27. Mateo Vargas
Mateo Vargas
“Mateo.”Chris’s voice carried through the concrete corridor.Everything stopped.
For one suspended second, there was no shouting from the warehouse above.
No radios.No boots pounding across concrete.No FBI tactical teams tearing apart the organization Mateo Vargas had spent years building.There was only Chris.And Mateo.
Standing on opposite ends of a dim service corridor beneath the warehouse.
Mateo stared at him.His eyes went first to Chris’s face.Confusion.Then lower.
Black tactical gear.Body armor.Four letters stretched across his chest.
FBI.Mateo’s expression changed.Slowly.Almost imperceptibly.His gaze dropped again.
The badge clipped near Chris’s waist caught the fluorescent light.Not Roman.Walker.
Mateo looked back at him.“Roman?”Chris kept his weapon trained on him.“It’s Walker.”
Silence.Mateo stared.“What?”“Chris Walker.”Mateo’s eyes narrowed.Chris didn’t move.
“Special Agent Chris Walker.”Understanding hit.Not all at once.Piece by piece.The garage.
The jobs.The attitude.The driving.The chase.The warehouse.Every question Chris had asked without making it sound like a question.Every detail he’d noticed.Every time Mateo had thought:This man is useful.Mateo looked at the vest again.“You’re a fucking cop.”
“Federal agent.”Mateo laughed once.It was empty.Disbelieving.Then his expression changed into something Chris hadn’t expected.Not rage.Not immediately.Hurt.
Betrayal.Mateo looked genuinely devastated.“You.”Chris said nothing.“From the beginning?”
“Yes.”Mateo’s eyes closed briefly.When they reopened, Chris watched another realization arrive.“The garage.”
“Yes.”
“You were put there.”
“Yes.”
“The jobs.”
“I was gathering evidence.”Mateo’s jaw flexed.“The warehouse.”Chris didn’t answer.
He didn’t need to.Mateo glanced upward.Even through the concrete, they could hear muffled commands.“FBI!”
“CLEAR!”
“HANDS!”Mateo looked around as if hearing the destruction of his empire for the first time.“You did this.”Chris’s expression remained hard.“You did this.”Mateo looked back at him.“Fuck you.”
“Turn around.”Mateo laughed.“That’s it?”
“Hands where I can see them.”
“You spend months in my house, eat my food, work for me, and now you tell me to turn around?”
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you.”Mateo’s eyes moved toward the agents behind Chris.
Then back.He wasn’t surrendering.Chris knew it.“Don’t make this harder.”
“Harder?”Mateo’s voice rose.“You have federal agents tearing apart my warehouse.”
“Because it’s full of narcotics.”
“You infiltrated my business.”
“Because you’re trafficking narcotics.”
“You lied to my face.”
“That was the job.”Mateo stared at him.Then something else crossed his face.
Something worse.Chris saw the exact second it happened.Mateo stopped thinking about the warehouse.Stopped thinking about the drugs.Stopped thinking about the FBI.
His sister.“My sister.”Chris’s expression changed.“Leave her out of this.”Mateo stared.
Then laughed.This time there was nothing amused about it.“Camila.”Chris’s grip tightened slightly.“Don’t.”
“Oh, Fucks sake.”Mateo looked at the FBI vest.Then Chris’s face.And suddenly all those little moments Mateo had noticed made sense.Chris watching Camila enter the garage.
Camila insisting she didn’t need a driver.The way she started sitting in the front seat.
The disappearing acts.The glances across rooms.Chris becoming too protective.
Camila becoming too defensive of him.The hotel.Everything.“You’ve been fucking my sister while building a federal case against me?”Chris’s jaw tightened.“Camila was never part of the operation.”
“Don’t say her name.”
“Camila—”
“DON’T SAY HER FUCKING NAME!”His voice echoed through the corridor.
The agents behind Chris adjusted their weapons.Chris raised one hand slightly.
Hold.His eyes never left Mateo.“She has nothing to do with this.”
“You don’t get to tell me what she has to do with anything.”
“I know exactly what she has to do with this.”Mateo laughed bitterly.“Do you?”
“Yes.”
“You used her.”
“No.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I don’t give a shit what you believe about me.
”Chris stepped forward.“But you’re going to understand this: Camila was never an informant.
She never gave us information. She never helped build this case.
She didn’t know who I was.”Mateo stared.
“Didn’t?”Chris immediately realized his mistake.Mateo caught it too.His eyes narrowed. “Didn’t.”
Chris said nothing.“She knows now.”Silence.Chris kept his weapon raised.
“Yes.”Mateo’s face hardened.“And where is she?”
“Safe.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere you can’t reach her.”Mateo stepped forward.Weapons immediately raised behind Chris.“Stop.”Mateo ignored the other agents.His eyes stayed on Chris.“Where is my sister?”
“Safe.”
“With the FBI?”Chris didn’t answer.That was answer enough.Mateo’s nostrils flared.“You took her.”
“I didn’t take her anywhere.”
“You turned her against me.”
“No.”Chris’s voice sharpened.“Your men trying to execute us at that hotel did a pretty good job of that themselves.”Something flickered across Mateo’s face.Chris saw it.
“You knew.”Mateo said nothing.“You fucking knew about the hotel.”Still nothing.
Chris’s anger rose.“She was there.”
“I told them she wasn’t supposed to be hurt.”Chris stared.The corridor seemed to shrink.
“You sent them.”Mateo’s jaw flexed.“I know whowho you were.”
“So you sent armed men into a hotel room where your sister was sleeping?”
“They had orders.”Chris took another step.“Your orders almost got Camila killed.”
“I would never hurt my sister.”
“You almost fucking did.”
“Walker.”Mercer’s warning came through Chris’s earpiece.Chris forced himself back under control.Mateo saw it.The training.The restraint.Another piece of Roman falling apart.
Mateo laughed quietly.“Look at you.”Chris stared.“I wondered about you numerous times.”
“Turn around.”
“Nobody drives like that.”Chris said nothing.“Nobody sees everything you see.”
“Mateo.”
“The guns.”
“Hands.”
“The way you always knew when something wasn’t right.”Mateo shook his head.“I should’ve known.”
“Probably.”Mateo almost smiled.“What?”
“The arrogant son of a bitch I hired.”Chris’s mouth tightened.“That part wasn’t difficult to fake.”One of the agents behind him almost coughed.Mateo actually smiled.For one tiny second, they were almost back in the garage.Then it vanished.“Was the chase fake?”
Chris went still.Mateo saw it.His face changed.“No.”Chris didn’t answer.“The first chase.”
Silence.“You knew those vehicles were coming.”Chris held his gaze.“Yes.”Mateo stared.
“Federal?”
“Yes.”The betrayal deepened.“You staged the whole fucking thing.”
“The Bureau staged a controlled threat.”
“So I would trust you.”
“Yes.”
“So I would bring you closer.”
“Yes.”
“So I would bring you here.”Chris looked around.“Yes.”Mateo laughed bitterly.“You’re good.”Chris didn’t respond.“Really fucking good.”
“Turn around.”Mateo ignored him.
“But then you made one mistake.”Chris’s eyes narrowed.“What?”
“Camila.”Chris’s face hardened.Mateo saw it.“There.”
“What?”
“That.”Mateo smiled coldly.“The second I say her name, Special Agent Walker disappears.”Chris didn’t move.“No.”
“Yes.”Mateo took another slow step.“Suddenly you’re not FBI.”
“Stop moving.”
“You’re the man fucking my sister.”
“Mateo.”
“The man who fell in love with her.”Chris’s eyes changed.Mateo smiled.“I knew it.”
“Shut up.”
“Oh, you love her.”
“That’s none of your business.”
“She is my sister. It is absolutely my business.”
“Not tonight.”Mateo looked at him for a long moment.Then his voice lowered.“Did you?”Chris frowned.“Did I what?”
“Love her?”Chris stared.Mateo’s voice became dangerously quiet.“Or was that part of the job too?”Something inside Chris snapped.Not his control.Something deeper.He stepped closer. “Don’t.”
“Answer me.”
“You don’t deserve an answer.”
“My sister does.”Chris stared at him.And Mateo was right about that.Camila deserved every truth he had left.Chris’s voice lowered.“I love her.”Mateo went still.No sarcasm.
No smile.Chris continued.“That wasn’t the operation.”Mateo stared.“That wasn’t Roman.”
Chris swallowed.“That was me.”Silence.“I love your sister.”Mateo’s eyes moved over his face.For once, he seemed unsure what to say.Chris took advantage of it.
“Now put your hands on your head.”Mateo didn’t.“Don’t make me ask again.”
Mateo’s expression hardened.“You think she’s going to forgive you?”
Chris said nothing.“You lied to her every day.”
“I know.”
“You slept beside her while investigating her family.”
“I know.”
“You made her love someone who didn’t exist.”That one hit.Chris’s jaw tightened.
Mateo saw it.“There it is.”Chris forced himself not to react.“Hands on your head.”
“What happens when she realizes everything between you started with a lie?”
“She already knows.”Mateo’s face changed.“All of it?”
“Enough.”
“And she stayed?”Chris thought about her arms around him.Her tears.Her kiss.
I love you.“Yes.”Mateo stared.Something complicated crossed his face.
Then:“She’s an idiot.”Despite everything, Chris almost smiled.“She’d probably agree with you.”Mateo’s mouth twitched.Then both men remembered where they were.Chris raised his weapon slightly.“It’s over.”Mateo looked around.“Is it?”
“Yes.”
“My organization is bigger than this warehouse.”
“We know.”
“My people are everywhere.”
“We know.”
“You think arresting me ends anything?”
“No.”Chris stared.“But it’s a damn good start.”Mateo’s eyes moved toward the end of the corridor.Chris saw it.“Don’t.”Mateo looked back.“What?”
“You’re calculating distance.”Mateo smiled faintly.“There really is no fooling you, is there?”
“Not anymore.”Chris moved slightly.Cutting off the route.“Hands.”Mateo remained still.“Where’s Diego?”Mateo’s expression changed.Chris noticed.“You don’t know.”
Silence.“Diego left you.”
“Fuck you.”
“He did.”Chris almost laughed.“Whole building surrounded, federal agents coming through every door, and Serrano isn’t standing beside you.”Mateo’s jaw clenched.
“Where is he?”Nothing.“Mateo.”Nothing.Chris knew.Diego was already running.
He keyed his radio.“Mercer, Serrano not with primary. Repeat, Diego is not with Mateo.”