17. Dax #3
“Damn, there’s no way that Franco came up with that idea on his own. Someone must have been feeding him the information. Maybe Alvaro will be able to tell us since he snuck his way in here too,” I said as we came to a stop in front of her door.
Looking in, I saw Mariana and Alvaro sitting on her bed with her arms around him. This time I could tell it was happy tears streaming down her face. She really did love her boys. Well, at least that one.
“I say we give them a little time,” Wes suggested. “Let’s call the FBI and get some people down here to deal with Franco and his buddies.”
“No one say a word about Alvaro. He was here with us to see his mother,” I ordered, looking my guys in the eye. “We need him, and the only thing he truly cares about is her.”
Eagle shrugged. “Works for me.”
“We’ll have to get out of here to make this call. The whole place jams cell service unless we can find a landline to use,” Wes reminded. “Don’t worry, I’ve got a keycard,” he added, showing off said card.
Checking in with Cam as we headed for the front desk, he and Sprocket had made quick work out of tying Franco up.
They dragged him with us as we went in search of a phone.
For a facility run by all the various agencies, there wasn’t much staff to be found.
Then I realized why—it was part of their procedure to get everyone out of their rooms and into the cafeteria.
It seems there was a loading dock back there they could evacuate out of quickly.
Now they had the task of getting all these people in various stages of recovery and mental health back to their rooms and calmed down.
“I vote we leave them to their work and just find a phone to use,” Cognac said. “The front desk is down this hall.”
Cam handed off Franco to Void, taking all the fight out of him, which I understood. Void was one scary motherfucker. I heard the sound of papers rustling and moved down the short hall behind the front desk and found Dr. Lowe frantically looking for something.
“You okay?” I asked.
Her body froze at the sound of my voice, and her head shot up to look at me. “Oh, it’s you.”
“Who exactly were you expecting?” I questioned. “Doc, has this facility been compromised in some way we don’t know about?”
“What do you mean? The shooters have been dealt with, the patients are fine. Thank God. What more could we hope for? Yes, I’ll have to report this, but with some adjustments to security, I think we’ll be just fine,” Dr. Lowe told me as she rubbed her hands on her slacks as if trying to soothe herself.
“Riigghhtt,” I said, drawing out the word. “You want to try that again and make it just a shred more believable? If it didn’t work on me as someone who doesn’t know you, I doubt it will work on a board of directors from all the law enforcement agencies.”
That got me a glare that didn’t seem characteristic of her at all. “What do you know? You’re just their criminal pet they keep around to hunt down more people like you.”
My brows shot up to my hairline. “Ah…”
She flipped her terminal around to show me her screen with my picture and various information typed under it. “I know who you are, Dax Blackmore, or should I call you Two Tricks?”
“Were you under the impression I was hiding who I was?” I asked, completely confused by this whole interaction.
“Do you know how many of my patients were sent undercover to infiltrate your empire? I’ve had fifteen over the past five years,” she stated like I was supposed to know what to do with that information.
“That’s the risk any law enforcement officer takes when they go undercover.
No matter who or what their mission is, the job is the same.
Get in, get close, become valuable, learn all you can, and get the fuck out.
It’s really easy to spot but never once have I ever forced anyone to become an addict or to be tortured badly enough that they survived to be broken.
I’d put them out of their misery. So you’re going to have to clue me in on what the fuck I did wrong? ” I said bluntly.
“You stole my little brother,” Dr. Lowe announced. “He went undercover to take you down and has been lost to us forever because of you. They told us two years ago that he cut off all contact, and no one’s managed to find him.”
“Well, if you want to tell me his name or show me what he looks like, I might be able to help you get some answers,” I offered.
“I don’t want your help,” she spat. “He’s probably at the bottom of a lake or crushed in a car in some dump.”
“Wow, first of all, you’ve been watching way too many episodes of The Sopranos.
That’s not how I’d deal with my dead bodies…
too easy to be found again later.” As a stapler came hurtling at my head, I realized that probably wasn’t the smartest thing to say as I ducked out of the way.
“Clearly, you’re upset, so I’m just gonna go. ”
When I turned to leave, I saw a picture on the wall of Dr. Lowe and a man with his arm wrapped around her lovingly.
The man was Brian.