Page 23 of Liberating Mallory

“Oh shit!” Pratt perked up at the mention of how they found out. “That’s right! The guy was the one who gave up the website, but never knew who created it. Jr went by a different name to protect his identity. He called himself El Torro, the bull. The little research we could find on him showed he was a bull, in terms of getting things done. The suspect SVU dealt with said that the guy checked priors, they had to have something the cartel needed or a way to help them in the US. He also checked their criminal records every three months to make sure they had no recent arrests that could be used to get them to drop the dime on the organization. Not knowing when the next pull was, we kept the guys arrest off the books just to be safe.”

“Our Brody and I went to the guy’s house to use his computer in case they kept an eye on the IP address when he logged in. We had Oz on the phone with us, thanks to Taz. The guy was damn good. Couldn’t have found this website without the pervy dude leading us to it. It’s why we didn’t know what was going on. Found out about the auction being at the warehouse and busted it. Bainfort Jr was taken out along with five other guys. Female Bainfort was rescued, but we’ve never had any contact with Sr before now.” Diesel finished, sighing heavily as she leaned forward onto the table, rubbing her face with her hands.

“If this guy is as good as you’re claiming, what’s to say he didn’t erase anything to connects him with Sr or clean up his daddy’s record?” Knight asked, shrugging. “Wouldn’t be the first time a hacker was able to go in there and do all that. It’s what I would do if I was that damn good.”

“Wouldn’t surprise me. I can do some checking of my own. Most hackers leave a signature. I can look to see if there’s anything showing that a rookie or someone else wouldn’t know what to look for.” Brody told the group, rubbing his face with his hands before running his fingers through his hair, combing it back.

“I still feel like we’re missing something. Maybe Bainfort is a part of it, but I still feel like we’re missing something else. Opie, you said that Kevin came to California at one time, you and the team ran him off from the bar…” Diesel asked Opie, everyone looking at him.

“That’s right. I remember that. Opie had gone to the restroom while Mallory had gone to the bar to buy the team a round.” Marcus snapped his fingers when Diesel mentioned the incident. “Guy walked up to Mallory at the bar where she was standing with Jepson, our team leader, and started ranting at her about her needing to give up the bullshite she was doing and come home and learn how to be a real woman. Calling her all kinds of names. Jepson decked the guy, then we took him outside and had a nice little chat with him and sent him on his way.”

“A chat?” Raso asked, looking over at her husband and laughing.

“Aye. We got our point across. From what I understood she had no more problems with the arsehole since then.”

“Pats is right. When I came out of the restroom, Mallory was visibly upset, had a split lip from where he had smacked her. She told me what Jep did, and that the rest of the team was dealing with him. My concern was with her. I got her out of there and took her home. The team showed up around an hour later and told her that the ass would never bother her again.” Opie confirmed Marcus’s story.

15

The next couple of days were tense, even with the help and expertise of Highlander and Marcus. Images of the location, visits to said location, searches in the forest near the site conducted, further each day, all wielded nothing for them to find.

Taz came back into the room that they had commandeered to use as their headquarters for everything they needed. “I, um, I called some old contacts of my father’s that knows about the Sinaloa Carter…” Taz scratched her forehead.

“Wait, your dad has contacts with the Sinaloa Cartel?” Diesel looked over at Taz in shock. Not much was known about Taz’s childhood since she hardly talked about herself, except that she had been in the army before joining the department.

“Something was bothering me about the whole Sinaloa connection, and everything being focused here in Colorado. I know the cartel wants to expand into certain territory, but they are pretty particular in how they do it, and who they trust because they don’t want heat on them.” Taz said, walking over to the table they had set up in the room for everyone to sit at, not answering Diesel’s question.

“Okay, so what did you find out wandering into the blast from the past?” Pratt asked, sitting back in her seat as she rubbed her belly staring at Taz.

“Word on the street is there is a hit being put on a team that raided a known Sinaloa compound in Chihuahua, Mexico several months ago after they were sent in to rescue a hostage that the cartel was using to blackmail a politician, one who was backing down on a deal that had originally been made with the cartel six months prior to the op.” Taz informed the group, running her fingers through her hair.

“Team? Are we talking federal, private sector or military?” York asked, sitting forward, looking around the table.

“Chatter has it as military.”

“There’s no way they could have found out it was military or what branch of the military, much less what team infiltrated their compound.” Raso said, looking around the room. “Right?”

“Technically, no. But it wouldn’t take much to find the right person to dig into that information if they know where to look.” Brody advised the women, causing Pratt and Raso to look at their husbands in panic.

“Lass, we don’t wear patches that identify us by branch on ops. We even take our American Flag patches off during said missions as well. There’s no way to identify us during an op unless someone is in the command center during said operation with the higher ups. No one will find about ye or the wee bairns, lass.” Highlander promised his wife, pulling her from her chair onto his lap to hug her.

“It’s not me or the kids I’m worried about, Joe. I’m worried about the ones you guys take out finding about you guys.” Pratt admitted, her face going into his husband’s neck, her arms squeezing him as if she was afraid he’d disappear.

“Highlander is right, there’s no way for them to identify who is it during an op. Usually, we don’t identify ourselves to the people we rescue as anything other than US military. Usually, it’s only frightened children that we will usually give a name so that they aren’t frightened of us during the rescue operation. But usually when they hear an American accent and know we’re taking them home, they just want to get the hell out of wherever they are being held.” Knight assured Pratt and Raso to help calm them down.

“Okay, I get all that, but what does this have to do with Mallory?” Sgt. Brocard asked, getting everyone back on track. “Unless she was part of that operation, in full gear there is no way for them to know an operator is female and in all honesty from what I know, you boys go to great lengths to make sure you’re not identifiable during an op, faces as well.”

“Aye! Everything is covered, even our hands and faces. We wear masks and eye coverings as well.” Highlander verified Sgt. Brocard’s statement. “If it’s a child, we may remove the glasses or lower our masks so they can see our lips, but that’s it.”

“What is being said about the group they are hunting, Taz?” Diesel asked, as she looked around the table.

“From what I’m being told, they are military and what op it was. It was roughly six months ago…”

“Son of a bitch!” Marcus and Opie said at the same time.

“I’m guessing, from that outburst, you boys were the ones on that op?” Abbott assumed, watching both men’s reactions.

“Marcus?” Raso asked, a worried look on her face.

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