Chapter Twenty
MIGUEL
“Sutter!” I spluttered, looking at the man I’d once fallen head over heels for. He was still the same man, but somehow older than the last time I’d seen him right before he’d calmly gotten out of the Humvee and ventured into the sandstorm to check the vehicle for damage. “What the hell is going on?”
“Christ,” he muttered in pain.
I glanced at the hand not holding the bridge of his nose as the blood kept trickling down, making sure he didn’t hold a weapon, almost feeling bad for thinking he’d come here to kill me. I stumbled back in shock, feeling the cold metal of the Ford’s door at my back as I tried to comprehend what he was doing here. I felt the weight of the gun in my shoulder holster, painfully resisting the urge to pull it and point it at my former best friend’s head. “What’re you doing here? How are you even alive?” Even though I’d seen him at the restaurant, in the back of my mind, I guess I still hadn’t believed it.
He fumbled with the pocket of the worn, black bomber jacket he wore, and I stilled, realizing that, though, I was armed, I wouldn’t have the heart to pull my gun to shoot him point blank even if my own life was in danger. Instead, he produced several napkins from a fast-food chain and lifted them to his nose as he stared at me. “Got me good, Trigg.”
The recognizable voice, the way he used my nickname with such familiarity, made me feel unbelievably sad. “Jesus Christ. What’s going on?” I took a step toward him and then stopped as he quickly glanced around, searching the parking lot. I realized we were still standing out in the open. If someone had been following me when we left the recording studio this morning or had been watching Vonne’s place, we might have a sniper rifle pointed at us.
“Not here,” he said, swinging his gaze back to me. He looked haunted—so miserable—anything else I might’ve wanted to say, stuck in my throat. “Let’s go somewhere else. I think they trust me, but that won’t last long. Things are in motion and they’re going to find out…Trigg, please, I—I know you don’t have any reason to trust me, but we have to go somewhere safe to talk. They don’t know where you live, but if I don’t check in, they will start looking.”
I frowned at him, shaking my head. “No fucking way. I’ve got people at home, and I won’t put them in any more danger from that Cassanova woman or the fucker who’s threatening us.”
“By us…by people, you mean Raven Mathis, right?” His words weren’t angry or bitter, just…sad?
My blood ran cold. “Yeah, Raven and others.” If he didn’t know about Raven’s grandmother or dear Dolly, I sure as hell wasn’t going to risk their lives too. “I’m not taking you to my place. You can’t be sure they don’t know about it.”
“Fine, but we’ve got to go somewhere else. I can’t have this conversation here. It’s not going to be a short one.” He wadded up the napkins, gingerly testing his nose as his green eyes watered again. A dark purple bruise was already forming on the bridge of his nose. He was no doubt going to have two shiners by tomorrow. “We gotta get somewhere undercover, someplace where we can’t be seen, Trigg. I have people of my own to protect.”
I thought, desperately trying to decide where we could go to talk. I had an idea. “What’s your status? You said they’ll know we’re talking soon enough.”
His face looked haunted. “I’ll be fine, but I’ve been protecting someone…a child and his mother. I need to make sure they’re safe…that they can’t be gotten to. I have them stashed but only for a little while. They’re expecting me back. I was sent to follow you and as long as I check in with them, everyone will be safe.”
“Daniel?” I knew I shouldn’t tell him what I knew but I wanted to see his reaction.
His face got stony as he nodded. “I don’t know how you know—” He stopped and looked back at Vonne’s building. “Vonne. Daniel told me he wrote to him. I asked him not to send the letter or our photo. I took the photo from him and threw away the letter. I guess he retrieved it,” he said with a sad smile. “That boy is much too smart for his own good. I shouldn’t have told him about any of you. It only put him in more danger.” He shook his head. “I painted a target on their backs. This is all my fault.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “You told Vonne about seeing me?”
I nodded. “Yes, just now. I had to tell him I’d spotted you at the restaurant. Vonne showed me the letter.”
“Vonne knows then?”
I scoffed. “That you’re alive?” He nodded. “Well, he sure as hell does now.”
“Fuck.” John looked at the ground. He paused but when he spoke again, his voice was shaking. “I’m so fucking sorry.” When he looked up, there was a plea in his expression. “We need to go talk. Please, Trigg.”
“We can talk here at Vonne’s.” I nodded at the building.
John shook his head. “No. I…I can’t. I can’t put anyone else at risk. It’s bad enough that you’ve been dragged into all of my bullshit, but I can’t risk Vonne’s life too. Please, Trigg, we have to go now.”
Where could I possibly take him where he wouldn’t be a danger to others? I sighed. “Fine then. I’m taking you to the ATF’s office in Glendale.”
He blinked, uncomprehending for a minute before what I said, sank in. “The ATF? No!” He threw up both hands. “I can’t…I can’t be out of commission. I’m gonna tell you everything, but I’ve got to be able to protect Daniel. Please understand. The goddamned ATF will arrest me, Trigg, and if they do that, they’ll start looking for the boy. He’s only thirteen and his mother is an innocent in all this.”
I was shaking with anger as I pointed my finger at his face. “Understand this. I don’t know why you’ve turned up now, or where you’ve been for over a decade, but I know about the rogue CIA cell. I know you’ve been working with them in their little smuggling operation. I know about all of it, Sutter. So, we’ll do this my way, or you won’t get my help. Are we clear on this?”
He straightened. “Man, you don’t know the half of it.” He sighed. “Okay, I’ll let you take me to the ATF, but after they arrest me, I need you to go to Daniel and his mother. Hide them or get them into protective custody. Please, Trigg, I just need to know that they’re safe.” He looked away. “Keeping them alive all these years has been a living nightmare.”
I felt my heart break just a little as he spoke the words. I had no idea what he or the people he cared about had gone through over the years. I knew nothing about this man, but if Daniel and his mother were in hiding, stashed somewhere by John, he was right. We needed to get inside somewhere and I figured a federal building with the protections it would offer, was the best place.
“I promise I’ll keep them safe, Sutter.” I nodded at his coat. “Are you armed?”
He stared at me in surprise for only a second before unzipping the bomber jacket slowly, pulling it aside and turning around so that I could see the back of his T-shirt which was tucked inside his jeans. When he turned back, his eyes were haunted. “Satisfied?”
“Ankles.”
He hitched up both denim legs of his jeans.
“Yeah. Let’s go.” I bent and picked up my keys, opening the door to the Ford and slipping into the driver’s seat. He ran around and got into the passenger seat, sliding down and grabbing the brim of his ballcap, pulling it lower over his face as he made himself as small as possible. I started the truck then drew out my phone, calling Raven, putting it on speaker, not caring if John could hear.
“Baby? You’ve been gone a long time. Where—”
I interrupted him. “Are you still at the office?”
“ Uh… yeah. I’ve been waiting for you to call after your meeting with Vonne. How’d it go?”
“I’ll tell you all about it in a bit.” I glanced at John before looking back out the windshield. “Something else has happened.” When I heard his sharp intake of breath, I hurried to reassure him. “Raven…I’m fine, but I need you to meet me at the ATF in Glendale. Call Mark and make sure he’s there. I’ll need him and Thorne. The whole team.”
“Oh, okay. What’s—”
“Just do it, Sunshine. Please.” I wanted to tell him everything over the phone, but I wasn’t about to spring news like the fact that the man we thought might be trying to kill us, was sitting beside me in the truck.
“Okay, Miguel. I’ll see you in about a half hour depending on traffic.” He hesitated. “You’re okay, right? No one’s forcing you to say that?”
I darted a glance at John who was watching me. When his lips twitched, I frowned. “No, Raven. I swear it.”
“Okay, then, I’ll see you as soon as I can.”
“Good. Thanks, Raven.” I hung up the phone before he could say anything more.
“Raven—”
I turned to look at John and he shut his mouth.
I could barely speak through gritted teeth. “Don’t say a word to me about Raven. He’s not a Marine. He never served in the military. He’s a civilian and ever since you showed up at Sagebrush, he’s been scared for my life…not his life… my life.” I didn’t want him uttering Raven’s name to me.
“I’m…sorry.”
I drove out of the parking lot as John reached over, putting a hand on my arm, making me turn to look at him. He was sitting up a little higher, looking directly into my eyes. “I never would have done anything to hurt you. I hope you know better than that.” He was frowning, looking hurt. I sucked in a deep breath, saying nothing as he dropped his hand. I looked into the rearview mirror. I couldn’t spot a tail but that didn’t mean someone wasn’t following us.
“I used to know you,” I said. “You were my brother. But to be honest, I think I was wrong. I don’t know what would have kept you from me and the team or how in the hell you ever got out of that desert alive.”
“I’ll explain it all to you once we’re inside somewhere.” He kept checking the sideview mirror, something I recognized as hypervigilance. I’d seen it in guys with PTSD, guys I’d served with in the Corps. One day they’d be fine, laughing with you over a meal in the mess one minute, and the next, seeing ghosts in the scrub, shooting at things that didn’t exist. “I don’t think they know I’m off the reservation, and they trust me for now. Like I said, they think I’m still working with them.”
“But you’re not? How do I know you’re telling me the truth about anything ? I don’t even know you anymore.”
“Trigg, you need to stop saying that. You do know me. Like you said, we’re brothers, and even though you might not trust me right now, in your heart you have to believe I would never hurt you. When they sent me to the Sagebrush Cantina to spy on whoever was hired to find the ruby and when it turned out to be you, I almost died inside.”
“Why?” I was dying to know why he’d run from me, not stopping to explain what was happening to him if it were true.
“Because I’d not only been ordered to find out who was hired to find the ruby, I was ordered to take care of the problem as soon as we had the stone. It took a hell of a lot of convincing to make them believe the place was too crowded to carry out the mission that day.”
Mission? The word made my blood run cold. I couldn’t believe it. If that were really true, it meant that they’d been using John as some sort of assassin, holding Daniel and his mother’s lives over his head. Maybe he really hadn’t gone over to the dark side, but it still begged the question.
“Take care of the problem?” I asked, trying my best to keep the anger out of my voice. “Is that what you call murder? Is that what happened to the Marines in Afghanistan?”
He got quiet, and I glanced over. He was looking at me with pain and confusion in his eyes. “You mean the forward scouts? The guys we found in the desert?”
“You know who I mean,” I growled. “The three Marines…shot in the back of the head like animals. You were with us when we found them, Sutter. We…I didn’t know what happened to them. The execution style murder wasn’t what we’d come to expect from the Taliban. They’d much rather capture U.S. personnel and put their executions on display for the whole world to see. They’d claim they were infidel invaders who’d come to Afghanistan to infect their people with our Western ways. Did you kill them, Sutter?”
“No!” He was quick to deny the accusation, sitting up higher in the seat. “It was Mendez, Filmore, and another operative by the name of Bishop.”
“Lance Bishop?” I asked, somewhat stunned. He’d been assigned to lead our unit as intelligence liaison when we went out to interrogate a local warlord. I’d always been wary of the guy. He was unlikable and I could honestly say of all the CIA operatives I’d known during that time of my life, the most likely to commit heinous crimes for his own gain.
“That’s him. All those guys were assigned to the base at one time or another. You’d probably seen them around over the years. They all rotated in and out, none of them staying more than a few months. Lance Bishop and John Mendez were there the longest, along with Damon Thorne.”
My blood ran cold as my fists tightened on the wheel. I swerved, nearly hitting another car as I drove up the freeway on- ramp to the Northbound 405 Freeway. “Wait. Damon Thorne? He’s a part of this?”
“No, I—I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to imply that Thorne was a part of all this bullshit. He was never involved with the cell,” Sutter said.
“The cell ?” I roared. “They call themselves a fucking cell?”
Anger pulsed through my veins as he laughed bitterly. “Yeah, can you believe that shit?”
I shook my head and when I glanced over, he was frowning. “What?” I spat out.
“I heard you tell Mathis to call Thorne, right?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Damon’s been working with us to figure out what the hell is going on here. I take it you didn’t know that?”
He shook his head. “No, I swear it…and for the record, I always liked Thorne. He was a stand-up guy and to tell you the truth, when these guys found me out there, I was almost praying he was a part of it.”
They found him out there. I didn’t ask for any details even though I was dying to know how they’d found him when we hadn’t been able to. There’d be time for that. “Why’d you hope Thorne was a part of their cell?” The word sounded bitter on my tongue.
He sighed. “Because I think…no, I know Damon would have put a stop to what was happening. He never would have let them—”
“What?”
He shook his head. “It’s not important. I’ll…get to it.”
“Okay.” I didn’t want to think about what he’d been about to say. “You mentioned someone named Mendez. He was a part of the group?” I asked.
“Yes. He’s…John was Daniel’s father.” He looked in the sideview mirror again before finally sitting up, blowing out a long breath. “Listen, you said you and your friends at the ATF have put a lot of things together and I get that, but listen, Trigg.”
I glanced over at him. “Mendez tried to kill Daniel and Niloufar. I was barely able to get them out of the country to Karachi on a C-130 at the last minute. They still claim to know where they are, but I’m beginning to doubt it. After Pakistan, I got them to Paris. I’ve moved them every few months since then, keeping ahead of them, but I know they somehow traced the letter Daniel wrote to Vonne. I heard them talking about it which is how I learned the boy mailed it anyway. He was probably thinking Vonne could help…that all of you could help. They would’ve killed Vonne to shut him up if he acted on the knowledge. Thank God they didn’t. You have to believe me when I tell you they’re dangerous, Trigg. The fucker planned on killing his own son and to tie up loose ends, Niloufar too.” The plea was back in his voice and, though, I was still angry with him, my heart broke a little. If he was telling me the truth about all of this, then he really had been through hell.
“What about the uncle he talked about in the letter?”
“Uncle?”
“In the letter Daniel sent Vonne, he said something about him immigrating to Paris with his mother and uncle.”
“Oh, that,” John said, smiling ruefully. “He was talking about me. He always called me uncle and I let him. It was easier for him to believe that we were somehow related and that we’d immigrated legally in case anyone at school or anyone on the street ever asked him who he lived with. In case you haven’t noticed, kids aren’t so good at telling the truth all the time, even if they mean to. His mother told him I traveled for business. Telling him the truth could’ve put them in even more danger. Please believe me when I tell you, these fuckers are killers.”
“I believe they’re dangerous, John.” I reached over and squeezed his shoulder. “It’s okay. We’ll figure this all out. Don’t worry. The people I have in my corner…they’re decent, capable, and honorable, one and all.” I didn’t know what they’d done to Sutter, but I drove faster, anxious to get to Glendale to make him tell us everything. I didn’t fully trust him yet and as much as I didn’t want to know what they’d done to make him join them in the beginning, I couldn’t believe everything he’d told me…not yet.
When we got to Glendale, I parked in the lot outside the Federal building, locking my gun inside the glovebox. I slid my keys into my pocket and waited for John to walk around to my side of the truck before heading toward the front of the building. I was surprised to see Raven standing outside the entrance; waiting for me. He was scrolling through his phone. I swallowed hard, feeling my throat tighten. I thought about how he was going to react to John just casually showing up when we’d both assumed he was hunting us. The minute Raven figured out who he was, I prayed things wouldn’t get ugly. The second he looked up, the look on his face confirmed my worst fears.
His smile died away as he recognized John and shock turned to rage as he pulled his gun, pointing it right at him. John stopped dead in his tracks beside me as Raven leveled it directly at center mass, the way I’d taught him. I took a second to admire how fast his reaction had been, but I stopped at the same time, calling out his name.
“Raven! Put down the gun.”
“That’s—that’s John Sutter!”
“Raven…put down the gun,” I said, trying to sound calm as I reassured him. “He’s unarmed.”
I felt John move before glancing at him out of the corner of my eye as he slowly raised his hands. “I’m not armed, Mathis!” he called out.
“Show me!” Raven shouted again, holding the Glock with both hands the way I’d taught him, keeping it steady, his face showing no fear as he glared at him. “Now!”
“Raven—”
“Prove to me that you’re unarmed or I’m going to put a bullet through your heart.”
“Christ!” John swore. “Okay…I’m gonna slowly lift my coat. Please don’t shoot.”
I turned to watch him do the same thing he’d done with me, lifting the jacket and turning around so that Raven could see he was unarmed. When he slowly spun back, he did his ankles and sighed. “Satisfied?”
Raven gave him a sharp nod as I watched him lower the gun then slide it back into his shoulder rig. Pride surged through my chest. I wanted to scoop him up in my arms and hug him to me. He was so brave and good. I started walking toward him, closing the twenty-five feet between us. John came with me, taking it slow until we came to a stop right in front of Raven. I could practically feel the hostility vibrating through his body. He was holding himself as tight as a bowstring. All I could do was pray he wouldn’t snap. A second later, Raven balled his right hand into a fist…
…and punched John right in the face.