by Jane Henry
No. No, Diego was wrong. He had to be… His paranoia was affecting her ability to function as a normal human being, damnit.
Nora cleared her throat. “Camila,” she said.
Diana smiled warmly. “A lovely name. And she’s one of your clients? She’s new, isn’t she?” Diana slung her bag over her shoulder as her driver went to park the car.
“She is,” Nora said. “She’s only just come to us recently, and we don’t fully know what her story is, but we will do everything we can to help her.”
Diana blinked, and her smile brightened. “You don’t know her story?” she asked.
Nora’s stomach clenched, and the back of her neck prickled. Diego is crying wolf, she told herself. It doesn’t even make logical sense. And now he’s fucking with your mind and your own imagination is running wild.
“Yes,” she said. She had to change the subject. “Okay so the office is over here. Follow me.” As she walked toward the office, Diana joined her. “You could have some privacy here if need be,” Nora said. They walked past the boxes and supplies, and Diana nodded.
“Excellent,” she said. “This is perfect, thank you. If you’ll excuse me, I have some phone calls to make.” She smiled, but her eyes looked… colder. Nora mentally shook herself. Diego had made her crazy.
“Nora!” a voice came from right outside the door, so she left Diana and went outside, and saw Tessa gesturing to her from across the lot, panic in her eyes. Tony held a blood-stained paper towel to his hand.
“Oh my God! Tony, what did you do? Are you okay?” Nora asked.
“Cut my damn hand,” he muttered sheepishly.
Tessa hovered over him. “I told you not to cut that with the stupid knife,” she muttered, and he shook his head as she turned to Nora. “He’s always cutting those boxes open with the knife, and I keep telling him, one of these days—”
“Babe, I’m fine,” Tony said. “Just looks like I need a band-aid. Knock it off.”
Tessa blew out a breath and glared at him, and he gave her a sheepish grin, but then raised a brow. She shook her head. “Maddening Angelico brother,” Tessa muttered. “Nora, do you guys have first aid supplies here?”
“Yes, back in the office,” she said. “Just a minute.” She hurried to the office, expecting to see the door shut tight, but instead the door to the office stood ajar. The first aid kit sat on a shelf in the office just a few paces away, but as Nora went to retrieve it, she froze. Someone was in there. At the sound of Diana’s voice, Nora flattened herself against the wall outside. Her voice was barely audible, and after her pauses no one replied, so Nora could easily surmise she was talking on the phone. The tone sent a shiver of fear down her spine.
“She’s here,” Diana spat out. “I saw her with my own eyes. Who? You idiot. The girl who escaped. The girl who could ruin everything. Her name is Camila.”
Nora closed her eyes, frozen in place, her heart pounding so loudly she feared Diana would hear it. Oh, God.
Diego had been right. Fucking hell, Diego had been right.
Diana continued. “I don’t know how much she knows, but Padre’s whole operation is compromised. Bah! Padre. I can’t believe I ever trusted him. I won’t have this blowing back on me, Miguel.” A pregnant pause, and then, “I’ll take care of the girl. You know what you have to do. Yes. Destroy the warehouse and the entire Boston operation. Wipe it out. Wipe them all out, even Padre. Make it look like an accident.”
Padre.
Nora didn’t stay to hear more. Her heart in her throat, her palms sweaty, her vision blurred, she raced through the doorway to Tessa and Tony. “Come with me,” she said. Tessa was too busy helping Tony with his hand and thankfully they seemed oblivious to Nora’s anxiety.
She smiled brightly to hide her fear as she walked to the face painting table to fetch Camila, and for a moment she panicked. Where was Camila? She couldn’t see her anywhere. Grace sat with a line of children waiting to have their faces painted, but the chair where Camila had sat was vacant. Nora feigned nonchalance, brushing her hair off her shoulder as she walked over, leaned in, and whispered to Grace, “Hey, have you seen Camila?”
“Sure,” Grace said. “She went to the concessions to get us drinks.”
“Ah, okay,” Grace said. “Well, I need to run a quick errand with her, so I’m going to take her with me.”
“Okay,” Grace said. Grace smiled at the little boy sitting on a folding chair in front of her. “Spiderman, you said?”
Nora turned away. What if she was too late? What if Diana’s assistant had already taken Camila? Tessa waved frantically from where she stood tending to Tony, and Nora held up her hand, gesturing for her to wait.
She had to find Camila. Turning to the concessions, she scanned frantically but didn’t see her. Guests had begun to arrive in droves, and the parking lot teemed with minivans and cars. Nora walked through the crowd, ignoring those who called out to her or tried to stop her, bent on finding the girl and getting her the hell out of there.
She picked up her cell and dialed.
“Everything okay, babe?” Diego’s voice made sudden tears spring to her eyes. He’d been right. The whole time, he’d been right and her own pride had made her blind. What if it was too late?
“No, it’s not,” she choked.
What if his phone was tapped? What if right at this very minute, Diana was at her back, activating her men?
“What? Nora, where are you?” His voice hardened and she could picture the look on his face, eyes alert, shoulders back, ready to crack skulls.
“Over by the concessions,” she said, forcing a smile at a couple who waved to her, and then she saw Camila. Hope welled in her chest. Camila leaned over a cooler, brushing ice off two cans of soda. “You still here?”
“Yes. Are you okay?”
“Yes. But I need your help. You were right about Diana.”
A brief pause. “Baby, be careful. I’m in the parking lot. Hurry.”
She hung up the phone and walked quickly to Camila, keeping her head down, her imagination running wild. The man standing next to the little boy with the popcorn—were his eyes on her? Was he Diana’s henchman, and was he telling Diana right now what Nora was doing? Did someone right now have their sights on Diego? Would they find him? She needed him out of here. If she took Camila to him now and any of Diana’s men saw them…
She grabbed Camila’s hand. “Hi, honey. I need to run an errand. Come with me?”
Camila pointed towards Grace, but Nora shook her head. “No,” she said. “You have to come with me. Okay?” her smile felt fake, plastered on her face, but she wasn’t taking no for an answer.
“Nora!” someone called from behind, but Nora tightened her grip on Camila, and pulled her toward the parking lot where Tess stood with Tony.
“Come on, guys,” Nora said. “Diego’s coming, and he’ll take us to the hospital.”
Her phone buzzed insistently in her bag, but she ignored it. She saw Diego’s car turning round the lot and coming to where they stood.
Tessa frowned. “Nora, what’s going on?” she asked, just as Diego pulled up. Nora imagined Diana behind her now, her henchmen at their heels. They’d have their sights on Camila, and they wouldn’t let her go. Everything seemed to be in slow motion as Nora moved, as Camila shook her head, insisting she needed to stay, and Tessa stared at them both in confusion.
“Camila,” she said quietly, insistently. “Padre is here. He will keep you safe.” She tugged on the side door and practically shoved Camila in. “You guys too,” she ordered Tess and Tony. She caught the barest glimmer of Diego’s concerned look as they all got in the car, then she trotted to the passenger seat, jumped in and slammed the door.
“Nora!” The voice was muffled by the sound of the engine, and Nora didn’t look back, but she felt the hairs on her arms raise. Diana’s voice rang through the crowd again. “Nora!”
She willed herself to stay calm, focusing on Diego.
“Nora, what’s
going on?” Tessa asked again as Diego reached for Nora’s knee and squeezed. She calmed and took a deep breath.
“I’ll tell you in a minute. For now, go. Fast,” she said.
“Madre de Dios,” Diego muttered, but without another word he accelerated, and seconds later, they pulled into a busy intersection.
“Tony cut his hand opening a box and needs stitches,” she said to Diego, and, urgently, “You were right. About Diana, about everything. I overheard her on a phone call and I think your life and Camila’s are both in jeopardy. They could be coming for us any minute.” She inhaled deeply as he revved the engine. “Go!”
Chapter 9
“I don’t give a shit what you think you know,” Diego spat into his phone, ignoring the warning looks cast at him by the older couple who sat at the far end of the otherwise-deserted hospital waiting room just down the hall from the ER where Nora and her family sat. “I’m telling you what’s happening!”
“Listen, Santiago, I’m doing my best.” The voice on the other end of the line sounded frustrated and more than a little overwhelmed. Feebs were notoriously in love with their bureaucracy and rule-following, and both Slay and Diego had run across a few handlers who’d made their lives difficult over the years, but Michael Darby, Slay’s brand new contact at the FBI, seemed to have come from a different planet—one where human lives meant jack shit.
Diego spared a moment to imagine just how much control and patience Slay must have expended in dealing with this idiot for the past week, as Darby continued, “We have two other ongoing operations that have both come to a head this weekend. I don’t have the resources to go on your little fact-finding mission. I told Slater—”
“And I told you, Slay’s not fucking here right now,” Diego reminded the man. He didn’t care that his voice had gotten louder and was glad when the older couple gathered their belongings and left in a huff. He removed the door stop and closed the waiting room door behind them so he could have privacy. His language was the least of his concerns tonight, but it was probably for the best that he not have any witnesses for the things he was about to say.
“He left you all of the information you needed to pick up the slack on the operations he was working with you, and you’ve fucking failed at every turn. Tomás Guttierez is dead thanks to your team’s ineptitude.” Diego could hear his own voice nearly crack with the strain and forced himself to take a deep breath. Blaming Darby wouldn’t bring Tomás back, but the tightly-coiled anger in Diego’s belly needed an outlet, and this asshole was as good as any.
“That’s not fair,” Darby argued. “As soon as Slater alerted us that he wouldn’t be on-scene to handle the takedown Thursday night, we notified the police that they should keep Mr. Guttierez separated from the general population. The fact that the dispatcher didn’t alert the correct people is not a situation we could have foreseen.”
“Yeah, right,” Diego said bitterly. “Except you didn’t have to foresee it, because Slay alerted you when he knew his wife was going into labor and he wouldn’t be around for the mission. He gave you the name of his contact at the Wilmington PD and specifically told you that you’d need to call the guy personally. But did you? Nope. You figured, why bother listening to the guy who’s been running this op for years? You might as well have called the freakin’ janitor over there for all the good you did.”
“Fuck you, Santiago. I think you’ve been under too long, buddy. You forget how shit is supposed to work. You report your findings to your contact person, namely me. I provide the information to my superior, Berkley Carrerra, the AIC of the Boston Office. That stands for…”
“I know what a fucking AIC is, Darby! And I don’t give a shit if your buddy Berkley is the Agent in Charge or the second coming of Christ!” Diego whispered furiously. “I’m telling you, shit is going down tonight. Lives are in danger.”
“Because your girlfriend overheard something.” Darby had the balls to sound dubious about the accuracy of what Nora overheard, and Diego wished he had a clue what this smug motherfucker looked like so he could better visualize his fist hitting Darby’s face.
“Because an intelligent, reliable witness overheard it,” he said.
Darby sighed. “Santiago,” he began in an even more placating tone. “Even if I didn’t have any questions about the accuracy of what you overheard… And maybe everything Miss Damon heard was accurate,” he was quick to say, as though he could hear Diego grinding his teeth over the phone connection. “We don’t know what El Jefe was really talking about when he… shit… I mean she said that she was dismantling the whole Boston operation. Maybe he… er, she… meant that she was just going to abandon the warehouse, or…”
“Take everyone out, even Padre?” Diego reminded him of the words Nora had overheard. He held his jaw so tightly it was a wonder his teeth didn’t crack.
Darby, the fucking useless piece of shit, just sighed again, like this was all too much for him. “I’m telling you, I don’t have the resources. Now, I can put you in touch with a guy on the local PD, you can tell him your story and…”
“You know what, Darby?” Diego said. “Don’t fucking bother.” He was done. So fucking done. Completely burned out with the bureaucracy, the hierarchy, and the stupid minutiae that threatened to derail this investigation just when it seemed like they might finally seal the deal. But he couldn’t resist adding, before hanging up the phone, “But if anyone dies at that warehouse tonight, that’s on you.”
“I gather that you’ve had the pleasure of speaking with Michael Darby?” a voice from the doorway asked, and Diego glanced over to see Slay, looking more tired than Diego had ever seen him, holding open the waiting room door, with Matteo by his side.
“Slay!” Diego said in annoyed surprise. “Man, I told you…”
“Yeah,” Slay replied, holding out a hand as if to stem the tide of Diego’s argument. “You told me to stay home with Allie. I appreciate it, but I’m good. The other night was a different story—I had no clue what was going on, and I needed to be there for my girl. And even right afterward, Allie was a bundle of nerves. She needed me, and you know that’s my priority.”
Diego nodded. He’d have made the same call if Nora needed him. Hell, he had made that call.
“But now, the doctor says everything is stable. As long as she’s in bed, she’s fine. And as of this morning, Allie’s mom has moved into the spare bedroom for the duration and she’s cleaning fucking everything,” he said with a wince that made Diego stifle a grin. “I love her, and Alice does too. And we need the help with the boys. But after a couple hours, Allie told me to get out of the house before I lost my mind. She’s a smart cookie.”
Matteo laughed, and Slay lifted an eyebrow to glare at him, which only made Matt chuckle harder.
“Not busting on you, man,” Matteo argued. “I’m laughing cause I get it. Hillie’s mom and dad came to stay with us after our oldest was born. They were fucking divorced, but now that they’re remarried, those two don’t move two feet without holding hands,” he grumbled, rolling his eyes. “Anyway, I knew Hillie needed the help and was glad to have them there, so I bit my tongue and let her mom make us all kinds of herbal teas and shit to balance our energies.” He shuddered.
Diego snorted, shaking his head. He’d been ready to explode a minute ago, but just imagining Matteo sucking down herbal tea under his hippie mother-in-law’s watchful eye helped to calm the worst of the anger. He sucked in a deep breath.
“Better?” Slay asked knowingly.
“I don’t know how you put up with assholes like that all these years.” Diego shook his head. “Just one phone call and I was nearly through the roof.”
“Well, Darby is a particularly bad example. That guy couldn’t be more inept if he were playing for the other side. But now you see why I prefer being a security contractor who works with the FBI instead of an agent.”
“Yeah,” Diego said morosely. “But now we have no backup and no authority to move on this in an officia
l capacity, and given what Nora overheard today, shit is going down tonight. A dozen more lives are on the line. Lives of guys who deserve justice but don’t deserve to die the way Tomás did. And if we let Diana leave town without gaining evidence to tie her to her crimes, we lose our chance of catching El Jefe for good.”
“About that…” Matteo grinned. “You remember I have the best sister-in-law ever, right? Well… actually, I have a couple of them, but only one of them is a crazy-awesome forensic accountant.”
Diego’s eyes widened. “Heidi found something?”
Matt nodded. “She and Paul have been working like crazy the past few days, and she figured out your crazy idea about Diana wasn’t crazy at all, even before the bitch went all psycho-kidnapper at the fundraiser. Also turns out, Paul’s been hiding some sick-ass hacking skills. We found some pictures of Diana Consuelos, aka Diana Jimenez, aka Carmen Escobar, from some arrest records in San Diego and Reno.”
Diego’s eyes widened, and Slay nodded. “Turns out this isn’t El Jefe’s first rodeo. She was a madam in a prostitution ring on the west coast for years, but when she was busted, she turned state’s evidence against a couple of guys higher up the food chain. She did time in a minimum-security place in the Midwest, far away from her previous associates, who were all convicted and are serving serious time in maximum-security facilities.”
“Meaning Diana is persona non grata out west,” Matteo confirmed. “But they loved her in prison. She was a model of good behavior and her five-year stint was shortened to eighteen months.”
“Fucking bullshit,” Slay said, outraged. “But apparently they felt she’d reformed.”
“Joke’s on them, because she never stopped scamming,” Matt told them. “The bulk of the money from the prostitution ring was never recovered, and Uncle Sam assumed that it had been funneled offshore by one of the guys before his arrest. But Paul was able to trace that money through some dummy corporations and tax shelters to Consuelos Imports, Ltd. Diana had started up her next criminal organization while she was still in fucking prison.” He shook his head.
