Behind the Mask (Undercover Associates Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

madness.
    He stood there for an acceptable amount of time staring at the old man on the ground, but really he was testing the contours of his own darkness. Trying to see if the violence touched him in the way that it touched regular people. He looked at the blood path and imagined Pedro crawling—doomed, but still fighting to get away, trying to work up some sadness or empathy, but it didn’t work. The sight of the man’s body made him feel like killing somebody. Nothing more.
    He turned, watching Ramona guide the boy to some task involving cans. He looked around at the destruction. The villagers had imagined that the remoteness of the village would protect them—that the coca gangs wouldn’t bother reaching up the mountain. But the coca gangs were desperate these days—they were being driven out of places like Colombia and Ecuador in favor of tourism, mining, and legitimate farming. Driven into Valencia.
    El Gorrion. Expanding up the mountain.
    He came back. “ Lo siento ,” he said.
    She nodded, stroked the boy’s hair. The boy frowned, barely tolerating it.
    “Fernando?” he asked. Fernando owned Café Moderno.
    “Drove out an hour ago. They can take what they want. They’ll want your farm, and they’ll take it. Julian is trying to save some of the bushes, but…”
    He nodded. This was the only place in the world that the savinca thrived. The farmers would be saving plants.
    Again he squinted down the street. He should feel more than a killing anger, but that was what he felt. He felt it strongly. Because this was his goddamn village.
    Nobody fucked with his village.
    “ No creo que vayan a volver ,” he said simply. I don’t think they’ll come back.
    He could feel the excitement shoot through the boy like a fucking arrow. The boy knew not to show it.
    “They will come back,” Ramona or Renata said. “They’ll want your land. You have good land for coca.” Cocaine land. Because that was what this was about. Not quite up to the frost line.
    “ Ellos no volverán ,” he said. “Tell the others—twenty-four hours will pass, and they will not return.” He shouldn’t feel happy about returning to the killing.
    Hugo started up the Jeep. Fighting and killing was going to be hell on his burns.
    The boy got in, face glowing. He spoke in Spanish. “You’ll save them. You’ll make them sorry for what they did to the old man. El Gorrion has hit the nest of a hornet.”
    Hugo kept his eyes on the road. The boy was still idealistic. He wanted him to be something more than a cold-blooded killer.
    “You think this is about justice?” Hugo growled.
    The boy’s silence told him yes, he thought it was about justice. At least he hoped it was.
    “This isn’t about justice.” Hugo said icily. “It’s about llapingachos .”

Chapter Four

    F ootsteps in the hall. She sucked in a breath. It was night—maybe eleven. She’d wondered when he’d come.
    A key in her door.
    She spun around. A slim man with a goatee strolled in—Brujos himself—followed by a woman and then two guards.
    The woman came up to her with fire in her eyes and slapped her.
    Zelda forced herself to cry, to look bewildered. Brujos’s girlfriend—it had to be.
    Brujos came up to Zelda, now. She braced herself. It was going to be something bad with the two of them, or nothing at all.
    But Brujos didn’t touch her. “La puta de Mikos,” he said— Mikos’s whore —and he spat in her face.
    She wiped it off because Liza would wipe it off. Just last.
    It was easy to guess what had happened. The girlfriend had learned about Brujos winning her in a card game and had come to stake out her territory. She wanted Brujos all to herself.
    She could have him.
    “ Ahora. Antes de que se vayan .” The woman pointed sideways. Now . Before they leave.
    They? Who?
    But she and Brujos were already walking away.
    “What about the deal?” she asked.
    The two guards came up and took her arms, one on either side.
    “Wait!” She twisted away and