Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
Dewi
She walked into the office to see Ken sitting at the desk and scowling at his laptop. “What’s going on?” she asked.
He sat back, rubbing his eyes. “Going through the latest batch of data from Segura’s company.”
“And?”
“Well, there’s still no sign of Miranda. Like, at all. Apparently, Abundio married a woman young enough to be his granddaughter, and she’s now working at the company.”
“Working there?”
“Well, taking over, to be more accurate. It’s like he slid her into Miranda’s role, but that’s not the annoying thing.”
She leaned against the doorframe. “And that would be?”
“I’m seeing web traffic originating with her, going through their company’s routers, with troubling search terms cropping up and corresponding to data I’m seeing on hits on our honeypots.”
“Can I have that in non-geek-speak, please?”
He looked at her. “She’s following in Miranda Segura’s electronic footprints.”
She stepped into the office. “Shit. How bad?”
“I mean, I’m seeing her running the same kinds of searches Miranda Segura ran, and looking to connect dots between Jake, Carl, Joaquin, and us.”
Dewi sat in one of the chairs in front of the desk. “Does that mean she’s looking for us?”
“Well, it seems she’s trying to put together the pieces. Including searches for Ray Dorland.”
“That can’t be good.”
“Probably not.” He leaned back in the chair and sighed. “When Peyton’s back, I’ll need to sit down with him and lay it all out and see what he wants to do going forward.”
She slowly nodded. “Not a bad idea.”
He finally offered her a tired smile. “Did you need me, sweetheart?”
“Yeah, I wanted to give you a heads-up that at some point in the next couple of weeks, I’ll be flying out for a few days.”
Ken scowled. “Why?”
She patted her stomach. “I want to make a few checks—safe ones,” she quickly added, “before I’m too huge to comfortably travel.”
“What kind of checks?”
“I want to touch base with some of the Enforcers. Put eyeballs on people in person that I haven’t seen in too long and make sure everything’s going okay. It’s been a crazy few months.”
He visibly relaxed. “Oh.”
“Not even taking a gun with me,” she said, smiling.
“And I promise, no scooter rides, or car chases, or anything dangerous like that. And I should only be gone a couple of days, at the most. I used to do this all the time before…” She waved her hands around.
“Before all of this. But if I don’t go now, while life has temporarily settled down for us and there aren’t any immediate crises looming, I don’t know when I’ll be able to.
And I’d rather not wait until after the baby’s born.
Lyssa’s on formula and starting soft food, so she’ll be okay for me to leave for a couple of days. If that’s okay?”
He nodded, wearing an abashed smile. “Yeah. Sorry.”
She stood and rounded the desk, and he pushed back the chair so she could settle in his lap and drape her arms around his neck.
“This is me trying,” she said. “I promised you I’d try for a more balanced life.
I will take maternity leave—from all field work—for at least a few weeks after this baby is born.
I might have to deal with stuff over the phone.
But I’d rather do this myself.” She played with his hair.
“I didn’t go storming off to Norway or Wales or Russia,” she teased. “At least give me this.”
He nodded, resting his head against her shoulder.
“Love you, baby. Thank you for trying. Of course you don’t need my permission.
Especially for work stuff. But I really appreciate you approaching it like this.
I will promise not to hover and not to stress.
Too much.” He smiled. “Baby steps for both of us, right?”
She kissed him. “Right.”
He met her gaze, his brown eyes staring into hers.
“I love you, baby,” he quietly said. “I know that, in your way, this is all as difficult and new for you as it is for me. I mean it—I really appreciate you approaching it like this. I feel looped in, and that’s all I ask.
I can handle a lot as long as I feel like a partner. ”
“That’s all you ask?” She arched an eyebrow at him.
He chuckled. “Well, of course, I ask it not be dangerous. That’s a given, right? But that’s not any more than you’d ask of me, is it?”
She played with his hair. “Exactly. And I promise I’ll try to do better with communication going forward. I also promise that, on my end, I will do a better job of not freaking out over you being pulled into doing things. Even by my rat bastard fink of a big brother.”
He nuzzled her nose. “I think now, with the worst behind us, we’ll all be readjusting our expectations and reactions.”
“But.” She tipped his chin to meet his gaze again. “You do admit there might be times I have to go do things that you might not like me doing, but that I need to do as my role as Head Enforcer, or as head of the expanded pack council, right?”
He nodded and took a deep breath. “I know, baby. As long as you promise to try to mitigate your risk as much as possible. I know you can’t promise no risk, because I can’t even promise you that running to the store for groceries.”
She smiled. “Exactly. New baseline though, right?”
“Right.”
She climbed out of his lap after one last kiss. “I’ll be on the phone for a while tonight, so I’ll take over the bedroom. Okay?”
“Okay.” She was at the office door when he called out. “Hey, baby?”
She turned, loving the way her stomach always made that pleasant little flutter when he called her that.
It was almost enough to assuage her guilt.
Almost.
“Yeah?”
“I love you so much, Dewi.”
“I love you too, mister.” She blew him a kiss and headed down the hall, her smile immediately disappearing.
As she climbed the stairs, she pulled her work phone from her back pocket and called up a contact, dialing it.
She’d reached their bedroom doorway when he answered. “Alvarez.”
“It’s Dewi. Get comfy—we need to talk.”
Two Weeks Later
Dewi’s flight from San Antonio, where she’d spent the previous night after chatting with an Enforcer there, arrived ten minutes early.
She stepped out of Customs and glanced around, quickly spotting Alvarez, who stood leaning against a column.
He reached for her carry-on after giving her a two-fingered salute from his temple.
“How was your flight, boss?” He led her toward the exit.
“It could’ve been worse,” she grumbled. “What’s the latest?”
He updated her as they headed for the car, a rental.
“Do you ever see her unaccompanied?”
“Rarely. She’ll usually go into the church alone while the driver waits outside in the car. The driver drops her off at work every day. Pulls into the garage.”
“And the house?”
“A fortress.” They reached the car, and he opened her door for her.
Once he was behind the wheel, he continued as he started the engine and drove.
“There is no way of easily making entry without a Prime, or without a lot of firepower. And I wouldn’t place bets on the Prime, either.
They are very strict about security. I doubt a Prime could get far enough inside before they’re shot. ”
“What about getting to the driver?”
“He apparently lives on the property. From what I can tell using aerial photos, it’s a small apartment over the garage. It looks like a total of four employees live full-time on the property.”
“Can we easily cruise by now?”
He glanced at her. “If you try to enter by yourself, Peyton will strip the flesh from my body.”
“Don’t be melodramatic,” she teased. “He’d just shoot you. No, I promise, no stupidity. Just one pass that doesn’t look obvious.”
With an audible sigh, when they stopped at the next light, he pulled it up on his phone’s map app, and they changed course.
The compound was located in an older but affluent section, most of the houses surrounded by walls or tall fences of some sort.
Abundio’s looked to be one of the oldest homes, stately in comparison to the newer McMansions taking over the landscape.
She used her phone to record video as they approached and passed. “Okay. Hotel next.”
“What if Peyton calls asking if you’re here?”
“He’s not,” she said as she replayed the video. “He won’t,” she amended. “He’s on vacation with Gillian, remember? They’re enjoying the beach and will be gone for another couple of weeks. No disturbances unless it’s something serious.”
“What about Ken?”
She glanced at him. “You want me to Prime you to calm your ass down? I told him it’s a perfectly safe work trip to check in with Enforcers before I get too much further in my pregnancy. If he calls anyone, it’ll be me, and I’ll deal with it.”
“Yes, boss.” She could tell he still wasn’t comfortable with this.
And despite her aggravation, she didn’t blame him for feeling that way. She didn’t want to put any of her Enforcers in the middle of a squabble between her and Peyton or Ken, even if it was a work-related squabble.
Technically.
At the hotel, Alvarez went through everything with Dewi, using his tablet to give his presentation.
“Do we know anything about the driver?” she asked.
“No. Not even his name,” he said. “He tends to hang out at a nearby cafe during the day while she’s at work. The same one Miranda Segura used to frequent.”
“Does Jacinta ever go there?”
“No. In the past two weeks, I have not seen her leave work during the day. She goes, works, and goes home. She either stops at the church in the morning or the evening, depending on her schedule, but it’s every day during the week.
Then Sunday mass. If she goes anywhere else in the evening, Abundio is nearly always with her. ”
“Doctor appointments?”
“I think she’s using an OB with an office on the third floor in the same building.”
“Okay. How long does she stay in the church during her weekday visits?”
“If she goes in the morning, not long. Just for confession because it’s not during a mass. In the afternoon or evening, she’ll stay longer, but usually less than an hour.”