Chapter Thirty-Four Seraphina
Chapter Thirty-Four
Seraphina
“I should have known Leo would find a way to create a problem for us,” Alex said from behind the wheel while driving. We had chaperones this time, as in the CIA’s eyes in the sky watching over us to ensure we reached our final destination like Beth wanted.
Since Beth had taken our phones, the laptop, and every weapon the guys had had on them, we had no way of letting ángel know we were running late. I had to assume he hadn’t taken off, though.
“Beth’s plan for you is not happening. I couldn’t open my mouth back there, or I’d risk—”
“I know,” I interrupted Ryder, not wanting him to beat himself up over anything.
He’d been in an impossible situation. “This is my fault. Beth basically hijacked my plan and turned it into a real-life game of Jumanji against drug lords.” I hated calling another woman a bitch, but damn . .. if anyone qualified, it’d be her.
Ryder reached over and set his hand on my leg. “Not your fault.”
Reed broke his silence for the first time since we’d parted ways with the she-devil, swerving the conversation away from my guilt.
“In six hours we’re in daylight territory.
That means the meeting between Ezra and the Moraleses won’t happen until much later.
After sunset. That gives us a chance to pull in the support we need. ”
Take the plan back from Beth? I was still skeptical that was possible with the CIA involved, even with Batman’s help.
“We have to part ways with Beth and her team without anyone becoming collateral damage,” Ryder said. “Can’t kill her or Leo, either.”
“Not that I’d shed a tear if either of them got caught up in the cross fire.” Reed and I were on the same page there. “No offense.”
“Trust me, none taken.” Alex turned us down a side road. “After this, I’m done. So help me, you have permission to kill me if I try to change my mind.”
“I’ll remember that, but I better not have to remind you,” Ryder said gruffly.
And speaking of exes ... Lainey cheated. She’s pregnant with your friend’s child. Now I knew why Ryder’s teammates hated her. The poor guy. And I probably shouldn’t be thinking about this right now. One problem at a time.
“How do we get extra support if Beth takes us to her safe house?” I asked, speaking my thoughts out loud.
“I’ll get ahold of a phone somehow so we can contact Carter and Hudson once we’re there. I’m pretty good at the whole sleight-of-hand thing.”
“Like a magic trick?” Was he serious?
“Something like that.” Alex’s voice was calmer now than it had been going up against his ex. Hopefully, that meant he’d managed to lower his blood pressure.
I couldn’t help but wonder how long their marriage had lasted, because the man seemed night-and-day different from her. You know, as in he was a good person.
Reed gave us some good news. “Also, I think there was a friendly back there on the GRS team. Our paths crossed a few times when I was still active duty. Garrison was Special Forces before becoming a paramilitary contractor. I can talk to him, get him on our side.”
Right, I saw that exchange between you two. “And, um, how will you snatch a phone if they lock us all up once we’re at their safe house, even if you have someone on the inside to help?”
“His dad was ... well, a pretty big deal in Vegas,” Ryder explained, more than likely reading my thoughts since he couldn’t read my confused expression in the dark.
She called Alex Houdini back there. Now it’s all making sense.
“I’ll convince Beth to give us an inch if she wants that mile she’s after,” Alex explained.
“And by mile, you mean us willingly cooperating with her plan to use me as bait to take down the Moraleses?”
“Yeah, but we won’t let that happen,” Ryder said before Alex could answer. “I’m going to do everything in my power to stop her.”
I rested my hand on top of his, which was still parked on my leg. “I don’t want you doing something you’ll regret, like hurting any of those GRS people. Or Alex killing his ex.”
“Don’t tempt me,” Alex said under his breath, and then an eerie silence filled the air before I decided to break it with some awkward questions.
“Not to piss anyone off—and by ‘anyone,’ I really mean you,” I rushed out, dialing in on my overprotective hero, “but what if we let Beth think we’re going along with her plan, but we amend it?
Tweak it with the help of Carter and Hudson?
Would it be so bad if we helped take down the Moraleses?
They’re the people who disembowel their enemies and hang innocent people in the streets who refuse to work for them.
” Talk about a horrible image. “We could keep Ezra alive in case Hudson’s lead in Russia is wrong and we need to question him. Screw what Beth wants.”
“I agree with you about Beth because I don’t give a damn about her.” Ryder pulled his hand out from under mine, resting it on his own leg, curling his fingers inward. “But your plan requires you being bait. I’m not taking that chance, and you know it. For the record, the idea does piss me off.”
The grumbly growliness at the end there was expected. I’d seen it coming, but I had to try. And also, speaking of “chances,” well ... “What are the odds I wound up reaching out to the same person the CIA already had working for them? I don’t believe Martín set me up.”
“ángel left the cartel a few years ago and lived to tell about it. That’s not exactly common, and that places a bull’s-eye on him.
A target for rival cartels or three-letter agencies to try and use him to get to their enemies.
It’s a name Martín would know, and he’d decided was a viable option for your backup plan.
” Reed, always with a plausible explanation.
“ángel would probably say no to anyone who approached him for help, but clearly, he wasn’t given a choice or a chance to decline Andrej’s request.”
A.k.a. Beth’s plan. “So you don’t think ángel continued working with the CIA after Andrej died? Do you think he called the Agency after I made contact with him at the club, and Beth wasn’t having him watched?” I didn’t want to think that, because I really wanted to trust ángel.
I waited for an I told you so comment about trusting ángel, but it never came. I supposed I hadn’t been wrong wrong about him. ángel hated the cartel, but maybe not as much as I hated Ezra. Beth may also have had him by the balls. You know, in the literal sense. I wouldn’t put it past her.
I had a running list of names to call that woman in my head now. It was growing by the second.
“Hopefully, we’ll know more after we talk to ángel,” Ryder said in a steady voice. “But given what you told us in Mexico about the change in Ezra’s trade route tactics a few months ago, it sounds to me like Ezra began thinking outside the box to eliminate his competition.”
“He cut out the Moraleses by making better trade deals with the overseas suppliers, no longer needing additional help from an insider like ángel. I suppose ángel was kept alive as a back burner contingency plan.” And that time is now.
“That’d be a Beth thing to do,” Alex grumbled.
“Well, Beth’s team at the Agency wants the cartels taken out for good, not just to outbid them with the suppliers,” Reed said.
“Beth likes the idea of using Seraphina and ángel to do that.” He shifted gears, targeting his next question at me.
“Did you give ángel the name Anna when you met last night?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I did.”
“ángel had to have realized you were Ezra’s accountant, and he assumed you were double-crossing him.
He decided a better plan would be to go behind your back and reach out to a contact he had on speed dial with the CIA,” Reed continued.
“At that point, Beth already knew your real name and that you were on the run.”
“Another domino falling in place for her.” I hated using that woman’s analogy.
“She was in the process of trying to track us down. I bet she was halfway to Mexico when ángel made contact with the Agency.” Alex parked and turned off the engine, shifting around to look at me.
“Beth had to prevent us from ruining her undercover operation with the Sokolovs that the Feds accidentally stepped in, and either ángel called her, or she had people watching him when you arrived ... and she turned lemons into motherfucking lemonade.”
I considered his words, trying to wrap my head around everything. “Do you think the Agency is allowing Ezra’s organization to remain active because, in a way, Ezra’s helping clean house with the cartels by taking over?”
“I mean, fuck, it’s kind of smart. I hate to say it.
Allow a monopoly in the drug-trade business to happen so then there’s only one enemy to go up against, and if they have people on the inside, they can pull their strings without them even knowing it,” Reed said, shaking his head.
“Her team can keep a better eye on the Chinese suppliers and how the drugs—or any contraband, for that matter—come into the country.”
“That’s why Beth’s colleague was in trouble for tipping off DHS about the terrorist cell.
” Ryder leaned back in his seat. “Director Johnson didn’t want to risk drawing attention to the Sokolovs or their overall organization with that tip.
He’d rather protect their operation than throw the Sokolovs into the spotlight. ”
“But Beth had no idea the DEA was already onto the Sokolovs,” I said, adding on another point. “And what happened Saturday led to Beth finding out about the task force and that her operation may be compromised if they don’t stop me.” And use me. All I could see now were lined-up dominoes falling.
“That’s what happens when government agencies keep secrets from each other,” Reed grumbled. “Step on each other’s toes without knowing it.”
“Beth’s team isn’t going to let you walk away from this alive.” Ryder pivoted in his seat, facing me. “You know too much. She’ll make sure you become—”
“A casualty of war,” I finished for him, a feeling of dread filling me. “We’re all a threat to exposing her operation.”
He reached for my hand and bent forward, kissing my forehead. “I won’t let her hurt you, or any of us.” In a deep voice, he added, “Even if I have to go to prison for murdering a CIA officer, then so-fucking-be-it.”