26. The Raid #2
Elevated office.Loading floor.Rear corridor.Where would Mateo go?
Not outside.Not if he saw the perimeter.Chris’s mind went back to every visit.Every conversation.Every movement.Then he remembered.Diego disappearing once.Chris had been waiting beside the loading floor.Diego had entered near the office.Ten minutes later he’d emerged near the restricted storage area.Chris had assumed there was an interior corridor.Maybe not. “Shit.”
He ran back toward the warehouse.“Walker?”
“There’s another route.”
“Where?”
“Inside.”
“How do you know?”
“I don’t.”Chris ran faster.“But I should’ve seen it sooner.”Camila couldn’t sit anymore.
She paced.Three steps.Turn.Five.Turn.The tests knocked softly against each other inside the sweatshirt pocket.She stopped.Pulled them out.Looked.Still positive.As if that might have changed in the last twenty minutes.Sloan walked in.Camila immediately tried hiding them.Too late.Sloan had already seen.
“Still pregnant?”Camila gave her a look. “Apparently.”
Sloan almost smiled.Camila stared down at them.“What if something happens to him?”
“Don’t.”
“You told me not to lie to myself.”
“I didn’t tell you to torture yourself either.
”Camila looked toward the screens.“I just found him.”Sloan’s expression changed.Camila swallowed.
“The real him.”She looked down at Chris’s sweatshirt.
“I spent all this time trying to figure out who Chris Roman was.”Her eyes filled.
“And the second I finally find Chris Walker, he walks into a warehouse full of guns.”
Sloan leaned against the table.“That’s Walker.”
“That’s supposed to make me feel better?”
“No.”A faint smile.“But you’ll eventually learn he’s terrible at staying out of dangerous situations.
”Camila laughed weakly.“Wonderful.”Then—Gunfire exploded through the feed again.Louder.Closer.The body camera on one screen violently jerked sideways.Someone shouted:“AGENT DOWN!”Camila stopped breathing.The room changed instantly.Voices.
Radios.Agents standing.Someone repeated:“Agent down, east interior!”Camila dropped the pregnancy tests.They hit the floor.“No.”Sloan was already listening.“Who?”Nothing.
“Sloan.”She held up one hand.Camila stared at the monitors.Black tactical uniforms.
Bodies moving.She couldn’t identify anyone.“Who is it?”No answer.Her chest tightened.
“Where is Chris?”Sloan listened.Camila grabbed her arm.“Where is Chris?”
“Camila—”
“WHERE IS HE?”Sloan turned toward her.“I don’t know.”The words destroyed her.
Camila stepped backward.“No.”
“I’m trying to find out.”
“No.”She bent down, grabbed the pregnancy tests from the floor and clutched them against her chest.“Chris.”The screen shook.Agents ran past the camera.A weapon fired.
Someone screamed commands.Camila couldn’t breathe.“I need to know.”Sloan keyed her radio.“Command, status Walker?”Static.No response.Camila stared.“Again.”Sloan waited.
“Command, confirm status Special Agent Walker.”Nothing.Camila’s eyes filled with tears.
“Again.”
“Camila—”
“Again!”Then a voice cracked through.Breathing hard.Male.Familiar.“Walker. I’m up.”
Camila’s knees almost gave out.Chris.Sloan closed her eyes briefly.Camila covered her mouth.His voice continued through the radio.
“Agent down is Bravo. Medic moving. I’m east interior pursuing primary.
”Camila cried.Pure relief.Sloan looked at her.
“He’s alive.”Camila nodded frantically.“I heard him.”She pressed the tests against her chest.“I heard him.”
Chris didn’t know Camila had just heard his voice.Didn’t know she’d nearly collapsed.
Didn’t know she was clutching proof that he was going to become a father.He knew one thing.Mateo was close.Chris entered the narrow corridor behind the office.There.A hidden stairwell.“Found it.”Mercer’s voice:“Location?”
“East office wall. Concealed access behind storage shelving.”
“Hold for backup.”Chris stopped.Everything inside him wanted to move.Mateo was getting away.But training overrode impulse.“Copy.”Footsteps approached behind him.
Logan.Two tactical agents.Logan looked at the hidden stairs.“Cute.”Chris nodded.“Very.”
“You think he’s down there?”
“Yes.”
“Diego?”
“Maybe.”Logan checked his weapon.“Fantastic.”Chris looked at him.“You wanted excitement.”“I wanted health insurance.”
“You have federal health insurance.”
“Exactly.”Despite everything, Chris smiled.Then Mercer arrived.“Status?”
“Stairs lead beneath the loading floor.”
“Plans don’t show a basement.”
“Plans are wrong.”Mercer looked down.Darkness.Then at Chris.“You know where it exits?”
“No.”
“First thing tonight you don’t know?”
“Enjoy it.”Mercer almost smiled.Then his expression hardened.“Primary target is likely armed.”Chris nodded.“Mateo carries.”
“Where?”
“Usually back waistband.”
“Diego?”
“Shoulder holster. Sometimes ankle backup.”Mercer looked at the team.“You heard him.”
Chris’s heartbeat slowed again.The same calm.The same focus.He thought of Camila.Her brother was somewhere below him.He couldn’t let that matter.Not yet.Mercer’s voice:“Walker.”Chris looked at him.“You stay professional.”His jaw tightened.“I am professional.”
“Vargas is not your family.”
“I know.”
“He’s not your girlfriend’s brother down there.”Chris stared.“He is the primary target of a federal narcotics investigation.”
“I know.”Mercer held his eyes.“If he points a gun at you, you act accordingly.”
Chris swallowed.“Understood.”Mercer nodded.The team positioned.Chris stood at the stairwell entrance.Weapon ready.Darkness below.Somewhere down there was Mateo Vargas.
The man who had trusted Roman.The man who had brought him inside.The man whose sister Chris had fallen hopelessly in love with.Chris breathed.Then descended.Back at headquarters, Camila retrieved the tests from where she’d nearly crushed them.
She looked at the pink lines.Then toward the monitor.Chris was alive.Mateo was still inside.She didn’t know whether to feel relieved or terrified.So she felt both.Her hand rested against her stomach.Sloan stood beside her.Nobody spoke.Then a voice came over the tactical feed:“Primary location believed identified.”Camila’s face went pale.Another:“Walker entering lower access.”Her eyes widened.
“Walker?”Sloan looked toward the monitor.Camila stepped closer.
“Chris is going after him?”No answer.She already knew.Her brother.The man she loved.Same building.Same guns.Same moment.Camila gripped the tests.
“Please.”She didn’t even know which man she was talking to anymore.
Maybe both.Then the screen flickered.A body camera showed a narrow concrete stairwell.Three agents descending.She couldn’t tell which was Chris.The picture shook.
Darkness.A flashlight moved across concrete.Then a voice echoed from somewhere below.“Stop right there.”Camila knew that voice.Mateo.Her entire body went cold.
On the tactical feed, an agent raised his weapon.Then Chris’s voice came through.Calm.
Controlled.Unmistakable.“Mateo.”Camila covered her mouth.The screen cut to static.
And it ended with the two men she loved most in the world—finally standing on opposite sides of the truth.