Chapter Ten
RAVEN
We went back to the office to do some research on Henry McNulty’s company and the security system HoSecMo but I was thinking of the man we’d met in the stairwell. As much as it had freaked me out to have a gun pointed at my chest, the way Miguel had acted on instinct and stepped in front of me, bothered me just a little bit more than it probably should have. I knew my big, beautiful warrior had a protective streak in him a mile wide when it came to me, but that didn’t mean I liked it. It made me feel like a baby. I didn’t need to be coddled. Things were going to happen to me. It was just the nature of our job. I knew I’d have to call him out on it at some point, but the time wasn’t right for that. Protection came second nature to Miguel.
Judy left us alone in our back office to gather as much information as we could about McNulty while she went to her front office desk and began searching for connections between the Mulberry diamond and the Flores ruby. I was pretty sure she wanted to be in her own space not only because she needed privacy to search the dark web, but because she was freaked out about what had happened to us in the stairwell. All the way back to the office, we’d debated telling her about the man with the gun, but we needed her incredible computer skills. If Mac, and Jarrett’s father couldn’t find anything out about him, maybe she could. She was just good like that.
I glanced over at Miguel who sat in his desk chair frowning at the screen. My heart went out to him. After living and working in close quarters with him these last few months, I knew what was on his mind. I’d grown used to the dark cloud that descended on him at times. He’d had so much heartbreak in his life and had struggled just to keep a roof over his head since leaving the Marine Corps. John Sutter was a fucking bastard for dropping back into his life and fucking with his head like this.
Even though I’d been sure he hadn’t expected to see Miguel when we met with our client, the fact that he’d been there at all still made me angry. What had he been doing there? Had he intended on spying on the meeting, looking to take out the recovery agent with his crazy CIA skills, assuming he’d actually gone over to the dark side? Or had he been following the theft of the ruby just to see who’d be looking for it? That was the most logical answer but not knowing why he’d shown up at the restaurant or how deadly he’d become in the last eleven years, still bothered me.
Sutter hadn’t reached out to Miguel, and I knew it bothered him more than he’d said. They’d been close for so many years—intimate even—and the bastard hadn’t even tried to get in touch. Why? If he was working for the CIA as we suspected, surely, he knew how to get in contact with Miguel. He’d most likely shared his knowledge of who Miguel was with the man who’d threatened us, but that only made matters worse. I was angry about it, so I couldn’t even imagine how my better half was feeling. When Miguel started stabbing keys on his keyboard and cursing, I knew it was time to quit for the day. He was too distracted to work.
“Baby?” He was trying his best to school his features and hide the frown he’d been wearing. He looked drawn, as if simply sitting in his desk chair was too much for him.
“Yeah?”
I almost flinched at the gravel in his voice. “Why don’t we quit for the day? I’ve already researched Henry McNulty and his company as much as I can. I think the guy is legit. He’s got a lot of reviews and most of them are very flattering.” I pointed at my screen before turning my monitor, so he could see the list of five-star reviews from past customers. “Most of these are from celebrities who’ve got his HoSecMo security system in place.”
Miguel reached up and ran his hand through his hair, an unconscious gesture that signaled he was either stressed out about something or nervous. He was probably both. He scrubbed both big hands over his face and sighed. “Might as well go home. I can’t concentrate on anything for shit.” He sounded so miserable.
I stood up and held out a hand. He took my hand but instead of getting up to follow, he pulled me down onto his lap. My arms went around his neck as he leaned up to kiss me. His lips weren’t gentle. Instead, his kisses were demanding, almost cruel, as he quite literally stole my breath. He yanked my dress shirt out of my pants as his hands worked their way up under it, tracing the muscles in my back as he moaned into my mouth. I felt my dick grow hard inside my slacks. By the time he finally broke the kiss, I was panting. I leaned my forehead against his.
“I love you, Sunshine,” he said in a voice laced with arousal. It made my cock even harder.
“I love you too, Miguel.”
His deep brown eyes met mine. They were flecked with gold, glittering in the late afternoon sun coming into the room. “Let’s go home.” He glanced down at his watch. “It’s almost five and it’s been a long, fucking day.”
I nodded, sliding off his lap and reaching out again. He chuckled as he took my hand, standing up and pulling me close for another quick kiss. “Come on,” I said, tucking my shirt back into my pants, and walking over to the coat rack in the corner. I handed him his and watched him put it on as I slid into mine. We’d dressed in suits for our meeting at the Flores house but neither of us had put on ties. I have to admit, I liked wearing a suit, but I enjoyed looking at Miguel in his even more. His shoulders were already wide, but the padded suit coat made him look even broader. I loved the look on him. I was probably prejudiced, but I thought Miguel was the most handsome man in the world.
We walked out of our office, turning off the light, and headed over to Judy at her desk. She was busily typing on her computer, chewing on a pen, totally oblivious to everything around her. When our shadows fell across her desk, she looked up with a start, dropping the pen on her desk.
“Shit! You scared me.”
I chuckled. “Sorry. You seem so caught up in something.”
She nodded, smiling at me. “Look.” She motioned at her monitor and we both walked around the desk to look at her screen. She pointed at a column of numbers I recognized as coordinates.
“What are those?” Miguel asked.
“Coordinates,” she said with a gleam in her eye.
“Well, I can see that,” Miguel said. “Coordinates to what?” He bent down and looked closer. “Oh, these are coordinates in the Middle East.”
I trusted that if anyone in the room was familiar with those, it had to be Miguel. He could probably recognize them from a mile away and his eyes narrowed.
“Wait a minute.” He jabbed at a list of numbers. “You shouldn’t have these. These are coordinates to—” He stopped, glancing over at me. “Sorry. These are classified locations for U.S. bases.” He turned back to the screen, muttering to himself. “Of course, most of them are gone now that the pull out is complete.”
“Afghanistan then,” I said. It only made sense. The coordinates could be in Iraq, but it was more likely that they were in Afghanistan.
He nodded, keeping his eyes on the screen. When he straightened and crossed his arms over his chest, he looked worried. “How’d you get these, Judy?”
She frowned a little but sat back in her chair, still looking up at us. “I worked backward. After I hacked into Langley to get—”
“You did what?” Miguel bellowed.
She frowned a little. “You said you wanted me to find information about John Sutter and what his connection might be to the jewels. I just figured I’d start with who he might have been keeping company with all these years. As it turns out, your suspicions were right, it is the CIA. The list of operatives was hidden in an easter egg buried under several layers of encryption. He was picked up by them in Afghanistan. I don’t know if he’s actually on their books as an operative since all of them use some sort of pseudonym in Langley’s system, of course. But, once I found the base where he was last posted, it was pretty easy to figure out who the known operatives on base were talking about.”
“Holy shit, Judy!” Miguel said. “You can’t do that…I mean, clearly you can, but, Christ, Judy, you shouldn’t.” He paused a second as I watched puzzlement cross his face. “Wait a minute. How did you do that? You had to crack a dozen layers of encryption to get this information. Our enemies can’t even do that.”
I swallowed hard. I knew Judy had mad computer skills, but I never suspected she would be able to hack into Langley and get a list of CIA operatives’ locations, assuming that’s what she’d done. I suddenly got scared as hell for her. Miguel and I had just watched this scenario in a movie with Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway.
“Shit!” I exclaimed. “What if they come after us like they did in Three Days of the Condor ? What if they’re sending a hit squad here right now?”
Miguel stared at me open-mouthed as Judy stood up, looking white as a sheet. “Oh God! What have I done?”
“They’re not coming after Judy,” Miguel said, “and they’re not coming after us either.” He reached into his pocket to pull out his phone. “But I think we should call Mark Evans and let him know what just happened. It’s important the CIA is informed that there’s a way to get through their encryptions.” He pointed to the list of coordinates on her monitor. “I assume those coordinates point to places where lists of CIA operatives are posted?”
She nodded. “At some point, yes. I mean, they’re not current postings. There’s a whole other layer of encryption to get past to obtain that information.”
Miguel held up his hands. “Judy, you need to stop right now. That’s just…no one should be able to get past Langley’s encryption. I don’t even want to know how you did it or what you could do if you actually set your mind to it.”
“Misspent youth.” She tried to look embarrassed with a small shrug but didn’t quite pull it off. “Old age and kids have slowed me down a lot.”
I smirked and turned to Miguel. “Why don’t you make that call to Mark while I look at the information Judy did find?” When Miguel stayed rooted to the spot, I turned to her, figuring he wanted to hear the results of her search as much, if not more, than I did. “You can confirm that the CIA picked him up out there?”
She nodded, sinking back down into her chair and pointed her mouse at the screen. She scrolled for a few seconds and highlighted something. I bent over her shoulder and looked at what appeared to be a coded message.
“Sandstorm obtained. Headed to outpost. Will make first contact at 0930.”
I straightened, feeling Miguel at my side as he hovered close. “Sandstorm obtained,” he said. “What the hell does that mean?”
“I think Sandstorm must be code for John Sutter,” I said, gnawing on my lower lip as Miguel turned to me.
His eyes flashed fire. “Then the message had to be sent from someone who was on base at the time John was lost out there. No one else would know he’d been lost in a sandstorm,” he said, shaking his head. “Jesus, they named him Sandstorm ? They snuck out of camp while we were out there desperately searching for him! Why the hell would they do that? I feel so stupid because I trusted those men to keep us safe. We all did. They were the ones providing the intelligence we needed out in the field every time we were risking our lives.”
Fury was pouring off my dear, sweet man in waves. He was right. Those CIA fuckers at the military base went out to the place where Sutter was last seen and picked him up…possibly the same day he got lost in the storm. Something occurred to me as I glanced at Miguel. “Did you know all the operatives on your base? Could the man in the stairwell have been one of them?”
Miguel thought about the question. “I thought I knew all of them, but he might have been there. It was a massive base of operations. We had several military branches including Navy intelligence as well as the CIA on base providing intel for our ops.”
I gestured to the message, trying to do whatever I could to keep Miguel’s head from blowing off. He was vibrating with anger. “Where do you think this outpost is…er…was?”
Judy’s frown returned as she swiveled back to her screen. “It’s hard to say. I looked for something near the base, but I couldn’t find a coordinate that responded to anything close. It must be somewhere else.”
“Yeah, it would be,” Miguel said. “They would have had to get John out of the area since they knew we were searching. We metaphorically turned over every blade of grass and never found him. Whoever these guys are, they’re good.”
“Well, if as we suspect, they had some sort of operation where they were stealing money, jewels or both, they would keep their base of operations secret, right?” I asked. “I’d bet they were a rogue CIA operation just like the one behind the killings of the CIA officers in Three Days of the Condor .”
Miguel smiled, reaching out to pat my cheek as if I was just too cute. “Except this is real life, Sunshine, not an old movie.” I blushed as he dropped his hand to Judy’s shoulder, looking down at her. “I’m sorry I jumped down your throat.” He smirked at her, and I blew out a relieved breath. “Raven told me you were good, but I had no idea you were this good.” He waved in the general direction of her computer.
She smiled, looking a little guilty.
“I’ll shut it down and do a wipe of my system.” She thought for a second. “I suppose I should go back into Langley to erase any traces of me being there too.”
“Definitely, but they’re going to detect a second intrusion, aren’t they?” Miguel asked.
She nodded. “Yes, but I disguised the hack, so that it would look like the Russians were in there.”
Miguel burst out laughing. “You’re a fucking genius, Judy. Just leave it then. I can see it now. Some poor bastard at the CIA is trying to figure out what the Russians got and when they realize it’s a bunch of coordinates for old, closed bases, they’re going to wonder what the fuck is going on.”
She chuckled and turned back to her desktop to begin wiping her system.
I pointed to the phone Miguel still held in his hand. “You’d better call Mark Evans.”
“Yeah…I’ll do it on the way home, though. I’m beat.” Miguel turned to Judy. “Don’t start World War Three today, okay?”
“I could do that, but you’re the boss…smartass.” Judy grumbled under her breath, wearing just a hint of a smile as she frowned at him. It was totally adorable, and I couldn’t help but laugh just a little as we headed out of the office.
MIGUEL
I slid into Raven’s passenger seat as he started the engine and pulled out onto the street. I still held my phone, so I hit the contact number for Mark. It was picked up after two rings.
“Hello?”
Mark’s voice was that of an older man which was what I suspected. “Hi there. Is this Mark Evans?”
“Yes. Who’s this?”
I cleared my throat, glancing over at Raven whose gaze remained fixed on the road as he headed home. “My name is Miguel Huerta. I’m a—a friend of Jarrett’s.”
“Oh, yes. Jarrett told me you’d be calling.”
I was slightly surprised that Mark didn’t have the same thick West Virginia drawl that Jarrett had, and I wondered if it was because he’d spent a lot of time away from home in D.C. or Langley where he was probably stationed. Then again, most operatives spent a hell of a lot of time overseas and if this man had started his career early in life, who knew?
“Well, good then. I suppose he told you why I wanted to talk to you?”
“He told me only what he could over the phone, so I think it best we meet in person, Mr. Huerta.”
I blew out a relieved breath. At least he knew my questions probably had something to do with covert operations and those questions could never be answered over the phone. The NSA had sneaky ways of knowing who talked about what, even if they weren’t closely monitoring everyone. I knew they employed specialized algorithms which picked up words like bomb, target, and other dead giveaways to terrorist activities. Of course, even the NSA had to obtain a FISA warrant in order to listen in on a civilian suspect who was suspected of spying for a foreign government. But that didn’t mean I trusted the phone lines any more than the former spy I was talking to.
“That would be great. Uh …where are you? I mean, where should we meet?”
“Well, I don’t have an office anymore since I’m retired but my home is near Jarrett and Thayne’s in Sherman Oaks. When would you like to come by? I understand there’s some urgency in the matter you’d like to discuss?”
“Yes.” I checked the clock on the dashboard. “I know it’s dinnertime, but could I stop over with my partner now? We’re just leaving our office in Hollywood.”
“That’d be fine. Let me give you my address.”
“I really appreciate it.” I glanced at Raven who could obviously hear the entire conversation. I put the phone on speaker and jotted down Evans’ address on my notepad. “Thank you, sir. We should probably be there in about twenty minutes.”
“Looking forward to it, Mr. Huerta.”
“Please, call me Miguel.”
“Fine then, Miguel. See you soon.”
“See you soon, sir.” I hung up the phone and looked at Raven. “Well, at least he’s willing to meet us.”
Raven turned to look at me and nodded before looking back to the road. “Hopefully, he can tell us something. I mean, he probably knows a whole lot about your ops out there, but can’t tell us much because of how missions are classified, though…right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“He seems nice, though,” Raven said, sounding so hopeful I didn’t want to hurt his feelings by arguing the point. I’d never met a nice spy. Most of them were creepy as hell, perhaps because of what they had to do. I couldn’t imagine having to turn people into “assets” by using threats or sex or whatever those fuckers did to advance the CIA’s agenda. I’d seen too many people get manipulated into providing information only to be discarded when they were no longer useful. In the cases of civilians on the ground in Afghanistan, that meant a death sentence if the Taliban found out they were working with the CIA.
I simply nodded. “Jarrett’s a nice guy. It only follows that his father would be also.” I’d let Raven believe what he needed to. I loved him and I was more determined than ever to protect him from all the evil in the world.