24. Archer
ARCHER
Everything was going according to plan until Joey Pagano showed up. We adjusted with Pagano , but we still proceeded with our original plan as well.
“Making my covered approach,” I told everyone as I began walking over to the man’s not-so-secret smoking spot.
“Excuse me, ma’am,” a new voice broke into my comms.
The voice was crackly, and I strained to hear what he had said.
“I know it’s a long shot, but are you Anna O’Hara , the famous news anchor?” the voice asked again. “ My wife and I watch you all the time in Atlanta .”
You’ve got to be kidding me! Really ? She gets recognized right now?
“My name is Giovanni , and I think you are the best news anchor I have ever watched,” the man continued. “ My wife agrees too.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. Giovanni ? The same creepy man who emailed Ace ? That wasn’t exactly a common name.
Axel had looked him up and hadn’t found anything interesting. The weird bird guy, however, had given us several things to look into, which was where we’d put more of our resources.
“Umm, no, I’m sorry,” Ace responded to him coolly. “ You have the wrong person, but that’s cool you think I look like someone famous.”
Hearing no concern in her voice, I began moving toward our target again, planning to stop near the second bellhop stand as intended.
“Grab her,” a man’s low voice said, followed by a gasp and a low curse from Ace .
I stopped a few steps away from the bellhop stand, waiting to hear Ace’s voice or Sara’s to confirm everything was okay, but nothing came.
“Ace, what was that?” I asked.
“My beautiful Anna ,” the man’s voice returned. “ Now you are finally mine.”
“Sara.” My voice was stern and sharp.
“I heard,” she replied. “ Shit , I’ve lost Anna . I repeat, there is no sign of her.”
“Archer, we’ll find her,” Kerrigan said. “ Do not deviate now. He’s staring at you and has his hands on his hips with no weapon in sight. Make the approach. We’ll find Anna .”
I walked toward the target, who was now staring right at me with a grin. He spoke as I approached.
“I see your men, as well as the sniper in the parking garage,” the man said, letting me know he was observant, but not observant enough to see both of the snipers. “ The vehicle I came out of is running, and we’re both going to get into it.”
“Just that easy?” I asked him politely, though I admired his confidence.
“If you’d like to see your wife again, yes.” His response sent up even more red flags than I’d already raised.
“As we speak, she is being loaded into a van and headed to the same place I am supposed to take you.” He spoke quietly, as though he were informing me to help me, not because he wanted to kill me.
“ But once we meet there, the plan is to separate you, so if you want to get there before they move her, we need to go now.”
“Who are you?” I asked him, anger seeping through my voice as I was done with this shit.
“You knew my brother, Manny ,” he said, causing shockwaves to roll through me. “ I’m Hector Madeira , and I’m here to help save your life and your woman’s. But the minute we step in that car, you refer to me as Pedro and Pedro only, do you understand?”
I nodded, but before I could respond with the question I needed to ask, Coleman interrupted in my comms. “ Archer . Hector works for us. He’s our undercover agent who went quiet.”
“Once we get into the vehicle you will forget everything I just told you. Do you understand?” Hector’s voice conveyed the severity of the situation very clearly.
“Yes,” I responded. “ Let’s go.”
“You’re going because I told you I have your wife and you want her back,” Hector said as he guided me to the car.
Trusting my gut on this one and hoping Manny’s brother hadn’t switched sides, I opted to follow him.
He opened the back door, and I got in, followed by him sliding in behind me.
“Let’s go, Rocco ,” Hector spoke to the driver.
The man took out a gun, handed it back to Hector , and then drove the vehicle onto the street.
Hector pointed the gun at me and spoke loud enough for all of us to hear. “ You do anything funny or get smart, you get a bullet in your head before you see your wife. Clear ?”
“Yeah.”
“We got Pagano and his crew,” Coleman’s voice sounded in my ear. “ Taking them in now.”
“Archer, we’re following you and Anna from your trackers,” Kerrigan said.
“ Depending on how far they take you, we may lose comms, so I will tell you this now. Unless he’s turned, I would trust Hector Madeira with my life.
He joined the force after he got out of the military, wanting to help nab the Paganos for killing his brother.
Unless you feel in your gut that something is off, follow his lead.
We’ll be following your tracker and will assist with extraction and rescue. ”
I heard everything Kerrigan said. Knowing he was right and we may not be able to keep comms established, I decided to try to get as much information as I could now so that they could hear.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked.
“Nice try motherfucker,” Rocco responded.
“It’s fine,” Hector said. “ He won’t live to tell anyone anyway.”
He sneered at me, but there was no malice in his eyes. This was clearly all for show.
“We’re taking you to one of our safe houses,” Hector said. “ You can say goodbye to your wife one last time before you die.”
Rocco snorted from the front seat.
“You mean you’ll kill us both,” I corrected.
“Nah, Giovanni has other plans for your hot wife,” Rocco said with a leering tone.
I felt chills rush through my entire body.
“After you testified against our boss, Giovanni was in charge of following you and your partner, Manuel ,” Hector explained, his lip giving a little tick—the only sign I had that related to his brother.
“ He tagged you coming out of the chapel with your new wife. Seems he took a liking to her, and now that you’ll soon be out of the picture, he plans to keep her for himself. ”
Took a liking to her? More like stalking. There was no way I was going to let that man do anything to Ace , and if he’d already laid a hand on her by the time I got there, I’d kill him myself.
Part of me was shocked Axel hadn’t found anything on this man, but I also knew the Paganos had vast resources, which likely allowed this man to bury his tracks well.
“She’ll never go for him,” I told him.
“Money and power can persuade a lot of people to do things they wouldn’t normally do,” Hector responded.
Why did I feel like there was more to that line than what was on the surface?
“He’s not gonna give her the choice anyway,” Rocco added from the driver’s seat, further pissing me off.
Focus.
“Let them know you know about Joey and that we arrested him,” Sara’s voice said in my ear.
“Well, maybe the LVPD will make a trade,” I said. “ My wife and me for Joey Pagano . We found him gambling in the casino you just picked me up from. Being that’s a violation of his parole, he was just arrested.”
“Bullshit,” Rocco said, but it was Hector’s silence that got my attention.
I turned to look at him and noticed genuine confusion on his face.
“Joey’s at the safe house. Nice try,” he said to me, though I could see the wheels turning in his head.
“Nope. I got it confirmed right before I walked up to you on the sidewalk. He was arrested and taken into custody.”
“He’s fucking with us,” Rocco said. “ Matteo said Joey was meetin’ us at the safe house. Ain’t no way he was at the casino.”
“Matteo,” Hector grumbled quietly, as if he were piecing things together in his head.
“Guess we’ll find out,” Rocco said, pulling into a parking lot for a vape and CBD shop.
“Need a pack of smokes or something?” I asked, hoping they could still hear me on the comms. “ Why the vape and CBD pitstop?”
“Don’t do anything funny, or me or one of the other guys will end you before you get to say goodbye to your wife,” Hector said to me, loud enough for Rocco to hear.
I also heard the other message, which was, Don’t do anything stupid because someone else involved might shoot me.
As Hector pulled me out of the car, he spoke in hushed tones so only I could hear him. “ Remove your earpiece now. They’ll search you and see it.”
I leaned back, slipping the piece out of my ear and dropping it on the ground as I moved away from the car. Hector grabbed my right arm forcefully and held a gun to my side as he walked me into the shop, not even bothering to hide that he had a gun on me.
Rocco opened the door, and Hector and I walked into the shop. The man running the desk looked all three of us over, clearly seeing the gun at my side, but just nodded and looked back down at his computer screen.
I suspected with near certainty that this shop was owned by the Paganos as a front. Those suspicions were confirmed as we walked through the employees-only door at the back and went down a hallway straight into a closed-off room.
Right there along the right wall was Matteo Pagano and who I assumed were two of his bodyguards.
“Pedro, good work,” Matteo said as he took in the sight of me and smiled.
“Where’s the wife?” Hector asked.
“She’s downstairs with Giovanni and, from what I can hear, putting up quite a fight,” Matteo answered with a smirk on his face.
Motherfucker. I’d kill him if he touched her.
“Good,” Hector broke in. “ I’m gonna take him downstairs. Maybe let him watch Giovanni fuck his wife in front of him before I kill him.”
Matteo laughed. “ Sorry to miss the fun, but it appears my brother needs to be bailed out, so I’m headed out to get him a lawyer. After you kill him, leave these near the body.”
Matteo handed him a Ziploc bag with two cell phones inside.
“You want me to leave the body here?” Hector asked, seemingly confused.
“Yes. I’ll send someone else to clean it up,” Matteo answered. “ Just kill him, and then you and Rocco leave as soon as you can.”
Hector nodded back at him, and then Matteo and his men left.