Chapter Nine
RAVEN
After Mike and Cassidy left the house, I sent Miguel to bed, making sure he was comfortable, and took my iPad along with a book, out to the living room. I needed to get out of my head. Everything Cassidy and Mike had shared with us had been fascinating. Of course, we’d done our own sharing, and were really happy we’d been able to give them some information they didn’t know.
As always, I was proud of Judy for digging up what we knew about the Cayman Islands trust fund account that Benedict Flores had set up for Tawny. As far as his partnership with our new client went, I really hoped Brian Leopard was innocent and had no hand in his partner’s death. He’d struck both Miguel and I as an honest man who’d legitimately come to us for answers. I really liked the peculiar man.
When Cassidy talked about Dave Reynolds’ murder, it made me sad all over again. If Aston really had orchestrated his death, arranging for a cartel goon to kill the investigator, then leaving his body to rot in an abandoned hellhole, I wanted to see him in jail. That kind of cruelty was a horror. I’d always thought there was something off about the guy. I wasn’t the best judge of character, but it was easy to believe Gregory Aston was dirty.
The fact that Aston had represented the cartel in past legal cases, kind of said it all to me. He reminded me of that sleazy mob lawyer who’d represented John Gotti back in the day. I wasn’t na?ve. I believed that under our system of justice, everyone deserved their day in court, even the really vile criminals, but there was something about those high-priced defense attorneys that made my skin crawl as much as their clients.
I was determined to put it all out of my head while I waited for Lincoln’s guys to come over, so I opened the paperback and reacquainted myself with it so I could write a Nightcrawler review. I wasn’t keeping up with the blog like I should. But maybe after all this nonsense was over and done with and we’d earned a little money for these recoveries, I could take Miguel away with Nana to Arizona like I planned. I’d see to it that she visited the medicine man, and I’d alternate between screwing my beautiful partner and reading good books. I set down the paperback after familiarizing myself with it, picked up my device, and began writing.
Book title: A Pringle in Time
Author: Jonathan Staid
Publisher: Self-published
Genre: M/M Erotic Romance/sci-fi
Review/rating by Nightcrawler: 5 Stars
Synopsis:
A mysterious object appears in the middle of a football field, baffling authorities with figuring out how to determine exactly what it is. The mystery is compounded by the fact that young children are attracted to it.
My review:
I have to admit that for the first time, I’m confused by what the hell I read. I mean, I know it was a book with pages and words, and though, I’d like to leave my review there, Nightcrawler realizes that you, my loyal readers, have come to expect more from me.
This book was hard to figure out and as always, I looked at the categories and shelves where it was listed for answers. I really need to stop doing that because I consider myself a fairly intelligent person. I know that the cart doesn’t come before the horse, the tail doesn’t wag the dog, and that I really am faster than my shadow. I’ve read my share of MM Romances and even some in the sci-fi subcategory which were really good, but this book, didn’t seem to fit the MM Romance category. It had no gay characters other than a professor who did a lot of talking, and by the author’s own account, looked very “homosexual” in his Tom Ford suit, pink tie, and Manolo Blahnik boots.
PUHLEEZ
I suppose—and I preface this by saying I wouldn’t really call it sci-fi either—that the gigantic Pringle potato chip’s sudden appearance in the center of a high school football field in the midst of a homecoming game, might make it so. I guess you’d have to call that the beginning of the book. The children, parents, coaches, cheerleaders, and the players, kind of freaked out and began running from the stadium which then turned into pandemonium. Authorities were called and then suddenly young children started showing up. None of them had parents, which was unexplained. I guess you’d call that the middle of the book.
As far as the end of the book is concerned, I couldn’t tell you because that was pretty much it. It ended with kids showing up to look at the giant potato chip. They didn’t look hungry…the author made a big deal of explaining that for two paragraphs on the last page. I received the paperback from the author’s agent for a Nightcrawler review so when I reached the end, looking for another page and finding none, I called the agent to ask where the rest of the book was.
He hung up on me. Super bad form…agent.
But because Nightcrawler is always fair, and rather than leave a bad review, I hopped onto the bookseller’s site and purchased an eBook copy to read the ending, just to make sure I had the whole thing. Sure enough, Mr. Staid ended it where I thought he had, leaving me mystified as to what I just read. Clearly, I can’t recommend this drivel, minus the gay (since calling gay men “homosexuals” is just icky for me), minus the romance, and pretty much minus the sci-fi, thus the 5 star review.
Instead, I recommend that you go out and buy a can of Pringles.
I chuckled a little as I was posting the review and nearly jumped off the couch when I heard a knock at the front door. I set aside the iPad and moved Stanley’s little head off my leg where he’d been napping against one of his favorite humans. He gave me the stink eye and moved over to another corner of the couch, curling back into a ball.
Going to answer the door, I saw three figures through the frosted glass and cursed myself for being so jumpy. I checked the ID’s through the peephole, but still cautiously opened the door until I got a good look at the FBI credentials and nodded before the three tucked them away.
“Are you Mathis or Huerta?” the compact Asian woman asked. She was beautiful with straight, shiny black hair pulled back in a low bun just touching her black suit coat.
I stuck out my hand, smiling. “Raven Mathis.”
“Special Agent Kindness Rayburn.” She took my hand, giving me a confident grip as she shook.
“Come in.” I stood aside, opening the door wide, letting them into the house.
The stunning blonde woman smiled, holding out her hand. “Special Agent Beth Michaels.” She glanced over at the big man who loomed over them both.
Bald with a Hispanic appearance, he was a solid wall of muscle and the black suit he wore fitted tightly over his biceps. “This is our partner, Special Agent Carter Perez.” I took his warm hand in mine when he smiled. I liked all of them already.
“Miguel is asleep,” I said, ushering them into the living room. “He just came home from the hospital, so he’s exhausted.” I waved at the couch. “Please, have a seat.”
They all came in and sat on the big sofa side by side. Perez immediately reached over to pet Stanley. The kitten looked up at him with orange eyes and bumped his head into the large man’s hand. Perez’s smile was warm as he scratched behind the ears. I stood there, not knowing the protocol for being a protectee, so instead, I defaulted to being a good host. “Can I get anyone some coffee or a drink? We have everything.”
“No, thank you,” Michaels said.
I nodded and went to sit on the chair across from them. I was a little nervous, not knowing what to ask, but I cleared my throat and went for the obvious. “I wasn’t expecting three of you. Cassidy Ryan said Lincoln was sending two agents.”
“Special Agents,” Rayburn said with a straight face.
I blushed. “Oh, shoot…I’m sorry.”
She grinned widely. “I’m just kidding. We aren’t married to any titles here. Please call me Kindness.” She glanced at the woman beside her.
“Beth is fine, really,” she said.
“Call me Carter, though, most people still call me Perez. I’ll answer to anything but jackass.” He smiled.
I couldn’t help but shake my head. “Raven.”
“Getting back to why there are three of us,” Kindness said, “it’s because the rest of our team is on a case out in Bakersfield. Beth and I just came from there and Perez drove. He’s not a bad chauffeur.”
“Hello,” Perez singsonged. “Marine Corps logistics officer.” He grinned at me. “They always forget how I navigate, track, and speak six languages. Procurement isn’t the only thing I’m good for.”
I had no doubt. He looked capable. “Six languages. That’s pretty amazing,” I said. “What do you speak? Spanish, French, German—”
He shook his head, holding up both hands and ticking off fingers. “I speak horrible mother-in-law Spanish, if her opinion carries any weight at all.” He smirked. “But I also speak fluent Dari, Pashtu, Farsi, broken-Arabic…and passable English.”
“That’s…super impressive. Shouldn’t you be like a spy or something?” I smiled to let him know I was kidding.
He shook his head. “Not for me. I never met a spy who wasn’t a total douche.”
I let out a guffaw of laughter before I could stop myself. In fact, I’d only met one spy that I liked but as far as I knew, Damon Thorne had retired from the CIA a long time ago. “Sorry, I just…we’re just having a problem with rogue CIA operatives, so I was just thinking how fitting your description of spies is.”
“That’s not true, Perez,” Michaels said. “Damon Thorne is a great guy.”
“He isn’t a spy anymore,” Perez replied.
“You guys know Damon Thorne,” I said. “That’s interesting because he’s been very helpful to Miguel and I.”
They all nodded. “We’ve been thoroughly briefed by Mac McCallahan.”
“Oh, you know Mac,” I said, feeling like an idiot for not thinking about it before now. “I always forget Lincoln is your boss which means McCallahan is one of your colleagues.”
“We’re all team members, actually,” Kindness said. “Lincoln set up a team which includes four former Marines.” She held up her hand and then pointed to herself and Perez. “We’re two of the Marines. My specialty was whatever my CO needed it to be but I’m a crack shot and can take on and beat most people at hand to hand.”
“Hand to hand combat?” I asked, feeling surprised. She couldn’t weigh more than ninety-five pounds dripping wet.
Beth pointed to her. “Small but mighty, killer in the boxing ring, and never ever challenge her to a mixed-martial arts match. I’ve seen her bring a gorilla of a man to his knees and make him cry. Remember that time you took down that suspect with a sheet of single-ply toilet paper and a Tic Tac?”
I laughed. “Oh, I’m really going to like you guys.” I glanced at Beth. “I hope the questions aren’t prying.”
“It’s okay. We all have specialties, like Kindness says. I was assigned to the Crimes Against Children division before joining Lincoln’s team. I make sure our victims are treated well—in the hospital if necessary—and then placed somewhere safe. Whether that be with the U.S. Marshals and WITSEC or sent home to recover with good counseling from whatever ordeal they’ve suffered.” She spread her hands. “Kindness and I will be staying with you and your—”
“Better half,” I finished for her.
She nodded. “Better half.” She smiled before looking at Perez. “Carter is just here to meet you and make sure we got settled in.”
Carter reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card, holding it out to me. “Snow wanted me to give you that. It has all our numbers on it. Put them on both of your phones. That way we’ll always be on speed dial.”
“Thank you so much.” I read the names and numbers. “Dr. Leo Reeves?”
“Leo is our profiler,” Kindness offered. “And his husband, Max Prince, is one of the other Marines we talked about. He came from the Marshals office which makes him a fantastic tracker…kind of like you, I’d guess.”
I shrugged. “It’s the business. What can I say?” I looked back down at the card. “Noah Burgess,” I read out loud.
“Computer whiz kid. Also, a former Marine,” Kindness said. “He works out of our office in the West L.A. Federal Building.”
I nodded. “Miguel and I have one of those too…computer whiz, I mean.”
“Judy Mendez, yeah, we read about her in the file,” Beth said.
I nodded. “So, you’ve all been briefed about the rogue CIA douches and the incident with the cartel hit.”
“Yes,” Kindness said. “Cassidy Ryan and Mike Williams briefed the team when Mr. Huerta was in the hospital.”
Perez stood up just as Miguel walked into the room as if on cue. He looked beat up and bed tossed with a line down his face. He’d been sleeping on his stomach again which I supposed was a good thing since it meant he actually had gotten some rest. He looked around the room, but his gaze slid to Perez, stopping there, clearly measuring him to be the biggest threat. I suspected if anyone was the threat in the room, Kindness Rayburn was probably the more likely.
“Hey,” I said, standing up and walking over to him. He must be feeling battered and sore, judging by how slowly he’d walked into the room, and probably needed another pain pill. “Come and meet the FBI agents Lincoln Snow sent over.”
“Sure,” he said, his shoulders dropping as it probably dawned on him that someone was going to be protecting us until we were no longer a threat to the Sanchez Cartel and the CIA shitheads. I knew the pain pills were making him loopy.
I made introductions as Rayburn and Michaels also stood. “Perez is only here as an escort,” I said, explaining why three agents had turned up.
“I see,” Miguel replied. “Please, have a seat.”
“I really gotta get to the office,” Perez said. “I just wanted to give you guys direct contact numbers for everyone on our team.” He pointed to the card I was still holding. “Mr. Mathis has all our cell numbers. If anything should happen, call anyone on that list immediately. Our office is in West L.A. but we’ll be available if for some reason Kindness or Beth aren’t.”
He didn’t say it out loud, but I heard the message clearly. If Rayburn or Michaels went down in the line of fire while protecting us, other FBI agents would come to our rescue. I hated the very idea of being lumped into the category of a helpless, protected witness, but I knew Cassidy and Mike had been right. The FBI was going to insist on keeping us protected until the cartel was out of our lives, and the rogue CIA cell was no longer a threat.
“Well, it was nice to meet you, Special Agent Perez,” Miguel said, shaking the man’s hand.
“You too, Mr. Huerta. Take care.” A smile played around his lips. “It was nice meeting you, Raven.” He reached out and I shook his warm hand. He had beautiful, kind eyes. I really liked Lincoln’s people. I walked him to the door as Miguel took a seat on the same chair as before, so that he could talk to Beth and Kindness. I knew he was going to grill them about their backgrounds, but I wasn’t worried. Both women seemed like capable professionals, and since the four of us would be living in close quarters for the foreseeable future, I wanted him to get to know and accept them.
After seeing Perez out, I left Miguel with the agents and headed for the kitchen to put on some more coffee. I pulled out an iced bundt coffee cake Dolly had made earlier in the week and cut some slices, piling everything onto a big tray with cups and returned to the living room.
The women looked up at me and smiled.
“I’ll be right back with the coffee,” I said, taking the tray with me as I listened to the two agents going over their credentials with Miguel. Back in the living room with the coffee, I perched on the arm of Miguel’s chair, and he put his hand on my knee in a very sweet and claiming gesture. I was pretty sure he was getting more comfortable with the PDAs and it almost made me smile. I knew the agents would take it in stride. If they’d read the file the FBI had assembled on this case, especially since they were providing protection for two men living in the same house, they could put two and two together.
“I hope you don’t mind guarding two gay men,” Miguel said, as if reading my mind. I wanted to pinch him because his tone could have been nicer.
Both agents smiled. “No worries. Half of our team of six are gay men,” Rayburn said. “Our profiler, Dr. Leo Reeves, is married to another man on our team, Max Prince. You probably know Mac McCallahan is married to a man who works for the ATF, right?”
“That’s right,” Miguel said, smiling awkwardly. I could hear the embarrassment in his voice. “We met Mac’s husband, Nico, at Jarrett and Thayne’s house when we’d gotten together for the barbeque. Are their ferrets also gay?”
Kindness and Beth chuckled. “Not that we know of.”
“All we’re saying is that we know everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time, Mr. Huerta,” Beth said. “I promise you, we’re full-service protection, and sexual orientation doesn’t matter with us.”
I watched Miguel smile and shrug.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound defensive.” He smiled at me before nodding back at the agents. He reached up to run his hand through his hair, wincing when he remembered the bump. “Well, now that I have total egg on my face, you’ll have to call me Miguel,” he said.
“Of course,” Rayburn said.
“So, what can we tell you about what’s been happening with us?” Miguel asked.
“As we were telling Raven, we were fully briefed by Cassidy Ryan and Mike Williams, and Lincoln practically made us memorize your file,” Beth said. “You two have found yourselves in interesting times.”
“If that’s what you’d call a Mexican drug cartel and rogue CIA operatives wanting us dead, Beth,” I replied.
Miguel frowned just a little.
I shrugged, waving at the two women on the couch. “They told us to call them Kindness and Beth. I suppose that makes us all friends now.”
“Heavily armed friends.” Kindness smiled and stood up. “We’d really like to get the lay of the place…entrances, exits, doors, windows, security alarms, etcetera.”
Pleasantries dealt with, the agents were suddenly all business. I jumped up from the chair, and Miguel stood too. “Let’s start with the garage,” I said, taking them to the kitchen and through the door. The house had a side door from the garage to the garden and they started going through a checklist, examining the lock and making sure to tell us both the door to the outside and the house were to be kept locked at all times.
I watched them exchange a glance. Beth took out a phone and began making notes. I was dying to know what she was writing down, but I kept on going through the house with them, showing them each room. We ended up back in the living room and Beth excused herself to make a call, walking outside in the backyard for privacy while Kindness turned to us.
“You two should go pack a suitcase,” she said.
“Why?” I was totally confused.
“Because if we stay here for even one more hour, we can’t possibly protect you.”
“What?” Miguel asked.
“Beth is calling Lincoln as we speak and in about five minutes, several heavily-armed FBI agents are going to show up here to transport us somewhere that the cartel or your CIA buddies can’t find you. I’m pretty sure the only reason they haven’t tried to come in here already are the three LAPD cruisers parked in front of your house.”
My mouth almost fell open as she smiled. “The bag, Raven? Really…you should go pack and be ready to leave in five minutes.”
I glanced at Miguel who looked a little less surprised than I was. “You heard her, Raven. Go pack that bag and I’ll box Stanley up, along with his food.”
“Okay, right away.” I snatched my tablet off the table and was about to walk by her when she held out her hand.
“Sorry, Raven, you can’t take any electronic devices which can be tracked. If you need a laptop or a phone, the FBI will give you an encrypted device.”
I handed her the iPad and then fished my phone out of my pocket, handing them over to her, a little in shock.
“Just turn off your phone and leave everything here. Now, go pack,” she said as Beth stepped back into the room.
I turned to look at the blonde woman. They were both rock solid under pressure and that was a good thing because my legs felt a little like Jell-O. “Lincoln and the rest of the team will meet us at our destination. Backup will be here in—” She consulted her watch before looking up. “Four minutes.”
“Where’s the destination?” I asked.
Beth smiled. “The destination,” she replied.
It took me several seconds before I got it. “Oh, okay.” And then, Miguel and I were moving in different directions.