Epilogue
MIGUEL
Phoenix, Arizona was hot in late May, but not as hot as it’d be in the summer months. As I sat in the hotel room the morning we arrived, I reflected on what had happened and the astounding offer which SAC Waters sprung on us during the stopover in Houston. I was happy we’d been offered the chance to take our time to make any decisions about the FBI jobs. We’d gone home to sleep after calling Dolly, and Raven’s nana from the airport and then gone to pick them up in Compton so Nana could sleep in her own bed. Since we had to be out of the house bright and early the next day, Dolly had offered to spend the night in our guest room. Stanley had been elated to see us both. It was a happy, exhausting homecoming.
Waking up the morning after we’d returned to L.A. and spending an entire day at the FBI going over everything that had transpired during the case from start to finish had been tiresome if not eye-opening. My head was slowly improving but the day before had added to my fatigue and the sixteen hours that followed at the Federal Building in West Los Angeles, had been in a word…grueling.
We’d learned so much about things the cartel had planned for us, all of it unpleasant. Since Castillo had been unable to get his pound of flesh from us, he’d taken his rage out on the hostages, none of which he’d planned on keeping alive after he’d gotten his fifty million dollars, money that had been frozen by the FBI at the end, as part of the wrap up to the investigation.
Gregory Aston had been treated at the hospital and shipped back to the U.S. under heavy guard, only to undergo extensive interviews and interrogations. After all his partners and other associates at his law firm had refused to represent him in the criminal complaint the FBI was compiling, he’d been assigned a public defender. The law firm’s existence was up in the air, since the FBI’s White-Collar division was still going through crates of files it had confiscated from the firm with a court order. It was going to be a big case. Aston had known he was going to federal prison. When presented the evidence they’d had tying him to the murder of insurance investigator, Dave Reynolds, he’d cut a deal to plead guilty to all his dealings with the cartel just to keep from getting a death sentence.
The ruby pendant had been found locked in Castillo’s safe on the property where he died, along with Brian Leopard’s diamond pin, and Charlotte Mulberry’s diamond. To date, no other gems had been located. If they existed at all.
FBI agent, Roy Cabe’s tortured body had been found in one of the outbuildings on the property, along with his new wife’s, both shot in the head.
Aston admitted that Salvatore Mancuso had arranged for Lyle Trench to be killed in jail and had stolen the gems from both Leopard’s house and Tawny’s husband’s safe. Aston told FBI investigators that he’d been working with the rogue CIA cell all along. Our assumptions had been right on all accounts, and Aston confirmed that Tawny had been a willing dupe, hopelessly enamored with Mancuso.
She’d carried on a brief affair with the slimeball but hadn’t been a part of her husband’s demise. A closer look at autopsy results and a deeper investigation into the timing around his death found that surprisingly, Benedict Flores had probably done himself in, overdosing on his own heart pills which had killed him. Perhaps after learning about the affair, he hoped his wife would be blamed. He must have known she’d never be able to get her hands on the trust funds he set up in Grand Cayman for her. Obviously, he was an angry and slightly unstable man…angry enough to kill himself in revenge.
Tawny had been beaten to within an inch of her life just for sport. Worse yet, Castillo had held a gun to her head while his sicarios had gang raped her after he’d had a first go at her. She’d recover from her physical injuries, but it remained to be seen how long it would take before she recovered from her other, more serious, emotional ones. She wasn’t criminally charged by the FBI.
Brian Leopard was genuinely an innocent man in everything. During his interview with the FBI, he’d admitted to bankrolling the casino but had never realized his partner, Benedict Flores, had gotten into bed with the Sanchez Cartel. He didn’t learn that the investors whom Flores had borrowed money from had been part of the cartel until he was shown documents the FBI had found in Castillo’s safe—which had once been Benedict Flores’ safe—along with the jewels. Brian hadn’t been raped but he’d been horribly beaten as a part of Special Agent Willis’ torture. The agent had been forced to watch the brutality. He’d come out of the ordeal a very different, very broken man.
Special Agent Trevor Willis had barely survived the gunshot wound from Alex Filmore and the torture meted out by Castillo’s men in the days preceding Filmore’s arrival at the compound. He’d gone into surgery and remained there for over seven hours. He’d had severe internal injuries, multiple broken bones in his face, limbs, and back where he’d been kicked, stomped, and beaten. Castillo had learned he was a DEA agent quite by accident when one of the youngest of his sicarios recognized him from a bust early in his career.
The sicario had died inside the house that day, and Willis had barely survived. His recovery would be long and arduous, and it remained to be seen whether he’d ever return to active duty after suffering horribly at the hands of Alex Filmore and Castillo’s men. Brian Leopard remained in Grand Cayman at his bedside. SAC Bannister stayed as long as she could, but left him in Brian’s care, when she was ordered to fly home for her own debrief.
I glanced at the hotel room door when I heard the lock disengage. Raven came in, red faced and smiling as a blast of heat followed him into the room. “Hey there, good looking!” he said, coming over to me. I lifted my face as he bent down to kiss me.
“Did you meet with the medicine man?” I asked as he sat down on the bed opposite the chair where I sat.
“Yes. I left Nana and Dolly with her. They’ll be out there on the rez most of the day. We’ll go pick her up after nightfall. I’m pretty convinced Dolly wishes she was born Navajo.”
I laughed as suddenly, the phrase he’d used struck a cord. “Her?”
“What?”
“You said her. The medicine man is a woman?”
“Oh, yeah,” Raven said with a broad grin. “Women usually meet with other women. It’s a cultural thing I’d completely forgotten about.”
“I didn’t realize that.” I smiled back.
“Well, that’s the way it is. What are you doing?”
“I was thinking about the wrap up of our case.”
He narrowed his eyes. “That’s it?”
I shook my head slowly, knowing it was probably the perfect time to talk with him about the offer SAC Waters had made back in Houston. That was six days ago and our promise to give him an answer had a deadline. Still, something else was at the forefront of my mind. I smiled at Raven, beckoning him close. “Come here.”
He grinned. “What?” Coming over to the bed where I sat, he stood in front of me and put his hands on my shoulders. When I reached out and began unbuckling his belt, he laughed.
“You have a one-track mind, Miguel.”
“You bet I do.” It only took a few seconds to have him the way I wanted him…pants around his knees, his cock in my mouth. He wound his hands into the short strands of my hair as I took him down to the root, sucking hard.
“God,” he gasped, “I love it when you do this.”
I hummed around his dick, rolling his balls in my hand and holding onto his ass to keep him close as I sucked him off.
“Son-of-a-bitch,” he said. “Your mouth feels like heaven.”
I looked up at him, mouth stuffed with cock, smiling around it. I met his lusty gaze and redoubled my efforts when he pulled hard on my hair.
“Jesus, Miguel, you keep that up and I’m gonna blow,” he said.
I nodded, sucking harder, sliding on and off as his cock swelled in my mouth.
“Miguel!” he shouted, a second before he gave up his load, filling my mouth. I swallowed it all down before finally letting his cock slide out of my mouth. I turned my face up to him as he bent and took my mouth in a languid kiss. I loved this man so much.
He finally broke the kiss and dropped to his knees in between mine. He reached for my belt. I stopped him, taking hold of his wrists. “No need, baby.” I grinned at him. “That was just for you.” I slid both hands around his shoulders and pulled him forward, kissing him until he stopped protesting. My stomach growled loudly, making us both laugh. I abruptly stood and hauled him to his feet as he pulled up his pants. “Come on, Sunshine. I want to get some lunch and talk about the elephant in the room. It’s time.”
“If you’re sure.” He smiled at me and pulled me into his arms, leaning forward, and kissing me again before letting go.
We ended up settling for a place I knew well. We’d eaten there twice in the four days since Raven had been driving his nana out onto reservation lands with Dolly, leaving her to meet with the medicine man—er—woman. We’d picked her up at sundown every day, and though, I was sure she couldn’t possibly have been cured of her emphysema, Angelica looked better with each passing day. Raven’s love and devotion to her had lifted her spirits but the medicine woman and whatever herbal concoctions she was giving Angelica, had helped her in numerous, obvious ways.
We ordered our food and sat down on the benches outside with it. No one else was there and under the shade, it was nice. There was a breeze coming off the desert. Spicy Tex-Mex shrimp tacos with black beans and a homemade guacamole and chips to die for, graced our paper plates. The mint-laced iced tea Raven had ordered on the first day, was now one I ordered as well. It was incredibly good and tasted homemade as did the flour tortillas we’d watched a short Hispanic woman with a plastic hair net, mixing and pounding by hand.
The first day, I’d ordered cheese, potato, and jalapeno tamales when I’d seen the same woman working the masa by hand. There was just enough filling to balance the tamales. I already knew I’d be stopping by for a to-go order to take with us, when we finally made the drive home to Stanley, who was happily being kitten-sat by Dolly’s husband, Eddie, who’d taken a shine to the little guy.
“So…” I began. “Have you given Waters’ offer any more thought?” I asked, biting into a taco.
“I’ve thought a lot about it,” Raven replied, chewing his food. “And, I think, if we could figure out a way to—” His phone rang, interrupting him. “It’s Judy,” he said.
“Answer it.” I nodded at the phone.
He picked it up and swiped it, putting it to his ear. He listened to Judy’s voice for a few seconds, then told her to hang on while he put it on speaker, since we were alone out here. He set the phone down. “You’ve got me and Miguel on speaker, Judy. Repeat what you just said.”
“Hi, guys,” she said, sounding excited. “I just got a call from a man claiming to be Special Agent in Charge Donovan Bradley. He said SAC Bradley at first, but then I realized it’s the guy we met in Los Angeles the day everyone was talking about the plans to rescue Special Agent Willis and the other hostages. Guess what? He wants to hire me.”
I stared at Raven, who looked as confused as I was. “Wait, Donovan Bradley with the FBI?”
“Yes!” Judy practically yelled into the phone. “That’s what I’m saying. He says they’ve got a special unit coming to Los Angeles made up of Special Forces guys. The FBI wants to hire me to work for them. Apparently, Noah told him if they didn’t hire me, I was going to bring down the entire U.S. economy with my snooping…or something like that.”
I threw back my head and laughed. “I wouldn’t put it past you, woman.”
“Anyway, he said he and someone called Sorryson or Sorrybutt said I came highly recommended. I think it’s a conspiracy. That’s what I told my husband.”
Raven and I both laughed this time. “Sorensen,” Raven said into the phone. “He was the team leader on the takedown in Grand Cayman.”
We’d told Judy the gist of what had happened down there when we’d come home, leaving out the bloody parts, but she wasn’t a stupid woman. She knew the score.
“Anyway, what did he offer you?”
“Well, he offered me a good salary, incredible benefits, dental also, and the offer to work with the two of you! What haven’t you told me, Raven… hmm ?”
I looked at my love, completely at a loss for words. He simply smiled and nodded back.
“We hadn’t mentioned it before because until this very moment, we hadn’t even considered taking such an offer, but they want both Miguel and me on the team that went in to capture Castillo and Filmore. They want him because, well, that’s obvious, but they want me because of my tracking skills.”
I smiled at Raven.
“Clearly, they want you because you and Noah broke this FBI case wide open, girlie.”
She was silent for a second, and I exchanged a glance with Raven.
“Judy?”
“I’m here…just thinking. Are you going to take their offer, Raven, because if you are, and only if you are, I’ll go too.”
Raven cleared his throat as he stared at me with beautiful, trusting eyes. “Are we going to take the FBI’s offer, Miguel?”
I felt my heart melt as I stared at my gorgeous, trusting man. “What about all the time and effort you put into getting Trackers up and running, sweetheart? It’s so much work and money and if we take a government salary, it’s going to take us years to replenish your savings.”
Judy was silent as Raven stared at me. He leaned toward the phone. “Yeah, Judy. We’re going to take it. Call Bradley back and tell him that he just signed up for a package deal.”
“If you’re sure, I’ll start shutting down the office,” Judy said over the line.
“Do you want an adventure, Raven?” I asked. “Because the next venture is going to be one.”
He reached across the table and took my hand with a huge smile on his face. He nodded. “Anything with you, babe.”
I grinned at him. “Okay, Nightcrawler. Anything with you.”