CHAPTER SEVEN
Once Edward and Mr. Dawson left, we could breathe a little easier. It took us some time to get our rhythm, though, but once we did, things seemed to flow.
What Mr. Dawson said put a damper on everyone’s mood, even mine. I might not trust Mia as the others did—nor did I understand why the guys trusted her—but I knew the man overstepped.
Choosing to ignore what he said, we dove into our work.
There was a lot of information to dissect from my undercover days, and they kept coming from the program I created. Besides that, Aaron had been doing his share of digging from the files only he could access (and some he couldn’t but did anyway). And as much as it pained me to admit it, Mia’s company brought in a lot to the table.
If the info she brought was trustworthy, I didn’t know. So, not only did I have to go over their many files, but I also had to discern what was true and what was a ruse. Not that I believed Ben or Danny would ever try to trick us.
I couldn’t say the same about the Spitfire sniffing my documents.
They could trust her all they wanted. I needed more than my attraction and their judgment to believe she wasn’t corrupt. Why else would she have been kicked out of the agency? I wasn’t even convinced she was as smart as they claimed—or maybe I was, and I was just wary of what her brightness might mean to our safety.
We’d been over the many documents scattered around the house for hours. Mia had on headphones and alternated between typing on her computer, taking down notes, and sorting out files in ways only she seemed to understand. She was entranced, and if I wasn’t so suspicious, I’d be fascinated.
I pulled out my computer and did what I did best. Broke into systems inconspicuously.
I was lost in my task when Ben groaned by my side. “ We’re getting nowhere with this shit. We should just barge in and deal with it.”
Danny plopped down on the chair across from us. “This is so frustrating. We’re running in circles.”
“That’s why I’m saying we should barge in,” Ben insisted.
“There’ll be no barging in,” Aaron admonished. “We need to be cautious. We were able to get in their way many times, but they’re still strong. We can’t slip.”
Ben harrumphed and ran his hands through his hair. “This is so stupid. I just want to go home.”
For the first time in a while, I felt envious. I knew he didn’t want to just be back at his place. He wanted to be back to his baby and woman—both of whom I had yet to meet. He and Danny were frustrated for not being with their family, whereas I was frustrated I hadn’t seen my grandfather in over a year, I had no place to call home, and no one to call my partner.
On instinct, I watched Mia again, then I got mad at myself for doing so.
Ignorant of my turmoil, Danny, Ben, and Aaron kept talking.
“Maybe we should do something together once we get back,” Danny suggested. “It’s been a while since we all enjoyed each other. God knows I need some relaxation time.”
At his proposition, I felt my face getting hotter, remembering Mia’s revelation about them. I looked down at my notes, trying to ignore their conversation.
“That’d be awesome,” Ben exclaimed. “Why don’t you swing by once we get back? Izzie was talking to me the other day about how she was craving some girl time. She’d love to have Lisa again.”
I squirmed in my seat and tried to focus on my files.
“What do you say, Aaron?” Danny asked. “Do you want to join us again? Admit it, you had fun the last time.”
Aaron approached our table and sipped his coffee. “It was indeed pleasurable.”
“Pleasurable?” Ben mocked. “You got the best meat of the house! Mine.”
“Oh, come on!” Danny argued. “My meat is unbeatable.”
Aaron sat down. “I’m sorry, Walker, but Danny’s was indeed better.”
What is going on?
“Then it’s settled,” Danny said as Ben frowned at Aaron. “Once we get back, we’ll all get together again so Aaron can taste my better meat again.”
Ben leaned over the table and asked quietly, “Do you think we could get Mia to join us this time? It’d be good for her.”
For reasons I wasn’t ready to acknowledge, I was starting to get mad that they wanted to bring Mia into their…activities. I was all for being sex-positive, and if swing wo rked for them and all of them consented, they should go for it. Although I was still surprised at Aaron.
But why bring Mia into it?
“No luck in there yet?” Aaron asked.
Ben shook his head. “We all tried on Thanksgiving, but at some point, she just clammed up.”
“There was one night in a pub last year when we all met up,” Danny chimed in. “I guess you could count that as a win…if you ignore we were surrounded by elders, and her date was a grumpy old man.”
Hearing about her sexcapades was pissing me off way more than it should. Actually, it shouldn’t at all. But seriously? A grumpy old man? I might not be her favorite person, but in all my Phoenix glory, I wanted to believe I could satisfy her more than a grumpy old man.
Not that I should. Or wanted to.
“We should keep trying,” Danny stated. “Why don’t you join us, Ethan?”
I felt my face heating up, and my voice went up an octave as I looked up at him. “ What ?”
“You should join us. You’re coming to Holy Water as well soon. We should all do it together,” he insisted.
Ben nodded. “That’s a great idea. We could show you around, then you could join us. Maybe Mia will finally be a part of it. I think you both need to let off some steam, so why not do so all together? We could meet at my place—”
“I don’t share,” I blurted. The three men stared at me in confusion. I pushed my glasses up my nose with my knuckle and cleaned my sweaty hands on my pants. “I think it’s cool what you do, and that you all feel comfortable enough to trust each other like that. But that’s just not for me. When Mia and I have sex, it’ll be just the two of us.”
“ ‘When?’ ” It was probably the first time I saw a glint of joy in Aaron’s eyes. “‘ When ’ you have sex with her? What are you planning, Cross?”
“No…that’s not…I meant—”
“What is that talk about sharing?” Danny asked.
“You know…about how you…swing?” My quiet answer came out more like a question.
Ben snorted. “ We what? ”
“Well…Mia said…” My heart was stomping in my chest, and I knew my face matched my hair as I realized the little Spitfire had once again bested me.
Danny and Ben burst out laughing, and even Aaron chuckled along with them. All I could do was throw daggers through my eyes at the phony little witch on the other side of the room, oblivious to the embarrassment she pushed me into.
Ben dried his eyes. “Working together will be so much fun. Don’t worry, Ethan. I promise we won’t corrupt you with our barbecue.”
Danny let his chuckles die down. “We’ll leave that for when you and Mia sleep together.”
Ben shuddered. “Yeah, I don’t need to hear about that.” He laughed again and shook his head. “Damn, she’s a little shit.”
The trouble in question approached us holding some documents. “You guys need to see—wait, what’s going on?”
Ben leaned his chair back. “Oh, nothing important. We were just scheduling our next swing session.”
Mia smiled at me with a knowing glint, unbothered at my annoyed face. She seemed to actually enjoy it. “I see. Will the pretty bird join you?”
“Oh no.” Aaron sipped his coffee. “He doesn’t share.”
Ben and Danny cackled. Again. Who would’ve thought Aaron was a comedian? And that Ben and Danny would enjoy it so much? There was no need for them to laugh that hard, but my scowl wasn’t deterring them.
“That’s too bad,” she lamented. “Hugo and I would’ve loved a session.”
Ben and Danny kept laughing, but what bothered me the most wasn’t the inside joke. It was the question nagging in my head: who the hell is Hugo ?
Putting an end to my turmoil, Aaron asked her, “What were you about to show us?”
“Right.” She sat down between Danny and Aaron and spread the files on the table. “I’ve been over their latest… errands . Since our raid a few months ago, when we rescued those girls, it seems they’re wary of engaging in that kind of activity again. And with Matias ‘ in hiding, ’” she quoted with her fingers, “I guess that’s why Bryan Keyes hasn’t reached out to me again. But I was going through my files and cross-referencing their latest messages. They speak mostly in codes, but I was able to translate them, and apparently—”
“Wait,” I interrupted. “How were you able to translate?”
“I have a…thesaurus of sorts.”
“So, you speak cartel ?”
She started rubbing her left hand. “Something like that.”
“Are you telling me that you understand them so well that you can decode their encrypted messages?” I looked around at the guys who were all looking down, yet suppressing a grin. “And you’re all okay with that? It doesn’t bother you at all that she can do it?”
“Do what? My job? Or are you implying something else? We’re all adults here, Phoenix. Why don’t you just blurt it out?”
“Fine,” I snapped. “I. Don’t. Trust. You. I don’t care if you used to be some hotshot. You were let go for a reason. ”
“Yes, so you ,” she pointed a finger at me, “could take my place. What does that say about you?”
“What does it say about you that, as soon as you left, you went right back to the cartel to sniff around? And now here you are,” I raised my arms at my side, “having full access to everything the DEA’s been working for.”
She stood up from her chair and placed her palms on the table. “Everything the DEA’s been working on, or everything you’re letting the agency know? Because so far, you’ve yet to share with the group what your program has been collecting. What don’t you want us to find out?”
I stood up as well, mirroring her position over the table. “I don’t want you to find out because so far, all I saw was you fooling around with the same organization I want to bring down.”
She was about to rebut when Aaron stood up and intervened. “ Enough !”
Mia and my faces were so close to each other that our noses were almost touching. We were both breathing hard, and I wanted to prove she was corrupt as much as I wanted to kiss her.
“Sit down.” When neither of us moved, Aaron ordered again, “ Sit down .” We did so reluctantly, and Aaron did as well. “I know this is difficult. For all of us. We’ve been deep in this investigation for a very long time, and we’re all exhausted and frustrated. But we’re not enemies . We’re on the same team, and we need to start playing as such.”
He turned to me. “You can’t keep working on it alone. We brought their company exactly because of that. You’ve been running thin for a long time, and we both need help. Help they ,” he pointed at Ben, Danny, and Mia, “can provide. You’ve been working on your own for so long and you did an outstanding job, but I need you to learn how to work with a partner again.”
He looked at each of the guys, then his eyes landed on Mia. “That this is hard, it’s undeniable. And for you, it’s not only hard, it’s also personal. But I need you to trust me on this. I know I let you down when the agency came after you. And once again with your…with him. But please, believe me when I say this is our best chance. I didn’t push the agency to put you two working together for nothing.”
Her eyes rounded—just like mine. “Wait, I thought they demanded that we work together.”
He looked at me. “They did. Once I convinced them no one else could finish this job,” he circled his finger over the table, indicating all of us, “but this team. And you two are our masterpieces. I’m vowing, to both of you, that you can trust each other. Because I trust you both with my life. And trust isn’t something I give out easily.”
Mia and I looked at each other for a few seconds, then tipped our chins. A silent truce was sealed .
I shifted in my seat. “You were saying?”
She nodded and leaned closer to the table. “I decoded most of their messages, and apparently, they’re moving some of the girls to a new location. I don’t think they’re trying to sell or buy just yet. It just seems they’re worried and trying to…update or secure their operation.”
Ben cursed. “That’ll make it harder for us to get all the girls free.”
Danny agreed. “If they keep changing locations and tweaking their operation, we’ll always be one step behind.”
I pushed my glasses up my nose and picked up some of the files Mia brought. “But it’s a good sign that they’re doing it. It means they’re uncomfortable and being forced to adapt in a rush. Not only will they end up making mistakes, they also won’t have enough time to put in place the security they normally have.”
“And that’s why I think we should come up with an offensive now,” Mia concluded. “They’re down on their operation, they’re being forced to move, they don’t have Matias anymore to deal with it, and as far as we know, Pablo is still on the loose, so he won’t be much help. They’re vulnerable.”
“Do you know who’s in charge?” I asked.
She nodded. “A guy they call Tequila .” She pulled one of her files. “This is what I have on him so far, but I still don’t know who he is. ”
That name sounded familiar. I stood up and rummaged through my documents—the ones I hadn’t shared with the group yet. But Aaron was right. If we wanted to bring the cartel down, we needed to try to work together. I found the file I was looking for and handed it to her.
“My CI has been doing some digging of his own. The last time we met, he handed me those pictures of this Tequila guy. Since Matias’s death, he's been the one running the human trafficking.”
She opened the files so they could go over the photos. “We know this guy! He was at our last raid. He attacked me and Danny along with Matias and the younger one who was arrested. But he and Matias managed to run away.”
I wasn’t ready for the punch in my stomach when she said she was attacked, but I tried to ignore it. “When did they say they’d do the transportation?”
“Tomorrow night.”
“That doesn’t leave us much time.” Danny was right. I didn’t like rushing things. But we couldn’t waste that opportunity.
“When it’s the best time to barge in?” It wasn’t lost on me that Ben asked Mia directly.
I was already aware that she could smoothly navigate in and out of the cartel without drawing attention. She also seemed to be well-informed about the organization, which still bothered me, but I was trying to let it slide. I was starting to realize she was the one to come up with strategies. That Ben and Danny—two former Navy SEALs—were comfortable with that said a lot about them. And about her.
She bit the inside of her lips, and I was too entranced to come up with ideas of my own. “If they’re transporting, it’s safe to say there’ll be an increase in members and security. There will probably be even more Alacráns at the destination to organize the victims, secure the location, and keep them from running.”
“So, during the transportation?” I asked.
Mia shook her head. “It’ll be too risky for the girls, and it’ll be easier for the men to run away.” She pushed her chair back to stand up and picked up a bunch of colorful pens and a stack of paper from the table she was working at before. “This is where they are.” She circled a location on a map. “We still don’t know where they’re heading to. But that’s not our priority right now. The girls mean money to them, so we need to consider this is a transportation like any other illegal merchandise. Especially since Santiago Cruz’s bust.”
I looked at Aaron in confusion, and he said quietly, “I’ll tell you later.”
She was talking to herself, and even I knew not to interrupt. “We must assume there’ll be security ahead and behind the main truck, but they can’t travel in herds like gazelles, because that’d be too suspicious.” She drew, wrote, and scratched on her maps as she mumbled. “We’re not sure how many of them will be there. It’d be great if we could take them all down, but that’s not our priority now, and we need to be realistic. So, the best moment will be…”
She left the sentence hanging and nodded along with whatever conclusion was swimming within her head. Finally out of her trance, she looked up at us. “We’ll need to be precise. They’ll most likely leave in three groups. The first one is to clear the path and make sure they won’t encounter law enforcement. The third one is to ensure they’re not being followed. The second one has the girls. That needs to be our focus.
“We wait until the first group leaves. That’ll leave us to deal with the second and third groups. If we play this right, we can attack the third group first, while they’re still unaware of our approach. After that, we just need to face the second group and get the girls out.”
That sounded dangerous, yet a freaking good idea. But we had no time to get pumped up because Aaron put a damper on our mood.
“There’s something you should know.” He rubbed his lips in discomfort. “Mr. Dawson doesn’t want the company to engage in any operation.”
We all frowned, and Ben asked, “What the fuck does that mean?”
“He’s not…comfortable with Bryants & Walker being hired. So, he accepted that you’ll help with the investigation, but you can’t be a part of the offensive and other combative assignments.”
Mia snorted with no humor. “This has got to be a joke. What the hell are we doing here, Aaron?”
“I’m not happy with it either, Mia. But he’s calling the shots. He wanted to leave you out of everything. He ended up conceding about the company’s participation, as long as it doesn’t engage in the operation.”
“As long as I don’t engage, right? This is bullshit . We’re being relegated to the sidelines, because…what? He doesn’t like me? He doesn’t want us to find something compromising? Leaving us out is either a huge stupidity or a screaming red flag.”
He looked at her apologetically. “I’m sorry, Mia. I promise you I’m still working on getting around that. But right now, my hands are tied. You can’t come with us.”
I wasn’t one to jump on agreeing with Mia. But she was right, it was odd. Why hire her company if Mr. Dawson didn’t want them around?
And why didn’t he?