Chapter 41: Chapter 19: Ambushed

NATE

The weeks have flown by, and the girls are almost done with school. Mandy has now gone on maternity leave. She has loved hanging out with the girls downstairs, and as we are getting closer to her due date, I’m glad the girls are there.

Tania has moved in with Tomas, and he ended up staying on the couch for one night. He has now been moved permanently to a desk out front, which helps put Tania at ease. After her ex showed up, we restructured our security inside the building so we won’t have a repeat.

We still can’t find Ricardo. There isn’t any more traffic at his mom’s house so we know he is somewhere else.

I was notified that they discovered an underground escape route that goes off the property. So we think that is how he got out undetected. Vinny can’t even find him, so we have to keep our eyes peeled.

I am sitting at my desk when my phone starts ringing. I look down and see the call is from Fernando.

“What’s up, Fernando?”

“Nate, we have a problem. Some info got out somewhere and our big shipment coming in today is being looked at. Our guys are noticing a bunch of blacked out SUVs in the area.”

“Okay, get as many guards as you need. This is an eight-piece, seventy-five-million-dollar shipment. We cannot lose it!”

“All right, Boss. They should be in place within the hour.”

“Perfect. I will be on my way with Luis and some guys from downstairs to oversee it myself.”

“Okay. Stay safe!”

I quickly hang up and send a text out for my men to come up, then I call Luis and Tomas into my office. Within a few minutes, another eight guys enter my office.

I stare at who is here and see Ron! I walk over to him and stick my hand out to shake his.

“Ron, my man, I heard you came over and were being trained. I knew you got placed somewhere. How are you? Everything good?”

“Oh yes, Boss! As soon as I came on, they moved me into the apartment building. I am so glad I came over.”

I nod at him and walk back over to be in front of everyone.

“Okay, we have a large shipment that looks like it could get picked off. We already have guards loading up from the apartment. We are going to head out from here to oversee it personally. We will go out to the secret room in the hall and load up on guns. Tomas, you will stay here just in case.”

I walk out with the guys which gets all the workers’ attention, and now they are staring. I walk over to the wall and swipe my watch, and a secret door opens.

I walk in and start tossing out holsters and handguns. Next, I toss semiautomatics at the guys while I grab one and sling it over my shoulder. When we walk out to go to the elevator, I see the panic on Tania’s face.

“Listen, Tania, we are very dangerous people, but we take care of our family. Call Mandy and the girls and let them know to watch the cameras until I call them, giving them the all clear. Security will be thin for a while. Tomas is staying here and is armed also.”

She nods at me, picking up the phone as we walk to the elevator. We all squeeze in, standing quietly, till we get downstairs and load up in SUVs. I pick up my phone to get an update from Jesus.

“Jesus, talk to me!”

“We have SUVs at the port and the surrounding area, but we have counted roughly twenty cars that are not ours. We have about the same, but they are closing in. The shipment has an ETA of thirty minutes.

“The truckers are already there at the port waiting and protected. We have more SUVs on the way that will be here shortly. They saw the SUVs, and to say they are nervous is an understatement.”

“It’s okay. I will be there soon. I know we got four new guys for this run, but I have a plan. Get everyone that we can spare. We are going to get this shipment. Call my dad, call Vinny—get every reinforcement we can!”

I hang up with Jesus as Kyle floors it to the port. When we get closer, we can see SUVs around that are not ours, and there are a lot. We pull in and see our trucks surrounded by our guards.

Kyle quickly pulls up and parks, and I jump out. I open the back of an SUV and start handing pistols to my truck drivers.

“Okay, boys, as you know, we are being watched. I understand you are nervous, especially the new guys. You will be riding with guards in your cab. I want three guards per cab. Get ammo and guns and load up and hide.

“We will have the convoy surrounded as we move down the road. We have to travel about twenty miles for the transfer. We are transferring at an underground business yard.

“The yard is already surrounded and you will be rolling in underground, unhitching, and going out the back exit which is a mile away. We all know the address and directions since we did a trial run a few days ago.

“If anyone should be shot, pull them to the back and someone else takes over. So make sure the guards know how to drive.

“Every car needs to grab a walkie-talkie and turn it to channel five. It’s a secure channel just for us. We need to have communication between everyone.”

I am interrupted as my phone starts ringing and I see it’s Vinny. “Vinny, talk to me!”

“Got the call from Jesus. I am sending ten cars of men to post on the highway along the route. Your dad and Fernando are at the drop-off with extra men.”

“Thanks, Vinny! We will compensate you for this. You know that!”

“Don’t sweat it, son. We are family!”

I quickly say thanks and hang up. We see the boat entering the port and tying up. I start yelling out orders to get everyone loaded and ready to roll.

“No one leaves until everyone is loaded! We all move together since this is the only route we can take.”

Everyone starts scrambling to get in line when the boat docks and the supervisor jumps down and runs over. I hand him the paperwork with the number of containers we are picking up.

“We heard about the situation and luckily have them all up front. They are ready for you to go, so we will be quick offloading them.”

Perfect! We have our first driver pull up, and we quickly make it through all eight trucks. All drivers are ready to go when I jump in the lead SUV.

I sit in the trunk area with Kyle, and we push down the seats to watch the convoy from the back. When we roll out and start to get onto the highway, I can see our SUVs start taking points along the convoy.

I see other black SUVs starting to come onto the highway. Ours have custom-made grills so I can see which ones are ours.

We do see ones that aren’t ours starting to mingle in and put out the call over the walkies to make sure they don’t get close to the trucks.

We watch them with our guns raised, ready to go, when all hell breaks loose in slow motion. We see the SUVs start to open fire as ours start shooting back. We bust out the back window and start shooting at the front of their cars.

When we go through all the bullets, we toss the guns up front to be reloaded while we grab a loaded one at our feet.

We see someone in an SUV get switched out with another driver, and we hear yelling all over the walkie-talkies. I hear a truck driver was shot but don’t hear the name.

I spot a vehicle start smoking from the engine after it goes flying off the highway, smashing into a wall. My breath hitches for a moment, but I’m reassured by Carlos it wasn’t one of ours.

The time seems to slowly tick by, but soon we start to take the exit. When we exit, we see the intersection blocked off by our SUVs so we can quickly get off and be blocked the rest of the way.

When everyone is off through the barricade, I check in and all trucks are accounted for. Even though several of our people were shot, no one is dead.

We go down the road and decide to take a head count to see what shape we are in. When we pull up toward the long driveway, we see guards everywhere.

We get through and pull all the way underground to the side and take assessment of every truck coming in. I jump out and run up to the first truck, yelling at the window.

“Anyone hurt, Fred?”

“No, Boss, we are good here.”

I jump back off and wave them in as the next truck pulls up. I run up to the truck.

“Anyone hurt, Dan?”

“A guard in the back had a bullet hit him. But it just grazed him.”

I run to the third truck.

“Anyone hurt, Ken?”

“No, we are good!”

I nod, running to the fourth truck. I see a guard driving.

“Where the fuck is Wayne, Tonia?”

“He was shot, Boss! In his arm and leg. Let me grab him.”

I see him throw the truck into park and reach around with another guard to slowly bring him out of the cab.

“Kyle and Jesus, grab Wayne! We gotta get him to the doctor.”

As I head toward the next truck, I run into my dad.

“Everyone is good in the other trucks. So, we got it here with minimal injuries.”

“I have Jesus and Kyle loading up Wayne to go get his injuries taken care of. They aren’t serious, but it’s going to take some time to heal.”

“Caden, Nate, I am so glad you made it. I heard about the ambush,” Mr. Renaldo, our client, says.

“Mr. Renaldo, thank you. We got it here and will be okay.”

Mr. Renaldo snapped his fingers and out walked six men, all with duffel bags. They lay them down and open each one. Dad looks at them then stands up and shakes Mr. Renaldo’s hand.

Dad motions for men to load up the bags and to take the exit route to get back to the estate’s basement. We are standing there talking when our phones go off with an alarm.

I look at my phone, and my heart sinks.

“Security breach at the apartment building,” I say to my dad.

I quickly get on the phone with Mandy.

“Nate, the sirens are going off. What’s going on?” Mandy asks.

“Get the girls and go into the secret passage down to the basement. Get into the safe room and bolt it behind you. Do it now! We are on our way! Stay on the phone with me!”

We quickly jump into the cars and haul ass out through the exit. I bet this whole ambush shit was to leave the apartment with minimum security.

My heart sinks because I know exactly who is behind all of this. Ricardo.