Undercover by Vanessa Kier Read Free Book Online Page B

guards, and Madalena hurried into the tunnel. In a moment, they’d be out of sight.
    Okay. He’d have to chance playing the innocent. It might buy him enough time to shoot Alvarez in the torso or leg, forcing him to release Aunt Madalena.
    Niko ran after them. “ Jefe! Aunt Madalena! Thank God I found you.”
    Multiple explosions shook the dungeon, throwing Niko to his knees in the middle of the antechamber. As he waited for the ringing in his ears to stop, he heard the unmistakable sound of falling rock, followed by the pounding of boots.
    “Joint United States and Peruvian Assault Force!” a voice shouted, first in Spanish, then in English. “On the floor, hands on your heads.”
    The sound of a pistol firing had Niko jumping to his feet and dashing forward. “Aunt Madalena!”
    “On your knees,” a soldier shouted. “Now!”
    Seeing that his aunt was all right, Niko obeyed. One of the guards lay facedown on the floor, blood seeping from under his head. Idiot.
    The men from the assault force moved forward. Within minutes, they’d secured everyone’s hands.
    “Jaime Alvarez,” one of the Peruvian soldiers said in Spanish, “I have been waiting for this day for seven long years. It is my deep pleasure to take you into the official custody of the Republic of Peru.”
    For the first time since Niko had met the man, Alvarez appeared shocked. The look of outraged disbelief on his face as he was led away was almost comical.
    Dios . It’s over. It’s finally over. Now all he had to do was make certain Aunt Madalena got safely back to the family.
    “Tell your commander that the woman is Pocahontas,” Niko quietly told the DEA agent that stood behind him, using the code word he’d set up to make certain his aunt received the treatment he’d been promised.
    The man looked sideways at Niko, but he spoke softly into his lip mike. A moment later, he nodded. “John Smith?” he asked.
    Niko gave a slight shake of his head. “Nah. I’m more the Lone Ranger,” he replied, giving the rest of the code phrase.
    The man flicked his eyes from Alvarez’s retreating back to Niko. He gave Niko a nod of respect. “Some day, I’d like to buy you a beer and hear how you managed to survive undercover so long. It takes cojones to cross a man like Alvarez from the inside.”
    “Yeah, well.” Niko shrugged. “Look me up in another five to ten. By then I’m sure I’ll need a beer.” If he survived prison, that was. Based on the way this had gone down, Niko didn’t think Alvarez or his guards had suspected his role. But all it took was one comment said in the wrong company and he was a dead man.
    The thought of being locked up again sent panic zinging through him. But this time he wasn’t an innocent boy of eighteen. He was a twenty-four-year old man. A man who’d survived in one of the most brutal criminal organizations in Latin America.
    He’d continue to endure for as long as it took to win back his freedom.
    Then he’d work on winning back the love of his family.
    “C’mon.” The DEA agent took Niko by the arm. “Let’s get you out of here.”
    “Yeah,” Niko said under his breath. “It’s long past time I left.”
    Undisclosed Location, United States
    I t took ten days for Alvarez to accept that he’d been well and truly caught. Ten days and his extradition to a high-security holding facility in the United States. None of his usual allies within the legal community were standing by him. Oh, his expensive lawyer was on board, but the cops and judges Alvarez had paid over the years to ensure that his empire ran smoothly had failed to protect him. It appeared that he’d made a major miscalculation.
    At the end of the hall, the door into the judge’s chamber opened. Niko stepped out, flanked by a pair of guards. Strong as always, Niko held his head high despite the fact that he wore a prisoner’s orange jumpsuit and was shackled at wrists and ankles.
    On the surface, it appeared that Niko was being