by Margaret Kay
“Is there a question in that statement?”
“There is no delicate way to ask you this. What was the state of your marriage?” Cooper asked.
“It was what you would assume it to be,” she replied much to everyone’s surprise. “We have been married just over ten years. I met him when he was still in the Army and we got married with three years left of his contract. He was in the ROTC in college and liked serving. I think had we not gotten married he would still be active duty, but he insisted that it wasn’t a good lifestyle for a married man or especially for a wife.”
“When he got out, he got the job with Dearborne Energy Solutions, his current employer?” Cooper asked.
Her lips twisted. “You know he did. Why do you keep asking me things you know?”
Now Garcia grasped her arm. He leaned in, lips to her ear. “Easy. We’re just making sure the info we have is accurate.”
She exhaled hard and shook her head. “That’s correct,” she said making eye contact with Cooper.
“How did you end up in separate rooms and how long has that been the sleeping arrangements?” Madison asked with little tact.
“It started about a year or so after he started working for Dearborne. He had to remote into the office at all hours of the night. It always woke me when his phone vibrated the alert and he got up. I was often just drifting back to sleep when he came back to bed after completing the work. I still had to go to work the next day. I spent months exhausted before he moved into the guest room at my request.”
“Is that when the travel started?” Garcia asked.
“No, he always logged about two weeks a month away,” she replied.
The team exchanged glances again.
“What?” She asked.
“Sienna, according to the records, your husband didn’t travel for the first two years he was employed at Dearborne Energy Solutions,” Madison said.
Madison looked confused. No one doubted her sincerity when she spoke again. “That’s not right. Those first few years he was away on business every other week. It was as regular as clockwork.”
“I’ll look further into that,” Garcia assured her.
“When did you stop having sex?” Madison asked directly.
“We haven’t had sex in five years,” Sienna replied. Even though she didn’t care for the bluntness of the question, she figured why not? There was no reason to lie. Hell, maybe they even knew that already too. They seemed to know everything else. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Razor, Garcia’s surprised response.
“How’d that happen?” Cooper asked.
“He came back from a trip and he just never wanted to again.” She shrugged as though it was no big deal, well it really wasn’t any longer.
“Who were you sleeping with?” Madison asked.
Sienna gazed at her with an outraged expression. “No one,” she said. “I loved my husband.”
Madison’s lips twisted into a smirk. “Did you suspect he was having an affair?”
Sienna nodded. “At first, but I couldn’t find any proof and he didn’t act like it, didn’t act sexual at all. I actually felt bad for him for a while and ended up hoping he was having an affair to know he could engage in intimacy with someone, anyone, if it wasn’t me.”
The team again exchanged glances. Garcia read in their faces that they all believed her. As did he.
“Sienna, one last question,” Cooper said softly. “Do you have any idea at all what this could be about?”
Desperation washed over her features. “I wish I did.” She swiped again at the few tears that leaked from her eyes. “As far as I knew, we had a normal life. And these kinds of things don’t happen to people like us.” She glanced at her hand, still held by Garcia. Her eyes glanced up, into his. “You believe me, don’t you?” It was important to her that he believed her, even if no one else did.
“You know I do,” he replied sincerely.
She yawned deeply, exhaustion had overtaken her. Her eyes swept over the others. “I’m sorry. I haven’t slept well in over a month. I’m beat.”
Cooper nodded to Garcia.
Garcia knew they’d do a second debrief without Sienna there. Garcia came to his feet. He tugged on her hand. “Come on. You can lay down in my quarters and catch some sound sleep. You’re safe here.”
She came to her feet as well and let him lead her from the room. At his door, he told her the code and had her enter it. He followed her inside and got her settled in bed.
“Aren’t you going to lay down with me?”
His eyes took in the sight. She was beautiful, in his bed, wanting him to join her. “I wish I could. I’m beat too, but I have another debrief with the team.” His head jerked towards the door.
She nodded her understanding, but that didn’t ease the panicked expression on her face. She didn’t want him to leave her alone. “My right shoulder hurts,” she complained.
He knew the pain was from the tracker Doc implanted in her while she’d been unconscious. He wouldn’t tell her though. “You must have slept crooked. Try to go back to sleep. You’ll feel better all the way around when you wake again.” He pressed a kiss to her cheek. “Do you believe me that you are safe here?”
“Yes, I do,” she replied. “I hope I can sleep. I almost feel too tired to, you know?”
Didn’t he ever! He wanted to pass out for about a week, himself, but also doubted a long sleep was in his near future. He handed a remote control to her. “You can cue up any kind of music. It’s satellite. That might help you sleep. And I’ll try to be quiet when I come back in, after I’m done out there. I hope to be lying beside you before you wake up.”
She grabbed hold of his hand. “I hope so too.”
Garcia grabbed another cup of coffee and dropped himself back into his chair in the galley. His eyes swept the table, making contact with each member of the team. It was good to be sitting with them. He had missed being with them for the six months he was under.
“I believe her,” Garcia said after a few quiet moments. “I think the local LEOs dropped the ball, not investigating the break-ins and not protecting her.”
Cooper’s lips tipped into his trademark smirk. Of course, Garcia did. He expected nothing less. “She had good details we can follow up on.”
Madison’s stare met Garcia’s. “We’ll divide aspects to deep dive between you, me, and Ops to save time. When you get the chance, Dearborne Energy Solutions is yours as well as Greg Andrews’ trips.”
Garcia nodded. He couldn’t wait to get on-line and conduct that deep dive.
“Those fuckers at the warehouse clearly wanted you two alive, or you wouldn’t be,” Jackson chimed in.
“So, which of us were they after?” Garcia asked. “If it was her, my cover is intact, and I need to go back in.”
Cooper sighed and blew out a heavy breath. “Six months, Garcia. You were under for six months and we are no closer to figuring out the players that are allowing the volume of drugs to enter the country and we are no closer to identifying the routes. Mendoza is still in the wind, and Juan Carlos shrank back behind Razor’s shadow.”
“We were able to identify Jorge Gomez as the new lieutenant in charge of distribution. That was a major win,” Garcia argued. “And losing Mendoza is on the DEA. Not us.”
“I’m sorry I had to kill Diaz,” Madison spoke up. “If we’d been able to track and surveille him, I’m sure we would have gotten more.”
Cooper wrapped his arm around her. “Darlin’, don’t even revisit what went down with that asshole.”
“I know,” she said. “But we still don’t know about this alliance between the Colombians and the Juarez Cartel.”
“That’s if there is one. It may have been just Diaz and Mendoza freelancing. If Mendoza was operating outside of the cartel, that might be why we haven’t gotten a bead on him. He could have been dealt with by his superiors. If that’s the case, we’ll never find his body,” Garcia said.
“I don’t b
uy that Juan Carlos was ignorant of who the players are for a second,” Cooper insisted. “He knew Diaz was Juarez Cartel.”
Garcia nodded. He’d give him that. Yes, Juan Carlos knew. He also knew he should have worked Juan Carlos harder. That ship hadn’t sailed yet. He still might get the chance…if Cooper would put him back in.
“And the different cartels wage war against each other. They don’t form lasting alliances,” Madison interjected.
“Juan Carlos was happy that Razor took the operation back. He’s a good kid at heart and was forced into the position he was in after Razor disappeared. That’s why he shrank back when he could,” Garcia insisted. “If he is running point on anything, he sure as hell hasn’t acted like it.”
“And his tracker confirms that. He’s been sitting pretty still in LA. He isn’t out running errands, that’s for sure,” Madison added.
“And Jorge Gomez didn’t share enough with Razor to give us any more to go on,” Cooper said. “We analyzed every errand he sent you on, every place, every name you fed us during the six months you were under. We washed every detail through every program we have, Ops even programmed a few new ones, and nothing. There doesn’t seem to be a pattern.”
“I’ll revisit the data. Maybe since I was there something will jump out to me. I know I was rearranging distribution routes and arranging for new distribution centers, but Gomez was so paranoid the details were split between three of us running separate jobs for him.”
Cooper nodded. “Our next play would be to grab up the two other runners.”
Garcia nodded. “Saucedo could be a weak link. If we can scoop him up and make him believe I’ve been promoted, and that Jorge Gomez is doubting his loyalty, he might give something up to me, a cartel counterpart, to save his own ass.”
“It’s worth running by Shepherd,” Cooper said. “But Sienna Andrews is still a priority mission. There’s a lot more to her husband’s murder. As Madison said, there is no way in hell this guy was just a software engineer. And his trips to Colombia warrant scrutiny.”
“Yeah, I want to see that through to the end. She’s a nice woman that needs our help.”
The others all chuckled sarcastically.
“That’s it, the only reason huh? Nothing personal?” Jackson asked with a smirk. “Don’t even try to convince us of that.”
Garcia pinned Jackson and then Cooper with a knowing gaze. “Yeah, unlike a couple members of this team I’m not going to pretend there isn’t anything personal going on. I like her. I’m very attracted to her, and I like her in my bed.”
Madison’s stare met his. “She’s important to you. Don’t diminish that by making it sound purely sexual.”
Garcia shook his head, her words causing his stomach to drop. “I didn’t mean to. Yeah, it’s emotional, personal.” His lips tugged up into a lopsided grin. “When I hold her, a peace comes over me that I can’t explain. I don’t doubt for a second that whatever it is I’m feeling, is right.”
“And you know that you’re never going to let her go, and you will kill any fucker that hurts her,” Jackson spoke up.
Garcia locked eyes with his friend. He saw the resolve in his features. Jackson wasn’t telling Garcia what he thought Garcia felt. He was telling him how he felt about Angel, how he’d felt about her from the first day he held her. This is what personal looked like, felt like. And Cooper, regarding his relationship with Madison, his return stare said that he felt the same way.
Garcia smiled and nodded. His eyes went back to Madison. “I really like her a lot and when this is over, I want to see where it can go, her and I, this relationship.”
“Then make sure she knows it. Don’t let it go unspoken,” Madison said.
Garcia came to his feet. “We’re done here, right? I promised her I’d be beside her when she woke.”
“You’re scheduled for a video conference with Lassiter at eleven-hundred in the control room,” Doc said. It was five minutes till.
Garcia yawned deeply. “I guess I won’t be taking that nap I planned. I’m beat. I need to sleep for about a week.” He’d prefer to reschedule the discussion with Lassiter but knew better than voicing that preference.
Doc’s worried gaze met Garcia’s. “We’ll schedule a physical for you this afternoon after that nap, too.” Exhausted normally wasn’t in Garcia’s vocabulary. The team all knew him to be the Energizer Bunny. Doc suspected a tox screen may identify the culprit.
“I’ll wait here for Sienna, in case she comes looking for you while you’re talking with Lassiter,” Madison volunteered.
Garcia’s lips flattened into a thin line. “Thanks. I don’t want her to feel afraid if she can’t find me.”
“I’ve got her, don’t worry,” Madison assured him.
Garcia plopped into the chair in the control room he was familiar with, though it felt foreign to him. Six months was a long time. He activated the equipment and smiled when Joe Lassiter’s scarred face displayed on the monitor. Joe had brought him back last time he was under as the biker. That had been a dark time. Garcia knew he wasn’t as affected now as he had been then. Afterall, he hadn’t gone it alone this time. This time he had regular check-ins with Lassiter and regular communication with his team, knew they were nearby covering his six. Both of those things kept him grounded.
“Hi Joe,” Garcia said. “How’s the family?”
“They’re good,” Joe said, watching him closely. “How are you? And don’t try to bullshit me.”
Garcia chuckled. “I’ll be fine, just need some sleep and some time to decompress and disengage.”
“I’m glad you realize that.”
“And time for the booze and drugs to get out of my system.”
Lassiter nodded knowingly. “Glad you realize that too. Hydrate well over the next few days, that’ll help.”
Garcia nodded. He held up the water bottle he was drinking. “I’m exhausted but am worried I won’t be able to sleep like I need to. I didn’t sleep worth a shit this morning in my rack.”
“That too may take time,” Lassiter said. “Patience.”
Garcia nodded.
“Now, tell me about the woman.”
Garcia laughed. He couldn’t hold the smile back. “I won’t even try to pretend it isn’t personal. She’s sleeping right now in my rack. When we’re done here, I’m going to go lay with her and make love to her after she wakes.”
A smirk curved over Lassiter’s lips. “Make love to her. You’re not going to fuck her or screw her, bang her or have sex with her. You’re going to make love to her?”
A bigger smile formed that involved his whole face. “Yep, that’s what I said.”
Lassiter chuckled out a burst of laughter. “I’m not sure why I was worried about you. You seem to have it all figured out, and then some.”
Garcia chuckled as well. “Patience has never been my thing. I do need you for that.”
“Doc will run a tox panel on you. Make sure you fess up to all you used,” Lassiter said. “I also need to know to treat you.”
Garcia shrugged. “As little as possible to keep my cover. Mostly weed and some coke.” He ran his hand through his hair. “But I drank pretty heavy. Jack and I got reacquainted and were inseparable.”
“You’ll cut your old friend loose immediately, right?”
“Already divorced his ass.” Garcia took a big gulp of his water, finishing the bottle. “My new comrade, right here.”
“Good man,” Lassiter said. “If any are a problem, you know to reach out to me, right?”
Garcia nodded. “At any hour of the day or night. You’ll hear from me.”
Lassiter nodded again. “And when are you going to cut the hair? That’s not Anthony Garcia’s look.”
“Just as soon as I know it’s not needed. It takes time to grow it out like this. Razor might not be completely out of play yet.”
A frown cut across Lassiter’s scarred face. He certainly hoped Razor was out of play for a while. Garcia didn’t need t
o go back under as him so soon. He needed time to remember what his normal was. “Keep me informed. We’ll talk daily while you’re there.”
“Roger that,” Garcia said. “Anything else?”
“Yvette’s been worried about you. You should reach out to her when you have a minute. BT too. Your Ops team has felt the void.”
Sienna couldn’t sleep. She tried, but a part of her mind remained active, processing everything that happened, everything she told these people. And she waited for Razor, Anthony Garcia. Even thinking about what she should call him, kept her awake. Finally, she pulled herself from the bed. She washed her face and ran her fingers through her hair trying to arrange it, so it didn’t look so choppy. Her eyes gazed over her reflection. She didn’t want to see this stranger staring back at her any longer. She wanted her normal look back.
