. I imagine her waving an arm around the barn's interior. "There's a lot you don't know about me."
I peek through the door. Jeanne Ellen has her back to me. "We know you convinced Rachel Cortez to seduce Ranger because he refused to touch you. Rachel was already pregnant when she had sex with Ranger. He married her to cover the medical expenses of prenatal care. What was your plan?" Lester asks, keeping Jeanne Ellen's attention on him.
Jeanne Ellen never heard me sneaking up on her. I quickly disarm her and cuff her hands behind her back. Before freeing Lester, I checked Jeanne Ellen for paperclips, pins, keys, knives and any other metal to help her pick the locks.
"The bitch was too stupid to gain access to her husband's accounts. Any money she had in her accounts, I took. She was supposed to trick him into signing the paperwork for the bank to allow her to transfer funds from his account. I heard him talking about starting a security business after he earns enough working for Uncle Sam." I look for something to stop her from talking despite needing her to finish the story.
"You're missing part of the story," Lester says as I remove the rope binding his hands and feet to the chair.
"My dad had Rosa invest her money in his scheme, but Ricardo," she says my name with the utmost contempt, "talked her out of it. I had the cheque in my hand. But when I got to the bank, it was cancelled. I was livid. Rachel's cousin knew Ricardo. They attended the same high school. Michael mentioned that Ricardo enlisted in the Army. I signed up within days. Unfortunately, Ricardo wouldn't touch me. Believe me, I tried. Why didn't you want me? I'm gorgeous."
"You're conceited, and your heart is black. You have no soul," I reply. "Everything about you screams gold-digger and high maintenance."
"How dare you!" Jeanne Ellen screams, pulling against her restraints.
I give Jeanne Ellen the scariest face I can muster. She cringes in fear. "Why did you partner with Diego Ortiz?" I calmly ask.
Lester flicks his pocket knife open and cleans his fingernails. Jeanne Ellen's eyes open wide. She isn't sure what Lester will do. It's obvious she never checked his boots for weapons, which I found highly amusing. Ram enters the barn and points his gun at her head. If he discharges the weapon, it will make my ear ring.
"Dad supported his business," she confesses. "Nobody can force me to testify against my husband."
I lean closer until my nose is nearly touching hers. "Dead men don't get arrested," I say, without revealing Diego Ortiz was my target to shut down the drug cartel.
"No!" she cries. "He can't be dead. I heard from him yesterday. Diego left me a message."
"Prove it," Lester demands.
"My phone," Jeanne Ellen whispers. Ram keeps his weapon trained on the traitorous bitch as Lester grabs her phone from the floor where I dropped it. Lester shakes his head as he enters the number 1234 to unlock her phone. He dials the number. It goes to voicemail. Lester enters the same code for the voicemail password.
Ram chuckles as we listen to Diego telling Jeanne to get to safety. He would be home the following day after disposing of the trash. "Did he come home?" I ask. Jeanne Ellen shakes her head.
"So you kidnapped a woman to force her child to spy on us?" Lester demands.
"Yes," Jeanne Ellen whispers. "I should have come after you myself. The boy returned with Lester. He was supposed to bring all of you here."
"Three to one seems like an unfair fight," Ram says. "How did you capture Santos?"
"Tripwire attached to the barn door," Lester replies. "It threw me off balance, which presented the opportunity for her to stun me." My cousin sounds frustrated for being unaware of his surroundings.
"What's your issue with the Army?"
Jeanne Ellen's face turned beet red before she screamed, "The boy clubs they call special operative programs. My commanding officer refused to give me the recommendation."
"I'm not being a misogynist, but women don't have the stamina or fortitude to make it into the special operatives groups," I reply.
"I could have made it. They never gave me a chance," Jeanne Ellen argues.
"You'd never pass the psychological component," I say. Jeanne Ellen continues to argue. She wants to prove herself worthy. "You betrayed our country and our comrades. Your actions got John Richards killed."
Jeanne Ellen snorts. She doesn't get it. The woman is certifiably crazy. "Bring it on," she says.
Lester, Ram, and I exchanged a look. She already gave us details of her plan while under duress. A true soldier in the special ops won't spill any secrets. "I say give her what she wants," Lester shrugs.
"Are you still recording everything?" I ask.
"Yup. She never noticed the camera with my tags," Lester laughs as Jeanne Ellen's mouth pops open in surprise. He rubs his hands together and says, "Let's play."
Jeanne Ellen cracks within an hour of starting the psychological games. Everything is recorded except for the kill shot - technically, she died from a drug overdose.
Lester thought using the very drug she smuggled into the US to end her life was poetic justice. My orders were to eliminate the traitor after locating the cartel's money, which would get anonymously donated to the orphanages in South America.
Once the deed is done, we collect the evidence of Jeanne Ellen's cartel involvement from the stable's hidden compartment at the back. She had everything detailed: names, places and points of entry for the drug shipments into the states. After putting my belongings in Ram's pack, we shoved everything into my duffle.
We take what we need to prove Jeanne Ellen's death and leave her in the barn. The boy and his mother were waiting outside. She had tears in her eyes and tracks down her face, cutting through the dirt. "Go," she says. "I will clean up her mess." We watch her son place dry straw by the dry barn boards and ignite it with a flint and stone. He runs to his mother. She picks him up, tucking his face in her neck as she takes several feet back.
The blaze is magnificent. Lester chuckles as he records the mother and son burning their barn. I mentally note to ensure the woman has money to rebuild her homestead after Jeanne Ellen and her minions took over the property.