Undercover by Vanessa Kier Read Free Book Online Page A

aunt away from Alvarez. Hopefully, he’d catch up to them before they reached the outside entrance.
    But luck wasn’t with him. Niko lost the faint scent trail a few corridors later. He glanced out the nearest window and saw chaos in the enclosed courtyard. Men in military uniforms traded fire with men wearing the uniforms of Alvarez’s security forces. A few women huddled with children in the corner, trying to hide behind some potted trees.
    No way would Alvarez willingly step into that mess. Too great a chance he’d take a bullet. Or that a government agent would see him and capture him. The tunnel to the administration building was open, but only because Niko had left it that way. Alvarez would assume that the tunnel’s electronic door, like the others, would also be locked against him.
    So where would he go?
    Niko peered out the window again to orient himself. The administration building was to his left. The infirmary straight ahead. The armory and garage over to his right.
    The escape tunnel ran below it all. Wait. Below…
    Yes. The dungeons.
    Niko turned right and sprinted for the stairs that would take him down to the basement. The dungeons here in Peru weren’t as old as the ones in Mexico, but Alvarez had kept the old-fashioned locks that required heavy metal keys. Which meant the dungeons were the only place where you could access the escape tunnel without having to enter a security code on an electronic access panel.
    Niko yanked open the door at the end of the hall. The motion activated overhead lights in the stairwell were already on. Good. Alvarez had come this way. Stopping for a second, he listened for any sound that indicated the crime lord was waiting below, close enough to shoot him.
    When he heard nothing, Niko clambered down the stairs as fast as he could without falling headfirst. He paused again to listen at the bottom of the stairs. This time he heard the low murmur of voices and the creak of a heavy wooden door.
    He crept forward and snuck a look into the antechamber. Alvarez stood directly across from Niko with his back turned. One of Alvarez’s hands pulled on the giant door that opened into the section of the dungeon block that led to the escape tunnel. His other hand held Aunt Madalena’s arm in a death grip.
    The breath stilled in Niko’s lungs. This was it. He had a perfect shot. He raised his pistol. He could end decades of terror this man had caused his family. No one but his aunt would ever know for certain that Niko killed Alvarez. Even if people suspected who’d fired the shot, Niko wouldn’t care.
    The monster would finally be dead.
    Shooting a man when his back is turned is dishonorable. The voice of his conscience sounded an awful lot like his father. You shame the family even thinking of such a thing.
    No. Alvarez could not be allowed to live. Niko hadn’t spent all these years working against the man to see him go to jail, then have one of Alvarez’s expensive lawyers bargain him out in a few years.
    Niko put his finger on the trigger.
    The side door burst open, blocking his shot. Niko dropped his finger from the trigger as three of Alvarez’s guards ran into the room.
    “ Jefe ! Thank the Virgin we have found you.”
    Niko sank back into the shadows, relieved that no one had noticed him. But damn, now what was he supposed to do?
    One of the men slammed the door closed. Another went to help Alvarez move the heavy dungeon door the last few inches.
    Niko felt a wave of despair. He could walk into the open and point his pistol at Alvarez, but either the guards would shoot him, or they’d shoot Aunt Madalena. He could pretend that he, too, was trying to escape and that he wasn’t involved in the raid. Would Alvarez buy it? Or would the announcement that the DEA was involved tip Alvarez off that Niko had set up the whole thing?
    Fuck. He couldn’t believe he’d been so close to getting rid of Alvarez. He should have just shot the bastard without hesitation.
    Alvarez, the