Page 257 of The Trouble With Bad Boys

Bob made a huffing sound but didn’t lecture me this time. “There’s a new player we’d been unaware of when sending you, Loundes, and Barr the mission notes.”

“Such as?’ I asked, then reached for my briefcase. Inside, I pulled out my laptop. “And before you answer, let me get signed in.”

It took a few minutes to get the laptop not only powered on but connected to this hotel’s wi-fi network. I hadn’t thought to do it upon arrival, so it took a bit longer than anticipated.

“You ready?” Bob asked me.

“Yeah. Who’s this new player, and how did you find them?”

“It’s a woman.”

“A female drug trafficker?” It wasn’t unheard of, especially since a lot of mafia and cartels had women in positions of power, some even being headed entirely by females. “I guess it’s not too out of the ordinary. Who is she?”

“That’s the problem,” he told me. I heard some rustling on the other end and knew he was likely looking through either his own notes or departmental intel. “We haven’t been able to glean much on her.”

“But it’s definitely a her?”

“Yeah, appears so.”

“Do you have any surveillance on her? A face? Address? Anything?”

“No, and it’s because we’ve just gotten the goddamned transcripts from two of the girls who’ve died. Both mentioned the drugs to other people, but neither indicated the person they received them from was a guy. In fact, they both specifically mentioned a ‘she’ in numerous text messages. We’ve only been looking at the usual male suspects, but now we have to expand our search.”

I knew what this meant, and this time I was the one to huff aloud. If there were more people to apprehend, the odds of getting this over and done with so I could go back home had those fantasies shot to hell. I knew it, and Bob knew I knew it.

“I’m really sorry. Hopefully you can find whoever this woman is. These drugs have got to get off the street, and if she is working with someone more than we anticipated, we have to know. Elections are coming up soon, and–”

“I don’t give a damn about their elections.”

“You should, Bradford.”

Yeah, I knew I should, but right now I was more annoyed than I’d been earlier. While I’d hoped this would be a short trip, it looked like it was going to be even longer. I looked to my side at the bed and sighed. “I need to put in for some personal time when this is all over and done with,” I muttered.

“And it’ll be much deserved, especially if you find this woman for us. You’re one of the best agents I have, and I’m hoping to stop you from having to go undercover again.”

“Fuck no,” I responded, remembering exactly how long that last mission had been.

I’d been stuck in Miami for several months. It’d taken that long to get into a Cuban drug smuggling ring. Gaining trust and alliances took time and while I’d been busy posing as Mark Jones, the days turned into weeks, then months as I spent over nine of them on the job. The last thing I wanted to do was uproot my life once again, even though I loved the thrill of the hunt.

“Don’t get all worked up. We’re hoping it doesn’t come to that, but we’ll evaluate things again down the road.”

I wanted to tell him I wouldn’t do it, but this was unfortunately a part of my job. I might’ve not even been as upset over the prospect if it didn’t mean having to stay away from Shelby. Again, I was back to her which was a bit unnerving considering I’d already somewhat slaked my need of her. I refused to give it worry in my brain though, instead clearing my throat.

“About this mystery woman... Could you send me over a copy of those transcripts? I want to see the messages, then look into the database for any clues.”

“Sure thing. Let me know what you find, Bradford.”

“I always do.”

“Take care.”

“I will.” The line then went dead, and I glared at the cell phone for a few seconds before tossing it onto the bed beside me.

I’d initially hoped this would be a day or two mission at the most, but now I knew it could be a week or more. Since I wasn’t undercover yet, I was able to stay in a pretty decent hotel. It had great views of the city, but again there was only one view that interested me. Unfortunately, it was one I’d have to wait an unknown amount of time to see.

The email notification cut into my thoughts before they could go any farther, and I fell back against my pillows and set the laptop onto my lap. I pulled up the encrypted email and saw about a dozen strings of texts from different phone numbers. I assumed they were all from some of the most recent victims, and kids I’d already pulled up profiles on.

I began to compare the phone numbers to those on the file, and about an hour later, I had labeled and sorted them out so I could start to review them. The first girl was the nineteen year old daughter of a local state representative. Her name was Julie, and she was a freshman at the University of Southern California. USC, as it was often called, was where most of these kids went, so it wasn’t surprising that they all fell victim to the same drug around the same time. If I had to guess, I would assume they all potentially purchased drugs from the same dealer, if not from the same batch.

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