The Tortuga Plantation (Blood, Steel, and Empire Book 2) by Nelson James L

Author:Nelson, James L. [Nelson, James L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fore Topsail Press
Published: 2024-10-13T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

It had been two weeks since the action in Hernández’s warehouse, and still, when Don Alonso Menéndez thought on it, he could only shake his head in wonder. It had been the longest night of his life; the most dangerous, the most tenuous, and the most exhausting. He had risked everything, including his position, his fortune, and his very life. And the morning had brought with it his greatest triumph.

He had worked out the plan with Delgadillo and Carlos Hernández. The hard part, they figured, would be simply getting into the warehouse. The mayor had El Cinco standing guard, which would not have been a problem—hard as they might be, they were just five men. But Don Nicolás apparently realized that five was not enough, so he sent more men to guard the place. And then more.

And even if all those guards surrounding the warehouse could be eliminated, the building itself was like a fortress. Hernández had built it that way, knowing it was meant to keep valuable goods safe in the most dangerous part of a dangerous city. With the mayor’s men standing guard inside as well as out, there would be no easy way to breach the walls. Unless the men on the inside opened the door for them.

It was Delgadillo’s idea to intercept the wagon and use it as a means of getting into the place. Alonso thought of the second wagon, once it was clear that just getting Delgadillo in by himself was not going to be enough. The second wagon would put twenty of the One Hundred inside the warehouse, enough to start the festivities. The remainder would be with Alonso, ready to attack the men on the outside, then come to the assistance of Delgadillo and the others. Simple.

Hernández had not much cared for any of it. The risks were great, the chances of success less so. But he kept his objections to a minimum, and Alonso could guess why. He hated Don Nicolás with a passion like white-hot iron. And worse, he was more and more under Don Nicolás’s thumb. For all his secret wealth and influence, Carlos Hernández could not free himself from a man as powerful as the mayor, not without an ally who was equally well-placed. Alonso was Hernández’s only way out from under.

Things had not gone entirely as planned. That was hardly a surprise to anyone, least of all Don Alonso, who had seen battle at Breda and the Siege of Groenlo and knew how quickly military actions large or small could fall apart. What did surprise him, when he and his men came to the aide of Delgadillo and the others, was how hard the fighting had been. Don Nicolás, it seemed, had sent even more men to guard the warehouse than Hernández had reported. The mayor was taking no chances. And when Alonso and the One Hundred fell on them, they fought like demons.

The fight played out with pistols and swords and knives and pikes, and it raged through the streets.

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