Chapter 7 Wes #2
I snorted. “Speak for yourself. It will be a long time before I willingly delegate myself to a pencil pusher. Probably not ever.” They were likely going to have to cart me off the field in a damn stretcher before I gave it up entirely.
Maybe if Diego asked me to stop, but since I doubted he would, I wasn’t worried about it.
Luca nipped at my lip, looking a little lighter, which had been my main goal.
“Let’s go call the guys and let them know we got here okay, and then we’ll get started on this thing so we can go the fuck home.”
Laughing, I grabbed his hand and led him back out to the kitchen, where there was a small breakfast nook and table where you could see directly outside. “C’mon, old man,” I teased, knowing he hated that since I was older than him. “Let’s see if this place has a coffee maker.”
I took a seat, ignoring Luca’s expression at the starfish table runner and lighthouse vase filled with fake flowers in the center of the table.
Before we even greeted our guys, I could hear laughter in the background. Brooks and Skye weren’t a surprise, but when I saw Matty pop up on the screen, trying to hold back his own case of the giggles, I joined in, much to Luca’s annoyance.
“How do you like the house, boss?” Skye asked seriously, being the first one to recover. “Diego was lucky to get something so close on such short notice.”
Diego snorted. “Leave me out of this fuckery.”
“Just wait till I get home,” Luca grouched, sounding more like an angry father from the 60’s than a partner.
“Oh, sir?” Brooks added, digging his own grave.
“Have you seen the backyard yet? The garden is designed to look like a beach, and there are statues of all these different ocean animals. And instead of stones or some shit, it’s seashells.
I even spotted a wind chime made of sea glass.
” Both he and Skye started to crack up again.
It was funny because Luca loved the ocean, but he always felt themed aesthetics were tacky.
Luca just grunted about something about brats writing checks their asses couldn’t cash, but I could see the smile he couldn’t quite hide. I sipped my coffee and tried to stifle my joy.
Diego eventually got us all on track. “I have full control over your security system there. If anything happens, I’ll know.
There are cameras in the bag that Skye packed.
When you get a chance, place them in the backyard, pointing toward the house.
That way I can keep up surveillance even when you’re not watching. ”
“Let me do that now, angel, before we hang up.”
I went back to the bedroom and grabbed the bag. The cameras were easy to find, and after a few minutes, we managed to get them set up in a way that would directly cover the yard and inside—if the blinds were open—of the target house.
“While you were flying in, I was able to gain access to Ramirez’s phone records before he disconnected it, and there was something that might be relevant. The day Ramirez left work early, he got a call from a payphone at a gas station.”
“They still have those?” Luca chimed in, asking the question I was wondering.
“In rural Pennsylvania, yeah. In a few places actually. I haven’t been able to listen to the call, but I found the gas station, and I was able to pull surveillance from CCTV cameras in the parking lot.
About five minutes before Ramirez received the call, an old Honda Civic pulled in and two men got out.
One seemed injured, and the other was a younger man, maybe a teenager. I don’t have an ID on either of them.”
Well, fuck, what had Ramirez gotten himself into?
“Were you able to get anything else?” Luca asked.
Diego shook his head. “Not yet. Brooks is helping me comb through the footage, and I’ll keep you updated. But so far, that’s all I have.”
We disconnected a little while later, with a promise from Diego to let us know if he found anything new.
With that out of the way, I dragged Luca into the shower, which was surprisingly a good size, and distracted him with mutual hand jobs.
He was feeling much better by the time we got out and was ready to work.
We ordered Thai food, then sat at the breakfast nook with a beer—thank you delivery services that deliver alcohol—each and watched. Tomorrow, we’d go over there once we had a better idea what we were walking into.
Luc and I had moved our observations outside a while ago, and we were sharing the bench chair with a blanket around us.
Despite it being the end of summer, it got chilly around here at night once the sun went down.
We didn’t have that many opportunities for one-on-one time, so I wanted to take advantage of it, even under these circumstances.
“Someone’s out there,” he whispered, dragging me out of my thoughts.
I pulled up the binoculars, which had night vision so we could see clearly. The lights were still off in and outside at the other house, but there was the dim glow of a phone flashlight that bounced along the path.
Focusing, I watched as the light moved around until it stopped on the bottom step of the porch.
The flashlight turned off. There was only the glow of the phone screen, which made it bright enough to make out the person.
It was a man, but no one I recognized right off the bat.
He was young, though the green glow made it hard to see his features.
He had a blanket over his shoulders and a beanie pulled down low.
“He’s a kid,” Luca muttered, sounding a little surprised.
“Maybe,” I agreed. He might’ve been a little older than that, but we wouldn’t know until I saw him more clearly.
I wondered if it was the guy Diego had caught on the security footage.
Either way, it definitely wasn’t Ramirez.
Neither was it his son, who was in his early twenties, as he had an entirely different build than this person.
He’d also been confirmed to still be at college.
“I’m messaging Diego. Maybe he can get a clearer image.”
I hummed in agreement, focusing on the man. His eyes were glued to his phone, shoulders hunched over. Whatever his deal was, he wasn’t an obvious threat. Was this person the reason Ramirez was hell-bent on finding me?
“Diego’s working on it,” Luca told me, leaning harder into me.
I didn’t respond and focused solely on the man on the porch. I was still trying to put all the puzzle pieces together when another flashlight appeared, and then a second person became visible.
It was another man. This one seemed older, though I couldn’t get a good look at his face, but from his posture, I was nearly positive it was Ramirez.
Up until a couple days ago, I probably wouldn’t have been able to place him from a distance and in the dark, but I’d had a crash course on everything that was Charles Ramirez.
The flashlight was pointed toward the younger man on the porch, his hands moving frantically as he spoke to him.
He seemed annoyed, or at least worried. He kept pointing to the door and then out past the yard.
Every word from the second man had the first one slumping further, shoulders in his ears and head bent down.
“What the fuck is going on?” There was an edge to Luca’s voice that I understood perfectly.
Something about the way the first man was turning in on himself had my protective instincts on edge.
I wanted to walk over there and demand to know what was going on.
Only, the little bit of common sense I managed to hold onto kept me from doing just that.
The first man stood up and walked past the second one into the house. The second one began to follow him, but at the last second turned away from the door, staring in our direction and giving me a clear look at his face and the visual confirmation I needed.
“It’s definitely Ramirez.”
I couldn’t process more than that before Ramirez turned away and followed the younger man inside.