CHAPTER TWO #2
He grabbed a plate from the stack already set out on the large granite island and picked up a napkin and fork from the pile next to it.
“I take it by the number of plates stacked here that you’re expecting more people.” He dished up some enchiladas and used the tongs to grab a tamale.
“Your sisters and their families are coming over.” His mom went to the fridge and pulled out a gallon of milk.
She filled a tall glass and set it in front of him.
“Drink that. It’s good for your bones.” As far back as he could remember, she would say that every single time she handed one of them a glass of milk.
He pulled back one of the six chairs lined up along one side of the island, set his plate down, and sat.
“So where is everyone?” Eddie filled his fork with enchilada, blew on it, then shoved it in his mouth. His eyes rolled back on a sigh.
Damn, that’s good.
“You know where Violetta is. The rest of them are either at work or home.” His mom served up a smaller portion for herself and circled the island to join him. “They’ll all be here soon.”
He hopped up, slid out the chair next to him, and waited for her to sit before returning to his own seat.
“Thank you, carino.” Sweetheart.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, enjoying her cooking.
“Are you going to see Lucia while you are here?” She tossed that question out like it hadn’t been years since they were together.
“Hadn’t really considered it.” Eddie took a long swallow of milk to keep from having to say more.
“She’s divorced now, you know.”
His fork stopped halfway to his mouth, and he gave his mother a side-eye.
“I am aware.” Reina had felt the need to fill him in on that little detail.
As if her being single would change anything. It would never undo the way she’d betrayed him and made him look like a fool.
“I sure wish I knew what happened between you two. Your sisters won’t tell me.
They said it has to come from you.” He made a mental note to thank them, especially since he knew all too well how relentless their mother could be.
“One day you were in love and talking about a future together. The next day, poof, you were broken up and you left for the Marine Corps.”
His sisters only found out why they’d ended things because Lucia’s … indiscretion ended up on social media.
“Mom.” His voice held a hint of warning.
“All right, all right.” She lifted her hands in surrender and went back to eating.
Eddie finished his food, drank the last of his milk, and carried his dishes over to the sink to rinse them off.
“I’m going to put my stuff in the guest room before everyone gets here.” And he needed to make some phone calls without being overheard.
He loaded the plate, fork, and glass into the dishwasher and started to leave the kitchen but stopped when his mother spoke.
“Eduardo, I am glad you are here,” she said. “We all are.”
He stalked back over to kiss her on the cheek, then went to the door to grab his bag before heading back to the guest bedroom. Once the door was shut, he pulled his phone from his pocket and called his brother-in-law, Mark Collins, who worked for the Cameron County Sheriff’s Department.
Mark was the lead detective and a longtime friend of Eddie’s. They met when they were ten and played on the same Little League baseball team, and now Mark was married to Eddie’s sister, Reina.
“Detective Collins.”
“Mark, it’s Eddie.”
“Hey, man. You in town yet?”
“I’ve been in town just long enough for my mom to feed me.” Eddie had called his friend as soon as he found out about what happened to Violetta.
“Yeah, she likes to keep everyone fed. Hell, I’ve had to add two miles to my morning run just to keep the extra weight off.” Mark chuckled. “But it’s totally worth it.”
“Why do you think I played so many sports when we were kids?” They shared a laugh, then Eddie got to the reason for his call. “I wanted to check in to see if you have any new information since we spoke earlier?”
“Actually, I do. Your mom and Lucia were able to give us a pretty damn good description of the guy—”
“Wait, Lucia saw the guy, too?” His mom had a houseful of folks over last night, but he was surprised to hear Lucia was one of them.
“Yeah, she and Reina are really tight, so she was there with her daughter, Isabella.” Computer keys clicked in the background.
Since when was Reina, the queen of holding grudges, back on good terms with Lucia?
Shit. That meant she would probably be around more. Part of him hated the idea. Another part of him looked forward to it, which made him a fuckin’ masochist.
“Hell, I was there, too,” Mark said. “A bunch of us were hangin’ out in the backyard, and we heard Vi screaming.
By the time we got to the front of the house, Lucia had already pulled your sister aside and had her arms wrapped around her.
And your mom, she’d already chased the guy off with that old baseball bat she keeps in the coat closet by the front door. ”
“I can’t believe Mom did that.” He shook his head. “What was she thinking?”
“She was thinking someone was hurting her child, and she wasn’t going to let that happen.” Mark had spent a big chunk of his life around Eddie’s mom. “You know how she is.”
Yeah, he knew, and just thinking about what could have happened to Violetta or his mom made Eddie want to jam his fist through a wall.
He was a naturally protective guy, but things were different—more intense—now that it was his own family in the bull’s-eye. And despite their complicated history, he wasn’t keen on the idea of Lucia being in harm’s way either.
“Anyway, I had your mom and Lucia come into the station, put them in separate rooms, and had them go through some photo arrays. They both picked out the same photo of a Hispanic guy with a very distinctive mohawk. His name is—”
“Tamarin Rios.” Eddie couldn’t believe that piece of shit was involved.
“You’re familiar with him?”
“He used to run with Alejandro Munoz Jr., but AJ is dead.” AJ was a spoiled cokehead who loved terrorizing women.
“Rios was one of the guys who grabbed my boss’s wife a while back.
He’s kind of a dipshit and doesn’t have what it takes to freelance.
My guess is, since AJ and his dad, Alejandro Sr., are both out of the picture, he must be working for the brother, Rodrigo. ”
During his time with the National Security Agency, Eddie had gone deep, deep undercover within the Munoz cartel for just over three years. Long enough to work his way into AJ’s inner circle.
The things he’d witnessed still lingered in the form of occasional nightmares. They had been the darkest three years of Eddie’s life, and the only reason he’d survived was that he knew his family needed him.
And now it was starting to look like his past might’ve opened the door for that same evil to slip in and violate the sanctity of his family’s safe haven.
“Are you telling me the Munoz cartel is operating in San Salsillo?” Mark leaned forward and did not sound happy about that idea, and rightfully so.
“I’m not sure, but I know someone who can find out.” He would get Luna working on it, and she’d have an answer in no time.
She really was brilliant, and at the age of only twenty-five, she’d invented some of the cool electronics the team used in the field. She was also hopelessly in love and living with Boone Langston, a real-life cowboy and another one of his teammates.
The Munoz cartel dealt in every kind of drugs imaginable and had begun to dabble in human trafficking, until AJ decided it would be a good idea to have Rios kidnap Cole’s girlfriend. A big mistake on his part, made worse by the fact that he shot Cole while doing it.
His boss and the Dark Ops team went in after her, and Eddie blew his cover to help get her out safely. AJ and a couple of his thugs were killed during that op.
Good riddance.
After that all went down, Rodrigo decided it would be best to ditch their trafficking operation—too unseemly to have that connected to his pure and innocent drug manufacturing and trafficking enterprise.
He must’ve somehow figured out Eddie’s connection to the whole thing and was now coming for his pound of flesh in the form of targeting his family. If that was true, this situation just went from bad to horrific, and things could get very bloody very quickly.
“You sure seem to know a lot about that family. Why is that?” Mark never knew any details about Eddie’s undercover work, but it sounded like he might be starting to put the pieces together.
“Let’s just say our paths crossed during my previous career and leave it at that.” He’d told his brother-in-law about certain aspects of his job with the NSA but nothing that would break protocol or put his friend or anyone else in danger.
“Well, if what you’re speculating is true, it might explain another situation we’ve been dealing with down here,” Mark said.
“Situation?” Eddie didn’t like the sound of that.
“Yeah, I didn’t want to say anything until you got here, but beginning in August, we’ve had three girls who have gone missing.
One nine-year-old, one eleven, and the third is thirteen.
” Mark tapped some keys. “And all of them lived within a five-mile radius of your mom’s place.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t believe that is a coincidence. ”
“Nor do I.” He would have to reach out to Cole about possibly getting some backup from his team. “Would you have a problem with me bringing in my team to help out with your investigation of the missing girls?”
“Are you kidding?” There was a hint of excitement in his words. “I’ll take any help I can get, especially from an outfit with a reputation like OSI.”
“We’re prepping for an op out of the country, so I’m not making any promises, but I’ll see what I can do,” Eddie said.
Someone spoke in the background.
“Eddie, I’ve got to head out.” Mark sounded upset.
“What’s up?”
“We’ve got another missing girl.” He ended the call.
Eddie immediately dialed Cole’s number.
“Lambert.”
“Cole, four girls have gone missing from here in the past few months.” Eddie skipped the pleasantries and cut straight to business.
“Think they’re connected to your sister?” he asked.
“I’m not sure.”
“Do you need to skip the mission?” Cole understood the importance of family.
“No, the locals are handling it for now, so there’s not much I can do at this point.” Eddie pushed up off the bed and paced the small room.
“If you’re concerned about your family’s safety, I can arrange for private protection.” Cole knew people across the security spectrum.
“You sure that won’t be a problem?” Eddie made damn good money working for OSI and had invested pretty much all of the money he was paid while undercover with the NSA. He could easily afford a private protection detail.
“No problem at all,” Cole said. “His name is Caine Bennett. He owns Iron Shield Collective. I’ll make a call and give him your number.”
“Thanks, Cole.” Eddie trusted Cole’s judgment in this and many other things.
“The team will be leaving from Joint Base Charleston in two days,” Cole said. “If something changes and you can’t be there, let me know. Otherwise, we’ll see you in two days.”
“I’ll be there.” Eddie would be of more use on their op in Pakistan than sitting around here getting fat from his mom’s amazing cooking.
“Luna will be briefing the rest of the team and will send you the details.”
Eddie needed an outlet for all the frustration he was feeling over this whole fucking mess, and taking down a piece-of-shit trafficker in Pakistan would satisfy that need.
“Cole, there’s something else you need to know about what’s happening down here,” he said. “They have a positive ID of the guy who tried to grab my sister. It was Tamarin Rios.”
There was a long silence. No raging string of expletives, no questions, just … deadly, still quiet. But Eddie could practically feel his old friend’s seething rage vibrating through the phone.
“We’ll deal with Rios.” Cole was a champion of keeping his emotions firmly in check, but those four words were a vengeful promise. “See you in two days.”
“Roger that.” He ended the call.
Eddie would take care of business with his team, then they could focus on figuring out what the hell was happening in his peaceful little hometown.